Random Monday

We have a new member of our family!  He's cute, cuddly, has a big nose and floppy ears!  Jackson is terrified of him and has barked at him all day!  Check out John Michael's Christmas gift that we got today at Sam's!  I'm in love!

Lil Big Al!

In other news, we had John Michael's 6 month doctor's visit today and all is well.  He weighs 20 pounds 6 ounces and is 28 inches long.  He has grown about 3 inches from last visit!  He is such a big boy!  He got his immunizations, and although he has been a little fussy tonight, he has done fine with them.  We will be starting a "real" meal plan tomorrow!  He will be having cereal 3x a day and also food 3 x a day.  I am having a hard time deciding which food to start with.  It seems like it is up to me whether or not I want to start with a fruit or a vegetable.  Any suggestions?  All this food stuff is very confusing to me.  There's so much to learn and consider.  We are in desperate need of a high chair.  I'm going to try and look around online to see if we see any that we like. 

After our doctor's appointment we headed to Walgreens to take advantage of their deals of the week.  I've been disapointed the past few weeks because they haven't had any good register rewards.  This week I had a coupon for $1.50 off Pampers and Walgreens had them for $9.99 plus $1 in register rewards.  I also got 4 boxes of cereal for $10 with $2 in register rewards.  So, with my $3 in register rewards I got 6 rolls of wrapping paper (buy 1 get 2 free) and 3 gift bags (buy 1 get 2 free) and paid around $6, I think.  Not too shabby!

One more topic and then I'm done...promise!  I never got to post our pictures from Tuscaloosa.  I think I'm just going to post a little each day so that I can get them all in.  We had a great time at homecoming and we got to visit with so many friends and family.  We went to the quad on Friday night and took Jackson with us.  He had a great time!  He loves being around people.  We met some other bichons that night and they all liked each other so much!  Bichons are the best dogs!

That's a lot of bichons!

John Michael was a mouse for Halloween, but his costume looked so much like an elephant.  We got so many compliments on it!  I guess people thought we had dressed him up as Big Al for halloween!

Cutest mouse I ever saw!

We walked around campus and took some lovely pictures of some of our favorite landmarks all lit up at night.

Denny Chimes

 After the bonfire we headed over to see the homecoming lawn decorations on sorority row. We stopped by my old sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, and I was so excited to see that the lawn decoration was actually good this year.  They did a really good job on it.  Honestly, they usually don't do a very good job and it looks like poo.  I'm surprised they didn't win!

The front lawn of the Alpha Gamma Delta house.

It was a good night.  John Michael's first Homecoming and Halloween all in one night!

Wow!

Baby John Michael

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SIX

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WOW!

Why can't I make time magically stand still?  I want John Michael to stay a baby forever, but I know that that is not to be.  I am trying to grasp each and every moment that we have together everyday.  Sometimes I have to really make myself stop and just look at him and realize he won't be a baby forever.  Six months have passed in a flash.  What a precious, precious wonderful boy.  I pray that God blesses him with good health, smarts, quick wit, and patience and kindness.  I pray that he grows up to be a man of God and seeks the Lord in all he does.

We're baaaaaack!

Oh how nice it feels to be in our house.  We have stayed in a total of 4 different houses in the last 3 weeks.  I'm so ready for my bed and the familiar noises and smells of our beautiful, comfy home.  I have also had NO internet action in over a week and I'm about to die!  I also have been missing our church and all of our Sunday School activities and happenings.  I have so much to blog about and so many wonderful pictures to share.  I'll start blogging all of our wonderful pictures from homecoming in Tuscaloosa starting this week. 

Our little family on halloween night at the Quad for the homecoming bonfire!

We are frantically watching the last minute of the AL/LSU game.  It's a real nail-biter!!  I'll be updating this week.  I pray that JM will be able to adjust well to all of our activity and being home and not having someone hold him all the time!

John Michael and Mama say ROLL TIDE!!!!

 OH SNAP!!  Alabama just missed their kick.  Why did he kick it so low?  Jordan is about to have a coronary and I'm sure my dad and brother are about to have one too.  Stupid overtime.  I'm not going to watch.  I get too nervous.  Surely we can pull this game off!

