Cameron and Kim

Honey Do

2012-02-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

On Friday afternoon I got home from school and I had this conversation with Kim:

Kim: we have a lot of things to do tomorrow.

Cam: Like what?

Kim: sweep, mop, dishes, vacuum...

Cam: Oh, OK.

Kim: Oh yeah, and can you put the fire alarm back up?

Cam: Why does the fire alarm need to be put back up?

Kim: I had to take it down.

Cam: Why did you have to take it down?

Kim: Because it wouldn't stop going off.

Cam: Why was it going off?

Kim: I don't know... I was just baking pretzels. They weren't even smoking.

Cam: Why can't you put it back up?

Kim: Because I can't reach it.

Cam: How did you get it down?

Kim: I stood on your toolbox.

Cam: (pause) I'll put it back up.

Kim: Thanks!

Google+ Hangouts

2012-02-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

So I just thought I would share something that makes my life a little more awesome.

First off, is this not the saddest graphic you've ever seen?

That's the graphic that comes up in a hangout on Google+ when you first start it and no one else has joined yet, or when you're the last one to leave. It just makes me feel so sad for the little robot. Maybe it's because I can relate. Moving on.

I have two brothers, two sisters, and two parents. We all try to talk to each other every week, so what that used to mean was I called everyone and talked to them for 15+ minutes each Sunday.

Then we discovered hangouts on Google+, which is a lot like skyping, except that we can have a group video chat all at once. 5 different computers in 4 different states. It's a lot more fun too, because I don't have to re-tell the same story 6 times, and we all get to talk about it together.

There are still a few bugs, but it's getting better. Go try it!

I Would Never Get In a Dumpster

2012-02-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

Check out this totally awesome table that I found a few weeks ago:

And I don't mean found in the sense that I went to the store and voila! there it was... I mean it very literally.

Cam has been telling people I went dumpster diving for it which is simply not true. Yes, someone discarded it in the vicinity of the dumpster, but I spotted it out Wesley's bedroom window which has a pleasant view of... that part of our little complex. For the record, I would never actually go in a dumpster, let alone go digging around in there.

I just can't understand why someone would "discard" something in such a gently used condition.

I decided it would work perfectly as my new entryway table, that is, if it were about 18inches skinnier. So I took off the top, and then Cam (using a handsaw) cut out the middle section.

There, isn't that nice?

It was about at this point that we went over to a neighbor's house for dinner and Cam was telling them about the ridiculous things that I was having him do to the salvaged table. My neighbor started describing it and we asked how he knew what it looked like. Nope, he wasn't the discarder... he was the one who pulled it out of the dumpster, but then decided he didn't have room for it.

Camer glued the pieces back together, and then last weekend we went to his parent's house so his dad could help him make the drawer fit back into the new tiny table.

Given my inability to paint uniformly, I decided to just spray paint it. While I was outside spraying, an older lady who lives by me came over to ask about what I was doing. I told her the tables origins and she exclaimed, "people throw away the neatest stuff... I found a great pair of shoes over there the other day."

Turns out our dumpster is a winner. But seriously, after a little love you can't even tell where it came from:

The front is spray painted too. I cut the design out of paper and used it as a stencil.

Total cost: $2.39 for spray paint (with my JoAnn's 40% off coupon) + $1.39 for the drawer pull. Sweet.

The best part is that the drawer pull came in a pack of two, so I'm totally ready the next time I "find" something that needs a little love.

Linked to my friends the Wayward Girls!

A Wesley Update

2012-01-21T22:46:00.000-08:00

Wesley had a busy week this week:

Finally, last night he started crawling! We now have a boy in motion! (I mean forward motion... I don't think he's stopped moving since he was born.)
He's made new discoveries in the relationships between force and volume. Wesley's new favorite toys are bowls, any kind really. He likes to hit them, hit things with them, hit them with things, and put them on his head.

