Fairy Tale Ballet

So fun! Since we did not really sign up for many things this summer we decided to try out some different "camps"......this means a Saturday morning or something like that. We have done soccer this month and also 2 different days of ballet. It is at this darling place called Fairy Tale Ballet. She loved it so much that we decided to do classes this fall.....so looking forward to it! We are doing Saturdays so daddy can participate ;) He will be out of it since the place is in the back of a store that has more tutus and crowns than you have ever seen....I am sure he will tolerate it since it is something Claire wants to do ;) Such a good sport! These are pictures of our second camp....our first was Cinderella's Wedding....and I forgot my camera!!! Bad mom!!! I made up for it this time :)

We wear some tutus and play some games.....

Run around with the scarves........

Try and balance a bunny on her head...very hard!!

They make a craft...this was Princess and the Pea....so we made a box and put a tiny pea in it......

Miss Bobbie reading the story........

Get in our dress to look like the princess and practice more ballet....

Laying down to see if we can feel the "pea" just like a real princess ;)

Not really sure, but i love the jazz hands!!!

Admiring her dress.....this is so girlie and so much fun!!! I always say that you would not use the words quiet or graceful to describe Miss Claire, so this is really good for her. I think she will learn a lot.....and look really cute doing it ;)

James is 9 months old!!!!

I can't believe that this little one is 9 months old today!!!!! I really cannot believe it!!! He has changed so much in the last few months. We now have 2 teeth and he is cutting the top 4 all at once.....2 have made it through and we are anxiously awaiting the others.....this 5:30am wake up call is for the birds! He is crawling all over the place and pulling up on anything and everything. My mom was here last week and he climbed 5 stairs while they were playing in the basement!!! I am sure it does not help that he has a big sister to set the example ;) James is a great sleeper. He takes 2 naps, about 2 hours each, and sleeps 12 hours at night. He is a happy boy......he has always been so easy going, and still is...but is starting to show us that he knows what he wants. We are starting the weaning process.....it will be a long one, but I am ready.....James, not so much, but I think in time he will do fine with it. He is eating anything and everything. He wants to do all that big sister does....including eat what she eats and go where she goes. James will start Mother's Day Out in the fall!!! He will go with Claire on Tuesdays. We went to the doctor last week since mom was here to watch Claire! I will list his stats below!!!!!

9 Months:

weight: 20lbs 11 oz - 50 percentile

height: 28 inches - 50 percentile

hc: 17 3/4 - 50 percentile

the boy is very proportionate

Things that James loves to do.....

eat

play with sister, watch sister, get tickled by sister...seeing a trend here.....good thing she loves him very much too!!!

crawl and pull up on everything!!!!

snuggle after eating at night...only at night, but I eat it up!!!

give Eskimo kisses!!!

make a bunny nose

suck his thumb

try and catch bitzy...this is not her "first rodeo" so she can be hard to find at times ;)

go upstairs with daddy when he gets home from work

bite on anything he can

loves to play with anything that rolls!! balls are a favorite around here.

He can sign finished and bye bye.

He says mama and dada, but he knows that mama means me!!! He has not figured out what his other sounds mean, but he is getting the mama thing figured out! I love it!

He is getting good at saying uh-oh, but at times it just sounds like a grunt ;)

That the latest on our sweet boy! He is just a pure joy!!! We are so behind on posts. We have been traveling and I did not put the kids in any kind of childcare for the summer so I am hurting a little over here. We now grocery shop at night and go to Target on the weekends ;) I have really enjoyed not having a schedule and just playing with friends and neighbors. That being said, I do look forward to some time to myself in the near future!!!!

You can take the girl out of Texas, but

....you can't take the Texas out of the girl!!!

Claire wore this to school today! She is and has always been very independent, but lately we are really trying to exert our independent spirit! I think it is pretty funny and her teachers just laughed when she walked in. Everything I read about this age has so many opinions and lots of advice, but there is a common thread......pick and choose your battles!!!!! So today I was not fighting the boots! We just wore them and all was well. I did pack other shoes and Miss Kerri said she wore the boots until almost 1pm......she was serious about this fashion statement!

By the way, we did not buy these....they were given to us....and I was able to steer her in a direction that at least produced a matching outfit!!! :)

Teeth....part 2

Oops...did this backwards....anyway, just a cute pic of Claire

Always picking flowers....she calls them flolers

Classic James...he always does this. He pulls your face into him and snuggles and kisses and chews on you. He does it to me all the time!!! A kiss only a mother would want....and I love it :)

Can't see it really well here, but there is a tooth and another is not far behind it!

Eating time is serious business around here!!! Look at this kid! Cereal all over the face! Both of my babies take their food pretty seriously.............love those chunky thighs that a love of food produces :) This was cereal mixed with formula. I am trying to get James to take some formula so that at some point I can wean him. It took Claire forever to take formula and looks like I have another one of those situations on my hands. I hate how trapped it makes me feel, but what ya gonna do? I am more calm about it with James than I was with her. And, I am really not ready to wean.....would just be nice to throw some formula at him when I don't have time to pump and all that mess. Hard to make time for that when you have 2 kids to keep happy.......busy times around here, but I am loving every minute of it!

Teeth!!!

I forgot to document this in the last post....Saturday, May 9.......I felt a little tooth coming through on James. It is his bottom left and I think the bottom right is soon to follow. He is a drooling machine and has been a little fussy today. It makes me a little sad to think that his smile is changing and will soon not be that little gummy...no tooth smile that I love so much!!!! So he is about 5 1/2 months and the first tooth is here!!!!

Mother's Day

The cake says it all!!! God bless Claire and James!!! We baptized the kids today and it could not have gone better! We went to church and came home and had some delicious bbq and cake!!! Such a wonderful Mother's Day!!!!! I love my babies!!!!

We could not resist a cake and not have candles!!!

Sweet boy all smiles for the big day!

Being silly and refusing to smile for a picture!!!! It is so hard to get a good picture of 2 kids especially a 2 1/2 year old!

Falling over............

It was a really wonderful day! The kids behaved and James was the last to be baptized so Dr. Are took him in his arms and we all walked out into the congregation! It was really special! What a wonderful day!

Nothing like a little....

cupcake on the porch after dinner........

Claire had a cupcake last week and asked for more. I told her that we didn't have any more and she said that it was okay because Mimmy would make her some when she came. Mimmy has been here for less than 24 hours and Claire has some purple cupcakes!!! Yum!

Our face might be stained for a couple of days :)

Mimmy and Da are here for the weekend. We are baptizing the kids on Sunday. Strick's family will get here tomorrow and we are so excited about a great weekend!!!! Fun times!

Last bite is always the best!!!!!