Football Party

We are football fans. We love to watch football. Not everyone will agree on that activity, but it also is a good excuse to get together with friends/family for a party. Kevin and I decided to go to Lafayette for the evening/night and do just that. We pricelined a hotel and got a good deal on the new Courtyard by Marriott in Lafayette. It's beautiful and was perfect for having Aunt Carole, Uncle Ric, and "the girls" over for the evening. I made a crockpot of chili to take and we enjoyed the evening of games, food and fun. Camden enjoyed the arrival time because she found a new "toy."

Then she got comfy right away in one of the big chairs and relaxed until everyone else arrived. (Notice she didn't care that the Colts weren't playing, she still wanted to cheer them on by wearing a Colts sweatshirt).

Finally her cousins arrived to shower her with attention and love. What more could a girl want?

And the other reason we had to party was it was Uncle Ric's birthday.

Happy Birthday Uncle Ric...Camden loved helping you open your presents and giving you lots of kisses!

Random Thoughts

Life has been busy...and not busy at the same time. However, for some reason, I just haven't found the time to blog. Camden has been active and happy...despite a lingering cold and a nasty eye infection.

A few of her latest escapades:

* climbing on anything and everything. She loves going into the kitchen and climbing up on the desk chair. She'll then sit and type on the computer keyboard and run the dial on the mouse. It's truly hysterical to see her mimic us...but frustrating that she is so persistent even when we have repeatedly told her to stop doing this! The gate has been up much more often then before.

* rocking in a chair of her own at home.


* walking on her tip-toes. She'll just be walking through the living room and decide the view is much better when on her toes.

* singing. I'm getting really tired of Itsy-Bitsy spider, You are My Sunshine, ABC's, and If You're Happy and You Know It. But Baby Girl is not...so I sing and sing and sing and sing.

* taking everything out of her bottom two drawers and throwing them on the floor or bringing them to me one item at a time. "OHHHHHH," she'll exclaim...over an old cloth diaper! She loves her stash of hats and likes to put each of them on. It's getting pretty old to keep folding (or not) and putting things back in the drawers. This weekend it's my project to make those drawers her "toy" drawers.

* ice. She loves chewing ice. I'm not sure if it's because those hard eye teeth are coming in (only one more needs to break the gum) or simply because it's really cold water, but anytime one of us has a drink near her, she'll start asking for, "iccccce."

* talking. She loves being on the phone (real or pretend) and has a whole repertoire of words. Standards of yes, no, mama, dada, hi, bye, ucky, etc. Plus special ones like shoes, socks, hat, thank you, ice, apple, nana (sometimes banana), and many more that I can't think of right now.

She is such a joy!

Itsy-Bitsy Spider

Camden loves to sing. She especially loves, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider." She frequently will come up to you and put her fingers together and move them back and forth. Similar to the sign for "more" but with movement. She's telling you she wants you to sing. And she does the motions.

Here's an attempt to capture it on video...however the chair proved to be too much of a distraction. It's cute none-the-less.

Presents

We had a very nice family Christmas. Tradition has it that we have Papaw down for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. Kevin had to work the night before, so he got home at 8am and the festivities began at 8:30. We had scrambled eggs, sausage and Monkey Bread (another tradition). Camden approved of the everything.

Then it was time for presents. Camden went in the living room and straight for her new rocking chair. She did her little "ooohhhhh," as she climbed in it. I couldn't believe that I actually found a rocker I liked on craigslist. It was in great condition...and a steal!

She then got right to work opening her stash.

I thought we'd have more fascination with the boxes, but she actually liked opening the presents, seeing what was inside, then going back for more. It was quite remarkable. Although that pesky tape got to be pretty annoying to her!

She loves her new vacuum cleaner. It sings the ABCs and numbers which she absolutely can't get enough of right now. It makes other cool sounds, plus their gadgets and buttons to push.

It's so cute to see her actually use it like a vacuum as she roams around the living room.

Probably the most annoying gift (to me) are the wooden puzzles. She likes the idea of them, but in general can't put the pieces in place, so we just have tons of puzzle pieces everywhere waiting to be stepped on by me...and those little knobs hurt!

She also got a cute camo sleeper from her daddy and a stuffed deer that she loves to hug and kiss. Actually, she gives those open mouth "baby kisses" so it's hard to tell if she's giving it a kiss or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

After all gifts were open, we played a little Mario Kart on our Wii (one of Daddy's gifts). Even Camden got in on the action.

All in all it was a good morning.

And an exhausting one!

Merry Christmas

A few glimpses of our day...

...and a wish from Camden.

Saturday Visitors

The Braunds came down on Saturday to do some hunting, some shopping, and some football watching. Camden loved the company. Her cousin RaRa (or "ReeRee" in it's current Camden utterings) is always a favorite. She plays and plays and plays with Camden.

At the stores RaRa even carrys her, which pleases Camden to no end since she isn't confined to the cart. Although I must say the Tony Stewart carts at Home Depot are too cool. Camden loves "driving" in them!

Camden was happy when Daddy and Uncle Ric got home from hunting.

'Cause that meant it was time for supper. Her new eating trick is to dip everything. In anything. Ketchup, ranch dressing, water...or even if she can pretend to dip her food into something, it seems to make it taste better.

After some snuggle time with Aunt Carole,

it was time for a few presents. It wasn't really Christmas gifts, but we found some Colts attire that we knew Aunt Carole and Uncle Ric would like and so we bought them. Camden was such a good helper in taking them their gifts, but also helping to unwrap them. I think Christmas is going to be fun this year!

Plus Uncle Ric let her model the goods.

She may need something a bit smaller!

Can't Get Enough

This girls' expressions are too much. Those eyes always make me wonder what she is thinking...cause I know she is always thinking something! She's jabbering and jabbering all the time. Definitely trying to tell us stuff...full conversations...but we, of course, have no idea what she is saying!

Her face is broke out in the top picture which is usually a sign of teething (along with a bad diaper rash). She also has been crying in her sleep the past two nights. Sure enough, this morning when I was changing her, I saw that another tooth is popping through. I think that's number 13 or 14!


Now if we could only get some hair to grow!