Happy Birthday Rick!

I know I have not blogged in a while and I have so many pics and videos to upload, but today being my brothers birthday, I am going to upload a video of James putting flowers by his grave earlier this month. I know that James had no idea what he was doing, but he was so careful, it was sweet! Oh, Rick would have loved playing with James and hopefully would have had his own kids by now had he survived! He has been gone over 20 years now and we still miss him like crazy!

Uncle JW and James

JW was acting like a gorilla and making James laugh at the pool! Glad I caught it on video!

Exercise

Charlotte is really liking sitting in the exisaucer and kicking around. She is much longer than James was at this point so she already has this thing on the second level!

Daddy and Charlotte swimming

Oh Charlotte is getting her pool time this summer too. She really seams to like swimming also, but only if the water is nice and warm! She is super cute when she gets out of the pool, especially when she is wearing her sunglasses

my girl getting a bath

Charlotte gets lots of baths these days- the spit up is never ending! The best way to keep up with James is to let him "help". He is really good at splashing his sister and she seems to like it too!

James swimming

James is getting to be a great swimmer- he can do it without the lifejacket and floaties, but not for long so these help him stay in the water longer. But as soon as he builds up some strength he will be just fine in the water without them! He is the only kid I know that hates water that he can touch the bottom!

Daddy and James

James loves to talk now.. He and daddy were hiding and having a "secret" conversation. Charlotte is adding her 2 cents from across the room.

James and Charlotte

Charlotte is getting big enough to hang out in the exisaucer now- in this video James is spinning her around in it and drawing her a picture with some sidewalk chalk!

Sportsman!

He loves the camera! He also loves football, basketball, golf, tennis and is now even getting into baseball! I do not have pictures of all his sporting activities, but I can tell he is going to be an all around athlete! I just hope he is great enough at at least one sport to support us all!

James swimming

James is 19 months old in this picture, doing really well kicking his feet! He loves the water (except when it is cold!) and is going to be a good little swimmer. He does not mind sitting ona raft and lounging either!

Cousins visit!

Anna Kate and Grant came to spend a few days with us- it is so great to see the cousins playing together. Here are some pics from the all the kids spending time together! They each got plenty of fun times with both kids. They even changed diapers! It was fun to see the puppies start to play tug of war and then it ended up being AK and G playing tug of war!

Our first family trip!

We went to visit our friends the McNeils in Crestview Florida. Both kids were great in the car on way to and from. We had a good visit with the McNeils. Unfortunately it rained 95% of time we were there! It was nice just long enough for one visit to the park that had fun water! I think all the kids had fun!

James and Raegan

James and his friend Raegan have been friends for a long time. When James was 6 months old, he played by pulling her hair- she did not even get mad! James and Raegan more recently have been to the zoo and then to a cook out together. THey have a lot of fun together and I love Raegan to call him "baby James!"

Mothers Day

On Mothers Day Charlotte was dedicated at church! Here we are in front of the house afterwards. James was sleeping upstairs so he missed the pictures!

Goodnight Charlotte

We usually put Charlotte in her crib before putting James to bed so he thinks she is going to bed too- here he is in her crib saying goodnight! It is so sweet how he sits with her or lays down next to her! It makes bedtime fun!

Charlotte - 4 weeks old

Charlotte sleeping!

Night Night!

Our first night home, we took Charlotte upstairs with us when taking James to bed and we stopped in Charlottes room and showed him that this was where she would be sleeping. We hvae shown him this room every night for a month now, but this time was way more exciting because Charlotte was home!

As soon as we put Charlotte in the crib, James wanted to get up there too. He crawled all around her and checked it all out. He showed her some of her toys and then he layed down next to her. I did not get the picture of him putting his head down next to her because I was crying - it was soooo sweet!

The facination with Charlotte continues!

James likes to check out every thing Charlotte is doing and likes to look in on her often! We had the bassinet in the living room for a while and James was enjoying standing on the couch to look in on her. I think she was checking him out too! Then he thought it would be a good idea for him to get in the bassinet too!

James kisses his sister for the first time

After changing Charlotte, James wanted to get really close with Charlotte and mommy, so he climbed on my lap while I held her. Brian told him to give her a kiss and he went in without hesitation. He is doing so much better than we ever could have expected with his new sister and he does not mind her being here at all!

One of these pics, I was burping her and he stopped me, I guess he thought I was hitting her- then he started to "burp" her. He is so helpful - he hands me wipes and gets really close to her and then backs away. SO CUTE!