Blow

With a recent cold, James learned how to blow his nose.  It was great!  No more "snot sucker!"  Now when ever he finds a tissue he wants to blow his nose.

Free Parking?

One night, James turned Mommy into a parking lot.

He thought it was pretty funny.

Trip to Michigan

On the 28th, we took a last minute drive to Michigan.  We drove to Grand Rapids, looked around a little and walked through Meijer Gardens (Meijer's headquarters is there and they have a botanical/statue garden).  Inside the main building they had Christmas Trees of the World set up.  The one representing Germany.

Switzerland.

This on represents Ukraine.

Yes, it has spiderwebs on it (those fake ones you can get at Halloween).  There was a story with this tree, about a poor family that could not afford decorations.  So magical spiders spun webs on it in the night and the webs turned to sliver and gold.  I thought it was the most interesting story of all the trees.

There were a few gardens in the greenhouses.  One had a waterfall.

Some cacti almost bigger than James.

This statue in called Angry Mom.

Jon and James walking down the slippery path.

We really did not walk out side much.  It was below freezing, even though the weather had said it would be warmer.

They also had trains set up in some of the greenhouses.  James loved the trains, and this was really the first exposure he has had to them (beside in nursery and Grandma Felt's house).  We decided to save trains for later in his life and I guess that time is now.  How much do you know about trains?

After a short walk outside, we found a building with this train set up.  James loved it, and surprised us by picking up a car and saying, "coal car."  It was indeed a coal car.

We had a hard time getting James to leave the trains, but we finally did.

Our next stop was the largest Christmas store in the world.  We drove to Frankenmuth (not really that close to Grand Rapids).  We were looking for a specific Christmas ornament.  We did not find what we were looking for, but we enjoyed walking around.  Then, we headed home.

Too Hot?

One morning, I went in to get James out of bed and this is what I found.

His shirt halfway off, his socks pulled off (and wet because for some reason he likes to put them in his mouth), and his pant legs pulled up.  My guess, he was warm enough.

Legos

James has already gained a love for Legos.  He has only been exposed to the Duplo kind, but he loves then and will play with them for long periods of time (especially if Mom or Dad is helping him build something which almost always turns into a tower).  Here are some picture of James playing with his Legos.

"Cheese!"

Christmas

Here are some pictures from our Christmas morning, at last.  On Christmas Eve, we had Cornish game hens, which seems fancy, but we probably will not cook them again.  It was more work to cook and get to the meat than it was worth, but it was fun to try something new.  Now we know. 

We also read the Christmas story out of the bible, while James looked at pictures showing different parts of the birth of Jesus.  We also watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert from a few years ago.  Here is James in his new jammies before he went to bed.

We did have a good Christmas even with James getting up at 6:00 a.m. (which he had not done before or since).  I guess the days of sleeping in on Christmas are over.  Our tree after Santa came.

Our Present from Jon's sister's family.  I love it!

James loved all his presents.  Here are pictures of him opening them.

A bear from Yellowstone Park, and a star badge with his name on it as a Yellowstone Junior Park Ranger.  He is waiting for me to get the star off the packaging.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Brower!

Puzzles.  He still plays with these all day long.

He loves letters and numbers.  He even knows all the letters (except V which he still thinks is Y) and he knows his numbers from zero to nine.

Here is a shot of most of James's presents.  He got a Lego set with Lightening McQueen.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Felt!

James likes to wear this bucket on his head when he is playing at home.

James also got a giant pad of paper and some new crayons.

We stayed in our pajamas most of the day.  We did also visit a family who is new in our ward in the later morning.  Jon got a set of Legos that James picked out for him, and we got a Wii with a few fun games.  It was nice to have a relaxing day.  We hope everyone else had a good Christmas too.

Christmas Movies

Here are some videos of James on Christmas morning for his Grandmas.  There are six of them, but I figured Grandmas Brower and Felt would like them.  I will post more about our Christmas later.

Merry Eve of Christmas Eve

Christmas is in Two days!  We have been really busy here.  Sorry no pictures today.

