Family Pictures

As promised, here are our family pictures that Alia the Awesome (that's her legal name) took a few weeks ago. She did such a great job! We took them right in front of our house on this great trial by a river. We go for walks on this trail all the time, that is, when it's warm out. It was a fun scene for pictures of Camden. Warning... this post has a LOT of pictures.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

I guess with Justin as his dad it should come as no surprise that Camden LOVES sports. One of his first words was golf club, or as he still says it "gul cub". He can spot a basketball hoop or ball from a 100 yards away. As soon as he could walk he would go straight for the basketball hoop at church and stand under it yelling "baball". We're talking during church, which makes sacrament all the more interesting. About a week ago Justin and I were playing football with him and one of us yelled "hut hut hike", to this he quickly pushed the football between his legs. Justin and I just stared at each other because neither one of us taught him that. This video was from a couple months ago.

Well last night we took him to his first hockey game. Although the Caps choked towards the end and lost in the overtime shoot out, we had such a blast. Anyone that knows Camden knows he is a very busy boy and rarely, let's make that never, sits still for more than 5 seconds. For the entire first period I don't think Camden blinked. He stood leaning over the seats in front of us just staring. We got him chanting "go Caps" in the second period and by the third period he was laughing and high fiveing the fans in front, next to and behind us. We were one of the last people out of the stadium at 10pm and Camden was still happy as can be dancing to the music. For the sake of Camden's teeth I'm hoping we can steer him towards one of the other sports he loves.

Thanksgiving

My mom and dad flew out to DC to spend Thanksgiving with us this year! This was my first Thanksgiving dinner that I actually made and had at our house. Needless to say, coming from a girl that doesn't like to cook I was a little nervous. Luckily, my mom is an amazing cook. Minus a frozen turkey that morning and the rest of the food getting cold waiting for the turkey (minor details) it went without a hiccup! I'll work on my timing for next year. Camden didn't seem to mind. Notice the pea lodged in his belly button. Nice.
The whole week we got to relax and hang out with my parents. It was such a blast. Camden adores his grandma and grandpa. He was cracking up at everything they did.

I tried to convince my parents to send this out as their Christmas card this year but they declined. Weird. Something about my other 5 siblings being jealous. While we were sad to see them go the morning after Turkey day the partying didn't stop there. Justin's sister Whitney was home from college and his cousins, the Gleasons came up from Richmond. We went to the National Harbor Ice Show. It was so fun! The theme was The Grinch That Stole Christmas. They even had an ice slide. Camden went down it by himself. Although he ended up upside down and backwards at the end he still had a huge smile on his face.

Check out this kids eyes! Do you think we has excited?!Oh the matching hats.Camden thinks his uncle Sean is his own personal amusement park.I told Mrs. Clause to put in a good word for us with the big man.

Family Pictures

Alia the incredible Cardwell took some family pictures for us and I LOVE them all. Pictures post coming soon...

West Palm Beach

Justin had a business trip to West Palm Beach, FL a few weeks ago. Camden and I weren't about to miss out on the fun so we tagged along for the trip. We got to stay at a ridiculously nice resort called The Breakers. I've never seen such a over the top beautiful resort. I knew when we arrived in our Ford Taurus rental car behind a Bentley and in front of a Mercedes that we were just a little out of place. We didn't mind by the way. Before Camden was born I went with Justin on his business trips and it was always fun but this time it was so nice to have someone to play with while Justin was off working. Camden was a great date!

Good chance this kid is spending too much time with me....? He took my sunglasses and phone from me and then walked around with his hand on his hip talking in his gibberish. Do I walk with my hand on my hip?!Good thing he also got some male bonding time in!

Camden put his head down on the table while we were eating at Cheesecake Factory and fell asleep. Play hard. Sleep hard... anywhere.

My dreamland. I would like to spend all my time in this ice cream/candy shop. I took Camden there four times in the five days we were there.
West Palm Beach has more money than people know what to do with. Every house looks like a castle, and I've never passed so many Ferrari's, Bentley's, and every other luxury cars in my life.Justin was adamant that he get a picture with this A1A sign. Apparently it was quoted in a Vanilla Ice song...? Yeah, I don't remember it but I pretended to be as excited as he was.

