A few House Decorations

I love snowmen so I try to decoration my kitchen in snowmen each year.

My beautiful nativity scene from my Mother in law. (It's by Jim Shore)

Looking down from upstairs.

Looking up from downstairs.

Decorating the new house

When I tell him to pose for A picture he has started squinting his eyes like this. It is pretty funny, I tell him to smile and he does that instead.

He loves decorating and re decorating this tree. I love this tree because my mom alawys put it out at our house when I was a child and now she gave it to me.

He had to have this pink tree beside the green one. And he added gold jewelery to the ceramic green one. Every time I try to move the pink one away he tell me to stop!

His tree in his room. It used to be my Memaw's tree :) Love those cars under it...

Outside Ride

I told him to pose for a picture for GIGI.

Behind the houses

At our old house we had a wonderful field we called the greenway that Joseph could run, play ball, and ride his dune racer in whenever he wanted. Since moving to the new house it seems he plays outside less which make me so sad. Our front yard is on a busy street and the back yard is ok, just small and not much to do out there. But we have a back gate and then a bayou, as houston people call it, that runs down the back of houses all the way to the next neighborhood. So the 4 of us (Gina included) have walked/jogged/duneraced down the grassy lane a ways. It makes me a little nervous because if Joseph were to drive down the hill near the water he would crash and tumble because it is so steep. I had to get over that fear because if I want him to enjoy the outdoors and ride his car, this is the only place to do it around here living . One day last month I got brave and we went for a walk/ride without Daddy for the first time. It was nice. I hope to do it again soon!

Trick or treating :)

I needed to get my trick or treating pics up before Christmas gets here! Max and Evan were in town the month of October so we were able to do some early trick or treating with the cousins over in Ghee and Poppy's neighborhood. On that night, Joseph was a Cowboy riding a horse. He wouldn't wear his cowboy hat the whole time (it's too small anyway, he needs a new one). They went to a couple of neighbors, including sweet grandma Glenda.
On Halloween night at our house we took him to a few houses down the street. He did better than last year, but would not say "Trick or treat". He would ring the doorbell then run behind, Momma, Daddy, and GIna  when someone opend the door, it looked like a bunch of adults were there to get candy. It was pretty funny. He was still scared of some decorations and we did skip a few houses because of that. Over all he loved trick or treating and he ate a TON of skittles when we got home. It surprised me cause usually he is a chocolate kind of guy. I was a she-devil, Daddy was a sheriff, Joseph was batman, and Gina was Superman. Sorry but we didn't get any pictures of halloween night. I had the worst jaw pain I've ever had in my life, so I had to take some meds and just didn't feel like snapping photos. We do love Hallowen and our last trick or treater came at 10pm! After that we turned off our lights.I love handing out candy!

Evan the Gorilla

Joseph the cowboy

Trick or Treating!!

Cousins! Max the Psycho man, Evan the Gorilla, and the cowboy! What a TRIO!

FIre Truck museum

 

My good friend had free tickets to the fire truck museum near uptown houston. She was kind enough to invite us to go with them. It was a small old fire house with a lot of interesting information. Read about it here http://www.houstonfiremuseum.org/location-hours/

Of course the kids loved the play area, they could crawl into part of a fire truck and even slide down a pole. Joseph finally got the pole thing down before we left, he was scared to do it by himself. They also had a 2 story play house in there. It was a fun little day trip with good company.

He LOVED wearing this mask!

Part of the I-Beam from 9-11

Lily was a pro at sliding down the fireman's pole. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkins

This year Daddy debated on a spiderman pumpkin or an angry bird pumpkin. Joseph picked the angry bird, so Dad got to carving. The past 3 years Dad has taken many precious minutes (sometimes hours) to carve a pumpkin just for Joseph :) We've had a gear pumpkin, a tractor pumpkin, and a soccer ball pumpkin. This year he didn't dissapoint us! My pumpkin was a girl and it took me about 15 minutes to complete.

My girl pumpkin

He got a little bored during the pumpkin carving

red angry bird

watching Daddy :)

Monster Truck Party

This year I debated on what to do for his party. I decided since a lot of friends wanted to see our new house we would have a small party here. The small party ended up into a larger party than I really wanted, but it all turned out fine. I kept asking what theme Joseph wanted, I love themes and enjoy making and creating all the decorations. We thought about themes of fishing, soccer, or monster trucks. Joseph decided on monster trucks. His themes include, alligators for his 1st birthday, hot wheels race cars for 2nd, and gears for his 3rd. I made a "four" banner, he wore a shirt that said four on it. I did buy a monster truck table clothe and paper goods at a party store here in town. I made checkered flags placed in a large clear mason jar filled with hot wheels. Joey created his monster truck cake, and I made oreo cupcakes topped with "4's". I found a bouncy house with a monster truck theme too. Joseph was a little overwhelmed by all the people in the house for his party and he was really worried his friends were going to touch his motorcycle set he just opened (we let him open a gift at the beginning of the party) Gift opening was chaotic and I do not want to live through that again.  We were so glad Aunt Becca and the boys could join us for the party before they headed to Denmark on there next journey. On his actual birthday Tee-toe bought him a yummy mini oreo pie, but he was so afraid we were going to sing happy birthday and light a candle!! He took one bite of the pie. At his birthday party we did not sing Happy Birthday either, he saw me putting candles in his cake and went crazy saying no fire and no happy birthday, he really doesn't like that song, not sure why. When we take him to other parties he closes his ears when we sing. I can't believe he is FOUR!! He has already said "when I turn FIVE on October 17th.... I told him he can't say that yet we have a year to go!

