Rainy Day!

Rainy Days can be so much fun!  A few weeks ago, James and I were tired of being cooped up in the house from the rain.  We decided that it would be worth it to get a little wet outside.  We set up the bubble blower, aimed it at the outdoor rug so the bubbles would stick, and played until our fingers and toes were wrinkly. James loved it!  He would go from popping each bubble individually... 

...to swimming in all the bubbles...

 ...to attempting to blow them himself.  

 I think bubbles and rain showers make a perfect day!  Especially if you follow it up with ice cream, which we had to do after drying off.

During the next rainy day, I will have to help James perfect his categorizing/obsessive-compulsive skills.  Chris is very fearful if he continues to take after me in this area!   

Happy Birthday James!

He's two. TWO!! I still can't believe it! We had TWO wonderful weekends to celebrate James' Birthday. We headed to Auburn to celebrate with Grammy and Pops and to let Daddy attend the first Auburn game. Mom and I spent all Saturday morning finishing this...

James picked out the tractor and I picked the colors. I am so glad I had Mom's artistic eye to direct me on how to do this! I think my first decorated cake was a success!! James seemed to enjoy it! As a fairly neat mom, I'm kind of glad that I didn't have to clean cake off of everything, but I sure did enjoy that experience last year with his smash cake!

He was so excited opening presents! What a mini stud!

We took James down to campus to tailgate with some friends. James and Ellie went to Tiger Walk in style!

The kiddos would have been content letting us pull them around all afternoon. It came in quite handy keeping them entertained.

We also were able to see Mrs. Lori and Mr. Hallam. James believes that he will likely be as tall as Mr. Hallam and Daddy one day! Back at the house, James attemped a little mathematics. He wanted to figure out how many wheels he had total if he had 1 tricycle, 4 trains, 4 animals with wheels and 26 cars/trucks. He quickly decided it as more fun to play with them instead.

We made it home by James' Birthday and we gave him his present...a bike! He was sooo excited and wanted to ride it right away. He hasn't figured out how to pedal yet and doesn't care too much for putting his feet on the moving pedals, but we will get there soon enough!

The next weekend, we celebrated with Chris' family and cake number TWO! (I hope we don't keep this up having one cake for every year old!) I didn't decorate this one, thank goodness!

James loved hearing "Happy Birthday" sung to him again!

He also loved playing chase with cousin Charlie!

He had so much fun celebrating his Birthday with all our family! We all love you tremendously!

Now back to our math lesson.
How many wheels do you think can fit on James' new train table?


Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Silly Goose!

Just had to share about our silly little guy tonight (I'll post Birthday stuff soon)!

The Director of James' school caught me on my way in to pick James up and said that she needed to talk to me. Panic. What did he do? What did he not do? Has he been suspended? She smiled and said that James had been kissing one of the little girls in his classroom all day! Ha! I don't know who started it, but the little girl would laugh, which would just make James do it more! I didn't think he'd start that this early! I knew he was a snugglebunny with us, but with the around 2-year-olds, I had no clue!

I guess James never really pays attention to Chris or I during his night-time prayers. I started praying tonight while James was not quiet and I guess he realized that Chris and I were not paying attention to him. Since my eyes were closed, he told me to "Wake up, Mama!" and repeated it over and over and over again. Chris and I told him that he is supposed to close his eyes during the prayer just like Mama and Daddy. He complied with an accompanying scrunched nose so he could peek out his eyelids. I continued with the prayer until having to stop again to stop my giggling. He was doing a perfect impression of Stevie Wonder, swinging his head around with his eyes closed tight to see what the room looked like with squinty eyes! It was too cute!

I don't think snugglebunny or Stevie Wonder would be good costumes for Halloween. Gotta think some more.

Iowa Trip

James took his 3rd adventure on an airplane to visit Uncle Trey in Iowa last weekend. We had such perfect timing for so many reasons: the Iowa State Fair was going on, the weather was perfect, and we were able to celebrate Trey's engagement to wonderful Amy! I am sooo excited for them and so proud that Trey has found someone so perfect for him. We all look forward to celebrating their wedding and I look forward to adding Amy to our family.

