Josh is 5 Years Old!

We had a fun day celebrating Josh's 5th birthday.  We opened presents in the morning because we had a lot planned for the day.

Josh got a swimming noodle!

He also got phone calls from family wishing him a Happy Birthday!

The big gift from Mom and Dad was a pair of rollerblades! 

Dad helping Josh try them on. 

We also got him knee pads and elbow pads. We still need to get him some wrist guards for extra protection. 

There were some crashes. 

Josh also let Eli try them out. (They are adjustable skates.)

Later in the afternoon we took the kids + two friends to KT inflatables. The kids got to play for about two hours and then I took them out for ice cream cones at McDonalds. Morgan didn't make it for ice cream because he needed to go to church for a baptism.

After dinner we had cake. Joshua wanted chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.

Josh also got a new soccer ball and basketball that he has loved playing with.

This is a video of us singing happy birthday to Josh. Pretty normal.  However, you should watch all the way to the end and then check out what Noelle does in the last few seconds.  It is priceless!

Tree Boys

Eli figured out how to climb our small tree. Can you find him?

Peek-a-Boo!

Josh needed to get in the action too.


Both boys love to climb trees and always ask Morgan to help them get on our big oak tree. The other day they realized that they can climb our small tree. They made a lot of leaves and branches fall down, but they had a blast!

Photo Session

We went and got photos taken of Noelle, Eli and Josh. Here are the ones we liked best.


Smiling Noelle

Noelle deep in thought.

This is probably her most natural 'pose.'

Josh and Eli, in a moment of brotherly love.

Noelle in her princess outfit, happy as can be.

I love this picture of the boys holding Noelle, I wish you could see it the right way.

Finally, a little montage of the kids.

I love this picture of Eli and Josh showing off Noelle's new blanket made by Grandma Palmer. I wish it were the right way...sorry.


The video is of Eli singing a song to Noelle to help her go to sleep.

Josh On His Own

This is from several weeks ago, but we couldn't get it to upload until now. This is Josh on his bike starting and riding completely on his own.

Josh is Silly

Joshua loves medicine. Eli does too, but since Josh often doesn't have to take any if he is hurt at all he will ask for some. He had a fever recently so we were getting ready to give him some Children's Tylenol. He started singing a song about how he got to have medicine. When I went to record it he stopped, and while I tried to get him to sing again he ended up going with a 'performance' of his own.

Go Josh!

Today Morgan took the boys outside to play for a while and had Josh ride Eli's bike. Here is a video we took. By the time they came inside Josh had ridden (continuously) from the corner, around our driveway and back to the corner again without crashing.

Bring on Spring!

Funny J

Here are some funny things J has said lately.

Tonight at dinner, he has a little bit of rice left and his entire portion of green beans.
J: I'm done.
Me: No, we've got a few bites of rice left and you haven't even touched your green beans.
J: Touch. (put his finger on his green beans - he got me there.)



Talking on a toy phone
J: Hi Diego. Where are you? Oh, in a movie. Okay. Bye.


Watching Go Diego Go - (at the end of each episode they talk about their favorite part of the adventure, flying with the condors, helping Baby Jaguar get back to his mommy, etc.)
Diego: What was your favorite part?
J: Watching a movie.


He sure keeps me laughing!

In Case you Missed It

Here's a photo of the boys in the paper in case you hadn't seen it yet.

The Amazing Joshua

So Joshua has had his balance bike since Christmas and this evening they were riding around the basement and Morgan saw that he was riding with his feet up a lot. Morgan decided to let him try Eli's bike. The above video shows Joshua's amazing feat.

By the way, Josh is not yet 2 1/2.

Winter Swimming

The boys got this floor puzzle for Christmas and had a really good time putting it together and then pretending to go swimming with the fishes.

Squirt Guns

Eli has been asking for a water gun for ages. Shannon and Kyle got one for he and Joshua when they were playing with them one day and the boys loved them! The would fill them with water then squirt all the leaves on the grass. They even took them into the bath a couple of times to play with. Great little toys!

Boom Chicca Rocca

During Family Home Evening Josh was running around with a lampshade on his head singing Boom Chicca Rocca. Once we got the camera out it changed a bit, but you'll get the picture.

Golfing

Joshua is really into golfing. And ANYTHING will work for the ball or the club.

J is also really into his tricycle. If he ever speaks to you most likely he will say, "I ride my trike without training wheels." He has to say that at least 30 times a day. He'll climb into my bed first thing in the morning and tell me about riding his trike. On the phone with Grandma, he lets her know he rides his trike without training wheels. Crazy kid. :0)

Thank you Notes

Today Eli and I were writing Thank you notes to family for sending birthday cards. After I got them ready to mail Eli wanted to write Josh a thank you card too. We made a real one, but I loved what he had to say, so I am sharing the words with you.

