Apple orchards, pumpkin patches and first teeth

This post should catch us up. The first weekend in October my mom got to come up for a visit for the first time since James was a week old. We've been down to Tally to visit since then, but being a pastor's wife and full-time teacher keeps mom in town most of the time, so this was a real treat!!

We spent Saturday at the park just having mom and daughter time (and grandson time too!) We brought a picnic lunch and ate it while we sat watching the birds and squirrels. It's amazing how many more animals you can see if you just sit still and wait for them to come to you! It was so nice to get to share one of my favorite places with mom and to have her all to myself!! No offense to my Canopy Roads family, but it's hard sharing mom with my three siblings and her 400 other "kids" sometimes! haha!

That Sunday we got to go to the Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay, GA with Tania, her mom and her mom's friend. We stopped at an apple orchard on the way to pick apples so I could get some cute photos of James, and it was fun, but I have to confess that after going apple picking in Michigan, to say that picking in Georgia was disappointing would be an understatement. Most of the apples were split (even the ones that were still on the trees), which we assumed was from the recent rains and the heat wave. Either way, we got some sweet pictures of James "picking" apples, and we had a great time hanging out. When we got to the festival, we found out that it was closing at 5, just 20 minutes after we arrived, so we ran in to find some fried apple pies to eat. Would you believe that the only apple goodies stand we saw was closed, and that mom and I walked up and down the vendors looking for apple anything and couldn't find any. We saw Cajun food, hot dogs, snow cones, funnel cakes, etc., but no apple items. Hello.... it's the Georgia APPLE festival... how can you possibly not have apple foods for sale?!!! We settled for a funnel cake and some home made root beer (like I get at my civil war reenactments....yum yum!), and found out only after we'd finished the funnel cake that there was one small vendor on the other side of the festival still serving FRIED APPLE PIES!! Oh well... we missed out this time, but maybe I'll just have to make one myself! Mom stayed until just after lunch on Monday. We ate lunch at Willie's just before I dropped her off to meet her ride home... the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend!

Last week James cut his first two teeth! (The picture below was the best I could get after MANY attempts). I can't believe that he's so big already! Sitting is a no-brainer now, and he's even trying to start pulling himself up on things. I think we still have a little while before we're walking, but I know it will happen all of a sudden like so many other milestones have. Don't quote me, but I'm fully expecting to have a little walker by Christmas.
This past weekend, Jim's mom and sister came in town for the Tech game, so we got to hang out. Friday afternoon, we went to Stone Mountain along with Jim's cousin, Hayden, to get pictures of James in the pumpkin patch. They turned out sooooooo cute. Hayden was such a big help with James. He picked him up and moved him from place to place for me so that I could adjust my camera in between shots. He also helped me keep James attention while I was shooting. (And I even got a few really sweet shots of the two of them, so I just had to include those too!) After Stone Mountain, we headed back to Duluth to meet Jim and get pizza! YUM! James was worn out, so we ate fast and headed home. Saturday morning, we headed up to Tech about 9:30 to start tailgating. We had a blast! We made french toast and bacon for breakfast and fajitas for lunch! Delicioso! The weather was almost perfect. Jim, Ginny and Hayden played ladder golf while Nana and I had fun watching James and Jackson (Nana and Pa G's puppy) playing together! We packed up the tailgate stuff in time for Jim, Ginny and Hayden to head to the game and for us to get home before the AU kickoff.

Let me just say, "What a game!" Auburn had me nervous until the last quarter when Arkansas' back-up quarter back finally started to fall apart, but I have to give him credit. He is VERY talented, and I think he'll be a force to be reckoned with before too long. I hope Auburn can stand up to LSU next weekend and maintain our undefeated status! Woo-hoo!! What a season so far! Yay for Cam Newton!

Okay, so back to the rest of the weekend after football. Jim's mom went to church with us yesterday, and after lunch we headed to (yep, you guessed it) my favorite little park! We took a nice walk around the "long" trail and took turns trying to keep a very sleepy James entertained until we could get home and put him down for a nap. We had leftover fajitas for dinner, s'mores for dessert, and then watch "Letters to Juliet." Ah... what a perfect day!

Jim's mom left this morning after breakfast, so we're back to just us again. For those of you wondering about the status of our move... we're still waiting on God's timing. Someone came by to see the house last Sunday, but we haven't had anyone since. Patience is definitely the name of the game, and thankfully Jim's company is still allowing him to work from the almost-empty Atlanta office. So James and I are not Daddy-less yet, which makes life so much less stressful! We still appreciate your prayers as we seek God's will in all of this. Please pray for the house to sell if it is in fact his will for us to move to Spartanburg, and please pray that if it is not his will that he will reveal to us what his plan is. Thank you for your prayers!


