Down on the farm...

Tonight we went to this fun place near us called Johnson's farm. It has an awesome playgound, farms animals you can feed, a hayride and you get to pick fruit. Cameron had a blast! He love picking the fruit the best- we got apples and nectarines. Yummy! Azer pretty much slept the whole time- which was nice. Here are some pictures of our adventure:

Now that's a good lookin' bunch- LOL!

We're learning about Cows this week so this was fun for Cameron.

Getting a peek from the Az-man

Cameron riding the "go-carts". Really Ryan had to push him the whole way-
but he still enjoyed it!

Picking the fruit.

Love the smiles

We have some Cuuuuuuuutttttteeeeee kids! I'm not biased at all ;)

WE HAVE CONTACT!

So after my post the other day about Cameron's potty training we took the fabulous comments into consideration and went at it a little harder these past few days. Ryder played a HUGE roll in getting Cameron's "big boy underwear" on. We showed Cameron Ryder's picture wearing them and he was all for it! YAY! He did also poop and pee in them a couple of times yesterday- not so yay there- but it's got to start somewhere, right?? We've also been setting a timer and asking him every so often if he wants to sit on the potty. If he does then he gets a skittle. I did NOT want to bribe him with candy but I DO want him potty trained before he's married so whatever works at this point! LOL! We of course had to take pictures of the momentous occasion- what kind of mother would I be if I didn't ;)

C. chilling on the potty

And the BEST news of all?? Today he actually pee'd on the potty!! YAY Cameron!!!

Beach baby, Beach baby...

As we only live just over an HOUR from the beach we had to go before Ryan's school started and we got too busy and we missed the season. We had a great time and I'm sure we're going to have lots of fabulous times next summer. I Lalalalalove being so close to a beach. Cameron was hesitant about the water and preferred to be on the sand but he did get in a couple of times.

The water seemed a littler warmer than the CA beaches I've been to and there were a TON of jellyfish. They looked like ice on the sand. There was a little kid near us touching them so I don't think they were dangerous- but we all steered clear nonetheless. There was also way LESS seaweed. Hooray!

Cool dude Cameron

Azer was a happy little guy.

Making sand castles

Putting Azer's feet in the sand/water for the first time.

Making Cookies

Cameron LOVES to help anytime he can in the kitchen. If he sees Anyone in there doing Anything he is pulling a chair from the table to come and help. Most of the time I am guilty of trying to dissuade him from "helping" but the other day I decided that was not the right attitude to have so we made cookies together. Here are some pictures of our fun:

Pouring some flour- *we* may have added a little too much.

Missed the bowl by about an inch....

Yummy dough

Getting ready to bake

The delicious end result!!

The clean-up may have been a little harder but the process was SO much more fun!

The joys of the mobile

The pictures say it all:

Mini-Me

This morning Ryan was getting ready for his orientation at the Law School. Cameron was roaming around in his pj's. We went downstairs to get breakfast started and Cameron came down a few minutes later dressed as Ryan's mini-me. That kid is too funny! Granted the clothes were in the dirty pile and he got the shirt on backwards- but it's the thought, right?

Ryan and his mini-me.

At least we've now got a viable Halloween option- Dr.Evil and mini-me. Guess it's time to start shopping for the gray suits and bald caps.

Best Friends

Shortly after Azer was born Cameron started getting harder to put to bed at night. He wanted someone to lay by him while he went to sleep. "Byyyyyy youuuuuuuu" is what he would say every night in his sad voice. We've been kind of going along with it because of all the changes/transitions he's had to deal with recently. After we'd been in NJ about a week we decided to break that habit so I tried to give him a stuffed bear to do "by you". He wanted none of that- however he did ask for "Ifinity e beyon" (yes he's becoming bilingual- don't be jealous- LOL!). So now he goes to bed with Buzz. And the lights on and door open- but it's progress.

Cameron and Buzz all wrapped up.

No Quite Ready Yet

So we've made a couple of attempts at trying to get Cameron started potty training. We tried again today and he let us know that he wasn't ready yet...

