February Fun

Unfortunately we started off the month with a round of sickness. Luckily, I've been able to avoid it but Anthony and James were miserable! James was really congested and ended up getting an ear infection. The poor kid was so miserable, he would just wander around the house sniffling and crying. One morning he seemed so miserable that I set him up on the couch with his favorite things and a blanket and turned on trains. He decided he liked being cozy on the couch! You can see in the picture that he decided our otoscope that we use to look in his ears absolutely had to be next to him at all times :)

 After he started to feel better (he still has a little bit of a raspy voice and cough, but otherwise seems healed), we spent the morning volunteering at the farm and were able to take home some freshly picked strawberries. I have never been able to get James to eat strawberries that I buy from the grocery store but he couldn't get enough of the fresh ones! I think he liked that they weren't cold from the refrigerator.

 On Saturday we headed downtown to a snow festival put on by a local church. They advertised that there would be real snow, food, and games all for free. We couldn't pass it up! It was a really fun time, I think we spent at least 2 1/2 hours there.

Here is James playing in the snow. He was really hesitant about the whole thing and only spent a few seconds in there before running out and just watching everyone else play in it.

Of course we had to go down the snow slide! It was so much fun!!

 In the afternoon we had some time before dinner so we decided to head over to the beach and do some fishing. James loved being able to hold the fishing rod!

 He looks like he is ready to reel in a big one!

 James got some birthday money from Anthony's parents and his Aunt Eileen, so we decided to have a FHE about tithing and the Sunday afterwards, he gave the bishop his first tithing! It was so much fun :) I tried to get a good picture, but I can't work Anthony's phone so here you go. Man I love this little boy!

James' 2nd Birthday

My baby turned 2! I can't believe it! He is growing so fast, this year just zoomed by. I wanted to do something really laid back and easy for his birthday party, just family, a few friends and cupcakes at the park. The party got off to a rocky start...I made a birthday shirt for James to wear and had these ideas of getting adorable pictures of him in his shirt. Once we got in the car and were driving to the park, James promptly vomited multicolored goldfish crackers all over his shirt!! I was devastated!!

To make matters worse, the park we decided to go to is one that we visit ALL the time and is always nearly empty, even on Saturdays...except this day. As we pulled up, we barely could find a parking spot because there were no less than 5 separate birthday parties going on at the same time at the park! Seriously, we go to this park all the time and I have NEVER seen this many people there before. The playground was so crowded, James had a hard time playing on it. Not that he minded, he was just as happy playing with the trees and sticks so it all worked out.

It was so cute to watch James and his friends from church, Jaxton and Talia, play together. They had a blast! At one point they decided that they all wanted to hold hands. Adorable!

Cake time!

We tried to get a good picture of James walking around with a cupcake in one hand and a stick in the other. He can't resist a good stick!

Then it was time for presents!

Here is a cool truck he got from Grandma Eloise. He loves that thing! He carried it around with him everywhere after he opened  it. Jaxton wanted to help him play with it too :)

His other present, a baseball toy from Aunt Robin. Jaxton loved it and James was happy to just play with his truck. Kids are so funny!

 After presents, Anthony pulled out his fishing poles and we all headed to the dock for some fishing. The kids loved it!! They had so much fun looking at the bait, the dolphins, the manatees, and the boats going by. Seriously, I don't think they could have had more fun if we hired professional entertainment!

James and Talia loved looking at the live crabs we were using for bait. James calls them "Bobs":

 Talia said, "Fishing is my favorite thing to do!! I ask to go fishing every day" :) She is a girl after Anthony's heart:

 We caught a few things: a big puffer fish and a sting ray. At one point I think they caught something else too, but I wasn't there for that so I don't know what it was. The kids LOVED touching the fish after we pulled them up. There was no fear!

It was a great day and a great birthday party. Happy birthday James!!!

Life with the cutest boy ever

Having James around can be so much fun! He cracks us up all the time, and makes everyday stuff so much better :) The last time Anthony went fishing and came home with fish to clean, James got really upset about it. He kept watching Anthony saw into the fish with his electric knife and crying, "Oh No!!!" over and over and over again in this pitiful voice! He would pick up the fish scales from the ground and bring them to me and say "Oh no!" and look at me, as if I could fix it and make it all better. Anthony just kept telling him that it was okay and that this is what we do with yummy fish :)

The next time we were expecting the same reaction, but he wasn't upset at all! He was actually pretty curious:

 He had to touch it:

 Anthony's dad got James to make "the face" and caught this picture of it. He reminded us that Anthony's nickname as a little boy was "the face" since he was always cheesing for the camera. Isn't amazing how children can be so similar to their parents as children?

Then at cub scouts last week I was able to get these pictures of James. He spent almost the entire hour on that stool, babbling along and teaching a pretend lesson. He must have been imitating me from watching me on Wednesday nights, since he doesn't ever see me teach during primary. It was to die for!!! I love his faces in the different pictures, his expressions totally tell the story :)

 Lately, James has started saying so many words we have lost count, sometimes as much as 6 new ones a day! A few days ago he was in the bath and started saying belly button. The way he says it is so cute!!! We try to get him to say it all day: