Sorry, this is probably going to be a long post, Doug hates when I do long posts, but there is just so much to tell, and I wish I could put more pictures in because James is so cute right now it is really hard to choose.
We had an awesome Christmas with my family. On Christmas Eve we drove down to a condo my parents rented by Powder Mountain in Utah. The heat wasn't working, so it was freezing, but they gave us some free ski passes so it was worth it. James had a ton of fun climbing the stairs and playing with his cousins. He went to bed early that night.
On Christmas morning we came downstairs and opened our Christmas Stockings, James didn't really get it. He played with the boat for a minute then kept trying to go do other things, he didn't even care about the rest of the toys or the candy!

After the stockings we all headed downstairs to the basement to where the tree and presents were. I went early to try and get James' reaction when he walked in the room. I was not disappointed. Santa brought him a bike and he knew it was for him.

He rode his bike around for a long time until Doug finally hid it so he would be interested in some other toys. The next present he opened was from Grandma and Grandpa Allen, we didn't know what it was or we probably would have saved it until last. It was these cute little kid Rollerblades. He knew right away what they were and couldn't wait for Doug to get them out of the box. He spent the next 30 minutes or so dragging one of us around to try them out. Myra kept asking when it would be her turn. Finally Doug hid those and we could move on to other presents.

After all the presents were finally open Doug took James out to play in the snow. He loves to play in the snow and doesn't even mind how cold and wet it gets.

The next day we went to Salt Lake. We didn't get there before Christmas so we had to go to IKEA to get James' present from us. We got him a small table and chairs. When we got home he helped Dad put it together using his new tools that he got from Uncle Scott. He was so excited that he couldn't wait for Dad to put the table together, he took one of the chairs in the other room and tried to put it up the the table.

Finally it was done and he could play. Now we just have to wait for a day warm enough to paint!

James also got this neat marble run that he loves. He puts the ball in the top and says "Set Go!" Then watches them go down. I also heard him throwing them across the kitchen floor, then telling himself, "Nice throw!"

There are so many other things to write about, but I guess it will wait until the next post. Plus we need to get some cute videos of James playing with his new toys. We also got Wii Fit and it was so fun to watch James do the Yoga poses!

Adventures in the Snow

My family came to visit this weekend and it snowed the entire time! My parents, Blake, Jordyn, Brandon, and Allison all came late Saturday night so we had a relaxing Sunday and Chad and Shannon and their family came up Sunday afternoon. On Monday we decided that it would be fun to go sledding. So we bundled up all the kids and ourselves, it was snowing pretty hard, and ventured out.
James loved playing in the snow and didn't seem to mind getting wet and cold at all! I was so mad that I forgot my camera because he was so cute. He especially liked eating the snow, with no hands, just stuck his face down in the snow and licked it up! After sledding we decided to go to Big Jud's to get hamburgers. Chad wanted to do the 1 pound hamburger challenge, the rest of us all split the hamburgers.
When we got home from lunch we couldn't find our driveway! The wind had picked up and blown huge drifts across it and we were stuck out on the road. Luckily we have really nice neighbors, with not so long of a driveway, and they let us park there. Then we made the long cold trek home. For a few minutes I felt really bad for the pioneers. It only snowed probably 6-8 inches, but this is what our back yard looked like this morning. The big drift was a little lower in this picture because it was after all the boys jumped off the roof into the snow!

This morning everyone helped Doug dig the cars out so he could go to work, then carried bags out to the cars. Our driveway is about 100 yards long, so it was quite the ordeal. On the way out of town my parents stopped at a gas station and saw a guy with a plow. They talked to him and paid him to come plow our driveway for us. I am very grateful for this because I didn't know what we were going to do this winter. The plows came and about 15 minutes later we had a clear driveway!

James loved watching them work. He would run to the window and watch, then run back to his dump truck and push it around for a while, then run back to the window, then back to his truck. I thought it was so cute how excited he was about all of it.

Why we moved north for the winter (By doug)

I just thought some of you might be interested in the project I am working on now. I know it is not as interesting as a Temple but it is still a neat project.

This is the BYU-Idaho Auditorium. It has a 15,000 seat auditorium in one end (very similar design to the Conference Center in salt lake) and 10 basketball courts with a suspended track on the other end

This is a picture in the back of the auditorium

This picture is from the running track looking at the courts area.

This is the lobby of the building.

Boots and Football

James loves his boots. I gave him a bath and barely got the diaper on before he ran off to put his boots on. He then wore the boots all day! I took them off for his nap, as soon as he woke up, he put them on again.

The other day they were put away in the closet, Doug got them out and we bet to see how long until he put them on, I had under 10 minutes, Doug had over 10 minutes, Doug won. It took James 12 minutes to find and put his boots on.

After the football game on Sunday I was listening to some pretty happy screaming in the Living room. When I went to investigate this is what I found.

Now every day, just about the time Doug is getting home from work, James grabs my finger and takes me to the hall to play the "Set, Go!" Game. Usually we only do it once because it's just not the same with mom!

WORST MOVIE EVER (by doug)

Fact: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the worst movie ever made. I hate everything about it. Andrew Adamson and Christopher Markus, the writers and director, feel they can create a better story then C.S. Lewis and name it after one of his books. Well my stupid Friends you can not. The Chronicles of Narnia are some of the greatest books ever written and do not need anything changed. The first movie was good but had a few completely unnecessary changes but this was a complete joke. If you have not seen it DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE EVER. This movie is so far from the original story and in such a bad way that i hope they do not make the other books into movies. The books are great so quit at that.

Free at Last!

Every night Doug or I go and check on James before we go to bed. He occasionally has a poopy diaper and needs to be changed. The crib is too high for me to lean over and smell, so I just have to feel his diaper to see if it is clean or not. So imagine my surprise when I went to feel his diaper last night and felt butt crack instead! My first thought was, "Did we forget to put a diaper on him?" but after feeling around I found it bunched up in the bottom of one of his pajama legs! So we had to change his diaper and pajamas last night and I think I will be washing sheets this morning. I think he really enjoyed those few hours of freedom!

We went to Colorado for Thanksgiving and had a ton of fun, but not a lot of pictures. Actually this is the only one I took. James in Mom and Dad's bed. He didn't want to get his pajamas on and crawled under our covers instead. It snowed a little and James loved playing outside with Dad, but surprisingly he didn't like sledding. James was amazing on the drive there and back, he really didn't scream and seemed to enjoy having somebody in the back seat with him. When we got home we set up this Christmas tree, I think James enjoyed it, but the blue balls on the tree look just like his blue balls and he keeps trying to take them off and throw them around. I'm glad I bought some plastic ornaments.

Can You Tickle Yourself?

James loves to imitate everything we do or say, which is a lot of fun. To get a good idea of what he is doing in this video, watch the video from February 28th 2008. He does this at changing time, after Dad starts it of course.

Happy Birthday Doug

Yesterday was Doug's birthday and we had so much fun celebrating. While Doug was at work James made him two shields to go with the swords he gave him. He had a lot of fun finger painting. When Doug got home he opened his presents.

James gave his dad some foam swords that they could play with, and two shields he made. They had a sword fight.

James also gave him a sled that they will have so much fun playing with during the winter.

We went out to dinner at Applebee's, and then watched Tim play floor hockey for a little. Then it was home for (cheese)cake. We had a fun day! Happy Birthday Doug!

The Final Count

After crawling through the crawl space here is what Doug discovered:
over 50 plastic balls
around 15 domino's
and 1 racket ball

He is a very determined little boy!

James' Game

Yesterday James came up with a new game. I was just listening to him happily playing and enjoying the noises that he was making. After a while (maybe longer then I thought) I decided to go see what he was up to. Here is what I found. James standing over the vent in my room (he had taken the cover off) yelling "Ball" then actually throwing a ball down the vent. I had no idea how many he had already thrown or what would happen. He had to carry them, 2 at a time, from his ball pit in the living room, all the way down the hall to throw them in. No matter what I did I could not distract him from this "fun" game. And I worried that if I kept him from this vent he would discover one of the other 10 vents in the house and start throwing things in there. When Doug got home I told James to show him what he did, he grabbed a ball and went and did it again.

Here is what our vents normally look like:

Here is James playing the game:

Here is the vent after the game:

Here are the balls Doug was able to pull out just by sticking his arm down the vent:

The rest of the balls will have to be taken out by Doug going in the crawl space, unhooking the duct and emptying it. Luckily no balls made it to the furnace, we were worried about that.

So now we have two questions: 1. How do you keep your kids from taking the vent covers off and throwing things down there? 2. How many balls to you think he actually threw down the vent? We wont know until Doug goes in the crawl space. Any guesses?

Finally!

So we finally have Internet and no longer have to go to the public library to do anything! We have successfully moved into our new house, and it is much bigger then I thought it would be. Doug said 3 bedrooms, but there are 4. Here is Doug and James on moving day.

