Dishes, Cake, and Costumes

We'll as usual it has been crazy around here lately, I don't think that a day goes by that I don't think that I will actually loose my mind. I have found a little relief in the house cleaning department. Bailey decided that she wanted to do the dishes and she was in love, amen thank you Jesus. She loved playing in the water, she says "its so much fun mommy!" I say knock yourself out kid, ha!

We had a Halloween bash at Joe Marina tonight, complete with costume contest, that we won last year as Cinderella. But no such luck this year. Its amazing to me how I can slave and slave making a tooth fairy costume and not win a thing, but a store bought Cinderella costume and your a sure win, who knew? Anyways, Bailey wanted to be the tooth fairy so I made a wand, sweatshirt with a giant tooth that says Tooth Fairy, a goody bag with a giant tooth that says Teeth, and one big fluffy multi-colored, and don't forget glitter filled tutu. But as you can see it was worth all the work and she looks adorable. Miss Campbell is a pumpkin fairy complete with orange wings and tutu. I will be sure to take extra good pics on Halloween to show all my intricate details, ha!

On Tuesday we took Campbell for her 1st birthday pictures so of course we had to have a cake. Since I decided to wait until the last minute I had to decorate the cake myself. So I headed to hobby Lobby and a few hours, some ribbon and scrapbook paper later we have a 1 year birthday cake, and yes I think I should go in the cake decorating business, not baking just decorating, they have a degree for that , right? Oh and by the way after we got to the picture place and were ready for the cake pictures, of course my sweet baby would have nothing to do with it and proceeded to start crying, go figure.

Going Shopping

Campbell's 1st Birthday Party

I know you have waited long enough so here they are the pictures from Campbell's 1st Birthday.  I first have to give a great big THANK YOU to my friend and neighbor, Megan, who took all these great pictures for me.  It made the party that much better since I wasn't running around with a camera in my hand, and she took awesome pictures, so thanks again Megan, I really appreciate it.

 We'll lets begin with my favorite thing, decor.  I made all the decor myself with a little extra help from Ms. Megan again, I'm so lucky to have such great neighbors.  The pom poms above were made by Megan and I, they were so cute and cheap, always an added bonus.

 I also made this tutu wreath.  It turned out so cute.  I added pictures and a big C on it.  It got big raves and it now hangs on her bedroom door, to cute.

 Of course I got the cake at Merritt's.  They have never let me down on a cake and they always do such a great job.  I took the invitation in and they were able to match the cake to it.  I had secret personal issues about cutting it because it was so cut,e I wanted to freeze it and keep it forever, ha ha.

 I also made sacks that had pictures of Campbell thru her first year on them, this way people had something to look at while they were eating.  I then put tissue paper in them and balloons and used them as centerpieces.  This again was really easy and very cheap.

 I made this name banner along with the happy birthday one below.  I had planned to hang things outside but the wind was not working with me so we made due and hung things inside.  In the end it was a great party and I was so happy with how well it all came together.  Campbell was in a great mood the whole time I could not have asked for anything better.

      We also rented a Jupiter Jump that kept the kids entertained.  Here is a view of the patio.

 This is the super cute cookie bouquet my best friend Jennifer sent.  It had a barn, cow, duck, pig, and horse on it, it was so cute.  Only issue with this is Campbell doesn't eat sugar cookies yet, so guess who did?Thanks Jenn!

 Its hard to believe its been a year and even crazier to think of where we were this time last year.  Its amazing to think how much a child grows in a year, but thank God she grew and I shrank :)

              Miss Campbell checking out pictures of herself.

    This car was her absolute most favorite thing, she insists that we ride in it daily.

 When it was cake time she wanted nothing to do with the cake, but loved to hear everybody singing to her.

              The Melton Family

Happy Birthday Campbell

On September 28, 2010 Campbell Avery Melton officially turned one year old.  Unfortunately it was not exactly the best 1st birthday.  The night before Campbell came down with a stomach bug and was throwing up all night, she was unable to hold anything down.  This lasted into the next morning, her birthday.  After we made it thru that hurdle the diarrhea began, and it is still going.  We are getting closer to being normal again, but we are not there yet.  After Campbell became sick I got my own dose 2 days later along with Bailey, so needless to say it has not been a fun couple of weeks around here.  Although Campbell is better she still does not fully have her appetite back and she also has a skin rash derived from this so called virus that she has, I think that's what they call it when they don't know what you have.

Although she was sick we had a little get together to celebrate her 1st birthday.  We had a spaghetti dinner followed by some cake from Merritt's, yum.  She wasn't really interested in her cake, other than smooshing her hand into it, after that she wanted nothing to do with it.

Campbell's official 1st birthday party was this past Saturday and I will be posting those pictures tomorrow with all the details, so stay tuned ya'll.

