Little Miss Independent

     According to the weekly/monthy e-mail I receive regarding Cammie's development she has entered an autonomous phase.  According to the dictionary autonomy is described as having freedom or being independent. I don't think there is a better way to describe little Miss Cammie Marie right now.  She has started showing an interest in using silverware to eat (which means we head straight to the bathtub after most meals :), would much rather push the stroller and/or grocery cart rather than ride in it, sit in a regular kitchen chair vs. her high chair and is very observant at what her dad, I or any other grown-ups do and wants to do exactly what we do, but now independently.  She has become interested in sauces, such as ketchup and wants to dip everything in them.  She LOVES when you give her freedom to walk in a store, rather than make her ride. She loves to open doors and lead the way in or out anywhere we are headed.  She is just getting too, too big! :)

Yummy :)

Loving every second! :)

"Who needs a spoon...I'll just use my hand"...silly girl! :)

A New Friend

     Cammie found out yesterday that she will welcome a new GiRl friend in May!!! That's right....Chrissie and Nick are having a girl!!!! (Chrissie is never allowed to guess a baby gender again BTW....this is the second time she was convinced of a boy and was proven wrong...jk :)  Eliot Ann is measuring for a perfect BIRTHday on May 8, 2012.  We are so VERY excited for them and can't wait to meet that sweet baby girl!  

Christmas with Nick and Chrissie

     Saturday Chrissie and I made plans to have our second annual baking day.  We like to make some signature staples such as chocolate chip and sugar cookies, white trash party/Chex mix, chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered peanut butter Ritz crackers.  By no means am I a baker.  For those of you who know me I can barely function in the kitchen.  Thanks to a little guidance from my neighbor Amanda (SHE is a baker!), Chrissie and my mom's fabulous sugar cookie recipe I can at least feel helpful during this day. :)  
     As we began to discuss preparations for this day Chrissie said she was going to go ahead and give Cammie her present.  This put the pressure on!  I started racking my brain trying to think of something to get Baby Lawrence for Christmas not knowing the gender (they were finding out the following Monday).  Gifts are a big thing for me...not necessarily receiving them, but giving them.  In an IUS Master's Class, Coach South discussed love languages...I definitely think my love language towards others are gifts.  I really, really try to listen and/or put considerable thought into gifts that I give, ESPECIALLY to those people who are so near and dear to my heart.  I knew this would probably be the one and only chance I had to impress Chrissie with a gift for Baby L.  If you have spent any time with her you would know Baby L. already has a pretty sweet tricycle, talking horse to ride on, crib to sleep in...you name it they have or will have it.  The Lawrences' are so fortunate to have two sets of parents who have waited a very long time for a grandchild.  That sweet baby is so spoiled and loved already! :)  Anyways...I digress...I thought and thought, thought and thought and finally had an idea (It's REALLY hard to buy a baby gift when you don't know the gender btw!).   I decided to gather all of Cammie's favorite things (not specific to gender) during the first year of her life and pass those along to Baby L.  We searched and found things like Cammie's favorite Sandra Boynton bath books, touch-and-feel puppy book, Mickey Mouse CD for the car (we would have never survived without that :) and of course a brown blanket identical to the blanket she keeps so close to her nose. :)  I never would have known the power of those items when I originally received them, but know I couldn't have lived without them in this last year.  I wanted Chrissie to know how much she means to Cammie and I.  I feel like I am not always the best listener, am often self-centered, sometimes a big complainer, but ALWAYS appreciative of that girl!  I'm not sure I ever let her know how much I truly love her..... definitely would not be where I am today without her. (Not sure how I even got off on this....hello teacher/mom ADD kicking in I guess :)
     Chrissie and Nick made Camryn's Christmas as they presented her not only with Rock-Star Mickey, but also her first Nativity set and M & M's (which she cared THE MOST about :).  I can't tell you how many times Mickey has slid across our kitchen floor and done the splits since Saturday.  She is in LOVE with it and her Aunt C and Uncle Nick too....thank you for always being so wonderful to her! :)

Holdin' on tight to that Mickey...Aunt C has definitely had quite the influence on Cammie's love for Mick! :)

Making Cookies

     My mom and I don't have too many traditions that we do together at Chrismastime, but we do manage to make homeade sugar cookies each year.  My mom has a very, very secret recipe that has been in her family for years and produces the BEST cookies (maybe I am a little biased, but they are pretty scrumptious! :)  This year Camryn was able to "help," which made Nana's cookie night complete!

