Christmas in the Snow

Becca had her Womens Glee Christmas Choir Concert last night and Jopes and I were able to go! We had our friends, Walter and Aria (and little Luca) over for some brats before the concert started, and then Aria stayed at our place to watch little Joseph while Jopes and I went to the concert. Our first babysitter experience, besides family! I was able to get Joseph down to sleep before we left, but go figure, he woke up 20 minutes after we left! Aria was perfect though, and took great care of him, even if he wasn't too thrilled to find his mom and dad weren't home! Rebecca had a bad cough and wasn't able to sing every word, but we thought the concert was great nonetheless! Her choir was combined with the RixStix percussion group. Some numbers were just the choir, some were just the percussion, and the others were performed together. It was a lot of fun to get out with Jopes and know that little Joseph was in good hands (THANKS ARIA!), though I was happy to get home and see him. Rebecca did great and looked beautiful and we hope she gets better soon!!! :)

The Winter Cold Is Here!!

The winter cold has arrived! This picture is from one of the first snows, but since then the temperature of Rexburg has dropped tremendously! I bundled little Joseph up today so we could go out and get the mail. He hates facing inward when we carry him, so of course, he was looking the direction we were walking. Well, the poor little guy couldn't breathe, it was so cold! He kept looking at me, trying to figure out what was wrong! He wasn't sure whether it was funny, or scary, either! He mostly gave me confused/worried looks, but once he giggled a little.

Anyway, besides having the cutest baby in the entire world, we only have a week and two days until Jopes is done with his classes! Then, we get to go home for Christmas!! We're very excited. Oh! We got past our brick wall with the apartment... I'll have to take some pictures and get them up.

Brick Wall

Well, the move has been going very slowly. At first it was going slow because Jopes has school during the week, so we had to wait until he was done with classes to start bringing car loads of stuff over. I was super excited and motivated though, at first. As the week dragged on, however, I got less and less motivated. Now, the last thing I want to do is drag myself over to the old apartment and load up the rest of our junk, and then try to find a nice, organized place for it all here at our new apartment. :-( Boo.

We've hit a brick wall and we don't even have that much left! It seems like a never ending, totally annoying task, though. What to do?? I know, suck it up and get it done. Bleh. Still easier said than done. That said, we've been able to unpack and organize just about all of what we DO have moved over and we really like our new apartment. It already feels like home to us. Maybe because we've already washed a million loads of laundry and dishes! :)

We are thrilled to be using our fabulous washer and dryer, and to have a dishwasher!

Hurray for these tender mercies in life!

Halloween

Happy late Halloween!! We had a good one this year. Last year we moved the night of Halloween. This year, we didn't. We moved the day AFTER Halloween! :) But first, about our Halloween.

As you can see, little Joseph was a pumpkin. Kirt and Brenda let us borrow this wonderful costume, which was made by none other than... Grandma Jamison!!! We loved it. We didn't stuff it though. We needed to fit him into his carseat. He was still an adorable little pumpkin though!

We had a ward party a few nights before Halloween, and then a friend threw a Halloween party the night of. Aria did a GREAT job! She did an incredible job and put so much time and effort into it. The decorations, the food, the games, the company...

they were all fantastic!

Oh! I forgot to mention... Jopes was a scarecrow and I was another pumpkin, though my costume wasn't as cool as the other two. We had fun though, and love being together.

That's it for Halloween news, but real quick about the move--we moved to a new apartment! We really like it, and yes, that means we are no longer assistant managers. We are really enjoying that, too! :) Give us another week to get settled and then we want you all to come visit!! We'll post pictures too, as soon as we can. Love ya! TTFN!

He's HOME!!!

HE'S HOME!!

Jopes got back from his Grand Canyon field trip at about midnight:30 Sunday night/Monday morning. I was SO very happy to see him!! Even little Joseph jumped for joy... literally. He woke up a little bit before his dad got back because he's teething. So, I fed him, changed his diaper, and just as we were finishing that, we heard the door open. We hurried in to the living room and little Joseph stared at his dad for a second, then smiled great big and got all excited. It was wonderful. Except that Joseph didn't want to go back to bed after seeing his dad! As soon

as Jopes was holding him, he started jumping up and down the way he always does when his daddy is holding him (he's figured out by now that mom has no muscle and can't bounce him as

long or as well as dad). So we let him play on the bed with us

while we visited about his trip and happenings here at home.

