Ding Dong...

THE TRUCK IS GONE!!!




We are happy to announce that we finally sold the truck!


Bye Truck!

10 Year Anniversary Party!

Kirk and I decided to celebrate this milestone with a Garden Dinner Party! We had it catered and everyone dressed up! We were so happy that we had some of our closest friends and family with us. We tried to get as many from our wedding party as we could, we really missed the ones that could not attend.

It was such a fun relaxing evening, we are so blessed!

10 Years!

Wow, can't believe 10 years have already gone by! Seems like yesterday we were in college just starting to date. Now we are much older, have 3 kids, dog, cats, a house! Crazy!

We would be lying if we said that these 10 years were absolutely perfect, there of course have been bumpy roads. Roads that took us around curves and up and down hills. We've gone through some pretty low valleys. But we have also been on some tall mountians. Thinking about the past 10 years, makes us laugh, we did some pretty dumb stuff. haha We won't go into that. We're happy where we are, I think I can say for both of us that we are probably the most content we have ever been. I know for me there were times I didn't know if that would ever happen. :) We think God for giving us both such wonderful parents. Without them guiding us, helping us and cheering us on, we wouldn'tbe where we are. Thank you, I often realize we don't say this enough, but we truly are thankful for you!!

I'm so happy to have been married to my best friend for 10 wonderful years! Thank you for my life, my kids and my happiness. I can't wait to spend the next 10 and beyond with you!

No Doubt!

Kirk and I were able to go see No Doubt in concert on Monday. It was so much fun! I'm a huge No Doubt fan, the band have been apart now for several year(not broken up just doing their own things) so this was a comeback tour. They were as good as ever! It was nice to have some one on one time with Kirk. We don't get to do that as much now with 3 kids running around.
Can't wait til their new album comes out!
Intro to the concert:


P.S. Thanks mom and dad for watching the kiddos for us! :)

Fun in the Ohio Sun!

Wow, it was an awesome weekend! Gotta love the hottness! We got a lot done around the house and also had some play time. We had soccer and baseball Saturday so it was a busy day, we were all very tired by the time dinner came around.

Trip to Illinois

Wow, it's been a little while since I've posted on here. It has been crazy! During the beginning of Brady's Spring Break we decided to take a quick trip to IL to visit family. It had been WAY to long since we had gotten back there. We had a wonderful time(minus the not-so-fun cold I decided to obtain).
We were able to see both sides of my family. We went over to my Aunt Patty's house and spend time with her family as well as my grandpa and grandpa Cherry. We hadn't met my cousin Sara's daughter Ellie yet. She is such a cutie and a little pistol! My cousin Tracy's daughter Brooke was there also, it was amazing to see how tall she was! We missed Clayten he was at a sleepover at a friends house. It was so great just to sit with them and catch up on stuff. We missed my other Aunts and cousins but we hope to see them really soon!!


Tracy, Ellie, and Patty


Patty, Tracy, Ellie, and Bethany

We then decide to try and take in one Lincoln Site since we didn't have time to do all of them. So we went over to Lincoln's Tomb. In the parking lot we got an extra treat though! A mini Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile had stopped so we got our picture taken by it. We walked on up to the tomb and walked around, Brady seemed pretty interested. We each took turns rubbing Abe's nose for good luck and snapped some pictures. A nice man even took our very first family of 5 photograph!! :)



Lincoln's Tomb


Kirk and Brady rubbing Honest Abe's nose




Bethany rubbing Abe's nose(well kinda)


"Angry" Georgia with Abe (she'll like it when she's older)


Family of 5!!

