Happy Birthday Anthony!!!

Anthony turned 1 today! I can't believe a year has passed by already. He's such a sweet, funny, loving baby boy who's turning into a sweet, funny, curious, loving little boy....he won't be a baby for long. He's pulling up, cruising along the furniture and starting to let go and stand by himself. He'll be walking soon and then running. I just can't believe it. I'll post some updated pics later, I promise.

Also, today is our 15th wedding anniversary! Okay, not the actual "wedding" (long story, but most of you know it) but we got married 15 years ago today. While most people say that it feels long than the actual time, it's hard for me to believe that we've been married for 15 years. I love him even more today than I did 15 years ago and I didn't think that was possible. But, not only is Adam a wonderful husband, he's a devoted, involved, loving father and that makes me love him even more. Happy Anniversary, Honey!!

A decade!!

That's how long it's been since our first baby boy was born!! Wow, that's hard to believe!!! John-William is 10 now and he's becoming quite a young man, not a little boy anymore. He is getting ready to move out of the room he shares with Jackson and into his own room, he has braces, he had his first sleepover with friends (not just cousins), he's counting down the time until he gets his driver's license and so much more!! I just can't believe he's growing up so quickly!! I'm very proud of him, though. He is doing well in school, is a wonderful son, a great friend and a very caring big brother!! Happy Birthday, John-William! I love you!

Michael's Birthday Party

John-William's birthday is quickly approaching and I haven't posted pictures from Michael's party yet, so I thought I'd better do that. We had his party at a local park on a beautiful, but hot, sunny day. When we planned it, the weather forecast was for the temperature to be about 81. On the day of the party, however, it was actually about 91. And humid!!!! It was so hot, in fact, that the candles on the cake melted without ever being lit!! The ice cream turned into a milk shake in no time at all, but we still had a good time.

The cake and the melted candles:

We had lots of little boys (and one little girl!) come to Michael's party. Can't you tell they were having fun???

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

Our sweet Michael turns 6 today!!! I can hardly believe it but it's true. He's in kindergarten and LOVES school!! He's already reading well and doing great in everything. We had his party on Saturday and had a great turnout, even though some loved ones couldn't be there. I'll post pics later but wanted to make sure I said "Happy Birthday!" while I could.

Where has my baby gone???

Eight months ago today, our sweet little Anthony was born. And while those 8 months have flown by (for me, anyway), it has actually been 8 months. And boy has a lot changed during that time! Anthony is now a big ol' chunk weighing just over 20 pounds and I'm sure he's close to 30" long now! When he nurses, he lies across me and then some -- a lot of some!! His feet hang down by my knees. He's sitting up, playing with toys and keeping himself happy. He loves the walker and can get where he wants to go, actually walking in it now. He plays in the high chair and feeds himself food, too!! We took a slow approach to introducing food because he just wasn't real interested in it to begin with. But, now he loves new tastes! He can pick up chunks of veggies and eat them and feeds himself puffs (which he loves!). He says "mama" and "dada" now, too. Mama was first, by the way!! He loves his brothers and watching them play or sitting in the floor with them will keep him occupied for quite a while. He loves to explore his toys and almost always finds the tag on the toy. He chews on the tag more than the toy!

So, here's some new pics of him. It's not Christmas in August, but Jackson found these antlers in their room and put them on Anthony. He thought they were hilarious! He loves riding in the stroller (doesn't he look like such a little boy and not a baby) and playing in the high chair. And what a busy boy! He didn't even move his cup, he just stopped drinking out of it and started playing with another toy. LOL

And here he is last night, feeding himself sweet potatoes and puffs. Look how serious he is! And, notice that there are puffs in both hands. Another two-fisted eater!

What do you think?

Here's how I looked this morning:

Here's how I look now!

Brotherly love

I just have to share this. Around 10:30 last night, I was sitting here at the computer finishing up a couple of things before nursing Anthony to sleep. All of a sudden, I heard John-William crying. This isn't completely unusual because he has night terrors sometimes and his cry is enough to give you a night terror!! He has a very distinct cry when he's asleep. So, I hear his cry and know that it's him and he isn't in his bed. I could tell that he was much closer to me than his bedroom. That really scared me because I thought that he might be sleepwalking with his night terror, as he's gotten out of bed before but I've always been in the room by the time it happens. So, I run into the kitchen and see him and Jackson heading into the hallway outside their bathroom. I ask what's wrong and John-William, still crying, says he's "going to puke." So, I usher him (quickly) into the bathroom. I step out and ask Jackson why he's up. John-William has never come out of his room by himself during a night terror or any other scary event and I had no idea why Jackson was up, too. Jackson had a very distinct look on his face -- one that was a mix between confusion (like, "why am I up?" and fear, like he was going to be in trouble). He just looked at me for a second and I wrapped my arm around him and asked him why he had gotten up. He said, "Because Bubba wanted me to come with him." Isn't that sweet???? Our 7-year-old son got out of bed with his almost-10-year-old brother because he wanted company as he thought he was headed to the bathroom to throw up. I just hugged Jackson really tightly and told him how sweet that was and how wonderful it was that he got up to help his brother. I also apologized that he had to wake up and told him that if it happens again, he can just call one of us. It was just so heartwarming, though, to know that hopefully we're doing something right!! I talk to them pretty frequently about loving each other instead of arguing and picking on each other. And, last night proved that they do.

