Our neighbor and Joey's best friend, Mason, moved away last week. Of course Joey doesn't really understand this, but it makes me so sad. It was nice having someone who lived a couple of houses down that Joey got along with so well. Joey also loved Mason's garage full of toys. Thankfully Mason's family didn't move too far away, so we'll get to see them every once in a while, but it certainly won't be the same.

We'll miss you Mason!

On Monday, Joey and I got together with our good friends Kelly and Kendall at a park in Laguna Beach. We had a great time, and Joey found another girl that he loves.

I often write about the cute things Joey says and does. In the interest of full disclosure, I thought I would post some of his new favorite things to say that aren't so cute:

"Don't push me!" (When I put my hand on his back to guide him somewhere.)
"Don't pull me!"
"No hold hands!" (When we are crossing the street.)
"Don't say that to me!"
"Don't tell me what to do!"
"Don't take that away from me!"

Oh, he is so lucky he is cute.

This past month there has been a constant stream of attention and presents for Joey from his doting aunts, uncles, and grandparents. He is especially spoiled because he is the only nephew/grandchild. He opened presents Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, Christmas night, and New Years.

With all of this attention, I was wondering how we were ever going to teach Joey that the holidays are not about him being the center of attention. Then I remembered, oh yeah, that lesson is growing in my belly right now.

Yikes! I really was going to be back to consistent blogging, but then I just got busy. So, here is my last (?) catch-up post about the holiday.

For New Years we drove out to Phoenix for about a week. Andy's brother, Timmy, and fiancee, Sarah, flew in from Philadelphia so that was an extra special treat.

Here is a picture from when we went to this cute old-fashioned western town in Cave Creek. Joey's favorite part was watching all the motorcycles drive by.
Joey had tons of fun playing with his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Timmy.


One of our fun highlights was a Murder Mystery Dinner. We all dressed in character, had an amazing dinner, and figured out which guest committed murder.

The murderer ended up being Andy. After seeing this picture, I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner!
And here are my boys in their cute matching outfits looking at the neighborhood Christmas decorations. This particular neighborhood tries to make up for the fact that Christmas is usually around 80 degrees and sunny by packing in 4-5 inflatable Christmas decorations per front yard.

I wonder if anyone else starts blogging about their Christmas on January 15th? We'll just pretend this is my way of stretching out the holiday cheer!

Here are some more pictures from Christmas Eve. We stayed in town for Christmas this year, so we spent Christmas Eve with my family.

My family has always opened presents Christmas Eve (Santa came while we were at church), so Joey got to open all his presents from my parents and siblings. One of Joey's favorite presents was this set of remote control bumper cars. Here he is freaking out in excitement.

My brother, Uncle Timmy, works at In-N-Out and bought Andy and Joey matching shirts from their favorite restaurant.

Andy and I got this from my parents and it's one of our favorite gifts! They found tons of pictures of Joey's face from 2008 and made a collage. Apparently Joey is trying to add a new face to the mix. This is actually the face he makes when you tell him to smile for a picture.

Wow! I can't believe it's almost been a month since I last blogged. I'm not going to lie, I didn't miss it much. It was a lovely break!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! I do have lots of pictures to share, but I'll start with just one from Christmas Eve at my parents' house. Stay tuned for more as I plan to be back to regular blogging now.