Jane's Sonic 5th Birthday Party

Jane wanted a Sonic the Hedgehog party for her 5th birthday. So the kids looked for choas emeralds in the playground.

And they proved they were athletic like Sonic in an awesome obstacle course where they ran, dove through tunnels, jumped like crazy, and of course Ran, Ran, Ran.

Here are the kids getting ready for a Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails teams relay race.

Here is Jane blowing out the candles on her Sonic cake featuring the rings he loves to collect and that give him extra power.

Jane and all of her guests had a great time at the party. She claims that next year she wants to have a Super Sonic party. We'll see how long this obsession lasts!

Jane's 3rd Annual Valentine's Party

Here are the party goers for Jane's 3rd Annual Valentine's Party. Pictured is Jane, Sidney, Madeline, Sophia, Reagan, and Lily. This year I wisely decided to keep the guests to 6 (including Jane) and the time to 1 hour. Everyone was in a good mood this year and everyone had a great time!
Funny face time. Reagan wins the prize for best funny faces; she has the greatest sense of humor!

This year the girls made greeting cards from kits I found last year. The girls loved playing with the stickers and the glitter glue. Later they decorated cupcakes. Fun times!
Here are the girls playing Hot Potato to take turns passing out their Valentines. They love playing the game and don't realize that it is an awesome way to enforce turn taking and crowd control.
One of the best parts of the party was unplanned. The girls loved playing with Jane's sunglasses. So cute in their festive dress!
Jane, Maddie, and Reagan lovin' it up!


Jane and Lily.

Teddy's Announcement

Family and friends should be receiving Teddy's birth announcement in the mail any day now. I think it turned out so cute thanks to the great photography of my brother in law Zachary and the software stylings of my fantastic husband. Isn't it great when those around you are aware of their great talents and put them to good use!

Welcome Baby Teddy Truman Cameron

After being induced on December 30, 2008, Ted Truman Cameron joined us in the world! My labor was extremely easy... only 8.5 hours start to finish and 10 pushes. Ted weighed 8 pounds 2 onces (a full 2 pounds lighter than his big sister) and was born at 3:27 pm and was 19.5" long.

I was crying with joy at the arrival of my little boy. I kept saying, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it!" Our journey to have Teddy was so extremely different than the journey to having Jane...it really threw me for a loop!

Little Teddy is soooo cute! Turns out he looks a lot like Jane did at birth, except for a lot trimmer! Even though Jane was 10 pounds 2 onces, we didn't think she was chubby until we compared her with Teddy. Their faces are very similar but Jane deffinitly has her mom's ears and Teddy deffinitly has his dad's.

Our nurse Cody was so nice during the whole induction including picture taking after. She held Teddy like this picture after picture trying to get one of Teddy with his eyes open. When he finally opened his eyes, he expressed his disapproval with the sweetest pout ever! So far he has been such an easy baby and so extrememly cute and sweet. Our family is so blessed to have him here!

Halloween Hijinks Concert

This year we went to the Halloween Hijinks Concert at Abrovanel Hall. They were playing excerpts from Hansel and Gretel and it was a costume party and contest. Jane dressed in her Yoshi costume. They had a neat silhouette station.

There were so many amazing costumes there. My favorites were also the winners. Pictured here is the Beheaded Marie Antoinette and the Marionette.

And my most favorite of all, the Three Ring Circus. I just love the little girl dressed as a tight rope walker! It was a really fun night!

Halloween In Paris - 2007

We are so excited for Halloween this year... Last year we spent the holliday in Disneyland Paris! It was a trip at odds with itself. Of course we were so happy to be in Paris (my favorite city in the world), but Jane was sick and the weather was terrible!


On our first night there, Jane dressed up as Minnie Pumpkin (as we call it) and we headed over to Downtown Disney for a Halloween dinner. True to the French spirit, there was plenty of yummy cheeses. Also there was face painting and scary/funny Pumpkinhead men wandering around.
Jane wanted to be Minnie on Mars for Halloween, and even though she didn't get to wear her costume to go trick-or-treating, she was still able to wear it to preschool and dance parties. Pluto thought she looked pretty amazing!

We stayed in a Disney hotel. I was expecting Disney to really take charge and make a great hotel, but the European spirit is king there (I guess). Our hotel lacked many ammenities and the hallways smelled like armpits. But they did have a character greating every morning and Jane was delighted to get to spend some time with her favorite mouse!

On October 31st, we were actually done with Disneyland and spent the day sightseeing in Paris. We stayed in a fantastic hotel on the Champs Elysees. There is a Disney Store on that street and they didn't forget to celebrate Halloween, but everyone else did! Actually, we saw two children dressed in costume... I guess they were visiting Paris on Halloween as well. Although Jane and I enjoyed our trip and will always cherish the memories, we are both excited to spend this Halloween at home. Jane is chomping at the bit to go Trick-or-Treating and has been practicing nightly! And I can't wait for her to share her booty with me!

Two Costumes for Halloween?!?

It is my personal philosophy that kids should be able to choose whoever/whatever they want to be for Halloween. Last year, when Jane wanted to be Minnie Mouse on Mars, I went to great lengths to track down a giant outdoor light post globe to use for an astronaut helmet. This year Jane said she wanted to be Yoshi from Nintendo. After thinking about how I could create that and doing some research on eBay (and noticing that no Yoshi costumes were for sale), I determined it was beyond my capabilities and told Jane she would have to choose something else.

Jane was pretty easily swayed and decided that she wanted to be a fairy. I thought it would be cute to be Ginger from the show "Johnny and the Sprites". Jane agreed. So I set out to make the costume. Jane seemed pretty excited, but when all was said and done she thought that she looked like Rooney from the "Doodlebops" and she grieved that she was not going to be Yoshi. On a whim, I checked eBay again. To my surprise, there was a child's Yoshi costume up for auction. It wouldn't fit Jane, but it did have some pretty good pictures of the construction and I could see how it could be done.

Last Thursday I went to the fabric store after brainstorming with Jason about how it could be done. To my dismay, almost all of the costume patterns sold out. I ended up with 7 yards of fabric and 3 patterns. Jason kept Jane out of the house for the entire day (we were keeping the costume a surprise) and after 10 hours and two different sets of eyes and nose the costume was complete.


The morning of October 25th, Jane got the surprise of her life. She was ecstatic to have the costume of her dreams! And I was pretty proud of myself that I was able to do it! Hopefully next year we won't have to go through so many costumes before we get it right!