Attempting to get around

Lately, James has tried to roll, scoot, army crawl, etc.. to get where he wants to go. I have a video to post, but I will show that later. Here are some pictures we took of him in action.

On your mark....

army crawl/scooting on arms like an inchworm

just about there!

James has now learned to be on his tummy and get himself up to sitting position.

Here he is on the way up.

Ta Da!

(looks like a cheerleading pose.. haha)

The only problem is that he gets stuck from time to time!

Nursery walls

I am so embarrassed that it has been almost 8 months since James has been born and I am JUST NOW getting some creations up on the wall. I am supposed to be "Mrs. Artist", and I have not lived up to that since I started working full time right out of college. Now, even though I am not working full time, I have had lots of trouble finding time to just sit down and be creative. I guess with trying to clean and cook and keep James on a schedule, and teach art lessons here and there, and coach here and there, and substitute here and there, and go to church functions, and visit with friends and family, and go out of town from time to time....well, you get the picture.

Finally I finished James' wall letters that I had been working on in little spurts here and there. I used the leftover material that Cassie didn't need for the bumper pads and curtain, so it matches the room perfectly! Oh well, better late than never, right?

So cute

another angle

Justin hung the pretty wall hanging that Crystal gave me at one of my baby showers. It says "Child of God. Child of Mine"

Now I have one wall left to hopefully paint an actual painting for! Hopefully I can get it done before James moves out of the nursery! Haha.

Friends Forever

Well, I know we post quite a few pictures of James and Kramer, but they just take the cutest pictures! It's always amazing to us how great they get along.

Trying so hard to get a kiss

getting closer...

SCORE!

Enjoying the fire

Looks like they are getting "caught" doing something they shouldn't be doing!

Pals

Practicing Puffs

At lunch every day, I give James a few puffs so he can practice putting them in his mouth. He thinks it is so interesting each time he tries one, but then all of a sudden he realizes he has something foreign in his mouth. Below is the face he makes when he eats his puff!

James thinking, "What is this in my mouth?"

After the puff has been in his mouth for a few seconds, he loses it!

Can you find the puff in this picture?

What about this one?

Although by now James has gotten quite good at eating his puffs, below is a video of James trying his very first puff. Thought you would enjoy this :)

Our sweet 7 month old!

It seems like each month just gets better and better. James is 7 months now and is really starting to express his own unique personality. He is quite the ham.... LOVES attention, and yet plays very good by himself. He seems to always be smiling or laughing. Justin and I say over and over, "I can't believe he's ours!"

James at 7 months

Weight: 14 lbs 8 oz

I had trouble getting his photo because he wants to put everything he touches in his mouth!!

Some things James is accomplishing at seven months:

*Sitting up VERY well

*Sitting in big tub without baby tub

*Nodding head from side to side

*Says Da-Da (in a string of other sounds)

*Can sometimes repeat "da da"

*Scooting on tummy (beginnings of army crawl)

*Trying puffs

*Loves biter biscuits

*Loves fruit and rice cereal

*Still working on liking veges

And I cannot yet add "sleeping through the night" on the list, because we are still working on that one (on average he goes about 6 hours).. yawn :)

Here are some pictures of him from the last couple of weeks:

Waking up from a great nap!

Happy in car seat

Sitting in high chair for the first time at a restaurant with cousin Anthony

He was good the whole time!

Big boy bath time!

Sitting in ball house he got from Santa

Reading :)

(excuse the nasty drool on his shirt)

Time with daddy during Christmas break

His usual flying

Great picture with Papa!

I will post some videos soon of James eating puffs and of his tiny army crawl!

Christmas take two!

After we had a full Christmas here in Memphis with Mandy's family, we headed to Nashville where we celebrated a couple more days with Justin's family.

9 out of the 11 grandchildren. What a task to get every child looking straight ahead and smiling! I wasn't able to accomplish it. But they always take a cute photo anyway!

I love this picture of Papa holding James. James is such a wiggle worm!

Sweet Leah with James (I think these two are going to make really good pals one day!)

I think this is one of Caleb's first and only pictures holding James (since he has been born!)

What a great picture!

The three amigos.

(They all wanted a little piece of warm sunlight)

Once again, Belle decided to take possession of anything she liked that wasn't hers.

Here you can see Belle has cuddled up on James' Bear Bear.

(She looks like she is thinking, "get away from me!")ha!

Next, she decided to go after the remains of Kramer's huge bone.

(Kramer let her borrow it for awhile, but eventually stole it right back)

Then, we found Belle dragging Kramer's bag full of treats all the way from the bedroom to the hallway! Earlier, before she tried to steal the bag, we walked into the bedroom and found all the baggies of treats out in little neat piles on the carpet (but none were open). Later we found one bag again on the ground, but it was torn open and a ton of treats were missing. I guess from the looks of this picture, she figured since we zipped up all the treats, she would just take the whole bag and figure out later how to get in it!

Christmas in Memphis

James' first Christmas was so much fun! Everyone made it very special, and James seemed to enjoy every minute.

Ho Ho Ho

Justin and I decided this year we would make a gingerbread house!

I think it turned out nicely :)

Every year Justin adds on a few more strands of Christmas lights somewhere on the outside of our house. He does such a great job. I wonder where the lights will be added next year??!

Eventually, I think Justin would like our home to look like the Griswold's house at Christmastime!

Christmas card picture

Quite good buddies these days

On Christmas morning, James woke up sooo happy. While Justin and I opened presents, James happily watched from his exersaucer.

Kramer with his present, a HUGE dog bone

(He could hardly get through the halls without wacking the walls!)

We finally headed over to Mandy's parents' house to have more Christmas fun there. We tried to get a picture of James showing off his outfit that says "My First Christmas".

There it is!

Santa (Meme and Papa) got James his very own "Bear Bear".

James loves cuddling with it!

Playing with his new toys

James got a Radio Flyer for Christmas too!

We can't wait to go for many rides in it.

Having too much fun!

James got to play with his cousin, Anthony.

Anthony is showing James how to work some of his toys.

James just stared in awe :)