Come with me mommy...

I put Camden down for her nap and came downstairs to work on the computer.  She'd been up there for about 45 minutes and I hadn't heard any noise or movement coming from her room.  I assumed she was asleep until I heard her little voice at the top of the stairs calling for me.  I went to the bottom of the stairs and there she was at the top with a HUGE smile on her face.  Every mother should know that this means I will not find something very happy upstairs.  She said, "Mommy, come with me." as she waved me up the stairs.  I could only imagine what I was going to find.  I never thought I'd see this...

Her sweet little baby doll all lotioned up.  You can see her hands are nicely covered and her legs have just a few spots, but her head is TOTALLY covered.

Let's not forget her eyes.  Those little peepers open when she is sitting up.  Camden said, "Her eyes so pretty."  I'm thinking, "Yes, yes they are.  Let's just hope that all of that lotion can be washed out so her eyes work again."

Camden gets lotioned every day and I guess she wanted her baby to have nice soft skin too.

I did give Camden a little credit for not smearing lotion all over the soft parts of her beloved baby Tasha.  That credit was all use up when I noticed her mirror is covered in little lotion hand prints and smudges.

Needless to say, the lotion has been removed from her room.  For anyone worried about baby Tasha's recovery should know that after removing her "voice box" and having a nice scrub down, she seems to be fine.  As for Camden, she still is not napping!  She's down here telling me how funny her baby is.

Time Away

We spent this past week in St. George, Utah.  It was a nice little get away for our family.  It was a little cold and rainy, but we still managed to get out and do some hiking and lots of swimming.  I use the word swimming, but it was more like follow Camden from the hot tub to the pool, where she would stay for less than a minute, back to the hot tub.  Camden loved that I made her a purple (her favorite color) swimsuit and that she got to pick out her very own swim cap (also purple) just for this vacation.

Most of our hikes were not very long since it was so cold.  Camden was shivering so bad on our first hike that it took about an hour for her to really get warm.

If you look real close you can see how red her little nose is.  She had her hoodie on and was also wrapped in Jered's jacket.  We tried to convince her that she'd be much warmer if she got out and hiked instead of riding in the backpack, but as you can see that didn't work so well for us.

She loved riding in the backpack.  Really who wouldn't?  A free ride and you still get to enjoy all of the scenery.

Scenery like this for instance.  There were huge puddles all along the trail from all of he rain.  Jered took this great photo.  I love the reflection in the water and the way the snow covered mountains look like someone accidentally merged two very different photographs together.  It's pictures like these that remind me of just how crazy Utah weather is.

After I put on my favorite bucket hat, Camden said I looked like grandpa.  My dad always wears his hat outside.  Camden is very observant and can remember almost anything so I'm not too surprised she said I looked like my dad.

The one and only shot of our little family hiking.  Thank goodness for our rock "tripod".

We were out on the trail pretty close to sunset so the lighting was pretty cool.  These dead bushes looked like they were glowing.  It was such an amazing contrast between the deep red-orange of the dirt and the stark white of the bush I just had to take a picture.

Our last day in St. George it was actually really nice.  We didn't even have to wear our jackets.  We met up with Jered's boss and his wife and went on a lovely hike.  The hike was kind of a requirement for the boys.  I know they enjoyed it, but the real reason they wanted to get together was so they could go golfing.  I made Jered feel a little guilty (though I'm sure he'd never admit it) for wanting to ditch me on our vacation, on the ONE nice day no less.

Camden walked a little on this hike.  She loves rocks and had a great time searching for the perfect rock to bring home to add to her collection.  (After doing the laundry at home, I discovered she brought home more than one rock.  Apparently she had her pocket full of gravel.  I'm sure it did great things for my dryer.)

Not too far into our hike, Camden wanted to ride in the backpack.  All of the warmth and gentle rocking was too much for her to handle.  She caved in to the sleep monster and slept for most of the hike.  It was nice to end our vacation with a beautiful, warm day before having to come home to the coat-weather cold.

