Whoville

Saturday we went to our ward's Christmas party. The theme was Whoville Christmas and our costumes turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself :)

Almost everything was found at Goodwill!

Our little reindeer who :)

We were so impressed, he kept his reindeer antlers on for the entire party!

 He didn't really like Santa....so that makes about 2 people so far that he has been scared of.

Merry Christmas!!!



Christmas Activities

I am definitely getting into the Christmas spirit!! I found a Christmas music radio station and have been playing it when I am in the car. Anthony can't stand it :) He absolutely hates old timey crooning type of music. He thinks it is ear torture. So, I usually just play it when it is me and James in the car and I instantly start thinking of Christmas. Holidays are so much more fun now that we have a kid. It is like you get to relive the holidays through a child's eyes and reexperience the magic. Usually Christmas is pretty ho-hum for us, but this year it is so much more exciting because we've been planning out what traditions we want to start for James.

Things we are starting this year:

• Presents of Christmas pajamas that we open on Christmas eve. Ours are gators of course!
• Picking out a new Christmas ornament every year that represents something about the past year and a new ornament for James. I got this idea from my friend Leah, she gets each of her kids an ornament each year that is theirs to put up on the tree and then when they move away from home they get to take all of their ornaments with them. Cool right! We are going to Hallmark tomorrow for family home evening to pick them out
• Having a letter in each person's stocking from Santa telling them how they were good that year. Anthony and I will write letters to each other, and I can't wait for my stocking to see what he writes!

Here are our Christmas decorations with all of our presents under the tree. (I am all finished with my Christmas shopping, horray!)

You got to love pinterest, it gave me an idea for decorating our front room with snowflakes and Leah gave me the idea for the snow.

I've been looking for Christmas events for us to go to around here and last night we tried to go to a live nativity. I heard that it was really good and was looking forward to it. I thought it was going to be something where you just walked through, see some animals and the nativity scene and be done in 10 minutes. Aparantly it was much more involved than that, and as a result there was a long wait. We waiting in line outside for 45 minutes to an hour, thinking that it was the line for the nativity. Wrong. Once we got to the front we found out it was the line to get tickets to go in at least an hour and half later! By that time it was past James' bedtime and he was getting fussy, so we decided to go home. It wasn't a total waste though. We got to see a donkey, a lamb, a roman soldier on a horse, and a camel while we were waiting in line!

Here is James and me with the camel. We couldn't get James to look at the camera because he wanted to see the camel! He loves animals so much, it is so cute to see :)

Next week is our ward christmas party and the entire family is dressing up like Who's from Whoville. Stay tuned for pictures!!

10 Months Old

James is 10 months old today!! At this point it feels like he does something new and exciting almost every day! He is now the proud owner of 4 teeth (the front two top and bottom) and he has started saying mama and dada pretty regularly and purposefully. He has started to give kisses when we ask him to and pucker up, although his version of kisses is a wide open mouth with a little bit of tongue!

As you can see from the video, he has also started doing this fast breathing, scrunched up nose laugh and it is hilarious!! We love to watch him do it and sometimes we can get him to do it if we just imitate him.

He is still mostly army crawling, although he has started to pull up and climb on anything he can get his hands on. He loves to climb all over people sitting on the floor and he will ignore a wide open space around you and decide that he needs to crawl over you to get to something.

He loves to walk around with someone holding on to his hands for balance, so we went out and got him a walker from a nearby consignment store. So far, he hasn't been too interested in it but I am sure that will change as soon as he figures it out.

He ended up with another ear infection a few weeks ago (we think it came from the teething), so the last time we weighed him, he was a whopping 19 pounds! He loves all things electronic and gets so excited when he gets a hold of remotes, controllers, or cell phones. He loves cell phones so much, we decided to give him one of our  old ones to play with! He loves that thing!!! He has also decided that it is his job to go around to all the rooms in the house and remove the springy door stops from the wall. It takes him 2 seconds to twist them off the wall and then he is on to the next room. I find them around the house all the time and I have to search from room to room to see which one is missing one.

