let me in guys!

Let me in! I promise I'll be good!!


Joshua put his crocs on (wrong feet) all by himself (although not the most flattering picture!)

demonstrating his spoon skills. since he never eats anything that requires a spoon, this is something we rarely see. he definitely didn't like getting yogurt on his hands though.

our first baby...

Not that I need any help getting excited about having another baby, but yesterday I found myself looking at all the pictures from Joshua's birth-day and his first month as a nostalgic little reminder of both the joy the Lord has brought us through Joshua, and the joy that awaits with Zoe's birth. I didn't realize how much I have forgotten about having a tiny baby - probably because I still think of Joshua as our baby - until I saw these pictures and realized just how much he has grown up! Compared to his baby pictures, he's just a little man! I'm so thankful for his health and happiness, and thankful that God has blessed us with such a wonderfully sweet little boy. Both my boys are sleeping soundly right now, and us girls have been awake since 3:30. I finally gave in and got out of bed at 5 and am looking forward to some extra quiet time in God's Word before the guys get up (so, I have about 3 hours :)

a day in the life of Joshua & Zoe

Joshua put his boots on all by himself yesterday! I was quite impressed!

Then he wanted to watch some videos...

Here he is saying "I love you"

When he woke up from his nap today, he wanted to put his boots on right away (he saw them on the floor in his room, didn't want any clothes of course). Then, he came out and watched Masie dance for a while

He saw a fly, so he ran to get his fly swatter from under the sink (boots clomping as he ran :) and went after it. You can see it in the picture, he's only a few inches off. After a while, I usually end up swatting them because he gets frustrated when they fly away and he can't swat at them anymore. Once I've swatted them, they hold still better :) After he's done swatting, he hands me the fly swatter, with which I scoop up the poor little guy, and Joshua transports him to the trashcan for a touching little ceremony

We have a "Zoe" doll for Joshua to get used to. When she first appeared back in March, he poked her in the eyes and showed very little interest otherwise.

She reappeared a couple days ago when I was trying to keep Joshua from getting in his baby swing, so I put her in there to "take a nap." He started saying "shhh," gave her a stuffed lion, and pushed her in the swing, no eye poking this time - it was too cute! When it was time to go eat, he wanted to bring her with us and sit her in his spare high chair (don't ask me why we have 2 at the table).

Tonight when he went to bed, she was still sitting in his high chair at the table, where he had wanted me to put her this morning, holding the stuffed lion he had given her again, and he could see her from his crib. He pointed and started saying "Oeoeoe" so I went to get her and bring her in to sleep on his glider. I laid her down and he pointed to his other crochet blanket from Ma - one is in his crib and the other stays in a basket on the floor - and said "Na" (his word for nap, I think, he says it when he sees his blanket or someone sleeping). So I went and tucked Zoe in with it and Joshua laid back down to go to sleep. What a good big brother. Craig and I wonder what will happen when doll Zoe turns into real Zoe :)

Crazyhorse Picnic

Here are a few videos from Craig's unit's picnic yesterday (Sat). The weather was great (compared to the blazing 96 degree safety day last Thursday) and Joshua had fun playing on the playground, doing the beanbag toss, watching all the boats (brrr brrr brrr, he kept saying & pointing) and pointing out all the dogs ("pup, pup"). The videos were taken during a break... he's all sweaty, helping himself to cheetos. By this time, naptime was fast approaching, Joshua (and Mommy) were both hot, tired, and cranky, and I wasn't in the mood to stop him from eating cheetos. He was thorougly enjoying them until he was done, then he wanted all the orange stuff off his hands immediately. When I was done wiping his hands & face off, he brushed my pants off for me too. Our little neat freak :)

big belly!

Mommy & Zoe
Joshua patting Zoe (you can see the drool on my belly where he gave her a kiss) Ready to attack the sleeping Daddy...
Here he comes...
Chomp.
Joshua giving Zoe a kiss...

...and poking my belly button
Candid belly shot by Craig
Joshua poised for a kiss
and a cuddle
We hadn't really taken any pictures of the belly so figured we should get a few shots of her before she arrives!

So you think you can dance...

Joshua loves to check out the Johnsons' blog and watch videos of his cousins Masie and Presley. He wants to watch them over and over again (last time I counted, we watched one 30something times) so I broke down and taught him how to press the play button on the computer. Last night, I was making dinner while Joshua watched Masie's video from VBS about a hundred times. He was dancing and even singing along (the kids sing "Yahweh, Yahweh" in the video and Joshua started singing "yo-we-yo-we"). Each time, his dance moves got progressively better. I think he was watching Masie on the video and picking up some of her favorites.

This video was by far the funniest - he surprised me because the time before this, he had just jumped up and down a little. I wasn't expecting the hands on the belly or hip shaking. At the end, he's scooting toward the computer to press play again. The next video I took, he added the arms going up and over his head, just like Masie. The one after that, he stood up, wiggled and sang along a little, then laid down on the pineapple pillow, he was pooped from all his dancing! I think I shed a few tears from laughing so hard last night.

