Yea Alabama!

(This post is for Papa Steve - who can't get enough of the "double A" boys in their Bama gear :))
In support of Alabama playing in the SEC baseball tournament today I dressed the boys in their Bama shirts and started the morning with the Alabama fight song and lots of Roll Tide's :) (I can't remember if I've posted this or not but the boys give a big Roll Tide ANYTIME they see ANYTHING red! - It's hysterical - Jeremy really loves it :) And John-Mark has the most country accent when he says "tide" - it's the cutest - I don't think Jeremy had any idea what he was doing when he married an Alabama grad - he may have thought twice had he known!)

I think I caught James saying "roll" and John-Mark saying "TIDE!" (Jeremy would say that the camo shorts add to the "red neck" but they are our play shorts!)

Are they not the cutest brothers EVER! After a little playing outside this morning we came in and enjoyed some popcorn and watched "boys play baseball" and cheered the Tide on as they beat Auburn 7-1 ( side note - one of the boys best friends comes from an Auburn family and he wears Auburn shirts and hats a lot- whenever we see anything Auburn James says "look mommy, Beau's name!")

This is random but our hydrangeas are in bloom - I LOVE hydrangeas and this is the first year we've really been able to enjoy them!

Sweet Girl

Precious! Gracie LOVES to look at your face and if she's in your lap she'll look up at you like this all the time - my heart could burst!

James and Gracie!

She LOVES her big brother!

The boys are doing better - here they are enjoying their morning toast - don't they look like they're at some little diner - love it!

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for your prayers - we've been throw up free since Thursday night! Oh - that was just awful. On Thursday neither boy could even keep water down - it was almost instant - take a sip of water and back it came. We were only giving them sips at a time to try and keep it down but they were BEGGING for water - do you know how terrible you feel when your baby is crying for water and he can't understand that if he drinks too much he'll be sick again so you can't give it to him. James seemed to understand a little better that he was sick and actually would tell us "I'm tired" and go get in bed and sleep. John-Mark on the other hand was so confused. We knew he was about to get sick because he would always start screaming crying because he didn't like the way he felt - such sad boys. It seems like we get a stomach bug at least once a year and it just sucks the life out of us for a couple of days. It's so draining when your babies are sick - just the worry that your struggle with. At one point we were really concerned with dehydration because they couldn't keep anything down. I can't even imagine what it is like for families who's babies are REALLY sick and struggling with disease. My heart goes out to them. It makes me want to run up to Children's and hug every mamma and daddy up there - Lord, send your healing Power!
Here's a pic of poor John-Mark in the midst of it - Praise God this morning he has his energy back and the light back in his eyes!
Thank you all again for your prayers. I know it may seem kind of crazy to ask for prayer on our blog but on Thursday night I was totally at the end of me and needed to know there were others out there holding us up as well and we just didn't have the time or energy to call everyone.
So far Gracie only got sick that one time before I posted and has been in the clear. Please continue to pray she stays healthy - and Jeremy. He left for work this morning feeling a little puny - please pray that the Lord would renew his strength and he would be able to make it through the day with energy!

Prayers

Please say a prayer for all of us - a HORRIBLE stomach bug has taken up residence in our home. James hasn't been able to keep anything more than a bit of water down since yesterday morning. John-Mark is miserable and in the same boat and begging for water - only to throw it up as soon as he gets it down. After Gracie's last feeding she threw up a good bit of her bottle as well. So far Jeremy is the only one that has stayed healthy. Please pray for healing and rest for everyone.

Summertime!

I can tell by the heat and bugs that summer has officially made her arrival :) We did have a couple days of chilly weather last week but for the most part it's days in the high 80's and 90's. The boys have been busy trying to keep the lawn mowed :)

Then cooling off with a little dip in the pool

Do these boys look happy or what!?!

I was cooking dinner when I heard James say "I'm a cowboy - John-Mark get your hat..." I had to see what they were doing - apparently James decided their kitchen was of much better use as a horse for he and John-Mark - gotta' love a boys imagination!

