JASON - If you need the priesthood to baptise or vise versa, how was Joseph Smith able to baptise? It seems that John the baptist should of appeared and baptised Joesph first and then give him the priesthood.

JOEL - The order of events in the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood is interesting. Here are the relevant scriptures that record the event:

68 We still continued the work of translation, when, in the ensuing month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the remission of sins, that we found mentioned in the translation of the plates.
While we were thus employed, praying and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying:
69 "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
70 He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be conferred on us hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me.
71 Accordingly we went and were baptized. I baptized him first, and afterwards he baptized me—after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same Priesthood—for so we were commanded."(J.S. History 1:68-71)

Notice that John the Baptist first "confered" the aaronic priesthood upon Joseph and Oliver which gave them authority to baptize each other, which they did. After being baptized they then "ordained" each other into the Aaronic priesthood, thus setting the pattern of being baptized first before being ordained into the priesthood.
Among the reasons suggested for this unusual pattern, other than “for so we were commanded,” are the following:

First, John the Baptist confering the Priesthood upon them before baptism, is contrary to the order of the organized Church, therefore they were commanded to confer the Priesthood upon each other again in the regular way; after they were baptized. Second, the angel did for them that which they could not do for themselves. There was no one living in mortality who held the keys of this Priesthood, therefore it was necessary that this messenger, who held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood in the Dispensation of the Meridian of Time, should be sent to confer this power. It is contrary to the order of heaven for those who have passed beyond the veil to officiate and labor for the living on the earth, only wherein mortal man cannot act, and thereby it becomes necessary for those who have passed through the resurrection to act for them. Otherwise John would have followed the regular order, which is practiced in the Church, and would have first baptized Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and then conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood. (See Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History, 27th ed. (1974), 58.)