Sunday was our ward's Christmas Program.  I love to sing Christmas Hymns and was actually looking forward to this day of church.  Sadly, for many reasons, James came down with a cold/croup, so I stayed home with him.  Later that evening, our home teachers came by and it was fun to get to know them better.  they are new to our ward this year and were put in the nursery right when they moved in.  They knew James, and James seemed comfortable around them.  While they were here, James decided to try and electrocute himself by pulling the glass part of his nightlight off, leaving the metal part of the bulb in the nightlight.  He did all this while it was plugged in!  He was fine, but the nightlight has seen better days.

Monday morning, I was beginning to feel a cold coming on, but with a busy day a head of me, I just had to keep going.  I had an appointment with my family doctor just to check and see if the medicine is still helping the heart problems I have been having.  Everything going great there.  No pain for a month!  Then, I had lunch with a few friends, and their rambunctious kids, who were enjoying their first day off of school for Christmas Break.  When I got home, I tried to get James down for a nap, which he did not want because he had not seen Mom all day.  He did take a good nap as usual then we went grocery shopping.   After dinner, we SKYPEd with Grammy Felt.  James loves to talk to his Grandma on the computer, and I wish it would work better with my mom.

Tuesday, Jon, James, and I watched Robby while Jenni helped out a friend.  James loved having Robby here!  I was even able to take a nap while both boys were down for a nap at the same time.  Robby's dad Steve came by at about 3:00, and Steve and Jon played War Craft with Robby and James "helping" where they could.  I made dinner while everyone else was being entertained.  Jon and I started our Star Trek marathon by watching the first movie.

Yesterday, some friends came by to visit, and James had a ball with their kids!  He loves it when other kids come to his house and play!  It was nice to visit with Joy and Julie.  Jon and I watched the next 3 Star Trek movies through out the day.  At 7:00, we went to the church to help clean.  James even helped me polish the piano and organ in the chapel.  Afterwards, the Carters came over and played Phase 10 Dice while we watched the Las Vegas Bowl, Boise St vs. Utah.  Boise St. won!  Not a shock.  Jon and I were up most of the early morning with James who decided he didn't want to be asleep.

Today, Jon is off to Steve's for a War Craft tournament (or something).  James is currently sleeping, and I would still be sleeping if the phone had not started ringing.  They were looking for Jon I am guessing, who was already on his way.  I am hoping to relax a little today, maybe do some laundry.  Tonight, we are going to sing Christmas songs and drink apple cider at the Carters with others from our ward.  Should be fun.  I am looking forward to singing Christmas songs.  I just hope my voice is not gone. 

That is what we have been up to this week so far.  Hopefully Santa will stop at our place tomorrow night.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Pork Chops

I made Pork Chops for the first time not too long ago.  Actually I have done them twice in the the last few weeks.  Both recipes were really good.  This is the most recent one I did.  I got this recipe from Food Network, but I changed it a little

Marinated Pork Chops with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
Marinade
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
2 Tablespoons (normal) chili powder
1 Tablespoon chipotle chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 pork loin chops (I used boneless)

Combine all ingredients (except pork) in a jar with a tight lid.  Cover and shake well.  Reserve about 1/4 cup.  Pour the rest into a baking dish, add pork and turn to coat.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  Put about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.  Add pork and cook for about 6 minutes on each side (until inside temperature is 160 degrees), drizzle reserved marinade over the pork while cooking.  Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Spicy Orange Vinaigrette
2 Tablespoons Orange juice concentrate
2 T white vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/2 cup olive oil

Heat orange juice concentrate in the microwave until warm (I did about 1.5 minutes).  Combine orange "syrup," vinegar, mustard and chili powder in a blender and blend 30 seconds.  With motor running slowly add oil.  Serve over the pork.  (I put more on the side to dip my pork in as well).

Serve with rice and black beans, if desired.

6 Days Until Christmas!

I cannot believe Christmas is this week!  I am looking forward to it, but it seemed to come really fast this year!  Here is a picture of James enjoying an ornament off the tree. 

He loves the tree and Christmas lights.  Whenever we drive around after dark, he will point and say, "Wook it!  Wights!" over and over.  It is really cute!

