Rodeo

San Antonio has a rodeo that comes for 2 weeks every year in February.  There are exhibits and carnival rides during the day with the rodeo and a concert afterwards at night.  Fridays during the day are free for military and just $1 for anyone else.  We went with some of our friends today and it was nice.  We even parked just one street over for free instead of the $10 to park at the AT&T Center.  Next year I plan on getting tickets to actually go to the rodeo itself at night with Matt followed by a concert.  There are big names like Lady Antebellum and Dierks Bentley just to name a few for this concert too.  Here are some pics of our adventures today.    

 Free ice cream

 Milking a pretend cow

Joshua & Sally

What you only see Joshua in this picture?  Joshua has an imaginary friend named Sally.   None of my younger siblings ever had imaginary friends nor do any of my current more experienced moms talk about their kids having imaginary friends.  I must admit this morning when I met Sally I was a little surprised at first okay and maybe even a little weirded out.  However, as the day has progressed I've adjusted to the occasional appearances of Sally.  I still don't like that Sally needs Joshua to feed her from his plate because that just seems like a mess waiting to happen but I will deal.  I asked Joshua if this was his baby sister since that has been the prayer and focus for him all week.  He looked at me like I may be the dumbest person he had ever met as he declared that Sally was a girl not a baby.  Clearly, I wasn't looking close enough.  :-)  Welcome to the adventure of raising Joshua.

Baby Sister

I already shared on Facebook about my sweet little boy's prayers for a baby sister.  I wanted to remember it forever so I need to blog about it too.

 Joshua has been telling us he wishes he had a baby for awhile now.  He specifically says he wants a baby sister possibly because the majority of our friends that have had new ones the last four months are girls.  He hasn't heard us say anything about our adoption hopes or disappointments.  We save that for our personal and couple prayers.  Joshua said the lunch prayer and he asked for a baby sister please.  He took a nap and the first words when I went into his room to get him up were, "Is my baby sister downstairs?"  Talk about faith in your prayers.

This prayer was on Monday and all week I have heard nothing but how he wants to rock her, make her laugh, kiss her, etc.  She will wear only skirts and bows according to Joshua.  He is going to leave her in a carseat so she can watch him play in his kitchen and on his trampoline.  When asked about this baby sister yesterday, he was confident that Heavenly Father will bring him a baby sister.  She will love him and he will love her.  He shared her name with us but we will save that because who knows maybe we will need to use it someday.  :-)   He makes us smile and his tender heart makes me feel like one lucky mama.   

Happy Valentine's Day

As Joshua gets closer to 3 I realize how much fun I am going to have and continue to have with all of these holidays.  He totally gets it!  A friend of mine said she was doing a valentine countdown for her husband.  I thought it would be sweet to give each of my boys a heart with something I loved about them written on the back each day.  Matt's hearts went in his lunches and Joshua's hearts were going to go on his door after he looked at it each day at breakfast.  That was the plan but he was so thrilled with the heart he wanted it on a paper plate.  He would add his new heart to his plate each day.  He actually remembered several of the things and would sweetly say, "number ___ heart means you love my _____."  He would recite as many as he could remember and demonstrate like bat his eyelashes for the eyes comment, smile big for me, or give me a hug or kiss on the day I wrote about those.  It was so sweet!

We wanted to share some love with others so he made these valentines cards to mail to the grandparents.  (I don't know why this pic is turned because it isn't turned before I upload it but I couldn't figure it out so deal....)

Matt and Joshua bought these flowers for me earlier in the week.  Matt said, he picked out flowers for me and Joshua asked which ones he was going to get for me.  Matt chose red and Joshua chose pink.  This pattern could work out really well for me.  :-)

We played hide and seek with cut out hearts.  Joshua and his sweet friend loved looking for the hearts all over the house.

Finally, I made these heart hats for both kiddos to wear.  They had fun wearing the hats but I think they loved the valentine cupcakes even more.

Matt and I enjoyed a special dinner just the two of us at home after the little guy was asleep in bed.  It is nice that Joshua goes to bed at like 6.  It isn't always an ideal schedule when we want to go out and about but it works for date night very nicely.

Totally unrelated to V-Day but it made me very happy.  Valentine's Day was the 1 week mark of potty training.  He is now dry in the mornings even though I put him in a diaper at night.  He is accident free by day too.  Awesome!

So far this month

 We went to the Children's Museum.  Joshua had so much fun and he keeps asking to go back. We are working on the concept that places cost money so we can't go all of the time.  His response is that he is going to ask Grandma and Nani....

 Posing outside at a cowboy themed birthday party where all the kids got these hats.  He was already wearing his boots!

We were able to have some cousins stop by while they are in the area interviewing and they have this precious new little one.  Joshua is still in love with babies.  He first brought me his baby doll to hold as soon as they all came in because he said he wanted me to have a baby to hold too.  Then when asked if he would like to hold her he jumped at the chance.  This was 3 days ago and he still keeps asking when he can hold the baby again.  Love this sweet, nurturing little guy.

We are having fun and getting ready for more fun times.

Life just got exciting though as Joshua woke up yesterday and announced he would now wear underwear.  We have basically been accident free and he is just ready to go potty now I guess.  I am quickly finding though that this makes life interesting outside the house.  New phase for this mom!

February is here!

Can you believe one month of 2013 is already over?  I feel like time is flying around here.

The last few weeks have been spent playing outside, going to the zoo, story times, and park trips.  San Antonio winter days start off cold at 30 something but our afternoons are in the 60s.  We have even had more 70s than 60s lately.  We absolutely love it.  There is something wonderful about a bright blue sky to make a mom and a little boy very happy.

My church assignment as Primary President is starting to feel easier.  I have been at for about 3 months now.  It isn't really easier because the more I figure out about the basics the more I decide I want to try and do but I do feel like I am getting my bearings at least.  It is fulfilling and gives me an added purpose in life.  I am working on trying to really know and love the kiddos not just get stuck managing all of the details of church.  I figure if I only get to have one child in my home then I will get to have 40+ children I am responsible for teaching and loving at church.

 Matt has 5 months left to the halfway point of completing his residency.  5 months seems long since that is almost half of a year but the first month of this year felt like it went by in a blink of an eye.  I am sure we will be sitting at half way very soon.  I love seeing his confidence increase and anxiety decrease as he learns the ropes this year in anesthesia.

Joshua is always running a close race with his dad at being my favorite person.  I won't let him win the race but he sure does make me smile.  He is approaching 3 and obviously I think he is smart, sweet, and cute.  He definitely has some quirky traits but I love them all.  He now makes quite the conversationalist and companion.  He comments and has opinions on shopping purchases, meal preparation, and chores.  Sometimes the CONSTANT conversation from morning until night can be exhausting especially since he has an opinion on EXACTLY how we should play and what we should say but it is also entertaining.  Is he potty-trained?  No.  Do I care?  Not really.  I only care when I have to tell people he isn't because then I feel like we are failing on some timeline.  Basically, he will do it when he is ready and forcing him to do it earlier than he wants would be a losing battle with this kid.  When he decides to do something, he does it well.  If he doesn't want to do it.....well you put on a diaper.  :-)  I will keep you posted.  This week he did actually sit on the toilet so progress may be happening soon.  Previously, tears and hysterics were triggered by even the thought of not wearing his diapers and sitting on any of the various potty seats.