Happy 6th Birthday Joel!

So I'm a total LAME mom! It's been just over 3 weeks from Joel's actual birthday and I'm just now blogging about it! There are a numer of reasons why, but mainly because both the boys and I had the flu for a full week. I was literally out of service for a week which actually put me WAY behind in so many different ways. BUT I am determined to not let life pass by without doing my little boys' birthday blog so he will know just how much he has blessed our lives! So here's to you Joely!

Happy Birthday!

In Joel's class they have a week where they are the "Star Student". For this project, they (actually the parents, right?) can put pictures of themselves on a posterboard that tell about their life. This happened to fall on Joel's birthday week. So, Dan and I decided to do a picture of Joel from each year of his life. Here they all are and I do have to say he is quite the handsome little boy! He goes from bald baby to tons of hair and curls, to a short, little boys' cut....so cute!

Joel's birth announcement! The theme for his room was wagons and kites which my sister-in-law, Amber gave to me. I just LOVED the idea and thought it was so cute. However, of course there is hardly anything out there with wagons and kites; which was very frustrating for Dan and I didn't want to let go of the idea. My mom saved the day and painted wagons and kites in his room for us. I do have to say that it was a very cute room!

Here's about 6 months old.

This is at Easter--he's just learned to walk and is one years old.

Here he's about 18 months old during the summer--still with no hair, but he's sporting his new cowboy boots!

This was at the good old "Clallam County Fair". Dan was gone on a missions trip so Nathan, Joel, Ellie and I loaded up and met our homegroup there. Of course, we had to stop and let the kids climb the tree, which is now one of Joel's favorite things to do! My sister-in-law, Katie, is a nurse at Haborview and so now the boys where helmets if they want to climb too high of a tree!

This is Easter once again! But now he's 3 and has hair!

This is our last summer in Port Angeles--isn't he just so cute!

Another one of Joel's favorite things to do is dance. Here he is rocking out at Sean and Katie's wedding.

What little boy doesn't like to run? But here he is at the annual school jog-a-thon, running like mad!

This was at Christmas time this year. The kids went with my parents to the "Stanwood Christmas Lights". They obviously had other things there besides lights. Joel, Nathan, and their cousin, Curtiss got their faces painted---isn't that an amazing tiger? Nathan got Anakin, but Joel went for his all time love--animals!


Joely, we think you are an amazing little boy and love to see all that God has for you. What a priviledge and blessing it is to be your parents!

Flat Nathan visits Austin, TX

One of Nathan's school projects this year was to color a "Flat Nathan" and send it to someone he knew "far away", who would then send a postcard to him at school and then send Flat Nathan on to someone they knew. The objective of this project was to track different places around the world. What a great geography lesson. One of the people it went to was my dear friend and college roomate, Melissa. Now Melissa is very creative and somehow not only comes up with great ideas but finds the time to carry them out (there's a novel idea)! She and her almost 2 year old daughter capture Flat Nathan's adventure on her blog---check it out---it's pretty cool!

paisleypigpress.blogspot.com

Visiting our nephews, Riley and Alex

So Dan and I absolutley love our nephews, but we hardly get to see them. It's one of the downers of not living an hour away from them anymore. So this Christmas, that was top priority for us, especially since we haven't seen our youngest nephew in 8 months and he's 18 months old. I had so much fun tracking Alex's love for all of us! He made his rounds to each one of us while Riley settled right in with Nathan and Joel like they are always around each other. What fun it is to be an auntie and uncle. Our children are so blessed to have all their uncles and aunties love them and now it's our turn to bless our nephews and get to know them and their unique characteristics!

The boys got matching PJs and pillowcases from grandma and Ellie's PJs match her baby's PJs. Ellie didn't quite know what to do with Alex as he was so intrigued by this girl at Grandma's housethat he followed her every move and wanted to share her pillow. You see she's used to being the baby and following the boys around, not having someone follow her around!

Notice that Alex has made his way over to Nathan--check out what's next!

Alex is playing the Nintendo DS!

After Alex spent time sitting on Dan's lap with Joel, he started up the game (that Dan would only do with Alex and Riley) of climbing on Dan's shoulders and walking over to the Christmas tree.

When Riley picked up on this, he had to join the game as well! As soon as Riley would get on Dan's back, Alex would shout, "No Riley!". Those were the only words we could understand.

He also ran back and forth between Grandma and I and got his kisses! What a fun evening with our nephews!