A Day Out

Every January we have a warm up period in our weather here in Utah. Tempratures rise and our air gets more and more polluted. Yesterday was one of those warmer days and I decided to brave the horrible air quality outside and take James to the park. Since I had found some old bread the day before (while organizing our pantry) I decided to take him to Murray Park to play and feed the ducks. Since James ADORES his Uncle Robbie (who did not work yesterday and will soon be going on a mission for two years) he came too!

When we got to the park we didn't find too many ducks. We did, however, find gaggles of geese! James wasn't too sure about feeding them at first but rapidy caught on and started enjoying it. The initially cautious geese slowly gathered closer and closer until we were completely surrounded and there were even some geese eating out of our hands!

Once the bread ran out we headed for the park. On the way there we found a muskrat scurrying around on the grass. He froze as soon as we caught sight of him. He was HUGE!

The park was a riot. Since James was not walking before it started to cool off last fall, this was only his second or third trip to the park. He LOVED it! He kept squealing and giggling and running around. Thankfully everything was dry enough he didn't get completely soaked. He loved the slides (especially the big one he went down with Uncle Robbie over and over), the spinning cup thing (the last two pics in the slide show), running around at random, and attempting to make friends with the other kids at the park.

When I tried to get him to stop and have some picnic lunch he threw a fit. All I could get him to eat was apple juice, a few gummie fruit snacks, and a couple potato chips (talk about a meal of champs!)

All in all we were there for almost an hour and a half. James still was heartbroken when we left. Guess I'll have to watch the weather for more clear days when we can go to the park again!

PS- After all this excitement we ALL (yes, this includes Robbie and myself) went home and took a nap. Parks are tiring!

Random Family Pics

Everyone be very amazed. Getting a picture of Andrew is about as hard as photographing wild zebras in Utah and getting one with him facing the camera is even harder but I did it! This is my darling hubby with his hippy hair. Isn't he cute?

These next few pictures are of my biggest helper. James has decided he loves to clean with mommy (which means he steals all of my brooms, dusters, and mops and sits or stands directly in front of me so I can not get any cleaning done). We've found that the swiffer works best for him since it's small enough he can actually handle it. The mop and broom and still a bit to big. I'm sure that about the time he is actually able to really help cleaning he will have decided cleaning is no longer fun so I guess I should enjoy this while it lasts!

James is sure my buddy. I'm lucky to be able to be home with such a happy 1 year old every day. The conversations are usually one-sided (meaning either I am talking to James and he ignores me and keeps playing or he jabbers to me in some baby dialect I cannot understand). Luckily James is learning new words all the time. His current vocab list is: puppy (his favorite word), hi, mama, dada, baby, wawa (Aunt Laura), obbie (Uncle Robbie), Gama (Grandma), Gama (Grandpa- he hasn't quite figured out how to work in the p), mo (more- which is always doubled with a pointing finger and applies to anything he sees or wants), dit-do (thank you- he is very good at being grateful), bah (bonk- he says this anytime he falls or hits his head), no, and his latest word is bye which he loudly proclaims to anyone who puts on a jacket or coat or heads toward a door. My poor sister Melissa doesn't have a name easy enough for James to say so for the present she is nameless to James (Andrew is trying to convince James to call her Auntie Poop-poop... Melissa doesn't approve).

Christmas!

Christmas was awesome this year. Andrew and I were very grateful to have our own place to celebrate Christmas in this year (unlike last year when we were homeless). We spent Christmas Eve very busy (as usual). We started Christmas Eve off with going to my Damewood grandparent's house in Layton. Since Andrew had to work Christmas Eve we arrived in Layton around 3:00. We had a lovely time visiting my Dad's side of the family and we all got some fun presents. We then hurried to Andrew's parent's church where the Hillers werer meeting for their Christmas Eve get together. There we had still some more food and even more presents. James loved being able to run around the gym and play with his cousins! I was excited because I got to choose some pottery items that Andrew's mom had made that are now being proudly displayed in our home (and at Andrew's

desk at work). Thank you Holly! After the Hiller's party we went home and all had a lovely night's rest.

