Happy Birthday Joseph!

My Joseph turned 5 years old on October 17th!I cannot believe it has been 5 years. He had a Batman birthday party/lunch at Frey's Cafe. We had cousins and a few friends join us. I made these star shaped brownies for his class. He is loving being 5 and keeps asking if he is 5 1/2 yet and when will he be 6....
Also his favorite color changed from blue to yellow when he turned 5. He keeps us laughing and on our toes always. He loves Pre-K in the Dinosaur class. He is also playing soccer for the first time this Fall and is doing great. Here are some funny's J has said!
Me- I'm gonna make a marble cake for your birthday.
J-Ok, you can have 4 marbles from my room.

Me-You need to eat some meat.
J-I already did last week.

Me-I'm turning on the blender so it's gonna be loud.
J-I'm getting some books while you're blendering.

Me-Are you picking your nose?
J-No, just checkin it.

As he plays by himself, a few funny things I've heard.
"It was the worst day of all. Are you sure? I am surely sure."
"He is as quiet as a sleeping hog."

School has started

Arms wide open saying he is ready for the world! I can't believe my Joseph is in his last year of school before kindergarten. He was so excited to start the Dinosaur class! So far he has followed all the rules and the teachers have described him as smart and sweet. I'm not going to brag too much because last year we had a tough year as he couldn't keep his hands to himself. I really hope this year is better!

This summer Joseph started and stopped doing a few things I wanted to share. First of all, he asked to not sit in his booster seat at the kitchen table anymore. Guess he's too big :( I've put it away in the pantry floor for now. He also finally started touching bugs! I am NOT a fan of bugs but I didn't want my fears to rub off on my boy. So this summer he is no longer afraid to touch and hold earthworms, those little cute jumpy spiders, love bugs, lizards and frogs. He STILL has a fit when it is bath time and he seldom brushes his teeth by himself. He always wants help. The week school started he would not sleep in his room. He was sleeping on the crib mattress on our bedroom floor. ugh. He is not allowed in the bed with us but I do let him get in bed with me once Daddy leaves for work. We put a big new mattress in his room this week hoping he would be excited but I woke up this morning and he was in our floor sleeping.

Joseph's favorite toys right now are legos and monster trucks. He also loves to play games during dinner with us like "just kidding" and the alphabet game. Just kidding is when we take turns saying a funny phrase (like -there's a monkey on your head!) then saying JUST KIDDING! and we all laugh. The alphabet game we go through the alphabet and with each letter say a word the letter starts with then use it in a sentence. One other game is a pattern game, where we will take turns saying a pattern and whoever you pick has to fill in the blank (triangle, circle, square, triangle...ect)

Joseph is still my social butterfly and has never met a stranger. He kills me inviting himself over to people's homes who we just met at the playground. Or asking for their phone number so his mom can call them...gees

He is still obsessed with Daddy and the first thing in the morning is usually a questions about where daddy is and when will he be home.

We had a great summer but we were really excited for school to start. Joseph wants to go somewhere in the car everyday so during the summer I kept him busy at the library, swimming in our neighborhood pool, and he can go to Jazzercise with me.

Looking forwards to what the school year will bring!

Congrats Lucille!

My parents

My sister and Russell with Lucy and Lily

Lucy with her Godparents-Me and Ronnie Dale

Lucille's Baptism with the Ogburn Family

Earlier this summer we had the excitement of celebrating Lucille as she received her First Holy Communion. We celebrated mass then had a family get together out at my sister's house. I can't believe Lucy is going to be in the third grade this year! Time flies!

Pickin Peaches

I loved the pictures of us pickin peaches in the hill country! I hope to make this a tradition as it was so fun!
Of course my son maybe took one tiny bite of a peach. He only has his certain fruits he eats. His main source of fruit is Apples. Blah! My boy will not eat his fruits and veggies :(

Summer time vacation!

