This is Joe at his best

Joe LOVES to be outside these days, but is not quit walking yet.  He has taken about 4-5 steps and does it when he wants to but just not all the time.  He loves to push stuff around and then crawl and eat whatever he comes across. 

His other favorite thing is climbing on everything.  He has no fear so he will just climb on whatever is near by.


This is what he did the other night.  He thought is was so cool to be on this chair.



Wow Mom look at what I can do. No Hands!

Brotherly Love?

I think this is called brotherly love, what do you think?

Oops

This is what happens when I am not paying attention to what I am doing.  I didn't realize it until about 15 minutes after I put his shirt on.  Sorry Joe.

Crazy Joe!

Joe and I are down in NC for a few days for his 1 year appointment.  I left PJ back in MI with his grandparents.  It was so weird coming back here with JUST Joe.  It was really sad actually, it felt very empty.  I have never really been home alone since we have been married, almost 7 years ago.  So to be alone and 700 something miles away from family was really weird.  Pete is still in North Dakota so he is even further away.  Anyway, so we made the trip in 12 1/2 hours of driving plus we stopped over night.  Not bad for just Joe and I.  Joe is really lovin all the attention since no one here to take it away from him.  He was just full of it tonight and was laughing at anything I did.  It was so fun to spend some quality one on one time with him.  He is such a happy kid.  Here are a few pictures from tonight.   

                                                                     Bottoms Up!

My little helper

I was getting ready to make a short trip down to NC with just Joe the other day (he has his 1 year appointment) so I was vacuuming out the van.  At first PJ thought it was loud, as he does alot of things, but he then wanted to help.  I did all the nooks and crannys and he did the rest for me.  I just sat in the chair in the sunshine and watched.  If you know him he is a very picky/anal kid, gets that from his dad, so he was back there for a good half hour making sure he got everything cleaned up.  It was so funny to watch.

Happy Birthday Joe!

Of course I can not believe that a year has gone by already.  It seems like forever ago that I was pregnant and ready to be done.  This past year has been an eventful one for our family.  Alot of traveling, moving, and adjusting to another child.  It has been busy but a great year.  When Joe was born he came out not breathing and a low heart rate.  He was face up and got stuck, so they had to use the forceps to get him out.  Not pleasant at ALL, but I was just thankful that I got him out on the first contraction with the forceps.  If he was in there any longer it could have been a lot worse than what it was.  The doctor had called in a whole bunch of people, after I had been pushing for 2 1/2 hours, and I had no idea what was going on.  Once Joe came out, the doc cut the cord and quickly brought him over to the table where they started doing CPR on him.  All I can see if Pete's face that does not look good and the doctors are saying "come on buddy" -- not good.  They were able to get him back right away and then he was in the room for maybe 3 minutes until they rushed him off to NICU where he stayed for the next 5 days.  I got to see him for a second, literally, and never got to hear him cry.  It was a crazy morning and all I wanted to do was call my mom.  So I did and I started bawling my eyes out.  I had no idea what went wrong or what had really happened.  I never did find out until 2 days later from the doctor in the NICU.  I must say that I was soooo THANKFUL that I delivered him in NC, cause that morning was the morning that the helicopter hit Spectrum downtown and that is where I would have been.  As of today, Joe is a very happy and healthy boy that did not suffer any effects of his traumatic birth.  We are so thankful that God protected both Joe and I thru that delivery.  It was not pleasant and I hope it never happens to any of you.  

Joe brings us so much joy and happiness to our family, and is such a blessing.  He has been through a lot in his first year of life, and is a real trooper.  Here are some pictures of what he has done. First day in the NICU, they were scared the first few hours, but he perked up that night and then more the next day.

Here are my two babies meeting each other for the first time.  PJ is 16 1/2 months Joe 5 daysWe made our first trip to MI when Joe was just two weeks old.  I was determined to go to my cousins wedding and camping at Pentwater.  We made it in 15 hours stopping every 3 to feed Joe.  I was a loong trip.  Here Joe is making his footprints on the Tshirts we made.Joe's first flight with me.  We had to go back to NC for somethingOur trip to Bear Lake with our friends.  We also did another camping trip about 3 weeks later with friends at Gun lake.Joe just starting to sit up on his ownPlaying in the rain

After a bath

He LOVES to swing, or any type of movement like that

What happens when you are the youngest cousin and are not able to say no yet

At Fredrick Meijer Gardens

Happy Birthday Joe!

He did well with the cake, he got to do this again the next night as well

Riding the tractor.

Happy Birthday Jodgee, we love you so much are so thankful God has trusted us as your parents.  You are such a blessing to us and we so PROUD to call you our Son.  We pray that we have many more birthdays with you and can not wait to see what God has in store for you. We love you!! 

Joe's accomplishments in one year:

-- Made it through a traumatic birth

-- traveled to MI at two weeks old

-- made about 5-6 (maybe more) trips to MI, 

--all of them in the car anywhere from 11 1/2 hours to 15 hours

-- Went camping 2 times plus a cottage vacation

-- Had a minor surgery at 2 months old and spent the night in the hospital

-- Flew at least 2 times that I remember, once to Charlotte from MI 

and we went out to CO to visit Nick

-- survived living with his brother for the first year without ever really getting hurt

--  He only has 4 teeth and recently just got 2 of them

-- I think that is it.  That is a busy year for him.

So wished I had my camera handy!

We got PJ a sand and water table to go back on the deck since we don't really have a yard to play in.  He was out there with Joe the other day and I watched him take a FULL shovel of sand and dump it on Joe's head.  I SO wished I had my camera at that moment cause I totally saw it coming.  Joe had no idea what had just happened to him.  I found it kinda funny and tried not to laugh when I disciplined him.  Here is what Joe's head looked like.