Making new Christmas memories...

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already and the year is drawing to a close. We spent the night Christmas Eve at my parents house since we are still not back in our home. It was nice to share Damian's first Christmas with my parents and to start traditions that I grew up with, with Damian. Growing up the only present we were allowed to open Christmas eve were our Christmas pajamas. Jorge and I have always gotten each other Christmas pajamas but this year we got to get Damian his first Christmas pajamas-and so it continues! I can't wait for Damian to get older so he will fully understand the excitement and joy that Christmas brings. Jon, Rachel and Addie came down for Christmas dinner and Addie was in full Christmas mode! She inherited Jon's ability to slowly and very carefully open presents, but the excitement was still there. I spent today shopping to replace all my Christmas decorations that we lost in the fire, not as many good deals as the day after Thanksgiving but still some good bargains.

Damian wearing his Christmas pajamas next to his stocking that is longer than him.

Logan, Austin and Collin sent Damian this adorable outfit. Look at that cute bottom!!!

Mom and I were very adventurous this year and decided to make a salt incrusted prime rib. Using rock salt, flour and water you cover the entire prime rib making a hard shell to capture all the juices. Neither of us had ever made a prime rib like this before and others (I won't name names), were very skeptical of our abilities. The picture that is missing is of me cracking the shell open with an ice pick!

Perfection! It was so delicious and juicy.

Charlie wouldn't sit still for his Christmas photo, even he was too excited!

"Sleep in heavenly peace"

There is nothing more precious than a sleeping baby, except for maybe a baby sleeping with his daddy and his puppy. I finally had to move Damian out of his bassinet into his pack n' play. It was too much work to move his crib into the hotel room so instead we got a pack n' play and he sleeps in his crib at grandma and grandpa's house. It was really hard for me to give up the bassinet, he just looked so cute in it, but sleeping babies look cute wherever they sleep I suppose.

"Were off to get our Christmas Treeeeeee"

Instead of Dorothy, Tin man, cowardly lion, scarecrow and Todo we had 4 adults, a baby and a wiener dog on a quest to get a Christmas tree when the skies turned black and the rains came pouring down. Before we knew that a tornado had/would touch down in Aumsville Pop made a comment that it looked like tornado weather-he should be a weather man!!! It was probably the quickest picking of the Christmas tree ever! Mom, pop and I got out of the car, Jorge stayed in the car with Damian and Charlie, looked at some trees and the 2nd one we saw we chose! Everyone got out of the car we got a picture and off we went. We decided to have our hot cocoa and cookies back at the house since it was so nasty outside. I did inform Jorge not to get used to such a quick tree picking time, he dreads going to the tree farm with me because I like to inspect all the trees until I find the perfect one! I will be posting pictures of the Christmas tree in a future post but here are a few pictures of my cute little man in his special Christmas tree picking outfit. Yes I did buy an outfit just to pick out a Christmas tree :)

He is ready to go tree hunting!

Too bad they didn't have the outfit in Jorge's size, then they really would have looked like twins!

A boy and his best friend

Damian is our first child but as many pet owners can tell you he was definatley not our first baby. Charlie is a spoiled puppy and I was very worried as to how he would react when he wasn't getting all the attention. To say that he loves Damian is an under statement, he dotes on him and loves to be near him whenever he can. Of course we are extra careful because Charlie sometimes gets a little too close but all he wants to do is love on him. I think with any pet owner you don't want your pet to feel neglected when you bring home a baby and we have worked really hard to make sure all our pets still get some attention.

Look at that smile-he loves his puppy Charlie and his shirt proves it!

The first time I looked back in the mirror and all I could see was Charlie I freaked out! I pulled the car over an turned around and there was Charlie curled up at the end of the car seat looking over his boy. I still have to keep a close eye on him as he loves to give him kisses, but he just wants to protect Damian.

He is much more awake now in the afternoon and I love that he can make eye contact with me and follow me with his eyes.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

The only way I could get a good picture of his sweatshirt was when he was sleeping.

Arms up in the touchdown position!

House update

Just thought I would post some pictures I took this morning of the house. As you can see things are moving along. The roof should be on by the end of this week and then work can begin on the inside! The nasty weather hasn't been very nice to the construction crew.

The siding has been taken off the back half of the house.

This is what we call the very open floor plan!

Maybe we will leave the living room roof open for some natural light :)

Last weekend we had the tree taken down-it really opens up the front yard.

Shop til you drop!

While most of you were cuddled in your warm cozy beds dreaming of that leftover turkey and pumpkin pie last night, Heidi and I were sitting in front of Sears waiting paitenltey for 4am. Yes, I am one of those crazy people that gets up early, or just doesn't sleep at all, to wait in line to get that awesome bargain. Now normally I am not in line at such an early time, midnight to be exact, but after loosing all major appliances and electronics in the fire I decided to get serious this year about my purchasing. Unfortunately for Heidi I drug her along to keep me company and to help in case we had to fight anyone off. She was such a trooper sitting out in the cold for 4 hours before the fun began. What did I purchase you wonder? Everything but the kitchen sink-oh yes and the washer and dryer-I wasn't in line early enough for that sadly. Is it really worth it to get up that early to get it? Yes! If you are in the market for big ticket items that you can get for half off then yes I think it is worth it to save some moola. Heidi and I chuckled because the lady in line behind us, who arrived at 12:30, was waiting in line for the snuggie ($8). Really?!?!?! To each his own!

Such good spirits!!!

