14 months old

Camden with his new chucks! He is ready to ball!

These are picture from my grandad's place in Hickory Flat, MS. It's out in the country and I couldn't resist just letting Camden run around naked. He loved it! I had to redress him when the bugs started biting and he wasn't happy:) He'll probably kill me when he gets older and knows I put these up but I can't help it!!

Running down the gravel road

Helping CeCe water the flowers
Just taking a hike...

So Camden is growing super fast! I cannot get over how much he has changed in just the past two months. Cam's newest things:

-he has a total of 12 teeth even all of his molars. we are just waiting on the incisors on top and bottom
-he is running, literally runs around the house chasing the dog, his cousin etc
-Camden is a big climber. The other day I was on the phone and turned my back for a minute and when I looked back he had pulled out the kitchen table chair and had climbed up on the table was standing up and hanging onto the chandelier!! So he was literally swinging from the chandelier. We have our hands full....
-he has began using a spoon by himself, still eats mostly with his hands but trys with the spoon in between
- only drinks out of sippy cups - no more bottles here!
- still takes a passy, we are working on it but I'm not pushing it until he is through teething
- can do a forward roll all by himself! We just say "hands down" and he puts both hands on the floor and his head down and does a little roll! We learned it at Little Gym
- Loves mac n cheese, grilled cheese, ravioli, peas, potatoes, watermelon, oranges, all fruit really
-says Uh oh, mamma, dada, bye bye (sounds more like dah dah), says 'dat' (meaning "that") and points when he wants something
-loves the pool and playing outside I usually let him play for an hour outside in the morning whn he gets up b/f breakfast and the same thing in the afternoon after nap
-loves his dog and plays with wrigley all the time wrestling and giggling
-waves bye bye, plays patty cake, and slaps his hands together like saying "all done"

eating breakfast with a fork
a normal morning playing outside. Although he usually has a handful of rocks!

He is starting a full time daycare in a week and we are nervous but excited. Up until now he has been with me on my off days and with a sitter or my mom on the days after I work my night shift and I pick him up when I get up at 2:30. This has worked great and we love Billie Jo ( a friend of mine who I worked with at Chili's and found again on facebook) who keeps him. But since I'll be starting back to school in two weeks and I feel like he is starting to grow bored of staying at home with just me we thought it was time. He will be going to a small Christian Academy daycare where he will be one of the only one year olds but have full 2 and 3 year old rooms. They have a curriculum where they are big on activities and learning. A friend of ours had her little girl there and they got her potty trained by 18 months...oh we could be so lucky!They also have a cook who makes them homemade breakfast lunches and snacks which is nice. I got him all of his school supplies last week and I was shocked. He had to have crayons, glue, stickers, markers plus the traditional changes of clothes, nap maps, etc. It's funny that a one year old would need such grown up things but makes me excited to see what he is going to learn! I will have to make a picture of him on his first day like my mom did each year with us.

One of my oldest friends Amanda is expecting her 2nd child which is a girl so we threw her a surprise baby shower at a mexican restaurants near our house. It was so fun and she was truly shocked!

