Being Silly with Daddy

MN Visitors

This past weekend, we were thrilled to have some very special visitors. Our dear friends Heather & Jim and baby James came to visit us from Minnesota!

Heather & Jim have some other friends that live here that we got to spend time with - Eva and James. Thursday night, we all met up and had some good ol' yummy mexican food. Friday, we all went to the zoo. This was our 3rd time to the zoo since we moved back, but we finally got to stay a long time and really see everything! Joseph and James did great and had fun seeing all the animals. It was the first time that the zoo was practically empty so it was nice basically having all the exhibits to ourselves!

That night Heather & Jim came back to our place and stayed for the remainder of their trip. Baby James is a little over 3 months older than Joseph. It was so cute to see them playing and realize each other. Of course that meant a little face hitting and hair grabbing, but they're still buddies. :)

Saturday, we had a super fun day and went to Moody Gardens in Galveston. We toured the aquarium and then went down to the beach and took some pictures. It was pretty cool and super windy so we hopped back in the car and drove up to Kemah. We ate at the Aquarium restaurant and then got to see some of the Holiday Boat Parade where all the sailboats decorate their boats with lights. I have to say I think our favorite was the one that wrote out "Ho, ho, ho - Obama must go!". haha After that we went through some of the cute shops and then headed home where the babies fell fast asleep.

Sunday after mass, we all came back to our place and had a bbq where Michael smoked a yummy brisket. It was so great spending time together and catching up with our sweet friends. We were so sad when they had to leave Monday morning, but we are just so thankful for the fun time we had!

As usual, I wish we had more pictures. We took a decent amount but didn't get a whole lot of group shots.

Had to include an elephant pic from the zoo!
creepy

Our 2 little monkeys! :)

Joseph with the chimpanzee! There was one crazy one that would come up to glass, start making his monkey noises and then frantically run down and knock his knuckles into the glass - scared the bejeebers out of us!

Joseph apparently trying to strangle his daddy at the giraffe exhibit, haha

Heather & James with Michael & Joseph

Bath time!

Me & Heather at the poinsetta tree at Moody Gardens

Me and my little buddy

In front of the penguins

At the beach (a little windy)

At the boat parade in Kemah

Eva, Heather and me with the babies

Wearing their matching "My First Christmas" onesies

Little buddies

Our only group shot!

Last bit of play time before heaidng to the airport (this was just before Joseph grabbed hold of James' hair)

Tis the Season

Wow, what a busy week so far - I'm a little behind in getting this posted but better late than never right?

Last weekend, we went and got our Christmas tree and got our house all decorated! Michael did the outside lights and then we went to a local flower nursery and got a Christmas tree. While we were there we also got some new flowers for our front flowerbeds. I planted pansies in one and cyclamens in the other. I had never heard of these flowers before but they are really pretty and have such nice big blooms.

We decorated the tree the next day. Joseph woke up from his nap just in time to help me hang some ornaments. :) While we decorated the tree, I remembered how I told Michael last year as we decorated our tree in Minnesota that the next time we did our tree, we would have a little 7-8 month old crawling around. So fun to see how much can change in one year!

We also finally got our gas logs for our fireplace so we've been able to use it the past few chilly days. It's so wonderful to be able to enjoy the holidays with our sweet boy and in our cozy home!

Picking out the perfect tree
Putting the lights on the tree

Michael found this branch that made a perfect cross - it was a pretty neat moment

Helping Mommy hang ornaments (even though he really wanted to eat them)

The finished product

Just being silly

Flower bed with the cyclamens

And the pansies - I decided these flowers are an awful lot of work for such a tiny, wimpy flower. :)

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great holiday celebrating our first Thanksgiving with our little guy.

We headed to Michael's parents house in Temple for the long weekend. Joseph had so fun seeing his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins there! We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and one day Michael smoked a ham, so we definitely ate good the whole time we were there!