We had to put away his activity gym and baby swing. He is now able to roll into one of the poles on the gym and roll it on top of himself, and when he leans forward in his swing it swings all the way back and gets stuck. The bumbo chair will be going in the next week or so too.
He decided that he was done with sleeping, so for the last couple days he's been taking only two 45-minute naps. The thing is that he has been his usual happy, smiling self, so I guess he's still getting enough sleep? I on the other hand haven't gotten a thing done.

Wesley never stops moving. Cam and I were just discussing that we're a little concerned that we've created a monster. Seriously, though he just did this for the last two hours:

He's in his pajamas because (silly us) we thought it was bedtime an hour and a half ago. Be honest, have you ever met a child with this much energy before? (and did they turn out to be ridiculous?)

Be Classy

2012-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing cute painted boards with family mottos all over pinterest lately. Stuff like "We love each other and do nice things and give hugs..."

In our little house we believe in family mottos, we just believe in being concise (i.e. we have short attention spans). So we came up with a family motto that encompasses everything that we try to be around here:

(no decals... I'm sure you agree that a statement this bold requires gold spray paint... the 213th time I've been glad I had some on hand)

Inspired by a wikihow on how to be classy that I stumbled across one day. I love that their list includes things like "choose your words wisely," "don't swear," and "value your virtues" which are all things I wholeheartedly agree with. Some of their things were silly though, so we've made our own definition of what it means to be classy:

Be nice - It's easy to be mean, especially when you feel that you've been wronged. It takes a lot of work to be nice sometimes, because it requires you to control your emotions instead of letting them control you.
Speak properly - don't use slang or swear. Classy people speak with intelligence.
Choose your words wisely - if someone thinks you've offended them it doesn't matter what you meant. Be considerate and think before you speak.
Respect everyone - and treat them that way.
Be humble - bragging is not classy in any way. You can't be aloof and classy. People are much more impressed by someone that listens than by someone who talks about how cool they are or shows off.
Have good hygiene - nobody is impressed by bad breath. A classy person strives to make others comfortable... you can't do that if they are repulsed by your b.o.
Behave - Classy people can have fun, but they don't break rules.
Be happy - Uplift others. Don't talk negatively about your situation or about others. Smile.
Be intelligent - stay informed and broaden your horizons.

We hung it up over our stairs, and Cam likes to hit it when he walks by like he's on a football team headed out of the looker room or something. We may not be all those things yet, but we're working on them: Cam says he is working on being humble, Wes is working on speaking properly, and I figured I should probably shower every day. Baby steps.

Is there anything you would add to our list?

In case you've never been camping in the pouring rain.

2012-01-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

My brother Chad is always up for adventures, especially if they involve the outdoors. This Christmas break he was home from BYU for a couple of weeks and I got the itching to go camping.

Problems:

It's December (cold and rainy)
Neither one of us owns a tent (we usually sleep in hammocks)
The only day we can do it puts us getting home on my anniversary

But when you have such an incredible idea, like camping in the wet Oregon winter, things always seem to work out.

Solutions:

Bring lots of clothes, some of which are waterproof
Borrow a stunningly-expensive-and-totally-worth-it tent from my buddy Tim
Have an amazing wife

So the camping trip went like this: we left early one morning and didn't have any rain as we hiked in. We stopped to see a gorgeous waterfall that was bursting at the seams from all of the rain that we have had recently. The mist coming off of the waterfall soaked us both immediately, luckily we were wearing waterproof jackets and pants. (Chad in his genius took the picture

through a plastic bag so his camera wouldn't be ruined, I think it adds a nice hazy effect)

We tromped around the woods for a while as we looked for a suitable spot to put up a tent. When the rain began to fall we decided that we probably had the best spot in the forest and quickly set up camp.

We enjoyed making the place rather homey, including a kitchen and drying rack for our clothes. That took a whole hour, then we had nothing to do... and it was raining. But we were already wet so we took off hiking on some nearby trails for a few hours. We came back before it got dark and had dinner (beef stew, stuffing, and top ramen). Chad forgot to pack a spoon so he had to carve one from a tree.

