The Bowling Family

Lots of New Posts

2011-01-08T11:39:00.001-05:00

Just spent over 2 hours putting up new pictures. Make sure to click "older posts" to see them all.

Tree Skirt

2011-01-08T11:37:00.001-05:00

A few years ago I posted a picture of Megan wearing the tree skirt. She still loves to put that thing on. This year, while taking down the decorations, she put it on James and gave him some candy cane earrings.

New Years Eve

2011-01-08T11:34:00.001-05:00

Megan stayed up until midnight New Year's Eve. James didn't make it. We spent the entire afternoon buying a new car for William and he conked out on the way home. I broke out the champagne glasses and gave Megan some sparkling apple cider.

The different sleeping patterns of James

2011-01-08T11:29:00.002-05:00

James does not like sleeping in his own bed. He much prefers to fall asleep on the couch and then come get in bed with us in the middle of the night. My parents believe he needs a full size bed to get him into his own room. But, there is no room for a full sized bed right now because of all the train sets. They have seriously taken over the house.

Sometimes James will get his blanket and curl up with Daddy at the computer.

He was cold and put the blanket over his head and fell asleep. When William tried to move it, he would wake up, get mad and put it back over his head.

Bowling Christmas

2011-01-08T11:21:00.002-05:00

We celebrated Christmas with the Bowlings/Clarks at Aunt Martha's house Christmas afternoon.

James opening yet another train set from Martha and Scott. He loved Scott's train around the tree and now he has one of his own.

Megan opening her gift card to Justice from Aunt Martha and Scott. She loves that store.

Uncle Gary and Mary gave Megan the official Justin Bieber book.

James in train heaven.

Christmas

2011-01-08T11:06:00.003-05:00

Megan's loot from Santa

James' loot from Santa

Waiting to come out. James slept with his train and ding dings that he opened the night before.

Stinky the Garbage Truck was a popular item among the boys in James' class. They had their first Show and Tell since Christmas this past week and three Stinkys were there (James was one of them).

James got what he asked for from Santa. A watch, a wallet and a mustache.

Megan with her new boots from me and her new coat from Molly & Kevin.

Walking her new dog.

Burt Reynolds was at my house? Oh, that's just Uncle Matt. :)

Cookies and Milk

2011-01-08T11:03:00.003-05:00

Megan is mixing the chocolate in Santa's milk and James is putting the cookies out.

I guess James had to inspect Megan's work.

Christmas Eve

2011-01-08T10:56:00.002-05:00

Opening one present at Grandma and Granddaddy's on Christmas Eve.

Megan got the U Draw for the Wii. Still haven't figured that thing out. Guess I'm going to have to read the instructions, as much as I hate doing that.

One of many trains sets to come this holiday.

The ding dings go down when the train goes by. As James said, "This is a good present!"

Uncle Matt is great to have around at holidays and birthdays. He'll put all the stuff together for us. :)

Goofing off with Daddy

2011-01-08T10:54:00.001-05:00

William wanted a picture of this before the kids got too big to do it anymore (or he got too old).

Santas on Firetrucks

2011-01-08T10:48:00.002-05:00

James and Granddaddy waiting on Santa to come by. Megan and I could not go because we were in Greensboro at the Justin Bieber concert.

Mom didn't think she got good pictures, but she got a pretty good one of Santa. She said she told James when he left he was going back to the North Pole and James said, "no, he's going back to the mall."

Santa that comes by our neighborhood. He took a different route this year and we had to track him down.

Christmas Cookies

2011-01-08T10:36:00.003-05:00

Dickens of a Christmas

2011-01-08T10:33:00.002-05:00

As part of Megan's dance ensemble teams this year, she performed at Dickens of a Christmas in Roanoke. James ended up getting sick while I was getting her ready, so Grandma stayed and watched him and missed seeing Megan perform again (he got sick at her first competition too). She has another competition coming up next month so let's hope James stays well so Grandma can actually see Megan dance this time.

Christmas Card Reject

2011-01-08T10:21:00.002-05:00

I had planned on taking the photo for the Christmas cards myself this year since I have a fancy new camera. So I took the kids around the house and posed them different ways trying to figure out how I wanted them positioned. I ended up getting some sort of stomach bug and we had to get portraits done at the church for the new directory so I ended up getting the cards through them. But Megan loved this picture because of James and his crazy eyes.