He has also started to do peek-a-boo randomly throughout the day. If he gets a hold of a blanket or his pants when I am changing his diaper, he takes it with both hands, lifts it up to his face and then quickly pulls it down and looks at us, waiting. We always say "peek-a-boo" and he grins. Then he does it again. And again. And again :) He has also discovered that he loves the game of dropping things on the floor and waiting for us to pick it up and give it back to him. One day Anthony was holding him and James dropped his pacifier. Anthony swooped James down to the ground to let him pick it up himself and James thought it was so funny, he couldn't drop it again fast enough!

Our little boy is growing so fast, it is so much fun to see him learn new things and see how happy he is. Everyone who meets him always comments on what a happy baby he is and we are so glad that he is. He is so curious about the world and can be so determined when he wants to get at something or figure it out. It really is amazing to see his personality emerging and to get a glimpse at the person that he is growing up to be!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we hosted Thanksgiving for the very first time and I cooked my first turkey!! It turned out really well, I am happy to say. Based a suggestion from some friends I decided to brine the turkey before cooking it and I think it really made a difference. We also cooked the turkey breast side down in the roasting pan, to make it extra juicy. Everyone said it was delicious!!

I wasn't sure how many people were coming, so I got a HUGE turkey to be on the safe side. I figured we could always eat the leftovers, so I got a 24 pound turkey!!! There were a few snags while I was preparing the brine and fitting the turkey in the fridge was a challenge ( I had to get Anthony to help). I also for the life of me couldn't find the giblets and thought that maybe we just got a turkey without one, but when I went to get it ready to go in the oven I found the packet of them stuffed in the neck (I had been looking in the cavity). Useful information to have for next time! :) We had so many leftovers, we gave some to Anthony's parents to take home and my brothers and were still left with two entire containers full of turkey. Tonight we are having turkey sandwiches for dinner :)

 Anthony's mom, Sharon, making vegetables.

 James with his Great Grandma Lagana.

The rest of the dinner worked out perfectly, with everyone pitching in and bringing food. We missed having my mom there, but we had fun with Anthony's parents, his grandmother, and my brothers. James had fun just watching everyone and crawling around and following the excitment from room to room.

Now it is time to put the christmas tree and decorations up and get ready for Christmas. I love the holidays!

Fun and Baby Legs

We've been having a good November! Here is a picture of James when I took him to a horse rescue a few weeks ago. He had so much fun, petting a kitten and looking at the horses, goats, and chickens. James really loves animals, which of course we are excited about!

Last night James started giving us kisses, which is so cute!! He doesn't pucker his lips at all, but he gets this serious look on his face and then he comes at you with his mouth open and his tongue right by his lips. It is hilarious!

I love this time of year, especially all of the family gatherings, activities, and parties to go to! This year our ward christmas party's theme is "whoville" (from The Grinch who Stole Christmas) and I have had so much fun getting things together for it! I found the perfect dress for me and pants for Ant at goodwill and I found this tutorial online for turning socks into baby legs for James. It is really fun to go to thrift stores, looking for crazy, wacky additions to our costumes!



Baby Giggles=Baby Crack

Last night we discovered that snorting makes James crack up!! Anthony got a video of it with his phone and when I tried to rotate it so that it is right side up, the sound disappeared, which is kind of the point of the entire video. I promise, tilting your head to watch will be worth it!

Adventures

Last month we decided to go to the beach for family home evening and take a walk by the water. We had never been to this beach before, but it was so easy to park and so close to our house, and literally minutes from Anthony's work! He even thought it would be nice to eat his lunch her some time, but I predict that will never happen :) There was also an easy geocache here that we had to grab. You have to stand next to this surfing monument and get your picture taken. Then you have to post that day's surf report when you log that you visited.

The beach sand was perfect for walking on and Anthony collected some mangroves for his tank. You can also drive on the beach if you want to and James thought it was so funny to see the cars go by! He just kept laughing and laughing when one car drove by us. Too cute! We also saw some kite surfers while we were out and it was the coolest thing! It looked like so much fun, I will definitely have to try that someday :)

Last month we also took James to the park for his first time on the swings by himself! I imagined that he would love it and go crazy, but he seemed unimpressed :) He still had fun though, especially with us making silly faces at him.