Then we climbed into the tent for the night. It was 4pm. We stayed there until 8AM when the sun came out and had the most boring and longest night of my life. We played THREE FULL games of phase ten, talked for what seemed like forever and eventually nodded off around 9pm, only to wake up every couple hours to realize that we were both very uncomfortable.

The next morning we packed up and came directly home.

Lessons learned:

Eureka makes some great expedition tents, we stayed warm and incredibly dry all night
When it says "two man tent" it means two people and NOTHING else
Camping in the rain is not much fun, especially when it gets dark at 4pm
I have a great brother who will do ridiculous things with me, and a wonderful wife who lets me do them

Apartment Makeover Part 5: Nursery

2012-01-03T10:23:00.001-08:00

Over Christmas I finally had time to get Wesley's Mobile finished, so I'm finally ready to show you his room!

The ceiling is pretty high, plus his wall needed some love, so instead of hanging a mobile from the ceiling, I did it on the wall:

I just had cam drill holes in the top for dowels, and the sails and fish are felt. We used a push pin to make a hole for the wire fishing poles and hot glued them in place.

Here's the rest of the room:

My super-simple curtains that make it dark enough for afternoon naps when the blinds are closed:

2011 Review

2011-12-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

As of today we have been married for three whole years. I know, three WHOLE ones. Which means it is time for the annual YEAR IN REVIEW:

January We had a warm and sunny trip to the Coast in Oregon? Cam went to rub shoulders with real optometrists in Olympia, while Kim adjusted to her new work from home in her PJs lifestyle, and got her pink plastic-rimmed glasses (which were perfect for…)

February We discovered that we were having a BOY, which overshadowed anything else we did all month. Cam made him shoes, and began crocheting a blue blanket.

March was wet and moldy so we spent most of it outside for some reason, spotting whales at the coast and tromping around wetlands. I had to start wearing maternity pants. Cam used his “spare time” between school and teaching to take a course to get his contractor’s license.

In April I took an epic road trip (7months pregnant) to Utah involving a car breaking down in stages, and running out of gas. Cam had a pleasant flight.

Cam got out of school in May so he and his brother opened their painting business (I made them the coolest business cards ever). We got called to be the Young Single Adult advisors at church (qualification=not single, apparently being adults isn’t required).

Then in June our lives changed forever. After consuming several pineapples and waddling for miles, we finally coaxed our small person to come join us. Cameron finished the blanket just in time. Wesley was a whopping 7lbs and 3oz and looked exactly like his dad. We were tired from that moment through...

July Wesley went on his very first camping trip, and I just gave in to the fact that I’m going to smell like poo and spit-up for the next few years. He didn’t seem interested in sleep, so as it turns out, that’s all Cam and I wanted to do.

In August we moved, which means I started “working out,” and Wes got his own room (and promptly started sleeping better). Wesley acquired an imaginary sibling, and stopped looking anything like his dad. The painting business ended its run, successfully providing for one small family and keeping Cam busy.

September We worked hard at moving into our house, filling it with furniture and getting rid of spiders. Cam started up year 2 of Optometry school. Wes taught himself to roll over both ways way too early and learned how to balance on Dad’s hand. He rolled and wiggled into…

October We went yurt camping, and discovered Wes has a future as an artist. I won the judges choice award in the Chili Cook-off, and we crusaded as pirates.

In November Cam did a vision screening for homeless people, Wesley slept through his first musical, and I painted animal print (un-uniformly).

December Cameron worked really hard on eating muffins/studying and Wes made his stage debut. We watched 20 hours of Harry Potter, Wesley got lots of cool ~~toys~~ wrapping paper, and Cam went on a camping trip in the rain to test out his new gear (he says the water purifier works great mom!)

Good, but we talked it over and we think we can do better... we're going to see if we can squeeze in a road trip to Fiji or something so we've got some more interesting stuff for 2012!

Happy New Year!