James Preschool Thanksgiving Program

2011-01-08T10:18:00.001-05:00

James' preschool had a Thanksgiving program and dinner. James would sing the songs around the house, but at the program, he just moved his mouth and didn't sing anything.

James and his buddy Michael.

Recliner

2011-01-08T10:15:00.002-05:00

While visiting Lana and Lyn, James spotted this recliner in Lyn's basement. Lyn asked him if he wanted it and James said, "Put it in the car!" Typical man fell asleep in it while watching tv. The only thing missing is his hand in his pants like Al Bundy.

James 4th Birthday

2011-01-08T10:00:00.002-05:00

After changing his mind several times, James decided on a Spongebob cake for his birthday. He also thought Jesus would like a Spongebob cake at Christmas for his birthday.

He wanted Thomas toys, so that's what I got him. We let him open this while we were waiting for Uncle Matt to get there. Daddy had to work so he didn't get to come. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gary were in town and they brought him some Thomas trains to go with his new toys.

Singing Happy Birthday. You may notice Megan is not wearing her glasses now. She got a contact for her bad eye. I believe she is the second youngest person at her eye doctor's to get contacts. She was very excited until she learned how hard they were to take care of. But she's a pro now and gets it in and out very easily.

Toy Story toys from Uncle Matt.

Toy Story 3 movie from Megan

A train signal and "ding dings" from Granddaddy. James loves signals and ding dings.

Halloween

2011-01-08T09:55:00.003-05:00

I got Megan's costume at Target last year after Halloween when they had everything 90% off. I paid $1 for it.

Mom's Halloween Dinner

2011-01-08T09:50:00.002-05:00

We eat dinner with my parents every Sunday evening and since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, my mom made a special Halloween-themed dinner. We got the kids ready over there so my parents could see them in their costumes and then headed out to trick or treat.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-01-08T09:44:00.002-05:00

Bitty Tap

2010-10-31T11:51:00.007-04:00

Bitty Ballet

2010-10-31T11:47:00.005-04:00

Megan is on two dance ensemble teams this year. She is on the Bitty Ballet team and the Bitty Tap team. Their first competition is in a few weeks and these are pictures from her dress rehearsal yesterday.

Dora Jeep

2010-10-31T11:44:00.002-04:00

James riding around in Megan's old Dora "tractor". Megan always called it a tractor, but James is quick to correct you if you call it that. He enjoys riding in it and has already spotted a Lightning McQueen one in a Toys R Us book and told William we could buy that for him.

Megan's Birthday

2010-10-31T11:36:00.007-04:00

Megan wasn't feeling very well on her birthday this year. She stayed home from school (which she was not happy about) because she just wasn't feeling right and just wasn't acting right. I took her to the doctor the next day and she had strep. :(

Fancy new shirt from Justice

Opening up her Justin Bieber concert tickets. The concert is in December and she is so excited.

New Posts

2010-10-30T21:55:00.001-04:00

I have uploaded a ton of things tonight. Make sure you click "older posts" at the bottom of the page to see everything.

I'll add more tomorrow. I have just ran out of steam for tonight.

James First Day of Preschool

2010-10-30T21:50:00.003-04:00

James has started preschool two days a week. He loves it. He cried one time for about 30 seconds. Most days he's pushing me out the door telling me to go to work.

Railroad Stuff

2010-10-30T21:39:00.006-04:00

James loves to go to the train museum and to look at train crossing signals. And I'm sure my dad loves to have someone to go look at that stuff with who doesn't complain the whole time.

Lucy

2010-10-30T21:36:00.000-04:00

I just think this picture is funny. She's still a mean old cat.

Nikki's Wedding #2

2010-10-30T21:31:00.003-04:00

Nikki's Wedding

2010-10-30T21:07:00.006-04:00

Drive In

2010-10-30T21:03:00.003-04:00

During the summer we like to take the kids to a drive in not too far from home. Its super cheap and we don't have to worry about James bothering anybody during the movie. This particular night we were seeing Toy Story 3.

