HAPPY BIRTHDAY - JAMIE

Hello again.

.

It's time for us to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our first born son, James Robert Mooney.

.

For your information, if you double click on any picture it will zoom in and you can get a better look at it. You can come back to the blog by clicking on the back arrow at the top left side of your screen. I add this for people who are from my vintage...and somewhat technically challenged when it comes to computers.

.

So with that let's go and have a look at Jamie's life...to this point...in pictures.

This is Jamie on the day his was born, thirty-five years ago.

It's hard to believe that I've got a middle aged child.

We named Jamie after his great grandfather, my father John's father, James who immigrated to Canada from Northern Ireland in 1912.



His name is James, but we called him Jamie when he was born.



Here's Jamie on the day he came home from the Holy Cross Hospital. He is 4 days old. Yeah, you heard right. In the old days, in ancient times, mothers got to stay in the hospital for four days before being discharged to face the real world with their new baby.

We were sure that we would have a girl. In preparation for our new baby, Judy hand knit a sleeper that was gender neutral to bring the new baby home from the hospital in. As you can see this sleeper has both blue and pink...but mostly pink...Jamie still likes pink.

This is a very proud young man (at age 21, really just a kid himself ) with his first born son. Judy and I were too young and naive to be scared. We should have been more scared...


The reason we were so sure that our first child would be a girl was statistics within our families. I was the only son of an only son. Judy has two sisters and only one brother. Judy's mother's family had only one boy. We thought that the probability of a male child would be slim to none. Boy, were we surprised....our first four children were boys.

Of course, the novelty of a new life had to be captured in pictures. And boy did we take a lot of pictures. Unfortuntely for the younger children, the picture volume decreased for each.

I was working long hours and the kids were often asleep for the night when I got home from work around 8:00 PM and were still sound asleep when I left for work at 6:00 AM. As a result I have a number of pictures of Jamie sound asleep. Here he is with his head on a little elephant pillow that had been mine when I was a child.

Here's the little mama with her first baby...and carrying his soon to arrive little brother.

We lived in Calgary, so we had to have a horse for our little cowboy to ride. And boy could he make this horse bounce.

This is Jamie with my mother, his grandmother, Clarice Mooney. Grandma Mooney spent a lot of time grandmothering the Mooney kids...and they got to know her and love her.

In the background was our family car, a 1969 Camaro RS. We had to upsize to a station wagon a few months later when Justin arrived.

We still have the Camaro sitting in our garage. It still runs.

This is Jamie sitting on his great grandmother Lottie Hurlburt's knee. Next to Grandma Hurlburt is her sister Stella from Holyoke, Colorado. In the baby seat at their feet is our newly arrived second son, Justin Charles. Grandma Hurlburt was very dear to me and my sisters as she really stepped up and helped my mother raise me after my father died when I was a young child.

Here's Jamie on his first birthday. Looks a little apprehensive doesn't he?

This is Jamie's first Christmas. He is just over 5 months old here and looking right at home on Santa's lap.

Jamie's second birthday.

I think this is probably after he ate the whole cake. Or maybe I was "fathering" him and he is not impressed. I've grown accustomed to this look from my children...

Jamie with Judy's dad, his grandfather, Herman Weis.

In the background is my truck and Bobcat. I had changed jobs from being a forman with Standard General Construction to being a self employed Bobcat owner/operator.

From this point on, to the end of high school, the boys were together most of the time. Sometimes they didn't think that was a good thing...sometimes it was almost more than Judy and I could keep up with. Seems like two little boys 11 months apart could get into way more than twice as much mischief as one little boy could.

They shared their birthdays. Justin's second, Jamie's third.

Must be Stampede week in Calgary.

Another birthday, shared. Even Judy is in the Stampede spirit.

But here it looks like the whining helped.

Jamie seems to be having his own birthday cake.

I think that is Grandma, Gladys Weis, next to him.

Jamie may have had his own cake...but Justin was never far away.

And now it's school picture time. This would be ECS at St. Margaret's school in Calgary.

And Jamie in Grade 1 at Collingwood Elementary School in Calgary.

The Jamie I remember well.

Jamie in Grade 2.

This is Jamie and Justin's first hockey team. We never had any intention of putting our kids in hockey but got talked in to it by this coach. The big guy on the right is our long time friend Wayne Holmgren. Double click on the picture and you will see Jamie on the left end of the back row and Justin second from the left end of the front row. For those who know him, Jeffrey Holmgren is in the back row directly behind the goaltender.

Jamie getting his first hockey trophy from Wayne Holmgren. Justin is in the red shirt right behind him.

Looks like another shared birthday party. And now you can see little Josh sitting in the front of the picture, wanting a chance at getting into that cake.

