Joshua has another first

Joshua started Vacation Bible School last night at our church.  He wasn't very excited about it, but indeed had a great time.  VBS lasts till Thursday evening.  Jeremy has a ball game Thursday evening and then we are off to Florida to see "Mickey's Castle"!!!!

Taking Preschool by Storm

Today Joshua began a new chapter in his life.  He has moved from in-home child care to an official preschool/daycare.  He is now carrying on a family tradition as an Oak Grove kid because Jeremy went there too. Jackie and I both got to see him off on his new adventure.  We were both very proud of him, there were no tears (from either him or us), he gave us hugs and kisses and ran off to play with the other kids. I check on him a couple times and the teachers say that he is doing great and only tried to sneak off to the playground a couple times.

Joshua goes to the dentist

Joshua at his first dental appointment. He is one cool dude!!!!! Love those shades!! He is talking to our dentist, Dr. Angela Martin. He did very well at his appointment. He didn't bite the dentist!! And his teeth are in good shape.

Catching up

Well, thought we would get pictures downloaded and get this blog up to date...but it's not happening...so we'll just update for now.

Christmas was a blast this year. Joshua was truly in to it!!! We had Christmas at our house this year with both grandmas with us for the weekend. The boys got everything they wanted and more! The New Year came and went...we spent it at home.

Valentine's Day was fun. The boys gave their Moms each a dozen roses. Jeremy loves to give flowers!! Then we had Momma's birthday on the 28th. Jeremy was sick so we stayed home and grilled steaks! Yum-Yum. Jeremy's birthday is coming up next. We get to go to the Clarion and go swimming and play putt-putt the weekend after his birthday. He is bringing some friends, too. Momma is taking the boys to a K-State Baseball game on Friday afternoon since they are out of school.

Both boys are in swimming lessons. Joshua cries when his lesson is done. He wants more!! They have him jumping off of the diving board. He loves it! When we get there, he asks if he can go off the board.

January and February have been filled with basketball every weekend. Jeremy is playing on the 5th grade Mavericks team. They have done well. Now it's March and basketball will be over this weekend and we'll have so much time on our hands, we won't know what to do!! Probably not!!

Joshua is growing by leaps and bounds. He is 38 inches tall and weighs 42 pounds. He had his eyes checked last week and he's got good vision. He starts going to the dentist in April. Probably ought to take him to the hearing doctor, cause there are times that he doesn't hear us talk to him...could just be that male "ignore me" thing! Ha! He has been totally potty trained since December. Kind of nice not having to buy diapers anymore!

In June, he will start pre-school at Oak Grove Pre-School. This is where Jeremy went to pre-school and we really liked it. He will go for one week and then it's off to Mickey's Castle (as he calls it), the rest of us know it as Disney World, for a weeks vacation. We are all looking forward to going to Florida.

That catches us up, I think. Maybe we'll get some pictures downloaded before next Christmas!

JOSHUA TURNED 3 YEARS OLD TODAY!!!

This picture is a testiment to his "layed back" side:-) We were trying to get him to sit by the 3 and he did this...so the photographer snapped some photos and we got this adorable photo!!

Joshua is doing great. He has gone all week without any messes in his "big boy unders"!! That's a major accomplishment for him. He was doing pretty good at home, but not so good at daycare. All of a sudden this week, he gets it!!

We haven't had his 3 year old check up yet, but he is getting tall and weighs over 40 pounds now. He can carry on a conversation with anybody about anything!! He has reached or exceeded all of the 3 year old milestones. His favorite pass time is playing on Mama's Iphone.

All he wanted for his birthday was a Thomas cake! Of course he will get a few more things than that:-) Everyone is looking forward to Christmas. Josh helped decorate the Christmas tree and continues to redecorate it every night. He thinks the ornaments are toys!! He has ripped open one gift and then says," Who's this for?" Like he doesn't know!!! It's going to be a fun month!!

Joshua's First KSU Football game

Mama and the boys went to the K-State vs. Baylor game last Saturday. What a game!! K-State came from behind and won!! KSU is 4-0!! We had a good time!



















As you can see by this picture, Joshua slept through part of the game. Actually he slept through most of the first half and the half time festivities. He sure had a shocked look on his face when he woke up:-) He wasn't sure where he was, at first.















The boys enjoyed the John Deere equipment that was outside the stadium. It's not everyday they get to get in a Gator!!

Joshua's Quote of the Day

On Monday, Joshua was playing at Jeremy's football practice and was dirt from head to toe. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and I said "Yucky! Doesn't that taste bad?" He said "No Mama, it's quite tasty!!" What a hoot!!! Where does a 2 1/2 year old come up with comments like that?