New Heart Hair

As I said in the last post, Camden's cute heart braids didn't quite make it to Valentine's Day.  I did a little thinking (yes, it did hurt a little) trying to figure out a cute, easy (more or less), less stressful on Camden's hair, Valentine's Day style.  After a morning full of cartoon watching, her heart puffs were done.

I did piggy-back pony tails in the shape of a heart then wrapped pink ribbon around her hair to hold in some of the frizzies.

It made for one happy customer.  I really can't believe she is so happy after all of the hair torture I put her through, not to mention all of the people who make her stand still so they can examine her styles.

Since this post is full of love I have to put a picture of the card Camden gave me.

It's not so much the message that I love, although it was pretty clever and so like Camden.  I love her little drawings.  She is such a little artist.  Jered traced her hand for the card, but she can now trace her hand all by herself.  Every time her hand is traced she HAS to draw a smiley face in the middle.  Those kind of round things on the other side of the card are hearts.  The red, blue and purple squiggley lines say, "I love you mommy."  When I asked her what everything on the page was she kind of looked a little surprised that I didn't know that the circles were actually hearts and those squiggles said something.

Love Is in the Hair

Before we went to St. George, I decided to do some more braids in Camden's hair.  Since Valentine's Day is coming up I thought hearts would be just perfect.  After a day full of braiding, my fingers were extremely sore and my index finger actually had a blood blister.  It looks really cute, but I'm a little disappointed with all of the fuzzies poking out.  I'm not sure what the problem with that is, but we're hoping that it's new hair growth and that our new hair routine is really making her hair healthy.  To me her hair seems much healthier than a few months ago.  It looks and feels so moisturized and it smells DELICIOUS thanks to the coconut oil.

I forgot to take pictures right after I was done.  I finally got some pictures last Thursday after the braids had been in for about two weeks so they were really fuzzy.

I did a little wave braid on the sides.  And two braids across the front for her bangs.  Camden picked the pink and purple (her new favorite color) beads for the ends,  Since I just trimmed her hair, the braids were barely long enough for four beads.  Camden was a little sad that her hair didn't shake as well as last time.

When I tell Camden to, "Smile Pretty" she always put her hands like this next to her face.  (Kind of like when you pretend to be sleeping.)  I don't know where she got this from, but at least its better than her "looks more like angry" smile.

Unfortunately her love hair didn't even make it to Valentine's Day.  I took it out Sunday night before it had a change to get really matted and hard to comb.  (You can't tell from the pictures, but it really was frizzy and falling out and you almost couldn't tell that it was braids and not just dread lock yuckiness.)  We'll have to figure out some other way to have love hair for Valentine's Day.

Camden's newest hair obsession is ALWAYS having a bow or flower in.  The minute she wakes up she will start crying for her flower to be put in her hair.  She doesn't care if her hair is even combed or if she's still in her jammies, she WANTS that flower in.  Bed time is a whole other story.  She doesn't want that flower off her head.  I'm going to have to make her a sleep cap with a flower sewn on the outside.

Yesterday she actually let me comb her hair before putting the flower in...no such luck with getting dressed.  I guess a girl's gotta look her best at all times.

She still isn't sleeping well at night, but she is so fun during the day.  (Most days that is.)  She is the biggest HAM and keeps me laughing.  Her smile melts my heart. (and makes me a little jealous.  Really, look how perfectly straight and white they are.  Nice and evenly spaced with enough room for permanent teeth to come in the same way.  We're crossing our fingers for no braces!)  Her laugh is so contagious.  She has two dimples on the right side of her face.  One in the middle of her cheek and one next to her eye.

She says some pretty funny things.

"I want __________.  It's my favorite."  (It really doesn't matter what you insert in the blank.  If she really wants something she will say it's her favorite.)

"Run/play/read a me, two minutes."  (Anything she wants us to do with her, she wants us to do it for two minutes.  She doesn't say "to me" or "with me" she says "a me")

"Duh"  (Not my favorite and yes she does get "the look" when she says this.)

