Jopes' Finally Got to Celebrate His Golden Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Jopes remembers finding out when he was little what a GOLDEN birthday was, and thinking, "I have to wait until I'm 24 for my golden birthday?!" So, needless to say, he's been looking forward to this birthday for a long time. No pressure, right? Ha. It still wasn't anything too special, but it was fun to plan, and if nothing else, it was fun to spend the day focused on my wonderful husband.

First thing birthday morning.

2/24/2010

The Presents (most of which he knew about before... lame!)

Joseph LOVED the balloons. Truthfully, we got them for him, not the birthday boy...

Since Jopes knew about all of his presents, I tried coming up with something creative. The result was these envelopes, which were opened at different points throughout the day.

1. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 11:00AM.

-Go to McDonald's. Order whatever you want for lunch. Also order... (stuff for Joseph and I).

2. OPEN AFTER YOU HAVE ORDERED LUNCH

-Go to the Romney building. Meet outside of the large saltwater aquarium.

3. OPEN AFTER ELIZABETH'S LAST CLASS

-Find a redbox. Get whatever movie YOU would like to watch later tonight.

4. OPEN WHILE DINNER IS COOKING

-It's time to go camping. Prepare yourself for a grown man's dinner, some intense winter fishing, and of course, s'mores!

Sealed with a "kiss"

So, the two boys brought lunch and we ate between my last two classes. The food was yummy, and then we spent some time checking out all the cool fish in the saltwater aquarium. Jopes hopes to have a large one like it someday.

After my last class, we stopped and got a redbox, and then went home to make his birthday dinner and cake!

THEN,

We made a tent inside our living room since it's so cold outside!

Jopes requested Hamburger Pie for his birthday dinner.

Gone Fishing!

The pole was made of pretzel rods, the line made of pull-n-peel, gummy worms for bait, and swedish fish to catch... it was cute, though Joseph wasn't so sure about it.

He preferred eating the items instead!

Teaching Joseph how to fish:

His #1 favorite part was eating the s'more makings... AKA, CHOCOLATE!

Yum!

No, he didn't really eat the whole thing. Just a couple bites for the pictures. :)

Little Joseph loved to help us make the cake:

The finished product:

I am NO cake decorator, but it tasted good!

Little Joseph's reaction to the yummy birthday cake:

He was so happy :)

I LOVE MY BOYS!!

Jopes, we hope you enjoyed your birthday as much as we enjoy being with you.

WE LOVE YOU!!

You're the best husband and daddy in the whole world.

:)

Lots of Pictures from January!!

Not gonna lie, we have the funnest, cutest baby... see for yourself!

The many faces of the high chair...

This thing is COOL!

I'm real good at sharing!

Hi everybody!

Bye-Bye!

January Joys

The other night, our friends, Mike, Summer, and Paxton, called to see if we wanted to go sledding with them. Almost before Jopes was even done telling me why they were calling, he said, "She says yes." :)

We weren't at the park for very long because the two little boys weren't too fond of the dark, but we got a little sledding in, and it was fun!

After sledding, we went back to Mike and Summer's and had an awesome spaghetti dinner. It was fun to see Paxton and Joseph play together.

(joseph's not wearing a shirt because he got it very dirty with spaghetti)

Lesson Learned...

We learned a lesson during our trip back home:

DON'T GO OUT OF TOWN

WITH A DEAD CAMERA BATTERY

AND FORGET THE CHARGER!

Yep. The first time we pulled our camera out to take some pictures on our trip, we found out the battery was very close to dead. So, we only have a few pictures. And I mean, VERY few. But here they are, plus a video from tonight. Enjoy!

"This is why I like sitting with dad!"

One tuckered out little guy...

A highchair is not JUST for eating:

Home From the Holidays

We got to go down to Mesa for Christmas for 2 whole weeks! We had a great time with both our families and now we're back home in Rexburg. I'm back in school now, taking 13 credits. My schedule is pretty nice. I don't have any classes on Tuesday/Thursday, so I still get to be home with my baby those days. Yay!! Jopes is off-track now, so he gets to take care of little Joseph while I'm at school. He is also searching for a job. Little Joseph's top teeth are FINALLY breaking through! They started coming in back at Thanksgiving time, so we are very glad that they are coming in now. He keeps getting better at walking, though we're not quite there yet. Heavenly Father has greatly blessed our little family and we are so grateful. We're very excited about the new year and what it holds for us.

Christmas in the Snow

Becca had her Womens Glee Christmas Choir Concert last night and Jopes and I were able to go! We had our friends, Walter and Aria (and little Luca) over for some brats before the concert started, and then Aria stayed at our place to watch little Joseph while Jopes and I went to the concert. Our first babysitter experience, besides family! I was able to get Joseph down to sleep before we left, but go figure, he woke up 20 minutes after we left! Aria was perfect though, and took great care of him, even if he wasn't too thrilled to find his mom and dad weren't home! Rebecca had a bad cough and wasn't able to sing every word, but we thought the concert was great nonetheless! Her choir was combined with the RixStix percussion group. Some numbers were just the choir, some were just the percussion, and the others were performed together. It was a lot of fun to get out with Jopes and know that little Joseph was in good hands (THANKS ARIA!), though I was happy to get home and see him. Rebecca did great and looked beautiful and we hope she gets better soon!!! :)