New pictures are up from 11-8-07 to 12-15-07. It's my goal this week to get current on pictures.

Saturday we met Nana, Papa, Uncle Dusty and Melanie at Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Yummy! We were there to celebrate Nana's birthday (which was last Wednesday and because I'm a terrible, terrible daughter-in-law, I completely forgot to wish her a Happy Birthday here on my blog - I thought it during the day Nana! I'm sorry!) and it was a really nice lunch. We even had cheesecake for dessert - really, really yummy! After lunch we roamed around the attached mall for a while. I ran a couple errands and found some really, really great deals at Children's place. They have all their winter clothing on sale and then it's 50% off that even! And I had a 20% off coupon so all in all, I bought James a sweater and fleece pullover for $8.38! I was quite happy to find such great deals. Then I was just going to walk through Ann Taylor (my favorite store!) and saw some really pretty dresses. I tried a few on and called Auntie Krystle - did you know that Ann Taylor has a bridal collection? Well, they do and they have some awesome dresses in the most perfect color. Actually Auntie Krystle and I went back yesterday to see them and try them on again. We're definitely keeping them on the list. Anyway, the kids had a good time at the mall too. They both were able to run around and play some. James was ready to leave and fell asleep instantly in the truck. Annika was not so ready to leave and cried that we had to leave Nana and Papa. She was tired too though and ended up sleeping on the way home.

Last Wednesday the kids and I headed back to a different mall to pick up my pants that were at the tailor. We sat down to have a snack and in order to keep James occupied, I gave him some napkins. The first thing he did was tear the napkin in two. I gave him a silly face and noise and he thought that was hilarious so he ripped the napkin again. Pretty soon it was a game and each time he would rip, I would react and he and Nika would giggle. I think we shredded 4-5 napkins before we ran out and had to go. James is such a happy baby for me. He is so quick to smile and laugh. Kris says he gets a little crabby towards the end of each day and thinks James just wants his mommy to come home earlier. I wish baby! I wish.

Wednesday during the day Are and Jessie came over with their kids Mia (3) and Vanja (1). Annika had a great time playing and has talked about Mia and Vanja ever since. She's very sad that they live so far away. They played some Wii that day and Kris said that Mia beat him in Wii boxing. Hee! That night at dinner Annika sang "Ooohh, Barracuda!" At first I was so surprised I asked her to repeat what she said. She sang it again and then I looked at Kris and said "Someone playing a little too much Guitar Hero during the day?" He smiled and said "Annika, tell mommy what song you asked me to play today." And Annika responded with "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." Annika always asks Daddy to play the songs with girls singing. And then she dances while Daddy plays. It's pretty cute.

James has learned a new trick - how to crawl up onto Annika's bed. If you're upstairs, you'll find him and Annika on her bed with all her covers thrown off and them jumping or looking out her window. He doesn't know too well that he could fall off the bed so you have to keep a pretty close eye on him. He does think it's pretty fun though and laughs and smiles the whole time he's up there.

Annika likes to "read" at bedtime now. She always picks out two books and first Mommy reads them and then she wants a turn. Sometimes she just makes up words to whatever she sees in the pictures, sometimes she recites the book word for word (um, some of them have been read a lot) and other times she wants to actually read the book and we'll work together on sounding out words or she'll ask me "What does this word say?" to each and every word. Um, that last one is not all that fun for me actually. But I do just love to see her work to put sounds together to form words. My smart little girl.

Yesterday Annika was playing with some water in the sink and when she was done she was drenched, of course. After changing her clothes I brought her to the bathroom to brush her hair. I asked her if I could put a pony tail in and she said no (of course, she always does) so I asked her if I could put in a french braid. She didn't really know what that was but she sat there and let me do it. I showed her with a mirror what it looked like in back and she thought it was pretty neat. We had to go show Daddy and everything. And she even left it in all day. I was impressed by that. Last night at bedtime we took the braid out and since it was put in her hair when it was wet, her hair was all curly last night. It was so cute! And it was even cuter because she was in her pink tutu. I had to take pictures, of course. She was in her tutu because we were having a dancing evening in our house. Before bedtime we all went upstairs to play and Annika went to her room and changed her clothes. (She can now do buttons and fully dress herself!) She changed into three different play skirts before settling on her tutu. Then she asked me to turn on my music on the computer (where I was sitting working on pictures) and we all danced for the next 45 minutes. It was one of the best nights we've had recently. Daddy whisked Nika around. Nika danced and twirled by herself. I bounced James on my lap and then I also twirled him some too. Pretty soon it was bedtime though and then past bedtime and we had to turn the music off. Hey, maybe I should do that every night! I think I worked off a few calories dancing around, especially with big baby James in my arms! And the kids had a great time.