If Jered or I call her a funny name like Punk, Silly, Crazy, Cutie, you name it, she will say, "I not ___________.  I just Tapin Esta."  (Camden Estelle)

My sister is pregnant and is really showing her bump.  Camden loves to talk to the baby and is so fascinated that a baby could be in Aunt Shim's belly.  The other night she rubbed Jered's tummy and said, "You have a baby in you tummy dad?"

Any kind of spice that comes from a shaker is called sauce.  Her usual bedtime snack is applesauce.  She will say, "I like applesauce.  With sauce (cinnamon) in it."

She walks around the house singing "I Am a Child of God" and "Tiny Turtle" song.  (If only she really understood the meaning of the chorus to "I Am a Child of God" we'd sure have wonderful days with no sassing and talking back and her thinking she is in charge.)

He eyes light up and she smiles EVERY time she sees the temple.  (This picture is from our trip to San Diego in October.)  After we drive by the temple she will sometimes say, "Anunor popple."  (She wants me to drive by another temple.)

Any time she hears a loud car or truck outside she says, "It's Bane."  (One of her most favorite people is our neighbor, Blaine.  He has a big Dodge diesel truck and he tries to make it extra loud for Camden when he drives by our house.)

One of my favorite things about her is this...

Do you see how her nose is all scrunched up?  I love those little fat pockets that form perfect triangles at the top of her nose when she makes her scrunchy face.  I want to pinch them every single time.  Pictures just don't do justice to this adorable feature.

Camden, thanks for making me smile and giving me plenty to laugh at each day.

"Mist"ified

Our strange weather lately has brought us many evenings and mornings full of fog.  I've always been a little intrigued by fog and have always loved the new perspective it can bring to the world.  Sometimes I tend to overlook the little things and focus only on the big picture.  While it's good to see most things in the "big picture" perspective, I enjoy how the fog forces me to take a step back and look at the things close to me.

My favorite part of a foggy, winter night is the morning following.  Everything outside is intricately decorated in delicate ice crystals.  As the day warms and the sun begins to shine, each, seemingly insignificant, ice crystal magically catches the sun as it journeys to the earth, creating a dancing shower of glitter.

I haven't figured out how to capture the glittering in a picture or video and really do it justice, so for now I have to settle for pictures of the motionless ice crystals.

It amazes me that even the little blades of grass are individually decorated in the tiniest of ice crystals.  It's things like this that remind me that there really is something so much bigger than me out there.

"...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." (Alma 30:44)

P-p-p-p-polar P-p-p-p-plunge

Some people will do anything for charity.

Take this guy, for example.  Jered has one of the biggest hearts and is always showing me the true meaning of charity.  Any chance he gets he's doing something for someone else.  I must admit that at times I get rather frustrated with him helping so many others while the things I ask him to do sit and wait.

Saturday, was Cedar City's Polar Plunge.  Jered is working on a project down there and some of the guys working with him suckered him into freezing his buns off.  All of the money raised by the event went to the city's special needs program so Jered decided it was a worthy cause.  Nothing like jumping into a frozen pond to show how truly dedicated to service you are.

That's Jered cannon balling away.  I've never seen so many people excite to jump into ice water before.  It was really quite a sight to see.  (I'm really not too sure that those two girls on the doc would have known what to do if someone really didn't come up out of the water.  That hook only does so much and I'm pretty sure neither of them would have jumped in after a drowning person.)

Once out of the water he realized that it really was COLD!  On our drive home he said, "I think I need to do that more often.  My whole body feels rejuvenated."  Well darlin', you did try to freeze your whole body.  I think maybe your body is trying to tell you it's not ready to be frozen.

Even though Camden kept telling him how stinky he was, I'm pretty sure my crazy man would do this again.  Like I said, some people will do anything for charity.

Ice Sculpting

Last February we had a new furnace installed.  The thing is supposed to be super efficient and do a better job than our old one.  Since the furnace was installed it has never really worked quite right.  It will do great for a bit and then all of a sudden the house will feel really cold.  The high limit switch keeps kicking off, but the furnace will continue to blow cold air.  We've had too many service calls to count with a different repair man almost every time.  We've been told some pretty dumb things, by said repair men, as to why the furnace keeps doing this.  So as I share some of these, please keep in mind that I'm not a furnace expert, however, these repair men seem to think I'm totally clueless.  Without further ado here are my favorites (Pay special attention to the last two, my all time favorites.  Sad isn't it that I have "favorite" furnace repair moments?)

