10 Months Old

Our little bundle of Joy is 10 months old!!

Checking out an aquarium with her favorite little neighbor friend

She didn't know what to do with blocks this big, so she stuck with giving them a good pat.

I gave her some sticky rice on her tray. As soon as she touched it, she tried to get it off of her and ended up flinging it everywhere but her mouth.

Playing with her favorite little snuggle partner. She carries her tigger around by the ear. Every once in awhile she looks down at it and gets so excited to see it in her hands, she strangles it and tries to pull its tail off.

Camber's stats:

She's in the 90th percentile in weight and height. 50th percentile in head circumference.

She's mostly wearing 18 month old clothes

She has 2 little teeth front and center on the bottom.

Her favorite thing to say is "dadadada." Don't think she's associating it with dad yet, but she sure does have a proud daddy every time she says it.

She can stand without holding onto anything for 3 seconds at a time.

She has a fake laugh that sounds like a lamb's BAAA, but HAAA. It's always a crowd pleaser.

She hates: crawling (she whimpers and cries whenever she's doing it), strangers picking her up, 3 hours of church, her car seat, waiting to eat, sitting when she could be standing, the sun in her eyes, wearing bows or hats on her head, having her nose wiped or her face cleaned, having lotion applied to her face.

She loves: attention, to feed herself, to swing at the parks, to be outside, to walk, chewing on car keys, turning the pages in books (not necessarily seeing what's on the pages), kissing herself in the mirror, patting other babies and animals, being tickled, ripping up junk mail and pages out of library books, watching ceiling fans, climbing over people or objects, sucking her thumb, bath time, 4 second hugs, evening walks on daddy's shoulders.

We love our little Cambry and are so blessed she is apart of our family.

spoonful of sugar

We've been happy to see a lot of family as of late and was the "Spoonful of Sugar" for our home sickness. First, Devin's parents and grandpa came to visit us for a few days. We had a great time experimenting with them trying to be tour guides at places we've never been before. They were good sports about it and it was good to catch up with them in person.

This is an original cotton plantation. We got to pick it right off of the plant- the weirdest thing to see cotton balls growing like raspberries or tomatoes. Each blossom (the size of a cotton ball) had about 6 seeds in it... OH! so that's what a cotton gin is for! Naturally Devin did some climbing on these enormous trees that were so inviting to scramblers such as sir Devin. They had some animals to feed and pet, which was Cambry's favorite part for sure. All in all it was a fun experience to share with the Rappleyes and we are SOOO glad they came. Another particularly windy day we enjoyed exploring around the beautiful Crab Tree Lake. We also tried out a little Southern Barbecue where the meat is cooked in vinegar based marinades instead of tomato based. I think for the most part we all enjoyed it and everyone that wasn't pregnant was able to keep it down too. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit, and it was hard to say good bye.
My Sister-in-law Missy and the kids met us in Kinston (1 and 1/2 hours away) at this fun park and the kids loved playing and riding the train. Devin was once again lucky to be the alligator for Hadley and Browen squealed with delight as Devin "chomped" after them. He can't wait for Cambry to be old enough to play with him. Geez, we're going to miss you guys once you move!

Hurray for Aunt Lil!

Aunt Lil is serving in the Charlotte mission as the mission president's wife (mission mom). She drove to the edge of her mission so I could meet her and feel the love. We walked around this gravelly track at a park for a couple of hours and talked, then went to lunch. She is an angel and it was almost like being with my own mom. To top it off, she brought me home made goodies that felt like a gift from heaven. I'm so blessed.

Devn's #1 Fan

Am I crazy??

I recently had a couple of friends post honest, deep blogs about themselves and it made me realize it's ok to admit that everything is not perfect, and we don't always have to be the hero. It's given me the balls to make my own confession which is hard for me, especially since one thing I'm really good at is pretending that problems aren't there.

I once learned in one of my psychology classes that 5 main external causes of stress are:

1. moving

2. change in family dynamics (death, addition, divorce, etc)

3. health problems

4. change or work

5. financial problems

As I was thinking about this, I realized- MAN! No wonder I'm going crazy!

1. We moved across the country from everyone we loved, and everything we knew. I'll be straight forward: I'm homesick!! I miss family and friends like I didn't know I could. We're starting to make new friends, and get better acquainted with our surroundings, but the transition is slow for reasons I'll explain later.

2. We are very grateful that none of our relatives or friends have died, and I am so grateful that I'm still happily married to my best friend. A week after we moved here I got really sick and thought- man, I haven't felt like this since I was pregnant... Turns out we are expecting our second child in September! After the initial shock, we're excited about it and realized that this is how God wants it, and it's a blessing.

3. Well I try hard to think of it as a blessing, but I don't always succeed. When I'm laying on the floor unable to move because I'm sick and exhausted while Cambry plays around me it's hard to think that I'm an awesome mom, when I'm struggling to meet her most basic needs. If I don't move very much and if I keep up my diet of crackers and dairy, I can suppress the nausea for the most part, but I feel like such a loafer. Exercise has always been vital to me, and I keep comparing myself to last pregnancy when I was sick, but exercised anyway, and rocked a six pack until about 16 weeks and didn't start showing until about 21 weeks. I'm 12 weeks and already have a pooch and feel like I need to bring out the maternity clothes. Also, it's hard to make new friends when the last thing in the world I want to do is entertain, and I don't want to accept dinner invites either because I'm afraid I'll dry heave as soon as I smell the kitchen (I'm pretty sure puking in someone's entry way is NOT the best way to make good first impressions).

