*Cason's Baby Shower*

Let me start this post with a picture of my daughter smiling as opposed to crying like she did almost the whole time at Cason's shower. I figured she would love eating cake and helping open presents. Apparently what she really needed was to stay in bed for a few more hours. Thanks to everyone who tried to talk to her, brought her presents, or tolerated her moodiness on Saturday! I did think she looked super sweet.....I actually got her hair in a side-wards ponytail. Jeremy said he didn't really like that style very much....it reminds him of a dumb blonde girl!

Look at the wonderful cake and table set-up!
So much yummy food!
* Cason Gage Broom*
My sweet sister drove all the way to the shower and could only stay a few minutes before she had to go to work. When you scroll down you'll see the awesome present she got me!!! She is sitting next to my sweet 90 year old grandmother who also came. My grandmother is most excited that my dad will actually have a boy in his family now, other than son-in-laws. (I just have two sisters...)
Kayla brought Cassidee a present. Here she is opening it with the help of Me-mommy and her fun friend Presley!
Sweet shades, Cass!
My present from Kayla:
It was soooo cute. It is a great basket tht was filled with lots of baby goodies hanging on a clothes line. She raided The Children's Place and Cason has tons of good stuff to wear now!

Burp clothes with his name on them!
Teeny-tiny boy clothes! I didn't know what to think since nothing was pink---thank goodness!

This shower was hosted by my sweet, sweet friends.

I love these girls and am so grateful for their generosity and for thinking of our family and giving us a shower. So here's a shout out to my girls.....

Andrea (love your dress, by the way!)

Kimberly---it was at her house. She is so great to do this with her own little newborn to take care of! And, Cassidee's good friend Presley (who I never got a good picture of her face...)
Shara and her awesome hat!
Kimberly! You gotta look good while you're doing dishes!
And I didn't get a picture of Angie. She had to run out before all the hat fun to get ready for her baby's first birthday party!

But, thank you girls for such a fun time!! I'm so glad that I have wonderful girl friends and that my daughter has great friends in each of your kids!

-

Cassidee's present from Kayla.....a new outfit (AWESOME!) and cool sunglasses!

This picture was taken 2 1/2 years ago at my baby shower for Cassidee. I was around the same pregnancy week (35) and took this picture with Jodi B. (pregnant, but I don't remember how far along...maybe 3 months or so), Rachel S. (pregnant, but didn't know it at the time and is sticking her tummy out like a retard!), and Lindsay S. (not pregnant until the end of that year). Anyway, it's funny to look at what all has changed in our lives in the past 2 1/2 years. I have Cassidee and Cason on the way. Jodi has Reagan and baby? on the way. Rachel has Roselyn and baby boy (hello, pick a name) on the way, and Lindsay has Braden.

Our picture from Saturday. Kendra (35 weeks), Rachel (28 weeks, I think), and Jodi (15 weeks)
Cassidee loved the present she got from my hostesses as well. They got her a My Little Pony and some Hot Wheel cars. I know, weird mix, but it fits her so well right now. She is my little "bow-wearing-tom-boy." She won't leave the house without making sure her hair is pretty and that she has a few cars in her purse! Last night she was even playing with a dinosaur and growling at Jeremy! Go figure! Anyway, thank you girls for thinking of her. She loves her presents!
And now I'll end the post with two pictures of my little girl (tom boy) tormenting a frog. Jeremy found it on the driveway and Cass thought it was the greatest thing. She showed us how she could hop like a frog......
.....and then she chased it into the bushes where she proceeded to throw sticks at it!

My little girl! :)

We've really missed Daddy!

I sure hope that Jeremy doesn't expect Cassidee and I to just sit at home while he is gone out of town for a whole week, cause we sure didn't! Jeremy has been the "nurse" out at Camp Deer Run all week so Cassidee and I decided to have our own fun while he was gone.

He left last Saturday so she and I packed up and headed to my parents house. There is never a dull moment there, and this is what I found Cassidee doing one time that went looking for her......

Standing in the back of my dad's truck, wearing nothing but a diaper and a hat, and putting china berries in empty shotgun shells. All two year olds do that, right???

My mom came out and asked Cassidee what she was playing with. She replied, "pick-ums." We asked her over and over and that's what she said every time. I guess since you pick china berries off a tree then they are "pick-ums" to her. We cracked up at the name she gave them!

Then, there is nothing like a good running race through the living room with Grandaddy. She squats down like she is in the picture and says, "Ready, (sometimes she says "set"), and then, Go!" They'd run into the kitchen. Turn around. Run back into the living room. Repeat X 100! (video at the bottom of the post that's funny watching her do it.....)

I don't have any pictures for some reason--wish I did--but Wednesday Becky was super nice and drove us out to camp to see Jeremy. It was so sweet watching Cassidee run to see Jeremy. She was super excited and had a ball the entire time we were out there. She cried and cried when we left and kept saying that daddy was supposed to come with us. It broke my heart---she has talked about him every day and wondered why he was working so much. She kept thinking he was just at the fire station. She is going to be thrilled when he comes home this afternoon!

On Thursday after school we decided that it would be too boring to just go home and take a nap, despite how tired we both had been from a looooong week. We decided it would be way more fun to put on our swimmy suits and go to the waterpark with Reagan and Reagan's cousins Adley and Corbin.

These sweet friends really miss each other when they are not together! They had a good little game of running in and out of the water......didn't look super fun to me, but then again, I'm not 2!
Taking a little rest.
Snack break!
Sweet Adley played with Cassidee for a few minutes before it was time to leave.
Back at the Gray's house---Cassidee gave Reagan her birthday present since we wouldn't see her on her actual birthday.
Princesses--of course!!!
Minnie Mouse bowl and cup---Cass has one and thinks she and her friends always have to have matching things!

