Happy Birthday Jimmy

My oldest child is now eight! Man, I must be getting old! He wanted brownies for his birthday since he made a cake with his Grandma for his baptism. I was totally okay with that. I guess he didn't really want to put his book down to blow out the candles.

All he wanted for his birthday was this gel ant farm. He has been asking for this for months. It is actually pretty cool. I never had an ant farm or anything like it when I was a kid so it's been interesting to watch. We tried to catch our own ants but that proved to be way to hard and the ants that we did catch weren't very big at all. So we decided to pay a little extra and send away for some. They came in only 2 days and they were huge so we can really observe their activity clearly. They dig out this clear gel and make tunnels in hopes to find a way out. Kind of a sad existence but at least they have plenty to eat and drink and they are safe from predators. So I guess their life could be a lot worse.

There is so much to love about this kid!

He is an avid reader.
He remembers everything that he reads.
He loves to learn new things and explore.
He is full of curiosity.
He always has a smile on his face.
He has a very contagious laugh.
He's a sweet and kind big brother.
He likes to wake up early in the morning.
He's a natural at push-ups and pull-ups. (Takes after his Dad.)
He is a human encyclopedia - constantly telling us interesting facts.
Loves Legos.
Loves to cook.

Jimmy's Baptism

I can't believe that 8 years ago I gave birth to this child and now he is baptized! My boys are growing up way too fast. The baptism turned out really nice. Jim baptized and confirmed him and Jimmy was beaming from ear to ear. I don't know if he was more excited for the baptism or for his grandparents and Amber to come all the way to California just for him. He was pretty excited and happy.

I was going to order a cake from Costco for afterward but Jimmy was adamant about me not doing that. He insisted on making a special cake with his grandma. I thought it was kind of cute and sweet of him to want to do that so I didn't fight too hard. A Costco cake would have been easier but I don't think Jimmy would have remembered it.

I think Jimmy was kind of sick of taking pictures at this point.

After the baptism we went to Jim's all time favorite restaurant, Gloria's Cafe. They have the best El Salvadorean food ever. Yes, this gigantic plate is what Jimmy ordered. He is a total carnivore so he got the carne asada and ate most of it. He just needed a little help from Grandpa to cut the meat. He didn't need much help eating it though.;)

Congratulations Jimmy!

Turtles

For Ben's birthday we got him a couple of little turtles. They are the red ear slider turtles. Ever since the whole cat fiasco I've been thinking that I needed to get a little pet for the boys. So I decided to get them these turtles. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision and I wish I would have thought it through a little better since they carry salmonella and require a lot of work. Not to mention that they kind of stink. But, oh well. I guess that's all part of having a pet! We're still debating on the names, but for now they are the newest part of our family and we'll have fun with them while we can and wash our hands - A LOT!!

Happy Birthday Ben

I can't believe my Ben is 6 years old!!! He was lucky enough to have Aunt Kristin, Aunt Heather and his cousins, Ethan and Camden, in town for his birthday. We had a little picnic at the playground. In case you can't tell, his cake is supposed to be a magnifying glass with bugs. One of his favorite past times is going outside to find critters and bugs. Jimmy told me that I needed to put a yellow dot on the cake which is supposed to represent the sun burning them up with the magnifying glass - ha ha! I told him no way!

Here are some fun facts about Ben:

He is so smart and good with numbers.
He loves to read.
He has the best blue eyes I've ever seen.
He loves to have his back rubbed - all the time.
He is very kind to animals - he wouldn't hurt a fly.
He likes to draw.
He eats his cereal without any milk because he doesn't like it soggy.
He likes to go to bed late and sleep in in the morning.
He will eat hot dogs every day 3 meals a day if I let him - which I don't;)
He is one of the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful little boys I know!

Luke

Kids are so funny. Throughout the night my boys seem to migrate across every square inch of their bed. They rotate, twist, and toss and turn all night. Is this a normal kid thing or are my boys just weird? Anyway, one night I checked on the boys before I went to bed and I found Luke laying like this. Seriously, I don't know how he managed this. He was totally sawing logs and seemed comfortable enough, but after I took the picture I moved him back into a normal position because I was afraid he was going to fall head first right off his bed!

Fun on a Mattress

No, I don't mean that kind of fun;) I promise this post is G-rated and safe to read. Jim and I got a new mattress for our bed so we decided to let the boys have some fun before we took it to the dumpster. Normally, I try to keep my kids from jumping on the bed but I let them jump all they want. They did flips and jumps and we danced to music and had a blast. Then for the night we built a hut and had a movie night and sleep over in the living room. I seriously wish I had tons of space and an extra room where I could keep an old mattress just for fun. Unfortunately I don't but at least we could have fun with it for a little while. :)

Pet for a Day

Pretty much since the boys could say mama they have been asking for a pet. Mostly they want a dog but I think they will take anything they can get. Well their wish came true - for a couple days at least. One day while Jimmy and Ben were at school Luke and I could hear a sad meowing outside of our window. We looked out and saw this scrawny, skinny, dirty little kitten all alone and so scared. When the boys came home we decided to go outside and look for it. So when we found the kitten, we scared it so bad that it ended up running in one of the buildings. We had it cornered and I was debating in my mind what I should do. On one hand this poor kitten really needed some TLC and a safe place to go. One the other hand, I really am not a cat person and it is against the rules to have pets in our apartment. (Up to this point I have been able to use that as an excuse when the boys start to beg me for a dog.) But, in the end, my heart got the better of me and I couldn't let this poor cat go out in the wild all alone and starving. So I put it in a cardboard box and brought it inside. I immediately began making phone calls to local shelters and I was told that they were all full and couldn't take in any more kittens. Luckily, Jim has a friend at school that volunteers at one of these animal shelters and she came over to look at the cat. She determined that the kitten was a few months old and in fairly good health so she convinced her shelter to take him in. I don't know if he has been adopted yet but a couple weeks after we found the cat we went to the shelter to visit him and he was doing great. He was still a little skittish but was playing with the other cats and looked healthy and happy.

When the kitten was with us we tried to take it out of the box to take some pictures. Ben was holding him and he jumped out of his arms and ran under the couch. Yikes! Jim and I were worried that it was going to get stuck but he got free and ran straight to the bathroom. There was water in the tub from one of the boys' bath and the kitten jumped right into the water. I don't know a lot about cats but I always thought that they didn't like the water. This kitten was different. He actually liked it so Jim and I just kept him in the water and gave him a good wash while we had the chance. The poor thing was covered in little black bugs that we were able to wash away. He was so much happier after his bath. We ended up naming him Tubbs. I thought the name fit him perfectly.

I let Tubbs hang out in my bathroom while we were waiting to take him to the shelter and he really liked hiding in the cupboard with all the toilet paper. He looked so cute in there! My toilet paper was pretty much thrashed after that but it was worth it for Tubbs to have a comfortable place to rest.
It was fun to have another addition to our family for a couple of days. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I think I would like to have a kitten one day. Unfortunately they have to grow up to be cats, but at least they will catch the mice. I have a serious mice phobia so that's reason enough for me to own one.