We love everything about it except for all the extra work! James loves all the room he has to play and even though I tried to put all in toys in the "playroom" the entire house has become his playroom. He also loves the yard and all the mud he has already found to play in, and he loves the neighbors swing set. I just wish it didn't get so cold so soon so we could spend more time outside.

One thing James discovered is Loa's bed. He spends a lot of time playing in her cage, and has to make sure he shuts himself in. The he calls for "Woa" to come and get in with him, but she never listens. She has gotten really good at ignoring him!

James also loves his "swimming pool". OK really it is just a huge bathtub, but he doesn't know that. He loves to play in there, but only if Mom or Dad gets in with him. Then it takes him awhile to get warmed up to it, spending a long time playing on Mom or Dad's lab only, but once he gets used to it he is crazy!

Here is the cat Loa hates, but James loves. I think it belonged to the people who used to live here. It sits on the back step and whenever we open the door it tries to run in the house. Loa wont go outside if it is there, so I have to pick it up and hide it, then put it back down once she runs out. Then when she wants to come in she stands a long distance away and barks until I come and "rescue" her. She is a big wimp. Loa does love all the room she has to roam, and I don't really have to put her on her leash anymore, except she doesn't listen when I call her, but it is nice to have somewhere for her to go play.

I bought this basket to put James' toys in. He dumps all his toys out and puts the basket on his head so he can walk around the house with it. This was funny because he had the basket on his head, his blanket in one hand, his other hand in his mouth and he was trying to sit in the back of his dump truck. He is so much fun!

Doug is doing well at work, he is really busy and has to work late a lot. He misses being on the Temple, but I think he will like this more the more he gets to know the job. I think it will take a lot longer for Me and Doug to adjust then it did for James and Loa. I miss Salt Lake and our friends, I also miss having neighbors, but all this extra space will be nice for now.

We have no Internet!

Soon maybe we will be able to figure out this internet thing and be able to write about all our fun adventures in Idaho. Stay tuned for more!

18 months!

I have been trying to post some cute videos, but it is not working, so maybe in a few weeks we can post something. We have been crazy this past week trying to get everything packed to move tomorrow. We also decided to just post our place on Craig's List just to see what kind of interest there was. In about 3 days I had 15 contacts of people interested. So I am happy to say we have found someone to rent it which will really help and is very surprising.

James had is 18 month check up yesterday. Probably one of the worst trips to the doctors we have had. He has been sick so everything sends him into a major tantrum. We had thought he was evening out a little (height and weight) but he shot up three inches, now 35 in tall, and only gained 1 pound, now weighs 24lbs 1 oz. So I guess he is just going to be tall and skinny.

H got to go to nursery for the first and last time in our ward last week, and loved it! But we never thought it would be otherwise. He actually cried when Doug came to pick him up because he wanted to stay.

James the Fish

James has been having so much fun in Florida. He seems to have conquered his fear of the Ocean and now loves it. The past two days he has been able to walk pretty far out, almost to where the waves are breaking, on his own. Every time a wave comes he runs toward it and laughs when it hits him. After we spend hours at the ocean James has to play with the hose at home for awhile while we are washing off. Then he goes and gets in the swimming pool with whoever will take him, then finishes off with a nice warm shower. I think he would live in the water if he could.

Big News!

We made it to Florida with only a little drama. The flight to Chicago was perfect. The layover wasn't too awful. They rushed us onto the plane to make up for some lost time. Then we sat there for an hour so they could fix the bathroom. When they finally got the bathroom fixed they decided that we needed more fuel so we sat longer. Finally about 30 minutes before we landed James started screaming and we could not calm him down, this is the result of only having two VERY short naps. Finally we landed and got off the plane to find they had left our stroller in Chicago. I was so tired and upset by this time, not to mention that it was past 11:00 Florida time.

We have been having fun, James loves to chase the dog around, and she tolerates it as well as a small dog can tolerate a small child. James also loves to swim. Even though the water is a little cold it is hard to get him out of the pool. He doesn't love the ocean however. When we went there to play yesterday he walked up the walkway stopped, looked at the ocean, said "No" and turned around and walked back to the car! I was laughing pretty hard and we did get him to play in the sand far away from the waves.

