2012

I remember being a kid and thinking I was to young to be the oldest child.  I always wanted to be 10, then 12, then 14, 16, 18... see a pattern?  Time seemed to take forever and I just wanted to be an adult.  Now that I am an adult I LOVE it!  Of course there are things that aren't so fun...bills... but I would much rather take that on then be a kid again.  And like they say, time flies when you are having fun.  It seems like time just goes faster and faster the older you get, and I think I have narrowed it down to when I got married time has gone faster.  We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary on Dec 30.  I can't believe it has been 6 years already, yet I can't believe it has only been 6 years....  Like many people you can't help but reflect on the last day of the year what the year has brought and 2012 did not disappoint.  Some of the highlights of what happened:

*Kyle and I took our first vacation alone (we didn't even have a honeymoon so this was a big deal)! We went to San Diego for Lynda's (Kyle's sister) wedding.  My sister Melanie came and watched our kids.  We got to go to Universal, Sea World, horse back riding on the beach, walking in downtown LA, and tons more super fun things, just the two of us

*Found out I was pregnant

*Moved from a townhouse to a house

*Found out Joshua has Autism

*Conner and Joshua started preschool (YEAH!!!)

*Had baby Kevin:)

*Saw my whole side of my family (except my brother who is on a mission in Singapore)

*Ben (Kyle's brother) came home from his mission to Mexico

*of course all the holidays: Halloween (everybody were superheros, Thanksgiving, Christmas) 

*6th Anniversary (Kyle planned the entire event.  He took me to a great Mexican place we have never tried, saw Les Mes, went to TGIF for brownie obsessions, and surprised me by taking me to a hotel so we could actually sleep through the night among other things...:))

Yep, a very busy year, and like I mentioned, time has FLOWN by.  

I have never been one to do resolutions.  Like most it would last for like a month and then I would stop, so I just never would do them.  However I really felt this year there are some things I really need to be better about doing.  But I don't want to do yearly, but I'm going to focus on Daily.  Then those dailies will add up to monthlies and then that will add up a the year.  But if you look at just the year it is way to much to handle, so again, I'm focusing on what I need to be doing daily for myself for me to be a better person, woman, wife, and mother.  Some things I am doing are: personal daily prayers twice a day (Kyle and I are really good at couple prayers, but not single), daily personal scripture readying for at least 15 min a day, I really want to run a 5K, I have never done it before...I'm not a runner, but this is something I really want to do in the year 2013, so I will! also, practicing the piano 30 min a day, and writing in my gratitude journal 5 things I'm grateful for every night.  I found a really great journal on Amazon that has every day listed with 5 lines to write things you are grateful for.  It's called "the Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude" if you want to look it up.  I also found on the Sugar Doodle website a calendar check list thing that happened to have all the goals I want to do, so the entire calendar fits on half sheet of paper and you mark it different ways to show what you did that day.  I really like stuff like that so I want to do it faithfully for the entire month and January and see how I feel, if I have noticed a difference in who I am for the better (I'm sure I will).   So, I will do my best to be better at blogging so the 3 people who read this will know if it is working:) 

As a family we chose our theme for 2013 to be "I can chose to be happy today"  We figured it was simple enough for the kids to understand and it is something we can all work on, to have a positive attitude no matter what happens.  Our family scripture for the year comes from Psalms 118:24  I can't quote it yet exactly but it is the verse that says, "This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it."  So again, being grateful and happy in each day that the Lord has blessed us with.  

All in all, a great 2012 and I'm so excited for what 2013 will be bringing the Hercules Family:)

Christmas Eve

Christmas this year has been so much fun!  It's the first year that I think the kids have actually understood Santa and that just makes it magical. We started the month doing some advents.  And now that I am a Pinterest addict, I had so many great ideas to choose from.  Both the turkey and Santa in the picture are ideas from Pinterest, so if you can go to my board "Holiday Ideas" sorry I'm not putting a link with the word "here" but I just don't know how:)  The Santa had no beard so everyday we put a cotton ball on to fill it up.  The kids really enjoyed it.  Conner is wearing an apron because we were making cookies for Santa after church.

