James is a year and a half

James is growing up so quickly.  He is in such a fun stage right now too (I know I probably say that in every post I do about his growth).

He loves to snuggle

Carson and I will just sit back and watch him interact with his toys or whatever and we just laugh and wonder, what is going on in that little boy's head?  He'll sit and jabber (some of it understandable, most of it not).

He is talking more and more every day which is really nice.  Less communication frustrations for mom and dad.  I now know if he wants his water or his puppy or his binky- so nice.  He is also putting two words together more.  Some of our favorites lately are, "All gone", "Bye bye choo choo" or "Bye bye car",  "Thank you" (ah, what a well mannered boy...not sure where he got that), and my ultimate favorite that he just learned to say in the last week or two "Love you" - melts my heart.  But he does not give that one out freely- it is pretty rare :)  On the flip side, he's starting to be a little punk.  He has started to say, "No, mine" for everything.  He used to share so well but now everything is his and he says it with such attitude.  He has started saying names too.  He says, Cardi, Robert, Lala (Lisa), Kyle, Ada (Addie), and Elmo.

he loves playing with other little kids

He is getting really good at body parts.  He knows what all of them are when you tell him to point to them but he only knows how to actually say "eyes", "ears", and "feet".  He is obsessed with ears and earrings in particular.  He will move your hair out of the way so he can get to your ears to see if you're wearing earrings.

He loves to knock on doors.  He also loves to throw balls, and he actually has a pretty good arm.  He has learned to slide down small slides on his own.  He can climb up, sit down, and slide on his own.  So daring.  He likes to help mom clean.  He'll get a rag and wipe the floor or the table.  So helpful.  He loves books and has even learned how to say the color yellow from one of them!  When he's looking at an animal book, he'll bend over and kiss the little animals.  How sweet is that?

his new book reading spot

He has started becoming familiar with what we do when we say a prayer.  He will fold his arms and kind of close his eyes for a sec but then will just laugh at us through it.  Then when it's over he'll say,  "Amen".  And really he did this all on his own just by watching.  We never really prompted him to do that.  He also has this childrens book that Grandma Cullimore gave him of Christ and he knows where Jesus is and can kind of say His name.  Makes me feel like we must be doing something right I guess.

He has at least two molars on the bottom.  He may have some on the top, I haven't really checked and can't see those as well.  He is also getting his bottom canines...those have not been fun :(

He thinks it's funny to climb into his toy box

I think it's funny to take a picture rather than help him when he falls
in head first and can't get out :)  I snapped this a tad late.

In the last two weeks he has decided he's too big for a morning nap.  I really had a hard time giving this one up.  I cherished his morning naps since I used that time to get ready for the day.  It became such a hassle though.  Some days he would take a nap, some days he wouldn't and I would fight him on it.  Now that we don't do the morning nap anymore it actually hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be.  I just either make sure I get up before he does or if I'm not able to, I just stick him in the shower with me and wash him off too.  He still takes his afternoon nap and it's great because so far most days it is around 3 hours long!  I am also finding that I have more freedom with just the one nap.  I'm not trying to get all my errands done during that limited time in between nap periods.

This little boy is the joy of our lives!  Love you, James!


By the way, as mentioned in this post, my foot was hurting after my half marathon...well, I took an x-ray and had a foot doctor take a look at it aaaand, it's fractured.  Haha so I'm supposed to wear this thing

Pretty darn cute.  It's a stress fracture which is pretty common with downhill races.  It has been healing up nicely the last few weeks and this was my last week in the little orthopedic shoe so I guess I can run again!

Let the DIY begin

Having a new home is sort of a bad thing...I want to decorate and make it our own and I want to do it all NOW!  I know we will get furniture to fill our empty house and we will acquire more decorations and such as time goes.  I have all these ideas but a strict budget now that we have a mortgage :)  I am really trying to be patient.

I have also become hooked on a few DIY blogs which doesn't help...but there are some really cute ideas that are great on the pocket as well so I decided to give one a try. I found this idea here and was really pleased with how fairly easy it was and how great it turned out!  We put these up in our living room.  I already had some of the supplies leftover from the builder (door frame molding and the paint) so it was an easy decision :)  And it only cost me $53!  They look so elegant too, hard to believe they were so inexpensive!

 I decided since it was that time, I'd go ahead and go straight to decorating my new shelves for Halloween! (I LOVE Halloween).  We don't have a fireplace so I figure these shelves can serve as my mantel if you will where I can switch out my decoration for the Holidays. 

Here it is all decorated for Halloween

A few of the decor were things I made but most of them were things I already had for Halloween or things I had laying around that I could use.  I got this whimsical owl vinyl decal from the blog I found the shelves on (I absolutely love that blog).  I was wondering what I wanted to do with it and remembered I had a decorative plate down in storage that would be perfect, and voila!  I thought it worked really well.

For girls night (while the men were at Priesthood) we made these spooky terrariums.  They were so easy.  All we did was buy a wood plaque (Hobby Lobby), a glass candlestick (dollar store), fringe (Hobby Lobby), spanish moss (Hobby Lobby), and a vase (Walmart).  We painted the wood plaque black then hot glued the fringe on and then also glued the candlestick onto the bottom for it to stand on.  Then you can fill the inside with whatever your heart desires.  So easy! The whole thing cost about $8!  I love the fringe on the base, it just screams old lady, haunted house doesn't it?

I also think these glass bottles add a lot of character.  The green one was from Hobby Lobby, I used the 40% off coupon so it was around $1 and the white one was from Walmart for only 97 cents!

I found the crow and the headstone at the dollar store. 

I also bought this vinyl decal from the same blog mentioned.  I already had the frame, I just adhered the decal right onto the glass then put purple (I know it looks blue in this pic, but it's purple) card stock in the frame.  That way I can switch out the colored paper.  The candle next to it I already had as my usual decor but I thought it looked good with my Halloween decor.  It sort of reminds me of a cauldron.

I'm having too much fun!  I have many more projects that I can't wait to get started on.