Bryan, Ohio and Wauseon, Ohio

Last Sunday, we went to the Bryan Branch Conference.  The Stake doubled the attendance of the little branch.  James struggled through sacrament meeting.  He was so tired, but would not go to sleep.  The combined Young Men/Young Women opening exercises where a little hard for James too.  The little room was packed and there was no room for him to roam.  When we split, James did much better.  He played in one half of the room while the Young Women had a lesson in the other half.  James also lost one of his toys in the organ.  When I was trying to get the toy out, I found a shoe.  A little sandal to be exact.  I found out later that sandal had been lost about a year ago.  They search everywhere for it, or so they thought.  Now they know there is a hiding place behind the petal of the organ.  By the way, I never found James's toy.  Oh well.

It amazes me that the smaller branches always provide lunch for the Stake Leaders after their branch conference.  It is not expected or required, but they always do.  Thanks for the wonderful lunch Bryan Branch!  It made having another meeting (the third one this month) about the up coming Leadership Training Meeting a little more bearable.  Side note:  I cannot wait for this Training Meeting to be over!

Yesterday, we went to the Wauseon Branch Conference.  James did better.  He was still tired during sacrament meeting, but Jon got him to fall asleep during the combined Young Men/Young Women opening exercises.  Then he slept through most of the Young Women's lesson.  One funny story, one of the speakers had just said what a beautiful morning it was to drive, when it started to rain and hail so hard it could be heard inside the chapel.  It was so loud!  Everyone was looking around with wide eyes.

When we got home, I realized I had left my Young Women's binder in the Young Women's Room.  Good thing the Stake Young Women's President is from Wauseon and I will see her Thursday night, because everything for my calling is in there.  It is also a good thing I do not really have anything in there that I need to get ready for Thursday's Training Meeting.

Babies and Missionary Work

This picture was taken about a year ago. 

It is all the babies in the ward at the time (under the age of one and present the Sunday we took the picture). 

A little background before I go on.  Dr. Rhee is a great OBGYN doctor.  There are quite a few sisters in our ward who have had babies recently (with in the last two years or so) who go to Dr. Rhee.  Six of the babies in the previous picture, and at least four that were not there that day.  In the last year, some have moved away.

When this picture was taken, there was a thought to take a picture of the mothers, who saw Dr. Rhee, with their babies.  Then we would give that picture to Dr. Rhee with a Book of Mormon.  Sadly, it did not happen.  Someone got offended, and no one wanted to cause more hurt feelings.

Fast forward, Jon just finished his OB rotation.  One night while he was on call, he worked with Dr. Rhee.  He told her about this picture taken almost a year ago.  She got almost teary at the thought of a picture like this.  I email the picture to Jon for him to show it to her.

Then, I got an idea.  We should try again to get a picture with all the moms and babies.  Here are two of the pictures. 

Again sadly, we were not able to get everyone.  When there are so many involved it is hard to get everyone at the same place at one time.

Now, we are working on writing our testimonies in a Book of Mormon to give to Dr. Rhee with the picture.  When the Book of Mormon is finished, I am going to see if I can set up a time to bring it to her, and get as many of the moms (and kids if necessary) to come with me.  Should be a great experience!

Zoo

Here are a few random pictures for the zoo the last few time we have been there. James loves buttons and was in heaven pushing this button.

Turtles are outside!

These next few are Ohio turtles. How many can you see in this picture?

Some of the African animals are out too!

Boot

James likes his snow boots. He will bring them to me occasionally and want me to put them on his feet. Then he will wear them most of the day while he plays. Here is a video of him walking around wearing one boot.

Side note: We bought these boots a little bigger so they will fit next year when James will actually walk around in them in the snow. So these boots are about 2 sizes too big right now.

When we have a question, we look IN A BOOK!

James still loves books, but only if he can turn the pages. He looses interest fast when I read to him. Here is a video of him looking at one of his newer books.

He will sit for about an hour at a time looking at books. It is great!

Are You Bleeding?

Fun James story...

This happened about a week ago.  I did not get any pictures, but will explain why later.  I was working on the computer.  Doing some stuff for my calling.  James was as usual play around the computer desk.  He recently wants to be right by mom.  It is fine with me because then I can make sure he is not getting into trouble.  Or so I thought.

While I was working, I looked over at James and his mouth and chin were bright red.  It looked like he was bleeding.  It was all over his hands.  It was on the bookcase next to the computer desk and the computer desk.  I even noticed a little on the floor last night.  I started looking for a cut in his mouth, wondering what he cut himself on.  Nothing!  I was a little confused until I saw in his hand, a stamp that is also it's own red inkpad.

