Odd Order

For the last couple of weeks, Tim and I have been gradually teaching James how to drink out of a 'big boy' cup - no lid, no straw.  We are also going to be potty-training him soon . . . and at that thought, in the words of James . . "I don't WANT to go potty in the big boy potty!" . . . so, this should be interesting.  The cutest thing that he now does is order.   We have taken him to a couple of restaurants where he will order his entire meal - super cuteness!!!  Here's a one example . . . .

Waitress:  And what would you like for lunch?

James:  Grilled cheese sanmich.

Waitress:  Would you like fries with that?

James:  No. . . . FRENCH fries.

(Mom:  What do you say?)

James:  Please.

Waitress:  Sure!  What would you like to drink with that?

James:  Um . . . . . barooni and cheese (macaroni and cheese).

Mom:  No, James - what do you want to DRINK.

James:  OH . . . . .(thinking, thinking) . . . barooni and cheese.

Mom:  (to the waitress) . . . Chocolate milk, please.

We thought it was pretty funny - but, he now does this every time he orders.  We're hoping it's just a cute stage and that he doesn't actually want to drink mac and cheese!

Jameser . . . The Bruiser

Mommy let James take some pictures with her camera . . . guess who he loves the most?

HIMSELF!!!!!

(but with cheeks like those, who wouldn't?!?!)

~New Fun Thing For James' Mouth~

That's right . . . . . that's potpourri! *yuck*

Funny Catch-Up's

So, I'll catch you up - quickly - on some funny things that the boys have said or done . . . . .

James:  It took us about 2 months to get this kid to STOP eating our CHRISTMAS TREE!  If you've ever seen Elf the movie - he's exactly like Buddy when he kept stuffing cotton balls in his mouth, so quick, that his dad couldn't stop him - THAT'S James!!!  He would run up to the tree . . . stop in front of it, look at me.  I would say something like, "Don't you dare, Mister . . . ", at which point he would grab a handful of needles, yank them off of the tree and stuff them in his mouth and run!  Most of those times I got him to spit out at least half of the needles - the other times . . . well, let's just say it was good fiber!!  

Peter:  We have been having Peter sit with us during Communion service.  It is SO very important to Tim and I to raise these boys as Christ has called us to - in the Lord, loving and serving Him, His children and the world with the love of Christ and in mission to reach out to others.  I had the privilege of explaining to Peter what it meant to take Communion.  How this is very sacred.  What you need to do to be able to partake in it.  What it means, and so on.  He was so intrigued.  He noticed that the church people were taking the bread (aka crakcers) and the cup (aka juice) then bowing their heads.  Peter looked up at me with a concerned face and asked, "Since I'm not eating the crackers, do I have to close my eyes??"

James:  After going through (what looked like hundreds and hundreds) of amazing pictures of Aunt Eleanor, for her memorial service slide show - we came upon a couple of these - of TIM . . . guess who James takes after????!!!!????

 this is Tim

  this is James

(now - Tim was older than James at this point, but you just wait!! 

- we are going to get one that makes them look like twins!)

  

Peter:  He recently turned 5.  That's right - 5!!!!!!  One whole hand!  He's half way to double digits.  It frightens me and, at the same time, excites me to see what he'll be interested next.  To watch him play sports.  To see him go to school for the first time.  He's going to have a LOT of 'first time' experiences this year!  He asked for a Semi-Truck birthday party.  Do you know how hard it is to look for SEMI TRUCK THEMED PARTY SUPPLIES!?!?!  I'll tell you. . . . impossible.   I found construction truck themes, monster truck themes, fire truck themes - NO semi-truck anything!  So we made up our own version!  . . .. for starters - as in tradition in our home - and birthday boy gets to pick out which flavor of cake he would like - so, Peter picked Strawberry (which is REALLY good, for those of you who are ever looking for a good quick dessert to make!!).  So, he got his Semi-Truck - ALL eatable - Birthday Cake!

He loved it!!!  He wanted the front grill and a tire for his first piece!

 . . . . more to come!!!

We're Back!!

