Week by week 18

(October 25-31). This was a fun week! There are lots of pictures cuz I felt like putting them all on. On a side note, I owe a huge thanks to Harm for telling me about Picasa and how easy it is to resize my pics so they upload WAY faster!
We started the week off by going to the park (Big surprise, eh?). James discovered a new game. It actually took me about 5 minutes to figure out that my kid was not having some sort of breakdown but that he was actually playing a new game. He still plays this game often. Only now it isn't just sticks that are leaf blowers anymore. Anything can be a leaf blower. A fork, a toothbrush, a broom, whatever. Here he is in action.
My little leaf blower!John-Luke sleeping peacefully in his stroller at the park. Man I miss those days!
This week John-Luke turned 4 months old. Yep, 4 big fat months! He is so yummy I could just eat him up!
This week we also discovered Hippo Park! This is the best park ever! Small (but not too small) with all the best toys and a few cool hippos thrown in the mix. Oh, and it is in a beautiful location overlooking the river too. James was fascinated with the huge hippo's mouth.
See how beautiful it was? Lovely. And totally enclosed with a fence.
Two of James' favorite people. Paisley and Cado! They make being a kid look like so much fun and James adores them both (and "Denevie" as he calls their baby sister, Geneve).
James playing on the hippo's. He was trying to jump like his cool friends. He chickened out every time. Good thing too.
A great example why I need a new camera. It was an awesome day at the park!
Just a cute pic of my two boys in the morning. James is eating a made-from-scratch crepe. Aren't Johnny-Lu's rolls coming along nicely?
On Halloween, we scheduled a full day. We had a family photo shoot with Harmony in the morning in Genthod, Switzerland. I traded with my friend Harmony. I took her family pics (on her great camera) and she took ours (also on her great camera). She does an amazing job. I will be posting those pics soon!
Then we went to a "pumpkin patch" nearby to pick out some pumpkins to carve. Let's just say that this wasn't much of a patch and more like a little heap of pumpkins dumped on the side of the road. We got some pumpkins anyway. Brian helping Bimmy chose some pumpkins.
They had other kinds of squash as well. Bubba liked this one. Notice the pile of tiny pumpkins behind him. They were NOT cheap! We got 4 small pumpkins for $20 (yes, dollars since the CHF and the dollar are pretty much equal these days).
The cash register. It was an honor system. We just pushed our money into the tin can. Actually, there are a lot of things here on the honor system. Like newspapers. It is kinda the same thing where you just drop your money in and take your paper. Notice how the place was really just on the side of the road.
Since Bubba is too young yet for knives (much to his daily chagrin, I might add), we decided to try out painting a pumpkin. He enjoyed it very much. Here he is in the begining. Quite clean actually.
Mid painting James decided to take a taste (much to my chagrin).
More painting.
"Ta dump!" That is how Bimmy says it.
Then he turned on himself with the paint. Oh well. We also had Daddy actually carve a couple of our pumpkins. James was very fascinated with this.
John-Luke. Pretty much bored out of his head watching from his bouncy seat. He is so darn patient with us all. Seriously a saint!
James wouldn't touch the insides to help Brian take them out. His exact word was, "Yucky!" He did try and taste a seed but was not impressed.
Happily holding our first carved pumpkin.
He is a saint but not perfect. He finally had enough and demanded some food and a bed.
Later that night, we headed out to the church for the English ward's annual Halloween party. We don't go to that ward but we do go to some of their activities and I hang out with a few of the momma's with kids. James was a bumblebee! He was so excited to put on that costume. Thanks, Pink, for giving it to us.
Here is James with Elder Escalona (I was his mom's VT in Dallas before we moved). Yes, it is a small world. Funny to move to Geneva and have someone we knew from Dallas called over here.
They did a little cat-walk show of all the kids in their costumes. Bubba stole the show (in my professional opinion).

Don't you agree?

Johnny-Lu was a little Swiss cow (complete with cowbell). And he was happy again after his nip and nap.
Me and Brian with Lil' Captain.
James from the side. Just to get the full effect of his costume. Don't you love the stinger? The only issue with the costume was that he was so cute that I had about 5 people refer to him as a girl.
James also decided to try on a few other costumes as well. Here he is with a gnome hat and a fairy wand. We left just before they started the trick-or-treating. James had a blast!
A full body view of Baby's costume. Yes, we really do call him "baby", a lot! Isn't he a luscious little cow? (Another thanks to Pink for this costume too!)
Hope y'all had a Happy Halloween! We did!

