2020

Goodness, what a year it has been and we still have about a month and a half left. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS YEAR. 

I'm not even sure where to start.

COVID

I guess the first thing to mention is the global pandemic that shut down the world. I cant even describe the chaos the coronavirus has caused. My job sent everyone home on March 18th to work from home and we are still working from home with no return date in sight. The first 2 months of "quarantine" were spent navigating working from home and life with a 2 year old that we decided to keep home from daycare. With my immune system, we weren't sure how I would do with the virus so we decided to play it safe. My mom helped out greatly and it was fun having Camden around so much. In May, we decided to send him back to daycare and we have adjusted to a new "normal" with having to wear masks in public and social distancing. Its been a very odd year.

NEW HOUSE

This was a big turn of events for our family and one that we did not see coming. With the global pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped dramatically and the housing market started booming. In April, Craw and I started talking about desiring more space when it came to raising our family. We especially wanted a backyard with plenty of space for kids to play. While it was the perfect time to sell, we had a hard time trying to figure out if we wanted to build or buy and the cost of building. In June, a long time family friend decided it was time to downsize her home. She had the perfect corner lot with the most perfect house we could ever imagine. We weren't sure if it would work out but we decided to commit it to prayer. Within a couple weeks, our old house was under contract and she had accepted our offer on the new house. Everything fell in to place and we closed on our new house August 14. It was a whirlwind summer with packing and moving but we have loved every second of making our new house a home.

ADOPTION #2

Surprise! Another twist to the crazy year 2020 is we feel God is calling us to expand our family through adoption again. We are so excited for this journey and are well underway to bringing home Baby Bolton 2.0. I will do another post with more details on this exciting new adventure.

As you can see, there is a big reason why things have been radio silent for me. I'm hoping to get back in to the swing of things because I really would like to blog our journey to Baby #2. Fun things are happening for us and I can't wait to see the journey unfold. 

Camden's "Two Wild" Birthday Party

As soon as I saw the "Two Wild" theme on Pinterest, I knew it was perfect for our little wild man. I kept the decorations pretty simple and found the perfect animal party pack on Amazon and made an awesome balloon arch with the help of my parents. A donut birthday cake was a MUST for our donut loving boy and I had so much fun putting a fun spin on the cake. We had pizza, chips, fruit, sausage dip, and a yummy chocolate chip dip that my mom made. We invited family and a couple of close friends and had the perfect day celebrating our two year old. 

Special thanks to my sister in law for making Cam an awesome shirt that fit the theme of the party. Cam received some awesome gifts including a yearly pass to the aquarium/zoo/bird park. 

 

 

Two.

 

Two
How can this be possible?

It seems like yesterday we were on our way to Florida to get our boy. The past two years have been the best of my entire life. I feel like every mom says that but it is so true. This blue eyed, one dimple cutie changed my life for the better. He gives me insane amounts of joy and I cannot imagine my life without Camden Ivey.

I feel like the last year went even faster than the first. Watching him grow and learn new things is so much fun. He is BEYOND smart. We are at the point where we have to be careful what we say and do in front of him because he will imitate us the first time hearing/seeing it. The way he connects things to people and events is incredible. He knows that church is where we go to learn about God. He also knows that he's going to see his Mimi and Pappy when we go to church and starts saying Mimi/Pappy when we pull in to the parking lot. He recognizes all of his family members and will call them each by name. He is talking well and starting to combine words together to create phrases. He loves people and is generally happy to be around any and everyone. While he loves people, he also knows who "his" people are and he loves us fiercely. He tells me he loves me every time I leave him and hearing him say it melts my heart.

The reason I write these updates is because I want him to be able to look back one day and see just how much he changed my life. People always tell us that he is one blessed boy to have us as parents and while I believe that is true, Craw and I are FAR MORE BLESSED to have him as a son. I always say that God saved me by sending us Camden. He gave me a purpose behind the pain of living with Crohns because the fact is, my Crohns disease led us to Camden. 

All of this to say...

Happy Birthday baby boy. I pray you will always know how much I love you. You are the best gift I have ever received, next to your daddy. I'm so thankful for my perfect gifts. Cheers to the year of being 2 and watching you learn and grow.

Love, Mama

Christmas Day 2019

I am extremely behind on everything in life right now so I am trying to play catch up. I will be back dating some of these posts so that I can catch up but its so important for me to be able to look back on these posts one day and relive each moment. Today I want to talk about Christmas Day!

Christmas day was absolutely perfect. We woke up around 7 and Craw and I were so excited to go get Camden out of his crib. His face LIT UP when he saw all of the gifts Santa left for him. It was the perfect moment followed by his big surprise outside: a new playhouse. He loved it so much and seeing his face light up on Christmas morning will forever live in my mind. After we opened gifts, I started cooking a casserole and my parents and nanny and Big Pa came over for breakfast.

We enjoyed coffee, sausage & egg casserole, cinnamon roll casserole, and lots of fruit and OJ. It was nice to be able to sit and enjoy family without having to rush here and there. I told Craw that breakfast at our house is my favorite part of Christmas and is a tradition that I pray we can continue to do for many years. 

After breakfast, we hung out at the house and took naps before it was time to head to my parents house. At their house, we enjoyed reading the Christmas story and Camden enjoyed looking at pictures while Pappy read. We then opened gifts, took pictures, enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal, and then did stocking stuffers. It was slow paced and just the way I liked it. 

I told Craw that it was so nice to be able to just "be" this year. I feel like I was able to be fully present and enjoy the season with my family. Sure, there were definitely times we were rushing here and there but we truly focused on what was important: Jesus and family. I cant wait for us to be able to start new traditions as Camden gets older and starts understanding the true meaning behind why we celebrate. Christmas through a child's eyes is truly magical and I'm so thankful that God blessed us with the best baby boy in the world. 

Christmas Eve 2019

We were extremely blessed this year in that I had Christmas Eve off. This allowed us to head to Louisburg earlier in the day to spend time with Craws family. We always do Christmas Eve in Louisburg and Christmas Day in Wilson. It seems to work out the best for our family and it allows Cam to wake up to Santa gifts in his house and have time to play with all the gifts without having to rush. 

Christmas was truly special this year because Camden "sort of" understood it and his eyes sparkled at the magic of Christmas. He still doesn't grasp all the details but he recognizes Santa and he knows Santa says "ho ho ho" although he did NOT like sitting on his lap.

We arrived in Louisburg around 2 and immediately went outside to check out all of the blow up yard decorations. Cam especially loved the paw patrol one and kept hugging it. We had a delicious prime rib dinner and enjoyed spending the evening with family opening gifts. Cam and Avery were so cute together and its crazy how big they are both getting. It was a truly special Christmas Eve followed by Craw and I having so much fun playing Santa when we got home.