Joshua's birthday party

I can't believe my little guy is 3 years old! Where has the time gone?! I'm so proud of what a sweet, bright, loving boy he is and we are so grateful that he's part of our family :)

We had a big cookout on his birthday and all of David's local family came, along with my mom, dad, and brother. We grilled out hot dogs, my mom made her AMAZING baked beans (seriously...I promise they are the best you have ever had, and I have many Isgetts willing to vouch for that!) and potato salad, and chips. I made my first from-scratch cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery (in NY) recipe for their Vanilla Vanillas (the recipe is on the Food Network website) and they were awesome! The kids all enjoyed playing outside in the backyard and all the adults enjoyed chatting it up :)

Joshua wearing two birthday gifts: a new

UNC cap from Mommy & Daddy and a

new ECU jacket from my Aunt Sydney

(Grandma and Leah are lurking in the

background)

Sweet cousin Ellie (who will be turning 5 next

weekend!)

Handsome cousin Will :)

Doesn't Janie look so inquisitive here?

(I love that you can see Joshua chilling

behind her in his new Cars camping chair)

**Sarcasm warning**

I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture,

but Leah is a TOTAL camera ham ;)

And she loves her big cousin Sydney

(who is a high school freshman this year!)

What a cheeser! :)

Joshua loved this musical card from

Grandma and Grandpa that played

Rascal Flatts' version of "Life is a Highway"

(I've been hearing this card A LOT this past

week between Joshua and Leah!)

Mommy and Joshua "oohing" and "ahhing"

Leah enjoying all the gifts and wrapping

So...Joshua cries every year when we sing to him.

I think it is just too much attention for him.

I held him as we sang this year and he was doing

okay (although, he was whispering "Hi, Mommy"

as we sang, which is what he does when he's nervous).

There were no tears during the song, but when

everyone cheered and clapped at the end, he burst

into tears and sobbed into my shoulder.

Maybe next year...

And just so we don't end this post on a

sad note, we took the kids to the Farmers'

Market yesterday and let Joshua pick

out a pumpkin for our front steps...

here we are with the chosen one! :)