Jamie in grade 3.

This is Justin on the left, with Stephen Courtney in the middle and Jamie on the right. I think they were going door to door asking for bottles. (I think there may have been a bit of fraud involved.) The boys were fairly creative at finding ways to get money.

Judy made these Halloween costumes for the boys. Jamie is a clown and Justin is a cat if my memory serves me correctly.

This is Jamie and his cousin Michael McKinney.

Jamie came home one day and didn't want to be called Jamie anymore. The Bionic Woman television show had come on TV and the character was a girl named Jamie Summers. The kids at school were giving him some grief over having a girls name so he wanted to be called James.

The boys got new house coats for Christmas. I believe they were hand made by their mother.

We moved from Calgary to Regina in 1983. This is James with one of his Regina hockey teams, the Leafs.

5th Grade at Elsie Dorsey School in Regina.

We moved to Estevan in 1985.

This is James with the Estevan Atom Oilers the first year we were in Estevan.

Grade 6 at Pleasantdale Elementary School in Estevan.

James second year in Estevan got him into an incredible hockey group coached by Alan Biette and managed by Bob Cossette.

Grade 7 at Estevan Junior High School.

The second year in Pee Wee AA had a weaker coaching staff. The bearded guy on the left is the head coach...me...we did OK but our success was based more on talent than good coaching.

Grade 8 at Estevan Junior High.

In 1988-1989 James was back into the strong hockey group. He was a first year bantam playing with some outstanding hockey players. They went on to win the Provincial Bantam AA championship and represent Saskatchewan at the Western Canada Purolator Cup Championship.

Grade 9 at Estevan Junior High.

We moved to Calgary during the summer of 1989.

James was the last cut from the Canadian Champion Midget AAA Buffaloes and played on the Midget AA Rangers as a second year bantam.

Grade 10 at Lord Beaverbrook High School in Calgary.

James had to choose between the Junior A Royals and the Midget Triple AAA Buffaloes for his first year of Midget eligibility in Calgary. He chose the Buffaloes so he could play in the Mac's Midget hockey tournament and get a chance to try out with Team Alberta for the Canada Winter Games.

Grade 11 at Lord Beaverbrook.

James played with Team Alberta at the Canada Winter Games. They lost the Gold medal game to Ontario and had to settle for the Silver medal.

James moved to Dauphin, Manitoba for his final year of high school. He wanted to graduate from Western Christian College.

James got to play for the Dauphin Kings Junior A hockey team while attending high school at Western.

This look kind of summarizes James attitude toward school in grade twelve. Up to this point James had been an outstanding student. It seemed that other things, (girls and hockey) had begun to overshadow school in his life.

I can remember trying to get his priorities staight through his early teen years with a saying. As I recall it went something like this..."School's first...Hockey's second...and girls don't exist!" (Wishful thinking, I know!)

Our close friends Doug and Cheryl Cox were the dorm parents at the boarding school in Dauphin, Manitoba. Doug also liked to dabble in photography. He took some of these pictures for James.

James got his wish to graduate from Western Christian College.

And as I said before, the boys were together most of the time. But you can see to the left of the picture that Justin's interests were expanding...that is his future wife Jennifer at his side.

James was scouted by many American Universities and ended up accepting a hockey scholarship from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. James graduated from Brown with a degree in Urban Studies.

.

James played a year of professional hockey in the East Coast Hockey League.

.

James finally opened his eyes and his heart to a young lady from Calgary that he had know for most of his life.

.

They were married in 2005.

Their wedding was a beautiful affair at the Calgary Zoo on a gorgeous summer day.

It was incredibly hot and sunny.

The bride was beautiful in white.

The groom was handsome in sweat.

And they lived happily ever after!
.

.

.

.

.
But wait...there's more.

On June 26, 2007 Margaret Olivia, our precious first grandaughter arrived.

They call her Maggie.

She is without a doubt the sweetest little girl in the world.

A proud papa, a beaming mama and a beautiful little girl.

See, I told you that James is still partial to pink.

This is James with Maggie at her first birthday party in 2008.

On April 16, 2009 Maggie got a little sister, Lyla Claire.

This is grandma Judy holding Lyla, who is a few hours old, with sister Maggie and mama Nicola in the background. We are so proud of our two beautiful granddaughters.

I now have one daughter, three daughters-in-law and two grand daughters.

Here's James, Nicola and Lyla just before leaving the hospital

And this is the way they all look now. If you want to know what this picture is about click the link for James and Nic that you can find on the right hand side near the start of this blog.

Well done my son. Your mama and your papa are very proud of you.

.

Have a wonderful birthday...

.

And more grandchildren would be OK too...I'm just say'in...