A FIRE STATION BIRTHDAY PARTY

Well today we had Joshua's birthday party at the local fire station. We celebrated with our friends Kayleigh and Carol (Kayleigh is also from China). Joshua just loves them. Carol's brother is the fire chief. So I made the cake and we ate Taco Bell and then had cake at the fire house. Then we got to check out the fire trucks. It was a totally cool way to celebrate!


The lovely chocolate cake which is Joshua's favorite.


Ready to blow the candles out.


Blowing hard!!


The fireboy.


Wow look at that truck!


Hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck.




It is so high up!



Ready for the next emergency.



Firefighter Jonathan who showed us around.



A cool magnifying glass.



A Cars memory game!! How awesome! What a fun time this has been.

The Great Powder Party! (and we weren't even invited!)

So Charley came home from work at 1:00 PM as usual and I needed to go to the store. So since I had put Joshua down, all was well and Charley sat at the computer to do some work. About an hour later he heard a thumping noise coming from Joshua's room. When he went to check, lo and behold there had been a little party going on and we weren't even invited! There was baby powder in every nook and cranny of his bedroom!

October Fun!

We have been enjoying the Fall weather and the fun activities that go along with this season. We took a trip to a pumpkin patch of sorts, celebrated Gotcha Day on the 30th and went to the Fall Festival at church! Lots of fun!

At the pumpkin patch.

So many choices!

This is the one.

My first birthday package came in the mail from Aunt Pat and Uncle Kenneth.

A cool apron and tote bag with little Angus puppies on it.

AND an amazing bag of treats.

Celebrating Gotcha day at the park.

A cool park at that!

We ate at a Chinese restaurant after the park.

Bean bag toss at the Fall festival.

This was a lot to take in, that is for sure! There was even a hay ride!

Joshua had ideas of where to go and Papa had other ideas!

Cute little family portrait!

Joshua's First "School" Picture

So here is our little man in his photo from Mother's Day Out! The lady did an amazing job!! He looks so big and handsome.

Most Amazingly Beautiful Adoption Video

Adoption1
Uploaded by ludo

My friend Kim G. sent me this video and I just want everyone to see this!! I may just send a link to people too!! It is amazing and I am trying so desperately to find the song/artist that is the background. Grab a kleenex before you start watching! Joshua watched it with me and he kept signing/saying "baby" and then saying his version of his own name and pointing to himself! It was so cool. He wanted to watch it again and again!

Here is the link if you want to go to the site and get it yourself or send it to anyone.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcmz_adoption1

First Day of "School" and such

So at the end of August, Joshua started attending a Mother's Day Out program at our church. We were encouraged by our speech therapist that this would be another way for Joshua to receive more speech stimuli. So here he is off to the car with his new Lightening McQueen backpack and lunch box. The program is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-3. We have since trimmed that down to 9-12, since the lunch and nap time were causing EXTREME anxiety and hysterics. It is better, but separation is still a little rough, but once Mamma is gone, he settles down and plays.

The new backpack and lunch box sure made leaving the house exciting!

Joshua looking so BIG!!

How exciting. We have our nap mat with us too.


It seems that as we drive and talk about school, he looks like maybe he is not too sure! :-)

Here is the entrance to the children's wing at First Baptist, Texarkana.

When I went to pick Joshua up, I peeked in a took and couple of pictures!



Off we go to the car!

Okay, it was only 6 PM and he never even made it thru dinner! He was sound asleep. A busy day at school I guess!!

Joshua with his Granny Pitchford.



Here is a cool old tractor on our street and Joshua had been eyeing it for weeks so finally we asked if he could get on it. It is so BIG!!

Neat wheels.

Now how does this thing work?

Here he is yelling "tractor" at the top of his lungs!!

Isn't this just the cat's pajamas!!

Joshua is finally big enough to reach the pedals on his neat trike that our friends the Renfrews gave him.

We went to the college and walked and rode for an hour.


He just did it so well!! What a big boy!!

That California Trip!

Well it has definitely been too long since we have posted pictures!! Man, time is just flying by!! We are enjoying our summer, hot and humid though it is here in Arkansas. Joshua and I (Marianne), took a trip to California to see his Oma and Opa. It was a great time. He is such a GREAT little traveler! (Just another way we see how God chose him for us). The weather was beautiful and Joshua had such a wonderful time with his cousins, Jacob and Michaela. Oma was in heaven having us there at the house and Opa was just amazed and thinks Joshua will be an engineer. He told me he could tell by the way he saw Joshua process things and figure out stuff! I guess he would know, since he is a brilliant engineer, himself! :-) All in all, it was a sweet time with my family and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be with them again! Here are some of the fun pictures we took of our time there.

Joshua could not get enough of the airplanes and trucks at the airport in Dallas.

Sipping and spitting water back and forth between cups was apparently a hoot and Oma and Opa were entertained too.

A kiss for Opa to help him along with his exercises.

Joshua's first In-n-Out Burger! He LOVED it!! (The chocolate shake too!)

Opa likes to play Joshua's favorite game too, Cars.


Wow, Oma reads books really well!!

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the cousins.

The Jellies at the aquarium.

Michaela points and explains the cool sea life, since she is the expert.

Jacob and Joshua checking out the sharks. Jacob knew all the names of the critters!


Okay, trying to get a "cousin" pic was not so easy!!

The beach was the coolest of all!!

Contemplating the waves.

Ready for the road home.

The new pool was too cool.


Trying to drink from the sprinkly things on the pool.

Jacob shows Joshua the ropes when it comes to the wiggly bridge.

Michaela and Joshua master the stairs.

Three on the teeter totter.

Such a serious face with that crazy static in his hair!

Watching Animal Planet, I think.