10.19.2012

Recent goings-on

Cambria has been hearing about Halloween, and knows that it involves candy, so she's very excited.  She knows there is a phrase she has to say, but she can't always remember what it is. She will at random times say to me "tick-tock, I want candy," forgetting that the real phrase is "trick-or-treat."

Nathan is starting to say a lot of words. His first word was "ball," but he also says choo-choo, dog, bubble, mama, dada, cheese, 'nana (banana), moooouse (mickey mouse), night-night, and whoa!


One time when Cambria was in the car the song Remember the Name, by Fort Minor was playing. She started dancing in her carseat so I asked her if she was "jammin'."  Now every time she gets in the car she requests "jammin song."  When the next track starts playing she says, "No, I want jammin song mommy!"

Cambria is becoming very independent. Her common phrases are "MY do it!" and "I do it all by myself." Usually this involves cooking, getting up and down from the table, washing her hands, climbing into the car and her carseat, and helping unload groceries from the cart to the conveyer belt, among other things.

Amos got a promotion at work, and now is heading up the implementation of a brand new BDC department along with another department, on top of his in-house DealerSocket work. He stays busy! We are really proud of him!


I started a photography business as a hobby/business venture. I have done a few family photoshoots so far and am hope to expand to into other markets like children, high school seniors, engagements, and newborns. My website is KaleidoscopeMoments.com and the Facebook page is facebook.com/KaleidoscopeMoments. Please check them out and let me know if you want photos done!

I read a great book about Nutritarian eating called Eat to Live.  It was really interesting and I can see why it is a great way to modify your diet.  Because of it I have been eating tons of fruit, beans, and leafy green vegetables and less meat, dairy, and starch. I hope to continue, and do even better once the baby is here.

Every day the kids ask to "do 'da park." Well, Cambria does. She has one that she named the yellow park, and another she calls the purple park.

When he's not working late or in church meetings Amos has been practicing hardcore with a rugby team! And he is going to start a boxing class. He's also been doing a lot of running with his iPod tracker
and working on beating his previous distances and times. Hopefully next year I can start training too and we can do a mud run together :)

Cambria is a little nut. She can wink, and she can raise her eyebrows. It is hilarious.


Less than 3 weeks after starting to walk consistently, Nathan discovered how to jump! We were watching a B-I-N-G-O video on YouTube and one of the actions was "jump" and so Cambria was hopping all around. Nathan got very intrigued and started bending his knees and jumping. He gets a LOT of air when he starts bouncing!

Cambria looooves ice cream cones from Chick-fil-A. She calls them "ice cones."  It probably helps that most of the time when we go, they let her go behind the counter and make her own! How fun! We will sometimes make a Chick-fil-A trip after my doctor visits and she gets really excited when we pull into the parking lot. "Cafe rio!" she starts exclaiming. Poor thing has Cafe Rio confused with Chick-fil-A! But she'll also say "I love cows" since many times when she's visited she has seen a mascot dressed up in a cow costume and remembers when she dressed up as a cow for a free meal.

We have a fire pit and some outdoor furniture for our downstairs patio now! We got it at the perfect time, right as fall was starting. I love going out there to relax and chat by the fire once the kids have gone to bed for the night. It's like we have a whole new room in the house.

Cambria brings her whole entourage into our bed each morning. Dog, bear, blanket, and herself. She is content to cuddle for a few minutes and then usually asks for the iPhone or iPad to play on to keep herself occupied.

The kids get so excited to have dance parties. We play Moves like Jagger, which we've translated into "Moves like Daddy" and they hop up onto the coffee table and bounce, dance, and sing. They also like to dance to Gotye and Call me Maybe. Next up, Gangnam Style...

Cambria is really good at singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and requests to sing it every night at bedtime along with a "lullaby."  She sometimes will sing it to the "baby in mommy's tummy."  When you ask her when he's going to come she says "Halloween" and when you ask her what his name should be she says "Yai-an" (Ryan). For the record, the ones who actually get to name the child have still not made a decision about the baby's name yet ;)

When Cambria hears Nathan wake up from a nap she loves to "go get baby."  She climbs into his crib and they both hold on and have a little jumping party.

