Winter is in full swing

Madie is four months old now and growing so fast! She is a great baby and Cameron just adores her. She finally rolled over a few weeks ago but hasn't done it since. She was 14# 7oz and 25 inches at her doctor visit. Cameron is keeping us laughing all the time and he is enjoying all the snow too.
Steve has joined Shorewest realtors in Racine and he is loving it. We are all loving having him closer to home and he can work from home most days while I am sleeping to watch the kiddos.
We should be closing on our Aurora house next week, so that will be out of our lives finally.

Madison Avery Arrives

Madison Avery Martin joined our family on September 24. She weighed 7# 9 oz and was 18.5 inches long. She had a very bruised face, especially around the eyes, due to coming so quickly. She really knew how to get daddy out of bed in the middle of the night to rush around and run mommy to the hospital. I woke up around 3:30am and started timing the contractions, then decided to take a shower. By the time I was done I barely made it upstairs to wake Steve and grab last minute things. Poor Cameron woke up and was crying for mommy. Grandpa drove in at 5:01 and we drove out, Steve broke every speed limit on the way there. She was born at 5:17 am with in 10 minutes of us getting to the hospital. Extremely painful, but at least it was quick and we have a great story to tell her. :)

We enjoyed having a ton of visitors while in the hospital. I was ready to go home right away but Madie's Ped didn't agree due to our history of jaundice (ok so I agreed too). She was high before we left and we had to go back for several repeats. It did finally start to go down at 6 days old. She has been a sleepy girl but is starting to wake up more and lets us know what she wants. Cameron is an awesome big brother and he loves to give her kisses and hugs and help us take care of her. We are so blessed to have a wonderful little family and are enjoying (almost) every minute!!!

Lovin' summer in WI

We are having an awesome summer here in WI. Cameron is loving going to the zoo, the lake/beach, daddy's baseball games, outside with his water table, grandma and papa's house, and seeing all his cousins and friends. He talks our ears off these days and comes up with the cutest and smartest things. This morning he told me "Cameron hiccup broken" after watching a TV character hiccuping. We had a wonderful 4th going to the parade, a party, and then the fireworks at night. He wasn't scared a bit and he loved all the fire trucks and tractors at the parade.

Cameron has been sleeping in his big boy Thomas bed for the last week, doing great. He also has been doing very well potty training, but not sure how it will go once mommy is back to work. We are doing lots of projects around the house trying to get ready for the baby to come. We can't wait to see what and who this little one is. Cameron says he wants a sister so we'll see.

Survivin' winter

We are getting tired of winter and ready for spring to come! We have had a nice day here and there, but it doesn't last long. At least most of the snow is gone now, hopefully not to return until late this year. Cameron always wants to go outside but he is a lot braver than mommy in the cold. He is so much fun and is speaking sentences of 4+ words a lot more now. He loves to play with money and papa is trying to teach him to go for the silver instead of the pennies when he offers him change.


I am changing jobs and hospitals starting next week, so we are looking forward to that. I have also had some time off to enjoy Cameron and doing some fun things with him like going to the Children's Museum, which he loves. It should be an interesting transition to a post- surgical unit but hopefully I will eventually end up back in postpartum when a position opens up. Steve is still loving his job and they close on their first renovated and sold house very soon! I am so excited for him and how well they are doing. Life will be as perfect as can be once I get settled into my job, we can't wait!

Too much to even think about typing

Waaaaaay too much has been going on lately, I don't even know where to begin. So, I won't! I will just post some adorable, as always, pictures of our not so little man (97% height, 75% weight at 2, go figure!). I know I always say it but he gets cuter by the day!!!

2 Year Pics

Ride, baby, ride!

Loves the suds and swimming like a fishy

Trying not to float away in the Dells

Little old man, already?!?!?
He knows he is too funny...

Good till the last drop (or piece of cottage cheese as the case may be)

Cameron turns 2!!!