After we went site-seeing we headed over to meet the Birches for dinner. Almost everyone was there, except my Aunt Barb and Uncle Dean and their kids David, Val and Sarah, and Nathan(my Uncle Jeff's son) wasn't there , Oh and Holly and Aaron BUT we'll get to those two in a few. We were able to finally meet Nevan, Stephanie's son-can you say Wild Man! haha He's a cutie!!
The kids had a blast running around with him and playing with Pappy's tractors and trucks. Grandma had a nice spread as always. Yeah my dairy-free diet went right out the door(luckily we had the ok)!
The next day we went out to eat with Grandma and Pappy and then went over to see Tim and Lana's new house and then over to Jeff's new house. Both were very nice!! We then headed out to the farm and went to the new shed/building that Jeff built. Wow, it's huge! So great! Brady got a ride with Uncle Jeff from the farm to the shed on a BIG tractor, he was in heaven!! Once they got to the shed they sat on every tractor, truck, 4-wheeler you name it! I wish we were closer so Brady could be out there more, he loves it. I remember my memories of the farm and riding with Pappy in the tractors, I think I rode more than I walked!!! It was great!

Jeff and Brady


Jeff and Bethany





Once we left the farm it was time to start heading homeward. We headed over to my cousin Holly and her husband Aaron's house in Champaign to spend the night. On the way we ran up on fields of wind turbines. It was so Awesome! We have always seen them on tv but never up close. There were so many and so many more being built! We took some pictures.



We had a nice visit with Holly and Aaron, they happened to be pet-sitting another dog too(they have 2 dogs themselves). It was crazy, the kids loved it though! haha We were able to go out to eat dinner with them and saw Elvis re-incarnated at the local Walgreens. I wish I had my camera!

Before we left for Ohio the next morning we drove around U of I and then went to IHOP for breakfast. This was Brady's one request for our mini vacation. I don't think he realizes that IHOPS are in OH too, he just remembers going there when we were at David and Val's wedding a few years back. Anyway, we went had some yummy pancakes and then headed home.

We had a terrific time with everyone. We wish we had more time to stay longer but hopefully we will be able to make it back this summer for an extended time. There are so many family and friends we still need to see and want to see again.
We love you all very much!!!

Snow!

Kirk took the kids out on Sunday for a little snow time. It was too icy to make anything but they still had fun running around with Daddy!

Trick or Treat

The kids had a lot of fun this Halloween, Brady was an Army man and Bethany was a butterfly. Kirk took them around the neighborhood and I stayed home and passed out the candy.






On Saturday, we went to our friends Joel and Jenny's House for a Harvest/Costume Party. We had a really fun time. I don't remember the last time we sat by a bonfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Kirk and I did dress up! Picture below. I won a prize too! Wahoo! We had a great time with our friends, it rounded the weekend off wonderfully!


Can you Guess?
I'm the oven and Kirk's the baker, and of course "baby" is the bun!


To end this post I think we should all join together in singing a Halloween classic that my son sang for a week...

"Trick or Treat smell my feet give me something good to eat, if you don't I don't care I'll pull down my underware..."

Oh, you know you're singing it!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Cameron Annual Pumpkin Carving

Saturday was our annual pumpkin carving day. We look forward to it each year. Mommy ends up doing most of the carving and daddy is usually left in charge of pics and cleaning off the pumpkin seeds to roast. Brady helped clean out his pumpkin this year. Bethany did not like the gooey mess. She was not a happy camper when she saw the pumpkin insides. We did get her to hold some pumpkin seeds and actually pick a seed out of the pumpkin but that was it! She was very into how she wanted her pumpkin to look..."not scarey, round eyes, round nose, and a smile mouth with 2 teeth" she seemed to be pleased with the outcome. Brady had very specific wants too..."3 triangle eyes, a wierd nose and a pointy mouth that was smiling and had pointy teeth and ears that looked like B's for Brady." He helped carve some of it this year, he did pretty good.
When we went to the Pumpkin patch we found a pumpkin that Kirk and I thought resembled me, it's very pear like(we tried to take some pics, but I think it's hard to see).

We are really looking fwd to Halloween: trick or treating and the parties! Just a few more days!!

Birthday

Happy 32nd Birthday, Kirk!!!

Just chilled out at home and spent time together. The kids love it when it's our birthday's! They were really excited to give their gifts they made and got for daddy.

