How to eat yogurt like Joey

First, you stick your spoon in the yogurt carton.

Then you take a big bite.



Then try using the spoon with no hands.


Then you just forget about the spoon all together.


Ah, that's better.


Bottom's up!!

A very satisfied look.

What? Do I have something on my face?

Now, I'm "all done!"

Thanks for enjoying my yogurt with me!!

Fun with Papa and Gramma

My parents came to visit us this weekend---and by "us" I mean Joey. :) We had a wonderful weekend. I got to sleep in on Saturday...Joe and my dad went golfing...we went out to eat on Saturday night. It was great!!

Joey and Gram.

Joey having fun in Papa's rental truck.

Thanks for coming to visit! We look forward to seeing Gram again in a few weekend's for Esther's bridal shower here in Omaha. Joey also gets to go see Grandpa and Nana in Kansas in a few weeks. Again, I'm pretty sure they are more excited to see Joey than us. Such is our life now! Actually, we really are blessed to have such great families who want to see us!

Look what Joey can do!

Joe walked upstairs for a minute today, and when he came back down, this is what he saw. Needless to say, he hurried down the stairs to get Joey. Before this, Joey would just stand at the bottom stair, content. No longer!!

He's actually quite quick at going up already. Now we will have to work on going down the stairs backwards!

Joey had his 12 month check up at the doctor today. (He is actually 13 months old now, but we couldn't get in the week after he turned 1, and then we were in the Philippines.) So, he got a few shots and some blood taken to check a CBC. Don't worry Gram, he's been taking his Vitamin C every day!! :)

Here's his stats for today: Weight 21 pounds, 8 ounces (25th percentile)
Length 31.5 inches (90th percentile)
Head Circumference 19 inches (90th percentile)

I think he lost a little weight while we were in the Philippines, but the doctor said he is doing just fine. He is still tall and skinny with a big head!

Fun at the Park

We took Joey to the park a few days ago. He's still not quite big enough to really enjoy it, but he still had fun!

It was hard to get Joey to look at the camera because there was a little girl swinging on the swing next to him...hmmmmm. :)


One of Joey's favorite places to be is on top of Daddy's shoulders.



Joey loves to pretend to "talk" on the phone now. He also likes to push the buttons and see the phone light up...he's called a few random places before I could grab the phone!


He gets very excited when he hears someone talking to him! (Okay...so I know my child looks like a poor homeless waif in this dirty onesie...I really do dress him in good clothes every day!)




My good friend, Christine, who lives in Arkansas, was in Nebraska for a day this week. She stopped by with her kids, Jakin and Anna. My friend, Jairin, who actually lives in Paris, also came by! It was so good to catch up.

We couldn't get the three of them to pose for a picture...this is the best I could get!

First Steps!

Today Joey took his first steps all by himself. I guess all that practice with Val in the Philippines paid off--thanks Val! He was so proud of himself.

Look at the smile!



We got home from the Philippines last evening after three long flights. We were so excited to be home. Our bed never felt better! Joey was awake from 3:30-5:00 am this morning, but he seemed to be on a good nap schedule today, so hopefully he will sleep well tonight. Joe and I are both pretty tired, but Joe made it through a full day of work today.

This is a picture out the window when we were on the plane. I think we were somewhere over Alaska. We were flying at 30,000 feet, so you can imagine how tall those mountains were!


This is a picture of the sunrise from the sky.

Overall, Joey did great on the plane. I think he got used to sleeping on us. We had a very nice couple behind us this time who played and talked with Joey a lot. Of course, everyone on the plane was enamored with him!

Thanks for all your prayers for safety. We had a wonderful time with Josh, Val and the girls---thanks, guys, for everything you did to make our stay so great!! Now we are off to bed! :)

Rain, rain, go away...

...come again sometime when we are NOT at the beach!!

We went to Boracay for three days here in the Philippines. We took a little plane ride, a bus, and then a boat to get to this island. It is one of the best tropical beaches. Unfortunately, it rained off and on THE ENTIRE time we were there! What a bummer! This first picture pretty much sums up the beach trip. :) Needless to say, I did not acquire the tan I was hoping for! We did manage to still have a lot of fun there doing other things, though.

We rented scooters for an hour and drove them around the island. I loved driving my own! I owned the road! :)

This is a picture of us taking one of our tricycle rides to get different places. A "tricycle" is a guy driving a motorcycle with this little buggy contraption hooked on to the side. Pretty cool!

In between rain showers, we did manage to play on the beach for about an hour one day (before we got caught in a downpour!) Joey did not care much for the big waves, but he did enjoy the beach toys that Mackenzie got for him.

I think this is priceless.

The night before we left for Boracacy, we all went to the theatre that has recliners for seats. It was so nice to watch a movie that way. Movie, popcorn and pop all for about $7!! Can't beat that! We saw Die Hard 4.0, which actually turned out to be a really good movie.

