My silly boys!

Just a few funny stories to share about my two silly boys!

John-Mark has become a terror in his walker. Since we have such an open floor plan he can fly through our house and before you know it he's run over your foot, which doesn't feel too good. He loves to follow James around - which james hates because he clips his feet so the sight is John-Mark laughing and running behind James all the while James is yelling "no no no no" - yesterday he was able to get James cornered which John-Mark thought was hysterical. James has finally started putting his hands out to stop John-Mark from hitting his feet with the walker and then pushes him back. We have been so impressed with John-Marks ability to maneuver his walker. He knows how to get through doorways, take turns with out hitting walls and even will back up and adjust the walker if need be to get where he wants to go - this kid is ALL BOY!!!

Yesterday I went in to get John-Mark up from his nap and I noticed he had a thermometer in his hands, hmm, how did he get that. Then I realized the thermometer, as well as his face was covered in vaseline! He some how managed to get his arms through his crib, get in to a basket I have on an end table by his crib and reach down in it and get out the thermometer and open the tub of vaseline and get it everywhere! really, he has go go gadget arms!! Here is a pic of his vaseline covered face - you can't really tell how much he had gotten in to it but it was all over him and the crib rails! (Look to the left and you can see the open vaseline jar in the basket by the crib)As I have posted before James is currently addicted to anything that is a ball and most recently it's all about baseball. He has a ball and bat in hand pretty much 24/7. Yesterday Jeremy decided he needed to get him a better tee and bat so off we head to Academy Sports. We walk in and head towards the baseball area and all you could hear was "ball, ball, ball, ba ball, fa ball," Jeremy and I cracked up - I mean, everywhere James looked there was another ball - he couldn't say them as fast as he passed by one. I know if he could have gotten his hands on EVERY ball in that place he totally would have done so! When we got home we watched the last game of the College World Series (yay SEC!) and James was at his tee hitting the ball everytime a hitter came up to bat. Can I just tell you that Jeremy is as proud as the day he was born - this is the dream!Here the boys are in the ball pit - I've posted how much John-Mark loves it but he REALLY loves it when James gets in there with him. They both pounce all over each other in there and just cackle!!
We had a very last minute surprise trip to the beach last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. We had a great trip and the boys had lots more fun in the sun. I took some pics like this of just James last year so I had to get both boys this year!
Had to get the naked hineys!! Too cute!!

22 and 10 months

Really? I can't believe my babies are almost 2 and 1! Boy, does having kids really make the time fly by - do you remember when you were a kid it felt like life was moving so slowly and you couldn't wait to be older and now it feels like everything is on fast forward!!
We are having a blast with these boys and I honestly can't imagine it any other way than having them so close together and I'm sure the third is going to fit right in as well.
James is continuing to daily expand his vocabulary. Some of his favorite things to say right now are "hold you", "no no john-mark" (he loves keeping John-Mark in line:)), "Elmo", "wati" (water), "charlie", and "mommy and daddy". He has just started calling for us when he wakes up from his naps. It is so sweet to hear that little voice through the house calling for me! I am realizing that while he is like his daddy in almost every way he does have my bit of impatience. If he's trying to figure something out and can't get it as quickly as he would like he gets irritated and pushes it away. I'm trying to figure out the best way to work on this with him. He still is very social and loves to be around people, especially other kids. I took him to the McWane Center yesterday and he walked in like he owned the place - the kid has no fear!
John-Mark is still our crazy crawling baby. I can't believe he's not walking yet. He loves to stand and push all his toys around but when he's serious about moving he hits to the knees and takes off. He is more independent than his older brother and loves to play by himself. Often he will crawl in to James' room when no one is in there and just play and play with his toys. And while James is pretty social - John-Mark is going to be the life of the party. He NEVER meets a stranger. While it takes James a bit to warm up to strangers enough to give them a grinner John-Mark is all smiles! Strangers always comment on what a happy baby he is. I always laugh and think, "he is a really happy baby, until he's not:)" There's no real middle ground for John-Mark - it's either happy happy or UPSET!! He is much more dramatic than his big brother - Lord help us! He is starting to say mama and dadda more and his favorite form of communication is yelling - not angry yelling just yelling - he is one loud baby; he LOVES to eat - EVERYTHING! He is so strong on more than one occasion he has reached up and almost grabbed a plate or cup out of my hand!
That's a bit of what they have been up to lately - hope you enjoy the new pics!
Sesame Street was on as I was trying to take these pics and there was a song on so James was "snapping" to the music.
So, I was one of those moms that didn't want my kids watching tv until they were atleast two and honestly James watched very little if any up until about 6 months ago - now almost every morning he watches Sesame Street. He loves Elmo and it gives me a chance to get a shower, clean up, whatever. Here he is getting comfy at the start of the show.Here he is near the end of the show - I think he's ready for a nap:)John-Mark found his play mat in his closet and had the best time playing around in there - this face is sheer joy!Here is my big boy trying to throw a ball that is almost as big as he is! He watches EVERYTHING James does. Lately James has bit hitting balls off of a small baseball tee and John-Mark watches him the whole time. I told Jeremy that I wouldn't be surprised if once he starts walking he walks over, picks up the bat and takes a perfect swing!
My sweet boy at his window where he loves to be - I wish it wasn't so dark on one side but you can still see his sweet face!

