Camera Clean up

A couple months ago at stake conference the Temple President invited everyone to bring their kids onto the grounds and walk around with them. I soon found that the temple grounds is about the only place that has GOOD, non-nasty/prickly grass. We live 10 minutes away from the Raleigh Temple, so we come once in awhile and take a gander around the grounds. I think it does more for me than her. I'm amazed at how calm and peaceful I feel after being here for 20 minutes.

A couple weeks ago Devin's uncle Kent that lives in Atlanta was on business not too far from us and we spent the afternoon with him. He is such a great guy- it's the first time I'd met him and was so impressed with how personable he is. (sidenote: no walk is complete for Cambry without holding a giant leaf).
Now that Cambry's an independent walker, she is 100% independent with one exception... If she wants to go off-roading, she'll hold on to ONE finger.

Date night at the Temple

Cambry dances to everything- music, appliances, waterfalls/fountains- in this case it's the dishwasher. It reminds me of the kid in "August Rush" that hears the music all around him.

Provident Living

I've had a desire to be more self sufficient and less dependent on stores to sustain my family. In the past I've thought of all the things I want to do- plant a garden and can all excess, create my own greeting cards, make my own clothes, make every meal from scratch, etc. I give up quickly since I get exhausted just thinking about all the things I should do.

I decided to stop overwhelming myself and take some baby steps. For almost a month now we haven't had cold cereal in our house. For an Airhart, this is a BIG DEAL, since this is not only what you eat for breakfast, but it's a comfort food. Once a week I take an evening and make my grandma's recipe of whole wheat blender pancakes/waffles (the real deal with raw wheat kernels) and stick them in the freezer. In the morning we pop them in the toaster and top it with applesauce. A batch lasts 4 days so the other days we trade off between oatmeal, brown rice cereal, and omelets. Not only is it nice to be saving $$, but my body feels SOO much better! It's also very satisfying to provide a healthy start for Devin and Cambry.

uh, I pulled this picture off of allrecipes.com since I rarely try to make food aesthetically pleasing for photos, but you get the point.

New Throne

Cambry grew out of her infant car seat, so we got her the toddler front facing one. Instead of looking like a "fat guy in a little coat" she looks so dwarf-like in the car. She loves seeing more of what's going on though.

Cambry's favorite game is this Cat and Mouse game she plays with Devin. She's always carrying around a stuffed animal or an article of clothing when she's trotting around the house. She loves her daddy.

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we celebrated by cooling off at the pool, unfortunately we didn't take our camera to that. In the evening we went to Bond Park and grilled up some shish kabobs and hot dogs with some of our friends. We've had some record highs for May, and it is HOT and HUMID! Last week Cambry also decided she wanted to be an independent walker, and hasn't stopped. At the barbecue her whole head was drenched with sweat and her cheeks were cherry red because despite it being 92 degrees and 90 percent humidity (at 6pm!) she couldn't seem to hold still for more than 3 seconds. She is such a happy girl when she's busy. I took her little sun dress off hoping to cool her down.

Devin was extra manly and slaved over the grill most of the evening. What a trooper he was...I wasn't really good about taking pictures. I'm still learning the art of keeping an eye on Cambry on the go and having an eye for photo opps.

Here are some of our favorite people in Cary. We've been really fortunate to make really good friends here. Even though it was extra hot, things always seem so much more tolerable when you're in good company.
I splashed this little rascal a lot in the drinking fountain and she turned into a big sticky, sweaty mess with a very full diaper from drinking fountain run off. She ended up being the white trash baby that just walked around in nothing but her diaper. She's cute white trash though.
Random Pic: For the past month or so, I've been taking Cambry outside for walks after her morning nap and let her walk and explore. Since it's too hot outside, I now take her indoors to big warehouse stores such as Target, Walmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, REI, etc and let her be the guide. Here she is at Lowes patting the row of carpet samples. She is so curious- she loves these adventures (and also takes REALLY good afternoon naps after one of these outings). She seems to be most interested in standing where other people are already standing, things wrapped in plastic, metal objects that make a lot of noise when you drop them, and shiny things.

Weekend Adventures

Date Night!

Devin and I decided to take a blast from the past and do something we haven't done since before we were married, or even engaged: Miniature Golfing.

This was the cutest course. I loved this pergola that had wisteria growing so thick that, light couldn't get though.

This was one of 3 of Devin's hole in one! Who knew he was such a pro at putting around??

I have such a precious husband. What a dream boat.

Ok, I still get people that look at pictures of me and say I don't look pregnant. Here's a good one that can put all those thoughts to rest. I'm 24 weeks- last time I was this big at about 32.

Saturday we went to Jordan Lake with a few or our friends. It was such a beautiful day in the upper 80's and the water was cool and refreshing. We relaxed on the beach and cooled off in the water.

We're so glad Cambry is a water baby. She marched right in and we had to pick her up when she got to her armpits, because she wasn't stopping on her own. We brought a little floating ring she got for her birthday and she loved kicking and splashing around in that. We wouldn't let her drink the water, but she kept dipping her hands and sucking the drips from off her hands, the little weasel.

I only made one New Years resolution: Not to get sunburned. So far so good (I'm also not getting tan since I'm always wearing 30 SPF).

Cambry's walking farther and farther on her own. She's still a little tipsy, but she doesn't seem scared to keep getting back up when she falls and keep trying.

Visitors!!

This post was done two weeks ago, but was deleted by blogger. There are more recent posts after this one. So make sure you scroll down to see all of them.

We had 2 visitors in 2 weeks! Our first visitor was my sister Jessica. This is picking her up from the airport- Right when the picture was taken, a bug flew on Jess's cheek which resulted a fantastic photo.

It was so nice outside and Salt Lake had a blizzard that morning, we decided to enjoy the outdoors and we packed up our dinner and took it out to a little pond close to home and had an evening picnic.

Devin was in the midst of finishing up his semester, so it was extra nice to have constant company from one of my favorite people. We went to this sweet farmer's market in Raleigh that had everything from knick knacks like black gnomes to Cajun flavored squeaky cheese (which is surprisingly good).

We picked up some sweet potatoes and made some sweet potato fries for the first time. We gave them a B+

Jess, Cambry, and I spent an afternoon picking Strawberries at Jean's Strawberry patch. I have been wanting to do this since I saw people doing this when I was a missionary in So Cal, but never got around to it (weird I was busy doing other things). So 8 years later, I'm checking off something on my bucket list.

Jess was really good at finding the huge prime ones while I laughed at Cambry getting so excited to touch so many new things. We didn't get as many as we thought we did, and once we ate one (seriously THE BEST berries I've ever had) we wished we had more.

We made delightful Strawberry shortcake after dinner.

One day the three of us went to the Museum of Art that has some awesome displays right now of Rodin's sculptures, African American art, and Egyptian art. I don't think I was supposed to take pictures, so this is the only one I got.

Apex Lake is around the corner from my house and has a beautiful 2 mile paved trail that goes completely around it. This was so nice to just walk and talk and catch up with each other. I think Jess got a little overwhelmed with how green it is here. The whole time she was here, she kept looking for mountains or some land mark to help her know which direction we were heading but all she could see was green!

Sunday night my best friend Steph flew into town and Monday morning the 4 of us girls went to the beach. Poor Devin had to stay home and study. It was great to have people that were used to 25 degree weather because they were so excited to be warmed by the sun.

Cambry loved my Spider man kite almost as much as she loved the water. Sidenote: Jess got that cute swim suit for Cambry from H&M (LOVE that they have one of those here) as an early birthday present.

When we got to the sand, Cambers B-lined it for the ocean and didn't want to get out.

Cambers swimming in the ocean for the first time. Jess had a little hard time stopping the recording.

It was nice to just relax in the sand, although first time on the beach with a child isn't very carefree, especially one that has as much energy as Cambers.

Cambry tuckered out before we even got out of the parking lot.

We tried out some real Southern cooking at a place called Danny's Barbecue that was excellent. I think I like vinegar based BBQ sauce more than tomato, although I don't really love any of the southern sides (baked beens, coleslaw, hush puppies, applesauce).

Love this Can Can pic of Cambers. Isn't that belly amazing?? She had such a fantastic time with Aunt Jessica and we were all sad to see her go home.

After Jess left, Steph was still in town for a few days. We got to go to the Raleigh temple and do a session together. I love this temple- it's so small and cute. It was neat to share this special place with my friend!

excuse the nasty pic of me, but I only took one and so I don't have any more options.