Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh made his way into the world five years ago today at 9:35 AM weighing in at 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches. I was set to be induced that morning at 6:30, but Josh wanted to come on his own terms so I went into labor on the way to the hospital. Three hours after arriving at the hospital, Joshua was born. We had a hard time deciding on a name for our new baby, but just before I started pushing Jeremy said, "What about Joshua?" I told him we could discuss it later.

Jeremy holding Josh shortly after he was born. Josh was sucking on his hand.

McKay holding Josh for the first time. I couldn't resist putting this picture up. I just love the look on McKay's face.

Josh got to celebrate his birthday at school. That day they went on a field trip to the fire station.

Josh and his birthday hat that he got from school at the park.

Josh had a friend birthday party this year and invited his three best friends. We went to Pirates Island for his party. Here he is opening presents.

Joshua and his friends giving their best pirate "Argh!" (Left to right: Kaden, Dylan, Jared and Joshua)

Since Josh's birthday landed on a Sunday this year, we had dinner at home. Josh requested that we have lasagna for dinner and caramel brownies for dessert. Here he is blowing the candles out on his birthday brownies.

Opening presents. He got a "Cars" flashlight and a race car track. We had a good time putting it together and racing cars tonight.

Five Things We Love About Joshua:

1. His great love for trains and his ability to design and create his tracks.
2. He is doing really well in school. He knows his phone number and letters. He is the best cutter in his class!
3. He loves to make and hang art projects. You never know when a new creation will pop up on the wall with lots of scotch tape.
4. He is one great soccer player and he is a lot of fun to watch.
5. We love it when he says, "Guess what? I love you!" He is one sweet kid.

Happy Birthday Josh! We can't wait to see what you will be up to this year!

My Baby Turns Two

Two years ago today Kayden was born. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 10 oz and was 20 inches long. It is hard to believe that he is two! He has changed a lot in just two years. He has gone from just sleeping and pooping to loving trucks and books along with just about everything his brothers love. Here are some memories from when Kayden was born:

Sadly, we lost most of the pictures we had of Kayden that we took while still in the hospital. Our computer crashed after I had uploaded the pictures and then deleted them off the camera. Thankfully Grandma was there with her camera. This picture of Kayden was taken in the nursery shortly after his first bath. He is sucking away on his fingers.

In the hospital. Jeremy is showing him off.

Kayden's first bath at home. He didn't like it much.

Grandma Haacke holding him. He is sucking his thumb here. I had forgotten that he liked sucking on his fingers. That didn't last long. Neither did the pacifier.

I took Kayden to his two year old check up the other day and he is little no longer. He is in the 99% for height and 97% for weight. He is the size of a three year old.

Kayden and I tagged along with Josh and his preschool class today and went to the fire station. Kayden loves trucks (or as Kayden would say "uck") more than anything.

After the fire station, we went to the park. Kayden loves going down the slide and he also loves to swing.

Tonight, in celebration of his and Joshua's birthday (more to come on Josh's birthday) we went to a fun new restaurant called Pirate Island. They have a fun little play place and an arcade for the kids to play in. Here is Kayden aboard the pirate ship.

Singing "Happy Birthday".

Opening presents. Here he received an elephant. On top of trucks and books, Kayden loves elephants (or as Kayden would say "eh-eh").

Opening presents. He received a bulldozer and a monster truck set. He was in truck heaven.

Two things we love about Kayden:

1. His contagious giggle.
2. Kayden loves to sing. His favorites are "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". I especially like it when he sings a long with me or while he is in his bed at night.

Happy Second Birthday Kayden. We love you!

My Field Trip By McKay

This is my first time blogging, so you'll have to tell me how good I am. Today I went on a field trip to the State Capital Building and the Utah Pioneer Museum. My bus number was 98-595. We are studying the government, so Mr. Larson (my teacher) thought it would be cool if we set our class up like the actual government. I am the head of the supreme court five, Mckenna H. is the class governor, Isea is the table representative, and Izak is the senator of my section of the class.

This is a picture of me in front of the State Capital Building (In green):

This is the room where the representatives meet to decide on new laws in this room. It has seventy-five desks so it can't be a tied vote. 70% of the representatives are a republican. They serve for two years.

This is the room where the senators meet to decide on the new laws. Again 70% of the senators are republicans. They serve for four years. This room has 29 desks so it won't be a tied vote.

This is a picture of the room where the supreme five do the thing they do. They can serve as long as they want, but if your bad you get kicked off. The only other ways you stop being a judge are you die, or you quit.

This is the ceiling of the State Capital Building dome. If you look really close you can see seagulls.

