Joshua turns 18 months tomorrow

Hi All!

Joshua will turn 18 months tomorrow! Can't believe it's been since April that we blogged. April was swimming lesson month. Josh did parent-tot and Jeremy did private lessons. They both did very well.

Jeremy had his class music presentation in late April. It was a very nice program. Right before school got out, he and two other boys lipsynced a song from Owl City for their talent show. We asked Jeremy how it went. He said "We got the most applause". We later spoke with his music teacher and she thought they did a wonderful job.

Jeremy started his baseball games in May. They have won some and lost some. Jeremy is getting to pitch some games. He does pretty good and seems to like it. He was warming up for a game a few weeks ago and missed the throw from his coach and ended up with a broken nose. Nothing too major. Joshua likes going to baseball games because he gets to run around and one of his parents chases after him!!

Joshua has had an ear infection most of the spring, but when we got him in to see the specialist, the ears were all cleared up. So everyone is in hopes that he'll make it through the summer with no infections and then he won't need tubes put in.

Grandma T. had to have her gall bladder taken out a couple of weeks ago, so she stayed with us for a few days till she got to feeling better.

On Memorial weekend we went camping. Also, Jackie's aunt Mary, cousin Tori and son Tyler came to Manhattan to visit and attend Mary's class reunion. They stayed at our house. On Saturday they came out to the lake and spent the day. Grandma T. came too!! We took Tyler and Tori out on the lake. Tyler tried tubing, but didn't think much of it!! Then Sunday we had a reunion of sorts at Larry and Diane's (Jackie's cousins). Jackie's other aunt, Clara and her daughter Rosemary were there. It was good to see everybody. And Diane and Larry had a wonderful meal!!

Jeremy is busy this week and next with basketball camps. Then it's football camp. Then he goes to Grandma H's for a week to attend her church's VBS. Then there's another basketball camp and 3 weeks of theater camp to round out the summer!! He is going to be very busy!! But it's all fun stuff!! He has a baseball tournament in Salina this weekend. The last tournament they had, they won their first game and then got rained out!! So we will see how they do this weekend.

Joshua will be going to games and camping most of the summer. We have found a gal to do some babysitting, so that will help out on the weeks we get behind in our mowing schedule. The mowing business has been going fairly well. It's keeps us and 2 others fairly busy!! The weekend before Memorial weekend, we didn't go camping and we did landscaping and mowing. On Friday night we put out 130 bags of mulch. On Saturday, Jackie mowed 4 lawns and then we went up to Mom's to talk about an offer she had gotten for the house. Then on Sunday, Jackie finished a couple of more hours mowing and then built a small deck for one of our customers. She was tuckered out that weekend. Di and the boys went to Emporia because a good friend of ours was graduating from Emporia High. So they attended the party!! Also, Di had to work on Sunday, so her Mom watched the kids for her. They got back in Manhattan in time for Di to screw in the last two boards and clean up!!

As you can see, we have a very busy summer planned. But we hope to spend a lot of weekends at the lake where it's stress free and lots of fun. We will post pictures in the next few days. Have to get them downloaded!! Don't think we'll get to it tonight. It's billing night for the lawn company. Take care and have a safe summer!!

Camping season

We have started camping and this is our "Tikki Dude" that watches over us throughout the summer!!! Isn't he cute?

Here's our camper with our last year's deck and this year's new addition. We now have a deck that is the length of our camper!! It sure is nice to sit out on the deck in the morning.

Here's the bunk beds that we made for the boys. The bottom bunk is a futon that will lay out or the back folds up and we have a couch that people can sit on. Jeremy has the upper bunk and Spiderman is his sleeping buddy!! We found the colorful body pillows at Wal-Mart and they work very well to keep Josh out of the cracks!!

Mary Kay's sister, Debbie was giving me a hard time today because we hadn't updated the blog lately. So I stole this picture of Josh off of Mary Kay's blog because it's a) Cute, b) Very recent and c) Cute!!!!

Joshua is a typical almost 17 month toddler. He is in to everything and still doesn't want to listen to "no". We do believe he understands it now, because he will run the moment you go after him. He loves being outside! He will have a blast this summer when we are camping every weekend and the outdoors is his home. We did go camping last weekend. What beautiful weather! We added on to our deck at the camper and did a few other jobs we needed to do. This weekend we are painting Jeremy's room downstairs and going out to the camper on Sat evening.

Josh has started talking in multiple words now. His most used phrase is "Ut oh!" He now tells us when he wants to eat and drink. Which is helpful, because then we don't have to guess what his problem is!!! He also does pretty good at feeding himself with utensils.

Josh and Jeremy spent an evening with Mary Kay and Nancy this week while Jackie had PTA and Di had class. The kids had a blast and I think the adults did too!! Josh is with Grandma H. since Wed. evening. We will go get him tomorrow. I guess he's been quite the terror...something about a broken nose piece on Grandma's glasses and he slammed two baby food jars together and broke them and got baby food all over Grandma's carpet!! That would have been a good picture!! Gotta love him!!! He's too darn cute not to love!!!

Random shots of Joshua this weekend

Mommy and Josh are playing video games at the hotel.

Josh was pleased with himself...he is really starting to ham it up in front of the camera!!!

See what I mean!!!

He decided his toy drawer was a "sit in" drawer!!!

This is the face I got when I told him he shouldn't be in there. No, just kidding...actually it's the face he made hamming it up for the camera. He had a big weekend, swimming, video games, playing with his cousins today and tonight we started our fire pit and cooked hot dogs, gearing up for camping season!! We sure are enjoying this nicer weather. It does make it seem like camping season may finally be here!!!

Jeremy's 9th birthday weekend celebration

Jeremy turned 9 today. We had a family dinner with Jeremy's favorite entree, spaghetti!! Topped it off with ice cream and cake.

Jeremy received lots of presents from everybody and he was very thankful to all!

We got him a metal detector. He was so excited to get this present. For those of you that don't know...Jeremy is a treasure hunter...he will be searching for treasure wherever he goes now!!!

The weekend started off by taking Jeremy, 3 of his friends, Joshua, Mommy and Mama to Topeka on Friday night and staying at the Holiday Inn that has a 3 story high slide in the pool. The boys swam for a while on Friday night and then played video games and pool. We ate pizza and had birthday cake. On Saturday, they played in the pool again and then we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. Then we came home.

The dudes after a serious pool game!!

Jackie's Birthday

Sunday Jackie had another bithrday. Like any good mother her birthday was spent taking Jeremy to baseball practice, attending his basketball game and watching him sing in 2 different church services. Below is a photo of her real cake and the cake she wished she had.

Josh decided to try out the chair Jeremy and he got Jackie for her birthday.

Joshua Turns 15 Months Old

Tomorrow Joshua will be 15 months old. It seems impossible that he is that old already. He growing and changing by leaps and bounds. 2 months ago he only said a few words now he says 10. Momma was his first word and the one he still uses the most. We are still working on Mommie but for now both Jackie and I are momma. Other words he can say are, cookie, ball, nanna (Banana), dog, kitty and more. Joshua continues to be a hand full but as always all of his mischief he does with a smile. As the youngest child and grand child he is truly getting a lot more flexibility than Jeremy did. Proof is the photo below taken by Grandma H herself. Mom watched Josh for us a few days so Jackie could get some work done.