Thanksgiving in Photos

We got back last night from a great and eventful (in good ways and bad ways) week long trip to Atlanta for Thanksgiving! I have lots to blog about, but for now, I'll just post some of my favorite pictures from the week. I'll put them all on my Picasa web album later.

Two GREAT blog posts to read

My sister just blogged about what happened to my nephew last night, and I think it is such a great testiment to how awesome our God is.

http://littlebitslife.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-week.html

Also, my preacher, Jim, wrote a great post asking women to comment. I loved what everyone had to say and thought some of you might get some encouragement out of something on there.

http://godhungry.org/?p=3216

Video of James

James overheard this song from my friend, Nicki's blog the other day and just went crazy dancing like this. I laughed so hard, because I'd never seen these moves from him before and don't know where they came from! Enjoy! :)

Trunk or Treat

Here's my little lion cubs dressed up for Trunk or Treat! We had a fun night and loved watching James get so excited about Trick or Treating this year. Jack did well considering the fact that he wanted to be on the ground crawling instead of confined to our arms for the night. I love our trunk or treat and think they do such a great job with it!

Jack and Avi, boyfriend and girlfriend

James and Kelton

Mary Boo-boo and James

Jack's favorite face to make

Jack and Kolt

Deedah with his little cubs

Candy time!!

Funny Conversation with James

James: "I don't want to live in (city, state) anymore."

Me: "Where do you want to live?"

James: "Florida!" (while looking up in deep thought, probably thinking about our trip there this summer)

5 minutes later

James: "Can we take this brick off of the house?"

Me: "Yes, but we don't want to."

James: "How do you do it?"

Me: "Well, you have to get a crane, and a wrecking crew, and a wrecking ball, but that would knock down the house!"

30 minutes later

James: "We just knock down our house sometimes."

Me: "No, we don't ever want to knock down our house! Where would we sleep, sit, live...?"

James: "Florida!"

Hilarious! He's really thinking about this!

10 Months!

My sweet boy is 10 months old now. Jack's personality has really started to come out this month, and it is just completely adorable to me! He makes funny faces, gives me interesting looks (like head down, eyes and eyebrows up at me), screams and yells SO loudly when I don't act quickly enough (mainly at mealtime), is constantly studying his world around him, taking everything in, jabbers a lot (loudly), "sings", goes nuts with excitement when his brother entertains him, jumps up and down excitedly when we go in his room to get him out of bed, is very communicative, waves passionately while fussing when he wants me to pick him up, and despite all of this seems to have a very calm soul! When he's not doing all of those things I just mentioned, he's just relaxed, laid-back, happy, and calm! Such an interesting combo there!

He hit a language growth spurt right before his 10 month birthday. He tries out all kinds of words and just eats it up when we teach him something. All on his own, he'll say, "ti-tah" (tic tock) while looking at the clock, "nih-nih" when he goes up to an outlet or anything else we tell him no to, "Maaaahhhh-Mamamama" for me", "Daaaaahhhh-Dididididi" for Josh, "bah-bah" for Bye, "Haahh" for Hi, "muh" when looking at the moon, and "bah" for ball. He tries to say James, but it's more like, "Da". He knows Nana and Deedah's names now, too.

When people are saying bye to us, he'll sometimes say "bah-bah" and will start cupping his hand in the cutest way. The rest of the time, though, he'll wave passionately with his whole arm getting into it. He is really into this right now, and it's so adorable!!!

He crawls most of the time like a crab or bear. When he's almost to where he wants to go, he'll lung or hop over to it like a cat who's pouncing (I hate the analogy because I hate cats, but that's the best way to describe it). He really reminds me of a cat when he's chasing a ball! It's hilarious!

I could just eat him up most of the time! He's so incredibly sweet and just stares lovingly at those he loves.

He's sleeping very well right now. He goes down after a feeding around 8:00 and wakes up anywhere from 5-7 for a feeding and usually goes back to sleep until 8ish. His naps range from 30 minutes to 2 hours. You just never know with him! We don't stick to a good nap schedule, though, so I'm sure that's why. :)

He still nurses every 3 hours, but usually goes 4-5 hours between one of the feeds. He eats three decent meals a day, usually two things fed by me and 2 things feeding himself. He still does both, but I can tell he gets more into feeding himself.

He likes to play little back and forth games, drops things over and over, and loves to bang things together.

I've been told many times that Jack sounds just like James. His cries and noises he makes sound so much like James at that age.

I'm starting to see a little bit of independence in him. Although he always has and still loves to be held, he seems to enjoy venturing off and playing by himself.

One of his #1 goals when he's in the vicinity of a bathroom is to put his hands in the toilet water and splash. He crawls directly over to them as fast as he can, pops up, and lunges his body forward into the toilet. We are starting to get the habit of closing the toilet lids now!

He has an enormous smile and gives it freely! He gets so excited for his family and extended family and scrunches up his nose and kicks his legs with excitement.

He is just a one of a kind! My sweet Jack has brought so much joy, love, and fun into our lives, and I'm so thankful that he's my son!

Papa Joe's Visit

Papa Joe came this weekend for his annual visit! We enjoyed having him here and were glad that the Fair and Rodeo was going on while he was here. We spent Saturday evening there and had a really fun time. It was chilly, which was perfect fair weather, and James had a blast riding all of the rides. He was tall enough this year to ride the little ones, and I was surprised that he had no fear! We took lots of pictures of the fun evening!