Birth Date

Ok, first an update on the blog before we get to the fun stuff.   So I decided to finally print out my blog into books by each year.  My sister had done it with her blog so I decided I would rather have that keepsake then have to pay for additional storage each month.   Once my books arrive around Christmas time, I will start deleting pictures from my blog back when I started it in 2007.  After that point, I'll be able to post pictures again so for sure after Christmas I will have all kinds of photos to share!   :)  

I'm actually glad it happened now so I can get all this figured out before baby boy arrives in a couple of months!    Plus, just by looking at the preview of the book, I think it is going to be quite a wonderful journal of our life to keep year by year.  I was suprised by just how emotional I got looking through the preview of the first year...it was just so neat to see what was going on in our life 5 years ago and see the pictures to document it all.

And now for the fun part of the update - we have an official delivery date for Baby #2!!  Baby's scheduled c-section delivery date is February 14, 2013!!   We will have a Valentine's Baby!  We didn't really choose the date because it was Valentine's Day, mostly because it's a Thursday and would really work out well as far as having our parents come into town for the delivery and to help watch Joseph.  So we are officially at less than 2 months now - eeek!!     

It is so fun to have an officially scheduled date and just brings us one step closer to meeting our precious little baby!  Every time I feel him move or get the hiccups inside me, it just makes me that much more eager to meet him and cuddle him in my arms.     Now that we have the date scheduled we plan to make a schedule of which mom is here when so that I can hopefully get as much support after we're back home as possible given the lifting restrictions I'll have from the c-section.   And I'm sure that we'll have a nice little plan in place and then baby may decide he wants to come on another date!   We will see!

Update

Well, I had tried to upload some Thanksgiving pictures last week but unfortunately I received a notice that I've reached my max storage capacity of photos on blogger.  Boo!   So bare with me while I try to explore my options and see how to proceed from here.

In the mean time, you're stuck with just boring ol' commentary from me.  ;)   I hope to get the picture thing resolved soon though!

We had a really great Thanksgiving. We went to my parents house for the long weekend and enjoyed time with them and my sister Kristina and her family.  We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal and everything was just delicious.  Each night we played mexican dominoes and had many great laughs!

Friday, Kristina and I went into Kilgore for some sister time and had a nice lunch and enjoyed browsing in some of the little shops in downtown Kilgore.  Saturday, I got to have lunch with my BFF from high school - Carrie!  It was great to see her again and see her 2 sweet girls.    Joseph had such a fun time the whole weekend.   My niece Grace (7 yrs) instantly became his best buddy for the weekend.  He didn't want to do anything (not even eat!) unless Grace was by his side.  And when they were all playing together and he got bumped in the face, Grace was the one he ran to.   It really was so cute and she is such a good big cousin to him.  I know I say this every time, but every time we see family it is more and more fun because of how much more interactive Joseph can be with his cousins and grandparents.     Michael had fun too - he worked on a welding project with my dad the whole weekend and just loves doing projects like that!

So thankful for the nice time we had, fun times with family and for safe travels.

In other quick news - baby #2 is kicking like crazy and is such a joy already.  I love my little guy and enjoy feeling him move and squirm around inside!    We had an ultrasound last week and my placenta is in a much better location and baby's growth is right on track.  Everything looked great and he was just precious as ever!  And he is DEFINITELY still a boy!  :D    It's crazy that tomorrow I will be 29 weeks - time is really starting to fly!   And next Tuesday, we will schedule the official c-section delivery state so stay tuned!

Life in Pictures

I have a few pictures that didn't make it into previous blog posts, so I thought I would just post a "photo dump" to share more moments of our lives.

I finally got Joseph his own little mower. Now everytime we go in the backyard with him, he has to push or pull his mower anywhere he goes.

He had so fun mowing with Daddy

Belly pic from last week - 26 weeks!

While my mom was in town a few weekends ago, Michael put together the portable wooden crib that my sisters used for their kids.  While I was in the shower, Mom was able to catch a few pictures of Joseph helping Michael with every little step.  So cute and I love how he likes to be so involved in everything we do.

Notice his own little blue tool kit that he brings along.  :)

One evening after dinner, Joseph found the perfect seat to read his book. 

Once the portable bed was put together, he had so fun putting his animals in there to go night-night.  Unfortunately, it made him really want to get in it too so we had to explain that the bed is only for babies (and stuffed animals).

A big milestone - Joseph is now forward facing in his carseat!   He is enjoying it and so are we!   It was getting very hard to get him in his seat correctly because of how limited the foot space was and how heavy he is!

