Christmas Kitty

In case you hadn't notice, I've become somewhat of a camera enthusiast. Um, that might be an underexageration. My camera has become an almost permanent accessory around my neck. I take it off when I got to church.

Today's photo shoot involved a black cat and many colored lights. What fun! Actually, photographing animals can be a real challenge, because the darn things never hold still. Especially birds. Oy! In this case Ender (the cat) was very curious about my camera, but fortunately the pretty colored lights were also a good distraction. The hat, on the other hand, was not a favorite with him, as you can tell from his cheery expression:-P Overall, it was a very successful photoshoot, and I probably captured one of the best pictures I have ever taken. Enjoy!

Santa Baby

It is sooooo hard getting a two year old to smile when he doesn't want to. But he's cute enough even without a smile that I think I can forgive him, LOL. Mostly he just wanted to throw the "balls" at mommy. Good thing they're plastic. I may try a reshoot later, and with a bigger hat. I think his head is a wee bit too big. I'm not kidding, look at the size of that noggin! It's like an orange on a toothpick! It was fun, anyway. Now if only I could get the cat to wear some antlers . . .

Elephant Man

Oops, I mean, Elephant BOY, lol. Cameron was the cutest elephant for Halloween. The costune was a real bear to make, though. There was a lot that required hand sewing, and after a while my fingers started to hurt. But it was all worth it, because he was just so darned cute. And he loved the costume so much he didn't want to take it off!

I took him to work for a little photo shoot, since we have a lot of green there, and elephants belong in the jungle, and not a studio, hee hee. It was almost impossible to get any good pics, because he was so busy running around, and was not at all interested in posing. Oh well, we got a few good ones in there:-)

I apologize that these are so late. I'm either too busy or too lazy to post:-P But here they are, and I hope you like them.

Happy Halloween!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. I slaved for hours over my sewing machine making Cameron's costume. He was a cute little elephant this year, because elephants are his favorite animal. I am taking him to work this week for a little photo shoot, so y'all will be able to see it then.

The biggest question on so many minds, is what pumpkin would Sarah carve this year? It was a really tough decision, but I narrowed it down to either Steve Irwin or Joseph Smith. But finally I decided to go with Joseph, because I thought everyone at the ward trunk-or-treat would enjoy it a little more. And they did! Everyone wanted to check him out, LOL. And the best part is that I carved him in a styrofoam pumkin this year, because I am so tired of my great works of art rotting away in less than a week.

And just to satisfy all of your Halloween needs, here's a pic of our cat, Ender. He was very obliging for this photo shoot, and I got some great shots. This is my favorite.

Okay, so no pictures today. I can never upload pics on to this stupid site. Maybe I need to find a new place to host my blog. Grr.

Ah-ha! I got them to work! eBlogger must have just been havign a bad day yesterday, becuase i had no trouble at all today. I hope you enjoy them!

Well, that was a bust

Okay, so the potty thing is a no go at this time. After two days and many soiled underpants, we have decided that maybe Cameron isn't quite ready to potty train after all. But he's close. He LOVES to sit on his potty, and will sit there for an hour if I let him (I know, because I did). But even after long periods of sitting on the potty at the most there would just be a little piddle in the bowl. But as soon as I put his underpants on, he would wet them, and it would be a huge mess. So we are going to hold off until after the holidays and then see what will happen. It's best to just let him take things at his own pace.

The Pee-pee Journey

Yup, it's that time. That time in every little boy's life when he must learn to use the potty. It's a time of big boy underpants, of countless hours sitting on the potty waiting for something to happen, and M&M treats. Oh, and accidents. Those are particularly hard for mommy to forget. Cameron has shown many signs that he is ready to take that big step into potty training world. He loves to sit on his potty, but has yet to do anyting in it. It will come. He was very excited about picking out his very own big boy underpants - Thomas the Train and Nemo! And because mommy hates really big messes, some plastic pants to go over them. As Elmo and Grover say, "Accidents happen, and that's okay!" Still, let's not make it worse than it needs to be. Right now we are just day-time training. But once he gets the hang of that we may put him in a BIG BOY BED so he can night train as well. All this "big boy" stuff only serves to remind me that my little baby is growing up. Part of me is sad, but part of me is happy. I love that he is learning new things and making new discoveries. I just wish he liked to cuddle more. *sigh* Ah well. Guess I'll have to have another baby to satisfy my newborn needs:-P

Happy 2nd Birthday, Cameron!!!!