Stories from the week:
- With all this warm weather I'm having to stock up on sunscreen. We try to not go outside during the hottest part of the day but it really doesn't matter what time of day it is - if the sun is out James has to be covered. A couple of days ago we're in the store and I picked up a can of sunscreen to purchase. James asked if he could hold it and I let him. I have no idea what he did to this can but the next thing I know sunscreen is spraying EVERYWHERE - on him, me, the isle. At first I thought he had just pushed the trigger and once I got it from him it would stop - WRONG - it would not stop! I had to grab a bag from a cashier and wrap it up - and it continued to spray and fill up the bag. Needless to say by the time we left there I was sweating and ready for a break so I took the kids for their first trip to Dairy Queen for the wonderful treat of a Blizzard :) It really made me forget about how sticky my body was from being drenched in sunscreen :) And the boys were in heaven - ice cream AND cookies! They had no idea such goodness existed!
- Um, apparently we need to take a break from watching Sesame Street because James loves to imitate Cookie Monster and eat all of his food like him - don't know if you've seen Mr. Cookie Monster lately but he actually gets no food in his mouth - just crumbs all over the floor - James does a very accurate imitation - fun for him - not so fun for mommy :(
-We joined the gym recently and the boys are loving getting to go swimming with mommy and daddy. James seems to remember everything from his swimming lessons last summer and is already jumping in, holding his breath and "swimming" toward us. John-Mark is not long behind. Jeremy and I were talking about how different their personalities are and James seems to be more of a people pleaser and you can talk him in to doing something he may not want to do but not so with John-Mark. If he doesn't want to do it - he's not going to do it. No amount of convincing on our part does any good. However, if James does it - he'll do it. All we have to do is convince James and we know John-Mark is soon to follow :)
- Mommy- "John-Mark, are you a big boy or a baby?"
John-Mark - "Brudder big boy - he unerwear" (translation - brother is a big boy - he wears underwear)
- Lately James has taken a big interest in traffic lights. If we're on the interstate he asks me all the time where the green lights are. Then when we are on a road with traffic lights he yells, "mommy go!" or "stop mommy" whenever he sees green or red lights.
- The boys have started "racing" on their little wheeled toys through the house. I line them up - go to the other end of the house and say "ready, set, go!" and they are off and then I hear" one more time mommy!" about 50 times! We've also started "foot races" which wears them out even more! John-Mark usually lags a little behind but he'll be catching up in no time!
Grace Belle is just as sweet as ever just enjoying watching her big brothers all day long. I tell her all the time what a lucky girl she is and how boring life would be if she didn't have those two to laugh at all day long :)

There's that tongue she loves to stick out!

Check out this hair - this was one day after a nap - love the shadow on the back wall!My sweet boy. Lately James has gotten more affectionate if that's possible. He LOVES to kiss and hug his sister and after a rough day of playing he likes to cuddle with mommy or daddy. My precious first born boy!

The flirt! All the ladies at the church nursery LOVE him and want to babysit him! Last week he pitched a little fit because James had a sucker from his class and he didn't get one. All the nursery workers were SHOCKED to see him cry - HA! boy has he got them fooled -all the ladies see are grins and those big beautiful blue eyes :)

This face! I could kiss those cheeks 1000x a day!Check out this cool baby - could you say no to this face standing at your feet, arms raised, saying "hold you?"

Gracie - 6 months

Oh sisser! I say it all the time, but WHAT! How can it be that Gracie Belle is 6 months old!?! I am having so much fun with this sweet baby girl. Honestly, I was never one of those moms that "needed" to have a girl - after having two boys I was pretty set that I was just a "boys" mom - but now... I can't even imagine what our lives would be like without this little bit of pink in it :) She is such a happy baby (except when she's tired - then you better get her to her bed ASAP or you'll hear about it :) but other than that she is just a big smile most of the time.
What she's doing now:
In the last month she has gotten very "hands on" with everything. She loves to hold all of her toys and inspect them at great length. Just today we went grocery shopping and the boys were in the "car" at Publix and she was in the cart in her pumpkin seat with a couple of toys and she was perfectly content for over an hour. She is also all about her feet. She loves to grab them and get them in her mouth if she can. One night we went in to check on her before bed and she was asleep, on her back, with her legs straight up in the air. I can only imagine her laying in there playing with her feet and passing out and leaving her little legs hanging up in the air :)
She is rolling over from back to tummy and tummy to back but she only does it when she is trying to reach for something or if she's tired she turns to her side. She's yet to start that rolling across the room thing the boys loved to do. But then again, she doesn't get a ton of time just hangin' out on the floor - not very safe with two older brothers :) She is starting to play in her pack n play for good half hour stretches at a time. I never really did this with the boys but think I will try with her. It will be nice when she gets to that "putting everything in the mouth" stage to put her there to play while the boys and I paint or color.
She weighs 15 pounds and she is LOVING all the cute things her mommy is making her:)
On her 6 month birthday we started with the baby food. So far she's just had squash and seems to enjoy it. She is doing much better at eating than a couple of months ago when I gave her some prunes to "help" her out but she wasn't quite sure what to do with her tongue yet.
She still LOVES to stick her tongue out and it's hard to get a pic of her without it sticking out! She also has perfected doing "rasberries" and really had fun doing them while eating her squash :)
She's not sitting up on her own yet. Sometimes I wonder if she'll just by pass sitting and go straight to standing. She loves to stiffen her legs up and stand most of the time.
Over the last month we had the worst pollen I've ever seen! We all got some crud and sweet Gracie ended up with a double ear infection :( She actually did fine with it. We just let it run its course since it never interrupted her sleep or eating - praise God. I have some friends with little ones that have terrible ear infections - there's nothing worse than seeing your baby in pain. I pray her infection was just a result of all the crud floating around and we won't be getting any more of those.
Here's some pics of my sweet girl:

So serious in the exersaucer - I remember how much John-Mark loved this bumblee as well

Happy Girl!

