I bought this shirt for James about a month after I found out we were prego. I thought it would be YEARS before he would fit into it. And yet here he is wearing it. My baby is growing up. I can't believe how big he grown up he is getting.

He is also developing a silly little personality and knows how to use his cuteness in his favor.

Things he can do:

- He can say "hi" "cat" "woof" "mama" and "dada"

- He can work sign "more" "please" "milk" "food" and I feel like something else but I can't remember.

-He understands a TON of what we say to him which is awesome.

- He can find Goodnight Gorilla anywhere in the bedroom

-He can find the gorilla, elephant, and lion on each page of Goodnight Gorilla

-He knows where his head, shoulders, knees, toes, ears are and my nose mouth and eyes. He likes to poke me in the eyes.

-He loves his cat and dog.

-He loves to give his cat and dog a snuggle.

-He is awesome.

On non James news:

-I'm half way done with my Masters

-I'm doing conferences next week which is exhausting just thinking about it

-I'm having fun making a lot of handmade Christmas gifts this year. Pictures to come after they have been given.

-It is looking more like we wont have a house by Christmas. BOOO. BOOO times five thousand.

-Next week I'm going to make pumpkin pies from pumpkins not cans. sweet.

-This week I finally redeemed my birthday gift from Jason: one full week of not having to any dishes or have to hear Jason complain about doing dishes. It is sweet.

-Yesterday I had to change ZERO diapers.

-I think that is all for now.

James is awesome.

How I want to spend my nights, but what I must do instead.

Before Christmas I have to:

-Write five IEPs

-Write 35 sets of progress reports

-Give 15 sets of reading grades

-Write a ten page paper on visual arts including two lesson plans, one to be taught

-Sew a bunch of Christmas Gifts

-Hopefully close on a house, pack, move, unpack, decorate, and create a happy home for Christmas.

But instead all I would really rather do is spend my evenings sitting on the couch and read the book I just got sucked into. Ok, well read my book and the last thing about finally getting a house.

And now for a cute picture. James like his mama also likes a good book:

James is 15 months old this weekend, which is ridiculous. He has gotten to become a fun and exciting little boy. He likes to climb, dance, giggle, and sign. He has learned to sign "food" "more" "please" "water" "up" and "bye." It is cute. Sometimes he even says "more" "food" "please." We are still working on words out loud, sometimes he will say "da" for dog and "ca" for cat when he sees a picture of them. When he sees a cow he says "mmmmmmm." Bedtime is my new favorite, for about two months now our routine is read Jesus Storybook Bible and then Good Night Gorilla. Jason reads the bible while I feed him a snack. Then I will say "go get Good Night Gorilla" and he knows what I'm asking and will go find it. Last night he found it under the mattress at the side of the room which is impressive since Jason and I didn't know where it was.

On a personal note, work is kinda stinky this year. However, I lost ten pounds this summer!

On a house note, still none yet.

I redecorated our blog! Yippee!

Now if only I could figure out how to do different formates for the pictures.

It has been forever since I posted and since James and Jason are both napping I thought I would take advantage. James has been doing lots this past month. He turned a year! Had his first ice cream (picture stolen from Megan's blog), started walking, learned to take the wii remote from me and shake it at the tv while giggling. He also forgot how to sleep well. I quit nursing him a week and a half ago. The first week went great and this week it seems to finally have clicked and he is now having major melt downs at bed time when we put him down, then cries for an hour. Awesome.

On a non James note we now have offers on two different houses and we are looking at a third possible house today. The house that we had the first offer on is by far my favorite house, it is beautiful inside and fits perfectly with everything I hoped for in a house. It has a beautiful kitchen and fireplace. A decent sized yard. We should hear on this one in about a month we hope. The second house we call the mushroom house. There used to be a tree in the front yard and they chopped it down, to make the stub less obnoxious looking they put a big rock shaped like a mushroom cap on top. The inside of the house has a lot of potential. It needs a lot of paint and a total remodel of the kitchen (including knocking walls down). Its pros are it has a GIANT yard. I could use half of the yard for a very very large garden and the kids would still have a big yard to play and room for a trampoline if we wanted one some day. Plus it is one block from the school I want him at. That one will take at least four months for the short sale to go through on.

I'm torn on which house I want more and wish I could fuse the two properties into one. Luckily we can just pray about it and God will decide for us by letting the banks approve one for us. What it will come down to is which one we get approval on first because we had our apartment.

***edited***

We now have an offer on a third house as well. This one has a pretty good sized yard, the inside is great all it really needs is a lot of paint. Also it has a pretty decent view of the sound from two of the bedrooms. It is forty thousand more than the other two houses BUT it is 85 thousand less that what it was originally on the market for and we could know as early as two months.

James turns one year old next week! I'm stoked and sad at the same time. I can't believe he is already a year and sometimes I miss my itty bitty baby. But mostly I'm stoked because he is so much fun these days.

James is resourceful. Today I wasn't cooking dinner fast enough for him so he found the English Muffins, shook the bag until he got them out, and then sat on the kitchen floor eating it. He looked like a total big boy munchin away on his snack.

And also he totally took two steps today. Good work James.

teething is.... not fun.

On a side note... this is the 100th post! and there is 39 days until my son is 1 year.

Hi Great Grandma Wilma, Great Grandpa AJ, and Great Great Grandma Bohn!!

