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.

Halloween, Fall pictures, Thanksgiving, and house updates!

Look I know this is all out of order, but I'm playing catchup here! Here are some shots from Halloween, our pumpkin patch pictures, and Thanksgiving at Grandpa Hoyt's. It's been a crazy busy time for us. Since the last post, we've celebrated Luke's first birthday, created a John Deere tractor for Halloween (with Grandpa Dan's help!). I helped organize my work's parade float, using Dad's trailer for Veterans Day. The boys had a blast at the parade and we treated our Vet, Gramps to lunch afterwards. Hmmm...I hope I haven't forgotten anything.

Oh yeah! Our Jacksonville house is under contract! We go this weekend to get the rest of our stuff, as the new owners (a married couple--don't know if they have kids) want to be in by Christmas. So now, we're weighing our options...renting vs. owning, trying to find a rent-to-own as we're back to square one, financially. We'll see what God has in store for us. In the meantime, we're still having a blast with Nana and Gramps here and they've been such a blessing during this crazy time in our lives.

Luke playing with his balls!

Here's Luke's first time in big bro's ball pitt!

Tally-Ho!!

We've landed in Tallahassee and are living quite comfortably with Nana and Gramps--Heck, we may just move in permanently! Just kidding, the plan is to sell our house in Jacksonville, and for Mommy to find herself a job. When those two things happen, we can look into getting our own place. I've had a 2nd interview with one of the agencies I've applied with and will know by tomorrow if the job is mine. Kevin is into his 2nd week of work and has found a carpool group to save on gas to and from Thomasville. So far so good, but its only been training and orientation. The real work will start next week, and Kevin is happy with his staff. Camden has found an awesome school, DeSoto Trail Elementary (Pre-K). He has such wonderfully supportive and involved staff surrounding him. His teacher, Ms. Hill, has high expectations for Camden and is very patient and fun. He has not one, but two aides in the classroom and they are very patient and experienced as well. He gets PT, OT and Speech (he didn't even qualify for Speech in Jax!) almost every day. Camden is, for the first time, in an inclusive classroom and has been enjoying the school bus every afternoon. His brother Luke has been enjoying pulling up on Mommy's legs while she looks for jobs! Daycare won't start until I find work, but we've got the perfect one picked out already. So, we're doing very well and enjoying our new roomies. Nana and Gramps have made this crazy time in our lives so much more than bearable--they've made it fun! We're so grateful to them. :)

Beach Boys

Let me take a break from packing for a minute to share these pictures. A few weeks back Nana and Gramps rented the condo in St. Augustine in a belated celebration of Maddie, Camden and Jake's birthdays. It was worth the wait! Of course I didn't bring my camera but thank goodness Nana did. This was Luke's first time out on the beach and he loved it! Even when a wave almost knocked him over, he didn't cry. And Camden is really starting to like the waves too, going out deeper than he ever has before and laughing with every jump. Luke also got to hang with his BFF Samuel, who was also on the beach for the first time (Samuel didn't seem to be feeling the beach too much this day!) We also met up with Amie and Andrew and Ed and Edie, who brought their crazy (and sweet) kids along. I can't believe how big everyone has gotten!
P.S. I'm sorry, CamCam, didn't get any pics of you in the water, but we took tons when it was your first time in the water, remember? :)