Trip to NC Cabin

We took a long weekend in September & headed to our new cabin in Murphy, NC. This was our first time staying at the cabin & we really loved it. We spent the weekend purchasing a lot of house items (towels, sheets, cleaning supplies, dishes, etc) & working to get it all set up for us & any renters that we might have. Charles had fun making a fire pit in the yard & Cameron of course loved helping :) I am really looking forward to making a lot of great family memories there.

Visiting the Ocoee river, the site of the 1996 Olympic Whitewater Rafting

Sitting on the banks of the river


Watching for rafters (I can't wait until Cam & Olivia are old enough to do it!)

Charles & Cam preparing the place for the fire pit

Hauling the stones to the pit

The finished project :) It looked great!!

(And he made steps leading down to the pit)

We were in town just at the right time to attend a huge craft & vendor show at the Campbell Folk School which is just down the road from our cabin. We had a nice time walking around although it was freezing! Here are some cute pictures from a photo spot at the event.

Here are some pictures of the cabin....... (sorry I posted them out of order)

Guest bedroom2nd Guest Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Kitchen

Kitchen Nook (door leads to back patio deck)

Family room (view from upstairs)

Mountain view from front deck

Cam's Garbage Truck Party

When I asked Cameron what theme he wanted for his birthday party garbage trucks wasn't what I was expecting but it really shouldn't have been a surprise seeing as how much he LOVES garbage trucks right now. I was hesitant to use that theme but when I looked online for party ideas I was so surprised with all the great party ideas I found! So we had the BEST garbage truck party for Cameron's 3rd birthday! Charles was able to find a garbage truck company that was willing to come to the party & the look on Cameron's face when it arrived was priceless! He was so happy!! The garbage man, Aaron, did a great job showing the kids all about the truck & then let each child sit in the truck & blow the horn, which they all loved! We had about 50 people at the party & I think everyone had a great time.

The arrival of the garbage truck

Playing the "trash pick-up"game using the robot claws that were party favors

(an idea I found online)

Running to put the trash in the garbage truck

All the kids with their trash bags

Looking inside the truck

Sitting in the truck

One of the only family photos we took, we were so busy at the party we forgot to take more photos together

The cake :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Cameron!!!!

Cameron's 1st Day of Preschool & Birthday

Cameron's first day of preschool was August 29th. This is his first year going to school and he goes Monday, Wednesday & every other Friday from 8:30 to 11:45. His school is St. Paul's Christian School. His first day went really well! I was nervous that he would be upset about going into the classroom but he ran right in & started playing (I didn't even get a goodbye hug!)
Cameron's 3rd birthday was on Friday, Sept. 2nd and I enjoyed being able to celebrate his birthday with his class. I brought cookie monster cupcakes to the class at snack time & the kids sang happy birthday.

First day :)

Playing with the trucks in class




Olivia playing while I set up the cupcakes





I like school too!

Adorable cupcakes made by a local bakery

Cameron & his classmates

Mommy & her birthday boy :)

Birthday dinner with family

Playing with his new garbage truck

Olivia at Nine Months

Olivia is getting more and more of a personality every day! At her 9 month check up she weighed 18lbs, 3 oz & was 26 3/4" tall. She is in the 20th percentile for height & 40th for weight, almost exactly what Cameron was at her age. He got his big growth spurt at about 2 years & now he is in the 75th percentile for height. She is sleeping a little better, she will sleep 8 pm to 5 am then nurse & sleep until about 7 am. She just started the meals with meat & loves them! Hurray! For someone who hated food until about 8 months, she now loves everything. Too funny!
She just started standing & only took her about a couple of weeks before she started walking along furniture.

First time with shoes!

Wait, what is on my feet????


Gotta check this out.......

Second time standing......trying to get in the toy box

Look at me!

This car has got to be her favorite toy! As soon as she is on the floor, it's the first thing she crawls toward. She will climb in it herself & sit in the seat. So cute!!!

She loves the tupperware cabinet but unfortunately it only entertains her for about 1 minute as she just likes to empty all the tupperware out onto the floor!

Mark- Our Exchange Student from China

During the first week of August, we hosted another exchange student, Mark, who was from China. Mark is 15 years old and this was his first trip to the US. He stayed with us for about 10 days & we really enjoyed his visit! He spoke english well so it was pretty easy to communicate with him. He had nice manners & loved learning about our culture.
While he was here we took him to Salt Springs, where we went swimming & Charles took him horseback riding. We were sad to see him go since it was such a short visit!

Playing outside with Cameron

At the Springs

Swimming at my parents' house

Watching the boys in the pool. Poor Olivia wanted to swim too!

Mark & us at the farewell party for the exchange students

All of the Chinese exchange students who visited Ocala (there were about 40)

Mark giving a presentation at the party