Congrats, Master Mark!

Our family celebrated a very special day this weekend- Mark's graduation! We are so proud of him for all of his hard work and dedication. He truly is an inspiration and example to me...he has worked hard to balance a full-time school schedule, full-time work schedule, internship, church calling, and being a great dad and husband. Yay for Mark! :)

For those of you who do not know, Mark graduated from the University of Arizona with a Master's Degree in Public Health, emphasis in Policy and Management. He plans to begin an MBA program this next fall and is busy finishing those applications up. He's a busy man...but hopefully in another two years we will be settling into a nice, enjoyable career for him.

Unfortunately, Joseph had a very unusually bad day on Friday and was very much not himself...as he screamed through the entire ceremony. So, sadly, I missed seeing Mark getting hooded and wasn't able to get many pictures...but here are a few we got at the end. Mark's dad took some so once we get them I will post more.

So, like I said, Joseph screamed through the entire ceremony...until he saw his daddy...then it was all calm and smiles. :)

Joseph loved daddy's leis and was very entertained by them...

Hip-hip-hooray for Mark! Congratulations!!! We love you! :)

5 months and a Few New Tricks

Again, despite being a little late, here's Joseph's 5 month pictures.

While last time Joseph went after the bucket, he found a new toy this time.

Over the past few weeks, Joseph has been learning a few new tricks.  The first one is a follow up from the jumper he got during Thanksgiving.  Over the past few weeks, Joseph has become quite the pro at his jumper.  With his progress, Joseph wanted to show off a little.  So here's his video.

 Also, earlier this week, I taught Joseph how to click his tongue.  It was really fun watching him learn how to do it.  I started doing it and Joseph started trying to copy me.  After a few tries, he started doing it.  Now, he does it pretty regularly.  His another video of Joseph showing off his tongue clicking.

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!  Better late than never right?  Anyways, this year for Thanksgiving, we went up to Phoenix and visited my parents.  Although I don't have any pictures, we were lucky to be able to catch my mom between her flights so that Joseph could see her and Grandpa Jack.  Even though it was short, it was a lot of fun and Joseph was much more interactive than last time and enjoyed hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.

So, the next day was Thanksgiving and we spent it at my dad's house.  Here's a picture of the three of us.  One of my favorite parts of the picture is Joseph's shirt, it says mommy's little turkey. 

It was an awesome Thanksgiving dinner.  Much smaller than some of the previous dinners, but mom made some amazing food.  Here's a picture of our little group, minus mom who's taking the picture.

After our meal, harkening back to our English roots,  we held our annual Brems Family Croquet Tournament.

It was a lot of fun and we had three generations playing (at least for part of the time).  Although, the two newest members of the Brems family occupied themselves in other ways.  Alex found his sister's tricycle and used it as a walker to go around the course.

Joseph and Jodie found some swings nearby.

Joseph definitely loves swinging. 

After the tournament, which I'm proud to say that I won this year, Joseph got to spend some time with his uncle John.

Before John left to go back to Tucson, we got a picture with Dad.

On our trip back home, Joseph had kind of a tough time in the car, so we had to take several stops.  One of the stops we took was at the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights.  Joseph really enjoyed seeing all the bright lights and colors.

He seemed to especially enjoy the orange ones, which seems to be turning out to be his favorite color for the time being.

In switching topics a little, Joseph got a jumper for his 5th month birthday- he has absolutely been loving it since the first time he tried it out.

 He seemed to be a natural and know exactly what to do.  It was so much fun watching him being able to interact with and move about his immediate environment.

 When we got it set up at home, it was the exact same reaction and he's been getting really good about walking around too.

Another toy that Joseph got recently was a walker, from a family in our ward.  It has been working out really well to keep him with us but without halving to hold him all the time.

Another toy that Joseph has inherited was an empty DVD case.  We've been working on cleaning up and baby-proofing our movie collection.  Unexpectedly, Joseph was completely enthralled by this empty case that it has been added to his toy collection.

 To finish up our Thanksgiving post, here are some recent pictures of Joseph.  Here is Joseph beginning to discover that he has feet and, more importantly, that he can play with them.

Here's a picture of Joseph's pouting face.  From the day he was born, he has been a master of using his lower lip.  Over the past few months, the expression has only gotten more intense, even though it is rarely used any more.  Anyway, he better watch out how much he uses his pouting face with Santa Clause coming so soon.

Lastly, two pictures of our poi boy.  I really enjoyed this picture because you can see his peach fuzz starting to grow in.

Lastly, how much does this little boy love his poi? Enough to get a poi mustache nearly every time he eats it.

Hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving.

State Championship Swimming

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to go cheer on my little sister at the High School State Championships.  Jodie and I, we wore our usual "Team Jenna" t-shirts.  We even managed to get one for the newest member.

