Monster Jam

A while ago we went to Monster Jam. They were a Valentine's gift to Nathan for Valentine's Day. It was fun.

They had the monster trucks. They had the expensive, nasty food. They had some weird people. They had loud engines. They had transformers that breathe fire.

We had ear plugs. We had nasty, expensive concession stand food. We had a date. We had fun and we hope to do it next year!

Really...

I just did that. I just opened the video camera and took the disc out without finalizing it. I really just deleted all of the pictures and video I have taken of Kamden on it for the first 7 months of his life. I'm not even kidding.

I'm not sure what to do at this point, cry or scream. I'm seriously disappointed, heartbroken, and depressed. Trying not to let this ruin my day, but that's really hard.

This is a harsh, rough day of reality, in which I will hate technology and it's technicalities vehemently. 

I so need another chocolate chip cookie now...maybe a few more!

Easter

This year our Easter was relaxed. Nothing big. The Easter bunny didn't forget us though. He came and brought each of us a basket of some sort. 

Nathan and David's easter can's got hidden. The Easter bunny knew Uncle David and Nathan don't really love baskets like me so he knew David needed a trash can and both of them got an Easter can instead.

Uncle David got an earful of chastening for something here!

 

I got a cute pink basket and Kamden got an awesome baseball basket bag (I don't know what to call it)!

We had basket fun in the morning and then went to our church meetings. Afterwards we didn't do anything crazy for dinner. In fact, I don't even remember what we ate.

Either way, it doesn't matter because we enjoyed ourselves and really enjoyed our time together and the reminder of our Savior. 

During the week before Easter we started an Easter countdown for FHE the monday before Easter. It had something of value to do every day, usually some kind of service, reminding someone we love them, or reading the Easter story, and a general conference talk about Easter. We weren't faithful on getting it all done on time and we didn't take our eggs off the countdown chain but I plan on saving it for next year when Kamden can enjoy it too!

On a more spiritual note, this Easter I was reminded of the great opportunity I have to have an eternal family through the blessings of the temple. That through the covenants we make, death cannot separate us. We will be together again after we leave our mortal bodies. Our Spirits will rejoin our bodies in a perfected state and we will join those blessed family units we created for all eternity. How blessed we are and how much we have to thank our Savior for this blessed day.

Happy Easter!

7 Months

Bubba Bear is 7 months old today and that means it's time for another update! We were in Idaho for much of this month and it always seems that when we are there (twice now) he doubles in size, if that is possible! 

He's starting to grow out of some of his 3-6 month clothes. Some of them still fit, including mostly pants, but he is fitting into his 6-9 month clothes now too.

This month we took pictures of one of his favorite past-times, eating! He LOVES sweet potatoes and carrots. Seriously, the kid eats them like they are going out of style. He attacks the spoon as soon as he sees it, hence they messy face!

Kamden is a happy little boy! He likes people and loves to be played with. He can entertain himself for a while when mom needs to get stuff done but if he sees me, that is of course the end of it. He is very ticklish and loves to be tickled. That is a good thing because his dad sure loves to tickle him!  Some of his favorite things are mom's hair, going for rides in the stroller or carrier, being outside, eating, playing peek a boo, playing with his feet, chewing on his hands, and hanging upside down.

He is still working on learning to crawl but I think he's really close. He's got putting one leg in front of the other down but still hasn't got those arms moving. When he wants to get somewhere he will rock back and forth, put on leg in front, and then fall to the ground. He also does this little lunge forward thing over and over. He looks like a walrus, so silly! Either that, or he still rolls everywhere.

He got sick for the first time this month. He's had a runny nose before but this is the first time he had the cough, trouble breathing, and congested nose. He didn't sleep as well at night and he hated getting his nose suctioned but he was still a champ through it all. We loaded him up on some awesome essential oils, multiple times a day, and when the doctors office was open again on Monday he was doing so much better we decided to wait. Now he's back to his normal self!

We can't get enough of his giggle and his smile! It's infectious and it can turn any frown upside down!

P.S. Kamden shares this day with his Uncle Clay today! Happy Birthday Clay!

We love you! Congrats on your own little boy, born yesterday morning! What a birthday present!

Weekend Plans and Thoughts

Today, I am staying in my pajamas. That isn't unusual, but it just sounds good today. Some days, I look in the mirror and wonder why I'm not dressed for the day. Today, I don't really care. I got the little man dressed, despite his protests. I shouldn't have. He loves to be naked (with a diaper), of course. He would have been in Heaven.

The husband has to go to a scout campout tonight. I'm a little disappointed. I had hopes of snuggling on the couch while watching a movie but it will have to wait until tomorrow. We will also finish our Easter Countdown on Sunday! We made a countdown chain with something good and nice we have to do each day before we can take off the egg. We've done most of them but haven't taken off the eggs. I didn't want to. I liked it better with all of them on there. That way we can use it again next year, when Kamden can be involved and excited about it!

Last night, my new nephew joined us in this big, bad world! His name is Carter Steve Kappas, and he's pretty much adorable. He has the dark hair and cheeks his sisters did and I'm sad that I can't meet him yet. I was able to cuddle on both of his sisters after they were born and I'm sad to have to wait. I'll post pictures later. I don't want to do anything crazy until his parents get to post pictures first.

Carter's little tiny body and features remind me that my little man, although still a baby, isn't so small anymore. He's growing into a little boy all of the sudden and I'm not sure how to feel about that yet. He turns 7 months old tomorrow and that baffles my mind.

