He’s a Genius

Me (Stephanie): “James, what are you doing?”

James: “I’m doing my homework. I’m doing my crossword.”

I guess our little boy is ready to do the daily crossword puzzle with us from now on :)

James Reading to Brooklyn

 

While I was cooking dinner, Matt captured a couple of cute pictures:

James loves to have us read to him, and we have been trying to teach him how to look at the pictures by himself and tell us what is happening. So far he is good at looking at books by himself, but he won’t tell us what is happening or make up a storyline. On this particular night Brooklyn was practicing tummy time and Matt told James to read to her- she loved it! He really loves his little sister!

The Inevitable Crash

Every school day Matt bikes 5 miles to school no matter what the weather- sunny, rainy, windy… and now snowy. He definitely sacrifices a lot for our family and we really appreciate it! Everyone in our ward that also bikes (mostly recreationally) has told Matt to expect to crash or fall multiple times- we have been lucky that Matt hasn’t fallen… until this past week. Yes- Matt experienced his first fall and luckily it wasn’t bad and it didn’t involve another bike or car.

There was snow on the ground and it was really slick (Matt said that there were no other bike tracks in the snow which is crazy because typically there are DOZENS of bikes out). Matt had biked about 3 miles and was about to turn from one main road to another main road, and he lost traction and fell. Luckily there were no cars in the lane he was in waiting for him to get back up and go (there were other cars driving around him though). We are definitely blessed that he didn’t get too hurt and that his bike is ok.

He is VERY disappointed about what happened to his favorite waterproof jacket though:

Yup that’s right- its torn at the elbow :( Here is a picture of his battle wound:

Children’s Museum

 

We LOVE the Children’s Museum here in Portland! We have a year long pass so we have gone quite a bit, but it never gets old for James! There are a bunch of different ‘stations’ to visit, but James’ favorite stations are easily the Digging Pit and the Grocery Store. We could spend hours at a time there, so usually when we go we only visit one or two stations. Here are some pictures from his two favorite stations!

 

She loves her daddy!

 

Brooklyn typically does great with her naps- she has a routine and it’s easy to put her down- but over the weekend she had a hard time staying asleep for one of her naps… that is until daddy held her while watching football:

A Day at the Park

 

Last week I decided to take James to the park even though it was pretty cold outside. He loves the outdoors, so I bundled Brooklyn up, and while she slept in her car seat, James and I had some fun!

 

When its not raining, Portland is so gorgeous!

I love James’ facial expression in this picture! One of his favorite phrases lately has been, “Hard Work”- he says that ALL the time (if he throws a diaper away, cleans up his toys, etc.), and that is exactly what he said after he climbed those steps:

Our cute little guy! (Whenever I call him ‘cute’, he corrects me and says, “No mom, not cute. Handsome!”)

He loves to try to make me laugh- he randomly does funny faces like the one below to make me laugh (and then he usually repeats that same face a dozen more times to keep getting a reaction)

I like how the color of the tunnel looks alongside the color of James’ sweater:

On the swing (it took so many shots to figure out how to get a good action picture while still getting the aperture correct!)

Some of my Greatest Blessings

This picture below is fuzzy, but I still love her face- she is ALWAYS so happy like this!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the bunch (below):

Alaska Christmas Vacation:Quelf

I love games because I love competition. Quelf is a game that isn’t about competition at all, but I love it still the same. And here is why:

Matt wouldn’t let his dad sit on his lap:

 

If you haven’t played it and are looking for a fun party game, go buy it!

Alaska Christmas Vacation: James

James was the center of attention throughout our Christmas vacation this year- either he was making everyone laugh, playing hide and go seek with you, throwing a fit, being a little too rough, or asking you to play a game with him. He is the nicest brother (he loves to say, “It’s ok Brooklyn” when she is crying) but yet he is 100% boy (while we were in Alaska he got kicked out of nursery for the first time for being too mean/rough)… Either way we loves him to pieces!

Playing games with Matt:

Telling Grandpa Mauger, “Stop it!”

Painting a bowl with Grandma Mauger and Aunt Amber

Modeling:

Reading with his daddy :)

 

Alaska Christmas Vacation: Brooklyn

 

Everyone loved holding Brooklyn and playing with her. Here are some shots of the family with our ‘Brookie bear’:

 

 

I love the next two shots and here is the background: When Stu was holding Brooklyn, she kept gravitating towards his arm- for some reason she loved resting her head on his arm. Kristin was taking some pictures of them together and the next two shots were taken immediately one right after the other. The second shot sure was a lucky, memorable shot!

Yup Brooklyn spit up right between Stu’s body and his arm! The next picture is his reaction:

PRICELESS!