My Two Little Goblins

Thursday I had Cami and it was library story time. One of their favorite times of the week. I am so glad that Heidi dressed Cami up in Halloween because it was all about the holiday this week. It was fun and they had fun. They even got to go trick or treating to the children's area main desks for a book. They were so excited!

Running A Marathon...

(this was all written a few weeks ago and I am just now posting it)

...or so it seems right now. At this very moment, Brecken is in his crib. Just woke up from a nap...or maybe he never really fell asleep. I have no idea. One thing that I do know is that he is BANGING his body...head...arms...I have no idea, against the side of the crib. Like super hard. And it is so loud! And every time he does he yells, "ooowww!". BANG, "ooowww!" BANG. Really child!? That child falls so much and bumps into these more than we can count, that it rarely phases him when he gets hurt. And if it does phase him, he is over it pretty quickly.

Back to the rest of my life. I feel like I am running a mini marathon without a break. I am getting exhausted and trying to figure out how to balance work, family, church stuff, hobbies. I have to regularly remind myself that I am a working person now.

(I did a wedding show at the beginning of the month)

Paparazzi Accessories is very much a job for me. Granted I am blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and set my own schedule, it is still a business. On top of that, I continue to get orders through my Etsy store. Right when I think I may be a little caught up, another order comes in. I've considered taking a break from it, but I love it and the orders really are sporadic and random. I thought with Paparazzi, my schedule would lighten up a little the first part of the year. Boy was I wrong and I am okay with that. In order to be where I want to be, I knew that I needed to push this hard and work hard at it the first year or so. I have been blessed and

surrounded by the best hostesses, event planners, team members and guests. I have gotten fantastic support from so many people. Right now I have 6 people on my direct team with 8 total in my downline. I have open house after open house scheduled. It never really stopped after the holidays for me. No I don't have 4-5 per week like I did before but consistently 2 per week with events thrown in there. I love it! My team is fantastic!! I love all of my girls! I am in the process of team up with a friend and team member to create a professional brochure for our Paparazzi business. It helps that one is a photographer and the other a graphic designer. I am also excited to have secured several big events in the Treasure Valley. I am going to be a part of two Cinco

de Mayo events, Taste of Home and Women's Expo, the Canyon County Fair and the Western Idaho Fair this year. These are not even the winter ones I plan on being a part of again. It's amazing all of the things that I can be a part of as I have searched them out. I am so happy that Paparazzi is a part of my life. Oh ya, and I put together my website. You should check it out. I am pretty proud of it. It is Jewelry Just My Style. I think I figured out the other day why I wake up tired and can't wake up earlier any more in the mornings. I pretty much go to bed thinking of Paparazzi or just things that I need to do. And then I think it all seriously finds its way into my dreams. Then I wake up facing the day head on. It never heads.

On a fun note, Brecken turned 18 months last month and entered nursery at church. Boy were we both so excited for him. Boy was he not excited at all. I teach a primary class that shares a wall with his nursery. I could hear him for the first 10 minutes crying. Honestly I felt bad for the teachers, not really him. I knew he would survive and love it. This last Sunday was probably the first time that he actually walked in there on his own and didn't care if I turned around and walked out. I was so proud if him. He is my sensitive child. He loves to cuddle, he loves to be near. Quite the opposite of Gunnar. Don't get me wrong, he still has his wild streaks, is outgoing, and totally daring. But when it comes to new situations, he is so quiet and shy.

Speaking of new situations. Heidi and Ren have been taking Cami to the library story time on Thursday. I always forget. They took Brecken for the morning while I had a Paparazzi meeting a couple of weeks ago and he would not leave Ren's lap. This last Thursday I remembered the library and showed up. Heidi and Cami did too. He was fine and dandy in the hall until we got to the meeting room doors and he flipped! He cried on and off the first half of storytime. He would not leave my lap and push himself deeper into my lap when I suggested he get off and play. I think I am going to be taking him more often. He needs the socialization.

Brecken has a best buddy and her name is Cami. Oh man, he loves his cousin! Those two are hilarious together. They get SO excited when they see each other. The other day, I have never witnesses so many kisses and hugs between two people as I did between them. It was pretty cute!

I have been off the coupon bandwagon for a little while now. I think starting Paparazzi right before the mix of the holidays and my Etsy shop always explodes with action during that time too, coupons have taken a backseat. Hopefully not anymore. This last week I was able to take advantage of two awesome deals without any additional coupons. I was SO excited! The first one was at Albertsons. Thankfully Heidi told me about it. For 3 days, Albertsons canned vegetables, canned tomatoes, canned beans and canned broth (these were the ones that I was interested in anyways) were all $.39 each. That is seriously the cheapest I have seen any of those in a really long time. Remember, this was without additional coupons. Well, it was with an in store coupon but they just had those at the registers. I spent $50 and got 120 cans total of canned tomatoes, both chicken and beef broth, corn and black beans. I was excited! I just realized about a week ago that I was on my last couple of cans of corn. I have been out of beans and broth for a long time now and I have been saving this one token can of tomatoes. Why...I have no idea. One of those mental things where I wouldn't use it.

