Joshua's turned 3!

We can't believe it, but our "baby" just turned 3! Joshua, who was our biggest baby at a whopping 6 pounds, 14 oz. had a birthday Dec. 10. We had a small family party at a local restaurant which was loud, chaotic and a lot of fun! Below are a few pictures of the day.

Joshua showing his age on his fingers...

He wanted Darth Vader cupcakes so that's what he got!
The pictures from our party at the restaurant did not turn out well at all (disappointing). The flash on our camera has been messing up, so I just didn't get many there. Toy Story 3! Thanks Grand K and Pappy! He also got a toy tire from his Aunt Jessica (long story about the tire-but something he told her he wanted), and a new scooter from Nana and D-Dah. Also, his brothers gave him a retro-style lunch box (very cool!) Sorry the pics didn't turn out but thank you for all the gifts!

We love you big-boy Joshua! You are a joy to us and we are thankful for the blessing God has granted us in having you as a son. We love your fun, warm, very loving personality. You are a very sweet boy!

Gingerbread Party

Before Christmas, we were able to go to our local homeschool group's gingerbread house party. Candy, sugar, and more candy and sugar! Oh yea, and a lesson on architecture thrown in there, too.

Here, beginning to devise a plan...


Naturally, eating just as much (or more) as we're putting on the house won't surprise anyone!

Our house complete with a snow covered roof, 3 chimneys, a candy cane-lined sidewalk, a peppermint snowman, beautiful landscaping, and on the back (no picture) a deck. I mean, who wouldn't want an m&m covered front door?

Random pictures

A couple of random shots of the past few months: I didn't really take many photos of Halloween night, so here are the boys: 2 dressed up as Bumblebee, and we had one cute little, terrible dinosaur.

A shot of our boys, all 4 of them. We love our Hank!

Camping -- Fall Creek Falls

The last weekend in October we went camping at Fall Creek Falls State Park. What a beautiful place! We hadn't been there in a very long time, and we had a fabulous time. One thing we won't forget for a long time, though--it was FREEZING at night, literally. And we slept in a tent. Thankfully, we came prepared with a small space heater, which, along with all of us sleeping in the same tent, kept us surprisingly snug. Getting out of the tent in the morning, though was a little...COLD.

Some of us had a hard time dealing with the cold at first...



And Elijah about an hour later!

Of course we had to bring the bikes, which the boys spent A LOT of time on!

We did a lot of hiking. Here we are on our way to the bottom of Fall Creek Falls.









After one of our bike excursions. I think we all felt like this!

Hanging out around the warm fire as the sun is going down...

One of our camping traditions is to make campfire meals over the fire. They smell delicious and taste yummy after a day full of activities.

The swinging bridge photo of the boys. They loved it!


We found this really cool trail called the cable trail. There was a cable that you could hold onto as you climbed (almost repelled) down a very steep cliff. Elijah and Isaac were very brave and Jason helped Joshua most of the time, as I tried to snap pictures when I could get a firm place to stand.


We made it!!

Joshua too!!

We had a very good time. Proof of a busy, fun 3 days...

Pumpkin Farm

Back in October we went on a field trip to a pumpkin farm right down the road from us with some other families from our homeschool co-op. The first thing we did on our tour was to learn about cotton crops and then they were allowed to pick some.


Next stop was to learn how to milk a cow. They enjoyed it even though they were cardboard cows!



Next was to make butter, which tasted really yummy!

They have a wonderfully fun slide that is pretty high that the kids really enjoyed.



And of course, the gigantic tire mountain they had to conquer.

Next, they took us on a hay ride all over the farm...
and everyone got to pick their own pumkin!



A few days later we carved our pumpkins and had a blast!