Uncle Austin comes to town.

Austin came to town last weekend for James' baby blessing. It was awesome!

James was a little unsure of him at first...

 

Just kidding. However, CORA was a little unsure of him. Apparently Austin's loud voice was very scary, and he scared her a few times.

 We took him up to Kings Canyon National Park, to see the big trees obviously.

 Teasing just like an uncle should.

 The new thing we did at the park this time was visit Hume Lake. It is beautiful, and Cora loved feeding the ducks goldfish (and sticks, as per Austin's suggestion).

 James was a good trooper, but he was done by the end. So sad.

 Helping brush Cora's hair.

 It was great to have him here for James' blessing to represent the rest of the family. I'll post more on that later!

 Selfies.

 We got to watch the eclipse... this was as cool as it got for us.

 After we brought Brandon to work, Austin said he wanted to bring Cora swimming one more time and go to the zoo before his flight.

 He has the pictures of feeding the giraffe with Cora on his phone, but we did go see the elephants before we had to leave! Cora loved it... obviously.

 As soon as we left, Cora said "Austin go back to Utah?" Like she hadn't been avoiding him all weekend. Oh brother.

Austin's only the second sibling to come see Visalia, so it was fun to have him around!

James' Blessing.

We had the sweet opportunity to bless James on our sixth wedding anniversary.

That morning, Cora fell against the pillar on our patio and scraped up her chin really good. I was getting out of the shower and heard screaming, so I knew it was going to be good.

Brandon gave a really sweet blessing to James. He blessed him to know how loved he was, and to look for those people who need a friend. Just like Brandon.

 

 

 

 And some pictures of the star of the show. 

 

 

 We were also glad our friends Matt and Amanda came to support our family. James appreciated it, even though he had a funny way of showing it!

 

  Steve, Brandon, James. 

 We also had 3 friends from our ward and the other ward help in the blessing.

 

 

Unfortunately, that was it for the cute tux. James was hot and unhappy.

We had everyone over for dinner after church, and then played some games. James got a couple outfit changes (surprise surprise), and we loved his dino feet.

Overall, one of my favorite ways to celebrate our anniversary. Here's to 6 years down and many more!

Cora says.

Cora is talking up a STORM right now. When we left Miami, she had just a few words in her vocabulary. Now, she is asking questions, speaking in full sentences, and telling stories that go on and on (and on and on and on and on...), sometimes making sense.

Some of her highlights lately (for Bethany and anyone else who reads this):

-James spit up on my arm the other day, so I got a wipe out to clean it off. Cora saw this and said, "You have poopies, Mom?" (I laughed until I had tears in my eyes at this one)

-She cried the other day because she thought it was time to get Brandon and it wasn't. I gave her a hug and told her I was sorry she was crying, so she stopped. Then a few minutes later she started again, so I asked her why she was crying. She said "Mom, I just need to cry."

-Watching the Lion King's "Can you Feel the Love Tonight?" scene, she leaned her head over and said "Aww, lions hugging. Give me a hug mom!"

-Whenever she hears James crying, she runs over and says, "Oh James, it's not so bad. Buddy boy, don't cry!" And all the other things she hears me say to him.

-Today in church, she was singing along her own songs to the hymns. I couldn't catch what a lot of it was, but I heard her sing, "Why are you so sad mom?" (I don't know why she is so obsessed with my being sad and tired... Oh wait, it's because I have a newborn and I'm a mess. Oh well.)

-The other day, she refused to nap again. She's in this really bad funk right now. She fought it and screamed and kicked the wall and whatever for 3 hours. I was practicing my "ignore the junk behavior" parenting technique, so I let her do that. As soon as I got the door open to get her, she said, "Hi mom, did you have a nice nap?" And I said, "Uh, no I didn't. Because you were kicking the wall." And she said, "Oh, I was kicking the wall."

-She fell asleep in the car (from not napping........) and woke up just before we got to a drive through car wash. As you can imagine, it did NOT go over well. I have a video to prove it. When we got out of the car wash, she immediately said, "Oh wow, car wash". And with tears still running down her face she said, "Sorry dad, I cry". It honestly almost brought tears to my eyes to think that she feels the need to apologize for crying, so we told her that it is ok to be scared and to be sad. She is learning a lot of how to express her emotions.

-She is kind of sassy. The other day she was really mad at me (and vice versa) and yelled at me from her high chair, "Camille! YOU NEED TO LISTEN!" I was blown away, to be honest.

-She is very sweet and thoughtful. She likes to say things like "I help James pacifier", or "Hi mom, did you sleep?"

She is SO funny. She has been testing my patience and parenting strategies like crazy right now, but I love her independent streak and personality. She is my favorite. Even if I feel like I need to sell her to the zoo sometimes.