School is Out and Christmas is Coming!

I finally am done with my finals! Always a happy day when finals are done. Only one more semester of finals to deal with now.

Too bad being a TA means I will need to still work for a few days next week, but the tests are done which is exciting.

Here's a little Christmas cheer from Joseph!

time flies

our little J turned 6 months! can you believe it? he is just growing up so fast! on the very day he turned 6 months he got a little dot of a tooth emerging, and now it has broken the surface. so cute! he can sit up all by himself now (although he took a dive into the presents and got some cuts on his nose today), is finally starting to roll from his tummy to his back (he hates tummy time), laughs the most adorable belly laugh, has started sucking his lower lip while blowing causing oodles of spit to go down his chin, and he officially had his first solids today. we love our little guy so much! last week my dear friend Stacy took our family pictures. from the little glimpses we got i already love them. i mean, i thought the place we took them at was really neat, but she made the place look absolutely spectacular through her camera. it was fun to see her and her husband Pierce (Mike's great friend). they are such a fun couple! here's a little sneak of our cutie from her website!

fantastic christmas cards!

Christmas is right around the corner! If you're looking to send some Christmas cards you should check out shutterfly.com. My sister sent a father's day card for my dad that she made from here, and she personalized it and made it really cute. They have adorable cards that fit any style from flat to the folded type, and you can also make photo albums and calendars and other such wonderful things at great prices. I actually designed and made our Wedding sign in book through this fantastic site. I loved it, and the site is so easy to work with in creating your own personalized gifts and items. The quality is great and the prices are reasonable. With Christmas right around the corner this would be an excellent source for gifts. You could create fun calendars for friends or loved ones that have that are personalized making them more meaningful. You could also create a book that is a recap of the year for your family, or highlighting a special event like a wedding or graduation or fantastic trip. I still need to make a wedding album and think this is just the site to get the job done! Here are some of our favorite items they offer:

aren't those cards adorable!

what a fun gift idea! great for grandparents to see their grandkids, or anyone!

another fun gift idea!

I'm sure my husband would love a gift like this at work, another way to display pictures of your family and in a very convenient way!

We will definitely be getting our Christmas cards from here. If you don't know what you're doing yet, go check these out! Great prices too!

holiday catch ups

Halloween was a blast this year. We finally had an excuse to go trick-or-treating, although somehow everyone knew we would be eating the candy and not J (don't know why!). Our little munchkin made an adorable monkey, and his daddy was a charming man in the yellow hat. We went trick or treating at the freshman dorms and heard many calls of "we LOVE the man in the yellow hat!" There were also two girls waiting in their car for us to come by again so they could take our picture, and another girl took it when we went trick or treating at her place. If it weren't for the ran we could have lasted forever, fueling ourselves with candy and complements :) One girl even told us that when our baby looks back at these pictures when he is older, he'll think how cool his parents were to dress like that (I like to think so). We were fortunate to have cousins and Aunts come by for pictures after our evening of fun.

the adorable Curious George and Man in the Yellow Hat

J trying to attack Ella's luscious curls (he couldn't stop touching her hair while we were taking pictures)

first Halloween for these cousins. J can't get enough of Adele

with wonderful Aunt Bessers who J loves so much

One weekend Mike's mom was in town, and Lindsay was awesome enough to find out about the North Pole Express on the train in Heber. It was fun to go on the train, and J enjoyed his little bell we got him. It was hilarious when Santa came on board because just about all the kids starting bawling. But not our J! He just held Santa's finger and looked at him. I think it made Santa feel a little better that at least one child wasn't scared of him. After a little bit Ella was able to whisper that she wanted a pink microwave phone (aka microphone).

our cute little family

cute Stark Family

J and Grandma Wilson

For Thanksgiving we went to my parent's in California, love the warmer weather! Mike brought his bike with us and was able to go on some rides while we were there. Not always being the best with camera's I forgot to take pictures of Thanksgiving! J took a nice long nap the entire time we were eating our meal, which was very convenient and allowed for optimal eating! My dad took us to the awesome LA Auto Show, where they had all these new cars that are coming out next year. It was pretty sweet. They even had the new Lexus LFA which engine's acoustics were designed by Yamaha

our new family car- our friends just wanted to sit in it

this picture makes me smile. J never looks like this in pictures, but he just took his finger out of his mouth

Mike's dream car

Cute boy showing off his hats

Who knew that hats on a baby could be so cute? Marie always liked hats for herself so I should have figured she would buy a few hats for our boy as well. He looks so cute in his hats I had to share some of these pictures. The best part about his hats is that he looks like he's playing a part in a movie or play sometimes.

I think this hat makes Joseph look like a Newsie. He looks like he's about to go sell some papes.

This hat makes Joseph look like he's about to go hunting. He actually vaguely reminds me of Elmer Fudd about to go hunting wabbits.

And this hat is simply the one he wears the most and he looks super cute in it.

too cute!

we just love our little boy so much! we find ourselves loving to be with him, and when we're not with him we're looking at his pictures or little videos we've captured of him. as of late, he has becoming most adorable with his laugh. at night time he gets slap happy tired, and laughs at everything and nothing. i was simply changing his clothes and he laughed the entire time!

two of my siblings have children that have sucked on their index finger and middle finger together opposed to their thumb. it is cute to see Joseph following in the footsteps of his cousins Eliza and Paul!
we decided that during dinner time we want Joseph sitting at the table with us, so we set up his high chair that connects to the table, and stuck a boppy behind him to help him from falling over to the sides. he played with his toys at the table while we ate, and he just loved it! isn't he just so cute in this picture?
and at last we were able to capture him laughing on video. he seems to always stop laughing as soon as we get the camera out, but Mike was quick and we got him this time. ah, we just love this little guy so much!

take me out to the ball game

this summer while we were in Minnesota we got a chance to go to a Twins game with Jonathan and Amanda. it was a beautiful venue! thanks for the tickets Brad! Joseph took a nap while we were there, and afterwords he took some of the cutest pictures ever, so i must post them so i can share my cute baby!