What I found out this morning, though, made the story a little funnier. I was asking them about it and Jackson said John-William woke up him to go the bathroom with him and Jackson was afraid that John-William was going to fall down the ladder when he was coming off his bunk, so he got up with him. John-William said that he woke Jackson up by shaking him saying, "It's an emergency!! It's an emergency!!" I don't know why his potential vomiting was an emergency for Jackson, but apparently they both thought that it was. LOL

Laughing aside, though, it really makes me feel good to know that Jackson woke up, got out of bed and was going to help his brother. He could have just called one of us, rolled over and gone back to sleep. But, he got up to help Bubba. That's brotherly love.

High flying fun!!

While we were at the beach, we had to make our annual trip to the go-cart track. John-William had told Adam that he'd ride the big swing (the Skycoaster) if I'd ride with him. Adam knows that there isn't much I'm afraid of, so he took John-William up on the offer and bought us tickets!! We waited in line forever, but when it was finally our turn we had fun. Anyone who knows me knows I really was enjoying myself!! First, a few pics of us in line and getting ready. We had to put on harnesses and those were actually what we were swinging in and what was holding us up. So, we got those on and got ready. If you notice the teenage girls in front of us and behind us in line, John-William had an ongoing conversation with them the whole hour that we were in line. :) They helped keep his mind off what he was about to do! LOL Notice the "chicken out policy" too!!

Almost our turn!! Look at John-William's face...


Getting situated and our instructions on what to do. Once you're secured to the steel cable, they move the stand out from under you and you just hang there. That's when it really gets real that you're about to do this!

Our videocamera wasn't working, of course, so Adam had to use the video mode on our digital camera. There are 3 different clips but make sure you watch all of them!! That's me screaming "Woo hoo!!" by the way!

Toes in the sand

A few weeks ago we took the boys to the beach. Our first night there, we went for a walk on the beach and to look for crabs. So, here's Anthony's first time in the sand. Even though he only had his feet there for a minute, it was his first steps on the beach!!






The boys played in one of the pools (there were 3!) at the condo on our first afternoon there. Aren't they cute!!



































They also really enjoyed the outdoor hot tub. It was out where the "big" pool was, by the beach. The hot tub was actually big enough for the boys to swim in. Hence, Jackson's goggles.

It rained on Sunday afternoon and we experienced our first true wind storm with wind gusts of 40+ mph, if I remember correctly. And we were outside in it! We'd gone to the grocery store and it hit as were getting back with several bags of groceries and 4 kids to get in through the wind. Boy, that was hard!! It was like you see in the movies where someone leans against the wind and can barely move. No joke! Michael really had a hard time. And, the wind was blowing sand up out of the parking lot and it was stinging our legs, arms and even getting in our eyes. Not a fun time! But, we made it through and went to the pools that afternoon. I think we actually went to all 3 pools that afternoon. LOL Here's a pic of all 5 of my guys in the indoor pool:

Hello again!!!

It's been over a month since I've posted but I've just been so busy!! Here's the pics of the boys swimming that I never got posted before.




























They sure had fun jumping in that day!!














































































And even though it was the middle of the day, the moon was shining bright! Three of them, in fact.

Swimming

With the warm weather we have in the summer in Alabama, we have lots of time to swim. Ninny and PawPaw have a pool. so the boys get to swim pretty frequently. Anthony has even been swimming! He got in once with Adam and me when the pool water was about 88 degrees and felt great! He wasn't sure what to think at first, but he ended up enjoying it. The pics of the boys are from Memorial Day when they played with Adam and Troy. I just have to say that I love the camera that I got for Christmas because I've gotten some really good pictures!!!

Braces!!!

Believe it or not, John-William got braces today! They aren't full braces, yet, as he has more permanent teeth that need to come in. But, he has brackets on the four front teeth on top and bands around his molars. The brackets are supposed to help straighten his teeth a little first and then the orthodontist is going to attach a wire and spring to the molar bands to move his molars back and pull the front teeth in. At his next appointment (in 4 weeks), he'll get a retainer-type wire on bottom to start working on those teeth, as well. His teeth are a little sore, but he's so excited about having braces! I'm planning to document his progression, so here are a couple of pics to begin with:


Before any work was done:























Today: