Josh turns 1!

It's official! Joshua is not a baby anymore! He is now a walking, talking, one-year-old! Saturday was his first birthday. I can hardly believe he is one already - the past year has just flown by! Granny and Papa (Justin's parents), Aunt Jacque and our friends, Sam, Stacie, John, Allie and Ginny Miner all came to help us celebrate his birthday.

Josh also starting walking this last week! It is so cute seeing him toddling around, chasing after Madison and Jordan. He is still a litte unsteady on his feet, but he is getting faster and steadier everyday and it won't be long before he can actually keep up with them.

Joshua's birthday cake! The bottom layer was a white velvet cake with strawberry filling and the middle layer and cupcake were dark chocolate cake with a dulce de leche filling - all covered in marshmallow creme buttercream. Yummy!

He wasn't quite sure what to think of the cake at first...

but he definitely decided he loved it after we gave him the whole cupcake to eat!

Opening presents. For some reason he really liked this card and kept picking it up to 'read' it.

Jordan clowning around with Aunt Jacque!

Camping

We went camping at Eagle Valley this last weekend and then spent a couple of days with Justin's parents in Panaca. It's been a while since we have been up to see them, so it was nice to spend a few days up there. The kids found Justin and Andrew's old scooters and skateboards and had a blast trying to figure out how to ride them.

Joshua's first camping trip! He was completely covered in dirt only 5 minutes after we got there.

Madison's fish! She reeled her fish in all by herself and then couldn't wait to eat it for dinner that night.

Jordan relaxing after a long day of fishing and running around. He has had his glasses for a month now and is finally getting used to wearing them. Isn't he cute?

Swimming at the Spring with Granny. Josh loves water and couldn't wait to get in. Madison and Jordan took a some convincing - they were a little afraid of the tadpoles and tiny fish.

Josh fell off of Jordan's lap while we were camping and landed right on his nose in the dirt. He ended up with a mouth and nose full of dirt and he skinned his forehead and nose up pretty good. Now I can't beep his nose (which he thinks is hilarious!) for a few days...

We've got a climber! Nothing is safe now!

As many of you know, Josh has had persistant ear infections since December. We finally got in to see the Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist a couple weeks ago. He still has fluid in his ears, but hasn't had an infection in about 2 months, so we are going to hold off on ear tubes for now. Josh loves being in the water and ear tubes would have meant no swimming and no playing in the bathtub for at least a month, so we are glad he doesn't have to get them right now. If he gets another ear infection (there's a good chance of that once it gets cold again) we will go ahead and schedule the surgery. Cross your fingers that his ears will stay clear!

Madison's Dance Review

Madison's end-of-year dance review was last night. She was so cute!! Afterwards, Justin gave her a big, colorful bunch of tiny little roses. She was so excited to get them and had to show them off to all the other dancers. These videos were just taken on my digital camera, so the quality isn't fabulous, but it's better than nothing.

This is her jazz performance to 'The Best of Both Worlds.' Madison is the short one on the end. It's really too bad that this is a little washed out and you can't see her facial expressions - they were hilarious. They have been practicing this dance for most of the year -Madison would come home from dance every week singing this song - and it was fun to finally see them perform it.

This is her tap performance of 'School Days.' Again, she is the little one on the end... Please pardon the jumpy filming - I had a very wiggly Joshua on my lap.

She also had a ballet performance to 'Alice Blue Gown.' Unfortunately, between a wiggly Josh on my lap and Jordan getting stuck in the chair next to me and needing help, the video is mostly of the floor, ceiling and other people's heads. Justin also recorded it on our video camera, but I don't have the software (or the know-how) to transfer them to my computer. So, I'll have to wait to post this performance until he remembers to bring his laptop home from the office.

Welcome!!

We are finally joining the blogging world! I've been thinking for a few months now that this would be a great way to keep all our out-of-town family and friends up to date on our crazy lives. Coming up with a name for our blog has been challenging. Anything with the name Hansen in it was already taken, so we had to be creative. On Sundays, while getting ready for church, Justin likes to tell Jordan that he is going to 'get the chicks' because he look so handsome. One Sunday, Madison declared that she was also going to get the chicks. We explained to her that chicks are girls, so only Jordan could get the chicks. She thought about that for a minute and then announced, "I'm going to get the roosters!" We have laughed about that for almost two years now and thought it would be a cute name for our blog.