Our Adoption Day

Today is our Casey family adoption day! This morning, we headed to St. Louis for Cameron's finalization hearing and to make him an "official" member of the Casey family! We have been under the supervision of Bethany Christian Services for the last six months and that all ended today. It is also National Adoption Day so that makes our day extra special. One Saturday a year, St. Louis County opens up for Adoption Saturday for the sole purpose of adoption finalizations. They have three or four courtrooms open and that's all they do! Today, they did about 40! How awesome that so many families chose adoption for their families. This process has been so incredible for our family and clearly God's plan for us. We are so blessed that God chose Cameron to be our son and it feels great to have the whole process completed. We can't wait to see if God has more adoptions in store for our future. In the meantime, we love being the Casey family of four!

Bath Time for All!

Up to this point, Cameron has basically tolerated getting cleaned at bath time. It usually consists of us dunking him in the tub long enough to clean him off while Hannah plays next to him. However, now that he is able to sit up better, tonight's bath time was much more fun. Cameron sat right next to Hannah and played the whole tim he was in the tub. Hannah quickly ga ve him a rubber ducky to chew on and he was set! I hope this is just the beginning of fun bath times between Hannah and Cam!

Oh, and of course our clean little ones all snuggled up in their towels. How cute is that?!?

The Big 3-0!

Tim entered a new decade and turned 30 today! The original plan was to celebrate with some of our small group from church at one of Tim's favorite STL eateries as a surprise, however those plans changed when I needed my appendix out earlier in the week. Bummer! Instead, Hannah and I made yellow cupcakes with chocolate filling and chocolate icing and topped them off with a 3-0 candle. As soon as Hannah saw the set up, she couldn't wait for her Daddy to get home! She kept saying "Happy Birthday to Daddy" and "Surprise for Daddy" until Tim walked through the door. While it wasn't extravagant, we had a great family night at home celebrating Tim.

I am so thankful that Tim is in my life and beyond blessed to call him my husband. Our 20s were spent falling in love and beginning our family together. I can't wait to see what will come in our 30s! Tim, We love you so much!

Seven Months of Strength

I feel like every month creeps up quicker than the last with our baby boy. And it seems like the constant theme with Cameron is his size and strength. We went to the doctor this week and our not-so-little guy weighs in at 23 lb. and 28 3/4" -- that is over the 90th percentile for both weight and height! Wow! He is going to pass up his big sister in no time! The doctor says that everything looks great and Cam is one healthy and happy boy. He also continues to amaze us with his strength and mobility. He sits unassisted all the time and very rarely falls over. He can even gracefully slide to his belly to start moving when ready. Speaking of moving, Cameron is everywhere! Although he still doesn't crawl the correct way, he scoots and drags himself all over the place without any problem at all. We have also had our first taste at sibling disagreements because Cameron is so active. He could have a plethera of his own toys, but nevertheless, he wants to play with Hannah's. Sometimes, this is not a problem, but at other times, it starts a small meltdown with his big sis. I think this is the first of many experiences we will encounter. Other than that, things are about the same. Cameron loves to eat his food and especially drink his bottle. He also babbles all the time and continues to be one loud baby! It will be fun to see how this continues in the coming months. It's been another great month and we look forward to the next!

There Once was a Princess and a Dragon

I was really excited for Halloween this year becuase I thought it would be really fun to find some sort of "matching" costumes for the kids. While at a Carter's outlet one day, I saw some cute princess stuff on sale and decided we would have our very own fairy tale story of the princess and the dragon. I then found a super cute dragon costume at Gymboree (which I had a gift card for) and we were set! Our day started out with my parents bringing the kids to my school for the parade and my class party. Hannah and Cameron were the hit of the party and my 6th graders loved them! The weather was nice for the parade in which the kids peacfully rode along in the stroller. Then we headed upstairs to my classroom. Hannah got a plate full of goodies, and Cameron got passed around almost the whole time. They had a blast!

After naptime, some playing, and a Jack-O-Latern pizza, we were off to Trick-or-Treat. Again, we just did the short part of our culd-e-sac, but that was plenty for our fairy tale characters. Once we got home, Hannah enjoyed handing out candy about as much as getting it. It was a fun night and I think it will just get more and more fun every year!

I also have to add these two pictures of our "Adoraboo" son and "Little Pumpkin" daughter! Man...they both look so big!!!

The Quest for 11

Our St. Louis Cardinals had quite the season this year and for us fans it was full of ups and downs. In August, our post-season hopes were slim and most fans were talking about next season. However, the Cards made a historic run and came from 10.5 games back and squeaked into the post-season as the Wild Card team. And it wasn't over there. The Cardinals continued to win each series and became the National League champions. Onto the World Series! It was an exciting series, especially game 6 which will live on in baseball history. After winning their 11th World Series, Cardinal Nation came out in full force for a celebratory parade. My parents and I went to this in 2006 and we decided it was a must for our family. This afternoon, we all made the trip downtown for the parade. My parents scoped out the beginning of the parade route, or actually the "pre-parade" route and it was a perfect spot for our family. He had a great time cheering on our Redbirds and seeing them with their families.

Six Month Stud

Six months -- half a year -- I truly can't believe it! Cameron is starting to really come into his own personality. And it is one that we just love! For the most part, he is one happy, smiley, fun-loving boy. While he still gets fussy when he's over tired or ready to eat,. the rest of the time he is happy. What makes his personality really show are his expressions. He has the most expressive eyes that shine when he is happy! Cam is still our big boy! We don't go to the doctor until next month, but he is pushing just over 20 lbs. according to our estimate. Our son doesn't miss too many meals! Right now, he can squeeze into some 6-9 month clothes, but 12 month definitely fit better. He takes 4 bottles a day and each have 7 oz. for a total of 28/day. He also eats three meals a day including cereal for breakfast, and both a veggie and fruit for both lunch and dinner. He continues to sleep great at night going to bed around 7:30-8:00 and is up between 7:00-7:30 the next morning. Naps still aren't super consistent, but we get by with a short one in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon. Cameron also continues to amaze us with his strength. He is sitting up pretty well unassisted and only topples over when he is getting tired. He has also now figured out how to scoot himself across the floor to get where he wants go and what he wants in his hands. He will lift himself up into a push up position and propel his body forward to move. I don't think it really matters that he isn't "officially crawling" because I think he is going to start going fast here soon. We continue to be amazed at our beautiful baby boy and feel blessed to call him our son!