I love the view from here-

Most days of the week we are up and out of the house by 9ish and get home around 12:30 or 1. It never fails that the boys pass out almost immediately when we get in the car to head home and this is the sweet view I have all the way home. I LOVE IT! Oh, how I try to treasure these days, even the really tough ones because I know all too soon they won't be in car seats anymore sleeping in the car. I love gently cradling them from their seats and taking them in to their beds. Again I say that I am blessed beyond what I could have ever imagined!
I thought I would also do a "what's new with the boys" post -
James
- this is pretty random but just the other day I noticed James had his first freckle! Both Jeremy and I are pretty freckly and we've talked about "I wonder when James will get his first freckle" because he has such fair, snowlike skin. Getting him out of the car I saw a freckle on his left lower leg and made a huge deal about it "Agh! James - you have your first freckle!!" Everyday now (several times a day) he likes to show me his freckles (he actually has two - another on his left arm as well). Jeremy's mom always told him they were angel kisses - I need to tell James that too :)
- he is pretty much like a tape recorder right now - he is repeating everything and he is remembering everything and repeating it days later much to my surprise. He had a babysitter the other night and he told me exactly what video they watched and books they read. He also, for the first time called Jeremy by his name and not Daddy. I was calling for Jeremy and James started calling him too (jerourny, jerourny:) He also is naming EVERYTHING he sees. Some things I don't even remember telling him what it was but he knows.
- He has just recently taken an interest in Jesus and praying. We have a painting of Jesus in our house that he points to all the time and tells me "jeju" and will tell it bye when we leave - he even tried to give him a high five the other day. We have a children's Bible that I read to him and he thinks any picture of a man with a beard is jeju :)
-He also wants to pray several times a day. We started praying with him at mealtime and he is so cute - he folds his hands and puts his head down but keeps his eyes open and tries to look around without lifting his head and he knows when he hears "In Jesus Name" to say Amen. Many times during the day we'll be playing and he'll put his hands together and say "pray mommy" - so we always stop and usually say a prayer for daddy or our grandparents. My prayer life is honestly increasing because of him! I almost feel like he's working with the Holy Spirit to remind me to pray!
- now he thinks all football is Alabama football :) He says "roll tide" and "go bama" whenever he sees football on tv. Jeremy tries to get him to say "go gators" but he responds with "go bama" haha! Love it! It's really super cute - jeremy doesn't seem to think so but I tell him that is just because he's a hater :) hee hee!
- surprisingly, he loves Chick-fil-A! ha! He can spot the sign from a mile away and say 'Yea, chicken!" - does that make me a bad mommy?
John-Mark
- LOVES his daddy the most right now! He cries everyday when Jeremy leaves to go to work and just stands at the door and watches him drive away - which I think Jeremy kind of likes because James I guess is used to it and he just kind of says "bye" and keeps on doing whatever he is doing. Sometimes James will even tell him bye long before he is leaving for work - like, "I know you're leaving soon so I'll just go ahead and have my goodbye now"
- he is talking more now and loves to tell us "hi" and "bye" with his big grin. He also loves Elmo and says his name whenever he sees anything with Elmo on it. Oh- he is also saying "tide" as in "roll tide" :)
- he loves to dance and try to snap his fingers - anytime we turn on music, even if he's strapped in his high chair he'll start moving those shoulders - sometimes we laugh because the way he moves his body and arms he looks like one of those kids that dances with the glow sticks - kind of alternative - not really with the music - I hope you have a mental picture because it's pretty funny!
- he is ready to be a big boy in every way and fights me on trying to feed himself with a fork or spoon. He's not really capable of doing it yet but he wants to be in control sooo bad! Sometimes I let him go ahead and have at it and he ends up with no food in his mouth but that's how they learn right? I'm not a clean freak but this kind of stuff is really hard for me to do:)
James wearing daddy's belt - check out that hair! It has a mind of it's own - I don't know what to do with it - it needs to be cut but I thought once it got some length it would lay down better but it seems to just get more "lift" the longer it gets!This is our washing hands stool but the boys drag it all over the house and use it to climb - ofcourse John-Mark is right there trying to do whatever James is doing-

-and loving every minute of it!

One rough week!

