Met his Match

James is known for having an ear-piercing, glass shattering high pitched scream that would scare even the demons back into their fiery holes. His scream is unparalleled. Until recently. We have some neighbors that live below us, and within the last few months I've noticed that their little boy has started screaming, AND he screams alll the time JUST LIKE JAMES. In fact we've even heard them screaming back and forth to ech other through the floor. One screams, and then the other would scream back. Thei daughetr screams too, pretty high and loud, but the boys have a higher pitch. Well, unfortunately they are moving, and as they were moving their stuff last night I offered to watch their kids and discover that their little boy actually screams slightly higher than James. In fact, there were some moments fighting over toys last night when they would scream at each other.


James was startled to have some other kid scream at him, and higher and louder too. I felt like saying to him, "See how I feel." Although he wouldn't really understand even if I did. We are really going to miss our neighbors the Westovers. Not to mention we share the internet with them, so now we will be without it for awhile, again. They leave today, and I offered to watch their kids again this morning. Can't wait for James to throw another fit, especially if Gavin, the boy, even thinks about touching his precious Buzz Lightyear, or his guns. Toy guns that is. He threw this huge fit last night when he tried to play with his Buzz last night, as you can see here.


I gave Gavin the fake Buzz, a toy I got at a yard sale for $1.



James is not fooled by fake Buzz. This is probably my last post for who knows how long, 'til we get internet. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Stocking Love

I have never really thought that much about stockings. It's just something you put fun little things in the night before Christmas and then they go back in storage, right? Well, my sister-in-law is big on having these handmade special stockings that she makes. So, this year I thought, they might be kind of fun to do for our family. I went online and found these beauties!!!!!!!









Aren't they adorable? The train, the fairy, the manger. I love them all. But they are so pricey. Who wants to spend $20-30 on a stocking for heavens sake? Do you think if I got one after Christmas for next year they'd be discounted. Gosh I'm cheap, aren't I?

Bright and Early

On Saturday we were invited to join Stephen's brother Karl and company to go see a mini Santa parade at the mall, and get free breakfast that they were dishing out. Free Breakfast?! So, naturally we went. Although whoever heard of eating "Chick Fillet" for breakfast? Whatever, it was free food.

James loved the parade, he is big on parades. Despite the fact that the parade only had some guys in kilts playing bagpipes, and Santa coming in on a firetruck with all the local sports mascots greeting the kids. The minute they came in sight James started clapping and waving frantically. He wasn't a huge fan of Santa as you can see here in this pic he's trying to escape from his grasp. (How do you like the reindeer hat I got him from Micheals for the occasion?)

James was however a huge fun of the mascots. Especially the Bumble Bee the Baseball mascot. Here he is with the football mascot, and as you might be able to see he is trying to get the lion's attention.

I think he wanted the mascot to hold him. We actually know this guy he"s in our ward/church. He and Stephen serve in the Elders Quarum together and so we were able to get him to come over and take a picture with James. When we passed the Bumble Bee he said "HUG" with his arms out, but the guy was busy taking a picture with someone else and I didn't want to interupt.
On Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheeses which James loved. Stephen got almost 300 tickets playing the games. When we left James threw this huge fit, screaming etc. I got so sick of it I turned around and shouted "shut up!" Yes, I know, I'm a terrible mother. Well, guess who shouted it back to me 2 minutes later? Yep, and then Stephen started humming the hymn "Let us all speak kind words to each other." Grrrrr...
Well, I'm officially done getting James his Christmas presents, and I'm glad I did it early, a couple of the DVD's didn't work and I had to send them back. Beware cheap DVD's on Amazon. Also, beware getting cheap toys from China on Ebay. I got James some toys that ended up being about half the size I expected them to. Oh well... I'm still surprised at how far I made his Christmas money stretch getting everything on Ebay and Amazon. Although I had intended to get him some board books for Christmas (used of course, board books can be pricey) but before I knew I'd spent his money on other presents. There's always the library I guess, right?
(By the way the pictures were taken by Megan, my sister-in-law, to see more from Saturday go here )

The Oh So Fall Blouse

I made item number two on my fall fashion 2011. Actually that fall fashion 2011 I've kind of pooped out on. I had 6 things I planned on doing and I've only completed 2, and by the time I'm done with number 3 it will be December/Winter. Whatever, here is the blouse. My mother-in-law gave me the fabric, and I had the thread leftover from James' costume, so I literally spent $0 on this. How awesome is that? Totally.




