1st Christmas

James did really good on his first christmas and came home with ALOT of new toys. Mommy & daddy need a new home to fit all these new toys in!! James did make the conection to pull the paper off some of the gifts and was pretty interested in the tissue paper and the noise it made. I think his favorite gifts to play with so far are his Chicco car walker and his crawl ball, although I am sure new favorites are to come!!

Family photo at my parents house in Waukee

James is excited for his new rig!!

Learning how to honk the horn

Watching daddy open presents

Thanks nana & pappe for the car walker....I love it!!!

Ummm that taste weird!!!

We introduce James into rice cereal tonight, he did pretty good. At first you could tell he was trying to figure out what the heck we were trying to fed him, but he got the whole swallowing thing down pretty quick. We are wondering if any or much acually reached his stomatch, well the pictures below tell a better story :)

4 Months!!!

Wow I cant believe that James is already 4 months old! He sure has taught Don & I ALOT about life & parenting :) James has started to roll last week and hasn't stoped since. He doesn't just roll over once but he keeps rolling until he can't roll any further. It is pretty fun to watch! James has learned that he can make his voice really, really loud and than really, really soft. He also has learned that he can sream, we think that he learned that at daycare.  He is a real smiley boy, our daycare lady told us that she has never seen a baby smile as much as James does and she has been doing daycare for over 20 years! We had his 4 month check up today & those lovely shots....NOT! James did really good though, he only cried for a little bit after the shots and even slept the whole way home, which is rare for James to fall asleep in the car. He weighed in at 16 lbs 7 oz which makes him 87% in weight & he was 27 inches long which took him off the charts in height!! Doctor Strang said he is going to be a very tall boy, which duh look at his daddy :) We got the ok from the Dr to start him on rice cereal so we are going to try that some time this week, it should be interesting!! I have to say even though James has only been around for a little over 4 months it seems like he has always been around in a way :) I dont know what we would do if he wasnt in our lifes, he brings so much joy & happiness to our lives!! Here are some photos of James' check up the good & the sad parts.

James getting weighed

Waiting for Dr. Strang

The WORST part!!! He is sooo brave though!

Poor little guy all pooped out!

Rolling Over

James has learned how to roll over from his back to his tummy. The first time that he did it today all by himself I missed it because I was in the shower, but he did several times later for mommy to see! We have been working with James on doing this and he has finally gotten able to do it all by himself with no help from mommy & daddy!! The photos below are him in the process of rolling over.

Christmas Cookies

I was super excited to make Christmas cookies this year since I have a son to share to experience with. The blizzard all 3 of us stay home today, so I decided it would be a great day to make cookies. James did really good, he sat in his bouncy seat in the kitchen for awhile and than he wanted to take a nap. So I took advantage of him sleeping and frosted the cookies. He did really enjoy looking at the cookies since they have such bright colors on them. Maybe next year we can do it all together!!

This is what James did during cookie frosting, oh well maybe next year!!

Meeting Santa Claus for the 1st Time!!!

We took James on Monday to Bass Pro to meet Santa Claus. The offered a free photo with santa and since we didnt think that James would do to well, we decided to go there since it was free. James did really well though, he even smiled for his picture. At first he was more interested looking at the stuff on the wall in the store but than he looked over and saw Santa and smiled. Santa was asking James what he wanted to christmas and James would just chatter back to him, than he pulled on Santa's beard and than spit up on him, so we thought it was time to give Santa a break!! It was such a special moment to experience with our child, enjoy the photo below!!

1st Christmas Party!!

James attended his 1st christmas party this weekend, he did really good!! It took place at the hotel at living history farms in West Des Moines. Don's grandmother lives in a condo so she rents out a place to host christmas since we all can't fit in her place. We ate dinner at the machine shed, which was really good food, but this was James's first real resturant that he went to, besides Panchero's for a burrito. When we first got to the resturant James was getting really fussy I got him to sleep and he slept through the whole meal. Grandma Ginny always gives us big kids money and gives he great grandchildern toys and stuff. James loved watching all the kids get there toys and presents, he would just sit there and watch them and laugh & smile. When it came to his gift he wasn't to interested in it, but he loved the pretty bag that it came in!! Sunday morning we got up and went to brunch at the machine shed which was really good, if you ever get the chance to go there for brunch do! All in all James did alot better than what we had expected him to do, we were pretty proud parents!! He is pretty wiped out from the fun weekend, he took a 4 hr nap this afternoon and is in bed for the night at 8:00. Tomorrow I am taking him to see Santa Claus at Bass Pro. I hope that the snow doesnt keep us from going!!