We had an awesome Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party for Cameron's 2nd Birthday. He had such a great time and yelled Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Minnie any time he would see one of them around the house. He got so many fun toys and cute outfits, and he had a great time ripping the paper off. He has been out of practice since last year. We had Mickey cookies, cake, candy canes, plates from Disney World, and tons of other Mickey decor. He wore a Mickey shirt and got lots of Mickey toys, cups, and clothes. We also went to Chuck E Cheese with Julie and Serena to celebrate a few days early since they couldn't make it to the party. He now loves "Chucky" and gets excited when he sees their commercials. It snowed again this year during his party so I think thats just the way it is going to be forever. We have several feet of snow on the ground here in WI, and Steve is getting his work outs in with the snow blower.


The week before Cameron's party we had a bunch of friends from Trinity come and spend the weekend at our house. We had a great time talking, laughing, playing with the kids, and watching the big kids play Wii. Oh and of course eating a lot of food! It was so good to see everyone as we miss being around them as much as we used to. We did a white elephant gift exchange and strangely I have found almost all the gifts left behind around our house hahaha

Busy fall

Well I thought that I would have more time to post since we moved, but that hasn't happened. Where has the time gone???
Let's see... so much has happened... Cameron had a great time on Halloween having 3 of his cousins over for the night and going trick or treating in the nearby neighborhoods with them. He dressed up as Mickey Mouse who was his #1 obsession at the time. After crying the first few times he tried on his costume, he got used to it and loved it lots (of course he loved the candy too)! It was a beautiful, warm day, no winter coats needed.

Also on Halloween I found out that I was pregnant for the second time. We were overjoyed and super excited as we didn't expect it quite so soon. I went to my first appointment in late November and everything looked good. A few days later, I woke up to go to work and I knew something just wasn't right. I woke Steve up and asked him what I should do. We decided I should go to work so if it got worse I would be in the right place (my OB's office is connected to my hospital). God was watching out for me as my OB happened to show up at 7:30 so I talked to her and she called over to get me in at 8. I walked over at 8:15 and by 9:30 I had an IV and was going in for surgery. I had to have an emergency d&c because I was having a lot of bleeding and there was no other choice except to go ER to be monitored (yeah, right!). Steve rushed as fast as he could to Kenosha from Milwaukee to be with me and it went as well as is possible. I tried to relax for a few days, which is pretty impossible for me, especially with Cameron around. We were (and still are) devastated, but we have come to realize that it was all part of God's plan and when it is time he will bless us with another precious little one who will be perfect in every way. We must move on, but we will never forget the love and attachment we felt. Cameron has done wonders for us as he keeps us laughing and on our toes all the time.

November brought more excitement as Jeremy, Julie, and Serena (who Cameron lovingly calls Renie) moved back to Racine, just 5 or so minutes away from us. We have had so much fun hanging out with them and catching up on lost time. The kids get along so well (as long as Cameron isn't pushing or taking toys) and they hug and kiss lots :)

Moving to Cheeseland

So we are finally here and getting settled! We packed up all our things and Cameron and I moved up first. Steve had another 7 days of work. We finally moved the rest of our house on September 27th. We hired movers for a reason, and what fun that turned out to be. Many of our practically unused furniture items were badly scratched from the movers not packing the truck correctly and blaming it on our driver. We are now working to get it resolved since so many things were damaged including our dining table, china hutch, several chairs, 2 dressers, entertainment center, 2 bookshelves, and others.
Cameron of course has been as cute as ever keeping us 100% entertained all the time. He is picking up new words by the dozens and is turning in to a little parrot. Just today he started saying flashlight, ant, corn, pillow, and some others that I can't think of. He has been perfect spending a week at grandma and grandpa's house well mommy started her new job and daddy was still in IL. Then we moved into our house while he had a bad cold and he was still as good. He loves his big backyard and the awesome slide daddy bought for him! We have been having a great time hanging out with all of our friends and family that we have missed spending time with so much.
The day after we moved in we went and picked up our new black lab puppy, Bella, who was about 8 weeks old from up north in WI. She has been keeping us busy as well, but her and Cameron are going to be awesome friends in years to come. So I think thats it for now, I'm sure there will be more as we get all moved in and have more time...

