Cupid's Day

Mr. Stannix and I originally made big plans to go out for Valentines day, but decided instead to stay home and cook a nice dinner together and save our money.  Camilla surprised her Daddy with a cute little homemade card first thing in the morning. She was so proud of herself as she gave it to her Daddy. It was cute. I had to get a picture of it!

For dinner, Mr. Stannix cooked up his Grampy's Tacos. It's a famous family recipe and they are delicious! We spent a good 2 hours cooking them up together. The process is quite long. We had music going as we cooked and enjoyed watching Camilla be a goof and shake her little bum to the beat. Her favorite part was when Daddy would flip the tacos. She would hold out her hand and exclaim "Catch" while throwing her hand in the air. Flipping Grampy's Tacos is quite an art. Mr. Stannix only wrecked one taco this time around, it was impressive. Look really closely at the pro do it and you'll see the tacos in the air. They're very finicky, so this is the only way you can flip them. I, however, wasn't so successful. My taco flopped.

After the tacos are partly cooked, they need to cool on a towel, then you fill them with the meat and fold them over with toothpicks.  When all the tacos are done, they are put back in the frying pan to make them nice and crispy! I couldn't wait for them to be done!

When we finished all the frying, we sat down and stuffed ourselves full of tacos. It was fabulous!

Camilla decided to get into the Valentines spirit by sporting the colors on her chin. The poor kid had a nasty encounter with her sippy cup and the floor. She tripped while heading for her nap. I was just glad she didn't knock any teeth out, but the picture really doesn't do it justice. It was far more purple and pink just before bed. She keeps touching and poking at it. Bruises feel funny sometimes.  She was a trooper though and only cried a little.

Thanks for the fun date Mr. Stannix! I love you!

My Little Valentine

Camilla got to wear this super cute red dress to church today. I thought it was fun since tomorrow is Valentines day.  She only cried for 15 minutes in nursery today. She sat on a nursery leaders lap the whole time and didn't want anyone but her.  I peeked in and she was on her lap watching the other kids play with toys. It was pretty funny. Thank-goodness for great nursery leaders who like to snuggle. When I went to pick her up she was napping on the sisters lap. After church she went to the gym and chased some kids around for a while giggling and screeching with excitement. She's so tired she just about fell asleep at the dinner table. She just needs to hang on for a couple more hours for bed!

Basement Adventures

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of our toilet bubbling and gurgling. I didn't think much of it.  A while later, I heard it again and decided to get up and investigate. For some strange reason, our toilet wouldn't drain, it appeared it was plugged, but we couldn't figure out by what. Mr. Stannix hopped in the shower when he woke up and found that the tub wasn't draining either and his shower was turning into a nasty bath. The people upstairs put a load of laundry through and we heard gurgling water again. We decided to call our landlord for some advice.  He said he would send his son-in-law over pronto to investigate, and asked us to move some stuff around in the store room so that they could snake the pipe in there. I opened the store room door and saw that the floor was COVERED in water that had backed up through the drain. Thankfully it didn't stink, but it looked like thick, slushy water with a combination of decomposed leaves, toilet paper, and tree bark. What a mess! Mr. Stannix and I proceeded to move the things from the floor out onto towels. This included a kitchen chair, my vacuum, a sewing machine, the broom, the tool kit, and one soggy Christmas tree box. I went to the bathroom to check if the shower had drained only to find it was worse looking then before with black gunk and hair floating in the water. The plumbers came and took off our toilet to check things out and discovered that with all the ground shifting, something happened to the older pipes, causing a tree root to block the way. They fixed the problem quickly and went on their way. Our awesome landlord stopped by with some paper towels and gloves. I spent the rest of my afternoon mopping up nasty water and bleaching my floor and everything that had touched the water. Then I disinfected our bathtub and toilet. Today, I still want to go over the floors one more time! Everything seems to be back to normal now.  Poor Mr. Stannix, his study time got cut short yesterday by the disaster. Today he is cramming like a mad man for his three mid-terms next week. We joked about how this had to happen just two weeks before we move, it couldn't have waited, just two more weeks. On the plus side, we were thankful it didn't happen while we were away last weekend, because it could have been a real mess to come home to! So in a way, I guess it was a blessing. 

Camilla is turning into such a little mommy. Her newest fetish is to wrap her baby in my tea-towels. She will bounce her baby to sleep, cuddle her, hug her, and kiss her. She's going to be such a fabulous big sister! Here's hoping for a quiet Saturday. Maybe some reading, playing with blocks, and an afternoon nap?

