joshua is 8!!!

today is joshua's 8th birthday.
this kid. he entered the WORLD calmly and has been that way ever since.

his labor was BY FAR the easiest. my water broke at 11 pm. we headed to the hospital pretty quickly. got checked in, epidural working, never felt ANY painful contractions. pushed twice. and he was born at 2 am. oh, AND he was born ON his due date!

i remember a few days after bringing him home. i looked over and he was sitting in the swing. the one that still looked BRAND NEW because rebekah would never let us put her in it - she screamed her entire infant life. joshua was sitting there. not crying. not doing ANYthing except looking at me. AND the swing wasn't even ON! i thought, "THIS is what people were talking about! all that "isn't it wonderful and sweet and all that??"" didn't really have any of that with rebekah...she was not an easy baby. but joshua?? oh, he was a DREAM!

and he continues to bless us with his calmness. and sweetness. we are so so thankful he is our son. our family is more on time because of him (he keeps me on track!) and he is SO dependable. we are so proud of all that he is.

we've had a fun day so far celebrating him!

donut cake for breakfast...

"happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear joshua, happy birthday to you!!!"

for school this morning they made joshua cards :-)

and we took him mcdonald's for lunch!

(this blessed my heart SO much. last week, i asked him if i could get something special at the grocery store for him to pack for his lunch for today. and he said, "would you come eat lunch with me??" it just made me so happy...that he WANTED me there. of COURSE i can! :-))

as we were leaving, rebekah was in the clinic...she looks horrible...sore throat. i'm thinking it's strep. so, we brought her home. not sure how the rest of the evening is going to go. hoping to get her into the dr this afternoon. and she won't be going to swimming tonight...the ever-changing schedule in the life of our family!