Life continues on

Another month has flown by and the girls continue to grow and love life! We sure have two very happy children who enjoy the life they have. Izzy is now 7months, sitting up (once placed in position), eating baby food (and loving it), almost crawling and working on her first word ("up".). Izzy's best friend and favorite for of entertainment is her big sister Mckayla. They are so cute together and Mckayla adores Izzy too.

Mckayla continues to keep busy with preschool and gym, both of which she loves. She now counts to 39 with no help and 50 with only help for number 40. She  is learning to write her name and draw stick people and loves to sing and dance (especially in the bathroom!)

Life flies by....

Things here continue to just fly by. Things are so busy with two sweet little ones. Cannot believe our "big girl" is now 3 years and 3 months and our littlest girl is 6months old already! I don't have a lot of time to update right now and hope to come back on tomorrow. Mckayla and Izzy have a sweet sister relationship and its been so fun watching that grow and emerge. Mckayla loves to help with Isabelle and loves to play with her and make her laugh. Isabelle adores Mckayla and watches her every move. Often when Mckayla comes up to her Izzy puts on such a smile for Mckayla. Even when no one else could make Izzy laugh (except by tickling) Mckayla could make her really laugh without even touching her! I hope and pray their relationship continues this way and they have a lifetime of great friendship. We love our sweet girls and thank God that He chose us to be their parents! I will post more tomorrow as its getting late and both girls are sleeping, which means I too, should head for bed!!

The Crazy Busy Life of the Camping Family

Oh what a busy life! Its been awhile since I posted. I believe I have only posted once since baby Isabelle was born. Things have been very busy but going well. I am constantly realizing how very blessed I am. I have an amazingly, loving, understanding and generous husband who will do anything for his wife and girls. Life can be stressful and challenging at times but with him by my side its immensely better! I just love him and our sweet girls!

Mckayla is 3 now and has just started at new preschool- its a Christian preschool thats been around for years but just recently the church where its located merged with our church- so now its owned by our church. They do all sorts of fun things and have a much stronger academic focus than her other preschool/daycare. At this point she is going two mornings a week from 9-12. We were talking about names one day and she told me "My name is Mckayla. Its M...c....k....a...y....l....a!" I had no idea she could spell her name without having the letters written in front of her. She sure is growing up. She continues to go to her gym class most Wednesdays with her Grammy (my mom) where she does all sorts of things (jumps on the trampoline, swings, climbs, runs around and so much more). She did swimming lessons this summer- a parent assisted class and passed. She will move on to an independent class next time we do swimming lessons (likely next summer). She has just started a sports class in which she will be introduced to a bunch of ball sports. We thought maybe this would be a good way for her to get familiar with some different sports so she can see if there is one she wants to play.

Isabelle is growing like crazy- it does not seem like she will be 5 months in two days. Time sure flies! She is a very happy baby, as long as she is not tired or hungry. If she is tired or hungry she will let you know by her very loud and upset screams/cries. she is also very loud , even when just having fun. She just recently started rolling from her back to her tummy (she has been doing tummy to back for awhile now) and can hold herself in a sitting position if propped up using her arms for support. She has just recently started baby rice cereal and then 7yesterday started eating baby food peas and seems to like them. She absolutely adores her big sister and big sister just LOVES her too. I think they will grow up being good friends , like my sister and I did.

Work- James is still at the same job as he has been since before I met him. He continues to be kept very busy. I am not currently seeing clients of my own in my occupational therapy job, but rather just supervising two OT assistants. Most of this I can do from my computer at home and it only requires me to be working outside the home two hours a month. Its great for me because while the girls are so young I prefer to be home with them.

We still attend the church we have been at since before Mckayla was born. Its a large church and continuing to grow. There are now three campuses around the valley Mckayla enjoys her Sunday school class and comes home telling us the stories she has learned. Isabelle has just begun attending the nursery, as we could not keep our very noisy (but happy) baby from yelling during the service and distracting people. The staff in the nursery say she is does well. We have just started attending a small group this summer which we enjoy. There are 6 couples who attend. Every family drops off their kids at one home and then the adults (and babies- there is Izzy and one other baby just 3 weeks older than her) go to another home where we chat and do a study. The current study is a book called "Crazy Love" which is about God's love for us.

