I promised this pic from Josiah's birth....
and here it is:
*Warning!!!
The photo below is a graphic photo of a baby JUST born. If seeing a baby in his most natural state does not fascinate you, SKIP THE FIRST PIC BELOW!
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June 18, 2008
Did you see what was so funny to us? Look again. Look at Josiah's right hand. I guess he was pretty upset about being removed from his nice, warm home in my womb! Haha!
What a difference a year makes, and how exciting that
it's been a year since we met Josiah! 
What a joy to celebrate that first year and all of his growth and accomplishments in that time! This precious child is so...
well, precious! He's walking, talking, constantly teething, most often giggling, and still a cuddly boy.*Gotta give a shout out to our friend Natalie, who so graciously gifted Josiah with this shirt! Along with an adorable personalized backpack present, we're so grateful for this special big boy garment! If you saw Kyleigh's array of personalized 2nd bday gifts HERE, you know these are Natalie's own creations! (www.nataliekdesigns.com)* Josiah's birthday was last Thurs. June 18th, and we celebrated as a small family. Then on Friday local friends as well as friends and relatives from out of town/state arrived for JoJo's big party! We've always done Kyleigh's parties at home, but with the chaos of moving and such we opted to for an alternate location where the kids would have lots of room to play--we had a Kindermusik party! There were hula hoops, music, balls, instruments, and dancing! My kids loved it, and I think that their cousins and friends did, too.
I also made Josiah a special cake...special in decor, and special in ingredients to meet Kyleigh's food allergy limitations. Honestly, I was just as excited watching my daughter eat a piece of cake as I was to see my son try cake for the first time! I had stayed up all night making the cake(s) and only caught a quick cat nap from 6:30-8:30am. So I was really tired by the evening party, but watching my kids enjoy birthday cake was worth the exhaustion!
*The cake was to be loosely modeled after the Baby Einstein caterpillar (only our antennae were yellow, his are red...whatever!) Overnight I baked 7 cakes--5 cakes for the caterpillar, 1 for Siah's "smash cake", and another for us to taste (these were ingredients I had to special order, like potato flour???, so Chris and I were curious). The cakes were chocolate with chocolate chips, and yep, all ingredients were gluten-free, dairy-free, oat-free, and egg-free. Oh, and I made some buttercream icing by replacing the recipe's butter with vegetable shortening. I think the finished product tasted like a dry cookie-brownie with super sweet icing! Not my everyday favorite, but my kids liked it, and that made my year!*
We're so grateful that Josiah's grandparents, a Great-Aunt, Uncle, 2 Aunts, 5 cousins, and some friends joined us for the party. It was a super sweet celebration of our beautiful boy, and we were glad so many shared it with us. JoJo was also blessed with some incredible gifts, and we're so appreciative for all those items. As a parent, I'm grateful that people put such thought into those items, finding gifts that were fun, educational, and completely age appropriate and useful
(isn't it awfully sad to receive a gift you can't use?).
He completely loved every wrapped blessing,
and it's a joy to see him using them!
To each who partied with us or sent bday wishes, thanks for making Josiah's celebration so special
Here are some pics from Josiah's big day...
Kyleigh helped wrap Josiah's 1st ever bday gift--
she gave him a book!
Josiah LOVED this Peek-A-Boo book from his sis!
He likes all books, so Kyleigh couldn't go wrong with
her gift idea! Such a great sister to help pick that out!
Me, baking, at some ridiculous hour of the night.
Anything for the kiddos!
I'm no Martha Stewart, but I can bake a few cakes!
An allergy-free bday caterpillar in the making. Yummy!
Sweet buttercream cake icing! Made a ton of this,
separated it into a few containers, then used
food coloring to get the desired affect.
Turned out pretty cute, thanks to the help of my homies!
(To be just like the Baby Einstein caterpillar, the antennae
could've been red, but it was a last minute scramble,
so we're just glad the little guy got done! It was so hot,
we had to ice the cake on location, and my sweet
sister-in-law Crystal & pal Cayla made it happen!)
The "smash cake"...not fancy, we put all our energy
into the caterpillar, which was fine 'cuz Josiah
demolished this!
(I suppose that's what the "smash cake" is for!)
Silly boy even managed to get cake between his toes!
The kids started off playing with hula hoops.
Josiah was entertaining his guests with
some of his many charming qualities!
Let the fun begin!
Precious Kyleigh handed out instruments all around the room
to the grownups not seen in this pic, as she wanted
to make sure nobody felt left out!
See, she even shared 2 bells with Miss Cayla!
Jen & our little buddy Elijah having musical fun!
Josiah liked playing the same instruments as the big kids,
it made him feel big, too! He also liked the singing & dancing,
and I believe he enjoyed his 1st birthday celebration!
After the par-tay, family stopped by our place
to see where we're living now.
Some had exciting imaginative fun...
While others took a more laid back approach!
A quick pic of the family!
My bro and his peeps had to hit the road, it was late;
my parents/baby sis + Chris's dad and aunt stayed overnight.
It was so lovely having so much our family together to celebrate!
(I can't believe we fit that many people in this little house! LOL)
But for now, both our kids are happy and healthy! Yay! Kyleigh seems to be feeling better (not quite 100%, but better than her formerly puking self for sure), and she was a wonderfully helpful and supportive sister at Josiah's checkup today! The doc had given him a tongue depressor to play with (i.e. a distraction during her examination of my munchkin), and when he dropped it and cried, Kyleigh quickly swiped it up, waved it before him, and called the recovered toy to his attention with, "Here Siah!" "Siah, this!" and handed it to her younger brother. Her heart is so completely precious. Being that she's not a fan of medical examinations herself (after going through soooooo many in her brief lifetime), she empathized and wanted so badly to make her brother feel better. You have NO idea how beautiful it really is to see these two kids love each other so much (or maybe you do...if you have kids, I truly hope you know what I mean or that someday you will. It's completely magnificent!).
(I'm gaining weight...)
(...and I'm getting taller. So far so good..)
(You're gonna do what??? Ok Mom, I trust you...)