 

(I promise he doesn't usually sleep with a huge blanket in the crib. Nathan didn't want to wake him up trying to take it off, so we waited a little while until he was really out!)

I love to stare at him while he's sleeping. He's so peaceful. I also love to listen to him talk to himself and play in his crib though, after he wakes up. Children are such a blessing.

Also, with Easter coming up my thoughts are turned again to dear, sweet Oaklie Rose, my niece, stillborn just a few short weeks ago. What a blessing to have the beautiful reminder of Easter and our Savior's resurrection so close to the heartbreak of losing this sweet little girl. What a sweet day that will be when she is reunited with her parents. I will give anything to witness that tender moment!

Happy Easter, people! Make it a blessed one!

Some Days

You just have to spend some time laughing so you don't resort to a full on breakdown of sorts!

This was our Thursday night and Friday experience on our way home from Idaho!

It wasn't all bad, but really, it's not easy traveling with a baby by yourself, on a standby ticket. We had lots of awesome help and encouragement. It wasn't the people that made it hard. It was the situation.

We left Thursday morning for a nine hour drive to Vegas. That went really well. We changed my new york flight to boston to be sure I got on. I got on in a seat on the second row, in an even more space seat! It helped a lot. This flight was over six hours! Kamden slept pretty much the entire flight, which is good. But, don't forget that meant I didn't sleep because I was holding him, in my arms, in not so comfortable positions, in an airplane seat for over six hours, without getting up to move, stretch my legs, or pee, in fear of waking up my exhausted little boy.

We got to Boston, didn't have a ticket to get through another security gate (weird airport), went to the ticket counter, found out the lady only changed my flight to land in Boston, not connect to Dulles, waited for a way nice lady to get it figured out, ran with bags, a stroller, and my tickets to the security gate, waited for ten minutes I didn't have for people to check baby formula, medicine, and other things, check the stroller, break the stroller temporarily, and haul me through. I put a baby who just had a blowout, who hasn't been changed in six hours (he was sleeping), very carefully into the stroller, walked very fast through the terminal, and was the last person to board the plane they had been holding for me. I buckled myself in, made a bottle (not an easy task in this setting), and hoped nobody could smell my stinky baby. Waited to take off, heaved a sigh of relief when I could undo my seatbelt to change my very wet, dirty baby, and went into a very small, unclean, restroom, with a liquid of some type in all the corners of the floor, and changed and wiped every last inch of my baby.

At this point I looked in the mirror (big mistake), accepted the mess before me, vowed not to look in a mirror again until the day was over, and took my seat for the remainder of the flight.

Luckily, this flight was only about an hour, so I endured, got off the flight, melted into my husband's arms, filed a lost baggage claim for baggage that didn't even exist in the system, and finally walked outside, promising myself all the way, not to go back into an airport, unless absolutely necessary.

We went to the Air and Space Museum with friends visiting from Idaho (who witnessed me and my child a complete mess), realized Kamden had another DIRTY diaper, convinced Nathan to change it. We waited outside for a very long time, sent Brett in to check on them, found out he had another blowout, there were no wipes left, and he didn't have an extra outfit. Nathan salvaged his pants and wrapped the top of him in his sweater, sticking him in the stroller.

We finished in the museum, took the picture below In the car, and went to I hop to eat some much wanted food. Dropped our friends off at an airport (didn't go in just as I vowed I wouldn't), slept on the way home, walked inside, and collapsed after being awake for almost a full 48 hours of terror with no sleep.




I laughed a lot that day! A whole lot!

*Sidenote: Nonetheless, I am beyond grateful for the people who sacrificed the time, money, and effort to get me to Idaho and back. It was still worth it! 

(Please forgive the typos and bad layout. I did this on my phone so I wouldn't forget to record it later on.)

Catch Up

Seriously, I don't think I will ever catch up on the things I "want" and "need" to do in life.

Maybe, just maybe, it's because I do too much of this some days.

Now that we are home, I am trying to be productive. My productivity went down the drain while I was in Idaho! I have done some laundry, and some dishes (Nathan did them this morning), and I did prepare for FHE last night. I didn't neglect Kamden. He got what he wanted and needed too but other than that I need to catch up on the baby book, the blogging, the journaling, the crafting, the holiday preparations, the grocery shopping, the taxes, and more! Yeah, taxes aren't done. Horrible, right?

Ah well, it will work out.

P.S. Check out how much Kamden loved this little clementine orange Uncle Marcus gave him to play with.

I love when he decides to attack the orange! I think we found a new teething toy!

hugs and loves

The two of us, Kamden and I, are back home after taking an almost three week hiatus to Idaho! We left Nathan here last minute on Monday, March 12th, after we found out two days earlier the news that broke our hearts for Marcus and Shylo. Now that I am back home, I know we were supposed to be here. I'm not sure I helped as much as I wanted to but I learned so much myself that it is an experience I know I needed.

When we got home Friday morning, after driving nine long hours to Vegas on Thursday and flying all night as a tired mom with a tired babe, I decided that won't happen very often! I melted into my dear Nathan's arms and kissed his sweet self, happy to be back in the arms of the one who loves me and that babe more than anyone else. It kind of felt like the days of dating again. You know the twitterpated, nothing else in the world matters feeling. Kind of like the one below!

The last two days have consisted of lots of kisses, snuggles, cuddling, hugs, and loving each other, especially on our sick little boy!

Either way, we are happy to be here...together!