7 Months

Yesterday, Joseph turned 7 months old.  It's truly amazing how fast time is flying by and how much he is growing.  Here's some picture from how the day went, at least once daddy came home from work.

First, we decided to "read" the new BYU Alumni News magazine.  It kept him busy for a while and he had a lot of fun making a mess.

Afterwards, we had family night and Joseph enjoyed listening to a lesson from mommy.

Later that night, Joseph and I watched the Lion King while mommy made cookies to celebrate.  Joseph doesn't look too disappointed that he wasn't able to have a cookie; that won' last for much longer.

 Before going to bed, Joseph even gave himself a kiss goodnight in the mirror; a great way to end a great day.

To finish off the post, here are the pictures from his 7 month photo shoot.  The first one is his official picture, but I loved his look in the second one though.  Happy 7 months Joseph!

Sunday Joys

As I was growing up, I wasn't the biggest fan of Sundays.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday sundaes with Grandma and Grandpa Brems,  it seemed like there was so much that I couldn't do.  However, as I have gotten older, I've begun to better understand the importance of resting to balance my life and, ultimately, realize all that I can do.  This was very poignant when Joseph joined our family; I have a day that I can forget the cares and stresses of the world and focus on what matters the most; my family.  This Sunday was especially true as Joseph and I got to hang out while mommy got a little some extra sleep.

First, we decided to play tag with a Costco water bottle; a classic pastime for Joseph.

Sometimes Joseph wins...

Sometimes the water bottle wins..

After a few too many water bottle victories, we decided to play with our block the tag on the block.

I'm not sure why the tag is so exciting and fun to play with, but he loves it.  Oh well, it definitely encourages some fine motor skills and hand-eye-mouth coordination.

Then, later for lunch, we got to try some apples.  As predicted, it was a huge hit.

On that note, so far, this kid is a big eater.  He is absolutely loving his solid foods; which is making mom and dad very happy too.  The only two foods he doesn't like, so far, are peas and plain rice cereal.  Among is favorites are carrots, sweet potatoes, and poi.  Although, when we are really hungry, like tonight, we'll even try to eat our bib

We are also getting dangerously more mobile, which makes putting on a diaper very interesting.  However, how can you get mad at a face like this?

Back to being mobile, Joseph is working on crawling.  We haven't quite yet mastered it.  Although we have gone a few paces, Joseph tends to use a wheelbarrow approach and use his head as a fulcrum.

So, here's our little triceratops...

It's definitely tough when you have such a big noggin- notice the head to body proportion in the previous picture.

We certainly do love him and love watching him grow.

 At the end of the day, Joseph found a new toy; a magazine.

It didn't take long for him to utterly destroy the magazine.  Most of the time he was like this picture- arms and legs flailing around to make noises with the magazine pages.   It was a great way for him to burn off some major energy and get ready for bed.

We hope that everyone has a great Sunday and can remember to take some time to focus on what matters most in life.

Jeepin'

So, before I get started into this new post, I wanted to post a picture from Christmas that I came across.  It was very nice to spend some time with my younger brothers.

 Over this weekend, I had the opportunity to go jeeping with my dad.  We went with a group that has "instructors" who help coach you through the obstacles.  It was a lot of fun, but my heart was definitely racing numerous times.  Any ways, here's some of the pictures from the trail- its pretty amazing what a vehicle can cross.

With all the jeeping, I'm also proud to say that we got home in one piece without damage or problems.

In closing, here's some pictures of Joseph in his bathrobe.  It's been a little while since he last wore it and its starting to get a little small and I'm not sure how much longer it will last.

 Either way, he sure is cute.

Christmas 2011 and the New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.  Sorry we haven't updated our blog recently.  Things have been a little busy lately, but I'll get back to that a little later.  So, we'll try to get caught up through today.  To start off, I wanted to post this picture of Joseph.  In honor of Joseph's English and Scottish heritage, we got this outfit for him.  He's looking very dapper for this picture.

 Because there was no other space for our second Christmas tree, guess what lucky boy got his own Christmas tree in his room.  Although we didn't have it on too frequently, he loved the lights.

Before going to Phoenix, we decided to have our own Christmas celebration for Joseph.  This will probably be the most quiet and calm he'll ever be before opening his presents.

