Josh and Santa

Josh sat on Santa's lap successfully this year. The last two years, I had to sit on Santa and Josh sat on my lap. He asked for a little talking train Gordon (Gordon from Thomas and Friends) and a little talking car Sarge (Sarge, from Pixar Cars movie). Maybe Santa will bring them for him this year (wink, wink).

My Little Snow Angel

Josh and I had fun while Ammon shoveled the drive way. What a great time of year!

NKOTB Concert

Yes, of course I went to the New Kids on the Block Concert! Who would pass up free tickets to them? (Ammon did offer to buy me some before I learned about free tickets, and although it was tempting, I figured I could live without spending $75 a ticket to see my first loves perform). Anyway, it was a great evening. I went with my sister-in-law Sue, and her two girls, Annie and Lucy. The seats were good, but the girls couldn't see, so we got moved to a place where some other kids were watching the concert. Then out of the blue, the NKOTB came and performed on a little pop-up stage right in front of us. Not only that, but David Archuleta was standing right next to us as well. I got his autograph on my arm (hey, I didn't have any paper with me). While at the concert, Ammon was so nice and watched Josh and Sue's other little girl, Ruby. As you can see from the picutre, they had a lot of fun. Nothing like a movie, PB & J, and some milk to entertain two toddlers.

Halloween!

What a great holiday! I love Halloween, and I think I may have gone overboard this year. First, Josh and I went to "Boo at the Zoo." We have a membership to the zoo, so it was free. We spent two hours there and got a huge loot of candy. Josh had so much fun. Then, on Halloween, we went to "Grandma's School-Work" and went Trick-or-treating to some of the classes that have teachers who remember me. He loved going up and down the halls of the school and growling at all the big kids. They thought he was the cutest thing in the world. After, we joined Josh's cousin, Caiden, and his mom at Arctic Circle, had lunch, and went Trick-or-treating at a local supermarket. Then, that night, we joined Josh's other cousins, Lucy, Annie, and Ruby, and went Trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. Besides the occasional rain shower, we all had fun and go SO MUCH candy. Ammon and I have been lusting after Josh's candy bag, but we have set a time limit on when we can indulge ourselves without stealing from Josh (on November 31st, if there is any candy left, we will be partaking freely-with Josh's permission, of course).

Joshua Turns 3!

Here is Josh in his new "Big Boy Bed." He loves it quite a bit. I had some anxiety giving it to him. I loved the idea of a crib that you couldn't get out of. But, he is such a good boy (or hasn't quite figured out that he can get out of it without my permission) that he still calls for me in the morning to "let him out."

100% Boy

I found this shirt at Wal-mart. It says 30% boo-boo's, 15% dirt, 25% bumps, 30% bruises and cuts in a little pie chart. Then at the bottom it says 100% boy. As you can kind of see, this shirt is appropriate for him. He is sporting a huge bruise on his head, a cut on his left ring finger, and multiple bruises on his legs and feet. I couldn't resist it!

Half Marathon

On Saturday, April 19th, I fulfilled my life-time goal of running a half-marathon. I ran it in 2 hrs and 7 min (that's less than a 10-minute mile, which was my goal). It was fun running with so many people. For the first half, we were running with the people doing a full marathon, but they eventually turned off and went another way. So, at one point, I was in a pack of 13,000 people. I am glad I did it, but I don't think I will be doing another one any time soon. I got the coolest blisters. Come over and see them sometime when you're bored. I'm kind of weird, but I don't think one can really believe that I did it, unless I have some battle wounds to show.

Elder Marshall

We had the missionaries over for dinner a week ago, and ever since, Josh has been on a missionary kick. He wears Ammon's old missionary tag and runs around saying "Hi, Elder Marshall" and then shakes your hand. It's so darn cute. It adds a new perspective to the lyrics "I hope they call me on a mission, when I have a grown a foot or two" or three, or four, for that matter. Now he thinks everyone in a suit is a missionary and runs up to them and says, "Hi Mission!"

Valentine's Day

My husband must love me. Look what he made me for Valentine's Day breakfast! Yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!

"Tiny" The Snowman

I thought it would be fun for us, since Ammon took the day off, to go and build a snowman. Even being married for almost 7 years to Ammon, I had forgotten he likes to do things perfectly and, for lack of a better word, awesome-ly (is that even a word?). Anyway, 4 hours and sunburns later, we finished our snowman, we named "Tiny", since, as you can see from the picture, he really isn't. "Tiny" is sporting a carrot nose, bucket hat with a frisbee brim, bottle tops for eyes, crayon mouth, a tie, and a flower in his lapel (the black thing below his chin was supposed to be a goatee, but we took it off later). Not even 3 hours later, he had melted enough that he was leaning, but he still looked cute!

"Big" The Snowman

This is the snowman Josh and I built. When I asked Josh what we should name it, he thought for a moment, and then said "Big." So, this is "Big", the snowman.

Pee-pee's in the Potty!

Time to brag! After a couple of month's effort, Josh is now potty-trained. He caught on so fast (once we started using toy cars as rewards, and not just "fun" stickers). I am very proud of him. We have an accident here and there, but I can proudly say we did it! However, the money we save on diapers is getting put into buying toy cars (from the Disney Pixar movie "Cars). But, hey! It works!

Cheese!

Whenever we take a picture of Josh, he always says "Cheese," but instead of smiling when he says it, he contorts his mouth into an awkward smile. I estimate that at least 75% of the pictures we have of him from the last few months all look like this one.

My 26th Birthday!

We drove an hour to eat at my favorite restaurant (Melina's - in Farr West, UT). Mom and Neil, Grandma and Grandpa Ellis, and Jayson, Selina, and Caiden came to help celebrate. I love Melina's enchilada's so much that we had them pre-make a dozen of them for me so I could take them home and freeze them and eat them later. Yummmy!