Cowboy

James still loves Woody from Toy Story 1,2, and 3.  He has found my Cowboy Hat, and he loves to wear it around the house. 

I think he is pretending that he is Woody. 

He has such a good imagination these days. I have a hard time keeping up with him.

My Cute Boys

James loves to help with Jacob.  One day he asked to hold Jacob.  Jacob is almost as big as him, but they both thought it was great!

They are both so happy (most of the time)!

Where Are You Christmas?

I love this song!  This is an awesome arrangement!

More Deer

I was sewing later in the day on Tuesday.  I looked up out the window and saw that one of the deer had come back. 

It was limping around so I am pretty sure it was hurt, but there was not much I could do about it. 

I snapped a few more pictures. 

Jon saw the deer when he came home too.  They stuck around our house for a while.  It is fun to have deer around, but I worry that when I try to grow a garden next year, they will cause problems.

Reindeer

James has been really excited for everything Christmas this year.  Yesterday, I was reading a book while James was playing.  He said, "Reindeer!" and was very excited.  I looked up at the TV, but it was just Umi Zoomi.  I was a little confused until I looked out the window and saw this.

Three deer under our deck.  I hurried to get the camera and was able to get two pictures before they saw me and ran away. 

James was so excited that Santa's reindeer were in our backyard.

Jacob

Jacob is growing so quickly and changing so much.  Here are a two more random pictures to see him changing. Loves the bouncy chair.

"Don't even think of taking my Binky!"

3 Years Old

On November 29th, James turned three!  I can't believe he is three.  We had some special visitors for James's birthday.  Jenni and Robby came from Toledo to visit us.  James and Robby had a lot of fun playing together, but I don't think Robby like James's way of eating.  I have lots of pictures.  Friends together again.

They love to pull/push each other around on this bus.

Playing with some spinning McDonalds toys.

Of coarse we had cake.

James requested the train cupcakes again this year.

Must have been good.

Presents!

New car from Cars 2, train tracks, a new shirt.

Choo choo!

Bed time.  Robby helped James brush his hair.

More playing with the trains.

New bike.

Hard to say good bye.

James stood at the window and watched until they drove out of sight.

We are so glad that Robby and Jenni could visit and celebrate James's birthday with us.  James had lots of fun playing with Robby.  We hope you come again!  Maybe next time it will be warm enough to enjoy playing in the backyard.

Long Over Due

Warning:  Some of my readers will cry when they see this picture, but it was long (no pun intended) over due and it needs to be done again.  Jon helped me cut Jacob's hair. 

It was getting too long!  His highlights are gone now, but I hope he is less likely to be mistaken for a girl.  I wish I had gotten a before picture, but oh well.

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving!  The Sunday before, our plans changed.  Then the Monday before, our plans changed.  Then the Tuesday before, our plans changed to what we actually did.  Jon had to work from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (he was supposed to be off at 7:15 p.m.)  Originally, I was planning to just stay home and have a normal day on Thursday, and then we were have our Thanksgiving feast on Saturday when Jon was off work.  James, Jacob and I ended up going to the Richmonds home for most of the day.  It was a pretty relaxing day.  There was lots of good food!  James of coarse did not eat much.  Someday I will get him to eat when we are at other peoples houses.  James did have a lot of fun.  Jacob also enjoyed it, because he was held almost all day.  After dinner, we went for a hike at a nature center near their home. 

It was so nice to be outside and the weather was really nice.  James and his friend Sheridan.

Going out on the dock made me sick, because it moved.  I think my motion sickness is getting worse the older I get.  After our hike, we had dessert.  Yummy pies!  Here is a representation of the two pies I brought. 

This is all that was left a few days later when I took this picture.  I made two pumpkin pies, and one experiment pie.  I did not want to fill the pumpkin pies too full because then they would spill in the oven, and there was not enough filling for a third, so I did a pie that was layered.  Pumpkin pie on the bottom and cheesecake flavored pudding on the top.  It was actually pretty good.  I took the experiment pie and one of the pumpkin pies to the Richmonds.  After pie, we just relaxed, watched football and played games.  It reminded me a lot of being at my parents house for the holidays.  Here is James playing with the Legos. 

He had so much fun it was hard to get him to go home. We did have lots of fun, and we all slept well that night.  I just wish Jon could have shared the day with us.

5:30 a.m.

At 5:30 this morning, Jacob was hungry and needed some more Tylenol, since he is teething and seems to be in pain.  James was also crying and yelling for Mom at this time.  I fed Jacob and got him back to bed. Then I went up stairs to see what James needed.  He was cold and wet (this is the third morning in a row that his diaper has overflowed).  I changed James and his bedding.  Luckily, James was willing to go back to bed with some chocolate chips and some cereal.  I put his wet bedding and clothes in the washing machine. 

At this point, I was hungry.  I ate a bowl of cereal in the dark kitchen.  I could have gone back to bed at that point, but it was only 45 minutes until the alarm would be going off and Jon would be getting up.  Not really worth trying to go back to sleep at that point.  Needless to say, it is now almost 10:00 and I have done four loads of laundry, bathed Jacob, fed him a second time, gotten myself ready for the day, and blogged a little.  Productive day so far, but I am sure I will be tired before it is a reasonable bed time.

I am having a hard time remembering what we have done in the last while.  I know there were things I wanted to blog about, but all I can remember are the things I have pictures for, so I guess I will start there and maybe I will remember other things as I go.  Posts will appear over the next few days if I get more done today, which is a goal.

Fall Was Here

This is the tree in our front yard. 

It seemed to take forever for this tree to change colors this fall, but it finally did.

This was the first snow of the season (on November 10th).

Sadly, it melted really quickly and we have not seen snow since.  It is supposed to snow this weekend though.  Here's hoping!  I am still waiting for the horrible winters that I have been warned about.  I asked a missionary, who is serving here from Idaho, how the winters compared to those in Idaho.  He said they are exactly the same, but humid here.  He was serving by the lake last winter too, where it gets more snow than in Grand Rapids.  I am not too worried about winters here, since I grew up in Idaho and have had some humid, cold winters in Toledo.  Plus there has not been any snow yet and it is a week into December!

Random Pictures

For Grandmas, here are some random pictures from November.  The first four were taken on a Sunday evening when Jon was working.  I believe I was actually blogging at that time too, so they are really old photos.

Jacob likes the swing and can often be found there.

He also likes this little frog.  He either squeezes it really tight or tries to eat it.

James sitting on a blanket on our new couch.

We love our new couch!  We spend a lot of time on it during the day.  James has found that it makes a great trampoline and that he can get "stuck" in the cushions.  Jacob tried out the bouncer and likes it, not that you can tell from these pictures.

Hopefully, there is more to come on the blog today.

James and Jacob Want to Say...

Happy Birthday, AUNT TIFFANY!

James and Jacob Want to Say...

Happy Birthday, UNCLE BRIAN!