Katie

Today was Katie's awards day for 5th grade. Our last child in elementary school for 5 years!! Katie is so glad to be finished at Highland Bluff. She loved her old school and her teachers, and she has really struggled at Highland Bluff. The awards ceremony today lasted for over an hour and a half!! This was just for 5th grade! No teachers singing and dancing either. =(

At any rate, Katie was one of the students awarded with the "President's Award for Educational Excellence" and the "Presidential Fitness Award"! Katie has always been our most athletic child, so I am really glad that she was recognized for this. The Educational Excellence award is a great honor as well!

We would have pictures for this day, but for some reason, our camera has never worked well in the school cafeterias!!

Tosha and Zac are also doing well in school. Tosha was recognized at her awards ceremony for participating on the academic team, which won first place in the Rankin County competition. Tosha and Zac were both exempt from their final exams (except Zac has to take the Algebra exam - he had a tough teacher this year that did not like to explain things very well.).

We are so pleased with how well our children are succeeding in school. We hope that this will continue!!

Pictures

You would think that they were up all night! Half was, the other half got up once in the night!!

Just a few too many bubbles!! Joseph loves bath time!

Joseph is getting so big! He smiles a lot more now and has begun cooing as well!

One of the first things that Katie wants to do, after finishing her homework, is to hold Joseph. She has been very cute to watch with him! I have to fight to hold him during Sacrament meeting!

Catch up

Sorry that it has been a while! I have been busy playing on Facebook! It has been neat to be able to see what family and friends are doing throughout their days/weeks. It is amazing how
many people are on Facebook.

We are doing well here. Joseph was up to 8lbs 14oz at his appointment last Friday. The doctor instructed me to only allow him to eat every three to four hours during the night. He is saying that Joseph's growth is remarkable! So far, we have only had one really bad night with Joseph thinking that he was supposed to eat every 2 hours. Thankfully he is a pacifier baby!!

Tosha had her final band concert for the school year on Monday, and Zac's is tonight. Katie will be playing the trombone next year. So we will now have a tenor sax, an alto sax, and a trombone in the house!

The school year is coming to an end this month and it is none too early! We are all ready for the break! I say break...with Girl's camp, Scout camp, band camp, youth conference, and any other things that might come up, I don't think it will be too much of a break!!! The joys of having teen-agers in the house!!

Facebook

Okay, I am trying to figure out Facebook. I'm guessing that blogging is more for journal entrying and Facebook is for quick comments. Yes or No?? If you have any insight-PLEASE let me know!

Here are some recent pictures of Joseph. That is the one nice thing about Facebook-I can download a bunch of pictures into an album!

Lynn W. and her mother-in-law threw me a wonderful baby shower! I haven't had one of those in 16 years! The members of our ward are wonderful!

Joseph was awake, but the flash on the camera caused him to jump!

Not sure if you can read what his onesie says - "Fatigued". In which I was very fatigued that day!

Thank you Grandpa V.!! We got Joseph a playmat. He loves looking at the toys hanging down and the mirror!

Prom

Yes, Mike had fun doing this!

Okay, we have now reached a new milestone in our lives. Not only are we parents of a newborn baby, but we just had our (almost by 4 days!) 16 year daughter leave for the prom. Tosha and Kent have been friends for over a year now. We let Tosha go to the prom with Kent since this is his senior year. Kent is a very good guy and he knows and respects our guidelines. I think I was as nervous as Tosha was for tonight! I still remember going to prom during my senior year. It just doesn"t seem possible that it is my baby that is going tonight!

We had Joseph weighed yesterday, and he is now up to 7lbs 6oz.! He is definitely working on getting caught up. Last night it looked like he was about to smile a few different times - and no it wasn't gas! Joseph was awake for well over 2 1/2 hours. Unfortunately that did not make any difference with his sleeping schedule!

I hope that everybody had a wonderful Easter. That was the first time that Joseph went to church. He did very well - of course he slept most of the time! We then went to a friend's house and had a great afternoon and evening with them and their family. I hate to say it, but the Easter Bunny did not hide eggs this year! He left something in the kids baskets, but no eggs to find. We were going to do an egg hunt at our friend's house, unfortunately Mother Nature was not going to cooperate with us (we were going to do the hunt outside, but we were under a tornado watch, and we had some heavy downpours!).

I hate to admit this, but I am obsessed with lion things for Joseph! When Zac was a baby, you could not find all of the cute lion clothing and other items that are available now. Joseph will be so tired of lions before he officially becomes a "Lyon"! (We are hoping that Joseph will be legally ours in every sense by the last Friday in September. We are then planning on having him sealed to us in the temple in Baton Rouge the Saturday after General Conference.) There are so many cute things out there with lions on them. I just can't help myself!!!

On Saturday I competed in my first 5K walk. I came in 60th. There were a lot of people there, and I was towards the front of the pack! I felt pretty good about this placing. I have no idea how many people were officially there, but it was like a herd of cattle to begin with! The bright yellow shirt I am wearing in the picture is from the race!

Is it morning or night?

We are going through the stage of night is day and day is night. I'm not even sure any more which is which!! Last night Joseph wanted to be awake most of the night. I am now only turning on a light long enough to change his diaper, and then it is lights off! I am hoping that this will help him change his internal clock. We worked really hard tonight to keep him awake for a lot of the evening. We will have to see if this will also help. Of course, Joseph objected to our new routine.

We had Joseph weighed last Friday, and he is now up to 6lbs 4oz!!! He is looking so much better. We are to go in again next Friday and have him weighed again. Maybe by then he will be up to 7lbs.
Mike is on his way to Wisconsin. He is sooo excited about this - NOT! Thankfully he is only gone for a couple of days!