A Growing List of Reasons Why My Best Friend Should Move to Boise

1. So we can let our children grow up to be best friends.

2. So we can get Jamba Juice and pedicures together.

3. So we can get hot cocoa and walk around open houses pretending to be buyers.

4. So we can babysit for each other and go on fun dates with our husbands.

5. So we can be exercise buddies and also junk food buddies.

6. So we can take our children to story time and the park together.

7. So she can make me delicious bread and pies. And cakes. And all other delicious food.

8. 

Joshua:18 Months

I can't believe my little boy is already one and a half! It seems like yesterday we were sitting at home with our newborn marveling at how little and precious he was, wondering how in the world we were going to raise this little life. He's growing up so fast and is learning so much. I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow and he'll be going off to college.
At 18 months Joshua is in the 15th percentile for height and weight. 21 pounds and 31 inches tall. The doctor said he's small but healthy and bright. He can say 27ish words and tell you where his hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, fingers, belly, knees, toes, wee-wee, and "cute butt" are. He's starting to put two words together like, "Bye-bye Dada" "Night Night T" (T is what he calls Tarek) "Up Mama" or "Please Up" "Please go" "Please on" Just simple things like that. He's also very agreeable, although he does have his bad days and can throw a pretty massive tantrum. If you ask him to do something and then say, "Okay?" He says "Okay!" back and does what you want.
Here are his likes and dislikes:

Loves:
*Puppies
*Reading books
*Giving kisses and cuddles
*His brother
*Going down slides at the park
*Nap time
*Baths
*Bubbles
*Being outside

Dislikes:
*Story time at the library 
*Coming home from the park
*Not being able to grab knives out of the dishwasher
*Being told "No, Thank you sir!"
*When Tarek has to go to his moms house
*Not being able to play in the fridge

Some of his favorite foods are:
*Scrambled eggs
*Any fruit
*Cheese
*Yogurt
*Bread

Least favorite foods:
*Any type of meat, besides chicken nuggets
*Most vegetables


Here are his Fall/18 month ADORABLE pictures! I think these are my most favorite yet. 

Eatin' rocks...

 "Thriller!"

He started getting grumpy when he wasn't allowed to jump off the bridge into the water.

Giving up on getting away from the camera.

Peach Cobbler

I've been craving peach cobbler for about a gazzilion years and when I saw that my local farmers market had delectable peaches I had to make it. I found the recipe on Pintrest but I changed a few things up. So, ladies and gents, here is the best peach cobbler recipe of my life. 

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 5-6 fresh peaches, sliced
• 1 tablespoon apple juice
• 2 tablespoons vanilla, divided 
• Ground cinnamon or nutmeg

Preparation

1. Melt butter in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish, mix in 1 tablespoon vanilla.
2. Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over butter (do not stir).
3. Bring remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, 3 tablespoons cinnamon, 2 tablespoons nutmeg, 1 tablespoon vanilla, and apple juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir). Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg, if desired.
4. Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve cobbler warm or cool.

While I was making this I found it odd that the batter went under the peaches and that you weren't supposed to stir anything in the baking dish. I went along with that part of the recipe though and while baking the batter rises up and covers the peaches. The batter makes a very yummy crust that is fluffy and moist with an almost caramel like crunchy top. I love it so much. 

Ps. The original recipe called for lemon juice instead of apple but I didn't have any lemon juice. 

Don't forget your ice cream, happy baking!

Update On Some Of Our Adventures

I'm not so great at this blogging thing, mostly because anytime I sit down to use the computer Joshua thinks he needs to climb onto my lap and bang on the keyboard. I sometimes think of making a post while he's napping but then I decide to take a nap or clean something. Today however I've had far to much caffeine to be able to nap and I need an excuse for not doing the dishes...

For some of our Thursday family day activities we have

Played around at Pojo's

Played at a few parks 

At DeMeyer park there is a little stream along a walking path and Tarek decided to strip down to his undies and play in the water. 

Joshua and I just put our feet in. 

We took some bread to feed the ducks but these ducks are very used to being fed and almost attacked us to get out bread. 

Went to the zoo

Allen went to Oregon for a few days so Joshua and I went to the zoo again with Aunt Lar while he was gone.

We got to feed a giraffe

Joshua really loved the penguins 

While he was in Oregon Allen sent me this picture. He's a sweet cheese ball. 

He also brought the ocean home to me. 

A few other things that have happened this summer:

Joshua got to meet his future wife Miss Darcey, they had a good time getting know each other. 

This is probably my most favorite picture of all time. 

We went to Anne Morrison for the 4th of July and Joshua enjoyed playing and then watching the fireworks 

Tarek didn't get to spend the day with us but he and Joshua had matching 4th of July shirts. 

We took a little spontaneous road trip to the Declo/Burley area to visit some of my family and Joshua got to meet a few of his cousins. We call them "Round 2" because my cousins and I played together in this same house with some of the same toys when we were all younger. It was fun to get together and see our children play together. I wish we could do it more often. 

Joshua got to see and pet some horses at my Aunts house. 

Allen's work had a party that we went to and the boys had fun even though it was about 509 degrees outside

We went to the Historical Museum. It's a fun place to go but I think the boys are to young to fully appreciate it and we happened to go at the same time as a field trip so there were a lot of loud and annoying children there.

Our latest adventure was paddle boating at Julia Davis Park. I've only gone twice but I really love it. You only have to pay $8 for a half hour and the pond is beautiful. 

We took some bread to throw out to the ducks. This one decided to try and get the bread before any other ducks by jumping on our boat. It kind of freaked me out and I ended up having to nudge it off the boat with my foot because it tried getting up closer and I didn't want it to bite anyone. 

Joshua had a good time until he decided that he MUST get in the water. He was not pleased when we wouldn't throw him in, I kind of wanted to towards the end though. :P

Well, that's how our summer has been so far. We may take a day trip to McCall and hang out by the river sometime in August so I'm looking forward to that.