There are only 25 days until Christmas

well starting tomorrow that is. I am looking for some ideas for "hard to shop for people". If you have an idea or know something would you mind sending me the link or posting it on YOUR blog? I was on a blog today and she had some WONDERFUL ideas from a holiday bazaar she went to too. I LOVE the wine bottle cheese plate. This *IS* something I am going to get for someone. Not sure who but I ordered one!! I will attach a photo to what I am talking about but you can also go to the website Edge Expressions to look at more of their great items.

I would love to see your ideas!!

(wine cheese plate!)

Camden Randoms 3 (7 weeks today!)

Camden is seven weeks today!

Camden's New Toy and being 7 weeks

Well Camden is 7 weeks today. It is kind of bittersweet for me. We tried for so long to get pregnant and have a baby (7years) and it never happened. However, Floyd and I were blessed with being able to adopt Camden. When we found out we were going to be parents to Camden I realized, while I do want to experience pregnancy, morning sickness, cravings and labor having a child was more important to me . Camden has been a blessing. At 7 weeks he is talking a lot, smiling more and more and really does have some great contact with people and faces. He lights up when his dad talks to him. And he knows when I am in the room. Camden loves Breonna and Nathan and just stares at them when they walk by. The best part, he is sleeping a little longer these days at night. Last night he went to bed about 8ish which is earlier than normal for him, he woke up about 9:30 had a bottle and went back to bed until 1:30, woke me up at 4am...this is where I go a little nutty...he is awake and eats, get a diaper change and then wants to stay up for about 30 to 45min. This has to change soon. Though he will go back to bed and sleeps until 7:30ish eats and goes back to bed until 9ish. Camden is then up most of the morning. He is getting bigger. While I love the new things he is doing it still makes me sad that he is getting big SO fast.

Camden has a new toy! We got him the Baby Einstein Neptunes Floor Mat. Since he was loving his mobile and its not portable we decided to get it. It was supposed to be his Christmas present BUT I couldnt wait and I am glad we didnt wait. Here are some photos and short video of him "playing" with it. (not sure why the videos are so grainy)






New Toy from Nicole Powell on Vimeo.

Giving thanks for what you are thankful for

Today the daycare kids and I were doing a craft where they had to tell me what they were thankful for. Many of the kids said sill things like " toys, dolls, pudding, rocks and tissues" a few of my older kids said meaningful things like "mommy, dad, a sibling or an animal". It of course got me to thinking about what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for:

* A warm home to live in. There are so many people losing their homes right now and I am very thankful to have ours.

* Kelli,John and Zack. They are Camden's birthparents and brother. Without them we would not have Camden. I can't imagine life without Camden at this point. I am so thankful to John and Kelli. I don't think I will ever be able to express, show or tell them how thankful I truly am.

* My health. I have struggled with my weight for years now. But I am still around and kicking.

* My husband. Floyd is my everything. He truly does try his best to be there even when I am being a little nutty. I thank him for that.

* Nathan and Breonna. Without them I wonder if I would be who I am today.

* My father in law. He is still after all these years fighting a losing battle. But I am thankful he is trying his best to continue to fight.

* My job. Even when I feel like I could scream and run away I am thankful I have my job still. There are many people losing their jobs and I am so very grateful to still have my job. I guess that would be mean I am thankful to the parents who continue to bring their children here into our home.

* My parents. They are so amazing, so supportive and so loving. Through the adoption, through everything they have ALWAYS been there with NO strings attached. My parents are amazing people and I hope to be that for Nathan, Breonna and Camden.

and last but not least...

* My life. Overall it is just a wonderful one. Filled with tons of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, hardships and wins, wonderful family and friends and so so so much more.


Tell me what you are Thankful for this Thanksgiving year.

The Iron Chef

Last Friday I was asked by Breonna's school PTA to come and be a "taste tester" for their Iron Chef cooking thing. I was excited to go. I had not heard anything about it, but I was happy to leave work for a few hours and be a "judge" and taste some cool new foods.