My, oh my . . has it been an eventful February.

And, not a super-go-lucky-fantastic February either.

It all started about 3 weeks ago. . . on a Thursday morning.

   I have a Women's Bible Study, hosted at my mother-in-law's house - every Thursday morning.  I dropped off the boys at church, for their play time, as usual.  Once I got to Dot's house, I was greeted at the door by our Pastor's wife who informed me that Aunt Eleanor (Great Aunt Eleanor) had had a heart attack and was just taken by ambulance to a local hospital.  Dave and Dot were upstairs getting things ready to take to the hospital for Aunt Eleanor.  This was a surprise to us all.  Thankfully, Dot caught this attack at the forefront and was able to get the EMT there quickly while she was still experiencing pain in her chest.   We decided to have our study as usual and to clean up/lock up for Dot.  I called Tim to let him know and we called Dave and Dot to get an update.  According to the doctor's she had a mild to moderate heart attack and she had to undergo a procedure to determine how bad the blockages were.  I told Tim to call his dad to invite them over that evening for dinner - to make sure that they eat and get out of the hospital for at least a little while.  We had a lovely dinner with them and really enjoyed our evening together.
   The next day, Friday, we got the results back from the tests and they showed more than 5 blockages, all ranging from 60% blocked to 90% blocked.  Surgery, at this point in her life, was a high risk.  At 95 years old, not many things are 'as normal'.  The other option that the doctor's gave us was to let her die peacefully and give her medications to subdue any pain.  Not caring for either of these options, Dot opted for the third option - a small balloon that would be inserted into the veins to open the arteries.  Again, there was a low risk of death due to her progressed age, but it was the "leaser of evils".
   I called Tim to let him know the update.  She was supposed to go in at 2:00PM that afternoon.  However, we waited and waited.  It was quite delayed.
   David called me at 4:00 to let me know that she still had not gone in.  So, we just continued to pray and wait.
   Tim called me around 4:15 to let me know he was on his way home and asked if I still had the phone numbers of some of the companies that had contacted him about other job openings.  I hesitated to answer knowing, very well, why he would be asking me this - now.  Sure enough, Tim was laid off (again!).  His contract ended and the company decided not to continue any contracts.  To be honest with you - Tim was quite relieved.  We have had some reservations about this specific company.  They were not at all honest with their consumers and were 'cutting corners' just because they weren't being caught in the act.  So, Tim had a real sense of the Lord's perfect timing on this one.  As hard as it was to hear that he was out of work, again, so soon - we have a peace.
(funny fact . . . this was the exact same day - February 19th - that he was laid off last year)
   We had planned on going on a date night this evening, since the boys were with my parents for a sleepover.   Tim told me that we were going as planned, though.  We desperately needed a date night, so we were really looking forward to eating at the Cheesecake Factory - despite the events of that day.
Dave called around 5:00 to let us know that they took Aunt Eleanor in for the procedure and that they would let us know as soon as she came out of the OR.
   I called some family members and our Elder and Pastor to let them know about Tim's job, so that I didn't have to put it on the prayer chain, in case it would get back to Dot.  We didn't want her to know yet.  She didn't need any more stress in her life at this point.
   We went to the restaurant and had a lovely dinner.  As soon as we were done, we packed up all of our leftovers for Dave and Dot to enjoy and went to the car to leave for the hospital.  Dave called to let us know that Aunt Eleanor made it out of the OR and was in the recovery/ICU room and gave us the room number to her room.  Tim and I really felt a sense of relief that she made it through - and we assured them that we were on our way.

10 minutes later, we received the devastating news that Aunt Eleanor's blood pressure plummeted and she had just passed away.  We were in pure shock.  We even asked "What?" as if he weren't telling the truth.  We let them know we were minutes away - then there was just silence the rest of the way there.

   We got to the hospital and just sat and grieved with Dave and Dot.
   It was a day full of sadness, shock, sorrow, grief, questions.  But, we delight in that Aunt Eleanor is with her Savior.  And that she got to hear Him calling her Home.
   This was the end to our day.  We left the hospital and went to Dave and Dot's house to sit with them.  We made them eat something and left the rest of the leftovers at their house.  We talked until midnight.  We laughed and laughed.  I think it was just what we all needed after such an eventful day.

