too much Wii?

A few minutes ago, I was upstairs in our room and Jonathan was downstairs playing his new Super Mario Wii game (SO much fun!), when I realized that James was crying from his bed. I switched on the baby monitor in our room to see what he was saying. As far as I could make out, this is it: "Play game too, please!!"

I had Jonathan turn down the volume, and James immediately went back to sleep. :)

p.s. James needs more votes!! :)

dance moves

Tonight as I was putting James in his pj's we were singing songs - his new favorite is "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" - he sings along and knows almost every word! Now how did my baby grow up enough to be able to sing a song?? We then started to sing another song, and he was singing along for awhile. Then all of a sudden he just stopped singing, looked up at me, and with a big smile said, "Dancing!" and started to wave his hands in the air and shake his little body around. (He is also known to whip out his "dance moves" during the closing credits of Gilmore Girls whenever his Mama watches it.)

p.s. James needs more votes!! :)

don't let the bed bugs bite...

Conversation with James last night before he went to sleep:

Me: "Love you!"
James: "Wuh-woos!"
Me: "Sleep tight!"
James: "Sleep tight!"
Me: "Sweet dreams!"
James: "Sleet beams!"
Me (trying to keep up this cute conversation by coming up with something else he could repeat): "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"
James: long, long pause, nervous look on his face, then said something like, "Mama, bugs????"

Poor kid thought there were bugs in his bed. Oops. I had to try and explain that it was just an expression, but how do you explain that to a 2-year-old? Way to go, Mama.

Vote for James!

The polls are up for RLT Photography's "Adorable Baby Contest" - and we think James is pretty darn adorable (yes, we are his parents and are biased, but still - don't you agree?;))

We'd love it if you could take a second and go vote for him! Just go to RLT Photography's blog and vote for James' picture (this one, shown below...). If we win, we get some sweet prizes!

Thank you, friends!!

Our Handsome Two-Year-Old

Aren't these photos just priceless? Our buddy boy sure is growing up. I just tucked him into bed a few minutes ago and said, "Sweet dreams!" to which he replied "Sleet beams!"

**Stay tuned...once the voting is up for RLT Photography's "Adorable Baby Contest" I'd love it if you could all go vote for James!!

Four Years Together

Yesterday Jonathan and I celebrated four years of marriage! This will be our 5th Christmas together as a married couple, I can't believe how the time has flown by. Happy Anniversary, Babe! I love you so much!


I thought I'd share our wedding video that we had playing at our reception. Here it is in two parts:

our adorable James :)

We had the opportunity to get some wonderful photos of James taken on Friday by a talented photographer, Ryan Thompson. He was our wedding photographer, and he also took my family's pictures about a year ago. The photos turned out SO great. You can view them here on Ryan's website. (My favorite is photo #102!) It is actually part of RLT Photography's "Adorable Baby Contest," so in a few days you all can go and vote for James as the most adorable baby! :)

cute kids!

I recently got to take some photos of the adorable kids of our good friends, Charles and Melissa. This is Christabelle, she is about six months old and is so darn cute. For more pictures of Christabelle and her brother Henry, see my photography blog!

Survival.

Good ol' Dirk is a fighter. Thank goodness for this cold spell. Do you remember what he used to look like 3 weeks ago?

a cowboy needs a hat

Dear Aunt Abby and Ryan,

Just a note to say thank you - our little cowboy loves his new cowboy hat! Doesn't he look so darn cute? Good thing he has a horse. Yee-haw!




p.s. This calls for a classic Disney cartoon - did anyone else watch this as a kid?

Family Photos

While we were home in Oregon for Thanksgiving, Jonathan's brother Benjamin took a few family pictures for us, and I edited them. It was pretty cold and windy, but he managed to get some good shots. Thanks Benjamin!!

This pose would have been super cute but the little man was just not into it...

More Dirk.

So, I realized that I have more pictures of Dirk that I never put up, and I thought I would share. Actually, I have quite a few photos from recent activities (Thanksgiving, putting up our Christmas tree, etc.) that I just have not gotten around to editing and posting. Not to mention that I have wanted to finally put up some pictures of our cute apartment (we've only lived here 4 months, it's still kinda new, right?). Maybe I'll get around to it sometime!

As Christmas approaches I am so excited to be in our own place, have our cute Christmas tree and decorations up, and experience Christmas right along with James, who is now old enough to appreciate it more. But also as Christmas approaches, I am feeling like there is not enough time to get everything done that I want/need to!! So many projects to do (for example, I just bought a whole bunch of fabric to make homemade Christmas stockings....), people to get together with (fun!), things on my to-do list to cross off, not to mention a ward choir Christmas program to prepare for (only a couple more rehearsals, and I am still trying to get this conducting/cuing/cutting off thing down ;))! Craziness.

And yet, here I sit, blogging and posting pictures of our snowman. Oh well. I really should go outside and take some current pictures - Dirk is looking a little malnourished/skinny, but he is still there. He also has been a handy landmark to help people to find our apartment for choir practice and other things this week. We love Dirk.

