BIG, BIG News!

Just a quick post before we leave for Disney!

We has such a fantastic Mother's Day this year having both of our moms up here to celebrate.  We had John Michael's baby dedication at church today and our families were still in town to see it.  My family had to immediately leave and get on the road but not before we took some special pictures!

And this is what John Michael thought about waiting for an hour for a table at Copeland's!  It was worth the wait, though.  Man, it was good!

AND.......

Oh this very special Mother's Day we would like to announce that our family is going to grow by 1 in late November!  I am currently 11 weeks along with our second baby and we couldn't be more thrilled!  We are so grateful and feel so richy blessed; way beyond anything we deserve.  We've been praying that if it was God's will to expand our family then it would happen on His time.  John Michael and baby #2 will be exactly 18 months apart! 

We had our first trimester appointment on Wednesday and heard a VERY loud and strong heartbeat by doppler.  It is truly one of the most beautiful sounds on earth.  Just like JM, this heartrate was 160!  Hmmm...could it possibly be a boy?!  We're so excited and can't wait for the coming months.

We're off bright and early in the morning and I will update with pictures as I can!

ONE Big Birthday!

Friday afternoon was John Michael's big first birthday!  We had a lot of our family up and we had such a fantastic time.  Our jungle theme was so cute and everything looked fantastic, if I do say so myself!  What a special day!  Enjoy the pictures!

Robin did our too-cute cookies.  They turned out so cute.  My family didn't know you could eat them because they were so precious!  And yes, those are cookies in the picture below.  I ended up putting one at each place setting.

I fell in love with this jungle cake from Rick's Bakery and knew I had to have it.  You only turn one once!

I did a little display of a picture from every month this past year.  It was so neat to see John Michael's progression from a tiny baby into a precious little boy.

More cookies and I also made napkin rings out of little wooden jungle animals and glued raffia on them so they would tie onto the napkins.

Happy Birthday to John Michael!

This child knew what to do with his birthday cake!  He was very systematic in his delivery to his mouth.  He held onto the cake plate very tightly with his right hand and shoveled into his mouth with his left.

And kept shoveling cake...

And kept on.  I eventually had to take it away because he would have eaten the whole thing.  He takes after our families more and more everyday!

Seriously, is that normal for a baby to eat half a cake?

Present time was just as fun with presents from uncles, aunts, great-grandmothers and grandfathers, and of course grandparents!

We had a blast and I'm so happy and thankful to have a beautiful, healthy, and happy baby boy.  We can't wait to see what the coming years bring.  Now, I'm off to finish packing for Disney.  This is a job that never seems to end!

Verse O' the Day:

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

Let the Birthday Begin!

This week begins our birthday week festivities!  We've got my family in town and Jordan's is coming in today.  I'm so busy right now preparing for birthday stuff, Disney packing, and making meals and stuff!  It's good to have family up, though!

Here's JM eating lunch with my family at Abuelo's!  That is the weirdest look on his face!

And here's John Michael being so curious about Uncle Judd's laptop.  He wants to know all  about it and how it works.  He really wants to learn how to open it.  Hmmmm...do you think he's going to take after his daddy?!

Have a great day!  We're planning on having everyone over tonight for Taco Night and we'll celebrate Uncle Judd and Uncle Ray's birthdays tonight with Blueberry Crunch!

Weekend Recap...a week later!

We had a great weekend last weekend, as usual, but I'm so late posting it!  It's just been one of those weeks and we're getting geared up for John Michael's birthday party in one week and we have family arriving on Saturday morning!  The rest of the family will be getting here Thursday afternoon. 

I've got birthday lists, Mother's Day lists, end of Bible study lists, and the Disney list divided into two sections.  IF we even go (because I am just SURE that we'll all get swine flu and die) we've got a lot of things that I'm going to send down ahead of time to the resort including juice, disposable cups, bibs and swimming diapers, wipes...you get the picture!  I don't want to pack it in my suitcase!  It's just a lot to do!

We're so happy that our families are coming into town.  This is the most family we'll have here at once!  It's going to be a busy and exciting week!  Everyone is looking forward to seeing JM crawl and do all his cute new tricks!

Friday night we fed Team Impact at church.  Team Impact is an awesome group of body builders that use feats of strength to spread the Word in a fun and family-filled way!  I believe around 400 people accepted Christ in the 5 nights they had the show at church.  Wow!

Luckily, Jordan left work a little early, because I'm not sure what I was thinking to think that I could just pop JM in a sling and set out tons of food and drinks and serve these people by myself.  Thank goodness for husbands!

This was the night that John Michael got mistaken for a girl THREE times within a 3 hour time period.  He hasn't been called a girl in months!  Jordan said it was because of his outfit, but it had a crab on it, so I thought it looked boyish.  Either way, he does NOT look like a girl!

Happy baby!  The men of Team Impact said that John Michael had "ham hocks" for legs and that he was a BIG boy!  Why yes, he is!  Maybe he'll be a body builder one day?

Saturday morning we just messed around and took it easy.  We love just hanging out in bed after John Michael wakes up.  It's always a fun, sweet time.  We'll probably be watching cartoons and eating cereal in bed in the coming years.

New overalls are fun!  He looked so cute in them!

Sunday we headed to church and once again, that was about it.  We came home and ate our usual beef stew out of the crock pot and I grinded some up for John Michael.  He loved it!  He would go mmmmmm!  He really is starting to enjoy eating big boy food.  I'm liking it too.

Daddy and John Michael had a photo shoot while I fixed lunch and these pictures are precious!  JM's outfit is my brother, Judd's, from when he around 2-ish.  As you can see, JM can wear it at 11 months!

Below is my favorite picture in months!

 

Oh yeah, we had to take JM to Sunday night church in his Alabama hat because somebody put a Go Hogs sticker on him at Sunday School.  Poor child!   Jackson was curious about the hat!

Happy Weekend!

Another Birthday!

Saturday was my brother, Ray's, birthday!  Of course he celebrated in Tuscaloosa by going to tons of Alabama baseball games and eating at Dreamland BBQ.  That's no surprise that that's how he chose to celebrate!  I honestly have not met too many people that are bigger Alabama fans than Ray!

Ray turned the BIG 3-0 and I can't believe that my siblings and I are quickly heading toward those numbers.  Scary.

If you don't know my family then you don't know that my brother has CP and you may not know that he was not supposed to live and IF he did he was going to be a vegetable who couldn't do anything or walk, talk, or perhaps hear.  Hmmm....I don't really think so!

Judd, Ray holding JM, and me.

Here we are at the wedding!

And, Oh, he loves him some John Michael!  He's been trying to feed him chicken or Bar-B-Q off his plate for a couple of months now.  I think he's just excited for John Michael to be able to eat "big boy" food!

Happy Birthday Uncle Ray!  We'll see you in less than a week!