Siblings

All my siblings were home around Thanksgiving. It was great to be together.

Engagement Photos

Like half of America I fancy myself a photographer. I've never really been asked to do a photo shoot for someone before, but I was able to take some engagement pictures for my little sis (actually Kelly's sis, but I've known her since she was younger than Adelaide so she feels like mine). I think these turned out decent. This is a sample of a few that I'm putting in an album for them. I'd love to know what people really think.

Camilla

Camilla is a fantastic addition to our family. We love her so much!

• She is almost ALWAYS in a good mood.
• She eats everything (except peaches). Her favorites are grapes and fruit snacks.
• She sleeps like a champ. 7:30p-7:30a without a peep. Its been this way for probably 16 of the 17 1/2 months she has been alive. Plus she takes one or two naps a day!

• She likes to dance.
• She loves music!
• She is pretty coordinated.

• She loves to play with Gorden and Adelaide. 
• She likes to follow me around and do what I do. (I love this.) 
• She loves to read and to be read to. She can spend a lot of time looking through books by herself.

• She appreciates being treated like a big kid. One example of this is if I give her a small bowl of grapes or crackers and NOT put her in her high chair, she is thrilled! She will go sit where Gorden likes to sit on the couch whenever he is watching a show. Or maybe she will sit in the middle of the floor. In fact, wherever she is when I say "sit down" is right where she sits. Its kind of funny.

• She likes to put things on her head,like hats, bowls, paper, necklaces, etc. She does pretty well at balancing things there and gets excited like shes proud of herself. 
• She LOVES swimming!

• She is pretty obedient and usually responds well to what I ask/tell her. 
• She really likes drinking out of a straw.

• The doctor says she will probably be 5 foot 11.
• She colors every single day. She loves to color! She usually chooses the orange crayon.

• She gives wet kisses and is starting to squeeze our necks for hugs. Usually she lays on our shoulder and tucks her arms down beside her and underneath her stomach (which is how she laid on our shoulders for so long when she was swaddled!)

• She likes to give high-fives. If she is mad about something and runs away, or grabs something she shouldn't and runs away, and just calling her doesn't get her back, she will almost always come running if you ask her to give you five!
• She loves the bath! Especially when either Gorden or Adelaide join her because that makes it more fun. She loves them!

• She likes to fold her arms and whenever we say the word "prayer" she stops what she's doing and folds her arms and bows her head.
• She likes to be outside.

• She talks all day long! Camilla has lots of words she says that we can understand: mama, dad, papa, Adelaide (which she uses for both Adelaide and Gorden), baby, Hi, bye bye, snack, teeth, eyes, ear, nose, bubble, dog, grandma, grandpa, suck (as in "pacifier"), diaper, ball, bath, and probably some others.
• She can point to correct body parts when you say the word, and she echoes it: eyes, nose, lips, teeth, tongue, ears, hair, belly button, toes, and dimples.

• Camilla loves babies. She carries a baby doll around half the time. She likes to pretend to feed them and she loves to hug them. She walks around the house pushing the baby doll stroller and sometimes puts them in the highchair. 

• She likes to put on bracelets, necklaces, and chapstick, and carry a bag or purse on her arm.
• She knows where the nail polish is and often brings it to me to paint her nails. She likes having it on but doesn't sit still for long enough to do all her nails at the same time. So we do them in shifts. That's how she prefers it.

(She is not yelling, just super expressive!)

• She tries to be sneaky and get into Gorden and Adelaide's stuff. We've had to get creative about where we put things lately. She's good. You know how people say when the house is quiet then its time to worry? Like somebody is up to no good. Yeah I've never had that before. With either of my first two kids! But lately with Camilla, she's busy and tricky and smart and determined! 

• We call her Camilla, Millie, Millie Belle, Camillie, Camilla Belle, and Baby Face.
• She is super silly and makes us all laugh out loud every single day. She is so much fun! She smiles all the time and we are in love with her gap and her dimples and HER!

Soccer

Gorden is playing soccer again this year. He has improved a lot since this time last year. Spencer is the coach again and Gorden really likes that. Our friend Salvador is the other coach and we enjoy being on the same team. Their team is named Sporting. Gorden loves running and doesn't seem to ever get very worn out. He seems to understand the game and positions and works well with the other players. He is good at being more aggressive and is doing really well! We only have a few games left. Its gone by pretty quickly this year! Gorden sure enjoys it though!

