Christmas time, 16 month big boy, and big news!

So I realize I am a terrible blogger. I like catching up on other peoples but rarely sit to write one myself. Lots has been going on in our world lately...great things! My favorite brother got married last month to one of my favorite people. It's funny to see him all grown up and married living on his own now. I'm so proud of the young man he has become and of the wonderful Godly bride he choose to spend his life with. They are two of our best and dearest friends and I'm thrilled they have one another.My sister, her husband and three kids also moved here (a few days shy of the wedding--busy times). I'm so excited to have her here with me now and to see my nephews and niece every week! Those kids all love Cameron to pieces--I have to remind Caleb to just give him a high five--that seems to work better than the neck hold with kisses. I know as Cameron continues to grow older those two will be great friends. They are just 11 months apart and now will be so close. There have already been many nights where the 4 of them have crowded in the tub at night together. I'm sure we will all have many adventures together.

Cameron has turned into quite the cuddle bug at night. He has a toddler bed in our room and falls asleep pretty good in it most nights. However he does require that I lay next to him until he is asleep--he knows if I try to sneak up in my bed. I love the way he wraps his arms around my neck and pulls me close. I cherish these moments. Other big news...I think he is officially weaned now. Some people may think it's weird but actually I'm a little sad about it and will miss those times with him. If it were up to him I think he would nurse as long as I let him...we have been gradually cutting things out and now it's been 2 days so I think now at 16 months he will be finished. He gets lots of snacks during the day now. I guess I kinda look at it as my baby is growing up, which is a bitter sweet thing. The fact that he LOVES any of the three Toy Story movies and now Astro-boy also makes me think that my little one who used to only watch baby einstein and mickey mouse clubhouse is growing into a little toddler boy. However he will always be my baby. He is a mama's boy to the core.

This is handy manny, but you get the point. He gets in the zone!

He has loved the Christmas lights! Every morning when we walk out to the living room he points to our three things that have lights and we go switch each of them on (our Christmas tree, our mantle with our nativity scene, and another wicker-type decorative tree).If you've read my blog you read that I had a miscarriage back at the end of September. Jason and I were so suprised since it took awhile for Cameron. We had no idea how much longer if would be before God blessed us with number two...well it took less than 2 weeks!!!! We are so excited and praying that everything goes smoothly this time. I am almost 9 weeks and have seen our tiny baby and seen and heard that miracle's heart beating. My progesterone levels were very low last time and this time they were way up there with great HCG levels too. I'm not as nervous as I thought I might be. God has given me a great peace about everything. Tuesday we go back for another ultrasound (3 weeks since our last one). We should see something that looks alot more like a baby with movement too! Please keep this baby in your prayers.I'm hoping by mid-July Cameron will be able to share mom a little easier than now.
God really continues to pour out his blessings on us. He has been so good to me.

This is one of my favorite pics from watching the iron bowl in our warm living room.
I'll try to update sooner next time!

Happy Halloween (and 15 months)

We had a great and crazy Halloween here in our neighborhood! We had more trick-or-treaters than ever (I'm really bad with guessing numbers but would say around 500)! Grandmommy, Grandaddy, Uncle Nathan and Aunt Cambre came out to help us hand out candy to all the kids. First we visited our new outlet mall (which I can't tell you how excited I am about having shopping less then five min. from our house--much less discounted shopping..my favorite!) the stores were supposed to have candy for trick-or-treating, but we basically just walked around--Cameron did snag some sour jelly bellies (and ate the whole box--I have to cut the sweets down now that Halloween is over).

This was one of the brief moments without any trick-or-treaters.

We came back here afterwards and had kids running to our door before we could even pull all the way into the garage. We were attacked! After dinner we went to about 4 houses with Cameron for his first REAL trick-or-treating experience. That was about all we needed this year. I'm sure next year we might even tackle the entire cul-de-sac :).

Our favorite neighbors stopped by. Annalise was the cutest little duckie! Cameron can't wait for her to be able to play with him!
Cameron don't forget your pumpkin!

Our neighbors house. She went back to get extra candy for Cameron :)
Look mom M&M's!
now that I think about it...I'll just sit right here and eat them.

Today we had Cameron's 15 month Dr.'s appointment. I can't believe he will be 15 months on Thursday!
He is growing right on track in fact he is growing off the track height-wise.