Poor little buddy...I have confirmed that Joseph has an allergic reaction when he eats foods that have potassium sorbate/sorbic acid/sodium benzoate preservatives.   It doesn't seem to bother him but he gets red anywhere where that food gets on his face.  Foods that we've found that contain those preservatives: regular hummus, syrup, mayo, store bought potato salad, bbq sauce, spreadable butter, etc.

Yesterday was a really nice day so we went to the park all together. It was such a fun time and Joseph had fun showing Michael how he can climb and go down the slide all by himself.

Ready for the slide

Sliding with Daddy

On the spinner toy with Mommy pushing

Ready to climb up

He loves putting mulch anywhere where it isn't already

Me and my sweet boy

 

And lastly, here is a little video of Joseph showing off his knowledge of his body parts.  I did this right before bath time so you could get the full effect.  :)

Paci Free

Just a quick post to share the good news that Joseph is officially pacifier free!

He only used it for his nap and at night, but Michael and I both felt like it was time to wean him off of it.  I kinda dreaded doing it because he would sleep so well with it - he would take great long naps and sleep good at night by putting it back in his mouth anytime he would wake up in the middle of the night.   So part of me was hesitant on messing with a system that was clearly working well, but I knew it was the right time and needed to be done.  I wanted to make sure we were home for several weekends in a row before our travel starts up for the holidays to get him adjusted to sleeping without it.   And then I didn't want to wait until after the holidays because then we are basically on a 6 week countdown until baby brother will be born!

So, we started last week and for the most part it has gone quite well.  I made a big production about how we were all done with the paci's and the paci's were going bye-bye.  He waved bye to them and I put them away.  I also took down the small little shelf where we would keep the paci's during the day (out of reach) because he very much associated that shelf with the location of the paci's.  Honestly, after saying bye-bye, he seemed more preoccupied with the fact that his shelf was taken down! 

I was most nervous about Joseph being able to fall asleep without the pacifier/sucking action, but that has been the easiest part of it all!  He now gets to take his little bunny to bed with him so he has a little cuddle friend which he seems to really enjoy.  Now when I see him sit up after his nap, his bunny is the first thing he reaches for.  :)   The challenges have been him sometimes waking up/crying out in the middle of the night and not having the paci to instantly going back to sleep.  Luckily, we've only had one rough night.  I've messed up by giving him the paci a couple of times to help him go back to sleep (once during the rough night and once after a very short nap).  But now we are definitely paci free and are just going to work through any rough times as they come.   

He is waking up earlier in the morning and his naps have been a lot shorter, but the past couple of days have been better and his naps have gotten a little more decent.  So, I'm hoping that with time (and am praying for by the time the baby is born) that he will be back to sleeping just great!  :)

 

This was how he fell asleep for his nap the other day.  He always ends up laying sideways and on this particular nap, you can see bunny's arm sticking out from underneath Joseph's back.  Poor bunny.  :P

Grandma Time

Joseph had a very special visitor come see him last weekend - my mom! 

Mom came in town Friday night and stayed through the weekend.  We had such a great time!  Saturday, we just took it easy and had lots of play time at home so that Mom and Joseph could enjoy their one on one time together.  We did go out for lunch and to Crazy 8 which was a super fun outing.  Then the rest of the day we enjoyed just being at home.  While Joseph napped, Mom and I had fun looking online for kid bathroom stuff and got to just talk about the new baby and plan out the layout of his room.

Sunday we all went to Mass together and then to Sam's and for a yummy mexican food lunch.  We came back home for a little last minute play time before Joseph had to go down for his nap.  He and his Grandma certainly took advantage of every fun minute they had together!  He had so much fun with her over the weekend!     She even put him down to bed for his nap each day and to bed Saturday night and he did perfect. 

We're so thankful Mom was able to come!  Here are some pictures from all the fun things they played together!   (As usual, I wish I had taken even more pics.  I planned to take a pic of me and her on Sunday and even left my church clothes on to do it, but then we got to talking and it slipped my mind!)

All smiles while playing with the car ramp

Tickle time on the kitchen island while Mommy made dinner

Listening to music on Grandma's iPhone

And now they are dancing to that same music   :)

Building a tower!

Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween!  And that's right people, I am on top of things (for once) and am posting these pictures the same night!!