Ryan: Do you want to go pee in the potty?? (Taking off his old diaper)
Cameron: Shakes head no.
R: We can put cheerios in!
C: Diaper on. (In Cameron's whiny voice)
R: You can go pee outside!!
C: Diaper on.
R: Do you want to wear big boy underwear?
C: Diaper on.
(This was all repeated a couple of times with the same response every time- HA!)

Any tips on getting him ready?? Tara??? Do I need to send him to Anne? ;)

Brothers

It really makes me smile when Cameron asks to hold Azer....

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

So there are some things that are going to take some getting used to living in Jersey. Most the adjustments I'm going to have to make have to deal with driving. If any of you have driven with me before you know that being a patient driver is NOT one of my strong points. So this could be a rough little while- HA! Here are some things I've noticed that I just have to make a note of.

1. The ..ahem.. "round"abouts. Yeah. They all (all the one's I've come across to this point anyway) seem to have road going through them- and have about 300 stop lights at each "round"about. There are also Do Not Enter signs at what seems like every way you can turn. Trying to navigate these with a yelling toddler and crying baby have been, well, interesting to say the least. Lots of the green monster, er, minivan cutting people off. At least I had AZ plates. Muahahhahaha!

2. Left turns, or lack there of. If you are trying to go somewhere that is on your left you will most likely have to turn right at a light, make a u-turn, go straight, make another u-turn, turn right and then go straight until you can turn right into your destination. I kid you not, these are the directions TomTom gave me to get from my house to the local Walmart. Which brings me to my next point....

3. The sides of street are all covered by lots of beautiful, green, lush trees. There are several streets that don't have signs on the street indicating where the store is. It's a good thing I have the eyes of a buffalo hunter or we never would have found Walmart.

4. The trash and recycling. They actually have trucks that drive around with men holding onto the sides and get out and throw your garbage into the truck!! Can you imagine?? The major downside of this is that there are just bags of garbage and small garbage bins sitting around the neighborhood (and city for that matter) on trash day. Not really a pretty sight. We also seem to have garbage/ recycling overflowing in our backyard because your garbage bins can't be that big or they won't be able to lift them into the truck. So come every Wednesday our yard begins to resemble the startings of a landfill- and smells like one to. Ewwwwwww.

5. Cold swimming water. Enough said.

Settled in New Jersey

Well, we are mostly settled in in New Jersey now, and almost all the unpacking is done. We went and got the van and April registered and licensed, respectively this morning. We should be watching the weather reports this week so we can get over to see the ocean one day very soon.

I can confirm after last night that our house is waterproof. It rained from about 10am Sunday until this morning at about 8am, really hard. A guy on the news at midnight said we had received about 2 inches of rain. The drivers side wiper on my van still doesn't work right, so I really need to try to fix that today. It's rain like this that makes this place so green and keeps the farmers from having to irrigate. Oh, and the sweet corn here is a pretty sorry kind of corn compared to sweet corn from other parts. They call it Jersey Corn and locals think it's the best corn ever grown.

Also, due to lightning, the power went out at church about 15 minutes after sacrament meeting and the bishop didn't cancel church so classes went on with a few meager emergency lights on. This upset Cameron a little bit and he was bothered by the lighting and thunder the rest of the day and didn't want to go to bed until we gave him his bear that we told him would keep him safe from the thunder.

Our TV and internet finally got connected right on Saturday, so we are connected to the world again regardless of how my unknown neighbors wireless router and cable modem are working.

April's mother and Daniel came out and helped us unpack and get used to the area shopping etc. They both know where the Target is and Daniel can find a handful of other stores from our house, too. Thanks for all the help, everyone.

Three Months!!

So we had a busy month in Idaho and now we are getting settled in NJ. We are all very excited for this new adventure - and Cameron and Azer have both adjusted well to all the changes that they've gone through recently. They're troopers. We'll have another update post but I just wanted to get Azer's three month pictures up here.

My chunky monkey :) HA!

The smile that melts hearts everywhere.

Azer's version of "To Infinity and Beyond!"