Sad Story

Jon's Dad sent us an email yesterday with the new of a fire at the Provo Tabernacle.  You can find the story here.  I have so many good memories of walking to Stake Conference in this building.  I think every stake conference I had while at BYU was in this building.  Sad to see such damage to such a beautiful building with so many memories for me. 

Teddy Bear

This was my teddy bear growing up.

It is nice to see it is loved by others too.  You might also notice he still has a car in his hand.

Baking?

One of the drawers in the kitchen James likes to get into is the one with my hot pads.  Here he is all ready to do some baking, or just run around the house.

Please ignore the watermelon juice all over his shirt.  This boy LOVES watermelon!

Signs

How many remember the tin foil hats on Signs?  James is protecting his thoughts from being read by aliens.

Something New

It is fun to still be learning new things.  Jon and I were watching the Army vs. Navy football game on Saturday.  A commercial came on for the Navy, and it was talking about the five oceans on the Earth.  When I was going to school there were only four oceans so I thought it was really strange that the commercial would say there were five.  Naturally, I googled it.  In 2000, it was decided that the water around Antarctica was different enough from the other oceans that it should be it's only ocean.  So now there are five oceans. Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Indian, and Southern Oceans. 

12 Days Until Christmas!

I cannot believe Christmas is so close.  Maybe it is because we just barely got snow that has stuck to the ground.  Maybe because I still feel like I am missing two months.  Whatever the reason, Christmas is coming, and I am happy and excited as always.  I love this time of year!

Jon has been home a lot the last week or so.  He is doing a month of research, which for him means that he is working on writing a paper from the research he has been doing the last three years.  If you want more specifics you will have to talk to Jon about it.  Since Jon has delegated some of the writing of this paper to other members of his team, he has had a lot of time to hang out with James and I.  It has been really nice.

Also giving Jon more time at home is the fact that he has cancelled his last 6 interviews.  He felt that 12 interviews in Pediatrics was a good number where most other applicants in his area are doing 5-6.  We have 4 programs/cities we really like and do not see a need to have more at the top that we need to decided how to rank.  Now, the hard part comes with us trying to rank the programs he has seen.  We will likely be taking some second looks in January and February.

With Jon home, we have been enjoying going to the gym almost daily.  We have watched lots of movies, mostly Christmas movies, but we have also watched all the Harry Potter Movies including the new one in theaters.  We really likes the new one, and it was fun being in a theater with only one other couple.  We have also be doing some Christmas shopping.  It has been hard to decide what to get James this year, but I think we have helped out Santa well, and James will like what he gets.

Not much else going on right now that I can think of.  Today, we are planning to stay in the warmth as much as possible.  Right now it feels like -2 outside and it is not supposed to get much warmer today.  Hope everyone else is able to stay warm today!

Someone Love Daddy

James loves his daddy!  He is so glad when he is home.  Here is a picture of James giving daddy a back massage.

Lights Before Christmas

We were able to go to the Zoo to see the Christmas Lights between Jon's interviews this week.  It is always fun.  This year we were lucky enough to be able to go with the Carters, Tollers, and the Wierschkes!  Here is a slide show of the pictures we took.

(Sorry, if the slide show is not working.  It works when I try to edit the post, but not when I publish it.) 

James got to see Santa, too.  He walked up on the stage right toward Santa, looked at him, and kept walking.  There were some giant blocks on the other side of Santa that James wanted to play with.  It was fun to be there one last time with our friends!  We will miss the lights at the Toledo Zoo!

Wake Up Call

What is worse than waking up to your child yelling your name? 

I walked into James's bedroom this morning and found blood caked on his face and in his hair.  There was a big spot on his sheets, too. 

Yes, that is blood.  I quickly checked to find the source of all the blood and found he had a bloody nose last night.  He went in the tub, and I clean everything else up.  It was not too bad, but a little bit of a scare in the morning.

Back In The Kitchen

Our gate broke, so James has enjoyed being back in our kitchen.  Now he can get things out of the drawers too.  His favorite thing to get out and use is the whisk. 

He runs off with it a lot and when I need it, I have to search the house.