The big news is...we're moving! On Tuesday Doug talked to his boss and they asked if he would be willing to go work in Rexburg, Idaho for a year to replace a project engineer on a job there. This is somewhat of a blessing because we didn't think they would have another job for Doug for awhile and he would just be working out of the office. So even though it is not another Temple it will be a great experience and a blessing for our family. Yesterday when Doug talked to his boss they had it approved to go and wanted him up there as soon as possible. Doug said he needed two weeks to finish up his work on the Draper Temple then he would be ready to go. Now it just has to be approved by the school and it is official. So I am house hunting from here and as soon as we get home Doug will be leaving for Idaho while I try to pack up our entire house as quickly as possible. Hopefully we will also be able to find someone to rent our place in Utah. So while we are having so much fun in Florida I keep thinking about all that has to get done once we get home!

Traumatized for Life?

Due to Doug's very "traumatic" childhood there are certain things he is very picky about with James. For example: Doug's mother made him change into his swimsuit in front of the entire swim class and their parents. Who knew a 3-year-old would have such a great fear of public nudity. As a result all bathtub pictures (if allowed at all) are censored, and there is no possible way James will ever be changed in a public setting. I had to fight pretty hard to be able to take a picture of James during his first bath. Another example: Doug remembers being zipped up in his blanket sleeper. So now I have had extensive training on the proper way to zip up a blanket sleeper, and any other zipper that is close to James' body.

So my question today is have I just traumatized James for life? Is he going to remember this event for the rest of his life. And will his wife suffer because of it?
I was starting to pack for our trip and James was playing in his room. I could hear him playing with this basket which for some reason is one of his favorite toys. Suddenly he starts crying so I go in his room to see what happened. I couldn't help but start laughing. James had put first his blanket then himself in this basket and was stuck. He wasn't hurt, just frustrated that he couldn't get out. I thought that it was so funny that instead of getting him out of the basket I took a picture first. So I wonder when the day will come when James tells me how I care more about a cute picture then his safety and well being. And I think it is safe to say Doug will back him up on this!

Plane Trip

James and I are getting ready for the long trip to Florida! We are so excited to visit Grammy and Grandad, but we are a little nervous about the flight. We have a 3 hour flight to Chicago, then a 4 hour layover, then another 3 hour flight to Ft. Lauderdale. We're not sure if the Benydryl will work so we are bringing reinforcements. Sometimes I feel like there is more to carry on then there is in our suitcase. We've got, books, movies, a portable DVD player, cars, a magnadoodle, and a few surprise toys he has never seen along with his blanket, monkey and favorite snacks. If anyone has any suggestions we would love to hear them.

Big Helper

James loves to copy Mom and Dad. It has been a lot of fun to watch him try to do things that we are doing. For example in the morning when I am brushing my teeth James come in and "asks" to get on the counter, then, after refusing his toothbrush, he grabs Dad's and starts brushing his teeth. I think it's pretty cute.



Some other things James loves to do are:

• "Talk" on the phone, so if you have ever gotten a call from me in the middle of day and no one is there it was James.
• Play Wii
• Help make dinner
• Take a shower
• Drink out of a cup
• Read books
• Type on the computer
• Wear Mom or Dad's shoes
• Help with chores: he loves to wash windows, helf do the laundry, and sweep or mop the floor. Chores have started becoming harder and harder.

I loved how his faced looks. He is watching Dad throw a ball high up in the air. Of course when Dad was done he had to try himself. He was not very successful!

Where's James

Today James was playing in his room with a friend. He was getting a little grumpy so I threw his blanket over his head to distract him and he started walking around. I didn't think he could see but he was walking really well so I thought he had to be able to see, then he ran into a wall, turned and ran into another wall. So of course I ran to get my camera and when I got back he had already taken the blanket off. Lucky for me he thought it was really fun and asked me to put the blanket on again, he does this by handing me the blanket then backing up into me. So I put the blanket on again and got a great video of James walking around with a blanket on his head.

And for more viewing pleasure here is a picture of James reading to Loa. note: this picture was not set up in any way. James asked to sit on the couch, then he got a book, and Loa being the jealous dog she is couldn't let James have all the couch, or any of it.

And for those of you who haven't seen, we got James' pictures taken a few weeks ago. They turned out really cute!

Petting Zoo

Today we decided to take James to the petting zoo. I thought James would love it because he loves to chase the animals around the complex and "neeeee" at the horses across the street. The problem was the petting zoo didn't open until 11 which is really close to nap time. But he slept in this morning so I thought it would be great. Well we got there, and waited, and waited and waited. We could see the guy moving the animals around but they didn't open. So we went to some of the shops around then came back, it still wasn't open. So we had lunch and went back after 1:00 and it was finally open. By then James was already grumpy so he didn't really care too much about the animals.

