That one time...

...when I tried to take a picture with my sister. 

"I go to houseboat!"

and that we did. here's a little recap of our lake powell trip a few weeks ago through pictures :)

 

we slept...well, a little.

we built sand castles

we washed ourselves off

we cried

we posed but tried to make it look natural

we laughed

we cuddled

we jammed

we were creepers

we did tricks in the water



and we laughed at our big brother that couldn't climb back into the boat

saturday is a special day...

...it's the day we get ready for sunday!

 

well, i guess it's the only day that cam's home to help me clean up the house and get errands done. and that we did! today has been one of those awesomely productive saturdays when you feel like everything in your life feels put together. you know what i mean? i mean, i only have these saturdays every once in a while (don't forget, most days i'm just having a breakdown). but today i feel like i can tackle another week knowing my house has been deep cleaned and every bit of laundry is done. yeah, i'm tellin' ya...it was one of those saturdays. i even dressed both of my kids (rare occasion around here) and i'm even wearing (drum roll please....) MAKEUP! yeah, one of those satudays! so to send things over the top i thought i'd snap a few pictures of the kids. enjoy! 

 

*lauren

Early birthday present

So my parents are super sweet and gave me an iPhone for my birthday! It's a couple weeks early because we were switching over to their Verizon plan anyway. My parents just paid the difference on mine to get the 5, and we paid the difference for cam's phone.

Okay, this phone is amazing! I had no idea it did so much! And I can't believe what liars all of you smart phone users are. You guys aren't AS pretty as your pictures and posts lead me to believe. Yeah, I'm on to you guys with your little magic wand button making your pictures look flawless. I had no idea!

Anyways, we are super excited about this new change. I'm especially stoked about the blogger app that let's me type up this whole post as Landon's napping in his room and Olive's sleeping in my arms. This. Is. Awesome. I could definitely get used to this!

Stay tuned.

*lauren

my life

last night i had a breakdown. i have them every so often (poor cameron). it was 10:00 and landon was in bed but olive thought it'd be fun to just wail instead of follow her brother's example. and i was done. i was done being on the clock. all i wanted to do was sit on the couch with my husband and watch survivor. that's it. and i know it seems super selfish and awful (like when you hear about moms killing their kids because they interrupted their game of farmville on facebook), but that's all i wanted. to be off the clock.

once i finally got her to sleep i just started sobbing. i started thinking back on my entire day. the only time i was able to go to the bathroom, i held olive in my arms as landon kept turning on and off the water in the sink. i changed roughly 8-10 diapers. landon screamed at me literally anytime i ate (he thinks every piece of food in the house is his. he's been screaming at me about food since he was 6 months old. i can't believe i haven't developed a disorder in the past 2 years.). and i didn't have a drop of water until after the kids went to bed.

i was spent.

 

and sometimes this is all olive seems to do all. day. long. 

believe it or not, this gets old. very old. and on those days the only time she finally DOES stop crying is when she's literally sucking the life out of me. not always eating...sometimes i'm just her human pacifier (my boobs will never be the same, may they rest in peace). and just when i think it's safe to look down at my sleeping baby, she's staring right back at me with the widest eyes i've ever seen. great.

sometimes i just want a moment to myself. alone. with no noise. who ever thought that would sound like a dream come true? silence. ahhh... i'm always amazed when i get in the car and cam's got sports radio blasting through the speakers. why? you have the chance to ride to and from school in silence and you don't? that's insane to me.

luckily, every once in a while olive flashes me a smile...

...and i decide to let her live.

*lauren

family of 4

it feels more official now that my SIL, rachel, took some family photos for us. too bad olive wasn't too thrilled. on the other hand, i look flawless and landon's smile is adorable, right? and isn't that all that really matters in family photos? that i look dead sexy? thanks, rach. you're the best!

*lauren

oldies but goodies

you're welcome.