Now that the weather has cooled down, we've been trying to take more walks in the afternoon as a family. We had to get a picture of the little guy in his stroller:



Ha! He looks surprised to see us!!

Last night we made a trip to the grocery store and tried out having James sit directly in the cart instead of in his car seat on top of the cart (which he has almost completely grown out of. New car seat has already been ordered for free courtesy of swagbucks!!) He kept hanging on the sides of the cart and it made him look like he was bracing himself for a wild ride :)

We've just been having fun and adventures here in babyland!

The ultimate in cuteness smackdown: Puppies vs. Babies

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Puppies vs. Babies for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ah, the age old question: "What is cuter, puppies or babies?" :)  I have to say, this is a toughy for me. Before we had James, we had our two fur babies, Bitsy and Brownie, and although they cause no end of aggravation I do admit that they are darn cute! When we brought them home they were just these tiny balls of cuteness that fit into the palm of our hand. We would carry them around in our pockets and they would snuggle up to us with their puppy breath. Awwwwww! Then again, my baby does a lot more tricks than my puppies and is genetically linked to me. And is, in my opinion, the cutest baby ever made. Such a tough decision!

Luckily, the ultimate decision isn't up to me alone, it is up to America! Go online to cast your vote here: Puppies vs. Babies online contest. It is too late to submit your own puppy or baby for voting, but you can let your opinion be known.

So who did I decide would win in our own household's puppies vs. babies?....

Baby James of course!!! Have you seen pictures of him lately? That kid is adorable!! He totally would have won the contest if he were in it!  (Hmmm... that kind of makes me sound like a pageant mom). Puppies are cute and cuddly, but I don't get the urge to kiss and squish them hourly like I do James :)

So what did you decide? Go to Puppies vs. Babies to vote now! There are tons of cute pictures if you need help deciding. Plus, you get to look at all of the puppies and babies, and who can resist that? :)

Leave me a comment to tell me who you voted for!

9 Months Old

He isn't pulling up yet, we stood him up in his crib for the picture...still, looks like we need to lower the crib!

My little boy is 9 months old today! This month literally flew by and a lot of things have happened as far as his development. He finally started teething and is now the proud owner of two teeth! He got really congested and cold-like when he was working on his second tooth and as a result got an ear infection, so he also had his first round of antibiotics this month. Another big step he took this month is crawling! He started army crawling and is making his way towards getting into everything in the house:

He says "mama" and "dada" now, although not specifically at one of us. He says "dada" all the time and "mama" occasionally when he is hurt or upset. No fair! :) We are working on baby sign language but he hasn't picked up on any signs yet. He has started banging his hands on the tray of his high chair whenever he wants more cheerios, so I've started showing him the sign for "more" when he does that. Hopefully he will catch on! He loves going to the baby classes at the library and has started to really interact with the leader and the other kids. He loves to crawl up to them and touch them and look at them. Especially if they have sparkly or shiny shoes on!

He loves playing peek-a-boo and it is probably the thing that gets him laughing the most. He will even laugh if Anthony just looks away and then looks back and him and says "peek-a-boo!". One night Anthony was playing with him by hiding behind the wall and then jumping out at him and saying "peek-a-boo!" and James was loving it! Then, I guess Anthony waited too long or something because when he jumped out James screamed in terror and started wailing!! He was really scared!! I have never heard him cry like that! I guess we should have felt bad, but it was so funny we couldn't stop laughing. I know, mean parents :)

James has started to have a little bit of stranger anxiety, but he is selective. So far, it has only been with men: my brothers and a friend of ours from church. It is kind of hard that it is so unpredictable when he will get scared because we don't know how to plan for it really. Hopefully it stays mild and he doesn't get too scared of strangers as he gets older. We love how happy he is to meet new people and go to new places!

Mini Vacay

Today was an unexpected vacation! Yesterday a pipe burst at Anthony's work and they told everyone that the office was unusable until Monday...so that means that Anthony would get to stay home with us!!! We stayed up late last night watching tv and slept in together this morning. It was so nice! James must have gotten the memo because he slept in too, until almost 9am!!

