James and Cole

James is at an age now where he is interested in playing with other kids. Over the past few weeks, we've had the pleasure of spending some time with our good friends Matt and Lauren Warner. Their son is Cole (he's been known to make an appearance on our blog from time to time), and they just had a beautiful baby girl named Kathryn (Kate) Grace!

James and Cole are best buddies these days! They build with blocks together, sit at the piano together, give each other hugs and kisses at random, wrestle and laugh hysterically at each other. Their interactions are so fun to watch. Here are some recent pictures from a Christmas pajama potluck party at the Warner's home...

Thanksgiving 2010

It was just the three of us (well, 4 if you count Audrey) for Thanksgiving this year. We had a wonderful day together to reflect on our blessings and all that we are thankful for.

We started the day in the kitchen. I made crepes, and we filled them with bananas and Nutella. Yum!


We ate our breakfast in the dining room and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Don't let the fork in James' hand fool you; he didn't eat a single bite of his delicious breakfast! Our boy is a picky eater!


James really liked watching the Rockettes in the parade. After they were done dancing, he started clapping and signing for more! Fortunately for him, we have DVR, so we played it a couple more times.

In the afternoon, we went outside to throw the football around a little bit. James was not too happy with us because we put a jacket on him. Heaven forbid! Our sweet boy has thrown some of the biggest fits over having a jacket on. It's going to be a long winter!


After watching some football, our delicious Thanksgiving dinner was ready for us to feast! James had a bite of cranberries, but not much else. He did enjoy feeding mama and dada though! Thanks for the help little man!

Making sugar cookies

A couple weekends ago, James got to help make cookies for the first time (The credit goes to Daddy for coming up with the idea). James loved rolling out the dough, cutting with the cookie cutters and decorating with sprinkles. He was not at all interested in eating any of his masterpieces though. After the first batch was baked, we gave James a cookie, and he just crumbled it into the dough he was playing with at the moment (we didn't make any cookies with that dough). We had so much fun with James' first cookie making experience!

Audrey's nursery

We've started the process to change our guest room into a nursery for Audrey. So far, we've painted the walls pink, made a window box valance, painted and hung the letters of Audrey's name, and hung the wall hangings that match the nursery decor we've chosen. The theme of the room is cherry blossoms. Our big project ahead of us is to put up a cherry blossom decal that is the size of one of the walls in the room. Each blossom needs to be put up individually! It seems like a daunting task, but we think it will be beautiful when it's all done!

Our little helper! (Don't worry, he was being supervised as he rampaged through the work zone!)

The walls are all ready and prepped to transform to "Cafe Pink" from "Gobi Desert"

The box valance we made and our new pink room!

Audrey's name and wall hangings over the dresser.

Audrey Kate- 25 weeks

We have decided on Audrey's middle name (as you can see in the title of this post)! Her middle name will be Kate. We cannot wait to meet Audrey Kate and to see how James takes to being a big brother!

I got a little nervous early last week because I didn't really feel Audrey move for about 24 hours. She is usually very active, especially at night. I went to the doctor to have an extra sonogram to see why I wasn't feeling her. Turns out, Miss Audrey had herself in just the right position so that I couldn't really feel her movements. All her movement was towards my spine. She has since turned around and has been busy making my tummy a punching bag (which I welcome gladly after being so worried about her last week)! At my 20 week sonogram, we did not get to see her face or profile because she was buried in the placenta. This time, I got a few good pictures of her profile; here's one...

Daddy and James at the zoo

Mommy went to visit a friend for the weekend, so Daddy and James had a boy's weekend. A fun weekend for James wouldn't be complete without a trip to the zoo! Here is James with the kangaroo statue sporting his new zoo t-shirt that Daddy bought him.


The last several times we've gone to the zoo, the birds at the Parrot Paradise (a free-flight, interactive aviary featuring cockatiels and parakeets) have been very hungry and friendly. This visit was no different! James likes to feed the birds, but if they land on the birdseed stick, he shakes them off.

Halloween

Halloween was much warmer than we anticipated it would be, so James didn't get to wear the monkey costume we bought him. Instead, he wore a cute orange shirt with a jack-o-lantern face. We don't think he knew the difference! James isn't much for candy, nor does he understand how to trick-or-treat, so we painted pumpkins in our driveway while trick-or-treaters came to our house. James was really excited about helping put candy in other kids bags. Once it was time for us to come inside to wait for trick-or-treaters, he stood by the door in anticipation. James had so much fun! Next year will be his first trick-or-treating experience.

Overnight Getaway

A couple weekends ago, Nana drove up from Buda to stay with James so we could have our first overnight date since James was born. We didn't go too far... we went to the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas. We arrived in time to watch UT beat Nebraska and the Texas Rangers beat the Yankees in game 2 of the ALCS on the TV in our room, and then we went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. It was a really fun show, and the buffet was pretty tasty. We sat with 8 other guests and had to work as a team to guess who the murderer was. I had it correct, but the table vetoed me. Oh well! We had a great time anyways!

Walking through the resort, on our way to dinner.

Photo-op with the cast after the show.

Sitting at brunch the next morning.

Our delicious brunch (this was only the first plate from the buffet).

20 weeks

I am halfway through my pregnancy, and we found out at my last doctor's appointment that we are having a GIRL! Dave and I both suspected that that would be the case so we are thrilled to find out we were right! This pregnancy has been very different from my pregnancy with James. I was much sicker during the first trimester, and it took longer to get over feeling terrible. The baby's heart rate has been in the
160's and 170's, and James' were always in the 140's and 150's (there's an old wives' tale that says that higher heart rates are girls, and lower heart rates are boys). I have been feeling baby girl kick for about 4 weeks now, and she is very active. She is very low in my pelvis, and on the sonogram, she was buried into the placenta. The nurse said she likely could hear my heartbeat through the blood supply to the placenta so she is very cozy where she is. We were unable to get a picture of her face or profile because of her position, but we could see her from behind, and she was playing with her ear the entire time we were with the sonogram technician. It was really cute!

We are so excited that James will have a little sister! He is so loving and affectionate, so I think a little girl for him to love on is perfect!

We have decided on a first name for baby girl, but we are still working on a middle name. We've chosen Audrey as the first name, and there are 4 or 5 middle names we're considering. We'll post an update once we make a final decision.

This picture shows that the baby is indeed a girl. I don't see it, but the sonogram technician said there was no question.

Baby feet!

This is a picture of Audrey from behind. The back of her head is on the right, and you can see her arm at the top. Her hand is holding her ear.

This picture shows the same thing except now Audrey is oriented vertically. You can see her hand holding her ear in the center of the picture.

Isabella's baptism

James' cousin, Isabella, was baptized on October 2nd. Mommy's (and Aunt Karyn's) cousins, Brandy and Rick Cofer, are Bella's godparents. The Mass and baptism were wonderful, and the weekend spent with family was so much fun!

Uncle Robert and Jolie walking with James to the church

Isabella's baptism

Isabella's blessings and presentation to the church

Family photos