FRONT DOOR

TAKEN ON HIS REAL BIRTHDAY OCTOBER 17TH!

WATCHING DADDY CREATE A MONSTER TRUCK

"DIP STICKS AND MUDDY TIRES"

SOMEONE NEEDED TO TAKE CONTROL OF THIS SITUATION. HAHA

COUSINS LILY AND LUCY WITH GIGI

THE MOTORCYCLE SET HE WANTED NO ONE TO TOUCH!!

GHEE AND POPPY

Happy 4th Birthday!

Pumpkin Patch fun

The best picture I got of the 3 cousins at the Pumpkin Patch

The hay trailer Joseph was scared of and wouldn't ride.

He chose to jump instead

Joseph Evan and Max

We had fun at the pumpkin patch. I was so surprise he was scared of the tractor and hay ride. As much as he loves wheels he would not ride it. He is going through a stage of being scared of so much. He told me he was scared of the hay and the tractor...He wanted to jump in the bouncy house instead...so he did. He picked out a baby pumpkin to take home :)

J for Jumbo pumpkin or Joseph of course. Here is his little pumpkin he picked out.

a peek of our 4 yr old pics!

16 more days of 3

My baby boy when he was 1 year old

A monster truck party is in the making for a 4th birthday

In less than a month my baby will be 4 years old. Where did my baby go? Joseph is so so sweet, when he is sweet. Other times he is giving us a run for our money. It seems like his tantrums started about 3 1/2 and they are still going strong. I'm really hoping it is just a stage...Preschool has been a challenge for us. He needs to work on following instructions and keeping his hands to himself. Good news is he isn't having any more tantrums during his lunch time and he is staying on his nap mat even when he doesn't sleep. Taking baby steps...I absolutely love seeing all the work he is completing at pre school. My favorite days are Thursdays when he brings all his work home in his backpack. He usually never wants to go to pre schol but once we are getting out of the car in the parking lot, he is ready to go find his "Frog" class. F-Fully R-Rely O-On G-God

We are getting settled in the new house. Joey is currently painting and Joseph went to bed at 6:45 today due to no nap. There are still piles in corners but most all boxes have been unpacked. I even felt organized enough to get out the Halloween decor and put some pumpkins out. Last weekend Joey pulled out all the bushes from the front yard, it looks SO much better. I really miss my old neighbors and old neighborhood, mostly miss playing outside. I still don't feel all that comfortable taking Joseph out to the playground by myself here.

I'm suppose to be fitted for yet another mouth guard. I had a sleep study done and it showed I'm having some issues keeping my airflow open when sleeping, and that is why I clinch my teeth at night. Everyone please pray this is the answer. My chronic pain has been with me for 2 1/2 years. Once again I have some hope that it will go away. Thank you!

Watching Daddy

http://www.letsplaysoccer.com/facilities/7/facility_photos
Northwest Indoor soccer e-mailed Joey this picture. We are famous because it's on their web site! All three of us made the picture, you can see Joey playing on the field! So cool!

Getting settled

Joseph's new upstairs playroom plus my computer room

Healthy preschool lunches apparently cause my son to go into tantrums.

A happy boy ready for his 1st day of preschool!!

This is me checking the mail for the very first time at our new house. I am  SO excited we have our own mailbox (no cluster boxes) and when I went to check the mail I tried out our flag and it came off!! It was a good laugh.

We are slowly getting settled into our new home. I am busy painting doors and baseboards (no fun) and Joey is busy getting the other house ready to rent, along with his countless improvements he's doing to this house. This weekend he actually hung the curtains in our bedroom, yay! Maybe next weekend we can get the new blinds and sofas...the living room has no furniture yet.

Joseph has been in preschool 4 total days. He missed the first day due to my sweet Aunt Cindy's funeral.
His first day was not very good, but every day there has been improvements. At meet the teacher I told her he would have a tantrum at lunchtime and he was going to touch and poke at all the other kids. As I picked him up the first day the teacher told me he had a tantrum at lunchtime and he could not keep his hands to himself!! I don't know if he lacks the social skills or what, but when he is with other kids it is like he is so excited to be with them he touches them and even hits, pokes, and pushes. I hope he begins to realize this is not how you play with friends and they don't like it. He also got in trouble for kicking the cabinets at naptime. He has only slept once so far during nap time. The 2nd day his report was a little better, but he spit at one of his friends. I am so scared when I go pick him up as to what the teacher is gonna say! I hope the year gets better. I don't know why he acts like that, we have done nothing but love him and try to teach him what is right.