Losing Granny

This seems like a recurring theme in my blogs but unfortunately we have lost another grandparent this past week. My dad's mom Olene Cresswell otherwise known fondly as "Granny Cresswell" passed away last Thursday at the age of 85. She would have been 86 in September. We knew that her time with us was drawing to a close since she had been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer with mets to the bone last year. She had been living in a hospice center in Tupelo, MS and was doing well except she had lost alot of weight and in the past few weeks took to sleeping most of the day. My dad's brother Eddy lived close and so when the nurses called and said she wasn't really responsive he was able to rush there in 4 minutes and there when she took her last breath. She was surrounded by the nurses who were holding her hands and speaking softly to her to hold on until her son could get there which she did until a few minutes after Uncle Eddy arrived. The visitation and funeral were this past Sunday in Grenada, MS where she lived most of her adult life. She was a remarkable woman who grew up in Alabama where she was the oldest of the Sanford clan with 2 brothers and 3 sisters. She was a short fiery redhead who was nicknamed the "little general" b/c even if she wasn't in charge she always thought she was!! She met my grandaddy on a greyhound bus from the army base that she worked on back to her hometown of Alabama. She tells the story that he gave his seat up for her and that they were the only two on the bus awake on the long drive and he swept her off her feet she had turned her class ring around at first to give the impression of being married but after getting to know him she made sure it was turned back so he would know she was single! He was in World War II and was stationed in Paris, Germany, etc while they were dating and he wrote her often. We found some of their love letters while going through her house this past weekend and it was like reading the notebook! So sweet and so wonderful to read. They were married 54 years when grandaddy passed from lung cancer in 2003 at 80. She had 3 boys and a daughter who kept life interesting. She was a wonderful story teller and the stories she told on those boys would make you cry with laughter. They were all so funny and into trouble constantly. In her 40's she went back to school and got her nursing degree and worked as a nurse into her 70's. She was known for always dressing in her nurses' whites and never left the house for the hospital without donning her nurses cap and pins. She was a staunch patient advocate and never afraid of standing up to a doctor or administrator. She was a forty plus year breast cancer survivor. She was a wonderful sister, wife, mother, grandmother and greatgrandmother and will be sorely missed. She had an incredible faith in God and spoke about it often praying over everything. I know that she died a believer and she is in Heaven smiling down finally reunited with her loves Jesus and Grandaddy aka "Chick". The service was nice and we had quite a bit of family in town whom we hadn't seen in years. It was nice for them to meet Camden and Walker and see them again. The church that Granny attended in Grenada had a luncheon for us and one of the little old ladies of the church who was in charge of the children's ministry volunteered to watch camden and Walker during the visitation and funeral which was a life saver!

At Christmas 2007, After I graduated from Nursing school Granny was so proud she gave me one of her nursing caps. At Mother's day when we went to visit her at the hospice home. You can see how small she had gotten and how she had lost her signature red hair. She loved Camden and he always made her laugh.
This is almost all of the third generation cousins and second cousins at the visitation those on the right reside in MS, those on the left reside in AL

Sprinkler Park and Uncle Gene's visit

We recently discovered a hidden gem in Collierville, TN! The city park there is incredible they have walking trails around a fishing pond, HUGE playground and a water park for kids (and adults). It's about 45 minutes from our house but it's totally free and we've been twice already. If you live in the Memphis area you must visit, it's usually crowded with birthday parties and play dates but very fun. We went with Camden's cousin Walker one night and then again last weekend with our friends Christie and Sienna (14 months old). Camden wasn't as gunghoe as Sienna (she has water day every week at daycare) but still played pretty hard.

Also in the last few weeks we had a visit from Trey's Uncle Gene from Dallas. Camden will refer to him as "Uncle Uncle Gene" because great uncle gene doesn't quite fit! While here we had a great time visiting and cooked out at Trey's parents house for an early birthday celebration for Gene. He got Camden a late bday present which was very "green"- literally! He got his own tree! We planted the Magnolia at Grandma Jo Jo's house since they will be at their house for longer than Trey and I hopefully will be at ours! Pray we get more action on the house we have had a couple of calls, but nothing serious. I am placing a craiglist ad today so maybe that will generate more interest! We are busy and having lots of fun. Looking forward to the fall for football season, fall festivals, the fair, a trip to Florida etc. I cannot wait! Stay tuned...

Camden with some new friends at Little Gym! He loves going and is now a seasoned flipper of the "bird" group! Tracy and I at Wicked at the Orpheum a few weeks ago. It was awesome!!

Zoo pictures

In front of the elephant who gave birth later that day to a healthy 200 pounder!!
Cam pointing out his favorite lions
riding the carousel and getting a snack (doesn't he look big??!)
At the Northwest Passage exhibit
Looking at the polar bear
The polar bear was putting on a show and swimming up to the window for us!
Hey, who are you??
The Camster and mommy
Mr. Ed
Chasing a chicken around the farm exhibit

Here are the promised pictures from the zoo. We had too much fun! Camden was so funny growling at every animal and trying to chase some of them.

Professional Pics from 1st bday & zoo

Kim of Ramblin Rose Photography sent me the pictures she took from Camden's birthday party this past week. They turned out so great! This was the final installment of his "watch me grow" package and it couldn't have been better! She got some great ones especially of him eating the cake and some wonderful family shots. She is so talented and has captured some wonderful moments in our life. My house looks like a gallery of her work :) To look at the full shoot go to ramblinrosephotography.com click enter site, proofing login, then type in Lunsford.




