Josh Turns 6



Josh is now 6.  I can't believe it. It has gone by so fast.  He is such a sweet heart.  He is so easy going. He also gives the best hugs and kisses.  I am so grateful that I get to be his mom.

 This year Josh got a few things to get ready for Kindergarten for his birthday.

 Getting ready to blow out the candles on the crazy angry birds cake.  Josh loves to play the Angry Birds game.

 Gotta taste the frosting.

Of course it won't be Josh's birthday if he didn't get some Lego's.  He loves  Lego's.  I am just glad that his is able to help out with the building of the sets. He also loved getting the cards and money from everyone.  He bought more Lego's with his money. I think he had a great day.

Bella's 1st Concert

Isabella had her first band concert.  She did such a great job.  The only problem was that the conductor and her music stand was covering her sweet face. I took a few pictures before we left.  She has done such a great job learning to play the flute. I am so happy that she stuck with it.

Palmyra, New York

The First week in May we were able to go to Palmyra, New York.  It was for our wards temple trip.  We had never been to Palmyra before so it was really nice to be able to go as and family. We were able to see all the sights and it was so much fun to do it with the people from our ward.  The kids really enjoyed it.  Josh got  a little tired from all the tours so Amy took him to the bookstore while Matt took Zach and Bella on the tour of where the Book of Mormon was printed.  Bella really enjoyed telling Amy how everything was done.

 Matt and the kids in front of the temple.  So far Zach has been able to go on 2 temple trips. One to the Columbus, Ohio temple and one to the Palmyra, New York temple.

 Bella with the beautiful flowers at the Hill Cumorah.

 Walking to the Sacred Grove

 The Stature on top of the Hill Cumorah.

 View from the top.

 The printing press shop.

A replica of the gold plates at the visitor center.

While Matt and Zach went in the temple Bell, Josh, and I were able to go back to the visitor center and take Bella to the bookstore.  Josh by then had fallen asleep so we went back to the temple to wait for the boys to funish up.  Bella had fun taking pictures of the temple and hanging out with her friends who were also waiting for their older siblings to finish up. We had such a wonderful time and it was nice that it was only 4 hours away.

Spring Is Here and Other Fun Stuff

Well Spring has sprung in Pennsylvania. We are enjoying the beautiful flowers and everything turning green. It is wonderful to live somewhere where they have all four seasons. For Spring break this year we just stuck around home this year. We did go see the Hunger Games and were able to work on Zach and Bella's school projects that are coming up in school.
He are pictures of the egg dying. The kids all had fun as usual.

Josh looking at all the beautiful eggs.

Picture of everyone before heading off to church. Josh and Bella sang in sacrament meeting with the rest of the primary children. They did a great job.

Bella showing off all the mini gold eggs she found on the egg hunt.

Zach found the Silver egg full of quarters. Zach decided that he still wanted to find eggs even though he is the big "12".

Josh found the gold egg. The Easter bunny hid it in a birds nest in a tree in the yard. Josh's smile shows how happy he was to find it.

Josh finding eggs as dad watches.

Zach getting the hard eggs hidden in the bushes.

Here are some pictures of the daffodils and tulips Josh and I planted last fall. I am so glad that most of the bulbs made it.

Josh and his new bike. It is a transformer bike "Bumble Bee" but Josh likes to call it "yellowy". Such a fun kid. He is always able to make mom smile.

He are some picture from Zach's birthday. We went to his favorite place for dinner (Pizza Hut) and then we came home and unwrapped presents. He wasn't to thrilled with getting a new tie but did enjoy getting some more DSi games.

Blowing out candles on his chocolate cake.

Zach again opening presents. I can't believe he is 12. Wow it has gone so fast. It is fun to watch him pass the sacrament. He is such a good example to his brother and sister. He makes me so proud.

Matt and his new toy. He has really enjoyed using his new snow blower. He was hoping to be able to us it more this year. I think he only had to use it twice.

Josh and Bella shoveling snow. Josh has really enjoyed playing in the snow.

Finally here our some pictures from the winter break. Josh has loved having snow. He has requested to have a snow ball fight every day since it has snowed. I am glad he is enjoying the snow. I still remember last year after we moved here and he refused to were tennis shoes and wore his flip flops in the snow. He then told me that he did not like snow and why did we move here. So funny.
Josh is getting ready to throw a snow ball at Zach.

Zach braving the cold to play with Josh in the snow. What a good brother.

He is a picture of our gingerbread house. Bella had a friend over from church who enjoyed helping us.

For Christmas the year Matt took us all to New York City. It was just a quick trip. We had so much fun. While there we got to eat at some great restaurants. The best part of the trip was being able to go see the Lion King on Broadway. It was so good. It even kept Josh's attention the whole time. It was amazing what they could do and the wonderful stage props they had. Everyone had a great time. We were also able to hit Toys R Us and see Iron man, Captain America, and Spider man. Bella and I went on the Roller coaster ride while Matt took the boys to Willie Wonka Land. I am glad we got there in the morning because by the time we left it was getting really crowded. Thanks Matt for a great trip and Christmas.

Josh opening presents at our house on Christmas evening. Sorry about the red eyes or as Josh calls them Vampire eyes.

Bella with here pile of presents. The kids did great since they had to wait till we got back from New York to open the presents.

The kids got to do their stocking on Christmas morning in New York.

Matt and I packed a small Christmas tree to surprise the kids on Christmas morning.

He is a picture of the view from the Rockefeller Building on the 65th floor.

Snap shot of the trees at Rockefeller plaza.

Bella and Josh in Time Square.

Bella again in Time square. Bella loved all the big TV screens. She would get very distracted walking around, Because she was always watching the screens. Zach had fun just seeing a the different building. Josh thought it was too crowded most of the time, but he did enjoy the Lion King. Great trip

Soccer, Fall, Halloween

The fall soccer season has come to an end. The last game was a little wet and cold. Josh had a great time playing, and it was so much fun for the family to watch him.

Team photo. Can you tell it was cold. I love everyone's hat. Josh's team was called the Green Giraffes. They won every game they played but one and that game they tied. The Green Giraffes were a great little team.

Josh taking the ball to the goal. He is the green shirted player with the blue hat with only one white stripe.

Bella enjoying her hot chocolate while holding an umbrella. Zach was at basketball. It was also his last day of basketball camp. He had lots of fun playing some 5 on 5 for the last day.

Here is a picture from our back yard of some of the beautiful fall foliage. It has been fun living somewhere where they actually have a fall.

Here is a picture of our house. When I was taking pictures of the leaves I went ahead and took one of the house too. I don't think I have put a picture of the new house up yet.

Here is a picture of some of our fall decorations. Josh had lots of fun helping me.

Josh as General Grievous with a mini light saber. I think he is just too cute to be such a bad guy. He really wanted to have 4 arms but they didn't have a small costume with 4 arms. Oh well. The bigger one was just going to be to hard to carry and I didn't want to be the one carrying it. I did end up carrying Josh's mask and Bella's jacket and Zach's gun while also holding an umbrella because it was raining. I don't think that I could of managed a light saber too.

Here is our beautiful Eskimo. Since our neighborhood only has 5 houses we went trick-or-treating with Bella's friend from school.

Zach as Captain Sparrow. Can you find Josh and Bella looking out the window while I took Zach's picture. It looks like Bella's even posing for the picture. Too funny.

Group photo. I had to stand in the rain to take the picture.

all had a great Halloween. I was able to help with Bella's class party. Josh was able to come with me. Bella's class loved him. They kept trying to get him to give them hi 5's. I was in charge of the craft. I had the class make haunted houses. Josh was glad that he got to make on too.