Life as the days go by...Part 1 (Pic Heavy)

 These are pictures from the last couple of weeks around our house. Camille is growing by leaps and bounds every day! She is growing so much, so quickly...it's hard to believe how much she has changed over the last seven weeks of her life. She is getting so big!

 For Aunt Kristie. :)

 I love this picture. She looks like she is saying, "Oooh, Mommy! Don't get that camera too close to me!" :)

 Claire has been so good to her sister. Sometimes she is not quite as gentle as I would like, but at least it is always well-intentioned. :) Claire is my big helper these days, always running to get Camille a burp cloth and her binky. Just about every time I change Camille's diaper, Claire makes sure to come, too...and she will stand right by the changing table and talk to her sister until everything is cleaned up. :)

 My sweet girls in their matching dresses the first day back to church since I had Camille (this was a few weeks ago).

 Camille is getting more and more alert every day, but I sure do love those sleeping pictures.

 This was taken a couple weeks after Camille was born, when Momma took Claire, Camille, and I to the temple. Claire loved being at the temple for the first time.

 Can't go a day without a headband!!! :)

 We even played outside in the early evening / late afternoons when it was cooler here a while back...Claire especially loved getting out of the house and playing in the backyard.

 My sweet Camille Rose.

 This is the crazy volunteer watermelon that has been growing in my flower garden this year. It's M-U-C-H bigger than these pictures now...it fills up the entire pot tripod stand Austin made to support it already! It will be fun to eat when it is ready and ripe. :)

 This picture is from when Camille was about 5 weeks old. Not long after Camille was born, she was still about the size of Claire's baby Squeaky (pictured here with Camille). Can you see how she's grown? Now Camille is even bigger than this, and still chunking up fast! :) I love little kissable baby rolls...it just makes them extra cute!

 Lately I have been wanting to make Claire and Camille matching clothes...so first on the list was some quick matching skirts! I sewed Camille's first. I'm still working on Claire's at the moment. My favorite part is the eyelet trim on the bottom. But I just love how cute it turned out...almost as cute as my precious girl! :)

 I love this sweet face. I simply cannot get enough of her. :)

This last picture is from today. Camille rolls over from her tummy to her back now any time I lay her down on her tummy. She is getting really strong, and can hold her head WAY up high when she is propped up on her arms on the blanket on the ground for tummy time. Her favorite thing is laying down on her back though, and looking up at the fan in our living room...but she also likes the fan in our bedroom, too. She is smiling A LOT now...I tried to post a video that she is smiling in, but apparently the file is too big. :(  Camille is also really starting to find her voice, and loves to coo at me when I change her diaper and after she has eaten (if she didn't fall asleep, that is). 

I love this sweet girl (and my bigger sweet girl as well), and every day seems like such a gift getting to be with my two precious blessings from Heavenly Father. I am definitely more tired than I would like to be these days, but it is so worth it--I wouldn't want anything else. Being a mother is the best job in the world! :) Frustrating sometimes, but still the best. :) I can't imagine a more rewarding job, and I'm so grateful for my sweet little family. :)

39 Weeks

 Ta da!!! I have survived. :) Here I am at 39 weeks, with less than a week to go until my due date! :) Camille has gotten bigger, but she has been a bit kinder on my body than Claire. I have gained 20 pounds now (I gained 40 with Claire), and am feeling more than a little squished. :) However, since I have a comparison of being (what felt like) much bigger and lower-carrying with Claire, I don't feel too awful like I remember being the first time around. But...it also isn't the dog days of summer yet, and we have yet to see if Camille will come on time or not. I'm holding out for the end of this week! :)

A close-up of my baby belly. Kristie and Barth and their kiddos arrived today, and I'm so excited to spend the next couple of weeks with them! :) I'm sure that even if I go overdue, there will be plenty of fun to go around (and still keep me distracted from thinking about being overdue). I am excited to catch up with Kristie, and I know that Claire is SO excited to play with her cousins (even though she is pretty shy at first)!!! :) Here's hoping that the next post I make will have a cute new baby picture instead of just a baby belly! Come on, Camille! :) We are all looking forward to meeting you, little one. :)

37 Weeks

 We got another picture of Claire the other day in her ladybug dress (since the ones I took before disappeared), and I just wanted to post it on here. :) The ladybug bows are ones that I made from a bow website that Kristie told me about. :)

Here I am at 37 weeks with Camille. Hooray! Camille is technically "full-term" now. On Friday at my appointment I was measuring right at 37 weeks, and Camille's heartbeat was 148. She is looking good! :) I got to see her on the sonogram because the nurse practitioner that saw me at my appointment thought Camille was head up. Nope! She is definitely situated head down, with those cute little feet and bottom stuffed up into my ribs these days. Usually her head is down (with her fist next to it) in my left hip...with her feet up on the right side of my ribs, and kicking on over into my diaphragm. But it was sure fun to see her. She was pretty quiet during the sonogram, so I was able to get a good look at her. :) Hopefully soon (if she can come out on time) we will ALL be able to get a good look at her! :)