Tuesday night Di came home at 8:45 p.m. from teaching class, to towels all over the floor and the steam cleaner sitting out. Her comment, "oh, this can't be good!! What has Joshua done now?" He had poured a large bottle of concentrated Dawn foaming dishwashing liquid in the back of his Lightening McQueen ride on toy. I had asked him to take it back out on the porch, but he wasn't moving so Jeremy, not knowing the compartment contained liquid, picked it up and all of the soap ended up on the carpet, in the recliner and on him!!!!! What fun that was to clean up:-) Guess that's what I get for taking 2 minutes to look at the paper!! Oh the joys of parenthood!!

Wednesday's quote wasn't really for Joshua, it was for Jeremy. He wasn't feeling too good before football practice and wanted to stay home. I said "If you aren't puking or running a fever, you are playing football!" I was then labeled worst mother of the year. Until after practice and it all went well, then I wasn't so bad:-) I may, and I do mean may, have known what I was talking about;-) (But probably not!!)

Jeremy's first day of 5th grade went well and he likes his teacher, Mr. Scheiner. He walked to school, rather than me take him. We'll see if that's still the case when it's raining or cold!!! He called me this morning at 7:25 and said he was already at school. I told him that he didn't have to go that early:-) School opens at 7:30. Guess he didn't want to be late!!

Finally got to go camping last weekend

We finally got to go camping last weekend!! The lake is still high and still in advisory for Blue/Green Algae so we didn't get in the water. But Joshua got to have his first fishing expedition. IT LASTED 2 MINUTES!!!! Actually is was a little longer, but no bites, so he got pretty bored with it.

Joshua was playing at Jeremy's football practice, with his new t-ball set. He knew I wanted a picture, so he was posing for me. I asked him to spread his feet apart and this is what I got!!

The boys got their new hairdos in early July, before we went to Iowa for a wedding. Neither one looked too thrilled to have their picture taken! Just makes it that much more enjoyable for us!!

School is starting next week. Not sure where this summer went. Jeremy will be in the 5th grade. I am pretty sure he isn't ready for summer to be over. Last week and this week he has been at Zoo camp at our local Zoo. Last week wasn't much fun for him because he hurt his ankle at football practice, so he got around the zoo in a wheelchair. This week his ankle is much better so he can walk on it at the zoo. Practice is still pretty hard on it, but it will get easier with time. He is anxious to find out who his teacher will be this year.

Joshua is doing great. He is in the process of potty training. I think he will have it mastered shortly. He knows his colors, can count and recognizes every piece of construction and farming equipment that is made!! "Look Mama, it's a tractor". Look Mama, it's a concrete truck." On and on!!! Mama taught him that green light means go, red light means stop and yellow light means go faster!!!!:-)

Mommy (Di) is teaching a class this Fall semester for Leadership Studies. She is very excited about this opportunity. She continues to work on her dissertation and travels back and forth to Topeka to work.

Mama (Jackie) is gearing up for the students to come back to campus next week. She also is still mowing lawns in her "spare" time!!

We all are busy, busy, busy!!! But we have fun, too!!

Summer is here!

Here's Joshua at one of Jeremy's baseball games.

Summer 2011 has begun and we have been busy. Since our last post...Jeremy finished up his 4th grade year with all A's. Hooray for Jeremy!!! He also did very well on his State Assessment Tests. He is playing parks and rec baseball this year. He pitches and plays outfield most of the time. They are undefeated!!

He attended Washburn's Football Camp the second week of June and had a blast! He has Washburn Basketball Camp the last week of June. He comes up to Mama's nose, now. He's getting tall!! The rest of his summer plans are to play, play, play. Mama and Mommie's plans are work, chores, swimming, etc.

Joshua is getting tall, too. He put on some sweats yesterday that fit this spring and they were 2 inches too short!! He has spent some time with Grandma H so far this summer. He is the major entertainment at Jeremy's baseball games...he is always doing something to make everyone laugh. He also likes playing in the dirt and usually looks like a little piggy!!! He is all boy!!!

He is starting the potty training stuff. Mostly will tell you after he has gone. But it's a start. We have had numerous comments about how well he speaks for a 2 year old. He talks non-stop!!!

His favorite pasttime is camping. He asks everyday to go camping. We have camped several times this year, so far. Finally got the boat out on the water this past weekend. We had friends visit from Kansas City. We had a great time. Water is high at the lake so we have to leave our campground to put the boat in, but we don't have to go too far.

Mama, Mommie and Jeremy went on a Disney Cruise the first week of June to the Bahamas. They had a great time! They went with our friends Tami, Connie and Zeph. Josh stayed at Grandma's, because he's still a handful and we were afraid he'd jump ship!! Ha! Ha! Josh had more fun at Grandma's than he would have had with us. They don't let kids under 3 in the pools.
We plan on going on another one so Josh can go.