Nathan loves to bring us books and crawl into our laps to read them.

One of Cambria's favorite things to do when Nathan is napping is put together a princess puzzle. She is really good at it! She also loves to build towers with her blocks or cans and put her My little ponies on top.



Cambria is getting really good at recognizing letters. She can do each one in her name. And when you ask her what her name is she will say "Cambri-bear Hobby."  Just the other day she pulled out "Nini Richard" when talking to Nathan.  I guess I must say that a lot!




10.13.2012

the Pumpkin Patch

The pumpkin patch is one of my favorite things to do with the kids every year.  Cambria has seen videos of herself at the patch last year so she remembers and asks about it often ever since I mentioned it.  This Saturday as soon as Amos got back from work she told him, "when daddy gets home and baby wakes up we're going to go to the pumpkin patch and get pumpkins and see animals."

Seiple farms takes you on a hayride out to the huge pumpkin patch where you can pick your pumpkins, and then take a hayride back. After paying for your pumpkins they have lots of activities like pony rides, hay mazes, a carnival, and animals to go see like cows, pigs, and goats.

On the hay ride


Almost there!


Picking out pumpkins!





Back to the hayride


First pony ride. She loved it!


Enjoying her first funnel cake with Mom. 


Climbing on hay bales after seeing the animals



10.09.2012

Staying Dry


I got a lot of attention after figuring out this fun little setup for the kids when errand-running in the rain.

"Way to be resourceful" "Where did you get that umbrella?" "Wow, you stay busy."

The little munchkins are getting ever better at errand-running. I don't end every trip with the thought "Why did I even attempt that? I must NEVER ever do that again"

Cambria still gets really excited in the store and loves to run around, but she stays relatively close to the cart now rather than jetting off down the aisle.  She likes to be a helper and take what I tell her off the shelf to put into the cart, although, if she spots a can of Pringles, it's going in the cart no matter what. Either that or she insists on holding it, rolling it along the floor, etc.

They both love the "choo-choo" that runs along the ceiling at the dairy section of Wegman's. As a matter of fact, no matter what store we're shopping in, Nathan is always looking up trying to find the "choo choo."

I love my two little sidekicks!

9.12.2012

A "pie-cone" for Daddy

One day we had a bunch of extra strawberries to use up so I decided that we should make a strawberry pie.  Cambria got very excited and insisted on helping in the kitchen, as always.

We whipped up a batch of grandma's sugar-cookie-esque pie crust (the ONLY way to go -- regular pie pastry crust - ick!) and made up this little treat for daddy to enjoy when he came home. Although, even though Cambria isn't a strawberry fan, mom had to try it out before dad got home to make sure it tasted good.

She kept calling it "Daddy's pie-cone"

She calls an ice cream cone an "ice-cone," and she recently learned the word "pinecone" so I think she was just combining her love of desserts and a few other words.



Happy as can be, waiting to give daddy his strawberry pie-cone.

8.18.2012

A Mimi & Geepy visit and VOLT

We went to visit Mimi & Geepy and celebrate Mimi's 56th birthday. (don't let the 7 on the cake confuse you; it was the only candle we could find!)


The kids had fun playing and going to the park.





Aunt Debi came to visit with Molly. The kids LOVED it.


I had a chance to get out and get my hair done for the first time in years!! (no pic, sorry) Just a few highlights and long bangs.

A few seasons ago, Top Chef featured 2 brothers from Frederick, MD - Michael and Brian Voltaggio.  One of Brian's restaurants, Volt, is in downtown Frederick and I had a chance to go for a nice brunch with Mom while Dad watched the kids. It was so much fun!





Having some lemon raspberry coconut cake on the deck before mom opened her macbook air! 

8.13.2012

A new fence!

Weekend upon weekend, and evening upon evening, Amos spent his free time outside building this lovely fence! Each of the 21 holes were dug by hand with a post-hole digger and a crowbar to help break up all the rocks. Everyone kept trying to get him to get an electric digger, but to no avail. He wanted the exercise and the satisfaction of doing it on his own.

