Happy New Year!

What better way is there to start the New Year than to catch up on my blogging?

Let's see...starting back in Nov:

-Julie and I successfully completed a half marathon! 13.1 very cold (19 degree wind chill) miles of way more hills than we had trained for. :)

-Jason went deer hunting and shot an 8-point buck! It was very exciting (sorry to any animal activists who read our blog, but he doesn't just hunt for sport - we really do eat the meat!).

-Had a fun dinner with our friends Heidi & Ben and their twin sons (who are a day older than Josiah) Connor & Jacob.

-We spent Thanksgiving weekend at home and ended up processing Jason's deer ourselves...picture us in the kitchen with a meat grinder, sausage casings, a jerky gun, and piles of raw meat. Feel free to laugh if you want to (it was pretty comical) but we are very proud of how good the sausage and jerky turned out!

-Got to see our friends Natalie & Gabe who live in Virginia and recently got hitched!

December was definitely eventful:

-Josiah turned 1 on Dec 6th. We had some family & friends over to help us celebrate. Josiah was a little freaked out by all the people at his house, but he had fun and enjoyed the cake we gave him (well, mostly just enjoyed the frosting).

-Dec 7th we had his 1 year pictures made. He was starting to not feel very well so he wasn't his smiley happy self in the pictures, but they still turned out great.

-Dec 8th Josiah and I were out Christmas shopping...and he started puking everywhere. He wasn't acting sick but I still felt like I jerk for having a sick baby out in publilc...which I of course would not have done if I had known he was sick. The next day we had the 1 year doctor's appointment with several shots - this did not help him feel better. That night Jason caught whatever Josiah had, so he was throwing up too. The next day I was taking care of the boys and trying to avoid Josiah's open mouth kisses, but to no avail. That evening I was also praying to the porcelin gods. It took us almost 2 weeks to feel like eating again was a smart idea. The good news is that we didn't have to worry too much about gaining weight over the holidays!

(lucky for you I don't have any pictures regarding the paragraph above)

-Dec 13th weekend we had Christmas with my family and despite not feeling 100%, still had a fun time seeing everyone.

-The next week we were battling colds. We were thankful for a sickness that still allowed us to eat.

-The week of Christmas we spent with Jason's family, and we were feeling much better by then. Josiah was finally back to his normal happy-go-lucky self, and enjoyed playing with all his new toys (and trying to eat the wrapping paper). He also really loved his Grandma's sugar cookies!

(notice his new cowboy boots above)
Here is our little cookie monster in action:

-We spent New Year's eve hanging out with friends and playing games. We had a lot of fun and did end up staying up until midnight, but since a lot of us there had little kids, we realized exactly how much we enjoy our sleep!

We hope you all enjoyed your holiday season, and that you have a great 2009!

Tag, you're it!

We were tagged by our blogging friends (who are WAY better bloggers than we are) Nate & Jen (http://www.babyhardin.blogspot.com/). We are supposed to post the photos from the 5th post of our blog. At that time I was 16 weeks pregnant with Josiah! That was before we saw the ultrasound pictures, before we knew he was a boy...wow, it is crazy how time flies. The only picture we posted on our 5th posting was to document Josiah's size...he was then weighing in at about 3 oz. and measured only about 5 inches long! He is now about 20 lbs and 30 inches long!! Can you imagine growing 25 inches in less than 1.5 years?

To keep this going - Genevieve & Mick - tag, you're it!!

E*trade baby

"Hey girl, can I hit you back?"

Josiah loves playing with phones, especially his grandma's Crackberry.

Happy Halloween

Josiah was not very happy today when I took him to the Parents as Teachers playcenter to show off his tiger costume for their Halloween celebration.
Here he is saying "I am SO over this":He got hot in his costume, so I unzipped it for him - only to uncover that he really is a tiger!

His friend Andrew is a horse this year - he did not want to sit by the tiger.
This picture is solely for the purpose of showing off his tail.
Happy Halloween!

Fall fun

On October 12th we went with some friends to a cider mill/pumpkin patch/corn maze. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed some yummy apple cider and donuts!

Here's Josiah at the cider mill (he could care less about the pumpkins):

Here we are in the corn maze...

...and the pumpkin patch:Josiah & I went to visit my parents this past Sunday through Tuesday. It was good to see them and relax. Josiah got to hang out with his 2nd cousins - he was especially enamored with Addision:
We got to have lunch with my aunts and grandma one day - here's Josiah with my aunt Naomi:
Josiah now has 4 teeth - 2 on top & 2 on bottom. He is now eating Cheerios and of course loves them. He is also practicing walking (not quite on his own yet, but it won't be long!).

Sears pictures

Mischief

Josiah is 10 months old and is definitely developing a mind of his own! Things that used to be easy and even fun are now challenging...for example, bathtime is like a wrestling match that I really only win 50% of the time if I'm lucky. Getting him dressed is the same story - sometimes he crawls around the house half dressed while he tries to get away from me.

He has figured out how to open some of the cabinets in the kitchen. This one is his favorite, and he loves to pull everything out that he can reach and use whatever he finds as teething toys. He figured out that we store the paper bags in the small space between the oven and the refrigerator - so now he likes to pull those out as well. Of course I had to take a picture with him carrying around a Jack Stack bag! I see a large amount of smoked ribs in his future.
Here he is at Jason's cousin's wedding (congrats Rachel!) dancing the night away with his cousin Trent.
He was exhausted at the end of the night, but he had a blast! Here he is with a 'I-got-to-stay-up-past-my-bedtime' mischievious grin.

We are having fun trying to corral him - he keeps us on our toes!

Updates on his growth:

*Last week we went to the doctor, and found out that he is in the 25th percentile for his weight and the 90th for height.

*This week he got one of his top teeth!

*He can now say the 'Ma' sound. I like to pretend that he's calling me mommy (after all, he is a genius).

*He is getting a little more graceful at going from a standing position back to a seated position (he used to just fall).

That's all I can think of for now. Have a great weekend!