This is the room where if the Governor meets with someone important like the president of the United States where to meet with the Governor. This room has bullet proof windows and metallic curtains (if you where to put a bomb outside the curtains the bomb would not effect the inside).

This is a copy of the liberty bell:

Although you might say I'm weird but this is a picture of the boy's bathroom:

This is the senator for Provo and Springville:

This is marble from the building:

This is a statue of a guy with a machine gun and a rifle:

This is a glass picture of a women and two children:

This is a old fashion fire truck:

If you look really close you can see a Roman city on the quilt:

This is me and my friends after the scavenger hunt: (from left to right-Kallin, Jonah, Wyatt, Karigan, and Me)

I took this picture of the State Capital Building because I was board of waiting for everyone:

I'm glad it didn't rain on us while we where on the field trip!

Halloween Festivities

I had intentions of this being several different posts, but it just didn't happen. So here is our week of Halloween Festivities:

First was the Costume Parade at Grandma and Grandpa White's House on Sunday:

Kayden dressed up as a cow and Skyler, his cousin, dressed as Superman.

Josh loved being Curious George last year and insisted on being Curious George again this year.

Jaxon dressed as Santa.

And McKay was Anakin Skywalker.

All of the White Family Cousins dressed up: Ben (Spiderman), Maddie (Tinker Bell), Nick (Batman), Emma (Indian), Josh (Curious George), McKay (Anakin), Tre (Transformer), Skyler (Superman) Jaxon (Santa), Olivia (Cowgirl) and Kayden (Cow).

After the Costume Parade we went to Grandpa and Grandma White's neighbor's "Spooky House". This neighbor goes all out each year and puts on quite the spooky show in his yard.

Here is Josh in front of Frankenstein that is at the "Spooky House".

Kayden and Jeremy by the spooky bats and mummy tomb.

Jaxon, Weston, Olivia and Jennise with the witches making their brew behind them. Olivia did not like the "Spooky House".

Josh being "spooked" in the zombie corn patch.

The next night was Family Home Evening so we carved pumpkins.

McKay taking the time to draw on his pumpkin face to make sure it is just right. He carved his pumpkin by himself this year.

Kayden and Josh made a BYU carving in their pumpkin.

Jaxon looks as if he is out to really out to "get" his pumpkin. Between the two of us Jaxon's pumpkin looked great.

Jeremy is one serious carver.

Here are all the pumpkins lit up and the pumpkin carvers. (Bummer that the picture turned out blurry.)

Thursday night we went to ride the Stringtown Railroad with Grandma and Grandpa Haacke. It is a free train ride in Lindon that runs the week of Halloween. While it is still light out the ride is very mild, but apparently when it gets dark the train ride gets quite scary. Mostly we just waved at a bunch of monsters who waved at us first.

I love this picture of my dad all squished up in the train. He is such a trooper. He has a couple of bad knees and I know this wasn't the most comfortable position for his to ride in. But he was smiling and enjoying the ride none the less. My mom is right behind him all smiles.

Way back there on the tail end of the train is Jaxon and McKay. They had a great time but said the back of the train was a bit bumpy.

Josh was positioned right in front me (which made it hard to get a picture). He was very nervous about the train ride but loved every minute of it and can't wait to go back and ride it next year. Kayden and I rode the train together, but no one got a picture of us.

On Friday I went to the school for the boys' class parties.

Here is Jaxon at he second grade party playing Halloween Bingo and also showing off the spider that he made during the party.

I am McKay's room mom this year (What was his teacher thinking?) so I was in charge of his party. I had one mom and a dad come in and play a couple of games with the kids and one mom come and do a craft. I help the kids make these spooky edible chocolate trees with a candy corn fence and pumpkin patch. Surprisingly the party was a success and the kids had a great time.

Finally: Halloween! The whole family dressed up for Halloween this year and went trick-or-treating. My parents came out to celebrate the holiday with us. My mom came trick-or-treating with us and my dad stayed at the house to pass out candy and toothpaste. (Yes, you read right--toothpaste. It was a success until the end of the night when someone graciously returned their toothpaste by placing it on our top stair. It was like they said "No thanks. I didn't want toothpaste for trick-or-treating." At least we didn't get toilet-papered.)

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating: Jeremy (The Man in the Yellow Hat), Jaxon (Santa), Kayden (Cow), Me (Professor Wiseman), Josh (Curious George), and McKay (Anakin). We posed in front of the dinosaur that McKay earned at school. He spray painted it black and red with the help of his brother and dad. Then they hung it in the front of the house. It looked awesome! It was a successful Halloween week and we loved every minute of it.

* What were you for Halloween this year?
** Did you give or receive anything unique for trick-or-treating?