Date Day

I love going on dates. Like real dates that were planned and asked a couple days ahead. Not just getting dinner because we are too lazy to cook. Kevin didn't have to go to work on Wednesday for some reason. I don't remember why, but I don't really care. I am just happy because we were able to go on a date. My Grandma Knowles is so thoughtful, she sent us some money for our anniversary. I decided it was going to be used for a date. I asked Kevin a couple days in advance and started planning out what I wanted to do.

Wednesday came around and I went visiting teaching and when I came back we hopped in the car and headed for Rexburg. It feels like it has been ages since I have been there. It was like a blast from the past, except everything has changed. There are buildings flying up all over the place. I couldn't believe it. But the one thing that didn't change was the Taco Wagon. Kevin loves the Taco Wagon. I am pretty sure they are suffering now that we don't live there. Kevin would eat there everyday if he could. They have really delicious burritos. So we went to the Taco Wagon for lunch. The Taco Wagon is actually a in a bus, so we went to the park to eat lunch. I love the parks in Rexburg. They are really fun. So we ate in the pavilion then we went to some swings and gave Camille her first swing on a swing. She seemed to like it, but not anymore that anything else really.

Next we went to Fat Cats to play some arcade games. I really love to play arcade games. I don't know why, but it is probably one of my favorite dates to do. Fat Cats wasn't really taking great care of their arcade games, and I felt bad because on several games we had to go get the attendant to get our tickets or give us another token because a machine ate one of ours. We had a lot of fun. Kevin really liked playing Fruit Ninja (which we now have on our tablet because he liked it so much), and he like ski ball. He wants to become a pro ski ball player, so if anyone has a ski ball machine laying around let me know and I will buy it from you. I liked the game deal or no deal and the game that you have to get the light in the jackpot slot. I don't know what it was called.

After the arcade we went to BRC's. BRC's is a really delicious custard place. It is so so so good. We love getting a little treat there. It is close to the campus, and has such a cute atmosphere. It is decorated like a Swiss shop in the Swiss Alps or something. It really is so cute. There is a chocolate shop there too. We went in, and we found out that it had gone out of business. We were so sad. I don't even know why they went out of business, they were delicious and so fun! We were so sad, but I wanted a treat, so we went to Kiwi Loco a frozen yogurt shop. It was good, but not as good as BRC's.

After the treat we came home and put Camille down for a nap and finished out our day. It is really nice to be able to spend time with Kevin. We hardly ever get to go out and do lots of things, so I cherish the times that we get to.

Camille 7 Months

This has been my favorite month so far. I think I will be saying that every month from now on. She is the sweetest girl. I seriously just love her so much. She has been learning so much. It has been so much fun for me to watch. She is a moving girl for sure by now. She just started crawling on her hands and knees. She doesn't do it all the time, but she has started to figure it out.

She is pulling herself up on everything. She will stand up by the couch, on her toys, in her bath tub. It is getting kind of exhausting. She is always wanting to stand up, but gets tired, but doesn't want to sit down. She is really sweet though. Since she likes to stand up so much, she is always pulling on anything to get to the standing position. She will pull on my pants to stand up, but Kevin is not so lucky. When he is wearing shorts, she will pull on his leg hairs to stand up. It hurts him so bad. It is a good thing he loves her so much.

She is really attracted to cords. I will set her down with some toys, but she always seems to find a cell phone charger or the fan cord or the laptop cords. She loves to chew on them. I am concerned she is going to get electrocuted. Can you get electrocuted chewing on the end of a cord? I am not sure, but it hasn't happened yet, so that makes me happy.

She is starting to babble so much. It is so cute. My favorite thing is to listen to her talking to herself. I love to wake up hearing her talk to herself. She is just figuring out her voice. Her new favorite thing to do is buzz her lips. She is practically always buzzing her lips. It is so sweet, and drool-y, but sweet.

Camille still loves to jump. She would jump all day and night. It is cute, plus my arms are getting so buff. I even have a muscle line! Yay me.

Camille is really smart and silly. She knows how to put her pacifier in by herself, but sometimes she likes to chew on it when it is in the wrong way. I think it is just so precious. She loves to put things in her mouth and carry them around. It is really precious.

I am so grateful for this sweet girl. I love her so much. I might be so tired at the end of the day, but once she goes to bed I just look at pictures of her. She is my world.

July Recap

We sure were busy this last month. That is probably why not much blogging happened. We did so many fun things. I want to recap what happened so that I don't forget, but I probably won't go into too much detail.

I already wrote about July 4th, so we will skip that. The next was the weekend of the 12th. On the 11th I babysat for a lady in my ward. It was only one child, but she was 2 months old. Gee, I do not know what I was thinking. Trying to take care of a 2 month old and a 4 month old was insane. I hope never to have twins. If I put one down, the other would start crying, which was interesting because Camille was hardly crying at 4 months, but hearing this other baby cry she started to cry. It was nuts. After that experience I told her I wouldn't be babysitting for her at the moment. Maybe when our kids are a little older, but probably not.

Right when I was finished baby sitting I headed down to Lehi. It was going to be a busy weekend. We did family pictures Friday morning. (Kevin drove the semi truck down, so my parents had to pick him up). The pictures have turned out so good. After pictures Kevin and I went to Zupas (to get Lobster Bisque) and fill our empty tummies. We headed to Shantel's house where everyone was and ate, then headed to Manti. Yes, we were attempting to do family pictures and travel to Manti to be with Jacob as he took our his endowment in the Manti Temple. Kevin and I had been really nervous about this because we had never left Camille with anyone, especially for 3 hours. We started our trip. Camille slept a little bit, but not too much. We were so blessed that our good family friend Lauren Ezzel offered to watch Camille and Lydia. We dropped them off and went to the temple. It was such a wonderful experience to have the whole family in the celestial room. I loved it. We didn't stay too long though, because we needed to get back to Camille. Unfortunately, Camille had been screaming the whole time she was with them. I felt so bad, but so grateful they took care of her. After picking up the kids we went to Fat Jacks (now Roys) and ate delicious pizza. It was a lot of fun, but all of the traveling and excitement wore us out. Camille did a lot better than I thought she would, which I am sure is a blessing.

The next week on Wednesday (16th) we headed down to Logan to attend the Yerka family sealing. Kevin's sister Diane and her husband Steve adopted a beautiful 8 year old girl this last year. They wanted to be sealed to Hannah where they were sealed together, so they came all the way over to Logan to be sealed. It was so nice. Hannah is a crazy fun girl, so the sealing was also crazy fun like her. I was so grateful because my friend Lindsay Masco Mellor was so willing to watch Camille for me. It was such a blessing. And she said that Camille was even halfway descent and didn't scream. It was so fun to see so much family. Camille had a really bad diaper rash, so it wasn't too fun for her, especially because she didn't get too many naps that day, but all in all she was such a trooper.

The day after the sealing Camille had her 6 month appointment. She got some shots, but she did well. She is such a happy baby. I bring up the shots, because the day after her appointment was Kevin's cousin Jordon and his now wife Haley got married. It was really a nice day. Kevin was able to go to the sealing, but I just watched Camille outside. I think now that Camille is moving more, the shots are not as miserable as the first couple times. She was pretty happy though. After the sealing we went to the luncheon which was so fun. I really do just love to see family. During the luncheon I was just sitting and talking to some cousins, and all of a sudden there was a mini cupcake in front of Camille and boy did she want it. She is the sweetest. Apparently Melissa's husband thought it would be funny to give Camille a cupcake. It was really funny, but luckily we figured it out before she got it.

The following week we were supposed to go to the annual Haderlie camp out. We really wanted to go, but we had already been doing so many things and driving so many places, plus that weekend we were headed to my parent's house again for Jacob's mission farewell. So we didn't end up going. It was a good thing. We got some things accomplished around the house and we got to breath for two minutes before our next activity. It was probably nice for all that went as well because they didn't have to hear a screaming baby during the night.

As I said below, that weekend we went to Jacob's mission farewell. It was such a nice time. Jacob is such an amazing man. I am so grateful for him in my life. He is such a great example. I was able to go down and listen to his farewell, then Kevin drove a semi truck back home, and I stayed down for the week. It was really fun. I stayed at Shantel's house for a couple days.

We went to the Lehi aquatic center. It was so much fun. It was Camille's first time swimming. There was a fun play place which would be so much fun for a child, and there was an awesome slide. I took Lydia down it twice and I had SO much fun. It is pitch dark and wonderful. I want to go back. The next day Melissa and Shantel and I went to Shantel's pool in her neighborhood. It was really fun. Shantel let us borrow a nice little floaty for Camille and it was really fun.

 During that week Melissa Shantel and I did our nails with the Jamberry nails. I won some trial pack from a Jamberry party. It was fun. We just talked and did our nails that night and just had a nice girls night in. I loved it. I love being with my family. The Wednesday if this week we all went and dropped Jacob off at the MTC. It was reallly nice. We had lunch at Golden Corral, then went up and took pictures at the Provo Temple.

During this month Camille was so sweet. She had learned how to sit up, but she would fall asleep sitting up because she couldn't get down in time. It was so so sweet. I had to put this picture in.

The whole month was so busy and so much fun. I love being able to spend time with family. We had a lot of time with family this month and it was wonderful.

Camille- 6 months

We are half way through Camille's first year of life. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to make it through. We went to her 6 month appointment today and she is 16 pounds and 6 ounces. She is just growing. She was right in the 50 percentile. She also was 27 inches long! I never realize how much she has grown since we have brought her home.

Camille has learned so much though! Just a couple of weeks ago, she started to be so curious with the world around her. I can set her on the ground with some toys and she will just go back and forth exploring them. She really is so smart. In the morning I will put her in the swing while I eat breakfast and do the dishes. Sometimes while it is swinging she will reach up to hold the bar. She has stopped the swing every once in a while. It is so funny.

