Brooke, our friend that was visiting for Thanksgiving, had never been to California before. So on Wednesday, after her and Dave got to town, we drove 30 minutes out to the coast to show her the Pacific Ocean. This was also Joey’s first trip to beach. You can’t see him, but he’s all cozy in the magical sling.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a lovely day with friends and family. Andy and I celebrated our 7^th Thanksgiving together, and it’s the first one where we didn’t have to travel anywhere. It was really nice being able to stay put. Andy’s parents and brother drove out from Phoenix on Tuesday, and his friend Dave Logan and Dave’s fiancée Brooke drove out from Phoenix on Wednesday. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parent’s house. I always love when both sides of our families are together, so this was a great Thanksgiving!

This was the first time Andy's parents and brother saw Joey. Needlesss to say he was a big hit. He's getting more and more alert so that was really fun. He also started smiling real smiles. Before, you could tell that his smiles were involuntary, but now he actually smiles in response to people.


Back (left to right) Andy's dad and mom, my mom and dad
Front (left to right) Andy's brother Timmy, Andy and Joey, my brother Timmy, Dave Logan, Brooke, Me

One gift I got at a baby shower that I was really excited to use, was the sling-style carrier (shout out to the Stevens!). I had seen a couple of people use them before, and they looked so much more convenient to use than a typical infant seat.

This Sunday, Joey was fussy before church. He likes going in the carseat, and that settled him down, but only when the car was actually moving. Everytime we got to a stoplight he started screaming again. Ironically, we just happened to hit every red light from our condo to church. When we got to church I immediately put Joey in the sling. He was dead asleep before we even stepped inside the church and didn't make a peep until we got home!

Lately, he hasn't been sleeping that well during the day unless I'm holding him. Today I tried putting him in the sling and getting some things done around the house. The magical sling cast its spell again. Not only did he zonk out, but when I tried laying him down in his crib (still in the sling), he slept better than he has in the past couple of days.

Praise the Lord for the sling!

So here are my boys just hanging out. Aren't they adorable! I think Joey was giving Andy some computer programming advice.

For those you of you were at my birthday party, Joey is indeed laying 0n the Boppy. A Boppy is a horseshoe-shaped pillow that you use for nursing. For some reason, the Boppy was a big hit at the party. Our friend Grant, in particular, was fascinated by it, and even decided to try it out. I'm not sure when he thinks he'll actually need to breastfeed, but now he's prepared.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but our internet has been down for a few days.

Really there is not a whole lot to report. Our daily (and nightly) schedule pretty much just consists of eating and sleeping. Joey's umbilical cord fell off though, so now we do get in an occasional bath, which he seems to really enjoy!

As you can see from the picture, Andy didn't want Joey hating us one day for putting naked pictures of him on the internet.

Here are some more super cute pictures. As Andy said, we should really just call this blog "Joey's Blog."

Good news; we survived our first week!

It's been an exciting, scary, sleepless (for me) adventure. For the most part Joey is an easy baby. I think we pretty much have the nursing thing down, and for the most part he's sleeping really well now. Earlier in the week, I got a little nervous because he had huge periods of time when he wouldn't sleep at all. Thankfully that hasn't happened in a while, and he's much more consistent about his sleeping pattern.

Andy and Joey are adorable together. Their major bonding time is during diaper changes. Joey actually seems to do better when Andy changes him as opposed to me (see, he IS a good baby). The two of them also have cute little times where they just cuddle together. Those, of course, are Andy's favorite times.

We took Joey to church for the first time today. I fed him right before we left, but I didn't know how long he would last without getting fussy and wanting to eat. We got to church a little early to make sure we got an aisle seat, and I had my exit strategy all mapped out. I had him in a sling-style carrier, and every time he made a little sigh or noise in his sleep I got ready to grab his diaper bag and run. But my worriers were unfounded--he slept beautifully through the whole service.