Visiting the Dukes in Florida

Last Thursday we made a long awaited trip to visit our great friends the Dukes. Brooke and I were sorority sisters at MSU and have been best friends ever since. She and her husband Anthony have been good friends of ours for years and we have all been through college, weddings, showers, lake trips, children, etc together over the past 10 years! So we have been dying to make it down to Florida ever since they were transferred there and once they welcomed their newest addition CeCe Duke in July we knew we must go. We did a ton during the few days we were there. We made it to the beach (Cam's first time), great restaurants, a naval museum, shopping at the outlet mall in Foley, AL and just chilling with the family at their house. Camden loved the beach and got pretty brave running into the waves, we had to keep a close eye on him. He also had a blast playing with Anthony and Brooke's 3 year old Bryce. Camden learned alot from him and had a ball trying to immulate him. They had great toys and he had too much fun playing with them all. They took us to some cool restaurants one of which, Lulu's (owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister) that had a life size sand box and fun waterfountains. Cam and Bryce got filthy and had alot of fun playing while we enjoyed a yummy lunch. CeCe was the sweetest, most mellow baby I've ever seen. We loved looking at her and holding her. All in all we had so much fun that we totally forgot to take any pics of Brooke, Anthony, Trey & I! But I did manage to snap quite a few of the kids! We had a great time and the hospitality was perfect. Thanks again Dukes!!

Absolutely loving the waves

Exploring the beach with dad
Can't believe he let us do this...
Playing in the ocean with mom

Lulu's Restaurant, playing in the fountains
Pretty girl.
Hi CeCe!!With Daddy in a real fighter jet
At the naval museum, these real sailors were sweet enough to let Camden take a shot with them! It was so cool!

Eating breakfast together
Playing with Reagan. She was so tolerant of Camden, he loved climbing all over her;)
The boys playing w/ Bryce's water table we added baby shampoo to the water. Cam loved it!

15 months old, children's museum and 1st day of school

First day of school (well daycare) w/ his new backpack doesn't he looked thrilled??

So this has been a busy month! I started back to school and it has been quite an adjustment! I'm taking 2 classes, but it feels more like a full load with working full time and being a wife and mom! Camden started to his new daycare and is loving it. His teachers send home report cards everyday and he always gets a smiley face and his moods are usually "silly" "happy" or "playful" and he is napping great on his new nap pad which I was worried about since he always sleeps in his bed. They have chapel daily where they learn christian songs and Bible verses which I am so glad about! His teachers say he acts like he has been here all along. Walker my nephew started this week and so it is a nice addition to have his cousin in his class to play with. We have been busy with going to weddings, tailgates, the children's museum and little local carnivals. We ar looking forward to going to Florida this week to visit our friends Anthony & Brooke and their newest addition CeCe :) We want to wish a special Happy Grandparents day to all of Camden's grand parents and great grandparents! It is bitter sweet since this is my first Grandparent's day in which I have no one to call. But I know in my heart they are all in heaven having the best Grandparents day imaginable! I do love and miss them (Ma, Pa, Granny & Grandaddy) though.

At the children's museum. Learning how to drive.

Cowboy or construction worker...decisions, decisions...


With Daddy at the Children's museum in the big red firetruck



Again at the museum, his first and last time in the back of a cop car! HA!!

My future pilot
Learning the importance of teeth cleaning.
In the mini grocery store, always my favorite exhibit! Camden's too as you can see.


With Dad on the big carnival slide near our house

such a big boy he rode this one all by himself!! He did great, we were scared to death!

New favorite hobby, trying on all of my shoes. his favorite- heels!
And you can't forget the boots!

At my friend from college Erin's wedding

At our tailgate for the Memphis vs. Ole Miss game. Too fun!

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!!