My incredibly fun, funny, and wonderful Aunt Barbara (the one holding my mom's hand) came to visit us from Long Island, New York, this weekend! This is a rarity and a huge treat! She and my mom are really close, but they hardly get to see each other, so it was the biggest treat for my mom. My mom thought it would be fun for the girls to take a trip to Dallas to see the musical Wicked, so she bought us tickets for Sunday! We had a blast, chatting non-stop the entire day, had two of my favorite meals in Dallas, and really enjoyed Wicked! It was incredible, and I think it is a must see for everyone! Thank you, Mom, for this special treat, and thank you Bryon and Josh for watching the kids for us to go have a girls' day!

Speaking of Aunt Barbara, her youngest daughter, Deirdre, and I are really close cousins. You may remember me talking about her wedding 2 years ago this summer or our trip to NYC last December that she and her husband met us on. Well, her husband is from Finland, and her husband's sister is a pop star there (The story is that she won something like American Idol over there, them became a pop star with a group (Gimmel), and this is her first album on her own). She just came out with a video from her first single, and Deirdre sent it to me on youtube. She's singing in Finish, but I still think it's really neat to see! She speaks very good English and serenaded everyone at Deirdre's wedding, which was awesome. Here is the video link...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S0gQVzXX8A



I have to add a few things that James is doing that is either new since his birthday, or that I forgot to mention and don't want to forget.

~~ Last week, we were sitting at Taco Bueno with my mom, dad, and Thomas. I asked James, "Where's Nana?" and he looked at my mom. Then I continued with my dad, Josh, and Thomas, and each time he looked right at them! It was so exciting to me that he knew every one's names!

~~ A day or two after his birthday, James learned how to get up on his own, from sitting to standing!

~~ He is picking up stuffed animals and hugging them, which is the sweetest thing! He'll keep them by his face for a couple of minutes and squeeze them tightly.

~~ He's VERY into sharing and does it ALL day long! He even tries to share with his reflection in the mirror and people on tv!

~~ He's getting some muscle behind his throwing. He threw a ball to me yesterday, and it hurt! I have to really be on my toes now!

"Welcome to my birthday party!"


James had a blast at his first birthday party! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, too! I never knew how much fun it could be throwing your child a birthday party! I had never seen James as keyed up as he was yesterday. I thought it was from the ENTIRE cupcake he ate, but he was acting the same way today! I think he knew he was the guest of honor! Here are some highlight pictures of the party. I put a link to my flickr account, because there are too many good/funny ones to miss. I hope you enjoy!
More birthday pictures!
Elizabeth and I made his cake Saturday night!






Enjoying his presents!

It's so hard to grasp that his first year is over with. James has brought us so much joy over this year, that we couldn't possibly feel more blessed. I've been thinking a lot about what we were doing a year ago. It's bittersweet thinking about how he's grown from an 8 lb., 5 oz. newborn who ate, slept, and took in faces all day to an almost 25 lb. toddler who walks, is starting to talk, feeds himself (some of the time), and likes to makes us laugh. I'm so happy to be where we are now, though. Even though I rarely get to sit down for more than 10 minutes, he is a ball of fun just waiting to be had.

Tidbits about our 1 year old...

~~He walks everywhere...and fast! I think he's almost at a run! He never crawls anymore, except to get to a wall to stand up when he falls down in the middle of a room.

~~He does this funny thing where he'll walk forward and then sideways, and then sometimes at an angle, to get where he's going.

~~He learned a few words this month!
"baaa" (kind of up-talking and stretching out the aaa) for ball and balloon (more exaggerated for balloon)
"Da-ee" for daddy
"Mama" for mama
"hi" (up-talking again) when he puts the phone to his ear
"daa-geh" for doggie (today he heard a dog barking and said dog though, so maybe that's stopped)
"i-eeee" for light
"bu" (like a kid who can't say r's saying brrr) for bird.

~~He is a ball of energy and enthusiasm.

~~He also has a side where he's serious, like when he's concentrating on a toy or eating a good meal.

~~He's affectionate, but only when it's his idea. He pulls away when I pull him in to kiss or hug him, but he'll run into my arms when I'm on the floor with his arms out and a huge smile and give me the best hug. Sometimes he'll give me open mouth kisses, and he'll put his head on our shoulder when he's sleepy. He recently loves to come to me when I'm on the floor, back up, and sit in my lap.

~~He's very verbal. He jabbers all day long. We think he's a mix between French and Chinese. His new favorite made up word is "cag-neh". It has something to do with him wanting me to give him something, like his bottle or paci. He'll point and say "cag-neh!". I probably burn more calories laughing at him than anything else these days! He's also immitating words we say more and more.

~~When he starts to get tired and we're not at home to put him down, he turns into the Tasmanian Devil, destroying everything in his path!

~~His favorite activities are still anything to do with balls (especially making baskets in his little basketball goal) and hiding objects or placing them in and out of drawers, buckets, cups, etc.