It has been so nice to have Jopes home again. I did alright while he was gone because I had Becca here to help me and to keep me company, but life is just not the same without him! I really missed him. Little Joseph is happier with his daddy back, I'M happier with him back, and everything is just so much better.

Jopes had a great time. They got to stop at a few places on their way through Utah, including Arches and Goosenecks, and then of course, they ended it all with the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I've included a few pictures from his trip, but he has more for sure.

I've been blessed with a wonderful family. I love them more and more each day. I'm so grateful we will be together for time and eternity!

Welcome Home Jopes!!

HOORAY!!

Jopes comes home tomorrow night!!!!! I can't wait. AND, I have some fantastic news for him!

I took Joseph with me and went to the swim meet this morning to support Becca and the rest of the team, even though Jopes, their coach, wouldn't be there. I was a little late, but when I got there, I found out that half of our team hadn't shown up! PLUS, neither the coach nor the assistant coach were in town! So, I went up to a couple of our guys and asked who all had and hadn't shown up, and found out that only 6 of our guys were there. I also found out that those who were there were totally willing to jump into the other events wherever we were missing someone. :) This gave me a great idea, so I started telling every one of our swimmers that they were MORE than welcome to jump into whatever they could to make up for all our absent swimmers. We just had to tell the meet manager so he could make sure it was all recorded and scored right. It was insane. Poor little Joseph was lugged all over that pool area as I ran around trying to get swimmers into each event, and work it all out with the meet manager. Joseph was so good though! He didn't whine a single time. About half way through, we found out that we were only behind by 20 points. We still had a chance of winning! So, our guys kept jumping in to everything they could, and our girls stepped it up too. They started making up the relays that we were missing, and swimming extra individual events as well.

When we got to the last event of the meet, the 400 free relay, I sat down in a chair with Joseph and thought, "whatever the outcome is now, we did good." Then I noticed the meet manager say something to the coordinator... and the coordinator freaked out. Then he went to the coaches of the Spartans (the 'undefeated' team we were competing against) and they freaked out. I had to know what was going on. So I went and asked the meet manager. He said that we (the Knights) were only down by 2 points. 2 POINTS!!! And all we had left was the guys final relay. At this point, our guys were ahead, but it was still possible for the Spartans to pull ahead. Our last swimmer, who swam 8 events out of the 11 and placed well in all of them, had everyone on our team swarming around him just before he jumped in, telling him he had to swim fast. (DUH!) He did. He was dead tired, but he swam fast and hard and took 1st. FINAL SCORES: Spartans had 1072 points. Knights had 1076. WE WON BY 4 POINTS!! WE BEAT THE SPARTAN'S WINNING STREAK! WE WON THE MEET!!!!!! I almost cried tears of joy. I was so proud of all our swimmers there who stepped it up and did what needed to be done. I don't think I've yelled so much or put so much energy into any sporting event before. But I'm glad I did. It was amazing that we won, and I know Jopes is going to be so surprised and happy when he finds out, and that's the best part for me! Anyway, I can't wait for my wonderful husband to get home tomorrow night. I have really missed him. But I am so grateful to everyone who helped me be a little less lonely while he was gone. Especially Becca, who has been over every day to keep me and little Joseph company. Thanks Becca!

P.S. Joseph has been a perfect angel. I am so glad to be his mom!

Oops Again

OOPS

It is now October 16th

and I am just now posting.

No Good!!

Joseph will be 7 months old this Saturday. I can't BELIEVE he is more than half a year old!

Time has flown by way too quickly. Still, I am happy as ever to be his mommy. He is such a bundle of fun!