Gingerbread Houses

2011-12-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread houses by Cam's family (who think they're not creative):

Cameron's Tudor Castle- complete with a moat and a red brick foundation

Kaylie's more candy than gingerbread house

My French garden inspired house

Ashlee's swimming pool... with a house behind it

Chad's cross section of a gingerbread house

And Grandma and Grandpa's cute house

The Nativity

2011-12-17T22:20:00.000-08:00

Last week at church we were asked if Wesley could be the star of the Nativity at the church Christmas party this weekend. We said that yes, that would be alright.

Then we were asked if Cam and I would mind playing Mary and Joseph. We had just signed our son up, so we really couldn't say no.

After rehearsal this morning, we weren't so sure things were going to work out well. Wes got really upset in the car, and then threw off his schedule by sleeping an extra hour. Then in the afternoon, Wes had a major meltdown. He was so upset he wouldn't even eat. After another nap, some tenuous time dancing around the house, and a little encouragement from his girlfriend (a story for another day I guess) he was at least not in a bad mood.

A half hour, before the show, Wes started to be really tired. Cam took him in a dark room (all wrapped in his swaddling clothes) and managed to got him to take a nap. Then one of the wise men held the sleeping Wesley while we traveled to bethlehem.

Once I brought Wes onstage into the lights, his eyes popped right open. Miraculously, he didn't move or make a single noise. I think he was so surprised by the lights and all the people staring at him. He was quiet in his swaddle the whole time we were onstage.

Then we went offstage and came back to depict the wise men visiting baby Jesus as a child. By then he was awake enough to be sitting up, but still a little surprised still, so he watched each of the wise men with interest, and then wanted to stare at his presents.

Cam and I let out a sigh of relief when we got offstage. Not a single fuss, and he was generally happy at that point. Wesley's stage debut=success.

If you want to see a nativity almost as awesome as ours, you should check out the videos on this youtube channel. My favorite is this one about Mary and Joseph traveling, I can definitively say after our roadtrip 7 months pregnant, that I would have had more than my feet in the water if I was in her place!

Merry Christmas!

The eyebrow

2011-12-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

Seriously mom? You think I'm going to smile for the camera?

Really?

BOO!

Stud(y) Muffins

2011-12-12T11:08:00.000-08:00

We're in full Finals Week mode over here... at least we're working on it.

With such nice weather and so many other fun things he could be doing, Cam has been having a hard time finding the motivation to study. So I made him these:

We're not above food bribes over here. Especially when it works. Saturday at 9:30 Cam was thinking about calling it a night... but then he wanted a muffin, so deep down inside his stomach he found the will to put in another 45 minutes. Muffin accomplished.

Baby Pictures

2011-12-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a few days, Wesley and I have matching colds isn't that cute? We've been a little lame around here for a few days.

I did get to go last week to take pictures of my friend Amy's new little girl. I volunteered to do it, because as much as I love taking pictures of Wes, his dad would never let me do this:

And unfortunately he doesn't look nearly this cute in a hat with flowers on it.

Well, he probably would, but I'm not allowed to try.

I just couldn't believe how tiny she was! And the crazy thing was that she's bigger than Wesley was when he was born. It's hard to imagine this kid was ever that small:

We had to re-arrange our whole house this weekend too because he started getting up on his knees and is beginning to scoot himself along... so we decided that having easy access to scissors and glue are not in his best interest. Hopefully we can put off crawling until we take the tree down!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we have a lot to be thankful for:

Nothing like pureed sweet potatoes to make me grateful for teeth... and a hearty swallowing reflex!

Back in the Jungle

2011-11-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

I got a pair of beat up nasty kid-sized chairs from my friend a couple months ago. She was going to re-paint them, but gave up. I can totally understand that, they were pretty much coming apart, and so beat up that if you sanded out all the dents they would be totally misshapen.

Of course, the best way to keep people from noticing that there are dents is to have a design on the chair to distract the eye. Not that I could ever paint anything a solid color anyway.