Saturday, we got to see our good friends Jared and Amber who were in town from Memphis where they live now. We met up at Casa Ole, our old stomping grounds. Years ago when we all lived in the same neighborhood in Humble, we would go to the Casa about once a week. So when we get together now, we always go to Casa Ole! :)

Also, Michael and I had our first outing just the two of us. We left Joseph with his grandparents and Aunt Lauren & Uncle Luke while we ran to Best Buy and Wal-Mart. They said he did pretty good for the most part. It was nice to have a little bit of time just the two of us, but it sure felt different without our little buddy with us!

We also got to go out to Rogers to the house and land where Michael grew up. Jimmy still does his pecan work there and has some cattle on the land. So after we walked around a while, we went and showed Joseph his first herd of cattle! It was super windy and chilly that day, so he was a little busy gasping for air with the wind in his face, but I think he did catch a few glimpses of the cows. :) It's so fun and special to have all these firsts with Joseph.

I'm disapointed I didn't get any shots of Joseph with everyone else, but here are a few shots we did get.

Joseph with Daddy
We all went for a walk after Thanksgiving dinner to walk off some of those calories and enjoy the nice weather

Me and Amber at Casa Ole with her sweet kiddos Reid, Sadie and Max

All the boys! Michael and Jared have been friends since 2nd grade - around the age Max is right now. We had fun imagining what a little Michael and little Jared looked like at that age.

In the pasture with the cows

Staying warm with Mommy!

7 Months

Last week, our precious Joseph turned 7 months old! More so than normal, I feel like the past month went by SO fast. For some reason, it seemed like he was 5 months for so long. But once I got used to the fact that he was finally 6 months, then he turned 7 months!

Every day is just more fun with Joseph! He is so expressive now and can certainly express when he is happy, sad, hungry, etc. I've begun sitting him in his stroller without his car seat and he likes it a lot more because he can look around and see so many new things.

He is doing so great with his solid foods as well. His favorite is sweet potato! He also has had avocado, bananas, plain yogurt, and pears. He also is on oatmeal cereal at night instead of rice cereal. He gets so excited to eat and kicks his feet in excitement before each bite!

He sits up on the floor really well now when he plays with his toys. He also makes the cutest noises when he plays. He still isn't the best sleeper at night so we're still trying to figure that one out. I think the most obvious changes in Joseph are that he FINALLY cut his first tooth a couple of weeks ago. Then I just discovered last week, that his second one is in as well right along side the first one! They are really starting to show when he smiles and it's so cute! The other big obvious change is that he has so much hair now!

And finally, I am writing this last section to Joseph so I will never forget certain things about the age he is at now:

-I love the way you reach for everything within sight (although a challenge when walking through tight aisles in the stores!)
-I love how when I leave your room briefly before you've fallen asleep for your nap, you quickly roll to your tummy so you can peek over the railing of the crib to see where I am.
-I love how when I open the trunk to get the stroller out, you know that I will peek over the seat to smile at you and say hi and you already have a huge smile on your face just waiting to see me
-I love that you are becoming more ticklish
-I love that you find comfort in holding onto a lock of my hair, especially when you're sleepy
-I love that you kick your feet when you're excited, especially when I come to get you out of your crib when you wake up from a nap
-I love that the highlights of your day are when we get crushed ice off the fridge door and how you love to lick the tiny ice shavings off the rim of my cup :)
-I love that when you're upset, sometimes you just want your mommy
-I love that the mirrors in our house have little finger streak marks on them from when you like to play with your reflection in the mirror
-I love your big eyes and how strangers always comment on them and how alert you are
-I love my favorite time of the day with you - after you have fallen asleep for the night nursing, I pull you close to me and cuddle you in my arms for a few minutes and I thank God for you and I say prayers over you

Here are some new pictures!

7 month picture with Kermie

4 month shot for comparison

I also got Joseph's professional pictures taken at JcPenney. They were for his 6 month pictures, but he was actually around 6 1/2 months when they were taken:

And here are the outtake shots with Kermie! These pictures are getting quite difficult now that he is so fond of his Kermie!