Enjoy the pictures, and good luck getting all your Christmas things done!

a sweet birthday

I can't believe that James turned two today! It seems like just yesterday he looked like this

and now he looks like this!

What a difference two years makes!

We had a sweet day today spending time together just the three of us (as James would say, "Mama. Dada. Bames.") James woke up to find birthday signs all over (a Gibbons family birthday tradition),


lots and lots of red balloons (his favorite),



and some fun presents. We played all day with his toys and read his new books.




At one point Jonathan and I were in the kitchen, and James was asking us to come play with him some more. He said, "Play? Happy." It was the sweetest thing ever. I think he is a truly happy boy!

We had pancakes for breakfast (one of James' favorites)



and for dinner we had mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets! Yum! James loved his cupcakes and tried so hard to blow the candles out, but just couldn't quite blow hard enough. It was very cute watching him try, though. After dinner we all watched the movie Cars together.

It was a wonderful, sweet day and I am so thankful for my dear little boy. We love him more than anything and can't wait to see what this next year holds.



Happy Birthday, Buddy! We love you!

For Megan

This is for my lovely sister-in-law, Megan, who I know sometimes reads my blog while at work. These are just a few of MANY photos I took over Thanksgiving break. Hopefully I will post others soon! But for now - James and his Uncle Jofo (Megan's hubby), my cute sister-in-law, and the loveliest picture EVER of me and Megan. As you can see, we had lots of fun! I just love the Boster fam. :)

Oooh, Mama - I like this!

The other day, James and I were shopping with my Mom. Another toddler, a little girl, rode by in another cart. She pointed at James and said, "Baby!" to which James replied, "Bames!" I'm not a baby, I'm James!!

My aunt and Grandma were at the same store with us, and at one point my Mom and James and I were separated from them. My Mom told James to look for Tracy and Grandma. He totally spotted them when we were about to walk the other way - he pointed and yelled, "There it is!!"

My Mom was reading books to James, and he went and picked one off the shelf that has little lights in it (it's about fireflies). He brought it to my Mom and said, "It lights up!"

After finishing some juice, James asked for more. I gave him a cup of milk and told him he could have more juice after he had some milk. He pushed the cup away and said, "Get away! I don't want dat!"

While we were walking down our stairs the other day, James started lifting his legs up really high. When I asked what he was doing he replied, "Marchin' down."

Overheard while James played with his cars: "oh my oh my oh my."

James is fascinated with bugs lately. When he saw one in the doorway, I closed the door and I said, "bye bye, bug!" James then said, "Bye bye, Doug! Run away, bug!"

Two feet = "Feets"

Swim = "Fwim"

"Hands winkie" = what happens to your hands when you stay in the bath for too long (they get wrinkly!)

My cute aunt Jamie came over today and gave James a birthday gift, which included a cute stuffed doggie. James put the doggie on the couch, then said to it, "Look at you!!"

This morning at work, my sister's boyfriend found a "Mack" truck, and knowing that James LOVES Mack in the movie Cars, he took a picture on his phone and sent it to Abby, who sent it to me. James was so excited when he saw it that he wanted to see more; he said, "Abby, more Mack!!" and "more Macks!"

Tonight James and I were playing in his room, and he opened up a drawer and found a box of bobbies (binkies). He never really used them much at all as a baby. He decided to try one and put it in his mouth. He must have enjoyed it because he said, "Oooh, Mama - I like this!!"

so many words

James is a great little talker and seems to say something new every day. I have been keeping a little list of cute things he says, and I just have to post them...mostly for my sake, the grandparents' sake, and posterity's sake :).


Words he says lately:

"nike" = goodnight
"bess" = polar express
"baff" = bath
"gakes" = snowflakes
"ocks" = socks
"plate" = plane
"wuh-woose!!" = love you (my personal favorite!!)
"gweak" = drink
"bowks" = backwards
"awkwee-awkwee" = okey-dokey
"cuke" or "keeook" = cute
"utmore" = oatmeal
"snowman"
"mah-key" = monkey
"teck" = tuck me in
"anmals" = animals
"Awake!!" This word is used a lot, such as after pretending to be asleep, or it is used to wake up Mommy when she is trying to sleep (like when we are on a road trip, or when I am sleeping on the couch while he plays with Daddy), and is accompanied with hitting (we are working on that) or JUMPING on his mother. Good times.

His "L's" are now very pronounced - "bLocks," "play," "bLack," "bLLoons" (that means balloons)

Family names he says:

"Bapa" = Grandpa (his Grandpa Gibbons)
"Giki" = Jukie (his Grandma Gibbons)
"Anyan" = Annie
"Liz"
"Baba" or "Abby"
"Dosh" = Josh
"Nana" (his Grandma Boster)
"Benj" = Benjamin
"Becka" = Rebecca
"Jeaney" = Emma Jeane
"Magin" = Megan (he has only used this one once)

He is getting very good at colors and knows the following well:

red
orange
blue
black
pink

Cute things he says:

The other day I put on some hot pink fuzzy socks. He saw them and got all excited and said, "Pigs!!"

