Good Buddies

It was so fun seeing Michael, John and Joseph together again! Michael and John were so good with "baby Joseph" or "Josie" as Michael affectionately called him. Seeing the three of them together really makes me excited about watching them grow up together and of course the arrival of 2 more BOY Ducote cousins this coming year.

Wanting to play outside

Trying to get a good picture

They LOVED the bean bag chair-they would all stand next to it and then fall on it and laugh-Uncle Gary was supervising :)

Still trying to get a good picture of the three of them

Playing with wrapping paper

Matching pjs...still trying to get that picture

Handsome boys-all 3!

Unfortunately not much luck on a picture of all 3 boys (or even 1 boy) looking and smiling-hoping that Gina has one but highly unlikely :) Maybe in a few years we'll get them all smiling and looking-for now, though, these are all still pretty cute and definitely show their love for one another.

Gina called me the day after we left and said that John woke up asking for Joseph and both boys asked about him throughout the day-SO cute!!

Ducote Fun

When hearing that Rich has 8 siblings (7 of which are male) people often ask both of us, "What is it like when you are all together?" One of the first words that we answer with is, "Fun!" The Ducote family is an awesome family and I feel so blessed to have married into them-not only are they definitely fun but each of them is also polite, kind, funny and just so easy to get along with. Mom and Dad Ducote definitely have done an amazing job with raising all 9.

When we were in town, one night some of the brothers decided to take on a food challenge-specifically trying to eat 6 saltines in 1 minute. Not really sure how it started but luckily Greg had a box of saltines on his bed (along with a few bags of chips :) Harder than it sounds...Mark was the only one who was able to beat the challenge...he is the reigning Iron Ducote champ though so it makes sense! Joseph wanted in on the challenge, too (as you can see from the pictures). Rich is going to work with him through the year so next year he'll be ready to take Uncle Mark on!

The cousins received recordable books for Christmas so they could hear Nona, Pop Pop's and their aunts and uncles voices on a regular basis. One night we all sat around the kitchen table and recorded the books-we had some good laughs and thankfully finally finished them all!

We spent the rest of the time hanging out, laughing, and of course eating-Joseph was a huge fan of Nona's sauce!

Looking forward to our next visit!

Christmas 2011

We spent Christmas 2011 in Atlanta with the Ducote family. We arrived on Thursday, the 22nd, so it was nice to have a few days to relax with everyone before Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to mass and then a new tradition of going out for Chinese food which was delicious and worked out very well.

In the photo below we are missing Gary and Amber who came up on the 26th and Brian who is serving in Afghanistan and Gina and the boys who came up later on Christmas day. One of these years we'll get a picture with everyone!!

After dinner we went home to open presents. The Ducote tradition is to open all presents on Christmas Eve (except for Santa presents, of course!) We put Joseph to bed before opening gifts so he could have a good night's rest waiting for Santa to come.

On Christmas morning we had a delicious Christmas breakfast

and then Joseph was ready to check out his gifts!

Doesn't the photo below look like he is thinking, "Umm, is that it?"

After the traditional football game (which Joseph and I opted out on since it was cold and rainy) we waited for Gina and the boys to come. Joseph was SO excited to see his cousins. These pictures weren't staged at all-when Joseph saw Michael he just gave him the biggest hug and Michael of course was so excited to see him as well. They stayed like this for about 5 minutes just hugging and playing with each other!

Terri made a delicious Christmas dinner and it was a wonderful day! We are so thankful we were able to celebrate Christmas with everyone.

And he's off!

I have a ton of catching up to do on blog entries as we just arrived back home last night after our 12 day Christmas vacation but wanted to post this quickly today. This past weekend in San Diego Joseph really started taking off and today he has been walking all over the house. Watch out world-here he comes!

Haircut not by Dad

Joseph's hair was getting a little bushy in the back so I took him to get his haircut at "Snip-Its", a children's haircut place, in the mall. The store was fun and Joseph was totally entertained and loving it until the clippers came out. He looked so cute in the little drape sitting in the big barber chair but as soon as the hairdresser turned the power on to the clippers he lost it. Definitely crocodile tears-the poor little guy! So, needless to say, I didn't get any pictures from the event but here is a picture at home (a little blurry) with his stylish new cut. What a big boy!

Not quite FB worthy

We have been laughing at pictures that friends have posted on facebook of their children with Santa during this holiday season. My one friend paid $28.00 for one 5x7 of her two girls who are both screaming-it is hilarious and definitely worth the money!

Joseph met Santa this past weekend at church. After mass they did donuts with Santa and it was a great little set-up...donuts, coffee, free photos on a cd and even a goodie bag for the kiddos. Definitely the way to go to see Santa! Joseph didn't cry but didn't smile either. The photographer suggested that Rich and I get in the picture and once we walked over to Santa he decided that he didn't want to be on his lap at all.

So, I don't think these are Facebook worthy-no crazy tantrumming or no huge smile either-but we are thankful to have the pictures to remember his first visit with Santa.

Definitely trying to escape from him!

Trying to convince him to stay

Army-Navy 2011

It is that time of year again for the big Army-Navy game. This year we watched the game at home since the West Point alumni club was hosting the game at a sports bar downtown and Joseph and sports bars don't really mix right now. Although Army ended up losing it was an exciting game (well until the end at least) and we are staying positive that 2012 will be their year!

It is our tradition to decorate our tree on the day of the Army-Navy game. This year we decided not to get a real tree since we leave for almost 2 weeks next week and since Jopseh is into everything so we decorated our mini-tree which is on our kitchen counter. It looks festive enough and we are looking forward to cutting down a real one next year.

What a difference a year makes!