Christmas Fun

We had a Merry, Merry Christmas and hope all of you did as well.

Notice the lack of ornaments on the bottom half of the tree.  No, I didn't get tired of decorating when I hit the mid point.  I got tired of the CONSTANT fight with Elsha to leave the ornaments alone.  After several broken bulbs and handmade goodies I decided our tree would be quite bare this year.

Elsha took a while to get into opening the presents.  I think her favortie part was getting the wrapping paper off and excitedly telling us she found a "BOX" as loud as she could. 

We lost Jaxson for a moment under this gift.   No worries though, he was able to conquer the "BOX" much to Elsha's delight.

Here's Elsha in all her Christmas Finery.  She pranced around with every accessory she got for a good part of the morning.

Jaxson helped make James' famous cheesecake.  He did an excellent job - it was delicious!

Where's pictures of Xander???  Well you see, he still thinks of my camera as his so everytime he saw it pointed in his direction he wanted it for himself.  We got lots of pictures of his favorite toys, christmas ornaments, the back of my head, and self portrats.  We even got a whole series of his feet as he tried to get a picture of himself jumping up and down!  He did hand over the camera so I could get a picture of him at one point - but all the settings had been changed so it turned out completely fuzzy and he reclaimed the camera before I could get it fixed to take another shot.  I think we know what Xander's getting for Christmas next year, if I can wait that long to get my camera back!

Remembering WHY We Celebrate...

Years and years ago (probably about 15 years, goodness) my family received a wonderful gift from our Home Teachers. It is amazing that such a small gesture on their part created a tradition in my home that I have continued to this day.


We were given a small White Stocking and the following poem:

'Twas the night before Christmas as I walked through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

 

The presents had been wrapped and placed under the tree

I paused, tired, excited and then giggled with glee.

 

The stockings were hanging and were beautifully filled

No one had been forgotten, the the credit card was billed.

 

As I looked at the scene with the stockings on the ledge,

I noticed one was empty, the one on the edge.

 

Where's the Spirit of Christmas - What have I done?

The children's stockings are all full, except for this one.

 

It was the stocking intended for the child of Bethlehem.

The White Stocking for Jesus that was hung up by them.

 

Of all the people at Christmas, that might be forgotten,

How could I not remember the Father's Only Begotten?

 

Only He had been left out of the festivities.

As we planned and prepared all, for our families.

 

As I pondered, I realized this just was not right!

It was His birth that was being celebrated, after this night.

 

I resolved then and there to remember the Lord,

And quickly made changes that were easy to afford.

 

I hung the White Stocking in a special place in our home.

And corrected the atmosphere to provide a more spiritual tone.

 

On Christmas morning I gathered the family together

And each of us wrote on a special piece of paper,

 

We gave Jesus a gift which we placed in the stocking.

A sincere change of heart, not there for the mocking.

 

The White Stocking hung in our home as a symbol for us

Of the true meaning of Christmas - the Savior, The Lord Jesus.

 

So take your White Stocking and hang it with pride.

Remember the Savior, put his gift inside.

 

Every year my family gathers to share our own personal gift to Christ. It is more than a resolution for yourself, it is a promise to our Savior. What will your gift to Christ be this year?

What a GREAT day!

YEAH!

Xander has been working on being a big boy all week by learning how to go potty on the potty.

Today he had an excellent day and didn't have a single accident!

He conquered his fear of the scary bowel movement!

He went on HIS own without encouragement!

Dare I say it... I think my boy is well on the road to being potty trained!

Silver Slipper Design

Are you, or is someone you know, always saying that they wish they could scrapbook all their fun pictures and stories but they just don't have the time?

Well... I have a solution for you...

I absolutely love scrapbooking and have learned that doing other people's pages excites me more than doing my own, which is hard to imagine.  So I've decided to take the plunge and start a personal & custom scrapbooking company, Silver Slipper Design.  I offer great deals on digital scrapbooking pages and free printed and bound scrapbooks (with a minimum number of pages purchased).

Why Silver Slipper?  Well because I adore Wizard of Oz and in the books her shoes were silver not ruby colored!

Spittin' Image

Lately I've been hearing James saying "She's a spittin' image of her mother" when talking about Elsha. Of course I ask why and ponder all the cuteness that is Elsha thinking....

hmmm....

Does my smile bring a tear to your eye like Elsha's?

When you come home does the excitement in my face rival her squeals of happiness of Daddy being home?

Are those gorgeous, crazy curls on Elsha's head an insight to me when I was a child - yup I had them too!?

