Joe love

I haven't done a post in forever about Joe or what Joe is up to. Here are some stories that I think are funny:
* A few months ago I made cupcakes for primary and it was pretty darn hard for Joe to see those frosted and sprinkled deliciousness sitting on the counter and him not being able to have one. He kept asking politely and I kept saying no politely because he hadn't even had breakfast. I was in my room doing my makeup and Steve was in our room getting ready. I hadn't heard from Joe in a couple minutes which is unusual and I said Joe...no response...Joe...no response. I start walking down the hall to find the bathroom door shut...and locked. I said, "Joe, please open the door!" To which he responded, "no, only daddy can come in." Getting frustrated I found a tape measure to unlock the door and found him walking backwards toward the bath with a cupcake waving his hand at me and saying, "no only daddy can come in!" and licking the frosting as quick as he could!
* A few days ago I found him in a corner trying to tear open a 3 Musketeers candy bar and suck out the chocolate...Are we sure he was not meant to be my mom's?
* On our way home from our most recent trip to Valencia, we passed the state prison and I was telling Joe about it. He said, "mom, I could help the people learn to be nice to every chother." Sweet, out of the mouths of babes.
* We were supposed to go to St George this weekend and because of car trouble, an overly emotional and pregnant wife, and work duties we decided not to. Joe was packed and ready to go so we told him he could have a fun sleep over with us. We were laying in bed, he puts both arms under mine and Steve's neck and says, "we are best friends." Yes, Joe we are!
* Tonight, Steve asked if we wanted to go on a drive. Joe SO excited to get out of the apartment, was rushing to get shoes on. I told him to go to the bathroom before he left and when he was done I watched him grab a barstool and take it in to the bathroom and heard the sink go on. Sweet, he is washing his hands, I thought! I all of the sudden hear and see handfuls of water hit the ground. Steve jumps up and I start laughing. Joe is saying, "daddy the water just started spraying everywhere! It's spraying everywhere!" He is cleaning it up with Steve and walks out to show me how wet he is. He was trying to do his hair to go bye bye with his dad! He could only get the front so I'm assuming that is where the splashing started because the left side of his shirt was soaked also.
* At this point he LOVES going to see family...He talks about visiting Chelsea in Texas frequently, going to California to see Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle JK and Uncle Ben, going to see Grandma Bev and Grandpa Steve, and going to papa's farm with the chickens.
* He can sing I Love to See the Temple, I Lived in Heaven, I am a Child of God, Popcorn Popping, Daddy's Homecoming, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, I am like a Star, and thanks to Chelsea he sings, Best I Ever Had by Drake, and I'm Never Gonna Dance Again...
* Today we were driving to church and he said, "mom turn around real fast, I forgot my tie."
* He just spent a week with Aunt Chelsea in Valencia and would NOT leave her alone. She was his favorite person around. He would dance with her, sing with her, have her swim with him, dress him, change him, sleep with him, help him eat...etc. Everything had to be done with Aunt Chelsea. She let him get away with it all!
* He wanted to be just like Uncle JK and Uncle Ben, wear cologne like them, wear boxers like them, and swim as fast as they swam.
* Joe is so much fun and says the funniest things. We are loving every minute we are spending with him and are enjoying what a good toddler he is being, hopefully for us it is not the terrible 3's!

Little Snapper Advanced!

Just found this picture, thought it was cute...someone was hiding in his daddy's office waiting for him to come back from a meeting
Joe's first water park experience. We got season passes to a water park near our house and it's pretty fun. They just opened so they seem a little strict on the rules, but other than that it is super clean and fun!
I debated whether or not to sign Joe up for swim lessons and which one to do, but once he decided he would not wear floaties under any circumstance and we were super bored here, we signed him up. The first 2-3 lessons didn't go so well, but then he had a few makeups all in one week and he became a little fish or "snapper" as they call them. He has loved going with dad or mom and then showing off all of his moves during the next week. Well a couple lessons ago, he was having a super lesson and Miss Deb asked if we wanted to move him up to Little Snapper Advanced. Sure! That's exciting!
We moved him up and have only done 1 lesson but he seemed ok. Last week he was diving down about 5 feet to get some rings and was bringing them back up. He jumps off the hippo, rides the motorboat, swims and rolls over even though he isn't a fan of the rolling over part. He can jump off the diving board and swim to the side and pretty much swim the width of my parents pool by himself. He just comes up a little out of breath :) This has been a fun experience to have with him because he gets pretty proud of himself for doing so good. A couple of days ago we were laying down for a nap and I can't remember what I said, but he said, "mom, it's because I'm a little snapper advanced." It was adorable. Joe, you are the greatest!