OH yeah, today is John Michael's 6 month birthday!!  I can't believe he is 6 months old.  I'll also blog about this later.  We're so busy unpacking tonight.  What a crazy 6 months it has been.  We've learned so much.  There's so much I would do differently and some things I would do the same.  I just wish I had known more about newborns, etc. but you live and learn.  Everyone has been there before.  They sure don't come with a manual!

At the hospital. What an overwhelming experience!

Now, 6 months old! What a precious baby boy!

All Things Southern...

I've decided to devote this post to 'All Things Southern!'  We ate at the Courtyard Cafe today.  It's my absolute favorite southern cookin' hometown place!  I don't even have words for the next picture:

YUUUUUUUM!

Notice the super sweet tea, peach cobbler, fried green tomato, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, and yeast roll.  Oh my gosh.  Shut up, I'm not going to fit in my clothes by the time I get home!

We also finally made it to Mommy and Me baby store, home of smocking heaven!  We spend about two hours there and picked out some super cute clothes for the coming months! Just like any good man does when shopping with women, JM fell asleep in front of the television in his stroller while MeMe and I shopped.  Every good little southern boy (and girl) needs a few smocked outfits for church and pictures.  The problem with having a boy is that you're on a timeline with how long you can actually force them to wear monogrammed or smocked outfits.  I figure I've got about 2 more years and then no more smocking.  Boo.

Too precious!

I love this little smocked santa diaper bag.  I had to have it.  MeMe bought JM this cute little Christmas sweater, too.  We've also got a cute little Santa outfit ordered that should be perfect for JM's first Santa pictures!  I'm kind of glad that we don't have a store like Mommy and Me in Northwest Arkansas because I would be in all kinds of trouble!

Also, MeMe bought John Michael's first pair of Stride Rite little white dress shoes.  Every proper southern guy needs his little white Sunday shoes!  They are too cute.  I'm picturing them with seersucker this summer..are ya with me?!  I just noticed I said "cute" about 5 times in the last 8 sentences...not good.

Tuesday we went with my mom and were her guests at the Women's Club meeting.  We had a lovely catered lunch and all the little old ladies came over to squeeze JM's cheecks!  He was a perfect baby and acted just perfect.  If you had told me a couple of months ago that I would be able to take this baby places and have him not scream and disrupt everything, I would have called you a liar!  It's amazing how far he's come in just a few months!  He's so much happier!  Anyway, the Women's Club is a wonderful, old house in downtown Gadsden.  We actually got dressed there for our wedding.  The girls got our make-up done and got in our dresses and took some wonderful pictures around the beautiful house. Here are some pictures from Tuesday.

They don't make staircases like this anymore.

And what blog post would be complete without a picture of the little guy?

Dad holding JM. Check out my dad's super-sweet championship ring.

Bye y'all!

Cheering on the Tide and other fun things

We have had a very busy weekend!  We cheered on the Tide to a victory against Tennessee, went to chuch and introduced John Michael to lots of new people, visited with Aunt Janna, and also introduced him to great-Aunt Sandra.

Roll Tide!

 

John Michael is learning to sit up all on his own!  He has almost mastered this skill and he has just learned it over this past week!  He was really hamming it up after bathtime on Saturday night!

Things quickly turned south and it was time for bed!

 Sunday we went to church and we had a really nice time visiting with friends.  JM had a great time at nursery and he was a really sweet baby!  The new pastor was really good.  I liked his style and liked what he had to say.  He was no Dr. Trader, but that's hard to measure up to.  I think it was weird for people from church that have known me all of my life to see me come back home with a baby in tow!  I sure do miss that church, but while I've been home I've been missing our new church too!

The baptistry where I was baptized as a child.

Me, John Michael, and Uncle Judd on the stage at church.

It seems like just yesterday that Jordan and I were on that same stage saying our vows at our wedding!  It was one of the top two days of our lives!  How time flies!  The rest of the pictures are just pure John Michael fun.  We're looking forward to Jordan coming down this weekend.  We have missed him and he has missed us!  Alabama Homecoming is this weekend so we are SO excited to go down to Tuscaloosa and see how everything has changed, go by the Alpha Gam house and go to the game!  Now, I've just got to come up with something cute to wear.

Smiley boy

Thinking hard