Janruary 2018

October Adventures 2017: JOSHY turns 2!!!

Joyfully we welcomed October because that meant we got to listen to our modern day prophet and apostles during our church’s semiannual General Conference!! Here the kids are after completing their very own sugar cube temples on Sunday in between sessions!  One of our family General Conference traditions! Nice work everyone!! Way to work hard and make your own special temples, a little bit of heaven on earth!! <3 

One of the kids’ favorite parts about being in WA was playing games with grandma and Aunt Beka!! We played this new one from Deseret Book called Seek Whence, which uses LDS temples instead of face cards in a Sequence like game. The kids loved playing this with Grandma and Aunt Rebekah!! 

Then a few days later, it was this big boys’ 2nd Birthday!!!! Hooray for turning 2 Joshy!!! Sure love these sweet boy!  

We got him donuts for breakfast and ball balloons to celebrate!! He was so mesmerized by those balloons and loved the donut! Some of his favorite pastimes at this age:

-rubbing his hands through Monmy’s hair to calm/soothe him and to help him go to sleep, he would ask for his blankie and “Mommy’s hair” at night haha...

-wouldn’t go to sleep any other way unless I laid down next to him and sang him Primary songs, “Child of God” and “Temple Song” and “Nephi’s Boat Song” =Nephis Courage... so so cute! I actually realized I needed to start branching out and singing more songs when I would be singing many many songs to put him to sleep each night... so I recommitted “Our Saviors Love” to memory to singing to him because I love that song, it is one of my favorites, it is beautiful, with such a special and wonderful message, and it is super long and lullaby paced and would help him nod right off to sleep! ❤️ 

-loves anything that goes, cars, trucks, tractors, boats, airplanes and will push them in the hard floor for hours just watching them go!

-loves everything and anything to do with balls and throwing them!! Hence, this is why we had Grandma decorate a ball birthday cake and he was sure excited about it!! 

-loves to give hugs and snuggle his sisters and give Nathan running start, enthusiastic body slam with giggles hugs, and have Daddy toss him up into the air!

- personally takes it upon himself to run anywhere he goes! Most of time...

-loves snuggles hugs from Mom too, love you, Birthday boy!! 

 

Best part of the birthday.... ballooons!!!
So I took Joshy outside to take some nice pictures of him and tried to capture his sweet smile on camera... 

Let’s just say he was way more into the adventure of being outside and exploring than he was about taking a nice formal picture for me haha lol... Oh well, I’ll take whatever smile and candid joy I can get!!😊❤️

Birthday boy!!
 

The running smile!!

 

Finally, I got a good one with him looking at me and a genuine smile on his face!!! Love this little rascal! He is such a sweet and special addition to our family, we all love him so much and couldn’t imagine our lives without his sweet, loving heart, caring nature, vibrant, energetic spirit, concern for others, silly goofiness, and  love for adventure, calmly and quietly exploring anywhere he can like a silent whirlwind haha and following after his big brother and sisters. Love this boy!

We went to the Tacoma Children’s Museum to share some memories of his special day! Here are some highlights:

 

Scarves and more scarves!!

We actually built this AWESOME log fort from the giant Lincoln logs. We worked together so hard and were all so proud of how it turned out! 

Gracie girl (4 yrs)
 

Katelyn The Awesome The-eeeeee-en sister!! 

Water play time!!!
 

Build it from recyclables time!!
 

Nathan the fix it man! (6 years old)

My fabulous four!!! I have a huge heart for each of them and love them to pieces! 💜😊

A group pic with Aunt Beka who came with us!! Everything way more fun when Aunt Beka gets to come along!! 

 

We stopped off to check the tide pool area along the Tacoma coastline on the way home. This has become one of our favorite spots, and it never fails to disappoint! We found some baby crabs, limpets, barnacles and lots of rocks for little Joshy to throw! He was a happy camper and look at those smiles!! Makes this sealife enthusiast momma proud!

Joshy is not sure about the whole holding a moving crab idea hehe.
 

Smiles!!

 

Gracie hugs are the best and so is awesome Aunt Beka!
 

Oh I just cannot get enough of his REAL enthusiasm for life and exploring! Life is always an adventure with Joshy around!!

Beautiful day on the coast!

  We picked up some yummy pizza for the birthday celebration that night and grandma made Joshy a special ball 2nd birthday cake!! yay!!!

Daddy flew in the day before Joshy’s big day, and we were SO glad to have him there with us!!! Family time is the best of time!!!

Some of Joshys surprises were a flap boom from Dad and Mom, some cool pull back and go tractors from Gah-pa and Gah-ma, and some new Dino jammies from grandma and Grandpa too!!!
 

 

To celebrate with Daddy the next day, we went to Point Definace Zoo and Aquarium together!! Yay for memories, learning cool new things, ocean life, Daddy time with us all and some awesome recycled art creations, sharks and the super great sting ray and shark touch pool too!!!! ❤️ed it!!!