Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Cameron Kingston


Cameron turns 2 in three weeks. So hard to believe. I know, everyone tells you "they grow up so fast", "enjoy the moments because they are gone way too fast", and so forth. As a mom with little ones, you just politely smile and nod and think to yourself that you will NEVER be done with spit up and explosive diapers. But as we are all finding out on our own, it truly does go by way too fast. We still hold on the the little things that remind us of when they were itty bitty. Sometimes it's using the baby scented lotion as long as we can because we just LOVE that sweet smell as we snuggle with a book after bath time. Other times it's leaving the baby curls as long as possible until one day you realize they are long enough to braid.

We are still enjoying the sweet baby lotion smell during after bath snuggles. But as for the long baby curls, well, those are no longer with us.

My aunt has been doing hair in Orange County longer than I have been alive. She is amazing. She is the only person I trust to cut my hair and my kids hair. Well, I was looking at the boys hair starting to curl INTO his ears I looked at the calendar and realized it will be several weeks before I make a trip down to see my amazing aunt. So, being the smart woman I am, I took matters into my own hands. I decided to cut the cute, long, blond curls myself. I know, at this point, anyone reading this is wincing because you all know what happens next. My poor beautiful, handsome boy received his first REALLY BAD haircut. In my defense, he is a moving target that WILL NOT sit still. Knowing this I decided to do it in the bath while he was distracted with bath toys. Didn't matter, he was still all over the place. And his haircut reflected that. Cameron couldn't care less personally. He had no clue what was going on up top. I, on the other hand knew the extent of my actions and was fearful of daddy coming home to see what I had done. Dan was very nice and gracious about the whole thing. He said, "Well, it isn't long and in his ears anymore. It doesn't look that bad." Then, the more he looked at it, the more he realized the extent of the damage.

Watching the happy little boy run around with a messed up dome finally got to Dan. So tonight, Dan took matters into his own hands. He brought out the clippers. I thought for sure the noise would make our sensitive boy cry in a second (this is the kid that cries every time Dan blows his nose. He HATES big noises.) He did surprisingly well. He just buried his little face into my chest and waited for it to be over. A few minutes later as Cameron and I sat there with the last of his sweet little blond baby curls now laying on my lap I realized: as much as I want to hold onto the baby moments, he is turning into the big boy. And now he has the studly, big boy hair cut to prove it.




I am officially resigning my hair cutting shears and leaving the job to those with real talent in that area. I am so sorry Aunt Mary that I didn't wait for you! I learned my lesson at my poor Cam's expense.

Also, to reserve Cameron's dignity, I did not take any pictures of the REALLY BAD haircut. Sorry if that disappoints anyone.

Next on the list to prove his big boy status: potty training! Just wait until VBS is over little Cam. It's you, me and the potty (and treats for bribing of course)!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Tom's

Ash Canvas Women's Classics

Again, I realize I am way behind the times on this one too. My beautiful and smart sister has been telling me for a while now how amazing Tom's shoes are. I finally heeded her advice and ordered my first pair (and a pair of pink glitter ones for Taylor!). I am super excited but this news isn't really blog worthy. The real reason I am posting this is for fellow Tom's shoes lovers. I found an online coupon code for $5 off Tom's shoes. $5 isn't a ton of money buy hey, every little bit helps! If any of you are in the market for a new pair of great, comfy and globally friendly shoes, check out the coupon code here: http://www.mommymatter.com/toms-shoes-coupons/ . For those that don't know about Tom's shoes, they are really a great company. For every pair of shoes that is purchased, they donate a pair to kids in countries in need. They call it "One for One". You can get more details on that on their website: http://www.toms.com/
Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A Magical Day

Preface: This post is mainly to share pictures with family that are not local, but please enjoy none the less.

As previously mentioned a few posts ago, the kids and I went to Disneyland & CA Adventure with my family. However, I only posted pictures of Taylor with the princesses in that post. So here are a few more pictures from our magical day.
Side note: there are not a ton of  pictures with a happy Cameron because he was having an "I only want mommy to hold me all day" kind of day. I got my share of snuggles that day for sure. I will take them any chance I get!
Winnie the Pooh wasn't out to take pictures with so we borrowed his spot.

The kids with Nana getting ready for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Cameron was in heaven! He LOVES Winnie the Pooh!

Taylor was having a grouchy moment and didn't want to meet Goofy, Cameron was pretty pumped though!


So neither of my kids really look at the camera when you want them to...


This is inside the Playhouse Disney Live show, I wasn't really supposed to be using my camera so that is why the picture is a little fuzzy and sideways. But she was having so much fun dancing!




The one of a kind, Taylor Mahaffie action figure. Sorry, not for sale.