James was watching the geese while we were waiting, one "yelled" at him and he got scared.

Waiting for the ponies to get ready, he was so excited.

Still waiting.

Finally we got to go in and all he wanted to do was walk across this bridge.

The goat got in his way!

We were so disappointed because they had a lot of fun friendly animals here that James would love, so I think we will try again next week, in the afternoon after nap time, so hopefully we wont have to wait for them to open but you never know!

Reading to Monkey

Reading has been James' favorite thing lately. I was making lunch today and heard some jabbering in the other room so I went to investigate. James was reading a book to his monkey. You have to listen very carefully to hear him, I didn't want him to see me.

Also, thanks Blake for taking us to lunch. James loves the hat more then the toy that came with his lunch.

Cute or a Bad Addiction?

I think our little monster is finally calming down, a little. He is, believe it or not, actually sitting still for minutes at a time! He loves to be read to and will bring us books to read to him, and no matter what book he brings originally he always winds up looking for Brown Bear. Today while Doug was reading to him, which is rare because it is always mom he wants, he slipped off his lap and came over to get me. He then dragged me over to the couch, dropped my hand, grabbed dads hand and pulled him off the couch. Then he got me and tried to pull me onto the couch to read to him. I think dad was a little hurt.

This brings us to the big question. Today while I was sorting some laundry James went and got his Dad. He pulled him downstairs (he is really good at this nonverbal communication) and over to the TV. Then he got the Wii remotes and put Doug in my chair and tried to get on Doug's chair. The message was loud and clear to Doug, "I want to play Mario Kart". So James has been "playing" Wii with Dad for the last 15 minutes. So is this cute or are we going to have to worry about video game addictions? Right now we are just so happy to see him sit still for any amount of time!

Talking

It has been awhile since we have posted. James is doing so many cute new things but it is impossible to get it on camera. As soon as he sees the camera he goes to grab it. James has had a "language" explosion. He has really been into the nonverbal language for a long time, but recently he has started jabbering constantly as well as saying a few words. He says:

"rock rock" when he wants to get on his rocking horse, or if he is rocking on the couch or in his high chair

"roll it" while rolling his arms for pat-a-cake

"no" all the time

"yea!" mostly when he turns the light on or off, followed by clapping

"Loa" that one is obvious

James also does three animal sounds, although getting him to do them on cue is difficult, and he usually gets stuck on one a day. He has been "barking" like a dog for a long time, but more recently he has also been doing a monkey and a horse. While I was going through the videos trying to find the best ones every time the video would say "what does the monkey/horse/dog say" he would do it! I guess he just doesn't like preforming on camera!

If you notice in this last video James is wearing his Monkey backpack. It is so funny because he will walk over to where it is hanging up and pull on the tail, or sometimes bring Doug or I over to it to get it down, once it is down he turns around so we can put it on his back. Once Doug tried to take the tail off so he would trip on it and he threw a big fit! Of course once the monkey is on he thinks it is time to go outside and goes and stands by the door.

Back to Normal?

Well we have figured that it has been about 2 months since we haven't had someone at our house or we have been gone visiting family. It has been nice to be able to just relax a little, but I really can't think what James and I used to do in the mornings to keep us entertained.

We have all been enjoying the Olympics. My favorite is the Gymnastics, and I think it would be safe to say that it is James' favorite too. We were watching the floor routines for the women and I looked over and James was standing next to me with his arms up above his head, just like the girls on TV were doing! He was so fascinated by what they were doing, he walked right up to the TV and watched for a long time, then once the music started again he started moving his shoulders and dancing. And of course when it was all over he clapped for everyone.

Loa has been enjoying spending some time in the sun! I guess the sand is warmer.

And James has also enjoyed playing with his friend Zac. It is fun to see him interact more now that he is getting older. They were both yelling out the window for a long time at a bird that was sitting just outside. But of course as soon as we got the camera it was over!

We had James' 15 month appointment last night. He now weighs 23lbs 6 oz and is 32 inches tall. He's in the 30th percentile for his weight and the 70th for his height.

Children's Museum

We have had so much fun this past few weeks with Grammy and cousins visiting. We did lots of activities but our favorite was going to the children's museum. We had so much fun we had to take Doug back that night.

Playing in the helicopter

Climbing the wall
Riding a horse
Building with Grammy
Recording studio
Copying the big kids!
Playing the Xylophone

Cooking dinner
James pushed this car around backwards for the first 30 minutes we were there!
In the Helicopter
Picking onions