My in-laws 25th.

Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary Todd and Maxine!! We hope you have a great day!!

We love you.

Park day

On the 27th of this month we were able to get to the park. Joshua loves going to the park and hates it when he has to leave. I am looking forward to more days of going to the park. Joshua's most favorite things to do at the park, as of late, are swinging and digging in the sand. He loves digging holes and enjoys watching me dig a hole. Simple pleasures. I am looking forward to our snow melting so we can go back to the park.

A visit with Friends and Family

Last Saturday and Sunday we drove over to Cheyenne to visit Michael's sister and her family. They drove the long trip from Iowa to see everyone for Michael's parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary. It was great being able to see them all again and have Joshua play with his cousins. He had a BLAST and didn't want to go home both nights that we had to. He got along great with Alexa, they were quite the buddies. I really wish we could live closer together so we could get together more often. Enjoy the pictures


Alexa and Joshua playing well together.


Dylan


The cousins, Alexa, Joshua, and Dylan


Joshua. I think his cheeks look chubby here.


Joshua and Alexa


The Girls; Alexa, Jennifer, Misty, Maxine, and Me.


The Guys; Dylan, Greg, Todd, Michael and Joshua (who didn't want to be in the pictures)

Last Wednesday our friends Katrina and Ryan with their two children Kyle and Hannah came to visit us from Dallas Texas. It was so great being able to see them again and I am sad they had to go home. Hopefully someday we can live closer together. Joshua had fun with Kyle and loved holding, tickling, and looking at Hannah (she is 3 months old). Joshua is going to make such a great big brother, I cannot wait. Here are some pictures of us all while they were here. I didn't take very many pictures at all and these are the good ones.

Hannah


Kyle and Joshua


Joshua holding Hannah

Joshua's 3 year check up.

Joshua and I went to his 3 year check up this morning. His doing great! He weighed in at 30 1/2 pounds, which puts him above the 25th percentile. He is 36 1/2 inches tall, which puts him in the 25th percentile. He is very proportionate and healthy. She said that he is right where he needs to be if not farther along developmentally. I think every parent enjoys hearing that. :) He doesn't need to be back for another year!! He is growing up way too fast.

Yesterday we took a walk to Washington park. It was so nice outside. I am loving my double jogger stroller and cannot wait to make more trips to the park. I am loving this wonderful weather. It is another nice day outside today. So nice that I didn't have my jacket on this morning. I think we will try to take another trip to the park or at least play outside for a little while this afternoon. I love being outside once again, it has been too long.

Here are some pictures of Joshua playing at the park. He loves to swing and slide. He really likes it when other people bring their puppies to the park so he can pet them.

Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator

I was looking at a blog and came across this site. They turn digital photos and make them look 100-150 years older. I thought they looked pretty neat. It was a lot of fun choosing pictures to generate. http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds I want to see your photos! :) Remember to click on English if you cannot read Japanese!! Haha

The Cheyenne Capitol building




Here is a picture of the Newport Oregon coast in June 2008.




This picture is of Michael and I in September 2008 in Aspen Alley Wyoming.

Joshua's Birthday party

We had a very exciting weekend with my sister and her three children here. Then on Saturday Michael's parents and sister came over for Joshua's party as well as one of Joshua's friends and his parents. Joshua had a lot of fun but I am so glad we are back to normal now. It was a little too excitement for him. He slept horrible on Saturday night and had a rough day at church the next day. Last night he slept so much better and seems to be having a great day so far.

Here are some pictures from his birthday party. He chose Spider-man for the theme this year. He loves pretending to be superheros so this was perfect. We had Spider-man masks for the kids, a Spider-man cake made by me, balloons all over the ground as well as some helium balloons. Thank you every one who gave him gifts!! I love all the clothes, and toys he received. Family, thank you so much for making the trip to spend with Joshua.


The Spider-man cake before the topper got put on the cake.


The Spider-man cake




Joshua and his friend Ryan


Joshua praying before we sing 'Happy Birthday'









Joshua is doing great with potty training and doesn't have any accidents. If he does wait too long he pees a couple of drops and runs to the toilet. He now insists on standing up to go to the bathroom so we purchased a stool for the bathroom. He still has his potty chair downstairs he uses a lot too. He still has wet naps and night times but I am sure things will get better as time goes on.

Joshua is very excited for his baby brother to get here. The other day we watched a friends little girl. Joshua had a lot of fun playing with her, getting her some toys to play with and laying down with her. When she would roll around the room Joshua would get on the floor and roll around too. He is going to be such a great big brother.

Keeping my day normal

A lot of people do not understand why we have to follow a routine for Joshua.

Yesterday was his birthday. We got up, he played with his cousins all day, and missed his nap because of his birthday party in the afternoon. He was grumpy all afternoon and evening because he missed his nap, crying at most situations he didn't enjoy. That night we went upstairs to read books in bed at 7:45pm, like normal, and fell asleep around 8:15 or so. at 9:00pm for about 45 mins he was awake and screaming and crying, because of something he was remembering from the day. Then at one point he didn't want to wear his pull ups anymore because they were hurting him.

At 11:45 he was back up screaming and crying and asking for cocoa milk, which we do not give him in bed at night. He was very mad at us for not giving him his milk and kept on screaming and crying. We told him if he wouldn't calm down we would spank him and did. Finally after the spanking and giving him a sip of water he calmed down and went to sleep. At 12:15 am he was back up screaming and crying because Ryan, a boy at his party, had a toy of his (this happened earlier in the day). He was screaming and crying until 1:00am when we finally caved and gave him his milk so we could get some sleep. He slept from then until 6:30 and is up and crabby as ever.

This is why we keep to his routine, nap at 1:00pm, in bed reading books at 7:30 or 7:45. He is asleep, hopefully, by 8:30pm and no matter what time of day we put him to bed he is up around 6am. If we put him to bed and he sleeps at least 10hours that night he is a lot happier in the morning. If we go to Church on Wednesday night and get back late, go to a friends house, if he watches too much TV, or anything exciting happens before bed we reenact what happen last night. So when people tell me it doesn't matter what time he goes to bed because children are flexible. That is NOT the case for him, unfortunately he has always been a horrible sleeper from birth and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I am sure our baby inside was wishing he never has to come out of there. It probably doesn't sound like a very happy place when Joshua goes off like that. I am looking for a very normal day today.

Please pray he gets better at sleeping during the night. Every night we pray he sleeps in until 7am. One of these days that will actually happen.