Joseph's Big Day!

With traveling so much this summer we decided to wait to bless Joseph until we were back in our Provo ward. This past Friday Joseph hit his 3 month mark which meant that Joseph may very well have been the most alert baby I've even seen at a blessing. He sucked on his blanket and look up at me the entire time.

Labor weekend was perfect for both sets of parents to come into town and we had a good time. Many of us were able to go to a Real Salt Lake soccer game and we all got to have a nice lunch after Joseph's blessing.

This weekend really gave me an opportunity to reflect on just what a blessing Joseph is in our life. He is such a cute baby and brings us so much joy. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Joseph with all of his grandparents

Our family

Daddy and Joseph having a good time

Michelle's Wedding!

So we just got back on Sunday from Washington D.C. were Michelle Munson became Mrs. Ken Hardy. Quite a hectic but very fun weekend.

We stayed at the Fillmore residence which was fun for our family to spend time with Melanie, Jonathan and their cure kids. And to get to know Jonathan's parents, who may just be the nicest people I've met in a long time.

I also got to not only see the Washington D.C. temple for the first time but actually go inside of it. It was pretty amazing! One of the photographers took pictures of each family in front of the temple so that should be a good family shot for us.

On our way back from the reception we actually got caught in construction and traffic but got to drive by some of the sites including; the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and The White House. Not too bad considering I've never been in D.C. and got to see some of those places everyone has to see at least once in their life.

Overall, it was a very fun weekend to spend with family. Congrats again to Michelle and Ken!

Joseph's cousins showing everyone at the reception how to get down

Michelle and Ken being announced as a couple for the first time

The Happy Couple

Daddy and Joseph looking pretty good

Probably my two favorite people in the world

My favorite picture of the weekend

weekend getaway

the other weekend we made the drive out from Chicago to Minnesota to spend the 4th of July with Mike's family. While there he also participated in the minneman triathalon. Joseph was a trooper and slept the entire car ride there, although i was worried about how he would sleep that night since he had slept so long! but he did well. Mike did the triathlon with two of his siblings and two in-laws, David, Eliza, Lindsay, Josh, and was proud to say he came in first of the group- it seems to always be a competition around those guys! it was fun to spend time with Mike's family, and Joseph loved meeting his grandparents and some of his cousins. it was also great because we got to meet up with my brother Nathan and his family for lunch at the Dells, and extra special because i had yet to see his little guy Joshua in person. overall, it was great to be with family!

Joseph posing on the 4th

family photo! -thanks Lauren

Joseph with cousin Adele

daddy and Joseph!

Joseph in his soccer shirt!

car ride

it is so much fun to watch our little Joseph's personality grow and blossom. he has become much more active with his hands and tongue! this is just a sample of the cuteness he portrayed on our drive home from minnesota. i think he looks like he is conducting an orchestra, mike thinks he looks more like he is dancing. whatever he is doing, he's adorable!

one month old!

happy one month on the 4th of july to our happy little Joseph!
he has been such a blessing and delight in our lives.
we love you Joseph!

Back Together Again!

I was hoping to get some more pictures of all three of us as a family before I posted but there's only so many phone calls you can take reminding you to update your blog before you actually do it.

Well on Tuesday this week I picked up Marie and Joseph from the airport! I actually got there early enough that the airline gave me a pass to get through security so I could meet them at the gate since she had a baby in her arms. Marie almost walked right past me since she wasn't expected me there, but it was a great surprise.

It is so much fun having them here. Joseph has been in high demand as well, he's had many visitors and we were even able to go visit Tim and Rindy Wednesday night. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little more tired at work these days but it's so worth it. Everyday now Joseph is usually awake and really happy for about the first hour when I get home and its so much fun to play with him.

He hit his 3 week mark yesterday! I know that's still really young but it's crazy how fast the time with him is passing.

Here are some more pictures, some of them are old, like back when we were in Provo, but I'll include them anyway.

This is our first family picture we took at our place in Provo

Him trying out his bouncy seat in our place in Naperville

Enjoying his bath with mommy

Welcome Baby Joseph!

Marie and I had one of the most exciting weekends of our life. Last Wednesday night Marie had strong contractions, which went away during the day but continued Thursday night. After not sleeping the night before and being very sick the whole day, Marie and I went to the hospital on Thursday night where they monitored her for an hour and then admitted us into the hospital.

Marie was able to receive an epidural Thursday night and got set up so that she would slowly progress through the night and be able to deliver our baby on Friday morning. Things progressed well, but I can't say that much sleep was had be either me or Marie.

Finally, after lots of waiting Marie starting pushing at 11:00 a.m. and after 2 and a half hours Joseph Michael Wilson joined us! He was born at 1:33 p.m. Friday afternoon and was 20 inches long and 9 pounds.

He is so cute and is already the love of my life. And from everyone else's stories we were expecting the whole experience to be a lot worse but thanks to the epidural, the experience wasn't too bad, but then again this is coming from the father.

Here are some pictures of him at the hospital and the last one is him at home on our bed.