1 Year Photo Shoot

We had Camryn's 1 year pictures taken June 10th.  I love the photographer I found!!!  We've used New Edge Studio in Carthage for our family pictures last November and Camryn's 6 month pictures.  Each time I think the pictures are better than the last.  If you live in this area and need a photographer give Julie a call!

These were taken at Red Oak II about 7pm.  It was cooler than it had been during the day, but it was still warm.  Camryn wasn't too pleased with her situation in life that evening and the boys were too busy peeking in the windows around the place to focus on pictures.  Keeping Jay and Cade on task was like herding cats!  Since Julie doesn't charge for extra people in pictures we decided to have a few family shots done.  I really didn't know how they would turn out because of the above mentioned situations not to mention I could feel the sweat on my upper lip!  But you'd never know Camryn was a wreck and we were all sweaty. 

I can't believe how old Cade looks in these pictures.  I'm struggling with 5th grade...it just seems so old.  Junior High is just around the corner.

Look at those blue eyes on both of them.  How funny is that???

It is a good thing looks can't kill.  Look at Camryn's face in the big one of us on the left.

And my absolute favorite family picture.....

You can just see how much Camryn loves her brother

Gotcha Day

Gotcha Day is another thing widely and hotly debated in the adoption world.  It seems like everyone has a very strong opinion on the term, which actually in adoption there are people with strong opinions about everything.  I do enjoy reading things on occassion that I don't necessarily agree with because it does give me something to think about, but honestly for the most part all I think is blah, blah, blah.  I think there was a Far Side Cartoon one time where it was what cats hear and it was all blah, blah, blah.  That's how I feel a lot of the time.   I've said it probably 1 million times and I'll keep saying it - adoption is such a highly personal thing.  What I think it right for my little family may not be right for some one elses.  And that is ok.  It doesn't make me right or wrong and it doesn't make them right or wrong.  We are just different. 

Will Jay and I celebrate Gotcha Day(or whatever other term is "acceptable")over the years?  I don't know.  We will see how it fits into our family.  We will see how Camryn feels about it as she gets older.  But how could I not mention the fact that we are so very very thankful that God made us a family of 4 one year ago today.  One year ago today, in a courtroom in St Louis, we got us one sweet little girl who has forever changed our family.  At that same time she also got another set of parents who love her fiercely and a brother who is as crazy about her as she is about him.  Not to mention Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc who couldn't love her any more even if she shared their genetics. 
 We are thanking God today that we've seen this face every day for 365 days (acutally I guess that would be 366 since it is a Leap Year?)  Whatever the number is we couldn't be happier - and by the look she gave me this morning I'd say she's pretty happy about it to. 



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County Fair

The County Fair was June 1 & 2.  It ended up being such a nice weekend for it.  Friday night was rainy and cool, but Saturday was perfect.  It was a beautiful day.  I didn't spend a lot of time at the fair though.  I know there are a lot of people who can take their kids anywhere and it doesn't phase them.  I admire them, but I'm not one of them.  It is just to miserable for both of us when I take her places like that.  I think it's also easier on Jay for us when we aren't around because he doesn't have time to help me chase her and I think it makes him feel bad. 

So....we waited until right before the Hereford show started before we got out of the car.  Again, I was thankful for the cooler weather because Camryn would fall asleep in the car on the way to and from the fair.  It was cool enough that we could sit in the car until we needed to be someplace which gave her a chance to nap a little.  When we were walking up to the show Camryn could see all of the "bulls" and she went crazy.  She kept pointing and saying bull over and over.  She had to get out of her stroller so she could see them better.  That's where the day started getting miserable....she wanted to be right at the cattle's feet.  I'd pick her up and move her and she'd turn into a bawling screaming mess.  As soon as I put her down she was right back by the cattle's legs.  We did that over and over and over. 

From what I could tell, when I wasn't hauling Camryn to a safe distance away from the cattle, Cade did a good job.  I think he was the 2nd youngest kid in the Hereford Show.  