So many ways this question could be answered that would melt my heart.

No such luck. Here's the answers I've gotten lately. (Love you hun!)

Answer 1:

"She's not a happy camper when she wakes up" I'm not saying this isn't true. We both hate waking up - such an unpleasant experience. But really? Not nice!

Answer 2:

"When I went in to make sure she had covers on the small squeak of the door knob woke her up. Why are you two both paranoid sleepers? Anyone enters your room and you're wide awake." Well there's a funny story here about me learning not to sleep through the door opening but I'll save that for another day. Let's just say my Dad enjoyed finding unique and torturous ways to wake me up on the weekends, dripping water, smelly dogs and tickling my feet were just a few of the methods he found to be quite fun.

Answer 3:

"You both have to touch EVERYTHING in the store."  Once again, not denying the truth of the statement but I'm not sure he meant it in a positive manner since he's been known to say shopping with me makes him dizzy.  :)

SO... How long do you think it will take for James to notice that some of her cute qualities come from me as well?  (Love you hun!)  

 

Oh and by the way - she has James' flat butt!  I would say "spittin' image of her father" but... (Love you hun!)

I Simply MUST Share!

I haven't posted one of my scrapbook pages in a long time because, well, I said I wouldn't.  Now I'm going to make a liar out of myself and post a scrapbook page.  I did this one today and it turned out SO CUTE I just had to give it some special attention by sharing it on my blog!

Now let's hear a collective "Ahhh"

Happy Halloween

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Homemade is YUMMY!

I learned something new about James yesterday.  He makes a KILLER pizza.  What's even more impressive is he does it all from scratch.  I wouldn't even know where to start!  Jaxson & Xander each made their own pizza. 

Xander was sure to put a mountain of cheese on his.  Everytime James would turn to help Jaxson Xander would grab another handful of cheese for his pizza.  I was actually really impressed with him for putting it on his pizza instead of just eating it.  I usually have to keep shredded cheese well out of sight and reach if it's going to last until dinner.

Jaxson piled his high with sausage and mushrooms. 

Please pardon the mess in the kitchen.  Apparently it takes every dish in the house to make a good pizza :0)

Both boys were very excited to eat their pizzas.  The big pizza for James and myself took a little longer to cook and by the time the adults had a slice Jaxson's was long gone.  He said it was the best crust and sauce he's ever had.

Xander didn't eat his too well but didn't want to share either.  It was HIS pizza and he wanted to control everything about it.  I stole a piece before we realized how possessive he was of his pizza and he begged me for it back.  At one point during dinner we had to send Xander to his room.  He almost took his pizza with him to keep it out of our reach.  We could tell he was VERY worried that we would eat more of his pizza while he was away so I did what any mean parent would do and told him I was to eat his pizza if he didn't stop whinning.  He came crashing out of his room, tearing down the hall, growling at me the whole time!  He quickly took stock of his pizza and sat down to pick at it some more. 

Despite the drama surrounding actually eating the pizza we'll be making our own pizzas on a regular basis.  The kids loved the project!

Hair Cuts

Xander got his first haircut on Friday.  Okay,  not his FIRST actual haircut - but his first haircut by someone other than myself.  Everytime it's time for him to get a trim I say I'm going to take him somewhere because I'm never happy with the results of my cuts.  Everytime I don't for whatever reason.  This time was different...

James took both Jaxson and Xander to get their hair cut at Cookie Cutters for Kids. They had so much fun stuff going on that I don't think Xander even noticed he was getting his hair cut. Check out the cute car he sat in...

Yeah, he got pretty shabby before we got his hair cut.  Oh well, I actually like his hair a little longer; more stuff for me to play with and run my fingers through :)

They had fun video games for the kids while they're waiting... Jaxson especially liked these!

Poor Jaxson couldn't sit in the cute cars... I think he was okay with it though.

Background

I'm sad....

I really wanted to use pictures of the family in the background of my blog but I think I've learned why no one else does that.  Everyone's computer is going to display your blog differently based on their settings.   Oh well - I have a lot of fun papers to play with so I'll just have to be happy with that.

Okay, so the picture doesn't really go with the post - but when else am I going to use a picture of my little boy's sad face, dirt and all?  Those teary eyes do me in every time!

Family Funny

Xander came to me and told me his nose was stuck.  What?  "Stuck mom-mom Stuck, help please."  After a few questions and semi-answers I figured out he had a booger and wanted me to take care of it.