Here are his stats:

Head: 18 1/2--50th%
Weight: 22lbs 5oz--25th-50th%
Heights: 33.25 inches--90-95th%

He is tall and thin! I was telling the Dr. about the things he likes to eat and told him how Cameron can say cheese now too (wasn't sure if that was b/c he LOVES cheese so much or because I take his picture so much)...right then Cameron smiled and squinted his eyes and said "cheese" :) He smiled so big when they weighed him and laughed out loud when they used the cold stethoscope to hear his heartbeat. After our appointment Uncle Nathan stopped by and Cameron and I were showing him his bandaide and I said this is his boo-boo and Cameron repeated me and said "boo-boo". A new word! They were out of the flu shot so we will have to return for that in a couple of weeks (Cameron was ok with just having one shot today though).

He is getting to be such a big boy. He is now sleeping in his toddler bed (in our room) for the first part of the night. We are also progessing on the whole "weaning" process. He is down to milk in the morning and at bedtime--one once in the middle of the night. Much progress going from 6am-8:30 without milk! One of his new foods he loves is hot-dogs! When we went with Jason on a work trip the hotel we were at had sausage and Cameron gobbled it up before we made it up the elevator. The next time I went to publix I picked up some hot-dogs and he loves them! He is still quite the mama's boy and I don't mind one bit. I love the open mouth kisses I get from my sweet boy!

Happy Fall!

I love the month of October! I am definitely a warm-weather kinda gal and can't stand being cold..however after sweltering Alabama summer heat the crisp cooler (not cold) temperatures are quite refreshing. I love the smell of pumpkin, spice, apple and cider. It doesn't get much prettier than when all the leaves turn bright red, orange and yellow. My favorites decorations are our Fall decorations. Now that we have a little one the decorations are even more fun because he is starting to enjoy them too.

Here are my favorite napkin rings my sister gave me several years ago for my birthday.

Who doesn't love the candy corn pumpkins? I have already eaten way too many of these. Cameron has had one or two as well--if you click on the picture you can see...(we haven't used our baby bjorn in several months, however Jason and I are considering a vacation and I was wondering if he would still fit in this-- (says it goes up to 25 lbs...but he sure looks big in it!)

Jason and I got married in October of 2006 and had our reception at the American Village Barn in Montevallo. In the front of the barn we had haystacks, pumpkins and two scarecrows. When we returned from our honeymoon in St. Lucia my parents had set up the scarecrows on our front porch. This year I pulled them out of the attic and set them up in the same place. Cameron LOVES the scarecrows! Every morning we go outside to check the temperature and Cameron always waves and points at them with a huge grin on his face. If he wakes up a little early from a nap and isn't a happy camper I automatically know what to do to cheer him up.

He also has these pumpkin lights that I strung in his room (probably mid-Sept) that he gets so excited about. In fact they stay on all day. The other day I was in another room and I heard his getting SO excited...I came in his room and he had discovered how to turn the lights on all by himself. He was so proud!

He was such a big help decorating!
(ignore the mis-matched pajamas

I know I can pick this up!

Today I got out his trick-or-treating pumpkin and he carried it around all morning long.
I can't wait to take him this year down our street. Last year he was just shy of 3 months at Halloween so of course we stayed on the front porch and passed out candy. Halloween is a BIG deal in our neighborhood. You have to have a pass to come into the neighborhood because they want to keep as few cars as possible on the road since there are so many kiddos out and about. It really is a fun time! We learned after our first year that a few bags of candy just won't cut it...unfortunately we actually had to start handing out packs of peanut butter crackers (that doesn't go over well with kids expecting candy)

Happy Fall Everyone!

God's Bigger Plan

One week ago today I had a D&C (dilatation & curettage), due to a miscarriage. I am writing this for myself, because I don't want to deny that it happened(even though internally I do). September 14th I took a pregnancy test. To my suprise two pink lines appeared! It just so turns out Jason was working a funny shift that day and wasn't going into work until later that afternoon. I took advantage of his presence and wanted to take a shower, but decided to take a pregnany test first. Two reasons- First: I thought my tummy looked a little bigger than normal (even though I know I wouldn't be showing that early) Second: I had my regular yearly appointment with my OBGYN the following week and thought I would take it just in case he asked. It was very unexpected but something that Jason and I were thrilled about. We haven't necessarily been "trying" to get pregnant but know that we want more kids and for Cameron to be a big brother one day--hopefully sooner than later.

I called my Dr. right away and they wanted to know how far along I thought I was---I honestly had NO idea. (May be too much info, but I'm not the most "regular" girl out that). Jason, Cameron and I all went to the Dr. that afternoon and I had my first ultrasound. The lady doing the ultrasound said I was super early around 5 weeks. At this point we couldn't see anything except for the sac where baby number two should be. However, being that early she wasn't super alarmed not to see the baby yet. I had all the bloodwork done I needed and was sent home to come back in three weeks when I should be around 8 weeks. One day later I got a phone call from my Dr.'s nurse telling me my progesterone levels were lower than what they like to see 12.3 (they like them 15 or above). They prescribed some extra progesterone for me to pick up and take until 30 weeks pregnant! Wow that seemed like a long time but of course not an issue at all. From that day forward I really just had a sinking feeling that something wasn't right. I really think I had this feeling the day I took the test.