Camryn's 1st Birthday Party

We had Camryn's 1st Birthday party on Sunday, May 27.  Memorial Day Weekend will probably become her standing birthday party date.  It is pretty ironic that we have two kids, none of them were planned, and their birthdates fall at two of Jay's busiest times.  The only way we could make it even better is if we had a 3rd and it was born the end of October.  Oh well.  I don't think Cade is too damaged by it so Camryn should also survive. 

Last summer, while I was off work, I did a lot of internet work so I had pretty much made up my mind about a 1st Birthday theme.  You all know I love decorating for birthday parties so you can imagine how it was decorating for a girl's party.  Not that I haven't loved Cade's parties, it was just fun to do something that involved pink and didn't have wheels or legs attached to it.  I ordered Camryn's birthday outfit last fall, because I'm obsessive like that.  Then I did the decorations to corrdinate with her outfit.

If you haven't figured it out - I love animal print.  If it wouldn't be considered weird I could wear something animal print every day.  I have no idea why I like it so much, but I do.  Jay does not like animal print.  Over the years I kept my obsession in check and only had a few animal print things.  But every time I shop I'm instantly drawn to the animal prints.  Once we got Camryn I went crazy with the prints.  Her room...her clothes...even found a zebra paci.  Jay has been ok with it because he knows I love it and when we were talking about her room he said I deserved to do it how I wanted.  So she has navy zebra curtains floor to ceiling :) 

So....yes the theme was Zebra with Hot Pink and Teal.  Zebra is so big right now that finding stuff to match was easy.  Besides the zebra I was also excited because we were going to have the party outside.  Since Cade and I are March babies we've never done an outdoor party.  Of course when I was building the decorations and setting up in my mind there was no wind blowing in my perfect picture.  I kept having to re-decorate the tables.  I finally taped the zebra napkins to the table.  How something looks always trumps the functionality of it. 

Janella did the cakes - of course.  And of course they matched Camryn's outfit.  I did manage to get the lambie cake done.  Thankfully it only took one try.  It probably doesn't look as good as Grammy's or Aunt Helen's but that's ok.  Camryn will know she had the traditional cake.  Also, the wooden high chair was my grandparents.  I keep it in our kitchen as a decoration but wanted to use it for the party.  I couldn't begin to tell you the number of kids who have sat in that high chair with their lambie cakes.

Camryn was a little unsure about her cake.  Not surprising since she doesn't eat most of the time anyway.  Cade helped her by karate chopping the cake a few times and she thought that was hilarious.  I really don't think she ended up eating much of her cake. 

Jay and I worked really hard to get our yard in order before the party.  I know that I've mentioned it millions of times - but until you deal with a wooded lot you have no idea the sheer number of leaves it produces.  I wish I knew how many pounds of leaves I removed.  It also didn't help that the last two summers we didn't do anything but the bare minimum to get by.  It was like uncovering layers of fossils...oh I found a shingle...what year did we get the new roof...2008.  Nice. 

While I worked on the leaf and flowerbed situaiton Jay built a swingset.  Cade got a metal swingset for his 1st Birthday.  It long ago rusted out so we had to remove it.  We decided to go with wood this time.  Jay ended up hiring one of his students to help him finish it.  There were times over the weekend I wasn't sure everything would be done, but it was.  We are loving the swing set and play on it every night we are home. 

These were taken the first night they got to try it out.  I love these pictures because in the first one it's like Camryn can't believe what Cade has done and then the 2nd one looks like she is tattling on him.  There was a lot of sweat poured out in the days leading up to this party!

But of course it was totally worth it!  I think everyone at the party had a good time.  I get so mad at myself though because I had ideas of different pictures I wanted to take at the party and none of them got done.  When you have a party (even when it's just close family like ours) things happen so fast that the party is over before you even get to sit down.  I wanted pictures of Camryn with her grandparents and her cake.  None of that happened.  But we still had a great party!  Oh, and I'm already thinking about party #2!!!

Clicking on the pictures should make them bigger

I will get the birthday pictures on here by the end of the weekend!

I promise!

