Time flies!

Time absolutely flies when we are on vacation! I can't believe it is already day 10 of a 12 day vacation! It isn't fair! And, I was mistaken when I thought it was going to be a relaxing holiday! It all started with B and Lisa's wedding last week. We had the rehearsal dinner on Thursday night and the wedding Friday evening. Since Chris was in the wedding, he had to take Friday off and I worked it out that I had it off too. It was strange to go out 2 nights in a row without Camryn, but it was nice. The wedding was beautiful and we had a lot of fun.

We managed to fit in a doctor's appointment for Camryn that same day. It was her 18 month check up - it is hard to believe that she is 18 months already!! I had to do a checklist based on her development and she got her last shots until age 5!!!! Yipee!!!!! The doctor said that she is doing amazingly well and was pleased to hear that she has wonderful verbal and listening skills. It seems as if she has turned into this little person lately - she communicates and follows directions very well. She is even now understanding that she can change her own behavior to avoid a time out. That's my girl!!

The craziness really began on Saturday with the demolition of our master bathroom. Chris has been working hard ever since on that project. He is currently dealing with some plumbing snags (thanks to the beautiful vanity we bought), but he is getting it done. When it is all done (and it will be very soon), we will have new ceramic tile, a new cherry vanity, new countertop, faucets, lighting, and paint. Yeah! It is all coming together very nicely and Chris is doing a beautiful job. I have been saying all week that WE are remodeling our bathroom - I guess that isn't entirely true since I haven't done much work. But, I picked most of the stuff out, so I will take some credit for that. I just can't wait for it to be done and we can stop invading Camryn's bathroom!!

Of course, we had to take a break from the bathroom for some Christmas fun! We went to my sister's house on Christmas Eve for dinner and gifts. We went back home that night to wait for Ho Ho (Camryn's name for Santa) to come. She must have been a VERY good girl this year because she got lots of great presents!! The 1st gift she got from her stocking was a new cell phone and she insisted on opening the rest of her gifts one handed cuz she didn't want to put the phone down! Needless to say, it took a while for her to open all of her gifts! After spending Christmas morning at our house, we went to Greencastle to see Chris' family. We alternate holidays every year between families and this was our year to spend Christmas with his family. We went to Uncle George and Aunt Lori's house and Grammy and Pappy both came over. Of course, Camryn was spoiled with gifts there too!!! She is a very lucky girl! Now, we just need to find room for all of her fun new presents! She has been playing with all of her new toys ever since, so I guess Santa knew exactly what she wanted! If I ever get my butt in gear, I will venture to the computer upstairs and update the website. We have lots of fun Christmas pictures to share, so I will try to do that soon!

On Thursday, we took our annual Christmas trip to New Jersey to visit Gina. This year was special because she is newly engaged!!! Paul popped the question around 1:00 AM on Christmas morning. She called me first thing that morning to share the news. We are so excited and happy for her and Paul!!! Camryn had fun at Gina's house that day, especially since Gina let her have all kinds of fun in the kitchen! Gina kept giving her all sorts of things to stir and mix and make a mess with! Camryn enjoys "cooking", so she was excited! When she was done, Gina put her concoction in the oven and it turned into a cookie!! Who knew that Camryn was such a good cook?? And, just like when Gina and Paul visited this summer, Camryn attached herself to Paul. She just loves him and he always has fun with her too. Gina and Paul love their "Cammy"!





Last night, we had people over for the Penn State bowl game. It was night of fun, food, and football. The game started after Camryn's bedtime, so I am sure she was disappointed that she didn't get to see JoePa. But, she was dressed for the game anyway even if she didn't get to see it!!




Now, we are getting ready for our New Year's Eve party. It started with only having a few people over, but it has since grown into more people! The more, the merrier! It should be a lot of fun and we are really looking forward to it!

Ok, I have rambled on long enough. I would have written about all of this stuff in spurts this week, but I didn't have time! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays!!!

