Hello!! Okay, three months has to be the max amount of time I have gone without writing.  I knew this would happen!  I knew it!  Appoligies are in order for any and all (or none) of the people who may ever read this.  I do have some photos to put up.  I do, however, like to note that most of the photos I take that I really like, I put on facebook so if you are able to follow me on facebook, you will fill in gaps here in there.

I mostly love keeping the journal online for two reasons.  Firstly, to share with friends and family who want to follow and keep up with us Galbraiths.  Secondly, I want to look back and remember.. remember the Jamesisms and the Mason-man moments that I know will fly by in a heartbeat.  Here I am with a 1 year old and a 3 year old and I can't keep my house clean to save my life and my boys make me so tired by 10pm but I need to find time to do this.

James:  James is 3, like I said, and had a big halloween themed birthday on October 27th at our Homewood house.  We had a blast.  James got to jump on the spider man jumpie and dressed up as Luke Skywalker.  Mason was an Ewok and I was Princess Leiah.. Jim was Chewbaka.  It was great.  James got a polar express choo choo train that he is crazy about.  I really think he could play with trains for 8 hours in a day.  He is so so adorable and steals my heart.  Having said this, he is tiring.  He has a ton of energy and doesn't always use it in a way that is comfortable.. I struggle with how to describe it but for anyone who has ever had a toddler boy, you know what I'm saying.  He loves a mess.. dumps things out, runs things into the wall,  mess mess mess.. but he is our mess and he is extremely lovable.

Mason:  Oh, this boy I could hug and hold on to forever if he didn't wiggle out of my arms as soon as he gets excited about the next thing to discover.  "ook" is what he says as he points out new things ("ook"= look!).  He is not quite as talkative as James was at this age but still a talker and wants to learn.  He has gotten good at the sign language for "more".  He got a red radio flyer push car for his birthday and gets in it every day.  He knows it is his and he loves it so much.  He's getting more teeth.  Right now he has four on the top and almost four on the bottom.  He uses "mama" as an endearing term but knows who mama and dada are.  He can say "ot ot" for hot hot!  and "baabaa" for baby.. bubbles sounds similar to that too.  Oh, he is so precious.  Loves peek a boo still.  In fact, earlier, he came up to Jim and goes "boo" and started laughing.  He adores James and watches his every move.  James likes to play with Mason but he also likes to keep Mason away from his trains and sometimes other things.  This will be my challenge, I believe.. Or one of them.  I pray my boys love each other and play well together.

Jim and I ran in a 5K today for Cornerstone Christian schools here in Birmingham.  All I can say is we did it in less than an hour (lol).. I'm just proud we did it.

Well, we are in the middle of fall and heading quickly into the winter holidays here shortly but I will post Fall photos since you, my blog family, haven't seen us since early August.  Happy holidays to you and may you find contentment and peace.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

photos to come later.. I'll try.. 

Summer days

Well, the summer has come and is almost close to an end (or at least it seems that way).  I know that football season is being counted down here in the heart of Alabama.  So much has been going on.  At the beginning of the summer, James took swim lessons and did quite well for only being 2.5 years old.  I think we'll do it again next year.


  Our house is on the market as of June 1st though Jim and I won't be all that sad if it doesn't sell.  It's a weird market out there.  Mostly, people are loosing money if they are selling right now.  I took a new position at Children's Hospital here and now work in the flexi pool as an RN.  I actually love it so far.  I've loved using all different kinds of wisdom I learned from Dr. Speros and Dr. Koch, Dr. Garner and the likes. I have failed to use my MSN but I'm not sad for it.. nor do I regret getting it.  I guess maybe I could use it one day but, for now, splitting up my weeks between work as an RN and the boys has been mucho perfecto for me.

I got to go on a beach trip with the girls from my MSU chi omega years in June which was nice.  I am starting to feel the aging effects as I was tired by 10pm most nights and, as a special activity, I sewed.. I mean.. I sewed!  THAT was what I considered "so great".. 10 years ago.. lol.  What will I be doing next year?..

