Thursday, September 27, 2012

Eyes!!!

James loves glasses and sunglasses. Whenever he sees them, he tries to grab them and says "eyes, eyes, eyes," over and over again. He found this pair at the church and walked around for a good 30 minutes with them on. It was so cute!!!



Happy 34th Birthday Anthony!!

Yesterday Anthony turned 34, can you believe it?? We celebrated with Anthony's family on Sunday and we are going to celebrate with my family this weekend so the actual day was pretty low key..with a twist :)

To begin with, I had all these grand plans to have fun with Anthony on his birthday during the day but I ended up not feeling well. I was really tired and I had just gone to the orthodontist and gotten my invisalign so my teeth were hurting SOO much. All I wanted to do was just lay down and rest, definitely not Anthony's idea of fun :) After Anthony got home from work, we spent time together doing some gardening outside until the heat got to me and I had to go outside. We all ended up taking a nap and getting enough energy after that to go to Walmart and get a shovel for more garden work. Then we rushed home to get ready for cub scouts. I made some brownies and told Anthony they were for the cub scouts for a scavenger hunt that I planned. What Anthony didn't realize was that I planned the scavenger hunt specifically to end at a surprise birthday party for Anthony!

Tuesday morning while Anthony was at work I took James to the church to decorate for it in a room to the side of where the scouts meet, so I knew that no one would see it. Then I planned out a scavenger hunt around the church where Anthony would take them all around, passing off different requirements so that it would leave me alone to finish the preparations. On Sunday I told the cub scouts that we were doing a surprise for Brother Lagana's birthday, so they were prepared with cards and presents :)

The last part of the scavenger hunt told the scouts that they needed to prove their leadership skills by guiding their cub scout leader to the final destination, making sure he keeps his eyes closed. I thought for sure that Anthony would start to suspect something at this point, but he said he still had no idea.

Here they are reading the last clue:
Surprise!

It was so fun to see how shocked he was! I still can't believe he didn't think something was up, especially since I had the camera out :)

 The scouts were excited to celebrate Anthony's birthday, they all signed his big card and one scout even got him a few presents and a card. Anthony had them open it since he was holding James (that kid did not want Anthony out of his sight!) He got a box of birthday cake oreos and a big candy bar. Yum!
 Isn't this such a sweet card? He told Anthony how much he likes having him for a leader and said that he is his favorite teacher (Anthony also teaches them on Sunday) and then he drew a picture of the table we all sit at during scouts. So adorable!
Look at this good looking bunch!! The boys saw me taking pictures and insisted on a group picture with Anthony. They really love their leader!! But then again, who doesn't love Anthony :) Happy Birthday!!!



Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Drawing, balloons, & a turtle!

Last week we had our very first drawing-on-the-wall incident so of course I had to grab the camera. After I took the pictures, James helped me clean it up :)
When I first saw it I told James that it was a no-no and he gave me a face like this. Of course, when I pulled out the camera he started to smile, so I reminded him that he did something bad so I could get the expression on camera. Ha!

 Today was my first lesson in balloon animals, so I brought home a few of my practice balloons. James loved them all and wanted to give them all squeezes!! He is holding two balloon dogs and a balloon sword. I also have tons of ballons waiting to be blown up and shaped for practice.

 I also came home to this little guy hanging out in an old aquarium where the fish tank used to be... The verdict is still out on if we are keeping him, but isn't he so cute??? Anthony rescued him from our dogs :)


Thursday, September 13, 2012

Family Update

Life has been going pretty well for us lately. It feels like we have been going, going, going ever since we got back from the Keys, but in a good way! We have been having lots of fun and since fall is my favorite time of year I am starting to get really excited and ready to plan some festivities :)

First thing's first. I have some shocking news. Brace yourself.... Anthony sold his aquarium!!!!!!! I know, it is kind of mind blowing. He has been obsessed with his aquariums pretty much since we have been married. He started out small, then upgraded, then added an extra tank for seahorses, then turned that tank into a freshwater tank, then upgraded again, then made us move his tank to Tampa, then made us move it again while we were in Tampa at the same time as creating another side tank. Then we moved all the tanks to Edgewater and before they could get set up, he upgraded again bringing the grand total of aquariums in our house to eleventy million. Then he made us drive to Orlando to buy another tank just for the office. Then he created a separate tank just for his anemones to go with the other ones.

So what happened? Ever since we have been in Edgewater, his tank hasn't been happy. Anthony has tried everything he could think of to fix it, but on paper it should have been doing well. So for the past year and a half he has just been doctoring it and diagnosing it and pouring money into it to no avail. As a last ditch effort he bought some sand from another aquarium guy to put into his tank, thinking that it would help. Instead, there must have been something bad in the sand because his entire tank started to crash. Huge corals were bleaching in days and fish started to die off. The frustration had been building for awhile and Anthony finally decided it was enough. He is going to keep the small tank in the office for a few coral and fish, but everything else had to go! He decided he would be much happier with a better fishing boat than a dying tank that caused him so much grief. As of today, he has sold almost everything and has made $2500 from it so far, which is less than halfway towards the type of boat that he wants but since he wont be spending all his money on the aquarium now it shouldn't take him long to save up the rest.

I have gone a little pinterest project crazy lately. I've done so many decorating/organizing projects that I am starting to look around at my house and think to myself, "yep, saw that on pinterest...saw that on pinterest....oh yeah, saw that on pinterest...." Of course, I think this makes me super cool, like I am actually kind of in style :) Plus, I recently hung a few large things on the wall all by myself and I used a piece of tape to mark where I wanted the things to go, made sure I liked the spacing and that the tape was level and then marked where to drill the holes. That way the finished product would be level! Anthony was duly impressed when I showed him my technique (I got that idea, you guessed it, from pinterest :) ) Another thing I am really excited about is that as a volunteer at the library I am going to be helping out with their fall festival, making balloon animals! They are going to teach me how to do it and hopefully by the end of the night I will be a pro. I can't wait to have an unusual talent like that!

James has been as cute as ever. He got over his sickness pretty quickly and he is talking up a storm. He has started calling his pacifier his "boppy", which baffles me because I have no idea where he got that. We are trying to limit how much he gets his pacifier because he gets so dang attached to it, but he is so calm and quiet when he has it, it is really tempting to give it to him when I am trying to get things done. Yesterday he was playing with some containers, taking them out of the bucket, throwing them, looking for them, and then putting them back. He was cracking himself up and having a great time. He looked like he was looking for something, so Anthony said to him with his hands turned up, "Where did it go?". James copied him by turning his hands up and saying, "di go?" It was so precious!! Now he does it all the time when he is looking for something. Today he couldn't find the dogs, so he was wondering around with his hands palm up saying, "di doggie? di doggie?" over and over. Man I love that kid!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Bear Hugs

Yesterday I had a primary presidency meeting in the afternoon, so I had to get James up a little early from his nap so we could get there on time. As I walked into his room, this is what I saw:

I die of cuteness!!! James has been sickly lately, he has an ear infection so he is on antibiotics and he has this pitiful little cough and a raspy voice. Since he doesn't feel well, it is good to know that his teddy bears are giving him some extra loving :) Do you think we have a toy story situation going on? That would be way cool!