Cami at 11 Months

These pictures sum up a lot of the things that Cami and I do each day.

1. When we call her name in the car, she'll turn her head and look up at us like this in her car seat.

 2. We empty out the toy box each day. Here she is with Cousin Paisley checking out the toys and seeing which ones they want to get out of the box :)

 3. We make messes on our faces. She just finished off an Oreo here. That's one happy kid!

 4. Bryan and Cami play a series of games while she takes her nightly bath. She likes to hide behind the shower  curtain and peek up under and find Bryan.

 5. She crawls as fast as she can whenever I open the fridge or the dishwasher. She can go from crawling to standing without any problems now. We do this daily.

 6. We read lots of books to our Cami too. She has a few favorites but is always up for new books from the library. We read her 2 or 3 books each night before she goes to bed too.

 7. and when we're not reading her books, she will find one herself and just sit on the floor and flip through the pictures. Whenever she is quiet I can find her on the floor looking through a book :).

 8. And having Cami has made us sillier than we could've ever imagined. Bry took Cami's Cabbage Patch doll and created this! Scary, tall Cabbage Patch man!!

Cami is so much fun at 11 months. She is using her walker lately and taking steps with it (with our assistance in controlling the speed of the walker). She also says "maam" and "yeah" and "oh" all the time. She babbles constantly. We had a friend over with a 3 year old boy and I think he must have stolen a toy from her because the next thing I know Cami is crawling over to me babbling and complaining at how he took the toy and she was even turning and pointing in his direction.  She was trying to tel me about it. I can't wait for her to learn words and be able to understand what she's saying. She is so great!

Fun with the WebCam

We've been doing a lot of Skype calls with family lately and, well, one thing leads to another and we've been taking a lot of pictures with the WebCam. The first ones are of me and Cami. The next bunch are of my nieces Lexie and Brinley and a few with Madison. (They were here this weekend for Madison's 8th Birthday Bash. We played "Just Dance 2" on the Wii. We've got some good moves! We also went swimming). And the last couple are of Bryan and me after a call last night :)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Bryan and I both won things from calling in to the radio stations this month. I won on Ground hogs' Day for being caller 10 when "West Valley Wally" came on 104.3 KSOP. I won $100.

Bryan won by calling KSL radio and answering "what year did BYU hold its highest ranking in both the AP and Coaches Poll?". He answered 1987-88 season. He won four tickets to the Home and Garden Expo.

February was a good month for calling in to the radio stations!

House Pictures

We are in to building up to our ears now! It seems like everyday I'm making some sort of call or email about the house and we go up to see it at least twice a week. They have framed the entire house, put in plumbing, electrical wiring, windows, and the roof.  Doors and insulation and dry wall will come in the next week or two. We have picked out all of our house options and are just watching this place go up faster than we can keep up with it! Here are some of the recent pictures we've taken. I'll try to make sense of them as we go:

This is from the top floor but it is our entry way stairs. You walk in the front door and these stairs are right there. They are open to the second floor.

 This is a view from the Family Room, looking into the Dining Nook and Kitchen. It'll be easier to visualize when the dry wall  is in.

 This is the most recent picture of our house.  (We just went up today to walk through) The roof shingles are done, they've installed all the windows, most of the electrical, and the plumbing.

 This is from the back corner of the lot looking on the back side of the house

 This is an older picture of the house (before the roof and windows), but a good full front shot.

 This is the view from our house into the back yard. There's another house going up back there at the same time. I told our builder that they should race to see who could finish first and he said that we're going to smoke them :).  We have a beautiful view of the Wasatch mountains and all the lots behind our house are for sale. (so, family, come on and join us!!) We do have neighbors right next to us, just not behind. Wide open spaces!

 This is a view of our family room. Cami and I are standing next the where the fireplace is located. They actually have it there behind the box.

 This is the formal dining room. They are putting the arch to separate the living room from the dining room.

 This is the office. When you walk through the front door the office is located on the left. We're putting in double doors there with the intention of installing glass french doors later. (too expensive right now)

 This is the view from our front yard. (minus the porto-potty. A lot of them are called Honey Buckets out here in UT and I HATE that.) It's a beautiful view too. The Great Salt Lake is only a few miles away. We are close to the bird refuge and Farmington Bay of the Salt Lake. All of the lots across from us are sold, but no houses yet.

 Here's Cami all bundled up and happy about her new house. (Kim, I really do bring a coat and hat for her! :)

 I'm not quite sure which room this is, but I think we're in one of the bedrooms looking into the Bonus room (which is really just a larger bedroom, but will be a great play space for kids) This is also before the roof so it wasn't dried out from the snow. It's all dried out now luckily!

We'll send more pictures as it progresses. They started in Mid December and here we are a month later with a fully framed house. We think we'll be in it more around the middle of March or first of April. Hopefully sooner! We are so excited/nervous/anxious to get into it!

My Buddy and Me!

Can I just say that this kid has me totally wrapped around her little finger? I don't know what we did before without Cami. She has been so fun lately and it just seems like her personality is shining out more and more each day!

Here are just a few of the quirks and things I love about this kid:
-The way she crawls as fast as she can to me when I come to get her out of the crib each morning.
-How fast a grab she has now when we're opening blinds in the morning. She loves to hold onto one of the strings on the blinds and I will pull it up and she pulls it down. It's become a morning ritual
-She leans her head to the side (like in the pic above) while she's eating. She just started doing this randomly this week!
-How she fake laughs now just to get a reaction or to get us to laugh with her.
-How she stops when I say no to her and pats the object I just told her not to touch...just to make sure I will still say no.
-When she crawls over to the stair and practices getting up on her knees and somewhat onto her feet and then looks over with such a cute smile. She's so proud of herself and wants us to see her accomplishment!
-How she furrows her brow whenever she's taking a drink out of her sippy cup. Very serious stuff.
-How she nuzzles her face into her blanket and even licks it (I have no clue why) right before we put her to bed.
-I've become "home base" for all the activities we do during the day. She'll crawl and crawl around playing but will come back and climb on mom periodically just to check in and give me some hugs.
-How she lights up whenever we watch "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and how she loves the "hotdog song" at the end of the show.
-She self-feeds now  and has a ball picking up the diced foods we give her. She also likes to stash a lot of food in her seat and usually will either stash her sippy cup beside her or throw it on the ground.
-How she crawls around in the tub and even dips down to take a drink from the water whenever she's thirsty :).
-Her great excitement for life. We spend a lot of our day clapping, waving, and putting our hands way above our heads.

Most of all, I just love having my buddy with me all day! Life has become much more simplified for me, but in a very good way. I've learned to appreciate the little things in life. And the littlest thing in my life has become my greatest joy! How I love my Cami!

You Know You're Married to a Lawyer when...

You answer your hair dresser's question, "How long do you want your bangs?" with "Oh, I'll probably have them for a few months."

Attention to detail and phrasing is very important. She should have asked "what length" I want my bangs to get the right answer, not "how long". Thanks, Bryan, for helping me be more precise in my answers!