Owen Ronald Kannas

Well, it's official. He is Owen Ronald. We're so excited to have him in our family. So far he eats ALL day and sleeps 5 hr stretches at night. I can handle that.
We came home today. Here we are on a little family walk. James really loves and is so sweet with his baby brother.

Baby Boy Kannas

We welcomed the newest member of our family today at 1:10 pm. 22 inches long, 9lb 7 oz. He looks totally different than James and I still keep looking at him and thinking, is this really my child?
I was a week + overdue and have been cramping for weeks, which I guess paid off with a quick easy delivery. The timing could have been a little better. Robyn had knee surgery this morning at 6 am, and wouldn't you guess my water broke at 5:45am. So we ended up calling my friend / visiting teacher and she watched James most of the day for us. I started having contractions abt an hour later, and at 9 or 10 am we came in. I was 5 cm dilated and 90% effaced. By noon I was 7 cm dilated. I hung out in the tub and then birthing tub, which helped a ton. A warm bath has been my nightly relief for the last 9 months. Close to 1 I sort of felt like pushing- but figured it was wishful thinking, since it was all still tolerable- ( miserable, but not nearly as trying as last time.) I kept trying to suppress the thought that it was still going to get way worse, but they came in and sure enough he was ready. He's huge, but I had no tearing and a much easier birth. So, now we just have to finalize a name and grasp the reality that he's real and here!

Bye bye Grantiroo

We have been lucky to have made 2 great friends for James since moving to Minnesota. It worked out great for me too, because we were able to do baby trade offs while each parent worked or did school part time. In December we lost James' best friend Julia to a new job in California. Luckily James learned to love Grant, the son of our best friends, the Brodegards. Well, on Sunday they moved away to Iowa.
It's sort of heart breaking to watch your friends move away. Randy is convinced that if we move to the suburbs we'll meet people with kids and similar values who will stick around. It's hard for me to imagine living outside of Minneapolis though. It's the parks and trails and concerts and outdoor films.... Etc that are what makes Minnesota a place I love to live. We've got decide our plan soon so we can buy a house that we actually stay in for more than a year.

2 years old

James turned 2 on May 2. We had a little party at the playground with some church and neighborhood friends, then in the evening a family party with a few presents. By far his favorite seems to be this cheap little golf set. Every day he drags that thing around the yard and house working on his drive. I think he might be better than I am at making contact with the ball.

Minnesota Zoo

I love my boy.

Panama City Beach, FL

James and I just spent a week visiting Robyn and Ron in Panama City Beach, FL. For 2 weeks prior to us leaving James had the same routine. He'd wake up and cry until I go in to get him. Once I was there he'd be really happy and say "Grama, Grampa, airplane, up, up, up, up"  He usually would throw an "Hola" at the end (since we just had the Mexico/ airplane/ beach vacation and he doesn't quite differentiate. For that matter it was more of an "Hola", then "Bonjour" combo. Hola he picked up in Mexico, bonjour he started saying from a book we checked out.) And I'd tell him how many days we had left until we'd go.

James really loves his Grandparents. He likes to say the prayer at meals, but really just says "Grama, Grampa" over and over.

We had such a good time. Perfect weather. Great company. Beautiful scenery. Sometimes my life is too good.

We also got lucky to work it out that we got to be there during the short 15 hour window of when my parents were there too, on their way out west. I feel so lucky that my parents and parents- in- law get along well. It makes family gatherings very fun.

Randy didn't come because tickets were pretty high, and we had just used a week's vacation at the beach in Cancun, and we're using another week at the beach in June for Grandparents' camp with my family. We figured we didn't want to use it all up in one blow. Once I was there though I realized next time Randy definately will have to come, at least for part of it next year. It's so much fun now that James is excited about things, and it's so much more fun when Randy is there too. Don't feel too bad for him though, he ended up taking a long weekend to drive out to Colorado with some highschool friends for a ski trip.

Here is James reading his favorite book for his Grandparents.

Daily morning water aerobics.

Enjoying a free children's play at Alys Beach. James actually watched the whole thing.

When you ask James now which kind of ball he likes best, he semi ranks them football, then basketball, then golf ball, then hockey ball, then soccer ball and baseball. He really loves his ball sports.

We enjoyed several free evening concerts.

Thank you so much Robyn and Ron for a wonderful time.