The newest fan giving his auntie a big smile and "words" of encouragement.

We didn't get any really good pictures of Jenna swimming- the pool was way too crowded.  But, I managed to get a decent one of Jenna diving in on one of her four events. She's in the middle of the pool, with the black suit and blue swimming cap. 

 Although it was nice and sunny, the temperature was rather cold, especially for an outdoor meet.  Joseph got to try out his winter coat.  It was a tiny bit big, but the orange matched the team shirts perfectly.

All in all, we had a lot of fun watching and cheering on Jenna in her last high school meet.   All the cheering wore Joseph out pretty good and he had a nice long nap on the two-hour ride home.

Well done sis!  Congratulations on performing so well!

Lastly, here is a picture of Joseph trying to help daddy write his master's thesis. 

Happy Halloween and 4 months old

Happy Halloween everyone... a week late.  Ok, so this week has been a little crazy and busy for us, so we are finally posting our Halloween pictures.  As our first family Halloween, we decided to all dress up.  We decided to go back to our mission days and relive our soccer rivalry.  Jodie dressed up as a Brazilian soccer player and I dressed up as an Argentine soccer player.  To keep things fair, Joseph dressed up as a referee.

Here is Jodie getting Joseph ready.

Here we are all together.

Jodie and Joseph together.  Jodie was trying to corrupt him and try to convince him that Brazil has a better soccer team.

However, Daddy got the last word in.  Time will only tell if it sticks.

While we were away in Hawaii, Joseph turned 4 months old.  So, these pictures are a little late for his 4 month mark.  So, here is Joseph in his usual position for the pictures.

However, we ran into an unexpected problem; one that we hadn't experienced before.  Joseph quickly lost interest in the camera and became more interested in the bucket and ball.  So much, in fact, that he would make a dive for the bucket, especially the red shovel.

So, starting at 4 months, we have to start giving Joseph some props to help keep him focused on the picture.  Anyway, here is month 4's picture.

Lastly, as a little treat for being late, here is a video of Joseph's new trick- laughing.  Hope it brightens your day like it did ours.

Hawaii Vacation

Continuing off of our previous post, here is the rest of the trip to Hawaii.

One of the most important things for Jodie and I during the trip was to take a 5 generation picture with Jodie's family- Joseph has 2 great-great grandma's still alive.  So, we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Puana's house to take the 5 generation picture. 

When we arrived, everyone was very excited to finally meet Joseph.  So, we had to get a few introductions in before we could take pictures.

Here is Joseph with his Great Grandma Puana and Great-Great Grandma

Here is Joseph with his other Great-Great Grandma.

 Joseph with all the girls- he absolutely loved all the attention.

 Here is a picture of everyone together.

The Puana's 5 Generations

Joseph's 5 generation picture- complete maternal line.

After the pictures were taken, we relaxed and spent some time catching up.  After a while, we found Dad in his favorite spot.

But he soon lost the spot to Joseph.

Grandma and Joseph had some fun with the hammock, making it a big swing.

However, Dad soon found a way to get back to his favorite spot again.

Here is a picture of great-granny with her dolls.  She made all of these porcelain  dolls by hand- very impressive.

It was a very fun day and Joseph had a lot of fun meeting his family, but it definitely wore him out.

Later, we continued introducing Joseph to more of his family; this time the Vidinhar family.

First, we went to Uncle Brian and Auntie Tina's house and Joseph got to met some of Dad's siblings.

Here's a picture of everyone, well, mostly everyone.  Joseph was asleep.

Later that week, we took a quick trip to Maui to visit some more of Joseph's great grandparents.

Here is Joseph meeting great-grandma Linda

Spending some time with Grandma and Grandpa Vidinhar.

Hanging out with Auntie Debbie, Ashley, and Hilary.

We also had some time to play catch with Grandma with his favorite block.

Another day, we all went over to Auntie Debbie and Uncle Skitch's house.  Joseph definitely loved the attention he got from everyone.

Here's a picture with his Auntie

Adding mom and dad now.

You can't forget Grandma and Grandpa.

Later, we also got to introduce Joseph to some of his legacy.  First we went to Hawaiian Memorial Park to visit Great-Grandma Vidinhar's grave.  Here's Jodie and Grandpa walking to the site.

Here they are at the actual site.

Later, we got to take Joseph to Punchbowl and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and Joseph got to meet one of his namesakes, Joseph Burton Schwartz- great-great-granny's husband.

We also had the opportunity to go to a very special place for mommy and daddy; the Laie Temple, were we got married.

We spent a little time taking some pictures and helping Grandpa with a short video for the youth in his ward about friendship.  Anyways, here are some of the pictures from our visit.

