18 Months Old!

I know I keep saying this every month.... but time is flying!! It is so hard to believe that Camille is 1.5yrs old! While I feel like she is still my little baby, she is growing so much and showing so many signs of being a big girl. Her most recent discovery is "up" and "down." We think she learned that from "the people on the bus go up and down..." She physically goes up and down as she says the words, but "up" is also her word when she wants you to pick her up. She is doing a lot more repeating of what we say. On the way to school this morning she repeated "school," "bus," and "window" to me. I admit, I was very impressed :)

Camille has definitely gone through a growth spurt this month- which was confirmed at her doctor's appointment today. She weighs 23lb 2oz (33rd percentile). Her biggest jump was in height. She measured at 31.5 inches (50th percentile). Her head has remains large at 18 3/4 inches (80th percentile). We of course attribute that to all her brain power. Camille did great at the doctor. She had to get her finger pricked to check her iron levels, etc.... They like to see the # between 11 and 13... She was a 12- so perfect! That is a sign that she is a good, healthy eater. She did have to get one shot- the Hepatitis A. She did cry, but not for long because the nurse brought her a pinwheel to play with. The pinwheel quickly took her mind off the shot even though Camille then decided to rip the pinwheel apart- oh well.... maybe I will suggest sticking to the sticker treat next time.

I took this picture in the doctor's office while we were waiting for the doctor to come back in. Camille loved being naked, but didn't want me to take her shoes off! She is a girly girl and can't stand to get too dirty on the floor which satisfies mommy just fine!

Camille continues to love school. Her teachers always rave about her sweet demeanor, and her love of music. They say that Camille is never too tired to dance and sing and is quite the classroom entertainer. We did take her to see her cousin Emily's dance recital this past weekend. Camille was VERY into it! She sat very still for the first few dances and just watched in awe. The more peppy songs would cause her to sway & clap in her seat. She did get bored during the real slow songs, but she still focused on the dances. Guess that means we will be signing her up for dance in a few years!

New Baby & A Homecoming!

Lots of exciting news over the weekend!! Baby Jack got to come home from the hospital!!! He is growing fast and is a great eater. I know Allie and John are super excited. God is good!

And..... an early arrival with Morgan giving birth to baby #2 on Sunday.
Camryn Elizabeth Johnson was born Sunday, May 15th, a few weeks early, but healthy as can be.
She weighed in at 6lbs 13oz and 19.5 inches long.
She is so precious and already looking like her big brother Bryce!
Mom & baby are doing great!

Edenton, NC - Celebrating our 4 years of marriage!

Nick & I celebrated four years of marriage last week and we had planned a night away in Edenton, NC. It only about 2ish hours from Raleigh and fairly historic, so we felt it would be a good choice. It is definitely a quaint little town full of history, but not much to see after about 2 days. I would recommend a visit to Edenton to anyone- just not for more than a weekend. Otherwise, you would run out of things to do!

We stayed at a cute bed & breakfast near the waterfront called The Pack House Inn. It was originally built as a tobacco packing house back in 1915. They even have a neat Model T car out front that still has the original interior.

The Inn had a small cottage off to the side that had one guest room and is where they served breakfast each morning. It happened to be the cottage we stayed in, so other than breakfast hours, we had the place to ourselves! The story behind it is that it was the home of Tillie Bond who also owned The Cupola House at one point. The front porch swing is original to the house! The morning breakfast by the way was very impressive - sausage, eggs, ham, fried potatoes, fruit, blueberry pancakes, and spice cake!

Saturday was full of site seeing and getting our taste of the town! We first stopped at The Barker House, circa 1782. The original owner, Penelope Barker was said to be the main leader in the Edenton Tea Party. It is now owned by the Edenton Historical Commission.

Nearby was the Roanoke River Lighthouse. We couldn't go in it since it was currently being restored. It dates back to 1886. It is believed to be the last example in the US of a rectangular frame building built for a screw pile base.

Nick's favorite site was The Cupola House, mainly because of the beautiful gardens. The Cupola House was built in 1758 and had two or three heirs before Tillie Bond occupied it in 1918. An association in Edenton brought the house from Tillie to preserve it. It has been the town library and museum at one point in time. The Jacobean design of the house is one of the two most important examples of this architectural wooden house style south of New England.

The gardens were very pretty- I loved all the rosemary b/c it made it smell wonderful. Nick liked seeing all the different plants & trees. I was most intrigued by the fact that the gardens were designed by Donald Parker- a landscape architect with Colonial Williamsburg.

We stopped by the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse because it is supposedly the most intact colonial courthouse in the US, but we couldn't go inside. Nick did manage to get into some trouble while site seeing at the courthouse, so I decided to lock him up for punishment. (See below).

Same with The Iredell House- not open to the public :( It looked very neat inside from the pictures, so wish we could have gone in. It was the home of James Iredell in the early 1800s. He was NC Attorney General & Superior Judge during the American Revolution and an Associate Justice on the first US Supreme Court.

I really liked getting to see St. Paul's Episcopal Church. It is the second oldest surviving church in North Carolina from 1736. The inside looked a lot like the historic churches you see in Boston. A wedding had just taken place earlier that day b/c there were flower petals and bird seed on the ground.

The waterfront was very pretty too, as I was suprised how calm the water was. Very few boats out and about.

We enjoyed our meals too- lunch at the Soda Shoppe and dinner at Waterman's, but was disappointed that everything is closed on Sunday. We had wanted to stay for lunch, but our only option would have been Dairy Queen! So we left and stopped in Rocky Mount for lunch instead.
All in all it was a great way to celebrate 4yrs!

Adventures in the Strawberry Patch!

Camille went strawberry picking this weekend for the first time. It was a first for me too! Our friends, Britton, Beverly, and Madelyn joined us- as they weren't first timers :) Beverly took some great pictures that I couldn't wait to share! Camille & Madelyn gathered their buckets like they were old pro's! They did look a bit confused- probably b/c they were being photographed every few steps!

The strawberries were plentiful and Camille did a great job at picking them herself. At first she preferred to pick the small green ones, so Daddy had to show Camille which ones to put in the bucket.

Camille saw Madelyn take a bite of a strawberry, so Camille quickly decided that that was a much better approach. After one bite, it was a constant battle to keep Camille from eating every strawberry she got her hands on! After a few, it was all over her clothes and hands! Madelyn & Camille didn't seem bothered by it one bit! Nick thought this picture was funny... he wanted to caption it, "How long you been farming?"

After we were all sweaty from being out in the patch, we decided to treat ourselves to the homemade icecream they had there! Camille LOVED the strawberry cheesecake icecream!

She was so happy after loading up on strawberries and icecream, so she spent some time playing in the rocks and "cheesing" for Beverly.