So, here we go.....
St. Augustine-June 2012 (3 months old)
Growing up, I did not have a very good relationship with my dad's parents. As I've gotten older, I think I've figured out why (despite never living near them or rarely talking to them). My mom mentioned that she was having her high school reunion in St. Augustine in June. I thought this might be the opportunity to see my grandparents (who I haven't seen in 12+ years) and introduce them to Cameron. They are both getting pretty old, and I knew I would regret if something happened and I didn't make an effort to let things go and introduce them to Cameron. So, my dad, mom, Cameron and I loaded up and went to St. Augustine to see my grandparents. After we got there, I was glad that we did. My grandmother (who rarely shows emotion) was very excited to meet Cameron and even bought him a cake. We had a good visit.
My Grandfather, Grandmother, my dad, Cameron, and me
My grandfather and Cameron
Cameron hanging out in the boppy
My grandmother and Cameron
While we were there, we did go a little sight seeing.
June 2012- Max's birthday
We celebrated Max's birthday with a golf cake in June.
4th of July
Cameron and Ya-Ya
Cameron and Pops
Holding the flag with his toes
Sleepy baby
Too much excitement for one day...
....and now it's time to go.
Hanging out with paci
At the fireworks....Cameron was not impressed
July 2012-Royal Caribbean Cruise to Bermuda
Gibb's Hill Lighthouse
Beautiful
Bat in our room
Horseshoe Bay - Home of the Bermuda Pink Sand
July 2012-Destin, Florda
We took Cameron to the condo for a few days
Daddy and Cam
At Goofy Golf- Max has this same picture with he and his dad when he was little
On the pier
October 2012-We sold our house and moved
Max and I had talked about moving for a while, but never really decided when. We knew we wanted to move to Peachtree City so it would be a shorter commute to work for me and because I work in the county, Cameron could go to school there, but we wanted to live in a neighborhood with kids he would go to school with.
We spent much of the year doing updates to our house. We replaced all the flooring in our house in January and had the rest of the house painted.
Max started looking online and found a house that he loved. We went to look at it and loved it. We made an offer on it and it was accepted. We put our house on the market soon after, and our house was under contract in a week. GOD IS GOOD. We got close to asking on our house, and the house we were buying appraised for $70,000 less than the asking price. Did I mention that God is good!!
So, we packed up and moved and love our new house (I will post pictures soon)
Cam and Max in front of our old house before an Auburn game
The back of our old house.
Cleaning out the storage unit
We loved our old house. It was super cute, but we were quickly outgrowing it. It also wasn't in the best neighborhood as property values were dropping. It was far away from work for me, and we wanted to be in PTC.
This is the house Max lived in before we got married. We got married and I moved in, and then Cameron came home to this house. This house is very sentimental to us and we cried when we left, but we kept telling ourselves that the house didn't love us back. We hope the new owners are taking good care of it.
As I mentioned, we love our new house. It is much closer to work for me (more on that later) and we are very close to my family (2 miles) and it is nice since my dad keeps Cameron while I'm at work.
Football season
We took Cameron to his first Auburn game against Arkansas, and it was SO HOT!!!! We didn't make it through the first quarter before I had to find some shade for Cameron and me.
He liked the band
And we are fading....
...and fading
Tired, but in the shade
And we're out
We decided to watch the rest of the games at home:
In his Auburn jersey
Touchdown Auburn!
Watching the game with Ya-Ya
New school year, new school-Character Day (October 31, 2012)
I taught for 3 years at Fayette Middle School. I made wonderful friends and had great classes (for the most part). So, at the end of the year when I had to decide what to do the next school year, I was torn as to what to do. Max said it was 100% up to me what I wanted to do. I had a few options: 1) Continue full-time, 2) look for a part-time job, or 3) I could stay home. I really wanted to stay home, but our school system is going through some significant budgeting issues and looking at cutting positions and closing schools, so I knew if I ever wanted to work in Fayette County again, quitting and staying home wasn't much of an option. I decided I would try to find something part-time, and if I couldn't, I would pray about what I was supposed to do. I emailed our special education director and told him what I would like. He emailed back saying he had a part-time position at Burch Elementary and would let the principal know if I was interested. I JUMPED at the opportunity, interviewed, and got the job. I WAS ECSTATIC. I had to tell my current principal that I was leaving for another school. My co-workers were very supportive of me, but I was sad to be leaving. As I told many of my self-contained friends, I was leaving the self-contained world and going to the "dark side." We have always said that general curriculum special education teachers have no clue what it takes to be a self-contained teacher, and the past year has proved that 100%.
