June 6, 2008

Josh turns 5!

Josh was born on June 6, 2003. We had just moved into our new home in North Las Vegas when little Joshua Cruz arrived. I was scheduled to be induced and highly anticipating his arrival when the hospital called to tell us they were full and that they would have to reschedule us the following day. The next day they called again and were still full. My mom came into town and stayed with  Cade while Jason took me to the hospital, once we were finally admitted. 

Josh was a great baby. He actually slept a few hours at night and started sleeping through the night at about 4 months old. Which was a big contrast to his older brother, who only slept in 2 hour increments until he was over 1 years old!  

Josh is our little comedian and loves his two brothers. He is always finding ways to make us laugh. We don't know what we would do without him!  Although Jason was a little shocked when I told him that I was pregnant with Josh, he actually had to sit down, I thought he was going to hyperventilate. Cade was only 9 months old, and we were in a one bedroom apartment. I guess he forgot how we got Cade! After the initial shock Jason was as excited as I was. 

   

Josh's first haircut he giggled the whole time. Grandma Echols gave him his first haircut, she could not believe how good he was! Grandpa Echols holding Josh and Selena!

Josh's 5th birthday party! He actually had two parties. An afternoon party with his friends,and an evening party with family. It was a busy day. Both were pool parties, pizza was served in the afternoon and hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, all of Josh's favorite foods.
It was a dinosaur theme. Josh loves T-Rex's! He was persistent about having another dinosaur party, it was also his choice last year.

Showing off his cookies we made from his preshcool kitchen bag he got to bring home one week.

Josh at his 2. Wearing his Nemo hat, aunt Laura bought him in Mexico.

Josh wearing grandpa Echols glasses

Josh with grandpa Abbott at father and sons. The boys call it "Man Camp", Josh went two times in May, once with our ward and again with grandpa Abbott's ward!

Bugz Play, Portland, preschool graduation.....Busy Weekend!

      Daddy, just home from work and just in time to make it to Cade's highly anticipated play!

Last Thursday, Cade had his end of the year kindergarten play. "The Bugz Play" consists of many different types of little buggies with music and some dancing. Soooo cute!! My little bug was an army ant. He knew all of his lines and everyone else's too! Grandma Abbott was there, Cade was happy about that!

  

The day after  Cade's play, I flew to Portland without kids and husband,  to see Ben and Sarah's new baby girl. They were blessing her that weekend so most of my siblings and I decided to make it a weekend and fly up to see them.  It was a fun weekend. I was in shock with all the trees and grass, , so beautiful!   

Julie and Baby Gwen Isabel.
My mom and dad with Ben, Sarah and Gwen. Sarah and her mother designed and sewed the baby's blessing dress. It was silk with pleats, so adorable. They are both very talented.
Laura and Baby Gwen.Sooo cute!
Me with Sarah and Ben after the blessing.I gave Gwen  a couple of bows that, a friend, Mandy Harris, made for her, thanks Mandy!
 In front of Ben and Sarah's home are huge beautiful Christmas trees. Had to take a picture.Family at Cannon Beach in Portland. Mom was freezing! It was probably in the mid 60's that day. We had amazing clam chowder and other seafood at Mo's Restaurant that day.I flew back home on Monday night. Tuesday morning Josh had his preschool graduation. He has loved this year in Mrs. Dove's class. He has learned so much and has had a fun time too. Mrs. Dove made graduation shirts for the kids that has a picture that they each drew with their names signed.

Mrs. Dove is admiring Josh's cute dimples and lovable personality.

Josh with his good friend Riley Cropper.

Sprayed with the hose!

This afternoon the boys were eating popsicles outside. When they were done I got the hose out and sprayed off the patio the boys decided they wanted to get sprayed too! Thought I'd share some pics!                                              Luke and Josh love the water!

