First Day of Preschool!

Josh started preschool in September, and he LOVES it. He goes to Triumphant Lutheran Preschool, which is at the church where we took our Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) classes last year. Some friends of ours have sent there kids to this preschool, and they loved it, so we decided to have Josh go there, too. It's a little bit of a drive, about 20 minutes away, but it is awesome. His teacher is Ms. Jalene, and there are 5 kids in his class. They have lots of fun together. It has been fun to hang up his art projects on the fridge! It's great having a preschooler!

Reading Stories

Sometimes on Sunday mornings after the kids have had their bath and they are waiting for Mama and Daddy to finish getting ready, they grab some books and sit on the bean bag chair and read to each other. It's very cute. I love that my kids are interested in books!

Swimming Lessons

Josh took swimming lessons for the very first time this summer. I heard from some friends about a lady who teaches in her backyard pool, and I signed up Josh to be in the same class as his little friend Annabelle. Josh LOVES the water, and he did OK with the lessons. He would either get his legs kicking, or his arms moving, but never both at the same time. Maybe next year :)


















































I LOVE her pool. It is both a fun play pool and a lap pool all in one. I want one just like it when I grow up.

4 Years Old!

Josh turned 4 years old in May. It's crazy to think he's already 4. My little boy is growing up.
















That afternoon we went to Pump It Up with some friends to play.













The next night, Adam didn't have to work, so we had our little family celebration after dinner. I made Josh a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake, which he loved.




















Josh got a new bike for his birthday. He's not so sure about it yet. He still prefers to ride his tricycle, but hopefully by the time the weather cools down in a couple months, he'll be ready to try out his new bike again.



Josh has been in speech therapy for a year now, and Adam and I can see lots of improvement. He still has issues with beginning and ending consonant sounds, but he'll continue working on it as he does speech therapy again for another year. We're also excited for him to start preschool in the fall. Josh loves to play with his trains and his cars. He can play for hours running his trains and cars back and forth along his tracks, reciting the stories and phrases from the various Thomas the Tank Engine episodes he likes to watch. He likes to wrestle with Lucy, which sometimes she enjoys and sometimes she doesn't. He is very concerned when she cries and tries his best to take care of her and get her bottle for her when she is upset. He likes to build block towers and do puzzles and he loves playing with Mama and Daddy.

Here are some of his 4-year-old pictures.

























































































We love Josh and are so glad we have him in our family!

Potty Training

In my continued efforts to update our blog, I'm hoping to get a few posts done today. First up is Josh's potty training. We started at the end of January, and to be honest, it has been MUCH easier than I was expecting. We came home from church one Sunday and got out Josh's Thomas the Tank Engine underwear that he got for Christmas and got out the little potty seat and sat it in front of the TV. Josh LOVED to look at his new underwear in the package, but he didn't want to actually WEAR it. We set the timer and had him sit on his potty every so often. There were a couple frustrating times that afternoon when the timer would go off and we would discover he has just wet himself. But eventually he did go on the potty and we celebrated and gave him mini M&Ms for rewards. After a day or so he recognized when he needed to go and would run to his potty. After a few days we moved the potty into the bathroom so he would learn to run to the bathroom when he needed to go. After a few more days, we put the little potty away and he started using the regular toilet. He was so proud of himself, and I think it has given him confidence to try new things. I was so glad it was finally working. This was our third attempt at potty training, and I'm just happy he was finally ready. Over the next few weeks, he knew when he had to go and he would just go to the bathroom and do his business. Sometimes he would tell me he had to go, but mostly he would just go on his own. He's had a couple accidents here and there these past few months, but thankfully it hasn't been the constant mess of accidents that I was so afraid of when we started.






Of course we have to include some embarrassing
pictures :)






The past few weeks have been a little difficult for some reason. Usually, he would just go when he needed to go, or if we noticed he had to go we would encourage him to go potty and he would happily go to the bathroom. But these past few weeks have been different. We would notice that he had to go, he would be holding himself and dancing around, and when we tell him to go potty, he breaks down into a screaming and crying fit and almost has to be dragged to the bathroom. I don't know if he's trying to hold it as long as he can, or if he wants complete control over this area of his life and doesn't like us telling him to go potty anymore, or what is going on, but it's been frustrating. I'm open to any advice or suggestions. I'm sure we'll get through it, eventually. I am so proud of Josh for accomplishing this major milestone in his life! My little boy is growing up.

So hard to be patient...

...when you're waiting for cookies to bake.

Sunbeams

We were still on vacation on the first Sunday of the year, so Josh missed the first day of being a Sunbeam in our ward. But this past Sunday, we were home and I got a couple pictures of our little guy looking so grown up.



He didn't have any freak-outs going to a new class or anything. There are about 9 or 10 new Sunbeams in his class, so Josh has lots of friends from Nursery in class with him. We just have to work on sitting in his chair for more than 5 minutes at at time... I can't believe how big he's getting, and we are so proud of him!

I think...

...they might be related.

Josh and Lucy, both at 9 months old.

Yep, definitely related :)

Big Shoes to Fill

Josh was playing around with Adam's shoes the other day. He likes to put them on his feet and try to walk around in them. Well, it's more like clunking around in them, but Josh thinks it's highly entertaining. Josh is physically more like his dad than he is like me, and I know one day (sooner than I will be ready for, I'm sure) he will grow up and his feet will actually be able to fit into those shoes.

