So Very Thankful!

We have busy the last few weeks...well at least busy for us:)  Here is a little bit of what we have been up to.

Joseph likes to go through his diaper bag.  On this day he found the cheerios and they were all over the floor around him.  He is my little human vacuum cleaner...reminds me of his Papaw Ken:)  If he ever finds fuzz or any tiny particle on the floor he stops to pick it up and hand it to me.  

We spent Thanksgiving week in Pampa with my family.  He was just a tad clingy with Paul and me ;).  He likes his cousins!

Another exciting find in the diaper bag.

An exciting find in Dad's bag.  He was just doing a little shaving of the head.  Nothing big.  

Precious boy.

We had Christmas on the Saturday after Thanksgiving with my family as well.  Here is his new super cute hat from Aunt Cathy and Uncle Lynn!

My heart melts for these two guys.  

Playing with Aunt Sarah and his new toy.

Memaw and Papaw!  Caught Memaw taking pictures with her phone:)

Cousin Cole helped him figure out his new John Deere four wheeler:)  See you just push this button here.

Ready to hit the pasture.

He is standing up all the time and taking a few steps.  He likes to walk his vehicles around holding onto the side of them.

On the way home we stopped in Ft. Worth to see Memi Carlene, Grandpa Larry, Grandma and Grandpa Cice.  Memi had pulled out a bunch of Paul's old toys from when he was little.  Joseph LOVED these huge stuffed animals.  He just kept burying his little face in them. 

They also have 2 cats that he chased around.  They were both VERY interested in each other.

Playing with Memi.

 

He is really into building AND knocking things down.

See how fun it is to knock things down!?

He has a toy airplane that he zooms back and forth and he even makes the best airplane noise.  Boys are just made so perfectly to be little boys!  Daddy and Joseph make good noises.  Mommy needs some help.

This is our made up sign language for help.  He just waves his sweet little hand in the air when he needs help.  We REALLY like this better than the high pitched squeal for help:)  He is a quick little learner.  We are so blessed by his heart that is already learning to obey so well. 

Walking the vehicle around the room.  Notice the baby swing is back up.  We have been practicing rocking it gently.  He can do some serious rocking with it.  Hold on to your hat, baby brother!!

Memaw came through to see us on her way to a girl's weekend and he just followed her around.  She was in the bathroom taking a shower and he just sat there outside the door, knocking and waiting on her to get out. Super cute.  

All things are going great with the pregnancy.  We measured right on track last week at a sonogram and we are looking forward to January 18th!  I am treasuring my last few weeks at home with just my Joseph-boy.  He cut some new teeth last week and has had a great week this week.  Love my little buddy.  He has such a fun and playful little spirit.  It is so incredible to watch him learn so many new things each week. 

More Birthday and Daily Life!

This kid did some MAJOR celebrating for his first birthday! We got to celebrate with the Rayburn side for Joseph's birthday in October!  Grandma and Grandpa Rayburn came up from Austin and we had a great time with Grandpa Rusty, Grandma Josie and Aunt Julie!

It's almost impossible to get everyone looking and smiling, but this was the best of what we got:) 

We have been doing lot's of standing and pulling up on everything!  He has taken his first few steps from leaning on his little blue chair.  He thinks it is funny that we get so excited so he will now just fall into us.

Love that sweet face.

We get this look quite a bit.  We laugh so he keeps doing it.  

He loves his books and his Daddy.  

We checked the mail on our walk tonight and I handed him a magazine.  He held it up and flipped through the pages the whole way home.  It was hilarious looking.  

I can't catch him being still long enough to get a good picture, but his new favorite activity is when we pull all the cushions off the couch and he climbs up them and then just lunges off them into a full on face plant.  He thinks it is so very funny. 

He points and we tell him what things are called.  This is how I spend at least 25% of my day.  

He loves him some tupperware.  He has his own little cabinet of it that he digs in while I am in the kitchen.

He bit his crib and made some teeth marks on it.  We discussed how that was not a good idea.  Now every time I go to get him when he wakes up he points to the places he bit.  He is just reminding me that it's not a good idea to bite the bed.  I always agree with him.

Precious face after a nap!

He is really into looking at his reflection in the oven.

We got to celebrate Ms. Rheba's 80th Birthday!  She is a sweet family friend that we love so much!

Again, hard to get all looking at the same time.  I should invest in Photoshop. 

Joseph "helped" Paul put together the crib for the new baby. Half of the fun was tracking down the parts.:) We call him our "put-ter."  He loves to put things in funny places.  Like my contact case between the bed and the mattress in our room.

 We are 29 1/2 weeks along and it is flying by! I keep telling Joseph there is a baby brother in my tummy, but he is sure that really it's just a great step Mommy has been growing to climb on for hard to reach things

His favorite toy is currently this little Fisher Price black sheep that came with a nativity set.  Not the white one, he will chunk that one across the room.  He specifically prefers the black one.  Who knew little people had such strong preferences!  When he finds it first thing in the morning he hugs it under his chin and does this SUPER funny laugh that sounds almost like an evil cackle.  We have tried to imitate it and catch it on film.  LOT'S of laughs for Momma and Daddy.

Some of his other "tricks" that he can do are to "wash his hair", motion "sheeewy" for a stinky diaper, find his belly button and now is looking for other people's as well (oops, lesson learned).  We are loving having this sweet guy around.  He is doing really well with obeying us and I am constantly amazed at how much he can understand.  We are enjoying these last 2 1/2 months of a family of three before our new little guy joins us!  Joseph is going to be a GREAT big brother!