At his 6 month appointment, he was only in the 20th percentile for weight, and 22nd for height. And he did NOT like the doctor or nurses AT ALL!! Everyone keeps saying, "oh his stranger anxiety has kicked in already..." but I have news for everyone... his stranger

anxiety has

ALWAYS been kicked in. He's always been anti-just-about-anyone-who-is-not-mom-or-dad. Spoiled kid. :)

So, new adventure for our family... Jopes left this morning for a 4 DAY field trip to the Grand Canyon. It's the first time he and I have been away overnight, and I do not like it. Even little Joseph got irritated today and I'm sure it was because his dad had not come home to play with him and he was very bored with mom. Sad day. We both miss him a lot, but Becca was a wonderful help today. Joseph and I even survived clean checks tonight. I put him in the backpack and he was good the whole time. Jopes and I were really blessed with a wonderful baby. *sigh* 1 day down, 3 more to go. Ugh. I could never go to bed without Jopes when he was here at home. So now I find myself blogging at 12:38AM because I don't want to go to bed without him. I guess I'd better give in though, or little Joseph will find me very boring tomorrow! Much love to everyone!! Good night.

Life goes by too fast!

Well, it's been about a month since we last posted anything. It's been a crazy but good month, though. Aside from all the end-of-semester craziness both with school and the complex, we were able to attend Seth and Stacie's wedding, and an immediate family reunion with the Frees down at the cabin in Brianhead, Utah. Then, the next week, we had my mama here in Rexburg to visit!! Well, sort of. She was here/Pocatello/Idaho Falls to work on genealogy stuff, but we got her for a few nights and mornings! And we enjoyed/appreciated her time with us. We even got to meet her down in Pocatello Sunday afternoon/evening and played a crazy game of Skip*bo with her, Aunt Shirley, Uncle Kenton, and their daughter & son-in-law.
Little Joseph is just growing and learning new things more and more. He's so much fun to be with. I'm so lucky to be his mom! He definitely enjoys standing, bouncing/jumping, and his new trick.... sitting up by himself!
I had him in the tub one night, and he loves standing up in the tub (he loves standing up anywhere). So, he was standing up with me holding one hand under his arm and the other holding his other arm, when all of a sudden, he jumped... the hand that had been under his arm slipped completely off of him and my other hand slid down by his wrist. So, when he came back down, he dunked himself in the water all the way up to his forehead! At first, he had a startled look on his face, but it only took a second or two for that look to turn into a giant smile and more jumping. (boys! :) Now, we get water on his face all the time and he doesn't seem to mind.

I love my boys.
Okay, so one night we ran out of diapers and Joseph really needed one before we could get to the store... so I made one. Poor kid. I happened to have one of those peach hospital pads left over, so I used that and some packing tape (with toilet paper tucked in the sides so the tape didn't stick to his legs!) And then I had to make it more hilarious/awful by writing "My Mommy Loves Me!" on it... poor kid. :) Of course, his father wasn't sure what to think when he got home... I don't think he would have let me do it if he had been home though, and the poor kid needed a diaper change! :-P

Happy 4th of July!!

This will be little Joseph's first 4th of July and Jopes and my first 4th of July here in Rexburg (we've always gone to Idaho Falls to watch the big firework show). We think there's going to be a parade on Main Street in the morning, so we want to go watch that. We are going to have our own little barbeque for dinner; hot dogs, corn on the cob, potatoe chips, and pork and beans. After dinner, we are going to play with some fireworks... it should take about 15 minutes. Joseph has some flowers from a LONG LONG time ago. We'll use them up, and then we're done! Inbetween the morning parade however, and dinner, we have no idea what we are going to do. :D We'll have to let you know when the day is done.

Thanks to this holiday, we didn't have any school Thursday and Friday of this week. Yay! Other than school and work around the complex, we really haven't been up to much... just watching and enjoying little Joseph every other moment!

We were out watering the lawns the other day, when Jopes got Joseph to laugh a whole bunch! It was the cutest thing ever! I was holding Joseph facing out and Jopes stood in front of us. He'd turn so his back was toward us and then whirl around and say hello! to Joseph and he would break into the cutest little laughter. We couldn't get enough of it!

We are really looking forward to our trip down to Utah... we'll get to see both sides of the family! Seth and Stacie are getting married, which we couldn't be more thrilled about, and Mike is coming home from his mission in Denmark that same week! 13 more days!