A shot of Grandma and Grandpa.

Jodie, Joseph, and I also in front of the temple.

Joseph really enjoyed just sitting out in the sun and feeling the ocean breeze.

A fun picture of all three of us.

Us again in front of the Christus statue- Jodie and I took a picture there during our last visit.

Joseph and I in front of a small Polynesian village display about families.

Grandpa and Joseph got some time to play while Daddy worked on Grandpa's video.

And another picture of Grandma and Grandpa.  On a fun side note, they are standing under one of the trees that Grandpa planted while he was re-landscaping the temple grounds.

Here's a few other shots from outside the temple.

After leaving the temple, we decided to stop by the North Shore and check out the Pipeline.  The waves are starting to build up this time of year.  Although I was very impressed with the waves, everyone assured me that they were tiny and nothing compared to the waves that Grandpa rode back in the day.  Anyways, here are two pictures of the Pipeline to show you the power behind these waves.

After getting back to the hotel, we decided to go swimming in the pool for a little bit.  Again, Joseph loved being in the water and swimming around, despite it being much colder than his usual bathwater.

Another thing that we got to do was to explore the island a little.  Personally, I was very excited to do this because my last visit to Oahu didn't include too much sightseeing and seeing the Hawaiian culture and history- that's to be expected when you're getting married though.  Anyway, I was very grateful to spend some more time learning and sharing in my wife and son's heritage.

One of the first things we got to do was go to Bishop Museum, thanks to Great-Grandma Puana.  I love this picture from the inside of the Great Hall inside Bishop Museum, especially all the Koa wood.

Me in front of Duke's surfboard.

They also had a pretty cool natural science building- Joseph is going to love it when he is older.

On another day, we went to the Overlook Shelter at Round Top Forest Preserve to get a great view of Honolulu.

We also took some time to take some family pictures around the beautiful scenery.  Here's one of Grandma and Grandpa

Us at Uncle Brian's house.

Another thing that I was very excited to visit was Iolani Palace- home of the Hawaiian monarchy.  Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the palace, but here's a nice one of the outside of the building.  At a time when many Hawaiians were still living in straw-thatched homes, Iolani Palace was an impressive display of the Hawaiian monarchy.  Built in 1879, it was way ahead of its time with flushing toilets, running hot water, electricity (4 years before the White House), and a telephone.

Jodie and I with the statue of Queen Lili'uokalani, Hawaii's last monarch.

Unfortunately, Iolani Palace doesn't allow children under the age of 4 in the tour.  So, Joseph and Grandma got to go hang out with Auntie Kat, whose office is across the street.

From the pictures, it doesn't seem that Joseph missed hanging out with mommy and daddy.  What do you think?

All in all, we had a lot of great adventures and learned a lot.  Throughout the whole trip, Joseph was a trooper, but with a few breaks like theses...

We were able to keep smiles like these for most of our explorations.

Lastly, the other big thing that we wanted to do on our trip was to spend some time at the beach. 

Here's Joseph's introduction to surfing.  We had to wait a few days for the jellyfish to clear, but Joseph finally got his chance.  We were very thankful that Grandpa was willing to take Joseph out on his surfboard for a little bit.  I think they both loved the experience.

Going for a little ride around the lagoon.

He loved his ride.

Now for some tummy time...

Apparently, computers aren't the only thing that makes tummy time bearable.

Time to catch a few waves by himself.

He was a natural; but then again, surfing is in his blood.

It was a great day to go surfing.

Even mommy paddled out and rode a few waves after Joseph finished his turn.

The next day, we hung out at the beach for a little bit to let Joseph play in the sand.

As dusk approached, we went for a little walk down the beach to explore a little bit.

We got back to Grandma and Grandpa in perfect time to watch an amazing Hawaiian sunset.

On another day, we dressed Joseph up in his frog suit and really let him play in the sand.

He seemed to love the feel of the sand on his feet, especially wiggling them in the sand.

We also had fun burying Joseph in the sand.

And he had fun wiggling his toes out of the sand.

Afterwards, we had a dip in the ocean to wash all the sand off and practice out swimming.

On our last day at the beach, Joseph was excited to go out surfing again with Auntie Jenny's help.

Since we didn't go the lagoon this time, Mom went out first to check out the waves.

Looks good for Joseph to catch some waves.

Now it's time for Joseph.

Now mommy and Joseph are catching some real waves.

"Leavin' spit for a trail"

Joseph had a great session with mommy and Auntie Jenny.

Can't forget about a quick swim in the ocean.

Well, that wraps up our amazing trip to Hawaii.  We want to thank all of our family for helping out and making the trip so fun and memorable.  Can't wait to come back and visit again.  Aloha 'Oe for now!