Joshua's 1st Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOSHUA

Wednesday the 26th was Joshua's first birthday! I can't believe the little guy is a year old already. Seems like time flies, sometimes.

Ethan sure had a hay-day helping Joshy open his presents. Joshy wasn't sure about the whole wrapping paper thing. He was sure about eating it, though.

Joshua has always loved banging on things. He has a drum that he wails on so this xylophone was a great gift. He hits that thing so much. He loves it.

This is his birthday cake for his actual birthday. We will be having a friend party soon and Challene will be making a cake for that occasion. I'm pretty excited about the one she is making. You'll see soon why. This cake was a delicious ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. It was a chocolate chunk icecream with a white cake. Oh, man it was good. Cutting into it, though, was a different story.

We had the same decorations we used for Ethan's first birthday, so we thought we'd reuse them. If you'll recall, Ethan didn't touch a thing the whole time. With Joshua, though, we couldn't even finish getting the decorations on before he ripped them off. He pulled the hat off quicker than quick.
This is Joshy just starting to enjoy the cake. Oh, man it was good. There's still two slices in our freezer. Hmmm, sounds like a good after-kids-are-down snack for Challene and I.
This is after Joshy had finished the cake. He had brown cake boogers for several days afterward.

We also took Josh to get pictures. He was so cooperative and willing to do whatever the lady wanted him to do. He can be so easy-going sometimes. Othertimes...

One of my favorites. He gives that smile to everyone he sees. Everyone loves him.

Last one. My personal favorite. I'm not sure why, but I like it.

Many of you know that we hosted Mom and Dad Green last week. It was a wonderful time had by all and we'll be posting a blog about it soon.

Until then... I can't believe Josh is 1 year old. I can't believe I'm starting a new quarter tomorrow. I can't believe I'm just five short quarters away from graduation! It's all gone so fast, and yet so slow. *sigh*

hair cut

Joshua's First Haircut
plus Ethan and me too.

Well, Joshua's birthday is coming soon so we thought it apt to get him a haircut. His hair was rather scraggly and some folks thought he looked a bit like a girl what with his curls and all. So we thought it was probably about time to get him in. Ethan and I needed haircuts too, so we took out a second mortgage and went to Great Clips.

No crying for my boy this time. He took the cut like a man. I think it was the "under-the-sea" apron she had on him; complete with hammerhead shark.

An after shot of Ethan. Looking good, no? Truly he is, as his shirt so declared, a handsome little devil.

Here's a random shot of Joshua to prove three things. 1) Plaid shorts are just plain cool. 2) Joshy has long locks of hair. 3) he is standing and even taking steps now. Why, just yesterday he took 10, yes, ten steps to Challene. He'll be running marathons by Christmas.

Yet another before of Joshy. Just thought it was cute. Up until this point in time, we weren't 100% sure how we like to style his hair. Usually it just ended up parted like you see here. Not my favorite, but it worked for him and his hair type.
During. He was such a trooper. He held real still and let her do what she needed. I don't really blame him with those large arms around him for encouragement. Even I have a look of near trepidation as the clippers hack away at his golden curls. But not Joshy, no, not even a flinch.



An after shot of Joshy and his exuberance over the wonderful haircut he got.

Not a bad pic to end on.

Mommy and me play group

So once a week during the school quarters I get together with a couple other moms and we do some kind of activity with our childern. This particular activity was a berry smooshing one. We bought white shirts and berrys and smooshed them all over tee shirts it was like tie die. So any ways here are some of the pictures.

Joshua was having a lot of fun eating them. But Joshua was not the only one that thought this he was just the messiest.

That boy loves his blueberries!

The kids swam in these little pools to clean off. They have so much fun together.

Joshy loves water! He would live in the water if he could!

I just love this picture of Ethan and Jessica. They look a little suspicious if you ask me.

The Lavenders trip to Oregon

The Lavenders came to visit us during my last break and we had a rootin' tootin' time. Here are some of the wonderful things we did while they were here.