This is how excited Cameron was about having lunch with the Princesses...






















Trevor and Nana on Casey Jr. Circus Train.


This train ride gets pretty wild I guess...



Super excited to ride her favorite ride, Thunder Mountain!


Somehow this is the only picture I got of my beautiful sister that day...I failed!


Not really sure what Taylor is trying to do here but Cameron doesn't seem to mind regardless.
 
...and they crashed!
  We had a super fun day. But that is expected when you spend the day at "the happiest place on earth" right?

Friday, May 6, 2011

Life through the eyes of Taylor

This past week Taylor has had a big interest in using my camera to take pictures by herself. We just have a basic 'point and shoot' camera so it works out well. She has actually taken some really good pictures (at least I think so, I know those that are photography savvy might not agree entirely).

And since we have had such great weather this past week, we have been outside every chance we get.

So, Taylor's new found photography interest + a lot of outdoor time= a post of outdoor pictures taken by Taylor!

(except for the above picture, I took that one). Enjoy.



New meaning to 'sand castle'.


Strawberry plants in our new little garden.
                                             


Her foot (with super sweet Band-Aids of course).


Maple Leaf.

One of her favorite places to be when outside.
 

Not a very willing subject. He is saying "Stop!"



Cameron showing his excitement in the progress of our garden.






  







Watch out world!


The deepest brown eyes I have ever seen!
 So there you have it. Not bad for a four year old just walking around the backyard with a camera!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Tale of Two Fish

History: For Cameron's first birthday last June we had an Elmo themed party. For party favors, we gave every kid a real "Dorothy", Elmo's pet gold fish (which were WAY cheaper than party favor bags by the way). So Taylor and Cameron of course got their own goldfish that day as well. For $.17 feeder fish these things are amazing! It has been almost a year and we still have them.

Well, we still have Cameron's.

Fast forward to yesterday.

After running a few errands, I stumbled into the house with a cranky little boy demanding "Ju-Ju" (juice in the language of Cameron, a highly sophisticated yet rare and mostly unknown language) and a little girl that REALLY needed to go potty. Nothing out of the ordinary. Cam and I head to the kitchen while Taylor made a dash for the bathroom. A minute later she comes rushing into the kitchen sobbing hysterically. I finally get words out of her. Something about she only had one fish left and now she has none. (Our fish bowls are on the bathroom counter so they can see them) I thought she just couldn't see the fish in it's bowl and thought it died or was gone (that has happened before). I follow my poor little crushed girl into the bathroom to see her little fish on the bathroom counter, out of the bowl, and, well, not living anymore. She was wailing at this point. (P.S. who knew a goldfish could just jump out of it's bowl like that?!)

Not knowing really what was going on but being mom, I just wanted to make it all better. I figured I should get rid of the little thing on the counter ASAP since she is just staring at it, hysterically crying. (In hindsight, not the best thing I have ever done by the way). So I picked it up and tossed it into the potty. Remember, Taylor rushed into the bathroom to go potty and that is when she found her fish. Well, she DID go potty before she found the fish BUT she didn't have a chance to flush yet. In my panic to get rid of the visual loss, I didn't realized that until after I had already dropped it in. I tried to block Taylor from seeing that and just flushed really quick. SHE WENT NUTS! Not only had her fish died, and she was the one to find it, her mommy just put it in the potty with her pee and just flushed it away. I think she may have wanted to hold a memorial service or something a little more respectful.

So, at this point I am just trying to think quick to sooth my poor girls broken heart that I just made worse. So what do I do, I suggest we go to the fish store and get a new one. At first she was just wanting her fish to come back to life but then the thought of getting a new one sounded pretty good.

I loaded my still cranky and now crushed children into the car and headed for the fish store. (Side note, when Taylor cries, Cameron starts to cry. It's his way of showing sympathy I think. So now I have two crying kids)

After checking out all the fish, we got her a new fish.
It isn't exactly the $.17 feeder goldfish she had before.
The softy, guilt ridden mommy may have upgraded her fish a little.
And the bowl.
Which needed a pink castle with pink rhinestones of course.
 Meet Ariel, Taylor's new "Crown Tailed Beta" fish. (She is convinced it is a girl because no boy fish can be that fancy).