She is pretty good at sitting. She can sit by herself, but every once in a while she will get too excited and fling herself backwards. She can army crawl pretty much anywhere. She will be crawling soon. She is on all fours and is trying to hard to crawl.

She loves to jump so much. We went to Shantel's house last week and used her jumper. Camile just jumped and jumped and jumped. She loved it so much. We don't have a jumper at our house, so my arms are getting an awesome workout. It is so fun to watch her jump though.

Camille loves to look in the mirror. We have a huge mirror on our floor that I want to frame and hang up, but Camille will crawl over to it and she tries to kiss the little baby on the other side. She just smiles and plays with the mirror. It is really cute.

We go on a walk almost every day. Camille loves it. When I talk to her, she will look up at me through the umbrella part. It is so cute. When she is wearing her hat she will pull it down over her eyes and she sometimes will take a nap while we are walking.

She has been eating more solid foods and is starting to enjoy them a little bit more. It really has been such a fun experience for me to see her experiencing so many new things.

She is the sweetest girl and is pretty much always happy. She is learning so much every single day. I am so grateful for her and the love she brings into our home.

She's Crafty

Apparently there is a song that goes"She's Crafty", and Kevin keeps singing it to me, because I have finished some of my crafts I have been working on. I really am not too crafty of a person, but it has been fun to have a little something to do.

The other day I wanted to make some little baskets for Camille's toys. So I obviously went online to look at what I w
anted to do, and get some guidance, then I headed to the store. I got some burlap and some brown fabric. All of the blogs said to modge podge the burlap onto the box, but I started trying to do that, and there was no way it was going to hold. I was going to have to pour the whole bottle on. So I started taping the burlap down. I hope it holds. I think that it will. Once all of the burlap was taped on, I quickly sewed a brown liner for the boxes. This way, when dirt gets in the boxes, I can take the liner out and just throw it in the wash. They turned out really cute, and I love them. I also love that they only took a couple hours to complete.

My other project I have been working on has taken a lot longer than a couple hours. I have been refinishing a dresser. Ever since we bought this dresser, I have been wanting to refinish it. I haven't really had a place to work and do it, so I never have. Now that we have a house, I started working on it. I stripped the old stain off, and put some new stain on. Something was weird with the wood, so we ended up practically painting the dresser with the stain. Even though this took a while to complete, I absolutely love how it turned out. I am so sad, because it doesn't fit in our room, or really our house, so I might try and sell it.

Even though it probably won't be in our house, It showed me that I can do anything that I set my mind to, or at least I can refinish a dresser if I want to.

Finishing the Garage

Kevin had half the day off this last week, and he didn't want to be lazy with me, so we started to finish the garage. We went to Home Depot to find what we needed. While we were there I put Camille in the cart seat for the first time ever! She hated it. We got everything and headed home. Camille went down for a nap and we started working hard. We put up insulation and plastic on top of that. Then we put up some sheet rock. We were able to put up quite a bit before Camille woke up from her nap. Camille was a trooper though. She came down and sat in her stroller with us and was happy for the most part.

I love working on our home with Kevin. He is such an amazing man. I am glad that we can do this by ourselves and not have to hire people all the time. He is such a handy man, and I am a great helper that isn't very strong but makes sure we have good food to eat after.

4th of July

This 4th of July was so fun! It was so fun that I didn't even take any pictures. On the 3rd, our neighborhood puts on this awesome fireworks display. Everyone gets together about 6:00, and we have a big BBQ. You just bring your own meat and bring a side or dessert to share. There was so much food there. After the BBQ, they watch a movie outside on a big projector screen, then once it gets dark, they do the firework show. This isn't just the little fireworks. They buy the big ones that you would go somewhere to watch. It was so nice for me, because they hold this event just two doors down. So we went over for dinner and chatted with some neighbors, then I came home and put Camille to bed, but I was still able to watch the firework show from my front room because the fireworks are so big and so close. I really think that I had the best view. It was such a fun night. I am already excited for next year. I love our house and our neighborhood and everything.

The next morning we woke up and had a delicious breakfast, then we headed over to Paul, Idaho to see Kevin's family. Every year practically the whole family gets together for the 4th in Paul. Kevin's dad goes over at 8:30 AM to get a good seat for the parade, and everyone else comes a little later. The parade is so fun. I am so excited to experience parades with Camille when she is a little older and will actually enjoy seeing the floats, instead of just roasting in the sun.

After the Parade we went back to the house and had a delicious lunch. Gary and Sarah had made homemade salsa which was delicious, and they brought a million cherries. They have a cherry tree, and I am so jealous! Cherries are so expensive! They sent us home with a bag and I am so excited!

We just hung out for the afternoon, then we went and saw some of our good friends who live there, then we headed home. Camille didn't really get any great naps that day, which was a shame. She was not a happy camper on the way home. But she was a trooper and we made it through the day. I love days where I get to hang out with Kevin and with family. The 4th was such a fun day!