~~He's getting really into dancing. Anytime music or singing starts, his head starts going up and down and his body starts moving. Sometimes it looks like he really knows what he's doing and has rhythm!

~~He's very silly. I'll turn and look at him, and he's looking at me, waiting to laugh and flash me a huge grin. He'll stick his tongue on his teeth, make a raspberry, and then start laughing. He's just a loud boy!

~~He's a mama's and daddy's boy pretty equally now, maybe a hair more attached to me :) Just this month, he has started crying when Josh leaves for work some mornings, and runs to him, squealing with delight, when he gets home. It about brings a tear to Josh's eye everyday.

~~Part of his first molar just popped through last week. He's doing okay for the most part with it.

~~We're finding more foods that he likes, and he's getting less picky. He's still not the easiest person to feed, but it's getting better and better. If he sees something else he wants, he'll point to it.

~~We recently started him on whole milk and turned his car seat around! What fun!

I have thoroughly enjoyed celebrating our precious gift from God and reflecting on this past year, and I am excited to start the second year of his life! Here's to another wonderful year with our Sweet Baby James!

One year ago right now, I was at the hospital trying to convince the nurses to let me stay (and to get an epidural!). Just a couple of hours later, I was holding my precious son for the first time! Here are pictures of him throughout this amazing first year of his life. Check back later for a tribute post to him and birthday party pictures!

Day 1~ 4-16-06












2 weeks old












2 months old












6 months old


















9 months old














1 year old!




























photo by Laura Endsley

James and I headed over to Atlanta Wednesday to stay with Jo Anna and Hannah (my sister-in-law and niece) on their Spring Break, while Josh stayed back to work. We had a great time and just got back last night! James was extremely active on the plane ride over there, but he was happy and never fussed, so I was thankful. Wednesday, after getting up at 3 am, leaving at 3:45, and flying out at on the first flight, we were exhausted, so we just chilled at Jo Anna's house. On Thursday, James's Nana Anna and cousins Josie and Jeb came over to play all day. They had a ball together, and James thoroughly enjoyed being babied by Hannah and Josie. They put him in his stroller and pushed him around the house countless time, and he was as happy as could be! I'd never seen him so still during his awake hours! That night, we ate dinner with Aunt Jayne, Papa Joe, and Jayme. I really enjoyed chatting with them, and James really enjoyed Papa Joe feeding him his first key lime pie! :) James slept horribly during this trip, so Friday morning, Jo Anna, Hannah, and Josie took James with them to something they were doing at church, and let me rest at the house. That was heavenly and much needed! When they came back, we headed over to downtown Atlanta to stay at the Marriott for Hannah's Lads To Leaders convention. We stopped on the way over to drop Josie off with Jerrod, Josh's brother, so I was glad we got to see him, even if it was just for a minute. Hannah was to give a speech, do a puppet contest, and lead singing, so we spent a lot of time helping her prepare. We really had a lot of fun with it! We were trying to help her be more expressive, so I got up in front of Jo Anna and Hannah to give the speech and gave my best motivational speaking (think Chris Farley), and we laughed till we cried! That night was an awards ceremony, and we ran into a bunch of people that Josh grew up with at church. I enjoyed getting to show James to them and hear them tell me how much he looked like Josh! Saturday morning, Hannah gave her speech with the other 3rd grade girls and did a great job! I was SO proud of her and was so glad that I got to see her give it. We left Saturday afternoon and I could not have had an easier time flying back. Josh and I both prayed for James to do well, and he slept the ENTIRE TIME! He fell asleep when we got to the gate, they let me be the 1st one on (they don't usually do that) since I had James, I had the whole row (3 seats) to myself, and he fell asleep the minute we started moving! I laid him down on two seats, propped my feet up, and smiled! Josh picked me up in Dallas, and I came home to snow everywhere! Crazy, crazy weather!!



Easter weekend has been great. It started last night, eating dinner at Elizabeth's. This morning, the Easter bunny came to James (with a little help from Nana and Deedah). These pics are from after lunch. This is an extra special day, not only because Jesus rose from the grave, but James was born last Easter!! I have been very sentimental thinking about it. My little Easter bunny is almost a year old!! This week I'm going to be working hard planning for the big day. We're going all out for his birthday and we're calling it "My Super Sweet 1st Birthday". JK!! If you've seen "My Super Sweet 16", you'll get that. We are actually just having family (+ Joey) over for cake, Sunday lunch, and presents, and I'm really excited about it! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Please say a prayer for my niece, Mary Elizabeth, who is having surgery for her kidney reflux tomorrow.

James got his first big boo-boo! :( He was walking and fell sideways into the side of a door.


We went to Dallas to see our friends' new baby!



We then went to Uncle Michael and Aunt Jilinda's house, spent the night, and went to church with them today!







James's Gigi (my grandma) made this outfit for the person holding him 28 years ago!