This is the video of Cassidee racing my dad. It's dark and not terribly exciting, but I thought it was funny watching her crouch down and say go and then laugh hysterically at my dad!

Cassidee's first day of "school" and our lake trip!

Cassidee is doing a little Mother's Day Out program once a week up at our church. She's never gone to any kind of day care or pre-school, so this was a new thing for both of us. I figure that if she likes it well enough one day a week this summer then she may love it two days a week in the fall....we'll see!

Anyway, she looked like a big girl to me that morning with her piggies in her hair and her new backpack.

Too bad the next two pictures are what I got when I asked her if I could take her picture......

Maybe she wasn't quite awake yet.....

Anyway, I got a cute one once we got to school.

I was lookin' kinda rough that morning, but here is a pic of Cass and mommy.

Walking to class......(thanks to my mom, by the way, for coming and taking pictures too.)

Uh oh, not a great start. It was a little hard to kiss her and walk away while she was crying, but I know it was just "new place jitters" for her. I was told she dried her tears quickly and had a really fun day! On to our lake trip......

Cassidee and I were lucky to get to go with Jeremy's mom down to his grandparents house for a couple of days. They live on the lake so that usually means lots of fun in the sun on the boat, jet skies, and just hanging out eating good food. Unfortunately Jeremy didn't get to go with us since he had to work, and we didn't get to stay very long, so it was more of a relaxing couple of days than busy on the water sports.

Miss Priss is ready to head out on the boat!

Cassidee and Nana

Looking at the water!

Lucky girl!

Memaw and Grandad got Cassidee a doll.

Luckily they also had a rocking chair so she could rock her baby!

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Cassidee with Jeremy's grandparents. I'm also sad we only got to stay a couple of days. I'm sad Jeremy didn't get to see the look on Cassidee's face when we got ready to get in the boat.

I'm guessing we are going to have to take a trip back down there soon!

Is that okay, Memaw and Grandad???

A day late....but Happy Father's Day!!!

Cassidee has a great daddy!

I know she is going to grow up knowing she is a lucky girl!

God picked out the perfect daddy for me and I know he did the same when he picked Cassidee's daddy!

Here is Cassidee and her daddy in one of their first official photo ops together. I know it was love at first sight for both of them!

And this picture below pretty much sums up their relationship now----always having fun!

I think that there isn't a minute that goes by when they are together that they aren't cracking each other up! They play cars, play with animals, cook in Cassidee's kitchen together, watch TV, play outside, or just have fun together. They are always laughing and she is always giving her daddy hugs and kisses!

I can't wait to see what one more kid will add to the mix. I do know Cason is a lucky boy to have Jeremy as his daddy!

What a big girl!!!!

I made one of the best purchases of my life on Monday at Walmart! It seems like quite a bold statement, but it's very true. I paid $9.97 for some life jacket/swim suit combo thing-y for Cassidee to wear in the pool. I won't lie---I thought I'd try it out on her and save the receipt. If she hated it or it didn't work for her I was going to just take it back. SHE LOVES IT! She was saying "mommy, let go" after about 30 seconds. She loves the freedom of swimming the entire pool by herself and quickly figured out how to kick her arms and legs to get herself places!

So, if you have a moment, here are two videos. We took her to Jeremy's parents house so she could show daddy how she can swim. She loves playing in the hot tub and calling it the baby pool, so the first video is of her swimming back and forth in it. If you can't understand her talking in the video, she is saying, "swimmy, swimmy, swimmy" in a sing-songy voice. We are still teaching her to keep her mouth closed in the pool! :)

My brave little girl is also fearless when it comes to wearing this thing and has literally almost just jumped in before anyone was ready to catch her. Here she is, jumping off the hot tub into the big pool and swimming to daddy!

Coming soon: Cassidee very first day of "school" pictures

AND.....

A huge post dedicated to my big girl Cassidee for completing her very first full day in big girl panties with no accidents. (We even went on car rides, out to supper, and to church.....no accidents!)

Happy B-day Camille and Olivia!

What a fun party we went to on Saturday! It was very evident that you put a LOT of hard work into the girl's birthday, Kimberly, and I know Cassidee really enjoyed herself! You can see all the fun that Cassidee had in the pictures below and why we finally had to wake her up for church the next day!

There was a little "petting zoo" with baby animals. Cassidee got a cup of food to feed the animals. The goats found her and her food first!

All of the goats found her!!! She even looked up at me and said, "mommy, help!"
Me-mommy's "little duck" is petting a little duck!
Brave girl going for the goat by herself!
Cassidee and Daddy's favorite bunny!
There were pony rides and Cassidee never hesitated to get on and ride. She even did it again when the line went down! Grandaddy, seriously, get the girl a horse!
There was a face painter---Cassidee waited patiently in line and then hopped up on the stool and told the lady, "Butt-fly, please" (butterfly) She sat sooo still the entire time.
Finished product....does Cassidee look happy about her butt-fly? We weren't sure......
....but this is the smile we got when she got down off the stool!
Then Kimberly gave her tickets to play the games and a box to keep her prizes in!
Cheating a little on the bean bag toss!

I think she liked playing in the water more than she liked playing the duck game!
Shooting the gun to get a prize!
Cassidee and Birthday girl Olivia stopping for a drink break!
Silly Daddy!

Thanks so much for inviting us to your party Camille and Olivia!

Hope yall had a great birthday!