Pictures times four

I like how in these pictures you can see the progression of tiredness.

She starts out all strong and alert, such a willing little model.

I think this one is my favorite.

But eventually her head just gets too heavy.

Until finally, the eyes can barely remain open.

Videos

I finally figured out how to get videos off my phone!  I feel like a bit of a super genius, because Derek did it for me before, but there was no sound.  I figured out how to get them on the blog with sound.  Go me!

Here’s a few videos from the evacuation. Camryn really didn’t scream like that for too long, thank goodness!

Adventures in Evacuating

Adventures in Evacuating Part Two

Cami Jane is usually a lot more like this:

Camryn Talking

(please let me know if for some reason those don’t work, and I will get off my “I’m a genius” pedestal.)

The one with all three

Connor lost his third tooth today!  After weeks and weeks of wiggling and updates in percentage form, he finally declared it 1000% loose and asked me to pull it.  Here comes the snaggle tooth stage…once that bad boys grow in, I know it’s going to be way too big for his face!

(picture by Cindi)

You all know Logan’s going through a bit of a princess phase right now.  He took it one step farther at Abby’s birthday party last weekend!  For the record, no, Derek and I don’t mind.  No, I don’t think he’s going to be gay because at 3 years old he has a thing for princesses.  We think it’s pretty darn funny! Now, if he is like 10 and wants to wear dresses all the time…we would have to draw the line.  And we aren’t out buying a bunch of princess toys and dress up stuff.  But, when the opportunity presents itself, I have no problem with him dressing up like a princess.  I love the batman crocs and the scabbed up legs to go with his princess garb!

The real family princess had her two month check-up yesterday.  She weighed in at 12 pounds 7 ounces (73rd percentile and my smallest at two months old) and she is 25.5 inches long (the 99th percentile and my tallest at two months old!)  She had her first round of shots, which of course made her none too happy.  A few things about Cam at two months…
–she is still so happy and so laid back. She’s my easiest baby by far.
–she sleeps 11 hours at night! This just started a few nights ago, but even before then she was sleeping 9 hours.
–Logan likes to call her Camry in a cute little sing-songy voice.
–She is absolutely enamored with Connor. So sweet.
–She spits up. A lot.
–She and Logan are officially sharing a room, and it’s going great.
–She still loves her bouncy chair, swing, and is starting to sit in her bumbo.
–Besides the Cam, Cami, and Camry nicknames, I call her monkey girl, bubba girl, and bubba sister.
–she has brought our little family so much joy, and we are so blessed to have her!

Finally!

I have sat down to blog at least 9 times over the past two days, and something always pulls me away from my computer. Could it be the fact that school is closed all this week because of Ike?? Yup, pretty sure that has something to do with it. When C starts back to school next Monday, he will have attended 12 days of kindergarten and missed 12 days of kindergarten. Crazy!

After 9 days and about 1100 miles of driving, we made it back home on Saturday night! I can’t even remember where I left off the last time I blogged. I had to go back and look. On Wednesday, I packed up the kids and the party van and made the trip to El Reno, OK. They did great in the car…I love the dvd player on long trips! We got to see my sister’s volleyball team play and stay at her cute little house. On Thursday, after a crazy, cranky morning, we headed to Edmond to visit Suzanne. Suz, Jaxon, my kids, my sis, and I went to Incredible Pizza on Thursday night, which was pretty crazy…pretty fun, except for the part when Connor could not for the life of him stop wind-milling his arms and whacked Logan upside the head with a plate, and I proceeded to yell at him in public, which is totally one of those things I swore I would never do, but I was at the end of my very short rope at that point. Whew, that was a long sentence. (for the record, after going off on him in front of a bunch of people, he did manage to get his body under control…)

Anyway. Thursday night, we spent the night with Suz. It was good to catch up. I am so thankful for girlfriends! There is just nothing like them.