Every mom does it to their wee-little ones.  You see a monster booger in your infant's nose and you get it because you KNOW it will come out at the most inopportune time if you don't handle it now (like getting sneezed or wiped all over your shirt).  You take the bull by the nostriles and clean it out - you can admit it, we're all friends here.

Xander knows how to blow his nose and judging by the tissues in his room he had been trying to no avail.  Then I said something I never could have imagined saying, ever.  "I'm not going to pick your nose, you are getting old enough to do it yourself."  Uhhh.... oh well, we went with it  :)

San Diego - Take 1

(Whew - this is a long post - sorry there's not more pictures)

This last weekend was Fall Break for Jaxson. I had mentioned wanting to take the kiddies to the zoo at some point. I was thinking the Hogle Zoo, just a skip and a jump away. James got a great idea on Thursday afternoon that we should go to the San Diego Zoo! What can I say, he thinks big!!

I made the reservations, packed and was all set to go. When you book your travel online the San Diego Zoo emails you tickets to print. Stupid printer was out of ink so James ran to the store for more ink. I hurriedly put the ink and and waited for the Tickets-o-Fun to pop out of my printer. Stuff came out but my printer wasn't printing anything but the pictures! After messing with it for 45 minutes I finally saved the tickets on a CD and figured we'd find somewhere to print them on the way. Off we went at about 7:45 pm. The plan was to get to Mesquite, Nevada to spend the night and head out to San Diego early in the morning. That was the plan anyways...

As we pulled off the exit in Mesquite there was a strange thunking noise in the engine compartment. Oh, no... We got our room keys and drove to our room. The engine started SQUEAKING and SPUTTERING! We found a parking space (luckily - because it was packed!) and pulled in as quickly as possible. Before James could turn the car off it DIED! DEAD! DONE! We packed everyone up to our room (of course on the 3rd floor with no elevator nearby) and got kids to bed.

So... we needed a new plan. We were determined to have fun over the weekend and make it to San Diego but things weren't looking t0o good. If you all know me you know I STRESS! I was stressed to say the least. James patiently called the rental companies in St. George because there are absolutely no rental companies in Mesquite (we looked). Turns out the St. George Marathon AND the Huntsman Games were going on and they had NO cars. Wait! One place had a car and said they'd drive out to get us - YEAH, vacation's back on. About an hour later they called to tell us the price was more than they originally told us and to top it off they would only allow 250 miles a day most of which would get eaten up with them coming to get us, us driving back to drop them off and heading back out again. After 250 miles they would charge us 25 cents a mile.. A MILE! OK - that plan was off the table and we had wasted an hour thinking we had a plan!

Needless to say there were no cars available in either Vegas or St. George. I called the San Diego hotel to cancel. I explained the situation and they refunded every dime of the hotel charges and told us we had a year to use the San Diego Zoo tickets. So lucky because we had splurged and got a 2 bedroom suite for our stay in California. I'll definitely be staying there in the future - great customer service (If you're interested it's the Residence Inn in San Diego). We called my parents and they were able to grab our trailer and come rescue us... YEAH we were going to get home! Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to get to us until that night and we'd leave the following morning for home.

What do you do with 3 kids in Mesquite? I don't really know - it's not a place I could find too much to do for 2 adults let alone little ones. Here's what we did...

We hung out in the hotel for a while.

Went to a small arcade and spent about an hour - the kids came away with LOTS of little arcade toys so that provided another hour of entertainment.

We hung out in the hotel for a while.

Went to a buffet for lunch - that would take longer right??? Nope! Kids were tired of being cooped up so we were in and out as quickly as possible.

We hung out in the hotel for a while.

Elsha needed a nap badly so I kicked the boys out of the room in the afternoon. They had fun bowling... Jaxson won 2 out of 3 games!
 


Xander - this is bowling, not soccer. Actually he did really good despite his unique way of getting the ball down the lane. If he wasn't kicking it he was throwing it from over his shoulder.

Then we tried something new and hung out in the hotel some more :)

We walked to the nearest store (Walgreens) and bought some more toys.

Oh wait this was exciting... We hung out in the hotel for a while. hee hee


WHAT AN ADVENTURE!  We had fun just hanging out together though.  Any way you make a memory is a good way in my opinion.

Now we have tickets to the San Diego Zoo that need to be used... We're thinking Christmas time but with our luck lately on vacations I'm a little hesitant. We'll be praying for no food poisoning, no obnoxious trains at night, and no car troubles on our next outing!

Can I Do It? - Yes I Can!

