Joseph's 10th Birthday

Joseph has reached the age of double digits. He turned 10 on September 4th. It seems like such a big deal that we have a 10 year old now! He's officially a "tween." I have loved watching him grow up. Even though I miss the younger years, it's great to see him mature and grow!

Joseph and his good friend Nathanael are Birthday Buddies. Nathanael's birthday is just one day before Joseph's. It was fun to celebrate these two TEN year olds this year!!

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Joseph's 9th Birthday

Joseph had his 9th birthday on September 4th. I'm really not sure how it happened, but we have a 9 year old in our house now! I can't believe it's his last year in the single digits!

This year we decided that we would celebrate birthdays with just our family. Last year we did bigger birthday parties because we had such a big transition with adding Eve to our family.

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Joseph's 8th Birthday!!

Joseph turned 8 years old on September 4th. We always love celebrating things in our family. Joseph talked about this year's celebration for weeks! He asked us if we could go to a water park as a family for his birthday and we said yes! He also got to have a few neighbor friends over for some cake and ice-cream.

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Riding on 2 wheels!!!

It has been fun to watch Joseph go from struggling with his bike to LOVING riding his bike! He has learned how to ride without his training wheels and we're so proud of him!!

What a joy to celebrate this milestone in his life!

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Joseph's 6th birthday

Joseph's birthday is September 4th and this year he turned 6!! Yesterday it was fun to hear him walking around the house saying, "I'm six years old now!"

We had a Spiderman theme this year and we invited a bunch of his friends from his preschool class and from the village. It was the first time I had done a birthday party with local kids...I was pretty nervous.

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Another tooth is gone!

Joseph lost his second tooth the same day as the Easter Reading. We were all exhausted that evening. The kids went to bed and I laid down on the couch. I was surprised when he got up after he was down for the night. He came out and brought me his tooth! I couldn't believe it! His first adult tooth came in and pushed his second baby tooth out.

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Joseph lost his first tooth!

Joseph lost his first tooth at the end of February!!

It was sort of shocking how it happened. The tooth wasn't loose that we knew of. He used his teeth to open the top of his water bottle and it came out. He was so confused that he picked it up and threw it away.

He didn't know that it was even possible for teeth to come out. So, when Tim and I got excited for him he was even more confused! haha!

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Jojo turned 5!!!

Joseph's Birthday was on Tuesday, September 4th. We were all really excited to celebrate this wonderful boy. I'm still so often amazed that we are blessed to have him in our family! He's so vibrant and full of personality!!

He was SO HAPPY all day on Tuesday. Right away when we got up we made sure to make it special! After Tim got home from work and the kids took a nap, we headed to the mall to build-a-bear! This was something that he has been looking forward to for a long time! For dinner Joseph wanted McDonalds...big surprise!

We had a party on Wednesday evening at our house too! I love this boy! I want him to feel loved and honored on his birthday. He's such a special gift from God!

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Swimming in May & June

May & June have been good months for swimming! Both kids have grown so much in their swimming skills, it's been so much fun to watch them!

Just the other day they were holding hands jumping into the pool. Joseph said, "I LOVE swimming, Mommy!" Faith said, "This is fun!" My heart is so full of joy when I see my kids happy!

Below you can see a slide show of some more pictures and a couple videos...

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comparison

Here's a fun comparison of how much these kids have changed in one year. It sure is fun to watch these two grow! Each new stage is so much fun! 

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Joseph's friends

Joseph is a very social boy and loves to interact with the boys in the village. The problem is that there's a language barrier. They don't understand him when he speaks to them in English. I guess we need to work on teaching him Arabic!

The other day he was at the center of this group of boys. He didn't mind being the center of attention! They were trying to practice their English with him. I told them to teach him Arabic!

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Jojo Day!!

Four years ago, on April 28th, we were in Ethiopia picking up our baby boy. We celebrate this day every year and we call it Jojo Day. Last weekend we celebrated Jojo Day and it was a lot of fun! The first Jojo Day was a lot of fun too, but these kids just keep getting more and more fun! I can't believe we've had our fourth Jojo Day. I look forward to many more Jojo Day celebrations!

This boy is such a blessing in our family! Tim and I agree that we couldn't have picked a better one...God's choice of putting Joseph into our family is best! I love so many things about him. I love that he is so outgoing, happy, caring, silly, energetic, and downright cute!

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School with Jojo

Between traveling, back pain, out of town visitors, and sickness I haven't taught the preschool group for a while. So, it's just been Joseph and me doing school.

It's been such a sweet time that makes me look forward to officially starting homeschool this fall!

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Jojo's pictures

Here's a slideshow of the pictures Jojo took in February. I always like to see what life has been like through his eyes!

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O is for octopus

Last week in preschool we talked about the letter o for octopus! The kids are starting to read more three letter words. It's fun to watch them put it together!

On Wednesday we made an octopus by tracing the kids' hands. They used finger paint to make an ocean scene...it was fun!

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Joseph January Pics

Here are some of Joseph's pictures from January...

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Proud of Joseph!

This is going to be one of those posts where I get to brag on my son a little bit... I'm so proud of Joseph!! He has been learning a lot in preschool and working really hard! It's been a lot of fun to join him in this. I love being with him during the school lesson time!!

A few weeks ago he was really struggling with writing his name. So, he and I worked and worked on it. We worked on it a little each day. Now he's doing it on his own!! He's so proud of himself!

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Riding Bikes

 Joseph's Grandma and Grampa sent money to buy Joseph a bike for his birthday in September. Between moving, traveling, and very hot days...he ended up getting it at the end of November.

He feels like such a big kid! Sometimes he gets frustrated, but he's learning to ride. I can't wait to see him take off those training wheels!! 

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First Day of Preschool

Joseph started preschool last week. We are doing a homeschool group with four kids. Joseph was excited to get a new backpack with wheels! We only had one day of preschool last week because Jojo had a stomach bug and we had to cancel the second day. :( Next week we plan to have two days of school and we hope to work into three days a week in November!

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Joseph's 4th Birthday Party

Joseph turned 4 on September 4th....it was his Golden Birthday!! Even though we were still jet lagging, we pulled a party together. We went swimming with friends and then had pizza and cake! We had a Superman theme, which was fun. The kids played pin the shield on superman...so cute!

Below you can see a slideshow with more pictures from his party! Enjoy!

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