All about James

James gave the scripture in primary a few Sundays ago and Anthony was able to video it. Primary is still really hard for him, he is doing really well in his Sunbeam class, but sharing time and singing time is a challenge. I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do his scripture since it is at the very end of primary and he usually has to be taken outside by then, but he was really excited to get up there. I was so relieved!



Ever since James was a baby, he has never been able to sleep anywhere but in his bed by himself. He rarely fell asleep in his car seat past a certain age, and almost never in his stroller. I can count on one hand how many times he has even attempted to sleep in our bed with us, much less actually do any sleeping once he is there. It has been the strangest thing, but recently that has started to change! Around 4pm or so, he has started falling asleep where ever he is: the car, the couch, my bed, my lap, you name it! In the morning he has started wanting to be in our bed and actually sleep, and at bedtime he will lie down next to me (in his bed while we are reading stories) and just drift off to sleep. It is actually kind of peaceful to have snuggle time with this kiddo without him jumping on my hair or talking my ear off. I don't know if this is just a phase/growth spurt/weird kid thing, but for now I am enjoying it :)

Whenever we leave the house, James always has to bring elephant and doggie so that they "don't miss anything". He usually wants to bring a toy too, so it can be quite the production watching him carry everything around. Monday morning I went grocery shopping with him and he brought three stuffed animals and two toys. He was dropping things left and right, but he insisted that he neeeeeeded them all!

James watched an episode of one of his favorite shows where they made cupcakes, so of course he insisted that WE needed to make cupcakes. I had everything except eggs, so I found a recipe that didn't use any and he helped me make some. After icing them, he put the sprinkles on and then after dinner he got to have one. Really he just licked all the chocolate frosting off and then threw the rest away :)

Phone pictures

James wanted to ride his bike up to the fire station in our neighborhood to visit the fire engines. One of the first times we visited, they told us if their garage door is open then we are welcome to come in and check things out. Now James insists on stopping in every time he sees the garage door up! This time they happened to be testing their flashing lights, so a few of the vehicles had all their lights on. James was very impressed :)

After swimming at the pool, we walked to the playground next door. James insisted Rett hold his hand. He kept saying, "come on Rett! You wanna hold my hand?"

James was very focused on playing in this toy car one evening. He had his fake keys in the ignition and he was making all the car noises. When I warned him that it would be time to go inside and take a bath in 5 minutes, he said, "well, sorry mommy, but I'm driving somewhere far away right now".

We dressed up like cows to get our free food at chick-fil-a for cow appreciation day! We went for lunch while Anthony was at work, so Anthony got out of wearing a costume this year :)

James was a little upset that he had to wear the homemade cow costume and that he didn't have "a soft one like Retty boy's". It didn't help that once we got there, everyone was oohing and ahhing over how cute Rett was. I think they were both stinkin' adorable! James was also not impressed with their kids meal toy. He said, "toys are supposed to have wheels!"

One of the parks close to us has a large dock that goes out into the water, so I thought it would be the perfect location to watch a rocket launch that was scheduled for that morning. We played on the playground for about 30 minutes before walking to the dock 5 minutes before liftoff.

The boys were loving the racing slides. They would slide down, turn around, and climb back up so they could do it all again.

James wanted to snuggle one afternoon while Anthony and I were sitting on our bed, wishing we could take a nap :) Why do kids hate sleep so much?? Sleep is soooo good.

While Rett was napping, James decided he needed to explore the rain puddles in his firefighter hat and rain boots, pulling his wagon with his elephant and his toy planes in it. He has informed me that he will be keeping elephant "forever and ever, even when I'm super grown up"

Fireworks and Daytona Lagoon

4th of July weekend my brother came to visit and we all went to the fireworks. Since they don't start until 9pm, we did dinner and bath time as usual. We put the boys in pajamas and then we headed to the fireworks! The boys had a blast running around and since they were in superhero pajamas, they got a lot of attention :) The sound of the fireworks has never bothered Rett before, but for some reason this year they did. As soon as he heard anything loud, he would bury his face into Anthony's shoulder and get this super sad face. He wouldn't cry, he just got sad. It was so cute and pathetic at the same time! (He closed his eyes at the flash, but they were open almost the whole time, just staring sadly)

Of course, James loved it! There were these really loud sonic boom-type fireworks that would go off and James said, "The big loud ones are my favorite!"