This morning after he got up and dressed I asked him "what would you like to do Joshua?" He pointed to the computer and said "Yo-we?" so I moved the coffee table to make a little dance floor for him, pulled up the Johnsons' blog, and the fun began all over again.

this one was taken before the other one, he's just getting warmed up on the dancing, but you can see his computer and singing skills

Joshua's first Money mag

Joshua helped me get the mail today and wanted to carry Daddy's Money magazine around the driveway for a while... until he got distracted by the 'balance beam' that's about to become the rest of his swingset

(this one was from yesterday)
In gymnastics, Joshua learned to hold his arms out like an airplance when he walks on the balance beam. He decided these beams were his balance beams and likes to walk back and forth on them. (these crocs were in the bags of stuff from our neighbor. Craig hates crocs. when I asked Joshua to go get his shoes today this is what he brought me - who was I to refuse :) Craig was **thrilled** when we met up at the hospital for my checkup)

3rd time's a charm?

this is the 3rd time I've typed this. It keeps getting shorter, as you can imagine...

Joshua loves his pool... he likes to walk to the door and ask "poo? poo?" - it's too funny. Until last night when we had to convince him that the bathtub was the indoor pool. He was not too happy to come inside - plus it was already past bedtime and he had only had a 2 hour nap - so it took a little while to calm him down and get him in the tub. It helped when we figured out that we should shut the shade so he couldn't see the pool on the deck. He finally decided to go into the bathroom when I asked him if he wanted to go see Bob (his Bob the Builder potty seat). Bob-BEE!!!

We filled the sandbox on Wednesday & after some warming up to being dirty (I think I've made him a little OCD, his wife will thank me someday) he dug right in , literally. He had fun watching (studying, rather) the sand. Our little thinker :)

In other news, Zoe is now bottom up/head down (aka kicking my ribs and headbutting my bladder) so I'm glad I can stop worrying about her turning over in time... she must be running out of room in there! I know I am!!

Gymnastics for Joshua

Joshua and I are doing gymnastics this month. I thought he'd be more into it since he loves to jump and do headstands and rolls at home, but after 3 weeks, he's just warming up to it. Too bad we only have one week left!

Where's Joshua sleeping?

This is how Joshua feels about his new fort! A second after I stopped taping, he waved bye bye to us. Great. Thankfully, he didn't get upset when it was really time to go inside. He is, of course, sleeping soundly in his crib!

Joshua started saying "happy" a couple days ago so we figured we'd see if he could say "day" and put all his knowledge together. Not bad for his first try!

Swingset - Day 3

He can get up and down all by himself! Of course, we'll still stand right behind him up the ladder (Craig is off to the side for picture purposes) until he's done it by himself several (hundred) times!



He looks like such a little boy, I can't believe it! Where's my baby???!!!

So here it is, folks! After working through Joshua's naptime (which was about 4 hours today!) the fort component is complete! We can't proceed until we get some 12" carriage bolts that lowes & home depot don't carry. Joshua loves it so far! The first time he saw it finished and with the slide on, he started running across the yard, pointing at it saying "oooooooohh." When he got to it, he stood there pointing to it to show us what he had found (because we might not have seen it :) saying "oooh, oooh, oooh." Too cute! I wish I had gotten it on video!

Zoe's new wardrobe!

We moved in 2 weeks ago and have already met most of our neighbors. This neighborhood is totally different than our last one, and I'm so thankful to have friendly neighbors. We knew 3 families in the neighborhood before we even moved in and suspect that we know others in the neighborhood and just haven't found out yet.

We met our next door neighbors the first weekend and I am so thankful to have another mommy staying home with her kids right next door. When she found out we were having a little girl, she offered to let me go through her daughter's clothes (newborn to 5T here folks!!!) before she donated them. Zoe will fit into the same season (unless there's a major growth rate variation) and I can't begin to tell you how blessed I feel to have all these clothes.

I also can't begin to describe just how many clothes she has given us. The picture doesn't do it justice! There were about 5 trash bags full, and there's still more in her garage. I have it all sorted by sizes and put the 12 mos - 4T bags in Zoe's closet. (When you look at the last picture, the closet and bags go about 2-3 feet to the left and right of the doors. The hanging stuff is from her too)

I need to go buy 40 more hangers to hang up all the NB-12 mos hanging stuff (that's the pile on the right hand side of the 4th picture. The other stuff is pants and onesies)and that of course doesn't include non hanging stuff like onesies, little pants, hats, socks, etc etc. And no, I didn't keep all of it. I filled a trash bag with the stuff we didn't keep.

I offered her money but she refused, she wouldn't even let me take what I didn't want to a consignment place for her. Their plan was to take it on post to a place you can donate clothes for lower enlisted Soldiers, so that's where it will all go as Zoe grows out of it. In the meantime, Craig and I are trying to think of a way to thank them. The banana bread I had planned when I thought it was just going to be a few outfits isn't quite going to do it :) Now, we're thinking of an Old Navy gift card, since that's where most of it came from! Let us know if you have any fun ideas for how to thank our wonderful new neighbors.

now back to the good stuff... Swingset Day 2

Craig got to work on the swingset again yesterday since the rain held off. He and Joshua went to Home Depot in the morning while I helped my friend watch her kids during her yard sale (I've known her for a while from Bible study and she lives 2 doors down from our new house, how fun to have a friend so close). Then, we went to Cassidy's first birthday party and Craig and Joshua left early for naptime. When I got home an hour or so later, Craig was out back at it again. It looks great! Around 8pm, he went out to get a slide and some free chick-fil-a (free sandwich for wearing red white and blue on Flag Day, and a free milkshake for bringing a $50 gas receipt - I LOVE our chick-fil-a!)