We had a great Halloween!  Even though this was technically Joseph's 2nd Halloween, it was his first time to go trick or treating and really participate in the festivities.  Our friends Bridget and Joe came to our house for pizza and then we got the kids dressed and ready to go.  Joseph was a giraffe, Alexandra was Little Bo Peep and Baby Victoria was a sweet little pumpkin!  The kids had so much fun together and got in as much play time together as possible! 

We figured the kids would go to a few houses and then be not that interested, but to our surprise they caught on to the trick or treating concept VERY quickly!  They would both knock on the door and then gladly grab a handful of candy out of the person's candy bowl.  It was so funny and very sweet to see how much fun they had with it.   

Joseph was excited to see all the treats he got in his bag once we got home.  He picked out one and gave it to Michael - his choice was a Hershey Cookies n Cream candy bar.  So we gave him a few bites and he loved it.  And Baby #2 was quite active and happy after the candy Mommy ate too!  ;)

Me and our sweet Goddaughter, Victoria!

Getting the kids ready to go in their costumes

One of the few pics we got of Joseph with his headpiece on.  He's definitely not a fan of leaving the hat part on for very long.

Me and my little giraffe!

Daddy and the Giraffe

Little Bo Peep and Giraffe ready to go!

Little buddies

On our way!

Trick or treat!

Looking for the candy

Joseph stopped along the way when he realized all the fun stuff that was in his pumpkin bag

On to the next house

Bridget and baby Victoria

Grabbing some candies from this nice lady's bowl

On a mission for candy

Checking out all his treats!

Fall Fun

This month, we've been able to do a lot of fun things with our friends and playgroups.  With it being fall, we've had some regular activities but also some more fall/Halloween themed activities that have been really fun.  I figured I would just put it all in one post since I just took a few photos at each event.

First, we went to the zoo with Bridget and her daughters Alexandra and Victoria.  Joseph and Alexandra are so cute together and are so much more interactive together than when they were real little.  They like to play chase - oh, and they feed each other food if we mistakenly put their high chairs next to each other.  :)

Joseph and Alexandra walking together at the zoo

Sweet little friends - and the best pic we could get of them both looking somewhat foreward

Victoria (in stroller) with the "big kids" while they check out the animals on the other side of the fence.

 

Then, the next week our church playgroup event was rescheduled so some of us opted for a playdate at a park instead.

 

Joseph and Rhodes - he was so happy to have another little boy buddy that enjoyed putting mulch up on the playset ledge as much as he does!

The best group shot we got!  Michelle, Bridget and Nikki with kiddos!

Joseph going for a walk with Gracie and Alexandra

 Then that Sunday, we had our annual Fall Bazaar at church!  Our church is huge with tons of families - so the fall bazaar is always a huge event.  And what's amazing is that all the money raised through the bazaar goes 100% to the community and different charities.  So we enjoyed a BBQ lunch and then took Joseph to play some of the little kiddie games.

Walking through the crowds with Daddy

Digging for a prize!

Not a very good pic, but this was me helping him play the fishing game where the kid holds the pole and drops it over the little divider board for a prize.  :)

Michael got in on the fun too at the "Wine Wheel" - basically like roulette but if the arrow stops on your number you win a bottle of wine.  

Then later that week, Joseph and I went to Hobby Lobby where I was thrilled to see that their fall decor was 40% off.   So we bought a new little scarecrow for our living room.  Joseph LOVES the scarecrow and still points at it or kisses it every day!    He was so excited to go sit by it on the fireplace and drink his milk next to scarecrow.

Joseph and Scarecrow

Then, he decided he didn't want Bunny to feel left out.

...well then, Doggie and Moose couldn't feel left out either....

...and before you knew it, we had the whole stuffed animal gang all together with Scarecrow!  :D

We then had a Halloween Party playdate with our Tiny Tots church playgroup at a girl's house.  Only a couple of the kids wore their costumes.  Joseph is a giraffe this year for Halloween!   He actually kept the costume on quite well and had fun chasing his own tail a few times!

Joseph and another little buddy playing on the piano

Outside, the kids had lots of fun playing with toys.

He loves balls!

 And then finally, yesterday we went with the same playgroup to the zoo for Zoo Boo. Basically the Houston Zoo decorates with Halloween decorations, have a little pumpkin area for the kids and various trick or treating spots.   We had a nice time and I was so glad the cold front came through just in time for Joseph to be able to wear his costume outside for a while without sweating up a storm.

While we were waiting for our group, I was able to get one pic of him with the hat part on.  Then he was all done with that part!

Me, Joanna and Leigh with the babes!

In the pumpkin patch area

So happy he picked out his own mini pumpkin!