My other awesome find was at Walmart. I was running through the store like mad getting a few things on my list when I ran into someone that is actually interested in signing up with Paparazzi. She works there but was off at the moment so I started chatting with her. She proceeded to tell me that Walmart was matching the Fred Meyers ad of 70% off the lowest clearanced price for clothes. So I was able to find Gunnar 6 pairs of jeans, 4 pair of uniform pants for next year, pack of underwear, long sleeved shirt/pant set, pajamas for Christmas this year, and a red polo for school next year. I spend $40 total! I was SO excited! I could not believe it. Little boys go through pants like crazy. Let's just say he will have lots of shorts for the summer with the amount of pants and holes in the knees he has.

I Love Her Deeply

I love all of my 5 nieces and nephews a lot. They can be a lot of fun to be around and fortunately 4 of those are closer in Gunnar's age so he has a blast. But was has stumped me for the last year. That would be our sweet Cami. I've loved her. Always have but I couldn't really pin down her personality until last week.

I watched her for 4 days straight while Ren's mom went to a conference with his sisters. Heidi had to be to work super early these days so Ren dropped her off around 7:00am. I had lots of time to get to know her and it was consistently for 4 days. I had a blast with the two babies. It was fun! I think what partly made it fun was that Brecken and Cami entertained themselves for quite a while. Brecken is very mobile so he would go along and open up toys or bring them to floor level and she would be right behind enjoying the play.

(Brecken is obsessed with touching her hair)

I also got to know her personality better. She is pretty funny! Usually in bigger settings she has such a focused look on her face but Brecken and I had her smiling (a feat that only Jeff used to be able to do when he came home for lunch). We had music on every day which Brecken loves. One afternoon when Heidi picked her up and took her home, she said Cami started jammin' out a little. Brecken and I have done our job. Brecken has also gotten her to crawl like a big girl! It's awesome and she had to learn if she wanted to keep up with him. Some days had me laughing because he would be making circles around her because he is way more mobile then she is right now.

Another thing that she learned to do was climb our two stairs. Ren and Heidi are in trouble with their huge staircase that they have. She can get up them...it does take her a while but she can do it. But she doesn't know how to get down. The oddest thing since watching her is that Brecken now turns around to go down the stairs. Why? I have no idea. He's always gone head first, using his head as a third arm. I like to think he is trying to be a good example to Camden now. One day Camden completely rolled off the stairs. It scared her pretty bad, I kind of laughed because it was only two stairs and she had to learn somehow. She would always get close before and never attempt it. Well now she has by falling.

This week, Cami quickly arrived for the day with vomit all over her. Poor thing. Heidi had to take her home for the day where she proceeded to be sick. Today Heidi kept her home because now she is sick herself and staying home from work. We sure miss hanging out with Cami this week. Brecken and Cami play so well together and I love it!

I sure love you Camden Kalani!!

Cami's Many Expressions

Brecken received this ball for his birthday from his grandma Miller. Cousin Cami loved it too! Boy do I really, really wished that I had a better camera. One day...

Cleavage

Probably thought this was about mine but nope...it is about baby cleavage. Last week while I was watching Cami, she went poo from the middle of herself up her front. None on the back...weird. Anyway, as I was holding back vomit I stuck her in the tub and hosed her off. We have one of those handheld sprayers. Afterwards I headed to the diaper bag to get the spare clothes. I stuck the onesie over her head to discover it was a little snug. I considered putting her into Brecken's clothes but then that would require me to go downstairs, find the right bin and dig something out. Too much work. The onesie would do.

Her and Brecken were playing. Gunnar keeps telling me this picture looks like they are fighting. Nope, just Brecken probably going for the eyeballs. She now squints when she sees him coming. Don't blame her. As they were playing she was begging to be on her tummy. I flipped her over and she was happy but it resulted in...baby cleavage. I had a good laugh over that one. I even texted Heidi a picture because it was so funny.

We love you Cami dear even if you did have a little cleavage showing.

My Mondays

I started watching Cami on Mondays when Ren went back to school. Boy is it fun but can be a challenge and the 7 or so hours go by so fast. Heidi takes Gunnar with her to work and Cami stays with Brecken and I.

These two are going to be such great buddies. I hope so anyway. Brecken just lights up when Cami comes around...most of the time. These pictures were from the first day. They were both so into each other. They laid on the playmat for quite a while. They went down for naps at exactly the same time. Cami slept in Breckens crib for 3 hours! Apparently she didn't really take naps at home in the crib for longer than 20min. It was a pretty fun day.

The second time Brecken was a little smarter at what was happening. He clung as much as he could for a baby. He knew that Cami was taking my time and did not really like it. Both babies were sick with a cold so that didn't help. They were on a lose schedule at best and just wanted to be loved a lot.

We had Cami on Valetine's Day and she was not full of love for me. I could not figure out what her issue was. It was so weird. Jeff was home for the day and kept commenting on how she was going to have tear stains on her face for crying so long. She could hardly be soothes. Even when I held her and walked around which always does the trick. It was a long day and I am sure Jeff was wondering if I was telling the truth about how great the other days were. Ren came early to pick her up thank goodness. And not thank goodness because I wanted her home but thank goodness because I think she needed her mommy or daddy. Ren did however tell Heidi that she cried at home for a while which made me feel good. And then she took a 5 hour nap!! Wow! She was worn out.

Here's hoping for better days. Since our last time together he cold left and then came back with a vengence. That could have easily led to her crankiness. I would be cranky too if I couldn't breath and coughed a lot. I am just so excited for the relationship that Brecken gets with his closest cousin. I hope they remain friends for a long time.