So hard to believe that our cute little Cameron is already two years old. He's come a long way in those two years, too. Babies grow up too fast. In the past few months Cameron has started using vocal speech more and more, and his motor skills have continued to develop. He loves to run and jump and climb. He's such a big boy, now, that it is hard to call him a baby, but he will always be my Baby Boy.

This year his birthday was fill with a lot of fun. The day of his birthday, September 18th, we took him to meet his hero, Rachel Coleman from the Signing Time videos. He had so much fun! He loved signing and singing along with all the songs, and even got to go up on stage to help perform one! After the show he got to personally meet Rachel and Hopkins the Frog. Normally, Cameron is a little shy around strangers, but as soon as he saw Rachel he ran right up and gave her a great big hug! Since it was his birthday, Rachel sang and signed the Happy Birthday Song just for him! He loved being with her so much it was hard to pull him away.

We had a birthday party for him later in the week. We invited his little cousins and a few kids form nursery. It was a small turn-out, but was really just right for him. This year we did a Clifford the Big Red Dog theme, becuase Cameorn loves to watch Clifford on tv. All the kids got to make funny faces with balloons, and everyone helped open the presents, LOL. And of course, there was plenty of cake and food to go around.

Cameron has learned so much in just the last year, we can't imagine where he will be at next year. But we hope whatever he does he will have fun and grow more!

Our San Diego Vacation

We recently took an exciting trip down to San Diego California, and we had a blast! We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle, who I have only met a few times in my life, but it was great. They are awesome people, and we really appreciate putting us up (or putting up with us, depending on how you look at it, LOL).


Our first big adventure was a day at Sea World, and honsetly, I think Cameron thought he must have gone to heaven. He loved it! His very favorite were the dolphins, he just loved watching them jump out of the water. Later we took him to the dolphin pool to meet them, and he was just the happiest boy ever. The dolphins came right up, and they just stared at each other for the longest time. It was so cute!

One of my favorite shows was the Cirque de la Mer, a Vegas style show with awesome acrobatics. I was totally amazed at the strength these people had, both men and women. No way I could do any of it.

Of course Shamu was a hit, but we didn't see him until the very end of hte day, and by then Cameron was pretty tired, so wasn't quite as interested. He still liked those big jumps, though!

Our next big adventure was a trip to the beach, a first for both Craig and Cameron. Unfortunately, Cameron wasn't quite so enthralled as we had hoped he would be. For the first two hours he sat on his towel and complained about the sun, the sand, and the water. Meanwhile, Craig enjoyed splashing in the waves, and I enjoyed building my first sandcastle! Eventually Cameron realized that sand is fun, especially when you throw it at Daddy, and he was much happier.

Our last big adventure was a trip to the San Diego zoo. Cameron LOVED the petting zoo, and had to pet ALL the animals. I guess he didn't want anyone to feel left out. But probably his most favorite were the elephants. I am not sure why, but elephants are his new favorite animal. He was all smiles and giggles when he saw them. What was funny is when we first went up to them and Cameorn saw how huge they were. I thought his eyes would pop out of his head! But he really loved it. My favorite part was seeing the pandas. So totally cute! The baby had just turned a year old, and I just wanted to cuddle her! We had to see them twice becuase Cameron feel asleep the first time, and we really wanted him to see them. And of course he liked them!

All in all it was a fantastic trip. I think I took about 400 pics, but I narrowed it down to about 300. Still, how am I ever going to get all those in a scrapbook? I think it is going to be a multi-volume work!

PS. I can never get my picutres to post. I will have to keep trying, and maybe I can pu thtem in another post.

He Talks!

As unbelievable as this may sound, Cameron is actually starting to talk! He is learning new words all the time, and it's great. So the list so far is:

Mama
Dada/Daddy
Gate (sounds like Gay)
Uh-oh
Ooohhh!
bye-bye (his new favorite)
Whoo-whoo (like a train)

He also has a few other words that he has only said occasionaly, like car and baby. We were getting a little worried that he was going to grow up as a mime, but fortunately hours and hours of Gilmore Girls has caught up with him and he is realizing just how fun talking can be. Now if I can only get him to shut up now and again, LOL.

In other news, Craig is desperatly trying to finish school by next Spring, but UNLV is not making it easy for him. They keep scheduling classes inteh middle of the day. I mean, the nerve of some people! Who goes to class in the day time anyway? He may end up quiting his job in the Winter so he can finish school. We REALLY don't want to stay here in the Land of Desolation and longer than is really neccessary. Our goal is Bountiful. Utah, I mean.