Lots of Love,
Jim, Ally and James-z ;)

Park days, new gloves and morning walks

For almost two weeks now, I've been thinking that I was going to get new photos up. How does life get so crazy? And go by so fast? I guess having visitors the last two weekends did contribute to the craziness... but... we wouldn't trade those special memories with Grandmom and Nana for anything! I'm finally getting on the ball since we're back home by ourselves and James is getting a much needed nap. What about keeping the house ready to show you say? Well... the short of it is: I'd rather post photos! ;) And since you'd rather see new ones anyway, it's a win win situation! :) So without further a-do... here they are! Enjoy!!

Two weekends ago, James and I got together with Tia Tania and went to our favorite park here in Duluth to enjoy a few hours in God's beautiful creation, get some new photos of Mommy and James in our AU gear, and let Mommy and Tia have some devotional time. Here are a few photos from our outing. Enjoy!

James also got some new gloves that were handed down from some friends in Tallahassee, and he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with them. Everyday Mommy and James go for a morning walk. James LOVES LOVES being outside and mommy gets some MUCH needed exercise. He is so cute! At first he just listens to the birds, crickets, dogs, etc., and then he starts talking back. :) I love being a mommy! God is so good to allow me to stay at home with James and watch him grow and change!

(Not the best photo of mommy, but most of the time, this is the best I can do to get a photo of both of us!)

I've got SEVERAL more photos to post including a trip to an apple orchard with Grandmom and the pumpkin patch with Nana, so stay tuned. Same bat time... same bat channel.

Love to all,

Jim, Ally & James

Fall swims, car trips and folding laundry

I'm on the ball with my post this week. :) Last Thursday, I snapped a few photos while James, Tania and I showed our rebellious side by swimming on the first official day of fall! (For those of you who might be worried that it was too cold for James... the water was only a little cooler than it's been all summer.)

Friday evening we drove to Spartanburg, SC to spend the weekend checking out the area and to start looking for neighborhoods where we might want to rent/buy. It was a very productive weekend. Jim's new boss and his wife spent most of their Saturday giving us a personal driving tour of Spartanburg and the surrounding area, which really helped us get a bettter feel for the area. After this trip, I feel much more at peace about the move. It's definitely different than what we're used to, so it may take some getting used to before it feels like home, but I reminded myself that Michigan was different at first too, and we ended meeting some of our best friends up there. So God has a plan for this season too.

In James' news, I forgot to share last time that he is officially sitting up on his own now! It happened all of a sudden. For the last month and a half, he's been getting stronger and stronger, and we'd noticed that he had decent stability front-to-back, but his lateral stability was a little shaky. Then I took him to his 6 month checkup (he was actually closer to 7 months then), and she asked me if he could sit on his own or if he still needed minimal support. I told her that he still needed very minimal support, and then when she was examining him, she let him sit alone for a few seconds just to see how he could do, and to my surprise, he sat steadily completely on his own! (I was thinking... "when did you learn to do that, James?"!! Haha!)

As of last Sunday, he's offically 7 months old, and I can hardly believe how fast the time is flying. People are already asking me when we'll be thinking about number 2! Oh dear! Let me have at least a year with my boy before I start thinking about another one!! Ultimately the timing is up to God.

Well... that's all for now folks. Enjoy the photos!

Jim, Ally & James

Sleeping in the car on the way to Spartanburg. He loves to sleep with his neck cocked like that. I would have the biggest crick in my neck!

Helping mommy fold the laundry.

A Baby Divided...

So, today's title will make more sense as you scroll through the pictures. (No, we're not pulling a King Solomon and cutting James in half so each Grandmother gets a piece.)

Well... it's been a month and a half since my last post. I know... I know... those of you who've been waiting for pictures were in suspense for weeks. But the wait is finally over! I'm so behind on posting pictures that this time I decided to make collages with all of them so I didn't have to upload 25 individual photos!

The last month has been crazy... we've had our ups... and our downs, but mostly ups! :) The house showing is going... well... it's going. We went through a slump of about 3 weeks where we didn't have a single buyer look at it. This last week it finally picked back up a little, we had showing last Friday and another one on Monday, so there's hope.

In the midst of it all, we've been busy! We helped move Uncle Tim into his new place in Auburn (wow... I'm getting old!). We had a Labor Day visit from Pa G., Nana, Aunt Lauren, Aunt Ginny and a surprise guest (see photos below). James went to his first pre-game experience at Tech complete with lunch at the Varsity and a walk down by the Stadium (craziness!). James and I went to Tallahassee for a very overdue rest for this worn out mommy and got to see BigDad, Grandmom and Aunt Sara. We visited his Granny (my Grandmama) on the way down. Then We stopped by Auburn on the way home to take uncle Tim and cousin Chelsey out to lunch at- you guessed it- Momma Goldberg's, and I didn't miss the opportunity to finally get James some AU attire! (WAR EAGLE!) Last Saturday he spent the morning in his GT onsie and the evening in his AU jersey and cap.

This weekend we're headed to Spartanburg, SC to look around, get familiar with the area, and look at housing options. Please continue to pray for us as we seek God's will for us in this relocation.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support.

Love from us all,

Jim, Ally & James

And now... the moment you've all been waiting for... NEW PHOTOS OF JAMES!!!!

