California Lovin and a birthday boy!

Josh got to spend some quality time with my sister this past weekend in California. He loves his Auntie!! He also go to meet her boyfriend (Mo) and her roommate (Maria). It was a blast! My mom came with us and she was a HUGE help with all the traveling. We had a great time eating homemade pizza, Sprinkles cupcakes!!!, chocolate cake with caramel icing, Red Robin, Rubio's fish tacos, omelets, pasta, and I'm sure I'm leaving out something! We visited Victoria Beach while we were there. I think Josh is going to love the water. It was great getting to see where my sister lives. Josh got a lot of love from Auntie, Mo, Maria, and everyone else he met.

Momma and her girls

Josh makes this face a lot. It is always cracking Jeff up! It's like he wants to reach for something but his body moves backwards. It's hilarious.

So sweet, wearing an outfit Auntie got him!

Love his eyes

Hanging out with Mo

Today, I watched my friend Amy's son, Will. He is such a sweetheart! He is so much more mobile than Josh. He's getting up on his knees and lunging all over the place! Josh just loves looking at other little people. I laid them down beside each other and Josh didn't take his eyes off Will. Here is Josh smiling like crazy at Will. It was hilarious to watch.

And here's both of them with their toys.

Last but NOT LEAST...Happy birthday to the sweetest 2 year old boy I know!!!! We love you Jace!!! We cannot believe how fast time has gone. We are so lucky to be a part of your life!

I had a great time looking back through photos to pick out a couple of my favorites.

I wonder if I will ever look this rested again...

Fun with the Steenberghs!

Joshua goes to the Steenbergh house every Monday. He has a great time there! Her kids have a lot of fun with Josh. Molley, who just had a birthday last week, found some of her old toy keys and washed them so that Joshua could have them to play with. Thanks Molley!!! He loves them! We have them hanging on his bouncy thing and he is always grabbing them to eat. On her birthday last Monday, Josh got to visit her preschool. Tracey took a couple pictures of him there. They are adorable! Enjoy! I probably won't post again until after our trip to California this week. I am praying for a healthy baby and good flights :)

Vacation, Ear Infection, Etc

We had a wonderful time in Michigan. Needless to say, we were sad to leave :( But Josh did FANTASTIC in the car both going and coming back. We got him a new car seat and he does so much better. He can look to both sides and see out and also move his arms and legs more freely. Thank goodness for smoother car rides!

My parents came up for the weekend. It was great having them around. Jeff and I got to go out on a date and then got to go on the jet ski together and play around on the paddlebuoys. It was a blast.

I sure love this little boy!

And he loves Nana and Papaw.

Here's Jeff's attempt at standing on the paddlebuoy. We made up a bunch of "games" to satisfy our competitive nature. And of course I won. :)

Wait for it...

Oops...

Josh loved being outside. The hat is thanks to Auntie. We will be visiting her this next weekend.

He didn't really notice the sand but didn't mind it either.


I love his sweet expressions.

Grabbing some grass.

And he loves his dada.

He came down with cold like symptoms this past Tuesday and on Friday I took him in to the doctor because he wasn't really getting any better and he was crying every time I laid him down to change his diaper. Sure enough he has an ear infection :( But thankfully he hasn't been super cranky. He has still been pretty happy and chatty. I am praying he is fully over it before we leave for California on Friday morning. Can't wait to see my sister! Have a great week!

Let the games begin...

Here is a video we took yesterday of Josh here at my Aunt and Uncle's lake house. Maybe at 6 months old, he is smarter than we think. Enjoy!

Six months old TODAY

Well a lot has been going on these past few weeks. Currently, we are relaxing at my Aunt and Uncle's lake house on Grand Traverse Bay (off Lake Michigan). And it is FANTASTIC!! They have a great house with a fantastic view (below) with the coolest setting. We went down to the beach today. It's quite windy at the moment but it was still fun! Joshua loves being outside even if it's a bit cold. I was hoping that Joshua would sleep through the night last night so I could "sleep in" but no such luck. But instead, after he woke up again at 6:30, I fed him and the Jeff took him for the morning. And I went back to sleep! Then at 9:30 I woke up to breakfast in bed...thanks babe! Yummy bacon and egg sandwich with fresh fruit. Too bad I can't wake up to that everyday! So below are some pictures of Josh enjoying the beach and the water.

He is six months old today...I cannot believe how fast it goes. It's just crazy how much he is changing. He is sitting up on his own all the time! He has such a sweet smile. He may not be a giggle box yet but he's working on it. He loves his mommy and daddy and smiles at us all the time. Below, he is sitting on his cousin Avery's scooter. He loves it!

And last weekend, we visited both of our parents. I had a wedding in Archbold, OH (Congrats Em!) so we stopped by to see everyone. We went to Papa Jack and Maggie's lake and my parent's house. He HATED wearing that life jacket so don't tell anyone but we let him take it off on the boat :) We have also taken him to Matter Park in Marion where we let him go down the slide for the first time. With daddy of course :) If you look closely, you will see a 2nd generation back seat driver in the making. Enjoy!

I can sit up!

Thanks Rachel H. for a great idea of making collages!!! It does save so much time uploading!

Here are a few pictures of Joshua recently. He was dedicated this past Sunday. If you look closely at the picture of me and him with a cake, you can see his left hand is blue...Great-grandma Peggy wanted him to "have" some cake so he got to touch it. I love love love his smile and that his eyes squint when he smiles. It's so precious!

And below you can also see that he has learned to sit up all by himself!! Forget rolling over... (he's only done it twice!) He would prefer to sit up! I think it's his favorite thing to do.

My mother-in-law (aka Maggie) went back to teaching school this week so he went to the babysitter's on Monday for the first time (Thanks Tracey!) and it went great! Thank you Lord! We are headed to Ohio this weekend for a wedding, then we will be going to Traverse City, MI next week for vacation. We are really looking forward to some quality family time.

5 1/2 Months

These are some photos that Amanda, From Bellies to Babies took for us. I think they are just adorable! Joshua is such a cute little baby if I may say so myself!

This is one of my favorites! He loves his daddy!

Let's see...what is Joshua up to these days? Last time we weighed him, he was 19 1/2 pounds. He will be 6 months old the 19th of this month. He does pretty good sitting up by himself for a few seconds but then falls to the side eventually. He is eating cereal, squash, peas, and zucchini. He is doing better drinking milk from a sippy. He loves his exercise saucer! He has been jumping and squealing at the same time. It's pretty hilarious. And he is quite the chatter box when we change his diaper. He has found his feet and loves to grab them while he is sitting up but not really when he is laying down. He rolled over once from his belly to his back!! Finally :) But it hasn't happened since then. He's just taking his time. And he loves books! His favorite is Peekaboo Kisses (thanks Uncle Greg, Aunt Amy, Cousin Jace and Cousin Will!) And we just started reading Dr. Seuss's ABC book and he loves it. It's really fun to read too. Well that's it for now. Joshua is getting dedicated in church on Sunday. I will post some pictures of the day hopefully next week sometime.