Thank You Aunt Diane

Dear Aunt Diane,

Thank you so much for my horse.  I really, really like it.  I have been playing with it every day since I opened it.  Now I have a big horse and a small horse.  Mom says I look like such a big boy when I play with them.

I like to make the big horse give my little horse a ride..

My baby even likes getting horseback rides...

And of course I had to go for a ride myself...

 

Thanks again!  I hope I see you soon!

Love,

Joshua

 

 

Christmas 2012

To start out our Christmas Celebration we stayed the night at Omah and Papa's house a few nights before Christmas.  Joshua's Aunt Anna and Uncle Andrew, Uncle Shawn, Auntie Anna, and Cousin Noah were also there.  We had a great time doing Christmas devotions, playing games, eating amazing food and gift giving. 

 Watching the train with Lulu.  Joshua is really into trains these days. He was always asking for it to be turned on.

 

Holding Cousin Noah while watching the train.  

 

Taking Aspen for a walk.  Aspen says, "You call this a walk?  We are barely moving!"

 

Cousins making a mess playing.

 

Watching Joshua open presents this year was so much fun to watch.  He would start opening a present and before he even knew what it was he would say, "WOW!"

 

"Thank you for my present GG."

 

Noah opening his present from Joshua.  

 

His cowboy hat and stick horse.  He loves this hat and we think he looks so adorable in it!

 

"Leave me alone Joshua, can't you see I am trying to read?"

 

After unpacking and spending one night in our house we were off to stay a night in Holyoke visiting Dan's Grandpa with his extended family.  It was a lot of fun seeing everyone especially all the babies. 

 

 

Hugging cousins!

 

Playing Pears with Omah. 

Cousin Sara, Matt, and their dog (Santa) Bear. 

Joshua loved playing with Bear.  He was just his size.  Joshua loved walking around the house and randomly saying, "Matt, Matt."  He still walks around saying "Matt!" now that we are home. 

 

Helping out with Christmas dinner. He sampled it a couple times to make sure it wasn't poison too. 

Present time! 

 Joshua got some cool pop up books. This one was his favorite. Just minutes after receiving it I found him in a corner very into it.

 

Playing drums with Cousin River.  This drum came with several other instruments and I think it is his favorite gift.  He sings as he is making music  So cute!

 

My little drummer boy.

 

On Christmas morning we headed to my Mom's house for her annual Christmas breakfast.  The drive across town was so pretty since it had snowed on Christmas Eve.  It was just us, my Mom and my two younger sisters.  We hung out, played games and watched Christmas movies, my favorite being an old VHS that was my absolute favorite as a child.  It is so funny how things like that bring back memories. 

His new ride on dump truck that makes noise.  He loves "gucks" (Trucks).

 

Playing with Auntie Brooke (Broke) and Aunt Sydney (Niney)

 

 

"You're so funny Auntie Brooke!" 

 

He decided it was time to take down the Christmas tree.  See the box of ornaments?  He took them off the tree, took the hooks off, and then put them in the box.  When the box got full, he dumped the ornaments on the floor to make room for more.  He's waited all month to freely do this activity without being told "no!" ;)

 

Merry Christmas! 

 
Overall Joshua did great with all the activity!  He slept great and took very long naps every place we went and stuck to his routine.  However, he is a very introverted baby in that he likes his downtime and gets very easily overwhelmed with large crowds.  All of this he gets from his Mama.  During his first Christmas at Omah and Papa's he started saying, "go home" about 30 minutes before his bedtime.  He was worn out from the days activities and ready for some sleep.  When I told him we weren't going home and that we were going night night there he immediately started heading up the stairs towards his bedroom at there house. He was done for the night!  He went to bed early and slept in!  While visiting Grandpa's house he definitely was overwhelmed with all the people.  He was very clingy to Mama the whole time and kept asking to go home or to go see Aunt Sydney. Random but so sweet.  At my Mom's he did fine.  I think it was much easier for him since it was low key and not a whole lot of people.  He was however ready to be home, nap in his own bed and just chill at home. 

 

 

We are blessed beyond belief with this little guy!  Having kids makes the holidays so much more fun and special.  We look forward to next year when he can help his baby sister open her gifts! 

All Joshua Wants for Christmas is His Two Front Teeth

Joshua has recently discovered his pockets and loves putting his hands in them.  On Thursday he was playing around in our kitchen with his hands in his pocket, slipped on the hardwood floors (he was wearing socks), lost his balance and fell flat on his face.  When I inspected his mouth I noticed that he had a bubble/blister looking thing on his gums.  He seemed okay and we were just going to wait a few days to see if it went away.  I asked my friend who is a hygienist and she said it sound liked an abscess and that I should probably take him in soon.  I called the dentist first thing in the morning and they wanted to see him right away.  Tuns out that the abscess had been there awhile and was caused from his fall back in September. His other front tooth had slowly been dying and became infected.  The tooth was completely dead and needed to be pulled!  We sort of expected to get that news but it was SO awful having to have him go through that again.  I wish I could have traded places with him.  He of course cried, did a little screaming, and kept saying "GO! GO! GO!" as he pointed towards the door.  BREAK-MY-HEART!  Once we were home he was back to his old self.  Kids are so tough!  If we had a tooth pulled we would be curled up on the couch, watching a movie complaining. 