I HEART my new mini van!!

So, it's official - I'm a minivan mom - and I LOVE it!! I know some people are very anti minivan but ever since I was a nanny for 3 kids in highschool and got to drive them around in their Astro Van I have been a fan - I know they don't look very cool but they are soooo practical when you have multiple little ones.
We knew we were going to have to get something different as soon as we knew #3 was on the way because my Monterro wouldn't seat 3 car seats so Jeremy started looking. He really wanted to get an extra long SUV and I was fine with that but I had some concerns about how easy it would be for me to get in to the back to help James in to his car seat and also the rising cost of gas was a concern for me with such a large vehicle. I really didn't know anything about minivans except the Honda Odyssey which I knew even if we got a used model would cost us more than we were wanting to spend on a car right now. Having not had a car payment for 3 years now, the idea of getting back in to one was not appealing and if we had to I wanted it to be paid for as quick as possible!! So, on vacation we rented a car and it was a Dodge Grand Caravan and I loved it!! I asked Jeremy if they were good vans and he said yes but that they depreciated terrible - I thought PERFECT!! We knew no matter what we got it would be used so we started looking around. To stay in my set budget I was looking at 5+ year older models with high miles; then Jeremy did what he does and found us a great 2007 model with less than 50,000 miles in our set price! I was so excited. I am not at all high maintenance when it comes to cars - my only requests were that it have 2nd row bucket seats and rear air/heat and preferably not white - but I would take it if the price was right! As you can see I didn't have to get white to get a deal and it even has the new feature of Stow n' go seating which means you can easily lay all the seats flat down in the floor and have tons more room!
Today was my first outing in the van - and I must admit that last night when we were emptying the Monterro I got a little misty eyed because I've had that car since before I met Jeremy, I brought both my babies home in it - and I really thought I would drive it until it just quit on me! But after our trip this morning I'm thinking Monterro who?!? It was so nice and spacious and James loves being able to easily climb up in to it and run around while I was loading up groceries. I had to call Jeremy immediately and tell him how much I LOVE it and how thankful I am that he found it for us. Of course he's not super excited about having a minivan but he's happy that I'm happy!

The boys first ride in their new minivanJames' friend Beau had his 2nd birthday last week and James had a blast at his party - I think he played with his new toys as much as Beau did - above is the bubble lawn mower (how cute is that!) and below is Beau's new tricycle - James hasn't taken a pacifier since he was 3 months old but he loves getting in to this bag of paci's I have and playing with them - John-Mark looks like he got caught doing something he's not supposed to - my silly boys!Ok - this picture absolutly cracks me up for sooo many reasons! Do you see that wooden stick he's carrying? That is part of a wooden rocking horse he has - it is the handle that goes through the head of the horse and on his own he has decided this is his bat. He has multiple plastic bats but I guess he decided this was more realistic - every day he goes in to his room and takes this part off of the horse and calls it his bat. He loves to walk around with it, and his baseballs as you can see. He also loves to put on any one's glasses - we call him Hollywood and he cracks up! I could just eat this kid up!!

Pics from the week

Here are some fun pics from the week:Does James look 65 or what! He's found this hat from last summer that he loves to wear all day and of course he has to carry a ball of some sort in his hand at all time! I was asking him to smile for me but he wouldn't look at me - he gave me this little grin though.

John-Mark and the Cozy Coupe - he loves this thing and he has finally mastered getting into the drivers seat - he thinks he is such a big boy - until he slides off the seat and his legs go under the car and he is holding on for dear life to the steering wheel - then he wants to be rescued!
Along with the hat from last summer James found these sunglasses that I couldn't pay him to keep on last year - now he loves to wear them - so much so one of the arms is about to detach! I was only able to grab a so-so pic as he was running through the house in his shades!One of our new favorite things to do is put everything on our head and call it a hat - it could be a piece of paper, a box, a bowl from lunch - anything will work. Only problem with the lunch bowl thing is it gets his hair all sticky or greasy! We have to take a bath right after meal time or he looks like a greaser! See pic below:
This is John-Mark's favorite place to be - he LOVES looking out the window all day long -
"Are you happy John-Mark?"
"How about you James?"

Side note - our air has been out all week so the boys have been in their diapers most of the time to stay cool - the guys came out and fixed it today - Praise God!!