Joshua Manuel: 3 years old

Joshua Manuel,
My Joshie, you are three years old. You are LOUD, energetic, helpful, a momma's boy, mostly sweet, and overall wonderful. You make us laugh everyday. You are silly and like all of the attention! Most of the time, you are incredibly polite and friendly. You love your brother a lot, but sometimes show that love through pushes and punches... We're are deep in the heart of learning what it means to obey with a joyful heart. Whining seems to be a newly learned trait, again, just more time together learning... Just like your daddy, you LOVE your friends and are always ready for the next opportunity to play. You are hungry all the time. You love music, helping your daddy and Opa work, and being outside or going to the park. For some strange reason, you sleep on the floor every night. You have two beds in your room, but choose to sleep on a blanket on the floor. Every morning you run upstairs and as long as I am not up with Asher already, you climb into bed with me and cuddle for about two minutes before you realize you are hungry and ready to watch a show. You love the snow. You know your numbers as 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13... I think you know your ABC's, and we are working on your colors. For the most part, you've stopped taking an afternoon nap and just go downstairs for "rest time" and to play with your cars.You are excited about our baby girl and talk about how little she will be and how you will hold her. You also tell anyone who asks what her name is, so we've pretty much given up on keeping it a secret anymore. You wear your cowboy boots almost everyday, and I can only convince you to wear tennis shoes if it is important to "run and jump." You have about a million cars and love and know them all equally. You swaddle monkey and another bear in your blankies and they are "your babies." You don't like it when I do your hair, and prefer to have "crazy hair." You only let Kma cut your nails. I don't want to forget how you say : Grandpa Mary, frick-or-freating, and YMC-I. You talk all them time and always have an opinion or idea. You love to pretend to be a wild animal and we are always guessing as to which one it is. Blitz is your dog. Sometimes you play that your brother is your dog... He's pretty good at fetch! There are so many wonderful things about you, my three year old boy, I'm sure I am forgetting a lot of them...

At three years old, some of your favorites include:

• Shows - Monster's Inc, Wild Kratts, Handy Manny, Mickey Christmas, really lots of shows- it changes regularly- you just like shows :)
• Foods - apples, peppers, donuts, noodles, and lately- Halloween candy
• Favorite color - blue 
• Best Friend - Asher/ Jocelyn
• Girlfriend- Jocelyn 
• Friends - Lily, Jackson, Abel, Meadow, Maddox, Liam, your cousins!
• Activities - going to the park, playdough, playing with cars
• Music - Tyler's song & Life is a Highway

To celebrate your birthday this year, we had cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents over for a noodle lunch, pinata, and cake at our house on your actual birthday. The next Monday we invited a few friends (Jackson, Abel, Lily, Maddox, Liam and Izzy) to CHUCK E CHEESE! You had been talking about it for months and it was so fun!

Being your mom is hard work, Joshua. You push me closer to Jesus everyday as I learn to depend on Him and not myself. I pray that you see your dad and I trusting the Lord everyday. I pray that you use your energy and creativity to further the kingdom of God and that you learn to lean on Him and trust Him. We are so very thankful for you Joshua. Each day with you is a gift!  
We love you too much! 

Love, your momma & daddy