Cookies or Salad Dressing.

Wesley's recipe for "Frosting and Sprinkle Cookies", as told to his preschool teachers...

100 eggs.
15 cups of oil.
1 cup of sugar.
2 cups of flour... I think.
Tons of sprinkles.
Mix it all together.
Use an apple cookie cutter.
Put in a one degree oven for one minute.
Eat the cookies.

Wesley 101.

Recently Wesley's preschool held a "Family Day" in which the families of the students got to visit the classrooms. In addition to some arts and crafts projects, we were given a "newspaper" that Wesley completed with his teachers' help that detailed his thoughts on different subjects. Keep in mind these were Wesley's thoughts and feelings at the particular moment he was questioned and in no way reflect his answers 15 minutes later.

His favorite book is "Go, Dog, Go!" by P.D. Eastman. He commented "I like the cars they drive."

Wesley's favorite restaurant? "The car restaurant (Route 66) - I like their shakes. We eat there 68 times. Almost every day!"

His favorite movie was a no-brainer. "Cars - I really like Lightning McQueen. I'm going to visit them and take a picture with Mater (at Disney's California Adventure)."

Regarding animals, Wesley commented "I'm babysitting a puppy named Bella... for 100 weeks! You don't have to take a freeway where she lives."

Asked to talk about himself, Wesley said "I play and have dinner and I have a lot of fun with my Daddy. I do lots of cool tricks. I put on gymnastics shows for Mommy. I play with my cars and I like to tackle my Daddy. I really like to play with my little sister... but not always."

St. Patrick's Day.

All photos by the uber-talented Godmother, Adrea.

Wesley & Abby.

They may not see each other as often as they would like, but they are still pretty fond of one another. Photos by Adrea.

Five Years Old.

So as of January 31, Wesley is five years old. He celebrated the day with his friends at Scooter's Jungle (an inflatable bouncer/slide place), followed by a small family get together at the Fix house with swimming and cake. Needless to say Wesley had a great day. Thanks to Aunt Kelley for another amazing job with the birthday cake.

Santa Claus 2008.

So this year's visit went slightly better than last year. As you'll recall, the last time Julia saw Santa she was a screaming wreck. This year we prepped her and had no concerns. She WANTED to go see Santa, as she now has a firm grip on the Santa-brings-presents concept. Well, after a ten minute wait to think it over in line, she lost it again when we placed her on Santa's lap. However, we were able to get her to reign it in enough for a picture, as you can see. Yes, that is Shannon's hand she is holding. And yes, those are tears streaming down her cheeks. And yes, that is possibly the most strained smile you will ever see on Julia's face. As for Wesley, he did great. The smile on his face is the smile of a four year old boy smiling for a long, long time waiting for his sister to finally cooperate with the photographer.

Shamu.

Back in early October our family went on a little vacation to Sea World for a few days. Given a couple days, we were able to see all of the shows at the park, including the ever-popular Shamu show twice. Well, at one point in the Shamu show, the host asks the audience to repeat after him a chant of "Shamu" over and over. A very little detail of the show, but apparently one that stuck with Julia. In the past week or so, out of absolutely nowhere, Julia has begun calling for the chants from her car seat whenever the thought crosses her mind. It goes something like this (written in Juliaspeak)...

Julia: Hey duys, do you want to do Shamu?
Us: Uh, okay.
Julia: SHA-MUU!
Us: Shamu!
Julia: Good dob, duys!

The affirmation at the end is what usually makes me laugh. Julia usually leads the chants 3 or 4 more times before she moves on. One last thing - Wesley has no patience for this game of his sister's. While he has the ability to be fully content sitting in his seat quietly staring out the window, Julia is often a nonstop barrage of chatter from the moment the engine starts until we reach our destination.

Christmas Photos by Adrea.

Just a small selection from the amazing photo shoot by Wesley and Julia's Godmother, Adrea.