Trip to the State Fair

We were able to go to the State Fair this week, thanks to my dad for the tickets! It was a nice little family outing. The weather was great and it wasn't too crowded. We picked Kirk up from work and then headed over. The kids had a great time and so did we. :) They were able to milk a cow(fake one), say hello to Smokey the Bear, plant some flowers and other stuff too. We were all pretty tuckered out by the end of the day but it was so nice to be able to have little day trip with our family.

Anniversary

Ah another year of wedded bliss has passed by. We can't believe we have been married 9 years today, it crazy. It doesn't seem that long, and to think we dated 3 years before we got married.

It's been a happy 9 years, can't wait to see what the next 9 hold!

Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day! I got to rest and relax! Kirk got up and made us cinnamon rolls in the morning, we went to church, then came back to relax some. Brady made me a Wonderful card, if you come over I'll have to show it to you!! Also, they made Mom's breakfast in bed bags at school, I ate mine later in the day though, they also to me out to dinner to El Campesino's, it was really yummy and I ate WAY too much!
Kirk and the kids also got me a very "unique" gift! One that scared me half to death! haha I unlocked and opened the door when we got home from church and I about jumped out of my skin! I thought a black dog was sitting in my mud room! But no it wasn't, it was a black lion!! I had to laugh...Here's the story...about 2 weeks ago we were all at Lowe's looking around. We went to lawn and garden and we were by the lawn ornamnets. Kirk jokingly said " Ohhh, I found your Mother's Day gift!!" A large lion! We laughed and moved on. Well, SATURDAY Kirk went to run his "errands" with Brady I guess Kirk asked him what he wanted to get me for Mother's Day and Brady started going on about this lion at Lowes. Kirk had no idea what he was talking about, but he was going to go there anyway to probably get some flowers. So they got in the store and Brady marched on over to where the lions where and said "This daddy!" Ohhhh! He was adimate that this is the gift I should get. My son has a good memory!



We have dubbed the Lion "Henry"! So far he's a good protector, doesn't require any feedings, does not go to the bathroom, doesn't smell and just requires a slight dusting every now and then.

Easter

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

We had a very nice Easter this year. Church was wonderful, I sang in the choir which I really have been enjoying and being able to sing at Easter was great! The kids looked so nice in all their Easter wear. It was so nice to see the sun! I love that for as long as I can remember there is ALWAYS sun on Easter! I love it, to me it's God, Jesus and everyone rejoicing in heaven as we on earth celebrate the Risen King!

The Easter Bunny did come and visit us, the kids searched the house and found their baskets. They were VERY happy the Easter Bunny came.

I've attached some pictures below:








Doesn't Brady look dapper!


Bethany picked out her Easter dress herself, I really thought she would pick a pink one that she was adimate about , but then all of a sudden she spotted this one and low and behold she changed her mind-typical girl!


These are Bethany's friends that she plays a lot with, Chloe and Iris, we are missing one, Ellie she was out of town with her Mom and Dad. Mommy thinks their moms are really cool chicks too!


Mommy and Daddy are done with Easter grass, we don't think it should have been invented. This is Bethany's aftermath, Ugh! We are going to remind the Easter bunny next year that it is not required that you HAVE to have Easter grass in the baskets. Leave it to the Easter bunny always thinking about the "look"! Sorry my dear husband, the bunny will do better next time.

Stow Away

Kirk tried to pack some company for his trip to DC...

It's been a long time coming

Sorry for such an extremely long delay in a recent "word" post. Things have been busy in the Cameron household, but it's been a great busy. Let me fill you in on the happenings in recent months:

We'll start with Kirk. He's still plugging away in Columbus. He enjoys the job. He does miss the kids some days though. He has definately become the city driver and finds himself getting frustrated driving around Marion with all these slowpokes. He has found if he leaves before 6am he can beat a lot of the traffic going downtown, so he trys his best to do that when he can. Next month, he heads to DC for a few days. His first DC experience with this job, should be interesting. I tried to book a flight to tag a long with him but it didn't work-Oh Well, I tried! :) Kirk's been able to play some pick up basketball once a week with some guys at church, so that's been a nice outlet for him. He has also been busy working on the house in his spare time. He's been putting finishing touches on a lot of things.