Anyways, I moved to Burch Elementary in Tyrone, GA. Burch was getting a new principal so it was a great time to start at a new school. I was scheduled to work 7:15-11:45 (can't be that). I taught 3rd-5th math and 5th grade writing.
Right before Christmas break, my principal came to me and asked if I would come back full-time because we had a large number of students transferring in. I talked to Max and our families and decided to go back full-time. The way my schedule works out, I still get out a little early. I absolutely love being at Burch. It is a wonderful school, with wonderful teachers, and an amazing principal. I have made some great friends, and I am excited about my future at Burch.
Me (Thing 1), Colleen Nelms (Cat in the Hat), and Marcie (Thing 2) on Book Character Day
November 2012-Thanksgiving with the Higgins at the beach
If you've been a reader of my blog for a while, you know that we look forward to Thanksgiving at the beach every year with our close family friends, The Higgins (I think I'm going to start calling the my family because they basically are). This year was going to be very fun and chaotic all at the same time. Leonard and Rhonda brought their 2 granddaughters, Ceci and Ella. Their oldest daughter, Katie, and her husband Brian have a little boy, Kaleb, and had a Karleigh in April (Katie and I were due exactly a month apart). And then Max and I had Cameron. My parents and my sister were also there. We rent a big house for the 14 of us and hang out for the whole week.
The kids-
Cameron, Kaleb, Ceci, Ella, and Karlegih
Cameron (8 months) and Karleigh (7 months)
December 2012- It's CHRISTMAS!!!
We were looking forward to our first Christmas with Cameron. I told Max that I didn't care what we did for Christmas as long as we were home for Christmas morning so Santa could visit Cameron at home.
Our Christmas was wonderful and everything went very well. I liked our arrangement this year. Max's family came up Christmas Eve night and we did Christmas with them, and they stayed the night. The next morning, I woke up and fixed a big Christmas breakfast and my family came over to have breakfast with all of us and to see what Santa brought for Cameron. We cleaned up and later that afternoon, Max, Cameron, and I went to my parents house to do Christmas with them.
We went to see Santa at The Avenue, but he had to move to Books-A-Million because it was raining. Not the greatest Santa experience, but it had to do.
Christmas Eve night
Nananananananananananananananana BATMAN!!
The Joker and Batman race
The Joker is our favorite. His green hair tastes so good.
Christmas morning
The new golf cart golf bag I gave Max. Hint, hint...it's for a golf cart!
Cam and Ya-Ya
On our way to see what Santa brought
Look what Santa brought
He loved the tunnel
The McKay's
Ya-Ya checking out the food
The wreath I made at the beach
Christmas is exhausting
Swinging with KK
Carving the Roast Beast at my parents
Taste testing
Cam helped KK pass out the gifts...
...and helped Ya-Ya open hers.
Pops and Ya-Ya gave Cam a wagon.
He was hilarious with this ball. He did not want to touch it. It was HYSTERICAL!
Tickling the ivory just like mommy
Playing with blocks with daddy
and back on the Batmobile
Cameron and Friends
Two of my friends and I had babies within 2 months of each other, and we all had boys. So, we decided we would get together once a month and have lunch and let the boys play. It has been fun catching up with them and watching the boys play. I'm hoping we continue to do this for a long time and include other friends who have had babies as well.
At Murphy's with our moms-
Melanie Gable (Meredith's mom) with Gable; Ellen Beal (Kristen's mom) with Thomas; my mom with Cameron
Meredith and Gable, Kristen and Thomas, and me and Cameron
Grandmothers, moms, and babies:
Melanie, Meredith and Gable; Ellen, Kristen and Thomas; me, my mom and Cameron
February 2012- Meredith, Kristen, and I met for lunch and then came back to my house for a play date. They are so fun at this age.
Cameron and Thomas
Cameron (11.5 months), Thomas (9 months), and Gable (10 months)
Gable
Gable just learned to walk
The trio
They are all so sweet and so funny
Sweet Thomas
Gable and Cameron fought over this toy for a bit. Funny thing, it's not really a toy: it connects the train and the caboose. Cameron was getting so frustrated and Gable just stayed calm and kept fighting.
Cameron thinks his victorious, but Gable ended up winning.
First haircut-February 2012
I had been meaning to get Cameron's haircut. It kept doing a weird flip thing. So, when Max was off, we took him to get it cut. He did SO GOOD.
The first cut
With daddy
Stinky face
Almost done
baby hairs
Random pictures
Helping daddy
Riding the alphabet train
Making a mess
Hanging with KK
Loving my food
Playing with non-toys
mini-Aubie
Love Sophie
friends
Little-pumpkin
