Nine Months! (lots of pictures!)

James is nine months old today! It is kind of crazy that he is that old, but at the same time, I feel like he has been in my life for a lot longer than that! This past month he has learned so much! He has learned to climb stairs, go down the stairs the right way, walk alongside objects, kneel with his body up in the air, wave bye, rocking back and forth when he is excited, giving kisses and most recently he is standing up by himself for about 5 seconds at a time.

He still doesn't like wearing hats, mommy or daddy cleaning his face after eating, sitting still, cuddling (he only cuddles when he is tired or shy around new people), mommy leaving or work, spinach, and riding in the car (we have to keep him REALLY occupied in order to enjoy it).

He DOES like popcorn, any type of fruit, playing with daddy, being with his mommy, reading books, climbing stairs, playing in the grass, being in stores, popping Grandpa's bubblegum, making funny faces with his Aunt Kristin, playing with Aunt Amber and her toys, playing with balls, playing pick-a-boo and tickling daddy.

I have posted a lot of pictures this past month of James, but here are some random ones from this past month:

James loves to be in the kitchen whenever anybody is there- he also loves to stand up anywhere and everywhere he can!

Playing with toys with mommy :)

He loves to try and pop bubblegum bubbles!

Up close and personal

Playing peek-a-boo with daddy!

He found Aunt Amber's night light and loved playing with it!

Hiding under the kitchen table

In the kitchen while everyone is cooking!

'Donking' his head against Bro. Burker's head!

For some reason he loves this area of the kitchen- maybe because it is so shiny!

Every night Grandma and Aunt Amber read bedtime stories- James decided to join them that night :)

I love his eyes!

Grandpa put James in one of Aunt Amber's storage boxes and James loved it!

James is climbing the stairs- he would do this 100 times a day if we let him!

Popping Grandpa's bubblegum again!

Cuddling with mommy!

I just love it when he is asleep- he always looks so peaceful!

He is ALWAYS smiling and giggling! What a happy boy!

Cuddling with grandma!

Park Time!

We went to the park this last week because the weather was so nice and here are some pictures from it!
WARNING: there are a lot of pictures! This is mainly for our family in Texas who doesn't see James :)

Enjoy!

James loves going on walks- this is him right before our walk to the park!

This was the first time that James was on the swing with me- he loved it! I went quite high with Matt pushing us and he couldn't stop smiling and giggling!

James loved the slides even more. We started James out on the smallest slide with Matt holding on to him on from the side and he slid down so fast! As you can see he wanted to do it again!

So we did it again and this was his reaction!

Matt wanted to try the curvy slide next- James loved it but Matt had a hard time getting down because his legs were too big :)

James keeps getting bigger and bigger!!

More slide time!

As soon as he came down from the slide he turned around and tried climbing back up to do it again!

I absolutely adore James' facial expression here :)

As soon as Matt lifted James up to the bar he (James) grabbed on and held on tight. I am sure if Matt would have let him go James would have been able to still hold on, but I didn't want to try it.

What a cutie :)

James sat on the ground for a good 10 minutes just playing with the rubber chips- I am sure if I let him he would have been there the whole night. He loved the texture and throwing them around.

Walking back home :)

My first missed 'first'

Since I am doing my internship, I am away from James and Matt for about 9 hours a day. I luckily haven't missed some of his important milestones like climbing the stairs, walking alongside things (like a couch), etc., but I did miss this 'first':

Crazy Hair

Lately James' hair has been all over the place. His hair goes past his ears, and if we push it down, its even close to his eyebrows! I dont want it cut though just because the back of his head doesn't need to be cut yet. I know I will need to cut it soon, but I am putting it off as long as possible. Today he woke up from his nap with his hair SUPER crazy, so I decided to do this with it:

DownEast Basics Giveaway!

Everyone loves giveaways right?! I do!...Especially when it comes to modest clothes!! Well, right now there is a giveaway for DownEast Basics and I wanted to tell everyone to head over to http://www.babylovingmama.com/ to enter the giveaway! It goes on until May 26th, so hurry and head on over! If you want to check out what DownEast basics has, here is their spring collection: http://www.downeastbasics.com/

I love you Grandma!

I know it is super late, but since my family is in Texas, they aren't able to see James that often. For Mothers Day James wanted to tell his Grandma Shipley this:

If you give a moose a muffin...

...He will want some water to go with it!

And that is exactly what the moose came looking for- water! If you aren't familiar with Alaska, it is common to see moose everywhere- off the highway, on the highway, in your backyard, and in this case, in the front yard! At the Mauger's home they have a man made stream that goes right in front of their house. Yesterday we found a moose there and James was able to take pictures with it. We were able to get super close to the moose because we were on a deck, but usually moose can be dangerous so we don't go near them... anyways, enjoy the pictures!

Sun oh Sun where are you??

Weather Forecast for Anchorage Alaska:

Monday, May 10th- overcast

Tuesday, May 11th- overcast and windy

Wednesday, May 12th- Showers

Thursday, May 13th- Showers

Friday, May 14th- Showers

Saturday, May15th- Showers

Sunday, May 16th- Showers

I know the Alaska summers are known for the wonderful PERFECT weather, but summer isn't coming fast enough here!

My sick little baby :(

James was up all night last night and had a fever of 102! We aren't exactly sure what is wrong- the only other symptom is increased fussiness. We are thinking that he may have more teeth coming in because when his first two teeth came in he got sick and had an even higher temp. Hopefully this passes, but for now I just want to tell everyone how amazing my husband has been because he has been staying up with James so I can get some sleep since I go to work! Boy I love that guy!

Intro to my Internship

I have officially been an intern for six days now and everyday I am liking it more and more. For those that don't know, I am completing a Therapeutic Recreation internship in order to graduate and I am doing it at a psychiatric hospital here in Alaska. Every day I love it more and more. The first three days were training in a classroom (BORING!) but I was able to learn how to defend myself if I need to. Yesterday was a good learning experience. I first interacted with the patients in a class that is called Life Skills. At first I was intimidated because I wasn’t sure what to expect. This is my first time working with this population and I didn’t know if they would be angry, talk in nonsense, or not show any emotion at all. The entire day I was quite reserved and didn’t go out of my way to make any conversations. The day went well, but I went home feeling like I didn’t try my hardest. So today I resolved to do better!




I went to a music appreciation class where this awesome acoustic guitar player played TONS of songs that we chose and we would sing them together. We sang songs like The Boxer, Imagine, Drift Away, Take It Easy, Hard Days Night and other classic but goody songs. We then had a fitness class where I was able to connect with some patients through basketball- it was so enjoyable opening up and getting to know the patients and letting them see the fun side of recreation.



This definitely isn’t my dream job even though it is my dream occupation… (if that makes any sense) but I am enjoying making the best of what I have been given!