The Scenic Columbia River Highway Waterfalls

Laura Lee Lavender (LLL) and Quinn Lavender at the Vista House over looking the mighty Columbia River

Latourell waterfall

I wasn't sure who that was in the background so I asked Challene. She said she'd recognize my cute behind anywhere! Ethan is there too. I failed to mention that LLL was 15(?) weeks pregnant at the time they visited us. (she's due December something and they're having a girl, congrats to them!) She sure was a trooper to do all that hiking and walking.

This waterfall was cool because you could actually hike right up to it. If the water wasn't near freezing temperatures I surmise you could even wade in it!

On the trail to Latourell falls

This rock should look familiar to Mom and Dad. We took them here too, and Dad stood atop it and posed for a picture.

Multnomah Falls

This is the famous-est of the falls on the Columbia River Highway. One of my least favorites, frankly.

The bridge to Bridalveil falls

Where is Will? And what happened to the bottom half of him?

OMSI

(Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)

Gunther VanHagen's Body Worlds exibit was on display at OMSI while Quinn and LLL came up. Quinn and I decided we'd like to see it so we ditched the women and children and payed the $19 each to get in (yeouch!). For those unfamiliar with the Body Worlds exhibit, I'll explain. Ol' Gunny invented a radically new way of bodily preservation called "Plastination". This process allowed the bodies to be impecibally preserved. Naturally, he patented the process and decided to make millions off of displaying his dissections to the world. It was pretty cool. His dissections were flawless and rather incredible to behold (having attempted my own dissection I could appreciate his skill quite well). Once you've seen one posed dead body, you've pretty much seen them all, though. What I liked were the different pathologies he displayed. A post-stroke brain, the classic "smokers" lung, Abdominal Aortic Aneurisms, etc. Also, he was able to inject his plastination things into the arterial system of several animals (chicken, lamb, human arm, etc.) and then let flesh eating bacteria take care of the rest of the animal so that all you would see is the arterial network. It was so intricate. You could see the many arteries branch into arterioles and then to the capillary beds. Thus, you had a trillion arteries shaped like a chicken, lamb, human arm, etc. Does that make sense? It was a good experience, but $19? Seems a bit steep in retrospect. Anyhoo, the girls had the camera, so here's their day at OMSI:

Ethan and I in a rocket ship (Post BodyWorlds when Quinn and LLL went to take a tour of a submarine -- natrually Quinn used his best Sean Connery impression while down there. What else would he do?). Don't know how this turned out crooked but Challene kinda liked it. It was set up as if a real rocket such that you were lying on your back. Pretty neat!

Joshua as usual puting stuff in his mouth. Yes he did get sick about a week later. Yah go figure put germy stuff in your mouth and you get sick.

Ethan playing at the water tables. This one had a mountian theme.

The Classic Chinese Garden

This is in downtown Portland. Like right in the middle of a business district. Not exactly where I would have thought a Chinese Garden should go, but what do I know about the Chinese, eh?

The entrance to the gardens

This here is a rock. It's in the gardens... Joshy's sitting on it. Gosh, what do you want from me?

Ethan was pooped. A nice hippy lady took this picture for us.

Lunch at the Thirsty Lion Pub in downton Portland

We went to the Saturday Market too. Basically just a huge flea market held every Saturday. It was long and we got hungry so we went to the pub for a couple pints.



Ethan and his sauce again. I think he's had enough.

I have no comment about this one. Except that those fries were very, very good.



China Town

This was our first and last trip to china town. What you see in the picture is all that there was worth seeing. Quinn and LLL are in the bottom left of the photo.

Pictures of the boys

Challene and I don't wear hats and the boys were fasinated by Quinn's.


We had a fabulous time with the Lavanders here. They were lovely and gracious guests and we hope they will come again. Also we are always up for anyone who would like to stay with us. We would love some company. So here is another official invite for those who need it. Come, stay, see what Oregon has to offer.

~Fin~

Outdoor fun!

While Mom was here clear back at the first of July she took these pictures of us trying to blow up this rather large basketball hoop for Ethan. The rest are just random outdoor pictures she took whilest she was here. Hope you enjoy.

Me and my precious tomato plants and cucumber. The bugs ate the cucumber but the tomatos are doing really well... especially the cherry tomatoes.