Apple Picking

Our here, General Conference doesn't start until noon, so we decided to go out and try some apple picking at Applecrest Farms, because apparently the apple cider donuts are to die for.

When we got there, Oliver was really excited about the pumpkins. He loves them!

However, when he discovered that we got to ride a TRACTOR to go over and pick apples, and tractor definitely beat the pumpkins!

I know, you can't see the excitement at all, but he was quite focused on how amazing it was...

After the tractor ride Oliver was all for picking apples and had no patience for the people telling us which apples would be better than others.  We came really early in the picking season, so a lot of the apples weren't as good because we hadn't really had any good cold nights yet.  Oliver didn't seem to care, and one of the apple ladies helped him help himself to an apple.

He liked his apple so much that he decided to share it with Camilla.

We took Camilla in the stroller both to keep her warm and so that she could hopefully take a nap.  She stayed warm, and she at least got a little doze in there.  And Oliver took a ride too.

I love how our stroller can sort of be a double stroller.  Wouldn't work for jogging, but it sure works for walks to get ice cream or walking in an apple orchard.  Until the slopes get to bad, but luckily Oliver is good at getting right back up on the horse, right?

Oliver and I wore our rain boots that we got for Easter because it was a pretty gray day.  We were lucky, because Oliver decided to go bobbing for apples in the tractor ruts.

I was keeping a good eye on him, but then our friends we were with decided to do a fun climbing to get those special "top of the tree" apples, and Matthias called me away to take pictures of them.

As I was taking pictures, we heard a splash, and poor Oliver was soaked.  I did have a diaper and a spare pair of pants (just out of habit. I think he's only ever wet himself in public once though...he's really good!), but we figured that we should wait until we were done so that he wouldn't have to ride home (and fall asleep) in wet pants. He wasn't as comfortable after that, and didn't like walking around in wet socks and boots, so Matthias carried him for much of the rest of the time.  Some other friends of ours got there with their kiddos, and Oliver got down for a little bit, but didn't want to walk around barefoot, so then we decided it was time to go.  We had our expensive bag of apples, and wanted to get home in time for Conference.

Oliver was really excited for the tractor ride back to the pumpkin patch, and he just looked so cute there with his little bare feet (he totally has Matthias's feet.  Let's pray that he can keep his toe nails!). Sorry for the awkward picture angles, but I was trying to hold onto the stroller while taking pictures on a moving tractor...

When it was time to get off of the tractor, Oliver did NOT want to leave.

But eventually we aimed him back over to the pumpkins. 

And because Camilla was so good, we let her take pictures with the pumpkins too.

Meanwhile we lost Oliver who wanted to ride on the tractor again.

We finally got him back to the pumpkins and our friends took a family portrait of us that I just love because of our kids' faces!

Oliver has such an adorable smile that is hard to catch on camera these days, so that little cheesy grin just melts my heart!  And Camilla is doing her melt-your-heart gaze.  She is so busy taking in everything around her, and that gaze just captivates anyone passing by. I also love how you can see how demolished Oliver's apple is. He ended up eating half of the core.

We had some amazingly fresh apple cider donuts, that were amazing.  Seriously.  Oliver loved them too.  Oliver fell asleep in the car on the way home (with dry pants and a diaper on, *whew*) and Camilla was happy as could be. We got home in time for the second half of the Saturday morning session of Conference.  Conference was amazing, as always.  If you haven't, then you should watch, read, or listen to it now.  I know I'm going to do probably a little bit of all three even though I watched them all! Oliver's favorite part was the choir (hi, Aunt Beth!), especially when they sang "I am a Child of God".  We also had a proud moment when President Monson (the living Prophet of God) got up to speak and Oliver said "Monson!" and did a little dance of excitement.

Chapstick

Now, if you knew me when I lived in Arizona you would know that I ALWAYS needed chapstick.  My favorite for a few years now is Aveeno, in case you wondered.  But something about not living in a desert anymore has lessened my need for chapstick.  I definitely still use it though, and Oliver has picked up on it.

