Welcome, Mark Charles!! (and pictures from our Mall Play Date)

Luke and Jamie had their baby boy this afternoon! After more than 24 hours of labor, the baby still hadn't moved down into the birth canal, so Jamie had to have a c-section. It turned out to be a great blessing, because Baby Mark Charles weighed NINE pounds and TEN ounces!! For those of you who know Jamie, you know she is very small boned, and that would have been pretty uncomfortable, if not completely impossible!! Thank you, God, for always knowing what's best!

Congratulations, Luke, Jamie, and Mark!!!

On a separate note, I'm feeling much better. Thank you for your prayers! Ruby and I met up with Amy (and Alex) and April (and Mason, Isaac, and Weston) for a play date around lunchtime, and we had a lot of fun. Here are just a couple of pictures. (Ladies, if you prefer not to have your sons' pictures posted on the internet, please let me know. I'm assuming it's okay, since you've both posted pictures of your respective boys on your blogs. I hope that's okay!!)

First, I must inform you all of the miracle of the day. I got ALL FIVE of the kids to look at me and smile at the same time on the FIRST try. Can you believe it?? Here they are: Alex, Isaac, Ruby, Mason, and Weston. (I think I got the twins in the right order. Can you confirm that, April?)

The baseball was definitely the main attraction of the afternoon! I'm pretty sure this is Weston hanging upside down on the ball. It could very well be Isaac, though. (I was trying to remember who was sitting beside me and who was up playing at this time. LOL!)  EDITED:  I was wrong.  This is Isaac hanging upside down.  :)  I thought Isaac was in a time-out when this picture was taken, but he wasn't.  :)  He was hanging on the baseball, and Weston and I were reading a really cool dinosaur book!  I will point out that I definitely knew I was reading about dinosaurs with Weston, though.  :)  I'll get the twins figured out eventually.  I promise!!

Mason enjoyed the baseball, too! He seems very excited to be out of school for the summer!

I also wanted to mention that Mason is a really great big brother! He played with all of the kids and really tolerated their toddler-ish-ness very well. :)

This is one of my very favorite little boys. :) If BG2 is a little boy, I hope he is very much like Mr. Alex. Alex was SUCH a good helper for me! Ruby kept trying to escape, and Alex tried his best to keep her inside the play area.

Ruby loved playing with the big boys. In this picture, she's staring at Alex...she was quite enamored with him. :)

Lastly, I captured this pretty cool pictures of Ruby's eyes. :) (Ignore the little piece of chocolate Teddy Graham on her lip.)

See you all tonight at the cookout!