Josiah is ONE!

You can also see the pictures we took at Penneys on Tuesday here.

And 365 days of Josiah is complete. I actually did it. I took at least one picture of Josiah every day for the first year of his life. There were only 3 or 4 times that I almost missed a day but managed to get a picture in before midnight. :)

365 days of Josiah

Halloween!

I just realized that I forgot to post Halloween pictures:

Halloween

Just like his brother...

As you may recall, Noah is somewhat notorious for getting his arms and legs stuck in places they don't belong... a friendly reminder from May 2005:


Shortly after the pictured incident (which he was stuck in for about 45 minutes b/c Michael was at a church service and I couldn't get him unstuck until he relaxed and his arm finally pulled out), he also somehow got his leg stuck in the rocking chair. There was another incident that escapes me today, but I know Noah got stuck another time as well. At any rate, this morning, as I was in the shower and Josiah was in his exer-saucer, he somehow managed to get himself stuck. Hearing his cries and discovering him unable to free himself (and being the good mother that I am), I jumped out of the shower all soapy, grabbed my robe, ran for the camera and took a picture of Josiah's first "I'm stuck" incident, tears and all. :) Unlike his brother, he got his head stuck instead of just an arm or a leg....

Alas, all's well that ends well and maybe he won't go sticking his head where it doesn't belong! ;)

More pictures in October!

Click on the October pictures below to see the added photos. 365 Days of Josiah is up-to-date also!

Josiah crawls!

This is video from day 2 of crawling. :)

September & October

I'm giving up - I can't seem to stay on top of the blog, so I'm not even going to try to make excuses anymore. Enjoy the pictures from September and October!

September

October

And don't forget:

365 days of Josiah

and summer comes to a close...

Today is Noah's second day of school and my first day of total quiet. :) Josiah and I did lots of errands yesterday during the first day of school but today, we're home taking it easy until Noah returns this afternoon. With Josiah down for a nap, Michael at work and Noah at school, I'm enjoying the sweet bliss of absolute, guilt-free, "me-time". :)

August was filled with activity as we tried to squeeze out all the summer fun we could. Gummy also came for a visit and so you know that we had fun that week! And of course, the first day of school...

Since it's been a month since my last upload, I'll once again let the zillions of pictures do the talking for me.

August

Iowa trip

The boys and I went to Iowa to visit family while Michael was in Houston at the 64th convention of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. We were able to see 4 grandmas, 3 grandpas, 3 aunts, 5 uncles and 13 cousins! Josiah did pretty well - the car rides were the worst but even those could've been much worse than they were. The drive home was almost 12 hours but that included a stop at a shopping mall in Merrillville, IN for Noah to jump off some energy. There are a few pictures from before our trip in this batch as well and there are a LOT of pictures, so I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. :)

More Summer Fun

Bath time

Forgot to include this little video in my last post. Josiah now LOVES his bath and splashes like crazy.

Summer in full swing

Michael and Noah came home from getting their hair cut and I had to take a picture! We've always said Noah was mini-Michael... I think this picture says it all!


Noah got some cool new sunglasses for summer... picked 'em out himself. Now he's TOO cool. ;)


Last week we went strawberry picking at Suter's with our friend Christine. Christine is Noah's beloved babysitter and when I told him that I was going to ask her to watch Josiah so he and I could go pick strawberries, he suggested having Christine's mom watch Josiah and having Christine come with us. :) Apparently, Noah doesn't want to share her with his brother!

strawberries

Josiah is a tummy sleeper and he's just so cute with his bottom up in the air!


Noah went to Camp Lutherhaven for 3 days/2 nights and had a great time. His favorite part was swimming, though he looked forward to the s'mores the most. :) Apparently, s'mores aren't as high on the list for everyone else, so he only got 2, but he seemed ok with that. He told us he had fun and would definitely do it again. He even asked if he could go again this summer. :) He took pictures while he was there but the camera is currently MIA, so if it turns up, we'll be sure to share them with you! These pictures are when we dropped him off and picked him up.

Lutherhaven

And as always, don't forget to check out

365 days of Josiah

Geocaching!

Noah and I discovered the thrill of geocaching today. We learned 2 very important things:
1) Bring snacks!!
2) Two words: BUG SPRAY
We had 8 geocaches plugged into the GPS, we looked for 6 and we found 3. Josiah was along and by the 5th one, he was pretty much done. We're still learning how to use our GPS for this, so I think we did ok. Noah had fun and that's what really matters!

Geocaching

Happy Birthday to me

I had a wonderful birthday filled with phone calls from family and friends - I literally was on the phone from noon until about 5! Noah made me a special birthday crown:

In case you can't read it, I am "really far out," "the best mom," the "Awesomest mom," and the "coolest mom on the planet." :)

On Memorial Day, I found Noah on the swing dressed like a clown. I hope the neighbors get as many laughs out of watching Noah as we do!