Gobble Gobble

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of food, football, family and friends, (ohhh they all start with an F hehehe). I am a traditionlist at heart and there are things that I have to do to prepare myself for the holiday season. One of these things is to watch the original Miracle on 34th Street Thanksgiving night. Watching it takes me from Thanksgiving into the Christmas season. For those of you who haven't watched it I highly suggest it as it is a classic with a wonderful story. Jorge always makes reference to having to watch the "movie" again but really it is only one time a year, not going to kill anyone!

In fairness Damian did have a bib that said he was thankful for daddy also!

A cuter bum you will never find!!!

Cute and Cuddly

Words can't express how much I love my little man.

A week in review

My Boys!!!

How sweet is that! So glad to see that someone is getting some sleep!

I just love that face! I know I am biased but I don't mind waking up in the middle of the night to see his precious face looking back up at me.

Auntie Heidi enjoying some cuddle time.

Cousin Austin taking his turn to hold Baby "D" as he likes to call him.

Home Sweet Hotel

We got to bring home our little bundle of joy yesterday and it is so nice to have all of us under one roof, even though it's not our roof. He just gets cuter and cuter every day and I apologize now because you all are going to have to constantly hear about how cute little Damian is.
Yep those are bells on his bassinet, that way we can hear if any of the animals try to get in-good thinking Grandma!!!

Damian Edward Campos has arrived!!!

Damian Edward was born 1:10am Saturday November 13th. He weighed 8lbs 13oz and is 21 1/4 inches long. He has soooo much hair and looks like his daddy! I will post more later, just wanted to get his pictures up here!Jorge is wearing a mask because he is starting to get a cold, so we were being careful!

Yep-I am still pregnant!

Just thought I would let you all know that as of Thursday night I am still pregnant! Baby Damian is super cozy inside my belly and just wants to hang out a little bit longer. I am defiantly tired of being pregnant and everyone is ready to meet this big guy so lets all think happy thoughts that he will come out soon!

Happy late Halloweenie!!!

I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. I meant to get this posted sooner but as everything I do now is slow, this is no different. We spent the evening at my parents house watching Extreme Home Makeover, eating baked potato soup and answering the door for the few tricker treaters that they had.
39 weeks pregnant and ready to pop, baby is coming soon yeahhhhh!
OH yes and we painted my giant belly like a Jack O Lantern! It was fun and we all had a good laugh over it. This could be the only chance that I get to paint my tummy like a pumpkin, I had to do it!

Baby Shower-a quick glimpse

Last Sunday was my baby shower, which my bestie Janel threw for me. It was a wonderful party with a giraffe theme! The decorations were so cute and the cake and food were delicious!!! I am currently not able to download the pictures from my camera onto the computer so here are just a couple pictures from my phone. I will put some more up soon.Isn't that the cutest cake? Janel had it made to match all the decorations.
My mom surprised me by setting up my crib and putting some of the bedding that I have been working on up in her living room. Since we are staying in a hotel while they renovate our house, the crib will be staying at my parents house. Don't you love the giant giraffe poking his head out of the crib?!?!
This picture isn't from my shower, but I haven't put one up in awhile. 37 weeks and counting down!!! Things just aren't as comfortable anymore with this big ol' belly!

A little inside view

Here are some pictures I took with my phone of the inside before they started boxing everything up. Sorry the picture quality isn't so good, there is no electricity and I don't have a way to download pictures from my camera onto my parents computer right now. Everything in the house is covered in a layer of black soot and if you touch it you will be covered. It also reeks inside and then you will reek even if you spend just 5 minutes in there. If you look at the ceiling you can see where all the beams are from the smoke pattern.
The hallway is pretty black because they said smoke was just pouring out of the vent in the middle.
Poor family room, everything in there is destroyed because of the smoke-the door into the garage did a good job of containing the flames though! The fish did survive and are now happily swimming at my parents house!
All the food in the kitchen has to be thrown away even if it was unopened and wrapped up.

Friday Fire

It isn't every day that a police officer comes to your work to tell you that your house is on fire, but is what happened to me on Friday morning. I had only been at work for maybe 50 minutes when I got the news that a significant fire had broken out in our garage. When I arrived at the house the fire had been put out and they were able to contain it for the most part in the garage. I was told that Charlie had escaped from the garage and in fear took off running and a firefighter had rescued Chico but they couldn't find the other cat. When Jorge was given the go ahead he did find Coco hiding under my nightstand, safe but scared. The fire investigator is still unsure exactly what caused the fire, but we are forever grateful for the speedy response of the the Salem FD. Unfortunately the house is not livable because of all the smoke damage to the inside of the house and the fact that all the electricity, gas and water were shut off. Our insurance was super speedy and had someone over later that evening boarding up the house and starting the paper work to get everything cleaned and repaired. It looks like we will be hotel living people for 3-4 months which is upsetting especially with a baby arriving in less than 2 months. Jorge and I look pretty snazzy in our Wal-mart sweatpants we bought while we wait for them to wash our clothes, it is amazing how badly the stench of smoke can infiltrate EVERYTHING. We are so happy and thank GOD that the animals all made it out alive, we weren't home and that more damage wasn't done. Things could have been much worse.
This picture ran in the statesman journal, our big boy is famous! We were also on the 11 o'clock news Friday night.
Our house was the highlight of the day, we were going to start charging all the people who slowed down, stared and yes even took pictures!
Some things were recognizable, some were just blobs. Now we get the fun chore of trying to write down everything that was in there for insurance purposes.
Pop and I getting ready to have a look inside the house with our face masks and green gloves!