Sharin' the Love

For the last couple of days the Stannix's have been a little bit grumpy. Poor Mr. Stannix has three mid-terms in a row next week and I've been chasing our crazy kid around, cleaning, packing and keeping the house in order. Yesterday night I decided it was time to cook up some love in the Stannix home. Camilla and I made and decorated heart-shaped cookies for Valentines Day while Daddy was at his meeting. We had a lot of fun (and Camilla ate a lot of cookies).

Before they were even cooled her little mitts were all over the sugary yummy-ness. She scarfed down two whole cookies right off the bat! I smiled as I heard "mmm" and "num!" between crunches. What a nutt!

I finally finished decorating them all after she went to bed.  I got out the Valentine treats to get ready for the big day next week. I love celebrating holidays. Mr. Stannix stopped by Wal-Mart on his way home to pick up the final season of "Lost". He was so sweet to think of me while he was there and brought me home a heart shaped container full of sweets as an early Valentines present. We kissed and made up from our grumpy day and then tidied the house together. We then turned the lights down and plugged in the first disc of season six! We munched out on chips and salsa as well as our treats. It was a great night! 

In other news, I'm pretty much thinking of banning crayons in my house. The other day, Camilla scribbled with orange all over the back of our bedroom door, and yesterday our kitchen floor was a rainbow of orange and blue. Crazy kid. Thank goodness for Magic Erasers. With the move coming up, I've been trying to get on top of packing and cleaning. I scrubbed the oven for an hour yesterday and it is now sparkly clean. I debated taking a picture because I was that impressed with it! I also packed the rest of our books up yesterday. Our poor living room looks so empty without the books on the shelf. Camilla is in heaven with all the boxes we have kicking around. 

She played in this one for hours yesterday evening (when she wasn't chowing down on cookies). She's so grown up now! At night, we've made more progress with her little bed. Mr. Stannix was so smart and thought she was afraid of the dark a little, so when we put her to sleep now, the door is cracked a lot wider than we used to. She now stays in her bed! I tuck her in, and she'll reach up her little arms for a "hut" and wrap them tight around my neck. Then she'll pucker up her little lips for a smooch, and wave buh-bye as we leave. It's so nice that she's happy and content when she goes to bed now. Anyways, I'm off to make some waffles for me and the Mr.
Happy Friday!

I Lost Her

Camilla and I have had quite the morning.  I took off to Wal-Mart this morning in search of a few things, moving boxes being one of them. They had a few to spare, and Camilla was pretty patient in the store. I loaded the boxes in the car, then we walked to the dollar store to look for heart shaped cookie cutters and tabs for Daddy. Carrying Camilla is getting harder, the bigger I get, and she insisted on getting down in the dollar store. She helped me a little bit with the basket, and kind of wandered around a little.  She then thought it was fun to run off really quick in whatever direction she could. I'd call for her, and then go after her. It turned into this little game for her.  I was in the middle of comparing prices and she bolted. I called her name, quickly grabbed what I needed and took off to chase my crazy kidlet. I went one way, quickly scanning the aisles, no luck, went the other way quickly scanning the aisles, and wasn't having any luck. I then thought about those horror movies where people sneakily take your kids and run...etc. It was a total of 30 seconds, start to finish, before I found her cruising down the hair accessories aisle giggling like a mad woman, but it felt like FOREVER! I've never been more scared in such a short time. I called for her and she sped up as fast as her little legs would carry her in the opposite direction. I finally caught her and she hugged me, still giggling. I couldn't really get mad, but we are definitely having some lessons about strangers and running off in public! 

Sweet and innocent right?

No More Monkeys...

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Last night Camilla had way too much fun jumping on the bed with her Daddy. When they finished, Daddy was tuckered out, and Camilla wanted to do it again! "Bed, Bed, More?" was all we heard for a few minutes.  Daddy had to show her that she can jump on her own little bed, and after that she was set! What a great memory.

