Labor Day weekend

I am less than a month behind on my blog posts- WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Seriously, you should be proud of me. I have more videos than pictures from this weekend but blogger hates me today (and yesterday) and isn't allowing me to post any videos. Our family (the James side) REALLY is better animated so as soon as I can get things working, I'll be sure to post the videos!
The theme this year was "Back to the Fifties" and Grandma James planned a great weekend for everyone. Sadly not everyone could be there but we did have Great Grandpa and Grandma James (better known to our family as GG and Grandpa GG), Grandpa and Grandma James, Tia, John, Lindsey, Gavin, Maddie, Hudson, Kristi, Jared, Allie, Kaylee, Sydney, Jesse, Marie, Rosalee, Zeke, Uncle Russ and Lorrie, Dusty, Casie, Chris (Annie's then fiance... brave guy!), Aunt Kim and Russ, Erika, Adam, Daxton, and Drew.
When we arrived we had lunch and got everyone settled in. Rosalee had fun jumping from bed to bed trying to pick out the best one to sleep on. A few hours later we had our cupcake contest. Jesse made some raspberry mousse and pumpkin mousse cups that I thought were FANTASTIC! They ended up winning the Peoples' Choice so way to go Husband! Lindsey made these peanut butter cup cupcakes that I could have eaten until I got sick. I think everyone agreed because she won the Tastiest Treat award.

GG made cupcakes for all of the kids to decorate and eat. Everyone had a great time but I think Zeke had the best time...

Thank you Linz for this adorable picture!!!

For dinner we had hot dogs, root beer floats and milkshakes. Following dinner we had a sock hop. On the invitation GG wrote-
"All the kids and Mom and Pop
are invited to our big SOCK HOP.
Be creative and decorate those feet
then plan to come and dance and eat.
Maybe your socks will win a price
for holiest, prettiest, daintiest, strangest,
funniest, or largest size!"
*We are sorry to inform you but NO PRIZE
will be given to the smelliest!*
My husband was excited to win the holiest sock award and I don't mean he was wearing his Angel Moroni socks!
We spent the rest of the evening playing games. When I get my videos uploaded you'll understand why most of us spent the night laughing until we cried.
On Sunday we went to GG's sister's cabin and had a family church, lunch, and auction. During the church service we had a tribute to GG's father who would have been 100 this year. It was neat getting to see how many people can stem from one man and his wife. The Keller family set up a fish pond for the children to play and win prizes while we set up the auction. Rosalee was VERY VERY excited to win, what she calls, dress up toys. I didn't realize how excited/happy Rosalee would be to have dress up things until this day. She wore what she got, asked for more dress up things during the auction, and told me that we can play dress up "all the time".

Here she is fishing for her head dress

She is in LOVE with this and wears it almost daily!

Zekey fishing for a car

Rosalee took as many turns as she could get! She kept getting more dress up items and would squeal with delight at whatever she caught.

Baby Sydney taking a turn fishing

Maddie in the crown she won
During the auction we bought a hat (for Rosalee's dress up trunk), some hair things (for Rosalee and I to share), some antique toy cars (for Jesse), and some popcorn (for Zeke). We stayed well under budget and left with less than we donated so I consider it a very successful afternoon!

Rosalee proudly showing off her dress up rings and stickers

My cute kids

The past months consisted of scout camp, trip to Washington, trips to Utah, Labor Day, bridal showers, illness, and two weddings. I've also been busy canning, making Halloween costumes, making clothes for weddings, making cupcakes for weddings, and trying to wrangle my kids. But some how in between all that I've captured a few photos of the kids that I think are ADORABLE!

My little Zekey rocking the faux 'hawk. I love doing his hair like this and do fully believe he's the cutest tough guy on the planet.

Recently I looked at Rosalee and thought, "Where did my little kid go!?" She looks like a kid now. Not a baby, not a toddler, but an actual kid.

