Time Flies and We're Having Fun!!

CHANGING BLOGS…….

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:48:10 +0000

Ive decided with the new year to switch my blog over to a different site…….so from this point forward, our family blog will be located at the following:

http://salinasfamilyblog.blogspot.com/

Go check it out and bookmark this in your settings! I will send out an email when I do updates and am going to do my best to keep it updated more often (striving for once a week, will see how I do!!)

Playdoh Snowman

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:21:10 +0000

Daddy and James playing with James’ new Playdoh set that Santa brought him for Christmas…..James decided to make a snowman…turned out pretty danged cute!

James the photographer

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:13:55 +0000

James has lately been taking an interest in my camera…when i take pics of him, he immediately says LEMME SEE! LEMME SEE! as he knows you can view the pics on my digital camera once you take them.

So, the other night at Mom’s house while we were eating dinner and he had finished his for the most part…I had taken my camera out to look at pics and he saw it and said I wanna take a picture…..so I showed him how to do it ONE TIME…and he was off and running….below are a bunch of the first pictures James has ever taken with a camera…some are FREAKIN HYSTERICAL others are actually pretty good…oh yeah, and a couple that mommy took of her sweet boy too!!

Mom’s fireplace

Grandma and some christmas decor…funny, James takes pics like Grandma used to…cutting off people’s heads…HA!! Love ya Mom!

Daddy!! Pretty good pic, minus the top of Daddy’s head…sensing a trend here…..

Daddy eating corn…..TOO FUNNY!

Grandma eating corn….even funnier! Mind you, James was stopping to look at each pic he took…laughing harder and harder each time as the three of us were DYING LAUGHING!

Daddy…up close.

Mommy…up close too!

Really great shot of Daddy! Way to go James!

One I took as James got super close to the lens!

My hammy kid! Say cheese James!

Then he realized he needed an “eating corn” pic too….thank God I escaped this one myself! LOL!

James and his cousins….

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:04:28 +0000

James had SO MUCH FUN with his cousins Sara and Aly while we were up there this past week. We went shopping on Thursday with Berta, my mom, and the girls, had lunch and what not. The entire time, James was with either Aly or Sara, wanted nothing to do with me….was so cute with him holding Aly’s hand in the stores, etc.

here are some pics of him and Aly at Southlake Town Center, as well as James, Aly and Sarah in Santa’s Sleigh that they still had set up there.

Ayden and Brody

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:59:30 +0000

My sister’s friend Melissa (who cuts hair and is FANTASTIC and I try to get my hair done up there whenever I can, cause I just LOVE her work!) recently had twin boys (not to be confused with my friend Melissa here in Houston that has twin girls! HA!) named Ayden and Brody. I had made them a couple of the blankets I did for a lot of people for Christmas, plus my mom and I went shopping and bought the babies a couple outfits each…so we popped by to see her and take the gifts to her.

The baby boys are SO SWEET and Melissa looks FANTASTIC for just having had twins not too long ago (think she had them the weekend after Thanksgiving if I remember that right?) and the boys were in the NICU for a bit but are (obviously) both home and everyone is doing fantastic! Look how cute and tiny they are! Reminded me of when James was born and was that tiny and in the NICU……cant believe that was almost 5 years ago! WOW!

Let the Games Begin….

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:54:33 +0000

James ended up getting two educational video game hand held systems for Christmas….the V-Tech V-Smile hand held from my Mom (which was nice, as he had the one that hooks to the tv before this…and all the games work with this new hand held one too…AND can hook up to the tv so we can get rid of the old system) and he also got the Leap Frog Leapster Hand Held system from his Uncle Johnny and Aunt Kelly, along with a Wall-E game cartridge for it.

He LOVES them both, and switches off between the two. Has mastered them pretty much all on his own, figured out the different things each can do and with each game……funny as even Berta’s girls who are older, as well Berta’s hubby, Freddy and I have all sat and played with them too….they are pretty cool!!!

Here are some pics of my little “gamer” in action…as well as Daddy and James each playing with one.

Before anyone flips out……..he does not play with these all the time…he puts them down all on his own after a while and plays with his trains, reads books, colors, draws pictures, etc etc…….I will NOT let him veg out adnd become a couch potato video game playing kid….NO WAY!!!! But I feel like as long as there is a balance, and the games are educational, then there is no problem. Not to mention the hand eye coordination skills and educational factor to the games.

Anyway, enjoy the pics!

James and George

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:47:18 +0000

We left the lake house on Sunday after breakfast and headed back to the Ft Worth area to spend the week at mom’s house. Mom and I had some christmas gift cards to spend so we did some shopping.

When we went to Joann Fabrics (big surprise for me, huh? LOL!) James found this adorable monkey that he just went nuts over….so I bought it for him. By the end of the day, he decided to name him GEORGE. So, George it is.

Well George is now his new best friend….seriously. George went everywhere we went all week long….on the train ride to Downtown Dallas and the West End for lunch and back, to the store, car rides to run errands etc etc……these two are inseparable.

I would even see James in mom’s living room wrestling with George, pretending George was hitting him, and then he would be sitting on George’s head, or stepping on George…I would say JAMES…BE NICE TO GEORGE!

James’ reply?

Momma…we are just PLAYING!!! Its ok! (gee, am I raising a boy or what?)

I would ask him “well does George know you are just playing and not hurting him?”

Reply…..yes Momma…George likes to play like that, its ok!

Life with a boy and his not-so-imaginary-new-best-friend.

The Lake House

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:26:11 +0000

We spent the day after Christmas getting all the inside Christmas decor taken down and put away…..got rid of the christmas tree (what a freakin MESS that blasted thing was…I seriously think HALF of it ended up in the carpet…we clogged TWO vaccuums with needles that we then had to take completely apart to unjam……..then had to SWEEP our carpet and get the needles into a pile that we then picked up in multiple handfulls…seriously considering flipping the bill for a super tall kick butt fake noble fir this coming christmas and being done with it….for real!)

The benefit to getting all that done that day, is that we then had this ENTIRE last week off of work (well, Ive been off since noon on Friday the 19th, but Freddy didnt) and we took off on Saturday the 27th to head up to see Berta, Damon, the girls and my mom……and we headed for Berta and Damon’s lake house!

They recently bought it and rennovated it (looks awesome guys!) and we just stayed the one night, then headed to Moms for the rest of the week, as they had a bunch of people wanting to come out and spend a day and a night and see the place………but Saturday once we got there, Saturday night, and Sunday morning were FANTASTIC!

They have Damon’s parent’s kayaks up there….so Berta and I took them out on the lake on Saturday and had a BLAST! We then decided to take them out for a sunrise kayak cruise the next morning….well it got SUPER COLD Saturday night overnight, and we did not get up quite before sunrise, but we were back out on the lake around 7:30 AM and it was neat cause it was kinda foggy and the water was like a sheet of glass…it was beautiful…and so so quiet and peaceful, we were the only ones out there.

I want a kayak now………a two seater for me and James since Freddy has one already that he uses to go fishing sometimes…..so that is in the plans soon…we are keeping our eyes peeled for a sweet deal on a two seater that we can take up there the next time hopefully, along with Freddy’s.

We had a BLAST Saturday nite as Freddy dug the pit for a bonfire ring…and he and Damon brought down paver stones to make the ring…….Berta and I took Freddy’s truck into town with the kids for some supplies, and managed to “borrow” a pallet that was next to the store (threw that bad boy in the back of the truck and TOOK OFF as an old man was coming back to his truck next to us…we were laughing our butts off!) so we had wood…then we also got stuff to make smores…..so we were SET!!!

Believe it or not, Freddy had NEVER HAD A SMORE BEFORE! So as you will see below, he approved of them big time!

The funny face pics of Berta and her girls were because she blinked in a couple of others I took before that, so they did the BIG EYES look so as not to blink…w eall about DIED LAUGHING when we saw the pic! TOO FUNNY!

then the next morning, Berta coerced James into petting their goldern retriever Murphy, with Murphy on one side of the sliding glass door that leads to the screened porch…anyone that knows my son knows that he DOES NOT DO DOGS whatsoever….not sure what his deal is there…he has never been bit by a dog or anything, just hasnt grown up around them and has always been very afraid of them, regardless of whether the dog is tiny or huge…….so for him to do what he did…….was a HUGE STEP for him…we were very very very proud of him!!!

We had a GREAT time guys….cant wait to come back up (when it is warmer especially) and do some more kayaking, fishing and relaxing! Your place is awesome and you did a fantastic job with all the renovations!

Christmas at Tiffany’s

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:54:41 +0000

The Monday before Christmas we went over to Tiffany and Joey’s apartment in Katy, to take the gifts we had for them, Jada and Marlee, and have a little Christmas gift exchange over there. When we got there, Miss Marlee had just passed out for a nap, so we didnt get to see her open our gifts…however Jada and James were ready!!!

Marbelous

jamesmommy213 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:46:09 +0000

Freddy’s cousin Josie, her husband Don and their daughter Cherie got James a really cool educational game from Lakeshore for Christmas…….at the time when he opened it, Cherie made the comment of oh, im not sure he will like it, you can take it back for something else if he doesnt, etc etc….. It is called Marbelous, and you basically make these towers out of all these cool pieces, then drop marbles down them and watch how they go to the bottom (this will make sense I promise, once you see the pics below!)

Well Cherie, you can rest assured, JAMES LOVES THIS THING!!!! I personally was cursing your name as he insisted that we build the one in the picture, which I can tell you is virtually impossible without another adult there to help hold pieces while constructing the rest (Freddy was not around the next morning when we were doing this)….however once I spent an HOUR trying to make the one on the box, I gave up, and made one of my own, which James was fine with seeing as how he had gave up 30 minutes prior and was watching cartoons, periodically turning around to ask me Momma, are you done yet? (no son…not yet……..will letcha know!)

As you can see from the pictures….I think we have a budding mechanical engineer in the family perhaps….hhhmmmm……