The Forsyth Family

One of my favorite families lives in Arizona...just about on the opposite end of where we live! Phoenix is soooo spread out! Ang was my visiting teaching companion in San Francisco and she was the best I've ever had! We visit taught such awesome girls that it made the experience even better! She is so genuine and sweet I just love her! She moved here about 6 months before we did and I've been wanting to meet up ever since we got here and it finally happened. Tommy, Ang and adorable Jack came over for dinner and swimming 2 weeks before Ang was due with little Sadie. Sadie is now a few weeks old...I'm doing great on my blog updates I know! It was such a fun night and you guys are so great for making the trek out here! Now we need to come see Sadie!

Fun with our cousins

Have I mentioned my AWESOME cousin that lives in Arizona? She lives about 40 minutes away, but that doesn't keep me from wanting to go there ALL the time! Her and her husband are so wonderful and put up with us about once a week...until we go out of town and they get a break! Joe loves his cousin Kiera who is just about a year older than him and she is so good with him. He asks about his cousin Jason who is a policeman and has the coolest policeman stickers for him and always asks what Jessica, Kiera and Dorian are doing.
A few weeks ago we had dinner there and got to meet Cameron's cute girlfriend and snapped some pictures of Joe and Kiera with their popsicles. They were dancing but stopped when then cameras came out. We love you guys and couldn't live in Arizona without the relief of family being near!

Happy 4 year anniversary!

Four years ago, August 6th, I married this babe. It was the best decision, by far that I have ever made. Oddly enough I can only find this picture on our computer right now, I don't know where the rest are!
Just recently we went out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory with our little buddy who loves acting like an adult and going to restaurants so we let him tag along. It was a yummy dinner but the best part was the new Red Velvet Cheesecake! O my goodness it was delicious!
Steve never wants for anything, so who do I call for ideas when present time comes around? My wise daddy! Pretty much we have filled up Steve's golf bag with great clubs over the past 4 years so that was taken care of and everything golf related seemed to be taken care of also. I decided to give him a bouquet of golf tee times. This was the finished product. He had 4 golf balls throughout the roses for 4 years and the rest were inside. Then the paper around unwrapped and he had 4 gift certificates to different golf courses that my wonderful cousins' husband Jason recommended. He was pretty surprised because he golfs for free at the resort so he never really splurges and tries somewhere new, but now he has to!
Day of our anniversary...we will probably laugh about this later...Steve is not a surprise type of guy, but on our anniversary he wanted to surprise me and come home early...I wanted to surprise him and go to his work with a BUNCH of treats. We only have 1 car right now so I rented a car, borrowed an INFANT seat for my toddler and rushed to make treats only to find that my husband's car wasn't at work! I was shocked! He couldn't even get my birthday off, which was a holiday! I never thought he would be able to get our anniversary off! Love you babe! It would've been fun to spend the day together! I'm so grateful for him, he is perfect for me and is the best dad. I am invisible to Joe when he walks in the door. He is so patient and puts our family first. He is the hardest worker and I appreciate all he does for our little family. I love that he honors his Priesthood and loves the gospel. Happy 4 years!

Saturday...wedding day!