Claire and Camille

 So...I took about 15 pictures of Claire this morning before church because she was looking REALLY cute in a ladybug dress that Momma got for her recently. Since I had made some ladybug bows recently as well, I decided to put them in her piggy tails to match her dress. She smiled really well for the camera and everything! However, this is the only picture that is showing up on my camera card (and I am QUITE grumpy about it, since I'm not always the best at remembering to take pictures in the first place!). So this is the only picture I can post. :( But at least Claire is smiling! :)
She looked especially cute today, and was very happy (a miracle with her two-year-old "spunkiness"), and I was hoping to document it. I love this sweet girl and all her silly little girl antics. Claire has been saying such cute things lately, and seeming to grow in knowledge by leaps and bounds. Lately she likes to say silly things like, "I love my cozy feet!" :) I am not sure where she picked that up, but she laughs like crazy when she says it. :) She also has started doing really well at the "thumbs up" sign, which she thinks is very grown up. :) Her favorite thing today was to say, "Daddy, are you alright?" when Austin sneezed...it was too cute. Not that he sneezed more than twice today, but I just think it is adorable, and she knew it...so she had to keep saying it, of course :) At dinner time tonight, she proudly informed Austin and me that: "I'm two years old!" :) It seems like just yesterday I brought her home from the hospital...time is flying by, and my baby is growing so big.

Speaking of growing big, I have gotten a little bigger these days as well. I'm officially in my last month of pregnancy now. After next week's appointment, I will be going in once a week until little Camille gets here. Hopefully she decides to come sooner than Claire...maybe I should give her the evacuation notice sooner? :) Just kidding. Anyways, I'm getting pretty excited to meet my newest little girl. :) Only a little bit longer now! :) It seems a little easier to wait for Camille since I have Claire to run after these days...and it helps that this pregnancy (so far, knock on wood) has been quite a bit easier on me than when I was pregnant with Claire. However, I will say that--especially this last week--I have been t-i-r-e-d. I can tell that this is the end of pregnancy just by the fact that I'm getting up a million times each night, and waking up feeling like I didn't sleep at all. And wondering "when is naptime again???" :) about 30 minutes after I get up in the mornings. Haha! Wouldn't it be nice to go back to bed and sleep? People always say, "Rest up before the baby gets here." What they don't mention is that you don't really "rest" when you are 9 months pregnant. You get "power naps" (at best, if you are lucky). Good thing these sweet babies are worth EVERY bit of it!!! :) My appointment is this Friday morning, so I guess I'll see then how I start out this last home stretch. Hopefully everything will be good to go as I finish up so that I can get have my VBAC with Camille. :) Time will tell. :) Happy Memorial Day weekend!

All The News At Our House (Warning: Lots of Pictures!)

 So, I haven't blogged in a while, but at least this time I have been taking pictures! So this way you can see (most) all the interesting things that have been going on. :) About a month ago, one of Claire's friends Charlee came over to play in the morning. This is a picture I snapped of the three of them (Claire, Jocelyn, Charlee) when they decided to play the piano together...it was too cute to resist! :)

 This happened around the same time as the picture of the three girls. One Sunday afternoon (I think it was a Grandma's Sunday), I went in to get Claire up so we could head over to my parents' house...and found her like this! :) Claire is getting more and more mischievous these days, and so since she didn't fall asleep right at nap time, she decided to pull the clothes out of her drawer and dress herself before falling asleep on the floor.

 I will say, Austin and I had a good laugh over the hat and extra skirt she put on! :)

 This was a picture from when I was about 32 weeks along. I planned to blog it, but as you can see...it didn't make it to the blog until now. Oh well. Here it is anyways. :)

 Most days are pretty good (if hectic with 2 year old "spunkiness"). I love that Claire and Jocelyn (the little girl I babysit for) get along so well. They usually play very well together, and keep each other occupied (or keep each other in trouble, haha!) during the three days a week Jocelyn comes over. This particular day, after they had gotten up from their naps, they decided to play dollies together, and snuggle them. I had hoped to capture a picture of both girls snuggling the dolls, but when I took out the camera, Jocelyn decided to get another pillow from the couch to lay on instead. I love seeing these girls grow and do such sweet things like this each day. (After all, I'd rather remember the sweet times instead of the sassy times!) :)

 Also, my garden has EXPLODED with lettuce and swiss chard lately, and I have LOVED eating it in my very own home-made salads! :) My carrots aren't ready yet, but I took some we had in the fridge and shredded them and put them into my greens with some croutons...mmm! This particular salad was from last week, and I still have 2 bags FULL of lettuce, and more waiting to be picked as I type this. I love having a garden. :)

 This picture is from last week or so...BEFORE the hair cutting incident. Yes, Claire took hair cutting scissors to her hair, and yes, there are now some chunks missing. :( But at least it doesn't look too bad. In fact, I can gel most of the chopped-off pieces down so you can't even tell that she cut it! But this picture is from before that...on a day when I was feeling energetic and decided to do Claire's hair different than it's pigtails/ small ponytail that I usually do. Here is the result:

 Two braids back into a bun. It was pretty fun, but fell out by the end of the day. Oh well...naptime usually takes care of any hairdo's, and Claire running around (the way she always does, having so much energy to spend) takes care of whatever may be left of the hairdo after naptime.