Oh no he didn't

Our little boy is growing up so fast. He has been showing a few signs of interest in the potty lately so we thought we should buy him one. My plan was to just let him get used to it by sitting on it when watching TV or playing, no pressure. He sat on it a few times with his clothes on and then we were watching Wipe Out (awesome show BTW) last night and he grabbed his diaper and said "pee pee". So I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty and he said yeah. So he sat there and looked at the animals on his flash cards for a minute while I ran to get the camera (can't miss that awesome shot, right?!?). When I was taking a couple pictures I looked and he actually went! So awesome and he acted like it was no big deal. He love the chocolate chip he got for being such a BIG boy though. We don't have our hopes up too high but its a start for now. This is before and after pictures... afterwards he got to watch one of his favorites, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We're SO proud :)

Little Einstein in the making

This morning Cameron was in his blow up tub inside the big bathtub and he likes to take his toys in and out of the water. All of the sudden he was looking around in the water and whining. So I said "Are you looking for your toys (which he couldn't see since he put them in the big tub)? They are right there" (as I pointed to where he left them). He looked over the front and saw them and said "oh" and laughed. So I said "Did you forget where you put them?" and he said "yeah" shaking his head yes. How cute is that?!?!?
He is just so smart. Some of his newer words are airplane, squirrel (yes, I said squirrel, but still won't say bunny), pool, outside (usually just side), shoe, spoon, bowl, and many others that I can't even think of. If he hears the word outside he will run and get his shoes, bring them to you, and sit down. If you put them on he will then run and get his lawn mower or ball and run to the door. If you say we are going for a car ride he will walk out into the garage right to the door he goes into for his car seat or walk from the car to the house if you tell him (which is a VERY good thing as Steve knows now). If you say do you want to go nigh-night or can we go change your diaper, he will say yeah and run to the bottom of the stairs and stand there. He is also mommy's big helper lately. He will bring things I tell him to and put them in the garbage. He will also use his own cloth to help me dust or parts of the vacuum (or his lawn mower) to help me vacuum the house. Grandpa K was surprised on a recent visit that Cameron found two small scraps of paper on the floor, picked them up, went right to the door where their garbage is, opened it, pulled the can out, threw the paper away and pushed it back and closed the door. Thats my boy!

Our little painter

Cameron is starting to love coloring with his crayons (and I love when it stays on the paper) and he is also loving to paint. We're not sure if he's going to be right handed like mommy or left handed like daddy. He seems to feed himself more with the left but does most things with either at this point. We'll just have to wait and see. He was much neater about painting this time then when he was little and just kept saying "more, more" for me to dip his brushes again.

Fun in Iowa

We had a wonderful summer weekend out in Iowa with Owen, Emily, Gwen, and Greta Piette. Although planned last minute we finally got to meet Greta for the first time! Cameron loved to see the "baby" and "kitty" at their house. He also loved to play in Gwen's sandbox with her and try to blow bubbles all by himself. His most favorite part was going to the huge park and playing on all of the slides, bridge, and stairs, and then getting to eat LOTS of ice cream afterward. I'm not sure I can look at ice cream for quite a while after that one. It sure was good though... Cameron is such a great traveler, he ate or played most of the way on the 4 hour drive and slept most of the way home (along with his daddy).

Blah, blah, blah

One of Cameron's favorite things to do is talk on his many phones just like mommy and daddy. He has been know to say "whoisthis?" just like daddy does sometimes. He especially likes to call daddy to tell him to come home when he is at work all day. Elmo also gets quite frequent calls from Cameron.

Summertime

Since our other website ran out of space a while ago I decided we needed another one. I started it a while ago but never posted, so here it is finally, we'll see how it goes! We are beyond busy it seems with trips out of state nearly every weekend lately and work in between. We are having a blast teaching Cameron all sorts of new things and watching him have many new experiences. He continues to amaze us on a daily basis with the things he remembers and can do, new words, and funny expressions (as you can see one of many!). We just can't get enough!