Camden this is you at 18 months...

You are really into cars, tractors, and anything with wheels. You love shoes, especially ones that aren't yours. You are particularly talented at running in my high heels. Your other favorite is any sport's ball. You carry a basketball around with you all the time, but you only like your dad's basketball that is big. You love to read books. You repeat EVERYTHING we say and do. Even if we sneeze you mimic it. You are one very active, stubborn and wild boy. Every time I turn around you're diving head first in the toilet, climbing up something, pulling everything out of the cupboards, rubbing sand in your hair at the park, or my personal favorite reaching in the back of your diaper to show me what's in it. You're also the sweetest and most affectionate boy in the world. You love to give us kisses (thank heavens because you went through a stage where you hated to cuddle). You kiss my hand all the time. I think because you've seen your dad do it. Last week at dinner you looked at me and said "hand?" reaching out. I put my hand in yours and you kissed it and then gave it back to me. You also ask for my hand in the car just to hold while we drive. You recently started pushing my hair out of my face. You stare at me and gently push my hair back with your chubby and usually sticky fingers and more times than not finish by planting a kiss on my face. It melts my heart and the destruction of the day is erased. You are an extremely social kid. One of the very first words you learned to say was "hi". Everywhere we go, you smile and wave saying "HI" to anyone and everyone. When you do this to strangers the usual reaction is they laugh and say hi back but some people don't respond either because they are lost in their thoughts, don't hear you, or when you were younger they would just stare at you in disbelief, probably because you were so little to be interacting that way. When you don't get a response right away, you are determined and don't stop repeating hi, in increasing volume and pitch, until you get a reaction back. You love to dance. Sometimes I don't even hear the music until I see you bopping back and forth and then notice the commercial in the background with a song. Your dad and I love how excited you get about everything. You absolutely adore your dad. When you hear the keys outside every night as he comes home from work you squeal and run for the door yelling "hi daddy!". You guys do everything together. He has never missed one of your doctor's appointments. Not even when you were in my belly. This is you at 18 months.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for ME!!

What's better than a stocky little pirate running around singing "yo ho yo ho"?! Camden was so much fun this Halloween. Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE Halloween and all the fun things that come with it. This year we packed in Halloween festivities. I don't have pictures from our friend's parties or the trunk or treat but here's a glance at some of the ways we celebrated this year. Congressional has a big Halloween Brunch Celebration complete with a haunted house, magician for the kids, amazing food and a hay ride. Sean, Cambria and Kelsey went as the Flintstones! Camden wasn't so sure about the spook ally. He didn't cry but I got a very tight hug and he had this wide eyed stare through the whole thing.

He loved the hay ride with his grandma and grandpa Neumann. We were pulled by a tractor or "tactor" as he calls them so that was the highlight for him. He has a book about tractors that we read five times a day.
We stopped at a pumpkin patch to get three pumpkins to take home. Camden mostly just ran around yelling "pumkin" and throwing them. Lovely. We have our own pumpkin smasher. We had to hurry and leave before we had to buy the whole patch. Check out this mischievous look he has before he takes off again to find his next victim...Justin left for a business trip (that blog post will be coming shortly) on Halloween morning so Camden and I got to celebrate with his parents in McLean. Camden loves playing in their basketball court. John was the only one tall enough to lift him up to dunk. Between that, football games and the swing set Camden had a blast all afternoon.That night we went trick or treating around their neighborhood. I didn't think it would last long or that Camden would even know what to do but I thought we would at least go to our friend's house that live next door. When we walked up I told him to ring the door bell, which he did since he loves pushing buttons and when our friends answered the door he said "hi" and repeated my prompt "tic o tre". When they put out the bowl of candy he grabbed one and put it in his little bag. Then turned to run to the next place. I was cracking up that he knew what to do! After that we went from house to house until we finally made him go home.