Cancun

We thought we were going to get to go to China with Randy's work in February, but it was cancelled, so we spent time relaxing at the Royal Solaris Resort down in Cancun instead. Typically Randy and I like active vacations, but being 7 months pregnant, and having 22 month old James, a little R &R in the sun sounded perfect.
To be honest the magic of too much relaxing, and eating (it was all you can eat and drink), wore off after a few days, but it really was a great time. James spent the whole week in smiles, galloping or dancing around, singing the chorus of old MacDonald ( eeii eeii ooh) over and over. I think he really enjoyed having both of his parents around and a resort full of adults flirting with him. I've never seen him so outgoing or friendly. He danced for or raised eye brows to every adult he could make eye contact with. He really enjoyed swimming (for the first time ever) as well.
The Mexican staff at the resort were really sweet. Every person who passed would try and pick him up or rub his head or shoulder each time they passed. I pretty sure James thought he was a super star.
We spent 6 nights there. Highlights for me were an evening show of Mexican dance, which included a lasso dance/ show done to the live Mariachi Band. It was really impressive. We also rented a car for cheap and drove to Chichin itza. About a quarter mile down the beach was a nice snorkeling spot and calm water, so that was a faorite spot as well. Mostly it was just great to enjoy the sunshine and each other for so long.

 I have videos of climbing the main pyramid at Chichin-itza when I was 3 years old. You can no longer climb it.  I guess an American fell off and died 4 years ago so they blocked it off.

There was a fun kids pool at the resort for James to enjoy.

At the Cancun Airport there was a golf demo area for kids. Not bad form, we'll have to work on the aim though if he's going to be our early retirement.

Earning his keep

Our little taste of winter

I've been having trouble uploading videos on my blog, but since it's working again maybe

I'll add a few to the Florida post, since I took a ton of cute ones.

It's been incredibly warm this winter. We haven't gotten to go skiing once.

We had a dusting of snow the other morning so James went out to play in it.

Parents home from Hungary!

Singing with Victoria- very cute.

Legoland

Sitting in the Phillipino hand chairs with Bryce

My parents are finally home from their 18 month mission in Hungary. We drove down to return their car and meet them at the airport. We stopped in St Louis on the way and James had an awesome time playing with Dennis. I never would have guessed that a week and a half later Rita would have her baby. It was a baby girl week! Heather had little Tatum on Jan 18th, then Rita and Jen had Zola and Sarah within hours of each other. We just missed them both, which is probably good since we've been sick for about the last week. James and I seem finally on the upswing, now Randy's the one who can't function.
Sorry, back to the trip. James had an awesome time swimming, playing in the green grass, getting to know and love cousins (and their toys), horse riding, experiencing a theme park, and best of all, getting to know his other grandparents. It was wonderful.

It's a boy

James excited for the new baby

We just found out that we'll be birthing a gold statue doing the Tim Tebow salute in the begining of May. Just thought we'd let you know.

Sunday Fancies

James got his first Sunday suit from Grandma and Grandpa Kannas for Christmas, and Rita happened to give us a pair of shiney black shoes just his size. Last Sunday was his first time wearing it. It was amazing. He clearly felt different in fancy clothes, like his dad and the big kids wear. He played with exceptional maturity in nursery, per the adults there. He made extra effort to get eye contact and flirt with people at church. He sat more reverently in Sacrament, making special effort to get the attention of the bread bearer so he could give him a smile. He strutted around from person to person saying "bye- bye" when church was over. As soon as we got home he agreed we should take them off to keep them nice. It was really pretty adorable.

Christmas at the Cabin

It was another wonderful Christmas with the Kannases at the cabin. The pictures are in no real order. I'll just give a little synopsis of our weekend. There wasn't much snow, but the weather was amazing for being outside. Randy and his brother Russ plowed off a rink and a path on the lake for skating (I got skates for Christmas.) Randy skated around carrying James or pulling him and the other kids in the ski polk, so we all enjoyed being outside.
James loved Christmas. He was so excited about the toys and presents around. He got a little hockey set from his dad to start practicing, but I have to say James seems more into climbing on the net than playing actually hockey. Maybe a little young yet. Not enough "ball" to it. I'd have to say the best part for James seemed to be Rita and Ryan's dogs (he's definately an animal lover), Rita (she really won him over somehow. Makes me realize I've overestimated the bounds of his adoration of me,) and having his cousins around. It's really amazing to me that at such a young age James can already be feeling a need to be cool with his cousins/ friends. I spent the whole weekend thinking, where did my sweet, obedient adorer go? He was busy showing off the whole time. He was pretty cute. He's becoming a real ham.
It was a great trip. I feel very lucky to have married into such a wonderful family. And to have such a great family of my own.