Orange Friday and Game Day

The Friday before the first college football weekend this year was called "Color Friday" and everyone was encouraged to wear their school's colors.  I don't know who came up with this idea, but I would like to tell them that has been a tradition at OSU for as long as I can remember.  It's one of the things they teach you at freshman orientation... the words to the fight song, left hand goes up for the "S," and wear orange on Fridays (especially if you are on campus and during football season).  Joseph has already participated in many orange Fridays, but I decided to document the one before his first football game.  I didn't get a good picture of his traditional OSU onesie, but you can see here that it was definitely orange (as are both of his taggie blankets :). 

He even wore his orange OSU pajamas to bed that night.

And changed into his OSU jersey as soon as he woke up in preparation for game day. 

Since it was his first game day, we took him to campus to enjoy some of the festivities.  You can tell he was thrilled to be at "the walk."

We didn't go to the game.  Instead we came home, enjoyed some naked baby play time,

and watched a little football and a movie with some friends (our game wasn't on any of the channels we get :(.

Two Blooms

I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of months, I just haven't had a chance or felt up to it.  

When Aubrey passed away, we held a small graveside service for her.  Nothing big, just family and close friends (really, we didn't call anyone and tell them, it was just people that heard and wanted to attend).  As is common with most funerals, some people sent floral arrangements or potted plants.  I have managed (barely) to keep two of Aubrey's potted plants alive.  One is some kind of viney thing and about once a week I really wonder if it will make it to the next week.  The other one is a Peace Lily.  The Peace Lily and I have a decent relationship, although it seldom blooms for me and when it does, it only has one bloom at a time.  Both plants live in our kitchen window and neither plant has a name, they are simply referred to as Aubrey's plants.  Shortly after Joseph joined our family, I was washing dishes when I looked up and noticed two gorgeous white blooms on the Peace Lily (when we left for the hospital, it had none). 

Some might see this as a coincidence, but I took it as a sign from Aubrey.  It's hard to have a new baby join your family after a loss.  You don't want to replace the child you lost, but at the same time you have to keep moving forward.  To me, two blooms were Aubrey's way of saying, "Mom, you have two kids now.  I know you won't forget me and I want you to know that it's ok to move on." 

I like to think that Aubrey got to help God to choose the perfect baby for our family.

Cousin Picture Bloopers

Our visit with cousin Bryar started out like any other visit.  We placed a blanket on the floor and began snapping pictures of our two munchkins. 

They were ok with it for the first couple of pictures, but we decided they were too far apart and needed to be moved a little closer together.  The boys were unsure what was happening and started giving us bug eyed looks.

Joseph then decided to play cowboy and ride an imaginary bull.

Suddenly, Bryar realized that someone was laying next to him.

Joseph thought he could fool Bryar into thinking he was gone if he laid really, really stiff and still.

It didn't work, Bryar came back with a vengeance.

Yes, an ear!

After their moms stepped in, they decided to play nicely and hold hands.

But the little hamster wheel in Bryar's head started turning again.

And he made a final attempt to grab Joseph.

Thus ending our photo shoot.

5 Generations

Can you believe that Bryar and Joseph have a great-great-grandma!  We took the opportunity yesterday to get all five generations together for a little photo session.

The crew had previously taken five generation pictures with Bryar, but it was before Joseph was born (by less than a week), so we weren't included. Can you believe how much Bryar has grown?  He was 8 weeks old in this picture.

We had planned on taking pictures with Joseph shortly after he was born, but since my mom broke her leg and required surgery/minimal travel for 12 weeks, we just now go around to it.

Grandma Johnnie was very excited to see the boys and kept telling anyone that would listen that they were her great-great-grandsons.

Like we do every time we get together, we took a picture of the boys laying next to each other.  It's getting harder and harder to get them to look at us at the same time (and smiles were not happening).  I'll have to do another blog post that contains just the bloopers from this mini-shoot, it's sure to make you laugh.

My sister and I also took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures with our handsome little guys (even though they still weren't into the whole picture thing).

I love how they are looking at each other in this one.

Isn't Bryar an adorable little guy?  I wish we lived closer so I could kiss those sweet little cheeks more often.  Sometimes two hours is just too far away.

Joseph is 3 Months Old

It's hard to believe that our little guy is three months old already.  That's 1/4 of a year!  I guess I better get started planning his birthday party ;).  Joesph's third month of life was great!  The new formula (that I mentioned in his two month post) has worked amazingly well and our little guy's personality has really started to shine.  It's so nice that he can now be awake and happy instead of crying/screaming.  He currently loves mimicking  facial expressions and sounds.  One of his favorite things to do is blow spit bubbles.  He also loves going outside (a lot of the time, if he is cranky, I can walk outside with him and he will quickly calm down).  I think he gets tired of spending all day with me because he sure is happy to see his daddy when Sam gets home from work each day (if I talk to Sam on the phone during the day, I put it on speaker phone and watch Joseph look around the room for him :). 

Joseph - 3 Months

 It makes my heart happy to see these two together.

He is not a fan of tummy time!

He does not like having a soiled diaper and will gladly let you change it.  I'm hoping this means he will be easy to potty train.

We've been breaking in the jogging stroller.  Although he didn't like it the first night, he's now a big fan.

Since we've been married, I've told Sam that I hope our kids have his dimples.  Check out what the man up above gave me in this little guy's cheeks.  The one on his right cheek really pops when he laughs.

And just for fun, here are two more that make me giggle.  You never know what kind of look he's going to give you.

Friday Photos

In addition to his monthly picture, I take a weekly picture of Joseph.  Since he was born on a Friday, I refer to these weekly snap shots as his Friday photos.  I enjoy looking back at how he's changed week-to-week, so I thought I would share the 13 I have so far with you.  Sorry for the quality, these are just pictures that I snap with my cell phone at some point during the day.  As you will be able to tell from the pictures, sometimes he cooperates, sometimes he doesn't (and some I picked just because they make me laugh).

Birthday

1 week

2 weeks

3 weeks

4 weeks

5 weeks

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

9 weeks

10 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks