The Video Speaks for Its Self....

We have a big boy now!!! I'm not so sure we're ready for this though...

Birthday Party and Playdate

Friday night, Hunter, Mama, and Daddy went to the Millers to celebrate Josh's 30th birthday. Hunter was very excited about playing with the other kids, but I'm afraid he isn't quite old enough to run with the big boys - Sam and Jacob. He seemed to be upset anytime they bumped him in the least. It might have been that he didn't take a good nap that day though. He was however able to get down and play with Troy. He was more on his level!

Look how good Troy and Hunter played together. Hunter was also impressed by Troy's ability to jump so long in his jumper. I'm not sure he would ever run out of energy!

Sam explains to Michael that his ball with "S A M" all over it spells "Samuel." How cute!

Sam and Jacob enjoying the delicious cake that Mrs. Rebecca made. The cake was soo yummy!

Hunter's Road to Recovery

Hunter's hand has gotten MUCH better over the last six days. From Monday-Friday, he had to wear a gauze cast. He is showing it to the camera in the picture above. He has been such a sport about the whole thing, even knowing he could only use his left hand instead of his right. It has been so pitiful but his hand is healing quickly. We are so thankful!!

What a sport!

He was telling the camera how annoying it has been to have the gauze taken off and redone each day.

Since Hunter would rather have the gauze off, we had to put two layers of socks over the wrap so he wouldn't pull it off as easily.

Going, Going, Gone...

Hunter got a nice toy box for all of his toys for Christmas from Mimi and Pops. Mama, Daddy, and Hunter ALL like this way of organizing his toys he has accumulated in just 9 months! There is only one problem...recently he has decided that it is fun to empty all of the toys in the box. This wouldn't be so bad, but to get the last few toys out of the box, he has to lean very far into the box and you can't really see from this picture, but his feet are actually off of the ground! He ends up falling into the box and we have to rescue him. Somehow it hasn't stopped him from doing it over and over!

Poor Hunter James...

Well yesterday I learned how important it is not to let Hunter out of our sight for even a few seconds!! We had woken up late for church (which was Hunter's Dedication Sunday) and we were rushing around trying to get ready for church. I had gotten ready and Michael had ironed his shirt and was getting ready. I had thought Hunter was on the side of the couch but then I heard a scream coming from our bedroom....he had touched the iron that had been unplugged for just a couple of minutes!! What a terrible Mom! I cried for as long or longer than Hunter. He was such a trooper through it all. He just sat crying while keeping his hand in a cup full of water for an hour! Needless to say, he missed his Dedication and I couldn't feel worse as a parent. It was definitely a lesson learned to not let him out of my sight and to definitely put the iron as far away from him as possible! We are just thanking God for what could have happened. It could have been so much worse. Now we just have a little boy wearing what looks like a cast for a week! :( Poor Hunter...

9 Months Old!!!!

January 11th, Hunter turned 9 months old!! I can't believe he is 3/4 of the way to a year old! Time has flown by so fast!!! Michael and I were just talking about how we will soon need to discuss his one year old birthday party! We went to the doctor last week for his 9 month check-up. Hunter was excited because he only got his finger pricked and no shots! He weighed in at right at 23lbs and he is 28 1/2 inches long. He did slip in the percentile for his age in those two categories, but they say when they are start moving around so much that normally happens. He did however bust the top of the charts out in head circumference. Our doctor is always nice and makes us feel better by saying, oh it's just because he is so smart! :)

Hunter is still taking two naps a day, but I can't say the same for the nighttime. Although Hunter may still not be sleeping the best in the world at night, he has been doing so many new things lately - He no longer army crawls but instead crawls on his hands and knees and very fast I might add! He motors around the house like it is nothing by just holding onto everything and walking around. He is so close to walking if he would just let go, but we are definitely not pushing that! He loves to open every cabinet, climb on the entertainment center, pull the cords for the computer, push the CD tray button to get the tray to come out, etc. He says - Mama, Dada, bye-bye, and quack quack. He dances to music - especially to his Lightning McQueen. He now is eating more than just baby food - Puffs, yogurt, bread. He can't really eat too much more than that though because he still has no teeth yet, even though we have been able to see them barely under the gums for a few months now! He praises the Lord by lifting both his hands in the air...so cute! He has however made his Daddy sad a few times recently. He now cries a lot when Michael leaves for work. It makes Michael feel good to be loved but sad to leave him. This is such an exciting time to see how much Hunter changes from day to day. I have been so blessed to be able to stay at home and see these changes myself and not have to hear about them from another person. We have been truly blessed in the last 9 months! These are just a few pictures we took of him the other night around the house...

Hunter Strikes Gold!

Hunter may be a picky eater, but we have now found his weakness...bread! He loves bread! We found he especially likes to chew on pizza crust. He definitely fits into this family now!

Weekend of Friends, Family, & Football

Last weekend was a great weekend filled with friends and family! Jenny and Chuck came down to visit and learn their way around the area. We are all so excited that they moved to Greenville this past weekend! Hunter can't wait for his new friend to be born so he or she will be close by to play with!! :)

Then on Saturday, Pops and Mimi came down to visit and to watch the Clemson basketball game with us. Hunter really enjoyed all of the attention from everyone!

That night, we tried to cheer on the Panthers for the playoff game, but it didn't work. At least we had some good snacks to eat during the game!

I just happen to have caught them cheering on the Panthers! :) That's exactly what all of us decided to do by half time of the game!

Where Did Hunter Get These Moves?

Okay, so Aunt Amy might have been right...maybe she did get one of his favorite Christmas gifts! You have to check this video out...where did he get these moves? Not from his Mama or Daddy! :)

Our Little Mozart gets his own Piano!

This is Hunter's new piano he got from Nana and Papaw for Christmas! It has a seat on it, but you can kind of tell by the second picture, he prefers to squat to play the piano instead! I guess this is just another exercise to strengthen his legs!! haha His favorite part of the piano is the fake piano book that he can turn the page and it makes a "page turning" sound!

Go Tigers!

Last Saturday, Hunter attended his first Clemson University men's basketball game. They played East Carolina and beat them by 13 points! They are still undefeated and I hope they continue to do as good as they continue their ACC games starting this weekend.

This was our view from our seats. We were actually able to get tickets, but we had top row seats. We really liked this though because we didn't have to worry about how Hunter behaved with people behind us. This picture actually looks farther away than it really is. When you are there, you feel like you are pretty close, unlike the nose bleed seats in Death Valley!

Hunter did SOOOOOOO good! We could not have asked for him to be any better! He just sat amazed at the game, band, cheering, and music. We worried that it wouldn't last all game, but it did! He even slept through half time and part of the second half with all of the noise around him!

I think Hunter would definitely like to go back to another game. I do hope we get that opportunity! As you can see....he had a blast and so did Mama and Daddy!

Hunter Enjoys a New Christmas Present

Before we left for the Clemson game last Saturday, Daddy put together Hunter's new riding Tonka truck from the Cochrans. He enjoyed sitting and smiling at the camera but hasn't really learned what to do with the truck. He does like to play with the buttons and make the noises when he kneels down beside the truck.

Hunter Says Goodbye to a Dear Friend

This has been Hunter's new friend during Christmas - his "puppy dog." Hunter found an interest in many of our Christmas decorations, but none as exciting as this puppy dog in the snow village that we set up. Every day, he had to hold and try to "kiss/eat" his puppy dog. We are actually surprised that puppy dog made it through the Christmas season without getting eaten or broken! We let him say goodbye to him and even let him give him one last kiss before we packed him away until next year. I look forward to seeing if he recognizes it next year and gets as excited as he did this year over it!

Hunter and Mama go to Dollywood

Last week, Hunter and Mama went with Britt, Caleb, Nana, and Aunt Amanda to Dollywood. We had a really good time at Dollywood, but I will probably never go again just a few days after Christmas. There were more people there than I have ever seen at Dollywood. We were there for about 6 hours and were only able to do two shows, one ride, and eat dinner! We did however have fun hanging out with Hunter's cousins, aunt, and nana. We'll have to remember to go before Christmas next year so we can ride the Polar Express ride! I will say, the corndog and tater twirls were well worth their wait! :)

Britt and Caleb are great helpers and are always willing to help with Hunter! This is Hunter with his cousin Britt.

Hunter and Mama waiting in line for the cars!

Hunter taking Mama for a ride in our bright red car. He is a great driver! We only hit the middle guide bar about 200 times! :) We were however disappointed because our horn didn't work!!

Maybe next year, he'll be able to see over the wheel!

This is what Hunter decided he wanted to do during the Night Before Christmas show and this is how we ended up outside instead of watching the show. I think it was just way too loud for him and he was hungry. We did however make it through the Christmas in the Smokey's show, which was a great surprise! He also decided to do this most of the way home from Franklin to Seneca!

Hunter Motoring Around the House

We are just thinking any day he is going to let go of the furniture and there will be no stopping him! He's growing up too fast!!!

Taking a Bath with His New Bath Toys

Bath time used to be a chore for Hunter but not anymore. Now he cries when he gets out...thanks to Mimi and our next door neighbors! They got him his first bathtub toys and he loves them! He just smiles when he sees me getting the tub ready for a bath.

Hunter Opens His First Savings Account

Saturday after Christmas, we took Hunter to Wachovia to open his first savings account. We had been meaning to do this for quite a while but the last time we had taken him to do this, I forgot his social security card, so they wouldn't let us open an account for him. So we decided it was best anyways to wait until after Christmas to take any money he got for Christmas.

He was so happy while in there as if he knew exactly what we were doing!

We thought we would get his picture with the sign on the door - "I'm with Wachovia!"

Hunter and Daddy outside the bank holding his new savings account information!

Christmas with the Donald Family

The Sunday after Christmas, we went to Greg and Melissa's house in Easley to have Christmas with the Donald family. Greg had cooked for us and we got to see their new house they had just recently built. We had a great time and ate some more delicious food and of course there was some crockpot mac and cheese! Yummy!
Hunter got some cute gifts from relatives. He got a dump truck, jeep, and baby Bible from Great-Grandma. Then he got a puppy dog that sang and talked from Jacob and Jamie. While in Pops lap, he decided he liked the puppy so much that he would give it a kiss on the nose, just like he does Daddy! So we knew he really liked that present!

This was the first year since Papa Donald passed away that Grandma decided to bring out the "money box." What you do is you reach your hand down inside the box and pull out wadded up bills and that is your gift from Grandma. There are hundreds of bills all wadded up inside! So when we tried to get Hunter to do it, he would have nothing to do with it. He was not about to put his hand down inside something he couldn't tell what it was. When we had waited for several minutes, we finally decided to let Jacob draw for Hunter and Hunter ended up with $10! Good job Jacob! It is like a competition as well to see who can pull the most out. It was a close race between Pops and Daddy, but Daddy pulled it out by a few dollars!

Jacob had Pops and Michael right where he wanted them that night. Pops was the policeman while Jacob was the firemen (with the complete gear I must add). Cute hat Pops! Then Michael and Hunter had to be pulled from a "house fire" by the fireman! What imaginations kids have!

Great-Grandma and Hunter

The cousins - Jacob, Jamie, and Hunter!

Can you tell they are cousins?