Can You Tickle Yourself?

James loves to imitate everything we do or say, which is a lot of fun. To get a good idea of what he is doing in this video, watch the video from February 28th 2008. He does this at changing time, after Dad starts it of course.

Happy Birthday Doug

Yesterday was Doug's birthday and we had so much fun celebrating. While Doug was at work James made him two shields to go with the swords he gave him. He had a lot of fun finger painting. When Doug got home he opened his presents.

James gave his dad some foam swords that they could play with, and two shields he made. They had a sword fight.

James also gave him a sled that they will have so much fun playing with during the winter.

We went out to dinner at Applebee's, and then watched Tim play floor hockey for a little. Then it was home for (cheese)cake. We had a fun day! Happy Birthday Doug!

The Final Count

After crawling through the crawl space here is what Doug discovered:
over 50 plastic balls
around 15 domino's
and 1 racket ball

He is a very determined little boy!

James' Game

Yesterday James came up with a new game. I was just listening to him happily playing and enjoying the noises that he was making. After a while (maybe longer then I thought) I decided to go see what he was up to. Here is what I found. James standing over the vent in my room (he had taken the cover off) yelling "Ball" then actually throwing a ball down the vent. I had no idea how many he had already thrown or what would happen. He had to carry them, 2 at a time, from his ball pit in the living room, all the way down the hall to throw them in. No matter what I did I could not distract him from this "fun" game. And I worried that if I kept him from this vent he would discover one of the other 10 vents in the house and start throwing things in there. When Doug got home I told James to show him what he did, he grabbed a ball and went and did it again.

Here is what our vents normally look like:

Here is James playing the game:

Here is the vent after the game:

Here are the balls Doug was able to pull out just by sticking his arm down the vent:

The rest of the balls will have to be taken out by Doug going in the crawl space, unhooking the duct and emptying it. Luckily no balls made it to the furnace, we were worried about that.

So now we have two questions: 1. How do you keep your kids from taking the vent covers off and throwing things down there? 2. How many balls to you think he actually threw down the vent? We wont know until Doug goes in the crawl space. Any guesses?

Finally!

So we finally have Internet and no longer have to go to the public library to do anything! We have successfully moved into our new house, and it is much bigger then I thought it would be. Doug said 3 bedrooms, but there are 4. Here is Doug and James on moving day.

We love everything about it except for all the extra work! James loves all the room he has to play and even though I tried to put all in toys in the "playroom" the entire house has become his playroom. He also loves the yard and all the mud he has already found to play in, and he loves the neighbors swing set. I just wish it didn't get so cold so soon so we could spend more time outside.

One thing James discovered is Loa's bed. He spends a lot of time playing in her cage, and has to make sure he shuts himself in. The he calls for "Woa" to come and get in with him, but she never listens. She has gotten really good at ignoring him!

James also loves his "swimming pool". OK really it is just a huge bathtub, but he doesn't know that. He loves to play in there, but only if Mom or Dad gets in with him. Then it takes him awhile to get warmed up to it, spending a long time playing on Mom or Dad's lab only, but once he gets used to it he is crazy!

Here is the cat Loa hates, but James loves. I think it belonged to the people who used to live here. It sits on the back step and whenever we open the door it tries to run in the house. Loa wont go outside if it is there, so I have to pick it up and hide it, then put it back down once she runs out. Then when she wants to come in she stands a long distance away and barks until I come and "rescue" her. She is a big wimp. Loa does love all the room she has to roam, and I don't really have to put her on her leash anymore, except she doesn't listen when I call her, but it is nice to have somewhere for her to go play.

I bought this basket to put James' toys in. He dumps all his toys out and puts the basket on his head so he can walk around the house with it. This was funny because he had the basket on his head, his blanket in one hand, his other hand in his mouth and he was trying to sit in the back of his dump truck. He is so much fun!

Doug is doing well at work, he is really busy and has to work late a lot. He misses being on the Temple, but I think he will like this more the more he gets to know the job. I think it will take a lot longer for Me and Doug to adjust then it did for James and Loa. I miss Salt Lake and our friends, I also miss having neighbors, but all this extra space will be nice for now.

We have no Internet!

Soon maybe we will be able to figure out this internet thing and be able to write about all our fun adventures in Idaho. Stay tuned for more!