Goodbye 2011

Today is new years eve and our last day in Chicago. It also means that i have kept up this blog for a whole year! Who would have thought?!

Cameron has been such a good boy on his first toad trip. He has slept well, giving us three nights of seven hour stretches and even an eight hour stretch.

Today we get to condense all of our awesome Christmas gifts , plus everything we brought with us and hope that it fits into the car.

This will likely be our most tame NYE in awhile, and I think the odds of me seeing midnight are slim to none :). Cameron is decked out in a new party outfit for today but hopefully he won't see midnight either :)

See you in 2012!

Mobile blogging!

We are currently on our first road trip with Cameron. We packed our entire house into the 4runner and hit the road at 5 am. Cory is manning the driving while i'm riding in the backseat on baby duty.

Since Cameron is sleeping, I'm spending some quality time with my iPhone. I just discovered the blogger app, so now I can blog from my phone! This is fantastic because Cameron is not a fan of sitting at the computer.

Hopefully my blogging will be much improved now. It's been a beautiful day so far and we have already passed Iowa city.

I added the few photos I've taken today. The sunrise over northwest Missouri and our drive by of Iowa city.

Merry Christmas eve!

Video Time

Cameron's two month video and my first time putting a video on here!

Two Months

Yesterday marked Cameron's two month birthday.  I can't believe he is almost 9 weeks old.  In some ways, it has flown by....and it other ways, I can see that its been 9 weeks. 

We had his two month appointment last Friday.  Cameron weighed in at 11 pounds, 2 ounces and is 22.25" long!  He is growing like a weed.  He is eating a lot more and is sleeping better at night.  We have yet to get a full nights sleep, but for the past week, we get almost a 5 and a half hour stretch out of him.  Its like Christmas everyday!  He is smiling so much more and "talking" to us now.  He also loves his activity mat and smacks at the toys hanging down.  Yesterday, I heard a grunt of frustration when he couldn't reach something :)

I've been taking a million pictures and clogging up all sorts of memory cards.  I've yet to start on his baby book...That is going to be an after Christmas project.  We are heading up to Chicago tomorrow for Cameron to meet his great grandpa, two of his great grandmas, three of his aunts, a lot of cousins, and about a million great aunts and uncles.  And that's just my family :)!  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

Cameron, 5 weeks old

Cameron, six weeks old and so over having his picture taken

This kid LOVES his nightly bath....even if this doesn't capture the excitement

All lips and chins

Seven weeks old...



Thanksgiving!!!

We made it thru Cameron's first Thanksgiving!  There were very little tears on his part, we got dinner on the table and he slept well last night.  Despite having a baby in the house, I still wanted to make our thanksgiving dinner.  I had  to tone down a few things this year to make dinner a reality.  So no homemade cornbread (thanks trader Joe's!) and no pear & cranberry crisp (too many steps and I usually make it after dinner so its fresh.)

Pumpkin pie....not my favorite, but I make it for Cory

 My personal favorite: Gramma''s Green Jello

The table...if you look closely you can see the cranberry sauce and the green beans. 

This year, in addition to the ham, Cory smoked a turkey breast.  Notice how beautiful it was...it was almost 70!!!

Cameron had a rough day...it spent a lot of it sleeping on Grandpa Jack

End of the day...



Baby Fashion Show

Cameron definitely takes after his parents and has no shortage of clothes.  I have been trying to get a few pics everyday to capture his cuteness.

heading home from the hospital in his monkey outfit

first pair of comfy pants!

Penny loafer socks for his first doctors visit

Hawkeye chic!

Halloween fabulous!

Ducky couture!

supporting aunt jennifer and her chi o's!

And then there were three...

Don't be alarmed, the Two Fins are alive and well, but have been sucked into a baby universe.  Our little nugget arrived four days early, and since then we have done nothing but eat, sleep, and breathe baby!

Cameron Joseph Finley

October 22nd, 2011

7 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches long

Cameron has been an amazing baby!  He is eating and growing like crazy and most nights he lets us get at least a three hour stretch of sleep.  There will be many more pictures to come.  Cameron's biggest development of the week is that he is letting Daddy feed him one bottle a day.  We are pretty sure he is the cutest baby in all the land, but we are little biased :)

The Baby's Room

I have had a few requests to get some pictures up of the baby's room.  We finally have all of our furniture.  We were a little concerned that the baby might arrive before the dresser, but it all worked out in the end.  The crib we found early on and loved, so we bought it online.  Finding a coordinating dresser that we liked was a lot harder.  They were either too expensive or too fancy looking.  All we wanted was simple lines so this kid could use the dresser for a long time to come.

The chair we bought at Crate and Barrel and its my favorite piece.  The added bonus is that it is slip covered and the slipcover is machine washable. 

We didn't have to paint the room since we had already painted it a long time ago a neutral greenish-tan color.  The color is Camel and was originally for our living room 5 years ago.  Long story short, Cory painted our living room twice.

The chair, complete with the Boppy and two of the awesome homemade blankets we've received

The built in bookshelves...I had to pack up three boxes of books to store in the attic until a later date

We are working on the baby's library.  Hopefully this kid likes to read!  We have some of each of our old books, plus a few new ones.  The most important one is the book that explains all about Iowa!

The polka dot bins are holding the few rattles and toys we have for now.

Our dresser...now stocked with some clothes and plenty of diapers!

Our crib!  It has a drawer underneath where all of the extra mattress pads, fitted sheets and sleep sacks are.  On the left is the bumbo, the sassy rock n roll gym and the hamper.  On the right is both our diaper bags and the car seat!

We are just about at the two week countdown, which is crazy!  Today Dr. Moore said that she won't let us go any later than 41 weeks, so there is an end date in sight. I'm about ready for any day now...this belly is getting heavy :)



The Countdown is On

We had our 36 week appointment yesterday, which included our last ultrasound.  Once again, we could not see the baby's face.  The nugget had it's arms in front of its face, so we could only get glimpses.  We did get to see one very chubby little cheek though, which of course is adorable :)

Everything looked good on the ultrasound.  The baby's heartbeat was 158, which is pretty consistent with what its been the whole time.  And they are guesstimating that right now, this baby weighs 6 lbs. 3 oz, which puts it in the 50th percentile.

28 days to go!

bUmPDATE

This was taken Saturday, at 35 weeks and 3 days.

We are now on the official countdown to baby.  30 days to go!

Tomorrow we go in for our 36 week appointment to get our last ultrasound.

I can't wait to see the baby again and find out who has been causing all that trouble in there :)

My Last Concert

Over Labor Day weekend, Cory and I had tickets for what is going to be my last concert for a little while.  Cory is going to see the Foo Fighters this Friday, then he is in my boat :)  We had tickets for Maroon 5 and Train at Starlight, which is a great outdoor theater here in KC. 

We got lucky in that it was the first beautiful day that wasn't 800 million degrees since June, but I had to attend the show pregnant and on crutches.  Not really how I was planning on going.  I have to say, the Starlight staff was awesome.  Not only did they let us park in the handicap parking section, they also had a golf cart shuttle that took us straight to our car when the show was done!  Now Cory wants me to bring my crutches to every show we'll see...

Despite my reservations over going to the show in my "conditions", I had a great time! 

Matt Nathanson opened the show and he was really good.  I only knew a few songs, but he was entertaining and also pretty funny!

Up next was Train.  While I like Train, I had really bought the tickets to see Maroon 5.  Turns out, Train was really good and their lead singer sounds fantastic live.  He did all of their big songs, plus a Led Zepplin and a Rhianna cover.

(Ignore how off-kilter this photo is, but Train started playing all sorts of KC pics , which was cool)

Finally Maroon 5 came on!

A Galena Wedding

After we spent a few days at the lake, we headed over to Apple Canyon on my birthday to see Cory's family.  Cory's brother Aaron was getting married on Saturday to Mary at Eagle Ridge in Galena.  We had a busy weekend ahead of us.  A lot of Cory's family was staying at the house in Apple Canyon, so we were able to visit with them on Thursday night.  On Friday there was a BBQ at the lake house for wedding guests.

It was a beautiful day and a lot of people made it...despite all the crazy windy back roads to get there!

Cory and Aaron got to play their cousins in a Finley vs. Hoveland Bags tournament.  I believe Aaron and Cory did win.

Everyone had a great time, including Kelsey, Aaron and Mary's lab, who kept going after the rope swing

Friday night was the rehearsal at Eagle Ridge, followed by dinner at Fried Green Tomatoes in Galena

View from the Patio during the rehearsal

It was hard to get a picture of everyone....there were 11 groomsmen and 11 bridesmaids!

The new Mr. & Mrs. Finley

This is how you are supposed to slow dance at a wedding...

...but Cory thought it was funnier to dance this way, to avoid the belly.

It was a busy weekend and my legs were pooped by Saturday night, but we had a great time!  We even got to eat breakfast with the bride and groom Sunday morning before we all had to head home.  Except that we were heading back to KC to work and Aaron and Mary were heading to Greece for two weeks!

Family Fun Week

When we heard about Aaron and Mary's wedding, we decided to go a few days early and hang out at the Bohner before heading over to Galena for the wedding.  I had to work the weekend before, so Cory drove up and I flew in on Monday, my last flight before the nugget arrives.  We had great weather all week, in the 80's , which is sooo much better than the 100 degree Kansas City days we've been experiencing!  (even as I'm typing this, it's september 1st and the high is 99!)

These are from the Sunset on our first night at the lake...

I got to play alot with my camera and lenses while at the lake, especially since I couldn't do much else while we were there.  I was the photographer of the week!



Using my larger lens while people were skiing and wakeboarding made for some awesome pics....

Cory has been a slalom skier since I've known him, but he tried out wakeboarding that week as well.

Wakeboarding went well, with only minimal spills

Beckett was a big fan of his Uncle Cory and the boat!

Jennifer is definately the wakeboarder in the family

Along with the being the dog whisperer...