The Fair

 

When Clay's dad (who works for the state agriculture department) handed us our tickets to the State Fair, we were more than a little excited. It is one of our favorite annual traditions.

Here we are hickin' it up in 2011, 2010 and 2009.

 

 

All ready for the fair:

This lovely lady joined us too. It was fun to be part of her first ever state fair experience.

I'm pretty sure it didn't disappoint.

This year, they had a fun little farm village just for kids. It was so cute. They had a bunch of mini barns with activities in each one where the kid had to do a farm chore like shear a sheap, milk a cow and plant seeds. When they were done, they earned a pretend dollar to spend at a little store. Ellie loved handing her hard-earned dollar to the cashier in exchange for some "Cars" fruit snacks.

Here are our future FFA members. Camden is still getting used to the idea.

Then it was time for the rides. After the carousel, Ellie wanted to go in a fun house. Fun was a huge overstatement and a complete waste of our $3. We basically walked up some stairs then slid down a slide. I was laughing at how lame it was. But Ellie wanted to do it again, of course!

Little guy did a lot of this:

 

Haley and I had to pose by the Sideshow. So carnivalesque. Clay and I actually went into it a few years ago and were digusted by the real two headed cow, the albino turtle, etc.

It was actually pretty sad. Lots of mutated animals in inhumane conditions.

 

 

 

We had to hit the animal barns. The friendly goats are always a favorite.



 

All Haley wanted was a kiss.

 

The highlight of the fair for Ellie is by far the pony ride. I love that we have a picture of her pony-riding from the time she was not even 1 year old and that the tradition will continue until she is too big to ride a pony.

 

Love this not-so-little-anymore lady.

 

We had to take a shot of Clay by this sign, obviously.

Other fair highlights included our find-the-creepiest-carnie contest (sorry he's not pictured), checking out the produce contest and the live bee colony. If we had more time, we would have seen the butter sculpture and gotten a funnel cake. Next year! 

 

Man, we love the fair.

Where else can you catch a real cowboy sharing stories from the farm with strangers?

Blessed.

Today, we blessed our little Camden J. 

The blessing was so powerful. It confirmed to me what a special little spirit we have in our home and that he is going to do great things. 

I am so grateful for Clay and the incredible husband and father he is.

Family and a few close friends joined us for brunch at a park after the blessing. It was so good to be with them (and eat yummy food). 

I am overwhelmed with love and gratitude for my little family today.

Two little monkeys

 

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I have two children.

Honestly, a lot of the time I feel like I am just a kid myself.

 

The transition to two has had some ups and downs, but mostly ups, aside from the week when Ellie completely stopped napping, which happened to also be the week I had committed to working a lot. Naps are mostly back, and I am a happy mama.

 

Our mornings can be more than a little hectic because Ellie is so energetic and wants to play, play, play right when Camden wants to eat, eat, eat, so she gets sad about the attention diversion.

 

I am still learning to just chill out when Camden is crying. It is such a sad cry! I mean, look at that frown in the picture above. Add some genuine whimpers and I am ready to give the boy anything he wants. Luckily, all he usually asks for is milk.

 

But there are moments when I feel like we are adjusting well.

I'll tell you what has made a world of difference for us: Having a baby in the summer.

Being able to get out a lot and enjoy the sunshine has been great. Like, I'm-going-to-try-and-have the-rest-of-my-babies-in-warm-weather great.

 

As for these two as siblings, they are so cute. Ellie really loves Camden. When he is crying she says things like, "Mom, baby is crying because you left him alone. Don't do that." or, "Can you go talk to Camden and make him happy?" or she plugs here ears and says, "I want him to be happy." The best is when she runs to his side and says, "I'm here, I'm here buddy!" and shares her princesses with him and asks to hold him. She has said to me several times, "When I get older, I can have my own baby." She's only two and a half, but I already know she is going to be a good mom. And an incredible big sister.