I just think Conner looks so funny in this picture, you really see his personality.  He is such the oldest child....bossy! And I can say that because I'm an oldest child too:)

Christmas Eve was a full and fun day.  We were able to clean up the house to be  ready for Santa, then after lunch the kiddos all went to Grandma and Grandpa Hercules so mommy and daddy could go on a "date."  Said date included coming back home and putting together a trampoline!  We also had the pjs on the fireplace with Texas the Elf sitting on them.  He wrote a note saying how much he loved being our elf and how proud he was to always tell Santa about the good choices we made.  After setting up the trampoline, Kyle and I braved Walmart....it was crazy busy, so happy we didn't have the kids with us!  By this time it was dark so we went to get the kids (we were counting on the darkness to help hide the trampoline.  The kids had a great time with some of their favorite people.  I love living 10 min away from them!!  We picked up the munchkins and headed over to some of our friends from church home, the Johnson family.  They always do like a Christmas Eve open house.  Shannan us an amazing chef and she had so much food, mostly tasty cookies and treats, there was no way you could have left hungry.  Their daughter Savannah us our go to babysitter.  The kids just LOVE her and were so excited to go to "Savannah's house."   She is only 12, but she is wonderful! Love her!! We were there for about an hour, but Kevin was hungry and somehow the formula was left at grandmas....so we took the long way home, again to avoid the trampoline and stopped in front of the house.  I had the boys help me check the mail since I "forgot" just so we could go in the front door.  They were so excited to get their pjs and look like Texas.  It may be the only year I could get them all exactly matching and I think they look so stinking cute!

We set out cookies and milk and did our normal bedtime routine and sent the kiddos off to sleep....

Well I started this post about a quarter to 5am while feeding Kevin and he is now back asleep so I'm going to go try and lay him down, and maybe  I will get to write about Christmas day soon.  Till then,,,,

Walking Zombies

Walking Zombies make good parents right?  Well I sure hope so because that is how I feel 99% of the time.  Kevin is still waking up every 2-2 1/2 hours ALL day and night.  He is about 10 weeks old now, and I really feel like my other kids were at least sleeping 5-6 hours at a time by now.  He is even on formula (I wasn't making hardly any milk) and aren't formula feed babies supposed to sleep better?  And we swaddle him in the "swaddle me" which he seems to really like being a baby burrito.  And he sleeps on his belly (sleeping on his back didn't even last 5 min.) I think partly the problem is the fact that he has a stuffy nose and has for the past 5 weeks.... but really?  I was trying to think back to the other kids and I don't really remember when they started sleeping through the night, but I know it wasn't still eating every two hours at 10 weeks old.  I think Heavenly Father blesses us to forget these types of things.  PS. if this post isn't really making sense that would be because I was up at 4:30 this morning with Kevin, I finally got him back to sleep just in time for the other kids to wake up.   That is probably another thing.  With him being number 4 it's not like you can just "sleep when the baby sleeps" not going to lie, that ends after the first one:) And with having a 3 bedroom house the older boys sleep in one room, Hannah is in the other, and because of how poor a sleeper Kevin is he sleeps in a crib in our room, so every snort, grunt, or movement he makes I wake up to.  So the few hours of sleep I get aren't consistant.  So any mama's out there who have any advice on getting baby to sleep better feel free to let me know.  You would think I would be a pro with having 4 kids in 5 years, but every child is SO SO SO SO SO different it is like becoming a first time mom again each time.  I must say make-up is a gift from God!  So at least when I'm out in public I don't look like a walking zombie, and it makes me feel so much better to get ready even on limited sleep.  When done right every woman looks better with make-up, it's true, don't argue:) and my shameless plug, Mary Kay is the best make-up/skin care around, check out my website to see for yourself  www.marykay.com/sarahhercules

Anyway, even though it sounds like I'm having a hard time because of a lack of sleep, I love having 4 kiddos.  It is so fun to see how they play and interact with each other.  We are 99.999999% Kevin is our last one and at first I was a little sad and wanting to enjoy every moment.  I still want to enjoy the moments, but I'm no longer sad.  Conner, Joshua, and Hannah are so much fun!  I love getting to hear what they are thinking, games they like to play, stories they like to read, etc.  It is also getting easier in some ways doing things with them, like we went on a walk through the woods and didn't have to worry about them running off and not being able to find them.  This is the best age for Christmas too!!  They are so excited for Santa to come tonight.  They have loved doing the advents, especially adding cotton balls to Santa's beard.  They love Texas the Elf and listening to Christmas music.

There are a few more things I have been wanting to blog about, but I'm out of time for now.  Till next time.

Baby Kevin

I know I seem to only write on my blog for birthdays and babies.... so since another baby has been born, I guess that means it is time to write again:)  Plus, I always enjoy reading the birth stories of other kids so I'm sure somebody would enjoy reading mine!

