Movin' on up!

John Thomas graduated today from the Bed Babies Room to the Crawlers room in Discovery Zone at church. This boy is crawling all over the place! We are excited about him movin' on up, but it's kinda' bittersweet...does this mean he's not a baby anymore???

Graduation Day in Discovery Zone

Really and truly, Shawn and I were pretty excited about JT moving up, and he was really excited, too. I just felt guilty for not feeling sad, so I staged the above picture. I mean, I really felt like a terrible mother for not being sad about it! I know, I'm a dork.

This is how we really felt...HAPPY!

"Am I really going in there, Daddy?"

I'm happy to report that JT did great in his new classroom. He crawled and crawled and crawled...and showed off a bit, too. He's so proud of his new achievement :-) We are, too!

Attack of the Stomach Virus...UGH!

So...The Stone residence had a not-so-welcome visitor, or shall I say "INTRUDER," yesterday. Our entire Sunday afternoon/evening/night was overtaken by this nasty thing called the STOMACH VIRUS...yup! Shawn, JT and I were all victims. It. Was. Not. Fun. But, it was nice having Daddy home today as we all recuperated from the evil ways of this intruder. We are SO thankful it's gone! I pray that NEVER happens again...it's just not right for all three of us to be sick at the same time.

The only bright side to being sick...lots of down time!
There was a lot of cuddling, snuggling and lounging today.

Poor lil' guy! You can see it in his eyes...
he just does not feel good.

Where did July go?!?!

Ok, so maybe I didn't make more time for blogging after VBS ended like I said I would...oops! This month has been full of fun, excitement and surprises...and it's not over yet ;-)


We headed to The Coast for the 4th of July weekend for a much needed vacation and quality time with my family and super duper friend, Linda! It was her first time to meet JT, so it was an extra special trip! It was so good to see her and my sisters, nieces, nephew and parents...I wish we all lived closer :-(

Look at that smile! He had so much fun with Linda!

Lainey, Keira, JT, Ethan, Ali...sweet memories with cousins!

Obachan (my mom) decided to come back home with us to stay for a week so she could get more "JT time" in, and boy was it a God thing she did. Late Monday night, Papa, (Shawn's dad) had a heart attack and went to the ER. He then had to be taken by ambulance to Tupelo for a heart cath. Stints could not be put in because he had so many blockages, so on Thursday, he had open heart surgery...5 bypasses! Then on Friday, our friends, Casey and Stephen, had their sweet baby boy, Aaron, at the hospital in Amory. With all the hospital visits and with Nana and Papa out of commission, it was such a blessing to have my mommy home to help us out!

JT visiting with Papa the night before surgery.

Papa is doing great now! He's on the road to recovery, and he's beyond ready to be able to hold his grandbaby again. I think that's the hardest thing for him right now...maybe...

Another exciting thing we got to do this month is take some of our kids from church to Shocco Springs for Student Life for Kids Camp! For the first time, Shawn and I left our sweet baby boy...for four days and three nights! Nana and Papa kept him for us, and guess what he learned to do while we were gone??? Sit up on his own!!!

Nana found him sitting up in his crib when he
woke up from a nap! All by himself!!!!

Our crew! We were on the RED squad in
case you're wondering...

JT is doing a lot more now, too, like crawling, saying "Bye-bye" and waving, dancing, cutting more teeth...he now has SEVEN teeth...and he's pulling up! This is how I found him this morning when I went to get him out of his crib

Yup...we lowered the crib...again! Look how
proud he is of himself! Hahaha!

I must say that teething is very challenging...and I hear when they cut their molars it's even WORSE. Yay. I mean, do they make teething crib guards? JT has decided to pull a Bucky Beaver and gnaw on the crib rails! Ugh...well, on the bright side, at least his teeth are cute and white and healthy! :-)

Hello??? Blog Update any day now!!!

Ok, so where have we been? Well, I have to admit, I've totally neglected "The Family Stone" and all things blogging, and I apologize...I know y'all have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next blog post from yours truly ;-)  

The month of June has been a blessed month filled with 1 and 1/2 weeks of Vacation Bible School, and now that PandaMania VBS 2011 is over, I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself! Update my blog more, I guess. That's a start! 

Here's a picture from PandaMania VBS at Mt. Vernon.
It was a HUGE success!

JT was such a trooper through it all, and so were his friends, Harper and Ruby! There were many long hours, long days and long nights preparing for this amazing event, and they were right there with their mommies and daddies helping out as much as they could!