James was such a sport during the trip! He ate a whole box of raisins (his favorite) while we sat waiting for takeoff in Atlanta and slept the whole flight going up! He remembered Uncle Trey and his 'peek-a-boo' games, since after Trey picked us up, James started trying to initiate peek-a-boo while Trey was driving. James loved playing with cars or animals with Trey and would wake up every morning asking about "Un-Kay" (Uncle Trey) and Amy. Once Trey would wake up, James would climb all over him and enjoyed giving him big squeezes. We enjoyed playing in Trey's backyard as well. Chris climbs the same tree every visit, and James was obsessed with Trey's tomato plants. James would have picked and eaten all the tomatoes (ripe or not) if we left him to! I am sure that Uncle Trey enjoyed having us around, but I'm not so sure that he misses James as his backseat driver. At almost every red light, James would tell Uncle Trey to 'go, go go'!

Sunday morning, we went to Trey and Amy's church. James visited the nursery without any problem. In fact, we were told that he was the only one in the birth to 3 room that did not cry!! He's a trooper! That afternoon, we visited a really cool park so James could run around. We had such a great time!

On Monday, Amy had to go to work, so Trey, Chris, James and I went to the Iowa State Fair. It was HUGE!!! We saw many animals (pigs, horses, cows, sheep), saw the massive butter cow and butter Dr. Seuss characters, ate some yummy food (fried Milky Way, fried twinkie, fried pineapple on a stick, 'walking taco'-bag of Doritos with taco fixings, fried cheese curds, fresh Iowa apple, and corn dogs), perused the prize winning fruits and veggies, watched a Veteran's parade, and saw some neat old farm equipment. James loved seeing all the livestock and continually asked to see the 'am-mals' (animals). While in the horse barn, we were letting James check out a miniature horse when a lady came over and asked if James wanted to pet one. She said that she was on our flight from Atlanta and recognized us! I remembered her cute black and white purse! Too cool! We also took James to a little petting zoo. He thought that the goats and cows were the best. He thought the cow's wet noses were hilarioius!

Since it rained Tuesday, we adventured to the mall to let James play in the play area. James was such a big boy and was so independent playing around ALL those other children. I was one proud Mama! After nap, we had to say good-bye to Uncle Trey. We had such a great time with Trey and Amy and look forward to many more adventures together! I am so thankful that they had us up to visit!

Night-Night Love You

Chris went out of town this weekend and came home to this kiddo.

Still wondering where my little James went off to.

James was just precious tonight. He is becoming so verbal and remembers so much! Makes me extremely thankful and appreciative. We will occasionally pull a "Goodnight Moon"-er and tell things around his room night-night. Tonight I told many of his things night-night and then James named his own. He said, "night-night mukik" (music), "night-night Mickey", "night-night Ham Mae-ee" (Handy Manny), "night-night eyeshtai" (Little Einsteins). Not only does James love these shows, Chris also brought home each of these toy figures from Disney World this past weekend. I guess you can tell what the important things are to James. :)

Even more magical, for the first time, James told both Chris and I "Love You" by himself. It just melted my heart. Makes a perfect ending to a day.

Growing Like a Weed

Before (September 2009)...

...and after (July 2010)

First of all, I cannot believe that he can still fit into this outfit (especially since it says 12 months). Secondly, I cannot believe that he has grown so much! Put those two together and it doesn't make much sense, does it? He never ceases to amaze Chris and I. We are so proud of him!

Blessed!

We haven't taken a family photo since Easter (Bad Mommy)! We got all dressed up tonight to go out to eat, so I though it would be a good time to take a new updated picture of us. We had to sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" to get James to grin at the camera, since we used the remote to take the picture. I think they turned out pretty well!

I am in absolute LOVE with these two!