Baby number 4 has been different in many different ways.  First off the cravings during pregnancy were very different with this one.  I wanted fresh and non-cooked food.  Like fruits and sandwiches.  I think it is for that reason that I only gained a total of 19 pounds for the entire pregnancy.  Also, I didn't show very much for a long time.  I thought with it being number 4 I would show very quickly, but it took till I was 32 weeks for people to really know I was pregnant.  If you knew me before hand you might be able to tell before then, but it wasn't really noticeable till 32 weeks.  And the biggest difference  would be the position of the baby.  I never had any concerns before with any of my other kiddos, but this one was sideways at the 20 week ultrasound and growing right under my bellybutton so it was hard to see with the shadow.  Then for every ultrasound after that the baby was breech.  At first I wasn't worried.  The doctor said that 19 out of 20 babies would figure it out and turn.  So I walked a lot and did different exercises that are supposed to help encourage the baby to turn.  I tried every day to figure out what was a head or butt, if it was hiccuping where could I feel them the most?  Over and over I would try to guess and I was just so tired of it.  I would convince myself that the head was for sure low this time, but then I would go for an appointment and again baby would still be sitting up and I would be disappointed and feel like I had no idea what was going on.

Also, as a side point, we wanted to have this baby be a surprise on the sex.  The pregnancy was very similar to Hannah's and I really thought it was a girl.  One time though I went in for my appointment and my normal nurse was on vacation. He replacement for the week came in and said, "Congrats on a boy."  "Thanks" I replied, "but it was supposed to be a surprise."  ooppss...she felt so bad.  I knew Kyle wanted to keep it a secret and I didn't want to ruin it for him, so that was no small feat keeping it a secret from him.  Anyone who asked what it was I said it was a surprise because I didn't want it to get back to Kyle in any way.  And it was just easier to pretend I didn't know then to explain...so that's what I did.  Anyway, back to baby being breech.

So I was 37 weeks and baby still had not turned.  I was on blood thinners again this time (a daily shot since I have had blood clots before, I did it as a precaution) so I was scheduled to be induced around 38/39 weeks.  I knew I wanted the epidural and any other meds I could so I would have to plan when I would have the baby because if I took the blood thinner  and went into labor on my own I couldn't have any meds including the epidural for 24 hours after I took the blood thinner which I was not about to risk:)  So I'm 37 weeks, scheduled to have the baby the following week and the baby is still breech.  Not what I wanted to hear.  So we had a c-section scheduled for the following Wed, but I did have an appointment on Tues just to check one more time.

The following Monday Kyle and I were praying together and Kyle was asking the Lord to please help the baby turn.  He asked according to our faith that if would happen and that he knew the Lord could turn the baby.  Wow!  I was a little floored by how intense he was.  I was to the point of just praying for a healthy baby and quick recovery for me.  I knew SO MANY people were praying and fasting for me and the baby, but I also thought that babies can come into this world in more then one way.  So I went to my appointment on Tues afternoon without any expectation that the baby had turned and was just ready to get instructions on what to do to prepare for the operation in the morning.

The doctor started feeling the outside of my belly, and then proceeded to check my cervix.  He felt for a bit and then said, "I may be crazy but that feels like a head."  That really caught my attention!  So he had me go over and do an ultrasound real fast just to double check.  The lady said, yep that's a head and I gave a little "YEAH!!!"  she probably thought I was crazy, but I was just so excited!!!!  The doctor wanted me to go home and pack up my stuff and go to the hospital 2 hours later and they were going to soften my cervix through the night and have the baby in the morning.

I got everything ready and sent Kyle a message to call me and headed to the hospital.  Nothing real exciting was supposed to happen through the night so Kyle was going to stay home and come first thing in the morning.  I'm not sure what it is called how they softened my cervix, but they pretty much put this bendable rod thing through the opening in my cervix, then on the uterus side was filled a balloon with a fluid and on the vaginal side another balloon with more fluid.  So the two balloons were putting pressure on my cervix to thin and dilate it.  I'm getting contractions about every 3-5 min at this point and I felt cramping, but nothing to serious.  I was able to get a pain killer in my IV and a sleeping pill to help me get one more good night of sleep.  So, I'm really out of it obviously and they keep coming in to change the position of the monitors to read baby's heart rate.  At one point it was taking a really really long time to find the heart rate, and they had to put it up by my ribs to finally get it.  Well, that is not a good sign, so they had the on call doctor come in and wouldn't you know that little turkey turned back to breech!

