Easter and other stories

Cambry loves "reading" books. If she sees a book lying around she'll start flipping through it. I don't know how many hymn books she has destroyed at church by excitedly turning and drooling on the pages. A couple days before Easter, Cambry was caught reading the Book of Mormon. She already knows where the good stuff is.

Speaking of good stuff, berries have turned out to be Cambry's favorite snack. She sure does make a mess with them, but it's a cute mess.

We spent Friday night getting ready for the big day. We dyed hard-boiled eggs and...

...frosted cookies.

What's makes Saturday the big day you ask? Cary's 1st annual Egg Roll. It has been fun seeing in the blogs all the different Frampton family members carrying on this tradition wherever they are. We were excited to introduce this tradition to our friends in Cary and Cambry. Joslyn and I both got out in the 1st round, but Cambry made it to the 2nd round where she lost to her friend Libby. I love the confused looks of the babies.

The Championship roll. And the winner is...

Nate!

Deservedly so, no one was as excited about the egg roll as this kid. He would count down and cheer when the eggs crashed. He was sad to see it end.

Cambry's first Easter basket.

She was excited about her stuffed bunny, another little stuffed animal to strangle.

When Joslyn needs Cambry to entertain herself for a while, she puts Cambry in her bedroom. She loves it in there (that might make punishment difficult when she gets older - can't just send her to her room). She has a box full of books that she can go through. A day before Jessica (Joslyn's sister) came to visit, Cambry was playing in her room and had been quit for quite a while. Joslyn walked in to see this.

It's a GIRL!!

This has been a big week for us!

First, we found out that our second child is going to be a GIRL! It was a completely spiritual experience seeing the skull and parts of her brain, her four chambers to her heart beating, her kidneys, stomach, ribs, spine, femur, fingers, and the blood and fluids entering her through the umbilical cord. I cried whole time, and it makes me teary eyed just thinking about the little miracle inside me. We are both happy that Cambry will have a sister.

Second, we experienced our first series of Tornadoes (see next post). Not really as exciting or dramatic as it could've been if we lived on the east side of Raleigh instead of the west.

Third, Cambry is now 11 months. She seriously makes me laugh so many times throughout the day. It is so fun to watch her discover the world for the first time. It helps Devin and I remember to appreciate little things like blades of grass, light fixtures, shadows (she is absolutely FASCINATED with them).

Cambry can't get enough berries. They are by far her favorite food.

Seriously! Couldn't you just eat this girl up?? She loves her daddy and he can get her laughing whenever he plays with her. The highlight of all of our day is in the evening when they get to have daddy-daughter time.

Did I mention that she LOVES standing? She'd even rather eat standing up.

This cute jacket Grandma Beck got Cambry has been her good friend throughout all the sudden rainstorms. We're loving how rain doesn't fall down half heartedly. It happens all at once and it's over in 10 minutes.

Cambry and her friend Libby digging for treasure in the sand on one of the play dates. She doesn't love it when the sand sticks to her fingers, but the loves the way it feels between her toes when walking in it.

Cambry, Tigger and I go for morning walks most mornings. I took a few pics of the blossoms too we've been enjoying for the past month.



A while ago I posted a clip of Cambry trying to crawl and so angry about it. She couldn't be happier to be upright. She's getting closer and closer to walking on her own all the time and loves the practice.

Tornadoes in our midst

Yesterday we had 62 Tornadoes touch down in North Carolina. We were really excited about this giant rainstorm that happened at our house, oblivious to the destruction that was going on just a few miles away. It was raining so hard it looked like it was foggy because it was just white streams coming down... But here are some pics of the real action that was about 10-15 miles away from us.

This is our local Lowe's home improvement store... or what's left of it. The roof just got peeled off and thrown around the neighborhood. Seems ironic that the place people go to get the resources fix their damage was the source of so much destruction.

This impassable highway made extremely difficult for rescue workers to get to those in need of rescuing.

Here's the Tornado that's about to touch down and make it's way into Downtown Raleigh.

Here's what it looked like at our house from the comfort of our 3rd story balcony.

Precious Moments

Yesterday during General Conference, Elder Scott's talk really touched me as he shared precious moments he had with his wife and children, and I decided to share one of my own. Saturday, between conferences, Devin was doing a project on our balcony. Cambry climbed up the glass door and started pounding on it with her pudgy hands to get her daddy's attention. He smiled and waved to her, put his fingers, tools, and face up against the window. Each time she squealed with delight and was giggling so hard with her daddy. I love my little family and am so grateful for a wonderful husband who treats me like a queen and a daughter that fills the void I didn't know I had.

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.