potty training.

Grumpy.

My house is a wreck.

I never even showered today.

Load of pee-pee sheets and clothes in the washer.

No desire to cook, whatsoever.

Pizza o'happiness is on the way!! Thank you, Domino's!!!

I have decided

I came to the conclusion yesterday - as James and I enjoyed 60 degree weather and a blue sky, sunshiney day with no jackets at the park - that I LOVE TEXAS!! :)

Long time no see!

My sister Liz came to San Antonio to visit us!! It had been a year and nine months since we had seen her, so we were so excited! We of course wanted to take her to see some fun places while she was here, and we ended up doing it all in the rain! It was tons of fun anyway and James loved jumping in the puddles. In fact, his whole reason for wanting to go to the "Al'mo" was to jump in the puddles. Mission accomplished!

what is that face, James??

that's better!

Japanese Tea Gardens...

the zoo!

(apparently James and Liz have the same size head...check out his hat!)

planning out our route on the zoo map...

we were sad to see Liz leave!!

we love visitors! Thanks for coming, Liz!

Family music lessons.

One of my favorite things we used to do when I was a little girl was play music together as a family. We'd get out every instrument we owned and play songs "together" - you'd have a piano, a couple of guitars, a recorder or two, maybe a xylophone and a tambourine - oh man, we were awesome. Well tonight James insisted on having family night after dinner, so we decided to get out some instruments and make some family music of our own! Check out this kid's skills!

Phone calls

Is this what I sound like to James when I'm talking on the phone? :) Now, if only we could get him to talk this well during real phone conversations!

New discovery:

I was just making a lasagna and made a NEW DISCOVERY that somehow I missed out on for the past 27 years:

I really like cottage cheese!

What else am I missing out on?? :)

Imagination

Sometimes I don't know where my kid gets his great imagination. He comes up with the craziest names and words. For example -

Today we were looking outside on the patio at the leaves.

"They're changing colors, Mommy!!"

We see something kind of brown and bright orange - not sure if it was a leaf or what. I pointed it out to James.

He said, "It's a Neeorna!"
Me: "Really? What's a Neeorna?"
Him: "It's outside, and it grows into a BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY!!!!"

Oatmeal

This morning I heard the clanking of dishes, followed by little footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Mommy?!! Are the dishes in the dishwasher clean???"

He sounds so grown-up!

"Yes, they're clean!"

"I'm making oatmeal!! I'm mixing it in this bowl!"

The entire contents of the Gerber oatmeal box was poured into a bowl, and our little man was so pleased with himself. What a self-sufficient boy!

Thanksgiving

I figured that since Christmas is only a week away, it's probably about time I posted some pictures from Thanksgiving ;)

Our Thanksgiving day started out eventfully, with James getting a big bump on the head. He was sitting at the top of our stairs, and decided to stick his legs in his shirt and pretend to be an egg. I heard a little voice say, "Look, Mommy, I'm an egg!" and before I could reach him he was rolling down the stairs, head first. I got to the bottom of the stairs as his head smacked right into the tile floor at the bottom. Poor boy! He got a pretty good goose egg on his head and was pretty scared. Jonathan used his one-semester optometry skills to check James' pupil sizes and see if he had a concussion (which he didn't!)

We then headed off to a nearby field where a large group of guys from our ward were playing football. We sat on the grass and visited with some of the wives and kids while the men played. I am so grateful to be in a ward with SO many medical students and residents - I took James over to one of the residents and said, "is my son's head ok???" :)

We had a wonderful day being together and skyping with family. Here are my boys playing Mario Kart with some of the Boster men in Oregon. Thank you, technology!

A shot of James' bump on the head...

This was my first time making the ENTIRE Thanksgiving meal all by myself - and I have to say that it turned out really well!! We cooked a small turkey breast instead of a big turkey, and it was delicious.

And of course, true to Boster tradition, we had a pretty good pie-to-person ratio.

James enjoys some pie with his favorite stuffed animal buddy, Pongo.

We ended the day by watching "White Christmas" - sticking to the Gibbons family Thanksgiving tradition! Let the Christmas season begin!

We are so blessed :)

our James

Did I ever mention how much we love this boy?

He says the greatest prayers lately. Like this one:

...Gateful for Mommy and Daddy and James.
Gateful for the Spirit.
Gateful for the other temples.
Gateful for our temple.
Gateful for all of the globes that other people have.
In the name...........................oh!!!
Gateful for Bapa and Jukie, gateful for Grandy and Nana, gateful for Annie, gateful for Josh, gateful for Bapa. Amen.



Or this one:

...Gateful for Mommy, Daddy, and James.
Gateful for froggies.
Gateful for Mommy Froggie.
Gateful for James Froggie.
Gateful for blankies.
Gateful for Superman shirts.
Gateful for ears.
Gateful for noses.
Gateful for hair.
Gateful for glasses.
Gateful for wasacki puzzles.
Gateful for turnaround pieces.
....Amen.


*We've been doing a Wysocki puzzle over Thanksgiving break. And apparently a turnaround piece is a type of a train track.



One more:

Gateful for Mommy, Daddy and James.
Gateful for our noses.
Gateful for the tv.
Gateful for the food we just ate.
Gateful for the Wii.
Gateful for my squirty things.

And he cracks me up sometimes with the things he says. Like:

A bee messed up my hair!!

Or: Mmmmmmm.....I smell something!....It's food!! Bresgrift, Crips, Marshmallow Mateys!

Bresgrift = breakfast

Crips = Chex

Or because of the fact that he calls our Nativity Set an "Activity Set."



He's a keeper, that's for sure!