Turning Four and Feeling Fine

Josiah had a wonderful fourth birthday filled with dragons, trucks, pizza, Chuck E. Cheese and many, many Angry Birds.

This is the first year that Josiah has asked for a Birthday Party.  We tell the kids that to have a party somewhere other than our house, their guest list must be smaller than six.  Ali has never been able to pare down her list that much.  Josiah did not have that problem.  We invited five kids; two were able to come and Josiah was just fine with that.  He loved the crown and balloon he got and was super excited to take a turn in the "Ticket Blaster"

We celebrated with pizza and Angry Birds cupcakes and he was given a remote control dump truck and a dragon (a very popular toy in our house!).  The next day, his actual Birthday, was a quiet day at home.  We gave him some Angry Bird games and toys and he is having fun playing with them as well as pretending he has his own Angry Bird You Tube Channel.

Josiah is a kind, considerate boy.  He is my buddy.  He loves his Veggie Tales, Angry Birds and making music.  He's not sure what he wants to be when he grows up yet; some days he wants to be a doctor, other days he wants to be an Angry Bird.  When I tell him that I love him to the moon and back, he loves to remind me that the moon is far, far away.

A bit of a catch up

We have done the following things:
Celebrated Easter
Finished Kindergarten
Visited Wisconsin
Went to camp
Started 1st Grade
Celebrated Ali's 6th Birthday

Here are some picture to prove that we did the things mentioned above:

 Easter 2012:  Josiah: 3 1/2 (in his favorite color, purple), Ali: 5 1/2, Abi: 17 months

 Pictures from the first and last day of Kindergarten.  Ali adored her teacher, Ms. Lum.

 Ali's first grade goals:  To make new friends and to learn to spell more words correctly.

For her birthday, Ali and I went to see the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastic Champions.  It was a fun night of making memories.  And, Ali was over the moon to be able to watch Aly Raisman's Gold Medal Floor Routine live!
Hopefully, most posts will come soon to prove that we do, in fact, have three children and that they get their time as well...

Great Kansas Adventure of 2012

We had a wonderful trip to Kansas.  It started with a slight snafu which resulted in Jed not traveling with us to Kansas (but I did manage to stay fairly calm flying with the three kids).  We were reunited as a family at the Potter's and had a great trip traveling across Kansas (and a bit of Nebraska) visiting family.  Ali made a list of things to do.  We managed to do it all.  Here was her list:

Play with Aunt Carrie's toy kitchen

Cook with Nana

Go to a park

Play in Snow

See Mom's toys

Do a craft

See Grandpa Hasty's grave

Watch a movie at Nana's

My list included seeing all the family.  Here is the pictorial proof.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderfully quiet Christmas afternoon, enjoying dinner, opening presents, and spending time as a family.

We pray that all our family and friends near and far had wonderful days as well, and are still enjoying the ten days of Christmas left!

Number Three is One!

I didn't forget about this little one.  She's now One!  We had a low key family day...we opened presents, ate pizza and carrot cake (or "Laura cake" as our Veggie Tale loving son calls it.  Ten points if you understand why he says that.)

Abi is a joy.  She smiles, laughs, and loves her brother and sister.  She signs "eat" and "please" and would eat her weight in cheese if we would let her.  She is wonderfully average in height and weight (20 pounds and 29 inches) and took her three shots like a champ.

The obligatory pictures are below.  We love you Abigail Charis!

Unsure of what to think about the candle.

Very happy after eating the frosting (and cake).

Watching football with Daddy.

Halloween 2011

I think that Josiah's favorite holiday is Halloween.  What other day can you walk around and request candy?  A dream come true for my little three year old.

Here are the kids as Junior Asparagus, Cinderella, and a dragon (a costume that has been well loved in my family)  Also, Ali and her pumpkin.  Josiah didn't want that picture taken.

When I Three...

"When I three" was a phrase Josiah loved to use in the last few weeks.  Now that's he is three, he's giving himself a bit more time..."When I five" is is favorite phrase, especially when he's trying to get out of doing something.

Josiah loved singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out his candles.  He was over the moon to go to Chuck E. Cheese and play games and enjoyed his "Larry Bob cake"--my first attempt at designing anything  in the world of cake.  I was happy Josiah knew who was on the cake!

Here's to our buddy, Josiah.  I pray three is a great year for you!