 Here is a project I'm almost finished with. It's a blanket/quilt I made for Camille once she arrives. It was fun to make (I just did it from a Pinterest pin), but there was so much involved that I probably won't be making one again...at least in the near future. :) Here was the top before I stuffed it.

 A close up shot of the fabric.

 After I stuffed the squares, the backs of each square had to be sewn closed BY HAND. Now, I am not an experienced hand sewer, so...this was really just a labor of love. And a messy labor of love at that. But it didn't take as long as you might think, and I guess time will tell if it all falls to bits really quick or not. If it does...well, probably my hand sewing will be to blame. :)

 For documentation of how much I love this second daughter of mine to make her something like this. :)

 The (more or less) finished blanket. I still need to sew up the hole where I turned the blanket. The ruffle took the longest, though...because the fabric WOULD NOT ruffle the regular way, I had to FOLD and hand ruffle all along this blanket. :( Not fun...but at least it turned out ok. :)

 Here is the back of the blanket...I used the soft "minky" fabric. Lots of pink over here for us these days! :)

 And finally, a picture of me today at 35 weeks. Not my best look, but I am getting pretty tired. Camille has recently wedged herself into a very uncomfortable position, so I've had to resort to soak-y baths to keep semi-comfortable. Despite the discomfort of the end of pregnancy, I am VERY much looking forward to meeting my sweet little Camille! :) I'm starting to feel like everything is getting real...only 5 more weeks until my due date!

Two visits ago I was measuring 3 weeks behind (I haven't gotten nearly as big with Camille as I remember getting with Claire), and then 1 visit ago I was measuring 2 weeks behind. Fortunately Camille had a growth spurt (and boy, could I feel it...I swear it happened within a 2 day time period!)...and now at my last visit this past Friday I was measuring right at 35. Back on schedule! :) I have only gained 17 pounds up to this point. Since I gained almost 40 pounds with Claire, this seems like hardly any weight at all...but that's okay, since it meant I could still sleep until I hit my third trimester! :) I guess we'll see how big Camille is once she gets here...she seems just about as big as Claire from the way she is stretched out in my tummy these days.

Anyways, that is about all of our updates that I can think of. I start weekly OB visits in two weeks. It seems the days are flying by (each one getting warmer, and closer to the summer and Camille's due date). :) I guess we will see what this next month has in store pretty soon! :)

Easter 2014--Part 2 (Scroll down for Part 1)

 Claire on Easter morning today! When she woke up the first thing she said was, "Happy Easter!" She was so excited to see all that the Easter bunny had left her. As we got into the car to go to church this morning, we even saw a little bunny nibbling some grass...that Easter bunny must have liked our grass so much that he forgot to make a clean getaway! Claire loved seeing the little bunny, and kept saying, "I love you little bunny, I love you little bunny!" :) She also kept telling the bunny, "Happy Easter!"

 Family Picture at Grandma and Grandpa's Easter Egg Hunt!

 Claire with Grandma and Grandpa Whitley and some of her cousins: Liam and Pierce, and Ansley, Hailey, and Emberly.

 This girl LOVES to hunt Easter eggs! She had the best time carrying her Easter basket around and picking up all the eggs in her "area." She scoured the ground, making sure she got every last egg--then proceeded to open as many as she could before we told her to wait until we got back to Grandma's house. :)

 She did pretty good! This is a shot of all Claire's Easter Egg "loot."

 There were a TON of beautiful bluebonnets in the fields by the Perry Homestead this year. After we hunted Easter eggs, we headed over to the flowers to take some pictures. :)

 This is the lower third part of the bluebonnets. I loved seeing them everywhere! It reminded me of when I was a girl...we took Easter pictures in the bluebonnets here back then, too. :)

 Claire and her daddy in the bluebonnets.

 I absolutely love this picture of Austin and Claire. :) I can hardly believe that my baby girl is about to be a big sister--and I can hardly believe that she is two and half already! Time is flying by...

Me and my sweet girl. Yes, we are looking at the lonely weed in the field of bluebonnet flowers. But it was a very important weed, don't you know--because this weed had a ladybug on it. :) I held the ladybug, and after a little while Claire decided that she would like to hold the ladybug, too. :) So I let it crawl onto her hand...she thought it was pretty neat! At least, she did until it spread its wings and flew up by her face. Then she squealed until it landed on Daddy...and decided she would rather let Daddy keep holding onto it. :) Silly sweetheart. :)

This is our last Easter with just Claire...next year we will have two girls in tow...a 9 month old and a 3.5 year old. Wow! It is hard to believe life could get any better...until it does. I am so grateful to have a resurrected, living Savior who made it possible for me to have a forever family and return to Him again one day. Because He lives, life and everything in it is so much richer...spiritually and physically. I am so happy to celebrate the joyous news that He is Risen...there is no better news in all the world! Happy Easter!