Florida in July and Caelen turns 4!!

I am so far behind in my updates that I will just do one giant one that will cover our summer.

Florida
Caelen had a great time in FL in July.  We were back for our annual trip and Caelen had a blast playing with his cousin Lily and meeting his new cousin, Baby James.  We stayed with my sister Jennifer and her husband Noah and managed to drive them crazy.  But that's what family is for, right?  We got plenty of time in with Pop Pop (my dad) and Gigi too.  We even squeezed in some time with my best friends Morgan and Jason Carpenter down in Boca, and Uncle Jason took Caelen and I on a boat ride.  Caelen loved the boat and even got to help drive.

We spent lots of time at the pool and visited the turtles again at the Juno Beach Marine Sanctuary.  Caelen also loved playing in the backyard, be it sunny or rainy.  We filled our days with lots of outdoor playtime and errands.  Caelen has a new favorite store - Walmart.  Lord help me!  Good thing Walmart is not close by Annapolis, or I'd be in trouble.

Thanks Tara for the cool pool!

Hard to get shots of Caelen and Lily in close proximity.  But she acctually allowed Caelen to come snuggle before he acted up and she ran away.

Jen's boss Mr. Troy came by for a visit when we had to cancel visiting everyone at FP&L on a couple occasions.  Mr. Troy is also a heart warrior and has been praying for Caelen and keeping up through our blog.  He brought Caelen some early birthday gifts, all Monsters University, and as you can see from the pics Caelen loved them!  Thank you again Mr. Troy!  We promise to make a visit to FP&L next month to say thank you, hopefully we can feed the turtles too.

Uncle Jason taking us boating :)

Uncle Noah and Caelen playing "dolphin"

Caelen turns 4!!!
My baby isn't a baby anymore.  He's growing up so fast, I need to hit the pause button.  This has been a challenging year, but it's been a good year because Caelen is still here.  We came very close to losing him last year, and we've certainly had our struggles with his health since discharge in December.  But overall, Caelen is thriving.  He's talking up a storm, and he says the funniest things, like "aw shucks!"  He loves his country music, Yo Gabba Gabba, Daniel Tiger, Monsters, Cars and now Planes.  He makes me laugh and he just keeps amazing me every single day.  Caelen is the light of my life and I'm so incredibly blessed to have him here with me.

We had his 4th birthday party at the movie theater.  He wanted a Monsters birthday party but it wasn't playing anymore, so we invited all of our friends to watch Planes with us, and then have an awesome Monsters birthday cake afterwards.  Through the charity Icing Smiles, we were connected with a wonderful local baker named Pam Sargent.  She created this beautiful and delicious fantasy cake for Caelen.  The inside layers were all different colors and everyone had blue tongues afterwards.  I can't thank Icing Smiles and Pam Sargent enough for helping us bring Caelen's request for Monsters to life.

Thank You Steve Seamans for this pic of C

Nurse Amy cutting the cake

We had lots of friends join us, including a few heart friends that we've been close with along the way, and even one of our favorite nurses, Nurse Amy, that took care of Caelen from his 2nd day of life forward. Nurse Amy even cut the cake!  It was a beautiful sight to see her cutting cake for the heart kiddos that she once cared for when they were all critical at one point.  Watching our heart friends running around and playing was kind of like coming full circle.

Caelen had a great time at the party with all of our friends and keeps asking for another party.  He thinks every day is now his birthday, lol!

We are prepping to leave for FL next week for my sister Kelly's wedding where Caelen is going to be the ring bearer.  That should provide some good photos.  He's either going to get distracted and never make it down the aisle, get halfway down the aisle and cry, or never make it down at all.  But we keep practicing at home with Mimi.  I'll try and update while we're down there in September.

Thank you all again for all of your love, support and prayers.  4 is such a milestone considering his surgery last year, and we all feel very blessed to have each wonderfully crazy day with Caelen.


Love, Katye and Caelen