In the morning, we started out relaxing playing in the grass with our boys and making sure they were sharing the tractor
Here are Luke and Joe getting Andrea, every morning they would go to her because they knew she would be ready to take them on fast 4 wheeler rides or push them around on the tractor
They found a hill that they realized would be easier and more fun to push each other down, but not as fun to pull each other back up
It kept them busy, entertained and having fun while our husbands were playing golf...can I just throw in that my husband shot a 79 and the closest to him shot a 93...go Steve, go Steve go go go Steve! I was so thrilled for him and it just so happened that he played at the course where the wedding was to happen hours later so I knew it was good luck!
Andrea didn't want to be in this picture, but I snapped it too fast!
So at the beginning of the week Jamie tells me she is doing Megan's hair and makeup and that I should go up just in case she needs my assistance. I was kind of blowing her off because hello! I have short hair for a reason, I don't do anything with it. If she wanted help, she had the wrong sister, Chelsea is the more hair/makeup girl and when we are both in town she styles and blow dry's my hair!
Obviously I went up with her...and she better be so grateful that I did! Megan has really thick long, beautiful hair...We got there at 1 and finished at 5:00! Granted we both ate during that time, but most of it was spent curling, spraying, and doing make up. We did super tiny curls so that they would hold, but fall somewhat by the end of the night. With super long hair I had to do super small pieces so that it wouldn't overlap in the curling iron. Luckily Megan was patient and it was fun getting to hang out with the bride on her day! We got to the golf course and got to go into her bridal room and I felt very special! Jamie put in the veil, I fixed some pieces and she was good to go!
Here is her Aunt Marlene with my handsome father in law walking out, and my cute hubs in the back being an usher!
I got such a precious moment, I think they both realized she was actually getting married here and they both were tearing up a little. So sweet!
Look at the hair! The flowers were so pretty, the weather was great and it was a beautiful ceremony!
Here is the family afterwards waiting for Brad and Andrea to join the picture...
Brad, Andrea, Steve, Bev, Jamie, Will, Steve and I. I loved Bev's dress. She picked it out and last minute we were able to find a little jacket to go over it that worked perfectly. I love that my mother in law will try on most anything I tell her would look great on her. She went shopping with me when she came to visit in Phoenix and picked out most of what I bought.
The bride wanted a picture, isn't her dress beautiful!
The newlyweds with us...ushers and hair do-ers
I'm not sure what I was saying in this picture, but I bet Steve was making fun of me or trying to make a point and I was explaining something pretty detailed back to him :)
Jamie & I relaxing because our work was done. Love that I have such an awesome sister in law. When we got back to the house at 5, we were RUSHED to be on our way. Our husbands had to be there at 5:30 and our boys had to be back to Uncle John & Aunt Marlene's where they were being babysat by some of the girl's friends. Jamie wasn't nervous at all, she leaves her boys all the time :) I on the other hand don't leave Joe, but it was adults only. Our poor boys hadn't seen us for most of the day and then were rushed off to be babysat. I think they could feel our stress and all 3 of them were crying when we left. Break my heart! Luckily they were fine 10 minutes later, I asked Katie to call and all 3 of them were even asleep when we got back!
Here I am with Katie and Kristen, I love the color red and their dresses and their flowers!
Cutting the cake, it was a really cute cake with wedding words written all over it, you could probably see them better if you make the picture bigger, I'm not sure.
Aunt Ann and Uncle Jim starting off the dancing. Thanks Uncle Jim for the password to the tab I could use at the bar! My 1 virgin strawberry daquiri was delicious!
At the end of the night, I am dying in pain from my shoes plus being on my feet for most of the day, but I managed to get in some sweet dancing time with my hubs (who surprisingly enough would not leave the dancing floor!) Here I am with Jamie, Hilary, Anne, and Sherry...We missed Stacey, I think she had already left!
Oh! I love Chicago! Such a fun trip! By the way, if you think anything I am wearing during the week is cute, I have to give a shout out to Chelsea...I love you! Thanks for letting me borrow your "maternity" clothes! You're the best!
And if anyone read the last 7 posts, sorry there are so many pictures, but this trip happens once every few years and it is a big family party the whole time we are there!
Also, if you know my mommy you already know how fabulous she is, but here is a little story if you don't know her...I stressed out majorly about finding a dress and when I found one I realized I NEEDED jewelry and I WANTED pearls. I called her telling her I needed these things, and then asking her to send them to me. She has an amazing collection of pearls and she sent them straight to Chicago for me...Not even 1 strand, seriously everything pearly she owned. I love you mom!