Dear Josh,

I hope you have a great day and have a birthday. Thank you for the games because I really appreciate you for having a great Marlin game. Thank you for everything that's Josh that you do. Thank you that you can be a great daddy that you can teach things. I appreciate you and I want you to grow up and be a missionary and teach people the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.

Thank you for everything. Have a great day. Bye

Swimming Lessons

Eli and Josh at the pool

Splashing fun!

Sweet Joshua

The last week of June Eli and Joshua had swimming lessons. I decided to sign them both up for the Toddler Class. It said 2-4 year olds, and I figured we were close enough. Eli was a little bored at first, but he wasn't quite advanced enough to go to the next class.

Josh clung to me pretty much the whole time. He wasn't too scared, for the most part, but didn't want to be left alone.

Eli's big hurdle was his eyes. He hates getting his eyes wet. When we had come to the pool earlier every time he got water in his eyes he would go out and dry them off on the towel. So I told Eli that we had a rule during swim lessons that he had to wait until the end to go and dry his eyes, and he could only use his hands to wipe the water from his eyes.

Eli did really wonderfully. Thursday we were really working on him to 'bob' under and out of the water. He just didn't want to. I told him I would give him two candies if he did. So down and up he came. Then he started bobbing all over the place and showing all the teachers and friends who were around!
Friday we were the only class there because everyone else had a two week class with Fridays as rain days, and we were only a 1 week class Monday-Friday. We had the pool to ourselves. After playing around for a little while the lifeguard/teachers told us that we could turn the waterslide on and go down with the kids. Eli went down a couple of times with one of the teachers, Josh would only go down with me, but I did get to go down with Eli a couple of times. It was hard for me because I had to try and go slowly and make sure the kids (especially Josh) didn't go under the water at the bottom. I didn't want to make them scared.

After we played there for a while we got to go on the diving boards. We had done this earlier in the week. The kids got life jackets on and one of the lifeguards would catch them and help them to the side. Josh made me walk out with him and hold his hand as he jumped in the water. Eli couldn't go on the boards often enough.

As I was helping Josh in the water one of Eli's teachers asked him if he wanted to go on the HIGH diving board. Eli said sure and up he climbed. This board has got to be 12-15 feet, I'm not sure, but high enough that I'm not sure if I would jump off of it.
Eli got to the board and started walking out when he realized how high it was and said he didn't want to. Being the mom I am, I hollered up to him that if he jumped off of it I would give him two licorice when we got home. He got all excited about that and was very courageous and jumped off the high diving board.

Now, he only jumped off it that one time. After he got what he wanted he just jumped from the middle and low board the rest of the time. But I am definitely proud of him and wish that I had had my camera. Go Eli!

Books

Josh reading Llama Llama, Red Pajama.

Eli, hiding out and reading Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Lately my boys have been silently look at books while I get other things done around the house. I LOVE IT! They are so cute. Josh especially has found this spot on the couch that he likes to look at books.
The best part is when they know the story and will say the words, or yell, or something to show me that the are interacting with the book.

Belly!

Last week I decided to no longer put Josh in Onesies. It was just getting too hot. He is very excited about the change. He will run around and lift up his shirt and say "belly!" all the time! So if you see him flashing his belly around, you will know the reason!

Sleeping

We are still having some sleeping issues with the boys. The other night we found Josh in Eli's bed. At least they share!

Josh's New Bed

We decided that along with a new house, new room, Joshua was also going to get a New Toddler Bed. The real reason for this decision was that the crib he was using, was recalled, and duct taped. (It was taped together in places other than the affected recall area, so even if we got the replacement recall parts it would still be broken.)

Morgan thought that if we took the crib apart (which we would have to, to get it out of their bedroom) there would be no way to put it back together.

We have had some offers to borrow cribs, and he is quite young to change. I think Eli was a year older before we switched him. But we are going to try this for now.

So we've borrowed a toddler bed and Joshua's first night was the night we moved in, which was crazy and late to begin with. Saturday I tried to give him a nap in his bed. It didn't work out so well.

Joshua's bed.

Joshua.



I was able to get him to take a nap in my bed with me, which was fine with me...I just needed him to nap!

Sunday was a no nap day, I didn't want to deal with it, and real nap time would be during church so I just didn't bother.

Monday I had him take a nap in his pack-n-play which worked great. Monday night he kept trying to get into Eli's bed and just generally having a hard time. So I put him back in his pack-n-play. He was not happy and cried and screamed. I went in there after a little while to sing to him again, and he points to his bed and says bed. So I put him in his bed and he sleeps wonderfully.
Tuesday he takes a nap in his bed. Great. Tuesday night, another hard night. Shannon was putting the boys in their beds because Morgan and I were cleaning Randolph house. Josh didn't want to sleep in his bed or pack-n-play so Shannon finally just put him in the pack-n-play.
When we got home we moved him to his bed to make him more comfortable, and get more used to it.
Now I've put away the pack-n-play and we'll try just the bed. Hopefully it will all work out.