Keep up with the Joosts: July 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

ABCBABYFURNITURE.COM......

We got the keys for our new warehouse space in Valencia. The address is
25030 W. Ave Stanford Unit 20 Valencia, CA 91355.

It is a nice little warehouse space with a big office that we plan to make into a showroom.

It has ALL the amenities including a cute little box boy...maybe not so little anymore but a GREAT box boy. He can throw the boxes around almost as good as his Dad.

SOOO we're soon to be in BUSINESS!

Where have they Been????

My good OLD friend Shirley came into town. We haven't seen each other for years! We picked up right where we left off without even missing a beat!!!

Yes! the first thing we did was go to our favorite FABRIC store M&L. How fun for me, one of my favorite people at one of my favorite places!! We always shop and mock and laugh until we pee our pants! We asked someone to take our picture and she couldn't figure out why we would want our picture taken in the fabric store! No one understands how much fun we have at the fabric store!!!

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How fun it was for all of us to get reacquainted with Sarah. I baby sat her for 5 years so she is one of our girls. She is just SOOO full of life! I want her back!!!

Chandler and Sarah hit it off just like siblings!! Feet in the face and everything!

Natalie and Emily hit it off once Emily got past the memory of Natalie stealing her my little ponies last time they were together!!! We want her too!!!

Thanks for coming to see us!! Now we miss you more!!!

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Big Birthday Bash...

We had a Great time for Brittney's Birthday. We went to Cheese Cake Factory for dinner at the Americana in Glendale. Then we went to see the movies...Batman! This place is REALLY plush, the movie theatre lobby was like a plush hotel. We had a GREAT time! We had all our family and Grandma and Grandpa and Brittney's Best Buddy Nicole.

Happy 20th Brittney!!!!

Brittney, Collette, Nicole, Natalie and Chandler
Brittney's FAVORITE gift...
a week's worth of GUM!!!!

Brittney being worshipped Properly! The whole restrauant singing!

The movie was GREAT!!!! Nothing like Batman for a 20 year old birthday!

Happy Birthday Brittney!!!

We Hope you have many more!!!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Today My Baby Girl Turns 20!!!!!

Today my Baby girl is turning 20! Happy Birthday Brittney!!! I can't hardly believe it!!! I'm not sure I've been awake because it seems to have passed toooo quickly! I love my kids birthdays. I usually do a lot of reminiscing about them on their birthdays. I thought it might be fun this year to record some of my memories.

I remember what a shock it was to have a new baby in sooo many ways. First of all the sleep! I never knew I could live on such little sleep! But I always enjoyed my late night nursing with my babies. It was soo amazing to me how difficult it was to go anywhere and all the paraphernalia it took to take her out.

Mommy and Brittney...

Daddy and Brittney...

Brittney was an adorable baby. She was born with a bit of red in her hair and later proved to be a true red head with a head strong way about her. Today we are VERY grateful for that strong will. Brittney got Chubby rather quickly, I LOVED that about my babies except for holding the 20 pound baby was a bit of work! I hated to ever let Brittney cry. So we held her ALL the TIME. My pediatrician always said I couldn't spoil her until after she was 1. So we held her as much as she wanted. I always worried about her because of her heart problem. I was sooo relieved after she had the surgery that fixed her heart! I was always grateful for her little cry in the night because I knew she was alright.

She was a tense baby, always had her hands clinched in a fist. She sure wanted Mom or Dad and NO ONE ELSE. Especially not Grandma Skinner! Fortunately she out grew that and LOVES spending time with Grandma!

Brittney grew especially fond of her daddy VERY young. Probably because I was sooo ready for his help when he got home from work and he sure enjoyed holding her and taking care of her. It is amazing how much work one little tiny baby can be, especially when they are the ONLY tiny baby!

Brittney LOVED having her picture taken, and was always quite the model.

Brittney LOVED this doll, it was her "Collette" doll she got when Collette was born so she'd have her own baby to take care of.

Brittney LOVED performing and especially dancing!!!

Brittney always wanted to do EVERYTHING herself!!! Since she was such an EASY GOING kid (HaHa) we tried to accommodate her and make life as accessible to a small child as possible. This was great for a new mom to learn because I worked with all my kids to do Everything themselves. Brittney was a Great first child. She paved the way well for her siblings.

She feels she'd be a different kid if she was 2nd or 3rd instead of our first! But I don't know!!!

We are sooo grateful for our baby girl and the 20 years she has been with us!

Happy Birthday Brittney! We LOVE You!!!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Swimming with our Cousins....

We Love our cousins the Craigs--Aunt Teresa, Brady, Kayla and Cammie! Living right close to grandma we are sooo lucky to share in all the visitors and this past week we enjoyed Teresa, Kayla and Cammie. We sure miss having Brady around! I hate it that they have to grow up!!! Last week we swam with them at our neighbors pool, on Wednesday last week they took Chandler with them for a trip to Knot's Berry Farm and Monday we went swimming at our local aquatic center. The aquatic center has a FUN high Dive and a really fun Huge slide!!! We had a blast, we all got Sunburned but we sure had a BLAST!!!
Thanks for coming to see us!! We love having you come!

Some of the fun...

Kayla, Chandler, Cammie and Natalie at the Aquatic center

Chandler on the High Dive

Chandler Jumping off the High Dive

Natalie about to go into the water off the High Dive

Cammie jumping off the High Dive

Chandler coming off the slide. Look at his face!

See how big the slide is! Here comes the gang for some food!

Chandler showing off his muscles!

We had a great time as usual!!! Come see us again soon!!!!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Fun Week in July...

In April our ward ( church congregation) had a silent auction to fund raise for the youth going to summer camp. We bought several fun things and cashed them all in this past week. We bought a fun filled date with our resident FBI agent. John, Chandler and I along with our favorite neighbors spent several hours with our friend Mark Voges learning all about being an FBI sharp shooter. We were able to see all his guns and even learn how to shoot using the FBI shooting simulator. WE had a great time and learned we were all pretty good shots. We also learned who not to mess with, Nicole and Marina!!! They showed NO MERCY!!!

Can you guess who the FBI agent is???

shhhh don't tell anyone but we're standing infront of the FBI building!!

(apparently it isn't supposed to be photographed.) like no one will notice a 12 story building! Thanks Mark for a fun filled evening!!! Thanks to the Norwoods for being such good friends! You made the evening extra fun!

Then...

Friday evening we went to see WICKED with our cousins, our cousin's friends and Grandma and Grandpa. We all LOVE to see Wicked and would see it weekly if we were rich! Oh to be rich!

"Are people born Wicked or is Wickedness Thrust upon them???"

Then...

Saturday morning we were treated to a fun filled day on the Mower's new BIG boat on Castaic Lake, another big win from the silent auction. We had such a nice relaxing day! A bit of swimming, A bit of wake boarding by Brittney and Jacob and Jordan (show off), A ton of fun in the innertube for several hours and then a relaxing ride around the lake with John and Chandler driving the boat. The extra treat was that cute baby to play with all day long! We're all so glad Heather had a cute baby girl for us to enjoy! Lunch was GREAT everyone should try Gandolfo's in Castaic! Thanks Mowers, the "Deal" was TONS of fun!!! We missed you Collette, she was working hard to get $$$ for College in the fall.