Day 31

I completely forgot day 30, and there are no pics on the iPod from yesterday. And I was doing so well!
Life goes on... At least someone was still awake for me to take a picture of this evening.
Hi Matt!

Last Week: A Review

I have all kinds of miscellaneous pictures from last week, so I’m just sticking them all in one post.

This was from last Monday.  We’d taken a couple of balloons home from the Beasley’s going away party and they’d lost enough of their heliumishness that James could reach them.  Have I mentioned he LOVES balloons?!

James, Natalie, and I worked in the nursery on Wednesday morning.  We got done before it was time to pick up Joanna and Anna, so we spent a little while on the playground.

After we picked up the big girls, we headed to Lisa’s house for lunch – yum!

The girls all love to dress up the giant doll, James.

After lunch we played outside a bit, and as expected, James LOVED swinging in the baby swing.

It was very sweet because the girls would walk by and give him a few pushes when he ran out of speed.

Natalie so loves to swing.  I’m glad she’s big enough for the real swings now, or we’d have some serious trouble on our hands.  :)

I saw on Pinterest a way to keep your earbuds from tangling.  Personally, I hate the things; I find them very uncomfortable, but I do love how small they are and easy to tuck in a pocket of my purse.  It doesn’t matter how neatly I wrapped them up though, they always ended up tangled, and I would have to spend my precious I could be listening to something time untangling them.  So I resurrected my friendship bracelet making skills and tied three million knots around the earbud cords.

I did them over a few days in the evening when I was watching TV.  And I used string (or whatever that stuff is called) that I already had, which is why my earbuds are two shades of green instead of something cooler.  :)  And just in case you are thinking this, no, I will never ever ever ever do this for someone else.  I have carpal tunnel… and maybe arthritis too.  :)  My hand hurts thinking about all those knots.

On Wednesday I woke up to this beauty outside my kitchen window:

The view from behind:

We knew the tree wasn’t in great shape, so it probably was just a matter of time before it fell.  I just couldn’t be happier about how it fell!  Right in between the house and the fence, not hitting anything but the ground!!  Thank you Lord!

Tuesday at lunch time, Amy and Josie came over (for the last time).  :(

I took this picture to remember something.  Amy had run to get Abby, leaving Josie with me since it was pouring, and I’d taken her in the kitchen with me.  I set her down and she was just standing there when James came walking up (naked, pretty much) with his shopping cart.  He stopped by Josie and waved a couple of times.  What  a stud!  (Keep in mind I’m sure it’s a dirty lens and not a dirty floor.) :)

Wednesday evening this was the face I got when it was time to pick up Joanna from J.A.M.  (which I’m not totally sure but I think stands for Jesus, Arts, and Movement):

Such emotion!  Such drama!

I made some new crayons from old bits of crayons on Thursday, and I managed to spill one on the way to the back fridge.  Thankfully it was in the pantry and on hard floor.

And yes, in case you’re wondering, it’s still there.  I’m nothing if not lazy.  (Or we could call it prioritized.)

Friday I had a rough day (a little nauseous, SUPER tired {NOT pregnant}) but I managed to take a few pics.

I like to call the next two evidence of my eat-in kitchen. 

The girls eat at the bar:

And James eats in his high chair which I pull into the kitchen.  I eat standing up, if I eat with them.  We almost always eat breakfast this way and sometimes lunch too.

I could just live forever in these big blue eyes:

These next two are out of order, but I just don’t feel like fixing it.  Go with me.

On Tuesday my mom and I went out to eat lunch while the kids were at school.  It was amazing!

While we were at the restaurant I got a text message from James’ teacher that looked like it was probably a picture.  (I can’t retrieve pictures on my phone b/c I have the internet blocked.)  Since my mom was right there, I texted Debbie back and asked if she could send the pic to my mom.  And she did:

I think he spends a lot of time pushing things around that room.  :)

Then she sent another one – fishie kisses for me!!

He does give me fishie kisses a lot.  I LOVE that boy!

Day 29

Joanna by our fallen tree, all chopped up!

Day 28

The post in which I become more and more obsessed with the little piece of tongue hanging out of James’ mouth.

We went out front for a bit in the middle of the day, and I brought my real camera with.  I really couldn’t see anything on the screen, but it has a viewfinder, so I was okay!

These first few are from the iPod though. It really does take pretty good pictures outside.

He was so excited to have climbed on top of the big wheel.

