"My little Joshua... has the sweetest smiiiiiiiiiiiiiile!"

Happy Birthday Joshua!

As you know, Joshua's birthday was on September 26th. My youngest is now 2 years old! Frankly, I can't believe it! He came as an unexpected surprise to us and I would never want my life without him. He is the silliest boy and is overflowing in character. I love my little Joshy, so in addition to documenting his birthday party, I've snuck some other photo's in here.

Yup, that's Josh in big-boy underpants. Hand-me-downs from Ethan, yes, but what are you gonna do? I had hand me down underwear, it's part of having an older brother. Joshy has taken a liking to using the potty. He'll sit there for what seems like hours with his eyes wide while saying, "poo-poo, mommy!" the entire time. It gets old, but we should be thankful he's taken an interest.

Didn't want to leave Ethan out. He's growing so much as well. He hates clothes and will spend the entire day with nuthin' but his drawers on. He's also got a silly side to him.

Thanks to the Marshalls for allowing this picture to happen. I'd really rather not go into the details.

So last year a lady in the ward gave us a sack of costumes. Well, we opened it up last week and discovered that the Dalmatian costume fit Josh really well. He has a general liking towards all things "puppy" and immediately wanted to wear it. He would barely let us take it off for bath/nighttime. Ethan tried on the pumpkin, but it was a little small for him. One of those long pumpkins instead of the short/fat ones.

So, the party. My sweet wife has began a tradition of baking cakes for the children based on their requests. You may recall the baseball cake a couple years ago, or the monkey cake for Joshy's party last year. Perhaps the black icing on the Mickey Mouse cake would jog your memory. At any rate, Joshy wanted a puppy cake. I've really got to hand it to Challene, she really did a good job on that puppy cake. But more about that later.

So we began the party with pizza all around. What with the convenience of an in-supermarket pizzeria and the government issued foodstamps at our disposal it was a no-brainer. After pizza we figured it would be a good idea to do some games. The party was based (rather loosely) on the Go Dog Go book by P.D. Eastman. So the first game was the Red Light/Green Light game but with "Go Dog Go" on the back and "Stop Dog Stop" on the front.

Here's Chloe Marshall deftly listening for any in-coming footsteps. Taking a page from the handbook of the Velociraptor Attack Strategies (3rd edition), Joshy, seen next to the entertainment center, was planning a flank attack while Liza Woolsey (in blue) and Cameron Brallier (not seen here) blitzed from the center. Meanwhile, Gwen Marshall (pink shorts) was placed mid-court and commanded to "merely spin" in attempt to distract Chloe from the inevitable onslaught.

Logistically, the strategy was sound, but all bets were off once Chloe turned around. Immediately, the children opted for the "turn-and-pretend-like-you're-not-doing-anything" approach, with Liza even managing to seat herself on the sofa, but Chloe was not buying it. This picture was snapped just before she, in a situationally ironic gesture, hurled the red "Stop Dog Stop" sign as if an Olympic discus and decapitated each one of the children. The bloody aftermath was... quite difficult to clean up.

Ok, sorry. I got a little carried away.

So when we went to get the pizza and soda pop we noticed, in true WinCo fashion, a display of pinatas aptly hung above our heads. Challene spied a dog shaped one and posed the option of purchasing said pinata for the enjoyment of the children. Realizing that this inevitably lead to the additional requirement of purchasing sweets to fill the pinata, I whole-heartedly agreed complementing my sweet wife on such a spectacular idea. She smiled sweetly.

The following is a four-picture documentary of the plight of the pinata:

Notice the extreme external rotation Ethan is using in the shoulder. Further, you can see him stepping into the swing. Good form.

Her father taught her the tomahawk method, I'm sure.

Naturally, Joshua was trying to impress Chloe, so he, too, chose to tomahawk it.

Like ravenous wolves.

Notice Josh standing off to the side holding the bat as if to say, "yup... my kill. What? What... you want some of this? You want some of this, well come and get it! I'll mess you up!"

After the pinata we figured we'd best sing and do ice cream and cake. Unfortunately, the pictures below do not do justice to the cake Challene made. She is rather creative when it comes to baking.

We decided to center the tongue. The bottom picture is yellow, I think because the flash didn't go off.

Josh, while insurmountably cute, has a stubborn side. I think he gets it from his Mother. One of his stubborn points is standing on chairs. He nearly refuses to sit. He will not use a booster or a high chair and if even mentioned he pitches a fit. He's also our little dare-devil. He's always jumping, climbing, sliding, swinging on something. Well, while Challene and I were serving up the cake and ice cream we heard a loud SMACK followed immediately by a cry. Joshua was doing something and ended up face-planting it off of the chair. He's typically easy to console when things like this happen so I think it really shook him up, because it was sometime before he calmed down. Challene took him in the bedroom and calmed him down. Afterword, I fed him his cake

If you'll recall, last year Joshua had his fingers nearly crushed in a door. We spent last years birthday in the ER. His face-plant was very reminiscent of then. We all conceded that his birthdays must be cursed. Seriously. Two birthdays, two injuries. Not the best of odds.

Then it was time for presents.

Everyone wanted to be involved in present time. The kids were so cute and Joshy was more than happy to let them help.

The bowling game from Challene and I got great reviews from the kids. Again, Ethan has got great form here.

That was about it for the party. Again, I can't believe he's two years old. He's my little baby and he's growing up so fast.

In other news, Challene had her very last day of work at Curves last Saturday. It was very bittersweet for her. On one hand, she loved the ladies and working out. On the other hand, it was work. Her boss was very grateful to Challene. She was there while the business changed hands between owners and Challene pretty much ran the business while her new boss came up to speed with how the place works. She also had the chance to teach the Curves Six Week Solution class twice. She's invested a lot of time and energy into that place and she'll miss it. Her boss gave her a nice bouquet of flowers and several ladies gave her cards telling her how much they will miss her.



I suppose that's all for now. I bid thee, adieu!