First of all, isn't the way he says chapstick the cutest?  There is no way to type out his pronunciation phonetically.

Secondly, we've been working on manners.  Once it got to the point of him walking to the fridge and yelling "CUUUUUUUUUUUUUPP!!!" every time he was thirsty we thought we should start teaching him manners, even with a limited vocabulary.

We started by just begging him to say please whenever he asked for anything.  Then we started not giving him things until he said please (we are mean, but that's how Oliver works.  He will know how to do something, but take the easy way out if he can get away with it.  We learned this with forks.  He could eat messy beans from a bowl last summer, but we had to start forcing him to eat with a fork in the spring or else he would just take handfuls and go at it).  Our success finally came when Matthias had him read it.  He knows his letters, so Matthias wrote out a "P" and asked Oliver what it was.  Oliver responded well, so Matthias taught him that three of the letter P makes "Pees" aka Please.

We had success by reminding him every time to say please, but we wanted to teach him to ask it without prompting.  So when he says "cup?" we tell him to ask for it, just getting the response "Aks?"  So then we tell him to ask nicely, to which he says "Nice-lay?"

He has started asking for things nicely.  Right after the video he went to the drawer and said "Sahs-kick? Nicely?"

Please make note of the Mickey Mouse shirt, with the Spider-Man swim trunks.  Yes, he helps pick out his outfits.

In other news, we are getting the 2 year old molars.  Monday and Tuesday were miserable with lots of screaming Oliver involved.  Have we ever mentioned how horrible the teething process has been for Oliver?  He is in so much pain that he has trouble controlling his emotions.  Because Oliver was so needy, Camilla ended up sleeping during the day more, which meant she stopped sleeping through the night (7 hours between feedings can get us from 10:30 to 5:30!), thus making everything harder.  Luckily, Matthias thought to use Motrin yesterday, thinking that maybe it was teething.  After 30 minutes of screaming as had become the norm this week, he was able to calm down.  And then he took a really long nap.  And yesterday was pure bliss having my sweet little boy back!

We played with paper airplanes:

And even went out for $0.63 ice cream at Blake's.

 

Oliver was feeling so generous that he shared his water with Camilla.

Who, by the way, is such a sweetheart with the best little grins!

Oliver and Camilla

Oliver loves Camilla, whom he calls “Sisr”.

Because he always sees us holding her, he loves to hold her.

In fact, he gets mad if we don't let him hold her.

He loves to point out all of her body parts, like her mouth, hair, fingers, toes, ears, etc.

Even when she is crying.

June 12, 2011

He gets the biggest giggles if she touches him back, like she has super tickling powers.

June 24, 2011

I think he longs to be able to play with her.

He dances around with her doll, and throws trains and cars into her bassinet.

Usually when he holds her they just chill together.

Oliver loves his little sister.

And guess what?

She loves him too.

Two Kids? TWO KIDS??!?!!

On May 28, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Camilla Whitney joined our family at 7lbs 10 oz, 20.5 inches, making us a family of four. With two parents, that would leave two kids. TWO KIDS!

All day Saturday, the 28th, Megan had been having contractions, many painful. Towards the end of the day they were getting closer together and she timed them to be about 6-7 minutes apart. Every once in a while she would have a really painful and severe one. I was able to soothe her a little by rubbing her lower back, but things were definitely heating up. As we were packing the bags for Oliver and her, they continued like that and so we called the doctor to get her opinion if we should come in. She was hesitant but then said to have us come in, even though we weren't to that magical "five minute" contraction mark yet.

A friend of ours from church came over with her 16 year old daughter to stay with Oliver. How wonderful to have such good friends!! Not only were they willing to watch Oliver for us, but even coming over and sleeping at our house so Oliver wouldn't have his sleep interrupted and sleep in an unfamiliar bed. And this turned out to be a really good thing, because if we would have taken the time to drive to their house in and drop off Oliver, we may have had a baby on the side of the road...