There is another little sister of a teammate that is always there and she and Adelaide usually play. She always comes and sits by us and lately they always color together. Camilla stays in her stroller and usually reads books and snacks on something like apples or cheerios and likes to cheer along with me. Most of the parents yell (encouragingly) most of the time and Camilla just joins right in. Its cute. So far she has only fussed to get out of the stroller during one or two games. I know if I let her out she will want out every time. So I don't. We would be running on and off of all the fields interrupting every game. That doesn't seem like something I would enjoy. I do let her out when the game is over and the field is empty. Adelaide usually runs out there to kick the ball around with Gorden too. Camilla can't handle being buckled in anymore at that point. She LOVES getting to run around out there!

Gorden Family Reunion

August 19-26, 2012 was the Gorden Family Reunion in Branson, Missouri. We all stayed in a 6 bedroom lodge on Table Rock Lake. We swam every day, played games, cooked for one another and ate almost every single meal together, had four different pool tournaments, played the wii, rode go-karts, went shopping, out to eat, watched Jim Stafford's comedy show, saw the Dixie Stampede, went to Silver Dollar City, talked, cried, sang, danced, and laughed all week! SUCH a good week!!

MEGAN

CAMILLA (16mo)

BECCA

ADELAIDE (5)

LUCY (3)

GREG (7)

SCOTT (6)

GORDEN (7)

CHARLES (2mo)

JACKSON (2)

SUZY (23 mo)

MOM / GRANDMA

NOAH (4)

TYLER & RIFKA

Camilla LOVED playing on the stairs!

Nick & Megan made us all tacos for Sunday night's dinner! So good! I could eat tacos every day! Monday night Mom and Dad made dinner and Dad made his infamous barbeque chicken on the grill! We all swam and had a great family home evening and then played Hide & Seek and Sardines with the entire family! That hasn't happened in such a long time! The lodge was a great place for it.

DAD / GRANDPA

on his 64th birthday!!

Courtney & Jared made everyone lasagna, bread, and salad that night. It was delicious! Then we went to see Jim Stafford. So funny! Very entertaining. He's a good musician as well. 

Spencer made us some yummy ice cream with different mix-ins.

He also made us homemade bread a couple of times, chocolate chip cookies, and homemade pizza!

Wednesday night Grandma Blackwell and Aunt Sarah came all the way from Memphis to play with us! We met at Lambert's Cafe, home of Throwed Rolls, and had a nice dinner. Then we went to Bass Pro Shops! That night we watched The Help, ate popcorn, played pool and of course laughed a lot!

Happy Birthday Lambert's Style = a ginormous cinnamon roll with balloons tied to it!

JACK

My three cuties outside the Dixie Stampede, which was so entertaining!! We really enjoyed it. The animals were fantastic and the food was good. For the second half of the show they got the audience really involved and called upon Tyler and Rifka to run some relays, which they won! Then Dad went out there to throw horseshoes. Pretty fun!!

 

 

After Dixie Stampede we went to ride go-karts. Adelaide was beside herself with excitement about this! It got postponed twice because we wanted to go with everyone and the previous planned times didn't work out. So when this finally happened she was SO HAPPY! I think it lived up to her expectations. Spencer and I took turns riding with Gorden and Adelaide. Once I beat him and once he beat me, which made Adelaide win twice since we swapped kids.When Adelaide rode with Rifka they also came in first place! Once Spencer and Gorden got so far ahead of everybody they got an extra lap before having to turn in!  

NICK & GREG

CALEB & JACK

LUCY & MEGAN

MOM & DAD

GRANDMA BLACKWELL & CHARLIE

RIFKA & ADELAIDE

SPENCER & GORDEN

TYLER & SCOTT

Friday we all went to Silver Dollar City!! Then that night we swam and Caleb & Becca made everyone Parmesan Chicken and a huge salad and bread. It was delicious!

 Gorden, Adelaide, Tyler, & Rifka

3rd Row: Caleb, Becca, Rifka, & Tyler

1st Row: Tyler, Rifka, Kelly, & Spencer

All 22 of us! With another little girl coming in a month!

 POOL TOURNAMENTS! Lots of fun was had in the basement of the lodge. We made four different tournaments: two random ones, a couples one, and in-laws vs. siblings. Tyler (who actually isn't officially in the family yet!) won the in-laws vs. siblings! Jared & Courtney won the couples tournament, and the other two got all the way to the finals and then the last game didn't happen because of timing. Dad vs. Megan for one, and Megan vs. Becca for the other. We had a great time!

  

  

These cute boys had a blast on the wii together!

 When Jared got home from his mission years ago we took a picture in the front yard of us standing by height. Mom wanted an updated one so we lined up again! Most of us had just come from the pool before this picture. No Rifka is not nursing anybody's baby. ha! Of course no one realized the wet before the picture or else she would have changed. Its all good. That's the way it was! =)

By Age

 

Thanks Mom and Dad for planning such a great week together!

We are all looking forward to doing it again in 2014!