3 Months Old!

Joseph just keeps getting cuter and cuter. And, he's learning and growing more and more. Here's a little of what he's been up to:


Going outside with mom and dad


Hanging out with Mr. Caterpillar


Dressing up like a little elf


Blowing bubbles

Sleeping in rather weird positions

Hanging out with dad


And his favorite thing of all... STANDING!!

Another Video

Here's another video of Little Joseph playing in his swing. He finally figured out how to make the toy spin himself! In the past he's either stared determinedly at it (as if that alone would make it spin) or fussed for one of us to make it spin whenever it stopped. Now he's a big boy--he can spin the toy by himself, he can pull himself to sitting and standing positions (with the help of mom or dad), he can pull certain things to his mouth, he can blow bubbles, and he can swim in the tub (also with the help of mom or dad)!

Our little boy is growing up way too fast, but it's sure fun to watch.

We Have A Life!!

The other day Joseph and I were talking about how we don't have a life anymore... we're just boring old married people. Then, we decided that wasn't true-we have a life. Our baby and our fish are our life. And that's about it. So now, looking at our blog tonight, I'm thinking this is true. Our baby and our fish are our life, but we are NOT complaining, we love them!! :)

Sad Day...

There has been a death in the family.

Sometime this morning, Cosmo the fish passed away.
A few days ago, one of the rocks forming the cave collapsed, and we think that it scraped Cosmo on its way down. Shortly after the collapse of the cave, we noticed that Cosmo had a scrape near his top fin and was missing a few scales. We watched him closely the next couple days, but he just wasn't the same. He didn't come to eat out of our hand, he didn't try to fight his own reflection, and his color was pale rather than dark and pretty like normal. Poor Cosmo just hid behind the rocks and trees. So, when we found him upside down this morning, we were not surprised, though very very sad.

Joseph will miss him eating out of his hand.
Elizabeth will miss watching his fun personality.
Little Joseph has yet to figure out that there are actually fish in that funny lighted box that we're always holding him up to, but Cosmo is missed nonetheless.


On a happier note, here are a couple videos of
little Joseph and his latest discoveries:

Operation: Update!!

Alright, so I've been a big slacker in the blogging department... 

time to catch up!

School is going alright. It's been working surprisingly well to switch off with Joseph inbetween classes. Both Jopes and I WISH we didn't have school, but we want our education... we'll just be glad when we get it done! Other than school, our lives are consumed by little Joseph. He is our everything. We just love him and know that he's the cutest baby in the world!

Little Joseph is growing like a weed! He's getting so big! At his 2 month appointment, he was 11lbs, 2oz (35 percentile) and 23.5" tall (71 percentile). He seems so tall to me. A lot of his clothes would still fit the width of him, but he's too tall for them, so we've had to

 retire some of them. 

It's been a lot of fun getting to know him better as his personality has started to come out. He still always wants to be moving. In fact, I think that if he had things his way, he'd be running around already! Thankfully though, he has to be patient and grow little by little (in my opinion, it's still happening too fast!) 

He's learning all about his hands nowaday. He pulls them in close to his face, examines them, and then sucks on them. 

He LOVES going for a swim in the bathtub! All I do is hold his 

head and the rest of his body floats. So, I do just that- I hold his head, and he kicks off the wall and just floats around. It's great! We haven't gotten video of it yet, but we will!! 

The sound of water running is his favorite. He absolutely loves it, which means mom can shower while dad's gone to class. All I have to do is put him in his bouncer in the bathroom while I shower and he sits there content as could be! 

We've gotten him to play with his toy caterpillar the last couple days. He loves it, but the thing he loves more than anything is talking and playing with mom and dad. 

There is nothing more amazing than his smiles. He just brightens our entire beings with his happy noises and faces. We are so glad he's part of our lives.

First Time Flyer!

He's got a stroller now, but there's definitely room for him to grow!

I can't believe how long he is!

We tried some overalls on him. 

They were a little big, but he's still the cutest little farm boy ever!

His favorite toy... Mr. Caterpillar!

Joseph played with him for the first time the other day. He hasn't quite worked out how to grab it, but he can lift it up to his face and suck on it if we put it on his arms.  :)

Joseph LOVES sitting up like a big boy!

 

Look how good he is at holding up his head!

{: excuse the spit up on his shirt... that happened right before the pics were taken :}