happy 1st birthday, josiah!

Happy birthday to Josiah!  I can't believe how fast a year goes by... how much Josiah has changed/grown in that (short) time... probably normal, just like every other infant, but it seems different with your own, you know?,  I love watching his personality develop - he is such a happy little guy, seems to always have a song bopping through his head.  When he hears music, he wiggles his little booty to the beat and has a huge smile on his face... that boy's got rhythm!  :-)  and he's such a little champion... brings tears to my eyes to think of the wild entrance he made a year ago and then some of the health challenges he's endured... i know that so many prayers have gone up in his name and am so thankful for the amazing support that we have, from our family and friends!

speaking of his wild entrance... every once in a while, i have to go back and re-read the details of that crazy night one year ago (click here for the details!)  i typed those details up about a week after having josiah, and then found out some more interesting (maybe only to me?!?) details even after that... let me indulge you, just for a potential smile:
   * Found out that after unloading his car in Ames, Jake headed back to Will and Jess' old place and sat and had a popsicle with Judah before leaving town to come get me to go to the hospital.  Golden nugget: Colette needs to use her most assertive voice when saying "Yes, come soon... think we're having a baby tonight."  and might even add "no popsicles". 
   * Joni Pine is an a-mazing friend who I would proudly endorse as a doula (don't think she's actually certified, but I would vouch for her and say certification, smertification.) Joni was super-calm as she and I waited for Jake to arrive to take me to the hospital. I later found out that she was having visions/images in her head of me having the baby at home with EMT-sort-of-people buzzing around the house, and then she also had a vision of Jake picking me up and taking me to the hospital, which she "chose" to go with... and I'm so thankful that she did!  :-)  Golden nugget:  Good idea to have someone ready to come to coach/be with me in case hubs is delayed... and might even be a good idea to get a hospital job next time, so that I can just be right there!  
   * Upon arriving at the hospital, Jake wheeled me up to the 6th floor and we were quickly taken to our room and met Josiah a few minutes later...  Found out much later that Jake left our CRV running outside of Methodist hospital (downtown Des Moines) as he wheeled me into the hospital.  At some point, someone (an angel?) came to the maternity registration desk with our keys and said that they had parked our vehicle for us.  No golden nugget here... just so thankful that we had someone watching out for us that night and that our vehicle wasn't stolen!  


Josiah makes us smile so much - so thankful that he's in our life and excited for all that God has in store for him!  Happy birthday, buddy!!  :-)  

happy 6 years!

jake and i celebrated our 6th anniversary this weekend - it was pretty eventful, for an overnight to iowa city!  our excitement (?) started with a speeding ticket on the way to iowa city (boo!)  i wanted to ask for the "happy anniversary discount" but jake was very compliant and didn't try to negotiate at all!?!  i won't say how much they hit us for - it was enough that we jokingly talked about cancelling our hotel reservation and sleeping in the back of the minivan for the night... be we opted for the hotel. had a fun night in iowa city - dinner, movie and then swimming/hot tub at the pool. a highlight while we were out... received a text pic from my mom... roman hit a major milestone! (a #2 in the toilet!)  i was going to scan this pic in for you, but decided not to... am sure you know what those look like.  am still working with him on this "job"... will get it someday soon, i just know it!!  :}


on the way back from wayland (after picking up our boys) heading toward ankeny, we hit a deer.  it was around 1:30pm... in broad daylight, the deer came out of nowhere... leapt out of the ditch and was suddenly in front of us!  no one was hurt --we were able to pull into the median so jake could check it out and decided the radiator was cracked and there was lots of front-end damage.  :(  so aaa sent a tow and thankfully, two different deputy vehicles pulled up so that we could sit in the AC with it being so hot outside.  roman had been napping and actually continued to sleep until about 20 minutes after we shut the van off while waiting... he was pooped from the weekend!  one of the deputies took the boys and me in to wal-mart, to cool off and get a drink while jake waited for the tow.  

after being at wal-mart for about 30 minutes keeping ourselves busy making cheerio art (roman  making it, josiah eating it), jake came in and said that the deputy had a friend who would be able to take us to pella to get a rental car to get us back to ankeny... ok, random but so thankful for this man named jack!  on the drive to pella, i called the rental car place and they wouldn't have any vehicles coming back in until 6pm, but adam who worked there, actually lives in des moines and he said he could give us a ride home at 5pm - great, again random, but sounded fine. so we just needed to kill about 2 hours until adam was ready to leave work. and after overhearing this, jack offered to drive us all the way back to ankeny right then... no waiting, just asked us to repay the favor sometime to someone else.  so we had many angels with us on our drive home yesterday!  

so a long weekend, but fun with many memories!!  looking forward to many more with you, jake!!  :)  love you lots... 

summer fun, outside and in!

we've been doing our best to stay cool this summer.  we have a small baby pool outside - the boys like getting in it - but we also got a "bug sprinkler ring" ($6 at wal-mart, woo hoo!) that we ALL get to enjoy! 

 

 

josiah has figured out that he can crawl up close to the sprinkler and take drinks - he turns around to look at me and his face has clearly been soaked - but he doesn't seem to mind!  :)

and for inside fun... we were excitedly waiting for the messer crew to come over for a play date. i knew roman was in the room playing - had heard him not too long ago - but couldn't see him at this particular moment. i heard a low, humming noise coming from the closet - opened the door to find roman playing with the playdough fun factory, in the dark closet!  i convinced him to come out and play instead of sitting in the dark.  :) 

we are excited to see aunt jane and cousin hannah this weekend!  we're not going to make it down to wayland to visit, but they're flying into des moines, so we get to see them (surprise!) tonight at the airport, and then again with the messers before they fly out on tuesday.  roman and i decided to make cookies this morning to send with jane and hannah on their drive from des moines to wayland... roman is a good helper when it comes to making cookies!  :)