Costume Party 2012

Last weekend we reluctantly left the babe with Sam's parents (I say reluctantly not because I didn't want to leave him with the grandparents, just because I didn't want to leave him) and attended an out of town costume party with some friends.  Sam and his brother had been planning on being Willie and Jase Robertson from Duck Dynasty for some time (I'm proud to say it was my idea since Sam wanted to be something that embraced his beard).  When we found out that they would have a Phil with their group too, we decided to ditch my costume (I had secretly been working on a duck costume) and add Uncle Si.  Our costumes were good enough that people who don't even watch the show knew who we were.  I loved being Uncle Si because I got to walk around saying things like "let 'er rip, tater chip" and "it's on like donkey kong" and calling people Jack all night long.  Don't worry, the boys didn't have any shells for the shotguns at the party and they forgot about the duck calls in their pockets shortly after arriving.

I didn't get pictures of many of the other costumes, but here are the few that I did get.  At one point, Sam was walking around taking pictures with what I assumed was our camera.  Turns out, it was the host's.

Big Tex made an appearance.



Wooderson and Slater were there.

I'm not sure who this guy was supposed to be, but all of the other guys seemed to know.  He put a LOT of time and effort into his costume.

I have to say a HUGE thanks to the in-laws for staying at our house with Joseph and the dogs all weekend so we could have a little down time.  You guys rock! 

Momma Needs (Make That Won) a New Pair of Shoes

Last Thursday, we drove to Oklahoma City to participate in The Red Coyote's weekly Pack Pint Run.  This was our second time to "run with the pack," and we will definetely continue to do so when we can.  Pretty much, it's a 5k without the entry fees and pressure, you meet at the store at 6pm, then, as a group, run a 5k route.  It's actually a there and back route, so if you can't do the whole thing (or have little kids running with you), you just turn around early.  Everyone is very friendly and encouraging even though most of the regulars are marathon runners and they can easily smoke us newer runners.  When you get back to the store, they even have COOP ale for everyone to enjoy.  Sometimes they have bigger events like when the Brooks bus was there and they had a mini block party.  Seriously, if you live in the area you should check them out sometime.  We have had a blast both times we've gone. 

Back to the topic at hand, last week they held a Spooky Pack Pint Run.  Everyone was asked to dress in costumes and they had a contest after the run.  Of course, I couldn't pass up a chance to dress Joseph and I in coordinating costumes. 

Since his lederhosen hat was actually a Peter Pan hat, I decided to reuse it and dress us up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell (I tried to get Sam to be Captain Hook, but he wasn't feeling it).  I wish I had a video of the contest itself because our little boy worked the crowd.  They started the contest with a few groups of costumes.  Based on cheering from the crowd, they selected the top two from each group to come back for the final round.  During the finals, Joseph was fine while the crowd was cheering for everyone else.  When they were all looking at and cheering for hime, he got his pouty face then started to cry.  When everyone stopped cheering and laughed, he turned on the ham factor with one of his big, cheesy grins.  Kiddo, you're a mess :)  One man jokingly commented about my accessory to which my husband responded, "yeah, but she had to push her accessory the whole way."

Well, we won the contest!  The grand prize was a free pair of running shoes!  They brought out a few of their top pairs for me to try on and told me to pick the ones I wanted.  John and Evan won one of the finalist prizes (a $25 gift card!), but I don't have a picture of them to show you.

Peter Pan hung out with Daddy while I tried on shoes.  I just love how his little hand is on Sam's in this picture!

I even broke in the new kicks with a nice little 3 mile run yesterday.  They aren't the coolest looking shoes they had, but they sure feel good.

When I get a copy of the whole group picture, I will add it to the post.  We had Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, old and new Batman, two butterflies, and Mario in our group.

Homecoming 2012

The week of October 20th was OSU's homecoming celebration.  As is our annual tradition, we attended a few of the festivities I mentioned in last year's post.  Next year we hope to attend more since Joseph will actually be old enough to enjoy the carnival and parade.

We started with walk around Friday night.  One of Sam's only requests when we were buying baby items was a backpack carrier and boy were we glad we had it at walk around.  I couldn't imagine trying to push a stroller through the crowds.  Of course, Joseph slept through 90% of the evening.

As usual, the crowds were huge.

Joseph did wake up in time to enjoy the last few house decs.  I think he looks adorable peeking over the backpack, but I am a little biased. 

Can you believe this is our only family pic from the whole weekend.

