Kelly’s Birthday Party–March 17

On Thursday, March 17, we celebrated Kelly’s birthday.  His birthday was actually on Sunday, the 20th, but we were leaving for California on Friday, so we had a little party for him Thursday night.  We had tri tip, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a yummy strawberry cake dessert that is Kelly’s favorite of his mom’s.  I didn’t quite measure up to Christie’s baking skills, but it turned out decent.  The main problem was that my pan wasn’t the right size, so when I poured the strawberry Danish dessert on the top, it all dripped off all over the counter and the fridge!  It made a mess, but still tasted good.

 

The boys of course loved having Kelly over to entertain them.  This time, he pulled them around on this blanket.  They thought it was pretty fun!

Finally, here is a picture of Davis holding James before bed.  I think it’s funny when he wants to hold James, because James seems almost as big as him!  My mom has a picture of me holding Becky that is very similar to this.  If we get our scanner working again, I’ll have to add it to this post.  It is fun to see how much James loves Landon and Davis as he gets older.

  

A Rainbow Walk

Yesterday, I printed out a sheet that had 10 activities to do in March on it.  The first activity was to go on a walk to look for a rainbow.  It said to bring a camera, and find and take a picture of an object of each color of the rainbow.  Since it wasn’t raining today (and it’s supposed to for the rest of the week), we thought we should head out and try this one today.  Landon was in charge of the pictures, so here is our “rainbow” we found on our walk to the park today.

Some Recent Happenings

On Wednesday last week, we celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday.  Landon had green eggs and ham at school, but when he came home, he wanted some more for lunch, so that is what we had.  They both really liked it and have asked to have it again for lunch.

Later that afternoon, we had some friends over, Ellie and Jared, and did some fun Dr. Seuss activities together.  We did some rhyming games, played “the cat says . . .,”  and we made some little Cat in the Hat finger puppets that of course didn’t turn out as cute as the picture in the tutorial.  We did make a cake of the cat’s hat, and luckily it turned out all right, except for the frosting, which Landon informed me was not red, but pink, when I showed him the finished product . I guess he had a valid point.  :)

I couldn’t seem to get a decent picture with everyone smiling, so I finally just settled on this one. 

We also installed a new toilet in one of our bathrooms.  It was a much-needed repair as our water bill was huge last month after the toilet kept running.  I asked the boys if they wanted to make a house or something out of the toilet box, and they decided that a dog house would be fun.  They played in it for quite awhile, and we later decorated it with shutters, flowers along the bottom, and an address.  James had fun playing with them too when they woke up, and he would stand outside and pull himself up to the window, laughing when either Landon or Davis peeked their heads out at him. 

  

That night, Kelly came over to babysit while Shane and I went to the temple.  Kelly said they both wanted to sleep in the dog house, so he had to give them each a turn to lie down in there with their blankets and pillows.  Because it’s not too big of a box, they kept pushing on the door and calling to Kelly to come and shut it for them, so after countless time of going back there, he added a little hole on the door for a door knob for them to pull the door open and shut.   We have one more toilet to install, and we already have plans to make a puppet theater out of that one.

And finally, here are some pictures of Shane and the boys reading scriptures before bed.   They always want to read on his itouch, and they take turns pushing the "bookmark” to get to our family reading spot.

This is actually one of Davis’s calmer nights.  Usually he is bouncing all over the living room while we try to get him to sit and listen and read with us.

James’s Appliance Friends

Just this last week, James has been changing so much.  He is so mobile now, crawling all the time instead of army crawling, standing up to everything, and trying to move from one object to another.  He has been moving around for awhile now, but his army crawl just wasn’t as fast as his crawl.  We now have to keep the bathroom door closed, as well as most of the other rooms down the hallway, because he crawls down the hall before we know it.  He loves to stand up to the couch if Landon and Davis are there on it, or crawl around with them where they are. 

Lately, he has also been fascinated with two appliances – the Kitchen Aid and the dishwasher.   The dishwasher is not really surprising; all three boys have had a fascination with it as soon as they could pull themselves up to things.  The Kitchen Aid is unique to James though.  Whenever James sees the Kitchen Aid when we are holding him, he starts kicking his legs and leaning towards it, trying to get over there.  Here are a few pictures of him sitting on the counter, playing with his new friend.

 

Is there anything much cuter than that smile?

 

Some fun with the dishwasher.  I love his squinty-eye smile in the last picture. 

James’s First Haircut

Tonight was haircutting night, and as James’s hair was getting a little long in the front and around his ears, I decided to add him to the long list of haircuts to do.  He was actually so good while we cut it, only moving around a little as he was curious and trying to see what I was doing on his head.  I love how serious he looks in the first two shots.  Landon was our photographer as Shane and I were both occupied with the haircut, so we have him to thank for these pictures.

 

While I was cutting Landon and Davis’s hair, James waited patiently in the living room, playing with his new favorite toy.  He learned how to pull himself up to the couch a week or so ago, and today, I just remembered that I needed to add the legs to his activity table.  He has been excited to use it all day, standing next to it and pushing all of the buttons.  Here are a few pictures pre-haircut:

      

I love his big smile in the first one, and the second pictures shows how James, like his brothers, always has his tongue out when he’s concentrating.

Pictures of the Boys

When we were in Ashland last weekend, I got to take advantage of having Stacey and her amazing photography skills around, and she once again took some fun pictures of the boys.  I mainly wanted some of James at 6 months (really 7 months since I was a little late doing this), and some of Davis at 3.  She did a great job as always (despite it being freezing cold outside, and Davis was jumping all over the place and James got a little frustrated of the cold after about 30 seconds!).  She took fun pictures that really captured the boys at this stage.  Here are a few of my favorites:
Davis – 3 years old:
             
              
James – 7 months old:
              
    
She also took a few of Landon for fun.  These are my two favorites:
          
While we were out there taking pictures, the three cousins were having so much fun together.  They continued to play outside even after we were done, and it was so cold!  They were pretty funny together (again, these great pictures are by Stacey)
                

Kallie and Davis playing dominos

Three crazy kids!

By the way, if you live in Southern Oregon, you should check out Stacey’s photography blog at:  staceyphotography.blogspot.com.  She’s amazing!

Some Sledding Video

Here are a few sledding videos of our trip to the snow.  I didn’t think to take any until the end, when Davis and Landon went down by themselves a few times while we packed up to go, but I will put them on here anyway.

Davis does a sled run down the hill.

Landon does a sled run down the hill