Beach #4

2010-10-30T20:57:00.002-04:00

Our last evening at the beach. The kids and I went to play miniature golf.

James' version of playing. Hitting the ball once, then picking up the ball and dropping it into the hole. I didn't mind though because it made the game go a whole lot faster.

Beach #3

2010-10-30T20:53:00.000-04:00

Beach #2

2010-10-30T20:46:00.002-04:00

Krista's fake tattoo

Megan getting her hair wrapped. This had to have hurt, yet she sat there and didn't make a peep. She sees me from across the room with a hairbrush in my hand and she starts screaming.

Finished product. While they said it could last a year, I let her keep it in until the day school started and then it came out. It was a little annoying to deal with.

Ready to go to the beach.

Beach #1

2010-10-30T20:40:00.002-04:00

Fourth of July at the beach. I even got Krista to put on the headband.

James conked out watching the fireworks. Dad had to prop his head up so he could snooze.

Megan's swimming improved so much at the beach I cancelled her swim lessons when we got back home. And it was all due to my dad's awesome teaching.

View from the top deck.

Junie B. Jones

2010-10-30T20:36:00.003-04:00

My mom got tickets to see a local production of Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business. Megan loves the Junie B. books and enjoyed the play. I can't believe how long her hair was here too.

Dance Recital May 2010

2010-10-30T20:32:00.002-04:00

Megan finished up her Combo classes last May. She was taking a ballet/tap combined class. Her recital dance this year was a tap dance to "Almost There" from the Princess and the Frog. I have a video of the rehearsal, but it is really poor quality.

Megan's First Communion

2010-05-17T08:04:00.004-04:00

Megan received her First Holy Communion on May 16th.

Walking in...

Megan was chosen to read the second reading and she did awesome!

Waiting to receive communion...

With Molly & Emily...

We celebrated after church with a brunch at Hotel Roanoke.

Megan and Krista

Maybe it was better when we didn't try to get James to smile.

Of course we can't go downtown without letting James see the trains.

Who let the dogs out?

2010-04-17T18:12:00.000-04:00

Easter 2010

2010-04-16T17:52:00.000-04:00

Easter Bunny loot

James got a new "racey car" toy.

Megan got a new game for the Wii.

I actually got a picture of James smiling!!

Krista took some pictures with my camera. I have to find out from her how she took this in black and white. Or I could just read the manual I guess.

Grandma and Granddaddy got James a Thomas set that had a "peace sign" in it. A peace sign is what James calls railroad crossing signs. The set came with a Thomas, a baggage car and an oval track, but James was most excited about the peace sign.

I know my mom doesn't like her picture taken, let alone put on a blog for all the world to see, but I love this picture of her and Megan laughing. Megan had wanted to buy a Diary of a Wimpy kid book the week before, but my mom talked her out of it (because she had already bought it for her for Easter). When the Easter Bunny didn't bring it, Megan told Grandma that she was dead wrong about her getting the book for Easter. They are laughing about Megan being the one that was dead wrong after all. :)

Fishing

2010-04-15T17:46:00.000-04:00

William took Megan on her first fishing trip April 3rd.

Practicing in the front yard so she wouldn't toss the whole pole into the pond.

Ready to fish with her new Barbie fishing pole and sunglasses.

First cast of the day and Megan's first fish. William couldn't get a better picture of them together because Megan didn't want to touch the fish and it was flopping around too much for her to hold it up higher. :)

Last cast of the day and Megan's second fish. Daddy caught two fish that day too.

Egg Dying

2010-04-14T17:43:00.000-04:00

Bunny Cake

2010-04-14T17:35:00.000-04:00

Decorating the traditional Easter Bunny cake at Grandma and Granddaddy's.

Megan decided to give the bunny a booger this year. Nothing but class for this family.

Father Daughter Dance

2010-04-13T17:31:00.000-04:00

William escorted Megan to the Father Daughter Dance at her school this February. And it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. They danced and the school had games for the kids to play.

Second Snow

2010-04-13T17:25:00.001-04:00

William was staying with his parents during our second big snow of the season so the kids and I went to stay with my parents during the storm.

On top of the "mountain".

Back inside trying on Granddaddy's stuff.