On the last day of school (June 2nd), we went to Noah's awards assembly. We thought he would get the art award again this year but instead, he was the Drama award recipient. Noah, dramatic? Who knew? LOL!!!! And of course, I made our traditional driveway sign for the end of the year: Good-bye 1st grade Hello Summer! Can't believe Noah will be a SECOND grader! WOW!

Last day of school

And don't forget to check out all the pictures of Josiah!

365 days of Josiah

Busy busy busy May

As usual, the end of the school year brings a flurry of activities. In the last 2 weeks, Noah has participated in the Tap Show (pictures in a previous post), 2 Touring Company performances, a school field trip to the Columbus Zoo, a piano recital, Field Day at school and the Arts Magnet Art Show. That's in addition to all the "normal" activities we do on a regular basis! Thanks to a very sweet husband, I was able to chaperon the zoo trip and I helped out with Field Day. I think Noah was pretty excited to have his mom hanging around without little brother tagging along. :) Noah also lost another tooth (his 5th) and continues to draw, play with his legos, write and illustrate his own books and is enjoying playing with Josiah as he gets more playful. Noah even changed a diaper! I don't think that will be a regular occurrence though. ;)

May 10

Noah or Josiah?

Pop Quiz time! Can you tell which picture is Noah and which picture is Josiah? I only saved 2 or 3 outfits from when Noah was a baby and this is one of them... same outfit, same blanket, same chair. :)


Ok, so maybe they aren't twins born 7 years apart, but they're definitely brothers! :)

Tap Show

Each year at Heritage Arts Magnet, they have an Artist-in-Residence program and this year's focus was tap dancing. Mark Yonally with Chicago Tap Theatre worked with the kids for a week in March and then brought the dancers to Lima for a performance with the kids. Unfortunately, no flash photography or video was allowed, though I did sneak one no flash picture. They did have a professional videographer there, so we'll be purchasing the DVD and will share as we can. Noah was in the back row, so any video we would've taken probably wouldn't have been that great anyway.

From Tap Show

Josiah is now 5 months old. He found his toes and loves to chew on them. :) He also occasionally will put his arms up when asked, "How big is Josiah?" (you know, "SOOOO big!" Once he does it on a more regular basis, I'll post a video of him doing it. :) He's eating rice cereal, playing in his saucer and loves the outside swing. I took him and Noah to the park today and he loved watching all the kids playing. He's still all smiles and drools constantly. Noah is still quite enamored with his baby brother.

365 days of Josiah

lots of giggles

Just wanted to share this very cute short video of Josiah from Saturday for those of you not on Facebook. He is still our very happy baby!

Cereal and more...

So much to blog, so little time! :) Last week, Noah, Josiah and I went to see Jim Gill "in concert." I put that in quotes because the concert was held in a school gym and we all sat on the floor (when we weren't dancing around). It was fun and Noah LOVED seeing Jim Gill in person. We've been listening to his crazy CDs since Noah was a baby and we pretty much know all the words to all the songs. Josiah was enthralled with his banjo playing... well, at least for the first 20 minutes or so, then he slept. :)

With a little prodding, I got Noah to get his picture taken with Jim after the concert.


Saturday was a big day for Josiah as he started cereal! YAY! I love these baby milestones. :) He also started rolling over from back to front sometime last week (I wrote it in the baby book but can't remember which day now...) and is now rolling all over the place. This morning he rolled from one side of the living room to the other! Watch out world, Josiah is on the move!! He is still all smiles and such a happy baby.

Cereal

And of course, there are more pictures in 365 Days of Josiah

a day at the zoo

We went up to the Toledo Zoo on Saturday, 4/10 and had a great time - the weather started a bit cool, but it was sunny and turned out to be a beautiful day. We saw lots of animals actually moving around and enjoyed being together as a family.

There are some other random pictures included in this album - we're staying busy and enjoying spring!

Apr 10

And of course, I've added pictures to 365 days of Josiah.

365 days of Josiah

Spring Break 2010

Once again, Noah's spring break was during Holy Week but this year, Gummy came for the first half, so we were able to do some fun things we normally wouldn't have done. Roller skating, Chuck E. Cheese's, coloring Easter eggs, decorating Easter cut-out cookies and a trip to COSI were just some of the things we did to make Noah's spring break fun. Josiah enjoyed Gummy's visit as well with lots of cuddles. Since Gummy has been gone, Josiah has slept 10-11 hours every night! Woo-hoo! Whatever Gummy did, I'm thankful! :)

Most of the pictures are from Gummy's visit but there are a few others that I threw in from before and after her visit as well.

