Hmmm, what have we here? A little stage of rewards cards? A bullfighting pen? A rodeo arena?


I wondered what he was up too. I saw a little blond head running back and forth from the drawer where I keep all our reward cards and gift cards.

Are you thinking:
A) why do they have so many reward cards? or
B) that's pretty funny that he filled in the slot around the side table!

I was thinking both.


But wait, I think I see a little more clearly now. I am seeing a vehicular wipe out, I believe. A two car collision...


Looks like this guy may not have fared as well as our little red car friend. Good thing we wear our seat belts for safety!


And here comes the ambulance to make sure all is well. Pretty sure they were all ok though, since they were up and driving only moments later.

All's well that ends well.

Painting the Town Red

Joseph got some super scented soap finger paint for Hanukkah. I couldn't wait to open it up and try it out! Joseph really wanted to take a bath, but it was lunch time so we settled for the bathroom sink for a quick trial run...


He didn't care to use his fingers though. He's much more of a brush guy.


These are so much fun! It does take a while to rinse the sink/tub free of the soap, but the cost is small for the reward. I personally like the sink better because I don't as wet. When Joseph takes a bath, think dog shaking out after his bath. It's kinda reminds me of those movies I've seen where the people take the boat ride around Niagara Falls and they all wear rain slickers.


And the best part of all...our bathroom smelled good enough to eat.

And last but not least...

...we had one more little party for Joseph on the weekend. I'm refreshed and all ready for more too. Somebody stop me!


Joseph's theme this year was transportation. It covered about every type of favorite thing right now...trains, cars, trucks, construction, planes, space - all a boy's life!


I have to tell you though, for anyone who may ever try it; piping Funfetti icing becomes a free form art. Those stinkin' little funfettis clogged up the icing tip and it mostly just came out in blobs when enough pressure pushed it all through. It was an exercise in letting go and not having the perfect cupcake swirl.

Yes, Joseph, we all know no one can cheese it like you can!

Dad, Michael, Josh

Vanessa and Erin

Miss Kaylie

Kristen and Abby

Of course, as usual I didn't get nearly enough pictures. I hate that! But Josh was on the video so at least Joseph will have that to look at. I wish I had gotten more of the decorating and balloons and all those other obligatory shots.

Joseph had a great time and got some really great presents too! I am always surprised at what people find at the store for kiddos these days! Such cool things.

Now, guess who didn't get a Hanukkah present that night?!

Birthday morning with mom and dad...

...was super fun this year! I love that Joseph is getting old enough to understand everything. We have complete comprehension of opening presents, blowing candles, eating cake and having friends and family come celebrate - all for YOU!

I think we're going to have such good memories each year as Josh and I try to make each birthday morning, week and party a special day to remember.

This year our present to Joseph was a play kitchen. Josh got roped into his daddy thang and put the darn thing together after bedtime one night, and I got the mommy duty of applying all the stickers and decorating the sweet little kitchen. The next morning Joseph woke up to a trail of pots and pans leading from his room to the kitchen! It was exciting for us all!


He promptly starting cooking up all kinds of things for us as if it had been his forever. His favorites are bug soup and lattes, and the other day he made me a mean hamburger. Flipped that patty on the skillet and everything.

You know you go to Starbucks too much when your preschooler makes chai tea lattes. What can I say? I've really cut back lately.


Then of all the things I offered to make him for breakfast...he chose a birthday toaster strudel. But I can't blame him because they are awfully tasty. Never mind that I ended up not having to cook eggs and bacon or pancakes! ;)


So we plunked that sweet baby on the stove (doesn't everyone use the stove top as a seat for their child?) and sang him happy birthday. He sang right along with us.


Then it was off to finish icing the cake for later that night.
*Birthdays are fun, birthdays are grand, we're icing a cake here, go wash that hand!*

Happy Holidays!

This is such a fun time of the year!

The Trains at NorthPark got a new home this year. They made a whole storefront for it and the the trains are set up year round in the back room. I hope we can make this a yearly tradition, but I just can't tell if Joseph is going to be excited about the same train village year after year. This time he already seemed to be a little "eh" about it all.

Even a little "eh", he still watched and watched them go around and around...

(Can you hear his little "choo choo"?)

