Laughter

Well, tonight our house was filled with the best sound on the planet. The sound of the girls giggling and laughing. I love it. No matter how chaotic or crazy the day might have been, this sound makes me smile. Sometimes, I close my eyes and try to burn this sound into my brain. I know someday I will try just has hard to remember these moments when they are grown and gone. So, today we are celebrating laughter.

Kate celebrating something. Not sure what, but she was giggling away! Cheers from the Camffermans!

Celebrating sisterhood

This morning both girls were snuggled in our bed playing the kindle and loving every moment of it. Charlotte loving the fact that she gets to entertain and "teach" her little sister how to play games, and Kate was just plain happy to be hanging out with her big sister. So sweet!! So, today we are celebrating sisterhood wet heads and all!

The Big 1

It is hard to believe, but we celebrated Kate's first birthday this past weekend. She is growing way too fast. Kate has truly been a blessing to our family this past year. She has a sweet personality and smiles at the sight of anyone who comes into her view. She still loves to snuggle, which both mom and dad are very excited about. Kate's favorite person is for sure her big sister Charlotte. She follows her big sister around trying ever so hard to keep up with Charlotte and tries as hard as she can to do exactly what Charlotte is doing. They really are quite the pair. We celebrated the day with the grandparents and Kate had a blast indeed. Papa blew up some balloons that were a hit with both girls.

Her favorite part was probably the Cake. She gets very little sweets, on a count of her age, so imagine her face when we handed her a cake that was just for her! She made a magnificent mess, cooed, and smile with delight. What fun to watch.

What fun we had celebrating our sweet Kate's first birthday. We love you Katers, please don't grow up too fast. Love mom and dad

Costumes

Costumes! Well, we dressed up our two little munchkins the other day. They LOVED it. Actually, Charlotte loved it, Kate tolerated it! It was a lot of fun for all.

What cute kiddos they are!! Well, this mom thinks so anyway!

Celebrating Goodness

It has been a long time since our last post. This year is just flying by. We have been busy playing, working, and watching our two precious babies grow up way too fast! Since our last post Kate has learned to walk, chatter like no one else, and is now getting into EVERYTHING. Charlotte, has turned into a little girl before our very eyes. She is no longer the little toddler who toddled around our house with a smile. Nope, she is now an independent chatty little girl with the biggest imagination possible of any 2 1/2 year old you could imagine. Kate: Age: 12 months Favorite toys: Any and all toys with buttons to push Favorite activity: Following her big sister around like a lost puppy Charlotte: Age: 2 3/4 Favorite toys: All things girl. Dolls, baby bottles, her kitchen toys and all things pink! Favorite activity: Writing and drawing. She is learning to write her name and draw faces. She loves to "write" letters. As for John and I we have been busy busy busy. John's work has been full, which we are ever so grateful for, and he has even picked up a side job here and there. We are thankful for the extra work, but are looking forward to having the weekends back to spend time together as a family. As for me, well I have been busy taking care of our two busy adorable daughters. With two walking busy kiddos, life around here has gotten a bit on the chaotic side, I wouldn't trade it for the world though. On another note, I have made it official and kicked off my photography business. This wasn't an easy decision, mostly because of my fear of not being up to par, but with some great encouragement from friends and family, I took the leap. I have actually already begun to get some photo jobs, which is slowly helping my confidence. Here is a link to my new website. Camfferman Photography As for our blog, we we have decided to change things up a bit. I have a good friend who has a great website called Celebrating The Goodness I fell in love with this idea of "Celebrating Goodness." So many times, we get bogged down by the stresses of life, or get so focused on what we have to do, that we miss the goodness. The more we thought about the kinds of things we want to teach our young daughters, the more this idea seemed to resonate with us. We want to teach our daughters to do just this, Celebrate the Goodness. We want to open their eyes to the good things in life. Let's face it, when we are Celebrating it is difficult to be sullen. We want to teach our daughters that there are things to celebrate. So, how do we do this? Well, for us it is rather simple. We are celebrating really small insignificant things like, snuggle time on the couch reading books, a really good warm cookie with a glass of milk on a cold afternoon, or a quiet evening snuggled on the couch with our favorite people in the whole world. Celebrating the small things we often take for granted, seems simple enough right? Keeping our focus on the best things in life, seems to make the not so fun things in life a little smaller and less of a big deal. Don't get me wrong we have our days. Our 2 year old is learning how to push buttons and has a magnificent sense of timing on when to push them, but we are making a choice as a family to focus on the good rather than the more difficult moments. Today we are celebrating Pj's! I know a silly thing to celebrate, but here we go! Both our girls came down with some nasty colds this past week, so we decided to have a "Pj Day." We stay in Pj's all day, lots and lots of snuggles, maybe a cartoon or two, and absolutely nothing on the agenda for today. Seems silly I know, but we are being purposeful and intentional about the time we are spending together today, and the girls seem to know the difference.