• "Your coils are dirty." (Well you were supposed to clean them when the furnace was installed.)
• "The gas pressure is too high.  I'll adjust it and I'm 99% sure this won't happen again." (This guy seemed pretty ticked that no one else in the company had checked this and was kind of bad mouthing them the whole time.  I just had to smile and laugh because, hmmm I kind of feel that way too.  Sadly, adjusting the gas pressure didn't solve our problem.)
• "Your filter was in the wrong way."  (Before I could say anything this guy thought for a second then continued on with this...) "Wait, our guys put this in didn't they?"  (Yes indeed-a-reeno)  "You never know what those little buggers are going to do next."  (This guy was from Australia, hence the use of "buggers" in his comment.)
• "You don't have enough return air coming in."  (Again, no expert, but should't you check that there would be enough return air for the type of furnace BEFORE it is installed?  Guess it goes to show that it's all about the Benjamins.  This visit was followed by us having to leave the furnace doors open so it could get more air.  Let's just say that it was about as quiet as I imagine watching you favorite television program on the airport runway would be.)
• You might remember the guy who got stuck in the bathroom.  "I promise I'll fix the furnace."  (...didn't happen.  I should have shoved him back in bathroom, but he'd still be in there!)
• "Oh, it's because you don't have all of the vents in the house open." (HUH?!  Again, I'm not an expert...)
• "Well it couldn't be a faulty part because that's against code."  (I should tell you that this comment was made by the same guy that made the previous comment.  I wasn't quite sure what to say to this guy.  I really couldn't believe that someone could say such stupid things.  Apparently this guy has NEVER heard of a recall or had to take his car in for something not working right.  I could be wrong, but wouldn't you say that a faulty car part would be against code?????  I wanted to tell him that his brain was against code, but I refrained.)

These are only a drop in the bucket though.  We actually had repair men here Christmas Eve and they have since replaced some parts (maybe they should find that Adam guy and tell him that yes, some parts can be faulty).  We're crossing our fingers that this really works.  Every time the furnace comes on and I feel a little cold air I start to roll my eyes.  So far things have been ok, but the new parts have only been in since January 6th.  I guess I'll never be truly convinced that our problem has been solved.

This rather long story brings me to the actual reason for my post.  This furnace does do something pretty cool (Ha...no pun intended there, but feel free to laugh.  I did.)

 Behold our spectacular ice volcano.

It's right outside our back door and is about 2 feet tall.  It doesn't spew molten lava or anything, but can you tell me of another volcano that can double as a dog's outdoor drinking station?

Let me show you the where our volcano comes to life.

This BEAUTIFUL (Yes, you're sensing some sarcasm.) furnace exhaust mess.  The condensation that collects when the furnace is off, drips when the furnace kicks on.

You can't tell from the pictures, but the guys who installed the furnace cut a hole in the outside cold air return (thus creating a rusted bent cover) and there is blue PVC glue all over the ceiling of the patio cover.  When I saw this for the first time he said, "They make a box-like covering that you could get in the same color siding to hide it." (Yeah, that's just what I can do since we have a money tree in our back yard.)  The end of the pipe where the exhaust actually comes out is just a big open pipe hooked to the roof with a metal strap.  (I know they make covers for the ends of ventilation pipes...I've seen them.)  Since the pipe creates a triangle shaped vacancy between it and the roof, we get birds creating little homes there.  Don't get me wrong, I love birds, but when they live in this little space it creates all kinds of fun noises, like the scraping of sticks and their fast and furious landings and take offs, and sends them right through our furnace.

Needless to say, I am not happy with our repair people, but unless we want to raid our money tree we're stuck with them for the next four years.  Here's to the hope of NEVER having to see them again!