So the little dude is still sick. He was up every hour last night whimpering. It was so sad. I woke up this morning and he had no desire to eat or anything. Just wanted to cuddle (which was fine by me). By the late morning we were finally eating small things. We have had 2 bananas so far today and some graham crackers. I made him NooNoo's (noodles) and that was a big hit, he ate the whole bowl for lunch. He didn't really want to go down for nap, but once I put him in there with his juice cup (water only of course), he was okay.

Not to say we didn't have any fun at all...I mean as soon as I say Barney or Elmo is on TV we get this....maybe hes faking...

So Cameron has had an AWESOME weekend. Finally, after months of not going out to eat with him because he was not restaurant worthy, he went out to dinner on Friday and did AWESOME...thinking it was just a fluke though. So Saturday while Ger was having his annual Post Season GFFL Gathering, I took Cameron to the mall with me (which usually is a disaster too) and we stayed a whole 2.5 hours with no problem, had lunch together, shopped and was just plan ole' happy! Trying to push my luck further, we went to Red Robin for dinner on Saturday night and again, he was AWESOME! I think we may have an acceptable little boy to take out now :) Sad to say though...he has got one nasty cold now. He woke up this morning, puffy eyes, bad cough, runny nose, miserable little dude. He just spent the day curled up on our laps watching the same Elmo video about 10 times. He had no desire to eat or anything. I hate that, you feel so helpless. You have no idea whats bothering them or what doesn't feel good. He didn't nap very long, maybe 1 hour total and was in bed by 7pm. Poor thing...look how pitiful he looked today...

Cam just being cute....He loves to try and put his jammies back on after we have already dressed him for the day.

I'm trying...I am trying so hard to make sure my child has nice manners. Up until now, he does. He is the sweetest little man and says please and thank you without having to be asked. Now if you hand him something he just blurts out "DUN WAN IT!" I keep telling him to say "No thank you" He will repeat me, but still continues to say "DUN WAN IT!" While its cute and all, it is getting a little old.

Speaking of thing getting old...

Bert & Ernie & Elmo...Used to love them...we only have 2 sesame street DVDs but they have gotten so old, I made Ger go out last night and get a 3 pack. I needed change. Its neat though...I love watching it and seeing the things I remember from when I was little...like "The Lady Bug Picnic" or "Sing a Song"...its so cool to watch Cameron dance to the songs that I used to dance to.

Mmmmmmm "nanas" Can we say obsessed?!?! Seriously! The other day I get a phone call from Gerry and get asked "Can a toddler overdose on potassium??" Why??? Because he ate 3.5 bananas for breakfast! He's a tapeworm! Its crazy! I've actually ran out of them this morning and called Gerry and told him we have a BIG problem and need to pick some up on the way home STAT or my morning tomorrow will be BAD. Its the first thing he demands when he wakes up. God help you if you don't have any!



So on New Years day I went to Target and got 3 photos printed. The one is this pic of Cameron and his MomMom from Thanksgiving day. I got 1 extra copy to let Cameron play with. We have not put down the picture since. Yesterday Cameron and I spent the day together and I really wish I would have turned on the video camera. He walked around ALL day (the day before too mind you) with his picture of MomMom. He hugged it, kissed it, sang to it, showed her Elmo, watched TV with it, try to feed her crackers and cookies. It was hilarious. Also...side note here...notice that second picture...look at that pucker I mentioned about before!

So I decided to give my self little photography resolutions for this year:

1. Blog everyday...even if it doesn't include photos.
2. Attend 2 photography seminars (found them just need to sign up!)
3. Work more on spreading my photography business by really promoting my portfolio building prices.


3 resolutions isn't too hard to maintain so lets see if it really happens :-)

Woah....what a holiday it has been. I guess the only way I can explain the holidays is through photos...so follow me here....

Christmas Eve was filled with lots of "Peno" playing with Cameron. I think I have my own little protege on my hands :-) The boy LOVES to play the Piano with mommy!

Christmas Eve night was at the Krauss House2 (Mom and Dad2) with lots of family. Cameron had a blast showing off his cuteness and awesome little kissy lips. The kid seriously has an awesome pucker...its like little fishy lips...its just so darn cute.

After the Christmas Eve celebration at Krauss House2, we came home, put the little dude to bed and got ready for Santa Claus to make his appearance. Look at all the loot the big man in red left!

See all those presents....whats the ONE big hit? Oh no...not the train table, not the Cam sized Elmo or Tigger, not the Elmo DVD's, not the Mr.Potato Heads....oh no...the dumb bubble popper! Yes...the bubble popper was the hit of the morning. Keep in mind I just said "of the morning"...My sister made his day...but more about that later.

After opening all presents Santa left at our house. We went back to Krauss House2 and opened up MORE presents for the little dude. We were nervous to be honest. When you get a phone call that says "You understand that we reserve the right to annoy you", well...you get kinda scared to see what they get your child. Mom-mom & Pop-pop really spoiled Cameron. He loved everything he got.

"What?! We have to leave Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's?! But I am having fun here!"