I should also mention that Dan was at school all day so he missed all the "fun".
When he got home I mentioned to him that Taylor's fish decided it wanted to see the wide wide world and so it jumped out of it's bowl. He isn't wild about the fish to begin with so he wasn't too sad about it. Then I mentioned that I took her to get a new fish (leaving out the whole upgrading part). He looked at me with the "are you kidding me" face. He figured that since Cameron still had his two fish they could both just be happy with sharing the two remaining fish. I just said, "hey, you weren't there. You didn't see her little heart break at the sight of her deceased fish. I had to do something." Then he went into the bathroom and saw the bowl, the castle and the not a $.17 feeder goldfish. Yes, I got the "are you kidding me" face again.
Although he seems insensitive about it all, here's the thing. Dan is a giant marshmallow inside when it comes to his kids. I guarantee that if he were home when it all went down he would have done the same thing (except the part where I put the dead fish in the unflushed toilet). He may have even got the crown to go with the castle.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Spring Cleaning

Typically "Spring Cleaning" for me consists of going into the deep, dark recesses of closets, cupboards and drawers; giving it a good deep clean, determining what stays and what goes and re-organizing the contents when they are returned to the place they belong. Along with cleaning every corner of the home, top to bottom.
Well, since 98% of our belongings are in boxes stored in two different garages, "Spring Cleaning" doesn't quite look like that for me these days. I did go through the dressers and closets we have and re-organized them a little and sorted through the kids toys but that was done in about an hour.

Dan and his dad, Mark, started a discipleship ministry at our church called Frontline. It is all about equipping the next generation to take the baton, be ready to be on the offense, on the "frontlines" of this battle we are in. It has been amazing! Through this, God has been slowly exposing the deep dark corners of my heart in a LOT of different ways. It isn't as fun as cleaning out a closet most of the time. It hurts. But it's good. One of the challenges that has been resounding in my head and heart is being a good steward of my time, carefully selecting (and rejecting) my priorities, and seeking wisdom from God what my priorities and ministries really need to be. It sounds pretty basic, I know.

Sometimes as a pastors wife it is really easy to see a need in a ministry, person, activity, etc and just jump in to take care of it myself since the needs are great but the helping hands are few at times. Rarely do I step back and ask God if HE wants me to be the one to take care of the need. I just jump in and do it. I mean really, how hard is it to play with 2 year olds for an hour (just turn on the bubble machine and they are in HEAVEN for at least 45 minutes of that hour) or to set up a craft day for moms and their kids. Not hard at all. But when all of those seemingly small things start to pile up on my hours, days and weeks, it turns into hours at the computer e-mailing, re-formatting forms, coordinating events, researching activities, decorating Sunday school rooms, etc. Those "small things" have been robbing my kids of hours, days and weeks that I can't get back to give to them. Instead of playing tag in  the back yard and going on rollie pollie hunts I am stressing myself out over finding the right type of mulch for the church playground.

I'm not saying all of these "things" and ministries are not important and needed by any means. I am saying that God has really been convicting me of my priorities and schedule. He is showing me that "Spring Cleaning" needs to take place in my life, not my cupboards.

I need Him to go into the deep dark recesses of my heart, clean out all the cobwebs that busyness has allowed to gather where joy once resided. I need to look at the things I am "doing", determine what stays and what goes and re-organize the way I do those things before I put them back into my schedule.
I think the moment that hit me between the eyes was last week. I was rushing from thing to thing, trying to get all of the "things" checked off my to-do list. In the midst of that was my sweet Taylor girl asking her mommy if she would play with her, read a book to her, go watch her swing in the backyard, etc. I kept telling her "just a minute", getting more and more frustrated each time she interrupted me. Then she asked me in the sweetest voice tinged with a little hurt, "mommy, am I annoying?" I just wept and held her. Totally crushed at my own ugliness, showing my precious girl that these "things" were more important to me than she was at that moment. Not many things get by this girl. She felt the frustration in my voice at her requests. Suddenly repulsed by my "things" that I have allowed to rob my kids of quality time they need, I walked away from the computer and have not gone back. I wiped everything off my schedule and am currently praying for wisdom of what to allow back in and to what degree. In the mean time we have had a lot of rollie pollie hunting, tag, swinging, bubbles, baking, coloring, song singing, garden building and book reading. The level of joy in our house has multiplied exponentially. The kids responses to direction has even changed. Instead of responding with a huff and puff and the 'but why?' there has been more willingness for blind obedience, not always needing to know the 'why' but just doing it with a happy heart anyway.
This has all been such a HUGE reminder of the massive responsibility I have as mama not just to provide for their needs, bathe them, and say prayers with them at bed time. All of these "things" and ministries mean absolutely nothing in light of my joy and privilege it is to raise these kids up in the knowledge of Christ, to pour every minute of every day that I have into them because all too soon they won't be wanting to go hunt rollie pollies and dance in a whirlwind of bubbles with me.

Thank you Lord for opening my eyes to my sin of busyness that I have allowed to take me from the most important ministry you have given me, being Mama to my precious Taylor and Cameron.