The Past 5 Months

Wow, it’s been five months since I’ve posted. I’m not even going to try to catch up on everything. If you’re interested in seeing all that we’ve been up to and all the pictures I’ve taken check us out of facebook. If you don’t have a facebook…you should get one, but I’d also be happy to send you a link so you can see the pictures.

So, we moved into our house on December 3rd. We are all settled in and very much loving our house and life in Ruston. John stays quite busy at church and taking various trips. In the month of March, I believe he was home a total of 12 days. While James and I don’t like John being gone so much, we’ve taken it as an opportunity to spend time visiting family in Texas and Oklahoma. John’s biggest trip was to India. Our church is beginning a partnership with IMB missionaries there that we hope will take teams from our church several times a year. We are very excited about this opportunity. Our church is really realizing the importance of missions and has a great passion for reaching the nations. We are thrilled to be here during this exciting time and even get to help channel some of that passion.

Our big news is that we’re expecting our second child!!! We’re due on October 31st. You may remember that James was born on September 11th, seems like my children are destined to have memorable birth dates. We are so excited to welcome a new little one into our family. While James keeps me quite busy on his own, I know he’s going to be an excellent big brother. He loves kissing all the little babies in the nursery at church.

Last time I posted, James wasn’t even walking. He now runs at full speed and is into everything. He is very much a communicator (I can’t imagine where he got that) and does lots of talking. His most recent fascination is sidewalk chalk and his sandbox.
Here are a few pictures from this spring so far. I’ll be sure to post Easter pictures sometime next week.

We have officailly moved! For those of you that are feeling a little lost, John has been called as Missions Coordinator for Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, Louisiana. We are super excited to have a new home and to jump into life and ministry here.
We've bought a home and are hoping to close and move in on Dec. 1st or 2nd. In the mean time, the church is letting us stay in their trailer.
As you might imagine, we've been pretty busy, but here are a few pictures to try and make up for my lack of posting. :)

1st Hair Cut

Over the past few months, John and I have gotten very tired of hearing how cute SHE is. One day I was in the grocery store. James was wearing a brown, camo shirt. The cashier commented that SHE was so PRETTY. AH! So, we decided maybe it was time for a hair cut. *sniff sniff*


James was a champ! No crying or screaming. He did, however, growl at the lady when she used the razor on him.



All done!


He was such a good boy, that they even gave him this certificate; notice his sweet little baby hair in the bottom right corner.

James' First Birthday

I can't believe my baby boy is a year old!!! How is it even possible?! I can honestly say that every day with him is a joy. As he's getting older, he's even sweeter. I love that he now voluntarily gives hugs and kisses.

Here's our little guy the day he was born



Here he is now, a big boy!



Here's his high chair all ready for his party




He enjoyed his cake







All cleaned up and ready for presents



While he wasn't all that interested in opening his presents, he was certainly interested in playing with them!

Leah's Reception

My sister, Leah, got married back in May. Since they had a very small wedding, we threw them a big reception this past month. It was fun for James to get to wear his suit one more time. We had a great time celebrating with Leah and Raf and welcoming Raf into our family.

This first one's from dinner the night before


James and Aunt Leah


James and Gruncle Paul


Excuse the belly. This was towards the end of the evening. :)

Carol's Wedding

John's sister, Carol, got married on Saturday. We were so glad to get to be here for not just the wedding, but a lot of the prep as well. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was a blast! John actually officiated the wedding. He didn’t get anyone’s name wrong, drop the rings, or forget to let everyone sit down. :) He did a wonderful job!

I was so thankful that both or my sisters and my brothers-in-law came up for the wedding. It worked out perfectly. I was able to go to the chapel early and help get things ready while James played with his aunts and uncles until time to come to the wedding.

We had such a good time. I’m so thankful that James is such an easy going little guy. If there are people around, he’s typically happy. When it started getting late, we set up James’ pack-n-play in the bride’s room and put him to sleep. It was awesome! He slept wonderfully, giving John and I a few more hours to party at the reception and then help clean up.

I didn't have a chance to take hardly any pictures, but here's one of my handsome guys at the wedding.



While we all enjoyed the wedding, James really enjoyed the rehearsal dinner. He had a blast on the carousel and loved the balls! Thanks, Aunt Carol & Uncle Dylan for choosing such a fun place!









This one is the morning of Carol's wedding. James was talking to Aunt Carol before she left for the salon. It was just too cute not to post.

Busy, Busy, Busy

If anyone is still faithful enough to be reading our blog even though I haven't posted in FOREVER, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry! In the past 2 months, we've been in 3 countries and 8 states. We're mostly living in Oklahoma with John's parents. They are so sweet and say that they hope we never leave, but I'm pretty sure they'll be happy to have their house back when we finally do leave. We've been having some wonderful time with family and working to help get things ready for John's sister's wedding.
Anyway, all that to say that one day things will get calm enough for me to give you a proper post. In the mean time, here are a lot of pictures to tide you over.

James LOVES the pool. Thank you, Memaw and Pepaw for letting me play so much in your pool!

Playing baseball with Pepaw



This is in Mississippi with Jennifer and Zooey (the future Mrs. James King). We can't wait to have a picture with Zooey where you can actually see her!

Soon to be Uncle Dylan!

Great Granama June

Swimming in Great Grandma Petersen's pool with Great Aunt Pam

Gruncle Paul

Great Grandma Petersen



This is at the zoo in Tucson where James' cousins live. He really does love them, just didn't really want to sit on the wall.

See, he really did have fun at the zoo!

Meeting "Uncle" Brent for the first time!

James loves his Aunt Leah!

At the Round Barn with Memaw, Pepaw, Aunt Ali, and Great Aunt JoAnn

This is us bribing James to crawl. Yes, it worked!