When I got to the school there was a line down the hall into the main lobby of the school of children holding their food entry. I was a little leary seeing all the desserts being labeled but no worry, there was bound to be more things there. After about 20min of watching the line of kids slowly come to a hault we all moved into the cafteria. Camden was with me and he was passed out so I was good to go. When Anita (the lady running the Iron chef) announced there were three different areas and they were 1. Pies 2. Cookies and 3. Other I *knew* right away I did NOT want to be in the "Pies or cookies" area to judge. I just have this thing about chocolate. It is not my thing and all the pies and cookies were of course chocolate. I opted to be in the "other" catagory. Well I got all the paperwork I needed and headed to my section and I about friggin died. I was in chocolate HELL. The other section was a ton of chocolate desserts and I had 25 of them to "try". All but ONE was chocolate. It was horrible. I wanted to leave, or cry. It was too late to ask to be in another section because the other two sections were just about done. They only had about 4 to 10 entries. I was screwed......I taste tested WAY too much chocolate. Some where pretty good others were so nasty! There was one I tried with two other moms and we all about puked. It looked like a brownie platter with blue frosting on top, it looked okay. Then as I was biting in I knew I was in for it. I bit into something chewy and gooey. The other moms looked just as ill as I was feeling...I couldnt bear it anymore and I spat it out into a napkin. I had to look to see what I bit into and it was FRUIT someone put FRUIT into a brownie...chewy fruit! It was a chocolate FRUIT CAKE!

Well an hour later and three bottles of water later we were done. We added up the points, gave our bonus's and low and behold my best friend's daughter won! Check out the winning entry here on Michelle's blog

Sleepy time..

I love Sunday's. It usually means everyone under the age of 18 is in bed and asleep by 9pm. Sunday's mean a quiet night earlier than every other day of the week.


(Nathan out fast! He had a friend stay the night last night and I believe they were up way past 2am. Amazing how there is never a fight after a friend stays the night when its bedtime the NEXT night. Sometimes that makes it all worth it! Nathan was asleep by 8pm)



(this little one will be up in about 2 to 3 hours so for now we enjoy the peace)



(Breonna the one who fights sleep. Finds something to do every single night in order to keep her eyes awake. But alas she is out.)

The house is quiet and still.

.....now I just need to get the husband to actually go to bed.

A small tid-bit of news..

For the 1st time ever Camden has gone to sleep in his crib, woken up and put himself back to bed without me going in there to give him his binky.

The small stuff is what counts!


And ummmm in other news..Christmas is in 1 month and 2 days. How soon is that? I am however getting excited about it. It means I will have from December 24th to January 2nd off from work, my kids will be home from school and we will all get to enjoy hanging out with one another. I am super excited for that. I love when there are no daycare kids and Nathan, Bree, Floyd, myself and now Camden can just relax and hang out with one another.

With Christmas coming also comes our 3 month post placement homestudy for Camden and then soon following an adoption date for Camden! Keep us in your prayers!!

Camden videos from his birth

Here are a few videos of when Camden was born. I finally figured out how to share them on here. Enjoy!


Camden 2 from Nicole Powell on Vimeo.


Camden 10/7/08 from Nicole Powell on Vimeo.

Bath Time

When Camden was born and we gave him a bath he would scream so loud the entire time making bathtime not so much fun. Eventually Floyd and I decided he may feel more secure and safe if we were in there with him. We were right. Since then Camden has enjoyed his baths much more and Floyd and I have got some great bonding time in with him. Here are some pictures of Camden and mommy taking a bath.

Here is Camden talking to Mommy.

Camden not so thrilled about this bath idea.

Checking out the thing infront of Daddy's face

Camden talking to Daddy now

One of the new things Camden has started to do it smile and chatter to his mobile. Of course when I finally got the camera and got it out he wouldnt do it. But he looks cute watching "his friends" dance above his head.

11/22/08 Mobile from Nicole Powell on Vimeo.

Screwed up! Dang it!

So it was NOT supposed to be a firefly, but a DRAGONfly! Dang it! Well looks like Jayme will be coming back out next month to paint over him and redo it....man. I knew there was something not right when I was talking to her.

Camden's birthmom loves dragonflies. So, off to email Jayme! Dang it...

Updated pictures of Camden's room...

Camden's room is all finished. We had Jayme come and add in the firefly and the tucan. The firefly is something his birth mom loves and the tucan was something his birth brother likes. So he will have something from all of them in his room. I know over time Camden will probably not want this "surf" room. But thankfully we have many pictures to keep for his baby book and they will mean something special to him when he is older and can understand!!

Tired and some updates

I am tired. I am exhasted. I am sleepy. This child does not sleep well. Lil'stinker. He is getting better at night time though. Camden will now sleep for one four hour stretch and then he sleeps 2 to 3 hour stretchs so we are getting a little better, but man there are some nights he just can't sleep for anything. Camden loves to be held at night, but when he is ready to sleep sleep he wants to be in his bed or next to me but on his own sleeping. The only thing that makes me kinda loopy is not taking naps during the day!! Camden is up almost all day long, which is great, but when he gets grumpy its not so great. He wants to go to bed and wants to go to bed NOW. Daddy will take him upstairs and rock or lay with him but most days he wants me. I will say I do love being "the one" though. I love how he will instantly nestle into my neck and smell me, lay down and just pass out. I think daddy is "the fun one" for him. When Floyd talks to him Camden just lights up smilies and gurgling. As 6 weeks has approached and gone Camden is really getting bigger. He is smiling so much more. He really knows who we are and when he sees us and hears us he perks up and just smiles. In the last few days he will follow us with his eyes a little bit here and there. Watching him grow up has been amazing and it has gone by way too fast. WAY too fast.