Crazy Week

We have had quite a week around here. I went back to work on Monday, I have started working an extra 2 days a week, Monday and Wednesday. But I also worked Tuesday as well this week, and I am worn out. I enjoyed working it is just going to take a little time to get used to the change. Getting up and getting two kids ready as well as yourself is a bit draining, I'm exhausted before I'm even out the door. Campbell is going to St.Stephens, the same preschool that Bailey went to. It is the only place I feel comfortable leaving her and she really did well the first week. I think she enjoyed being around other kids and having lots to keep her busy, and best of all she even found a snotty nose while she was there and mommy is loving it. Bailey is doing awesome in school. It is amazing how much she is learning, she is reading and sounding out words, and is very into reading books to me, which is great. She is always telling me the sounds that each letter makes and she is just constantly reading and sounding out any words that she sees from books to the cereal box.

I am still doing lawns as well so between work, lawns, kids, family, it gets a little crazy, but we are figuring it all out. The girls are doing great and they get along so well. Campbell is cruising around the furniture but no walking yet, which is perfectly fine with me. We have 11 more days and we will offically have a 1 year old in our house. I cant believe that its almost here, its amazing how much things change in a year.

Bathtime Fun

Tim gave Campbell a bath in the sink the other night. We do this allot because she fits in perfectly and its just allot easier than kneeling over the tub, and she seems to like it to. We'll Tim was giving her a bath because I was deliriously tired, and my actions proved it even more. I was getting things ready and came back to check on the water and thought wow that's allot of bubbles, I then realized that I had put dawn soap in the water. I thought it wouldn't hurt to put her in and let me tell you she had the time of her life in bubble heaven.

It may be hard to see but if you look in the bottom back of Campbell's mouth you will see her new teeth. She has some of her big back chompers in and she is using them full force. She now has 8 total teeth and 2 half sized teeth, its amazing.

10 and 11 Months Old

We'll what better way to start out this post than to do it with a naked baby picture.  Miss Campbell Avery turned 10 months old on July 28, 2010.  And a very special event happened on that very day, she started to crawl.  It's not just any crawl, no it is a very special crawl that needs a post all to itself.  I like to call it the pirate shuffle, you see, as in the picture above that is what she looks like when she is crawling.  One knee is supporting her and the other is dragged to the side, like a pirate with a wooden leg.  It is how she has done it from day one and it looks as if this is how it will remain.  But it is adorable and hilarious to watch.

On August 28th, 2010 Campbell turned 11 months old.  Its so hard to believe that the next post will be 12 months, craziness.  In this last month Campbell has been very busy, she is crawling, pulling up, cruising, getting new teeth as we speak.  She currently has 4 teeth across the top and 2 on the bottom and now 2 bottom back teeth have come in as well, for a grand total of 8, wow.  She has handled it very well, the worse it waking up a few times a night but she always goes right back to sleep. 

She is eating well, we are trying new things all the time, but we still pretty much stick with baby food.  Some textures seem to throw her off, but she loves yogurt, bread, cheese, mashed potatoes, and many others.  We have also started some milk as well.  We usually have this with our meals in a sippy cup.  We have gone organic in the Melton household, not everything, but allot of our dairy products and things like chicken nuggets and fish.  

We tried taking our normal picture in the crib but that just wasn't happenin.  Miss Campbell was up and about so we just had to go with it.  She is a growing girl at 23 pounds and 31 inches long.  She is wearing 12-18 month clothes right now and I'm not sure how much longer that will last. 

Her she is doing what she does best, pulling up on anything that will stand still.  Her vocabulary has become more pronounced.  She says mama and dada, and we call Bailey sissy, but Campbell says it KiKi, its so cute.  At 10 months she started the whole reaching up her arms when she wants to bed held and now at 11 months that has turned in to bird flappin.  She puts her arms in the air and starts flapping them until you pick her up.

Now, I know that you all can tell from this picture that I desperately need to get my baby some toys to play with, ha, yeah right.  Its pretty sad when your 11 months old  already has her own dedicated section of the living room, which is larger than anyone else's might I add.  But this is usually how you will see Miss Cami these days, the back of her.  She always crawling somewhere or found something that she can go through.  She also loves to pull on cords in the bathroom.  Yes the cord of a curling iron that is, no it wasn't on, thank god, but mommies curling iron no longer has an end, seems they break when they hit tiled surfaces, fyi :)

A few days ago it was beautiful outside so we spent some time there.  You may be wondering how I get anything done outside during the day, well thanks to these handy little inventions I can.  The other morning I put her on the back porch in her bouncy saucer and entertained her with some yard mowing.  I think she was quit impressed with her old lady's skills, maybe she'll take over the family business someday, haha!!

These two pictures were both taken at 10 months.  It's amazing to see how they change in just a year.  Campbell is just a wonderful little girl with an awesome demeanor about her.  She is very laid back and very nosy.  I say that in a good way, she is always checking things out to see whats going on.  She likes to watch a situation before making a move to jump into it, its very neat to watch her.  You can see that she is just taking in so much and just processing everything she can. 

I love this picture.  This has been something we have started in the last week.  She likes for me to raise the blinds and she just looks out the window, more of her being nosy I guess.  But she does it in the front yard  and the back as well.  It just makes you wonder what their little minds are thinking, I may regret saying that in a month or two when the words really start coming out of her mouth, ha!!