The weekend before the cruise, we celebrated Grandma H's birthday with a BBQ for her family. Grandma T came too. Then on Sunday, we all went to Baldwin City and rode on Thomas the Train. That was fun. They had tents set up with train sets to play with. They had tatoos, bubbles, food, entertainment, etc. We played for awhile, rode with Thomas and bought some new Thomas toys. (Cause we don't have enough!!)

Mommie has been trying to work on her proposal for her dissertation but there is so much going on that she doesn't get much time for it. Hopefully that will change in July. She still commutes to Topeka everyday for work. Mama's still working at KSU and the lawn business. We are up to 23 properties. It keeps us busy. Thank goodness for Uncle Kelly's help.

Hope to get pictures posted soon.

Easter and Camping

Easter this year was a lot of fun. We went to Jackie's mom's house. Jackie's sister Lynn and her twin boys were the only ones there, but us. Jeremy enjoyed playing big brother to all the kids by setting up the Easter egg hunt and helping the smaller kids participate. Yes, Jeremy participated too, but let the younger ones have their fair share of eggs, as well. We finished off by coloring hard boiled eggs. Josh really enjoyed watching the eggs change color and only decided to see how far he could throw one. Check out Diane's FaceBook for more Easter photos.

Camping season is upon us as well. So far we have only slept one night in the camper but more fun filled camping weekends are coming soon. Joshua loves being out at the camper. Since there aren't a ton of people there yet, we often bring his 4-wheeler which allows him to keep up with the bigger boys. The only problem is that Josh only goes one speed "FAST" so Jackie and I have to hustle to keep him from running into something he shouldn't. Josh also loves playing with balls of all kinds. The last time we were out camping we started pitching to him and he actually hit a few unassisted. The hat was his own fashion statement :-)

It's Almost Spring!!

WOW! It's already March!! We have celebrated Mama's birthday and Jeremy's birthday in the last few weeks. Jeremy turned 10 on March 7. We went to Olive Garden for dinner. He got lots of cool presents. Grandma T gave Joshua some Easter chick stick ons for the window. He wanted to eat them not put them on the window!!!

Joshua is doing very well. He talks all of the time. His word list is way over 100. He has no fear, except for strangers:-) Which can be a good thing! He only has one speed...run! He loves to hear the SUV honk. Mama was cleaning the SUV one day and he got in to play. Mama shut the door and about that time Josh grabbed the keys, locked the doors and pushed the panic button so the horn started going off!!! That brought out most of the neighbors!! Between the neighbor kids, Jeremy and Mama, we finally got him to push a button that opened the back window so Jeremy could get in and unlock the doors! Needless to say, Mama always takes the keys if Josh wants in the vehicle:-)

Mama is going to Joliett, Illinois next week for work so Joshua gets to go to Grandma H's for a stay. He loves to stay with Grandma. Then in April, we are all going to Las Vegas to visit friends and celebrate another friend's birthday.

We are all tired of the cold and snow and are looking forward to Spring and camping!! We will get some pictures up sooner or later!!

Christmas 2010

Whew!! We made it through Christmas without anybody getting sick and the weather cooperated! Jeremy and Momma (Jackie) now have colds but seem to be getting better. Joshua is doing good. Dec. 19th we finally got to have the "family" birthday party for Joshua. Jeremy was sick on the 5th when we were supposed to have had it. The birthday party ended up being part of Christmas too, since Uncle Kelly, Aunt Roxie, their family and Brad and Sara couldn't be with us on Christmas Day. We all had a great time!! Josh got lots of presents and had fun with his cousins.

Christmas Eve was spent with Grandma H at her house. Grandma T. went with us, too. We went to Christmas Eve service at her church and Santa made his visit early and had left the kids their presents when we got home from church. Jeremy got an electric scooter and Joshua got a "manual" scooter!! Of course when they walked in the door, Josh went right to Jeremy's scooter and wanted to ride it!!! After that, we opened presents and played with gifts.

Christmas Day we ate dinner and then headed back home to host Momma's side of the family minus those mentioned above, for an evening meal and celebration. We had a great time with all of the kids, Joe, John, Cayden, Joshua and Jeremy. They all make Christmas so much fun!! We opened presents and played games until the little ones needed to go to bed. What a great day!!

Sunday was spent recuperating!!!!!!!! We shopped a little. Watched a little football and installed or put together some of our Christmas presents!! It was a great weekend!

Now Jeremy is home with Mommy (Di) who is busy with her online class she is teaching for intersession at KSU. Joshua is going to the sitter and Momma is back to work. We will all be home on Friday and then it's New Year's Eve and time to PARTY!!!

We will post pictures later. They haven't been downloaded yet. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and 2011 will be a wonderful year for you!!!

Dear Santa I want a.....