Snowy Pictures

Snowy Day!

It was a lot of effort.  

It took a long time JUST to get ready for.  

But, totally worth the freezing temperatures.

The boys had a blast and a half today!

Mr James told me that he was 'all done' . . . so, I took him inside, pulled the boots off his little feet, rolled up his pants so that the snow wouldn't touch his skin as I took them off, took off his coat, gloves, hat and socks . . got him new pants, new socks, warmed him up - JUST IN TIME for him to ask me to go BACK OUTSIDE to play in the snow!  Ahhhh!!!!!!!

Throwing some good snowballs at Daddy.

Payback . . . 

Snowball FIGHT!!!

Making the largest Snow Angel known to man!

Playing 'Snowball' (instead of baseball!)

Peter got some really good hits in.  I was quite impressed!

Afterwards, I made everyone some nice, hot chocolate and we all 'melted' until dinner was ready.  

It was a good day for mac and cheese!!!!

Snow Storm ~ 2010

We got about a foot/foot and a half of snow in just a couple of hours .  . 

here are some pictures I took around our house and neighborhood.  

Our Trash Cans:

Our Front Tree:

The Bird Feeder:

Front Bushes:

Our Neighborhood: 

The Tree in the Backyard:

It sure was beautiful - but things were definitely slippery and dangerous out there.  Tim came home on Friday night, during the snow storm, and announced to me that he had made plans for a sitter to come over to watch James and he was going to be taking Peter and myself to see a movie.  As surprised as I was, I felt the need to remind him that there was a major snow storm going on outside.  He insisted that we get out of the house and spend some Mommy/Daddy time with Peter, and told me to trust him.  So, I did.  We left an hour of time for our (usually) 20 minute drive.  We made it there safely and, not to my surprise, were the ONLY ones in the theater.  We didn't even have to turn off our cell phones!!!  We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, the "Squeakual".  It was hilarious!!!  Peter actually laughed out loud a couple of times and later said that it was the funniest movie he'd ever seen!  We had a wonderful evening, which is exactly what we would need later on - we ended up getting the stomach bug last night, and we're all under the weather now.  God has a way with plans, doesn't He?!?

Art Work

James' Piece:

Peter's Piece:

One Year Ago . . .

Peter was 3 years old - a few months shy of 4 - loving his CARS characters and movie more than anything else in this world!  He just started enjoying to draw  . . . he used to just be in tears because his circles weren't 'round enough' or perfect enough.  It was a silly, yet frustrating thing for both of us to go through - but we both survived it, and he is amazing at art work (and most importantly, ENJOYS it!!!)

Mr. James - a little over one.  Walking, talking, trying to play with everything that big brother played with.  This was our second year dealing with his massive droolege. . and he hasn't stopped since.  He sure loves his Mommy and Daddy and Big Brother and gives big (juicy) kisses.  This was his 'perfect size'  - not too big to carry, but not to small to have to worry about taking his places.

Tim and I were almost into our 7th year of marriage.  Six years, two kids, one dog and a home was surely a lot to take care of - but totally worth every single second of it!!!  

The 'BIG' thing from this year - was my dad's deployment.  5 months - missing his birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas - his 31st Wedding Anniversary, and New's Years.  Once he was home and safe and sound - we had a big party for him, with all of his Christmas/Birthday gifts and a bunch of his favorite treats!  It was hard with him being gone for so long, and missing out on so many special moments, but amazing to have him back home!

Vikings Game

The Vikings last game - this year - 
a sad ending but a great year!!

Our Buffet:

Our #1 Brett Favre fan!

We had Aunt Caralee and Uncle David over for the 'big game' . . . I think all we did was eat!!!  We had a good time with them, though - and it was a very exciting game - overtime in fact!!!  Hoping that Brett Favre comes back next year - at least for one more season!!