Jammin' with Joshua

Steve decided that Joshua needed an official upgrade from the Djembe (remember that?!:)

So, he took him down to the music studio and let him have at it on the "real" drums. Here's a sneak peak into his first lessons...

Going over the basics: Teaching him the moves...

He was actually a little scared at first, LOL. That likely won't last long, will it?
Clanging on the symbol:
And finally, banging (er, jamming) all by himself!

He's even got the long-haired drummer look going!

What fun! We'll keep all of you Joshua fans updated on how this new hobby progresses...

Our wonderful Memorial Day!

Our family joined many others for a picnic on a farm to celebrate this Memorial day...

"Da-da!"

My two favorite men!

The big tent holding all the festivities:

Taking it all in...

Enjoying the view with my lunch:

Joshua had a BLAST running in the fields!

Making some new friends to play frisbee with:

Can you see the melted chocolate smeared on his face?! Mmmhmmm....

SWEATY.

And pooped....

After lunch, we moved on to the big tent to enjoy the speakers and music:

(Dr. Andy Davis, our pastor)

Did I mention sweaty?

Clapping and loving the music:

More excellent speakers (Doug Phillips):

And best of all...giggles with Daddy!!

What a fun day and wonderful way to honor those that gave their lives and service for the freedoms that we so easily take for granted today. We are so blessed to enjoy so much freedom in this land!

Our big helper

As the arrival of #2 gets closer, we are trying to work with Joshua on learning to "help" more. He's really taken to it and seems to delight in "helping"! It's really cute, too.

Here we are practicing unloading and putting away groceries:

He's very good at the "taking them out of the bag" part:
Putting away the salad toppings:

"Hi! I'm mama's helper!"

"Salad dressing anyone?"

"Goldfish? Check."

Resting from the heavy lifting...you know, ketchup...

Taking the tags off of our new placemats:

"Do you see what I have to put up with?! My mom thinks this is funny!"

I would like to comment in all seriousness at how surprised I've been at how helpful Joshua can actually be! He also hands me all the laundry from the basket since I can't really bend over, and then I hand him the clothes to put in the dryer from the washer.

Amazing what a little training and patience can achieve!

Okay, I take that back...(an update):

The previous post below, written Sunday night, but not scheduled to post until Monday morning, is now in need of an update: we did indeed make it to the hospital on the tail end of our exciting weekend. After two hours of steady contractions from 1am to 3am Monday morning, our doctor felt it was best to have me checked out for pre-term labor.

Thankfully though, all was well and we did not come home with a premature baby! The contractions subsided and they sent us home. We did finally make it to "sleep" around 6am this morning though. :)

We are praying for a full-term healthy little girl, so please join us in that and we'll keep ya posted (hopefully in a few more weeks!). Back to sleep...

One looooong weekend.....

Well, we weren't sure who to take to the hospital this past weekend...Mama or Joshua. Between my contractions and his 104.6 degree fever, it was a toss up! Neither of us actually ended up going anywhere - thankfully. Daddy took extra good care of us!

Alas, our best laid plans were laid aside for lots of tears, Tylenol and video watching.

How pitiful is he?!

The Sign Language videos were LITERALLY the ONLY THING that could make him stop crying - for 30 minutes at a time, they saved us.
Hopefully we're on the mend...I can only handle so many repeats of "one yellow, one yellow, one yellow chicken!"
As for the baby watch, the contractions subsided meaning no real labor yet.
We're in the 4 week countdown and we'll keep ya posted!



Now where was I? Ah, yes, repeatedly singing about yellow chickens...

He's got the whole world in his hands...

Joshua has discovered my globe and loves spinning it!

A big congrats to our favorite new DOCTOR!

4 years ago began a long and hard journey in this place...

And now, in 2009:

Sarah Prim, MD!!!!!!!!

(Look at that personal touch. I'm surely excited for her to be our pediatrician!) We are so proud of our dear friend Sarah, (my oldest friend from childhood - I sure do wish I had some laughable old pictures of us to share, but alas, they're packed up), who received her MD degree this past Saturday! What a big day! Many years of hard work and dreams came true and we were so happy to celebrate with her and her family and friends!

Our "crew" from middle and high school:

L to R: Dr. Sarah, Karen, Allison, Sav

Joshua jumped in with Sarah's regalia cap on... Dr. Wease, we are so proud of you!!! Congratulations!!

A recap of my Mother's Day sweetness!

Okay, so I admit it. I'm totally and completely spoiled by my husband. I failed to capture most of our festivities because I was too busy ENJOYING them, but below are a few highlights!

I awoke to this:

Then, we were off to church then lunch...what handsome hunks I've got, eh?

Not recorded was the excellent meal, the HUGE ice cream sundaes (mmm...my favorite!), and the pampering pedicure, massage and a super-cool gift: a gorgeous new chair for our master bedroom! My own mom also dropped off some sweet treats in the form of tomatoes and peas to plant! How fun!

I love you, honey!! You are truly THE best!

The toothbrushing king!

We are trying to teach Joshua to brush his own teeth these days... "How am I doing?"

Pretty good, I'd say, buddy!

A big(-ger) boy bed

Well, we haven't quite graduated to a big bed yet, but we did have to move Joshua up to a full-sized crib. Yes, it's true, Joshua has been sleeping in a miniature crib all this time. Alas, it's time to pass that along to his sister to fit into her closet-turned-sleeping-quarters (more on that later)!

Daddy begins with 1,000 small bits, pieces and screws:

I don't know how he consistently makes sense of such things:
But he does! And very well, I might add.
All finished and fancy:

The real test - does Joshua like it?

He tests it out by running laps in it.

I think he loves it!

So far, he's slept very well.