The sent for the epidural and then the doctor was going to attempt turning the baby back to head down from the outside, I think it is called inversion.  I really have no clue what is going on right now though because I was so out of it.  The doctor needed to talk to Kyle to get the ok to do everything since I wasn't coherent enough I guess.  Even now it is all such a fog I'm not sure how it all went down.  I know they talked to Kyle and told him I sounded like I just had my 5th margarita.  I remember being really wobbly and not being able to sit up on my own for them to do the epidural.  And I remember the doctor attempting to turn the baby.  She was able to turn him sideways but then he moved right back.  Then the 2nd time she tried he turned all the way down and stayed down.  But again, most of this I just vaguely remember, it's more I know that it happened more then I remember it happening.

The next morning Kyle came by and I was dilated to a 7/8 but the baby was still really high. The doctor showed up around 10am and broke my water.  By 10:45 I was ready to push but had to wait for the doctor.  He showed up and suited up and I was ready to push.  I had a mirror in the room because I really wanted to see the baby come out.  But I needed an extra set of eyes.  With only one push the baby was out, but I was trying to look in the mirror and also look at the baby in person and also look at Kyle to see his reaction to having a boy since he didn't know..... phew just typing it all is making me crazy:)  Anyway,  the baby was a perfect little boy!  7 lbs 13 oz and 19 in long.  Our smallest baby!  We decided to name him after our dads.  Kevin Larry.  Thankfully Kyle was never serious about naming him Dirk, it was just a mean joke.....

The other kids love him!  They want to hold him all the time!  It just feels like our family is complete with him here.

On a side note, the hospital does not give you enough food to eat!!!  I told them I needed a guest tray for every meal and made it sound like Kyle would eat it, but it was really so I would get enough to eat! haha... But other then that the hospital staff was great!  I think it is funny how with your first you want the baby with you as much as possible, but now I'm like, I will be waking up with him plenty, the nursery can do it now and just bring him to me to eat... haha

Anyway, I'm so grateful Kevin is here and that the Lord answered our prayers!

Birthday Girl

Yeah I'm finally able to rent a car without paying the extra youngsters fee:) I'm 25!!!  I don't know any other 25 year old who is pregnant with their 4th kid, so I'm a little weird I guess, at least that's what I tell people when they can't believe I'm only 25.  But I can have reached a quarter of a century!!!

My birthday went really well.  Kyle had to teach summer school, which is only from 7:30am-2pm, and the kids were well behaved while he was working.  I told them I was only going to change one diaper each that day, so they better make sure it was the one they wanted changed before asking me...haha:) I did make them lunch, but I didn't clean up any toys or do dishes or anything.  I didn't even get out of my pj's till well after Kyle was home.  My mother-in-law called to see if she could take me out for some girl time and Larry (dad-in-law) would watch the game with Kyle.  I figured that was the real reason Sherry wanted to take me out was because Larry wanted to watch the game and they don't have cable, but they didn't want to be rude on my birthday so Sherry was going to take me out.  I didn't think anything of it, and I knew I didn't have any other plans so of course I said yes.

Kyle came home and I took a nap, and finally got dressed and ready.  I got Panda Express for dinner. I know it is fake Asian food, but for some reason I just LOVE their fried rice and broccoli beef, so that's what I got.  Plus Mug Root beer which I never drink so that was wonderful too.  Sherry came and picked me up and we went to the mall so Sherry could get me a birthday gift.  I looked at a few different things, but for some reason I just really wanted some pj's.  I found 2 pair that are SO comfortable I want to wear them all the time! I just love pj's.  If we could wear them all day every day I totally would.  I LOVE cheesecake but Kyle HATES it so we never get it. There is a cheesecake factory at the mall, so I stopped by and got a slice of Resses' Peanut Butter and a Red Velvet slice to take home and enjoy.  Why choose between the two when you can just get both, it's my birthday right?!?!?

After that we had to run back to Sherry's house to pick up some cake and cupcakes.  The two sisters she visit teaches have birthdays in June, so for this month they were going to take them out, and I tagged along.  When we stopped by they house there was a small moving truck outside in the cul-de-sac and I was like "I wonder why there is a truck there" Sherry said it was probably the neighbors who travel a lot over the summer.  I didn't think anymore of it and we got the cake.