All is well in the land of us though. Nathan and Breonna are doing well in school and in life in general. Breonna has her almost teenage attitude still...its not any better, but we are adjusting. Nathan is all about cracking jokes about everything, again adjusting to that too. Floyd and I are doing well. We have our moments. Mainly due to lack of sleep, but again it has only been 6 weeks as of yesterday and we are working on getting into a rutein which is helping a ton. Daycare has been full and busy. It makes for some long days, but thankfully we have some great kids here.

In other news Floyd's father is doing fairly well. Quite some time ago he was put on hospice as his cancer is just getting worse and worse. Well I think its more his health than the actual cancer itself. I know that some new cancer crept its way into him and he had two round of chemo to complete before they could decide 1) if it was working or 2)there was nothing more they could do. The first round of this one chemo did not work at all. This second round of another kind of chemo seems to be stopping the growth of it. Not shrinking it but stopping the growth. A few weekends ago Floyd, the kids and I went to lunch with Floyds mom and she was telling us that she has totally stopped all of Rogers medicine and pain meds. At first I was shocked and was getting angry. But once she told me she had been using some Red Ginsing and this mushroom stuff her sister in Korea sent her and it was WORKING and stopping the cancer from growing and than he was eating better and feeling better I knew she was doing right by him. Amazing how its working. I also know that Prayer is helping too.. I feel like I need to shout it from the roof tops that this is working. It will NOT heal him nor make the cancer go away but it has stopped GROWING in other areas of his body and the new cancer has stopped growing as well and seems to working for him. Rogers doctors are amazed as over 7yrs ago they told us he had 6 months to a year to live.....never will I believe there is a expiration date on the bottom of ANYONES foot. No matter how right on a Dr. feels or is or has been...never...

Some Camden Randoms part 2..

Here are some new Camden pictures. Mary took these for me today during daycare naptime. He is getting so much bigger. Makes me happy and sad!

Camden and Maggie. He loves her!

So sweet those baby blues..

Yes, he was trying to poop.

Ahhhh much better! I think I can nap now!

Oh wait! Hello there light in the window!

Celebrations...Veteran's Day, 5 weeks and 4 hours

Today is Veterans Day. What a day for those who have and are serving our country. I wish them all the best. I want to thank all those who have served for us and who are now. I commend you and wish you all the very best. I promise to continue to pray for your safety.

Along, with Veterans Day comes 5 weeks of life for Camden. Yes, today he is 5 weeks old. I am fully aware that I will be needing to remove all the newborn clothing and replace it with 0 - 3 months clothing. That soon he will no longer be able to wear newborn size diapers and those to will need to be replaced with size 1 diapers. Silly the little things I think about huh? I seriously remember putting a newborn size diaper on him 5 weeks ago today and I had to stretch the velcro tabs so they crossed in order to keep it on him. He still fits into the newborn size diapers but if we don't change them within an hour he will pee and fill 'em up and he will be all wet. Owell. Its only a diaper....

With 5 weeks came four hours. Four hours of sleep in a row. Camden slept for 4 hours. I couldnt believe it. He has only done it once so it could be a fluke but I am going to think its a new thing. I gave Camden a 4oz bottle for the first time last night thinking "eh, what a waste, but 2 oz was not cutting it and 3 oz was doing okay for him...lets try 4oz" The child drank all 4oz. Camden fell asleep right away and was OUT until 3am. Amazed!Breonna will be starting basketball soon. I am excited and sad. This will be her last year playing elementary basketball. She will soon be in middle school and when you go to middle school you have to try out for sports. In elementary school every child gets to play. I know next year Breonna will make the basketball team, she is a strong player and great at what she does. My concern is Breonna already *KNOWS* she is a good player and that tends to go to her head despite the talks about being a team player and being gracious and kind.

Breonna has been struggling in 6th grade and I am slightly worried about her. I know Floyd and I need to bite the bullet and get her a tutor again. Something I am not thrilled with, but she needs it and I will do anything to ensure she does well in school. So the top of my list is getting a tutor.