I honestly think this past week has been the toughest of my little over two years of motherhood I have experience so far. It started Sunday with James being pretty cranky and disobedient most of the day. Then on Monday it got MUCH worse and he started crying all of the sudden out of the blue and putting his whole hand in his mouth - hmm, this must be the two year molars we've been waiting on. James was always a pretty easy teether up to this point and never had any problem sleeping through his teething - this time was not that way. Monday and Tuesday he was miserable all day long and just sat around and watched Curious George. Then the nights got worse. He was only able to sleep about an hour to an hour and a half at a time before he would wake up moaning in pain. Then Tuesday afternoon John-Mark woke up with a fever - ugh! My first thought was that he was teething as well because he had a new tooth come in last week and he was drooling like crazy. Wednesday both of them were miserable. John-Mark was crying and crying and crying and James was right there with him. Thursday morning after seeing a few sores on John-Mark's feet and in his mouth we realized that he had hand, foot and mouth disease - more ugh! James was starting to do a little better and getting his appetite back but John-Mark was really just getting in to the worst of it. Thankfully his night time sleeping was never interrupted but boy has he been ill as a hornet during the day. My boys have been really pretty healthy so far and this is really the worst we have experienced of two sickly boys. What am I going to do when we have 3! Spending day after day with almost constant crying/whining/screaming from one or both of them was almost more than I could handle - poor Jeremy hasn't been coming home to a very peaceful home or sweet wife :) I kept thanking thank God I still have a few months before the new baby is here - if I had had a newborn this week I really may have lost it! James seems to be back to his old self and we're praying he doesn't get the same virus John-Mark has - which will be a miracle because it is highly contagious among children - so far he's been in the clear. John-Mark is still struggling - his mouth is full of sores - Yesterday when I was at my whits end I loaded the boys up in the car and headed to Arby's to get milkshakes for everyone - I think they made us all feel better for a bit :) I pray the worst of this is over with and we can get back to normal next week. Please God don't let James get it!

I put the boys in their paint smocks to drink their shakes with as little mess as possible :)

Mmm, Mmm, Good!

Roll Tide!!

This Saturday I had the pleasure of taking James to his first Alabama football game! I got to meet up with some friends from college and James and I walked around the quad and he got to play in the moon bounce - which he loved. He was so good the whole time and just loving all the people to watch :) I took my Ergo baby carrier and had him on my back a lot of the time and I can't tell you how many people stared at me and I would hear whisper "she's got a baby on her back and she's pregnant!" - you would have thought I had eight legs or something! It was much easier to get around with him in the Ergo than having to maneuver a stroller all day. Good thing I didn't have John-Mark with me too!- ha!
James perfected his "Roll Tide" and "Go Bama!" We only made it through about the middle of the 2nd quarter because he was starting to get antsy and wanted to move around more than our seats would allow - but I think over all he had a great first Alabama football experience. Here are some pics from our day-

Both my boys ready in their Alabama gear! John-Mark didn't get to make the trip this time - he'll get his turn next year :)James and preggo Mommy at Denny Chimes - James is saying "Roll Tide!"In the moon bounceROLL TIDE!!

Time for a pretzel break :) This helped make the game more enjoyable for all of us!

The best grinner I could get him to give me - he was too busy looking everywhere else but at me - too much going on - no time to stop for the camera :)
In the courtesy bus headed back to our car - first thing he wanted to do was take his shoes off - guess those dogs were a barkin' - mine too! We were both pooped by the end of the day.
Final score - Alabama 40 Florida International 14 - it was a slow start but we pulled it out at the end!

Blog Slackin'

