Happy Halloween!

Whew! What a busy first Halloween for Joey today. He attended two parties, endured mommy's quest for the perfect in-costume picture and then did the trick-or-treating thing in the evening too. Joey is completely zonked, mommy is wiped and daddy....well, he's just digging through the candy to see what goodies Joey brought home.

Below are some of our Halloween photo highlights. Click here to see all of the pictures from our busy day.

The day started off with a little morning grazing. Every cow needs some grass! While we're at it, we'd like to point out how green and lush our yard is and recognize just how great of a job daddy is doing at keeping up with the mowing and fertilizing.

Then we hit our first shindig - it was a party with the neighborhood playgroup for kids under 2. Everything started out great. Joey was happy and really into watching the other kids crawl and walk around.

Plus, he met a cutie girl named Hannah.

Then the mommies decided it would be a great idea to get a group photo of the kids. That's when the meltdown began. It started with one baby crying because she didn't want to sit on the blanket without her mommy. Then like a bunch of dominos, the babies went down one by one. And here's what it looked like by the time it got to Joey.

So we quickly decided to head home for a nap and try to recover before the next party. After the nap, Joey was in good spirits again and mommy decided to try for some more pictures in our yard.

Mommy also decided that we should wait for daddy to get home so he could come to the party with us and join in all the Halloween "fun".

Here's Joey with the party host, Superman Matthew. The boys are friends from Kindermusik. Look at Joey checking out Matthew's costume. I'm thinking next year we might go the superhero route instead of the barnyard animal theme.

And then finally it was time for trick-or-treating. Here's Joey's very first attempt at trick-or-treating at the home of one of our friendly neighbors down the street.

And here's Joey with our next-door neighbors, Marty and Jenna. Either Joey has about had it or he is terrified of Marty's costume???!!!!????

Joey & Natalie

This weekend we met our friends Chris and Sarah for brunch while they were in town for the football game. It was great to see them, but even better to see their little girl Natalie. The last time we saw her was over Memorial Day weekend and she's changed so much since then! Natalie recently learned to clap and she did it all throughout the meal anytime she wanted some attention...too cute!

Here are some photos of our two babies together. You can also click here to see more pictures from Sarah's camera.

Mr. Personality

These days, Joey is not just a cute baby, he's also cute baby with personality. Everyday he does something new that either charms our socks off or cracks us up. Hanging out with him during the day is getting more fun by the minute. Here's some of the fun we've had in the last couple of days.

Yesterday before going to the playground, I put Joey down on the floor in our closet for a second so that I could grab a sweatshirt. Before I knew it, he rolled his way underneath my dresses and just started cracking himself up.

We ventured out to the playground in our neighborhood last week and discovered that Joey loved riding in the swing. So now that the weather has been so beautiful, we've been visiting the playground almost daily. Here's Joey bundled up in his cute hooded sweater. Joey and mommy also rode down the slide together yesterday, but since we were the only two in the park, we weren't able to capture a photo.

And here we are this morning in Joey's room. Where's Joey???

Cold weather Joe

The weather turned a bit chilly this week and mommy honestly didn't have a clue as to how to dress Joey for our morning walk. So we dug through his drawers and came up with this non-matching combo. It turns out Joey can pull off just about any look because he still looks adorable. And it seemed to keep him warm. Don't worry, he was wearing socks when we were outside, but he tugged them off as soon as we got home.

Joey's Baptism

Joey was baptized this weekend at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. The baptism went quite smoothly - Joey only fussed for a little bit when the holy water was poured over his head (I don't blame him - think it was really cold). It was a great celebration with the family and Joey wanted to say thank you to some very important people:

~Thank you to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Laura for being my godparents~

~Thank you to Uncle John and Aunt Julie for being my proxy grandparents at the baptism~

~Thank you to Mima and Da, Oma, Aunt Katie, Uncle Father Pat, Uncle John and Aunt Julie, Beth & Maggie, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Janet and Great-Grandma Louise for celebrating my baptism with me~

Here's Joey wearing the family baptismal gown - daddy wore the same gown for his baptism.

Joey is 6 months old!

Joey turned 6 months old last week - we can hardly believe how quickly he's growing up! At his 6-month well check, the doc confirmed that Joey has cut his first tooth (we can barely see it, but can definitely feel it when he bites on our fingers). The doc also recommended that we switch to a bigger carseat as our big boy is very close to outgrowing his infant seat. Joey's current weight is 19 lbs., 7 ozs. and he is 27.5 inches long - that's about the 75th percentile for both categories.

Last weekend we had a photographer come to our house to do Joey's first professional photographs. Here are a few of our favorites:

Happy Fall Y'all!