fun with bff brody

brody jones is one of scott's most favorite friends to play with. amazingly they were even born on the exact same day! they both love playing on the activity table.they both hate being locked out of the kitchen by the gate.they both love it when we come back to the gate to get them.and they are both so photogenic!

here's brody with my glasses on. he was grabbing at them all night so i finally indulged him.



and here's our cute little guy.

even though scott may be growing a little faster in height, brody leaves scott in his dust when it comes to crawling. this is hilarious:

and it has to be said that these blog posts take 3 times as long to do now that scott has discovered the power button on our computer...

he gets it from his dad...

the other day i asked my friend amanda bills if she would take some pictures of scott. i had seen some pictures that she had taken of some of our other friends' kids and they were so darling that i just had to steal some of her talents. i'm finally realizing why people usually get pictures of their kids at 6 months and 1 year. i'm guessing that its because at 10 months they are old enough to be ALL over the place and into EVERYTHING but young enough not to understand the words, "SMILE" and "SIT STILL SCOTT!!!" (that his mom was yelling constantly from the sidelines). but i have to say that despite our crazy kid amanda did a great job of capturing just how cute he can be.

he's on the move!

scott has turned into a little bulldozer this week (we use the word little loosley around our house). he just woke up monday morning determined to discover every little cupbard, closet or drawer in the house and destroy everything in his path. this was his favorite discovery and subsequently made the funniest picture. and today he decided that he could walk without holding on to our hands! its still just a few steps but we're so proud of our little tank. take a look...

Our Little Eater

Scott has figured out a new trick that is pretty funny except for the fact that we're going to have to put locks on all of our food cupbards now. Our kid may not have the highest I.Q. but when it comes to eating he is highly advanced!

coloring easter eggs!

Happy Easter!i know that coloring Easter eggs has nothing to do with the TRUE meaning of Easter. but since it is not appropriate to take pictures at church i'm going to make this post about our more pagan traditions.

i was a little nervous as this was my first time coloring easter eggs without my mom. the whole time we were dying eggs i was telling james about how it has always been one of our favorite traditions to do together. i love the smell of the hard boiled eggs and the vinegar (as gross as james thought that was). i love the sound of the color tablets as they sizzle in the vinegar. (i got just as impatient about how long they were taking to dissolve as i did when i was seven years old.) i love the vibrant spring colors that the eggs turn when dipped in the little cups (my favorite color always has been and always will be the sea green color.)

the first step is to boil the eggs. (and i must say that i boiled them to perfection.. they were SO easy to peel!)

next, you must dip the hard boiled eggs in the colored vinegar water. i foolishly bought the cheapest food coloring set i could find so there were no cups included in the box! this threw me because my mom and i ALWAYS use the special food coloring cups. but i improvised.

then, it is very necessary to check the eggs periodically to make sure they are the color you want them to be. james and scott did a great job of checking the vibrancy of the eggs.
when they are the color you want them to be, you have to dry them in the special cardboard punch-out holes provided by the food coloring kit. (i have learned over my 27 years of easter egg coloring that you have to be careful not to let the eggs touch or your pink eggs have some green on them and your yellow eggs will have some orange on them... disasterous!)

and Voila! you have beautifully colored easter eggs! (though i was a bit distraught that our cheap-o coloring set didn't even come with stickers... but maybe next year we can splurge and get the $1.29 set.)

and to recap, the easter eggs BEFORE we colored them:!)

and the easter eggs AFTER we colored them:

scott BEFORE we colored the easter eggs:

and scott AFTER we colored the easter eggs:

oh, and does anyone have any suggestions for getting easter egg dye off of a counter?

this has nothing to do with the easter eggs but i wanted to attach this video for anyone interested. scott has been army crawling for a while now but i realized that his grandmas and our other family and friends not in iowa haven't seen him in action. and for any of you who know scott, you know that it is a BIG accomplishment for him to get that long and heavy body of his to move around.

happy birthday and april fools!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy JaMeS!!!
p.s. april fools

it's been a while since i've been this excited for a day to be over! (i actually started writing this last night on james' birthday but i was so tired that i'm finishing it a day late) it was james' 26th birthday and i apparently wasn't feeling enough stress in my life so i decided to throw him a surprise party. the party itself was great! good friends, good food, good times. but the day leading up to the party was absolutely nerve racking!

i had asked some people to come over just after 6pm so that they'd be here when james got home from school. he usually gets home on wednesdays at 6:20pm but as he was leaving this morning he nonchalantly mentioned that he may try to catch a ride home early with someone so he can spend more time with me tonight.

AHHHH!!!!

he had no idea that this revelation had put me into panic mode. i stayed calm on the outside but after he left the house i was on the phone with my friends begging them to tell their husbands not to bring him home early!!!

it was such a relieving and sad moment this afternoon when sad little james texted me saying that he couldn't find anyone to bring him home. i almost spilled the beans right then, but i stayed strong. and i'm glad i did because he was so shocked! it was a lot of fun.

here is cute james with a few of our friends - as you can tell, scott was a bit... overwhelmed.

and since i did the top 10 reasons we love scott for his 10 month birthday, i decided i'm going to go all out and do the top 26 reasons i love james on his 26th birthday (though there are millions more reasons why i love him):

26- he almost always changes scott's diapers when he's home from school (even when i insist that i can do it)

25- he gets really sad when he doesn't get to get scott out of his crib in the mornings on the weekends.

24- i've never known him to set a goal and not make it.

23- he's really really good looking.

22- he is the most patient person i know (and i'm not just saying that to be nice)

21- he's a true leader. I'm constantly amazed with the way he can see a problem, find a solution and find someone to solve it so that he can be home spending time with scott and me.

20- he's a great athlete

19- he's not obsessed with being an athlete

18- he was so willing to try learning to ski (both water and snow) and he picked it up so easily and gets more excited about going now than i do!

17- he's really smart. i'm convinced that he knows more words than Webster.

16- he's a man that can cook! he makes the most delicious hot fudge!

15- he gets so excited about planning our future.

14- and yet he thoroughly enjoys the moment.

13- he loves spending time with scott and i can tell he misses him when he is gone.

12- he's really funny and its so cute when he laughs at his own jokes.

11- he never leaves for school without coming back up to where i'm sleeping in bed and kissing me on the forehead and saying goodbye.

10- i've never heard him raise his voice in a angry way... not once.

9- this is a little embarrassing to say but - he has a really nice body.

8- he always likes to hold my hand.

7- he has the most beautiful blue eyes and he passed them onto our blue eyed little scotty.

6- i really feel like he is happy and content to just hang out with me and talk.

5- anytime i start singing in the car he decides to turn on the radio. and he always does such an excellent job of convincing me that the two weren't connected.

4- he loves doing laundry. kind of weird.

3- he loves his family (the family besides scott and me) and tries to stay connected with them as much as he can.

2- he feels sincere sorrow for other people when he thinks they feel lonely or hurt in someway.

1- i asked him in jest once if i was his "everything" (i think we were listening to a song that talked about it). he said, "natalie, you're my only thing" and he's never made me feel any different.

i love you james,

happy birthday!