How to play with a tricycle

How do you play with a tricycle when you are too small to ride it?

... Well, there are several things to do...

Tricycles have bells, those are pretty fun to play with...

Pushing them around the deck can be fun...

I like to sit on the back and have mommy push me around. Sometimes I even say "weeee"

And then there is the seat, that's where you are supposed to sit. Mommy pushes me while I sit on the seat too

OOh! Pedals! 

It makes a pretty good jungle gym too. 

Oh the joys of toys, even if you are too small for them

Cambria cuteness

I think just about every other post could be titled that... We have a cute girl. She is growing up and getting quite the personality.

This weekend Jonathan was out of town, and I got to see the full realm of Cambria. Not like I don't always see it, but I didn't get many if any breaks, so I saw a lot of it. She is a little stubborn... just like mom, I'm seeing little things that I did as a child and I'm really hoping she isn't the full blown mini me that I was really hoping she wouldn't become :) (I was a HORRIBLE and a hard child to raise... don't believe me? Believe it, ask my siblings, or my mom... they can't deny it)

But the good thing about this situation is that she is really cute while she's being difficult, sometimes I think that is a child's saving grace. If kids weren't so cute, I think their parents would loose it a lot more than they do.

Today Cambria was difficult, but very cute. When she does something she knows she shouldn't do, I get my "serious face" on, I developed it when I was in my teaching preschool class at BYU, my teacher called it her "teacher face". I lower my chin, look them right in the eye, and raise my eyebrows... It's now habit. Well, today Cambria threw her food on the floor and then she looked at me and lowered her chin and raised her eyebrows. I laughed right out loud!! I couldn't help it. She's not old enough to make fun of me! Not yet!

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We have gotten Cambria a doll to prepare for baby brother. Man, she has grown attached to that thing! She now needs to rock it to sleep while she gets rocked for nap time. She brought baby up to daddy today and then grabbed her wipes and insisted that we needed to change baby's bum. She took the diaper off, and used a wipe to clean baby up. It was quite cute! Pretty soon she'll figure out how to put the diaper back on too. There have been a few times she hasn't wanted to get her diaper changed, but if we change baby's diaper first, then she will willingly lay down to let mommy change her. I'm really hoping that this will ease the transition for when baby brother comes.

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The other day she ran around the corner and started saying "eeeeeeesssseee" (cheese) and wouldn't stop till I took a picture of her! I don't know if I taught her that word, but she knows that's what you say when a picture is being taken.

I'm so grateful for the cute moments, it makes the hard moments a little easier to bare.

Not yet!

Baby had me going for a few hours tonight. I have been feeling braxton hicks since week 20, but they have come daily for at least a week. Today they were consistent enough to have me going. I even called my midwife, it was borderline, so she told me to get in the bath (thank goodness I have a bathtub now :) ) and that did the trick.

Thank goodness.

Little boy, you shouldn't come for at least 7 more weeks.

A day at the park

We played at the park today. Let me just say that it was absolutely perfect! I don't think the temp got higher than 70. We also enjoyed half price day at dairy queen.

Here are the cute pics I got.

These two were playing so nicely today! It was such a welcome change. Either they co-exsist or cry at mommy because "he's touching me" or "he's pulling on my shirt" ... In his defense, he is just curious, or not aware that his strength will knock, or pull her down. Too bad the mommies are such good friends, cuz they just have to deal with it.

This second pic is of them laughing with each other. Cambee was playing peek-a-boo and Levi was eating it up! Too cute!

Super Fun Date Night!!

I mentioned this on Facebook, but I'm obsessed. We had a double date with our friends, the Monks, and we did a Chopped Night.
Have you seen "Chopped" on Food Network? It's a show where chefs are given a basket of mystery ingredients and they have to create a dish (either an appetizer, entree, or dessert) using all the ingredients in a certain time limit. It's intense and it's always down to the wire to finish their plates. Then they are judged by head honcho chefs and then the winner get's $10,000.00. It's a super fun show, and I'm obsessed. A different friend mentioned that they have done a "Chopped" night with their family and had a blast, ever since she told me that I have been dying to try it. This is how it played out:

The Monks brought two ingredients and we brought two ingredients for the "mystery basket" and we gave ourselves 45 minutes to complete a dessert. We brought strawberries and graham crackers. The Monks brought marshmallows and honey. We had a lot of fun, I think the ingredient that threw me off the most was the marshmallows. I didn't know what to do with it in a way that would work. We ended up making a crumble with the graham crackers and added the marshmallows in hopes to get chunks, we ended up with a very hard chunk, but it tasted good!

We ended up making parfaits with the graham cracker crumble on the bottom and then did layers of banana, strawberries, yogurt and strawberry whipped cream (we made a syrup with the strawberries and folded it into our whipped cream) and then made a honey chip (that also didn't turn out great) as a garnish on top.

   

The Monks made a pudding with a graham cracker crumble on the bottom. Theirs was super yummy. They incorporated the strawberries into the pudding and also made a syrup with the strawberries.

  

As I have been thinking about it, I had an epiphany today. I should have made angel food cake with a toasted graham cracker crumble (for texture) cut up strawberries, a honey whipped cream and a puffed marshmallow on top... Now that would have been amazing!

I had so much fun, I seriously would be willing to do this date monthly. No joke!

Our Vacation

Here are the pictures from our trip! We had such a blast!

Like I said before, we started our trip at Jonathan's uncle's house. We had a lot of fun there! Cambria loved the stairs! She is a practicer, I don't know if all babies are this way, but she discovered that she wasn't comfortable with the stairs so she went up and down them till she was. She also sat in a bumbo (in VI) for the first time in about a year and found that she wasn't comfortable getting in and out of it, so she practiced till she was more familiar with it. It was pretty cute. 

I also was told by a friend a good trick to get toddlers comfortable with going down stairs. Say "foot, foot, knee, knee, hand, hand" and move their limbs as you say it. Then the repetition will help them remember how to get down the stairs. By the end of the week she would say "knee, knee" as she came down the stairs. It was the cutest thing! 

This is the July 4th cake that Ruth's sister made. All that fresh fruit was amazing! 

We had a toenail painting party and this is the result.  

 These two are so cute! Sadie and I were both sitting on the sand, and our babies took over the chairs. Rude.

It doesn't get much better than a sleeping baby.

First day at the beach! Cambria was intrigued by the waves, but they were a bit too big for her liking. 

This was not staged, or planned. All the kids just like being read to!

Sharing books, they both love them!

We brought some toys to help entertain Cambria on the looong drive to and from vacation. I'm glad we did because they were all the grandkids favorite things! This is us enjoying the music that the piano plays. Grandpa is trying to get Cambee to dance. I love that I caught it on camera!

Sunset on the beach. That was a fun night. We got to spend some one-on-one time with Dave and Jenny.

We all particpated in a photo scavenger hunt. This was our picture of pony tails. Two ways :)

Cambria loved looking at the ponies.

James wanted to make a hole for Jonathan to bury him in... Arilyn beat him to getting in (it helped that she needed about a quarter of the size of a hole) they buried her and surprisingly she loved it!

You can kinda see the mermaid they made her into...

These two are like kids when you get them on a sandy beach...

Photo scavenger hunt: Water foul... again. Cambria was very intrigued. 

Photo scavenger hunt: Sand man. This is after James was successfully buried in the sand.

Photo scavenger hunt: Kershaw's piled in a Kar...

The girls threw me a surprise baby shower!!! I had no idea it was coming, and I wasn't expecting it at all. I think this was the first surprise party that has ever been thrown for me (not because people haven't tried, just because if there was some reason for a party, I'm too much of a control freak to let anyone plan it without me... sad but true)

so... This was a complete surprise and I loved it! We played a little game that we had to pick folded diapers out of a pile and whoever got the "loaded" one (with chocolate covered almonds) was the winner. Mom won.

unfortunately, these were the only pics I got of the shower. But I must say, baby boy scored some super cute clothes, and blankets!!!

Three Generations of Kershaws. This was also a scavenger hunt item.

On the way home, we stopped at the Washington DC Temple. This was Cambria's first time coming in contact with the Christus, it took her some time to recognize it (which surprised me, she often points out pictures of the Savior before I recognize them) but once she warmed up all she wanted to do was get close. It was really sweet. She knows who He is.

We had such a blast! I'm bummed that I didn't get more pictures of all the fun we did, but there were plenty of cameras going off, so hopefully I can get a hold of all the pictures. 

Then and Now

I feel a lot bigger this pregnancy, than I did when I was pregnant with Cambria. I made a comparison picture, and I honestly can't tell if I'm much bigger. What do you think?

I know I didn't have any stretch marks with Cambria at this point, but I have a ton with this one (new ones), I don't know if that means anything...