As for moi, I am working every now and then at the chapel. Work has been very slow. Then it sucks because my boss makes me stay 10 1/2 hours on Saturday (our one busy day) and then complains that I don't "give enough", which makes me feel all guilty, but only temporarily. After those initial five seconds I am ready to throttle him. I love my job, really, but sometimes I really want to scream.

And here is soemthing even bigger! I am working very hard towards taking a great photography course, which I am hoping will help me break into the business on my own. I think I am really leaning towards children's photography. I love working woth kids, and really showing of thier wn individual uniqueness.

And speaking of children's photography, here are a few cute pics of my niece Krystal that I took when she and her parents came for a visit in July. They are not perfect, but I am working on improving my techniques, as aforementioned.

Twitchell Family Camp

We just got back from the annual Twitchell Family Camp. Every year, Craig's family get's together for a great big camping trip. I am a huge fan of camping, so this is good for me:-) The downside is htat there are SOOOOO many people there, adn usually if I wasn't cooking, I was cleaning, and if I ever tried to do something fun on y own time, I would face a lot of guilt for not helping out in camp. Bummer. But this year Carig's immediate family decided to try somethign different. We set up our campsite a little away from the main camp, and instead of sharing meals with everyone else, we did our own fmaily meal, which means there was a lot less to cook, a lot less cleaning, and no long lines to wait for food. It was also nice to have a little quiet spot away from the hussle and bustle of the main camp. Very relaxing.

Setting up camp was lots of fun. Cameron was a big helper. He helped put together the poles and hammer in the pegs. Next year he'll be ready to do it all by himself!

The first night we were there, we nearly froze to death. In Las Vegas, summer nights are still somehwere around 85-90F. But our campsite was at Duck Creek in Utah, some 9,000 ft above sea level. Therefore, at night it got down to around 40F. Not only was it hard for me to sleep, but poor Cameron kept waking up becuase he would throw off what little covering he had and then wake up freezing. Fortunately, the next night we were able to procur extra blankets, and we all slept much better.

One of my favorite parts of camp this year was the hiking. First we went to the Ice Cave, a small, unassuming cave. Strangely, even in the heat of the day, the cave was freezing cold. As a result, precipitation would fall into the cave and freeze, causing the whole floor to be covered in a thick sheet of ice.

After visiting the Ice Cave we went on a hike to Cascade Falls. The hike was amazing. The path was set high up on the mountainside, with a cliff wall on one side, and a very long drop on the other. The view was SPECTACULAR!! The mountains and forest seemed to stretch on forever and ever, fanilly becomgin lost in the hazy atmosphere. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "purple mountain's majesty". The falls were beautiful, and we had fun, until Cameron tried to slip through the guard rails. He almost succeeded, too, but fortunately Craig was there to grab him. If he had managed to slip through, it would have been a long drop to a nasty death. I don't think I have ever been more scared in my life. Still, despite that brief incident, we had a lot of fun, and Cameorn felt like he was on top of the world!

On Sunday we all got together for church, which was held in a nice shady spot under the trees. I felt like a poineer, which is was fitting, considering that Pioneer Day is next week. There was such a peaceful feeling sitting out in Heavenly Father's Kingdom.

When we came back home Sunday afternoon the first thing we noticed is how hot and dry Las Vegas is. And very brown. The cool air and green mountains have spoiled us, nad we are more determined than ever to get out of Nevada as soon as Craig graduates. Hopefully, we can go back up to Utah. I don't like how cold it gets in the inter time, but I hate how ridiculously hot it gets here inthe summer time, so I guess it's merely a matter of picking hte lesser of two evils.

Our Fabulous Fourth

I have to say, we enjoyed our Fourth very much. Surprisingly, I had the day off work, so we spent the whole day together as a family, a rare treat. I had done some wedding photos in the Bellagio casino and noticed that the new garden theme was Americana, and had numerous miniature trains. I thought Cameron would love it, so we took him there in there in the morning. Sure enough, he thought they were about the coolest things ever! He couldn't get enough of them, and oohed and awed. Just as fun were the water spouts the had throughout the gardens. Shooting water! What a fantastic concept! After checking outhte trains we went outside to watch the water show. Cameron liked that, too, but not as much as the great big fountain out in front. Why watch it, when you can play in it?

In the evening we went over to Craig's grandparent's house to eat and set off fireworks. Cameron thought they were even cooler than the trains! HUGE EXPLOSIONS!!! LIGHTS!! FIRE!!! Honsetly, what could be more exciting to a little boy? After setting off our own, we went down to the park to watch the fireworks show there, which was great fun. I got some awesome pics, but I took them on an SLR, and haven't been able to download them into the computer yet.

All in all, it was a fantastic Fourth. I wish I had more days like that.