Now that Joseph can hold onto things and get them to his mouth, his toys have become a lot more interesting to him! He's still not sure how to get the rubber ducky to squirt water, but he doesn't seem to mind much—bath time is absolutely one of his favorite times of the day!

This morning Jen suggested we get a shot of all the cousins together on the couch—what a fun idea! From left to right: Benjamin, Lindsey, Jonathan, Taylor, Joseph, and Devon.

Here's another cute shot of Devon holding Josephus.

The Houstons are just about ready to head off—Jen will be driving this rental car and Allan will be pulling their trailer with a moving truck. We sure will miss them—it was so much fun having them here!

The Houstons are visiting on their way to AZ! They arrived last night after a rather hectic trip from MI—the Cazier family in our ward is almost entirely responsible for getting them here after their van completely died. After a good night's sleep, the kiddos couldn't wait to say hi to their cousin Joseph!

Little Josephus took to his Aunt Jen almost immediately! Here she is getting him to smile and laugh and coo.

Devon was probably the most interested in Joseph of all the cousins—always playing with him and touching him softly, and telling others to be soft, too! Here he is holding Joseph for the first time—what a couple of handsome guys!

Joseph and Benjamin are actually less than a year apart, and as Jen pointed out, that difference will almost disappear as they grow! Here they are making their first introductions, too.

Tonight we gave Josesphus his first haircut! This shot shows his patchy and straggly "before" do—even Tim had noticed how bad it was getting to look. We meant to get some shots during and after the cutting session, but Joseph had such an aversion to the clippers that we were chiefly concerned with calming him down! Next time, we'll take things a little slower. He looks much better now, though!

We finally put up our bird feeders! It took a couple days, but as these shots show, we are already getting some customers. The feeders are right on our back deck, so we can watch the birds come and go while we work in the kitchen or eat at the table. How fun!

Josephus has also started laughing! It's a little, breathy sort of chuckle, and he doesn't do it very often yet. Needless to say, it's extremely cute!

Not that we're surprised a bit, but Joseph already loves reading, and we love reading to him, too! He studies every page with his typical zeal, and Tim and I vie over who gets to read him his story each night. It's so exciting to see his growing interest in the world around him!

Here is some actual proof of Joseph's growing dexterity! He's been fond of the "antennae" on this little red bug since our trip to D.C. I guess they're the perfect size for chewing!









Josephus is also getting more and more talkative as the days go by! Tim thought he would try to catch a video of their conversation this afternoon, but he ended up with five really good ones. I couldn't decide between them, so here they all are!

Josephus is learning some new skills this week! This shot shows him both lifting up his legs and clutching his clothes—big accomplishments for such a little guy! He grabs and holds most everything that comes within reach now, be it a toy, a blanket, your clothes, or your face. I'm sure it won't be long until he's grabbing those feet, too! That reminds me that I'm going to have to figure out a better way to trim those little nails!

Here he is again curling up the legs and grabbing the blanket—what a happy little guy!

We ended our trip this morning with a stop by the Washington D.C. temple. What a beautiful building!

The grounds around the temple are beautiful, too, and so peaceful! Tim took Joseph for a walk on a little nature trail nearby while I was inside. Spring is definitely on its way—robins and new daffodils were everywhere!

Today we started with the National Air and Space Museum, which was, believe it or not, full of all kinds of planes, rockets, spacecrafts, and more!

To be honest, we were growing a little tired of air and space stuff by about 10:00 o'clock, so we headed off to the to the National Museum of American History instead. By the time we got there, Joseph had also had his fill of the stroller. He wanted to stand up and stretch those long legs!

Among other neat things, this museum sported the original Kermit the Frog. How fun!

Tim's on spring break this week, so we're off to see our nation's capital! Here we are just after arriving on the National Mall this morning!

It's hard to miss the Washington Monument. It's so big, in fact, that it seemed a lot closer to our parking spot than it actually was! It was a beautiful day, though—we couldn't help but enjoy the walk.

What would a trip to D.C. be without seeing the Capitol? Actually, this is about the most we saw of it—there was just too much else to do! We'll have to save the tour of the Capitol for another trip.

We spent a large chunk of our time today in the National Museum of Natural History. Here's Tim next to the Hope Diamond!

One of my favorite parts of the museum was the Birds of D.C. exhibit. It featured skins of the 500 plus species that make their home in the Washington area—even the tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird!

We all liked the dinos, until Joseph decided it was time to eat, that is! We only got lost a couple times on our way back to our hotel for the night—all in all, a successful day!

Today Tim took the Texas plates off our car and replaced them with new Virginia ones, so I guess we're officially Virginians now! We opted to spend a little extra for the charming cardinal and dogwood plates, which is a little silly, perhaps, but fun nonetheless!

Here's a full-body shot of Josephus to illustrate the way he's quickly outgrowing his first set of clothes, at least lengthwise! He's still got plenty of room in the body of this little romper, but the legs and sleeves are just a bit too short. I guess he's sort of tall and skinny—I wonder where he got that from?