Friday morning, I took Camryn to meet her great-grandparents. We had a nice visit with Derek’s grandparents and aunt. Shannon works in the kids club at a country club, and we met there, which was perfect. We got to visit, and the kids got to play.

On my way back to Arlington, I stopped in at Shauna’s and we took her crazy kids (plus an extra) and my crazy kids to chick-fil-a. Again, it was good to catch up. I love my friends!

Saturday, Derek and I drove home. We stopped in the Woodlands and had dinner with some of our good friends (I see a theme to this post…I love catching up with friends!)

We finally got home about 8:30 Saturday night. It is so good to be home, even though I felt a little overwhelmed about life on Sunday. We got the yard cleaned up (it wasn’t too bad because some of our amazing friends had come over earlier in the week and cut up the tree for us!) I got the fridge cleaned out and restocked with food. Life is almost back to normal, except when you look around outside. There are trees and fences down every where. Most of the stoplights are not working. And it stinks outside. No one told me that after a hurricane it smells like rotten vegetation with a hint of sewage. The mosquitoes are completely out of control and the size small birds. They are seriously insane! Despite all the annoyances, I am so incredibly thankful that we made out okay after the storm. There are so many that lost everything.

Pictures….of course there are pictures of Le Trip de Evacuation.

We went to the park with Staci one day. Logan was holding Brody’s hand to show him something. Too cute!

The three big ones, Logan, Connor, and Brody

The two little ones, Barrett and Camryn.

The two Janes, Betty Jane and Camryn Jane.

The kids with Derek’s grandparents.  It’s not a mug shot, Connor.  It’s the best I could do.  It’s a victory in my book that all three kids are even in the picture and looking the same general direction!

The kids with Mamaw and Pawpaw. It had been awhile since I took a picture of all of them together.  Love Logan’s face.  It’s so Logan!

If I had them, I would insert pictures of my sis and I, Suzanne and I, and Jaxon, Connor, and Logan dressed up as batman. They are on other cameras, so you’ll have to take my work about them being cute. I’ll end with this one:

Connor got to have a special sleepover with Aunty Kristin, and she sent me this picture of their time together. Cracks me up!

Are you bored of this post? Yup, me too! Good night!

Update

We have power!  Yesterday, Derek called our house and our answering machine picked up.  Woo hoo!
My brother and some of our friends also went by the house to check things out. We lost this tree.

Thankfully, it did not land on our house. I will miss the shade of this tree, and Connor and Logan will surely miss climbing it’s branches. Connor cried when I told him the hurricane knocked it down. I wish so much that I had taken pictures of the boys in the tree. Even Logan would climb right up it, using the swing set as a step. I about had a heart attack the first time I saw him up the tree…I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since he recently informed me that when he grows up, he’s going to be a motorcycle man and a monkey.

I was all set to head back to Houston this morning. I’m ready to go home, get things cleaned up, and get back to somewhat regular life. Dorothy has it right…there really is no place like home. But, Derek has a business trip that (unfortunately) did not get rescheduled. He was a little worried about leaving the kids and I home alone, even though it was only for a few days. There is a bit of a gas and grocery shortage in the area, not to mention the kids and I would be pretty housebound since nothing is open. Plus, we aren’t sure yet about the mess inside the house. There are no broken windows and no major roof damage, but we just aren’t sure exactly what we will find when we get home. So after much discussion, we decided it would be best to go home on Saturday, after Derek gets back from his trip. This means….
Roadtrip!
The kids and I are headed to Oklahoma tomorrow to visit my sister, Suzanne, and Derek’s grandparents. It will be a whirlwind of a trip, but I think it will be fun. It will be fun. It will be fun. If you say something enough times, it comes true. I am excited about visiting with everyone, but a solo roadtrip with 3 kids could be a recipe for disaster…but I’m being all carpe diem and going for it. When else will I have this chance, right?

unexpected

Looks like we will be having an unexpected vacation in Arlington this week.  We haven’t heard anything about our house specifically, but it looks like our neighborhood did not have major flooding, just wind damage.  I’m sure that we will have some water damage near our backdoor-it leaks during a regular storm!  But I am very thankful that most likely our house does not have standing water in it. We don’t have any power, along with most of Galveston and Houston.  We will be staying at my parent’s house until we have power.  Who knows how long that will be!

