Cameron's 1st Day of Preschool & Birthday

Cameron's first day of preschool was August 29th. This is his first year going to school and he goes Monday, Wednesday & every other Friday from 8:30 to 11:45. His school is St. Paul's Christian School. His first day went really well! I was nervous that he would be upset about going into the classroom but he ran right in & started playing (I didn't even get a goodbye hug!)
Cameron's 3rd birthday was on Friday, Sept. 2nd and I enjoyed being able to celebrate his birthday with his class. I brought cookie monster cupcakes to the class at snack time & the kids sang happy birthday.

First day :)

Playing with the trucks in class




Olivia playing while I set up the cupcakes





I like school too!

Adorable cupcakes made by a local bakery

Cameron & his classmates

Mommy & her birthday boy :)

Birthday dinner with family

Playing with his new garbage truck

Olivia at Nine Months

Olivia is getting more and more of a personality every day! At her 9 month check up she weighed 18lbs, 3 oz & was 26 3/4" tall. She is in the 20th percentile for height & 40th for weight, almost exactly what Cameron was at her age. He got his big growth spurt at about 2 years & now he is in the 75th percentile for height. She is sleeping a little better, she will sleep 8 pm to 5 am then nurse & sleep until about 7 am. She just started the meals with meat & loves them! Hurray! For someone who hated food until about 8 months, she now loves everything. Too funny!
She just started standing & only took her about a couple of weeks before she started walking along furniture.

First time with shoes!

Wait, what is on my feet????


Gotta check this out.......

Second time standing......trying to get in the toy box

Look at me!

This car has got to be her favorite toy! As soon as she is on the floor, it's the first thing she crawls toward. She will climb in it herself & sit in the seat. So cute!!!

She loves the tupperware cabinet but unfortunately it only entertains her for about 1 minute as she just likes to empty all the tupperware out onto the floor!

Mark- Our Exchange Student from China

During the first week of August, we hosted another exchange student, Mark, who was from China. Mark is 15 years old and this was his first trip to the US. He stayed with us for about 10 days & we really enjoyed his visit! He spoke english well so it was pretty easy to communicate with him. He had nice manners & loved learning about our culture.
While he was here we took him to Salt Springs, where we went swimming & Charles took him horseback riding. We were sad to see him go since it was such a short visit!

Playing outside with Cameron

At the Springs

Swimming at my parents' house

Watching the boys in the pool. Poor Olivia wanted to swim too!

Mark & us at the farewell party for the exchange students

All of the Chinese exchange students who visited Ocala (there were about 40)

Mark giving a presentation at the party

July Photos

Olivia turned 8 months old in July! She just started crawling & makes her way around the house & following me. She has gotten so much better about eating solids & eats about 1 to 2 solid meals a day. She is still not sleeping through the night but we are working on it!!


Cameron is almost 3! I can't believe it! We had some big happenings with him this month: he no longer sleeps in his crib & started potty training at the end of the month!! Both were huge steps that I was really dreading but he did so great with both!!

Olivia in the tub

Here's Cameron with Corbyn, one of our new neighbors. A family of four just moved in across the street & they have two boys, Drayke who is 2 months younger than Cameron & Corbyn who is 4. They are the sweetest family & Cameron is absolutely in LOVE with the boys. They have so much fun playing, swimming & riding bikes together. The only bad part is Cameron asks for them ALL DAY LONG!! But I'm really glad such a nice family moved in & Cameron has neighborhood friends.

Here's a photo of Cameron "cleaning up." He loves to put Charles' socks on his hand & clean up around the house meaning he puts all the toys up somewhere (either on couches, tables or chairs.) So funny! I had to take this picture quick before he saw me. (Sorry for no pants on him, we were potty training :)

Here's the new situation with Olivia's hair bows........

Get It

Got It

GONE!! It makes me so sad that she won't keep them on her head but I knew it would come sometime. I'm just waiting for some more hair to come in so that I can use hair clips :)

Since Olivia started crawling she & Cameron are starting to play more. I really have to watch Cameron since he plays rough with her & loves to take toys from her. Here's one of their sweet moments.....

Playing in the tupperware. So fun to make a big mess!

Here's another sweet moment......Cameron & Olivia were playing in the ball pit together & Cameron grabbed Olivia & said cheese and told me he wanted me to take a picture.

Being silly

Charles & Cameron's NY Trip

Back in the middle of July, Charles & Cameron flew to New York to visit Charles' mom, Ollie, & for Charles to attend his 20 year high school reunion. They left on Friday morning and came back Sunday afternoon so it was a short trip. They had a great visit with Ollie; Cameron had so much fun helping Grandma Ollie in the garden & helping Charles fix a few things around her house. They went swimming at the neighbor's pool a few times & even got to ride the train & ferry. I know Cameron is looking forward to his next trip to Grandma Ollie's!

Pulling his luggage at the airport (sorry its a little blurry)

Flying first class! (They got bumped up for free)


On the train with Grandma Ollie

On the ferry boat on the Hudson River

Always a helper in the kitchen :)

Helping in Grandma's garden

Grandma Ollie showing Cameron how to make a garden stone with his handprint
Adding some rocks to the garden stone

Showing off the finished stone (with a popsicle stick in his mouth :)

Cam's Swimming

For six weeks over the summer Cameron took swimming lessons at our local college. This is his third year taking them & he did really well. By the end of the lesson he was pretty much able to swim on his own (he can jump in & swim back to the edge.) He also learned how to roll over & swim on his back. It was a big commitment for me (esp. with Olivia) but in the end it was well worth it since he really improved on his swimming.

Cameron (wearing green sitting between the 2 girls) waiting for his turn

Jumping in (more like belly flopping!)

I don't post many videos since it takes to long to upload them but here is one from Cameron's last lesson. You can see him swimming on his back.