Trey had off the monday after the 4th off so we decided to take advantage of the cloudy day to make our first zoo trip with Camden. He fell asleep on the way there and slept for about 30 minutes into the zoo but we woke him up to see the giraffes. He loved all the animals and started growling at every animal he saw! He especially loved the train ride and the farm animals where he got up close and personal with a chicken and a horse! It was so fun and Trey and I had just as great of a time as he did. The zoo was much better than I had remembered. Looking forward to more and more of these fun little excursions... (check back for pictures)
New developments, Camden now is walking everywhere (almost running), he has 9 teeth (even some molars!), he loves tennis shoes, has started pitching little fits when he doesn't get his way (like throwing his head back and arching that back until he is almost upside down!), will "march" when we say "march, march march!!", dances to music, pushes trucks and cars around just like a little boy, loves playing in the sand and in water, likes to pick up rocks and throw them, does an indian "pow wow" with his hand and mouth, drinking whole milk exclusively from a sippy cup, eats anything we do loves grilled cheese, oranges,mashed potatoes, bananas, quesadillas, peas....I could go on and on but will spare you!

Family Vaca & Mommy/ Daddy Vaca!

So since Cam's bday party it's been a whirl of travel packing/unpacking working and more travel! The week after Camden's bday we left with my mom and sister and went to St. Louis! We left early and were to sikeston, MO by 10 AM and HAD to go to the famous Lambert's home of the 'throwed rolls' (don't know why they don't call it 'thrown' rolls but whatever). Of course it didn't open until 10:30 so we killed time in this great metropolis HA! None of us were very hungry but loved the rolls and food it was all delicious.
Then off to St. Louis. We only got pulled over once, but camden is a great ticket diverter and the cop asked Trey if 'they had those white signs w/ the black lettering on them in MS (speed limit signs) and we all laughed & he let us off!
We toured the Anheuser Busch Brewery (Camden loved the clydesdales), checked into hotel, CeCe went to the botanic gardens, then trey went to a Cardinals game and Tracy & I took off to a Dave Matthews concert...and that was just the first day!! Thurs, we went to Chicago and checked into our hotel rooms. We waited until last minute to book the rooms but a friend suggested we look on hotwire.com and we got the best deal! We got 2 rooms at the palmer house downtown (4 stars) for $80/night each! We couldn't find 1 room for less than $160 on other sites!
It was perfect we went sightseeing, shopping, ate deep dish pizza.




The next AM we went for breakfast at Yolk and it was fabulous, walked around the city some more and then CeCe took Camden for naptime back to the hotel and the rest of us went to Wrigleyville for a Cubs game. It was pouring rain once we got off of the subway so the game was on rain delay we of course bought our cubbie gear!

The game was so fun and Tracy and I ended up playing "pass the cup" with a couple of other fans in the stands (you put $1 in a cup per batter and then if they don't get a double or better you keep passing to the next person if they do get a double or better you keep the $$!) and I won! It was fun, then we rode the subway back met up with mom and the Camster and headed off for a boat tour which was not what we hoped for 5 minutes w/in leaving port it began pouring! We spent the remainder of the tour huddled under the roofed part of the boat and not seeing many sights or hearing a work the tourguide said.

The rest of the trip went great alot of great pizza, a awesome double decker tour which was so fun, great shopping and a good farewell dinner at a 'mob owned' italian restaurant. All in all it was a wonderful trip and everyone had a good time. Camden was a champ in the car playing with alot of his new bday toys.
Then last weekend Trey and I went to Spring River in Hardy, AR with our good friends Debra and Brent and Kelley and Luke. We had a cabin on the river and cooked out and canoed the river all day Saturday.
It was so fun visiting with friends although Trey and I were not the "novice" rafters we had hoped for we fell out twice which was pretty scary. We will probably stick to the sidelines the next time we go to any river activities! Camden stayed with CeCe & Galdegah (that is what Walker calls my dad) Friday night and she took him to Little Gym and then JoJo and Grandad's Saturday night. He did great and we missed him so much. That was the longest we ever have been away from him! It was fun but we are still recooping from all the traveling. God is so good to allow us the ability and resources to be able to do such fun things!