What a fun way to spend the day, Pj's and all! If this post is completely confusing, stay tuned for future post as we celebrate the goodness. Cheers, Kristin

Catching up

We are back online after a brief three week break. While we were away we had a wonderful Easter, and lots of family time. Here are a few quick pictures of our last couple of weeks. Our little fashion girl is in love with her new boots. They apparently, also go quite nicely with Pjs.

In this picture she looks so much like her mother at that age!

Kate is also getting so big. She loves her little jumper and is rolling all over the place these days.

So sweet

She is even started to eat a few veggies. The favorite these days is carrots fallowed by peas in close second!

The girls were all dressed up for Easter. Charlotte called her dress "another pretty one." We even managed to get a picture or two of both girls smiling at the very same time!

The weather has been so nice this past week we have been able to get outside and enjoy some sunshine! Think mom will notice if I eat this?

All smiles

Well, there you have it! The last few weeks wrapped up in a nice little package! Okay, maybe just a few pictures, but we hope you enjoy them! John, Kristin, Charlotte and Kate

Kate

Kate is now 5 months old!!

She can now...

Roll over both from her back to her tummy and from her tummy to her back.

Eat Oat cereal.

Hold small toys.

Sleep all night (FINALLY)

Laugh out load.

Sit up with help (almost by herself).

She loves...

Watching her big sister play.

Being snuggled.

"Talking" to anyone who is close to her.

Flirting with just about anyone.

Being outside in the sunshine.


We love her sweet personality and laid back attitude.

Charlotte

Charlotte is now 2 years old (hard to believe) and full of all kinds of new things.

She can now...

Count to 20.

Use the potty... well, sometimes.

Recognize about half her letter.

Sing several songs all by herself.

Clean her own room.

Have entire conversations with anyone who speaks 2 year old.

Ride her very own bike.

Sit at her own little table for lunch.


She loves...

Books.

Talking with her sister.

Helping mommy with anything and everything mommy lets her help with.

Coloring.

Ice cream and oatmeal every single day if you let her.

Saying "Hi" and "Bye" to everyone in the grocery store.

Slides and swings.


She is...

Funny.

Sweet.

Kind.

Outgoing.

A delight.


Funny things as of late...


Folding laundry. First stick it under your chin, then ball it up quickly without moving her chin. Finally hand balled up clothes to mommy and say "I helping mommy."

While holding Kate, lifted her shirt and tried to "feed" Kate.

Announced, she would not be taking a nap today because she was going to work with daddy.

Told Tigger he better behave or he would have to go to back in timeout.


What fun the 2's have been thus far!

You might be a parent....

You might be a parent if...

You know every word to the song "If all the raindrops where lemon drops and gum drops."

You have read the very same book 19 times in a 3 day time period.

Your walls have at least one small spot with crayon on them.

You know that at Wal-mart they give away free cookies.

You can change a diaper with one had while taking a toddler off the table with the other hand.

You hear the phrase "Oh dammit, I dropped it." and immediately say a silent prayer that she doesn't repeat that at church. Along with another prayer asking God to forgive you because she just "might" have heard that phrase from you.

You might be a parent if you can cook dinner, feed a baby, color with a toddler, and not step on the dog all at the very same time.

You occasionally, think about a glass of wine at 10:30 in the morning, but wait until 10:30 at night!

You have done more then 5 load of laundry in a single day.

You wish you could put YOURSELF in time-out.

You secretly hope the UPS man does not come to your house today, because you just don't want to open the door and show off your messy house.

You brush your teeth during nap-time once in a while, because you just haven't made it that far in your day yet.

When a glass of water turns into this...At 3 AM you sneak down the stairs to the kitchen for water like a ninja in the darkness, being so careful that your karate kid like moves don't make too much noise. Suddenly, one miss step and Ol' McDonald is blasting through the living room like a wanna be gangster's stereo. You freeze and listen in the darkness praying you didn't wake up your sleeping babies.

You wouldn't trade the chaos, mess, or noise for anything.

When you can't wait to hold your little ones and you wish you could keep them small forever...

You might just be a parent.

Art

We love having a toddler. She keeps us laughing and on our toes every single day. We never knew a 2 year old could talk so much, move so fast, be so messy, and make you laugh so hard. She is indeed, awesomeness wrapped up in a tinny toddler package.

Yesterday, her WONDERFUL amazing pre-school teacher did an art project that involved using glue and coffee grounds. More specifically espresso grounds! The general idea was to glue the grounds to the paper, HOWEVER; being Charlotte she had to take her very own path. What did this path entail? Well, tasting a nice handful of the substance!

