James' Rap Song

Lyrics:

When you put more peices, peices

it gets bigger bigger, it gets bigger bigger,

when you put more peices

o-o-on o-on on on on on on on,

on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on

and on and on.

And when you put more peices on

more peices

ON ON ON ON ON.

When you put more peices ah ah on, ah ah ah on. Ah ah on.

Come on on my earrrth and see and see and hear my song.

And...

And when we And when you fricken lose it

look everywhere

I capture all of them

and then when you just break up the place where you are

are behing you look behind you look behind you

Rough Day

It was a rough.stressful day in the J Pelham house today, but nothing we won't get through together.

The great things about today:
The boys and I made a very cool train track.
The boys made a barn out of legos with daddy!

Also, Jacob continues to get better. He stayed home from school today and has a horrible wet cough. But his temp is gone!

Feeling Better (Kind of)

Jacob seems to be doing a little bit better. Although I thought that yesterday at this time and then he threw up three times last night. He still has a little bit of a temp and I gave him Tylenol a couple hours ago so really its hard to say at this point. His energy seems to be up though even though it was never really down despite a 104 temperature. So I guess I am not giving any information or update because it has been really hard to tell with him how he is doing. The temps are typically down during the morning and day and shoot up again at night. So if he makes it through the night without a temperature and throwing up we will know for sure that he is feeling better.

My Sick Baby

Jacob's caught a bug. He threw up yesterday and has had a temp of 104 ever since... poor thing. He is quite the trooper though. He keeps his spirits up the best that he can! Say a prayer for us he gets well soon!

Hiking the White Tank Mountains

This morning the boys and I headed to the very close White Tank Mountains (which we have never been to in the 5 years we have lived in Surprise) for a guided Hike with a couple Rangers and our MOMS Club Chapter. Here are some of the pictures from our day!

James and Jacob with their friends Aisie and Graysen. And then we were off...
Our first stop we talked about the animals that live in the White Tank Mountains and what sounds they make. Then as we continued on the train we noticed some Coyote poop which the ranger picked up and dissected for us all. Showing us the hair of rabbit that he once ate. We made sure to clarify with the kids that you have to be a ranger to pick up Coyote poop.

Next we looked at the pictures that had been inscribed on the rocks thousands of years ago.

We talked about the Saguaro Cactus that you can only find in Arizona. The one they are looking at in the picture is about 300 years old.

The one below has been carved into by a hiker on the trail. This one is actually now dead but it has not yet fallen over.

At the end of the hike they wrapped up the morning for the kids with a story about the desert.

We ate the lunch we packed and then let the kids play on a the playground. We had a fun time and the weather could not have been more perfect.

Jacob Going to Check the Mail with Daddy

Since James gets to go to work with me on Wednesdays, it is always hard to get out of the door without Jacob wanting to come with us too! We have to find clever ways to make him staying home with daddy seem more fun than coming with me to the gymnasium. Today it was roller skating to the mail the box and he has never been more excited!!

No More Paci

The pacifiers are gone. Jacob has given them up! We told him it was time to throw them away (although this wasn't our first attempt). He hesitated at first resisting. Then we explained to him that he was a big boy now and it was time to put them in the garbage. And so, with Daddy's help, he did just that. He threw them all in the garbage. He has even found some laying around the house in various places and brought them to our attention, "uh oh mommy, I found a paci, gotta put it in the garbage can." We promised him after three nights of no paci he could pick out a new toy at the toy store. Last night was night three and so today we went to toys r us. James tried to influence his decision pointing out things that he wanted for himself - ha ha, that's what big brothers are for right? But Jacob did not hesitate to tell him no. He picked out a Little Einstein Rocket ship/Submarine for the bath tub and jumped in the tub as soon as he got home.

We expected three nights to be hard on all of his, but he truly only asked for his paci maybe four times over the four days. He did not throw a single tantrum. No, late nights up crying for it. We reminded him of the new toy he would get to pick out at bed time he laid in his bed and talked himself to sleep. We also expected him to wake up in the middle of the night, like he usually does and end up crying when he would have normally reached for and put his paci back in his mouth.

We are so proud of him, and I cannot wait until their next dentist appointment when they ask me about James' fingers and Jacob's paci and I get to tell them - NOPE, none! :)

Busy Busy Busy

We have had a crazy last couple of weeks. I am not even sure where to begin.

Let me start off by congratulating James on receiving his backstroke ribbon today!!! He swam across the entire pool doing a full on backstroke! Yeah James!!!

