Christmas 2012

I know this is a little late, but I'm going to write a quick Christmas recap anyway.  I won't go into too much detail. I just want to document Joseph's first Christmas on the ol blog before I forget. 

Our first Christmas was an impromptu get-together with Sam's family in Tulsa at his brother's house.  We don't normally get together with both brothers and his parents at the same time since we celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine, but it was nice to see everyone including the girlfriends (they don't come to Thanksgiving...yet :).

The boys got matching sweaters.  This is the pose I got when I asked them if I could take a picture.

Of course Joseph got to see Santa (I might have crashed my friend's husband's work Christmas party for this opportunity),

although he preferred Mrs. Clause.

Aren't my friend's kids adorable!

The days leading up to Christmas and Christmas day goes as follows.  We spent lots of time with cousin Bryar.

Stayed the night at Gammy's house.

Visited great-grandparents.

Fell in love with Uncle Blake.

Knocked over a Christmas tree.

Stayed the night at Papa Joe's.

Visited another set of great-grandparents.

Wrestled with Bryar.

Wore matching pajamas.

And got tired of having our picture taken.

Joseph's Seven Month Post (A Little Late)

Since we are quickly closing in on Joseph's eight month mark, I guess I should go ahead and write his seven month blog post.  Honestly, he didn't really change a whole lot between the ages of six and seven months.  He was still eating anything we tried to give him, he was still rolling all over and trying to crawl, and he never had any teeth break the surface.  Other than that, he was just our typical happy unless he's not baby.  Even his seven month picture is boring (I'm starting his middle name with month eight).

Joseph - 7 Months

The only exciting event other than Thanksgiving during this time period was when we met my sister and Bryar in Oklahoma City to visit our Grandma Johnnie (the boys' great-great grandma).  I'm so glad we went to visit her, you could tell it really made her day.  She told everyone that would listen about her great-great-grandsons. 

I truly love this picture!  How often do you see hands this old and young together. 

Grandma got love from Joseph.

And kisses from Bryar.

Please ignore how my sister and I look and the fact that we didn't realize that Grandma's shirt was falling down.  When grandma asks for a picture, we don't tell her no. 

Lucky for you, I do have some of his six month pictures to share.  Hopefully that will make this post a little better.  I started off trying to take them by myself at the OSU botanical gardens where his newborn pictures were taken.  Not only did I forget to change my white balance (I had previously shot at an indoor event with very poor lighting), but all the grass was dead and Joseph wouldn't look at me.  This is after I tried to edit it so it wouldn't look too terribly bad.

Take two happened over Thanksgiving.  Since we were going to my in-laws and I knew they had a few wheat fields to choose from (to look like green grass), I asked my friend if I could borrow her son's Tonka truck for the whole weekend.  I still don't think I'm 100% happy with the pictures, but they are better than the previous ones. 



If I would have realized I was going to have Sam in some of the pictures, I probably would have had him change clothes.  Oh well, I'm glad I went ahead and snapped these pics while he was playing with Joseph.



The ride home.  You should have seen his little cheeks bouncing!



Can you believe this is the same truck he fit so perfectly in the back of in his newborn pictures!

And since she's a much better photographer than me.  Here are a few Christmas pictures Heidi took of Joseph during this time period.  I asked her to watch him for thirty minutes while I searched my house for something I thought I lost and was shocked to recieve these (and about 20 more) in an e-mail that night.  I don't know if she was wanting to play with her new camera or just loves Joseph that much, but either way I'll take it. 

What I'm Not Doing Today

Today is my 30th birthday.  That's right, the big 3-0.  For years I've told Sam that if we don't have kids by my 30th birthday I'm going sky diving.  Sam wasn't fond of this idea.  You see, Sam has a healthy respect of heights.  More than that, Sam has a fear of watching me jump out of a plane.  I told him he could go too, but that didn't work.  Luckily for Sam, Joseph came along.  Before Joseph, I didn't fear dying.  I'm not saying I lived recklessly, I just knew that if something happened here on Earth, I would move on to spending eternity with Aubrey.  Now that we have Joseph, things have changed.  If I die, he doesn't have a mom.  Being responsible for another life kind of puts things into perspective. 

The thought of turning 30 has been a little rough on me.  I think the biggest reason I've been dreading this birthday is the fertility timeline.  We are no longer a young couple with unexplained inferitlity, we are now considered middle aged in the fertiltiy world.  No, we don't have plans to pursue fertility treatments in the future.  No, I didn't think I would unexplainably get pregnant before I hit this point.  It's just another reminder that we are dependent on others to expand our family.

So today, instead of jumping out of a plane, I'm playing with the most precious little boy I've ever laid eyes on.  We're making a huge mess in the room where our guests used to sleep.  I'm laying him down for a nap in a crib that I wondered if we would ever really use.  I'm meeting up with old friends to celebrate with a cookie cake (with lots of icing :).  I'm ordering a pizza and eating it on the couch while watching a movie with the love of my life.  Maybe 30 won't be so bad after all. 

The Dream

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had a dream.  Not just any dream, the most amazing dream I've ever had.  In my dream, we were at Sam's parents' house for Thanksgiving.  Sam and his brothers were in the yard goofing around probably playing football while a few of us watched.  A little girl who was about 3 or 4 came running out of the house and stood there laughing while watching the boys.  She was wearing a cute, simple purple dress and had a purple bow holding back her wavy blonde hair.  Not long after she appeared, I began waking up.  As I was starting to wake up, she looked up at me and smiled and I knew instantly that it was Aubrey.  At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to go back to my dream.  I remember trying to block out the noise that was waking me and concentrate on going back to sleep.  I wanted to hug her.  To tell her I love her.  To memorize every feature of her sweet angelic face.  But it wasn't meant to be.  So I woke up and, through tears, told Sam every detail I could remember about this amazing dream.  Someday I will see Aubrey again, but until then, I will cherish the memories I have of her including this new one.  Even if it was just a dream.

Thanksgiving 2012

Wow, it's almost Christmas and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving yet.  Guess I better do that. 

Growing up, I don't remember much about Thanksgiving other than occasionally going to a movie.  When Sam and I started dating, he told me all about his family's Thanksgiving traditions and I fell in love with them.   I loved that when he was a little boy, he, his parents, and his brothers would drive up to Nash and spend the entire weekend there with his grandparents and that even though his parents now live in Nash he and his brothers still return there for the entire weekend.  I quickly dove into his Thanksgiving traditions and it was easily decided that we would spend Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine.  It's so nice to go to this small town thirty minutes from the closest decent sized city and get lost in the simplicity of it all for a few days.  In the years since I've been joining Sam and his family for Thanksgiving, we have added a couple of traditions of our own including bowling with the cousins one night (Sam's parents were nice enough to watch Joseph this year so we didn't have to take him) and shooting trap and pumpkins.  We don't go black friday shopping (although I have been known to get up in the middle of the night to order an item or two online then return to bed), we don't follow a schedule, and we don't have any expectations and to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Since both of Sam's brothers drove up Thanksgiving morning, we ate a late lunch at the house then drove into town to meet up with the rest of the Parks family at the church.  Here are Sam and Joseph talking with Sam's grandpa, Elam. 

Even though it was nap time, Joseph enjoyed looking at all of the new people there.

I didn't get any pictures of the boys shooting trap since I was inside with Joseph, but I did capture this beautiful sunset as they were putting everything away.

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without an impromptu game of football.

This might have been Pete's favorite couple of hours from the whole weekend.

Four generations of Parks boys.

On the way home, we hit some stop and go traffic on I-35.  I didn't mind too much, the view was pretty awesome.