Cambria loved to go outside and help whenever she could. She usually had a bucket and would collect the rocks or fill it with water and stir it with a stick to make "dinner" (rock soup). You can see her lawnmower in the middle of the yard. She likes to help mow, too.

Now the kids love to race dad to the tree, run around it, and play in the yard.





7.24.2012

Fire Station Visit

 We got to visit a fire station today. Cambria loved the fire truck and even got to climb inside.


On the way into the station her friend Korbin asked me if he could hold her hand. Her first little boyfriend. Aww...


7.18.2012

Little Man's First Haircut


Nathan had his first official haircut today. At first he was a little upset, but I put a show on the iPad for him and gave him some blueberries on his tray so he sat there nicely, keeping occupied. He's so handsome! He looks so much older!

7.13.2012

Cow day at Chick-fil-A

Today was National Cow Apprecation Day at Chick-fil-A. If you dress up like a cow, you get a free entree, so we decided to have some fun with some friends and give it a try.  

My little calves




Mommy cow



Then, Cambria traded in her kids meal book for an "ice cone." They let her go behind the counter and make it herself. She was really proud!

6.26.2012

And it's a....

Boy!


Baby #3, joining us on or around November 5th is a boy!  I had my appointment during the day while Amos was working, so when I was given the news, I came home to make these filled cupcakes. I took the icing and dyed it blue so it would be a surprise when he took his first bite.

We were both kind of expecting a boy since my pregnancy has been so similar to Nathan's. (no morning sickness, etc.) He got to take the extra cupcakes in to work to announce the news the following day.

Excited for our new little man! Now to decide a name...

6.25.2012

A California Getaway

Amos had a DealerSocket user retreat in California, so we all got to tag along for the adventure!  The kids are both still young enough to travel free!

Here is how the kids traveled, in umbrella strollers with connectors. Sometimes we would each push kid with one arm and roll a suitcase with another, and other times one of us would push the kids and the other would roll the suitcases.  Then, when I was on my own for the week, I could easily take both kids with me.



On the flights there, since Amos has status with Delta, Nathan and I got to fly first class! Then for the next flight Cambria & Dad flew first class and Cambria even had her own seat! Nathan and I were in back with our own row, which was nice since he could sleep laying down.

We stayed at Laguna Cliffs Marriott, which was beautiful and right by the ocean. There was a huge hill down to the ocean, and we took a walk down there one morning. There were bunnies EVERYWHERE.


They had seashell cabanas at the pool, and a splash pad that the kids played in. They had amazing robes that we got to lounge around in.





It was Valet parking only, which was certainly fancy, though not easy if you have 3 kids and sometimes just need to get something from the car.  Cambria enjoyed pressing the "aligator" button for us each time we headed out, or were returning back to our room. She also was fascinated by the ice machine.

Room service!


There was a playground nearby that the kids and I went to each day.



Tuckered out after a long day.


One day we went to the Newport Beach temple.






I got to go to some of my favorite places that I miss!  Downeast Basics, Del Taco (best strawberry lemonade and chicken tacos ever, hands down) In N Out, and Cafe Rio! Cambria really loves Cafe rio, too.

It was Nathan's 1st birthday while we were there, so we went to Trader Joes and got some red velvet cupcakes (along with a bunch of other things I wanted to try!) Cambria was good at singing happy birthday to him all day!



And we watched his "Nathan's First Year" video with him before dad left in the morning.


We got to spend his birthday at Sea World in San Diego!

Pressing a souvenir penny.
Seeing the flamingoes
At the dolphin show.


A happy cute 1-year old!






Nathan LOVED this barking seal. He had such a great time watching him. He also loved the sea lion show we saw just before we left. He learned to clap his hands watching the show!

We got to visit and have dinner with our friends Ryan & Whitney one night, and Cambria went on a Carousel ride, and also saw our old Bethlehem friends Jeremy & Brieann for dinner at In N Out.

We stayed at a LAX hotel before we left. Amos had status there too, so they gave us some complimentary Haagen Daaz. I don't think I need to spell out Cambria's reaction ;) They also loved playing with the safe in the closet.

On our way home, with the Electric Guitar that Amos won for having the best unique way to use DealerSocket! It doubled as a sibling spat barrier!