Josiah's Birthday

a




Josiah turned 3 on April 14th! Where does the time go? He is the typical boy and loves anything that has wheels and makes noise! This was the first year that we actually had a "party" with all his little friends. He had so much fun being in the spotlight. Unfortunately right before he opened his presents, he fell backwards off the table and bumped his head really hard. So the first 10 minutes of opening presents he was in a pretty sullen mood. Towards the end he perked up when we told him he could actually play with his new toys. Here is the one picture we have of him smiling at his birthday party!

And now I have to explain the second picture. There is a family tradition on my side that I've always hated. Ever year my grandma bought us new underwear, now for being a grandma, she always had great taste, but the part I didn't like was that my parents for some reason decided that our new underwear was to be our "birthday hat". So we always had to open our present from Grandma first, and wear our new "birthday hat" the entire time we opened the rest of our presents. Weird, I know, especially when our friends came over... Every family has weird quirky tradition and this is ours. I always knew I would never pass this lovely little tradition down to my children. So strangely enough this year when Josiah opened new underwear from his grandma, without even thinking I said, "Yay! Try on your new birthday hat Josiah!" And he gleefully put it on his head and thought he was so funny! Maybe it was deep rooted revenge for all the years I had to wear underwear on my head... who knows?!?

The last pictures are of Josiah with all his cars, trucks, and trains!

New House

UPDATE ON THE OLD HOUSE: We've had a crazy last couple of weeks. We officially sold our house, and had to be packed moved, and have the place cleaned in a week and a half! And we were in Vancouver at Annual Conference for four of those days! Thankfully enough we have an amazing group of friends and youth kids that Brad had arranged to surprise me by packing, moving, and cleaning out our old house, AND on top of that, unpacking stuff in our new place and getting us moved in! It was one of the greatest acts of kindness I've ever known. Especially since our house was a PIT! I literally haven't had time to clean for weeks with things being so hectic, so there were lots of embarrassing stories I heard about the shape of our house. Brad for some reason doesn't understand my embarrassment... But overall we're so thankful that we have friends to help us out when we're in a bind.

PROGRESS ON THE NEW HOUSE: They're almost finished siding the house, and are working on drywall right now. The first pictures are of the outside. The next picture is of the entry way with a small living room off to the right (then one of the same area with drywall). And the last picture is of the kitchen and dining area. We were surprised when we talked to them yesterday and they told us the expected due date was the beginning of JUNE! Yay! Perfect for all of our summer visitors!

Soccer

This is Reagan's first year playing soccer. We were surprised to find a lot of kids had started playing at three! So far we're not sure if Reagan has fully grasped the object of the game... but she is definitely enjoying meeting new friends, and running alongside them as they play soccer. She thought it was pretty cool to get a new soccer ball, cleats, and water bottle, though, and I think that makes up for the nuisance of chasing a ball that never quite seems to make it her way. (It might have something to do with the fact that she's more excited about the people surrounding her than with her watching for the ball). Her and another little girl love to give each other hugs in the middle of games. Pretty cute!

Easter Hunt

Every year our church does a community Candy Hunt. This year we were worried that nobody would show up because we still had snow on the ground. But over 800 people still came! We had to do the Candy Hunt in a nearby elementary school, because of the snow. Above are pictures of the four and five year olds scrambling for candy. I was surprised Reagan didn't get trampled! Josiah loved the fire-truck, and Madelyn had fun playing with the hat when we got home.

House update

They are almost about ready to sheet rock! Yay! The estimated finish date is hopefully the beginning of July !

Six months old (almost 7)

MADDY UPDATE: People are always commenting on what a happy baby Madelyn is. We feel so blessed to have had such easy babies! Not to say by any means that they're easy when they hit the toddler stage, but so far the baby stages have been a breeze for us. Maddy has two new teeth on the bottom, she is constantly in motion: jumping, bouncing, walking when she holds on to our hands... She's learned how to roll herself across the room - thankfully we'll be out of our house soon because she's come close to scooting herself down the stairs a few times!

Valentines Day (February 2008)

Brad is always so good at coming up with fun date ideas. This year he surprised me by arranging dinner for the kids AND us this year. He bought the kids a heart shaped pizza, and found a babysitter. Then he took me out on a date to Chili's for dinner. It was weird actually getting to carry on a whole conversation without any interruptions! After dinner, we come home and put the kids to bed. When they were all settled he said, "Hey, meet me in the hot tub". By the time I got outside he had lit candles all around the whole hot tub, and had romantic music playing in the background that he had recorded for me. It was so sweet. And probably the best part was just getting to hang out and talk about life. It was a fun way to unwind. After the hot tub he rented a sweet love story movie that he knew I would like. What a great guy! Above is a picture of the kids in their Valentines Day pajamas from Grandpa and Grandma Fox.

Reagan turns 5! (January 2007)

Reagan had her first slumber party this year! So much fun! She had 7 friends come over for the party, and five of them spent the night. They started the night with pizza, played a few games, opened presents, had cake and ice-cream, did a scavenger hunt, a puppet show, and then watched a movie. The boys headed home to go to bed, and the girls were supposedly on their way too! Everyone brushed their teeth, put their PJ's on, and spread out on the living room floor. The girls were decievingly mellow as we snuggled and read 'The Princess and the Pea,' and sang 'He's got the whole world in His hands'. We read a devotional from Reagan's Princess bible. It has cute little skits that you can role-play, so we decided to put on a little skit too. The girls had so much fun, that we had to re-enact it a couple times so everybody had a chance to play their favorite parts. Afterwards we did a group prayer, and settled in for a night of peaceful sleep. Did I say sleep? Who wants to sleep at a Slumber party? Not these girls! I seriously think they would have stayed up all night if I let them! I tried unsuccessfully to play the 'Whoever goes to sleep first, gets the first pancake', but only one little girl took the bait. The rest were too excited! And since birthdays only come once a year, I decided losing a night of sleep was not as important as making a night of memories. So most of the evening was spent whispering about the noises they heard, or things they saw ...the heater, cars going by, comets, stars...or telling each other to go to sleep. Eventually they did go to sleep...(3:00am-5:30am), and then they were ready for more fun! We finished the party off with Brad making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast in the morning.