My big boy… on the purple trike.

Then I switched over to the “real” camera, but it took me a few shots to realize the settings were wonky and everything was washed out.

But you can see the tongue!

Oh the expressions!

Natalie cracks me up – she looks like she’s being tortured!

He loves driving his car!

I am IN LOVE with this tongue thing:

And this heiny:

And the pose:

She looks like she could be building a fire or something… in her pink twirling dress (which she absolutely wants to wear every single time it’s clean).

The tongue!

And again!

I could watch that girl twirl for ages.

The J’s, digging in the dirt.

More cutie-patootie faces!

After a while, he goes over to the house and stands by the door like this.

Then he asks for help (see his little hand sign?).

So I open the door, he goes in, he shuts it, and then:

Turns out that’s not really what he wanted.

His biggest sis came in and cheered him up though.  She’s such a good sister!!

These faces of James’ prompted me to go get my baby book and look at old pics of me and family.  I cannot believe how exactly like me James looks!  I will need to scan some in just as soon as I get a working scanner.  Hopefully this will be soon.  I have  much scanning I want to do!

Day 27

Day 26

Hot crayon wax spill.

Day 25

The grumpiest cowgirl.

James’ Vocabulary

I wanted to, while I was thinking about it, post a list of the words James can sign or say.  It’s just for me because I will want to remember.

Signs:
more (bangs two fists together)
all done (waves his hands)
milk (squeezes one hand together)
please (rubs two hands on his chest)
help (this one is cute – it’s a fist with the thumb up on his upper chest, very close to his neck, accompanied by a concentrating face.)
diaper (taps his diaper – in theory I’d like him to be able to tell me when he needs a change; we’re not quite there yet.)
water (pokes the side of his face)
food (bangs one fist on his cheek)

Spoken words:
ball/balloon (they sound slightly different sometimes, but basically he uses the same word for both)
bye-bye/night-night (pretty interchangeable)
bite (as in, “I’d like one, please.”)
uh-oh
And I think he says banana, but all of the sudden I’m not totally sure.

He can also say the sounds for Mama and Dada, but he hasn’t labeled us with them yet.  He’d prefer to just cry and reach for me.  It’s all good.  :)

He also sings a lot.  He sings Twinkle Twinkle most often, and it’s very recognizable.  I’m sure some of the other things he sings I just don’t quite recognize yet.  The other one I recognize easily is the prayer that the girls sing at school: “God our Father.”  James puts his hands together at dinner time and sings the first few notes of the song to remind us to pray together.  I’ve heard him sing along to the radio, and the other day he sang quite a bit in the car after he heard the girls singing.  It is so beautiful to hear those little voices.  I kind of tear up a little imaging my little James in a few years as a boy soprano.  I think God gave him a love of music that we can see already.

The Beasley’s Best of Luck Bash

Our friends the Beasleys are moving this week.  :(

We partied for them on Sunday at the church.

It’s hard for me to use exclamation points in this post.

That’s because I feel sad they are leaving.

Somehow I ended up mostly taking pictures of James – that’s probably because his sisters were blurs.

A cracker and a balloon – what a wonderful life!

That boy loooooooooooves his balloons!  In fact, he woke up quite a grump from his nap before the party, and I just couldn’t get him to snap out of it.  (Sadly this is my life the past week or so.  I am very ready for this phase to pass!)  Anyway, I snagged a balloon from one of the tables, and voila! the baby was tolerable again.  Wahoo!

He also loves balls.

Again, I made it to this party with only my iPod for pictures.  Bad Jessica.

But the smile is still so cute, even grainy!

I keep forgetting to use Instagram to take pictures on the iPod.  Though I did figure out that I can edit pics in Instagram even if I didn’t go through the program to take the picture.  The last time I synced the Ipod though, I couldn’t manage to find the pictures I’d recently edited to move to the computer.  (Whoa, what a long boring paragraph.)

On to more pictures!

Kim had her good camera there (and I saw Shaun with hers too!), and I stole these next few from her blog.

Some of the boys that were there:

Most of the kiddos with their balloons at the end of the evening:

And most of the ladies.  (Also at the end of the evening, so some had left at this point.)

What a great looking group of gals!

I truly am very excited for my friend Amy and her family.  There are lots of amazing things on the horizon for them I know, and I just can’t wait to see (because Amy will update their blog) what God has in store for their lives!

But we’re really really really going to miss them.