If I Were Rich...

I would open up a Discovery Center for kids in Utah County.  I absolutely love these types of places and we don't have anything like this in our area.  I may or may not like the place so much because of all of the miniature things.  Not saying.  But, I'm pretty sure the Utah County residents wouldn't pay the $8.50 /per person over 1 to come!  

Last weekend James had to work at a volleyball match at the University of Utah in the afternoon, so Jimmer and I tagged along and James dropped us off at Discovery Gateway to play and then met us up there afterwards.  Jimmer played for three straight hours during his normal nap time and didn't make one unhappy sound.  When James came, we took a break for dinner and then James played with Jimmer for an hour or more while I shopped at the Gateway Mall and then I came back and we pretty much closed the place out at 8pm.  It was much more fun to play from about 6 to 8pm rather than 1 to 3pm when it was so crowded.

  I had been wanting to take Jimmer here, but never wanted to make the drive up just for it.  However, we definitely could spend a whole day there. Jimmer could drop those ball pit balls down tubes ALL DAY LONG if we let him.  So we got our chance to go and Jimmer (and I) had a blast.  The only disappointment is that Jimmer and I don't enjoy the same areas of the center.  I wanted to play inside the miniature house, farm or market, and Jimmer wanted to play in the ball zone and the water zone.  So the pictures above don't show how cute the place really is since Jimmer wants nothing to do with the cute stuff. :)  He would not step foot in the tiny little market area. Come on Jimmer....teeny tiny shopping carts!!  Ugh!

Happy Halloween!

Jimmer was the Very Hungry Caterpillar this Halloween.  We chose this costume since the "Big Fat Caterpillar" is one of Jimmer's favorite books right now (Thanks for giving us the book Angela!).  Jimmer actually wore his costume on Halloween and he was happy!!  He had a great time trick-or-treating!  I couldn't believe it and I was pretty thrilled!  We were, however, prepared for the worst since I tried to put his costume on him about a week earlier and he completely freaked out.  I mean it was a BIG freak-out!  I figured the only way he was going to wear this costume was to cut the (hand-sewn) seam along the right side of his costume and make it so he could put it on like a coat and velcro it up instead of pulling it over his head.  So his costume definitely did not look as good as when it was hand-sewn, when you couldn't see any velcro, when the sides were more even, and when I would have had the time I was planning on to make the caterpillar feet, etc. But he wore it and that's all we're happy about.  The day after Halloween, Jimmer said "I love trick-or-treats."

Good times at the Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch on Wednesday with the Farish family.  Jimmer loved it all...petting the animals, climbing the hay bale pyramid, the hay ride, the corn pit, and walking around the patch.  It is neat to have such a fun patch so close to our home.  We should have started just a little earlier since it was getting dark as we were picking our pumpkins.  We finished just in time!  James and I had a lot of fun too.  Now we just need to get carving!  

Gotta take your picture...

I'm ONLY excited about the upcoming cold weather so Jimmer can wear his new long sleeve shirts and jeans.  Other than that, I don't want the cold!  And I don't know about you, but every time Jimmer wears new clothes I feel like I should snap his picture.  Here are a few I took recently.  It's too bad all of his childhood pictures will be on the stairs. :(  I guess we should go outside and try next time.  I just know he won't sit still for outside pictures.  And...it will be too cold soon!!!

I just had to throw in the last picture of him wearing my slippers.  He puts these slippers on every day, whenever he can get to them, even if he's naked.  Don't tell him, but he'll be getting his own slippers for Christmas.

Kids are Funny!

  (Picture from Jenn Rees from our July vacation)

Our Jimmer is definitely 2, he definitely has his own unique personality, and usually keeps James and I laughing.  He can talk pretty well and sometimes he doesn't stop!  But I love that he can communicate what he wants.  Here are some of the things that have made us laugh lately:

Everyday, he asks his baby doll, "Didi, are you ready to take a nap?" and then nods the baby's head and says, "Yeeess."

He lines up all of his stuffed animals on the bottom stair and says they're in timeout for not listening.  Or he says, "Froggy's in trouble. What did he do?" (since I will always ask him what the froggy did to get in trouble). 

He say so many funny things!  Recently he has made us laugh by saying things like:

 -"Don't shush the Jimmer."

-When I said, "Come on pumpkin," he said, "I'm not a pumpkin.  I'm a crocodile."

-After I called him 'honey', he said, "It's not honey, it's called Jimmer." 

-When James and I are talking in the car and not really talking to him he'll say, "Mama, don't talk to Daddy."

