Busy weekend, part one!

We had a great weekend!!  Can you believe it's the weekend before Christmas??  I can't, especially since I have next to no shopping done, let alone wrapped and hidden away from my kids!  That will all get done like normal, on Christmas Eve!!  I swore this wouldn't happen again, but of course, it always does! :)

So, this Saturday night, we had my mom's family side get together, The King Family Party.  Forever we have had it at my Aunt Sharon's house, but for the past two years (since all the babies have come along) we have had it at my parents house which has a tad more space for running and crawling around.  But this year, my cousin Candy and her husband offered there house for the party.  I loved the idea since, 1) It was something new and 2) We had never been to there new house!  They live about 2 hours away from our house, so the kids were well rested and happy when we got there.  This side of the family is big, to say the least, but also has a bunch of kids, ranging from 3 mos to 8 years old so loud and busy (Cam's favorite!) is an ongoing theme!  We had a great food, a Yankee swap with the adults (gently used or re-gifted presents, which made it fun and interesting!!) and the first gifts of the season for the kids.  So here are some pics of our celebration!

Avery in her red dress (that I spent so much time hunting for and you can't even see cause she drools so much she needs a bib!) her sparkly tights and cutsie cue shoes!!  Girls are fun to dress!  Even if you are dressing a 10month old in 3-6 mo old clothes!! 

 Waiting patiently to open the first gift of the season!

 Avery's first Christmas gift ever!!

A Dolly!!!  Think she loves it?

 Bro and Sissy and two cousins, sisters Starlla and Summer

 Trying to find room to crawl

 All the girls on the King side.  Aunts, cousins and their kids

 The Men, the one King brother, then all the rest are married into the family or born in.  There are LOTs of girls on this side!!

Some of the cousins kids: Ryan, Cameron, Starlla, Will, Avery, Sadie, Aubrey and Summer

 Poor Avery was not happy for this picture!

 My Cam and his BF cousin Ry in all their spazy boy glory!!

 Auntie Tina and Aubrey

 The girl cousins

We had fun, and hopefully we will see each other a few times again in 2012 before our Christmas party!!  Doesn't happen all that much, but it should!!  Love you all sooo much ladies, and your husbands and your kids!!!

Chippy...Again!!!

Ok, guys, I"ll admit it, I'm a little obsessed with this little Chippy character.  For a good reason though!  My son loves him and loves hunting for him in the morning, I swear he finds him every morning without us reminding him! So to do my Mommy duties, I have to make sure that Chippy is in a clever little scenario each morning, cause what would Cam do if he was just sitting on the table each day? Umm, probably nothing and he probably wouldn't care, as long as he was there, but that who cares?  I'm having fun!  Again, don't judge on the quality of this pics!!  They are awful, I know!  Using a flash, even with a bouncer on it, kills the photo!!

So here is how he ended up each morning this week:

The stockings went up, so Chippy had to try one out.

 A bowl full of Chippy kisses, smooch!

 Borrowed a reindeer from Santa for the day, Dasher, maybe?

 I was going to do this, but he was in the middle of the table...

 So he ended up here, so he couldn't touch him as easily.  Although, he did!!  We told Cam he may not show up the next morning and he cried!  He felt bad and apologized to him! So as you can imagine, he was there in the AM!

 Only up really high!!

 Kinda looked like a girl in a frilly dress!  By the morning he was all flopped down (we had taped his head to the molding, which came undone) and looked like he didn't want to continue his life as an Elf anymore :(

 Having a campfire with his marshmallow friends.  

This is tonights: 

Sleepy Chippy, in his Christmas sleeping bag. It was a really long day!  (For another blog!!)

More Chippy, week two!

Chippy had his magic for another week!  Cameron (or Avery, not that she knows about him!) has not tried to touch him cause he knows how magical he is!  He hunts for him every morning and always finds him! I love it! 

So here was our week of Chippy:

Just hanging out in the bathroom, reminding him to remind us about "number 2"!  BTW, everything else with potty training is 100%!  Yeah Cammie!!

