Bet

Well, since U of Arizona lost to WSU in basketball yesterday, I am posting pictures... hmmmm, interesting that the bet between RJ and his dad has me doing the work. And would I have seen any of the winnings had it been the other way around...!?!!??? Well, it is good excuse to update my blog, and post photos of Stirling that are cute, but didn't go with an event or occasion. So, with no further ado... here is the payment for our sports bet!

Stirling is just at the cutest age. He is really fun to take to the playground now. He climbs all over the place and enjoys most of the slides. We've taken him to the fancy castle playground a few times now and it is so much fun, even for me. Stirling runs around giggling much of the time! He very nicely asks for a "han" if he needs help getting up or down.








I love listening to him talk. For the past few weeks he has been identifying Santa everywhere we go, and the Christmas lights on the tree are "pitty." This morning I gave him some sweet Amish bread for breakfast and with every bite he says, "mmmm, teat." To him this is a special treat and he has to check with me to make sure it is ok to eat it for breakfast! Another thing I just love is when we sneeze, Stirling has learned to say, "bess you."

The most wonderful time of the year!

Here are a few pics of getting ready for Christmas, as well as a plain old cute picture of Stirling! Happy Holidays everyone!

Baby Talk

I love, love, love listening to Stirling's attempts to communicate! He impresses me everyday with just how many words he knows. All I have to do is tell him something once, and he remembers. He says two and three word sentences quite oftne, and can even say four word sentences occasionally, such as, "dis is a button." He can now count to two, can identify and name many body parts, and is learning his colors. Right now, everything is yellow or green though, so he has a ways to go! We are trying to encourage manners too. Stirling says please appropriately, but when we tell him to "say thank you Stirling," he says "weccom," (you're welcome) instead! It just makes me smile to hear his cute little voice ask for the things he wants, and then get so pleased when it happens! He is learning the power of words! Here are some of my favorites"
"mo duce" (more juice)
"pese" (please)
"appasauce" (applesauce)
"ah-sigh" (outside)
"sues" (shoes)
The amount of temper tantrums and hitting is decreasing now that his vocabulary is growing. Yay! I am such a proud mama!

Family visits

We have enjoyed seeing both families this fall. The Smeads came down in mid-October and the Woodses came down in mid-November. We were so glad that everyone was able to come and spend time with us in Yuma.

When my folks and Erin were here we went to play at the river and had a nice time playing outside in still warm weather.






When RJ's family was here the guys went four-wheeling and the ladies went shopping. We also had our Thanksgiving dinner a little early since we haven't had family around for Thanksgiving in years.

Finally, some photos!

Broken camera + broken computer= very little blogging

Just before Stirling's birthday he dropped our camera on the ground. Since then, the flash works occasionally at best, and we can only get semi-decent pictures outside where there is plenty of light. Most of my photos for the past 5 months are fuzzy blurs of Stirling as he runs past! I would have posted some of them anyway, but in the last month or so, the computer has started crashing every other day or so. And it almost always crashes when I try to upload photos from the camera. So it has been a challenge to get any photos onto the blog. Right now, I am using my work computer, but of course my camera is not with me to add photos. Hmmm... a new camera and a new computer are both looking really good right now! Luckily I can use RJ's laptop and so am not completely without hope! I uploaded photos last night, and I'll be posting them as soon as I get a few minutes... :)