James Going Down the Stairs

Well, since I can't get up the courage to go to bed on my own at this moment. I will post the video of James walking down the stairs with out help that I promised I would post in a previous post. He still grabbed onto the railing in the video a few times. He gets a little nervous when going down.

I wanted to get him going up too, but he had other plans.

Family Pictures

We had family pictures done a month ago by our awesome neighbor who sadly moved shortly afterwards. I chose to have them done at Fairmount Park. I just love that park. James wasn't working very well with us, but she managed to get some good pictures. So here are the ones we chose:

Spring Cleaning!

Spring has Sprung! And so thus begins the spring cleaning. I had big dreams for my spring cleaning project but decided to keep it simple so not to get overwhelmed. I did however wanted to get some big projects done, like oven cupboards, etc., done so it will make life easier in case we move at the end of the summer.

Here's my planned schedule:

Day 1: Clean Kitchen Cupboards (Been working on this for a couple of days. James makes it hard to get things done.)

Day 2: Clean Fridge

Day 3: Clean Kitchen Wall and Microwave

Day 4: Clean Stove/Oven (Once I figure out a good way to clean a gas oven. Putting oven cleaner in there scares me.)

Day 5: Clean Living Room Wall and Closet

Day 6: Clean 1/2 Bathroom Walls, Cabinets and Stair Way Walls.

Day 7: Clean Upstairs Bathroom Upstairs Walls and Cabinets and Hall Walls

Day 8:  Clean Bedroom Walls

If I feel like it afterwards, I'll clean out the bedroom closets.

While I had started my cleaning schedule last week, James made a mess with flour. At this rate this may take me till the end of summer to complete.

James Cleaning

I've been slowly working on my spring cleaning list, more on that later. Yesterday, I was continuing on my kitchen cabinets when James decided he was going to clean the stair railing. I figured hey, why not let him help, especially since it was his idea. So I continued on my project and he would come back and forth to get his rag wet. After awhile James started laughing every time he walked back to the stairs. At first I figured he was just being silly. Soon the laughing escalated to hysterical laughing, so I went to go see what was so funny. Turns out he had been wringing his rag out on our cat, Lightning. (Poor Lightning he's always picking on her.) When James noticed he'd been caught he said, "I'm cleaning the kitty, mom." That put an end to his cleaning which also soon put an end to mind, because he was no longer content with playing by himself. However, we did get the stair railing cleaned before quitting, so I can at least check something off. If James keeps causing mischief every time I try to work, then spring cleaning is going to take me till Summer. Oh, the joys of parenthood.

St. Patrick's Day!

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Usually I have some fun activity planned with James that involves shamrocks (i.e. coloring page, stickers, craft project) and I make Corned Beef and Cabbage. A dinner tradition that has been in Tracy's family for many, many years. I do it for him.

Today, though, I didn't have any shamrock activity planned for James or even a Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Tracy ended up going out of town kind of at the last minute. He found out Thursday that he was spending Monday and Tuesday visiting an University. One of which he applied to in December. Friday he received his official travel plans and left Sunday night. James got to stay up late and watch Tracy's plane on our flight tracker app.

We love tracking Tracy's flights using Flight Aware app.
Really is the best.

James pulled out his airplane and flew it around while we watched Tracy's plane.
Tracy was flying Southwest, which is what James's plane is.

Since he stayed up till 10:30 last night James didn't wake up till 10. It was nice to get some extra sleep. I decided this afternoon that since I was so far being lame this holiday that we would use one of the Redbox free rental codes we have and get a movie for us to watch. Plus, he was driving me crazy asking if it was time to pick up daddy from the airport and when I told him it wasn't he'd get really sad. One time he even started crying. He's missing his daddy. :(

After his quiet time, we walked down to the store and picked up "Monster's University" and some popcorn (got to have popcorn with a movie).  

We seriously have the best shopping center just a block away.
It is full of water features. James almost always leaves very wet.
And proof that I did dress him in green. Guess I'm not that lame after all. 

