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

Been awhile

Hello Everyone!

Its been awhile. We have been very busy! A very busy two year old takes up the majority of my time now. She is such a busy little girl but we are all doing well. She is growing with leaps and bounds in some many areas! She is beginning to work on potty training, she can almost sing the whole alphabet song now, she knows many of the colors, does 12 piece interlocking puzzles on her own and can do memory games with up to 9 pairs independently. She is still small for her age but she is very very healthy and very active and busy! She is definitely a talker- she always has something to say!

We continue to enjoy living in Tempe in the home I grew up in. My parents bought the house when I was 2 and a half and in October this year my mum moved out (and in with a friend) and James, Mckayla, our dogs Hailey and Cindal and I moved in. We love it here and the neighborhood is so much nicer and much more child friendly. Its a much friendlier neighborhood and we know a number of our neighbors.

In mid August we took Mckayla's first trip to San Diego , CA. We drove there with my dad and step-mom. We spent three days there. We took Mckayla to see the "Shampu Whale" (known by most others as Shamu!). We spent time on a nice playground at La Jolla Beach and also spent time playing in the sand on the beach and paddling a little in the water. It was a great trip and Layla loved getting to know her Grandpa Dave and Grandma Molly better.

My work is going well. I have transitioned to seeing children in their homes, rather than the clinic. I am working about 4-5 hrs a week ( yes only that amount) as I want to be home with Mckayla most of the time. When I work her Grammy (my mom) comes and watches her. My mum has been taking her to a kids gym called "My Gym" where they have gym classes for little one's and Mckayla LOVES it! They have things like climbing frames, a ball pit to jump into , bars to hang from, slides, poles to slide down, and trampolines to jump on. I have also just started taking her sometimes too.

We are just starting the new school year in the Mom's group (MOPS- Mother of Preschoolers, which is an international Moms group). The children (ranging in age from infants to 5yrs) go to their own little program while the Mom's meet. The mom's hear speakers and do crafts when they meet. We also do things like have Mom's Nights Out, and take the mkids places for playdates. This year will be my first one being a leader of one of the tabes of women, which I think will be fun.

Anyway its story time for Mckayla so I better run!!!

just dropping by to say hi!

Hey Everyone- Just wanted to stop by to say hi. Its been awhile. But life has been busy chasing around a busy 2 year old! Yes Mckayla is really almost 2 now. Its hard to believe so much time has passed since she arrived. In some ways its feel like it has not been that long but in other ways I cannot imagine life without our sweet little girl. We keep very busy here at home- doing puzzles, building with blocks, coloring, reading, going to the library and doing whatever else fun we can come up with. We have also recently started babysitting Mckayla's best friend once a week, which they both seem to enjoy. The girls are so funny when they are together and its amazing to me how such little girls can have such a close friendship and care so much about each other.

Its getting warmer and warmer here, but what do we expect. Its Phoenix for you! And it will only get hotter, as it always does. Soon we will be going in the pool on likely an almost daily basis- we are excited about this summer and this year we will be in a home with a pool (our old house did not have one). Layla starts swimming lessons next week and I am hoping she will enjoy them as much as she did last year. She will also be starting a few other kids classes through the city, including a toddler /parent exercise one that she will be doing with her Grammy, while Mommy works for a few hours.

We recently took a mini-vacation as a family and rented a cabin up in the mountains in a town called Pine. It was beautiful up there and we had a great three days vacation. It was our first vacation just the three of us as a family. We have been on vacations before, but always with family. We spent the first 2 days on our own just the three of us and then the last day/night James' parents came and joined us- which was great! We enjoyed the wonderful weather and just going on walks and wandering around outside. We even saw deer and javelina (wild pigs) which was exciting. Oh and we had a resident squirrel who enjoyed eating the bird seed out of the bird feeder too.

I continue to work very limited hours. I was hoping to work about 5 hours a week but have not been doing that lately. I just barely start to get settled with new clients and then it seems for one reason or another they have to stop seeing me (two kids have stopped due to changes in parent's work schedules) which is VERY frustrating. But we are working to get me back to 5 kids again. Mckayla spends time with her Grammy Gwen while I work. Lately they have been enjoying weekly trips to the park to feed the ducks!!

James' work continues to be busy. He still drives down to Tucson once a month. He continues to enjoy living so close to work. He usually comes home to have lunch with Mckayla and I since we live so close now, which is nice for all of us.

Anyway no more news really.......just trying to keep up with a wiggly, giggly, busy, talkative, and noisey almost 2 year old girl!!!

Life is GREAT!!!

Life here continues to be very busy. I have been keeping busy chasing after an almost 2 year old who is always on the go! Yes Mckayla is almost 2 years old, which is hard to believe. It does not seem that long ago that we were anxiously awaiting our baby girl's arrival! Time sure does fly!!We have been keeping busy and I love only working a little and being wit Layla most of the time. We keep busy! We attend a mom's group at church two Tuesdays a month. I meet with the moms and we listen to speakers and do crafts, while the kids attend a kids program. The Tuesdays we do not have the mom's group we typically go to storytime at the library and then get new library books. Layla loves reading and we read so much that she gets bored unless we get new ones every couple weeks so the library is a good place to do that. I work part of the day Wednesdays and my mum typically watches Mckayla. They both seem to have a lot of fun on their days together!


We have just started watching Mckayla's friend Hailey who just turned 2, while her mom is at work on Mondays. She gets watched by others the rest of the week. She is with us from about 7am til 2pm and we have tons of fun. She just started coming last week but boy did the girls have fun!! They were making me laugh - I could hear them taking in Layla's playhouse. I could hear things like "Bye bye!" and "I'm busy right now!" Just made me giggle!

Mckayla has been really learning to talk so much more these last couple months. She know has over 150 words and can identify 9 colors and 24body parts by name. She is currently working on learning to count. She is always doing omething new. She lovess to do puzzles nd does really well on them. We had to pull out my OT supplies so she culd work on new puzzles- her's had become too easy.

James' work is going well. He keeps busy but we know that means job security which is good. We enjoy that he is able to come home for lunch with Layla and I almost daily. He still drives to the Tucson office about twice a month to do work there.

We have recently removed some bushes from the front yard an replaced them with veggies and herbs- we did green, yellow and red peppers, zucchini, cucumber, green beans and a bunch of herbs. We hope to plant some flowers soon too!

We are also hoping to start swimming soon. James has been in but says its still freezing so we are waiting a bit longer before Layla and I venture in. Layla ill be doing swimming lessons again this year as we feel if we have a pool and since there are so many pools in AZ a child MUST learn to wim to stay safe. she loved it this year and I am hoping she will again this year. She will also be doing a few other classes- art, music and movement and an toddler/parent exercise class with her Grammy.

We continue to attend SunValley Community Church and are looking to join a home fellowship soon. We enjoy their services. The sermons are very applicable to out daily life an their worship is great too. Anyway thats about all our news now. Hope you are all well!!

Some more fun pics!!