James

I haven't had much time to blog lately. Here are some pictures of James and what he's been up to lately. He's at a really interesting stage because he can be so fun and so happy and then the next moment have the biggest melt down/tantrum. It definitely makes life interesting!

It's funny to watch him play. One day he pulled up his chair next to the toy car garage. I don't know where he learns these things from?

He loves to sneak in Marshall's office and sit at his computer.

He doesn't normally wear his swimsuit but on this day we were getting ready to go swimming.

He always gets to needy at dinner time and wants to be held. Since I'm trying to make dinner and there's hot stuff and sharp stuff to look out for I can't hold him or let him help. One night I just wanted him to play and be happy so I could make dinner. I decided to fill the sink up with water, put a few kitchen utensils in the water and let him play. He loved it. He was soaking wet after but it kept him entertained so I could make dinner. The only problem is he always wants to play in the sink now.

It's not very often you can get two toddlers to sit still for a picture. Also he has a really hard time playing nice. He doesn't understand the sharing concept yet and so it can be a little interesting when cousins or friends come to visit. His cousin Kjersti came to visit and luckily they both were happy watching a show.

He loves doing tricks with Marshall.

I don't know why but James and any kid who has played with this car garage also thinks it doubles as a seat. I guess it's because it's the right height.

James needed a hair cut a few weeks ago. Usually Bonnie, Marshall's sister cuts it. Since she just had a baby I decided to try and cut it. It can't be that hard right? I cut Marshall's so I'm not completely out of practice. Well turns out James was terrified of the hair cutters. I was only able to cut the bottom half of his hair before he completely lost it. We even tried to bribe him with treats. I cut Marshall's hair too so James could see the hair cutter wasn't scary or painful. It didn't help though. By the end there was hair all over the kitchen floor (the dark spots are the hair clumps).

James loves to go swimming with his best friend, Benson. They also like to get in the lockers after we are done swimming.

There's a little peak of what James has been up to. Sorry the pictures are blurry. They are from my phone.

Marshall's had fun selling video clips online. Here's some of his clips on a site called Pond5. Click on any of the images to see it on the site.

Christmas

We had a fun Christmas. It started off with bowling on Christmas Eve with my family. My family always jokes about making bowling shirts so Marshall and I actually made some ghetto bowling shirts a few years ago with the help from D.I. and iron-ons. We made James his own shirt this year. He really isn't sleeping in this picture.

That night we went to the Chowder Bash at my Grandma's house where we managed to not take any pictures. Then we went to Marshall's Grandparent's house.
His grandparents are so generous and give a gift to every person there. His Grandpa and Charlie, the stuffed monkey give out all the gifts.

James wasn't sure what to think. He was pretty shy the whole night.
The next morning we opened gifts (hopefully with Marshall's help we'll have some video of on the blog soon). Then we had my family's traditional Christmas breakfast which is homemade egg and bacon muffins.

That afternoon we had a yummy Christmas smorgasbord with my family. It was so fun to see everyone and play games!

Happy Holidays!

Mirror

Saturday night we did a little shopping. Mostly I wanted some maternity clothes for winter. This mirror in the dressing room kept James happy. He kept giving himself high five and kisses.

Zoo Lights

Friday night we went to Zoo Lights with our friends the Greers. It was cold so we had to bundle up. It was fun to see all of the lights.




Zoo Lights is more about the lights than the animals. We did see a couple of animals though.

James did pretty good in his stroller for the first half and then he got too wiggly and wanted to get out. He wanted to run around but it was crowded so we had him help us push the stroller. He enjoyed doing that more than looking at the lights. He's such a funny boy.

We tried to snap this shot right before we left. He was being really wiggly and ready to leave. Hopefully next year he'll enjoy the lights more and pushing the stroller less :)

SnowMEN

Marshall got a chance to play in the snow with James too!

Gotta love winter!

Snow!

It's fun to finally have snow since it's been so cold. It actually feels more like Christmas time now. James and I had fun playing in the snow today.

We decided to build a snowman. First we started with the base. The snow was too dry and not sticky enough so we had a hard time.

So we decided to build a baby snowman. Well, I built a baby snowman. James had fun knocking him over.

It was hard to get a picture of the two of them because he wanted to keep knocking the snowman over.

Then we went and walked around in the snow. He kept falling over and whining because he couldn't get back up. It reminded me of the movie, "The Christmas Story." His jacket definitely has some poof to it which limits his mobility. Then you add the snow pants and boots and he can barely bend.

He had snow on his gloves which he accidently rubbed on his eye. He didn't really like that either.

So we decided to come back and use the snowman base for a slide. He loved sliding down on it and would be out there all day if it weren't for nap time.

Twins

Marshall is gone to Russia visiting his parents on their mission. So James and I have been staying with my sister Katie. On Saturday I watched her youngest daughter Miriel who is only a few days younger than James. We needed to get groceries and I was a little nervous about taking them both to the store. Thanks to car carts and free samples I was able to keep them happy the whole time...well most of the time. I really don't know how Mom's with twins do it everyday. I can handle it here and there but it takes so much planning!