Closing thoughts on Cameron's 2nd year.

2 years ago today, my due date had already came and went. Little did I know that it would be 5 more days before we would meet our baby boy. Little did I know that I would spend 48 hours in active labor before we met our baby boy. And little did I know that I'd have to have a c-section in order to meet our baby boy.
These last 2 years have been so awesome. We have been blessed so much having him in our life! Oh how this boy entertains us; to say he is the light of our life would be an understatement. Jon and I spend so much time laughing at him, and with him. He's smart. And he's funny.
The other day Cameron and I were in the check out lane at Wal-Mart. He was being quiet and well behaved, but the cashier mentioned that he looked very ornery. I laughed, because he absolutely is and he gets that "look of ornery-ness" from his dad. He is so much like him and that's quite alright with me. =)
Since Cameron's switch from the crib to his toddler bed, he now gets himself out of bed in the morning, opens his door, then opens our bedroom door, yells "hi momma!!", climbs in our bed, gives me a big hug and kiss, climbs over to dad, says "hi dadda!!!" and gives him a big hug and kiss. I can't imagine a better start to the day. He is very generous with hugs and kisses, and loves to snuggle.
I can't wait for him to be a big brother. The other day we swaddled his monkey and pretended it was baby sister. He held "her", carried her, body slammed her, and even fed her milk.
Once he gets past the jealousy I think he'll have towards his new sister, I think he'll be so glad she's around. I love him so much, and it's hard to imagine loving another baby the way I love him.
Sunday, his actual day of birth, we'll be having a party for him. I can't wait!
He's about as obsessed as humanly possible with trains right now, so we're doing a train themed part. I designed these invitations, and the little logo on them will also be on a few other party items as well.
I'll definitely have (and share) a lot of pictures after the party!

Around the homestead.

We're getting a little closer to finishing the 3rd bathroom we started. When we initially started, I wanted it done by Thanksgiving, and I set such a quick finish line because I didn't want this project lingering over our heads at Christmas, or worse, during the arrival of our new baby. It's not looking like we'll finish by Thanksgiving, but we'll definitely finish it for the weekend after, for Cameron's birthday party.
Jon's friend who has been an invaluable handyman through the whole process, has somewhat bailed on us this week for a nice paying side job, so we're trucking along without him. (Note that when I say "we", I mean "Jon under my supervision." Ha!) "We" cut all the tile and have it laid out- now it just needs to be set and grouted. "We" are doing a pretty good job for never having done it before! After the tile is set, all we really have left is to place the toilet, vanity and fixtures. I'll sure be glad to have this project done, as our basement has just been a mess since we started.

As a reminder, here's where we were:
And here's where we are now:

I'm totally aware of the horrendous picture quality of these; I had my zoom lens on my camera and was too lazy to switch it out, but you get the idea.

As soon as the tile is set, I want to repaint the walls. I had picked the neutral color with the notion that we were going to put dark/cherry laminate flooring in instead of tile. We had quite a bit leftover from our kitchen project, so I thought we could use it up. At the last minute (after we'd already painted) we decided to go with tile, and it happens to be pretty much the same color as the walls. We're almost there though, and I know how we'll be spending our holiday weekend!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday hustle and bustle!

This year, much like last, is turning out to be a busy holiday season! And since 3 out of the 4 members of our family (me, Cameron and soon-to-arrive baby sister) have birthdays within 3 weeks of Christmas, I don't anticipate any lack of business or activity around the holidays for years to come!
This weekend, I'm co-hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law. This is her sixth baby, so we're having a diaper shower since she doesn't need much else. I decided that there was no better time to attempt my first diaper cake- and I think it turned out pretty cute! There are definitely things I'd do differently (construction wise) but I'm very happy with it seeing as how I didn't follow any sort of direction.
Eek- I didn't realize it was a little off-centered until I took a picture. Oh well! I love the bear up top. I got it at Hobby Lobby and thought it would compliment the cake nicely.

We've got a lot going on in the G household; I'm trying to finish up a few things in the kids shared room, the downstairs bathroom is coming along well, Cameron's birthday planning (3 weeks!), Christmas shopping (90% done!), and decorating (I started pulling out a few things today). I don't typically decorate until Thanksgiving, but I'm over my fall decor and anxious for a change. The Christmas tree won't go up until the first week of December though.
How about you- have you started Christmas shopping or decorating?

Weekend snippets & pictures

Sunday morning before church, we headed to a local park so I could take some fall pictures of Cameron before all the leaves fall off the trees. I got quite a few shots that I love- and these will most likely serve as his 2 year pictures since his birthday is just 5 weeks away!
I'm not a fan of pictures of myself these days, but I like this one Jon took of us. It required a bit of doctoring but the lighting is fun.



Can you believe it's November already? It's starting to get pretty chilly at night here, so I'm going to put our Christmas flannel sheets on the bed this week. =)

Cameron got his first pet this weekend- a blue betta fish! His name is Alex (which is also the name of his 5 year old cousin who lives a few houses down). I love this tank, because it's small, but is still filtered and has a night light. I also think the quiet hum of the tank will be soothing when they sleep at night- especially for baby sister.
Cameron was a gorilla for Halloween this year! I found the costume at Kid-to-Kid (a second hand shop) for just $10 bucks. He really didn't care so much about the costume- but he didn't want anyone touching or holding his pumpkin bucket.
This one was taken last week, when he kept the hood on for more than one second. The sprinklers came on, and he decided to test it out in the water.

He was pretty mad that we kept trying to put his hood on and take pictures. This is the best we got last night!
Hope everyone had a great weekend!