A couple weeks later, the whole Shelton family went to the beach.  Mom, Dad, Kristen (+1), Galen, Jack, Ellen, Richard, Mary Shelton, Andrew, Meri Elliot, John, Jed, Carnes, Jim, James, Mason and I were all fit into our house at Destiny by the Sea.  What a great time!  I say: the more the merrier for sure!  We had themed nights, got to swim in the pool, build sand castles, take lots of naps, and play games.  It was a great great time.  This is where Kristen told us to expect another child to enter our family around February 2013!!  Wow!  That's 6 grandchildren within 3.5 years for my mom and dad!  Pretty exciting.

James and Mason had mothers day out for most of July.  We also were able to fit in a few trips to the McWane center and play with friends.  Especially Anna and Elizabeth or Aidan.

This past Saturday, after I had a shift at Children's to help move to the big new fancy facility (go Alabama healthcare!), James, Mason and I headed to Premier Gymnastics in Hoover and celebrated Aidan's third birthday!  He's THREE!  which means James is almost three!  What?!@

James is a talker.  He doesn't stop.  He loves to hear his dad talk about spaceships and rockets and trains.  When trying to think of the funnies things he said, these are the things that pop into mind:
While watching the olympic swimmers after a few seconds, he turned to me and said "Mom, the people are not scared of the water!"  He often takes his Luke Skywalker sword and tells me he is going to go fight off the alligators.

Mason, just yesterday, was playing and I found him propped up on a ride toy in proper form.  It was crazy!  Here is a video.  he got on and off this four wheeler all by himself.  UNREAL:


Other recent videos that are fun to watch:


The following are from James' friend, Aidan's, birthday.  This was this past Saturday.

I have 15 minutes

I have 15 minutes to write an update.  The kids are doing good.  James has reached a whole new level of being two.  He is exhausting :)  Mason is crawling super fast and just starting saying mamamama (adding to his favorites dada and baba).  Just recently, he started having moments where he stands by himself for a little bit.  Jim and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on the 28th.  We went to Bottega and had some delicious food and drinks.  Jim just submitted a huge grant proposal to the CDC for Hep. C screening for the ED which potentially could drop his ED shifts to eight a month! We would be thrilled if that worked out.

Lindsey gets married very soon!!  We received their cute rehearsal dinner party invite today!  I can't wait to spend some time in Dallas with everyone and see beautiful Aunt Lindsey say I Do!

I'm being pulled to the potty by James.. more later

went to beach with petersons.. here are some photos from the week.

Lindsey graduates

Here is a video of our Aunt Lindsey and Paw Paw at Lindsey's graduation at law school at SMU.  Congrats, Lindsey!  We are so proud of you!




Mason is crawling and pulling up and got two bottom teeth about a week ago.  We are still have major reflux issues which we will discuss with the pediatrician in about two weeks.  We are going to try a couple more medications hopefully and it will get better.

Funny Jamisms... we have a running list and I'm going to try to remember as many as I can.  They come out about once an hour and we all get a laugh out of them.
Here's one for starters:
Me: James, look, those are runners.  They are trying to stay in shape.
James: uh huh
Me: They are running so hard.  They are going to be fit.
James: yeah. They are going to fit.. fit in the mailbox.

more to come..

Can I get an update?!

Sorry for the delay in postings. Two months is definitely the longest I have gone. I'm beat! The parentals in this house are categorically exhausted but still going! I do have some great things to share. I am using Mothers Day Out to make this posting so I have no interruptions.. Let me go back to when I posted last and I'll come to present.

Feb. 28th: Mason has his six month check up and, to our suprise, is quite smaller than James was at this time. Mason has had a lot of reflux which is to blame, I believe.

Feb. 29th: James had hand, foot, mouth disease. I took a photo and posted it but took it down because it wasn't pretty.. We'll just remember that he has had it and it wasn't fun. Poor buddy. I'm glad he only had it for a few days.