Christmas morning we wound up waking James up so we could do our own personal Christmas morning before we headed off to my parents to join in theirs. James was a little disgruntled at first but when he discovered he could touch the Christmas presents under the tree I had been telling him all season he couldn't he was pretty happy. He really liked the remote control truck he got and his new Little People toys. Andrew was excited with his gun safe and tools (sounds like the lamest Christmas imaginable to me though) and I was so happy to finally have some new and cute clothes and shoes!

Christmas at my parents was fun too. Still more presents, tons of great food, and more people to help me watch James. Although we usually go to Andrew's Hiller grandparent's house Christmas afternoon, Grandma Bonnie decided to cancel due to "bad" weather. When the weather wound up being far worse the day after Christmas when she had her get together she felt really bad. Andrew and I discovered first-hand just how bad the roads were the night of the 26th when we spun out of control on the freeway on our way home from Grandma Bonnie's. We covered all four lanes of traffic and spun around at least 4 or 5 times. Miraculously we didn't hit anything or anyone and were able to drive home moments after our "incident". Boy did it give us a scare though.

PICKLES!

James had his first pickle today. Since my crazy son likes to eat all sorts of things I hate (such as onions slices raw) I figured pickles would be one more thing to add to the list. Well, I was right. He loved them! They did, however, end up being a little more than he expected. He got the cutest bitter pucker! If you look from one picture to the next you can see his sour face form. I feed him pickles all the time now just to see him pucker!

Pie Supper

For decades my mom's family has been celebrating Pie Supper (which in my opinion should be made a national holiday). The night before Thanksgiving we all get together. Everyone brings a pot luck soup or rolls (which means there is always at least 5 or 6 different soups or chilis) and about a zillion pies and cheesecakes. The only rule with Pie Supper is that you have to eat at least one bowl of soup before indulging in the wonderland of sweets. Since every family brings anywhere from 1 to 10 or so pies/cheesecakes and my mom is the oldest of 10 kids, there is pretty much any pie you could ever want available on Pie Supper. Our family philosophy is this: on Thanksgiving Day there are tons of wonderful things to eat... so many that you don't really have enough room in your stomach to adequately enjoy the dessert side of Thanksgiving dinner. By having the pie supper the Wednesday before we can fully satisfy our sweet tooths so we can focus on the main meal aspects of dinner on Thanksgiving Day. All in all a brilliant plan.



James loved being in a new place surrounded by so many people to pay attention to him. I tried to get him to eat some cherry cheesecake but as you can see, more of it ended up ON him than IN him. In any case, we all had a wonderful time and gave ourselves insulin overloads to the extreme. Only 363 days until next Pie Supper.

Sweet Dreams!!!

James has started putting himself down for naps and bedtime. Not in the way you'd think though. He doesn't lie down in bed and listen to soft music or hug a teddy bear or something of that sort, he gets his bottle (which I should be weaning him off of) and lies on the ground with a blanket or a pillow, attempts to do some funky modern dance looking routine on the floor until he finally falls asleep. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes and other times over a half hour. Since Andrew's had surgery and we can't go anywhere we've been watching a lot of movies. James watches enthralled until he drifts off to sleep. He's a TV addict already! Where did I go wrong?! ; ) He's so independent in his going to sleep routine that if you try to hold him or cuddle him while he's falling asleep he flails and elbows you and screams until you put him down. Is he his mother's son or what?

Walking Finally!!!

James is FINALLY walking with some confidence. He kinda keeps his hands in front of him like Frankenstein but the fact that he actually prefers to walk rather than crawl is a big step. He takes his walking very seriously too. If he falls it pretty much signals the end of his world and he is emotional for quite some time. This walking business does come with some down sides though (as we all have discovered). James has more than a few rather large bruises on his body. He keeps trying to run too. He's got it all figured out except for the part where his legs and feet keep up! Before I know it I'll have a very mobile, very fast, and even more meddlesome toddler.