Up and Down!

Are you all tired of seeing video clips of James, yet? Wait...don't answer that. ;) Here's yet another funny one from this morning. James seems to have figured out the concept of 'up' and 'down'. He did this on his own the first time, with no encouragement from me.

Also, he has finally started saying "I love you" from time to time, but as you can see from this video, he definitely wouldn't say it today! He had only one response for me...and it sure is a favorite for him. *sigh*

Katie's Blessing

When we were in Utah at the beginning of June to see little Michael, we were also able to spend some time with my family and go to Katie's blessing. It was so fun that the two events coincided! Katie has grown so much! And of course these pictures are already outdated. These days, she's laughing and rolling over and pretending to be a big girl!

Here are a few pictures from the blessing and time with my family:

James and Becca love their aunt Jamie!


She's lots of fun to play with. :)


In the midst of the fun, James and I found time to catch up on our correspondence. ;)


Ha ha, just kidding. I really couldn't pass up posting that picture.

And here's the star of the show and her beautiful family!



Oh, and James looked pretty snazzy in his Sunday clothes, too (even though Daddy let him get watermelon juice all over them ;) ).


Thanks for letting us stay with you guys, Paula and Brian! I'm sorry James ended up sharing that cold with Becca. :( We love to come visit you!

It's so hard to be far away from family sometimes. I don't like to think about all I'm missing of the beginning of little Katie and little Michael's lives! I wish I could just pop in and visit all the time. Thank goodness for technology that helps us feel connected.

Never too early to start!

I have a feeling those of you who know me well will get a kick out of this video. :)

(I apologize for the noise of the air conditioner in the background...that was a silly place to take a video. Sometimes I just have to get out the camera and film wherever James happens to be at the time.)

He's a boy after my own heart! He seems to especially like the leading tone. What a hoot!

Raisins!

I am working on a list of words that James knows in honor of him being 18 months old this Saturday. It is proving to be a difficult task! He learns new words practically every day, and sometimes he says them out of the blue with no prompting from me or Paul. I'll post the list along with the stats from his 18-month check up next week.

Here's a little video I just took while James was eating lunch. "Raisins" is one of my favorite words to hear him say. It's just so cute. :)

He babbles all the time now, even more than before. He's always singing and chatting away! And he answers questions, too! It's so fun. Most of the time his answers are unintelligible, but when I ask him simple questions (like "Do you want more milk?" or "What do you want to eat for lunch?") he answers me. It's very exciting.

Speaking of asking him what he wants to eat for lunch, his most common answer to that question is, "Raisins!" :)

Michael Sekijiro

One of my favorite trips of this summer so far has been our last minute surprise trip to Utah to see Kristina and Jonathan and their new baby, Michael. We weren't originally planning on going there when the baby was born. In an attempt to save some money, we were planning on visiting only for the baby blessing later on in the summer. It was a good and sensible plan...

But then, June 1 came along, and we got the much anticipated phone call that the baby was on it's way. All our finely laid out plans were tossed out the window. Paul and I were dying to jump on a plane that very minute. Paul felt very strongly that he wanted to be there for his sister. So our plans changed! :) We bought plane tickets for early (EARLY) Saturday morning. And the best part was, the only person in Paul's family that knew we were coming was Jonathan. It was awesome.

It was so much fun to surprise Paul's family. And the last minute trip was well worth it! See for yourself:


Awww! Isn't he adorable?!

Here we are meeting our new nephew (can you tell from Paul's face that we woke up at 3:30am that morning? ;) ) :



Grandma Grace and Grandpa John couldn't be more excited to have a new grandson. :)




And they were also thrilled to have some unexpected time with their first grandson, too!



James thought his new cousin was pretty dang cool. He even learned how to say his name already! Here are the two handsome boys (little Michael makes James look like a giant!):



And here's the whole family! :) Can you believe how tall Steven has gotten?


Even though we just got home from Utah again on Sunday, we sure miss you all. Most especially, we miss this little guy:


Can't wait to see you again in a few weeks!

WW - The Many Faces of James

James "Reads"

James just woke up from his nap. I went in to get him and he kept pointing at his bookshelf saying, "Book! Book!" I sat him down with one of his favorites (a baseball book), and he was so happy! :) My other posts are going to have to wait until tomorrow. This video was too fun to pass up.

I'm baaaaaaack!

So...my computer is still dead. We are still saving up for a new one. And I am still using Paul's sloooooooow laptop. But hey, a slow laptop is better than no computer at all, right? Anyway, I finally gave in and searched our frightening closet (you know...the place where everything gets dumped when we need to straighten up in a hurry?) for my long lost camera cord. And guess what? I found it! Wahoo! I can return to the world of blogging once more.

I tell you what, I am swamped with pictures and stories and vacations to post about! We've been having quite the fun summer!

Most recently, we spent the weekend in Utah with Paul's family for his cousin Joseph's wedding. It was wonderful to see everyone and to spend time together as a family (as short as it was).

Here's a sampling of the pictures from the wedding:

James loved the beautiful flowers on the temple grounds.


Our family with the happy couple. Congratulations, Joseph and Sotheavy!


The whole Peterson clan!


Wonderful, wonderful weekend! :)

Now, I am going to attempt to get back on top of things over the next few days, so stay tuned! If I can manage it, I will post multiple times a day in order to catch up.

Here's a list of what's in store (not comprehensive):

• Welcome Michael Sekijiro Ridge to the world!
• Katie's Blessing
• Trips to Washingtion (wedding, farewell, and graduation, oh my!)
• Fourth of July and trips to the ballgame
• Picking blueberries
• James counts!
• Weekend in Colorado...a pseudo high school reunion

I'm sure I'm leaving some things out. Crazy crazy! Wish me luck!