Camryn has been sick this week.  It started with a temp that got up to 103 on Tuesday.  Jay kept her on Wednesday and she seemed pretty normal.  By the time I got home that evening she was starting to get fussy and just wanted to be held.  Yesterday she went to Stacy's.  I think she was ok...not quite herself, but not too bad.  When I got her home Jay and I could tell her eyes didn't look right.  She and I stayed home from Cade's game and she slept for a few hours.  While she was sleeping she started sweating.  I'm not sure if she had a fever and it broke or if it was our leather furniture.  It can make you sweat pretty easily.  Then last night she would not sleep.  She felt good enough to use me as a jungle gym, but when she did sleep it wasn't good and she cried a lot.  This morning she was acting ok but as I was getting her out of the car the sun was shining on her just right and I could tell her face was covered in a rash.  Thankfully Stacy has more than likely seen it all with her own kids so she didn't mind keeping her.  Camryn has a doctors appointment at 1:00 pm today.  It was supposed to be her 12 month check-up and shots, but it looks like that won't be happening. 

We've had her on whole milk for about 2 weeks and she's been a little off since then.  I was definitely planninig on talking to the doctor about that today.  What bothers me is that this reminds me of when Cade turned 1.  He got so sick the day of his birthday (March 19) and he didn't get straightened out until well into April.  I hope we get Camryn's figured out quickly and she gets back to her normal destructive self quickly.  We still don't fully know what Cade's whole issue was but we did determine he couldn't handle the fat in whole milk so we moved him to 2%.  How weird will it be if Camryn has the same problem?

This is a boring rambling post - but I'm sleep deprived and can't think straight.  Really hoping she gets better this weekend so I can get a good nights sleep at least one night. 

Busy Times

I've got a lot to blog about and several pictures to post...Birthday Party, County Fair, Baseball and Birthday Day. It is just taking me awhile to get the pictures organized. But I did want to post this picture. I think this is a sign of a great but busy weekend. I took it this morning.




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And I thought last year's season was long.....

We just finished our 2nd week of baseball.  We were supposed to have 3 games this week - Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.  We got to our Tuesday night game in Everton and pulled up to an empty field.  Jay called the coach and right as the coach was saying they called and left us a message at 4:30 about the game being cancelled Jay's phone beeped.  It took over an hour for that message to show up.  We drove to the middle of nowhere for no reason. 

Then last night we got to go to Stockton.  It was 60 degrees.  I had Camryn in a jacket with a hood and she fussed and fussed.  I did notice it looks like her back gums are getting puffy so she is probably cutting another tooth.  I'm not sure if she didn't like the cold last night, didn't like the hood on her jacket, or she was ballgamed out - but it wasn't  a pleasant evening.  We had pulled our car to where  I could at least see the game (or at least seem like I was watching the game).  I finally had to sit in there with her.  I changed her into her jammies hoping she would start to settle down and take a bottle and go to sleep.  Yeah right....

Instead she stood on the console.....



-






Played with the windshield wipers - you can tell by her blurry hands that she was moving it as fast as possible.  Up and down...up and down...





Played with the vents




Back to the windshield wipers




Got mad because the winshield slopes down so far she couldn't climb on the dash like she thought she should be able to do.





And tried to step down from the console on to the floorboard. 



Even though things seemed rough with an infant a year ago I knew this year would be much harder with baseball and cattle showing.  Thank goodness Hereford Jr Nationals are in some awful place in Nebraska because we aren't going.  I couldn't do that for an entire week this year.  All I can picture is her toddling though the barns with the manure covered walkways that get wet and it all runs together into puddles.  Then I picture her loosing her balance and landing on her rear in one of the puddles.  I don't mind if my kids get dirty but I have my limits.  Our county fair is this weekend.  I'm sure Saturday will be enough of chasing her at a show for me for awhile.  At least it is going to be cool.  If it had been last Saturday I would've faked an illness or something.  And the Everton game is re-rescheduled for next week which means 3 games next week again.

Camryn will be as glad to be at home for awhile as I will be after all of this.  If she could talk she'd probably say "get off my back would ya" and "quit following me around".