Zeke, like his sister, has learned to give us the rascal face. I find it hilarious when babies make this face so I can't help but photograph.
One great thing about having a kid learning to pull up on furniture is making trips to the ER. Zeke was pulling himself up on the hearth of the fireplace, slipped, and then had blood dripping down the side of his head. We washed him off but the blood kept coming so we took him to the ER. The cut wasn't very long, but it was rather deep, so the doctor decided to clean it and then seal it with surgical glue. The nurse wrapped him up in a blanket to keep his hands out of it and he SCREAMED like a banshee! I left the room for it but I could hear him yelling all the way from the waiting room.
The actual cut healed nicely and cleaned up well. The glue that ran down the side of his head took several days of hard scrubbing before it fully came off. So for a little while he looked like he had a weird bruise on the side of his face. His little scar is still there, but now it just looks like a thin light red line. Oddly his dad and him have identical scars now.

djjdffffjff- Rosalee typed this and told me it says "Zekey bekey"

Cousin birthday in Utah

I'm still playing catch up with the blog, but hopefully soon things will slow down (Yeah right!) and I'll be current. The pictures from this weekend are the ones that make me the maddest about our camera. It does NOT take indoor, low light pictures for ANYTHING! Oh well, at least I have some form of documentation for future memories.
These pictures were taken during Jesse's birthday weekend at Kristi's house in Utah. His birthday is August 20th, Sydney's is August 14th, and Zeke's is August 12th so we planned on having a joint party for them. Another reason we headed down is Kristi is finishing her basement so Jesse went to help frame and hang sheet rock. Rosalee LOVED getting to spend the whole time playing with her cousins. She got rather upset with us when we told her that we had to go home... It's annoying to deal with her upset, but it makes me feel good that she likes them so much.

While at Kristi's Zeke found a man cave to call his own. I put a blanket in it because he kept crawling in there and playing. Eventually he went in, got comfy, and took a nice hour nap.

Rosalee found a stuffed animal dog and told me to take a picture of, "this cute little guy".

What is better than napping in the man cave? Lounging in your underwear in a man cave!

Jesse's birthday cake! He wanted a cobbler so Kristi was nice enough to make him two- a peach and a chocolate raspberry.

Jesse LOVES oatmeal cream pies so he was very happy to get these for his birthday.

I realize these look crappier than if I had taken them with a camera phone BUT you get the idea of what was happening. Zeke and Sydney got matching pink and blue rattles and sippy cups. I really like them being twin cousins it adds a new level of fun.

Zeke kept a death grip on his new sippy cup all night long. Thank you Aunt Kristi and Uncle Jared!

We gave Sydney a laughing pink monkey and she thought it was great.

Maddie was having fun playing with Zeke. She was acting like a little mom saying things like, "Here you go baby" and "Have a drink".

Look at how he bends! Weird right?
Well it was things like this that landed him in physical therapy.

I love Hudson's curls!!!

The end of our trip to WA

The last few days of our trip we spent hanging around enjoying not having to do a whole lot. Here are some of the pictures from then.

This is the first time Zeke pulled himself up to a stand. Rosalee had asked for a little table to eat her breakfast on so we let her sit at a bed in breakfast table. Zeke saw the eggs, crawled over, and was up! I was watching the video of him eating his birthday cake so I quickly changed the mode on the camera and caught him in action. It made us SO happy to see him stand up because we were afraid he was delayed on his physical development. (Don't worry, that didn't last long and he's now in physical therapy. But that will have to wait for ANOTHER post.)

One afternoon while Zeke was asleep Rosalee asked if she could paint in her new coloring book. I got out some cardboard, put her in clothes I didn't mind getting messy and let her go to town. I'm pretty sure she made 7-10 pictures that day. When she thought I wasn't looking she'd sneak a few swipes of paint on the dog's toenail. (If you can't tell, that giant red mass behind Rosalee is my mom's Saint Bernard Holly.)

I love the funny positions Zeke sleeps in!

Rosalee watching cartoons on our air mattress bed

A close up of Zeke passed out on the couch

Only at Grandma's does she get away with eating Popsicles for breakfast!

