John-Mark is here!

John-Mark made his entrance into the world on his actual due date - how unlikely! He was born at 3:22 a.m. - weighed 7 lb 9 oz and is 20 1/2 inches long. I only pushed 3 1/2 times and he was here! My contractions started yesterday and got to be about 5 minutes apart by 7:30 last night. We got to the hospital around 9:30 and just waited until I was fully dilated and he was ready to make his arrival. He was absolutely wonderful! So far he has been so peaceful and quiet - he has barely cried at all! I'll post more pics soon!

Growing up and pics for Nanna

So tomorrow my baby official turns 1! I can't believe it! I also can't believe that I have another baby due in 4 days! Crazy! Someone told me to be prepared because once John-Mark arrives James is going to seem so much older to me! I hope not! He's only 1! However, over the past several weeks I feel like he has grown up so much. He is 100% a walker now - gone are the days of crawling at all which means his knees and tops of his feet are no longer dirty but now his legs are bruised up from falling all the time and he officially has "grocery store" feet as Jeremy likes to call them. My mom got him his first pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago and he wears them some but I just love him with his little bare feet - I've also read that it's good for them to walk on their bare feet for a while anyway. He also got a pair of crocs for his birthday which he loves! I put them on him just for fun and he got mad when Jeremy took them off! I think he likes them because Jeremy and I wear ours around the house all day so he thinks he's a big boy when he has his on too! He isn't saying any real words but he continues to jibber jabber all the time. He sounds like that Hawaii Christmas song - I don't know if you know what I'm talking about but the chorus is some Hawaii word that has lots of l's in it and that is what James sounds like most of the time.
He also loves to repeat what we do. He'll copy me and put his hands over his eyes to do peek-a-boo. Also, I'll make clicking noises with my tongue and he'll copy me. It's pretty funny to see what he picks up on and repeats. Reminds us to watch ourselves because little eyes are always watching!
We have had so much fun being James' mommy and daddy over this past year - more than we ever expected or imagined. We can't wait to see what is to come!!

Nanna, these pics are for you - we bought James a little basketball goal with some of the birthday money you sent him. He loves carrying the little basketballs all over the house:



James and his daddy!Nanna - I don't know if you can really tell from this picture how many curls James has in the back of his hair - not as much as Jeremy had as a baby but still pretty cute!James and his "snack trap" cup full of Oh's. Charlie loves when James gets this cup out because he knows he is going to get lots of falling Oh's. He follows James around the house like he's his best friend when he has his Oh's in hand!James leaving Charlie to finish off the Oh's he dropped - check out the crocs! Too cute!Also, once John-Mark arrives we will be moving to a new blog address - one that isn't just about James:) I'll post the new address with pics soon!

John-Mark Update

No pics this time - just a quick update- I went to the doctor yesterday and I am slightly more dilated than before but not quite 2 cm yet. Baby is still "floating" as they call it but he is head down so my body is moving towards getting him out. My doctor offered to induce me on Monday if I was too miserable and as tempting as it sounds I told him I think I'll just wait and see what he does on his own. I've said if he's not here by 41 weeks I'll look at inducing him but I really like the idea of letting God decide when this little guy comes as long as everything is ok and neither one of us in danger. James was 3 days late so I feel I need to give John-Mark at least that long too. I must admit though that all night I've been thinking how nice it would be to just "know" when he is going to be here and be able to "plan" things like when my mom should come down or how long Jeremy will need to be off work - I had James on a Saturday and it was perfect timing. Please pray that I won't have the desire to control this and I will be patient! I know he'll be here before I know it and it will be His perfect timing again!

In the Driver's Seat

Yesterday after church it was so hot we decided to let the car cool a little bit before we put James in his car seat so we let him stand in the drivers seat for a bit. He LOVES to play in the drivers seat - he thinks he is such a big boy - I thought these were some cute pics:

Checkin' his calls - just like Daddy:)
I LOVE this face - right before he doses off to sleep it's like he no longer has the strength to even give me a little grin - he's just all cheeks! - I could just eat him up!

Happy 1st Birthday (almost)

Yesterday we celebrated James' 1st birthday a little bit early - even though he won't be 1 until August 11th I wanted to have his party early to ensure we got it in before John-Mark arrived. As Jeremy likes to remind me, James will never remember his 1st birthday, but I wanted to make it extra special since this is the only time he will be the "only" and the only birthday he will celebrate by himself for a very long time since in future years I'm sure he and John-Mark will share their birthday parties since their birthday's will be so close together. We had the party at a place called Kid's Gym and it was so much fun! They have all kinds of things for kids to climb and jump on. The hit of the party was the "ball pit". All the kids wanted to play in it, and ofcourse, even though there were hundreds of balls they each wanted the one someone else was playing with! But since it was pretty difficult for them to actually move around in the balls for the most part there were no fights or tears! It was a great day and we're so thankful for all of our family and friends that came out and celebrated with us. Our little baby is truly a toddler now - he is walking, drinking out of the sippy cup and eating all finger foods! I was looking back at pictures and video from the past year and can't believe how much he has grown up in one year! Ugh - it is all flying by sooo fast!!
Here are some pics from the party - hope you enjoy!

Happy Birthday to James!mmmmmmmm - this is sweet -I've got this under control mom-James didn't really "play" with his cupcake - he finished it off pretty quickly - I tried to give him some strawberries after he ate his cupcake and he was not interested - He's never eaten anything so sweet and a strawberry just wasn't going to work after that cupcake!It was pretty much impossible to get a picture of everyone looking - I think James was going after a cake crumb! Beau, James, and Copper in the ball pit -Zack joined in on the fun!"All this playing is wearing me out - I need a drink!"Bubbles were flying around like crazy - some of the kids loved them and were trying to chase them - James wasn't too sure about them - The choo choo train was fun!After the party we came home and took a little nap and then we were ready to open up our presents!Of course he enjoyed playing with the cardboard that his toys came in as much as the toys themselves!Checking out the new ride his papa got him -P.S - Now that we've had James' party we're ready for John-Mark to come on out as soon as possible! Only 11 days until his due date but I'm not having any contractions or anything so it doesn't appear that he's going to make an early arrival - but I know it can happen pretty quickly - we'll keep everyone posted!