Here's what I should be doing

• Picking up all the kids toys that are surrounding me.
• Folding the loads of laundry that need to be done.
• Making the next week's menu & going grocery shopping (my LEAST fav chore!)
• Finishing the Halloween craft project I started this week.
• I'm sure there's more... but I'll stop there.

Here's what I am doing...

LEARNING HOW TO CREATE MY OWN BLOG BACKGROUNDS! I made the one for my craft blog a while ago and wanted to tackle my personal blog as well. This Halloween one is REALLY simple but I wanted to get it all figured out before I spent too much time making an intense background.

I need your help. I know what it looks like from my computer but I'm worried that with different screen sizes and resolutions it will look funny on other people's computers. So... does everything look right, lined up, in the right spot?

My Hands May Be Small...

But I can still wrap Daddy around my finger!

Elsha is a Daddy's girl to the extreme. To be honest, I don't think James minds. This is a piture of him getting ready to go to work. See... he's putting his shoes on... oh, he's not??? That's right, Elsha was awake and he couldn't tell her no when she wanted some attention.

The other day I learned that she had followed him into the bathroom and insisted that he hold her. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of him sitting on the pot holding her!

Another time James was holding her (a very common thing in our home) and turned his head to talk to me. Elsha firmly grabbed his chin with both hands and turned him back to face her.

According to Elsha no one and nothing shall detract from the attention she gets from Daddy!

One Day Down...

Xander started pre-school today. We've both been excited for his new class to start. He'll be going 2 days a week (instead of one) and the best part - THERE'S BUS SERVICE from my front door to the school and back again. YEAH!

I asked James yesterday if he thought it was weird that I'm not emotional about the kids going to school. In fact I'm more than a little excited for both to eventually be in school and am thinking of starting an advent calendar of some sort. I shall title it "Days To Mom's Sanity." James assured me I'm normal and everyone that gets emotional are the weirdos. Well that did it - I was fated to get emotional over something.

We got ready this morning, had a big breakfast and talked about what was going to happen today. New school, new teachers, new routines, first time on a bus (and without parents to boot). It was going to be a big day. Xander was happily singing "School Today, School Today" while running around the house and trying to convince me we needed to leave NOW. I decided to pass on the bus ride to school for the first day and would take him myself (all planned ahead with the driver of course). We arrived at school about 10 minutes early - perfect timing if I do say so myself. I talked to the teachers and said goodbye to Xander. I got a little wave as he ran in the classroom - obviously not going to miss me!

On my way back to the car I stopped to talk to the bus driver to confirm Xander's trip home and that he'd be being picked up on Monday. The teacher told me it would be a different driver & bus for the trip home. WHAT!?! I told his teachers to be sure he would get on bus #64 and now there won't be a bus #64?!? The bus driver went on to tell me that he didn't know who the other bus driver was or what bus number it would be. Luckily, one of the teachers was outside with me and said she'd have it all figured out before the kids got done with school. I looked at her and whole heartedly said "You get my boy home safe" She smiled and casually said "We'll get him home." That's when it hit me! I felt the emotions building up in my throat and I couldn't talk. It was part awe that my son is growing up so fast but mostly fear that I wouldn't be bringing him home. This is a whole new experience for me - trusting strangers with my kid and on the road no less!

Class got out at 1:30 - I figured the bus ride would take up to an hour. How many horrible moms put their toddlers on a bus? Not many probably - he'd be home in no time. 2:00 rolled around and I started getting ancy. I wanted to get a picture of Xander coming out of the school bus so I had my camera ready and was on watch. 2:30 came and went and I was quickly turning into PANIC-MOM. I had the front door open because I wouldn't want to waste precious seconds opening the door when he got home. I was sitting, on the floor, looking out our glass door waiting and waiting and waiting. It was HORRID and the longest 15 minutes of my life. Finally, I could see the promised bus coming. I went outside and started down the walk. The bus stopped in front of my house and then started up the road! WAIT! The bus backed up when she saw a crazy woman in the mirror waving. I climbed on board to get Xander - he was the last one on the bus - and completely forgot to get a picture! ARGH!

Keeping Me Guessing

I came in from weeding and I could tell something was different but I wasn't sure what it was. It took me a moment to pin it down but I did... Elsha was sitting on the couch with Daddy watching football (yes she likes football - crazy girl), Jaxson was downstairs watching a show - I could hear the TV going. Where was Xander? It was just too quiet!

"Honey, where's Xander?"

"Um, last I checked he was in his room but the door was closed so I didn't bother him."