Since Anthony was home, I got the chance to mow the lawn in the morning while James and Anthony played with the aquarium together. When I got back inside after I finished it was so cute to see Anthony working away at the tank and James in his exersaucer playing happily next to him. Later in the afternoon Anthony got to hang out with an aquarium buddy and then tonight we got chinese food and visited a pet store that had large birds, iguanas, gerbils, hamsters, and puppies! James wasn't too impressed, but Anthony and I loved looking at the animals :)

I was getting so excited because tomorrow Anthony was going to go with us to our baby class at the library and then to the trunk and treat in the evening...then his work called to tell him that they are borrowing office space from another doctor so it is back to work tomorrow. Bummer! Hopefully he won't have to work as late as usual and can still go to the trunk and treat with us. Still, today was fun and was better than nothing. I guess it is back to our regularly scheduled programming for James and me :)

Pictures of my Pumpkin

Today we broke out the camera and to get some pictures of James in his new fall outfit:

Happy Halloween!!

Friday Confessional

I confess...
I had a small setback in my stay at home happiness last week. I found out from a friend that the girl that took over my job just got a bigger office and an assistant...which could have been me had we made different decisions...which made me feel like the world is passing me by and every one else is moving on to bigger and better things while I am stuck at home.

I confess...
Thanks to my awesome husband and friends I got over it pretty quickly. I know we made the right decision for me to stay at home, even though it doesn't feel like it at times. And it is okay for me not to feel all sunshine and gum drops about it all the time. That's life. I can't let the world's definition of success and value interfer with my own perception of my worth or the worth of the work I am doing now. So there! :)

I confess...
It helps that Halloween, my favorite holiday, is coming up soon! I love this time of year, fall festivals, pumpkins, costumes, and spooky music. I reserved a kids halloween music cd from the library and I can't wait for it to come in so James and I can dance around to halloween music.

I confess...
I tried my very first green smoothie yesterday and I am hooked! It tasted soooo good and I felt all so healthy while drinking it. I've decided to try to have one at least every other day and I am going to the produce stand later today to gather supplies. Deliciousness, here I come!

What are you confessing today?

Stand up for Family and good clean laughter!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Anthony and I love to watch comedies together. Once we find something good, we end up watching it over and over!  We both really love stand up comedy, but it can be really hard to find good clean stand up out there. I can't tell you how many specials we have tried to watch on Netflix and have turned off within a few minutes because of language, etc... I feel like if you need to be crass to be funny, then you really aren't that talented.

If you are like us, and are in search of some good, clean stand up, you should check this out: Stand Up For Family. I just spent the last 20 minutes watching the videos and couldn't stop laughing! It is so refreshing to have comedians talk about real life without taking it down into the gutter. My favorites are definitely the videos by Bill Bellamy, especially this one about Eye Begging:

All his videos remind me of my childhood in some way, especially when he talks about his mom. His mom definitely seems a little tougher than my mom was, but she for sure didn't put up with any nonsense! I like that when I think about my childhood and how I was raised, it reminds me of what kind of parent I want to be. I feel really blessed that I had a good example and a good template to base my parenting on, since I know that it isn't the case for a lot of people.

I'm so glad that AmFam sponsored these videos. I wish that more companies would take a stand for clean fun and family values. When you really think about it, our family relationships shape so much of our life experiences that we need to make them a priority in our lives. I can honestly say that my family are my best friends and I wouldn't want it any other way.

So check out American Family Insurance and enjoy some family-centered comedy!

We've got a tooth!

Ever since James was 4 months old, he has had bouts of being super drooly and cranky. We always wondered, "Could he be teething....", but nothing ever came of it. This past week he has been cranky and even woke up crying in the middle of the night a few times, which he never does. We almost didn't want to ask ourselves if he is teething, because we wondered about it a gagillion times and were wrong, but today we felt the first tooth peeking through! It is hard to get a look at, since the wriggly guy won't stay still and let us look in his mouth for long, bit I happened to catch a glimpse. He is finally getting some teeth!! I can't wait to get those pictures with the toothy smiles!