Brady is going strong in school, he recently celebrated his 100th day! They had a big party to celebrate it. He's starting to read pretty good, he memorizes his sight words and is picking a lot of them out in every day things. His writing is coming a long great! Being a lefty I didn't know what to expect seeing that neither Kirk nor I are; but it's been pretty easy. Brady enjoys playing with his army men and trucks, putting together some simple model airplanes with daddy, watching Transformers and arguing with his sister. Brady's bedroom is looking more like a young man's bedroom now which he is very proud of, Mommy is still working on the clouds and planes she promised him and he reminds her almost every day, it will be done in the next month!!! Brady has lately been singing Christmas Caroles and counting to 100 over and over and over. :)

Bethany is a spitfire! She cracks us up on a daily basis. Her vocabulary is growing, which is wonderful! She loves to watch me fold laundry and she tells me who's clothing I am folding. She gets every piece right! She's a great helper and wants to help cook, clean or pretty much do whatever I'm doing. She still loves to twirl, twirl, twirl! She has added little arabesques to her "routine", she will be twirling then stop stick up her leg behind her and pose!! Too cute and funny. I think I may need to get her in some dance classes soon. Bethany still loves to play dress up and wear her "high heels" around the house. She has jewelry all over! She's a girly girl. Her hair is getting so long, her pigtails don't stick straight up anymore! She's been playing with my old My little Ponies I found a lot. She really likes them. She's also a very good Mommy to her little babies; she feeds them and makes sure that we are all quiet when they are sleeping. She can cook some pretty good grub in the "kitchen" too. She is not potty training anymore, she has refused to use the potty chair or even the big potty, she won't even wear her big girl underwear. We were on a roll for a while then-nothing. She only wants to wear diapers. So as frustrating as it is for Mommy we are breaking and trying later. I'm not worrying about it, there's time. :) Oh, did I mention she really likes to bug Brady!! ;)

And finally me. Life has been really good for me these past few months. It's been so simple in a way, just nice. I think I'm the happiest I have been in, I don't know when. I have been feeling pretty good, my headaches are pretty much subsided. I'm still on my daily medication, which I definately think works. I haven't had a full out migraine in a long time. It's been WONDERFUL!! My stomach issues are better, my tests came back all negative which was such a relief. I can see it act up when I get really upset or stressed so I just try and watch that I keep myself as calm as I can. I have been helping Kirk with the house too, we just finished Bethany's bedroom which I love. It's great when your vision gets to finally get out! I know Kirk was wondering about it when I was telling him but now he loves it too!
I had started going to a Mothering class-sunday school for moms, at church awhile back but my heart wasn't fully in it at first. Well, slowly it HAS been in it and I have met some really awesome ladies! I have to say I was starting to think I would never find that close friendship with anyone around here. But I'm starting to feel that kindred spirit with these ladies. We all have a lot in common but yet have our own different personalities that make it so much fun!! We've been able to go on some outings together and have some R&R time. Bethany and I have also been involved with a playgroup that meets once a week. Bethany has really enjoyed it. Today it was at our house, it was nice to have people over. We haven't got to have too many gatherings yet, and I just love having people in my house. I think that's just what houses are for, you know, what could be more fun!!! Probably one of the biggest things that I've been involved with as of late is MOPS. MOPS is Mothers of Preschoolers, it's for mom with children ages 0-5. Our Pastor really wanted to start a group at our church and I was totally on board with that and a lot of other moms were too! So we all got together and began to get it started. I'm in charge of Publicity on the Steering team, there are 7 of us all together on the steering team. I made up all the fliers and brochures, basically getting the word out to the area. I'm also in charge of the newsletter and eventually the website which I'm still working on. It has taken us several months to start off but we had our first Cornerstone MOPS meeting last Friday. It was awesome!! We had a great turnout, lots of moms from other churches in the community. We even received an email from one of the moms saying that after a long week she came to the meeting and felt so good after she left! That's what it's all about!! An outlet for us moms!!!! I'm so excited about this program, we all are!
So I think that's it! As you can see a lot going on, but it's all so wonderful and exciting! I will try and be better about posting so it's not a big long book of catch up.
We hope you are all well and hope to see or talk to you soon!
Love.