Nathan is doing well in school. He is passing with just about all A's and B's. This is a huge improvement from last year at this time in the school year. Nathan was struggling even though he does great in school. He was really struggling this time last year. However it wasnt so much the work it was putting forth the effort to actually DO the work! Thankfully, he has gotten his act together.

Floyd and I are doing well. We both walk the days like zombies most days however we are doing well. With lack of sleep comes stupid little arguments that thankfully we both know are insignificant and not worth the effort we attempt to put into them. Floyd and I are so happy with out expanding family and that is the light at the end of the day when a silly argument comes to a head.

Off to watch SVU soon.

P.S. Christmas is coming!!

Hi, my name is Nicole and I am a Ju-Ju-Be Addict.

Yes, I will admidt it. I am addicted to Ju-Ju-Be. Seriously its a problem. I love them. For those who have NO idea what a Ju-Ju-Be is let me explain:

A Ju-Ju-Be is a superior item for moms (children) of which come in a varity of styles and prints. Tons of organizational pockets and extras. They are made of memory foam, they are waterproof, made of Teflon, machine washable, satin linings, again all waterproof, pockets galore, thinsulate insulated pockets, magnets, metal, and mommy pockets. Any idea what it could be?!
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Its a DIAPER BAG! And I am in love with them! I currently own 3 of them. I own a Citrus Sorbet Packabe, Tiki Toffee BeSmart a BeMine in Citrus Sorbet and in Tiki Tofee and Drip Drops BeAll. Sadly, boredom hit and I purchased the Midnight Eclipse BeTween, Midnight Eclipse BeQuick and the Drip Drops BeQuick. My dream bag is called the BeSpicy. I have entered a contest on a forum I am on and if you win you win a diaper bag of your choice! Maybe I will win this time! We shall see.

http://www.ju-ju-be.com/products.html
Check them out and see if you love them just as much as I do.

Here is a picture of my beloved Drip Drop BeAll. I bought this for Camden before he was born.

Pictures

A few more pictures from the other day. Just some I forgot to add.

Camden is *ONE* month today!

Today Camden is a month old. I cannot believe it honestly. It has been a month since we brought him into our home and heart. Camden amazes me everyday and he is only a month. I love that he really does know who I am. When he hears my voice and he is upset he automatically calms down. I love that when Floyd can't calm him down I can pick him up and he snuggles into my neck and just instantly starts calming down. (This is not to say Floyd can't calm him down, but at 2am its my job as much as Floyd tries)

Today I took Camden to his 1 month well child visit. The Doctor said Camden was perfect in absolutly every way. Dr. Joosten said Camden was very healthy and all over perfect. His stats are:

9 pounds 6 ounces
21 and 1/4 inches long
40th percentile in everything

He got one shot. His 2nd HepB. He did great actually. He cried and then as soon as he was picked up he took his beloved binky and went to sleep!

We have had some pooping issues with Camden though they don't seem to be effecting him too bad. He does have some stinky gas so the Dr. gave us some suppositories for the pooping to help with the gas. We can use them if we want.

Let's see....oh Camden is still only taking 2 oz at a time about every 2 to 2.5hours. He still wakes us up every 2 to 2.5 (3 hours if we are LUCKY) in the night. Camden is up for 2 to 3 hour stretches at a time now. He is getting on a schedule these days too which has been nice :)

Everything is WONDERFUL! Nathan and Breonna are loving him more and more....

Nathan is at his first 8th grade boy/girl birthday party tonight. I am excited to see how it went. :)

Some Camden Randoms...

Just a few cute ones of Camden from this morning....all done by his Murry (Mary!)

Four Weeks

Camden is 4 weeks today! And he has changed SO much. He is awake for longer periods of time through out the day. He is focusing his gaze on people more now and holding it without falling asleep, which makes me feel better! For awhile there I thought he was bored of me since you all know I am in his face all the time.

Friday Camden will be one month. We also have his one month check up. Sadly, he will be getting shots. Already breaks my heart thinking about it. But, it is just a part of growing up!

Today, was my first adventure to MOPS. Camden and I were showered, dressed, fed and out the door by 9:05am. I had a great time. I was so excited about going! I think because this was the first baby I was able to do all these things with. When Floyd and I got together I was nearly 18 and still in highschool. I had NO idea about these things, nor that I would of been able to do them due to school. I am so thankful for being able to go. It was so nice to meet other moms there. I can't wait to go again in two weeks!

Four week Camden shots. Nothing exciting, but cute nonetheless. here is Camden starring at the lamp in our room. Watching it and watching it and then passing out.....story of his life :)