March 5th: James made rice krispie treats for the Grahams who just had their second baby girl: Rose. We had fun with the "smarshmellows"

March 11th: Mason was baptized at Covenant Presbyterian Church where we attend. Dr. Bill Boyd baptized him. What a great service, what a great celebration.

March 12: B came in town. Here they are playing with James' new bubble machine. This was when James finally learned to blow a bubble. Mason is in the swing watching, I believe.

March 15th: I discovered my new favorite lemon cookies of all time. Thank you, Melody T.:

March 21st: My son likes chocolate as much as mommy and daddy :)

March 23rd: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE JASON!! Wish we could party hard at the house with you and color some more chairs!! If you want, James is a great redecorator! :)

I bet Jason is happy he is marrying a woman who can cook!! :) And sue someone too if she wanted! A woman with power should not be messed with :) We love you Aunt Lindsey! Here's a shameless link to a great blog by Auntie Lindsey:

http://overcookedblog.com/

March 24th: can we get Mason to babble Dadadadadada like he loves to?

We had a great garage sale and Mason helped out real big for us:

March 25th: At the Botanical Gardens in Birmginham, James and Mason hung with the girls at the gardens and played hard. We love hanging out with our ER friends. They tend to understand our schedules :)

Two weeks ago, James, Mason and I headed to Brandon Mississippi to hang out with B and Doc for a few days and to hang out with my friends in Jackson. We had a great time. James caught fish for the first time off my mom and dad's deck. He was so thrilled. Mason liked swinging in the swing and watching his big brother. I can tell he is soaking in everything big brother is doing. It's hilarious.

On Sunday after we were in Jackson, James went with his daddy to an Indy race. What a hot but exciting day. James loves the movie Cars and had a great time with Vrocher and his kids and Hilary.

This is a little glimpse of the noise from that day..

April 3rd: Mason and his practicing the crawling position

This past Sunday was Easter Sunday as well as Mary Shelton's birthday! What a big one year old she is too!! She's precious and at the brink of being able to run around with James and cause some trouble for sure.

We visited Richard and Ellen's church, Ingleside Baptist Church, on Sunday and the pastor had a great service. They showed this video.. It's a great video to share and to come back to. I am amazed. I, of course, teared up throughout the whole sermon because I seem to always tear up during moving sermons and songs and videos. Anyone else out there doing that? I have no idea.. but I know I do..

Now, Mason is sitting up in the high chair and stroller like a big boy. He likes to hold on to the handles in the stroller like a big boy and look around. He's laughing at our silly faces and I can tell crawling isn't too far away. We had him weighed on Wednesday and he was 15lb and 13oz (at 7.5 months). He is still in the small zone, but is gaining weight and definitely developing well. James is talking like the biggest little boy ever. It's hard to believe.

Other news... we may be moving. We actually started the search for a new birmingham home. Since James has started to become super mobile and Mason is heading that way, Jim and I are dying for a new back yard and a little bit different of a space. Our home is wonderful now and we are very happy but there are some changes we would like to make so we are playing with that possibility. In fact, we saw some houses yesterday. One home we love would be right down the street from our dear friends the Petersons (a.k.a. "Anna's home" to James).

Here's a song I can't get enough of. I introduced it to Jim last night (even though it's been out for a while). The only show I get around watching is American Idol because I can fast forward and listen to just the songs. This has to rank up there with the best of the best. Catchy tune with angst!

as Jim says, "Ping ping bang bang bum bum bum bum bum"

Recently

Just some photos as of recent. We took a trip down to Mandeville, LA last weekend with the nursing school girls. Here are some photos of the trip. I won't tell you what James is holding in one of the photos but I'll let you guess. Here's a hint.. James' buddy, Gray, has a daddy who is a plastic surgeon :)

and some videos

and then if you just want to laugh.. this is funny