Happy Birthday!

 

So I've not posted on here in three years. 

 

There's no excuse. I've still kept up in your Journal that I write for you but I was diagnosed with cancer back in October of 2017. Prostate cancer to be exact. It scared the living shit out of me. Not so much because I am scared of dying, I'm not really afraid of death, but because I felt helpless and what would become of you, Wade & Brandi if something happened to me & I couldn't work or died?

Well, I had surgery and so far, everything is good. I’ve had blood work done every 6 months since 2018 and no cancer. The other thing that happened is I took on another full time firefighting job. I did this to secure my retirement (50% pay of the average yearly earnings for a year, based on my high 4 earning years). Since this blog is public, I’ll not post the names of the Departments, you know them and they’re in your Journal.

So, to recap the last three years: I was scared shitless, we decided to home-school you and Wade and my mom, Lois bought the house next door to us and moved here from South Carolina.

You have been TERRIFIC this whole time. We’ve had wonderful family vacations, you have grown taller and we have shared a lot of hard times but also a lot of love.

Your favorite “toy” is a Beanie Baby that is a black dog you named “Soft Dog”. You take Soft Dog EVERYWHERE with you and flip out if he’s missing. One time last year, you left Soft Dog at the grocery store. We called and no one had turned him in so I ordered you a new one online. When the new one came in you were somewhat content and named it “Soft Buddy”- as Soft Dog was irreplaceable. Well the store found Soft Dog and gave it back so now you have two except that they look a little different and YOU CAN DEFINITELY TELL THEM APART. No fooling you. Hahaha.

We had a party for your tenth birthday yesterday and you had a great time and got lots of presents. I even got you a 4wheeler.

I can’t believe it’s been ten years today. Wow.  Time flies buddy. Use it wisely. You’ll blink and it’ll be gone.

Below are some pics from the last few birthdays and I will try my best to write more often. I love you Bodie!

-Dad.

I'll upload pics from your 10th Birthday party (yesterday) soon. 

I'm a couple weeks late posting this, but I wanted to wish you a happy 7th Birthday my beautiful son! On August 17th you turned 7 years old. I can't believe it's been seven years. You've had a great year son and I'm very proud of you!

You've had a great year health-wise for starters, ZERO Hospital stays again for the second year in a row! WHOOOOOO! This makes me so happy! You are on TOP of the World son and it makes me happy and complete.

You're happy and as healthy as you can be considering your medical issues, you weigh a whopping 28lbs now. We still need to figure out a way to get you to keep weight on.

You had a really great summer this year-even though it rained all the time. We've been to the fair and to the river multiple times to go swimming. You LOVE the water.

We've had family visits as well, my Mom and Uncle Johnny came down to visit and we all made our family recipe BBQ sauce that my Daddy taught me how to make. You always have fun with Uncle Johnny and keep him laughing.

The second biggest news this year is I bought another 4runner (much to your mother's dismay I might add) so that you and Wade would both have one to drive when you got old enough, if you wanted to. You absolutely love it. Hahaha.
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We got eight more chickens this years as well and you named them all. A few didn't make it and you were very sad. You have a big heart just like your brother Wade and that makes me happy.

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The BIGGEST News of the year is you started school the year after waiting an extra two years to develop, you're in Kindergarten this year and you are SO happy to be in school.

Yay!!!!!

You also got your first "big boy" bike this year for your birthday. It has training wheels and I know you'll be riding without them soon.

It's been a great year and I'm so proud of you son. I love you more than words can express and I'm grateful for every day we have together, along with Momma and Wade. I love you Bodie!

Keep on smiling and touching everyone around you in the special way that only you can my son.
I love you, always & forever... -Daddy

So another year has past and I'm playing catch up on your blog, surprise, surprise!

Tomorrow my sweet boy, you will turn 6 years old. I think this has been your best year yet! We have had a full calendar year free from a Hospital stay due to illness! Praise Jesus, for that wonderful blessing! You have come so far this year Bodie!

You have been to Disney World:


You learned to shoot your first real gun! (a 22lr)



You even took the HUGE step and are officially potty trained! WHOOO-HOOO!!!



No more DIAPERS!!!

We've had wonderful times as a family at the beach:





Having crawfish boils:







Visiting with family:





Learning our History & Heritage:





And just having lots of fun!!!!

The Holidays have been especially fun this year!

You've done so well this year Bodie, I am very proud of you and hope your 6th year is your best yet!

I love you son, Happy Birthday!!!

Daddy

I cannot believe it has been another year since my last post. What a great year Bodie has had! The one major illness was a bout of pneumonia just before Christmas. Luckily, Bodie got out of the hospital before Christmas eve.

Bodie has spent more time outdoors this year and his speech and communications skills have improved also! In other news, Bodie stepped up to a regular twin bed and we have the old crib for sale. He weighed in for surgery on August 10th at 23lbs. That's only three pounds more than he weighed in 2013. But we are going to look into this.

Probably the funniest moment of the entire year came during the Spring of 2015. We had a crawfish boil at the house with lots of friends and coworkers. I decided to fire up the go-karts and give the kids rides on the "General Lee". I took Bodie first and then dropped him off and picked up another kid. Bodie went absolutely nuts when I started to go. He "Hulked out" according to my friend JD and in the process earned a nickname, The Hulk.

Bodie's favorite things to do are watch youtube videos of children's learning channels, play with his Minecraft toys- a love he's inherited from Wade.

Bodie has also stopped napping this year, and we no longer use the baby bouncer.

Overall it has been a great year of progress for Bodie and I am very proud of my beautiful 5 year old. We love you Bodie! -Dad, Mom, Wade and all of your family, friends and supporters!

                                        HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!!!

Edited to add: After looking back and reading Brandi's post on Bodie's 1st Birthday and seeing how far we've come- I decided to repost it here:

FROM MOMMY, August 17, 2011
Well my love...it's been quite a year. Without a doubt, the hardest of my life. 
When we decided to have another baby, I thought the extent of my sacrifice would be going through the pregnancy, delivery & baby years all over again. We never imagined we'd both be going through an emotional breakdown instead. We never imagined we'd be watching our baby fight for his life.
Of course you know about all the bad things that can happen, but you never really think it could ever happen to you. You see things on tv, and you cry along, and you think if that ever happened to me, there's no way I could handle it...but you do. You get through it one day at a time, one hour at a time, you go numb, you build up walls, you pretend like it's not real, you spend most of your time with your head in your hands, you go through the motions like a zombie. You hope, but you try not to hope out loud cause your scared you might jinx something. You cry in the shower or in bed cause you don't want to freak out your 3 year old, and you don't want your Husband to see how weak & hopeless you are. You try to maintain your feelings so you don't pile anymore stress or grief on your partners shoulders. But mostly, you fill up your mind with all these selfish little thoughts, because if for one second you let yourself think about the hell that baby is having to endure, that's when you lose it.
Look at you now though! Look how far you come, it's absolutely amazing! You have been through so much, but you still smile all the time. I guess you appreciate life more than most people, because you know firsthand how fragile it is! I love watching how determined you are to do everything, you don't let anything get in your way. Just like you were determined not to let anything cheat you out of your life! I hope you always keep that happy & positive disposition all through your life. 
It's funny to think back to those first few months and remember how angry and bitter I was that this happened to us. I felt unlucky. And now I realize just how lucky I really am. I got to witness an honest to goodness miracle, I got to find out how strong I am, and how dedicated this family is, and I learned how to be grateful. But mostly, I'm lucky because I have you!
Happy Birthday Sweet Angel!