On Friday night, I got all inspired to make an entire Pioneer Woman meal.  I made homemade ranch dressing, salad, cheese muffins, penne a la Betsy (it’s a shrimp dish and so yummy!), and chocolate cake for dessert.  It was really good, and really fun to cook a big meal like that.  There’s just something about being in someone else’s kitchen that made me want to cook.  Plus the kids were so good on Friday-Mamaw and Pawpaw’s toys are super fun that first day.

Yesterday, we had a really lazy morning and then spent the afternoon with Nonny and Pops (Derek’s parents).  The boys had a great time building “bat caves” in every room of the house.

I’m not sure what we will do this week.  I’ve decided to just make the best of this little unexpected vacation, so I’m going to think of fun things to do with the kids.  Some of our friends from home also evacuated to this area, and we’ve already talked about getting together and doing fun stuff.  The good thing is that everyone is in school now, so all those places like the zoo, etc. won’t be packed.

Yesterday was Camryn’s 2 month birthday, and unfortuately, I did not pack the bow.  This was the only picture I took of her yesterday.

We borrowed the jumper from Cindi, and the boys really wanted Camryn to try it out.  She’s too small for it, but she actualy really liked it.  She was seeing the world from a different perspective!  I thought she was so cute with her little eyes peeking over the side.

Here’s two more pictures of the princess that I took right before we left Houston.

When I saw that last picture, it really reminded me of Logan.  People tell me all the time how much she looks like Logan.  I really think that all 3 of the kiddos looks similar.  It makes sense…Derek and I don’t look alike, but people have asked us in the past if we were brother and sister.  Um, big fat no on that one!  I think it’s because we have big noses and big mouths.  Those have passed on to the kids.  Anyway, I found this picture of Logan from about 2 months old, and had to do a side by side comparison.

Camryn’s lips aren’t quite as voluptuous, but they sure do look a like!  I wish I had a picture of Connor at 2 months old handy so I could compare all three of them.  Oh, wait.  My pictures are out in the car, but I’ve spent enough time blogging today, so that will have to wait for another day.


we made it

It took us 7 about hours (we stopped once for about 30 minutes), and it usually takes less than 5.  I guess that’s not too bad…we didn’t live in Houston when everyone evacuated for Rita, but I heard horror stories about people being stuck on the road for 20+ hours.  Thank goodness that was not the case today!  Now we just watch and wait and pray.  It looks like a big one, and if it stays on the path it’s on, our area will get hit pretty hard.

The kids did good on the ride up.  Camryn had a few times of major protest, but Connor and Logan did great.  It’s times like today when I am so thankful for the car dvd player!  Dallas and Austin even behaved in the car.  Austin (the dog) must be getting used to these trips, beause he just settled right down and slept.  Dallas (the cat) had to meow a bit, but it wasn’t too bad, thank goodness!

I do have some video footage of our trip up, but I’m going to wait and post it tomorrow.  It’s been a long day and I’m headed to bed.

and off we go

just taking a little break from packing…

turns out that hurricane Ike is headed right towards us.  We are now under mandatory evacuation and will be headed north here very soon.  And hopefully before the traffic gets too crazy!  Prayers are appreciated it…I really feel very calm about this.  IF it even hits us or does damage, it’s just stuff.  I think my biggest concern is sitting in the car for 20 hours or something.  That’s what happened last time Houston evacuated.

