December Wrap Up

December was a busy month....Shaefer was on call every 3rd night, which absolutely leaves him more sleep deprived than you can imagine. Camden, Bella and I made a trip to Little Rock to see the Hobbs: Brad, Tessa, and Caroline as well as got one night to visit with the Rutledges: Jonathan, Amber, Lane, and their newest addition, Levi. The Hobbs and the Rutledges are some of our dear friends from Macon who we miss dearly. It was such a wonderful visit!! Shaefer's sister, Emily, came and spent a week here with us in Nashville. It made Shaefer realize how much he is gone, though....in the 6 days Em was here, he only saw her for about 4 hours total. Really! Then, Shaefer ended up being off on Christmas day...what a surprise blessing! He worked a few more days in the ICU, and then we headed to Georgia for what we now refer to as our 'tour de georgia.' I've still got to figure out why when I post pictures, I can't see them until the post is 'live' so there will be no narration under the pics....I'm going to try to post a lot of them, so just enjoy! They will likley be very much out of order. There are pics from a children's play place in Little Rock, of Camden and Caroline's hugs and tackles (yes, tackles!), the drums Emily taught Camden to play, camden's new ride, and pics from Christmas morning. I'll post some from our trip to Georgia in the next few days. (my camera battery died though on the second day, so there are few pics from the tour. :)

So.....it's blue and green for the nursery!

Yes, it's a boy!! Growing up in a house full of girls, Shaefer's family, especially his brother, are LOVING my worries about caring for a little boy....you know, like what do I do when he brings me his bug collection, or worse, what if i catch him EATING one??? Oh goodness!! And, what if he wants one of those rodent type pets bc everyone in his preschool has one......I will have to draw the line there I guess! :) No hampsters or the sort for this Spires' household!! I am imagining much more rough housing and probable broken bones for our little guy, especially considering Camden seems to be a pretty cautious and reserved little one....ok, yes, she is girly!! But, she gets it soooo honest! :)

I've got lots of pics to post from the past few weeks and our visit to Little Rock....and an ultrasound pic or two! Hopefully I will get that done this week! Miss you all!

It's Christmas Time!!

We were blessed to get to spend the entire day on Tuesday together...Shaefer had the day off before starting ICU and being on call every 3rd night! We were lazy all morning and then headed out to get our Christmas tree once Camden was up from her morning nap. Picking out a tree is super important...Shaefer ALWAYS wants to get a really, really, 'fat' and really, really tall tree....usually too big for our house....so it always takes some good 'manicuring' once we get home to get the tree to fit inside. Well, thankful for financial constraints this year (who would ever say that??!), I convinced him a nice 6-7 footer would work well and fit in the budget, not to mention in our living room between all the toys. :) Camden was a big help at Lowe's with the picking out process....she was inspecting the trees to be sure we found just the right one...she didn't seem too 'amazed' at all the trees, but she did enjoy running around in the isles between all of them.

Once we were home, she and I started to make some sugar cookies (thanks, Grammy, for the idea and the 'supplies'!). I rolled out the cookie dough and got out the cookie cutters from Aunt Kerri, and we got to work. Daddy noticed all of the fun we were having and decided to join in the fun! Camden was great at tasting the dough and at gently pressing the sprinkles in just right....well, maybe she wasn't so gentle! We had a few cookies with nice and tiny finger holes in them. :)

We decorated the tree while Camden napped so she would be surprised when she came downstairs. Then, we ended the night with Shaefer decorating the outside with lights, and Camden helping. :) Ofcourse, the outside lights are for Camden, not the grown up kids who live here. :)

A Visit from Cousins

We had a pre-Thanksgiving celebration last weekend when my mom, sisters, and niece and nephew came to visit. We were pretty lazy, but did try to work in a photo shoot or two with the kids....catching one of Camden's smiles is hard enough....trying to get 3 all at once is a super-challenge. They do get an E for Effort as we had them on the porch snapping pics for atleast 20 minutes!
Since I can't see which pics are going to post, or in which order, I'll give a brief synopsis:
* Camden loved Isabelle's cowboy boots.....and thought her outfit was complete with just the boots. :) She was 'dressed' that way for atleast an hour.
* Noah climbed the 'mountain' behind our house a few times....i caught one time in some pictures.
* Kelley nicknamed Camden "Fame" bc with her headband, she reminded her of the 80's fashion.
* Camden tried cooking an apple in her new frying pan from Aunt Kerri.
* Camden showed Isabelle how to 'reorganize' my dish towel drawer, so she helped and cleaned it out for me. :)
* i can't remember the rest, but enjoy! :)

Daddy's Determination.....

The long hours Shaefer's working do have their perks I guess.....he keeps getting free tickets to football games! We went to the Vandy/Kentucky game a few weekends ago. Camden seems to really be enjoying all of our stadium outings. This time she even found a 'seat' that is just the right height for her. (ofcourse, I was super nervous she was going to fall backwards, but she had lots of fun watching us watch the game.) We even had a post-game 'tail-gate' party at Shaefer's truck. :)
I think Shaef is determined to have Camden absolutely love football by the time she is 2. He's off to a good start.....

An Artist just like Aunt Annie

We have been trying to find fun 'indoor' activities to keep us busy on some of the colder days and painting has become one of Camden's favorites. Aunt Annie got her started on her first birthday. She is a much better teacher than I am, and she was a lot better at getting Camden to keep the paint on the canvas, as you will notice below. (my blog is still crazy and not letting me see what pictures I post, so enjoy!)

Radnor Lake Adventure Minus Shoes

On Shaefer's day off last week, we took a picnic and headed to a park at Radnor Lake, about 15 minutes from here. It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of wildlife. There were huge turtles sunning, a bald eagle diving at geese in the lake, a doe being followed by a HUGE buck....and ofcourse all kinds of little bugs and worms. Camden had a great time, too....for the most part. There is one picture or her crying on the bench, and I honestly cannot remember why she was upset...I'm sure it didn't last long.

Camden is LUCKY to have such great grandparents who provide her with all kinds of shoes...IF ONLY HER PARENTS were a bit more organized.....we made it all the way to the park and realized we didn't have her shoe's. We contemplated, but decided we were hungry (and she was, too) so we didn't want to drive back home to get them....we didn't think she would mind....and we didn't want to miss out on the park. I knew even though we took the stroller, she would prefer to walk, shoes or no shoes. She was a real trooper...i don't think she even noticed she didn't have shoes.

Enjoy the pictures below....not sure which ones actually made it to the blog....I'm still having issues with trying to upload...all I can see are a bunch of letters and numbers and characters that I assume distinguish the pictures from each other.