 Playing XBox

Having story time with some of the toys in our playroom...

 ...look at the frisky raindeers on the right, making out in front of Chippy! Maybe there was mistletoe? 

 Chippy brought batteries back from the North Pole to put into our singing/dancing Santa...

 ...which Cam loved...

 ...see?!

 The night we met Santa

 Where is Chippy?  (taken before I realized a bunch of the lights had died!!!)

 There he is!!

We saw Santa!

And oh my goodness was it exciting!!  Cameron had been talking about it for days.  He was "so cited to meet Santa"!  We went to The Bas Pro Shop in the next town over from us.  For those that haven't been to one, it's this HUGE outdoor sports store, like hunting, fishing, camping and the like.  It has amazing decorations and things to see, like waterfalls, huge aquariums of fish and pools of turtles.  

But anyway, every year they do a great Santa's village with activities, like trains (OMG!!) and race cars to do and look at while waiting in line. We've gone every year since Cam's been born.  I think this year has been the first time he was excited to meet him, and not scared, or at least nervous! This time around, we got a special ticket, then went out to dinner at the restaurant in the store while we were waiting.  The ticket allows you to get a time and when your time comes, you can cut the people with out tickets in line.  We had about an hour to wait before it was our turn.  

Cam was dying to see him, and when it was our turn he ran right up and answered all his questions (he wants a train for Christmas! Surprise!) He gave a huge smile for the camera when it was time. Avery, on the other hand, was not having it!  My plan was to back her onto Santa's lap, get the pic taken FAST, but she looked up before they took it and just freaked out!  Haha!  I wasn't expecting anything different though!  I think it makes for a more funny picture :)  I'll scan the better picture that the place took later, but for now, this is what you get:  

Oh. before we left, we put the lights on our house.  Avery liked it! 

 Mesmerized by the train, duh

 Lol

 Just the big guy, and the big boy!

Want to see my Littles?

Oh ok, you pulled my leg!  They played with each other a lot today.  Since Avery's crawling like a champ now, she tries to play with Cameron much more, even though he doesn't always love that.  But since she now is moving around so much more, I think Cam sees her as his little playmate and loves her more.  He's been talking about her more, asking where she is all the time, and yelling for us when she does something funny or new.  "Look mama, Sissy made it into the playroom, ALL BY HERSELF!"  I catch him kissing her and holding her hand all the time and every time he looks at her, she gets all giddy and laughs like a maniac.  So I think they like each other.  She's even turning into what seems to be a little tom boy.  She likes his toys, more then hers, hates her bows and for some reason, I never put her in dresses anymore!  Laziness? Maybe, but she still looks AH-dorable, even in just footie jammies!  See:

Just hanging out.

 Snuggle, or should I say smother?

 Purty Girl!!

 Think they are brother and sister?

 Like, really related??

 She may have fallen asleep here

 Had to make it b&w cause her bib was so dis-colored from her drools.  Looks better this way!

(BTW, these were with my point and shoot! I can do better, lol!)  Thanks for looking!

Riding in the car...

The other day I was riding in the car (not driving, cause I'm not allowed to do that anymore, boo) and a song came on.  I don't even remember who was driving the car or where we were going, but every time I hear this song, things around me just stop and I have to listen.  You might laugh at me, but the song that was playing was "Little Wonders", by Rob Thomas.  It's the theme song from the Disney movie, Meet the Robinson's.  The first time I saw this movie was when I was showing it to my kids at work. I sat and watched the whole thing and cried at the end, in front of 60 3rd-5th graders (I was pregnant with Cameron!!) but for good reason.  The movie has such great meaning, and every time I hear the song it makes me remember it, and this time I heard it, I tried so heard not to tear up.