FYI: Josh and Val have a picture almost exactly like this one that Val posted on her blog when she was pregnant with Bella.

We leave for home tomorrow morning. We have a had a wonderful time here, but we are excited to get home. We are praying that Joey does okay on the flights home (we have Benadryl ready!) :)

More Massages

Joe got back from his basketball trip today. It was great to see him, and Joey was very excited to see his daddy. Joe, me, Josh, Val and Johnny all went to the spa (third time for me!) Joe and I got the Presidential package, so we had our own private room with a Jacuzzi tub, full body massages, and foot massages...all in all about 3 1/2 hours. It was wonderful!

Here's a shot of the room with the foot massage chairs and Jacuzzi. There was another room attached with two massage tables...again, AMAZING!

And for all you grandparents out there...here are some more pictures of the kids!

Tomorrow we are all going to the mall with the kids. Val and I are excited to have a few extra hands helping us now with the kids. We are hoping that when the kids get up at 5:30 am (as the trend seems to be this week), Joe and Josh will get up with them. I'm not so sure that's going to happen!!

Not likely seen in Nebraska...

I was sitting in the living room reading my book after putting Joey to bed tonight...something catches my eye out on the porch...and there it is...yep, two little geckos going at it right in front of me! Not something I'm used to seeing back in Nebraska. I know these things look huge in the picture, but they are actually only about 3 inches long and harmless (so Val tells me!) =)

Fun Times

Two nights ago we took the kids out to TGI-Friday's and to the mall to ride the carousel. They all had a lot of fun!

Joey doesn't look too sure of himself...

Mackenzie and Joey love taking turns riding on these two toys.

Last night Val and I went to the Spa! It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was way better than any massage I've had before. Plus we got to enjoy the whirlpool room and rainhead showers. When Joe gets back I will be visiting that place again!! (Or maybe Val and I will go again before the boys get back!) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but you can click here to view The Spa.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!! So, we didn't really celebrate Independence Day today (we ARE in the Philippines!), but we did dress the kids up in matching shirts for the day. We couldn't believe how well this picture turned out...Val did the entertaining while I snapped the picture. :) It might be worthy of a frame when we get home!

All three of the kids enjoyed bath time tonight. It's so cute to see them all in the tub together! Here's a run-down of tub time: Mackenzie spitting water on Joey, Joey hitting Bella in the head with tub toys, Bella sitting there perfectly innocent and content (unless Joey hits her really hard!)

I will probably post some more pictures in the morning of our trip to TGI-Friday's and the carousel.

By the way...Joey slept much better last night; so I'm hoping he is now back on his normal schedule!

Pictures from our travel

I thought I would show you a few pictures from our day of travelling.

This is Joe, Joey and Johnny (a friend from Kansas who also came to the Philippines to go on the basketball missions trip) in the Minneapolis airport. We were doing anything we could to keep Joey awake before we got on the plane---it didn't work.

This is a picture of the actual plane we flew on from Minneapolis to Tokyo. I've never been on a 2-story plane before---it was HUGE!

Okay...the airport in Tokyo was amazing! We were only there for about an hour, but I can't wait to stop by again. They had these amazing massage chairs (above is Joe relaxing in one). It only cost about $1.50 for 10 minutes. They were nothing like the massage chairs in the malls in the US. These actually felt like hands were giving you a massage---amazing! Everyone seemed to be really nice in that airport too...A+ for Tokyo!

The kids are all taking a nap right now. I probably should be, but I was out by the pool for a little bit, so I gave up my nap for that! Tonight we are going to do a little shopping and take the kids out to eat and to the "merry-go-round" that Mackenzie is so excited to take Joey to (It's a carousel). Sounds like fun!

So far Joey hasn't adjusted to the new time very well. Last night he went to bed at 6:30, was up from 11:00-midnight, and then got up again for good around 4:00. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled! I'm hoping tonight goes better!

We're Here!!

After quite a long plane ride (actually three plane rides), we finally made it to the Philippines.

We arrived last night around 11:00 pm. The boys left for their basketball trip at 3:00 am...I can't imagine how tired they are! They will be gone until next Monday, so Val and I are on our own with the three kids until then.

It has been great to see Josh, Val and the girls. Both girls have grown up so much since we last saw them.

Today we just relaxed around the house and let the kids play. We were all quite tired, since we went to bed at 2 am and the kids got up at 6 am. Joey's schedule is a little off, but he seemed to go to bed well tonight, so hopefully he'll sleep all night!

Tomorrow we will try to be a little more adventurous and maybe do some shopping! :)

Thanks for all your prayers!

Mackenzie, Bella and Joey.

Joey loves to "pat" Bella's head...Bella's less than thrilled when he does it. But they play pretty well together.

Joey and Mackenzie had fun swinging in the hammock together.



We hope to get some good rest tonight! I'll blog again soon!