Just watched the cutest thing

James is determined that he wants to be sitting up in his bed right now, with his blankets piled up in his lap. However he is also VERY sleepy and every few minutes starts to tip over and then catches himself and sits right back up. I have watched him tip over at least ten times now.

I have determined James' personality. He is a laid back, energetic organizer. The past few days he has started to play with purpose, which Jason is totally in love with. It has been cute, we can sit for up to an hour watching as James will move his toys about. Mostly his blocks, he will move them all from one chair to a different chair across the room, once that is completed he will move them to a new location. He has also been known to help with the laundry in that he will pull his diapers all out of the basket and then put them all back in the basket. Currently he is stacking his pancake bites into the cup holder of his high chair and then eating them one at a time from there.

He has learned how to play hide and seek. Well, sorta. He has learned how to play seek and LOVES it. Jason and I will get down and craw with great speed to different spots in the house and James' will chase at great speeds to find us. Once he has found us he cracks up and then off we go to hide from him.

He is officially a climber. He can climb the six stairs outside our front door and he can climb up Jason's lap to get to Jason's glasses.

His last big thing is that he is starting to stand unsupported. He only does it for about 5-10 seconds at a time tops before he realizes what he is doing and grabs for anything near by. He will also only do it if he is distracted by two toys, one for each hand.

So far age ten months is my favorite age of all. I love that kid so much.

Happy Ten Months James!

Some new favs

James is nine months! Wow, I can't believe how old he is now.

He has learned lots of things. Like crawling. Or standing. Or climbing up stairs.

Or pulling everything off the shelf:
He is so excited to move these days that I couldn't even get him to sit still long enough to finish putting his jammies on.
First bubble bath:

Jason and I are trying to buy a house!

We have an offer out on the perfect house. Well mostly perfect really great house.

We just had a meeting with a property manager to rent out our condo. We can't sell because we owe more than it is worth in this economy. Which is fine, I want to keep the condo until I can sell it and get a check for some extra money off the place. (mama wants a boat. or lake house. or upgraded bathrooms. or a vacation. or all four?)

The property manager thinks she can get it rented out in 6 weeks or so. Which would be great. If we can get a lease on the place then our mortgage guy can get us approved for a higher amount of monies.

Ideally we will get approved, get the house, get closed by mid June so we can have James' bubble birthday bash in our own backyard. (on the totally not up to code deck...)

Keep us in your prayers that it all works out for the best. Be it this house or a different one.

Oh alright, I will post a picture of James too:

Poem.

I wrote this in class:

I am from slip-n-slides, garter snakes, and GI Joes. Sneaking Bike rides to 7-11 and hills for racing and sledding. Watermelon seed spitting contests and apple tree weddings.

I am from building blanket forts and cheating on Nintendo Track and Field. "Don't pull her hair" "But mom!" "Don't hit him" "But dad I wish I had a sister!"

I am from trips to Pennsylvania. The smell of cake, cookies, Sunday dinner, and Christmas trees. Grandma Rea in her apron filling the air with laughter. Slowly drifting into silence and confusion of the years.

I am from packing up the house, picking up the pieces. Numb from divorce and my two new houses. Spiders, fights, silent nights.

I am from growth, patience, and repaired relationships. New satisfaction from a friendship 17 years in the making with a brother that I now cannot live without.

I am from new family built through marriage and peace. New traditions started to pass along. In love with the next generation just started.

That is where I am from.

James is eight months old! I can't believe how quick it has gone! James has been a BUSY boy this month. He has learned how to say "mama" "mom" "mamamamamamamamam" and "babababa." He thinks "dadadada" is funny but has shown no interest in saying it himself. He has learned to for sure crawl backwards and is starting to crawl forwards. He is really motivated to crawl forwards when you put the laptop on the ground in front of him. He is eating lots of food these days. Purred veggies and fruits, chunky peas, turkey, yogurt, puffs, and as of tonight pasta bow ties.

He has such a funny little personality. He thinks it is fun to be messy, fun to be naked, fun to fart, more fun to fart while naked, and hilarious to pee while naked. He hardcore cracks up at the last one. He likes to bang on things, he is ticklish, loves the sound of the harmonica, and smiles SUPER big when I get home from work. Everyday he amazes me.

Alright, on to pictures:

Crawled himself under his chair when Jason wasn't looking.
Likes me.
Contemplating out to get into the box he is next to.

Just finished painting a birthday card. We were VERY messy today.
Just plain adorable.

James is getting so big!

This week he has learned to get up into a crawling position and stay that way for about a minute before he flops on his belly. He can also roll all over the room and knows where to roll to get his toys out.

He has learned to make a chomping motion with his mouth. It is super funny. He does it all day long until it is time to eat then he is back to mashing with his tongue.

This week he got to eat blueberries, which I apparently thought was more exciting than he did. He seems indifferent. He really likes plain yogurt and he will be trying parsnips tomorrow and turkey on Sunday.

Most importantly last night he slept soooo good. He went to bed at 730, slept until 440 and then again until 715. It was wonderful. I can already tell tonight wont be as well.

On a non James side of things, I started my masters last weekend. So far it is SUPER easy. We have done two art/poem projects and decorated our notebooks. If all classes are this easy it will be awesome. Now all I need is time/motivation to read the book by next month.

Now the part people actually care about. A few photos.

Jason made me a marshmallow fluff filled cake...it oozed but was tasty!

James looks like a marshmallow.

7 month old big boy.