 With a little bit of encouragement and help, Joseph began unwrapping his presents.  Although completely missing the idea that there was something awaiting him, he unwrapped his present to be able to try and eat the wrapping paper.

What a spoiled, lucky, and loved little boy.

Here's Joseph with one of his favorite gifts and working on one of his newest tricks- standing up... with a little support from someone or something nearby.

So, one of the Brems family traditions is to go driving and looking at the Christmas lights around the neighborhood.  Here we are getting ready to go out.
 

Joseph with Auntie Jenna.

So, here's our ride to go check out Christmas lights.

Here's some of the houses that we stopped by; very nicely done.

Here's a picture of everyone.

Unfortunately, Joseph wasn't looking at the camera for the picture.  Here's the reason why- it didn't take too long for Joseph to find the lights and start playing with them.

The next morning, we woke up and Joseph got to work at unwrapping some presents.  Again, Joseph's main interest was trying to eat the wrapping paper.  Unfortunately, we didn't keep everything out of his mouth as his diaper later confirmed to us.

All in all, it was an amazingly fun Christmas and we want to thank everyone, especially the grandparents, for making it such a special first Christmas for Joseph.

So, here's some background on the next two pictures.  We've fast forwarded a week and we are back in Tucson.  Joseph had his six month appointment with the doctor on New Year's Eve and got a total of four shots, two in each leg.  While Joseph takes shots like a champ and finishes crying by the time we leave the doctor's office, he always gets a fever and isn't himself for at least a week.  So, we knew ahead of time that New Year's wasn't going to be a fun one for us this year.  By Saturday evening, Joseph had a low grade fever, but was controlled well, and was sleeping a lot more than usual.  Early Sunday morning, Joseph starts crying, having a difficult time being consoled, and his temperature is starting to creep upwards again.  So, we get him some tylenol and Jodie sets out a blanket on the living room floor and lays down with him.  He cuddles up with her and finally starts to go back to sleep at about 8 am.  As he is starting to fall asleep, he scratches Jodie's eye in a jerk movement.  While normally it wouldn't be too bad, Jodie had LASIK done just over a week before and her eyes were still healing (hence her wearing sunglasses in so many of the previous pictures). 

Within a few minutes everything had fallen apart on me- Jodie is in an extreme amount of pain and Joseph is crying uncontrollably again.  In putting out the fires, we ended up using 8 different medications; 7 of which, luckily, were for Jodie.  Also, very lucky for us, between my dad and my previous two jobs, I had samples of practically everything we needed.  Here's a picture of everything we ended up using ringin' in the New Year.

My two patients recovering- all turned out much better by the end of the day and both were back to normal within a few days.

To wrap things up, here's a few pictures to catch everyone up on our 6 month old and some of his favorites.  

One of his favorite activities is bath time.  He can be fussy and grumpy to no end, but once he gets in the water, all his troubles seem to melt away.  Looks pretty relaxed, right?

He has also started to become much more interested in books.  For now, his main interest lies usually in trying to taste the pages.  However, he has a particular book, "Dotty and Friends," which is one of his favorite "toys" and keep him occupied for hours upon end.

While sitting up has been high on his list now, he is becoming much more proficient and generally will sit up unsupported.  However, this quickly ends once he becomes interested in a toy that is just out of reach and he ends up rolling towards it.

Which leads us to his next favorite- being mobile and rolling around on the floor.  While he desperately wants to crawl, he has become very proficient at getting where he wants to go by rolling and shuffling; he even followed me back and forth across the living room floor several times.

An unexpected favorite is tags.  I'm not sure what it is exactly, but many times he is much more interested in the big tag that comes on so many children's items than the actual item itself.  For example, in this picture, he pulled his jumper closer to him with his left hand so that he could reach around and grab the tag on the other side.

Another unexpected favorite is Costco water bottles.  When given a choice among many of his toys, he tends to be most interested in the water bottle.

Another favorite is people.  While the "stranger danger" phase is starting to set in slowly and we'll see how long this favorite lasts, he still very much enjoys interacting with and smiling at those around him.  This little boy was lucky enough to have Grandma come and visit for a little bit yesterday and he definitely hammed it up for the camera.

In conclusion, here is our precious 6 month old...