Yesterday I took the boys to see Santa while Jackie worked on cheesecakes. I was very happy that Joshua wasn't the least bit scared of Santa. Jeremy was thinking he was too big to go see Santa but since he is such a good big brother, he agreed to go so he could help Josh tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Yes Joshua is missing a shoe and sock. Josh doesn't really think that shoes and socks are necessary so anytime he is forced to sit in the car or stroller for longer than 2 minutes he removes his right shoe and sock...then begins on the left one. We've considered duck tape but haven't resorted to that yet. On this outing we managed to keep the shoe but the sock was lost.

Other randon photos

Can you see the orneriness in this smile? He may be an angel, but he defininately has an extra heaping spoonful of orneriness added!!

He loves his 4 wheeler!

He can drive it on his own, but there are things in our backyard that are paying the price, ie the shed, the slide, the steps!! He's hit them all!! He thinks the object is to run into objects rather than avoid them. He may be a demolition derby driver someday!!

It's hard to believe that Joshua is 2. Our baby is a toddler now. The terrible twos are here!! But he's our angel!! We love him very much! We are so fortunate to have 2 wonderful sons!

Joshua turns 2

Joshua turned 2 on December 2nd. We let him open presents and had cake. He really liked blowing out the candles. He did it 10 times!! We got him this electric 4 wheeler.

Here's Joshua eating his cake.

Jeremy got Joshua an airplane and some Little People DVDs.

Picture taking time!!

The above picture is of Jeremy when he was around 2 years old. The picture below is of Joshua when he is almost 2 years old and wearing the same clothes and boots that Jeremy wore.


We went to Sears and got the annual Christmas pictures taken, plus Joshua's second birthday pictures. We had a blast! The photographer took over 90 pictures!! Joshua was a hoot!! The photographer was laughing so much I don't know how she actually got any pictures taken!!

Joshua 2010 Christmas

Joshua 2nd birthday next Thursday!!

Here's the fam!

Here's the boys!

Here's big bro!!

Hope everyone has a very nice Thanksgiving. We will go to Grandma T's on Thursday and Grandma H's on Saturday and Sunday. In between, Momma will put up Christmas decorations and Mommy will study for her prelims the next week.

Joshua has been a trooper attending almost all of Jeremy's football games. Mommy and Moma get to watch the game the most when Josh decides to nap...or when we can keep in contained in the stroller. Although next year I look for him to be mixed in with the other "little brothers" playing football.

Halloween 2010 and Josh is 23 months today!

Here's Jeremy, Joshua and Mommie (Di) getting ready to go trick or treating. They went out with about 8 others and hit the neighborhood. Everyone came back with loads of candy!!! Momma stayed behind to hand out candy to our trick or treaters.

Can't believe that Joshua will be 2 in a month!! My how time flies!! He is putting several words together now. And most of the time you can understand what he is saying. He continues to be very lovable and caring. If he does something to hurt you, he will say "sorry". He has the concept down of saying please and thank you at the appropriate times. He won't let us feed him anymore. Unless he's mooching off of our plate!! He will eat his meal, say he is done, then come over and mooch food from us!! We have the same thing he had, but I guess it tastes better off of our plate!

He has grown quite a bit this Fall. He is in 3T shirts and pj's and 2T pants. We just sent his 18 month clothes off to Zeke last week.

Jeremy's football is about over. They had some good games at the end of the season. He is getting ready to start basketball this week. They have 3 practices!! First tournament might be in 2 weeks so they have a lot to do before then. He is doing great in school. 4th grade is the first year they get letter grades and he got all A's and 1 A+ this first quarter. We are so proud of him!!

Mommie is getting ready for prelims this month so she is studying a lot. After this semester she will be ABD ( all but dissertation). Once her dissertation is done, then it's Dr. Di!!!

The lawn business is winding down and Momma is happy about that. It has been nice to have some free evenings. We spend a lot of time on the sun porch. It's so nice having the windows in and being able to control the temp on the porch. Joshua will especially love having the area to play in this winter.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

October 2 Joshua turned 22 months

Joshua is 22 months old! He is talking a lot now. He can just about repeat any word you say. He's funny...we put him in time out when he's not behaving...when he thinks he's been there long enough, he looks up at you and says in a soft gentle voice "have". ( his version of behave). He seems to be starting to understand what he can and can't do. He still does what he isn't supposed to do, but then runs:-) So we know he gets it! Now it's just getting him to not do it!!

Camping season is over except for winterizing the boat and camper. We are all sad!! But with Jeremy's football, we are busy every weekend. And they will be turning off the water in a couple of weeks. It's not near as much fun to camp when you don't have running water!!

This Saturday we are going to KC to the Renaissance Festival. It will be our first time. I'm sure we will have a blast! There will be llama rides and elephant rides for Joshua. And jousting for Jeremy!

Labor Day

Zeph and Josh went on a scooter ride together. Josh loved it. Not sure what the cops thought :-)