Our life has flipped in some sense, now Josh spends most of the time at home with the children. We are both in school full-time. Josh is taking his classes online and I am in the classroom four days a week, two mornings and two evenings. We are a lot closer to our two year degrees than we thought we were - especially Josh and now the information that we are learning is 100 times more meaningful to us than it ever was before. I am also still working part-time at Oasis Gymnastics and come the end of April, I will be also coaching gymnastics for the city of Surprise. This was a great opportunity that was presented to me and I am very excited about the position!

Last weekend I traveled to CA with the International MOMS Club for the Southern California Founder's Day Luncheon. This was a special treat because it was the 25th Anniversary of the International MOMS Club.

There were about 1200 stay-at-home mother's in attendance and we had a special guest speaker, Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

It was a pleasure to hear what she had to say, even though I do not always agree with her, I have to say she made some great points and had us laughing hysterically throughout the speech she gave us. It was great to see some friends that I email with all year long, but only have the chance to see face to face on this one occasion. This was my second year at the Southern CA Luncheon, first time since my promotion to State Coordinator for Arizona and I am looking forward to my own Region's Luncheon in April in Albuquerque, NM.

James had his 5 year check up with his pediatrician. It went very well in the sense that he is physically healthy. He is still in the 5th percentiles for weight (35.5 lbs) and has been since the day he was born and he is 41.5 inches tall (about the 20th percentile).

Jacob has been wearing underwear for about 2 straight weeks now with the exception of night time. He hates wearing diapers and pull ups and would rather be naked if he can't have underwear on- which is fine with us!! We had an accident today while out and about and it was rather embarrassing to be wiping his pee up off the floor of a public place and then explaining to them "well, he is potty trained, I just don't know what happened... he just went a lot about 15 minutes ago" If you are a mom I am sure you have been there. He goes #1 always on his own (well, almost always) now and #2 as long as we ask and remind him to he is sitting on the potty grunting away - I should get a tape recorder and use it to threaten him during his high school years.

Jacob had his Valentine's party for school on Tuesday. They played lots of games and exchanged goody bags filled with a juice box, granola bar, sweet treat and a candy. James will have his Valentine's Party at school tomorrow- he picked out Spiderman Valentines at the store and we will tape little suckers to them for him to pass out. Tonight he will be writing his name on them. He is very good at this but gets frustrated if things aren't perfect, so luckily there is only eight of them to fill out.

Last week at school: James had silly dress day on Friday and rumor has it he was the hit of the class... hmmm, I wonder why?Could it be the underwear on his head?! He also got to bring cupcakes to share with his class on Wednesday so they could help him celebrate his birthday!

Jacob continues to do great all by himself in the pool. Although every Thursday morning he threatens to not go in the pool without me... well the conversation usually goes something like this, "Mommy do you have your suit on?" "No, Jacob, you are a big boy now, you get to go in with Ms. Jessica all by yourself!" "I don't want to go swimming with Ms. Jessica all by myself." "Ok then you won't earn your candy at the end of swim lessons." "I was just kidding mommy, I am going to go swimming in the big pool by James."

He is so hilarious with his "Just kidding". Every thing is just kidding. In fact he was on the phone with my sister's boyfriend Joey and he told him, I am going to come to your house tomorrow. Joey said OK see you tomorrow... Jacob said, "Just kidding! I am not coming." So funny- even more than he realizes because we live 1500 miles away!

There was a job fair here in AZ that Josh attended yesterday. It had over 10,000 people in line at the door with only 150 companies hiring. I am so happy that we are both back in school full-time!

Sorry for the EXTRA LONG blog... I told you life has been crazy in the J Pelham house!

PS- have you ever seen an almost 3 year old and a 5 year old play in/with an exersaucer! lol... this is what the boys are up to right now as I write.

Happy 5th Birthday James!

Jacob's February Hands

James' 5th Birthday Party

We had a very eventful day yesterday. We celebrated James' 5th Birthday with a few close friends. We gathered together at our home, masked and tattooed the boys,

and then headed down to Phoenix to Enchanted Island! He had left over passes from last year's birthday so it was the perfect opportunity to use them.

We gathered at the entrance to the park for a group picture before riding the rides. Bribery had nothing to do with their patients and smiles :).

OK so I told them they could have a funny one if they posed for a couple good ones...

First stop - Roller Coaster!Then the cars...Airplanes...

Let's not forget the 30 min, no-line wait for the bumpless bumper boats...All in good spirits of course. People watching kept Josh and I busy during this one.Time for a bathroom break and snack time

before hitting the carousel and train ride.

They rode a couple of the rides twice and I failed to mention the teacup like ride they went on. I was sure Jacob was not going to make it off that ride with leaving some of his lunch.

We left without any complaints. They still had a big night ahead of them. We sang happy birthday,

Ate Pizza,

And cupcakes, And opened presents...

But that wasn't all... I was called into work, and as you can see the boys were highly disappointed!

But that wasn't all... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!