Go to sleep!!!!

My kiddos are crazy!!!  I put Jack to bed at 7:15 and I think he was probably asleep within about 5 minutes.  He has slept soundly until now (10:45) and hopefully he will go back to sleep quickly.  Though I am guessing that I will probably have to give him a bottle, ugh!  James is a completely different story... We did our bed time routine and I said good night and left his room at 8:40.  He has laid quietly in bed other than the 2 times he called me in because he was scared.  When Josh pulled in the driveway at 10:40, James quickly called out "Daddy!"  Josh went right in to say good night... hopefully James will finally fall asleep now!  Maybe that's why Jack is awake too... he wants to say hi to Daddy too!!!  I think this means that everyone gets to say hi to Daddy and Mommy gets to go to sleep!!!  Sounds like a great idea to me!  :-)  Good night to all!  Including my precious James and Jack hopefully.  :-)

Train Museum

Christmas Eve consisted of a trip to the Train Museum in Old Town Sacramento with Papa!!!  James and Papa had a great time exploring all the train, looking at all the pictures, and watching the video.  It was the first time we attempted to watch the 20 minute train video and James LOVED it!  And Papa did a great job of running from place to place with James instead of reading every sign (which I know he loves!)  :-)  Here are a few cute pictures from our trip!

 James and Papa off to explore the trains!!!

James loves talking on the phones by this train and could talk here all day long if I let him!

Every child's favorite part!  The Thomas trains and tables at the end!  James did a great job of sharing and taking turns which I really enjoyed seeing!

 James loved playing with Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand - The Logging Locos!  And he reminded Papa of the rule that he has to get a book when leaving the train museum; not sure where this rule came from but we are being good listeners to the rule!  :-)

 Even Jack had a great time playing with the choo-choos!  Aka standing at the train table and grabbing anyone's trains who dared get too near him!  I love his eyes in this picture!

Jack loved standing at the table just like the rest of the big kids.  When did my little baby get soo big!!!

We had a great morning at the Train Museum and can't wait to enjoy another year of trips to the Train Museum thanks to Gaga and Papa for getting us another pass for Christmas!

Christmas in Folsom

Merry Christmas (a little late!)!!!! This year we had Connie, Jill, Cion, Grandpa Dave, Grandma Dodie, Gaga, Papa, Auntie Miche, Uncle Gary, and Uncle Doug all over on Sunday, December 23rd to celebrate Christmas!  And we had a wonderful time!  I loved just hanging out with everyone for the day, opening presents, making and decorating sugar cookies, watching football, eating yummy food, and enjoying wonderful company!!!  Here are a few cute pictures... 

 Grandpa Dave with James and Jack!  There is always plenty of room on Grandpa's lap, right!?!?!?

 Opening presents!!!  What an adventure with so many people and so many presents!!!

 Look at all those presents!  I think it's safe to say that everyone got completely spoiled, especially James and Jack!!!

 Cion did a great job helping Jack with some of his presents!

 Papa and Grammie enjoying from a distance!

 Grammie, Jack, and Auntie Jill watching the present opening fun!

 I think it was all a little much for Grandpa Dave!  We were all jealous of Grandpa Dave's hearing at this point because he did an amazing job of sleeping though a house full of people!!!!

Sugar cookie fun!  Cion helped me make the sugar cookies while James was napping.  Cion, James, and Grandma Dodie had fun decorating lots of sugar cookies!  And Grammie was given the wonderful job of supervisor!!!  :-)

All in all, we had a fabulous day enjoying the holiday with so much of our family!  A huge thank you to everyone for making the trip up!

Gymnastics Winter Show

James started gymnastics again a few months ago and LOVES IT!!!!  We figure it's a great way for him to use some energy, listen to a teacher, play with other kiddos, and have fun!!!  Every winter and spring they have a special "show" week where the whole families come.  Here are a few pictures from James's special show night...

 James spinning!!!!  He was super excited this night so he was running around with all kinds of energy!!!

 James LOVES running down this long trampoline.  He does a great job of only going the "right" way and waiting his turn!  So proud of him for that!

 Jack and Daddy "rooting" for James!!!