Building Blocks

Yesterday was a very good day. As I prepared dinner for the missionaries, Camilla dumped her blocks out and quietly started building. She's never been able to build little towers before. Mr. Stannix and I were delighted as we watched her stack each block to form a little tower.  They would get four or five blocks high and then fall down. She would get a little frustrated and have to start over, one block at a time. She did this until the missionaries arrived and got better and better each time she tried to build. We had a great dinner and lesson with the missionaries. Mr. Stannix and I cleaned up the kitchen together, bathed Camilla and got her ready for bed.  She was enjoying running around naked under her little house coat. Laughter filled her room as we chased her around, tickled her and hugged her tight, and finally got her into her jammies.  We then had our scriptures and prayers and a story. She hugged and kissed us each goodnight (and each of her babies and teddies) and hopped into her little bed.  She went to sleep without a fuss. I stood at her door for a few minutes to let her know I was still there as she fell asleep.  I thought about the evening and felt warmth and comfort. Our little girl knew that we loved her, and we had taken the time to show her and play with her. She quickly slipped off to sleep and had a pretty good night.  She woke up happy and snuggled with me in bed this morning.  

As we finished breakfast this morning, I got thinking about the building blocks in our lives, and the building blocks in our homes. I found some really great talks on building blocks and teaching children. 

“Our personal journey through life provides us with many special experiences that become building blocks of faith and testimony. These experiences come to us in vastly different ways and at unpredictable times. They can be powerful spiritual events or small enlightening moments. 

As experiences accumulate in our lives, they add strength and support to each other. Just as the building blocks of our homes support the rest of the structure, so too do our personal life experiences become building blocks for our testimonies and add to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

~Elder Ronald A. Rasband

I then started thinking about what the "building blocks of our homes" might be. I found another great talk that explained this so sweetly.

Our children do not grow to full physical stature suddenly. In like manner, their spiritual growth takes place over time. This development might be compared to erecting a block building. The walls are formed block by block with a strong mortar holding each block to the others. We could give these building blocks names, such as bedtime stories, listening to a child pray, tucking a child in bed at night, and a quiet review of the day’s activities. Other blocks could be pleasant dinner conversations, praise for tasks well done, birthday parties, and family outings. Others could be doing your chores, being kind to one another, reading from the scriptures together, serving others, and saying I love you. Still other blocks could be learning to work, taking responsibility, respecting elders, singing together, doing homework, attending Primary, and honoring the Sabbath day. Even larger blocks are family home evening, respecting and honoring the priesthood, and family prayer.

A vast array of such beautiful building blocks that are placed carefully can form a fortress of faith that the tidal waves of worldly distraction and evil cannot breach.  These blocks are held together with a mortar called love: love of Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ, love of parents, love for each other, love for choosing the good." 

~M. Russell Ballard

Now, whenever I see my little girl building blocks, I will be reminded of these talks, and the building blocks that are so important in helping our homes become a "fortress of faith".  I know that as we keep adding building blocks to our home held together with love that our home will be a happy, secure, comfortable place for our children to learn and grow. I love the sweet little moments that we have with Camilla as we read her a bedtime story, listen to her pray, and tuck her in. There's nothing better than big kisses from such a tiny girl. I love the sweet little moments we share as a family as we have family home evening and learn together. What a blessing little children are in our lives.

Check out the rest of the talks here and here.

Chinese New Year

The Stannix's had another busy weekend! Mr. Stannix didn't have school on Friday, so we took off in the afternoon to go visit with some friends.  We spent time making dinner together, chatting and laughing. It's great to be around friends. Camilla played with one of her little buddies while we all visited. They giggled together and copied each other. It was fun to watch them cruise around and interact! Our friends had a great idea to celebrate the Chinese New Year by eating some specialty food. It was fun to prepare it all together, and then eat it all! It was delicious!

We left Saturday night to brave the roads and visit with some more friends. Half of the drive was fabulous, the other half, not so much.  By the time we reached the east end of the City the wind had picked up big time.  Just as we got on the highway, the snow started blowing across the road. Mr. Stannix said "Honey, we're going in the ditch", and we slid slowly to the edge, but not in thankfully. We took our sweet time the whole way out, hoping the roads would get better.  I said a little prayer that our little family would arrive safely. The roads got worse and worse. The snow kept blowing across the highway, the other lane was full of snow drifts, and more ice was appearing. The last five minutes felt like an hour. We ran into a nice big blizzard and couldn't hardly see anything in front of us.  Finally, we spotted the sign for our turn. Mr. Stannix applied the brakes and we slid forward, and forward and forward.  We tried really hart to spot the signs on the corner of the side road and thought we had them.  Just as we made the left turn, we realized we were heading for the ditch, so we did a super wide left turn (U-turn style) and made it onto the road.  At this point the wind was now blowing towards us and the snow made it impossible to see. We crawled along at like 10 clicks, not knowing entirely where the road was because of all the snow drifts.  We finally made it safe and sound. We had a great visit. Sunday morning we all went in for the baby blessing of our friends new little girl. It was a very special day. I loved snuggling the baby girl back at the house and watching Camilla play with her friends. 