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween at our new house! Some people may frown on Halloween, but we love it. We have fun and celebrate the positive aspect of it, not the negative.

Monday night Kirk worked late so the kids and I decided to carve the pumpkins! Brady had been wanting to for weeks! Surprisingly they were very easy to gut this year, so that went fast. My kids don't like to get messy so it was all up to mommy! haha

Brady designed and carved his pumpkin himself, he's a very traditional boy. Nothing wierd going on with his pumpkin.

I carved Bethany's and then she did some artistic drawing's on the back we called it "hair".

I also carved mine and daddy's pumpkin. Immediately after I was done Bethany yelled "Daddy!" I have to say I felt sorry for Kirk. haha

Tonight, Halloween, the kids got all dressed up Brady a Ninja and Bethany a Ballerina. We started out the door and low and behold the township Fire engine pulled in turned on his lights and stopped! At first I was like "Oh man we did something wrong, our first real trick or treat and we screwed up!" But no, they just came into the neighborhood to pass out candy!! I thought that was super nice!


So we started the walk, we were able to meet a few of our new neighbors(who love to talk I might add). Boy, you don't realize how big the subdivision is until you walk it with a ninja and a ballerina! They both did very well though, said their "Thank you's."

By the time we had done the big circle mommy was pooped and we saw Daddy handing out candy, so Mommy took over the candy and Daddy took them down our street to finish up. They got plenty of loot, I think Daddy will end up eating 3/4ths of it!

It is great to finally be in a neighborhood where they can participate in such activities!!

We hope you all have a Spookactular Halloweeeeennnnn!!!!

Happy Birthday

Happy 31st Birthday Kirk!

You have now fully jumped into your 30's! ;)

Love you!!!!

Final Countdown

We are nearing moving day. Praise the Lord!! We are so ready to move. The house is looking wonderful! The carpet starts getting laid down tomorrow. The whole house won't be totally finished when we move, the kitchen still needs a lot of work and of course the odds and ends that aren't necessities. But we will be together as a family again and I will take that over a finished kitchen any day! :)

We are all getting by day by day. Brady's doing better and better in school. His writing is improving(pretty good for a leftie), he's learning his sight words and starting to read some. He is now crossing the street to get on the bus by himself. He would like me to stay in the driveway. I'm good though he still gives me a hug and says I love you before he goes. It feels good to watch him grow more confident.

Bethany is good, turning two in a couple of days!! She's chugging along. I'll write more about her on her birthday.

I'm fine, babysitting away! Packing, Packing, Packing, Oh and did I say Packing?

Our biggest news is about Kirk. He recently accepted a new position, actually a promotion. He is now Project Manager for the Literacy Grant he was working with. Basically, he oversees the whole Ohio grant and is now "boss" over the Literacy coaches at each institution(he used to be a literacy coach). So his office will move to downtown Columbus to the Dept of Youth Services Central Office and he will not have an office and work at the prison each day. He will travel a bit more(not spending nights out) to each institution(prison) to oversee there programs. The only major travelling will be 1-2 times a year he will have to go to Washington DC to give reports and all that jazz that goes along with the grant. He's excited about the transition and looking forward to the challenge. He'll start in October.

Ok, well a big storm has come in so I probably should get off this computer. If you would keep us in your prayer during the next month with the major changes coming about we would appreciate it!

Love to you all!

8 years!

It's our anniversary! :)