For those of you who have not seen the movie, to put it short, it is about an orphaned boy named Lewis who has seen his share of failure.  He wants to be an inventor and no one seems to want to adopt him due to his quirkiness. But he never gives up.  No matter how many times he failed, he always gets up,  brushes off and keeps going.  He is brought into the future by a boy he has never met and meets a great, loving family, with a father who is super successful, who he later finds out is him, all grown up. 

The themes of the movie is really what makes it meaningful to me and one of my most favorite movies. One theme, is that there is always room for growth, in a career, family life, or your health, for anyone who strives to live their life with a purpose.  You should always live your life aspiring to be better, to get better and to accomplish these things that are important to you.  I want to be soo many things, do so many things and accomplish so many things in my life.  I want to be a photographer, have a successful career for myself, have another baby.  I want to beat the epilepsy that is taking over my life right now. I want to make a mark in the life I have lived that will live on when I am not here anymore. And even though things have been put on hold at this very moment, I will never stop believing that I can, no I WILL, do those things.  It is not an option for me to not succeed in these things.

Another theme, is that failure is more important than success. You need failure to understand what is important.  At the moment it may be discouraging, as it was for Lewis in the movie, but it only builds up your strength and experience to gain the most happiness and pride when you finally hit success. When things are always easy, what do you gain?  This is something I need to overcome.  I feel that I am failing in all things important right now.  As a wife, a mother, a friend.  In my career, my hobby's and all things that are important to me.  I have a huge fear of failing, of seeming weak and not succeeding in the things that are important.  I have to stare these fears in the face and then stomp on them when I have finally beat them. I have to realize that they will build me up as a person, even though it feels as though they are knocking me down. 

And the final, most important theme in this movie is that you always have to keep moving forward. You have to always follow your mission and beat down any obstacles you may face.  Live life with a purpose.  Keep up your motivation, even if failure is on your plate because you have to keep going.  Never give up.  It will set you apart from everyone else. I need to make these the words I live by, "Always keep moving forward". For me, for my kids and for Mark.  It's not fair for any of us for me to shut down and just stop.  Things may be tough.  I may think about the worst case scenario way to much, but I can't.  I have to think of the positive things that make my life a success right now and keep going.  Enjoy life, regardless, and "keep moving forward". 

Oh and here's the song lyrics:

Let it go, let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know the hardest part is over?
Let it in, let your clarity define you
In the end we will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made in these small hours
These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours still remain

Let it slide, let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine until you feel it all around you
And I don't mind if it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by, it's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made in these small hours
These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours still remain

All of my regret will wash away somehow
But I cannot forget the way I feel right now
In these small hours
These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate
Yeah, these twists and turns of fate!

Time falls away, yeah but these small hours
And these small hours still remain, yeah
Ooh they still remain
These little wonders, oh these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away but these small hours
These little wonders still remain

Weird post I know.  I just needed to talk, err write?

My PJ Left!

Today my brother, PJ, left for his first job at sea since graduation in the Spring.  He went to Massachusetts Maritime Academy to be a marine engineer.  For this job, he flew out to Hawaii today to board the Empire State for 75 days.  I seems really excited he is about this. While in college, he went out once a year for about 2 months at a time. The students were mainly learning to run the ship and what not, but he got to visit some awesome places each time! He'll be gone for awhile, but makes awesome money while doing it! This is the ship:

But anyway, I'm so sad he's leaving! He's going to be gone for Christmas, New Years, my surgery, and both Cam and Avery's birthdays.  Aw!  But it will go by fast, I'm sure!  I saw him off at my parents house today and tried to get a picture of him with Avery.  Ha! She's a little clingy!  So I got in the picture, gross I know!  But she's only going to be this size for like another week, so I had to get him with her. Oh, and Cameron was asleep so that's why he's not in any! On the drive home, thought, he was already asking for him.  He's going to be a mess once he realizes Uncle PJ won't be there to play tackle football with him!  

So, PJ, I hope you have a safe trip, meet great people, and see some beautiful sites on your newest adventure! We will all miss you, but are so proud of you and all that you have done and who you have become. Don't get to homesick!  Yeah right!