He refers to himself in the 3rd person quite often by saying "Bames" which is his way of saying James. It is quite hilarious, and darn cute. Some of my favorites are when he says he wants to do a certain activity, like playing in the snow, and then names off the names of who he wants to participate ("Play? No? Dada? Mama? Bames?") I will also often be cuddling with him, and I'll say something about him being my baby, to which he replies, "No, Bames!" or "Boy!"

Whenever I try to take a video of him, he stops doing whatever cute thing he was doing and instead says, "watch!" until I let him watch the video.

As previously posted, he is getting good at counting. My favorite is number seven ("sven").

Whenever I brush my hair, James says, "brush!" so I give him the brush and he brushes his own hair. Afterwards he looks in the mirror, smiles, and says, "Nice!!"

He LOVES animals, and was so excited the other night when we were outside and he saw a black cat in a neighbor's window. He walked right up to the window and stared at that cat for about fifteen minutes, saying, "Hi, Gack! Hi, Gack!" Cat is sometimes "Gack," "Cack," or (for some reason), "Sack."

When we built Dirk, James learned the word "Snowman." While building him, James started waving at him, saying, "Hi, man! Hi, man!" Since we finished building him and we had named him "Dirk," James loves to wave at him and say, "Hi, Dork! Hi, Dork!"

The other day, my friend Cheryl and her husband and baby daughter came to visit. While I was holding baby Amelia, James was a little suspicious. After they left, he came up to me with his arms outstretched and said, "Hold, Bames!!" I guess it was a little hard seeing his Mama hold another baby.

Some more great plurals he uses:

The other day James grabbed my floss and Jonathan's floss from our bathroom drawers (we had just been to the dentist so we had matching dental floss); he held one in each hand and said, "floss-floss!"

Sometimes before bed he likes to tuck in all his little stuffed animals on the rocking chair in his room. We covered them all with a blanket, he kissed them all, then said, "Fleeps!" "Fleep" means sleep, and there were many stuffed animals sleeping. Makes sense, right?

Great phrases he uses:

"sit, please!" (This is pretty monumental, because ever since he was really little he has used the word "Na" to mean "sit." Finally, about a week ago, he was frustrated because I was doing the dishes and just wanted me to play with him - finally he patted the floor next to him with his hand and said, "Sit, please!!"

"red tar" James LOVES getting red star stickers in nursery, and keeps them on his hand AS. LONG. AS. POSSIBLE. He gets very sad when he finally loses one. Amazingly, we have found quite a few red stars, days later, in random places around our house.

"done....away!" This is what he says after finishing a packet of fruit snacks - he then carries the wrapper over to the sink, opens the cupboard, and throws it away in the garbage. Good boy!

"zoom zoom zoom!" This is what his cars say lately.

"apple juice" I love it when he says this, he says it so cute. He sometimes also calls it "red juice" for some reason.

"nana's house" After going to Nana's house for Thanksgiving, this is one of James' new favorite phrases!!

"Giki's house" One of his very favorite places to go. This doesn't necessarily always mean "Jukie's house," but means the area in the family room of Jukie's house where all the fun toys are kept.

"out da door!" He said this ALL the time at Nana's house when he wanted to go outside to see the dog, or when he climbed out of his playard during nap time (EVERY DAY) and started banging on the door for someone to let him out!

"out-a-becka!" Aunt Rebecca took James outside to play, and when we dragged him inside for dinner he was NOT happy, and said this over and over until Rebecca took him back outside.

My FAVORITE phrase he uses:

"lick at dis!!" which means "look at this!" He just says it with such joy and enthusiasm. For example, he was playing in the dirt at Nana's house and got a little dirt on his finger - he held it up to show us and said, "Lick at dis!!" He was SO excited. I just love watching him discover the world. What a joy!

(And what's a post without a picture?? My awesome brother-in-law Benjamin took this cute picture of James while we were home for Thanksgiving. More Thanksgiving pictures to come!)

*blue-eyed girl*

Today we got to see my best friend from high school, Cheryl, and her cute little family (we don't get to see them much!), and I got to do a little photo shoot of her adorable little girl. I am still in the middle of editing these pictures, but here is a sneak peek! For more pictures, check out my photography blog! I am just in love with her big blue eyes - and as you will see, she got that from her mommy!

Meet Dirk.

Our snowman. We quite like him. Yay for snow!!

I love this time of year...

I just love the holidays, and am so excited to have a toddler at Christmastime! This week we got out our box of Christmas decorations and it was so much fun, because we never got to get them out last year. We are so excited to get a Christmas tree (but have no idea how the ornaments are ever going to stay on there...), and are so grateful to have a beautiful place of our own to live and for all our many blessings. Bring out the twinkle lights and the hot cocoa....here comes Christmas!! :)

playing in the vleaves.

This year James loved playing in the "vleaves" (mostly - sometimes they bugged him) and was very concerned when his grandparents started putting them in big plastic bags. He'd grab leaves from the bag (one at a time) and put them back on the pile.