Beach Trip 2009

Caleb getting ready to hit the beach

Recently, we took a trip to Panama City Beach; well, Caleb and I did.  Patrick had to work so he stayed behind.  We had a GREAT time hanging out with family and just chillaxin by the pool and at the beach.  Caleb liked the beach much better this year than last year and we're convinced we have the next Michael Phelps as a son (minus the whole marijuana thing).  Caleb is a natural swimmer and has NO FEAR of the water.  Swimming lessons are definitely in the near future!  Thank you Aunt Pat and Uncle "Honey" for a fabulous time and for inviting us along.  We had a blast and can't wait to go again!

  

"Home" Sweet Home

Inside view of den from front door

Side View

the Hamilton's new home

Here are some pictures of our new "home" in Birmingham.  Yes, we know it's slightly smaller than our Louisville house (okay, it's A LOT smaller), but it is very cozy and welcoming on the inside.  It is conveniently located to a lot of area attractions; we are only 1 mile from the Birmingham Zoo and Botanical Gardens and the lovely statue of Vulcan is practically mooning us!   It has been an adjustment living in a smaller area, but it's been humbling as well!  We are very blessed and have no complaints with what the Lord has provided!  

Blessings!

the Hamilton's

Summer Madness...

Wow!  I just looked at the date since our last post...has it REALLY been that long?!  We have been super busy and I apologize.  

The big news here is that WE'RE MOVING SOUTH AGAIN....to Birmingham, AL.  Our house sold after only 4 days on the market and we're thinking the move will take place before  August 1. Patrick will be working in the inner city of Birmingham as a church planter and is super excited about it!  He has a big heart for the inner city and it will be great for him to get involved with the people there again.  He has not finished seminary yet...he will graduate next May.  He can finish his degree online and may have to travel to Louisville once or twice after the move for a class or two.  Not a big deal.  I graduated in May with my Masters and I am SO relieved it's over.  It was very difficult to be a student, a wife, and a mother!   

Caleb is growing like a weed and is now talking and running.  His favorite words are:  hot, ouch, uh-oh, mama, dada, ball, and cat.  He will point to his body parts when asked and he LOVES to throw trash in the trash can.  Sometimes items that aren't trash end up there;)  He continues to be the light of our lives and he is so much fun to be around.  He is really laid back and just seems to enjoy life.  

We will keep you posted with the move as the day gets closer.  And yes, I need to post some new pictures soon.  Keep us in your prayers!

Love,

 the Hamilton's

Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Caleb...he is quite the ham with the camera.  Needless to say, but we are very entertained by him!

Caleb playing at Brown Park

Easter Sunday 

Enjoying the Nashville Zoo

Catching Up...

Caleb dancing in the yard on Easter!

We have been super busy here and things FINALLY seem to be winding down!  I finished student teaching and am just waiting til graduation day (May 9).  Patrick is almost done with this semester and is working furiously to get his last paper done!  

Caleb is doing AMAZING!  He had his big developmental assessment last week and he is right where he should be for a 12-15 month old (12 months is his adjusted age, so they still use his adjusted age for developmental milestones).  He is, however, definitely a 15 month old on the gross motor development scale (he scored in the 93 percentile).  The child LOVES to walk and has recently discovered that he can run!  He enjoys going up and down stairs and is just so full of himself!  His two favorite words are "dada" and "mama".  He will shake his head no when he doesn't want something and he is enjoying learning to use a sippy cup!  He is now on whole milk and the transition from formula to milk went beautifully.  So, he's pretty much doing everything toddlers his age do!  

He also had his 15 month checkup and his pediatrician is "very impressed" with his growth and overall development.  He weighs 22 lbs 2 oz and is 30" long.  He is still only in the 25th percentile for height and weight, but he's definitely catching up (during his last visit, he was only in the 10th percentile).  He's definitely moving in the right direction!

Enjoy the recent pics of Caleb!  As you can see, he is quite the ham for the camera!

Blessings,

 Patrick, Kasey, and Caleb

  

These Feet Were Made For Walking...

CALEB IS WALKING!  We are trying to upload video and as soon as we can, we'll post it!  He is making excellent progress, although he's still a little unsteady.  We are so happy and so tired...chasing him around the house has added a whole new dynamic of parenting that we weren't used to!  He even pitched a fit at the mall today because we wouldn't let him climb up the stairs!  Did we mention he's getting a temper too?!  He'll be 14 months old next week...time flies when you're having fun!  

blessings! 

New Pictures

He is very friendly and waves at everybody!  What a ham...

Caleb LOVES to swing at the park!

