Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Joseph Turned Seven, Guatemalan Style!

Yesterday was our Joseph's seventh birthday! It gets more difficult every year to hide anything from him, but we were able to pull off a couple of birthday surprises for him.

His big sisters helped me make cupcakes. I needed some kind of animal theme, and the ickier and slimier, the better.


Frogs! Perfect.


Lotsa frogs!


Jessica's adding the eyes. She and Jillian take special pleasure in preparing surprises for others! They also made him some birthday cards, and a storybook written and illustrated, with the main character being Joseph himself. :o)

We took our froggies and an urn full of hot tea to church with us in the evening. We so much enjoy attending the church here in San Juan when we are not in La Esperanza at the new mission. There were hymns, an excellent sermon on praying fervently, and some special prayer time.

After the prayer service, Pastor Oto invited Joseph to stand before the church so that we could sing to him. This video shows the rest... Enjoy!




SEVEN things I love about Joseph:

1) He throws so much energy into everything that he does!

2) He loves his family, and frequently tells us so.

3) He is a good artist.

4) He sings with all his heart, and has already written some songs about the Lord.

5) He's all BOY, and some day I know he'll be all MAN. (*sniff*)

(Here's Joseph mixing concrete, con mucho gusto!)

6) He loves to be Daddy's helper, and works so hard to please him.

7) While it's hard to get him to read anything else, he really enjoys reading the Bible at Family Devotions!

I love you, my boy! Happy Birthday!

10 comments:

Jessica Coates said...

I like your post mom!Frogs, I mean
toads run all over the place at night!so frogs are a nice change I
mean real nice change!

Tereza said...

So sweet and I love the cupcakes!! I find you missionary women get so creative in what you do!! Do you read the lockwoods blog. I think you would enjoy it and relate. They are heading back to Mexico this week!
How are you feeling with the pregnancy?

Diane Shiffer said...

those are some seriously adorable cupcakes! and a wonderful little boy too♥

happy birthday joseph!

Unknown said...

Tereza, I do read the Lockwood's blog! Jaynee really inspires me -- I don't know how she does it, but for the grace of God. :o)

As far as my pregnancy, I do okay most of the time. I'll function much better once I get past the nausea part! But baby's in there growing safe and sound :o)

Unknown said...

Thanks, Diane! :o)

Unknown said...

Jessica, you're so right! Those toads outside are too slimy for me, too. :o)

Elizabeth said...

Those are too cute! You and your girls did a great job!

Annette and Lizzie said...

Happy Birthday Joseph! We LOVE and miss you very much

Tori Leslie said...

Yea, happy birthday Joseph!!!
What fun and their singing was wonderful!!!

Wow, Jessica looked like a young lady walking down that isle, she's so tall now.

They sure grow fast!

Annette and Lizzie said...

We both cried during Joseph's video. We also decided that Lizzie and Jessica look more alike the older they get. They look more like sisters than cousins.