MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

It has been a while since I have blogged I thought that I would share a few photos from over the last few weeks. Thanksgiving was spent in southern utah with our families. We stayed a few days in Alton and then went down to Kanab for a few days and had Thanksgiving dinner in Fredonia at my sister's house. It turned out great and I am so greatful that they opened up their new home for us to use.

This is James at his Grandpa and Grandma Jones' house. He played and played and played with his little cousins. I don't think he knew what to do with all those girls. He has 4 girl cousins from age 2 to age 4 months. He is the only boy.

Here he is at Grandpa and Grandma Roundy's house. He loved to climb up on this milk can and pound on it like a drum. He thought is was great when he could play in the tupperware cupboard. It kept him entertained for hours.

Here he is at Megan's house while we were getting dinner ready. He was so excited about playing with Uncle Jesse's cars. He even let him play with his very nice car. I think Uncle Jesse is ready for a little boy now that he has a wonderful daughter.

James is playing with Kylee, Bella, and Uncle Jesse

We finally put up our Christmas tree. I have been bugging Cloyd for weeks to help me get it up, but with finals and trying to get his 1st stage exam in it has been very busy.

This is James helping his daddy vaccuum the floor and the couches in preparation for the tree. He thought it was great to be able to be "big" like his dad. He got the little tool and followed his dad around doing what he did. He even jumped on the pillows like his dad did.

Here is our tree. We bought the tree half off a couple of years ago, but didn't have the decorations we wanted for it yet. So, last year we just went with lights mostly because I was 8 months pregnant and to tired to care.

This year was a different story. We looked all year for just the right ornaments when we finally found these little signs of "hope", "peace", and "joy". Cloyd had to paint them, but they were exactly what we wanted.

The next morning, after we had put the tree up, I brought James down for lunch and I had it plugged in. He just stared at it with his mouth wide open forever. He loves it expecially the Angel at the top of the tree.

I love to see the wonder in his eyes. Priceless.

CHICKEN POX!!!

Can you believe that James has the CHICKEN POX!! I thought that was something they got when they were a little older not when they were 9 months old. Poor baby.

On Friday it looked like a little rash around his mouth and on his cheek. Saturday it was worse and a few more bumps showed up. By the time I was going to work he had a few more bumps on his back and torso. Today the ones from Friday are full on blisters and are actually scabbing over tonight. He just looks awful.

We gave him a baking soda bath and put caladryl lotion on, along with some gloves so he wouldn't itch. Then tonight for bed we put him in a Aveeno oatmeal bath, put more caladryl lotion and some aveeno night itch relief lotion on.

Hopefull tomorrow he is feeling better and it starts to look better.

9 Months

James is now 9 months old. Can you believe it? We took him for his check-up last week and he now weighs 21 1/2 lbs and is 28 1/2 inches tall. He now has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on bottom. The are so cute. I swear every day he has a new one. I can't believe how fast he moves lately. I can barely keep up. I love how curious he is and how much of the world he is discovering.

I was trying to get ready for work, so I put him in the sink to play. He started just sitting and playing in the mirror, but by the time I was done he was just lounging and relaxing.

Halloween

This year James dressed as a "Sock Monkey" He was so cute. We were thinking of dressing him as a monkey, and then one day we were at Cindy's house and she had bought a Sock Monkey costume for him. How sweet was that. He loved.

He and his dad (I had to work) went up to Cindy's house for Halloween. He went trick-or-treating with Olivia and Andrew. They were so cute. I hope Cindy puts pictures on her blog, we forgot our camera. James loves his cousins.

Here we are getting our picture taken at our ward party. I think next year we are going to dress up

Here is Cloyd and James with his sock monkey.

James crawling with his monkey taking a ride.

Look at those blue blue eyes. Wow

It was fun to put James in this costume. He even kept his hat on most of the time.

Firsts

James is almost 9 months old and reaching many many milestones. It is crazy to see how much he has grown. I feel like he was born yesterday until I try to carry him around a store while I am shopping. Talk about heavy.
I am loving his personality especially the way he jabbers, jabbers, and jabbers. He is always smiling and still very laid back.
Here are a few pictures of some of his first. On just one day he crawled up the stairs, pulled himself up on furniture, and was hiding under his blankets.

He pulled himself up at the bottom stair, so I went over to help him up the rest of the stairs then put him back on the floor with his toys thinking he would forget about it and I went into the kitchen. When I turned around he was half way up the stairs and I took a picture. So cute. We now put the gate up.

James is pulling himself up on everything. Today he even got a little daring and let go of the couch for just a second. He fell on his bottom, and then got right back up again

James loves this toy. If you push the different instruments it makes that particular sound and then is can also play random music. His new thing is to stand up and dance. It is so much fun to watch.

He is now crawling all over the place. I can barely keep up. I difinitely have to keep the house cleaner so his knees and hands don't get black.

This is the first time James rode in the shopping cart. He loved it.

Dinner Calendar

I have decided to do a dinner calendar for my family in an attempt to save money and time. Usually when I am working my wonderful husband makes me something amazing and yummy to take to work. On Sunday we usually either go to my sister in laws home to eat (thank-you, thank-you, thank-you) or I try to cook something healthy for after church. Either way we usually eat at least four good meals a week. But, then there are those days when the last thing I want to do is cook dinner (more often lately than not) or it comes down to dinner time and neither one of knows what we want and then it gets later and we end up eating at Wendy's or something.
So, hopefully a dinner plan will elleviate some of the stress and hassle of figuring out what to do for dinner every night. I have gotten some great ideas for quick, easy, and healthy meals from my friend at work. If anyone else has some good meals to share I would love all the help I can get.

Locking my blog

Because of all the horror stories of weirdo people getting on blogs and stealing information ect. we are going to lock this blog.
Please send me your email address. You can either leave it here on our blog or send it to my email. ckjeternalfamily@yahoo.com
Thanks