Ruby, Harper and JT resting up for a long night of VBS work!

Taking a VBS shopping trip to Hobby Lobby!

Something neat we do at Mt. Vernon is we take VBS to the Plum Grove Community here in Lowndes County, and let me tell you...this was an amazing experience for me this year. I didn't get to help out last summer because I was working full time, but this year I got to go, and I am so glad I did! What an amazing time of ministry...God's children are such a blessing!

The kids and the adults/volunteers had a great time!

It was a fun week of PandaMania at Plum Grove!

I got to bring JT with me each day to Plum Grove, and I have to say...he is quite the TROOPER! He was so good every day, and I think he had a lot of fun, too. I'm so glad we had an AMAZING photographer, Katie McCrary, with us this year...she took some awesome photos, and she was such a wonderful volunteer. She took the above two photos, and she even took time to capture a couple of my baby boy :-) You can see more pictures from Plum Grove on our Facebook page (you'll love the photos!): http://www.facebook.com/mtvchurch

Our new favorite!!!

Hehehe!!! Love this one!

JT is all of a sudden 8 months old, and I'm scared to blink anymore! He's growing so fast and doing something new almost every day. He woke up on Father's Day saying "Mama," and he's clapping now. He's also starting to scoot really good...almost crawling! And he's becoming more and more mobile (wiggly and wild is a better description) and more and more vocal. He's really developing his little personality, and I'm afraid he's going to be a funny guy! Just like his Daddy :-)

Having fun and being silly at bath time!

Kicked back at The Front Door Restaurant...
we're going to have to teach him some
manners or Obachan will get him!

We have a fun weekend ahead of us as we head down to Ocean Springs tomorrow to spend the 4th of July weekend and my mom's birthday with my family. I'm sure there will be more pictures to come. Until then, good night!

JT's 6th Month

I've started venturing out with John Thomas some more...hitting up Wal-Mart and the like. We have a lot of fun, but apparently a shopping trip to Wal-Mart is exhausting for everyone!

He made it all the way to the check out lane
before he passed out!

JT loves wearing fun t-shirts now...as you saw the "My Dad Rocks" (yes he does!) t-shirt in an earlier post, and he got an "iPood" t-shirt to match his girlfriend, Ruby!

JT is having so much fun in Discovery Zone...Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights in the church nursery are full of Kodak moments, and I am so glad our sweet friend, Jennifer, snapped this one!

Playing footsies (already) with his girlfriend, Ruby!

I love this smiley boy of ours...and I love that he loves to eat. I can always manage to get a good shot at feeding time. Look at him striking a pose for the camera! Hahaha!!!

Cheese! (Look at that bicep ;-)

We are trying to introduce Little Puffs to JT, but he can't quite figure them out yet. He doesn't realize they go IN his mouth...not ON his chin! :-)

Since JT has learned to roll over, he has been sleeping on his belly a lot. However, he has yet to learn how to turn himself back over in the middle of the night and wakes us up crying and screaming to roll him back over. I'll be very proud of him when he accomplishes that next step!

Sweet sweet boy...LOVE him!

Teething...UGH!

John Thomas still has two teeth...

See my two teeth?!?!?

...and continues on with this horrible thing called TEETHING! Ugh! I feel like we're back to the newborn phase of his life...crying, fussing, drooling, waking up 2 to 5 times each night...and now he's biting. Yes...OUCH! But every time I get frustrated dealing with his teething, I stop and remind myself that he is hurting...my baby is in pain, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. So, in an effort to help him through this horrible horrible teething phase, we have been alternating Ibuprofen and Tylenol every 2 - 4 hours, giving him teething toys, using Spiffies wipes to rub his teeth and gums, and brushing his teeth and gums every morning and night. Nothing is working. Again...UGH! But "Super Nana" came to the rescue and got him a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy, and he loves it! I think we'll make it through teething now. Thanks Nana!

My 1st Mother's Day!!!

Wow...what a blessed day and occasion. My first "official" Mother's Day was wonderful, and I was showered with love. I received sweet cards in the mail from several precious friends and family members, and my amazing husband got me a beautiful necklace with John Thomas' birth stone (opal). 

Shawn took me to my favorite restaurant in Starkville, City Bagel, and we took our yummy food and had a picnic on the MSU campus...it was perfect! JT had a lot of fun, too! Then Shawn made me a steak dinner that night...I was spoiled, and I loved it! ;-)


I hope every mother had a very Happy Mother's Day!!! And by the way...I LOVE being John Thomas' mommy!