he had a great time. something we did that was really cute this year (totally cam’s idea) was to hide all of his presents. on index cards, chris made up riddles for him to figure out where his present was. loved that it dragged the whole process out a bit. he spent the afternoon playing this game mario — totally recommend it if you have a 7ish boy who likes video games. then we went out to dinner with chris’ parents and my parents to CPK. YUM! on saturday, we went to see zathura which cam LOVED. caleb was a little scared, though. all in all we had a good, relaxing weekend. it’s always kinda sad when cam’s birthday is over, because you know that thanksgiving is a few days away, then chris’ bday and then christmas and new years. this year has seriously gone by WAY too fast. ugh.

on friday, chris and i saw harry at the first showing while the kids were in school. kinda fun to ‘sneak away’ together. miss that. not enough ‘time’. totally crave it though, must get some more. soon.

and we are excited to see this little guy in february!

how cute is he? he reminds us of caleb. 🙂 and there will be new jack music too. how cool.

in other news, i went to the doctor today. i got my  final confirmation that i needed.

i guess i have been in denial because the cord was in the way at our last visit. but this time, she was guaranteeing it. can you really do that, though?!!! guarantee it?! lol. i will take her word for it now. of course, we are tickled pink. 🙂 we are totally amidst lotsa boy things here… and kira is into big girl things now… it will be so different to have a little girl in the house again.

one last ramble that will delay my having to cook dinner: chris and i are head over heels crazy in love with this show. have you been sucked in yet? you must watch!

we have a busy weekend planned for the little fella- so posting early birthday wishes for him today. he gets out of school early and wants to come home and bake his own cake. vanilla everything. cake, frosting, ice cream. he then is planning on opening his presents and playing with them for a good 5 hours straight. 🙂 then it’s off to dinner with his family. that’s tomorrow. his ideal day. no big hurrah, not tons of people.. just the ones closest to him- his family and grandparents.

this boy does not ask for much. he is our kid who saves his money, saves his gift cards… for things he really wants. he doesn’t just spend to spend. love that about him. he has been so kind- helping me around the house… doing chores. i love that. he is so special to us. our ‘little old man’. he wakes up first, before everyone, turns my alarm clock off for me, gets his own breakfast… and cannot stand being late to school. and he cannot stand going to bed past 9pm. he knows his body just cannot handle it. that boy is always watching the clock. 🙂

so, november 18- total day to celebrate our boy. we love him.

had a super fun time shooting these fellas too. they are so cute. love the green mom chose to put them in.

here are the rest of the photos 🙂

had the joy of taking this family’s christmas card picture.
the boys were so good. so handsome. so cute. they made it so easy. their home was lovely- beautiful places to shoot inside and out.

here’s the rest of the pictures

edited to add: i have a canon 20D. and these were shot midmorning. 🙂

one afternoon, he worked so hard on decorating the inside. totally decked it out. i cut holes out of the bottom so he could actually stand in the box and ‘fly’ around. he played with it for days. he loved it. 2 months later, i see it sitting so neglected. i tell him we need to get rid of it. he picks it up immediately and plays with it for the rest of the day.

how could i possibly get rid of the thing now?

he loves the glasses- couldja tell?!

so chris and i are dreading seeing this movie. we are rock, paper, scissor-ing who will be the one to take them. cam totally want to go. he even said he would pay for it. lol- cutie. chris tells me that they are showing it in 3D in select theatres. i tell him, no way am i doing it- those glasses give me a headache. he tells me this is different. it’s the new thing. so he goes. and takes them to the el capitan – where it is THE place to see a movie in LA. they rush out of the door, zip through LA freeways to get there to see that the entire day’s shows are already sold out. cammy starts to cry. a super nice lady walks by and sees this and gives them 3 free tickets and 3 free concession stand tickets. how nice. apparently it was a private showing for Kellogg’s employees and she had extra tickets. again, how nice.

and for your viewing pleasure… my guys in their chicken little glasses. lol. 🙂

the other day cameron and i had a rare treat. he had the day off from school. kira was gone. caleb was at preschool. it was just me and him. alone, alone, alone. 🙂 we started out by going to carrow’s for breakfast. my boy scarfed down 4 kid sized pancakes and some sausages. after that, i asked him what he wanted to do- and he said, "something you enjoy". (awwwwwwww!) we ended up going home and making homemade halloween decorations.

the crazy thing about the whole thing is that we don’t get enough time alone. i know it’s something each of my kids need/want…but it gets pushed aside. it gets forgotten. then when the time comes, you are like, we need to do that more often. it’s so important. especially in a big family. i know each kid needs that one on one. kira is very open about it, and states to us plenty of times that she needs it. cam does when it comes to playing football with dad. and caleb and i get it practically everyday. but cam and i hardly every get it. i could count on my single hand how many times we have done something special like that, just the two of us. that is so not right. he’s my middle child. kira and caleb are such extroverts– the oldest and youngest (for now). cam is an introvert and usually so low maintenance. i take advantage of that sometimes.

that morning, cameron kept holding my hand. telling me how happy he was. counting the hours/minutes till we had to pick up caleb…not wanting our time to run out. this boy is so sweet. and i definitely need to go on dates with him more often.

camera came home in time for some halloween shots. too bad they were all at dark! 🙂

we had a great time. love our neighborhood. love seeing kids from the school. love that it’s not too crowded. love that caleb was ahead of us all and just going at it. what a riot. one house made him come back and cry and that made my mommy heart break. remembering he IS only 4 and that his little mind is still so innocent. cameron did the bigger pumpkin, caleb the smaller. how cool is that bat pumpkin?! so proud of that guy! and that ‘wanna-be-scary-but-so-still-so-cute-face’ on caleb’s! 🙂 haha!

and kira was at her dad’s but here she is before she left:

we’re at the age where most of the girl’s costumes are soooo dark and gothic-y and ‘wanna-be-sexy’. so we dug through her closet and found this old dress that used to be my sister in law’s when she was little. not sure what you call this. but it is my dream time period for girls. when they cooked and helped out at the house and wore respectable things outside. lol. 🙂