But more than just filling out his daddy's shoes, I hope Josh grows up to be like his dad in other ways, too. To really walk in his daddy's shoes, Josh will need to love his family and be willing to work hard to support them. He will need to have a hunger for knowledge and be willing to study things out that he wants to learn about. He will need to have a testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. He will need to have a great sense of humor and a sense of adventure to try new things. It's seems like a lot that Josh needs to learn if he want to fill his daddy's shoes, but he also has a great example to follow. I love Josh, and I hope he grows up to be just like his daddy.

More pictures!

Last week I took Josh to get his 3-year-old pictures taken. He was, of course, uncooperative, and didn't want to hold still for the camera lady. I was scared there wouldn't be any good pictures, but it turned out there were a few that I liked. This first one is the pose we chose for the pics going out to family.

Three years old!

Josh turned 3 years old on Monday. In the past, we have celebrated birthdays with family parties, but since we aren't near any family now, we had a pretty low-key day. We went to the park with our ward play group and I made cupcakes for everyone. Josh had fun playing with his little friends.



It's hard to believe he is 3 years old already. His speech has been improving a little these past few months. We knew he would have a speech delay because of his cleft palate. He has been more and more willing to say new words and copy words he hears us say, or hears on Blues Clues or Curious George. His pronunciation is still not very good, he usually leaves off the starting or ending consonants of words, and he is starting speech therapy through the school district at the elementary school down the street from our house. I can usually understand him because I'm around him all day long, but I doubt strangers would be able to understand more than a few words and phrases that he says. We are excited that he has qualified for this speech therapy and look forward to being able to understand everything Josh is trying to communicate to us.

We tried potty training about a month ago, and Josh is NOT interested in any of that stuff yet. I wish he was ready because I am tired of buying diapers for two kids at a time.

It is fun to watch Joshua grow up and learn new things. He loves to play outside, either at a park or in our back yard blowing bubbles or drawing in the drive way with chalk. He is constantly making us laugh with his little sense of humor and the way he tries to say new things. We are grateful he is a part of our family and we love him!

Happy Halloween!

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity tonight, and Josh got to show off his mad ninja skills. Adam took him around and I manned the candy giveaway at our car. Josh did well for 7 or 8 cars, holding his candy bucket and saying "thank you" (he hasn't quite conquered "trick-or-treat" just yet), but then he lost interest pretty quickly. He sure was cute, though, even if he wasn't a fan of his headband.




Let's go get some candy, Daddy!



























The ninja thrives in his natural habitat.




















Somber ninja is in a reflective mood.








Happy Halloween everyone!

MMMM...mmmm...

That must have been one good cookie!

Are you ready for some football?

Why yes, I think we are. Especially now that Joshua has his new sweatshirt.

The crappy thing about watching the NFL in Texas is that they mostly show the Texan and Cowboys games. Boo! The only merchandise available in the stores is for the Cowboys. Boo! I miss being able to watch the Seahawks every week, even if they aren't doing very well this year. Just because I live in Texas now, I'm not about to become a Cowboys fan. I asked my brother if they were still selling Seahawks sweatshirts at Walmart, and he was nice enough to send one to Joshua. (Thanks again!)

Now, if only the weather would cool down some more, it might actually get to be sweatshirt weather :)

Josh!

I thought I would post some pictures of Josh since I just got his 2-year-old pictures done.



Josh has been doing well with the move to Texas. Before we left, Adam found a toddler bed on craigslist for a good deal and when we moved in to our new house, we set up the toddler bed in Josh's room. He's been doing pretty well with it. For the first few nights, he would get out of bed and play with the closet doors, the door stop, and anything else he could find in the room. Eventually he would fall asleep. After a couple nights, though, the curiosity wore off and he was able to stay in bed and fall asleep pretty quickly.



Josh has been growing and growing. He loves to run around like a monkey and play with his toys, especially his cars. His speech is improving and he is able to repeat more words lately. His doctors have told us that he will probably need speech therapy to overcome the delay in making certain sounds due to his cleft palate. He is learning his colors and is really good at blue and orange. He can recite his numbers from 1 - 10, but for some reason he always skips 7. He still LOVES Blues Clues ("Bah Poo") and has started shouting out when he sees a clue ("a poo, a poo").



He eats the crusts of his sandwiches first, and sometimes won't eat the rest of the sandwich. He won't eat ice cream. He used to not like cookies, either, but recently he's changed his mind on that. Sometimes I don't know where he came from (who ever heard of not liking ice cream!), but he's a cutie and we love him. I especially love his giggles. It makes up for the frustrating times that come with being the parent of a 2-year-old.

BUBBLES!!!

Yesterday afternoon, Adam is in the kitchen, by the table, opening a new package of bubble wands.

Joshua is eating popcorn at the coffee table in the living room. Like a gopher, his head pops up when he hears what Daddy is doing.

"Hey! What's that?"

"Bubblebubblebubblebubblebubblebubblebubbles!!!"

Ever since he played with bubbles at his little friend Mya's birthday party last month, he has been in love with them. Mya happened to be playing at our house yesterday, too, so we all had fun with bubbles.









And then, the bubbles ran out. Oh the sadness! There is a classic 2-year-old melt down whenever the bubbles run out and it's time to go in. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!