Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Life sure has gotten busier in the last few months. Here are some highlights;

- I started work at Deloitte in August and have been enjoying what they are having me do.
- I received my last two passing scores for the CPA exam which is a nice obstacle to have done already.
- We've had various visitors here in Chicago. My parents came down for our nephew Everett's baby blessing and we recently had Marie's sister Michelle come through on her trip across the country.
- And in case you haven't heard, Marie is 20 weeks pregnant with another baby boy!

Last night we had our ward Halloween party and we had one of the cutest lions in the history of Halloween. I don't think he understands the whole Halloween concept but he does know one thing... he likes candy. He wouldn't let go of his candy pal for dinner time. Here are some pictures from the Halloween party and other pictures since our last post. Happy Halloween everybody!

Helping dad carve the pumpkin

Picking out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch

Summer Happenings

I could give you about a dozen reasons (some really good ones too) about why we haven't updated our blog in almost 3 months, instead I'll just try hitting some highlights over that time.

On June 4th our little boy turned 1! It's crazy how quickly he is growing up.

The Birthday Boy!

Marie threw quite the party.

Celebrating Joseph's birthday/ Parents' anniversary at Sundance.

We also went to the midwest in June for almost 3 weeks. We had a great Munson family reunion in Appleton, WI. We found a house in Chicago during that time and spent a week at my parent's in Minnesota.

Celebrating Father's Day in Minnesota.

Our trip included lots of swimming and fun.

Perhaps the most important thing we did this summer, is move out to Chicago. We have now been living in our new townhouse for three weeks and can't believe how big it is compared to our old apartment. I start work on Monday and we have had a great time getting to know the area and spending some time together as a family these last few weeks. We promise to post some pictures of our new place soon.

Swimming Lessons

We want to give a special thank you to my sister Elizabeth, for giving Joseph a great Christmas gift this year. She offered to pay for Joseph's swimming lessons which we waited to do till this month. For four weeks now Joseph and I have gone swimming together at the Provo Rec Center every Tuesday and Thursday night. It's good to know that he actually likes water since our first swimming experience last year was pretty traumatic.

Here are some pictures of our little guy swimming with me and there's even a special surprise for Elizabeth at the end. Thanks again for the great gift Bessers!

Here was Joseph's first time swimming last year when he was only about a month old. He's come a long way since then.

The little guy was so excited on the first day of swimming lessons.

Having fun at swimming lessons.

And here is one of Joseph newly found activities. He loves to rip up toilet paper, paper towels, napkins or tissues, sound familiar Bessers?

love this little man

now that Joseph is crawling everywhere, pulling himself up, opening drawers, taking steps all by himself, this kid is getting into everything! i love the fact that he is so smart with figuring out how to open things. here is the little guy under the sink.

a typical tongue sticking out picture

no hands, look at me

this year was Joseph's first Easter! he had a blast! Mike's parents were in town for graduation, so we were lucky to head to Thanksgiving point with them and the Starks, and Aunt Lauren! He absolutely loved walking around holding his basket.

Good thing he has such a fast daddy to help him quickly get to the field and get some eggs! he was ecstatic about those eggs!

He ended up falling asleep on the car ride home from being so tuckered out, and look at what he is holding onto! A treasured egg!

for Easter Sunday, Joseph wore his adorable suit that Mike's aunt and uncle gave us. thanks Paul and Ann! Look at those sleepy eyes! that's what 8 am church will do to you!

here he is with his Easter basket

look what he found inside! more precious eggs! and for him there was nothing inside because the egg itself was loved.

Graduation!!!

Yeah! Michael is officially a college graduate! We are so proud of you hunnie! He has worked so hard and done such a great job balancing school, work, and being an amazing dada. We were very fortunate to have his parents out here to celebrate with us.

look who's crawling!

yeah! at last our little guy is crawling. i was afraid that he would skip crawling and go right into walking like many of the first children have done on my side of the family. this boy loves to walk around everywhere while you're holding his hands, and now that he can crawl life is so much more fun for him. i read that the average age of crawling is between 7-10 months, and i think he was aware of that so decided he better start doing it a week before he hit the 10 month mark. he already had the skills of pulling himself up, cruising around the furniture and standing alone for a little, and now crawling makes it so he can connect everything together. check him out! it's a pretty cute crawl, one leg looks like it's trying to walk while the other just slides along.



one of his favorite places to play is underneath the kitchen table. what a cute guy!



this little guy loves blankets. he LOVES them. when he was smaller he would put them over his face and inhale them. now he loves to eat them. as soon as one is in his hand it goes straight to his mouth.

look! no hands!

already multi-tasking. reading and eating at the same time!

p.s.

APRIL FOOLS' DAY! We're actually expecting quadruplets. The last one couldn't fit into the ultrasound. Just kidding! Did we get you at all? Maybe even for just a few seconds? I know I even got the husband for a little bit when I showed him the post. Hope you all have a wonderful April Fools' Day. Don't get into too much mischief! Oh, and by the way, no we're not pregnant.

here it is

well, our world will soon dramatically change. for those of you who don't know, we're expecting. we're not just expecting one baby though...

triplets!!! can you believe it?!? we still can't quite grasp our minds around it. we are currently 23 weeks along, so check a calendar, see what today is, and figure out when we're due. So crazy that we will quickly go from a family of 3 to a family of 6! I hope Joseph is ready for this. I know I'm not!

can't get enough

ever since Joey was born, we haven't been able to get enough of him. we would take pictures and videos of him during the day, and then after he had gone to bed we would find ourselves looking at those pictures and videos. he just means so much to us, and we love him so much! we just can't get enough of him!

he has learned to pop the lid off his puffs with his mouth, and this is how i found him one day
he likes to shake things if you couldn't tell

i read an article that said there are different forms of crawling, and one of them is the "crab crawl." this is where they move along on their tummy, but often to their frustration, backwards! i guess if that is considered crawling, then our little guy is crawling! he slithered under the kitchen table and all the way to the fridge.

check out his tongue click! he only does it at the beginning. it's so much fun!

that's all for now!

christmas and some

time sure goes by fast sometimes, so here's a little update!

our little guy just LOVES his baths! he used to put one toy in each hand and a third in his mouth! it was so funny and cute to watch him, almost like bobbing for apples. now he has resorted to splashing the water furiously causing the water level to drastically plummet.

first time to the beach during Christmas. it was sooooo windy at Newport, fortunately Grandpa lent his jacket to keep our precious warmer. this is on the pier

we went and checked out the Rose Parade floats in process. so neat to be able to see how they make them and all the work that goes into them. this is a picture of all the boys

and this is a picture of the girls plus our cutie

we went to the L.A. temple and checked out the new visitor center - amazing! it was so neat to look at, very interactive and high tech. this is our cute little family picture by the temple. Joey was having fun bonking his head with mine and laughing.

Christmas. the expression says it all
me and my little guy Christmas morning

my boys! love them!

showing off his adorable two teeth!