Gummy's visit

Happy Spring!

another month of fun

It's been about a month since my last post - I guess blogging just isn't my priority these days. :)

This past month, Noah participated in the Lima Symphony Orchestra's Family Concert. He was in Symphony Singers, a group from Heritage Arts Magnet (his school).

Josiah and I also took Noah for a "day of fun." Noah got to pick all of our activities and the only conditions were that we had to stay in Lima, Josiah had to come with us and we had to be home by 3:30. Noah chose roller skating, a trip to Toys R Us (to spend Christmas and birthday money) and Chuck E. Cheese's. Roller skating was a bit difficult since he is still learning and with Josiah along, I couldn't skate to help him. But he kept at it and by the time we left, he had improved quite a bit. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't turn out all that great - I'm still learning how to use my new camera. :)


This past month also had quite a few snow days and lots of Wii time. Noah is really into Super Mario Bros. right now, which reminds me of the hours and hours that Bryan and I used to spend trying to save the princess. Noah also started piano again and is starting to realize that because of piano lessons, he knows all the answers in music class. He was excited to tell us that he was the only kid in his class that knew what a quarter rest and whole rest was. His midterm report was excellent as usual and we are trying to find new ways to challenge him as he continues to claim that school is boring and he never learns anything. He's currently reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out in a couple weeks.

Josiah is now 3 months old and randomly sleeps through the night. Most nights he wakes up once or twice still to have a snack but always goes right back to sleep. He still sleeps quite a bit during the day as well, but is much more active and still loves watching Noah and his many antics. Josiah is all smiles and is cooing and talking up a storm. He is a very happy baby. :) He is now 12lbs. and 2' tall, moving him up on the charts a bit (25th percentile instead of 10th!) I've managed to keep up with my 365 days of Josiah project and you can really see how he is growing and just how happy he is.

365 days of Josiah

Josiah is 2 months old!

Can't believe how quickly the time is flying - Josiah is already 2 months old??!! He had his well-baby check up on Monday and all is fine. He is now 9 lbs. 9 oz. and 22" long. Though Noah was in the 75-90th percentile for weight and height, Josiah is a little peanut and is only in the 10th percentile for weight and 50th for height. That's ok - he's growing consistently and he is a very happy baby. He smiles and coos quite a bit and has not been colicky at all, so we're thankful for that. I've even managed to get some sleep most nights - one night almost a full 8 hours! Most nights I get a 5 hour stretch now, which I can handle. :)

I've added pictures to the "365 Days of Josiah" album as well. Here is the link to the slideshow:

365 days of Josiah

Valentine's Day care package

Gummy & Grandpa sent Noah and Josiah a care package for Valentine's Day. When Noah first opened the Zhu Zhu pet, he didn't really know what to think, but once he started playing with it, he loved it. I never would've thought to buy one of those for him, but it was a good choice.

Valentine care package

Random pictures

When you don't blog for a month, you end up with lots of random pictures that don't really fit in anywhere else, so here are a few for you to enjoy:

Noah and Josiah watching Baby Mozart - I thought Noah would roll his eyes and tell me that he didn't want to watch those baby movies, but he was just as enthralled as Josiah was! :) Baby Mozart was my go-to dvd when Noah was a baby and it looks like it still works (for Josiah AND Noah! lol)

I was taking pictures of the boys and Noah thought it would be funny to have a picture of them sleeping like Josiah. :)

And this one was Michael's idea...


Noah on the phone with one of his friends - the first time a voice I didn't know asked to speak with Noah!

Josiah wearing Sheriff Woody's hat :)

Snow Snow Snow!

In less than a week, we had two winter storms that dumped over a foot of snow and Noah LOVED it! The church parking lot has piles of snow twice as high as me and Noah had fun climbing and sliding on those piles as well as playing in our backyard. Between storms, I also took him sledding and he had a great time. Fortunately, he's now old enough that I can stand at the bottom of the hill and take pictures while he climbs the hill and flies down again.

SNOW!

Aloha!

To break up the winter blahs, Noah's school had a Hawaiian day. Because the kids have reached reading goals, they also got to wear whatever they wanted (instead of "campus wear") for the day.

Noah's 7th Birthday

For Noah's birthday this year, we took him and three of his friends to Chuck E. Cheese's. It worked out really well - I picked the boys up from school and we went straight to Chuck E. Cheese. We basically had the place to ourselves for most of the party! Those 4 boys (plus one big boy...) went through 200 tokens in the first 45 minutes! They played without tokens for awhile, ate some pizza and cake and then burned through another 120 tokens before the party was over. It was a lot of fun, but I think next year, we'll go back to having a party with friends at the house - much cheaper and just as easy. :)

Noah's 7th birthday