L - O - V - E

Ok, if the sappy love stuff makes you gag read no further. Maybe its the shoe boxes we used to decorate in elementary school and hand out valentines that sparked my love for Valentine's Day. Or maybe it's because this seems to be the time of year that I get to eat as many conversational hearts and cinnamon bears as I want. More likely it's because four years ago on the day before Valentine's Day, the 13th, Justin proposed to me and now there's that added excitement that goes with the BIG 14. Whatever the reason, and however silly people think I am I LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!

(Here's the proposal)

Justin and I trade off every year who gets to plan V-day. Here's a picture of the very first Valentine's Day we celebrated together. Look at that long hair!

This year Justin was in charge and he pulled out all the stops. It will be a hard act to follow next year. We started celebrating on Saturday by going to a really beautiful restaurant downtown by the Capitol.

But let's back up to earlier that week before the twinkle lights, candles and roses when Justin was holding my hair LITERALLY all night while my head was in the toilet. Justin caught a 12 hour bug which he passed to me and mutated into a 48 hour DEATH bug. I honestly don't know that I've ever been that violently sick for that long. Justin stayed home from work two days taking care of me and Camden. By Saturday morning my head had stopped spinning, my body didn't hurt and I wasn't curled up around the toilet but I was still exhausted so I slept most of the day. When I woke up that afternoon I sat up and saw these little beauties by our bed....

It was such a fun date! Then came the REAL Valentine's Day. Remember what I said about how much I loved getting valentines in the decorated shoe boxes back in elementary school? Justin remembered too. Not only did he make this box, it was full of candy and valentines from my two favorite boys. Thanks for such a great Valentine's Day honey! I guess I should start planning now!

Ready. Set. Catch up!!!!!!!!

Here we go.... We've been going to Justin's basketball games. Which turned out to be an hour of me pulling Camden back into the stands and off the court.

A couple of hockey games. Camden's favorite sport at the time being. He wakes up saying hockey, he goes to sleep saying hockey, and pretty much talks about it non-stop.Got in touch with our inner white trash and went to a Monster Truck Rally! Which was a little louder than we remembered even with ear plugs (oh Justin and I have been before). We got to go in the "pit" before the Rally and get up close with all the trucks and motorcycles.

Lunch downtown after the Rally at Rosa Mexicano... mi favorito! Where Camden so creatively turned the tortilla basket into a hat.Went to a Frostival and had a blast with our good friends Matthew and Jessica.What's a party without a little dancing?! These boys had a blast, and truth be told Jess and I had just as much fun as they did.Camden has recently become quite the little chef. He loves to help me cook. (Takes twice as long, makes more than double the mess, but it makes him happy)Camden was introduced to the wonderful world of Chucky Cheese at his little girlfriend's birthday party. He was in heaven and I have a feeling we'll be going back often. He was pretty happy about the cake too. After he finnished his slice and noticed Annabelle had left to play he finnished off hers as well. Nice.And most recently we went to COLORADO!!! My cute grandpa got married. That's right, 86 and tied the knot. Go gramps! Oh how I miss my family!!!!! Enough said. This is the most recent addition to our family, number 27 on the nieces and nephews count, Mia. Don't be fooled by this not so happy look. That dark stain on his shirt, that's chocolate milk from earlier that day. Then I got out of the car to run into Walmart for all of 5 minutes to come back and see Camden with fries in one hand and a chocolate doughnut in the other. To say my mom and sister spoil him is an understatement. He kept yelling "mmmmm, chocooooolate!". I got to go snowboarding with my family! I was in heaven. Did I mention that it was on a real mountain with real snow that took longer than two minutes to get down the run?! Aww heaven.
Another highlight in CO was being there for my adorable niece's baptism. It was really special and I'm so glad we were there for it.I'd just like to end by saying (for anyone who is still with me) I have NEVER gotten a normal picture with my brothers just smiling... ever. This was the best of ten. How do they know without looking or talking who's turn it is to make a dumb face?!

Too late?

The answer to this is YES! It is a little late for Holiday pictures, after all it's half way into January. Oh well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years... DC style this year!Camden came down Christmas morning yelling "SANTA ho ho ho". The first thing he did was run to his Santa stocking and give it a big kiss. Second thing he did was grab his new skate board.I had to put it back up for the picture. Am I a crazy mom for getting my 19 month old a skate board?! The answer to that is probably yes as well. He loves it though! It cracks me up to hear his little tough guy sound effects when he stands on it.Camden was such a fun age this year for Christmas. Camden thinks this is his football helmet. Every time he puts it on he runs around yelling "touchdown" and "football". The boy loves fire trucks but apparently hasn't seen too many fire men! We spent New Years in Georgetown for dinner and walking around. Then we carried on the usual Searle new years eve fondue tradition at our house, but this time with the Neumanns.

Happy (albeit very late) New Years everyone!

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.