Josiah is the child that you have to go look for when things get quiet.  You never know what you will come across when you find him being silent.  This summer we have been moving to a new apartment complex in the same town we already lived except now we have 3 bedrooms instead of 2 and we have grass outside our front door instead of concrete.  There are a few other differences but all for the good.

Anyway, because of the move things have been lying around in places they might not normally be found.  One day I went in search of Josiah and found this...

Josiah had found a box of tic tacs in a bag that I had and we won't even mention how old those things were but the box is full when he found them.  This was the result.

Needless to say he found that he really liked orange tic tacs that had been lying around for years.  :)

We went with Mommy & Me to Abbott Farms on Tuesday to pick strawberries.  The boys had a good time.  Josiah ate a few in the process of course. We also had some fun sitting on the display tractors. Elijah of course had to go to the restroom while we were there and Josiah found his way in to this crate that was sitting in the bathroom. Noah slept in the stroller while we picked berries but he woke up when we went across the street to check out the animals. Here are my farm animals! We finished off the day with a group shot.  Of course none of them were looking at the camera but at least one of them was smiling.  The one who I usually have a hard time to getting to cooperate in photos.   :)

Noah is 5 months today.  He is getting so big so fast.  He is grabbing for things when you hold them out to him and rolling around when you leave him lying on a blanket.  He is usually all full of smiles and will offer them to just about anyone.  However when I took these photos he sat the whole time very serious.  Shane and I both tried to get him to crack a smile but he wasn't offering.  He loves to 'talk' to you.  He is a lot of fun to have around. These are some of my favorite pj's.  We got them at Gymboree for just a couple dollars on clearance. He is a squirmer.  You really have to watch when you are holding him because he likes to move so much. My favorite.

We had a fun time celebrating Josiah's birthday today.  He woke up to a surprise of balloons.  I had seen this in a magazine recently and thought it would be fun.  I had 2 bags of 15 balloons but after blowing up the first 15 last night at about 11 pm I decided I would just stick with the 15.  This may be a new tradition because the boys have had a good time with them today and I think Elijah will be upset if he doesn't have balloons on his birthday.  And as luck has it I have 15 balloons left over (as long as Shane doesn't request balloons on his birthday in a couple weeks). We also got the annual birthday shot in Daddy's Kansas City Chiefs jersey. He let me get a good shot but he was quickly done with it and finding his way out.  Elijah then had to put it on and told me to take his picture but I told him that he would have to wait until his birthday for me to take his picture. Josiah at 1 year. We had an early dinner and then headed to the mall where we saw Toy Story 3.  All 3 of the boys did great!  Josiah sat in Daddy's lap, Elijah sat in a chair (between myself and Tim, Shane's summer intern), and Noah sat in my lap.  Daddy did have to make a quick bathroom run with Elijah but they didn't miss much.  They all watched the movie and were content the whole time.  We are truly blessed! After we got back home we sang Happy Birthday to Josiah, he blew out the candles, and had ice cream and cookie cake. Then he opened his gifts of a Toy Story book and some Toy Story legos.  They wanted to play with them but it was bed time at that point. It was a great day and we are looking forward to getting to see what Josiah will become over the next year.

Today Josiah turns 2 years old! He is my little stealth child.  He is the child who one minute is sitting there sucking his thumb and the next minute you turn around and all the DVD's are strung out on the floor.  He is the child that you pull him out of the cabinet trying to help himself to the cereal and when you get it back in you turn around and he is in the bathroom pulling on the toilet paper roll and before you get all that rolled back up he is pulling out the wipes from the wipes container.  I know I have friends who are reading this smiling and saying "Nooooo, not Josiah."  They say it all the time but that is why he is the stealth child!  He keeps us on our toes. He is definitely my child who moves to his own beat!   :) Elijah loves to waller with you in the floor but beware if Josiah comes to join in because he is coming in to wrestle.  He is full force all the time.  Which means he is constantly falling down and getting bumps and bruises. He loves to eat!  Especially carbs.  You could give Elijah and Josiah a bowl of spaghetti and they would gladly share.  Elijah would take the meat and Josiah would put away the noodles.  Just like his big brother he LOVES cheese.  String cheese, cheese slices, shredded cheese, cottage cheese he is on it. He isn't a big talker yet and we are working on that but he will say Mama, Dada, Elijah (yiyuh, he likes to yell that in the store if Elijah walks off), juice, ball, fish, uh oh, bye, and our latest....Buzz Lightyear.  Yeah I don't know why that was the newest word.  It is too funny and if I can get it on video I will try to post that for you.  He has some of the greatest facial expressions!  He doesn't lack in personality. He loves to watch movies and it just so happens that we will be celebrating his birthday with a trip to the theater to see Toy Story 3 after dinner today.  I will do another post telling you about how I managed for us to go for free later.  I will also post the annual birthday photo in daddy's jersey too. Happy Birthday Josiah!!

I think I could scrapbook pictures of just the places that our boys have chosen to lie down and take naps.  And I am sure that I still wouldn't have pictures of all the crazy places they have chosen to rest. Here are a couple of places I have come across sleepers in the last few weeks. Josiah took a nap during our May Bridge service curled up in the floor in the back of the room.  He slept through all of daddy's sermon. Who wouldn't fall asleep on their way down the stairs? Or Elijah's choice of the hard wood floor in the middle of the kitchen.  The light was off and it was dark in there.  You almost didn't notice he was there until you were stepping on him.   :)

Elijah decided that Noah needed to sport his sun glasses while he was swinging yesterday.  Surprisingly Noah didn't seem to mind.

Wow I have gotten really bad at this blogging thing. Anyway, today was a cooler, rainy day and I think the boys had gotten up a little too early because this is what I had at 11 am this morning. Elijah was at the bottom of the stairs. Josiah was on the floor literally at the top of the stairs. And even though this is normal Noah was asleep on our bed under his play gym. The calm before the storm.   :)

but they don't bite.   :)

"I am hungry and I want something out of the fridge!"