Flirting with mommy :)

Yummy Squash!

Her favorite sleep position - left thumb in mouth, right arm over chest holding something. Here she has the little elephant Papa Steve bought when she was born - already a Bama fan :)

Isn't it about time for another announcement!?!

Not this time! Ha! I should have done this post on April Fool's Day. Gracie will be 6 months on Sunday which is usually about the time we announce there is another Allen on the way but we're taking a break this year - maybe next year ;)
Whew - the last couple of days have been crazy hot around here - 90 degree days in May - gonna' be a long summer! This heat reminds me that this is the first summer in THREE years that I'm not pregnant for the hottest months of the year - how crazy is that! Love, Love, Love my babies but enjoying the break this summer:)
Here are some fun pics of what we've been up to lately:
We're still working on potty training - James is doing really good at #1 - rarely has accidents and we're even going out of the house in underwear and doing good. He also wakes up from 90% of naps and in the am with a dry diaper but I'm not quite ready to put him to bed in underwear because we're kind of funny about #2. Not too crazy about going on the potty - has anyone had this problem? He would rather go in his diaper than on the potty - ugh! I've tried bribing with toys and food but not really motivating him yet. Praying he gets over this soon :) Anyhoo - this pic is him in his cutie underwear and his tools in his "poskets like Handy Manny"
Now his tools have become drums sticks and he's playing the drums - do you notice the blue mitten on his hand - he loves to wear mittens around the house - so silly. I had a friend give me a bag full of socks and gloves/mittens and he's obsessed with them :)

John-Mark found mommy's high heelsHe thinks he's so funny - do they make his legs look longer and leaner? ha!

After a stroll around the house in mommy's heels we head outside to ride around on our four wheeler. These pics crack me up - sippy cup in one hand, driving with the other just looking around enjoying the ride. I can so see him at 16 doing the same thing! He thinks he is such a big boy - I don't think he realizes James is a year older than him because I can't think of much that James does that John-Mark isn't right there with him doing - I hope Gracie stays "little" longer :)

John-Mark wears heels and James wears his sisters hats :) My mom made Gracie a hat but it's too big for her and fits the boys perfect so James likes to wear it around the house. Does the fact that he's holding a bat and wearing a camo shirt make it not so bad? Nope, I didn't think so :)For the longest he wouldn't let me get a pic of him with the hat on and then he gave me a big cheese! He reminds me of the guy on MASH that always dressed like a woman! (I'm sure Jeremy will love that I put this pic on the blog - but how cute is he?:))

Of course if James is wearing sissers hat then he has to wear it too!

John-Mark is ready for bed - Gracie looks alarmed!

You know how much I love my sleeping babies! Love those cheeks!

Don't want to forgets:
I love to hear James talking to his toys, the dog, John-Mark - whoever. I get a chance to hear what I must sound like:) Here are some of his recent conversations:
I was telling Goldie, our dog, to sit and James told him "sit Goldie - you obey mommy or you'll get in trouble, sit"
To his duck in the bath tub "look up and close your eyes or you'll get soap in your eyes"
John-Mark threw his sippy cup in the car and then yelled for me to "git it" to which James responded "sorry (with a shoulder shrug) mommy's driving."
The boys were coloring and I told them to remember only to color on the paper, not on the walls and he told me "daddy colors on the walls" then went to the wall in the laundry room where Jeremy had drawn a line for thier heights a couple of months ago - hmm, I guess daddy will get in trouble when he gets home :)
One of my dearest friends is a chiropractor and the kids get adjusted on a pretty regular basis and have since birth. Yesterday I was changing Gracie on the couch and James came over and put his hands on her face and turned her towards him, then did some other similar moves and told me he was Dr. Jenni - :)
John-Mark LOVES books and he has most of his favorites memorized. Two of his (and my) favorite are Llama Mama and Moo, Baa, La La La. I can just start reciting the book and he'll jump in with me and say the whole thing. I wish I could upload a video for all of you family that don't get to see them often - it's the cutest thing EVER!
The boys are now taking naps together in thier rooms and actually have done much better than I expected. John-Mark seems to sleep longer when they are both in there - maybe he was afraid he was going to miss something when he took naps alone and now he wakes up and sees James laying in the bed across the room and knows he's not missing anything. He does have this terrible habit of waking up and screaming and yelling until we come and get him. James is always so quiet when he wakes up and sometimes will call our names but that's about it. I wish I had a video camera in there and could see what he thinks about his brother going nuts in his crib. Usually when I walk in there he is awake, laying in his bed just smiling at me.
John-Mark can have quite a little attitude. Where James was/is more of a whiner when he doesn't get is way, John-Mark is an all out tantrum thrower - laying on the ground, hitting things while telling me "I not want to". Which is always followed by swift discipline and sending to his room. He crys all the way to his room and then stops crying and returns saying "all done crying mommy" and it's over :)

Sorry not so many pics of Gracie this time - she is going to be 6 months this Sunday and I have a post coming dedicated just to her!