James' Birthday

Here are some pics from James' Birthday party from a few weeks ago...

He was thrilled to get some birthday balloons and enjoyed them for many days after the party. The theme for James' party was a combo of his two favorite things....tractors and Elmo! James was so super cute and excited when everyone sang to him. He covered his mouth and just giggled with delight while looking around the room.

He blew out his candles speedy quick....didn't get it captured on film!

In our family, we always light the candles more than once so the other kids can help blow out the candles too. James didn't blow fast enough the second time and was upset that he didn't help blow out the candles... He burst into tears, so we lit them a third time and made sure that he was ready to blow them out with the rest of the kids.


James had lots of fun and lots of help with opening presents. He finally got the hang of it by the end. He is all geared up for Christmas presents now. I think Ella will be upset that she can't open all of James' presents this year.

Many thanks to all our family and friends who celebrated with us or sent James birthday wishes!

Harvest Time

Recently, each time I have tried to upload some new pics, I have run into problems....Blogger seems to be acting goofy. However, I did manage to get these pics uploaded after a few attempts. They were taken several weeks ago when the kids went out in the cornfields to check on Grandpa's harvesting. He had a rough time this fall as there were many wet spots in the fields. He had to leave patches in several fields and come back to them later when the fields had dried out a little more. James inspecting an ear of corn.

Ella, James and cousin Trenton watching Grandpa unload. Ella was waiting not so patiently for her turn to ride in the combine with Grandpa. She combined twice with Grandpa and James took one ride. They both enjoyed riding in the bumpy field.

James and Grandpa Jim in the corn field with James "Best of Show" awards that he won with Grandpa's corn at the county fair. Grandpa Jim was an extra big winner...He won this Mule this fall via a drawing from Producers Hybrids! He has been enjoying driving it around the farm and all the little ones have been excited to go on rides with Grandpa.

My Baby is Two!

Our baby is two years old today. I can hardly believe it. At this exact time two years ago, we were sharing news of James' arrival with family and friends and getting to know our sweet boy. Since I'm feeling nostalgic, here are a few pictures of James first days.... The very first picture of our sweet baby boy...he's a minute old!

A happy Mommy and Daddy

All cozy and asleep.

A kiss from big sister, Ella.

Brother and Sister!

I wanted to add more pictures....but blogger is having trouble uploading today. As James would say, "Oh my!".

Our Cute Little Tricksters!!!

Here are James and Ella right before we left to go trick or treating on Halloween night. They were so excited to go out and by the end of the night James had trick or treating down to an art form. I'll post more pics later!

Pumpkins, Parties and Halloween Fun!

We've enjoyed parties for the kids, parties for all of us, pumpkin carving, princess pumpkin making and tonight we hope to have some windy fun trick or treating!! Here are a few pics from our various activities. Hope you all enjoy a very Happy Halloween!!!

No, that's not his Halloween Costume!

Ella has discovered that little brothers can be dressed up. Ella and James were playing quitely up in Ella's room for a little while. After only a short while, Ella was very excited to have James come downstairs and show off his new outfit. He did make a really cute cheerleader!!! James was all smiles and Ella was very proud that she was able to dress him up all by herself. Ella loves to dress up, so I think James will be modeling more outfits in the future!!
Aren't they cute!!!!

I am so behind on posting! We have been super busy and I have lots of cute pictures to share....so hopefully I'll get caught up soon. I am almost half way through my grad class and it is taking up more of my time than I thought it would. I also started back at my part-time teaching gig a couple of weeks ago so things have gotten a whole lot busier around here. Hopefully more pictures to come....soon!!

Vegas!!!

Mark and I decided it was time for us to visit Las Vegas. We went last weekend and enjoyed three nights at the Flamingo-- smack dab in the middle of The Strip. We had an excellent time hanging out with our friends Mike and Erin who flew out to Vegas for the weekend too! Ella and James were very excited to spend three whole nights at Grandma and Grandpas....well, maybe Ella was more excited than James. We arrived Thursday evening, met our friends and got settled into the hotel. We enjoyed a great meal at PF Changs before heading off to see the Jubilee show at Bally's. The show was really amazing and we had excellent seats thanks to my friend, RaeAnne. Her sister-in-law is in the show and she hooked us up!!! Thanks again, RaeAnne and Gina!!! By the time the show was over it was after 2:30 a.m. our time so we decided to call it a night and rest up for Friday!

We started Friday out right with breakfast at the Bellagio. Their brunch was awesome!! We then spent some time exploring the Bellagio and other hotels on that end of the strip. After tolerating too much window shopping, the guys decided it was time for them to head back and try their luck at poker. Erin and I continued shopping a bit more before heading to back to the hotel to rest by the pool. Friday evening we enjoyed dinner at Margaritaville, went to the Second City comedy show at the Flamingo and spent some time at Toby Keith's bar at Harrah's. We stayed up way too late....but we really had a great time!!

We all started Saturday a bit slower due to all of Friday's fun. We enjoyed lunch at the Venetian and spent some time in the Wynn and the shops at The Forum. We even saw a few celebrities there....I think it was my first celebrity sighting! That night we had a great dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill restaurant in Caesar's. We walked down the strip to watch the pirate show at Treasure Island....that show was okay....but not great. Then, we spent the rest of our night at the casino in our hotel. I was fond of but didn't do so well on the spin the wheel game... at least it was fun to lose my money! I did hit the jackpot on the $.02 slots though!! I won over $75...so all in all...I think I broke even! Mark didn't win big at the poker tables like he had hoped...he didn't lose big either so that is even better! Mark did have success at the video poker slots at the airport on Sunday morning...so at least we left feeling like winners!!!

We had an uneventful flight back and by the time the plane landed at the airport, we were both really anxious to see the kids. Ella ran and hugged us and James just giggled and giggled as soon as we were in sight. It was a great trip and we hope go back again....sooner than later!

Below is a link to a slide show of some of our Vegas pictures. I think if you double click on it you can view the pictures in a larger format. Enjoy!!