Visits from aunts,evil bananas, and more!

Last week we got a surprise visit from Melissa (a.k.a. "Aunt Lala") who was flying standby through ATL heading to Managua. She didn't make it onto the Tuesday flight, so I got to spend almost 24 hours with her, and it was such a special time together! I am always for grateful for the little unexpected visits that God gives us!

Then Wednesday and Thursday "Aunt Lauren" came to visit James, and we had a great time! We had brunch at Cracker Barrel (where James learned to "play" checkers... haha), then we did some shopping that I had to do. It was so nice to have someone to share the time with! We even got to splurge for 1/2 price shakes during happy hour at Steak 'n' Shake! Yummy!

It was an all-around great week! And then Jim came home Friday afternoon, and it was so nice to know that he didn't have to go back out of town for work this week! What a treat it's been to have him home every evening!

Life has been so wonderful right now that I'm almost afraid that I'm enjoying it too much! I love being a stay-at-home mommy watching James grow and change, and even selling the house hasn't felt stressful recently. I really believe that if God is in this move (which I feel he is), then he will sell it in his own time. I am praying that he bring the buyers that will be most blessed by this house! The pressure to "sell it" myself is gone, and all I have to do is keep it clean, pray and wait! That's easy, right?! Haha!

Thank you, dear friends, for your prayers for our family. They are definitely not falling upon deaf ears. God is good, and his faithfulness to us never ceases to amaze me! I am eagerly awaiting the time when I can share with you the exciting, new plans he has for us in Spartanburg! Please join us in praying that he will be at work (now even before we sell our house and start looking there) preparing a family of believers up there for us. We will be farther away from both of our families there, and we are hoping that the distance will help us to plug into a church more quickly and find ways to serve and share.

We love you all very much! Thank you for you faithful prayers and friendship as we walk out our journey.

And without further a-do, here are the newest photos of James!

With love,

Jim, Ally & James-z ;) (that one's for you, Lala!)

"I like my Aunt Lauren!"
"She's funny!"

"And she lets me play new games!"

"Look at all the red circles! Can I hold one?!"


"Or maybe I like the black ones better?"

"Yumm! Cereal is tasty, and it doesn't leave those itchy red places all over me like bananas!" (We've discovered that James is alergic to bananas! Sad! One of my favorite foods!)

James likes bananas, but bananas don't like James... and this wasn't even as red as he got before it was all over.

Yep, definitely not going to be eating any more "monkey food"!

Fun at the park

Look at me! Keeping up with posting two weeks in a row! Watch out world, here I come!


So to catch everyone up... last weekend was crazy! Friday morning I went to McDaniel Farm Park, my favorite photography spot here in Duluth, to do family pictures for one of Tania's friends who is also a photographer down in Florida and of course doesn't get to be in her "family" pictures much because she's usually behind the camera like me. So those pictures turned out great (They'll be up on my photography blog soon.), and since she was there and we had a few minutes, she got some cute shots of James and me that I had to share! (See below!) I wish Jim had been in town because we still need family photos!


Then Friday afternoon was the rehearsal for the wedding that I shot on Saturday. I ran home from the park, got a shower, ate lunch, and headed to Sugarloaf to meet up with the Bride. I ended up taking James with me, and he was a little angel the whole time! Even though we were in the sun for over an hour.


Then Saturday morning Jim and I had to run out and get a new external hard drive for my photos b/c I'd already filled up our 300G drive! Crazy! So we bought a 1 terabyte drive designated for photography! Hopefully it will take me a little longer to fill that up. :)


Then I left James with Jim, and headed to the wedding at 2:30. Let me just say that Sugarloaf is a gorgeous place for wedding photos! It was really hot though, and I was sweating like a.... well... sweating a lot. But we got some great shots (check out my photography blog for a peak), and everyone was really nice to work with.


Now I'm back home trying to keep the house looking nice for interested buyers, being mommy to my little guy and editing wedding photos. It's a crazy but fun life!


Lots of love from us all,


Jim, Ally & James

Random photos...

Can you believe I'm posting so soon after my last post?!! These pictures are just day/hours old! Go me! Haha... I promise I'm trying to get better. Plus I'm shooting a wedding on Saturday, which means personal stuff will get pushed to the back burner for a while. (Look for those shots sometime in the upcoming weeks on my photography blog.)

James keeps changing every day. He's laying on the floor talking to himself as I write. I just can't get over how verbal he's getting! It's so fun to watch him change and to see his little personality develop. Thankfully it looks like he's going to be have a happy demeanor like his Daddy. :)

Enjoy!

I found him sleeping like this the other day during his nap. It was too cute to miss!

James and I were playing while Daddy worked outside.

We have also started our journey into the world of cereal. Nana was right... it's a full-body experience (for BOTH of us)! haha!

This last one is just a collage I made from a few shots I took today while practicing with my new lens. The blanket he's laying on was made by some sweet girls from my church back home. We are so loved! :)