When Joseph first got these train cars, the fact that they hooked together wasn't very interesting to him. All he wanted to do was pull them apart! Now, he's reached some magical threshold, and suddenly putting them together and pulling them carefully along is fascinating! It's amazing to me watching him (and Rosalie, now, too) grow and develop!

Apparently, this is the right way to sleep on a big boy bed! I have to admit he does look comfy!

I just wanted to share these cute shots of Rosalie I took in the back yard this afternoon! She definitely has those same long legs her brother did, but I think she might be just a little chunkier. It's hard to tell for sure since Joseph was this age in the dead of Blacksburg winter, so he was pretty bundled up in all our pictures. I sure love Rosalie's red hair! She such a beautiful girl, and growing so big, so fast!

Tonight, we had Charly and kids over for dinner and play (Casey was working and sick to boot). Although Joseph hasn't been the least bit interested in playing in the pool since we first pulled it out last week, he's having a lot of fun now with Logan and Mckayla! It took him a few minutes to get over the fact that the girls weren't going to stop splashing around (thus getting him wet on his face and head occasionally), but now he's having a blast (standing up, though, mind you)! It's fun watching him turning into a little socialite!

It's Memorial Day, and even though we knew it would be totally crowded, we decided to spend this morning at the San Antonio zoo! Here we are waiting in line for tickets. Rosalie sure looks happy all snuggled up with Daddy!



The last time we went to the zoo, it was in January in Washington DC, and as a friend of mine put it, "even the animals didn't want to be outside"! At the time, Joseph was less than thrilled, but today he's really enjoying himself! Just a quick look at each animal is enough, and then he's ready to move on. Here's a pretty snow leopard he thought was pretty interesting!

We spent quite a bit of time in the Tiny Tot Nature Spot, an area designed with toddlers in mind, with lots of hands-on exhibits and more active and friendly animals. Here we are going through the lily pad entrance!

About the time we got to the prairie dog town, we realized we our camera battery was running low and we weren't going to be able to take that many more shots, but I still couldn't resist taking this one of Joseph coming out of the fun kid-sized tunnel that pops up right in the middle of all the prairie dog tunnels. He thought it was pretty neat!



I think of all the animals at the zoo, Joseph was most interested in the fish. He has always seemed to enjoy watching them, and there were lots of them scattered around the zoo in various places. We spent a quarter on food a couple times so he could feed the outdoor fish, and we stopped at all the aquarium displays we passed by. Here he is "fishing" in a little indoor pond...

and here he is "counting" (well, he was really counting, but I'm not sure it was entirely accurate) all the little fish in this tank!

He was also pretty excited about seeing the elephant, and who wouldn't be? Elephants are such interesting animals!

Before heading home, we took a ride on this little miniature train that circles around Brackenridge Park just outside the zoo. Here we are getting ready to go! What a fun morning it's been!

Here's just a little conversation between Tim and Rosalie this afternoon!

This last week, we finally got all the pictures hung up on the walls of our house, so it finally (five months later) feels like we're really moved in! Tim spent some time today taking a few shots of the house, and while this might not be the most exciting bunch of photos ever, I promised to share them when we took them, so here they are! The ones of the inside of the house turned out a little dim, so here's the outside for now. Stay tuned for more!

The bushes are very neat, but they're getting old, so we're going to have to replace them sometime soon.

We still love our little green machine!

Here's the view people get when they come to visit.

From the inside of the house, here's a shot looking out the back door...

onto our lovely patio!





Panning to the left from the patio shows the yard that pretty much forced us to buy the house.

Our Esperanza are finally blooming!

Normally, this area is clear of large tree limbs and leaves, but our neighbor's tree literally fell out of the ground into our yard during a middle-of-the-night storm a couple weeks back, taking a few fence posts with it. Ruby's son is going to help her cut it into piece and haul it out of here, but of course these things take time. We're all just glad it didn't fall into either of our houses!

Finally, here's a view from the corner of the yard looking toward the back of the house. The patio is on the right, and those three big windows look into where we sit and eat. We've got a great view!

Joseph has been much more interested in getting his own clothes on and off lately! Here are the results of his first real attempt to put on his own shoes before our walk this afternoon. He needed a bit of help for the second one, and we'll need to work on knowing which shoe goes on which foot, but I'm pretty impressed overall!

