JOSEPH turns 1!

I can't believe he's been in our family a whole year already!

Joseph turned one this week and what a drawn out birthday it was. Officially he turned one on the 8th, but Chris was working so Evie and I just sang the birthday song about a billion times that day (it's one of Evie's favorites anyway).

Then on Saturday, we had the cake which as you can see was fun, but not what we expected. At least Evie liked the cake. I thought it turned out fun. If you can't tell, it's covered with little zoo animals. He liked the frosting and playing with it, but it was soon very evident that JC was too tired for a birthday party.

With that fact in play, we finally concluded the celebrations on Sunday with the opening of all his fun presents. He was much happier today so he loved all the gifts, especially the books (go figure!) and the ball with all the holes in it. I think I was most impressed with the little xylophone that Matt's house introduced to him last month. He had that figured out the second it was out of the box. The best part was to hear Chris marvel that it is a toy engineered for 3+ yrs old and here was our little 1yr old loving it.

What a wonderful addition to our family Joseph has been. He laughs at random things and now that he responds to so much, it's impossible not to get caught laughing too. He and Evie are such good friends and for those of you who worry, he gives as good as he gets. He's even smart enough to recognize that Evie was getting in trouble when he cried. We noticed that thankfully, and are quickly disabusing him of the idea that we will rescue him every time. He even likes to "borrow" toys from Evie's room when she's not paying attention. I think my favorite thing to watch now that he's walking, is to see Evie run and JC chase her. It cracks me up because he's so wobbly and every time Evie laps him he giggles louder and she giggles louder, and to be honest, I giggle louder, so we're all giggling and of course, then he falls and starts the chase all over again.

He is just as curious as his sister and gets into as many things as she does. Where I could get away without child locks with Evie it's so not going to happen this time. Between the two of them the only rooms that are safe are their bedrooms, and sometimes not even then! Evie can't spend quiet time without him and its safer just not to enter the room. The last time I came in early they were using the bed as a slide to the floor, JC was "pretty" in his dress up clothes, Evie was tossing pillows at his head, and JC kept climbing to the top to do it again. Seriously, was I supposed to stop that? And if so, how in the world do you discipline them for having a great time? Technically they weren't "quiet", but mom got a break, no one screamed, and it made the pre-bedtime hour or so go by quickly.

I absolutely love how much our family likes each other. I pray with all my heart it only continues to be more fun as we add to it. Our kids make us laugh all the time. Okay not all the time, but if you have the right kind of memory it just goes from one funny thing to the next. For example, today was stake conference. We woke up late and so did the kids. We went to the conference even though the building was over an hour away. The good part was listening to the kids giggle and tease each other in the back. Everytime I looked back JC would turn his head so I couldn't see him, then he'd turn back real quick and laugh if I was still looking. Evie on the other hand kept teasing him with toys by giving it and taking it away as soon as JC reached for it. He quickly caught on and now does the same to me with his pacifier. They grow so quickly. I can't believe how old they both are and how much I love being their mom.