Baby Steps

Our Sweet Baby James is a walker. He took his first step (other than falling forward to objects nearby) the day before his 1st birthday. But during the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference, he took his first series of steps (i.e. more than two in a row). He has been walking on and off ever since, but in the last week or two he's really gotten the hang of it and walks everywhere. He can walk from the living room to his room (the furthest distance in our apartment) and back without falling. He can also reach down and pick objects up and keep on walking. He still crawls when it's useful...like when Mommy or Daddy is chasing him and he needs to move quite quickly. He also wants to crawl when we go on walks outside, because there are just so many interesting things on the ground to examine--truly no use in being upright. Without further ado, I give you Baby James, Walker Extraordinaire:

Smile For The Camera

Occasionally, after running to get the camera to snap a shot of some cute or funny James moment, I don't get what I was hoping for. Instead of a cute or funny James moment shot, I get an "I want the camera" breakdown shot. James really likes the camera. He loves to look at the pictures or videos we've taken on it. And he always lunges for it at least once to see if we'll let him hold it and play with it maybe this time, this time, this time, this time (see Bee Movie). So here are a few "I want the camera" shots.

In this instance, his desire for the camera completely exhausted him. He had to take a rest.

This is another common picture I take. It is the "I want the camera" lunge shot. Sometimes it is preceded or followed by an "I want the camera" breakdown shot, but other times it is followed by...

a handsome, closeup, smile shot of our Sweet Baby James.

If Ye Are Prepared...(who knew I'd need to use this title for another post so soon?)

Well...he went into church in his Sunday best. However, after wetting straight through a diaper and onto Mommy's hip, he had to leave church sans clothes. I haven't had to use spare clothes in months, so when I cleaned out my diaper bag a week or two ago, I took out the extra outfit since it was now too small and never replaced it. Big oops! I won't be making that mistake again (I hope).

James did, however, get a couple compliments on his new attire (or lack of) on the way out of church. I'm just glad it happened in the last 5 minutes!

Playin' at the Playa: Our Wild Goose Chase

As a small child I was taught that birds fly south for the winter. At the approach of winter, we sadly said, "Bye bye birds." I never thought that I would be on the receiving end of migrating birds. While many of the birds that we see here in Lubbock vacationed elsewhere during the Lubbock winter, hoards of Canadian Geese found the Lubbock climate well-suited to their needs. It was fun to watch them and...play with them.

James couldn't take his eyes off of the flock.

A close-up (relatively close at least).

As they took to the sky, James followed faithfully.

It really was amazing to see this mass of large birds flying right over us.

Like father, like son. James and Dad do a great open-mouthed stare.

It was neat to see them fly up in a muddled mass and then separate into their V-formations.

You may be wondering why they decided to clear the playa?

It looks like such a peaceful place...

Well...Jordan said it. I had some fun with the geese. I was very respectful. I just wanted to get closer to them. They, however, were wild Canadian Geese and did not want me to get closer to them. It was honestly amazing, exhilarating, incredible to have that many geese take to the sky right over our heads. Some flew right toward us probably about 6 feet above us. It was so exhilarating that I had to do it again...and again...and again until the entire playa was cleared out. Below is a video of James and I on our wild goose chase.

If Ye Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

A couple days ago there was a tornado warning for Lubbock. When James woke up from his afternoon nap, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then half-inch hail stones began to fall from the sky. The hail could be heard overhead, at our back door, on the windows, at our front door; I felt as if the apartment might cave in from all directions. I thought it was cool. I didn't know there was a tornado warning. James and I were at the window watching and video taping it all. We needed to pick Jordan up from school, but I doubted we could remain conscious trekking from our apartment to our car. (Sometimes I forget about a nifty little invention called the umbrella).

When the hail calmed down, I started to get James ready for our trip to the law school. My phone vibrated. It was Jordan. He told me not to leave the house because there was a tornado warning for Lubbock, and all of the law students and faculty were being herded into the basement of the library. A small bit of terror filled my being as I realized we had no basement. We had no cellar. We had no pole that runs deep into the earth to which we could be tethered (see Twister). What were we going to do? Where could we be herded? Then began the thoughts...hide under a table and hold onto the table legs...no no that's for an earthquake...stand in a door frame...no NO that's for an earthquake...stay away from the windows...yes yes away from the windows. We could at least stay away from the windows and then pray that the roof wasn't torn off.

I got off the phone with Jordan and turned on the TV. Sure enough three local stations were broadcasting updates by the second on the "wall cloud," "funnel clouds," and possible "tornadic" weather (yes, apparently tornadic is a word...even though spell checker is underlining it in red right now). Hail stones the size of golf balls and even baseballs were being reported. The weather was becoming quite calm around our apartment however. The thoughts began again...I'm glad 72-hour kits and a 3 month food supply is one of my goals for this year...it's too bad it wasn't my goal last year. After an hour or so, the tornado warning was over. We were spared.

I, however, was left with a deep impression concerning emergency preparedness. That night as I sang "When He Comes Again" (Children's Songbook, 82) to James before putting him to bed, I also became further impressed by the constant need for spiritual preparedness. We truly never know when disaster will strike or when the wonderful day when our Savior comes again will be, so we must always be prepared. The safety of our family and our eternal potential are far too important to slack in these areas.

Here are some helpful links for emergency preparedness and food storage:

http://www.providentliving.org/

http://www.redcross.org

Plan It: http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

Buy It: http://theobsessiveshopper.net/

Eat It: http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

Grow it: http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/

Here are a couple helpful links for spiritual preparedness:

http://www.lds.org

http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages

http://www.mormon.org

Scroll DOWN

FYI: Natasha posted a new entry this evening, but it is BELOW the "If you've ever..." post because she started working on it before the "If you've ever..." post. But now it is posted under the title "What We've Been Up To: Christmas Edition Part 2", and if you scroll down a bit you can read the whole thing, free of charge.

If You've Ever...

If you've ever driven down this street...

or admired the beauty of this temple...

or watched this guy play a game at home...

or walked across this campus...

or enjoyed an outing in this scenery...

chances are you're familiar with the place we will be spending our summer.

We will be happily spending our summer in Utah! Yay for beautiful Utah! Yay for family! Yay for old friends! As much as we have loved being in Lubbock, it will be wonderful to be back home for a bit. Jordan has an internship with the Utah County Attorney's office. We will be staying with Jordan's parents in Lindon, so let's get together!