Happy Halloween from Buzz and Woody

Package from South Dakota

Field trip to the pumpkin patch

James had his first field trip last week to Faulkner's Pumpkin patch. He got to ride the big school bus too. Mommy had to follow behind in her car. He looked like such a big boy riding the bus! We enjoyed Faulkner's, but I wasn't able to snap many pictures because it was so busy!

Conversations with Daddy

James: I'm a boy daddy.
Todd: Yes you are.
James: You're a boy too daddy.
Todd: Yes I am.
James: Mommy is a girl daddy.
Todd: Yes she is.
James: Blake is a troublemaker daddy.
Todd: LOL!

Firefighter visit

Blake got a visit from the LS fire department on Friday. I'm so glad his teacher sent these pictures so I could see what fun they had!

New bike

We have had a handy me down bike in storage for James for quite a while, but between having to keep tabs on Blake and having a really HOT summer we hadn't pulled it out yet. We decided that it was finally time for this boy to learn to ride a bike! Now it is the only thing he wants to do! I hope we have a few more weeks of nice weather.

This video was taken his first hour of learning to ride and now he is a pro. He can ride up and down the street. More video to come.

James' first choir performance

Sunday was James first choir performance. We thought he did great and we are very proud of our singing boy!

Excited to perform

Singing his heart out!

And he nailed it!

I think he was a little star struck. He kept looking up at the tv screen. :)

Brothers stick together

Pumpkin Patch

We had lots of fun with our company this weekend! Robin, Tatiana, and Shawn all made the long drive down on Friday and stayed until Monday. It was so much fun having them around. James was so excited to see them and all day Thursday kept saying, "Shawn and Tatiana come NOW!" Saturday we visited a pumpkin patch and had lots of fun. There were so many great things to do:

pumpkin picking

Playing in the corn box.(I'm still finding corn around my house)

Shooting corn

Happy boy!

Riding the tractor train.

Doing the zipline.

I was seriously impressed that James wasn't scared at all.

Walking the corn maze

Out of all the activities James' favorite was jumping on the hay bails.

Kleptomania

Kleptomania - an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, tape.

The kleptomaniac in our house(aka JAMES) is compelled to steal puzzle pieces, rocks, coins, batteries, pretend food, and tot lock master keys. Anything that will fit in his pocket!!! A couple of weeks ago when I was picking James up from school I saw him walking with Ms Shayla from the nap room down to his morning classroom. Come to find out James was returning a bead from their craft project earlier in the day that he had put in his pocket. On several occasions I have found matchbox cars in his pocket that he has taken from school. Of course I explained that we can't take things that don't belong to us and had him return it the next school day. This was all amusing to me until Wednesday night when he confiscated my master tot lock magnet that opens all of our kitchen cabinets. I had been using our spare because I already lost one a couple of years ago so at 7:30 I headed to Babies R Us to buy a replacement. I figured I had accidentily locked my magnet in one of the cabinets. Fast forward to the next morning when I'm getting ready to do laundry. The tot lock magnet was in James' pant pockets. Now I know exactly where to look if I can't find something! I'm hoping that he will out grow this phase soon, but in the meantime watch your purses and wallets next time you are with James!!!

He's listening

I was just asked last week by our parents as teacher educator if Blake will follow simple 1 step instructions. For example, "pick up the ball" or "bring me the ball". I told her no, not yet. She said that even though he doesn't have any words yet that before 18 months we are looking more for understanding of language vs verbal languange. He must have been listening because the very next day I went to pick him up from school and was very impressed with his listening skills. Ms Julie asked Blake to take his sippy cup to the sink. Blake stands up, walks over to the sink and drops his cup. I was absolutely floored! Then, she asked him to throw his napkin in the trash can and he walked over and threw it away. I think our little man is understanding much more than we realize.

Who's coming this weekend??

Apple Pie Day 2011

Sunday was our annual apple pie making day. I think we made about 8 pies this year. I'm looking forward to cooking one this weekend when the Stemsruds come visit! As you can see from the pictures below we had lots of good help!

Snack time with Blake