Notice a cut on Luke's forehead, two days ago he was attacking Cade with a sword. As Cade was running from Luke, he decided to throw his star wars lightsaber over his head to stop Luke. It definitely stopped him. He was screaming. When I got to him he had blood running down his face and a huge lump on his head. I had never seen an injury like it. The lump appeared immediately, just like in the old cartoons! I got the bleeding to stop and of course a band aid made everything better. By the next day the lump had gone way down. There is never a dull moment with three boys!

    Josh is way into ladybugs lately. We found a lady bug in his hair when he was drying off.

May 19th - May 24th

   Cade and Josh in Boulder City.

Monday was a bright and sunny day. It was 105 degrees outside. Rachelle came over after school and we went swimming. The kids had so much fun! Being so hot and just getting

 home from school it was a great way to cool off and get some energy out! In the morning I had taken Josh, Luke, and Waylan to Reese Gornichec's birthday party, which was also a swim

 party. Megan had 27 kids at her house all swimming and running around it was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun! So Josh and Luke had a full day of swimming they were worn out by the evening. Luke actually fell asleep sitting in his chair eating dinner! Cade and Josh couldn't believe he had fallen asleep that way. I put him in bed and he did not wake up until 7:00 the next morning. So nice!! This was about our 5th time getting in the pool this year. But that would be it for the rest of the week, it cooled down almost 30 degrees by Saturday. 

Wednesday I picked up Cade from school then headed straight to the pool store to buy a pool cover. Then  I took the boys to McDonald's. The plan was to take the food to eat at grandma and grandpa Abbott's, but I got talked into letting them eat quickly in the play area and then  headed over to grandma and grandpa's. They have recently put new grass and have their trampoline set up in their backyard the boys had a fun time playing. Since the weather was now only in the mid 70's it was a perfect day to play outside! Then we headed straight to Brandi  Dobbs dance recital, Jason also met us there. Brandi teaches about 20 kids tap and tumbling throughout the week and this was her end of the year recital. Both her girls were in it and so were Shawn and Kim Iverson's daughter Riley. They all did a great job. There were two boys in her group and when they came out and did a baseball tap dance, Cade's eyes lit up. Afterwards I asked him if he would be interested in doing a dance class, he eagerly said yes! I told him to ask his dad. Jason immediately said no!  I think Cade would do a great job and have a lot of fun, he has always loved to dance, oh well, soccer or basketball will have to do for the fall. Pick and choose our battles, right?

By Friday we had rain. It was Rachelle's birthday she had wanted to have a swim party at our house but it turned into an inside party instead. We had cake and ice cream and played catch phrase instead. 

On Saturday morning I woke up early to find it still overcast and drizzling outside. I went out for a run, (which I had not done in a while) but so glad that I did it was so fun to be out in this cool weather. I am in the middle of reading New Moon so all I could think of was Forks and Belle, Edward, Jake, Edward and Edward!!!  I felt like I was in Forks, there was no sun out the clouds were low and since it was drizzling no one was outside. I ran behind where there is a lot of desert and custom homes and to my right up on a hill Lance Burton (a magician here in  Vegas) has  a black house that he made into look like a castle. I imagined vampires living there. It is definitely to dark to be a Cullen house it would be more a house that Victoria would stay in or other evil vampires. That made me run a little faster! After my run we took the boys on a  walk, but it only lasted a few minutes because we found a garage sale up the street that had a ton of toys and clothes for the boys. I love garage sales!  Then we headed with Jon and Rachelle to Boulder City to ride their horse. This was our first time going out there and the boys first time on a horse. They were so excited! The horse is so pretty her name is Velvet. Rachelle has been riding horses since she was a little girl, she made it look so easy. We all  got a turn to ride it was a little scary for me I have only ridden a horse two other times many years ago. The 

boys were a little nervous at first to but once they were on and the horse was going they couldn't get enough. When Luke first got on all he could say was "Too big!" Too big, mommy!", but he was fine after the horse was walking. I was surprised at how well all of Jon and Rachelle's kids could ride, even Colt who is 3 could ride the horse. It was a fun morning. For the afternoon we got a  sitter and Jason and I went out to lunch and went to see Indiana Jones with Jason's parents. It turned out to be an eventful and fun Saturday! Jason was supposed to go into work on Saturday, so glad he did not have to go in after all.

