Friday, February 25, 2011

First Birthday Party: The Details


I thought I would share the details of the party before I get to all the cute-pictures-of-James goodness!

When deciding on a theme for James' first birthday party, I only had to think for a second before I landed on a football theme.  After all - James will be a star quarterback for The University of Texas one day!

I started with finding the perfect football invitations:


The colors of the party were green, orange, brown & white and were inspired by the invitation and James' two favorite schools:  UT & Notre Dame. 

I had a lot of inspiration for the party decorations from several other blogs I read - so I bought a bunch of scrapbook paper and went to work!  It took me a few weeks worth of time to get everything ready, but I think it was worth it!  I love how everything turned out!


the party favors
hand-made & sewn party streamers
Happy Birthday banner
Month-by-Month photo wall
Stay tuned this weekend for photos of the actual party!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

First Trip to the Park


Back in January, we had a nice weekend in between all the crazy weather - so Brian and I decided to take James to the park.  

We started at the swings...



James seemed to like the swings.  I think he did not quite know what was going on and was more interested in checking out what all the other big kids were doing.

Next we headed to the toddler play area.  James liked riding in the car...




He also liked going down the slide with Daddy's help...



And he really liked ALL the rocks at the bottom of the slide!  (see lower left corner in the picture above!)


That is - he liked the swing and the rocks... until Mommy & Daddy took them away so he would not eat them!


All in all - it was a great first trip to the park and I am excited to take James back there many more times as he gets older and the weather gets warmer!

Sickness


Our little man has has his fair share of sickness in his first year.  Several colds, an upper respiratory infection and even the flu!

I keep telling myself that all of this will just help build his immune system for when he is older... but it is still hard to see your little one when they are not feeling good!

Here is a shot of James getting a breathing treatment with Daddy when he had his respiratory infection.  The first couple times were quite painful when we had to give James the treatment - but after a few days he would end up falling asleep in our arms.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

Finally...


It only took me a few weeks, but I finally got around to uploading some of the latest pictures of James.  And if you are reading this - then you know that I also FINALLY got around to writing some more blog posts!

I really want to start trying to blog more regularly - but time always seems to get away from me.  I am going to try and work on posting at least once a week from now on and hopefully work up from there!

Stay tuned over the next few weeks for all the details of James' spectacular first birthday celebration, as well as his first trip to the park and his latest round of sickness!

11 Months Old

(I know, I know... I am a month behind on these updates again!)

On January 11, James turned 11 months old.  

 
At this point, James weighed about 24 pounds and still wore size 4 diapers and 12-18 month size clothes.  He had six teeth total - 4 on the top and two on the bottom.  He had also started to become a better eater, as we slowly began to transition to table foods. 

He was getting thisclose to being ready to start walking.  He walks all over the living room by grabbing onto the couch, the ottoman, his toys, the baby gate... whatever he can get too.  He was still crawling like crazy though and it was hysterical to see how fast he can move when he gets excited.

Taking the 11 month photos was also a challenge given James' mobility... hence the outtakes below:



and one cute picture of James to add just for fun...

Milk Mouth


In honor of James' nickname - I decided to make him a shirt:

Making New Friends


At the beginning of January, Brian and I invited a few of our good friends over for a home-cooked meal, some drinks and some laughs.

This also happened to be the first time James got to meet one of the couples sweet little boy Ben - who is just about 1 year older than James. At first, I do not think Ben was too fond of James. Ben stayed close to his parents while James kept himself busy playing with his toys.

After dinner was over, I was holding James on my lap and my friend was holding Ben and I think the kids finally warmed up to each-other. Ben shared his fork with James and before you know it the two were both screaming and getting a big kick out of one another.





It will be so fun to watch these two grow up and hopefully become better friends!

*And if it is any indication of the future, my friend let me know that after they left Ben could not stop talking about Baby James!

2010: A Year of Firsts


***WARNING:  picture overload!!***

2010 was a year of firsts for James.  

First holidays, first vacation, first University of Texas football game, first tooth, first visit to the Pumpkin patch, first foods and now...

James' first trip to a Celtic Festival






and...

James' first Christmas in California 


and

James' first visit to the Christmas Tree Farm to pick out our tree!


and to make this post even longer...

James' first Christmas Day in Austin!