Oh yes, there was cake.

As is customary, we gave James a cake for his birthday to demolish however he pleased. Paul and I were quite excited for this part of the birthday celebration. (Paul was very cute about it. He insisted on chocolate cake because it "shows up better". :) ) And, oh boy, James did not disappoint us.

First he was very cautious and seemed a little bit scared to touch it.

He kept pointing at it and finally smashed his hand into the frosting.

Soon, though, he was all about the frosting. He just couldn't get enough!

And eventually he was eating cake by the fistfuls. At one point he even decided he didn't need to use his hands at all:



This video shows what he was like by the end. He was just having a grand old time! :) It was so much fun.

Here's the after shot:


That is one happy baby! Then, of course, we went straight to the tub!


It was a good time.

There are more pictures and videos on the picasa album: James Turns One. As you may notice, this is a new picasa album. We filled up our other one, and we're tightwads that don't want to pay for extra space. ;) I put a new link to it on the side menu of the blog.

I still can't believe James is already a year old!

Hooray for Professional Photos!

We finally got a real family picture taken!


The real reason for the photo shoot, though (as you may guess) was to take One-Year portraits of James!

Our little guy is such a trooper. He had four immunizations this morning, and he was still happy and well-behaved for the photo shoot. :)

First we did these baseball ones (I can't believe he actually left the hat on for one of them!):


(Recognize the hat, Jonathan and Kristina? Recognize the bat, Grant and Stacy? ;) )

Then we did some great close-ups:



And last, we got James all dressed up in his snazzy, new Sunday outfit that he got for his birthday (complete with tiny little Converse shoes :) ):



I know it sounds prideful, but I totally have the cutest son in the world! ;)

I have an overwhelmingly large number of pictures/videos/stories to post about James' birthday. Stay tuned in the upcoming days as I attempt to corral it all into a coherent post!

Maybe he's closer than we thought...

Last night I was telling Paul about James' little friend, Becca (who is the same age as James) and how she's been taking 5-6 steps at a time lately. Her mom (my friend, Kristin--Hi, Kristin!) was telling me yesterday about how they were playing the "walk back and forth between Mommy and Daddy" Game the night before.

Paul and I happened to be sitting on the floor of our living room with James at the time, so I jokingly picked up James and said, "Hey, you want to play that game too, James?" I set him down next to me, and he--I'm not kidding--walked to Paul! We were so shocked! We burst out cheering and laughing so loud that it kinda scared James. Oops. ;) It was only three steps, but he has never even successfully taken one step, so we were rather surprised.

It really was a fluke. James doesn't have anywhere near the balance needed to walk. We kept trying to get him to do it again, with absolutely no luck. Oh, but it was funny. :)

A new discovery

James made a discovery yesterday. He realized that there is a whole world outside our apartment that is just out of his reach! He found the window.

Now, he's looked out the window before, but really only in passing. Yesterday, however, he pushed over his train, climbed on top, and just stared out the window.


He babbled away, slapped the window, and looked all around. It was very cute to watch. And--get this--he stood like that for literally an hour. An hour! I'm not even exaggerating! By the end he was starting to get frustrated because he wanted to go through the window instead of just looking through it. I eventually picked him up because it was time for his nap, but I wonder how long he would have stood there?


Later last night, after dark, he crawled over to the window again. This time we think he found his reflection because he just stood and stared. No babbling, no slapping the window, no waving around. He just stood there silently. It was bizarre.

I wish it wasn't so cold outside so I could actually take him out there more often!

WW - Fun with Shoes

No Place Like Home for the Holidays - Part Two

The second trip was to Anaheim for Thanksgiving with the Petersons. We had a wonderful time! For some reason, we didn't take very many pictures while we were there. I guess it's because we were too busy having fun! :)

James loved spending time with his grandparents:



He loved his Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Steven, too! He loved seeing Baba (his great grandma), and she REALLY loved him. Whenever he was in the same room as her, she only had eyes for him. Too bad she thought he was a girl most of the time. ;)

We got to go to the Los Angeles Temple for a session while we were there. Two friends of the family were receiving their endowment before going on missions. It was nice because it was the first time Paul and I had been back since we were sealed there. We were even asked to be the witness couple, which was very special. Thanks to Steven and Stephanie for being awesome babysitters so that we could go!


We ate lots of good food, played Guitar Hero, played Scene-It Disney-style, and spent time as a family. We went to Downtown Disney and showed James the lights. And OF COURSE we ate at In 'N Out. :) The highlight of the trip for James was having our own early Christmas (or, as Steven calls it, Turkey-mas). We exchanged Christmas gifts because we wouldn't be together for Christmas, and James was positively showered with gifts from his grandparents.


Remember this truck? That was from them, too. :)

Oh, and Paul and I definitely didn't go away empty handed. They gave Paul a new scouting uniform (since he's the assistant scout master in our ward), and they gave me GUITAR HERO! So fun.

Thank you for the wonderful gifts, John and Grace, and thank you for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The rest of the pictures (the few that I have, anyway) are on our album, here: Thanksgiving 2008.

No Place Like Home for the Holidays - Part One

I bet you all thought you were done reading these types of posts, didn't you? Well, leave it to me to post about November and December at the end of January. (Am I the only one that feels like time has dramatically sped up all of the sudden?? It's already the end of January!)

We had a wonderful holiday season made up of THREE trips to visit with family. Three! I felt so lucky. This blog really wouldn't be an accurate record if I just let those three trips go unmentioned. You've seen a handful of pictures from these trips as Wordless Wednesdays and on the sidebar of the blog, but I just couldn't leave it at that.

The first of the three trips was to Colorado for Jamie's homecoming! What a great way it was to start the holiday season--being together as a family for the first time in a year and a half. :) I'm grateful that Paul supported me in going to Colorado just a week before Thanksgiving even though he couldn't take off work and go with me.

You've seen the pictures from the happy reunion at the airport. And boy was it a happy reunion!

The rest of the week was spent relaxing, playing games, and just spending glorious time together as a family. James loved meeting his Aunt Jamie for the first time.


And he loved showing off his new tricks: clapping and doing 'so big!' (shown below).


We visited Grandma at work.



And James loved playing with his cousin Becca. They got to be good friends. :)


There was fun to be had by everyone, not just the babies. :)


There was even a surprise visit by Grandma Larson and Sharon! They literally knocked on our door Sunday morning before church and came with us to see Jamie's homecoming talk. It was so exciting!


Overall, the time went by fast, but we knew we'd be seeing each other again soon, for Christmas. It was such a happy time!


We took tons of pictures, so I put some up on our picasa album: Jamie's Homecoming. Take a look!