The next day, we decided to watch the game at one of the tents Eskimo Joe's had set up.  We did this in case I needed to take Joseph home to nap since people would be coming over after the game and we didn't want him to be cranky.  Fortunately, he slept through over half of the game in the noisy tent!  I had a great view of three generations of Parks' from where I sat.

When Joseph did wake up, we broke out the go-pod which made him happy.

Especilly since he found the guy sitting at the table next to us very amusing

After the game, everyone met up at our house for a chili bar which was simple and tasty.  We had everything you might need for hot dogs, frito chili pies, baked potatoes, and a simple bowl of chili.  Of course, I didn't get any pictures.

Joseph is 5 Months Old

Five months, I can't believe it!  This month Joseph became a rolling fool.  He prefers to roll to the right, but can roll both ways if he needs to.  Sometimes I put him at one end of the room and let him roll to the other end, then I either turn him around or carry him back to the starting point and let him start again.  I joke that he might as well be crawling because he can figure out how to roll between furniture and everything.  This is one time that I'm glad we have a sunken living room, at least he can't get out of the room (I'm sure I will be hating this feature when he starts crawling and walking).  I've already posted about a lot of the events Joseph attended during his fifth month of life, so I won't repeat those here, but I am including a few different pictures from the last month.

Joseph - 5 Months

Joseph started eating solid foods this month and he can't get enough! 

He wasn't too sure about the first couple of bites, but after that he was grabbing the spoon to put it in his mouth because I wasn't moving fast enough.  After a few nights of just rice cereal, we started adding veggies.  His favorite is peas, but he will eat anything I give him.

One weekend when OSU wasn't playing, we had a spur of the moment, quick trip to Dallas.  While we were there, we were able to visist Uncle Ty and show him that Joseph was supporting his Aggies that day.

Joseph loves to pull on Sam's beard.  In fact, Sam is hesitant to shave it off now because he is afraid Joseph won't recognize him.

He also discovered the mirror and lambs above the swing this month.  Sometimes I don't even know when he wakes up from nap because he will be looking at himself and playing.

Oh, he also got a new ride this month.  Since he loves his jumperoo so much, we decided to break out the doorway jumper.  We put it in the kitchen entryway so he can hang out while I cook. 

Oktoberfest

Since we're always looking for fun, new things to do, Sam and I decided to go to the Tulsa Oktoberfest last week.  We also thought it was a great time to make our little man his first costume... lederhosen.  Since I was unable to find a pattern or online tutorial, I did the best I could to make what I feel like are a decent replica.  I realize the hat is a little Peter Panish, but its the closest tutorial I could find (she added an elastic chin strap, but I didn't have to since Joseph never tried to take it off his head).  My favorite comment of the night was, "He even looks German."  Ha!  He's 3/8 German, so I can see why someone might think that.

Doesn't he look thrilled to be there.

Appearantly, we weren't the only ones with the bright idea to go on Thursday night and beat the crowd.

We listened to lots of great music? 

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of Joseph with people in authentic German attire.

This guy asked if we were taking a before and after photo.

Joseph wasn't too sure about the giant chicken.

Juke Joint Jog

Since we didn't get to run an actual 5k at the zombie bolt, we laced up our running shoes and participated in the 25th annual Juke Joint Jog the next weekend.  It was raining, it was windy, I pushed a jogging stroller with a rain cover on it the whole way, and when I finally crossed the finish line I felt like super woman.  When I was in college and worked at Joe's Clothes, I volunteered to help with this race a couple of times, so it was fun to actually participate.  Luckily for me and everyone around, Joseph slept the entire race.  Sam ran the race too (and met me at the finish line with a high five :), but he changed out of his wet running clothes before we took a picture. 

Here is the wole crew:

Cousins ~ OSU Edition

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching my nephew, Bryar, while my sister hosted a baby shower here in Stillwater.  Since it was an OSU game day, Bryar showed up in his OSU gear.  Of course, this warranted a cousins photo shoot.

They started off happy.

But then Joseph got so upset that his taggie couldn't even comfort him.

So I sent Joseph inside with daddy and took a few solo pictures of Bryar.

After a couple of naps and with the help of my sister, I decided to try a cousin shoot again.  They started off happy again.

They even did some bird imitations?

But then Joseph threw another fit.  Cousin Bryar tried to grab his flailing hand,

which only made matters worse. 

So we took a quick side by side comparison picture and called it good.