There are no pictures from our third big snow. By this time I was sick of it all and just wanted it to go away.

Ice Skating

2010-04-12T17:13:00.003-04:00

Megan went ice skating for the first time with her Brownie troop. She went from hugging the wall...

To skating with her leader...

To being confident enough to skate on her own. Her success in ice skating has helped her confidence in rollerblading as well.

Spongebob Christmas Song

2010-04-11T17:12:00.000-04:00

James and Megan sang this song all Christmas.

Here is the song from the Spongebob video in case you can't understand James.

Christmas (3)

2010-04-10T17:01:00.000-04:00

Megan inherited from me the ability to be suckered into wanting anything she sees in an infomercial and was asking for a Snuggie, so I got her one for Christmas.

One of the consequences of receiving said Snuggie was that I had to get a picture of her "raising the roof" in it.

The dinosaur is attacking the train.

James white mouth after eating a powdered donut.

Christmas (2)

2010-04-09T16:51:00.000-04:00

Setting out the cookies and milk.

Jailed, waiting for me to set up all the cameras. First time they have gotten up before 8am on Christmas. James was sleeping with Megan and he normally comes down and gets in bed with us, but couldn't because of the gate this night. That was probably why they got up, rather than the excitement of Christmas morning. I don't know what's wrong with these kids. Matt and I were always up at the crack of dawn on Christmas. I don't have any pictures of them passed out amongst the presents because they are always well rested.

Santa's loot. (The potty was not a gift from Santa. Obviously I didn't think before I took this picture.)

Christmas

2010-04-08T16:34:00.000-04:00

Our Elf on a Shelf "Charlie"

James understood Christmas and Santa a lot more this year and wasn't so scared of Santa. He didn't try to run away from him when he came by the neighborhood on the firetruck this year.

Helping himself to candy.

Opening one present at Grandma and Granddaddy's on Christmas Eve.

First Snow - December 2009

2010-04-07T16:26:00.000-04:00

Megan's Christmas Recital

2010-04-06T16:18:00.003-04:00

I'm putting the video of Megan's Christmas show on here, but it is terrible quality. For some reason they did not dim the lights in the auditorium during the recital and the glare off the lights messed up the video. Megan starts off on the end of the middle row. She moves to the front row and then back again.

James 3rd birthday

2010-04-05T15:20:00.003-04:00

These are signs Megan made to decorate for James birthday.

Christmas Card Photos

2009-12-10T07:59:00.000-05:00

Go to the Maggi Two blog (there is a link on the right hand side of the page) to view other pictures from the day Shannon came out to take the kids photos for the Christmas card.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

James going after Megan's birthday brownies

2009-11-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

James did not being told he had to wait until after dinner for Megan's birthday brownies at Grandma & Granddaddy's house.

Megan's Birthday

2009-11-01T22:44:00.003-05:00

Here are some goofy pictures of Megan from her slumber party. I have lots more of the other girls, but I don't like putting other people's kids on here without their permission, so you just get to see their photography skills instead.

Cheerleading Video

2009-11-01T22:43:00.002-05:00

Cheerleading

2009-09-16T17:55:00.002-04:00

James decided he didn't need a shirt on during the game.

I took a video, but held the camera the wrong way. I will take another this weekend and get it posted.

First Day of Second Grade

2009-09-16T17:50:00.001-04:00

Chocolate World

2009-09-16T12:13:00.002-04:00

James was more interested in eating the Hershey Kisses than boxing them up. :)

Pennsylvania

2009-09-15T20:56:00.004-04:00

One of my all-time favorite pictures. You just can't help but smile at that guy.

James with Aunt Jenny & Uncle Ken. He is very sensitive to sunlight, which is why he's trying to hide his little face.

Megan with Aunt Jenny & Uncle Ken

The organ is always a favorite activity.

Krista enjoying her dirt cake and gummy worms.

Toothless Megan

2009-08-02T17:13:00.001-04:00

Megan lost both front teeth within a week of each other (after months of them being loose).

Chuck E. Cheese

2009-08-02T17:02:00.002-04:00

James earned a trip to Chuck E. Cheese as a reward for potty training. We kind of have the training on hold for a couple more weeks until we are going to have a chunk of time to really dedicate to it.