I’ll update when we make it to Arlington!

my achy breaky heart

This morning, Connor rode the bus to school for the first time.  Derek has been taking him, but he has a conference downtown this week and has to leave the house by 7:00.  I told Connor I would take him, and my neighbor offered to take him, but the C man wanted to try out the bus.  After a bit of a wait (I thought it came at 7:20, but it actually comes around 7:35), he loaded up like a pro.  He has seriously grown up right before my eyes the past 3 weeks.  I could see him standing in the aisle, and I chuckled to myself because I knew exactly why he was just standing there.  See, on the way home, he always sits in row 5, and I was sure that row 5 was full and he didn’t know where to sit.  He stood there until I saw the bus driver tell him he could just sit down where he was (which I found out later was row 8.  Connor is obsessed with numbers and always notices them.)

Anyway, the bus pulls away, carrying a big piece of my heart with it.

Logan, Camryn, and I go about our day.  Logan went to school while Camryn and I went to bible study and lunch with friends.  Finally, it’s time to walk to the end of the street, where a jubilent Connor gets off the bus.  He was on green today, it was art day, AND he got to be the king of the class.  He was just bubbling with stories and excitement.  I asked him about riding the bus in the morning, and he said he liked it and told me all about sitting on row 8.

About an hour later, we started talking about school again.

(a little info…the kindergartners who get to school before 8:00 have storytime in one of the offices instead of just being thrown in the gym with all the big kids.)

“So, Connor, do you want to ride the bus again tomorrow morning?”
“Yeah. But mommy? I just got a little bit sad this morning and cried a little bit.”
“What?? What happened??”
“Well, when I got to school, I got caught up in the herd. And when it was time to go, I just hid behind a little pole and cried a little. Then a teacher saw me and asked me who my teacher was and then she showed me to the kindergarten hallway.”
“Wait, didn’t you go to kindergarten storytime?”
“No, I just got confused and didn’t know where it was, so I just followed the herd.”
(It was cracking me up how he kept calling it “the herd”. He obviously picked that up from a teacher or something.)
“Oh, sweet boy…so you got stuck in the gym with all the big kids and when it was time to go to class, there was no one there from your class and you got scared and sad?”
“yeah. I tried not to cry but then I just had to cry a little.”
“Oh, Connor…my heart is breaking just a little bit! It makes me sad that you were sad this morning.”
“yeah, my heart had a little crack in it, too, but then when I got on the bus this afternoon, it was better.”
“That’s good, baby. Mine is still cracked just a little bit that you couldn’t find the storytime room and felt sad.”
“Here mommy. I’ll just draw you a heart and color it all in, and then your heart will be better.”

oh my heavens. sweetest thing ever!

I hate thinking about him standing in the gym, hiding, and crying because he didn’t know where to go. It’s so hard hearing about that and not being there to give him a hug and help him! I am really proud of him, though. He wants to ride the bus again tomorrow. He’s brushing it off and ready to try again, and we have several different plans in place to make sure he gets to the right place tomorrow morning. He has seriously grown up so much the past 3 weeks!

weekend report

Derek’s parents came to visit us this weekend.  We had a good visit with them.  Connor was really excited when he got off the bus on Friday afternoon and had a 6 person welcome home committee.  On Saturday, the boys all took a bike ride and played at the park, while the girls went shopping.  I needed (okay, wanted) a new shirt for a hot date Derek and I had on Saturday night.  I ended up with a new shirt, new jeans, and new shoes.  That’s the danger of Kohl’s!

Saturday night, Nonny and Pops got to spend some good qt with the kids while Derek and I went out.  Derek’s college roomate’s band (gosh, that’s a mouthfull!), Await the Day,  had a cd release party and show at a place downtown.  We had a good time, but I have to admit that I think I am getting OLD!  It was so loud! My favorite part of the whole night was probably the drive to and from the place and going out to a restarurant for dessert afterwards.  It was great to spend real, uniterrupted time with Derek.

It’s a new week…week three of kindergarten.  Let’s all pray that Connor has a good week and is almost adjusted to his new life as a student.  We had a few semi-rough days and one really rough day last week.  Okay, I gotta go…D bough a new Wii game today and we are going to play.  Have I mentioned how much I love the Wii?  It’s so fun!