 I love this picture!!!   My little crazy man is actually waiting patiently for something.  At least that's what I am telling myself!

 James LOVED this roll!  He would run up and LEAP onto it, roll over the top of it, and then do a summersault off the other side.

My crazy, happy boy!

 James and Daddy were having fun with the rings too!!!

 James LOVES jumping in this huge foam pit!!!

 And sliding out of it on his belly!!

At the end of gymnastics they play with a parachute.  And love it of course!!!!

James loves going to gymnastics and we love watching him have such a great time!  Jack also started gymnastics a few months ago and is loving it also!  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to Jack's night so I will have to bring it to another class so I can add pictures.  Jack also loves jumping, climbing, and playing!

Poor little Jack!

I think we are all just about healthy!!!  Finally!!!!  It feels so wonderful to have a healthy family and home after over 2 weeks of sickness.  I feel like I have been on a little whirlwind adventure on a deserted island and miss my friends!  However, no play dates until we get back from Southern California because there is no way I am risking anyone getting sick again!

I think Jack had everything the worst and thankfully the poor little guy is feeling much better!  But yesterday and today he has been fussy and not sleeping normally so I decided to bring him into the doctor for a little ear check (just to be sure!)  Ears are fine which means the poor little guy is teething!  I feel so bad for him, horribly sick and now teeth, he just needs a break!  He was so sweet as I was putting him down tonight.  I rocked him in his room as usual while giving him a bottle.  Halfway through the bottle, he pushed it away and started fussing and wanting down.  I tried the bottle again but same thing so I put him down on the ground and he crawled right over to the crib and stood up on it.  When I picked him up, he leaned on my shoulder for a second, then reached for the crib.  So sweet, he "gave me a hug" then wanted to go to bed!  I am realizing more and more each day how much bigger he is getting and how much he understands.  It's crazy how much that sneaks up on you with the second one!!!

Pictures!!!

Oh my goodness!  I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera to the computer and there are 140 new pictures!  I guess it's been a little while since posting pictures and definitely time to do so.  Here are a few just to get started... 

 My two little Christmas packages!  We were getting tons of boxes in the mail and boxes always make the best toys!

 Cute little craft idea from a friend... Ice cream cone covered in icing and James decorated it with "mini M&M ornaments".  He had a great time and it was so cute!

 We made lots and lots and lots of Christmas cookies like always this year.  James was a great helper with unwrapping the candies.  Don't tell Josh, but I think James was a better helper because fewer ended up in his belly!  Our deal was that James could eat the last one.  By the last night, James told me that we needed to unwrap chocolates after we made the dough.  My little chef in the making!

Jack loves to carry things around in his hands while crawling and thought this Time magazine cover was the greatest toy ever!  It made awesome sounds!!!

So many more cute pictures to come!  Aren't my boys the cutest ever (I am in no way biased of course!!!)

Eyebrow Help

Really quick really cute story... Jack, James, and I went for a short walk the other day to watch the trucks and tractors but unfortunately they had already left for the day.  We were in our blue stroller so the boys were facing each other.  Jack finished his bottle and was about to drop it on the ground so James grabbed it and put it under the stroller for me!  Such a great little helper!  A little while later, Jack took his hat off and started playing with it.  James grabbed it away from him which made Jack upset.  Come to find out... James was worried that Jack was going to drop it on the floor too!  Such good intentions!  Since Jack was upset, James leaned across the stroller and started poking Jack in the eye.  I got upset and told James not to poke Jack in the eye... James told me he wasn't!  Then I saw what James was doing... he was trying to rub Jack's eyebrow!!!  (When James is upset, he sucks his thumb and rubs his eyebrow.  I think he was rubbing Jacks's eyebrow because he was fussing!  Sweet boy!)

One more quick one...
A little conversation between James and I the other day...
Mommy: "I am going to go take a nap and after Mommy's nap we can go someplace special.  Where do you want to go?"
James:  "Africa!!!"
Mommy: "Oh, and why do you want to go there?"
James: "To visit George!"  (Curious George of course!)
Luckily I was able to convince him that a Mommy and James only to the grocery store would do the job.  Though he did inform me that going to the grocery store is "not a date!"

Off to bed!  Love to all!