So after a morning at Krauss House2 and breakfast with the family, we headed over to the Christie house hold for major craziness. Let me tell you...when you get Cameron and Madeline together, you are asking for a loud, crazy afternoon. The 2 of them together is trouble. You know something is going on when you hear the two of them hiding in the laundry room with the door closed and giggling going on behind the door, you know your in more trouble when every time you go to open the door, they close it on you immediately and laugh! Look at these 2...you can't tell me those faces don't mean trouble!

Cameron and Madeline had a blast together playing. Maddie wanted to open every ones presents and Cameron...well Cameron was doing his own thing the whole day. See...his lovely Aunt B gave him a new vacuum for Christmas. A little dinky little red dirt devil vacuum. Surprisingly, I don't have any photos of him playing with it on Christmas day...I think that was because I was trying to get him to play with the other plethora of toys he had gotten. So anytime he even touched a different toy other than the vacuum, I took a photo of it. Don't worry though, I am sure that a photo will be plopped on this blog soon of my cleaning machine in action. But needless to say, the vacuum was a huge hit for him, but he got tons of other cool toys too! Oh...and Madeline has a new best friend....a life size Sleeping Beauty. Except, if I heard her right...we have named her Merry.

So Christmas night excitement ended around 7:30pm ish for us. The little dude was WIPED OUT. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired. Of course, he wanted to go to bed with his vacuum, but that just wasn't happening. So we wake up the next morning and want to watch Barney on DVD...nope not one of his NEW DVD's that we got him...no he wanted to boring same old Barney DVD, but hey, whatever makes him happy right. So we pulled out his new "Anywhere Chair" from pottery barn kids that Nan and Poppop got him and he sat there for the entire video drinking juice and eating cereal.

BUT! As soon as that video was done, what did we do?! Run for the toy room to get...wait for it....THE VACUUM! SURPRISE SURPRISE. Now he did play with all the other toys that his Mommom and Poppop and Nan and Poppop got...especially the ones that were meant to annoy us...like the drums, the pizza Elmo, tool benches. Oh the list goes on...but the dumb vacuum had to be in hand and worse yet...ON the ENTIRE TIME! If you turned it off, he went right back over and turned the darn thing right back on. Ugh!

So we went to bed last night with another fight about the vacuum coming to bed and at 3am (yes...3am) we hear "Barney...I yuv you...Barney Barney....I yuv you"....He was having a blast in there at 3am...so much fun in fact that this morning, he didn't want to get up for daycare!

So yes...all in all...Christmas was huge blast and resulted in the above...a whooped little dude who was exhausted from all that vacuum play :-) Hope everyone had a great Christmas. What did you get?!

Wow...so back in November I entered a contest to win a free http://www.portfoliositez.com website. Never thinking I would win of course...Well this morning I got an email stating I WON! I am still in absolute complete shock. Portfoliositez.com has beautiful photography portfolio websites for photographers. I've already purchased a domain name but sad to announce its not Sweet Pea Photography. It was already taken and after much research, its already VERY widely used so I went with my own name. So...coming soon people http://www.sandrakraussphotography.com will be up and running! Portofliositez thank you SO much, you gave me an AWESOME Christmas present and I am still pretty much speechless and in shock!

Check out their blog...it has me on it now! http://portfoliositez.com/blog/

Yummy weekend for this family. It was our annual cookie bake-a-thon at my parents house. The night always ends with us baking sugar cookies and making cookies in the shape of our own hands and decorating them with way to many sprinkles. Just tons of fun and one of my favorite childhood memories.

Our favorite sugar cookie recipie...except...no shorting...yuk...butter only!

Of course a weekend with baking and all the kids together means absolutely craziness. Cameron and Madeline have their wonderful love hate relationship, just like my sister and I when we were little. Just look at the love....




I've been meaning to share this. My niece Madeline looks JUST like her mommy and Cameron looks like me when I was a baby too...Anyone agree with me??

Now of course...a blog entry can not be complete without a new picture of the newest little dude in our family, Mason :)

My baby boy amazes me. He's such a smart little bugger. He has learned SOOOO much lately. He is all about independence on certain things. Like when we get to daycare in the morning.

Cam: I walk!
Mom: Okay (As I undo his buckles from the car seat)
Cam: Waaaaiiitttt
Mom: Okay
Cam: Okay...Ready!

So cute...we used to have a bad bad habit of running away from me in the daycare parking lot and me running after him screaming, but after weeks and weeks of asking him to wait for mommy, he finally listens and takes my hand now.

Newest thing? We LOVE to sing. Oh we LOVE the barney I LOVE YOU song, we boogie on down to that song while singing I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. He loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and sings "Upabove worl so igh".

We enjoy singing our ABC's....we sing EFG...P!...S, T, V, Zeeeee!!!!! Counting is another new favorite too....1, 2, 3, 4(sometimes), 6, 8, 10 YAYYYY!!!!!

I am just amazed at how much he knows. He is such a smart little bugger and I am so proud of him. We learn something new everyday and its so much fun to watch him grow and learn. Even with all the temper tantrums, I am LOVING this stage in his life. Its just absolutely amazing.