The whole way to the hospital Megan continually had really painful contractions just a few minutes apart each time. I was starting to get a little nervous, but I was really excited too. I was practically dying from stress, anxiety, and anticipation. And I wasn't the one having the painful contractions!

By the time we were in the parking lot, Megan said she felt like she wanted to push, but we got her upstairs into the Labor and Delivery room a little after 10pm. By the time Megan had her hospital gown on and was on the bed, her water had broken. The doctor came in after beckoned by frantic calls saying, "What, is she having baby or something? Oh wow! And there I was relaxing and eating my ice cream!" She took a quick look and said that the baby was coming and it was time to push. In three quick pushes, out she came at 10:16!

Now, Camilla wasn't a name we had had picked out before the delivery. In fact, it wasn't on our short or long list of names that we've been playing with the for past while. Our favorite name for the past few months has been Amelia Grace. But when we held her and got a good look at her, it just didn't fit. The name Catherine kind of randomly popped into my head. I told Megan and she nodded and then we put that together with Amelia and thought, "Cammie, Camille, Camilla, someth ing to that effect sounds nice. We couldn't decide on a name right then, but we simply decided that she was perfect. That was the word that kept coming to our minds as we described her. Perfect.

The next morning we thought we liked Camilla best, but we were still a little unsure. Megan suggested that I go to babynames.com and look it up. When I did that, I had no doubt her name was Camilla, because Camilla means "perfect". Even better, it is of Italian origin, unlike Camille which means the same, but with French origin. So that's our perfect little girl, our little Camilla.

When we brought Oliver to the hospital that evening, things didn't go too well. Over tired and over stimulated from the day, he had a potty accident all over the floor and then he poured a box a fruit loops on the couch. He ran around the room crazy pulling any knob or cord and pushing every button (including the emergency call button a couple of times). As I was trying to help him eat some dinner and not be so crazy, Camilla started crying and Megan couldn't soothe her or get her to feed right or something. And the thought that came to my mind was, "Two kids? TWO KIDS!???! Ahhhh! Why did we do it? What are we going to do?!!? We're going to die for sure!"

So far though things seem to be turning out well enough. That night Megan got a call from one of our good friends who just had their fourth baby and they have all their kids close together and they seem to manage. I'm not sure the things she said to Megan, but she was a big comfort to her sanity, and I know she also offered her aid as much as we needed it. What good friends we have and what tender mercies Heavenly Father gives us right when we need them. Also our other God-send of a friend, the family that watched Oliver on Saturday night and Sunday, took him again Monday morning. When I was chatting with her, she pointed out that her two oldest (she has four children) are spaced out same ages as Oliver and Camilla. I asked her if things settle down and if the kids kind of settle into their home life. She responded that while the kids do grow and develop, things don't ever settle or calm down, but that you as a parent rise to the challenges and grow and change to be capable of things that you never before thought were possible. Again, what wonderful friends and what tender mercies from God.bAnd if that's not enough, when I went to pick up Oliver from that family in the afternoon, they let me take Oliver into their backyard and play with their chickens. Besides the whole new baby thing, I'd say it was the definite highlight of my weekend!

So things are well, we have two kids. One of them is utterly crazy yet amazing and adorable and we wouldn't trade him for anything. The other is a perfect little girl that melts our hearts simply by opening her eyes and messing her diaper. What else could we want from life? How about pictures!

Perfect Camilla

Momma couldn't be happier with her sweet little girl. Sometimes it was hard to get rest in the hospital, just because it felt so good to cuddle her as much as we could!

"Did I smell milk?"

My favorite two girls in the world.

Love to hold you and dance! I was able to calm you down one time by dancing with you to Jazz music. At first you furrowed your brow in confusion that you were awake and not eating, but then you just opened your eyes in curiosity and humored me for 20 minutes while I sang to you and we danced.

 

Our happy, wonderful, crazy, little family!