*lauren

for daddy

*olive

olive

i birthed another baby. can you believe that? i hardly can.

 

with contractions super close together, we headed to the hospital the morning of january 1st only to find out i was still only at a 3+. after MUCH deliberation, we decided to go forward with pitocin and get this baby out of my extremely tired body. my epidural worked perfectly and by laying on my right side, i went from a 5 to a 10 within minutes. i felt the sensation to push and sure enough, she was right there. luckily the nurses got a hold of my doctor quickly and he made it to the hospital in time. i pushed through two contractions and she was born. she barely made it as a new years baby. she was born at 11:28pm. she was a whopping 6 pounds 12 ounces. my biggest baby so far. she's perfect.

 

we named her olive dian. and we love it. it's been quite the controversial name. but that's okay. we love it because her name has meaning. olive is an older name that you don't hear very often but it's not made up. it's unique. and as a bonus, it's cameron's grandma's name. and we love her. and dian is my sister, tamara's, middle name. and it's somewhat tradition to use middle names of our siblings. i don't really know the tradition but dian sounded perfect with olive. olive dian busby. cameron was the one who came up with olive and it took me a little while to come around to it, but now i'm sold. and now when i look at her, she's so olive. my little kalamata, if you will.

 

i know i've been quite the slacker when it comes to blogging, but give me a break...i birthed a baby! remember? well, now that i'm at least caught up with a blog post about olive being born, now i can start blogging about everyday things. every time i wanted to post something random in the past few weeks, i thought, "no, because i HAVE to write her birth story first". so there it is. she's wonderful. we love her. i guess it is possible to love more than one child. i was certain that was a lie.

 

i guess i'll leave you with a picture i JUST took as she's napping behind me on my bed as i type this.

 

you're welcome.

*lauren

'twas a few days past christmas...

 

Cameron, Lauren, and Landon’s

12 Highlights of ‘12

 

January: We took a trip to El Salvador to visit the people and places Cameron fell in love with during his mission. The food was delicious. The traffic was terrifying. The people were the friendliest on earth. Endless thanks to our parents who each took turns watching Landon while we were away.

February: For Valentine’s Day, Lauren got the present she had hoped for since she was a little girl: a power sander. No kidding. And this wasn’t even a give-a-gift-so-that-Cameron-can-use-it gift. Lauren has used it many times to complete DIY projects around the house, and with it, our garage is looking less and less like a scene from "Hoarders."

March: We won’t go into the details, but we got pregnant again. We are expecting a baby girl any day now. She is due on January 3rd, but with early contractions and false labor, we just hope to avoid Christmas day for the delivery.

April: Lauren turned 25. Some of her favorites: taking and editing photos, watching sports with Cameron falling asleep while Cameron plays with her hair, Landon’s nap time, talking with Tamara, thrift store shopping, and she just finished decorating the new baby’s nursery with Stephanie Steed’s help. It looks AMAZING.

May: We celebrated our third wedding anniversary. And we are still best friends.

June: Cameron turned 25. Some of his favorite things include UNLV Basketball, bike rides with Landon, discovering delicious recipes and perfecting them, Coldplay, and he recently discovered a new passion for indexing genealogical records.

July: Landon turned two. He really is a good little boy, but he is also in his Terrible Twos. You would think that we live with a suicidal psychopath the way we have to lock up any and every drawer that contains anything Landon might use to hurt himself. Some of his favorite things are Coldplay music videos, "Call Me Maybe" (Hey… it’s catchy and you know it), chocolate milk at Papa’s house, chapstick, lip gloss, going to the park, and riding his nursery friends like a cowboy (yeah…we’re trying to stop that one).