  

Luke 

Cade and Josh with their cowboy cousins, Wayan, Wyatt, and Colt. After horse riding Josh says he wants to be a cowboy now too.

Colt 3 yrs old riding his horse Velvet.

Cade

Josh

Jason and me!

Mother's Day

I heard Jason's alarm clock going off about 7:00am Sunday morning. I thought he had forgotten that it was Sunday, and hadn't turned it off.   After a few times of listening to him turn it off he went downstairs. When Cade and Josh woke up they came in telling me to not go downstairs. They did this several times. Luke was sleeping next to me, and woke up with the repeated excitement from Josh and Cade.  After awhile they brought me breakfast in bed. It was really nice. I think the kids were more excited than I was (they love surprises).  I was really grateful for jason, waking up early on  a Sunday morning, when we have church at 1:00, big sacrifice! We then had a busy day. We made a point today to visit both of our grandmothers, living on opposite sides of town. My grandmother is turning 95 and Jason's grandmother is about 93.  We went to one before church and then the other after church. We took them watermelons for mother's day, not much else they want but food and visits. We both feel so grateful to have them so close and that our kids are able to get to know their great grandma's. They always make me appreciate everything that I have, our lives are so different then from when they were my age, I can't imagine having to raise children back then. Truly remarkable women! I am grateful for my own mom and mother-in-law and for their examples. Jason's parents came over in the late evening and we had a nice visit with them. It was a wonderful day!

Bon Jovi

 I have had a crush on Bon Jovi since the 6th grade. It was then that I remember listening to his casette tape over and over again on my walkman. I have been in love ever since! Jason surprised me with concert tickets a few weeks ago! 

I was talking to my sister Tracy who saw the concert in I think February, I was so jealous and told Jason we needed to find out when he was coming to Vegas. Little did I know that he had already purchased tickets! So sweet, I was so excited! Even more excited when Jason's sister Amanda was giving us raving reviews of the concert she had seen in Michigan a few months ago.

The concert was amazing. He looked so good!! After so many years...The whole show was great, we new every song, every time he smiled the crowd went wild. My only complaint was our seats were way too far from the stage, next time I will have to get the tickets. It was a great evening. While we were there we saw the Croppers who were not sitting too far away from where we were! 

Youth Conference

Jason and I participated in our Youth Stake Conference this weekend. The theme was "Mission Possible," focusing on missionary work. We met at the Stake Center last night and sat up on the stand with the other "mission presidents" and all the youth sat in the benches and waited their mission call. Talks were given by a sister missionary who only came home the day before, and the first counselor in our Stake Presidency who shared personal missionary experiences. We sang called to serve, and then they began giving the calls. We received four young women ranging in age of 14, 15 and two 16 year old. They were eager to participate, and quickly asked, "so what mission will we be going to." We decided to go with the Chile theme, (Jason's mission). We set out our mission memento's, and we had empanadas, salad and some other barbecued meat Jason had purchased at an Argentine restaurant, there are no Chilean restaurants in Vegas. I also made cookies, and a Spanish tortilla. The boys were excited to have these young women or "pretend missionaries" in our home. After dinner we had a lesson in which we talked about the missionary handbook and shared scriptures and experiences from our missions. It was a great night. I was reminded of how much I love my mission and the impact it has had in my life. I had so many wonderful experiences. Besides marrying Jason it is the best decision that I've made! I'm grateful for this experience, we had amazing youth, they brought such a special spirit into our home. We will be having breakfast with them this morning and then taking them back to the Stake Center to continue there conference.