We never noticed the abscess because it is so high up on his gums so the fall on Thursday was actually a blessing.  The dentist said that the infection was starting to spread to his k9 tooth.  So if he never fell, we would have never known about the abscess, it would have spread and he would have had to have more teeth pulled.  Not only that but I heard that infections in the mouth can spread to the brain!  I think him falling on Thursday was God's way of saying, "Okay you are running out of time before this gets really bad."  And he allowed him to take another fall so that I would inspect his mouth. 

The dentist removed the tooth were the infection originated and while it was starting to spread they pulled it before it had a chance to make its way into the next tooth.  Please pray that they got it all, his body heals from this infection and this will be it for us!  NO MORE UNEXPECTED DENTAL VISITS!

While this has been an extremely traumatizing experience for all three of us; something we never ever want to have to experience again, and while it makes me so sad that he has to adjust to not having his two front teeth, in the end this is only a temporary stage, his teeth will grow back, and this isn't anything life threatening.  I am thankful for a healthy baby who I am able to kiss on, love on, snuggle with, read with, play with, hear him laugh, see him smile, watch him walk and run, learn new things everyday, and wrestle with anytime I want.  Not all parents get that.  I am counting my blessings! 

I think we will be packing up and moving to Arkansas after the first of the year so he will fit in!  HA!

Pictures to come soon...


 

Snow Day Fun

When I first heard of the blizzard we were going to get the first thing I thought was "What am I going to do alone, in the house, ALL-DAY-LONG with my very active toddler?  How will I stay sane?"  We are usually out and about everyday doing something.  Joshua gets bored very easily, loves getting out of the house, and when we spend too much time indoors is when he usually finds trouble to get into.  So I armed myself with a list of fun activities to keep him engaged, active, and out of trouble. 

Checking out the snow first thing in the morning from his crib.  He said, "SNOW!  BBUURR!"  Then he wanted to open every other window in his room to see if there was snow out each of them as well. 

 

So While it did this all day...

 



 We did this...

Made play dough...

After making play dough he decided to take all my measuring cups and spoons out of the drawer.  Sure, why wouldn't you do that?

 

To burn off some of his energy I made him an obstacle course that he loved! 

 

 

...and he's off to the finish!

 

Of course we played with our play dough.

He had the most fun sticking straws and toothpicks in the play dough. 

Good thing it is edible.  Well I guess the word "edible" is subjective ;)

One of Joshua's favorite activities of the day was bringing the snow inside to play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giving his dog a bite.

 

My favorite activity of the day and a close second for Joshua's: we laid blankets over a bunch of pillows and we rolled across them...

 

We walked across them...

 

...and we crawled across them (no picture).  We both had a blast and I was honestly wore out after only 5 minutes of this activity.  

 

The last trick in my bag for the day was playing balloon tennis.  He didn't love this at first.  I think it was a little old for him. 

 

 

 However, once daddy got home and he saw us playing it he wanted to try it. So we played it again and about one minute into it he wanted my "racquet." He spent the next 10 minutes cracking himself and us up playing by himself with two "racquet's." It was pretty hilarious. 

 

 We had a jammed packed day of fun activities! He was so busy that he didn't even bother the Christmas tree ;)  I call that a success!  

 

I think we are both looking forward to getting out of the house tomorrow and back to our routine.  Tomorrow is playgroup day!  He will be excited to play with other kids and I am excited to see other adults ;) 

 

 

If you try any of these activities with your kiddos please let me know how they liked them.  Also, if you have any fun snow day ideas, please share!

 

 

 

 

Christmas Cookie Exchange

We hosted what we called the "First Annual Neighborhood Cookie Exchange."  We ate yummy cookies, everyone left with a plate of assorted homemade goodies and recipes, the kids fought over toys played like little angels, the adults chatted, and all was merry and bright.  It was a lot of fun getting all the neighbors together and we hope (obviously by the title of the event) that this will become a neighborhood tradition. 

The table all set up with my goodies (Chocolate mint cookies and Christmas Bark-aka Christmas Crack).  I did not get a picture with table complete with all the goodies but you would be drooling if I did. 

Boys playing. 

 

*Hugs*  Veronika is so sweet with Mr. affectionate.   

 

Giving Cash his pacifier after he dropped it.  I later caught Joshua with the pacifier in his own mouth. 

 

Awe, don't they look like they are all sharing and getting a long so well?  HA! 

 

Sam taking Joshua for a ride in his Lego wagon. 

 

We have some really great neighbors! 

 

Once Joshua figured out that Mom and Dad were busy socializing he had a hay day taking the  ornaments off of the tree.   

 

Everyone brought a canned food item to be donated to the task force.