This one was taken at the beginning of January while we were at the Newport Aquarium.  It's one of our favorites!

Here are some new/recent pictures of Caleb.  He now weighs a whopping 22 lbs 6 oz...and our backs and arms can tell that he's gained weight!!  He is so much fun now and wants SO badly to walk on his own.  He'll walk behind his push toy and hold on to our fingers, but isn't quite brave enough to do it on his own yet.  We know that day is right around the corner and we have "baby-proofed" the house as much as possible!  He definitely keeps us on our toes!  He is so much fun to be around and he makes us laugh everyday!  It's so hard to believe he's 13 months old already.

Blessings!

Caleb's First Snow

"I'm just so excited, daddy!"

"I love the snow.  It's hard to wave with this on my hand though!"

Okay, so technically this isn't Caleb's FIRST snow...we had a big snow storm last winter, but poor Caleb was still in the hospital and didn't get to enjoy it!  We took him out today and he actually liked it.  The cold didn't seem to bother him and he would laugh every time a snowflake hit him in the face.  We're glad he found it so amusing.

We have been out of school since Tuesday due to snow and ice (obviously) and classes have been canceled the rest of the week.  We haven't measured how much fell at our house, but we're guessing it's somewhere between 5 and 6 inches.  So far, we have been fortunate enough not to lose power.   We did lose a few big branches off some trees, but that's about it.  

On a more serious note (sorta), we have been reading our "original" blog that we created when Caleb was born.  On this day last year, we were granted custody of Caleb by the Family Court.  We also got to hold our son for the first time...he was attached to so many tubes and on a ventilator.  He only weighed 2 lbs 11 oz and was 15 1/4" long.

 Today, Caleb is a wild man!!  He is all over the place and hates to be still.  Today, Caleb weighs 20 lbs 11oz and is 28 1/4" long.  He continues to bring us so much joy and holding him today, and everyday, is an awesome reminder of how far he has come.  God is good!

Blessings, 

 the Hamilton's

A Weekend of Firsts

And this is how Caleb would sum up turning a year older!

I was happy for a few minutes...

My first hair cut meltdown!

I did great for the first few minutes!

We have definitely had a busy weekend and a busy start to 2009!  I (Kasey) started student teaching on January 5th and things have pretty much been hectic since then.  It's definitely been a change and we're juggling how to work everything out, but we're slowly getting into a routine.  Thank God for my mom (Bama).  She has been a HUGE help and has been here almost 2 weeks now.  She is leaving next weekend and we're already dreading it!

Caleb has had a VERY busy and exciting weekend!  He got his first haircut yesterday.  As you can see from the pictures, he did great at first (thanks to an Elmo video), but he soon had a come apart.  Ms. Valencia did a great job cutting his hair and she'll definitely see Caleb again in the near future.  We kept a lock of his curly hair for his baby book and didn't realize how much hair he had.  Caleb now looks like a little man instead of a baby.  

Speaking of being a little man, we celebrated Caleb's FIRST birthday today.  We had some friends and family over and had a great day.  It's so hard to believe that a year has already passed since our little miracle was born.  We cannot believe how far he has come this past year and he truly is a blessing from God!  Caleb loved all of the attention at the party and wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake.  He loved playing with his food, but he didn't like it when the icing and cake actually got into his mouth.  He only cried for a few minutes and he quickly recovered. He got a new wagon, another Elmo, LOTS of clothes, books, videos, and more toys.  It was Christmas all over again!  

We love you Caleb Thomas and you make us so happy.  We thank God for you everyday!

Blessings! 

A Weekend of Firsts

2008 in Pictures

December 

Gulf Shores - July

April

February

January 19, 2008

Welcome to the world Caleb Thomas

These pictures don't even begin to describe 2008.  What a difference a year makes!

Do we really need to say just how incredibly awesome and wonderful 2008 was for our family?  It has definitely been a roller coaster year, but we can happily say we had more ups than downs.  Caleb Thomas has been the biggest blessing to us and it's so amazing to see how God answers prayers.  We cannot believe this year is already coming to an end and that Caleb will soon be a year old.  The time has literally flown by.  We feel so incredibly grateful and blessed that we have been able to share this year's journey with each of you.  We are constantly reminded and thankful for every prayer that has been prayed for our family and for our sweet son.  There is NO way we would have been able to survive without each of your friendships and without God's love for us and for Caleb.  HE is so good!  We know God has awesome things planned for us in 2009 and we wait with anticipation to see what His plans are.  

We wish you all a blessed New Year and pray that God will do mighty things in each of your lives in 2009.  

Blessings,

 Patrick, Kasey, and Caleb

First Family Zoo Trip

Caleb and daddy looking at the gorilla

Caleb trying to tell mommy about the big creature staring at us!

"I love the zoo!"  

We decided to take advantage of the sunny day and the warm(er) weather here in Louisville and make a family trip to the zoo.  This was  not Caleb's first trip to the zoo, but it was our first trip as a family.  We had a great day and Caleb enjoyed looking at all of the animals.  He seemed to enjoy the gorilla house the most, as they were the only animals to acknowledge his presence.  They were very interested in Caleb (so was the Siberian Tiger, but that's a whole other story...).  Last time we visited, Caleb really enjoyed the penguins.  However, on today's visit it was time for the penguins to eat and the zookeeper was apparently running late, as the penguins were putting on quite a noisy show in protest and Caleb was not fond of their obnoxious behavior!  We don't blame him...they were kinda loud!  Overall, we had a great time and have already gotten our money's worth out of our zoo membership. We will definitely be making another trip soon and love that we have such a fun place to visit so close to our house!  

Blessings!

Caleb's First Christmas

Caleb loving on Elmo

Not too fond of the hat...

Obviously, this was one of the most memorable Christmases ever!  Caleb is absolutely the best gift we could have ever received this year and we are so incredibly blessed that God chose us to be his parents.  How amazing!  We had the best day and Caleb was ready to start the festivities EARLY this morning.  He woke up at 4:50 am (after going to bed at 10:30) and he was ready to rip from the beginning.  I thought I'd be able to get away with not letting him open gifts until everyone got up and Patrick got home from work at 7 am, but that was wishful thinking on my part.  Caleb spotted Elmo and went crazy!  He immediately went towards it and started "talking" to it.  I had to let him open it!  He loves Elmo and it was super cute to see his little reaction to it.  Santa was very good to Caleb this year, but we're definitely going to have to talk to him about assembling the gifts BEFORE he drops them off next year.  It's not fun having to put them together while little hands are trying to play with him.  Obviously Santa didn't know what he was doing this year:)  

Today is also an important date for Patrick and I.  Eight years ago today, Patrick proposed to me.  It's so hard to believe that 8 years has already passed.  It seems like yesterday.  Time flies when you're having fun and when you enjoy the one you're with!  

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and spent some time reflecting on the true meaning of this holy day!  We are so proud and happy that we serve an awesome God and that we can freely honor this day and the birth of Jesus!

Shalom! 

Caleb's First Christmas Present...

Caleb had a great time opening his first ever Christmas present.  He got a music table from Granddaddy and Janice.  He LOVES pressing all of the buttons and watching the lights and listening to the music.  We even caught him "dancing" to the beat a few times...the boy has rhythm already!  Initially, he was more interested in the wrapping paper and the crinkle sound it made, but once he realized the table lit up, the wrapping paper took a back seat.  We can't wait to watch him open more gifts on Christmas morning.  There really is something magical about seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child.  

Blessings!

New Blog

Our family blog now has a new home.  Our other blog site is about to expire and the current budget/economic crisis prevents us from paying for another year's subscription:)  So...we decided to try the FREE blog (we get excited about free things).  It also helps that we are both done with classes for the semester, so we now have free time to actually post an update!  We KNOW we have been lax with the postings and for that we apologize.  We will be more faithful with the blog in 2009, as we know lots of good and exciting things will be happening and we'll want to keep everyone in the loop!    

Things continue to go well with Caleb and he just amazes us everyday.  It seems that with each passing day he learns something new (right now it's spitting and trying to talk).  He is still growing like a weed!  He is now 19 pounds and wearing 12 month clothes.  If someone would have told us back in January that Caleb would weigh this much and fit in big clothes, we would have laughed at them.  Needless to say, we are VERY thankful that Caleb is doing so well and has had no significant issues or setbacks since being home with us.  God is good!  

We are trying to prepare for our first Christmas as a family.  So far, Caleb has shown little interest in the tree or the general festivities of the season.  We are sure, however, that Christmas morning will be a fun day for him simply because he'll get to play with all of the wrapping paper.  The child is obsessed with ANYTHING that makes a crinkle sound (newspapers, aluminum foil, cereal bags, etc).  We are looking forward to spending this Christmas with extended family as well.  Granddaddy (Patrick's dad) is coming up for a visit next weekend and then my family is coming up Christmas Eve.  We are very excited and we're hoping Caleb will get excited too:)  

We do have some super cute pictures of Caleb underneath the Christmas tree and as soon as we can figure out how to post them, we will do it!  

Blessings!