Friday...tons of pictures

Friday and Saturday were non stop days for us. We woke up Friday morning and went to the famous Merichka's. It was so yummy! Everyone gets these delicious poorboy sandwiches-cube steak and swiss cheese on a great roll with garlic butterine...love them! I have been craving them since we got back and so Steve and I made some and they turned out pretty well. Here is everyone at lunch.
We only have Uncle John missing from this picture. Unfortunately the lady behind the counter couldn't take a picture without the camera shaking so the ones on his camera came out fuzzy. Right after lunch, Jamie took me, Bev, and Andrea to Gap. She works for Gap in Texas and oh my goodness all I can say is THANK YOU Jamie! I had a fun time shopping for our little baby and for Joe...Steve on the other hand probably wishes I would've stayed home!
When I got back, this is what was awaiting me! Uncle John is so awesome and when I was there last time (7 months pregnant with Joe) I asked if I could go shoot something. He was the only one who would teach me and take me seriously...I wonder why! He was the one who knew me the least :) I got to shoot cans and bottles and easy stuff...This time he sent his wife to get me clay pigeons. Here is my little story about clay pigeons. I figured since I am still on shooting easy stuff that these were pigeons made out of clay that he would put in trees so it would look like they were still and relaxing. Wow, did I have it wrong! When he told me they were disks that actually fly through the air I died laughing thinking he was crazy. Here are my warm up birdies that are hanging from the tree. I hit both of them after A LONG TIME of warming up and then was on a roll.
Doesn't it look like Uncle John might be loading a gun to shoot me? Just kidding he was super patient and we had a few good laughs.
Here is my bullseye board and I did hit the bullseye and got closer to it than my husband ever did :)
He does look pretty sexy shooting though
Then over to the clay pigeon area...Brad-pro hunter, Will-pro hunter, me...if I didn't hit one then the boys got to shoot.
FYI, we were aiming for the lower 2nd one that you can't see ...
Steve, Jamie, Steve, and Brad...the siblings minus Mike-love you Mike!
These guns were freaking heavy...I only shot a few times and hit 2 I think, little intimidated by Andrea (Brad's girlfriend) who is pretty much exactly like Brad but female...great match!
Steve and his dad went down below to challenge themselves and have Will shoot over their heads...don't think they did very well!
Will challenging the boys! OK the clay pigeons were supposed to be mainly for ME so I could shoot something that was moving...There were about 300 and I shot at about 10 hmmmm...I think I would have gotten to shoot at more but Uncle John had to leave because he was having a huge family dinner at his house about an hour later! His wife is so nice! Steve would have had to be home all day to help me!
My cute boys all ready for the din din party
Joe saw people taking some pictures and wanted to be in some himself...Here he is saying cheeseburger
I love you Joe! I don't think you could be any cuter!
Joe saw this little girl and thought it was his cousin Gracie and he was all about meeting her...Once I introduced him to Kristin he would not leave her alone and she stayed with him for most of the night.
Wyatt, Luke and Joe walking around to see the 4 wheelers...without any parents and got caught :)
Jamie and I and our little photo shoot. I won't post all of the pictures...We were trying to see which husband could get the best shot. It was kind of hard with me being so critical of my big belly and Jamie being so critical of herself because she closed/squinted her eyes in most of them!
Love love love this man!
Joe came and asked if he could feed the fish. I was freaking out because I had no idea how he knew where the food was, that it was fish food, and I was hoping he hadn't already overfed the whole aquarium. Luckily Kristen told me she had shown him earlier! Phew! Maybe he will have fish for pets? He doesn't run when they come swimming for food!
Me, Kristen, Katie, Jamie, Megan...best helpers EVER! Joe loved hanging out with them and now that we are back he has said...where is my Kristen? my Katie? my Megan?
Steve, John and Aunt Ann
Aunt Ann and Steve, I love this picture!
Joe showing everyone his muscles, thanks grandma for watching him!
This was the last one, but I was too lazy to move it farther down...Can you tell Joe had absolutely HAD it with taking pictures and would not look for 1 more!?
Family picture courtesy of John, thanks Joe for the extra neck fat from squeezing so tight!
Here are all the cousins...minus Sherry & Mike who is serving a mission in Minnesota
Here are the kids from the cousins...Anne, Ryder, Porter, Luke, Wyatt, and Joe
Here are the cousins, spouses, and kids...it's been a family tradition to take a picture on this tractor
And we got a Steve & Bev Jurca family picture on the tractor before Joe hid.
Such a fun day!