ONE

Last week, Camille turned 1 (hence the large quantity of pictures coming up)! We sure love our cute girl and had fun celebrating with her throughout the day. In the morning, we cruised around the zoo. Then we had her favorite meal...baked ziti and opened presents. It is fair to say that Tyson rather enjoyed this part and was a big "help" to Camille opening them up. This one is from Grandma Turner.
Next came, cake time!! We had some neighbors come and enjoy it with us.

I put this one in there because Tyson snuck in at the last moment and blew out the candle.

I made a "watermelon" cake for her and thought it turned out cute. Waiting for cake....

Getting her first taste...

Tyson hopped in and I think you can tell by his face that he was enjoying the cake too.

Good stuff!

Now, Tyson latched on to one of Camille's presents. We gave her a picnic basket that sings and has plates and food and such. He carried that thing around all night in the crook of his arm. I kid you not. It did not leave his sight. He chased around his friends, holding that thing. This is exactly how I found him that night sleeping in his bed with it!
We had to take it in the car with us (which he also fell asleep with).
We all took our turn having picnics with him. Dad got to join him outside!

I'm happy to say its been a week and Tyson has finally relinquished control of the basket and Camille had had the chance to play with her own present.

Camille 1 year stats are:
Height- 33 1/4 inches (99% +)
Weight 25 lbs (95%)

She is such a fun girl to have around. I love when she flashes her smile and she does it quite frequently. She recieves a lot of love from her brother and tolerates it fairly well. She's in the clingy phase and likes to always be near me, but yet does well when I leave her with others. Her personality is definitely starting to develop and she's becoming quite the tease to her brother. When he's working on something (remember my son likes the order), she'll purposely come up take something from him and crawl away super fast in the other direction. He'll get a little irritated, chase her and get it back while she just laughs and laughs! I find it quite entertaining now, but can see it becoming more of an issue in the future! She's almost walking, she'll go from a sit to a stand without any help of furniture and take up to 5 steps before falling and she's quite the busy girl, moving from one thing to the next. I think she'll be my easy-going, free spirit child.

(getting into Tyson's leftover yogurt and spreading all over her face)

We sure love this Camilley girl and are so glad she's in our home. What a fun year it has been! Happy Birthday Camille!!

Sum Sum Summertime

Back in June during the College World Series, Scott's work put on a barbeque near the stadium. We were waiting for the trolley to pick us up outside his work and I got one picture before my camera died. He loved the trolley though and would just sit and look out the window. He's so grown up these days. One day he told me he wanted to sit outside in the sun and he needed his sunglasses. He was just chillin there for a while. This summer Camille has mastered the stairs. She's been climbing them for a while and just recently figured out how to go down!We went to the Children's Museum here and they had a Dinosaur exhibit that Tyson loved. He wandered around and around these displays over and over again. He got to point a dinosaur...and play with this really cool ball extravanganza (for lack of a better word)It's been pretty hot and humid but recently we've had a break with some pretty nice weather and it was fun to sit outside and watch Scott mow the lawn. Please ignore my dead plant in the background....my other ones are still living!Tyson loves his sister (sometimes a little too roughly) and did this all on his own. She thinks he is pretty great too. My blued eyed girl is getting so big. I love her little personality emerging. She loves to mimick sounds and words but has yet to say Mama! She's mastered Daddy and uses that interchangably. Tyson has been carrying around a baby pig, mama pig and cow toy for the last week or more. They each had to have their own picture taken. I'll spare you all of those. These 2 cuties definitely keep us busy and entertained and we sure love em!

July Howard Reunion

We had the opportunity to head off to another family reunion with the Howard side. It was in Duck Creek (near Cedar City), Ut and the weather was fantastic. A great break from the heat/humidity we'd been having in Nebraska. It was a quite a drive though and we split it up, driving 8 hours to Denver to stay the night with my sister and then heading 10 more hours to Duck Creek. We've got a DVD player in our new car (another blog in and of itself) and Tyson was in heaven.I love the big earphones stuck on his head too. I think this was Camille on the 13 hour drive back home...she was not amused.Camping is a little boy's heaven. Once there, Tyson wasted no time getting re-aquainted with his cousins and playing in the dirt. (This is Scott's brother's daughter, Laynee who is one month younger than Tyson) I'm telling ya...pure heaven!!

(two more cousins joined in the fun...Brigitte, 5 and Zade, 4)

One morning, a couple of us snuck off to Cedar City to catch Harry Potter 7. A pet store brought snakes to the theater and this is one of Scott's triplet sister, Jessica, holding a lot of snakes!One afternoon was spent throwing rocks in a river and climbing on logs with Dad and Uncle Sean. A worn out Camille and Scott. Thanks for putting them to sleep, Jess!Scott's dad rented out this lodge that had a room for everyone! Here we are gathered around playing a traditional game of Trivial Pursuit that I think lasted until around midnight.
We drove up to Sandy and got in around 7:30 pm to see my grandparents and to celebrate Scott's birthday. Then we left the next morning to head home. A lot of driving in a short amount of time but worth it. Camille shares her birthday with my Grandpa Turner so I was glad to get some pictures of them together!
Most of Scott's family also drove back up to Sandy and had Cafe Rio dinner and Cold Stone Creamery cake ready for him when we got back from my grandparents. Then they had a ping pong tournament which his sisters had rigged so all the boys could end up playing each other and ultimately Scott and his brother Gary would play for the championship. Well, somehow I manage to work my way up and beat Scott in the semi-finals and spoiled the whole outcome. Oops! And on his birthday of all days! Sorry Scott!