Oh no!!! (we hate Comcast)

I know that most of you have been thinking that we have completely slacked on updating our website. Well, that is only partly true. I know that most people go to our main page and see that we haven't updated since August and move on. We have updated our page (and are actually in the process again right now) since then, but Comcast won't let us make any changes to our main index page. Chris called them about it and it is apparently a nationwide issue that occurred when they made a huge upgrade to their personal webpage features. Yeah, thanks for the upgrades, but I want to make changes to our webpage!! We can still make changes to Camryn's page, which is most important, but most people haven't seen it because they think we are slackers!! So, really, it is Comcast that sucks. We have never dealt with such incompetent people in our lives! Our list of Comcast issues (and I mean MAJOR issues - even digging up our yard) is a mile long since we have moved here. But, that is a whole other novel to write about. To make a long story short, they have no idea when this problem will be resolved, so please just look at Camryn's page to see if there are any updates until Comcast fixes the issue. Thanks!!

On another note, I guess I should share something about Camryn because that is what I do. We had a 1st tonight. Although, it isn't the type of 1st that I will write in her baby book. Tonight was the 1st time that we had blood - a lot of blood. Thankfully, it wasn't anything serious. She fell and hit the corner of our coffee table. I thought she just hit her head, but as she proceeded to scream and look up at me, I saw blood on her mouth. She bit her lip and took a huge chunk out of it (yes, I had to be graphic - at least you didn't have to see the blood). I never thought that a lip could bleed so much!! Chris wasn't home at the time, so I must say that I handled it quite well. I was a good mommy and made it all better. :)

Santaphobia

It is official - Camryn is terrified of Santa. Her daycare had their annual Christmas program this evening where the kids sing songs for the parents and look adorable. During the program, Santa made a visit to read a story and hand out gifts. Camryn was sitting with her teacher, Krysti, and her friend, Kiersten. She LOVES Krysti and was content sitting with her up front until Santa got a little too close. (Luckily, I got a picture of her while she was content) Then, we saw it coming...complete meltdown. I ran up to get her and was completely embarrassed in the process. Of course, it had to be my child who has the meltdown in front of everyone. Although, I was terrified of fake Santas when I was little, so I can't blame her. I took her to the back of the room and calmed her down. Then, she proceeded to point to Santa and say, "Tanta - ho ho ho." She was fine with him from a distance. When it was time to go up and get her gift from Santa, I thought she would be ok since she was watching him for a while. Nope. She hung on to me for dear life and cried until we were safely away from him. So, I guess it is ok for Santa to leave her presents this year as long as he stays at least 50 feet away from her at all times!!!! It is a good thing she will be sleeping when he comes for Christmas! And, lucky for her, we captured these magical moments on video. I am sure she will love it when she is older!!!!

Princess Nittany

Camryn received a Christmas package yesterday from Rebecca. Of course, we couldn't wait to see what was inside, so we let her open it early. Who can wait until Christmas? Rebecca always gets the perfect gifts - I think she really enjoys buying little girl things! She sent Camryn a beautiful pink princess dress with a tiara and wand as accessories. She was very excited to put her pretty new dress on and loved her new "hat". This is Camryn's first "dress-up" outfit and she had fun being a princess!! After she was done with her royal reign, we called Rebecca to say, "Dank doo!!"

I said that Rebecca is known for finding the perfect gifts. She also sent Camryn the "Baby Nittany Lion" DVD. She found these DVDs online a while ago, but complained to the company that there were DVDs available for random schools, but not for PSU. Apparently, they listened to her and the PSU version came out recently. So, of course, she had to get it for our little Nittany Lion. It has segments on the Lion, the Blue Band, traditions, and places on campus. It also teaches letters, numbers, and colors. Shouldn't every child be able to spell N-I-T-T-A-N-Y L-I-O-N??? Camryn was dancing to the Blue Band section and was enjoying the bouncing paw print to learn the words to various songs. Yes, I guess we are well on our way to brainwashing our child. Nah, not brainwashing...the DVD claims that it is "raising tomorrow's Penn State fan today!" There is absolutely nothing wrong with that!!!

Snow!!

We had our first real snow today. Well, we had snow in Meadville over Thanksgiving (big surprise), but this was our first snow here at home. People here panic so much over an inch of snow that Chris had an early dismissal. That is one thing that I am still not used to here. They cancel school for 2 inches of snow! Anyway, we took advantage of the snow after school. Chris took Camryn out to play. She didn't want to stand in it until Chris started to slide down the hill with her. Considering they didn't have a sled, it was quite a sight to see! After that, she was quite the little snow bunny! She fought when it was time to come in! I guess we need to find her a pair of boots and snow pants so she can play in the snow for real next time. Oh, and maybe Santa should bring us a sled.