So first off, I asked Cam if he could do something about the wobbliness. I was thinking he would add a couple screws into joints... but he took the first chair completely apart piece by piece, stabbing himself with a rusty nail in the process, and then screwed the whole thing back together.

I asked if he thought it would handle our 14 pound son now, and he said, "yeah, I realized I was making it strong enough to hold a gorilla." As we don't have any gorillas currently, the second chair he just added a couple screws into joints.

Although I considered having them match Wesley's nautical themed room (post forthcoming), ultimately I decided that the jungle shelf was lonely and that I really wanted some good animal print.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, what I was really grateful for is a husband who, as I was bemoaning my inability to paint uniformly pointed out, "the world already has lots of people who paint uniformly."

I'm grateful he puts up with me.

Miracles

2011-11-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

So I just discovered Oxiclean. Why did no one tell me about this earlier? It actually got all the gross off Wesley's outfits. Even the white onesie!

After that I got really excited about it and used it to wash everything Wesley has worn, and Cam's white shirts that were getting dingy.

That worked so well I also did our sheets, and everything white any of us own.

That worked so well I borrowed my friend's carpet shampooer and used Oxiclean to wash our couch, and then the entire carpet.

Cam's calling it my cleaner of the week. Which implies that I get obsessed with cleaners often... which is not at all true. There was just this one time when I discovered how very well our toilet bowl cleaner works and used it to wash the entire bathroom and kitchen. Then there was the time with magic erasers, but that's for another day.

If anyone knows how to get the Oxiclean smell off my hands now, your comments would be appreciated.

No, this is really not a sponsored post. Is a girl not allowed to get excited about household products these days? Welcome to adventures in the life of a domestic housewife.

Joys of Motherhood - By Cameron

2011-11-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

We don't have any pictures of Kim and Wesley, why, because mom is always the one taking the pictures. Kim asked me to take a little video of her playing with Wesley so he would know that he wasn't raised by his dad (which is quite the opposite of the truth). I obliged and this is what I got:

Which I think is a good representation of what Kim does for Wesley all day. Motherhood documented... check.

Party Trick

2011-11-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Wesley may look more like me, but he has 100% Cameron's personality. That's why they both enjoy freaking out me, and all the other women in the neighborhood with their new "party trick."

A Wedding Shoot?

2011-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

So funny story... I took pictures for someone's wedding this weekend. You're shocked. I know.

So about two weeks ago, I got an email from a lady at church that her daughter was getting married this weekend. She was looking for someone to take pictures, since they didn't have a photographer, and were running a very low-budget operation. And I thought to myself, "bummer...I hope they find someone."

Then last weekend I saw her email still in my inbox, and my heart was sad thinking about that poor couple who might not have pictures of their wedding, so I just sent her an email to ask if they had found someone.

She called me back... it turns out that someone else at church said she could do it, but she had never done a wedding before and was really nervous. So we decided to both do it, and hopefully between the two of us we would have something turn out.

It ended up working out nicely... I think. She is good at technical stuff and dealing with people, and I'm good at really crazy ideas. That said, will I be doing it again in the near future? No. At least not without backup. My shooting just isn't reliable enough, It took me 325 shots to get about 20 good pictures for them. It was fun though... and it's always fun to have pictures of other people to photoshop.

Halloween

2011-10-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

Wesley's first Halloween, which means we have a victim with no say whatsoever in what he is going to wear.

Which means we still get to be what we want to be

Which is ninjas

But we don't have ninja stuff

So we are Pirates.

Cam made the swords out of boards he found in a free wood pile. Then we spray painted them gold. Add that to the list of times I've been grateful to have gold spray paint on hand.

That is also the best picture of the boot-spats I made him because he HAD to have boots.

This picture totally misses the awesomeness of my pirate socks... I promise they were rockin'.

Shake ya tail feather.

Yurts

2011-10-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia:
"A yurt or ger is a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure traditionally used byTurkic and Mongolic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. A yurt is more home-like than a tent in shape and build, with thicker walls."

