What else is new?

Well, since it has been so long since we have posted, there has obviously been a lot going on. The mountain of things to tell you have almost kept us from writing!

In big news, Emma Madison was born January 10, 2007! She is a beautiful addition to Justin and Brittny's family. Even Ashley is starting to like her, calling her Emmy. She looks a lot like Ashley with Justin's nose and really long feet. She is very petite, though she eats like she means it and burps like a grown up.

At the beginning if January Joseph was very sick. For a short period of about 5 days, he would only sleep in our arms. This happened to coincide with when Aaron started his new position at Carter High School. So we were concerned with him getting enough sleep to feel prepared for work. Julie stuck out a few hard nights on her own with a very sad and sick little boy. Luckily, he recovered quickly. During that time he did not eat very much at all, which led to his loss of weight at his six month appointment. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 4 oz. and measured 28 3/4 inches. He only gained 12 ounces in 2 months! But since he has regained his appetite, we are pretty confident he has passed the 22 lb. mark, maybe even 23! Oh, and did we mention he now has 3 teeth! They're all on the bottom and he loves using them!

On February 6, Julie's nephew Brayden turned 1 and had one serious cowboy birthday party! It was tons of fun and Joseph was the cutest cowboy...of course not as cute as the birthday boy! It was a ton of fun. He even had a pinata and a bounce house! Eat your heart out! (Which Brayden did and was sick later that day.)
Joseph has been growing up so much lately. He's now an experienced sitter, with only the occasional tumble. Just last week, he started to say ba-ba and ... ma-ma! Although he doesn't know Julie is mama (we don't think) she still likes to hear him say it. Joseph acts like he wants to crawl really bad, but he hasn't figured it out yet. We borrowed a four-legged bouncer from Justin and Brittny and Joseph absolutely loves it. So now when he sits, he rocks back and forth, which is helping him on his quest to crawl. We figure in the next month he'll have it down.

In other news, Aaron's job (for those who don't know) is helping High School Juniors and Seniors pass the English portion of the High School exit exam. It hasn't turned out to be what he expected, in that he has a very small class size and a majority of his students do not need to pass the exam because they are considered Special Education students. Nonetheless, Aaron is making the best of this opportunity and when he has good days, he finds he is learning about the teaching profession and all the goes along with it.

We have had a new addition to our family in the last month. It is a white 2004 Nissan Altima. Julie has named him Moby, because he's the biggest car they've ever had and reminds her of the whale. Despite the added monthly payment, this has been a great blessing for Julie. Now she is free to move about with Joseph, make appointments, run errands, or just get out of the house.

Julie has just received a new calling in the ward. She is now the Primary Chorister! At first she was pretty scared, but is quickly getting the hang of it and actually enjoying it a lot. She has a lot of ideas to help the kids learn all the old goodies we learned as kids that they don't sing anymore. It's a good activity to keep her busy during the week, although it means Aaron has to take care of Joseph for the last two blocks of church. It's good bonding time for them!

Since this blog has taken so much time, another special event has passed by. Julie has turned 23! She enjoyed a wonderful birthday and appreciated all of the thoughts and well-wishes. The family went out to dinner and had a wonderful time! Julie also received an extra-special gift from her mother - a replacement baby blanket that is just like the one she lost a few years ago. She was so attached to it as a child and was devastated when it went lost. So now she has a new one and promises not to lose it! Aaron took Julie out to a very fancy restaurant. Aaron's dinner was so pretty we had to take a picture of it. Oh, and as you can see from the photo, Aaron had (not anymore) a goatie, which grew in pretty red and Julie cut her hair.

In other news, Julie has learned how to add videos to our blog! She attaches them through another website called blip.tv and then links them to the blog. There are a lot of videos already uploaded that are older. We'll put the link there so you can see them all and then from now on we'll just put the videos directly on the blog. The link will be on the left side with the others. Now, here are some of Joseph's latest videos! This first one is Joseph showing some amazing brain skills playing with his gumball machine. It has toy "gumballs" that you can put in the top.

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This next video is Joseph and Julie playing. It catches him doing a signature playtime thing...We guess no one taught him not to talk when his mouth is full.

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This next one Julie likes to call funny kisses.

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This last one shows what Joseph does when he's excited. He flails his arms and legs at the same time. You can't see his legs, but you can hear them hitting his tray.

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Well, we hope you enjoy all of our updates. We'll try and keep them coming regularly, so maybe there won't have to be so much in the next one. We miss you all and hope you're all doing well!