The Monday after the holiday was Daniel's birthday, so we decided to go play laser tag at Daytona Lagoon. We've never gone before, it has a large water park and a lot of indoor things to do too, like an arcade and a rock climbing wall. Rett was too little to go into the laser tag, so I stayed out with him while the boys went.

 Showing us what his teeth look like in the black light:

 Checking out his glowing socks:

 All suited up and ready to shoot!

After laser tag, we checked out the arcade.

James couldn't reach the gas pedal on this game, so he had to hang off of the steering wheel and stretch his legs as far as he could. He was determined to play it!

The water park looked like a lot of fun, so we will definitely be going back soon!

Zoo trip & homemade slide

Last Monday we decided to visit the zoo! We have two different zoos that are both about 45 minutes away from us, so we decided to go to the smaller one to avoid any crowds. They also had some new exhibits and animals we hadn't seen yet, so that was exciting! It was early in the day and they were feeding all the animals, so we got to see most of them. This mountain lion was pacing around the cage waiting for food. Rett kept pointing and saying, "ki-eee" (kitty)

We also got to see these leopards, one regular and one black. They are so beautiful!

One of the new exhibits at this zoo is a large Rhino enclosure. They offer encounters where you can feed them and pet them, but only on the weekends. It was cool to see them though!

Both of boys looking at a monkey:

We bought tickets for the train ride and the carousal that are right at the entrance of the zoo with the plan to ride them at the end of the day on the way back to the car. After we finished looking at everything, the boys only got to play at the splash pad for a few minutes before it started storming! Out of nowhere it got really windy and rainy, so the rides got shut down for the day. James was really disappointed about it, but I made sure our tickets are good for the next time we go.

It has been so hot outside lately, that we haven't wanted to go to the park or play in the backyard. The boys have gotten a little stir crazy so one afternoon we pumped up our air mattress. I was thinking they could jump around on it, but James got the great idea to turn the couch into a big bouncy slide! I couldn't believe how much fun they had. They spent literally hours going up and down and bouncing around. At one point James decided to get a bunch of matchbox cars and race them down the slide. Rett kept laughing and climbing it saying, "Side! Side" (slide).

I was putting James' shorts on him and helping him get them buttoned, when I noticed something bumpy in his pocket. I reached in and when I saw what it was, I threw it into the air with a shriek! Why do boys think this is okay??

Summer movies & Visiting a Buddhist center

We tried out the summer kids movies for the very first time and we had a blast! We have a newly renovated movie theater and I love the new comfortable seats. The seats don't fold up, so that was great for the kids but we ended up getting booster seats for them anyway so they could see over the top of the seats in front of us. James insisted on a green one because "green is my very favorite color". :) We also had to turn around and go back to the house before we left our neighborhood because James forgot his stuffed animals and he said, "But elephant and doggie really wanted to come!"

 The tickets came with a drink and popcorn for everyone, so we were all set! Rett looked a little toooo comfortable. He definitely watches more tv and eats more snacks like this than James did at that age. One of the perks of having an older sibling!

The movie was really cute and I had never seen it before, so it was actually fun to watch. Rett was done about halfway through the movie, so my mom and I took turns walking him around the hallways until the movie was over. I don't think it would work for us to go again if I had to bring both the boys by myself, but we might try again towards the end of summer. 

I noticed that this movie theater has special recliner seats at the front of the room that have footrests that come out and the back of the seat leans back. Quite a few moms were in the know and had brought blankets for their kids and they were all snuggled up. It looked so comfortable! My mom and I went later in the week to see Inside Out, and we snagged a few of those seats in the front. It was the most comfortable I have ever been in a movie theater! I definitely see more movie-going in my future :)

One of the local mom blogs that I follow posted about an interesting Buddhist center close to us in the middle of Mims. She said that there is a large statue garden and that they encourage visitors to come and check it out, so one morning we did!

First you walk through this path and pass a large bell. The sign says to ring it softly three times and then say a prayer to find peace and compassion. It got rung, but I can't say that it was rung softly :)

Then the path goes by what looked like a meditation center and a few buildings. The sign said "private" and "no visitors", so we didn't disturb them. After that it leads you to the beginning of the statue garden. It was so striking to see so many large statues all in one place!

A lot of the benches and other stone structures had words like "kindness" or "peace" carved on them along with different sayings. I really liked this one:

To show you hall tall this one is, you can see James' head barely peeking up at the bottom.

We sat down in the shade so I could take a picture. It lasted about half a second :)