As is probably the case for you and your family, December is a blur. A fun, exciting blur, but a blur nonetheless.
We kicked off the month with Josiah's 2nd birthday party. His 2 sets of grandparents were there to help us celebrate with a dog-themed party (no we have not gotten a dog yet).
I went a little overboard with the desserts. We had 48 cupcakes (we had both white and chocolate cupcakes), dog bone shaped cookies, and dog shaped cookies.
Josiah did not complain about there being too many desserts. But, he did not quite understand why he had to wait until after we sing and blow out the candles to be able to eat his cupcake. He thought we were torturing him by dangling this cupcake in front of his face and making him wait.
As you can see, he was not shy about digging in once the candles were out! A big change in his feelings toward cake since his 1st birthday. He liked the cream cheese frosting more than the actual cake part.
He had a blast unwrapping his presents. He was confused by the fact that we wanted him to not play with the cool thing he just opened, but to open the next thing instead. He also was not a fan of the time it took to get all these cool toys out of their boxes.
This is the tractor that his daddy picked out for him. He was so excited, but could not understand why he was not able to climb inside of it. That was kind of frustrating for him. He went to every person in the room to see if they had a solution to his dilemma.
The next 2 weeks of December were packed with putting out the Christmas decorations (we decided to wait until after his b-day to do this), wrapping presents, baking, doctor and dentist appointments, a Parents As Teachers event, getting our windows measured (to be replaced soon!), etc.
Our friends Genevieve and Mick got to stay with us the night of the 20th while they were passing through - it was great to see them - we had not seen Mick in 2 years! Josiah had fun playing with Olivienne and we all ate Jack Stack and relaxed. I guess I was too relaxed - after they left I realized that I had not taken any pictures! D'oh...hopefully we'll get another opportunity before 2 more years fly by.
We had our family Christmas on Tuesday the 22nd right before we left town.
It is so fun seeing how excited Josiah gets opening presents. We have fun playing with his toys too.
Then we packed up and headed to Pittsburg, KS where Josiah got to check out his Mi Mi's office at the hospital and terrorize the hallways with running and screaming. They were happy screams. Hopefully the patients knew that.
He had a blast seeing his family in SW Missouri that he talks about so often. And of course opening more presents.
We spent 4 hours Christmas afternoon driving up to mid-Missouri to see my side of the family. On the 26th Josiah's cousins arrived, and he thought the best way to say hello would be to tackle them. You're looking at the future faces of WWE.
Two more batches of present opening followed in the 2 days we were there. Here's Josiah with his new guitar. He loves it - a little too much. I am wondering how long it will stay in one piece.
Throughout this fun and crazy season, when we ask Josiah what we're celebrating - who's birthday it is - he says "JESUS!". It is so cute. And a great reminder amidst all the chaos.
We are home now, thankful for all the fun we had with our families and trying to sift through the mountains of new toys. We are truly so blessed in millions of ways, big and small.
A couple of random updates - Josiah is now saying 4 word sentences. Like 'my daddy take truck'. I plan on posting some videos of him talking soon. He also is trying to sing parts of Jesus Loves Me. Right now it sounds like this: 'Yes, Jesus. Yes, Jesus.' That's pretty much it. Sometimes he will also sing 'bible tell.'
We hope that you also had a great Christmas and that you have a happy New Year!
Showing off his loot (M&Ms were his favorite):
This picture is just so you can see his authentic Samurai pony tail:
Indiana Jones and the littlest Samurai:
Trick-or-treating at the Parents as Teachers playcenter:
We got fun Halloween balloons and decorated cookies at Whole Foods:
HUNTING
Posing with daddy's 4 point buck (he still says "daddy broke deer"):
Making a pie with granny:
"Driving" one of Paw Paw's tractors. I could barely get him away from them:
THANKSGIVING
He also had fun hanging out with his cousins:
We also had fun visiting family and getting to see my mom's cousin Pat who drove up from TX to see everyone.