I hurried to clean it up so that it would not be spread any father.  My thought was I do not want everything in the apartment to be red, not I need to get a picture of this.  I got it clean up the best I could, but his mouth was still really red.  I called my mom to make sure the ink would not hurt him.  I could not get a hold of Jon to check on this.  Jon wishes I had gotten a picture.  Now I wish I had too but at the time it was the farthest thing from my thoughts.

After I got James down for a nap, I inspected the stamp.  He had bit a chunk out of it, but it was still mostly attached.  I tried the stamp and here is what it looks like now. 

The one on the white paper was done this morning.  It will still work.  I still do not know how he got a hold of that stamp!

The World is My Playground (Or At Least the Couch)

James has begun climbing.  It started with the couch cushions. 

Now it is mostly just the couches. 

If someone is sitting or lying on the couch he is sure to climb up next to them and sit down, or climb on top of them.

(Sorry the pictures are blurry.  The zoom on my camera does that.)

Looks Good Enough to Eat

James loves the Muppets.  They make him giggle.  We were watching Muppets Christmas Carol the other day, and this is what James was trying to do. 

He is trying to get the apples off of the TV.  It was really funny!

Spring

We have been enjoying the Spring weather as much as possible. James likes to have the sliding glass door open. Here is a video of him playing by the open door.

Now when ever the door is open, he can most often be found by it.

Blogging Absence

Things have been really busy for me recently. I am amazed at how much more time my calling is taking these days. It is hard being the only one to stay in the Stake Young Women's Presidency, and it is hard getting used to the way the new Presidency does things. We have had three days of meetings this month, as opposed to the one night of meetings before. There is one more night of meetings this month. There is a leadership meeting on the 29th. I hope things will not be so busy once that meeting is over.

James also keeps me pretty busy. He is growing so much! I am hoping that soon I will be able to get some more pictures and movies of him on here for his grandmas. I also am working on getting our Washington D.C. pictures posted.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home...

James always races to the door when he hears the locks turning.  He knows it is daddy coming home.  Here they are watching TV one night before bed. 

James was not feeling really well this night either.  Those molars are killers.

Table

We have a great table.  It is the table I grew up with.  So many memories!  It has been through so much.  Nails, spills, rain, moving across the country...

James really likes our table, too.  He likes to grab things off of it and dump them all over the floor.  His arms seem to grow an inch everyday, as he reaches father and farther on to the table.  In this picture, he is looking under the table. 

He found what he was looking for, the bolt that holds the leg together. 

There is one over here, too! 

It looks like he is trying to tighten the bolt in the last picture.

Cornstarch

When cornstarch is mixed with water (or other liquids) it has some really interesting properties. I have actually noticed this property when I use cornstarch with cooking, but never on this scale.

This is a really awesome video! Thanks for sending it to me mom!

Throwing a Ball

James enjoys "playing catch." He is actually really good at flicking the ball to me. Most of the time it gets to me. Here is a video of him throwing a ball on the couch.

Still Hooked on Cars

James loves Cars even more now than he used to. If I ever need him to hold still or stop crying, all I have to do is turn on Cars. This is the only movie that will make him mostly comatose. We also found the brilliance of a DVD player in the car while we were visiting friends in Maryland. It made the car ride through traffic with two toddlers a lot more pleasant. 

Here are some pictures of him enjoying Cars. 

Even with friends over James is totally focused on Cars. 

Robby loves to smile for the camera though.

Sorry I could not get a better picture.

Washington D.C.

We got back for D.C. last night.  We took a spur of the moment trip to D.C. for spring break.  The original plan was that my parents and one of my sisters was going to come out here and visit, but they were unable to come.  We were really sad they could not come so we wanted to get out of Toledo so we would not have to think about it too much.  Thanks (big) James, Sarah, and Becca for letting us come visit on such short notice.  We had a great time!

Hopefully, I will get my pictures posted this week.

I am really looking forward to watching conference this weekend!  I am glad we are able to get all the sessions at home!

Tall, Tall, Tall

James seems to be able to reach farther and farther every second.  Here are some pictures of him reaching on to the counter

and grabbing a lid. 

Then he inspected it to see how it worked.

Kind of Walking

All James has wanted to do for the last little while is walk, but he just will not let go. He will walk along the wall all over the house. Then he discovered he could walk using this toy. Thanks Renae!

Now, he constantly wants to walk around pushing this toy. The problem is when he runs into the wall or other things. So I follow him around a turn him around so he can keep walking. Last Sunday, he actually let go on his own and walked a few steps to me.