Camden is such a sweet baby. He is generally pretty content and easily calmed, and his tummy troubles are getting better. I pulled out Ellie's baby calendar today and it was encouraging to see that she got better with sleep as each month passed, so I know Camden will too. He is SO smiley. If you can get him to make eye contact with you, he unleashes huge melt-your-heart grins and the ocassional squeal.

It's incredible to me how I can love two little people so much.

Tired Quotes

Extreme sleepiness can do crazy things to you. One of those things includes nonsense words coming out of your mouth at any given time. So, Clay and I started writing down the foolish things we catch each other saying. Here are just a few. Careful, some of these gems might catch on to the English language.

Clay: That was weedle.
(He started to say "weird," but we don't know what happened after that.)

Kim: Stop light, green light. Stop light, green light.
(I was showing Ellie a traffic light visual aid I was going to use in Sharing Time. Someone else needs to be teaching this kid.)

Kim: Where one might be?
(I was thinking too hard about where the closest burp cloth was to worry about the words exiting my mouth.)

Kim: Just throw it in the flender.
(This one popped out during an explanation to my sister on how to make yummy green smoothies. The mishap had something to do with flaxseed.)

Ellie: I want one like Piolet has!
(She morphed two of her cousins' names: Piper and Violet, then used it to refer to her cousin Ali. Apparently Clay and I aren't the only exhausted ones.)


I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot more where that came from. Is my brain going to get foggier with every kid I have?

Draper Days

One of the activities we look forward to every summer is Draper Days.

There is just something comforting about celebrating your hometown,

and all the activities for kids make it worthwhile.

Ellie had the time of her life, especially because her cousin Kate and her friend Beck were both there.

Ellie is a cowgirl at heart. She loooves pony rides.

What would a fair be without a little train ride?

After the fair, these two splashed around in the waterfall at grandma and grandpa's. So happy to be together.

When Katers comes to town

Ellie and her same-age cousin, Kate, are separated by the vast deserts of Arizona.

So when she comes to visit, Ellie is in pure heaven.

No wonder the first couple of weeks of our transition to kid no. 2 were freakishly easy.

(Times have a changed.)

Katers celebrated her 3rd birthday with a party at a children's gym.

We are totally stealing the idea for Ellie's 3rd.

It was a blast!

Ellie, Katers and baby Drew

These are just a couple of the activities each kid took turns doing.
They also did singing, dancing and playing with balls.

Hide and seek behind the mat

Check out Ellie's cheeser face. Classic.

I told the girls to make a silly face and that they did.

This girl likes to eat all the frosting and move on to the next cupcake. Oh and she eats butter by the spoonful too.

We brought one-week-old Camden along too. Apparently, he thought the party was a snoozer.



Tidbits about the kidlets

Ellie

 

Favorite show: Chuggington
Favorite snack: Pirate's Booty (she just calls it "Booty")
Recent milestone: Upgraded to a big girl bed!
Not a huge fan of: Naptime, sharing attention with her new baby brother
 
Here is a conversation we had over dinner the other night:

Ellie-"How old are you, mom?
Me-(dejectedly) I keep thinking I'm still 27, but I guess I'm 28.
Ellie- "That's a great number for you, mom!"
If I could just adopt my 2-year-old's outlook.

Camden

{I laughed when I found him like this. Pirate hook?}

Favorite snack: Mother's milk every hour and a half. Or preferrably, every half an hour. Sometimes, every ten minutes. He'll latch onto people's arm's and shirts in the meantime. 
Not a huge fan of: Sleeping at night, getting in the carseat, not being held

As for Clay and I, we are just in survival mode, trying to figure out how to help Camden overcome his tummy troubles and learn to sleep. I am working on keeping my stress level down during those moments when Camden is wailing and Ellie is demanding something at the same time. Let me know if you have any magical tips. But on a more positive note, I am really soaking in Camden's newbornness. I love his smallness, sweetness and innocence. And I love it when he looks at me and gives me goofy grins. I am also more grateful than ever for my husband, who is seriously more helpful than I ever imagined a husband could be. Plus, we have a pretty fun trip coming up next month. It always brightens my perspective when I have something to look forward to!