Josie Turns 2!

The day after Christmas, we headed over to Eastern Washington (Endicott) to relax and made it with a sleeping baby most of the way - our quickest time yet (4 hours, instead of 6-7 with various meltdowns...you've probably heard some of the horror stories). While there, we got to celebrate Josie's 2nd birthday with family - cousins everywhere! It's so fun they're all growing up so close in age and that they get to see each other enough to know each other.
Below, cousin Leah entertains the little ones... Hank's cousin Kiefer (my cousin Joe's son) kept trying to feel Hank's eyeballs (squishy!):

This looks like Hank was striking back with a swift kick, but he was really just trying to get wrapping paper off his foot (I swear!).

Okay...so here's what to watch for in the coming posts (and to look for if you look at old posts)...Hank has a little issue with group pictures. He HATES them. He'll be happily playing and then all the sudden, BOOM, he is freaking out, red faced, screaming, and crawling to get away. It doesn't matter who it is...you'll see more when I post pictures from Portland. Ahh, quirky kids! Now anytime someone says, "Let's take a picture with everyone!" my pulse quickens and I know what's coming next...oh, the drama!

In the picture below: Hank (15 months), Maverick (3), Josie (almost 2), Macoy (5), and Kiefer (almost 14 months).

Vanessa and I had fun making this cake for Josie's birthday...love the cut-up cakes!

The Long Beach Hardys singing, "Happy Birthday!"

More presents to open (and stand on!):

Hank was thrilled to have a balloon in each hand - what a good life!

Meltdowns and Fits

Hank is working on having fits lately - usually he will put his head down between his legs and howl. For this little meltdown (on the video), he was just done eating, he was tired, and he wanted us to know all about it. The hands on the face are very dramatic...but I just kept filming away! Nice mom that I am! At least they're usually short and he's easy to distract. I have a feeling it won't always be like that - yikes!