Dad time

The way we play~

The things we say~


I had a second video but I think it's too long to upload. I'm sad because it was VERY cute and had Rosalee making all kinds of weird animal noises.

Yeah me!

A green thumb is not something I was blessed with but over the past few years I've worked on my gardening skills. Last year I grew tomato plants successfully so this year I decided to add to my little garden. I planted leeks, eggplant (Don't gag! I like eggplant!!), sweet pumpkins, strawberries, peas, and several flowers from seeds. I also bought some tiny started tomato plants for the garden. My leeks took off like mad and now I have 8 left growing after already eating several. None of my strawberries or peas made it past the sprout stage. My pumpkin is weird... it grows a little, dies a little, flowers, dies, makes a tiny pumpkin, dies, etc. I don't have any pumpkins but our friend got 2 from his plant. Only one of my flower types made it, but fortunately it was the one I wanted the most. Here are some of my more successful plants~

My "Spanish flag" flowering vine. I'm sure Jesse knows the scientific name but I can only remember the nickname.

I grew the eggplant from seed and bought my tomato plants as tiny starter plants.

Feast of the Hunters' Moon

Every late September/mid October a festival known as the Feast of the Hunters' Moon occurs here in Tippecanoe County. The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is a re-creation of the annual fall gathering of the French and Native Americans which took place at Fort Ouiatenon(pronounced Wee-aunt-non), a fur-trading outpost in the mid - 1700s. Everyone who works there dresses in time period outfits and must use as close to accurate time period devices. The bread is baked in a giant brick hut, the stew is made from rabbit, and the venison sausages are cooked over a giant flame and served on a stick. I went last year with my class, but it was VERY different going when the full festival was in action. Jesse had never been so he was excited to go to something new. So with our friend Kevin, his two daughters, and Rosalee in the stroller we enjoyed a day in the life of way back when.

Yes, that man has a dead coyote on his head.

Rosalee LOVED sucking on the lemons from our lemonade!

Ye old stew pot

Kevin and Jesse showing off their manliness

In case you can't read the sides the words are "dirty" and "smelly".

Isabel and Sophie all dressed up

One of the many fife and drum groups

Our sad attempts at the tomahawk toss...

Too funny!

I know I just posted a HUGE post a few minutes ago but this is TOO funny not to share! So while I was having my Marie time blogging, folding laundry, etc. this is what the rest of the family was doing...

Yep, you're my witnesses! Jesse was literally asleep on the job! All while Rosalee crawled out of her pants and messed with the mobile. Look at how proud she is! Ah, good times...

Serious need of an update!

Once the baby starts crawling and taking only one nap a day the ability to blog just FLIES out the window! But here are some of what the James family has been up to lately.
We (mostly me) LOVE autumn!!!!
Something about the wind getting slightly colder and all the changing colors that just gets me so excited. I love everything about autumn time- the leaves, football, school, apples, Halloween, getting ready for the big holidays, etc.

The weather has been GREAT so we've gone on a lot of walks lately. The first picture is of a pretty tree at some park in Battleground. My nature knowing husband would like me to point out that the pretty tree is being killed by the red leaves which are poison ivy. The next two are from our friend's backyard. This is going to be our last fall, and therefore corn harvest, in Indiana. (This is where I'll pretend to be sad but on the inside let out a scream of joy) The whole time we've been in the corn belt we've never taken any pictures of, or with, corn. So here you go people! The last is of a the flowers that are now growing all over the front yard. We really should mow but they're too cute!

Chicago temple trip
Most of our church took a large bus up to Chicago last Saturday to attend the temple there. Rosalee kept herself amused on the bus by playing with our friend's sons. That girl is going to be a heart breaker! :) While being babysat Rosalee had her first bloody nose. When I went to pick her up a 4 year old informs me, "The baby is OK now. A cow fell on her but she isn't crying now." Cow... OK... Then a 6 year old decides to clarify it for me, "The cow fell on her nose but there wasn't a lot of blood so I think she'll be fine." Blood? Cow!? What the!??! An adult explained, "While having her diaper changed another child accidentally dropped a plastic cow and it landed right on her nose. She bled some but didn't fuss too much." So the small ones were telling the truth, just in there young edited version.

Giggle box!
One of the many things I love about Rosalee is her little voice and laugh. When a baby laughs it is VERY contagious and heart melting. Here are some recent videos of our little giggle box. Disclaimer~ The clothes on the couch are NOT laundry. She was given 3 bags of clothes from her cousin and I was in the process of sorting them.

A day in the life...

of Rosalee the NEVER stopping crawling, climbing Superbaby! Today my small one has had a slight fever and runny nose. Time and time again I've been told that this means teeth are coming. At 10 1/2 months she has no teeth... so don't hold your breath on this! Since she isn't feeling that great she was content to actually look at her books today instead of just whipping them off the shelf.

Then while I was talking on the phone with my mother Rosalee stood up and then let go of my leg. There she was standing ALL BY HERSELF! Of course I screamed with delight which caused her to squeal and then fall on her bum. But being the persistent child she is she stood right back up. Of all the times to NOT have my camera around! Errrg!! But my mother can be my witness and the following photos. With her new found abilities Superbaby decided she was feeling better so she went back to pulling books off the shelf. She started to stand by herself and reached to pull books off the shelf. She leaned forward, lost balance, slipped on the book she was standing on, hit her face on the shelf, slid and scraped her cheek, and then hit her head on the book she originally slipped on. Mind you all of this happened in slow motion, as all accidents tend to do, and being on the other side of the living room I was unable to stop it. However I was there to offer hugs, kisses, and love.

How does a Superbaby like Rosalee spend the rest of her day? NOT near the book shelf, but crawling around the living room making weird faces at her mother. (Or trying to eat shoes as you can see in the last few seconds of this clip.)

In-law invasion!

Jesse's family had a family reunion in Nauvoo (see previous post), then drove here, drove to Ohio- where most of them flew back to Utah, and then the rest drove back here to Lafayette. It was really nice to spend a few extra days with Jesse's parents and our sister-in-law and her 3 children. Rosalee LOVED being around the kids! She kept poking her cousins in the face and saying, "baby". Then again she calls everyone baby... but it was cute none the less! One fun thing was Dennis (my father-in-law) got to go to class with Jesse. They went out to some pond and collected algee for his aquatic botany class. Here are the pictures from that~

It was GREAT being with the James family! It makes us miss living close to our family so it gives me another reason to show Jesse job opportunities out west.

Nauvoo

Jesse's family (ironically minus Jesse) went to Nauvoo, Illinois for a few days. For those of you who have no idea what, or why, we'd go there I'll explain. The early members of the LDS (Mormon) church were forced out of Missouri and settled on the Illinois border on the Mississippi River. They founded the town of Nauvoo and stayed there for 6 years before they were again forced to leave. They left everything they had in Nauvoo and headed west with most of them ending up in the Salt Lake valley of Utah. This vacation gave us a look at what life was like for the pioneers and everything they went through. Like always I took A LOT of pictures so I've only included the best and/or the ones I thought would give you a good look at what Nauvoo is like.

Rosalee and Gavin taking a bath together. They're 11 1/2 months apart in age.

Our family got to make some rope in one of the pioneer demonstrations

An old printing press

My father in law holding the water buckets and yoke

While in Nauvoo we were able to go to the temple

The senior missionaries put on a musical every night about life in Old Nauvoo. This couple was HILARIOUS!

While everyone was getting ready for bed Kaylee went and put on Rosalee's floaty

Nauvoo is right on the banks of the Mississippi River

Rosalee fell asleep on the ride but Jenny did her best to hold her in front of the horses

Lindsey with Gavin petting the draft horses

This statue depicts Joseph and Hyrum marching to the jail

In the Carthage jail

This is the room Joseph Smith and his brother were murdered by a mob in. The window is where after being shot 3 times Joseph fell out of.

The grave sight of Joseph Smith, his wife Emma, and his brother Hyrum

This is the room where the Relief Society (women's' organization) was formed

Hudson eating his raccoon skin hat

Jesse's dad bought all of the girls bonnets and the boys either stove pipe hats or those newspaper boy caps.

Jenny with the homemade root beer at Joseph's red brick store

The blacksmith who makes the horseshoes, shoes for the oxen, and the prairie diamonds. The pioneers couldn't afford wedding rings so they'd have the blacksmith take horseshoe nails and bend them into rings. I got one for Jesse and one for me for free.

This is Brigham Young's above ground root cellar

It was a nice night so we decided to go out and take some pictures during the sunset.

The statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith depicting their last ride as they were taken to Carthage where they ended up being murdered.

Rosalee playing with the flowers outside the temple

Outside the temple

The Mississippi River at sunset

The temple at sunrise

The Browning rifles (and other firearms) were invented by a man who lived in Nauvoo

The brickyard where all the bricks for the town were made. We got a small brick with Nauvoo stamped into it to take home.

Rosalee giving a lesson at the Hall of the Seventy

The family! Rosalee was excited to get so close to the oxen

Tia with the oxen

We were able to go on an oxen ride

Pioneer ladies