Here's a picture during the middle of the week. We went to Toys R' Us to pick up a toy for James' party and we found a "Jodie-sized crayon."
Ok, so we had a great weekend and had lots of fun. It started out when my Mom flew down to Tucson and came over saturday morning with my younger brother John. We got to talk for a little while and then we went out to lunch at a place called Risky Business. Fun story about that: when we first came to the area to look at places to live, I saw the sign and I thought to myself oh brother, I don't want to live next to a store like that. Come to find out later, its actually a restaurant and a few people told us that it was pretty good. So, we decided to try it out Saturday for lunch - it kind of reminds me of local version of a red robbin kind of place. I got a rueben sandwhich and it was actually one of the best I've ever had. So after having lunch, we took some pictures.
John and I
My mom and two of her boys
We then said our good byes and Jodie and I went up to Phoenix. We took advantage of going through Mesa and went to the temple and made a stop at Bahama Bucks for some shave ice. Then we went over to Robert and Emily's to baby sit the kids so they could finally go and celebrate their anniversary. We had lots of fun watching the kids and appreciated the opportunity to get to know our neice and nephew better.
The next day, we went to church and were able to sit together in the last hour because it was the fifth sunday. I think that was the first time that we have been able to do that because of our callings - so it was a nice treat. Then we had James' birthday party.
I love James' shirt, it says conserve water, drink chocolate milk. It's perfect for him; he loves chocolate milk.
Anna was being a cutie and I had to take this picture.
James has been very much into taking pictures lately. He got a little sad because I wouldn't let him share Jodie's water bottle. So, I tried distracting him and I told him let's take a picture. Oh man, it worked well. He immediately stopped crying and sulking and grabbed the camera and we took pictures of each other. Here's my picture:
James had a fun time playing with a balloon that he got from Jack and my mom. He would draw different shapes and letters in the air and then say what they were - very smart little kid.
Here's a picture of Jodie and Emily decorating the cakes. However, Jodie got some sprinkles out and started decorating and they dumped out into a big pile, which Jodie is pointing at.
Here's Jodie trying to spread the sprinkles out more.
Evening out the sprinkles on the rest of the cake now.
Jodie borrowed James' backpack for a little while. Amazingingly, it fit pretty good.
We then lit the candles and sang happy birthday to James - which he very much loved.
While everyone was eating cake, I saw James sneak out to the family room where all the presents were. I thought it was cute how excited he was about all the presents.
Here's James opening our present. We got him one of those small plastic basketball hoops. It was really fun seeing him get excited as he unwrapped it.
One of the faces that I loved the most was when he opened up Robert and Emily's present. They got him a simple, cheap digital camera that he could use without ruining their camera. He was very excited.
All in all, it was very fun watching him open the presents. He got very excited as he opened each present (minus the cards) and remarkabley guessed what most of the presents were.During the present oppening, Jodie was holding Anna and she fell asleep in her arms. However, Jodie was standing up while she fell asleep and later tried to sit down but wasn't able to because of how big Anna is.
One of the cutest things was watching James run around with one of his new toys. It's a police motorcycle helmet with handle bar that lights up and makes noise.
He liked to run into Robert and Emily's bedroom and look at himself in the mirror with lights flashing.
After a while of standing, Jodie was able to shift Anna's position and sit down. I thought it was cute how zonked out Anna was.
Our basketball hoop didn't come with a ball, even though it was supposed to. However, James found a football and started playing regardless.
We decided to get Anna a little outfit so that she didn't feel too left out with all the present opening.
She'll have to wait to a little bit to fit into it, but not too long hopefully.
Before leaving back to Tucson, we got a picture of just the two of us.
Well, that was the end of our weekend. It was really fun and we enjoyed being able to see so much family.