A Walk in the Park

The other day, the weather was gorgeous so I took Joseph on his first trip to our neighborhood park! We didn't even know there was a playground nearby until recently. It's probably a little less than a mile away, so I loaded Joseph in the stroller and off we went!

He enjoyed the walk on the way to the playground. It really seemed like he enjoyed just looking around and taking in all the new sights and sounds. We got to the playground and I was impressed by just how nice it is! It's so fun to imagine the future where he will be big enough to climb up all the neat toys!

I put him in the toddler swing and it was clearly way too big for him. But he seemed to enjoy a little swing in it. Then he swang in my lap as we watched the birds and looked around some more. I also got to point out all the tractors and bulldozers working nearby to build another section in our neighborhood. Here are some pictures from our fun afternoon!

On the walk from our section of the neighborhood to the playground
Posing in front of the playground!

Joseph's first time to swing!

Mommy & Joseph at the park

So exhausted that he needed a nap on the walk home!

And I realize my voice is super annoying on these videos, but anyways - here is a little video of Joseph swinging. I just love the way he kicks his feet - he does that a lot when he is excited lately.

The Girls Reunited

Yesterday after church, we had a very fun lunch with my friend Shelley and her son Grayson, and our friends Misty and her husband Greg who were in town from Dallas!

Misty, Shelley and I all used to work together at iMed Group here in Houston. After we all moved on to different places, we kept in touch with daily emails from our new companies. Now sure, some people may email daily - but we REALLY emailed daily. We're talking probably 50 emails a day, haha. At one point, Shelley was in Texas, I was living in MN, and Misty was living in Arizona and we kept in touch like we were right next door to each other.

Misty and Shelley have been such wonderful friends to me over the past 9 years and I have so many fun memories with these girls! Shelley was my first friend at iMed Group when I started there in 2002. And Misty and I took our first running class together and she got me in really good shape before my wedding! :) One funny memory I have to say about Misty is that at one point, I got moved to the office right next to hers (what were our bosses thinking??!). We both have a fear of roaches and other bugs and one day I yelled from my office to hers (as we normally would) "Misty!! Help me!!" She came running in and said "What??" and then I showed her the spider that had dropped from the ceiling right in my walk way to get out of my office. I was trapped! And she saved me! haha :) (Ok, it was really funny at the time.)

Anyways, lunch was a blast and we had so fun just catching up with each other. It was Misty & Greg's first time to see Joseph so he had fun grabbing their faces and giving them some snuggles!

I was SO mad I forgot my camera, but we have a few pictures at least from camera phones!

The girls - finally all 3 reunited!
Me and Misty with Shelley's son Grayson (my birthday buddy)

Grayson & Joseph

Picture

Last weekend we headed back to East Texas. My cousins and I got all the greatgrandkids together to take a picture for my grandpa for Christmas. My Grandpa is on his 3rd round of chemo and is unfortunately having various health problems, so we thought this would be an uplifting picture for him to see 3 generations down in his family!

We dressed all the kids in red, white and blue since my GP is a military man and loves his country so much. I can't wait to see the finished product from the photographer! It was definitely a challenge, but it went a lot better than we thought it would. We took the picture at the Texas State Railroad in Rusk.

After that we headed out to the deer lease to see my dad, aunt and uncles, and my Grandpa who were all out there for the weekend for the opening of deer season. It was my first time to see some of them since moving back, so it was so great to see family again!

We got to spend some time at my sister Kristina's house in Tyler after that where the kids enjoyed a bounce house that was there for Grace's birthday party the next day.

Unfortunately, when we all got home from the fun weekend, 10 out of 15 of us caught the same stomach bug. I got it Sunday night and was out all Monday but luckily Michael didn't get it til Tuesday - whew! Joseph never got it and I'm SOOO thankful!

The Great Grandkids

Such a beautiful bunch of kiddos

Out at the deer lease - Joseph's first time in the woods
Mom and Dad with all their grandkids
My dad and his siblings with Grandpa
Me and GP - he was by the fire trying to stay warm since it was a pretty cool morning
We love our GP!