My dad's first (and probably last) trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

4th of July

2009-08-02T16:39:00.004-04:00

Mom's lovely cake.

My patriotic brownies.

Setting off "snake" firecrackers. Not much excitement to those things. James kept wanting to touch the fire though.

I have some good pictures of Mom with the glow sticks but she has already threatened me if I put them on here.

Watching fireworks. James said "Wow, look at that!" about a billion times.

Staycation - Putt Putt

2009-08-02T16:18:00.004-04:00

Second night was Putt Putt. We made the mistake of taking the kids to Target beforehand and we bought James a copy of the movie Cars. He didn't behave very well at Putt Putt because he was desperate to get home and watch his movie. It has been playing non-stop ever since. I think I may have it memorized.

Staycation - Bowling

2009-08-02T16:05:00.002-04:00

Since we did not have the funds to take a vacation, we used William's mandatory week of vacation at the end of June to do some things with the kids locally. We went to the pool in the morning and did activities at night. First up was bowling. I tried to take a picture of how pathetic our scores were, but it didn't come out. James won the second game we played (although he did have an advantage with the ramp). :)

Daddy's Truck

2009-08-02T15:55:00.000-04:00

I don't know what it is about Daddy's hot, dirty, beat up, old truck but both Megan and James love riding in it.

End of Daisies

2009-08-02T15:46:00.002-04:00

Megan is finished with Daisy Girl Scouts. She has bridged to Brownies now. They visited the art museum back in May and then had their bridging ceremony in June.

Dance Video

2009-05-29T08:33:00.005-04:00

This was taken at the dress rehearsal. Megan is the first one that enters the stage. I was right up next to the stage and could not fit everyone in the shot. I backed up and taped the second time with the regular video camera. If you want to catch the live show, its this Saturday at noon at the civic center.

Dress Rehearsal Pictures

2009-05-29T08:22:00.002-04:00

Easter

2009-05-29T07:43:00.005-04:00

James' Haircut

2009-05-25T16:00:00.002-04:00

James does not like getting his hair cut, to put it mildly. He screams and moves his head wildly, making it very hard to get a decent cut. Plus his hair would grow so fast, he would end up needing another hair cut in just a couple weeks. So William and I decided we were going to try to buzz cut him ourselves. Apparently we weren't moving fast enough with the hair cut, so my dad decided to take matters into his own hands. Of course James acted the same way that he did at the salon. Dad got most of it cut off though, but left huge chunks of hair long. My mom held him down about an hour later and I finished the job.

See how much hair he used to have...

After Dad's cut. I think the way the sun was on him, you can't really see how terrible his hair looked with the clumps of longer hair all over his head.

After...

As short as we cut it, he already is looking like he needs to be buzzed again.

Roller Skating

2009-05-25T15:56:00.001-04:00

Megan has been skating a lot this year. She goes almost every month with her school and this day she went with her Daisy troop. We're still working on not hanging onto the wall for dear life. She does well on the carpeted areas though. :)

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-05-25T15:53:00.001-04:00

Easter egg hunt at Megan's school. It was cold and windy that day, which I think is James' favorite kind of weather. He was so excited. I even caught him mid-jump. The actual egg hunt was a bust though. Between the two of them, I think they got 3 eggs. Well Megan got all three and James got none. We will not be doing that again. We will stick to our own private Easter egg hunts.

Big Boy Bed

2009-05-25T15:50:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of James' new big boy bed. The crib is still in the room too and still needs to be used by my mom and myself sometimes. I guess he knows we are pushovers and he can get away with getting out of the toddler bed with us. William doesn't have this problem. He goes to bed without a whimper most times for him.

2009-05-25T15:46:00.002-04:00

It's getting harder and harder to get James to nap and this is usually what results on days where he refuses to nap.

This was the view coming up the stairs. I could see him asleep from under the pack and play (which serves as our gate for the stairs).

Playing Outside

2009-05-25T15:40:00.003-04:00

These were taken less than a week later from the snow. We went from a couple of inches of snow on the ground to 70 degree temps.

Snow Day

2009-05-25T15:35:00.002-04:00

Here are some new pictures. Finally.