-He'll quiz me on letters and sounds and then say, "You're so smart Mama!"

-When my dad is not home and working as a volleyball ref, he says, "Grandpa's playing volleyball." (And I taught Jimmer to say "volleyball referee" but I guess he refuses to believe that that is what Grandpa is doing.)

-We pulled up to the Rees' house for Sunday dinner and he cheered, "Yay!! Tatoes!!" (potatoes)

-Yesterday in the car Jimmer asked if we could go to the park.  I told him we needed to go home and take a nap.  He held up his little pointer finger and said, "Just one park Mama. Just one park."

-Everytime he says "Cheesy-burger-burger" we can't help but laugh :)

-Sorry I could go on and on.

He asks us to draw such random things in random orders on his Magna Doodle:

"Mama, draw a pickle," and after I do that he'll say, "Draw a little pickle," then... "a doctor...a Neverland pirate...Little Einsteins...a squirrel...a little squirrel...an H...Will...all the letters....and Grandpa..."

He has serious screaming freak-outs over pretty normal things (which is not so funny):

-Like wearing a belt or a tie to church

-Getting a haircut (which he had gotten many times before)

-Being in the same room as the doctor (then saying he likes the doctor on the way home)

-We fully expect a freak-out putting on his Halloween costume

-He didn't have a big freak-out episode here, but he won't let the water out of the tub anymore because one time it made a loud noise.  Now when I ask him to he says, "I don't think so.  Mommy do it."

Who knew everyday life could be so funny?  Kids can be so random, so particular and so funny!  Jimmer and his little kid cousins make life enjoyable.  We love Jimmer (and our neices and nephews) and although he can REALLY try our patience, we sure love having him around!   

Two Year Pictures

We got Jimmer's 2-year pictures taken earlier this summer and I don't think they ever made it to the blog, so I thought I'd post them on here.

Now I know my ABC's...

Here's a little video of Jimmer saying the sounds of the letters. He really likes to talk and learn about the ABC's right now (hence the quiet book project :)). He has learned his letters and sounds rather easily and I just hope he remembers them for later! He now quizzes me on the letters and then says, "You're so smart, Mama!" It feels good to be "so smart". His new quiet book has helped him start to use the sounds of the letters to say the beginning of words. So, ya know, he'll say the sound of the letter A three times and then Apple. My favorite is when he'll say the sound for L three times and then say Moon :). This video is mostly for Grandma and Grandpa Rees.

Learning to Sew

My mom gave me her sewing machine about a month ago and I have been trying to teach myself how to sew. My mom says she's forgotten how to sew and she won't need her machine, but I happen to know she lies. :) I wanted to borrow her machine to see if I could even learn to sew before I bought myself one. I'll give her sewing machine back to her sometime, but I think she'd rather just make me learn and then have me do her sewing projects for her. I'm not any good, but I'm loving it.

My first project was this alphabet quiet book that I got a pattern for from Etsy. I think it turned out okay. There are lots of things I'd do differently if I were to make it again. I learned a lot from this project! One of them being to relax a little and try to not be such a perfectionist when I'm learning something new. I think it required more than my beginning sewing abilities. When I opened up the PDF pattern and saw that it would take 20+ hours I knew I was in trouble! But Jimmer really likes the book so far (mistakes and all), but that may just be because it's something new. He loves to rip all the little pieces off and put them back on (they're detachable with velcro). My next project is finishing some file folder games that I put on hold to work on this craziness.

Las Vegas Vacation

Watching the Belagio Fountains

The whole Rees gang at the fountains

On the really high, really windy bridge above the Hoover Dam (only a little freaky!)

Scaring mom to death

Fun boating/jet skiing day at Lake Mead. Here are some cousins hanging out and snacking with Grandma.

James' mom playing a Minute to Win It game

Doing under-doggies

Just a cute swing picture

James played like he was on vacation

Jimmer loved jumping in the pool over and over again

So fun!

We took family pictures with the whole Rees clan. I don't have the big family picture yet, but here is the one we took of just James, Jimmer and I. It's our most recent family picture.

In July we spent a week long reunion in Las Vegas with James' whole family. We had 42 people altogether and we stayed in one really big house. We had a lot of fun!! We enjoyed swimming, cooking and eating together, playing Minute to Win It games, shopping(girls)/basketball(boys), touring the Hoover Dam, boating, visiting the Belagio fountains, playing with cousins, and doing skits. We love spending time with whole family and wish we could see everyone more often.