Zeke's 1st birthday!!!

After going to the fair we came back and played in the 'gator pool in the yard. Rosalee was nervous and protested getting in but at least the other girls had fun! I also find it funny that it was ZEKE'S birthday and he had older women in attendance... is this a sign? Let's hope not!

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This is the "adult cake" and it doesn't look as pretty because it accidentally got squashed. Sad, but still sinfully delicious!

We were having Zeke's party at the farm so I made him a farm cake. I don't think I'm very creative but I'm pleased with how the cake turned out. I made a funfetti cake mix and then made grass out of green frosting, dirt out of miniature chocolate chips, and a mud pit out of chocolate pudding. I like buying the gift and being able to use it as part of my decorations for two reasons- I don't have to try and make a fondant pig and it gives him something to play with while the rest of us eat.
All I know is that my son had a great day! I can tell by all the smiles and giggles how happy he was. It's hard to pick a favorite moment from the day because everything went so well but I do really enjoy watching him destroy his cake.

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Trip to Washington/Day at the Fair

For Zeke's first birthday I wanted to do something that would be big and fun. But the issue was trying to figure out what would be entertaining to a 1 year old and his almost 3 year old sister. When I found out that the local county fair started on Zeke's birthday I knew immediately what we were doing!
I called my cousin and she was great enough to take the day off of work and bring her daughter and niece out to visit. To make it even better, her mom/my aunt, also came out. My mom and dad also came with but had to leave early because my mom got called into work. It was great having so many family members around to help celebrate with us.

When I told Rosalee that we were going to the fair she kept asking if she could ride a horse. I was pretty sure that there weren't any but I told her we'd look. We found the horse barn, but there weren't any to ride.

But there was one to pet!

We walked around and looked at all of the animals. Rosalee would get so excited over some of them and other she could care less about. It's funny to see how much of a personality she has at times!

Next we found a play that is put on by the audience. It didn't start for a few minutes so we went to watch the children barrel racing. As soon as we walked over a girl fell and then was drug by her horse... NOT what I wanted Rosalee to see! So we hurried back to the pirate show and tried to put the scary situation from our minds. The woman asked for "the biggest kid of all" to help out in the performance and in my loudest voice possible I shouted, "OOHHH OOHHH HIM, PICK HIM!!!" while pointing at Jesse. He was such a stud to actually go through with it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The video is about 20 minutes long, but if nothing else just watch the first minute or two so you can see Jesse's full costume and the attitude he had for the show. Rosalee still begs me to play the video over and over and she'll say, "Thank you Daddy for being a pirate." to Jesse at least 5 times while watching it.

You know me, any excuse for a family picture! I like Rosalee in the first one better so if I could crop her from that and Zeke looking at the camera from the second then we'd have a nice shot, but oh well!
Last year when Jesse worked at the fair Rosalee loved every second of it! She rode all the rides and loved them... minus the carousel. On that one she frowned and clung on for dear life. So naturally I thought she'd love the rides again this year...
WRONG!

She screamed the first few times around and then kept trying to stand up and jump off. I'm not sure what happened between last year and now but it makes me sad to see her having, what she believes to be, such an awful time.
How did Alyssa do?

Just fine.
So Jesse took her on a few more rides.

After riding some rides we went to get some food. My favorite fair food are the scones. For those Idaho/Utah people reading this let me explain what a REAL scone is! It is NOT a fried donut thing served with honey butter. It is a sweet biscuit filled with berry jelly. It is fabulous and if you haven't had one you should cry.

The smugs on my kids show the amazingness of a fair scone.
Next we walked around some more and eventually ended up at a face painting booth. We were looking for a painting one but found an airbrush one instead. No biggy right?
Wrong #2 of the day
Mariah and Alyssa went home with cute paintings on their faces. Rosalee?

She got a dot and that was freaky enough!
The day went great and I was so glad to have shared it with my extended family. Zeke had a blast and even if he doesn't remember it when he's older the look on his face will always be a reminder.