Michael has been growing so much lately. He loves to be put on his play mat and is often grumpy until I put him on it. The other day I came to find him rolled up on his side playing with a toy. Soon he will be rolling over! He is definitely more content then James was to just chill, James was already rolling over. It is kinda nice to have a nice calm baby for a change!

James on the other hand continues to get into everything. Today I heard him crying but could not find him. I finally located him wedged behind the TV. I really didn't think there was enough room for him back there but he made it work!

Usually when I go to wake him up from his nap this is what I find. He always takes the mattress off his bed and then falls asleep next to it, or under his bed. What a stinker!

I have a ton of projects around the house that I need to finish, so this week I decided to do some of them. This is probably my favorite so I thought I would share. I have been trying to think of some good quiet activities for James to have that he would actually enjoy. So I have made a few folder games, which he likes, then I saw this pattern block activity from Melissa and Doug. So I decided to make my own.
I bought a small magnetic white board and some magnetic paper and printed pattern blocks. I also printed some pictures on plain paper. I found these cute Berenstain Bears paper dolls here and decided to print those too.

They turned out great, so I hope he likes them!

• lived in 4 different houses/apartments


• got a dog


• lived in two different states


• lost a dog


• had 2 kids


• bought a car


• bought a house


• Doug graduated college and got his dream job


• I have had 3 different jobs and enjoy the one I currently have the most


• built a Temple (Doug's dream job)

I am excited to see what the next few years have in store for us!

Note: If you are some kind or animal rights activist or a member of PETA no animals were harmed during the following experiment, for the rest of you please remember this is done in the name of truth.


In my life I have been told many stories to convince me to be a good person and act correctly. I would guess most of you have also heard these and as I do you typically believe them and become a better person. My question is how do you even know if the story is true? If in fact you are told a lie by someone who is trying to teach you to do right is it possible they are trying to beguile you and lead you into temptation? So this brings us to our experiment:

Boiling Frogs
I don’t know how many times I have heard the story that if you throw a frog into a boiling pot of water it will jump out but if you put the frog into the water and bring it to a boil it will not jump out and die. My team and I have decided to test this story once and for all.


First lets meet the team:
Tims – Subject/Volunteer selection & collection.
James – Subject/Volunteer suitability verification (Suitability requirements being if you can survive a two year old boy for one and a half hours you can defiantly jump out of a pot).
Doug – Photographic documentation.

Please meet our volunteers:

Now that you are familiar with the plan we can show you the results:

As you see the frog placed in a pot of water that is brought to a boil will jump out. We did test this on both subjects. So we have in fact proved the story to be a bold faced lie. I say bold faced lie becuase the other half of the story is also false. A frog put in a pot of boiling water dies (Natalie was unhappy with our entire experiment and will not let me fully adress that portion on "Her" blog) but trust me on this one.

James is a very busy and active 2-year-old. This week he has been especially fun. Here is a sample of one of his days.
I told James that I was going to take a shower. He ran in the bathroom yelling, "bath hot, bubbles." So I postponed my shower so he could take a bath. He couldn't even wait for me to take his pajamas off. And no this was not a clean diaper!
Finally we got his pajamas off and he spent probably 30 minutes in the tub after which he had to come and join me in the shower, then head back to the bath which I had forgotten to drain, for a total of over an hour in the tub.

We haven't blogged for a while because we have spent the past 2 weeks in Colorado visiting Family. Doug's family lives there, and my family was there taking care of their house. We had a ton of fun, but I think we are all happy to be home.
Monday July 20th:
Pack the car and leave for Colorado at 6pm. Michael was amazing and so was James even though he probably only slept for 2 hours. Doug got sick on the way, chills, fever, vomiting, so when we got to his parents house at 4 am he crashed. I got the boys to bed which was no small task considering Michael was well rested and James was way overtired! Finally he fell asleep around 5:30 and I was able to get a few hours sleep before Michael woke up to eat again.
Tuesday July 21st:
We (Doug and James) slept in and Doug felt much better when he woke up. We went to see Great Granny and Grandpa then headed out to Elizabeth to see my family. It was great to be able to see our old house, I haven't been there for 3 years! James loved it. He liked swinging with Auntie Jo, Laying on the hammock with his brother, and playing pool. He also liked the trampoline and swing set.