This years tree....so pretty...1000 little lights...but wait....do you see something odd? Oh that's right....No ornaments on the bottom half...hmmmm...A house of a toddler?!?

One of my favorite ornaments...Music notes

Ooooooo you can't tell me this is a face of a little devil that wants to pull EVERY ornament off the tree....

So I am behind on my thanksgiving post...

sooo....did Cam enjoy his thanksgiving dinner and desserts?









Oooooo yeah....
What else did Cam love about thanksgiving this year?





The endless amount of love from his mom-mom and pop-pop...

So now that I have caught up on all my sleep, I can finally post more pictures for you guys. Bonnie's water broke on Thanksgiving day at 8pm...she thought she peed her pants from laughing so hard (which we almost all peed ourselves laughing at her)...I was already home when I got the phone call at 9pm saying that she was driving to the hospital to get checked out...I told her it wasn't good timing...I mean come on...Greys Anatomy was just about to come on! Grrr lol. So I met her at the hospital and after being checked out, she was admitted and they started her on pitocin. Yeah...that didn't really do too much for her...it was 11pm when they started that, around 5am ish, she got her epi and than by 12pm the next day she was ready to push. It was a LONG SLOW process but I was there by her side the entire time making her laugh and of course doing my sisterly duty to annoy her :-) I am so glad I was there to see both Mason and Maddie born. So here he is...the little prince and Cam's newest boy buddy!!!

Quick post...have had NO sleep in over 24 hours. Bonnie's water broke around 8pm last night and had Mason at 12:19am this morning. He is a healthy 8lbs 9oz.

I pull out the camera last night during our messy bagel bites pizza night...and this is what I get...wha?!?!?

So I've been a bad blogger, I know. I don't have any pictures to update the blog with (bad...I know...) but I do have stuff to talk about lol. Lots have been going on, just haven't had time to really pick up the camera and snap photos :-( Sooo...lets see...whats new??

- Bonnie STILL hasn't popped yet...its getting kinda old actually. I've been carrying around my camera bag for 2 weeks now in pure anticipation, waiting, and hoping Mason will come to join us soon, but no, little bugger hasn't made his move. She is 4.5 cm dilated, 80% effaced and baby is at station 3 so it really could be ANY moment now.

- Gerry is building Cameron a toy room for Christmas. Its going to be a Thomas the Tank theme, I will post pictures of the room when its all completed. I can not wait!!!

- Cameron has an obsession with Barney right now. While cute, it is getting kinda old. You can only watch the same 4 dvd's so many times in a row...and just when you think your gonna get lucky by watching the TV channel with it on in hopes its a different episode...NO...its the same darn episode that's on the DVD! Seriously, there has to be more than 5 shows! It is however extremely cute to watch Cameron sing and dance to the "I Love You" song at the end of the show. He will dance and try to sing along and hug and kiss him self, VERY cute!

- I'm actually scared to buy Cameron any Christmas presents this year. Silly right? With all these recalls going on, I feel like I can only buy made in the USA stuff. Do you know how much that limits me?! Thankfully I know little tike's is all USA stuff, but still!

- My cousin Julie is FINALLY engaged now! I am SO excited for her and I can't wait to see her and get all giddy and excited about wedding planning and picking out dresses!

- Cameron knows how to use a spoon perfectly now. He LOVES to eat yogurt. He's so proud of himself too....every time he successfully eats a spoonful, you hear him scream "I did it!" Its hilarious.

- I have to take my family Christmas photo in the upcoming 2 weeks. I must must must do this...I keep forgetting and putting it aside. I must must must do this!

So I think that is about it...I will leave you with these...Cameron, 1 year ago...my my has he grown so much....

Okay, so I am a few days behind but I need to post these 3 pics. Friday was Ger's birthday. 29...1 more year till the big 3-0!!! We were amazed at birthday cake singing time. Cameron knew what to do with the candles and than clapped YAY!!!!! Sooooo cute. Ger and Cam had a great time together :-)

So I came across this picture...How stinking cute is my niece with her cowgirl boots? She LOVES her boots.

So nothing really new with Cameron. He's learned to say I'm sorry...actually, it comes out "I dod-deee", than proceeds to kiss you and hug you. While this is cute...I am thinking he's starting to think that he can get away with whatever he wants as long as he apologizes. This child keeps us on our feet :-)

Lets see...what else...Oh! Cameron has a new addiction. "No-nee" ...Bologna...yes...thats all he will eat now. Seriously, this can't be healthy....

Mommy: Cam...what do you want for dinner...Chicken Nuggets? Meatloaf? (Whatever meal choices I give that day)

Cameron: NoNee! NoNee! NoNee!

Alright than...that's about it! Till next time!

Mommy: Cameron...go say trick or treat...

Cameron: Knock Knock....dank doo...BYEEEEEE

Yeah...We tried the trick or treat but he either kept the chocolate bars in his hands OR just said knock knock. He also would not let go of the previous house treat until he got a new treat to replace in his hand...needless to say, we have a lot of melted candy. He did have a blast though...





Oh...on another note...Cameron is learning how to undress him self. He has gotten the sock thing down pat.