Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, from our family, to yours!

The Fam - heading out to Grandma and Grandpap's house

 

Pretty Miss Nora

  Starting in on Presents!

 

Putting my new lens to work - Bokeh!

 

Four stockings hung (though one still needs a name - oops!)

 

Through the pocket doors

 

Santa Came!!!

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy

All Joseph talks about lately is Daddy. Daddy's shoes, daddy's book, daddy's [golf] ball, etc...

Daddy is soooooo cool. Just ask Mama!

In other news, the weather is AWESOME. We went to a park this morning with some friends to "play ball".

Just Like Daddy

This is what happens when you take your Daddy-worshiping toddler away for 4 days

"Oh, is this Daddy's shirt? I should wear it."

"Oooh, Daddy's shoes!"

Working hard just like Daddy

This Week in Pictures

Well, let's say the last 7 days. :)

Play date at our house - hanging in Joseph's room.


Daddy's back from Switzerland (Just in time for the Steelers' game!)


Who doesn't like riding roller coasters naked?


Jet Lagged


I know what's on tap this weekend: A haircut.


Eyelashes


My rosy-cheeked elf


Soo cute!


Just love this expression


Still has those blue eyes... guess they are probably here to stay!

Testing the Nikon 35mm f1.8 AF-S prime lens

I'd rented this lens over the holidays to try it out - I've been fawning over the 50mm f 1.4 AF-S, but it's $400. This one is "only" $200, a pretty good deal in the crazy camera world.

I've been using the lens, but hadn't really tried it out in a meaningful way. So we took it to the zoo yesterday to try and get a few decent shots (decent for me, anyway).

Nice bokeh, and look how it makes the stitches on the hat stand out!
I never even thought about how it could tranform my knitting posts! Ha!

Looking at the birds

Mama = happy. Joseph = cold

Attempting a "real" shot. It's a cool bird, anyway.

For some reason my favorite pics are always of him eating. Sorry about that.

Now, here is something I learned from yesterday. Look at the next two photos. Taken in the same lighting. But I moved. The second one is so much better (the lighting, not the actual photo... sorry Joseph!). Lesson: be aware of your lighting, Jen.

Still, he's so cute when he eats, no?

This one reminds me of a college buddy who always got heavy lidded when drinking. tee hee!

Colder and colder, the hood comes up

Rounding out the day with "elephant activities"
where they bribed her with treats to do circus tricks. :(

Can't...keep...eyes...open

T.J. had to do a rousing kangaroo impression (hopping) to keep him awake until we got to the car. Then he took a 3 hour nap. Yey zoo!

Caddyshack

I have a feeling that I'm going to be living the high life in a couple of years when Joseph is old enough to golf with T.J.

The only kid who was ever happy to watch Golf on Sunday mornings.

**Disclaimer: Joseph only watches a limited amount of sporting events on TV. We don't blind fold him, but we try to keep TV time as close to zero as possible.

PS. Try not to judge us for letting him play with that empty bleach bottle. It was temporary, I swear!

Happy Father's Day!

To my wonderful husband... Joseph is a lucky lucky boy!

WWF

I'm pretty sure that T.J. is just taking advantage of the time that Joseph is littler than him! It shouldn't be long before he's bigger than Daddy!

"Hey Daddy, wanna wrestle?"

Wait, I didn't say "Go"!

"Ah that tickles!"

"Must.Escape.Can't.Breathe"

"Relief!"

We have a crawler!

First, Daddy is coming to MN! Yippee! He gets in tonight. Joseph and I can't wait!

And we have news! Joseph is a crawler! He took his first crawl(?) - a few "steps" today on his hands and knees! He still seems pretty scared to move his hands, but I'm sure he'll be zooming around in no time! He did it two separate times, but unfortunately I didn't get it on camera yet. I will keep trying! Can I use any more exclamation points?!?!

Here's a picture from the other day to tide you over:

Playing with Grandpa

On Our Own

T.J. left last night for a client in D.C. He doesn't plan to be back until the 29th. That's right, a whole month! So sad! It's a very demanding job, and even if we travel up there he won't be able to hang out with us at all (working till midnight or even later), so we've decided to spend January traveling to see the families instead.

Auntie Debbie is coming down this Thursday through Sunday, and then Joseph and I are heading up to Minnesota from Wednesday through Tuesday. We go straight from Minnesota to Pittsburgh to visit Grandma and Grandpap C for 5 more days! If T.J. ends up getting weekends off, he'll fly to where we are to visit us. So Joseph and I will stay busy with our mom's group while we're at home and traveling to visit with family. Hopefully Daddy will be back before we know it!

I'm hoping to take daily or semi-daily pictures to send to T.J., so if I do look for a special new "Say Hi to Daddy" category.

Hand Foot and Mouth

Poor T.J. is starting the new year out in a rough way - he's got hand, foot, and mouth disease! It's not nearly as gross as it sounds. Basically it's a rash. He's got it in his throat and on his hands and back so far. It makes for a very sore throat and itchy/painful hands and back.

Very strange for him to get it, he was the first case his doctor had ever seen in an adult!

Hopefully he'll be better soon, and we are able to keep Joseph sickness-free.

Putt-Putt Ball Return and More

Joseph loves to shag golf balls for daddy

Golf balls are nice to gnaw on, too. (While supervised, of course)

Ooh, what's that?!?

I knew I could get there!

Hinges are so interesting.

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so we thought we'd head to the zoo to enjoy what we thought was a free admittance day. Not so much. Ooops! So we went for a walk in Grant Park instead. It was nice anyway, even if there weren't any fun chimps monkeying around!

Daddy getting ready to swing with Joseph

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

That's quite a push!

Too high, Daddy! Eep!

Getting grounded

Trying again - a little slower

Much better!

Joseph loves to swing!