"HUH? You're his DAD you're SUPPOSED to bother him."

"He sounded like he was getting in bed - I think he wanted to go to sleep."

"HUH? Xander doesn't do naps. It's a fight each time."

I went to check on him.

I slowly opened the door just in case he was asleep - but really I was just trying to be sneaky so I could catch him red handed getting into whatever trouble he was getting into.

The lights were off.

He was in bed.

His was snuggled under his favorite blanket.

SLEEPING!

(OK! I can't get the picture to load in the right direction and it's really, REALLY frustrating! I'm done messing with it so you get to see it sideways - sorry)

See that green strap under his blanket. He got a new backpack for school today and wouldn't take it off, apparently not even to sleep!

Idaho and Yellowstone 2009

I've been waiting to post about our trip to Idaho and Yellowstone until I get some pictures that are on my Dad's camera. I keep forgetting so I'll just post these for now and when I get their pictures I'll share them too...

Last weekend we went to Idaho to visit family. It was the first time Elsha was going to be able to meet her Great Grandma Decker and her Great Aunt Liz. We had dinner with them on Friday night at one of Jaxson's favorite restraunts - Golden Corral. After dinner we went to their house to let the kids run around and destroy as much of the house as possible. Okay, not really destroy... maybe explore is a better word - and explore they did!

The next morning we went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Kidd. I'm VERY frustrated I didn't get more pictures because every time I pulled out the camera Xander decided HE needed to be the one taking the shots. Needless to say I have A LOT of pictures of odd things - but not many of people... grrr. We had a yummy breakfast in the backyard and enjoyed seeing them again.

After that we met my parents at Bear World. Neither of us knew we were both planning a trip to Bear World and Yellowstone until about a day before we left. It was fun having them there. If you haven't been to Bear World I highly recommend it! Most of the pictures from Bear World are on my Dad's camera so I can't share all the fun right now but they have it set up so you can drive through the enclosure for the mountain goats, deer, elk (they have a white elk!) and the BEARS! Bears, bears and more bears all around the vehicle! There are so many and they come right up to the car if you stop too long! They also have 2 wolves (that I could see) roaming around.

The petting zoo was a blast. Xander loved petting the birds, goats and deer. So cute! (I'll share pictures of this soon). Elsha wanted nothing to do with touching the animals but enjoyed the time with her Daddy and looking at all the critters from a far. Jaxson cracked me up - he didn't want to touch the animals at all. Then he went around a bush and was petting a baby deer just out of sight of the camera. I'm not sure if he didn't want anyone to take a picture of him petting the animals or if he just wanted to conqure the fear of touching a wild animal off on his own. Either way I STILL SAW and it was adorable!

"Yeah! Grandma & Grandpa are here!"

There are a handful of rides that are all included with the price of admission. I expected Xander to go from ride to ride for hours that day. He rode the first ride - a car ride - with Grandma and didn't want to ride any more! The ride looked fairly calm and it would've been (we think) but it was extra bouncy with an adult in the backseat. Xander FREAKED out when the ride started doing more than around and around. The bounce was just too much. I'm glad Grandma rode the ride with him though. Xander probably would've crawled out - moving ride or not.

The only other ride we were able to get Xander to ride was the train - I guess it looked calm and safe enough.

Shopping in West Yellowstone was fun UNTIL Xander broke a ceramic stage coach that we needed to then go buy. That pretty much ended our shopping for the day.

Yellowstone was exhibiting some buffalo artwork. We eached picked our favorite and took a picture with it. I tried asking Xander which was his favorite but he didn't really care as long as he could run around and through their legs they were fine with him.

WAIT! Where's the pictures from YELLOWSTONE. Well you see... We went to a BBQ place Saturday night for dinner and James got food poisioning. He was up all night spending time in the bathroom at our cabin. I drove through Yellowstone with James asleep in the passenger seat, Jaxson and Elsha both asleep behind us and Xander in the third row intently watching Blues Clues. I wanted to get a picture of all this fun so bad but the camera was in the center console and James was sleeping on it. Maybe we'll actually visit Yellowstone on our next trip to Yellowstone.

Little Photographer in Training

One of Xander's favorite toys is my camera. I nearly have a heart attack everytime I see him playing with it. After about 6 months of constant fighting with him to leave it alone I finally decided to just show him how to use it and teach him to be extra careful. I also figured if he did break it I would be able to convince James to buy me my dream camera somehow - so why not Xander, PLAY AWAY!