On our walk home I was trying to think what I would make us dinner and decided on pancakes. Easy and quick. I added some green food coloring and made them St. Patrick's Day worthy. 

I even whipped up green whipping cream, because I wasn't in the mood for syrup.

So that was our St. Patrick's Day celebrations. What were yours? 

My Grandpa's Birthday

Today would have been my grandpa's 100th birthday. I always loved that he was 70 years older than me. When I was little I used to think that because of our unique age difference we had a special connection and it made me his favorite. Of course as I got older I realized he loved all his grandchildren equally and made us all feel special, even his step children and step grandchildren were loved equally to his blood related ones.

I remember when he'd come and visit when I was a kid and I'd climb up on his lap. He'd pretty much would let me stay there his whole visit. Mostly he came to us, since my parents couldn't afford to travel or have a car that could take us the distance with out any troubles. We did go to his house in Afton, WY once when I was five, but I don't remember much about that trip.

The last time I saw my grandpa was at his birthday party a few months before he past away. I didn't think he'd be able to remember who was who in my family. After all it had been a few years since he'd seen us and there are so many. (My own father struggles keeping us all straight.) So when I went up to talk to him and to my surprised he not only called me by name, but he asked me how school was going. I am so glad he still had a great memory at age 91. I know that doesn't always happen for some elderly folks, so I'm grateful he was able to still have his memory.

Before I finish this post, I want to share one of my favorite stories about my grandpa. It's the one that has stuck with me my whole life. When I think about him, I think about this story. My grandpa was a farmer in Wyoming when my mom was growing up. He always worked hard on his farm everyday, except Sunday. His neighbor, a farmer as well, worked everyday. His neighbor would often complain that he worked 7 days and my grandpa only worked 6 days, but yet my grandpa's farm always did better than his. My grandpa would use it as an opportunity to explain to his neighbor the blessings that came from obeying the Sabbath. For him obeying God and doing what He wants us to do was more important than anything. He was a great example to all who knew him.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa! Love you and miss you!



Doing Something Nice

I came across this quote the other day on pintrest:

It fits perfectly for what I'm going to post about. I've been feeling a bit down lately, just been having one of those weeks.
Earlier this week I decided that we needed to get some oranges. Tuesday morning James and I took a drive across town to Gless Ranch and picked up two 8 lb bags (1 bag of navels and 1 bag of cara-caras). On our way back home I felt that I should get a box from the post office to mail some off to a friend. I had planned on sending some to this friend a couple of months ago. We just never went out to get oranges before now, so I kind of forgot. Once we got home I boxed up 6 oranges of each kind and located a t-shirt that had been sitting around waiting to go to this friend as well. On Wednesday I mailed the box off.

The box all ready to go and the bags of oranges.

I think I was just about as excited waiting for it to arrive at its destination, as I am when I wait for my own packages to arrive. It felt good doing something nice for someone else and forgetting myself for a bit. Who knows maybe my friend needed the package more than I needed to send it. She's been going through her own struggles, bigger than my own little struggles. I do know that I did need that little pick me up and it helped.

 

In other news, last night James walked up the stairs with out holding onto the rail. I get teary eyed anytime I see him make a step in his gross motor development. Stairs have always been a struggle for him, so this was a big accomplishment. Too bad I was no where near a camera. Maybe next time he does it, I'll get a video. 

Playing in Puddles!

It has been raining a lot yesterday and today. James and I took an advantage of a break in the rain this afternoon for some puddle splashing. It was nice to get him outside after being cooped up for a day. It was a bit cold (well cold to us), but we had fun.

Pointing to all the leaves and seed pods on the ground.

Showing off some seed pods to me.

Running around and through puddles.

Up close and personal.

Yesterday evening we went out for a family outing and saw "Frozen". We loved it. I know everyone has been talking about the song "Let it Go", but my question is why isn't anyone talking about this song:

Olaf was just too dang cute and funny. I love him!

Now time to do my grocery shopping.