Ammon smothered Camilla in hugs all weekend.

(They're only 8 days apart)

Camilla was up to her usual, playing in Daddy's shoes.

On Sunday afternoon, the kiddos had fun running off while the adults were occupied with the new baby, and visiting with each other.  Camilla was fascinated by this glass door and the kids had fun waving to each other.

While the adults were out in the livingroom, I was noticing it was getting a little quiet. I wish I had my camera on me when I first checked on them, because it was too cute! I peeked around the door jam and the two boys were bouncing on the bed, and Camilla had Ammon's sippy cup of juice.  All three stopped to turn and look at me with guilty little looks. It was hilarious. I loved the fact that they are old enough and independent enough to go off on their own now and play together.

Camilla trying to fit in and play cars with the boys.

The last time we had the three of them together was a few Christmas' ago when they were 4-6 months old, laying on the floor together. I had to snap an updated picture of the three all grow-ed up. They are hilarious! They were all peeking at each other and being silly. I love the personalities that shine through.

(I just wish I hadn't lost Camilla's clip, her bangs are crazy!)

Sorry for the lengthiness of the post, but the Stannix's are all caught up!

A Play Date

Today Camilla and I enjoyed a fabulous play date with the cousins. When we arrived, Camilla gave Amelia a nice hug.  Both girls had their bums stuck out as they leaned in to hug each other, it was cute! It was a lot of fun to get together with my cousins and their kiddos for the day.  Gramma was also there, so we were extra lucky! It was nice being able to get advice from my older and wiser girl cousins, and also my very wise Gramma. We all got to chat and share fun stories and ideas and the girlies had fun playing together, giving hugs, and blowing kisses. Camilla was entertained by the dog, Tula, for quite sometime and enjoyed following her around the house, crawling under the table with her, and petting her gently.  We had a delicious lunch of pizza and enjoyed time together with family. Sadly, I forgot my camera at home.  Luckily my cousin snapped some pictures! These little people are growing fast!

Jacey, Amelia and Camilla posing on the couch

Camilla LOVED Amelia's little chair

Thanks for the fun day ladies!

A Strange Fascination

Lately, Camilla has had a strange fascination with her Daddy's dress shoes.  She loves to put them on and clunk around the house in them.  It looks hilarious seeing as they are like 10 sizes too big! It will entertain her for hours though! She's growing way too fast for me! She learns new words almost daily now.  She also likes to repeat things that we say.  When we play Mario Kart on the Wii, she'll often be right in their with us cheering and yelling.  It's pretty hilarious. I was trying to get her to stay in bed the other night, and I said "That's enough Camilla" and she looked up at me and said in a very serious voice " 'nuf". Today she used the word "mess" a lot.  She brought me into the living room and pointed to the couch saying "mess". I looked and her snack was spilled all over the couch.  We also had another lovely grocery shopping experience.  I love grocery shopping, but it's not as fun with a grumpy kid.  Today was one of those days. A few months ago, she chucked the sour cream from the cart and it splattered on the floor.  Today, she decided mayo would be fun.  I'm glad they put mayo in plastic containers now, although, the lid shattered when it

hit the floor.  Next thing I knew, she was pointing to the ground saying "mess". Shopping is a disaster... We went to find someone to tell them, and the "clean up in aisle 3" announcement was made.  We quickly finished up our shopping with a very rickety old cart. Camilla really doesn't weigh that much, but I was pretty sure by the time I hit the dairy section that my cart was going to break down mid-aisle.  We finally made it through the check out with Camilla neighing like a horse very loud and energetically the whole time. My cart barely made it out the door, and then I looked at the snow packed, bumpy parking lot I had to brave.  I gently pushed the old cart to the car, almost losing the wheels, praying the whole time to make it just to the car! Thankfully, we made it, loaded up, and went home.  Camilla munched out on baby cookies, grapes, strawberries, and cheese for lunch and then went for a nice long nap.  Although the shopping was stressful, it's always worth it. Camilla loves to help and be a part of everything and it's fun to watch her learn and grow. I know it won't be the last time I hear a "clean up in aisle....." but hopefully it won't be for a while....