On Saturday/Sunday I was totally bratting out(aka I was PMS-ing), so Stephen put up the Christmas decor early to cheer me up. The only slightly funny thing is the Thanksgiving decor is still up. Fall orange lights, pumpkins, etc., and ... a Christmas tree. Tada! Does it clash? Don't care. I'm leaving them both up.



Super sweet, he also made me choco chip cookies that were super good, despite the fact that he accidently used whole wheat flour instead of white. Unfortunately, he forgot to put them in tupperwear before they got just a little bit hard. Not as gooey, but still good. I'm pretty close to my weight lose goal, I think I'll make my pre-James weight by mid-December, but we still don't know if we can afford another kid by then. We might wait until the Army thing is done, and he's in. Which means our kids will be so far apart in age, that with the next ones we won't need a babysitter like, ever! We can just get James to tend them. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Baffled

I was on the computer, reading news at drudgereport.com as I usually do in the morning when I came across this headline "FOX's GLEE to show gay teen sex for the first time." and then the article read "Gleeks you MUST tune in for next week’s episode of Glee, called “The First Time.” It’s without a doubt one of Glee‘s best installments ever and features two popular couples on the show having sex for the first time." One of the teenage couples is heterosexual, and one homosexual, and this episode is suppose to show both of them losing their virginity. Is any one else infuriated at this? This is a show that is highly popular amoung teenagers, and it's encouraging teenage sex. This makes me soooooo mad. I hate the approach that so many people have with teenagers and the whole sex thing. "It's going to happen, so we might as well just teach them how to do it in a safe way." WHATEVER!!! When I was in high school, surprisingly their weren't that many teens that were sexually active. Their were some, but not as many as I think some adults thought. I think the ones that were active in that way in high school are the ones saying that that is just what teens are doing. Who knows, maybe it really has changed alot since I was in high school, which was 10 years ago. Most of the ones that were sexually active, at least the girls, ended up having to deal with emotions that they weren't ready for yet. They would get attached, and most of the guys were not. People never want to show the consequences of these kind of actions. Not just possible STD's, which I will talk about in a minute, but emotional problems as well. I remember watching this news report about teenage girls in Chicago a few years ago and the percentage of STD's amoung them, and that was starting amoung teenage girls at the age of 14! I was shocked. And then another news report I saw a couple years ago talked about how 1 in every 4 New Yorkers is supposed to have some form of Herpes. The percentage numbers of STD's are at a scary high, all types, not just herpes but AIDS, etc. as well. And then there is the possibility of pregnancy, which if I can barely handle parenthood as an adult, I don't think a teenage couple can handle a baby. Most of the time when they do keep the child there is a cycle that starts, they're a teenage parent, and then their kids become teenage parents, too. I saw that happen soooo often amoung kids in my Junior High and High School in Northern CA. They can't go to college with kids, so they can't get better jobs, so they live in poverty, and then their kids think, "You had sex when you were my age, so if you tell me not to, that makes you a hypocrite." And then the cycle starts. Then the people that do decide to give up their kid for adoption a lot of the time wonder if they made the right choice, they have feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, and sometimes depression even if they think or know they made the right choice it's totally and completely normal to want your child, and feel sad about the circumstances in how things turned out. Sorry about my rantings, I just hate the whole encouragement of teenage sex, and how they make it seem so natural, and how we just need to accept it. Agh! Come on people, encourage teenagers to wait until thier older. There are so many high emotions amoung teenagers, they don't need sex added to it! It really is a big deal. Sheesh. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. (I just checked out this website that said there are 12 million cases of STD's a year in the US, and there are 300 million people living in the US, so what is that 25%? and then 25% of that 12 million are teenagers. Google it.)

Halloween Night 2011

We went trick-or-treating on Halloween night with Karl, Megan, Camryn, and Tamsin. It's probably the last time, but hopefully not, that James will get to go with his cousins. We only went to about 10 houses, but it was just the right amount for us. Here are some pics that I stole from their blog, (sorry, just want the Brinton side to see them) which is why the pics turned out so well.






Hope it was great for you too.