It's party time, y'all! Around here we hit Thanksgiving hard, dive straight into Joseph's birthday and with no stopping (literally) head into Haunakkah and Christmas!


We were lucky enough to have Bobe Chelo from Atlanta in for Thanksgiving and birthday cake this year. So these three beautiful generations helped us sing Happy Birthday on Joseph's actual birthday, November 26th, the day after Thanksgiving.


The cake was super fun this year! I've come to realize that one can't go wrong with the Funfetti cake mix and icing. Then once I got a taste of those chewy Funfetti sprinkles they put in the icing, I knew we had to have it again for Joseph's second birthday party the next weekend.

I was lucky enough to have him help me sprinkle the cake too. He thought the middle needed a big glob of sprinkles....

...and yes. Yes it did. I wholeheartedly agree. Thank you Birthday Boy!


L-O-V-I-N-G his cake and birthday song this year!


Joseph's Auntie Rachel knew she wanted to get him a "dump dozer", and we're so glad she did because now we get to hear him say "dump dozer" when he plays with it!


Wow! A real-live DJ mixer thingy! Josh and I were (and still are) pretty pumped about this one. Not only is it super fun, but it comes with HEADPHONES!


See?! That ol' daddy can play to his hearts content right next to the dinner table and we don't even hear a thing!

Happy Birthday to our precious baby Joseph!

Now off to the next party.

The Playground is Finished!

It's done! It's fabulous! It's HUGE!

We're so darn excited about our new fort that not even the cold winter weather can stop us from playing outside! ("Us" means Joseph actually. If the mercury drops below 70 I may or may not be found outside!)


Speaking of too cold...Josh really put in a 110% those last couple of days! Even when the temperature dropped and it was misting!! Man, that is a daddy who wants to finish a project, right there.


While daddy worked in the cold and rain, Joseph and I stayed in our pj's and baked up a special little guy's THIRD BIRTHDAY cake! If you ask me, that new fort is a pretty sweet birthday present.


But the weather warmed back up and Josh got a nice day to finish up.

-slide - CHECK!
-ladder - CHECK!
-swing - CHECK!
-rope ladder - CHECK!
-rock wall - CHECK!

We couldn't keep Joseph off of it even if we had even wanted to! (Is that a 'choo choo' I see there?!)


Now with a quick rock wall lesson from daddy, he was on his way up. Looks like he picked the two rock hold the farthest apart from each other - look at his legs! Ha!

Yahoo! High five! Forts rock!

Y'all come play now, ya hear! We'll leave the lights on for ya!

The Playground Continued!

Our new motto "Keep on truckin' with the concentration of a three year old!"


One of Michael's best pieces of advice from when he built Joseph's cousin's playground was this:

Read the instructions. Make sure you really understand them. Then read them again. Once you got it, read them one more time. And every time you step away from the manual, make sure the wind hasn't flipped it from the page you were on.

We agree!


The boys fastened the joist hangers with smiles and ease...


The instructions were referenced as per Michael's suggestion.


The joist boards installed! More smiles!


How do you use the word joist anyway? Is it a noun? Verb? Is is a joist board or are the boards joisted? Or is it a board secured to a joist fastener? I am totally lost on this one and probably won't ever really need to know the answer.


Now, we probably lost an hour of time altogether from what it took us to get Joseph off that ladder every time we needed it. Every time I turned around and went to step up...there he was, hammering away or brrrrrr'ing the drill. He loved every minute of working out there!


And then, miraculously it seemed, we had one wall and a floor! It was SPECTACULAR! Joseph and I had gone up for Jessie's birthday party the afternoon before and Josh worked straight through until dark. When we headed out the next morning Joseph camped out on the platform and helped from up there all day.

It's kinda like a new car's engine, you have to warm it up slowly until it's broken it. So Joseph got to warm up each new part of the fort as Daddy built the next!


Meanwhile I was supposed to be prepping the sandbox. It only took me two days and Josh to finish the job, what should have taken about an hour. That's ok. I have a little round bump to look after. ;)

I'll leave you with these shots of that sweet sweet concentration for this edition of the Playground Chronicles. To be continued!






Oh wait, that's not that sweet sweet concentration...that's a proud boy showing his mama a boogie. Gross.