Happy 4th Birthday Josiah!

Our little boy isn't so little anymore. Today he is 4 years old!

It's been a fun and full year for our family. Josiah continues to grow and mature and has become such a wonderful big and little brother. We love watching him play with Levi!

Some favorites- straight from the birthday boy:

Lightening McQueen!

His cow (a steadfast from infancy)

cup cakes

listening to stories

Being silly

playing pirates

Happy Birthday sweetheart! We are so proud of the boy you have grown into. You are very special to ALL of us. Here is a short movie highlighting all the fun we had this year... see how much you have changed!

We love you Josiah!

Untitled from patty hull on Vimeo.

Party Time!

Josiah is turning 4 years old tomorrow. I can't believe it! Last weekend we traveled to TN to celebrate with our family and a few friends. The kids brought their riding toys to a church gym and enjoyed pedaling, scooting and crawling (Jack!) to their hearts content. It was fun to watch!

We got to spend some wonderful time with Christy and Lee and their sweet family. (pictures to come!) The weather was perfectly sunny and warm! Saturday we took the kids on a trail hike and watched as they explored the streams, the bugs and carefully chose sticks to 'fish' with. They are all at such fun ages. Jack and Levi were both snoozing quietly by the end of our trek.

Papa and Grandma made us feel so at home, playing with the kids and babysitting so we could go out on a date to Big Ed's Pizza... a local icon and one of our very favorite places to eat.

Updates:

Abby is doing much better. Still having fevers every few evenings with seizures to go along, but she seems to sleep it off and usually wakes up feeling ok. I know, it's strange.

She is gaining back some of her strength and is starting to take steps in her Kid Walk again! Today she did some good exploring of toys with her hands and has been signing again. Instead of sleeping through her therapy sessions, she is back to protesting when prompted to work. It's a good sign of normalcy.

Levi is now getting into a full sitting position all by himself! He topples over sometimes, but catches himself pretty well. We are digging all kinds of interesting things out of his mouth these days. He's a quick little scavenger! I've seen him pull up to kneeling on more than one occasion and I won't be surprised to see him pull to standing very soon. His giggles have become more hearty and his feet are very ticklish. Every day I am just so thankful for such a healthy, chunky, smily boy! It's hard to believe a year ago we were hoping to make it to 30 weeks gestation. So much happens in a year...

Tomorrow is the Big day! Check in for Josiah's B-day movie coming up...

It's March!

I can't believe it's already March and we are finally starting to have some warm days.

After a long month of sickness with Abby she is hopefully turning a corner. Last week she had a few more wakeful days and actually tried to participate during therapy. Physically she is very weak and floppy, but it's good to see her eyes open again!

This past weekend she vomited several times and started running a fever Sunday night. Don't know why exactly except that she just isn't totally well yet. She had 9 seizures yesterday (including 4 during the night). With all of her unpredictability we are just moving forward with our usual daily schedule, but giving her extra time to rest.

The boys are doing great. Levi is still scooting his way all over the house with impressive speed! His hair is getting fluffier and he gives the cutest smile when he claps. He's eating a larger amount of solids now and we all like to take turns feeding him.

Josiah is just getting bigger and looking more like a preschooler. He has a birthday coming up! I can't believe he will be four. He can't wait and frequently tells us that as soon as he turns four, he wants to turn 5!

He is doing some regular chores around the house now including putting his clothes away, helping mommy push the laundry basket back and forth to rooms, sometimes putting dishes away and anything else that I can think of to put him to work. He has a sticker chart to record his scripture memory accomplishments. Once he memorizes 5 we will go on a fun 'date'. These are all really to keep mommy focused and motivated. It's too easy to forget to do the most important things during the day when so many other things distract.

We are all looking forward to warmer weather and time spent outdoors!