Helping Nana roll the dough

Love these ladies! :)

Stuck...

     Sometimes I ask myself why I do the things I do??? Life, as usual is crazy in our house.  Christmas is way closer than I would like to admit (I feel like I haven't had a chance to enjoy anything Christmas-y, with the exception of my tree....it really overwhelms me to think we will celebrate Christmas with two sides of our family a week from Saturday!!!), school as-usual is in overdrive and I feel like I just can't seem to keep up (however I will welcome a student teacher in the spring....hoping those extra hands will let this girly slow down a bit :), IUS is finishing up and basketball season has begun.  Basketball season isn't necessarily a busy time of year for us, but Chris works and attends quite a few games on behalf of his baseball guys.  On top of everything we also thought it would be a good idea to put our house up for sale.  Really???...like we don't have enough going on??....I don't know what we were thinking.  We weren't expecting to have much traffic, but much to our surprise the house was shown multiple times in two weeks and we had an accepted offer within that time frame.  I cannot believe our house sold in a little over 2 weeks....CrAzY!!!  Needless to say we have to find somewhere to go.  We thought we knew exactly where we were going, explored floor plans, met with the builder, thought we were ready to go, BUT....(there's always a but :) we began having second thoughts.  Two weeks ago, Nate (our favorite speaker at church) talked about he and his wife moving forward and buying a new house for their growing family.  He discussed having a plan, trying to make it work, but then stepping back and realizing they didn't NEED that.  He focused on  having everything they needed in the house they were currently in, continuing their offering to the church and finding peace with their decision.  Chris and I had a quite the heart-to-heart Tuesday night and realized we were kinda in the same place as Nate.  We are OUT of room....we are in NEED of more space (especially because we want more kids), but question where that need should take us.  We are in search of our forever home, but are trying to decide what our #1 priorities are.  Originally our #1 priority was the school district where Camryn would attend school.  That still is our number one priority, however we are having a difficult time finding that place that takes care of our needs, without too many I wants....  Chris and I are very comfortable with our lifestyle....vacations, vehicles, leisure activities, our church offering, paying our bills, me returning to school...the list could go on and on.  In order to get in the house we thought we wanted puts us in a place that makes us question if we would able to continue some or any of that lifestyle.  To some it may seem silly, but those are the things that make us happy and allow us to make memories as and with our family.  I just feel stuck.....I am feeling very fortunate that the offer we accepted will not require us to be out of our current house until March, but am very uneasy about our next step.....I am a worrier :)  I feel homeless, despite having 3 months to figure out our next step.  I am trying to remember to have faith....but being the control freak that I am it can sure be hard! :)

Breakfast with Santa

    Cammie and I headed to my aunt's church Saturday and had a morning filled with breakfast, toys, games and best of all....Santa!  Cammie wasn't at all scared or concerned with Santa.  She was actually curious enough to walk right up to him and sit on his lap.  Check her out!

      Hopefully she has been a good girl this year and he will sneak by our house on Christmas Eve! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

     Friday we picked up Nick and Chrissie and headed out to Charlestown for a night of fun!  First, we met up with Brad, Meghan and Maddie at Charlestown Pizza Company to celebrate Meghan's birthday (a little late :) and devour some of our favorite foods....bread bites and pizza..YUM!  Thank goodness they were pretty quick in there that night, because keeping two squirrelly toddlers occupied for an extended time can be difficult!  We have definitely entered the phase where we are those people...allowing our babies to run about the restaurant after we eat.  Cammie simply cannot sit still, nor sit in the high chair for the entire time.  We often avoid eating out right now, because you just never know what your dining out experience will be like (definitely missing some Rocky's in my life :(.  After dinner we headed out to enjoy some of the Christmas lights during the Light Up Charlestown event.  Cammie was in LOVE with this large, lighted tree right outside the restaurant.  She would have been satisfied to stand beside or run around it all night. :)  We convinced her to follow Maddie and walked across the street enjoying the lights, Santa and all that The Square had to offer.  Due to the cold weather (definitely felt like Christmas time out there :) and two impatient girls, we decided to head back to Nick and Chrissie's and give the girls some time playtime together.  Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night! :)

Lovin' the lighted tree



Curiosity got the best of her :)



C with a few of her favorite people :)

It's dark, but the only one we captured of the girls together :)