Joseph's Song

I love it when JJ makes up his own songs. This morning his song went like this

do do do do ABC's!
and I color Blue

do do do do do

*some toddler gibberish that I couldn't understand*

ABC's and BLUE!!!!

Now if only he would let me get it on video!

Happy Anniversary

5 years ago today I married my best friend for time and all eternity. It has been a wonderful 5 years and I love him more than ever! Happy Anniversary babe!

Family Updates

Matthew: Matt is pretty busy working hard at his internship here in Buffalo Grove. Lately he has been dealing mostly with Trademarks, but he is excited to work on his first Patent project! Due to the number of Podcast he has been listening to over the summer, he is also full of endless Disney and Star Wars facts. I think he has every Disney Vacation of ours planned for the next 30 years! Matt had a great Father's Day. We had a BBQ feast with my parents, Aimee, and Bryan. Joseph learned a song called "Daddy's Homecoming" and we sang it for him. The first time he sang it he was a little shy, and he mostly just did the hand motions. However, as the days have past I have heard JJ singing it randomly around the house.

Nichelle: I have actually been pretty busy lately as well. I spent last week at Girls Camp. It was a wonderful experience to go back to camp as a leader. I got to work with WONDERFUL girls and it also brought back a lot of good memories from my years at Girls Camp. I also had a Scentsy event last Saturday, which didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it was still fun. Thankfully, I was moved inside so I didn't have to be out in the rain or the 98 degrees weather. I have enjoyed meeting other consultants at these events, because they are generally very happy and fun people. Makes the day fly by :) Now I am focusing on getting the house packed up. I am amazed at the amount of stuff we always manage to accumulate, in spite of our many trips to Goodwill each year. We are moving in 10 days and our house is already becoming a mine field of boxes lol. 


Joseph: JJ is getting cuter everyday. While he is being a toddler and pushing boundaries, I can't believe how cute and smart he is! I go away for a week and I swear he grew an inch. We recently found him an Elmo ride-on toy and its one of the rare toys that is still his favorite 3 weeks later. Yesterday was our first day in pool this summer. I haven't seen him that excited in a long time :) Our new place has an indoor pool, and I don't think a day will go by that we are not in it lol. His 2nd favorite pastime is Bubbles. He likes to chase them, blow them, and try to catch them. His energy amazes me. 

Outside Fun

Joseph loves chasing the bubbles, but its hard to take pictures and blow the bubbles. This was the best I could do. I will try to get better ones when Matt is around to blow the bubbles lol :)

 After playing with the bubbles we  noticed the sprinklers were on! Joseph couldn't resist.

Going in slowly

The picture kind of makes it look like he isn't enjoying it. Don't worry, he is

Telling me he is "All wet!"

Jumping in the puddles

Backing up into the water

Washing his hands

Drying off

Family Updates

I realized recently that I mainly type Joseph related posts. Even though Joseph is cute and all, I thought I should update on what is going on with the rest of the family

One exciting update is that my little brother got home from his mission. He has been serving in London for the past 2 years

Last week Chicagoland Voices had our concert. It went pretty well. You can find us on Facebook, just search Chicagoland Voices. We even have a CD coming out soon :)

My hubby and I got a to spend the day together on the 26th. My parents watched Joseph and we went downtown. We went to Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, and went geocaching. It was nice to spend some time together :)

Now I do have some recent cute pictures of Joseph

He loves to wear a tie, just like Daddy. In fact he'll wear his tie with just about anything :)

I love it when the warm weather comes, because Joseph can play outside. It gives him a chance to get rid of some of that energy. My boy has always loved sticks, rocks, and pine cones, this year is no different :)

More Joseph Cuteness

Its a beautiful 60 degrees today, so we went to the park and Joseph LOVED it. He was sooo cute at the park today, and I thought you would enjoy some cute moments from today's park experience.

1) This park has one of those driving wheels. I was absent mindedly drumming on the wheel while Joseph was playing with some sticks. Joseph came up to me, very seriously, and said "Stop it Mommy. No hitting. You drive the wheel". He then proceeded to show me how to drive the wheel :-D

2) There were some robins sitting in the grass next to the park. Joseph ran up to them yelling "BIRDS!" Of course they flew away. He started to chase them saying "Birds, come back! Please!!!" He then ran over to me saying "Mommy, birds in the sky. Come on!! UP! Airplane!" (Airplane is the game we play where we fly him around the house like an airplane). I started to fly him like an airplane and he said "No, this way. To the birds!" Mommy may be "really fast" but even she cannot catch the birds :)

3) While we were at the park we were joined by Joseph's friend Jake (another frequent visitor to this park). Joseph and Jake were trying to play catch, but of course their hand-eye coordination is terrible. They would both would yell "1, 2, 3" and then one of them would throw the ball to the other one. It would roll right by him and he would run after it. Once you got the ball you apparently had to shoot a basket (By the way, they invented this game themselves). Jake would attempt to throw the ball up into the basket, but Joseph would stretch is hand as high as it would go and wait... like he was expecting the basket to come down to him. He would give up and hand the ball to me, and I would shoot a basket. They played this game for almost 20 minutes.

4) After they were done playing catch/basketball they began to run laps. They would touch the basketball hoop and then run and touch the other one. Where do kids get this kind of energy???

Our New Tickle me Cookie Monster

There was a big garage sale down the street, and they were selling TONS of kid's stuff. We got a pretty good Kid's Table and Joseph got to pick out 2 toys. He chose a "Piggy Ducky" (yes it is exactly as it sounds) and Tickle me Cookie Monster. This Cookie Monster laughs when you push his tummy, its really cute. Joseph has taken this Cookie Monster with him all over the house for the last few days.

We eat together on our new table

Have to make sure that "Cookie" gets some "Loops"

Cookie never misses Sesame Street (and yes he put Cookie on the chair all my himself)

Sometimes they sit together and watch Sesame Street

He saw the flash from the above picture, and turned around saying "take picture". I asked him if he wanted to smile for the picture, he turned Cookie around and said "cheese!"