Party for our Princess ~ 3 years old!

Josie celebrated her 3rd Birthday. She is growing up so quickly. It is fun to watch her turn into a little girl, but hard to watch my baby grow up. She is definetly not a toddler anymore. She likes to keep up with John. I can't talk about her birthday and not tell you all just how happy and grateful we are to have Josie in our lives. As you probably know Josie was born with two tumors and one was blocking her airway causing her not to breathe correctly. After 5 days (I think it was 5?) She was moved to Children's hospital and within an hour of us being there she was heading into surgery. Quick story: Derrick was holding Josie as we walked down to the surgery area. There was a nurse carrying oxygen becuase her breathing was so erratic. I remember all of a sudden the nurse picked up pace, then looked at Derrick and said "you need to run". Due to just giving birth I couldn't keep up and I remember looking at Derrick and saying "just go". The emotions that went through me were so overwhelming it is hard to describe. I remember it like it was yesterday. Obviously the outcome was good. But it is very hard to trust sometimes, this was one of those times that you just had to trust that everything would work out. I'll never forget how helpless I felt as they took her away. It is crazy that her life started out with such a traumatic event. However we quickly learned that Josie even at 5 days old was a fighter, and a survivor. Those great qualities are still with her today. She is now into all things "girly" yet still holds the heart of a fighter, and she is our little princess! My favorite thing to watch is Josie fight "UFC style" with her older brothers then go put on her Cinderella dress! Got to love girls! Happy Birthday Josie~ you continue to inspire us all!

Josie was loving tearing all the gifts open. John did really well and helped to hand her the gifts. It is tough at the age of four to see someone else getting lots of gifts!

Detrix and John

A princess cake for our little princess! This picture doesn't do the cake justice. It was just perfect! We don't have any pics of Josie's friends ~ they made her day very special.

A little out of order - this pic... but I thought it was cute!

This is Liz and Josie sleeping on the couch. Liz and Foster had flown in Christmas Eve, and so they were a bit tired Christmas Day. Josie wasn't feeling well, so she was more than happy to take a quick nap with Liz.


Wow what a last week! Poor Josie got sick the day before Christmas, all the way through her birthday. She decided to share a bit of it, so Derrick got hit too. We missed a 40th B-day party too! Darn it. Happy 40th Leonard! We love you.