Speaking of impressive, letters are apparently the new numbers around here, because Joseph is suddenly fascinated with spelling! He's already mastered "Joseph" and "Rosalie", and he's always asking for more, like when he asks about "Mommy" at the end of the video. What a little smartypants!

These are pretty typical expressions for Rosalie whenever she's on her tummy. It looks like it takes a lot of work and concentration to keep that head up in the air! She doesn't seem to mind being on tummy as much as Joseph did at her age, but it's much better in small doses and with a little burp cloth rolled up under her chest. Joseph saw this little bodysuit she has on and said "Rosalie is wearing strawberry clothes!" It's fun to see how interested he is in his little baby sister!

Adding to our summertime fun collection, we decided to pick up this little backyard pool for Joseph to play around in. He's always been a bit careful and cautious when it comes to new physical activities, and getting into all this water today was no exception. He definitely wants to stay standing up, and although he agreed to slide down the little slide with my help once, he said "no!" when I asked him if he wanted to do it again. He's pretty excited to be able to splash the water wherever he wants, though, and I'm just glad he's having fun outside on this hot San Antonio day!

Here are just a couple shots from this Sunday afternoon. This little lizard was peering in the window when I went into Rosalie's room to change her diaper. He got down before I made it back with the camera, but here he is still hanging out on the sill!

In the bath a little later, here's Joseph "making numbers" on the wall. I told him he had a cheesy grin, and seeing as cheese is one of his favorite foods, he had to think about that for a while! It's just amazing how interested he is in words and how much more expressive he is with using them lately. Some other things he says a lot are: "that's a...ummmm?" (when he wants to ask what something is), "that's right" (when he wants to emphasize the fact that he really wants to do something), and "oh, there it is!" (when he finds something he's looking for). He especially loves to say his sister's name: "Rrrrrosalie!", with an up on the "Rrrrro" and a down on the "salie"! He says the funniest things sometimes, like when my mom made us a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and I told Joseph I had a treat for him. He said: "an Easter treat!" (meaning candy). I said: "something even better than an Easter treat". Instead of guessing some of the other obvious (to me) possible goodies, he immediately and enthusiastically shouted out: "grapes!" The other day, he had a sore bottom, I told him "your bottom is really red right now". Later, I heard him saying things to himself like: "your belly is really blue"! He's even makes up little songs of his own now, like yesterday he was singing "playing in the green car is fun to do" to the tune of "Fun To Do". He talks almost nonstop sometimes, particularly when it's otherwise quiet, like before bed and during church, saying things like "it's time to be quiet" and "it's not time to talk"! We sure love our funny little conversationalist!

What a big smile for such a little girl!

Lately, she's started having her first little conversations with us, flashing us big grins to get our attention and then smiling and cooing in response to the things we say. She's such a little charmer! I just wanted to mention, too, that contrary to how it may appear, she doesn't actually spend every waking minute in the bouncy seat. That's just the best spot to get photos of her!

It's been a great afternoon here at home with my super hubby and two cute kiddos! Tim's card was particularly apt and meaningful this year: "I love sharing life and raising a family with you—even though it sometimes means our nights out alone are actually spent grocery shopping, and our romantic dinner plans turn out to be a quick meal in front of the TV. Even though things don't always turn out exactly how we planned them, I wouldn't want it any other way. I love our life together—because I love you so much." Isn't that sweet? He also made me a delicious fried chicken dinner and a Texas Sheet Cake for desert. All in all it's been another great Mother's Day!

Here's a shot of Joseph reading "The Happy Egg" and "Skippyjon Jones" to Rosalie. He sure does love his little sister!

Last night Tim and Joseph went on their first father and son camp-out for our church. I wasn't there, of course, but it sure looks like it was a lot of fun! I think it was my first night ever away from Joseph. Crazy, huh? With the excitement of hanging out with Daddy outside...

getting to play in the car...





staying up late running around with these cute little redheaded twins from our ward...

having French toast for breakfast...

playing in the car some more...





going on a hike...

and playing with this football, I doubt he missed me much at all! He's starting to look a little tired in this shot, though, I think! Tim said he had a great time, and I'm glad they got to spend that time together!