These are from our one dinky little snow of the winter. I believe this was late February/early March.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-02-07T12:25:00.002-05:00

Today is my mom's birthday. We all love her very much. I didn't have a whole lot of pictures to choose from because she hates getting her picture taken as much as I do. I had to borrow this from the beach collection. :)

Jesus Loves Me

2009-01-27T23:49:00.001-05:00

Christmas Day

2009-01-27T22:42:00.004-05:00

Yeah! No more Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We were totally prepared to use Megan's tree again this year, but I found a nice 7.5' pre-lit tree at Home Depot for $50 on Black Friday. This was my big deal of the season. Totally made getting up at 3 am worth it. :)

Megan never gets up early on Christmas (I have a feeling James will be different once he's old enough to understand what's going on). They didn't get up until about 8, so it gave my parents plenty of time to get over to the house to watch them come out and see what Santa brought them.

Santa brought the McDonalds drive-thru for both Megan and James. They both seem to enjoy it. Matter of fact, they were playing with it tonight. I had to pretend eat a lot of ice cream cones and McFlurries. :)

Bob the Builder getting ready for his drum solo.

Megan went out with Aunt Lana & Uncle Keith to buy Christmas presents for everyone. This was William opening his gift from Megan. I'm not sure if he was truly being that dopey or if he was just hamming it up for Megan's sake. Megan did do an excellent job picking out gifts so my guess is that he was truly being dopey.

Megan got the Samantha American Girl doll from me and William. I wasn't planning on buying Samantha just yet and somehow American Girl found out about this and decided to put her in their archives after Christmas to make sure they got my money now.

We got James a Thomas set that had a motorized train that moved along the track. Matt probably spent an hour back in James' room putting this thing together for him and James watched the train go around a few times and then proceeded to dismantle the entire thing. My mom put it back together a few days later and he did the same thing. Its still in pieces, but he does bring the pieces out into the living room with a train and plays with it.

Megan wanted a bathrobe, so Granddaddy got her and her Julie doll a matching American girl set. Her glasses were out of whack because almost all the pictures I have of her from Christmas Day, they are way down on her nose like a little old lady. Speaking of her glasses, she went back to the eye doctor a few weeks ago and her weak eye has improved greatly. The doctor changed the prescription in her bad eye from a +6.0 to a +4.5. She hates wearing her patch but its obviously working.

Adorable ball cap from Molly and family. Look closely and you can see my dad restraining James from pulling it off so I could get a picture.

Christmas Eve

2009-01-27T22:33:00.002-05:00

Finally getting the actual Christmas photos up now.

We went to church on Christmas Eve and then headed over to my parents for dinner. The kids got to open one gift. I think they both opened their gift from Uncle Matt. Then it was home to put out cookies and milk and wait for Santa.

Watching "Ralphie" together.

Megan got a build-a-bear type toy where you can stuff dolls and animals yourself.

Another beloved choo-choo for James.

I think James wanted to eat the reindeer cookie himself.

Megan's Camp Out

2008-12-24T09:03:00.001-05:00

Megan earned a camp out in the living room because she was good all week. The tent is a little too small though. She busted right out of it while she was sleeping.

James being all cute

2008-12-24T08:58:00.001-05:00

William was standing on the stairs the other night and he would take a picture when James was running down the hall so it would go off right when he got to the stairs. James thought this was very funny. I love big toothy smiles on him. :)

Santa on the Firetruck - Home Edition

2008-12-24T08:51:00.002-05:00

Our Santa gets off the truck to visit with the kids. He'll even knock on your door if you're not out there. Unfortunately the route completely misses our house but we only have to walk to the street behind us to see him. James started yelling "All done" as soon as he saw that we were trying to get him to see this Santa person again. He did get close enough to take a candy cane from him. I guess nothing is too traumatic to keep him from getting a candy cane.

I think its the angle he's standing at, but the dog looks like his eyes are crossed which is pretty funny with the tongue sticking out.

Santa's House

2008-12-24T08:44:00.002-05:00

There is a house that completely goes all out with Christmas lights every year and they also have Santa available for visits on the weekends. We tried to go Saturday night but got there about 15 minutes before Santa was supposed to leave and the line was way too long. So we tried coming back 15 minutes before he got there Sunday night and still had to wait an hour to see him, the line was so long. It was bitterly cold out that night too. Megan and James were troopers though. A lot of other kids were crying but not them. They toughed it out. James wouldn't go near Santa again though. He started crying as soon as we made it into the house. He did think about giving Santa a high five but changed his mind. Santa still gave him a present and Megan got an orange and some pencils and erasers and candy.

Nativity Play

2008-12-24T08:36:00.002-05:00

Our church had the Sunday school kids put on a Nativity play last weekend. Megan was an angel and had no lines, other than the one line all the angels together had to say. The play went really well much to the delight of my mom, who helped organize it.

Practicing the words to "Away in a Manager" with her friends.

Megan's Christmas Show

2008-12-24T08:03:00.003-05:00

Megan's dance school had their Christmas show last weekend and Megan did wonderful. She was the best dancer in the whole show if I do say so myself. :) She said she was a little nervous about all those people watching her but you can't tell by watching her. There are only 5 girls in the entire class and one was too shy to do the show. In the video she is the one on the far left. I'm sorry its not better quality. We could only video or take pictures from our seats, which were near the back. I have it zoomed in as far as it would go. William got a much better video on our regular camcorder though.

It was so packed in there, Megan and Krista had to share a seat for the first act. Luckily a lot of people who were only there to see people in the first act cleared out at intermission so we had a lot more room when it came time for Megan to dance.

Santa on the Firetruck - Parents Edition

2008-12-24T07:55:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures from when Santa came by my parents house on a firetruck. I took a video of it, but I'll spare you that. Its loud and doesn't show a whole lot. You get a glimpse of James waving which I would have focused more on but I didn't realize he was waving to Santa until it was over.

Dancing with Grandma while waiting

James is waving to Santa here. He seems to like Santa from a distance. :)

Video of James talking

2008-12-23T23:39:00.002-05:00

Warning: Do not watch this video if the words poop or diarrhea offend you. James repeated the word "idea" a couple of weeks ago and I guess it sounded enough like diarrhea to give Megan the idea of teaching him that word. Of course that one he learns right away and will repeat it anytime you want him to. William taught him the "I pooped" part.

Christmas card out takes

2008-12-23T23:28:00.003-05:00

We have a crappy picture again this year. I think it is safe to assume it will be crappy until James is much older.

Megan trying to show James how to pose. She was upset her pajamas did not show in the final picture, so you can see them here.

What James was doing in most of the shots I got.

The winner, which I cropped to show just their faces then Walmart decided to crop a little more than I told them to. Oh well.

I have no idea what he was doing here.

Random Pictures

2008-12-23T07:31:00.002-05:00

Megan taking the name "tree skirt" literally.

Practice run of hair and make-up for her dance Christmas show.

Apparently this is what happens to your hair when it is gelled profusely and then stuck up in a bun all day. Megan thought she looked evil so she made her face match. I don't know what goofy Dad was doing in the back.

I have lots more pictures and videos coming. I'm only allowing myself two posts right now because I have to get ready for work. After today I'm off until Monday, but one of the bad things about working at a church is that holiday time is extremely busy time. Hopefully I can get everything done and be home at a decent hour tonight. I still have presents to wrap and cookies to bake and a house to clean.

Breakfast with Santa

2008-12-23T07:25:00.003-05:00

Megan's school had a "Breakfast with Santa" fundraiser earlier this month.

Megan sat on Santa's lap but she would not look at him or speak to him.

This is James after we moved him closer to see if he would sit on Santa's lap. Obviously he wouldn't. :)

James is crazy without RJ

2008-12-03T23:14:00.003-05:00

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that James loves his stuffed animal, RJ. I found a picture of him new...

Compared to what he looked like a few weeks ago...

The reason I came across a picture of him new was that I had to search for a new RJ. He had chewed his nose right off and his stuffing was starting to come out. I noticed this around 6 pm tonight. So of course I took it away from him and didn't think anything of it until I heard William getting James ready for bed. I yelled up to him not to give him RJ to sleep with because of the stuffing. Well, when James went to bed he started crying up a storm, which is very unlike him. He usually goes right to bed without a peep. The only thing we could think of that was wrong was that he didn't have RJ. So we got him back out and tried to sew him up as much as possible. I worked on him for a little bit while William held back a sobbing James and then we switched. Finally we got RJ sewed up enough where we felt he was ok to give back to James. He immediately calmed down, got a drink of water and marched his butt back to his bed. Our crappy patch job is not going to hold up long so I ordered a new one for him immediately after he went back to bed. I don't want to have to go through that again anytime soon. :)

James' Birthday Continued

2008-11-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

Megan is doing better now. I had a feeling she was going to get sick because she kept complaining about her stomach hurting on Saturday and the usual remedies weren't working. Poor thing was up really late Saturday throwing up. She woke up on Sunday with a fever, but otherwise fine. I kept her home today just to be on the safe side, but the fever is gone and her tummy seems to be ok now. Luckily no one else has gotten the bug too because me, her and James were all eating birthday cake off the same fork on Saturday. :(

I took James for his 2 year check up this morning. He's doing great physically. I told the doctor that he just started talking and she said that while all children develop differently, if he's not saying more words than I can count by March we need to consider taking him to a speech therapist. But he seems to be learning new words all the time, so I don't think that will be a concern. Just today I taught him to say "corn". :) He finally got his MMR shot and he got a flu shot as well. He did pretty well. The stupid nurse took too long getting his height and majorly upset him and then went about trying three other times to get his height and upsetting him even more each time. It took him less time to calm down after the shots than it did from getting his height measured. He is still a big boy but his height and weight are good. I enjoyed my day off with them. I had some illusion that I was going to get tons of stuff done today but between meals, the doctor, and a quick trip to the store, I haven't had time to do anything else.

James' Birthday

2008-11-15T22:45:00.003-05:00

James turned 2 years old yesterday. We had a small party for him with some family. Grandma, Granddaddy, Aunt Lana, Uncle Keith, Aunt Martha and soon-to-be Uncle Scott all came over. I had planned to get him a Mickey Mouse birthday cake but they all seemed too girly, so I changed plans at the last minute and get a Thomas the Train cake. He got lots of Thomas toys too, which he loves, so he may be developing an obsession with Thomas at 2 years old, like Megan developed her obsession with Dora at 2 years old. He's talking a lot more now. He calls waffles "faffles" and water "wa-wa" and he loves pointing out crosses and saying "He-sus" (Jesus). For some reason he calls Mickey Mouse "So-so" and Granddaddy is "La-la". I'm not sure where he got those from, but they are pretty funny, especially La La.

More later...Megan just threw up. :(

Happy Birthday Dad!

2008-11-06T23:12:00.003-05:00

Today is my dad's birthday. He likes to tell Megan that he is 6 years old. He never gets any older than 6, so she's looking forward to being older than him next year. :)

Also 9 years ago, William gave my dad the best present he could ever ask for - him as a son-in-law. William asked me to marry him on my dad's birthday. :)

RJ

2008-11-06T23:07:00.002-05:00

James has a stuff animal (it was actually Megan's that he claimed as his own). Its the raccoon "RJ" from the movie Over the Hedge. James sleeps with RJ every night and plays with him everyday. RJ has seen some better days. I wish I had a before picture of him. James will hug him and then set into biting his face off. RJ's face is constantly wet from being bit so much and his face stinks something awful. And James seems to think everyone wants to bite RJ's face as much as he does because he will shove it in everyone else's face too.

Halloween

2008-11-06T23:00:00.003-05:00

The tradition continues...My mom made this devil costume 31 years ago for Matt. He wore it, I wore it, Megan wore it and now James wore it. The tail needs to be reconstructed after James though. I should have known he'd be the one to destroy it. :) Everyone seemed to think Megan was Cinderella but she was actually Alice in Wonderland. James was not shy trick or treating. When people held out a bowl of candy and told them to help themselves, he dug right in.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-06T22:47:00.003-05:00

This year the orchard right near our house had a corn maze so we were able to make our pumpkin patch trip one weekday afternoon. William liked it because we were the only ones there. :)

"It wouldn't be October if I didn't spend $20 to wander around a g.d. cornfield."