Celebrate good times!

We have been celebrating a lot these days!! First, Cam took to potty training very quickly at the start of the year! He is so super thrilled to be in "big boy" underwear now, that he never even looked back once. Then...Valentines Day, my 5 yr anniversary with Siemens, our 8 yr wedding anniversary, Aunt Audie's birthday, my birthday, Cam's birthday...whew...it's been a lot of fun! Here are some pics from those events along with some "woohoo it's Springtime!" fun too. :)

Cam showing off his mad Super Mario Cart skills at mommy's bday party - he truly dominates!

Now batting...for the Texas Rangers...Mad-Dog, William Cameron Reid (*~*intergalactic planetary, planetary, intergalactic*~*)
Now that is serious focus people.

Cam's birthday party was a big hit. He chose Disney/PIXAR CARS theme, so the house looked like PIXAR exploded everywhere...which isn't that far off from everyday life! Between the bounce house, tattoo parlor and game station, the kids were good an occupied for quite sometime. We are still recovering the day after. Cam took a 3 1/2 hour nap today!! We all needed that...

Aneshka arriving at Cam's party. She couldn't wait to give Cam his present.


Mikayla getting her tattoo from Paul.


BOUNCE HOUSE...nuff said.


CAKE!!!

PRESENTS!!

Thanks to all our friends and family who came and helped make his day super special. He hasn't stopped talking about the party and all the fun things he and his friends did. We have literally spent the entire day today playing with the toys and games he got as gifts. It's been fun being a kid again!

Snow days

Okay, so they weren't so much snow days as ice days. Whatever it was shut down the whole area for days. We ended up working from home for most of the first week and then another day or two the second week. Working from home is great, but after a while we started to go stir crazy. I take back what I said about thinking I could live in MI...I don't think I would make it!!

Um, what's going on here?!?


Don't be fooled by this sweet face...

He will tag you HARD with a snow/ice ball!!!

Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful holiday break with our friends and family. 2010 was a crazy year, but overall it was great. They say everything happens for a reason and I will never doubt that again! We are truly thankful for all the blessings that we have in our lives.

Cameron really got the concept of Christmas this year. He was a great helper with the decorations.

Here is Cam feeling pretty smug waiting to see Santa. We went to see him in Sundance Square this year and the place was simply magical! I think we will visit here from now on.

...monkey see, monkey do...

First spotting of Santa coming out of his workshop...now the nerves kick in.

Note the hand on mommy's scarf. He had just leaned in and told me "mommy, I wan't to wait some more". I told him that was perfect because we had two kids in front of us that he could watch. I guess it was enough time for him as he just marched right over when it was his turn!

He even told Santa what he wanted for Christmas - an off-road Mater and off-road McQueen. Of course, Santa delivered since he was a super good boy this year.

Our real live angel

The kickoff to the Christmas mad-dash...Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's (#1).


Jammy time! I swear, they could be a GAP add!

#2 - Proof that Santa was listening!

#4 - Christmas day dinner and MORE gifts...whew!

Fall fun

Fall was good to us - with the exception of mommy missing the first two days of work at her new job due to strep! Yes, you heard right, I finally got a new job. After many months of being told I was getting laid off, I landed a new position just two weeks shy of my last day. Talk about cutting it close! It is a great job though, and we are all much happier now! To celebrate, I went to Seattle to see my friend Brandi all by myself! We went to the ballet and explored the city. It was a lot of fun, but I forgot the camera, so there aren't any pics to share...oops. Instead, check out the kids...

Mallorie, Cameron and Senia at Grandma and Grandpa's for Halloween. We had fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

Mommy even got a little festive...

~~it's the - cat in the hat -
the cat in the hat knows a lot about that~~
Cam was/is totally obsessed with the cat in the hat -
books, shows, you name it!

Cam at the park at Aneshka's house.
By the time we left he could already climb the arch!

Aneshka and Cameron on their way to the park.
He calls her his "girlie friend". Aren't they adorable!

summer time!

We had a great summer this year. From golfing at grandma and grandpa's to pool parties, dinosaurs to great lakes, music videos to fireworks, we definitely made the most of our warm sunny days!! Here are a few of the highlights...

Cam just loves the golf clubs he got for Christmas. The boy has
true style (and a great follow through!)

Cam starting signing Modern Love at the start of the summer. Here is his adaptation...dance moves and all! Notice how he says "garden man" instead of "God and man"...ha!

Mallorie at the Fourth of July celebration at the Pavillion in Arlington.

Cam did great with the fireworks. It wasn't long before he
was pushing my hands away and taking it all in.

Relaxing in his whale at "auntie" Crystal's house.

Helping daddy tame that crazy lawn! The boys did a great job
keeping the grass looking beautiful this year. All that rain didn't hurt either!

Enjoying his jam session with "uncle" Maui and daddy man.

At the big moo-moo in Marquette.

Now you see why it is the big moo-moo?!?! That is uncle Chris holding Cam!

Visiting great-grandma Julia. We had a great visit and Cam just
loved all of the flowers they had in the gardens.

Look, it's life size Troy boys! We surprised Cam one weekend by packing a picnic and heading to Dinosaur World. We walked through the hundreds of life size dinos, did a dino dig and saw real bones in the museum. He still talks about it!

March/April

Back to the zoo for birthday number 2!! For his actual birthday, we decided to go back to the zoo to see how his friends were doing. This year he was able to understand it more and call out all the animals we saw. His favorite was the elephant (ewefant). My favorite was the white tiger. I know what some of you are thinking - Yes, I still have a hard time with the idea of "kept" animals, but I never want to be one of those parents that keeps their child from experiencing normal childhood stuff because I have a hang up about it. Besides, they all seem to be very well taken care of!!

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We can hardly believe our little guy turned 2 this year! He is such an amazing little man and we are so lucky to have him in our lives. Since he is obsessed with dinosaurs to the point of being able to tell you the name of ANY dinosaur you show him, he of course requested a dinosaur themed birthday party. Mommy spent the night before decorating and cleaning, but it was totally worth it to see how excited he was when he saw it all. He walked around pointing out every one saying, "look...triceratops!". What an angel! We kept it small and only had a few friends and both sides of the family come. He had a big time hanging with his crew, hunting for "dino eggs" and painting the art project Paul designed.

Paul took Cam to the cake place to pick out what he wanted. He chose the cake and icing flavors and asked for a triceratops and t-rex to be on top. He was super happy with the results.

He actually stayed very clean this year.


Cam and Jack playing with his new dinos from Carson.

Carson, Senia, Cam, Mallorie, Mazzy and Jack.

Troy Boy! Cam got a Webkins Triceratops from Aunt Audie, Uncle Chris, Senia and Mallorie. We named it Troy and he cannot go to sleep without it. I should probably get him a backup one in case anything happens to it!

Big boy bed!! He was so thrilled to convert his crib to the big boy bed that he partied in it most of the afternoon.

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Our friend Lucie returned from Colorado with her daughter Aneshka. Paul and Cam watched her for a couple of weeks while Lucie was at work. Now he can’t stop asking to see his ‘sweetie’ Neshie! He really was great with her when he wasn’t freaking out over her touching his toys. He called her sweetie and brought her things he thought she would like. What a flirt!

Moving in to kiss his sweetie :)

"Hey, whatcha got there?"
"Oh, no! It's not Cameron's!" This is his favorite phrase whenever anyone wants to play with his toys. In this case, I think she was just strolling by. We are still working on sharing...

"Oh, you were just going over there? That's cool...I'm cool...what?"