Week by week 17

(October 18-24) A few pics to enjoy. This week was much more easily handled. We got dressed (at least for church).Doesn't he look so handsome in his suit?
We finger painted. Lots of fun and not too hard to clean up.
"Ta dump!"
We played catch at the Tennis club by our house. James picked the summer hat this day. I tried to get him to wear a winter hat but he wanted this one instead.
Happy, smiling baby!
A self-portrait with Johnny-Lu.
Bubba playing "leaf-blower," one of his favorite games.
On the merry-go-round. For once the camera actually got it right, the kid is in focus and the background is spinning.
Happy in the stroller again at Espace Junior. We got in the Halloween spirit a bit early.
Bubba and me on the go cart waving at Brian and John-Luke.
And here are two videos from this week. The first one is James jumping at Espace. I didn't mean to upload this one but since it is here you can see it anyway.

This one is John-Luke enjoying his bath. He really likes bath time. A lot!

Week by Week 16

(October 11-17) My second week without my mom is well documented. Lots of stuff happened. We started the week off with lots of nakedness. Some days it IS too hard to get the kids dressed. Not really, but James does love to run naked through the house. He says "nay tid."In addition to chillin' naked, James colored while John-Luke watched.
John-Luke's looking at me like, "Seriously? Do I really have to watch this?" I think he secretly questions my sanity sometimes. He does raise his eyebrows at me often.
But isn't he cute anyway?
I think as the winter continues to arrive here that there will be many pictures of Johnny in this exact setting. He will probably grow up and wonder if he ever got to do anything fun.
We also went to the park and played even though it isn't exactly Summer anymore.
Even Johnny-Lu got out to play for a minute.
James was so proud of this ginormous mushroom he found growing at the park. There he was happily running down the hill toward the slide with me strolling behind him and then he stopped and examined the ground for a minute. When he stood up he yelled triumphantly, "MUSHROOM!!" Can you tell how proud he is of it?
He carried it all around the park for about 5 minutes. Then he discovered he could slowly start picking at it. James loves to pick at things.
Picking the mushroom apart was good for about 10 minutes of lovely discovery. Yes, I was watching closely to be sure he didn't eat any of the mushroom as James loves to taste things too.
Also, this week we did some tickling of John. He is very ticklish on his ribs.
James did get into a bit of mischief this week. Here he is with a whole cup of butter that I had softened to make cookies. He found it and was eating--yes, eating!!--it. And he was also rubbing it all over his naked legs (he was in underwear and a shirt only). I was totally grossed out. I came in the room and he looked up and said, "Butter!!" When I gasped, he quickly started licking his fingers (he knew I was going to clean him up).
Luckily, after the butter incident we met some friends at Espace Junior. It is a huge bouncy-house-and-other-outside-toys place. It rocks and James loves it. He was able to burn a few of those calories for the next 3.5 hours.
Burning off the butter!
Looking cute and being very good in the stroller.
More calorie burning.
And more.
And more.
Some sleeping or non-calorie-burning.
We also did a bit of tummy time this week.
And a few self-portraits. James loves to see himself in pictures and we take them all the time.
This week we also discovered the joy of running through the leaves.
James has also become a big "helper." I used quotations because sometimes he is more hinder than helper but he is so cute as he tries to help.
Another raised eyebrow look. Not sure what crazy thing I was doing here but I'm sure it was crazy. Perhaps dancing and singing around the room.
This week I also broke into my stash of silly toys that I brought back from Utah. James got some goggles. He really loved them until he took them apart. They lasted a few weeks. What a silly boy!
More playing at the park. James was insistent that I take a picture of him and John-Luke on the slide together. James thought it was great fun and John-Luke did not.
This week we also made some recipes together. This is one of James' favorite past-times. He is always asking me to make recipes, especially chocolate recipes. Yep, he is licking the beater!
More Espace Junior to burn off those chocolate recipes. This time we took Brian with us. Fortunately, James was free until he turned 2.
Probably James' very favorite thing is jumping. He loves it. He jumps all the time.
John-Luke was happy in his stroller. I think he was just glad that the non-crazy parent was there to keep an eye on things.
A little break. James just layed down for a minute to suck on his fingers and catch his breath.
And we're off again!
Chillin' with daddy and watching James burn enough calories for all of us.
Brian and Bubba on the go-carts. James is good for about 3 turns around the track before he is done. The token usually gets you 4 or 5 turns around the track so he is usually saying, "done" before it is really over. Too much jumping to do at this place!
Brian decided it would be a good idea to let Bimmy go up the "6 years and older" toy. Duh! I was thinking that he was going to fall and break his neck. He didn't. Luckily. Of course, there was still the slide at the top. I thought we might have to go up after him.
Nope. He just turned around and was going to go down on his belly. Unfortunately, he was "helped" by a little girl. This, he did not enjoy. He didn't cry but he hasn't tried to go back up that one again!
Overall, it was a busy and crazy week. I think my capacity to handle 2 kids alone was greatly increased this week. Thank heaven for that! And I think that this week more than makes up for the lack of pics from last week. Hope the "grand ma mas" enjoy!