James has really enjoyed being in his new room. But he has especially loved helping Daddy build things for his room. Below are some pictures of James "helping" Justin put together his new shelf bookcase.
Working with that screw driver and really concentrating :)
High five from Daddy!
Here, Justin is probably making sure James isn't scraping up his new shelves with the screw driver. Haha
Justin is so patient
Below are more pictures of James helping Justin, this time, taking down the guest bed to make room for James new bed.
Back in college when Justin and I were dating, I loved that he wore those 80's wristbands on his forearms. It was kinda his "thing". He was known for wearing them. He had tons of them...all different colors, solids, stripes, etc. You can see in the picture above that he is sporting one of his wristbands when we were on our cross country trip in Boston, maybe in 2003?
Well, as most people know, Justin saves just about everything (although he is getting better about letting things go :) James recently found Justin's box of wristbands, and turns out...James LOVES them. James has never seen Justin wear one before. But all of a sudden I would see James walking around the house with a wristband on his arm. Sometimes two on one arm. It has been so funny. It doesn't matter what he is wearing. He just pushes those sleeves right on up so the wristband can fit! We have been cracking up about it.
Here are some pictures of James being like his daddy. :)
Two on one arm
Two on one arm again, in his church clothes.
Before bed in his jammies ;)
And if you go back to the post about our "Reveal", James is wearing wristbands in some of those pictures too! Hahaha.
I have the most fun, yet the most frustrating days with James, now 20 months old. He is just a little stinker, learning ways to test his mommy and daddy. Every day, right when he wakes up, he throws a few basketballs in his basketball goal that's in his room, then heads straight for the garage door and says, "outside?". He throws a huge fit every morning when mommy doesn't want to play outside when it's only 6:00 am. He could spend the entire day outside no matter what the weather looks like. I am so thankful for warmer weather this week, so I can actually enjoy being outside with him. James really is a full-fledged toddler now. He sleeps in his big boy bed in his new room (which I will post more about later), he is getting much better at eating with a spoon and fork, he runs quite fast, can actually jump now, and is talking up a storm (even though half the time we can't tell what he is saying). He is VERY independent right now and doesn't want his mommy or daddy helping him with anything :)
Our little stinker
James finally has started giving us more hugs....
and kisses :)
Still loves going out for a stroll with mommy or daddy
(Katie, thanks for those gloves!!!)
James can stand on a stool and watch himself brush his teeth
(although I think he is just really playing with the water and drinking water from his toothbrush...not sure how clean those teeth are actually getting)
I am now 21 weeks pregnant and feeling great. I am so much bigger at this point than I was the last time I was pregnant. It cracks me up all the time. The only thing I wish I could do is run or exercise, but because of having placenta previa, the doctor suggests that I lay low for the rest of my pregnancy. My biggest fear is that I could go on bed rest in my third trimester, but hopefully, that will not be the case. There is also a big chance that I will have to have a C section at 37 weeks, but I will know more after my next ultra sound. I love feeling the baby kick more often now. New life is such a miracle!
21 weeks pregnant
At our 19 week ultrasound, we decided to put the gender in an envelope and have a little reveal party to find out what we are having. My friend, Amber, was the ONLY one who got to see what we were having, because she made our precious little cake for us. If it was a girl, she would make the cake pink. If it was a boy, she would make the cake blue. We would find out as soon as we cut into it!
Isn't this cake precious!
My guess was boy, because I am carrying the same way I carried James. And the baby's heart rate seemed low to me. Justin guess girl because I was sick more often this time around, and I have had more complications with this pregnancy.
Family picture before we cut the cake.
(I was so anxious to find out that I was a nervous wreck!)
And the cutting begins...
And what color do we see?????
PINK!!!! I could not believe my eyes!
Were we really having a GIRL????!!!
Well, you can see James expression. He was either really disappointed we were not giving him a brother, or he just got really upset when I started screaming out of excitement.
(I think it was the latter :)
I just kept staring at the pink cake, because I just knew I was going to see blue.
And of course, since I am such a cry baby, tears started flowing. I am sooo happy to be having a little girl. I pray that she stays healthy and that God makes her just the way he wants.
We went to Franklin for Christmas this year to spend time with Justin's family. We had such a great time, like we always do. It was fun to see James interact more with the cousins. He sure does look up to them! Thanks Nonie and Pops for letting us stay with you guys. We always feel so welcome. Especially thank you for letting us bring Kramer!
Some of the first pictures below may not be from Christmas, and if not, they are not from too much earlier.
Playing with Pops on the playground :)
Hanging out with cousins Leah and Josiah
James swings with sweet Lydia
Nonie and Pops helped James when he wanted to let Belle lick his hand.
James did this again and again
Love riding with Papa up the stairs!
Showing off some Christmas spirit :)
Relaxing with Kramer
Boy I can't say it enough. Kramer is a good dog!
More Christmas spirit!
Now Nonie takes James for another ride!
The family was all sitting around the dinner table and James was downstairs playing, when all of a sudden, we all hear a door open. James figured out how to open the back door, and he had just let himself out! We were all cracking up!
Ok, here are the rest of our Christmas pictures from Nashville! Below are two videos from our time there. The first one is when James learned to swing the way Justin taught him. The second one is at Cassie's house. James is jumping on the trampoline with his older cousins and having a blast!
Just one of the beautiful snowy scenes from Mom and Dad Payne's back yard.
James was dying to go outside first thing in the morning and look at the snow (or at least he was dying to go outside, like usual). So Justin held him while still in his pjs and let him take it all in :)
Experiencing snow on the leaves
Another beautiful scene (so inspiring to an artist :)
James finally got dressed warm enough to play in the snow
Justin helped him make a snowball
Kramer enjoyed his time outside too
Stopping for a quick picture. I didn't last long out there. It was FREEZING!
One quick trip to the fence and back
James LOVED playing in Pop's red truck.
"Can we stay in here all day?"
We had our Christmas gift exchange at Cassie's house, and Pops began his traditional Santa role, passing out gifts to the family.
Here are the cousins, anxiously awaiting their gifts!
Justin helped Pops pass out gifts
The kids opened their gifts from Justin and me. I had the opportunity to paint them little canvases that (hopefully) match each of their rooms! I love getting back into painting.
Rebecca, Anna Blair, Josiah, and James did such a good job sharing the magna doodle.
Sweet little Lydia (a few months older than James)
Before we left Frankin, we tried to get a family picture. This is the best we could do with someone not really in the smily mood. :)
