Silly

My boy is so silly. All these things he does, the way he moves or talks seems to be fleeting. So I want to document as many of these little things as possible, so I can always remember.

One of the silly things James has been doing as of late is blinking a lot. And then leaving his eyes closed. So he'll blink quite quickly and then close his eyes for five seconds or so. He loves to do this while walking and has walked into the wall (because his eyes are closed) quite a few times. He laughs and laughs. Such a goof.
Another thing he's been working on is getting up from a sitting position to a stand. Once he's at a stand he can walk around as much as he likes, but if he's sitting he can't do much at all. So now he'll fling himself forward onto his belly and then assume the downward dog position from yoga. He has yet to stand up from this position, but he's close. When he does this we ask him if he's a yoga master. So funny.
And this last photo is just of my boy's gorgeous eyes and lashes.

from yesterday, in color

Another photo from today

A nice stranger with a sweet dog offered to take our photo. James is smiling because he likes the doggy. :)

Wheeler Farm in the snow {Black and White Wednesday}

Last night it snowed about six inches and made the valley just beautiful. Everything was fresh and clean and Christmasy. I decided to bundle the babe and myself up today and take the sled to Wheeler Farm. It was amazing. We were the only ones there and had the entire place to ourselves. We walked down near the river, watched the ducks, played in the snow and visited James's favorite tree.

James had a wonderful time and each time I'd look over my shoulder as I pulled the sled he would flash me his biggest grin. I tried to capture this grin on camera, but when I slowed the sled to a stop and took out my camera he seemed serious.

I love how the photos turned out, even with the lack of a big grin.

Happy Black and White Wednesday!

Oh look! I caught a mini grin! Yea!
It was so beautiful down near the river. Christmas card beautiful.
Love this face. I'll never tire of it.


Those lashes, those cheeks. Kiss kiss!
Please click the image below to see everyone else's B&W Wednesday.

Hanukkah party

Last night to finalize our wonderful weekend we celebrated Hanukkah with my Dad. Did you know my dad grew up Jewish? Yep! I'm half Jewish and that means my little baby man is a quarter Jewish.

The party started at 5:00 pm. My dad's house was warm and welcoming with a beautiful fire flickering in the fireplace. Latkas were started (I'm actually the latka pro, my dad hardly ever makes them), beer was poured and the baby (somewhat) happily toddled around.

It it always so awesome to spend the evening with my siblings. I'm so happy all four of us still live in Utah, let's hope it stays that way as we get older.

My dad had cooked a traditional meal of brisket and we all sat down, said the Hanukkah prayer, made a wish, and dug into the fantastic food.

James was a grump most of the evening and while everyone else ate their latkas enthusiastically, James threw his on the floor. Life with a toddler is fun, right?

I finally passed the camera to my sis and she got this great shot of my little family. James even looks somewhat happy. Lots has changed since this photo was taken.
My awesome sibs. Melissa, Brandon's girlfriend Kathleen, Brandon and Chandler.

Happy Hanukkah!

Nap time woes

My life feels a little turned upside down. I've always been a little funny about James's sleep. I stress about it, I celebrate it, and I keep him on a pretty tight schedule.

Yes, I'm neurotic.

Well for the last three weeks James has made it very clear that he now likes to get up an hour earlier (at 6:30 am instead of 7:30 am) and he also thinks his afternoon nap is boring, as in, he fights it tooth and nail.

So, what is a sleep obsessed Mama to do? Try to figure out a solution.

Can he take one longer afternoon nap? We tried that and it failed so hard. Can he make it to bedtime without being a total grumpy fuss bucket without the afternoon nap? Again, fail. Can we move his bedtime earlier and take out the afternoon nap completely? Oh dear me, I can't imagine getting up with him in the morning any earlier than 6:30, so this idea is on the back burner. Can we move his morning nap earlier and hope to dear god he takes an afternoon nap because his mother really really really can't stand other afternoon where he gets so fussy and grumpy and horrible that he doesn't even know what to do with himself, and he will NOT sleep? Yea, that's the plan today.

Wish me luck.

St. Nicholas Tea {then and now}

This afternoon was E's family's annual St. Nicholas Day tea. There were finger sandwiches, scones, cookies, and hot tea. There was ornaments at each place and Chelsea's amazing sticky toffee pudding.

The only major change from last year's annual St. Nicholas Tea? This guy.

December 2009.

December 2010.

My sweet wonderful man is home

What a trying week it has been. James has been a fuss bucket and my sweet husband has been abroad: in Paris! There was a trade show that was crucial to his industry, so E and a coworker were lucky enough to go to Europe.

I stayed home, with the baby man. He's not quite old enough to stay with his Grandmas yet; but next year, I just might attend the show. We'll see.

I am so thrilled to have E home. James was going crazy last night showing off all of his new skills for his Dadada. I was so happy to have the man I love back at my side.

Here are some of the photos. Alex (my Playmobil travel doll) joined him too, of course.

Jolly Old St. Nicolas

He was jolly. And someone else was grumpy. But this photo is perfect. I adore it. ;)

Black and White Wednesday

Happily walking wherever he wants to go.

{embellished shirts for children}

Guess what? I was featured on another great blog! Everyday Inspirations is a blog done by my good friend Ashley. She asked me to do a craft blog and I was thrilled to participate.

So, here is how to make embellished shirts for your babes! And, if you want more inspiration, please, check out her blog, it really is amazing.

{embellished shirts for children} 12 days of holiday diy 12/05/2010

1. Find a plain piece of clothing that you want to embellish. I found a simple navy blue tee for $3.50 (and it is organic cotton!) and a simple burnt orange tee that was $1.00 at a thrift shop.

2. Pick a pattern. This is the most fun and creative step of the entire process. For the owl tee I used an image that was on a baby card that I was given and enlarged it for the shirt freehand. For the polar bear tee I just did a simple Google search for "polar bear silhouettes" and came up with the image. I re-sized the image in Word (yep, you don't need any fancy software) and printed it out.

3. Decide if you want one solid piece of felt or multiple pieces. For the owl I stacked pieces; for the polar bear I used one solid piece.

4. Cut the pattern out on felt in the color of your choosing. I used acrylic felt as it is easy to find and quite inexpensive.

5. Place the felt on the clothing item. Move around until you have the look you are after.

6. Sew around each piece of felt. This can either be done by hand or machine. I used the machine on both of these projects. For the owl tee I changed the color of thread each time the felt color changed. And on the polar bear tee I went with a fun simple look by just crisscrossing the polar bear with colored thread before sewing him onto the tee.

7. Add any last embellishments. I added a handful of tiny buttons to the toadstool on the owl tee, as well as button eyes. On the polar bear tee I didn't like how the bear was floating in space so I used two simple parallel lines to created the ground.

Once done, these shirts are washer and dryer safe. Have fun crafting! Happy holidays!

Little elf

(remember, you can always click on the photo to see it bigger!)