August: At the end of the summer, we took two family vacations: first to Lake Powell with the Cizmas crew, and then to Carlsbad with the Busbys. Both trips were great but both ended less-than-ideally. At Powell, Cameron fell off the back of the boat and got his leg caught in the swim ladder as he fell like a sack of potatoes into the lake. Luckily he did not break any bones, but he still has a scar on his elbow and a bruise on his leg to show for his ninja kick on the ladder. In Carlsbad, Landon thought it would be a good idea to test the durability of our iPod touch by throwing it off of a third-story balcony onto the cement porch below. The iPod didn’t survive. Landon barely did.

September: Landon started climbing out of his crib and getting out of his room any time he was supposed to go to sleep. We both knew that we needed to do something to keep him in the room, but Cameron was slow to act. Let’s just say that Landon went wandering on a certain "romantical" night and it got Cameron to buy a lock for Landon’s door the next day. It probably goes without saying, but a tiny person appearing in the room saying, "Mama… I got out" really has a way of killing the mood.

October: We said goodbye to Uncle Dilly, and Cameron and Landon paid homage to him and Mitchell by dressing up as missionary companions for Halloween. We also started a new tradition for Halloween night by having soup and HOMEMADE donuts for friends and family that stopped by. Mark it in your calendars for next year. It will be delicious again, we promise.

November: Landon made a new best friend when his Uncle Mitchell returned home from his mission in Honduras. Although they are best buds, Landon struggles with Mitchell’s name—it comes out more like "Mitches". You don’t need much of an imagination to think of which swear word Landon mistakenly blurts out when calling for Mitch. His most vulgar outburst came one evening when Landon was saying goodnight to everyone by name, including "Ni-night B!*@#es!"

December: Cameron finished his 3rd semester at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law. That makes him half-a-lawyer. He believes that as such, he is entitled to charge a reasonable $75 per hour for any services rendered. You will notice that this family update letter could have been shorter, but he has learned a thing or two about billable hours, thus all of you can expect a bill in the upcoming days for the 1.3 hours he spent writing this letter, and an additional .1 hours for the time you spent reading it.  I would suggest you just pay up and don’t ask questions, any calls or complaints will just start the clock all over again.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and fantastic year in 2013!

happy nevada day again!

i was MUCH lazier this year than last about putting together halloween costumes. in fact, we threw this together the day of. i just haven't had the energy lately. something about this little parasite that lives inside me...just makes me exhausted.

 

did you hear in conference this year that they lowered the age for missionaries? well, meet elder landon busby.

 

pretty adorable, right?

please notice the tears in his eyes in the next photo.

i get kind of crazy around halloween. i just want things to be perfect. i want to get perfect pictures of him. and i want him to smile perfectly at the camera. and since he's a typical 2 year old, that requires a lot of yelling. i'm not proud of it. i'm kind of a bad mom. but at least i recognize it and i feel bad. cameron was laughing as we were driving to the ward trunk or treat. the who-the-freak-did-marry kind of laugh.

and cam, of course, is such a good sport being his missionary companion. backpacks with bike helmets attached.

ignore the awful flash but this was too cute not to post. landon was laughing hysterically while trying to eat this donut off a string with no hands.

and then we went to a pumpkin patch at some point last month. landon loved it but was super scared of going down this inflatable slide. but since he kept saying he wanted to do it, i wanted him to face his fear and see that it was fun. he sobbed the entire way up the stairs. i had to push him up one stair at a time.

i know it's far away but look at the fear in his eyes.

but before you all go judging me that i'm a bad mom for making him so afraid...look how happy he was that he did it...

and holy smokes this kid could not have loved the electric swings more. he rode it 3 or 4 times in a row, laughing the entire time.

and then on ACTUAL nevada day we stayed at home and had soups and homemade donuts for all family and friends that wanted to stop by. it was totally fun and cameron seriously made the yummiest donuts. just see for yourself...

yeah, i know. it was an awesome night besides the fact that we didn't get a single trick or treater. not one. we have so much candy at our house right now. landon gets one piece a day after lunch and at that rate he'll finish his last piece when he is about to leave on his mission.

well i hope you all had a fabulous nevada day :)

*lauren