Here at home, we continue to try to get more and more decluttered and more organized- but this can be challenging when trying to take care of two little ones at the same time. So its a slow process and I always feel like I have a never ending to do list. But thats the way a busy life with children is

My goal is to .blog an update at least once a week- sp people can keep caught up with what's happening here. I make no guarantees I will be able to follow through consistently- biut I am going to try.

I will close for today with some photos of our sweet little one's enjoying each other's company!

                                               Mckayla helping Izzy with her musical turtle

                                                 Just having fun together on the floor

                              Mckayla decided she need to lay next to Izzy while she went in her swing!

                                                                      Giving hugs!!

                                                           Playing on the floor together!

                                      Mckayla just adores her baby sister and loves to hold her!

                                                                   Our happy girls!

Isabelle Kate Camping is here!!

Isabelle Kate is here!! Isabelle was born on Wednesday April 18th at 8:33am. She weighed 8lb 7oz and was 19.75 inches long. She was supposed to come Thursday April 19th by scheduled c-section but I went into labor a day earlier. So they went ahead and did the c-section then. Everything went smoothly and we headed home from the hospital on Saturday. While we were at the hospital Mckayla was taken care of by her grandparents. My mum stayed with her Wednesday during the day, Wednesday night and Friday and Friday night. James' mom took care of her Thursday and Thursday night.

The night we came home Mckayla got sick with either a stomach bug or she ate something that did not agree with her. After a day she no longer threw up but had remaining tummy issues several times a day for a few days Then about 4-5 days later James and I both came down with an awful tummy bug- stomach issues for about 12 hours and then we were over it. Then my mum and her friend who were both with us when James got sick also got it. We think it could have been something different than what Mckayla had as all four of us adults got the bug very close together in time where as Mckayla was sick like 4 or 5 days before James got it But we are all feeling better now and back to adjusting to life as a family of 4.

Recovery from the c-section is going well. I am no longer taking pain meds and am able to do light household chores like some dishes and helping with laundry as long as I am not required to bend down much or lift anything heavy. Isabelle is doing great. She is a very strong baby, just like Mckayla was. She is a great sleeper and does alright nursing but tends to fall asleep a lot while nursing. She tends to have a bit of a temper for a newborn as she will scream really hard if I do not feed her within minutes of her deciding she is hungry and will flail her arms around.

Mckayla is doing pretty well adjusting to being a big sister. She loves her "baby" and loves to touch , hold and kiss Isabelle. If she does not see Izzy she will look at me and ask "Where is my baby?" She loves to help out in any way she can and likes to watch us take care of her.

James is amazing as always, helping with Isabelle, taking care of Mckayla and doing household things that need to be done. He also helps me with anything else I need help with. He is the most amazing man- just doing whatever is needed of him and really letting me rest and recuperate.

James has one more week off of work before heading back. At that time my mum will take one week off to help me with the girls and household chores. Then it will be just the girls and I during the day.

Anyway thats our update for now.

A Camping Family Update

Hello Again- Its been awhile yet again since I posted last. Life just seems to get busier and busier. We are preparing for our quickly approaching arrival of our second sweet little girl. She will be arriving April 19th via planned c-section. I am now 33 and a half weeks pregnant and doing well. I am cuurently trying to fight off a cold and cough but otherwise am just tired but doing well. Mckayla is also sick with this cough/cold thing.

Life has been busy as we do things to prepare for our littlest one's upcoming arrival. We are working on getting the nursery ready. My mum had been storing things in the room which will be the nursery. She just got all her stuff out. So James and his Dad have been working on pulling down the old wood paneling in there, and wripped out the old carpet and working on painting. Then we will get new carpet put in as well. Then we can start decorating and set up the baby's crib.