We went to an Italian ice cream place to meet with the other sisters.  It was my first time having jillato or however you spell it.  I'm not even going to attempt to write the name of the Italian place because I know I will butcher that:) It was good to spend some adult girl time and then it was time to go home.  We had been gone about 2 hours when we got back to my house.  I walked in and Kyle came to meet us.  He grabbed the bags out of my hand and covered my eyes.  I had no idea what was going on and I knew that we didn't have a lot of extra money, especially with the recent move. Anyway he walks me into the family room, turns me around and has me open my eyes...

Right there was a beautiful piano! I couldn't believe it.  How in the world did he get that, and arrange everything to get it into our house without me even having any suspicion?!?!?  He is just too good.  It's a cute little upright that is gently used, but in great condition.  I hugged Kyle and I started crying.  Of course I hugged my in-laws to as they helped so much and are so wonderful.  I don't think I have ever cried over a gift before.  I LOVE playing the piano and it was so hard not having one to play whenever I wanted.  I still can't believe I have my own piano to use whenever I want.  And they kids have all said they want me to teach them how to play:)  I think Hannah is really going to be good.  Anytime she walks by it she plays a couple keys and loves to sit by me and "dance" as I play.  She even has a few favorite songs.  Anyway, I was and still am very excited to have a piano in my home!!!

Needless to say it was a very memorable and wonderful 25th birthday!!!  I can't wait for many more to come, that could be a lot of pianos:)

The Sweetest Little Man

Ok, I think I'm about ready to talk about Joshua now.  For anyone who doesn't know, about a month ago Josh was evaluated and they "suspected autism."  Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but I just felt really overloaded with 3 kids and the oldest is 4 plus having another on the way, and then adding in a child with special needs, um I don't remember signing up for that.  Anytime I thought about my special little man having autism, I would cry and think that there is no way I could handle that.  People would offer to help and give me websites and things to look at, but anytime I tried I would cry... every time I would think I was ready to talk about it, I wasn't and I would cry...needless to say there have been a lot of tears over the past month, but at least today, I am ready to share what has been going on.

I have always known that Josh is a special little guy.  He was born 3 weeks early with the cord wrapped around his neck.  His nose was upturned and I was really worried that he would always look like a pig! haha (luckily he is super cute now) He was considered lacktoseintolerant (sp?) so he was on the "I'm allergic to everything" formula.  At 6 weeks he was admitted to the hospital with RSV.  He is super clumsy and always has bumps and bruises everywhere.  He is the only child that still loves to snuggle with me and gives tons of hugs and kisses.  He has always loved cars and trucks and is never seen without them in his hands.  I thought I noticed some differences with him but maybe because I'm with him all the time I didn't see how major they were, or I just chose to ignore it.  Over the past 5 months I have had probably about 5 different people ask me if Josh has any special needs or developmental needs.  At the time I would say, no, not that we know of.  But when that many people ask you over that short of a time you start to notice things....

The two main things that I noticed were that 1)he would never play with other kids.  He would rather take is cars and sit in a corner and play by himself.  2)he doesn't make eye contact.  With people he knows well he may look at them for up to 4 seconds tops and if he doesn't know you, you are lucky to get a 1 second look.  For some reason, his pediatrician never noticed anything, but I decided to go in and have him evaluated.

About a month ago we went in to the initial or "mini" evaluation.  Basically they let Joshie play with toys in a room while they asked me questions.  It took about an hour and a half and Josh never interrupted once.  I asked if that was normal and the said "no way." Even children with disabilities would check in with their parents or not feel comfortable playing by themselves in a new environment like that.  So after answering all their questions and seeing how Josh wouldn't interact, that is when the suspicion first came up and we set up a time for a full evaluation with 5 people there to evaluate and rate Joshie.