We had a play date with a good friend yesterday. Xander had a blast taking pictures of everyone. Here are some of his best - I don't want to bore you with pictures of shoes, toys, and his swim shorts :)

Mind you he is just barely 3 - so it is VERY likely I will be begging James for a new camera soon. He did very well yesterday with the camera until he was done and then chucked it at me from across the room - I caught it - whew!

hmmm... apparently I was falling asleep or something... But that's the model's fault not the photographers...

I Shouldn't Complain

The other morning we woke up to an invasion of ants. Creepy, crawly little black ants by the millions! Upon investigation I found the dry cereal Xander was snacking on the night before crunched up into little crumbs at the edge of our family room. Xander thought the ants were gross and continued to yell out "GROSS ants" until I got everything cleaned up.

Now, Xander absolutely LOVES using the sweeper vac we have. Any little crumb on the floor and out it comes. Often times he is talking about no more ants while vacuuming.

I really shouldn't complain but when the sweeper vac is going ALL DAY LONG it gets a little old. I guess there are more annoying things he could be doing so I'll just be grateful my kid likes a clean house and is willing to take on some of the work himself.

The CURL-hawk

We have the strangest phenomenon in our house. Elsha’s hair style changes after every nap. Sometimes she wakes up with a head full of tight curls, other times it’s wavy and looks much longer, sometimes it’s loose big curls. My favorite is when she wakes up with the CURL-hawk. The top and back get SUPER curly and poofy while the sides stay close to her head. LOVE IT!

New Blog

I've created a new blog to focus on my different creative endeavors. Feel free to check it out
http://satisfyingmycreativebeast.blogspot.com/

YEAH! I'm THREE Today!

Happy Birthday Xander!

I'll Do Better!

I can't even count how many times my journal reads "I'll do better." I make the promise in nearly every entry! I'm thinking that blogging is no different, though I had hoped it would be.

I won't guarantee I'll catch up on all the stuff I've missed sharing over the past month but I WILL TRY to do better going forward. Deal?

Today was a happy and sad day.

It was Xander's last visit with his speech therapist, Kimber. She has been coming to our home for the last 11 months and has helped Xander and me immensely. I don't know if we can ever repay her for her help and friendship over the last year. Yesterday, I had explained to Xander that Kimber's last visit was today so he helped me pick out a plant and card to give her. I'm not sure if he understood but I know he'll miss her. "Kimmer" is the first name he used outside of immediate family. I was VERY proud of myself for not crying as Kimber was leaving today, but I'm tearing up now so a change of subject is in order...

Later, the kids and I went to Seven Canyons with my long time friend and her beautiful daughters. The kids had SO much fun getting wet. I wasn't planning on letting Elsha get in the pool because her skin is so sensitive but she was persistent and I was glad I brought her suit just in case. She LOVED it! She sat in the flowing water and watched the leaves float past her for forever. Xander and Jennifer (4 years old) were the best of buds and were practically attached at the hip. They ran, splashed, held their heads under the water, and had a blast together. It was especially cute when they were sitting on top of a tall rock together, Xander behind Jennifer with his legs on either side of her. I was SO SAD my camera's batteries had died so I couldn't get a picture of them. (The cutie in the pictures with Xander and Elsha is Jennifer - I really love that sasspot!)

Later that night we were in the backyard and Elsha made a new friend. We shall call him Bumble and I hope he doesn't come back! Elsha saw a bee flying around and held out her finger. Bumble landed on her finger and started circling around on her hand - all the while Elsha was smiling. I, on the other hand, was running to shoo this new friend away. You see, James is incredibly allergic to bee stings and has had some very bad reactions. There are few things he fears in life and bees are at the top of his list. I can only imagine how much trouble I would've been in if I had let Bumble sting Elsha because it was CUTE to see her playing with a bee. Oh, how I wish it were a butterfly...

Fun with School Friends

School may be out for the summer but our local development center still does summer activities for the kids. Xander had a lot of fun with his classmates and teachers playing in the water, swinging, sliding, blowing bubbles and running, running, RUNNING! Did I mention how much running he did? I was so busy trying to keep up with the stroller that I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would've liked. I'm glad he had fun!

This was Xander's first time to swing on the big kid swings and he LOVED it!

There's Elsha hanging out in the stroller in the background. Poor girl wants to run around with Xander but just isn't there yet. She was content with her drink and crackers though.

BUBBLES!

This is Xander's Preschool Teacher. We looked for Kimber, his speech therapist, but weren't able to find her. Xander even called out "Kimmer" when I told him she was there. Xander loves playing with her.