Our cabin in Fredricksburg

A Peacock park in Austin

Hiking Enchanted Rock

Having a Beer, Root Beer that is, in Luckenbach Texas

Peach Picking in Fredricksburg

We took a summer vacation to Fredricksburg in June. Joey had to work at his Austin location and we decided to take advantage of that! While Joey worked, Joseph and I visited my good friend who I've known since 1st grade. She took us to Mayfield park where there were about 20 beautiful peacocks. Joseph Loved walking behind them and watching them open their feathers. We even saw a male courting a female. So cool! Then she took us to swim in the pretty river in Austin. I think I could live in that city! Love it.
From Austin, we headed to Enchanted Rock. The drive was beautiful! We made it there while Joseph snoozed in the back seat. So he did hike the entire way up, half the time chasing his hat up the rock that was blowing in the wind. The boys even explored through some rock caves. I heard there were daddy long legs in there so I waited at the entrance. Heading down the rock was a different story. Joseph pretty much had enough rock hiking at this point. Joey had to carry him all the way down. Enchanted rock was so beautiful we want to go back. After the hike we headed into Fredricksburg to meet our friends and find our cabin just outside of town. The cabin was very spacious overlooking a pecan tree orchard, goat farm, and egg laying hens. Joseph had his own room with a twin bed, he picked his room and loved it. We enjoyed picking fresh peaches, walking around downtown, and eating German food. Our friends have 2 boys younger than Joseph so we spent a lot of time just relaxing at the cabin too. Each evening we took a walk to the tank and sat

out on the pier to listen to the martins chatter and the huge bullfrogs.It was a great vacation despite our friends boys having fever the entire time...I just knew Joseph was going to catch what they had but luckily we didn't! We will probably go back next summer and I can't wait!

BULLFROG!

Ellen and I! Picture taken by Joseph

First day/Last day

Joseph's 1st Day of school this year in the FROG class!

Joseph's last day of school! I dressed him the same on purpose.

Ms. Judy the teacher assistant and Joseph's friend. He always tells me his friend is pretty :)

FROG- Fully Rely On God
The frog class was so much fun this year. Ok, it wasn't all fun, but the last 2 months of school were pretty good. Joseph had some patient and kind teachers who had to help him learn the basics of school and rules and having friends. He did spend many days in time out, and I even had to go pick him up early because of his behavior. BUT.... it was a learning experience and all three of us learned a lot this year.  I am looking forwards to next year, he will stay at this school for Pre-K. I'm excited my baby is growing up and learning so much.

Summer is coming!

Today is Joseph's last day of school. I cannot believe the school year is over. The year started out with challenges but he has done really great the last month of school. His progress report showed much improvement in behavior. Bye bye Frog class! Next year he will be in the Dinosaur class and will be going 4 days a week! Joseph always want to go, go, go. He never wants to be home. When we go visit Joey's parents he always wants me to just drop him off, and he always wants to stay the night (without me). He is his father's child, never meets a stranger and wants to play with other kids all day long....So you can see how I decided on the 4 day a week for next year. I can keep him busy at home, but he wants to play with kids..not Mom! This summer he will join me in my exercise class an hour a day. They have free childcare and the teacher is very sweet and he enjoys playing there. He will have swim lessons twice a week, he started this in May and I will continue throughout summer. He LOVES the swim lessons. He will be going to 2 VBS's, he will go stay with my parents for one week (I hope to finish decorating his room at that time!!) Also, our neighborhood has a club pool so we plan to swim several times a week too. New neighbors moved in next door and we were very excited to see they have 3 kids and one on the way. I'm hoping he can play outside with them this summer too. Joseph has always made us laugh and he keeps us laughing every day. Here are some funny things he has said.
"My nickname is Joseph my REAL name is JOEY." He says this ALL the time...
"I got peep rockets on my pants" Yes, he peed on himself.
I donated a toy he had and one day he was looking for it, I told him I gave it to a little boy who didn't have any toys. As he is looking around at all his toys he says "Well now I don't have it!" very upset....
We play "funny names" and one day he named me Hairball.