Of course I was worried about my low levels and called the nurse to see if I could come in any earlier than 8 weeks. Three weeks just seemed to long to wait to see if I could see my baby's heartbeat. They agreed to have me come in a week earlier--so now I just had two weeks of waiting. I really felt like God was nudging me so many times to prepare for what was to come.

Sept. 28th I went in for my ultrasound (Jason, Cameron and my mom all there with me). I had just been praying for God to breath his breathe of life into this baby and give him/her a strong heartbeat. Deep down I knew that it just wasn't going to happen this time. Every devotion I read I felt God saying "My dear child, this baby won't be in your arms...I love you and want you to prepare yourself"...really how do you do that? I tried not to get excited. I would read ahead in my book hoping to change God's "nudging" at me...but He didn't.

That day as I laid there having my ultrasound the nurse just couldn't see anything...no changes, no baby, and no heartbeat. Apparently everything started to get ready for that baby and then just stopped. I began to cry as well as the nurse (what a job, to have to tell an expecting mother--I don't envy that)...her tears were real and genuine even though she didn't really know me or my family. She had the Dr. come in for him to look as well and he confirmed that I had lost my baby. He scheduled me to come in the following day for outpatient surgery (D&C). My sweet husband and best friend was scheduled to leave right after my ultrasound to head to TN for a work trip..he cancelled everything and stayed by my side the whole time. Luckily I didn't have to break the news to everyone. I had only really told my family and just a few others. Unlike with Cameron where I announced to the world. I just had a deep down feeling that I wanted to wait to share with everyone after I saw that heartbeat.

Even though I don't understand why something like this would happen I trust that God has a master plan and will provide good things for my husband, son and I. Since that day I have heard lyrics to songs in a new way and look at my son as even more of a miracle...he is a masterpiece created by God.

Here is the devotion I read the day before going into my ultrasound:

God Knows What He's Doing
"Surely I spoke of things I did not understand; I talked of things too wonderful for me to know."
Job 42:3

It's easy to thank God when he does what we want. But God doesn't always do what we want. Ask Job. His empire collapsed, his children were killed, and what was a healthy body became a rage of boils. From whence came this torrent? From whence will come any help?

Job goes straight to God and pleads his case. His head hurts. His body hurts. His heart hurts.

And God answers. Not with answers but with questions. An ocean of questions.....

After several dozen questions....Job has gotten the point. What is it?

This point is this: God owes no one anything. No reasons. NO EXPLANATIONS. Nothing. If he gave them, we couldn't understand them.

God is God. He KNOWS what he is doing. When you can't trace his hand, trust his heart.

When I can't trace his hand, I must trace his heart.

Hike! Cameron the quarterback!

Go long!

So Cameron has recently gotten into playing football. The other day we were out in the garage and he saw our mesh hanging bag full of different "outdoor" type toys. He pointed and clearly said "Hike"! Not ball (he doesn't know that word yet) but Hike he does. Daddy has been playing with Cameron since Auburn football season started. We might need to invest in a ball more his size. Words he can say at 14 months: Mama, Dada, Hot, Hi and now Hike.

Tackle him!

The Great Outdoors!

This past weekend Cameron took his first "real" camping trip to Tannehill State Park with Jason and I and Grandmommy and Grandaddy. Uncle Nathan and soon-to-be Aunt Cambre came by to make smores and hang out both nights too! Cameron loves nothing more than playing outside, so this was probably his ideal weekend.

We Hiked--Cameron rode on Daddy's back for the first part and then used his own hiking stick to walk the rest of the way.
(Jason with his GQ model pose)

He also took several rides on the back of Grandaddy's bike. We have a little bike trailer at home that he rides in where he doesn't have to wear a helmet so I was a little worried about how this was going to work. He refuses to wear anything on his head...however with a little singing distraction and some bribery with food he did pretty well. He fell asleep on the back on two different occassions. He was worn out each day!

We also stopped for some yummy cherry vanilla blue bell ice cream. He enjoyed eating his cone the opposite way bottom to the top.
Another first was this train ride. He loved it! We sat in the caboose and he smiled all the way!
We made smores! Yummy!

He even got to sit in his own little Bass Pro Shop chair we bought when he was a newborn.

And played on the playground. He LOVED the slide!
Having fun playing in the water at the Griss Mill.

We had such a fun weekend! Thanks Mom and Dad for making life easier on us yet again and having everything set up and ready for us!