Mckayla is doing well, other than being sick right now. She is 2 and a half and flourishing in every way. She is a very busy, very bright, very talkative little girl with a very sweet personality and so much interest in everything in life. She loves to be involved in everything and loves to be busy all the time. She continues to enjoy going to a kids gym class with her Grammy every Wednesday morning and enjoys going to Sunday school at church and the kids class at the mom's group I attend at church twice a month. Mckayla is almost done potty training and now only wears pull-ups when sleeping/napping. She is going to be starting to go to one morning a week of preschool soon. We had planned to start Monday but we will have to postpone her first day if she is still unwell then. Its a preschool nearby and we thought she would enjoy having something special, especially when the baby arrives. But we thought we would start her now, rather than doing it right when the baby is born as we do not want her to feel like she has to go BECAUSE of the baby. Her going will also give me a break to be able to get things done before the baby comes, rest and also recuperate a bit after the baby comes. We think she will LOVE it as she is very very social and has no separation anxiety issues.

When we go to the hospital to have the baby James' parents will come stay with Mckayla for one day/night and then my mum will do the same. We are hoping we will only stay at the hospital for two nights but we will see. After the baby is born James will take 2 weeks off work and then my mum will take two weeks off when James returns to work. So I will have round the clock help with the girls and household things for the first month after the c-section and baby's arrival. I am very anxious about the c-section but cannot wait to meet our littlest family member!!


We recently took a family vacation up to the mountains in Flagstaff and stayed in a cabin for 2 nights, just the three of us. It was very relaxing and it even snowed which was fun to see. Mckayla did not remember seeing snow the last time she had experienced it when she was 6 months old. She enjoyed watching Daddy play in it and watching it fall but did not want to touch it. But we enjoyed our little family vacation- the last before our family of 3 grows to a family of 4!

Been a LONG time!!

Hi everyone- Yes we are still alive- even though its been forever since my last post here on our blog. Life has been very very very busy.

We are still living in the house I grew up in. We love it here. The neighborhood is great. I feel very afe here. How much of it is that we are actually that much safer here than in our old neighborhood could be partly just that this is the neighborhood I grew up in so I naively just feel safer- but I do think it truly is safer too though. We live in a cul-da-sac and there are families with kids on both sides of us. One family has a 7 year old and an almost two year old- both are girls. The other side has a little boy just abut 2 months older than Mckayla. She loves to go jin them playing if she sees them outside. We have been doing various things to the house- we just got new carpet which we really like. The old carpet had been here since at least 1985 when my parents bought the house, so new carpet was definitely needed.

James still works for Stantec Consulting doing IT work. He has been there since before I met him and continues to be pretty happy there. Its nice to know he has a stable job and doesn't have to worry about job security very much. He generally enjoys his job there and the people he works with.

I am currently not seeing any clients of my own. I had been seeing three but they all are no longer seeing me for various reasons (no longer have services due to aging out of early intervention, decided to go somewhere closer to home etc) but I am still overseeing an OT assistant which is something I can mostly do from home on my computer. I just have to co-sign the assistants notes and edit reports and then once a month I have to watch her treat a client for an hour. Its nice pay for the small amount of effort it involves. This leads into our next bit of news, as this is the reason I have not picked up new clients when these former ones stopped OT with me! It looks to me from our last post that I have not shared this on here yet!

We are excited to share that we are expecting another little girl in mid April. we are very excited. I am 28 weeks along and doing great. Mckayla is excited to become a big sister and she seems to have as much an understanding of what is going on as I think any 2 and a half year old can. She seems excited that she will be able to help us with her baby sister when she arrives.

Mckayla is doing great! She is two and a half now and as busy, noisy and talkative as EVER! She is such a smart little girl and learning her ABCs, counting to 12, knows her colors and many of her shapes and is just thriving in all areas. She is still petite for her age but is very very very healthy and rarely ever gets sick. She always has a lot to say, which I jokingly blame on James, as we all know where she gets those talk-a-lot genes from (me !). We are almost finished potty training her and she has done wonderfully with this. She basically wears a pull-up when she sleeps and sometimes when we go out for a few hours but otherwise its big girl underwear for her!

Anyway I guess thats a brief update from the past like 4months and I will attempt at adding some photos if I can figure out how to do it right this time. Hope you are all well!!

Me at 25 weeks pregnant

Mckayla at the balls at her gym class.


Family photo at Zoo Lights

Dancing while getting ready to go to Gym with her Grammy