When she came home she was talking 900 miles an hour about EVERYTHING! She kept us laughing ALL afternoon! Here is a short clip of what that sounded like in our house yesterday!

I want a borrito for lunch. I want pizza. I read books in a little bit. I go to Walmart later and get a cookie. I go to school again tomorrow. Oh, Kate is a sleeping. Oh nope, kate is awake. I spilled water. I need a drink. Oh I wanna watch Pooh and Tigger and Pigglet later. Nope, not dark outside. I ride my bike later. I want a borrito for lunch. Twinkle Twinkle little star. Oh, Kate is still awake. I want milk. Olive (the dog) is outside. I go to the park tomorrow. I take a bath later. Katers is laying down. I go to my room later. I want pizza later. I read a book. I go to school again later? I want to watch pooh again. Twinkle Twinkly Little Star. Oh mommy. Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy. I need a drink.

This went on for a good couple of hours. I couldn't help but laugh and hope she was breathing between the words that were spewing out of her mouth! She is indeed a talker, but yesterday I think she broke some records somewhere.

So, thank you Mrs. Debbie for providing entertainment to not only my sweet daughter but also to her big sister, mom, dad, grandparents, and everyone else we shared this little tidbit with!

Photo project

I have been working on a quick photo project for the girls over the past couple of days. It is finally finished, so here you go! A copy of this will go in each of their baby books.

Case of the sickies

Well, my goal for this year was to post twice a month, and seeing as how it is now March, I am not doing so hot! We have been busy taking care of the girls and just enjoying time together. We have also had a lot of sickness around our house. Both girls have battled illness over the last several weeks. Lots of little colds as well as some bigger illnesses. First, poor Charlotte started running high fevers that reached 105. She then came down with a nasty case of croup, which made her sound like a seal! Then a week later Kate started running a fever. After about 5 days of the fevers we were sent to the ER. Kate was admitted to the hospital with a massive infection that just took over her little body.

Watching our kids be so sick has been so hard for both mom and dad. It is heartbreaking that you can't fix it. We both wished with our whole beings there was a way to take their discomfort away. We are happy to report that as of now our girls are both HEALTHY!!! We are so glad to have healthy kids again. These past few weeks have really made us thankful that our kids are, for the most part, healthy!

Here is a quick recap of our last couple of months.
Sweet Kate in the hospital. She was such a trooper during the whole thing.
The girls hanging out!
Charlotte has been working on picking out her own clothes. Mom allows this when we are NOT going out in public. We like to call her a "creative dresser." The is the outfit she picked out to wear the other day. Charlotte said "I need a "sweatshirt." Too cute!One day mommy and Charlotte got to go to Little Monkey Business. It is a great place to let little ones climb, jump, and get out all kinds of energy!!We had a nice snow storm a couple of weeks ago. I believe our grand total was about 2 feet. Charlotte was still recovering from being sick, but we took her out for a few moments to enjoy the snow. Charlotte hanging out just before bedtime.Charlotte has started a one day a week per-school. Charlotte absolutely love it! This here ready to go her first day.A couple pictures of our sweet baby Kate. So glad she is feeling better!Our darlings.

Well, that is all for now. I have been working on a new photo project for the girls, that I am hoping to post sometime this weekend. We hope you are all doing well!

I will miss this someday.

There is a great blog that I follow written by a fellow mother. She witty, cleaver, a bit crass, and most days I nearly fall off my chair from laughter; but above all she is honest. I mean let's face it, sometimes being a parent doesn't bring out the best in us. How many time have I snapped at my toddler because I have had to tell her 9,000 times to stop doing the very same thing I told her 9,000 times to stop doing yesterday!!

In her blog the writer says this simple phrase: "Someday, I will miss this."

At 5 am this morning, when my 10 week old daughter wouldn't go back to sleep after waking up to feed, I began to throw myself a grand ol' pity party. I sat in the rocking chair telling myself how much I needed to go back to sleep and how frustrating it was that my daughter was awake. I ran though my day in my head telling myself how difficult it was going to be to get everything done without sleep. Frustration and irritation filled my heart.

Then, in one quick moment these simple words filled my head "I will miss this someday," they rushed over me like a wave. I remembered sitting in that very same rocking chair with my now nearly two year old. Oh how it does not seem that long ago. I do miss those days. Not that I don't love having a rambunctious, funny, and adorable toddler, I do, but I am amazed just how fast it all goes.

So, my new years resolution, if you want to call it that, is to tuck away in my heart that I truly will miss this all someday. So, during those 5 am feeding, or when I have told my toddler 5,000 times to please use her inside voice, I will do my best to remember, I will miss this someday.