HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, CAM CAM!!

I can't believe our boy is 5 already! Mommy is in mourning--I miss my baby! For those of you that never got to see Camden as a baby, I put together a little slideshow of him at different stages. As you can tell, he's always been a beautiful boy (I'm not biased at all!) But the coolest thing is he's just as beautiful on the inside. Camden is the most determined, hard working and sweet spirited boy you will ever meet. He makes us proud on a daily basis. We are so blessed to have him in our lives! Happy Birthday to our amazing and wonderful son! :)

HE IS RISEN!

Between coloring eggs at Grandma's house with Great Grandpa Hoyt, the boys opening their baskets on Easter morning and hunting eggs on the lawn of Kingsway Church, we had a great Easter. Luke wasn't too much into the egghunt, but CamCam was. Camden especially seemed to like singing praises in the Church service and lifted his hands several times. (There's still a Baptist in this family!). He is risen--go tell everyone the good news! :)

White Christmas!

Camden and Luke were dreaming of a white Christmas...and they got it! Nana and Gramps' Christmas gift to their family was renting a comfy mountain home in Candler, NC. We got to take a ride on the Polar Express, put on a homeade Christmas Eve service, pigged out on yummy food, went snow tubing in Maggie Valley and prayed for snow on Christmas morning. Our prayers were answered big time! It ended up being 14 inches all together--enough to sled down (on garbage lids!) and play in to our hearts delight. We were a little afraid we might not be able to get back home! But we did and what a wonderful treat it was to be with family and enjoy God's gift to us!

May flowers!

Well, a pathetic excuse for a blogger I am! Much has happened for the Bailey family since you last checked. In March We moved out of Nana and Gramps into a small 2 BR/1 BA 0apartment. The idea is to save as much as we can for our next home. (That's the idea!) The weekend of the move, Mommy took Camden and Luke down to Tampa for cousin Melanie's first birthday (while Daddy stayed back to move). They had fun playing with their cousins and watching little Melanie dive into her cake. I had to ask Grandpa Dan to help me watch Luke, because he's not just walking--he's running! And always finding some mischief to get into. The nice thing is that Camden has a renewed interest in walking: It would seem as if Luke has inspired him! Now, whenever there is a free moment, Camden will start moving his legs in a walking pattern, which is his signal to us that he wants to walk. He's so motivated and works SO hard! We wondered how seeing Luke walk would affect Camden, so we're glad to see that he is challenged by it. It's renewed our hope that God is certainly not done with CamCam!
April was busy too, with the family continuing to settle in and Mommy helping to put on a 5K race for the Veterans she works for. Camden started with the Miracle League playing adaptive baseball. The baseball diamond is made of rubber and is very wheelchair and walker friendly. It's so cute to see him and his teammates out there being cheered on so enthusiastically by the volunteers and family members! He really seems to like his Thursday night games. We also went out to the Ochlocknee River for Sportsability and enjoyed a ton of adaptive activities. Camden and Luke rode horses (Camden's hippotherapy provider was out, as well as his usual horse Sham!), swam, ate some hamburgers and Cheetos and Camden went tube-skiing and tandem kayaking. It was a fun day with a live band out, at a beautiful park and Camden made lots of new friends that we've run into since then. Tallahassee has proved to be the right move for our family and lately have way too many blessings to count!

Luke's first birthday! part 1

We celebrated our "Pook"'s first birthday on a Tuesday, election day, by having some cake at home. Some of us ate a little more neater than Luke! Luke also had a second party at Great Grandpa Hoyt's house during Thanksgiving, with all his cousins. With the second party, he devoured a cake shaped like a drumstick, from Aunt Katie. "Drumstick" is a nickname he acquired while licking on a drumstick at Grandma's house a few months ago. If I can figure out how to get video from my phone to here, I'll post that too.