Trick or Treating: You're doing it right

Today we caught James with his Halloween bucket, going trick or treating in our own candy basket, full of candy ready to give out tomorrow. I think he has figured out the easiest way to get candy on Halloween...never leave home!

Filling up the basket:

 Look, now it's full!

 We told him to show daddy his basket and he held it right up for him. He mastered holding his basket out for candy at the ward trunk and treat, it was so cute!

 He decided that it was more fun putting the candy into the basket then actually having it in there, so he dumped it all out on the floor so he could do it again.

 And again :)

I realized after looking at the pictures that he is wearing a wonderful ensemble of a t-shirt, no pants (we had to take off since they got soaked at home depot when he insisted on riding in a wet car-cart), ninja leggings which he always points at the ninjas and says "Kitty!", and sock/shoes. Oh well, at least he had clothes on right? :)

Fall Garden

Since I have been volunteering at a local farm a few days a month, it got me excited about reviving our garden this fall and expanding it. I am hoping that the lady I am helping will give me some good tips and pointers for our garden and that I will finally be able to keep something alive. I figure we will just keep trying until we get it right! Our last garden started out great, but bugs or something got a hold of it while we were on vacation and it never really recovered. It was also really hard to weed, so we didn't keep up with it like we should have. Hopefully that won't be a problem with this one.

We took a section of our backyard that already had landscaping tarp down, cleared out the decorative plants and put down gardening soil. Then Anthony put up a fence around it, with a door, and we added our seeds and transplants that we got an awesome deal on at a local nursery. I think we paid something like 25 cents a plant for the zucchini and bell peppers! We have planted right now: carrots, beets, green beans, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes. The plants are much bigger now than when I took the picture. The beans have since sprouted and the zucchini plants have gotten flowers. Please, please stay away bugs!! We also added a bunch of habanero and datil hot pepper plants over next to Anthony's amazing jalapeno plant that is still going strong and had 52 peppers on it the other day!

The hot pepper plants:

The awesome jalapeno plant that can't stop producing:

We also have a grapefruit tree in our backyard that has started producing some grapefruit. I don't know much about grapefruit or if they will taste good, but we will keep an eye on them!

We are starting to get kumquats again on our kumquat tree. I used a bunch last year to make kumquat jelly, but I think I want to try something different this year. James is so funny, he likes to go up to the tree every morning and pull a few off. He throws them around the yard yelling "Ball!!" and yesterday he decided to bite into one. He just got the rind, which is pretty bitter and he made such a sour face! Priceless!

It is never too early for Halloween fun

 Last week James and I carved our first pumpkin together, and It actually went a lot better than I thought :) I pulled out our plastic picnic table from the shed and put it in the shade in the back yard and took all the pumpkin materials out there. James loved being able to get on the table and see what I was doing, but he could also get down and run around when I was being too boring. I didn't have to worry about the mess since we were outside and to clean up all I had to do was hose off the table and our hands. I didn't have any stencils, so I just hand drew some stars and moons on it and called it good (which worked out because James has become obsessed with the moon. If you can see it outside during the day he will tell you that it is there literally nonstop when he can see it).

We also hosted our first holiday party for friends in our house yesterday evening and it was a blast! Almost everyone dressed up and we played games, ate some delicious treats and got to catch up with each other. I was a little stressed about cleaning before hand and getting everything ready, but it was definitely worth it because we all had such a good time! I don't usually do things like this because I stress myself out so much, but I am making it a goal to be more proactive in inviting people over and not worry about silly things. How is it that you never notice or care about little cleaning details until you know a bunch of people will be in your house?!? Like they are going to be evaluating the inside of your microwave and in the track of the sliding glass door with white gloves!

James dressed up in a ninja costume and I was Hermione from Harry Potter. Fun!

 All the kids made monster cupcakes using a bunch of different candies:

 Here is a graveyard layered dip that one of our friends brought. So awesome!

 I made these apple and marshmallow mouths, which were a big hit:

 This is one of the games we played, wrap the mummy, using toilet paper:

The girls were nervous about being wrapped themselves, but when I suggested that they wrap me up they were all over it!

 This was another game we played, Pin the nose on the pumpkin:

 We also played a halloween version of twister, but I didn't get any pictures because I was playing right along with the kiddos!

Here is our ninja:

 We are doing at least a few more halloween parties/festivals this month, so there will be many more halloween posts to come! Don't you just love Halloween?

Terrible Twos?

We have had a tantrum/crying/angry baby week over here this week which has got me wondering if maybe James is starting the terrible twos early...I am kind of at a loss as to why he is acting so differently, but it is like he is another child! Where did my sweet baby go? He has also been more clingy than normal (at least for him, since he is not a cuddler at all it has just been more time in our laps than usual really) so maybe his teeth are still bothering him? Who knows. Fact is, I've had to reaaaaally try to have patience with him this week. I've also tried to make sure that we get out of the house more since that seems to distract him a little bit from whatever is bothering him.

He has thrown some pretty spectacular tantrums recently but I am trying to not react to them and show him love and attention at other times. He seems to be trying to say a lot more things but they are still really hard to understand, so that could be frustrating him too. I've started to have to interpret some things for Anthony since a lot of the words he has for things sound nothing like it. For example, "Nee" is train or plane depending on where he is pointing :) Don't ask me how he got that one. It is really cute, he has been yelling, "Mommy, aoook! (look)" until I respond or turn around and then in a normal voice he starts babbling and pointing and explaining something, most of which I can't understand. But I always act like he just told me something really important, because to him I imagine it is :)

On Tuesday I took him to the free admission day at the children's museum which I haven't been to in awhile. The last few times I went it was during the summer when school is out and there were soo many kids there it was hot and crowded and James didn't seem to have that much fun. This time was much different! We went early in the morning and there were only one or two other families there. James got to play with anything and everything he wanted to. Although once he found this, it was the only thing he wanted to play with the entire time :) You sit at these controls and fly a large model airplane that is in front of you, which moves and turns its engines on and off as you steer and press the buttons. He was in heaven!

 He wasn't too sure about having a co-pilot:

He refused to look at me for a picture, he was in the zone!

One night this week Anthony took out a laser pointer to show James how Bitsy would chase it and we couldn't get over James' reaction! He laughed and squealed and giggled and then he got down on all fours and chased the light around on the floor and tried to get it with his mouth, just like the dogs! We attempted to video it with our regular camera since the camcorder needed to charge, but the video turned out so bad we need to try it again soon! It was youtube worthy, it was that good!

*Update* Here is the video!

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!!!





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 :)

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!

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!