While Daddy studies....

On Saturday James and I had a little adventure while Daddy studied the day away for a big physiology test. It was actually a pretty chilly morning, and we were glad we had found our jackets before heading out the door.

We first went to the Japanese Tea Gardens to take family pictures for a cute family in our ward. James loved the cool bridges to walk on and the huge goldfish in the pond!

Then we took a little stroll through Brackenridge Park - we had never been in this park before, just walked by it on our way to the zoo, so we thought we'd check it out. As I pushed James in the stroller, I soon realized we had happened upon some big event which included a 2-mile walk for some cause. As we turned a corner, a lady said to me, "You're doing great!! Only one more mile to go!" Pretty funny. As soon as we passed her we got out of there, not wanting to get stuck in the loop with the other walkers!

We then headed to the zoo!

I just love my little zoo buddy, granola bar face and sticky-ups and all.

We somehow always find something new each time we go to the zoo - this time it was a pond full of huge goldfish, just like the ones at the tea gardens! We got to get up close and personal with these fish. *You ought to see James' impression of a goldfish - he's got that fishy mouth thing down!

FREE

When my Dad was in law school, my Mom used to clip coupons and find awesome deals like crazy. In her letters home to their families, she used to tell them her amazing deals of the week. (In fact, one of my earliest memories is of climbing up on the kitchen table as a very young toddler and proceeding to mess up piles and piles of meticulously clipped and organized coupons....sorry Mom!) Well Mama - here is MY sweet deal of the week! I got ALL of this stuff for FREE!!

Thankful.

In an effort to help us all remember that we have so many things to be thankful for this holiday season, I decided to make a Thanksgiving tree! Because we are so blessed. James reminds us of this every time he says a prayer (which is quite often). He reminds me that not only am I thankful for the big things - like our family, the Spirit, the Gospel, our Savior - but seemingly simple things, like lights and books and trains and cups. And that Daddy could go to 'tometry school. And for the yummy food we ate. And Daddy's eye stuff.

So every day, we take some of our "leaves" and write down a few things we are thankful for. Many things get repeated (James is thankful for Mommy every day - and I don't argue, I just write it down each time!), and sometimes we come up with wonderful new things to write down, like family home evening, James' smile, and pens. And of course the important things are on there too - like grandparents, Aunt Liz (who just got home from her mission!), and our home.

I can't wait to see how full this thing gets by Thanksgiving!

And a little Bing to bring on the holidays... :)

Catch

Playing "ball ball" (as James calls it - he loves to make up names for games) in James' room. What a nice kid.

Doggies

James: "Mommy, come see all of my doggies are on my bed. They are going to help clean up."

Me: "Will you help too, please?"

James: "Um, I am so busy putting my toys on my bed. So you will have to do it."

I love this boy :)

Halloween!

So we usually tend to be last-minute Halloween people. We LOVE making cool costumes and being creative, but it is usually at the last second that we finally decide what to be. Which is why we spent our ENTIRE Friday, in preparation for our ward trunk-or-treat, making THESE!

I guess it was worth it, because we won the prize for most creative costume!

James kind of wanted to be a train, one of his favorite things. So we decided to each be a different car of the train. He ended up being the caboose because one of his favorite books is The Little Red Caboose.

I think it's a pretty nice train...

Daddy was the engine. I thought it was fitting, him being the one in the family who takes us where we need to go and keeps us moving.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to go anywhere without a good coal car behind him ;)

And last (but definitely not least, as we learn in James' book) is the little red caboose. Which actually is quite big for a young kid to carry around all night... (don't mind the wheels that are falling off...)

He trick-or-treated without the caboose getting in the way ;)

Checking out the loot he got...

I love Halloween!

Trains

One of the absolute FAVORITE activities in our house is playing with trains. Even Mommy and Daddy have a fun time building cool train tracks. Notice this awesome double-decker track that I made.

And that cool tower behind James in this picture is the Alamo! He made it all by himself.

Zoo.

More fun times at the zoo with some of our new friends!

Letters

James loves learning about letters. We sometimes have what we like to call "Mommy Preschool" where we learn letters of the alphabet, sing songs and have lots of fun. I just love these pictures of James and his Daddy writing letters. Daddy taught him how to write a bunch of letters. In the 3rd picture you can see that he wrote all of the letters of his name!