Last night I was informed by Jeremy that I am slacking on my blog duties! There have been plenty of things to blog about lately but for some reason I haven't been taking as many pics as I usually do - it's getting harder to grab the camera in time to catch those cute moments - and I don't like to blog without pics because, let's face it - that's what all the family wants to see - so - here are a couple of pics from the past weeks and a run down on what we've been up to lately.
-James vocabulary is really starting to expand. I've just realized in the last couple of weeks that he's actually saying 3 and 4 word sentences instead of just one word at a time. Two of his most common things to say are "mommy, daddy, or john-mark where are you" as he walks through the house looking for us and "I got/get it" when we play games together. He also is repeating EVERYTHING now which is fun to hear how he pronounces so many new words. He also is starting to memorize all the books we read and he will start telling me what is on the page before I even start reading it.
- John-Mark is also starting to talk more - his most common words are momma, dadda, and nanna (banana). He is also walking everywhere and even trying to run - he wants to be able to catch his big brother soooo badly! Soon enough :)
-When Nanna was here a couple of weeks ago she made a cake for us so now whenever James eats cake he asks Nanna? - like, is this a Nanna cake - she'll be happy to know that he associates her and cakes - something she loves to make!! I have a feeling he'll have no problem getting cake whenever he wants it from her :)
- The biggest news for me this week has been the move to having them sleep in a room together. We started this two nights ago and so far it has been great. We are able to lay them both down when they are awake and they go right to sleep without bothering each other and they are waking up around 6:30/7 like usual. The first night James cried out once in the night and I went to check on him and get him tucked back in and John-Mark woke up but didn't cry or anything and went right back to sleep. This is SUCH a relief for me - I have so worried that this would be much harder. Of course I know there will be tougher nights but the fact that it has gone so seamless so far is super encouraging. James has been very good about not getting out of his bed until I come and get him in the morning but when I walk in the room it is so sweet because they are both sitting up in their beds waiting for me and the first thing James does is jump out of his bed and run over to tell John-Mark good morning.
I haven't tried having them take their naps together yet - we'll work on that later. But I'm starting to feel like we're really ready for baby #3 to join in the fun now that we have this sleeping transition under way.
With all this cooler weather I was able to pull out the blue jeans last week - there is nothing cuter to me than a little boy in blue jeans - or overalls - LOVE THEM!! I mean, how adorable is this little man walking around in his blue jeans and big boy shoes?!
Last weekend Jeremy was hoping to take James to the first UAB game of the season but the weather was terrible - but I had him ready to go in his UAB gear just in case. Ofcourse he's not wearing any pants - I don't know what it is about us and pants around this place - we spend most of our days in just a shirt and a diaper! He found this hat and was having fun putting it on and snapping the strap together.

Enjoying our morning nanna!

Both my boys love anything that has to do with water - John-Mark's favorite thing to do is sneak down into our master bathroom and turn on the tub and stand there and let his hands run under the water. They both love bath time and John-Mark especially loves it when I put him in the kithen sink because he can play with the shower like faucet.

1 and 2 year Stats

Over the past week the boys had their one and two year check-ups. This was the first time James was weighed on a real stand up scale (snif) and this is the last time they will measure his height by laying him on the table and drawing a line at the top of his head and the bottom of his feet (snif) - from now on it's all big boy measuring standing up :)
Here's where they stand:
James weighs 28 1/2 lbs and is 34 3/4" long - both in the 55th percentile
John-Mark weighs 21 lbs 15 oz and is 29 1/2" long - the 34th and 38th percentile
John-Mark continues to be about a half a pound behind where James was at the same age and I don't really understand how all this "percentile" stuff works out.
I also don't understand what the whole "head circ" is really telling me but interestingly James and John-Mark are almost the same with James at 18 3/4" (20%) and John-Mark at 18 1/4" (47%). Strange.

Well, it seems summer is pretty much officially over and we're kicking off football season this weekend - woo hoo! I'm excited to get to take James to an Alabama game this year - I think he will LOVE it. He's also going to get to be a Blazer with his daddy - he can decide which he likes better :) We're getting ready to start our fall small groups through church and I am excited to have most of our mornings filled with play groups, mom groups, and library days. I'm trying to get us out and about as much as possible before our new little one arrives - I fear we may be home bound for a bit - but I'm sure I'll figure out a way to be out and about with three before you know it! Speaking of #3 - still feeling really good - very pregnant - sleeping with 4 pillows now and taking up most of the bed :) I'm almost 30 weeks which seems crazy to me. Sometimes it feels like he/she will be here so soon and some days (like when I'm laying in bed, unable to sleep from heartburn and can't find a comfortable position:) it seems like I have a long way to go. But I know I'm on the downhill count now. I wonder if this will be our last baby and try to savor little moments of being pregnant not knowing if I will ever feel the kicks of little feet inside me again. Not sure how I feel about that.
Anyhoo - here are some fun pics from the week:

As promised pics of my little helper putting away the silverwareHere is what happens when you climb up on the table and begin to push away from the window - he started in a standing position and ended up like this - not too happy either - and this is why mommy says not to stand on the table :)Things were a little too quiet yesterday while I was cleaning up the kitchen and this is what I found - both boys in John-Mark's closet playing in the pumpkin seat - I tell you what - we sure have gotten our money out of that car seat - between using it for babies in the car and as a "toy chair" for the older ones:)Lastly, Jeremy's mom and husband came for a visit this past weekend (Nanna). James hasn't seen her since he was about 4 months old and this was John-Mark's first meeting but they both obviously knew who she was and loved her. I didn't do a very good job at taking pictures but we got this sweet one during dinner when James kept leaning over to love on his Nanna - sweet - hopefully it won't be so long between visits :)