4. I went from working full time for several years to a stay at home mom when Cambry was born which i knew immediately was the right decision for me. Most people deal with the transition when the transition happens. But like I said- I pretend problems/change aren't there- I even fooled myself. I didn't face the change and focused only on how much I love Cambry. Now, 9 months later, I love Cambry more than ever, but these suppressed feelings of how much I liked working are surfacing. I realized that it's ok to like to work. I'm focusing on funneling that passion to work into working in the home (slowly since my energy is minimal). I've been doing a lot of reading in the scriptures and of LDS women who struggled with being a stay at home mom and what they did to love their role. It's helping to know I'm not the only woman that had a hard time embracing their role, and I think some day I'll be grateful for my identity struggle.

5. Although Devin and I are proud to say we have accumulated VERY little debt from our combined total of 10 years of college and we do have a steady income (even if it's not very much), we have never been on a tighter budget, especially since we want to get back home once in awhile, and we're planning for a new baby. We are learning to do without a lot of things we've previously thought we needed. Devin is especially good at being a tight wad, which is fantastic right now (if it were up to him, we'd probably all be eating crackers and dairy since it's cheaper than real meals).

When I look back at all the hard times I've had, I can see how those experiences have strengthened my character. Sometimes I can feel God's hand molding me and know He is hasn't left me alone. That doesn't mean that I like feeling like I'm coming apart at the seams, but I feel peace that heaven isn't far away and I have hope in the future that I'll be a stronger person and better instrument to do what God wants me to do next.

Thanks for letting me get this all out. I don't want this to be a total downer- especially if this is how you're finding out that I'm pregnant. I hope no one thinks that I'm suicidally depressed (although if it brings me a visitor, I'll take it- kidding.. kind of). I had a good cry as I wrote this- which I don't let myself do enough, and already feel much better. I know I won't make a habit of this, but it feels good to get my feelings out there.

The weather in Raleigh has been unbelievable warm. I keep waiting for it to snow or freeze over, but we keep having days in the high 60's and low 70's. For some reason against all statistics, I always expected February in Utah to be like this, but obviously it never was. So, we've been enjoying February in North Carolina and I think being outside in fresh air is helping Cambers get healthier faster. We found this little ghetto swing that Cambry loves (therefore I love) at a little park nearby. There are SOOO many parks here! I love it! and so does Cambry.

Per requests from my mom who's missing her granddaughter, I've posted more little videos.

#1 Cambry swinging

#2 Cambry army crawling

#3 Stinker that's learned to pull herself up in her crib, but doesn't know how to get down. So I put her down for the night or a nap and she's already tired, but then she pulls herself up and just stands there crying. Suggestions?

she's so pleased with herself when she's standing there all by herself. Gotta love her.

New trick, sad eyes

The last few days my little Cambers has been sick and quite miserable. It's my first experience having a sick child and there are few things more awful. As a mom, you want to do everything you can for your child, but it's such a helpless feeling knowing there's nothing you can do but hold your angel as she cries all night. She's still so cute and tries to play and cruise around, even though she's pretty weak.

On the upside though, yesterday Devin got his guitar out and played an upbeat song and Cambry started clapping right along in perfect rhythm. I have been trying to teach her to clap for MONTHS and she always jerks her hands away or just looks at me. She's never done it on her own. Just another example that she does things on her time not mine. We got a short clip of her clapping after the BYU vs Utah basketball game (she's already a coug!).

My beautiful cousin Bethany that lives in Charlotte, NC w/ her parents that are the Mission Presidents, was in Cary for her swim meet. We're missing having family so close, so it was good to be with family. I love how Cambry seriously could not take her eyes off of Beth

Trip to the Aquarium

When we took trip out to New Bern to visit Joslyn's Brother's family, we didn't get any pictures because we're not very good at remembering our camera. One of the highlights of this trip was the aquarium. Courtesy of our sister-in-law, Missy, we do have some picutres of the trip now.

Cambry loved seeing all of the fishes, frogs, lobsters and other sea creatures. Here she is check out the sting rays.

We let her try petting the sting rays, but forgot to wash her hand immediately. She tried sucking her thumb and was so digusted by the salty taste.

Here's our family by the big tank with sharks, turtles and tons of fish. Cambry loved banging on the glass and shouting at the fish.

Look at our cute little crab!

After all that excitement, Cambry was all tuckered out. Look at how exhausted she looks in that stroller.

After the aquarium, we went to Fort Macon. This was a fort used during the civil war by the confederate army. It was lots of fun to run around the fort with Jake and Missy's kids and playing hide and go seek.

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Goose Hunt

It's been like spring here lately, and we've been enjoying the outdoors a lot. Cambry and I went to a pond just by our home that is inhabited by angry geese. I was pushing Cambry in the stroller around the pond and the geese would honk at us and get out of our way. Cambry was flapping her little chubby arms like she was trying to fly after the geese. I picked her up, and ran with her towards the flock as we forced the honkers to fly into the pond. Her squeals of excitement made it worth all the goose poop i later found on my shoes.

It was such a beautiful day on Saturday, we went to a local park with a lake to play. We took tons of pics, but Cambry was so fascinated with the seagulls that she couldn't take her eyes off them... till we found the ducks.

Our first weekend in NC, we went to an aquarium on the coast with my bro Jake, SIL Missy and their kids. We saw this fish called the Queensland Grouper or "Lurk and Lunge." Immediately that name stuck with me when I think of how Cambry hunts...

Lurk...

...and Lunge.