In Oregon, they are permanent structures at some campsites, and benefits include heat and electricity. That's how Cam convinced me to actually go camping at the beach in October. We thought no one would be camping mid-week in October, so we didn't even reserve one and just showed up. Apparently they're pretty popular because the first place we went they were full. The next campground we went to we got the last one. Here was our Yurt:

Pretty cool huh? That's the wood-lattace you see in the window. I was pleasantly surprised at how big it was. It would have been a great night of sleep except that we are the worst parents ever and dragged a sick child camping. He was a little sniffly when we left, so we weren't too concerned, but he made us pay for it all night long by getting up hourly.

But it was a beautiful October day for the coast!

Apartment Makeover Part 4: Abstract Expressionism

2011-10-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

One of the difficulties that we have had trying to decorate out apartment is figuring out what to do with the really long walls in our front room. After trying unsuccessfully to find something that fits the space we decided we were going to have to make it ourselves.

We wanted to make a painting that was about 5 feet long, longer than any pre-stretched canvas or stretcher boards I've seen, which means we had to make our own. For stretcher boards, we bought 1x2s from Lowe's and Cameron notched the ends before gluing them together.

We used a leftover drop canvas that Cam used for painting over the summer (although you can get canvas at any art or fabric store). Then we used a staple gun to attach the canvas as we stretched it (do opposing sides first working from the middle out and pull as tight as you possibly can).

We wanted this to be a piece that the whole family could participate in, so we decided to get our Pollock on. It turns out that Wes is quite the budding artist.

Immediately after this picture, baths were had all around.

Our painting took a whole day to dry, and finally got hung up this morning. And now I present to you our work of art:

In the pipeline

2011-10-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I'm still working on getting installment 4 together. I've got quite a few things in the pipeline, but I haven't had much time... or a staplegun. I'm hoping both will be remedied this weekend.

Here's a sneak peek of some of the projects in progress:

In the mean time, I found this fantastic video that I just had to share. It makes me feel a lot better about some of the less-awesome-than-I-wanted-it-to-be projects I've done lately... actually, I feel like I've been in the phase he's talking about for roughly 24 years now... but this brings me a little hope:

3 Months

2011-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our small person is all grown up! Just look at that head lifting! Wesley is now 3 months old, and can crudely grasp things, roll from front to back, sing, and sleep for 6 hours in a row!

This man is well on his way to being as silly as his parents. Here are some of his favorite things:

Sucking on whatever he can get in his mouth, usually his hands
Playing with his ears
Giving himself "wet willies" (see 1 and 2)
Baths (especially the noise of kicking his feet)
Getting his diaper changed. If he wakes up grumpy, a change will put him in a good mood (he especially likes chilly wipes...what a weirdy.)
Standing up (unfortunately he can't do this for himself yet)
Singing (songs with 'Ohhh's get him to sing along)
Cameron's harmonica playing.
Flying with Cam.
When the cute baby in the mirror (his best friend) smiles at him.

Forget Not

2011-09-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I watched a conference for the Relief Society, which is a worldwide organization for women created by the LDS Church.

One of the speakers gave a talk that I absolutely LOVED because it was so true- and it was too good not to share. He used the 5 petals of a forget-me-not to represent 5 things that we should never forget (and I illustrated them for you):

Forget not to be patient with yourself: everyone has strengths and weaknesses—that no one is perfect, even those who may seem so.
Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice: an acceptable sacrifice is giving up “something good for something of far greater worth.” He suggested asking, “Am I committing my time and energies to the things that matter most?” in order to distinguish between good and foolish sacrifices.
Forget not to be happy now: if we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us.”
Forget not the “why” of the gospel: in the routines of daily life, the vital aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ are unintentionally overlooked. “We sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossibly long “to do” lists. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why.”
Forget not that the Lord loves you: “Just think of it: You are known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful, and glorious being in the universe! You are loved by the King of infinite space and everlasting time.” Which is a pretty cool deal.

If you're interested, you can watch the whole thing here.