End of April

James has finally learned how to swing all by himself!! He was so proud of himself for doing it, and I was so happy that I don't have to push him on the swings for hours at a time any more. So exciting!

Now every time we go to the park, it has to be a park with good swings. James insists :)

My mom was cleaning out her closets and found a stack of old clothes that belonged to one of my brothers in the 80's. We tried them on Rett and he is so stinkin' adorable in them! I just love how he looks in these clothes.

He was so cute, I couldn't say no when he asked for a popsicle.

Then he offered to share with Grandma. Such a sweet boy!

I had some shopping to do at Michaels, so James came a long to help me push the cart. This is what he wore the entire time he was there: safety goggles and a citronella bug bracelet as a headband. I'm not sure why he decided it was necessary, but it was.

The boys had been having so much fun with the snake they caught in the backyard, that it got Anthony thinking about buying a pet snake for "James" (*cough* Anthony). Anthony had always wanted this cool variety of a ball python called a killer bee ball python (because of it's markings), so we bought this one. Then a friend of Anthony's offered to give him his male ball python, so now we have two snakes that will eventually breed with each other. Only Anthony would start out getting a pet for a 5 year old and end up doing specialty snake breeding.

James loves to hold the snakes, and he is getting really good at being quiet and gentle with them. The baby snake is really shy and timid, so we have to be extra careful with her so that she doesn't get stressed and stop eating.

This is the big guy that was gifted to us. He was used for breeding and not as a pet, so he isn't very used to being held. Anthony has started spending time with him every day holding him and getting him used to it.

The missionaries came over for dinner, so of course we had to let them watch Anthony feed the snake. James was mesmerized!

James and Anthony caught a lizard for the kingsnake (which now belongs to cousin Dallas!) and he actually ate it right in front of them. So crazy to watch!

While Anthony was at work I was trying to find something to do with the boys, so we went to the park. They wandered off and found this large dirt patch and had the best time playing in it! They both found big cement rocks and were running around trying to crush the mud wasps that fly low to the ground. I thought for awhile that maybe I should stop them, but they were having so much fun and actually being nice to each other that I just let them do it. Plus I was tired :)

Showing me his wasp-killing rocks.

Throwing the rocks down: