JoJo's 6th Birthday

Joseph's birthday was on a Wednesday this year. He requested cinnamon rolls with orange, apple & carrot juice (from the juicer). After coming downstairs to a room with STAR WARS decorations, Jacob sprayed him with green foamy spray as we all yelled "Happy Birthday!" After the foam was picked off him and gathered together, Jacob used it to shape a Yoda for him on the floor (you can kind of see it in the picture of the boys looking at his card.) Later that day we brought birthday cookies in for his Kindergarten class and that night he asked for chicken stuffing casserole for his birthday dinner (I had no idea he liked it that much). After dinner we had his party and he opened his presents and had birthday cake. Anyone who knows the boys right now will tell you that everything they play and do has to do with Star Wars. So, not surprisingly he wanted a Star Wars cake and Star Wars stuff for his birthday. In addition to his Star Wars gifts we got him his own scripture set. He had been asking if he could have his own Bible and Book of Mormon for the past month or so. I kind of thought we'd give the kids their first set of scriptures when they are baptized (at age 8) but he was so sincere and persistent in his request that I just couldn't make him wait. A couple days after his birthday Joseph woke up really early one morning and came downstairs to sit next to me on the couch. I was reading my scriptures and when he saw this he immediately ran back up to his room and grabbed his scriptures to start reading them too. He is such a sweet little boy that has such strong desires to do good and be good. His spiritual nature is one of the many things that I love about him.

THINKING ABOUT HIS WISH....

SATURDAY'S PARTY WITH FRIENDS

Planning his party was really easy for me because I had just done a Star Wars party for Jacob last September. We even used the same "shoot the Death star" game because it was such a hit the first time. Probably the cutest thing that I failed to get a picture of was the stack of light sabers that were all piled up on the time-out chair. I think every kid that came brought his/her light saber and we had quite a nice assortment of all the many colors and styles available. It was too funny. After the game we headed outside to the pinata tree where Darth Vader's head got knocked off after only the 2nd kid!!!! Can you say RIP OFF!!! I was totally planning on taking it back to Toys R Us and telling them I wanted a refund, but we all know I have all the time in the world to go back to the store and do that! We always do a pinata for the kids birthdays so by my count this has been our 12th pinata and it has ALWAYS made its way through the line of kids at least once, sometimes 2 or 3 times. Needless to say we had some very disappointed kids. Anyway, sorry about that rant.....After the pinata JoJo opened his gifts and then we all had cake and ice-cream.

Joseph at 6 years old......

INTERESTS: Everything is about STAR WARS right now. He likes going camping and fishing with Dad and enjoys playing sports. He also likes to draw pictures and color in his Star Wars coloring books.

TALENTS & HOBBIES: Joseph is a very talented reader and also is able to express himself well in writing. He is very creative and has a talent for drawing and coloring. Joseph loves to play soccer & T-ball and enjoys doing nice things for others without being asked. Joseph also has a talent for being a gentlemen and doing sweet things for the females in his life. He makes bracelets, picks flowers, draws cards and freely gives compliments to his mama and little sister.

PERSONALITY: Joseph has a very sweet and loving personality. He is a very sincere and compassionate little boy. It comes naturally for him to think of others and empathize. He always expresses a desire to do the right things but becomes extremely devastated when he is given push-ups for getting in trouble. He can be very sneaky especially when he wants something that he knows is not allowed (getting into the chocolate chips in the pantry). And much to my frustration he can also be quite the convincing fibber. I would be worried if I hadn't been the same way when I was his age. He is very active and can sometimes get really hyper and out of control when he gets excited . He is also very goofy and enjoys being in the spotlight when he is at the height of his silliness. Sometimes he'll spontaneously entertain us all while he struts his stuff and shows us his smooth dance moves. Here's a little example......



Joseph also has a fiery temper on him and can "explode" when he gets pushed to his limit. Once again, he got this from his mother who also was know to throw things when she got mad. Luckily (for everyone's sake) I outgrew that personality trait.

FRIENDS: Joseph gets along well with everyone and has always had a lot of friends but presently his best friend is Hank. Hank is a little boy in our ward at church who is also in his Kindergarten class. Joseph also has a friend named Willow who we learned about a few months into the school year. Willow is in third grade and I have no idea how this friendship started but I'm pretty sure she's his first crush. It has been pretty entertaining to see him smile and get all bashful when he talks about her. They share a recess and (when I volunteer) sometimes I will see them on the playground together playing on the monkey bars. She is a very sweet and very pretty little girl that seems genuinely interested in Joseph as well. Aaron and I were laughing about it one night thinking of Joseph liking the "older women." This friendship however has provided many opportunities to start talking to the boys about appropriate ages for boyfriend/girlfriend relationships and the dating standards for the church. Who would have ever though I'd be talking about these things to a 5 year old? Jacob (at 7 1/2) has yet to show any interest in girls yet-as it should be right?! (: Anyway, in recent years I have frequently told Aaron that the girl Joseph marries will be a very lucky woman. I say this because he treats Lauren and I so sweetly and tenderly. He has a real soft spot for females and I love his gentlemanly ways.

FAVORITE THINGS:
- BOOKS: Any books about Star Wars, he is always checking them out from the library.

-FOOD: Ravioli, chicken stuffing casserole, steak, brownies and any other sweets.

-T.V. Shows: The only show he watches regularly are the Star Wars Clone Wars episodes that we DVR (tevo) for the boys. He is however not opposed to watching Arthur (Lauren's favorite show) and will occasionally catch an episode of Cyber Chase.

-TOYS: His Star wars space ships (Annakin's starship, X-wing, & Millennium Falcon, His light saber (blue) and Legos.

-CLOTHES: Joseph doesn't care much about what he wears (typical for a boy this age) but he does love wearing his faded, over washed, hand-me-down Mariners' Ichiro shirt. Sometimes he even tries to talk me into letting him wear it to school. He also loves the shirt shown in the picture above. It's a hand me down from Jacob but he loves it. I think it's an old 2 tone blue U.S. Polo t-shirt with a little lime green circle in the middle with a small American flag in the center. He loves it.

CHORES/ RESPONSIBILITIES: He doesn't do all of these every day but here are the things that Joseph does on a regular basis for his chores: Unloads the dishwasher, changes the kitty litter, folds his laundry, vacuums the living room rug, take out (or bring in) the goats each day, make his bed, picks up the playroom (with his brothers) cleans Lauren's room, organizes the shoe closet. Joseph is pretty hard working but does his chores best when he thinks he's doing it on his own. He likes to give service and has occasionally been known to do things without being asked just to make you happy.

SWEET THINGS TO REMEMBER: Joseph still sleeps with his blanket that he's had since he was 6 months old. Also his little lamb (named "Fluffy") that was given to him by his Sunbeam teacher (Sister White) still sleeps with him. He doesn't regularly suck his thumb at night any more but occasionally when we check on him we'll see his thumb in his mouth which always makes me remember my sweet little, thumb sucking baby JoJo.

Time is passing so quickly I can hardly keep up with what happened last week let alone what happened 10 years ago. I thought I'd take this opportunity to record some memories about Joseph that are close to my heart while I still remember them:

When I was pregnant with Joseph I felt really good about the name we had chosen for him. Even before he was born I felt that he had a very special spirit. I remember one day (towards the end of my pregnancy) lying on the couch alone and talking to him as I was feeling my belly. He shifted inside of me and I saw his arm or leg move across my side. I held onto it and stroked it feeling his sweet little arm/leg. I felt so close to him in that moment and a sweet peaceful feeling came over me as I thought about this little one's arrival into our family.
"JoJo" was a nickname given to him by me when he was just 5 months old. I'm not someone who likes nicknames so it's ironic that he got it from me. I remember the first time I called him JoJo....he was only 5 months old and I was carrying him up the stairs to bed. I was looking down at this plump little bald baby boy and it just came out..."Your such a cute little JoJo." Aaron heard me from the boys room upstairs and called to me, "What did you just call him?" I was a little embarrassed at such a goofy name but it just felt so fitting for this sweet, chubby little boy that I kept saying it and before long it stuck.


Joseph was born 1 month before we moved from Hawaii to Washington. He was born in the morning and he came like a blazing rocket. Aaron left for work that morning at 7am. I told him before he left that I had a slight pain in my back. Half way through his 30 minute commute I called him on his cell to tell him the pain in my back had now turned into contractions. Jacob's labor had lasted 32hours so I figured I had some time before we needed to head to the hospital but I wanted him to know that I'd probably be calling him later in the day. 10 minutes after I hung up the phone with him I called him back and told him "come home NOW!!!" When he got back to the house I met him at the door with my bags packed. He wanted to give me a blessing before I left and it was about all I could do to sit through that. I kept thinking very nonspiritual thoughts, like..."Why is he taking so long, let's go, let's go!" On the way to the hospital I was in so much pain I was starting to shake and was having really crazy pain-induced thoughts. For example when we got to a stop light I had to fight back the urge to jump out and run around the car screaming. When we got to the exit for the military hospital I about died when I saw a huge line of cars backed up because they were doing i.d. checks at the gate. Aaron, sensing the urgency in my groans turned on his hazard lights, honked his horn and drove up along the curb passing all the other cars. When we got to the hospital we rushed inside stopping a couple of times along the way for some intense contractions. By the time we got to the nurses desk I saw my midwife in the hall and was thinking, "Oh No-she saw me. I'm soooo NOT going without drugs again, I can't keep up with this pain for even 30 minutes I am dying here!" Luckily for me I didn't have to because when the nurse saw my discomfort she decided to "check me just to see how far along I was." Her eyes got big as she said with surprise, "You're at a ten and his head is right there!!!" Then the craziness began as they frantically wheeled me on a gurney down to the delivery rooms yelling all the way down the hall, "we need a room, we need a room!" When we found an empty one, I started pushing and felt his little head sliding down like a rocket. He wanted OUT and was going to find a way with or without my help!!! After 2 pushes he was born at 8:52 am all 9lbs 10 oz. of him. He bruised me black and blue but he still holds the record in our family for the fastest labor and delivery.

Joseph was an amazingly easy baby for the first couple of months. He slept for 5 hour stretches at night during the first week. He hardly ever cried and was so easy compared to Jacob who was SO fussy, and wanted to be nursed every 1-2 hours ALL night long. As Joseph got older he became more challenging. At 5 months old he already had a temper on him and you could see him getting all worked up in these fits of anger when he was upset about something.

Entering his toddler years was ROUGH. I remember one day when he was just under 3 Aaron called me from work to see how my day was going. I had just gone through a lengthy ordeal with Joseph trying to get him to mind me for something. Each time he would disobey I would give him a little swat and then repeat the request again, (giving him the opportunity to do what I had asked him to do-again). I think I went through this at least half a dozen times before he finally decided to do what he was told. I was nearly in tears on the phone telling Aaron, "Why does he have to be so stubborn." Aaron told me to stick with it and in time he would grow up to be a really great "strong willed" man one day. I remember my response was, "Well I hope so, but even if he does I'm totally letting him know that that it was NOT easy raising him!" Luckily he has grown out of those trying times and he is now a very enjoyable little boy. He does however still have that stubborn streak about him but I actually think that's is a good quality for him to have. I was the same way when I was his age and I think having that strong will and determination has been an asset in my life on many levels.

Here are some of random pictures of JoJo through the years, each one has it's own story.....

2 Months old
One day I heard him sneeze and when I turned to look at him this is what I saw, luckily the camera was close by.

5 Months Old
All dressed up in Daddy's racquetball gear. We e-mailed this picture to Aaron at work one day when he was trying to find a new racquetball partner.

Look at that shapely toosh. I have so many pictures of his back side but this is one of my favorites.

Caught in the Act
Joseph up on the bathroom counter eating the the Reese's Pieces that we were using to potty train Jacob. This was only the beginning of many more years of "sneaking sweets" that would soon follow.

Busted Again....

Classic JoJo sucking his thumb curled up on the floor with his famous blankie.

2nd Birthday
Yes, this is a DORA cake and NO we didn't choose this for him. Joseph was speaking in complete sentences by 19 months old. (His first sentence was..."Thank you for that yummy breakfast mama.") So when we were at the party store letting him pick out what kind of birthday cake and decorations he wanted much to Aaron's disappointment he could NOT be talked out it. "No, Daddy...I want the Dora one (cake pan)!"

Riding the "horsie" bush out in our yard playing Mommy's recorder.

3rd Birthday
He was Soooooo excited about his batman cake.

5 years old
Sleeping with his blankie and fluffy his little lamb.

First day of Kindergarten

Fishing with his best friend Hank, down by the pond.
(April 2009)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOJO, IT'S BEEN A GREAT 6 YEARS!