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!!"