Also, a few days ago James said his first word! We've been trying to get him to say "mama" or "dada" for awhile, but he usually just laughs at us. The other day we were saying "dada" to him and he actually repeated it on purpose!! He has started doing it much more now and it is so funny to listen to, because he actually uses a different voice when he is trying to "talk" versus just babbling. So cute! I'm not sure that if officially counts as a first word, since he didn't really know what he was saying but we are going with it :)

Saving money with TracFone

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TracFone for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you ever looked at your cell phone bill? I mean, really looked at it. I did the other day and you know what I realized? Last month I spent $10.49 in fees and surcharges! That is $125.88 a year!! We could pay for James' new car seat right there if we didn't have those fees, not to mention the actual cost of our plans. Seriously, if we weren't already in a contract (darn those tempting free upgrades with contract renewals!!) we would be switching and saving some serious money!

If you are interested in saving some money, you should check out TracFone! TracFone offers all the convenience and features you could want in a cell phone with the flexibility of no contracts and different minutes options to fit your own family's needs. No credit check, no activation charges, and no cancelation fees. Awesome, right?  This would also be perfect if you have wanted to get a cell phone for your kids, but didn’t want to mess with additional contracts and fees! I definitely will be doing this with James when he is old enough, it is so affordable!

They also offer great nationwide coverage and brand name phones like Motorola and Samsung. You can choose from more simple phones like mine or fancier smart phones like Anthony’s (he has to have his internet access!). Plus, they have a great selection in both categories for amazing prices!

So many features



The plans are great too. You can pay as you go online, which I think would be a great option for a teenager’s phone, or you can go with the monthly plans: 200 minutes for under $30 or as low as $9.99 for 50 minutes. You can pick and choose what works best for your situation! I’ve had the same contract plan for so long, that having all these options feels so luxurious :)

If you are a cooler person than me and need to make international calls, it’s no problem! You can call over 60 international destinations from your TracFone for no extra cost and they even have an International Neighbors program that lets you give your friends and family in Mexico or Canada a local number in those countries for them to call you in the US. Cool, huh? Now I need to get me some international friends to call…  

Here’s the scoop from some real TracFone customers:
Real TracFone customers

What are you waiting for? Go check it out! 

8 Months Old

My little buddy is 8 months old today! Isn't that amazing? This month literally flew by! Here are some pictures:

 What a cutie! I can't believe how long his limbs look in this picture. He has gotten really good at sitting up and will spend long periods of time just sitting and playing with his toys that are in reach.

 He loves chewing on the clip to this toy. I've even seen him flip it over, looking for the clip before he grabs it. Funny!

 Here he is grabbing another toy that was nearby. He instantly reaches for anything and everything that is near him where ever we go. We went to an aquarium store the other day and he kept reaching for the anemones in the tank. He just wants to touch everything!

 I tried to get him smiling, but the picture always ends up like this :)

 Outtake!!!

The dogs made a noise and he turned to check it out. He is so curious all the time!! He can't hear a noise or sound without trying to investigate what is making it.

New things this month:

• He has started eating cheerios and puffed rice and he LOVES to feed himself. He still lets me feed him purees, but I think he would be happy eating cheerios all the time if I let him. We all get a kick out of watching him feed himself since when he started he was so bad at it and now he shovels it in like a pro!
• He had his first episode of stranger anxiety with my brother when he came to visit and it was adorable and sad at the same time :) He would look at his face with this confusion and then slowly the cry would come over his face and he would stick his bottom lip out. Then he would cry and look around for someone to save him. He has also decided that he is NOT okay with me leaving his side and will cry the second I leave his line of sight. Sometimes I just ignore it, but mostly I just take him with me all around the house and everywhere I go. Anthony said he feels snubbed that he doesn't act the same way towards him. Anthony left the house the other day and told James, "Okay, I'm leaving, you can cry now". Of course, I decided that would be a good time to tickle James so he would laugh. I know. I'm mean :)
• You know how we taught him to make noise when we pat his mouth? He has learned to do it to himself! It is hilarious!! He will just be sitting there and decide to bring his fingers to his mouth and make a wavy noise with it. He was a hit when he did it at the baby class this week. He doesn't say mama or dada, but he learned how to be a ham fast enough!