That evaluation happened today.  The first part of it was a sensory test.  He did really well with that.  The biggest thing that happened was he had to wash his hands after he touched anything.  He does this at home all the time.  If he eats anything or plays anything he has to wash his hands or he has a meltdown.  Then they moved into the room that I was in and just played with him to see how he would react and engage.  So they played with different toys/puzzles/games with him.  One of the things he would do is slowly move in between the toy and the evaluator so his back was to her and he could play with the toy by himself.  He also would do the same thing over and over and not be willing to try playing with the toy any differently.  He would also repeat the same words over and over.  If he felt he had to share he would eventually surrender the toy but then move on to something else.  If he picked a toy he would play with it for a while but if the evaluator introduced something he wouldn't even pay attention.  He wouldn't look at any of them even if he was talking.  He would ignore most of them altogether even if they wanted to play with them or if they were in the way of a toy he wanted he would turn his back to them and find something else.  When coloring he would hold the marker with his fist and wouldn't copy lines/circles/etc... he knows color names but doesn't understand what colors are what.  If somebody would ask him a question he would answer but more often then not he responds with something having nothing to do with the question.  Ex. while saying hi to Grandma Conners on the phone the conversation went something like this:
G-ma: "Hi Josh"
Josh: "Hi"
G-ma: "How are you"
Josh: "blah blah blah (jargen, no idea what he said...) mac and cheese
G-ma: "Are you having fun?"
Josh: "blah blah blah... cars"
G-ma: "I love you"
Josh: "Love you too, bye"

So he is really good with greetings but I have no idea where the mac and cheese and cars come from.  The evaluators said his articulation is very good, but most of the time you have no idea what he is talking about because his mind is in a different place talking of something else.

Overall, this is typically how he acts, he is in "Joshie World" most of the time.  It is really hard to take all 3 kids out because you just never know when Josh will go into his world, and if he does it is really really hard to deal with him.  And I'm one of those moms at the grocery store who when people are looking at me and judging me because my child is throwing a fit, I just want to say "You have no right to judge because you have no idea what it is like to have a child with special needs."

Anyway, the evaluation took about 2 1/2 hours today and I left with Josh while they deliberated about and came up with his scores.  I went back about an hour later to go over the results.  The use 2 different scores I guess (kind of like how you have 3 different credit scores) and the first one Josh was for sure on the Autism Spectrum Disorder side on the other he was barely on the autism side.  So with the 2 scores being on the Autism side and with what they evaluated they believe Josh does have minor autism.  He will be starting at a special school in August and working with a speech pathologist.  Basically Josh is about the level of a 2 1/2 yr old and he is 3 1/2 so he is a year behind developmentally so they will really be working with him on that.  I feel so blessed that we moved to Plano because they have one of the top special need programs in the country!  Basically, while Josh is in school we will never leave Plano so he can have these great resources and support.  We (the evaluators and I) are very hopeful because he is so young that the intervention now will help him be able to get over and handle his symptoms.

Next week I will have a meeting with all the people that will be involved in helping him like his teacher, principal, and speech pathologist.  I will also get information from Autism Speaks and from the Autism Support Group in Plano.  I'm excited for that because I feel very overwhelmed right now not knowing anything about raising a child with Autism.  But even more then the support for me I know that God knows everything that Joshua needs and he will help us through this time in our lives.  How grateful I am to know that I'm not alone in this and that I have the love and support of a loving Father in Heaven who will help me every second of every day.

Josh may not understand everything we say or do, but he knows the words "I love you" and he knows how much Kyle and I love him, as well as everyone else that is involved with his development.  Just like I said in the beginning of this post, I know Joshua is a special little boy and I know Heavenly Father has great things in store for him and he will be able to accomplish it all.  I love you Joshua Kyle Hercules!

Joshua Kyle

Oh the poor middle child... yes Joshua's birthday was December 15 and I am just now getting around to writting a little blog about him, and it is Feb...

Joshua is such a great little guy! I always smile when I see him. He lights up a room with the cutest smile. He is so loving and laid back. He loves to cuddle with his mommy, but he is also just fine taking his cars and playing by himself. We tease that he always has cars in his hands. When he wakes up he comes downstairs with cars in his hands, and when he goes back up to bed there are still cars in his hands. He just loves to carry as many as he can, which obviously means he can't play with them all, he just likes to hold them. It's so funny.

We is almost 100% potty trained! We are still working on #2 every day, but he is really doing his best and he always tells us he needs to go potty, which is great! It is amazing not having to buy dieapers all the time!

He is probably our least picky eater, and in some ways, our least needy kid. He really does just go with the flow. Very opposite of how he was as a baby. He loves playing with Conner. They are best friends and worst enemies. Josh is the best sleeper even telling us when it is time for bed:) and he loves baths!

Joshie still kind of looks like a "Who" with his upper lip being bigger, but he makes it look so cute (I admit I was a little worried when he was born b/c he was funny looking... but now he is so cute!) The nursery leaders even said he was their favorite, of course being the only boy may have had a hand in that....I love this little man so much and I can't wait to see what a great man he will turn into.