Belated Post-Thanksgiving at the Beach!

This is a very belated post considering we are now a week away from Christmas...but better late than never, right?!

Jay's family has had the tradition for years of renting a beach house in Galveston at Thanksgiving. It is something we look forward to every year that we spend Thanksgiving with his side of the family. We fish, eat, work puzzles, play games, kayak, surf sometimes, and eat some more! It's so relaxing and so much fun to be all together for a few days.

The house we stayed in this year was shaped like a boat- Burch's Ark!

The georgeous view from the front of the boat/house!


I caught the first fish this year! Woo Hoo! Except it was a Sheephead and we didn't keep it.

Jay kayaking.

Jay's catch...red fish...he always catches the big ones!

CORRECTION: Jay's mom's catch...

she always catches big ones too,

I guess we didn't get a pic of the one Jay caught!
Jay and his dad.

Grandpa Jack teaching Josiah how to reel on his first fishing pole!

Out in the boat with Grandpa Jack and Freckles

Jay lovin life on the water!

Driving the boat with Grandpa Jack

Riding with Freckles

Swinging with daddy on the dock!

On the boat and ready to go!

Bye-bye...we are going out to sea!

We had such a good time and can't wait until Josiah can really fish next time!

Josiah's 1yr pics and family shots too!

Check out our recent pics....Wendy and CeCe with Eternity Pics did a fantastic job! I don't how we are ever going to choose which ones to order!

http://eternitypics.com/Blackburn

Josiah's vocabulary and fun in the fountains!

Josiah's vocabularly is expanding so fast it seems like and we are having so much fun trying to make out the new words he is trying to say and getting him to copy words we say.

Here is the run down of his vocab at 13 months!

So far he says:

Hi

Uh-oh

(he says this anytime he drops something, falls down, etc. The funniest time though was once when he had gotten into the bathroom and was pulling out all the toilet paper...Jay walked in the bathroom to get him and Josiah looked up and saw him he was initially excited to see him but quickly realized he was busted and said "Daddy!...uh-oh"

Hot

(he calls everything hot...hot and cold alike)

Done

(he says this anytime we are doing something he wants to stop...changing diaper, clothes, etc.)

Mama

Dada and Daddy

(mostly daddy)

YaYa

(yayayayaya)

Papa

(only once when I was getting him to repeat it)

Home

(ome sounds more like um, everytime we pull into the driveway)

More

Eei Eei Oh

(ay i ay i ay)

Last week we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and went to the fountains at our town center twice, a park one day, and played out on the deck in the backyard everyday. Here are some pics of the little man loving his playtime in the water.

Halloween and Papa

Here are a few pics from Halloween! Josiah was the cutest lobster I've ever seen! We went to our church and watched a band, Christian Illusionist, and then did Trunk or Treat. Josiah got called Sebastian all night long and people kept asking me why I didn't dress up as Ariel?! He clearly looks like a lobster to me, but I see how people mistook him for a crab.

Jay got to church before we did and had to dress up as a Ninja along with the rest of the youth group...Josiah was pretty unsure about Jay's costume. He was freaked out by him for a while, even when Jay took off his mask!

Little Lobster man on the go!

The cuddliest little sea critter I ever held!

We had a long weekend and by the end of the night Josiah was ready to go! Next year will be so much fun when he can run around with his little pumpkin and trick or treat! We opted out on candy this year.

To those of you who prayed for Jay's Papa, thank you for your prayers, he went home to the Lord last Monday, surrounded by almost all of his family. We will miss him dearly and are so thankful for the legacy of faith and servant heartedness he left.

Here are a few recent pics of Papa with Jay and Josiah.

We love and miss you Papa...for now we say goodnight and we will see you in the morning!

Josiah's 1st Birthday Party!

Saturday night we had Josiah's 1st Birthday Party! It was so much fun! Josiah loves animals so we did a safari/jungle animal theme and I think it turned out adorable!

My mom and I decorated the lion cupcakes and had so much fun doing it!
And my sweet mom made his cake too! She did an awesome job...so cute!
Family pic with the birthday man himself! He was so enthralled by all the hype we couldn't get him to look at the camera!We played a game where some of the kids at the party got to choose an adult to chug a baby bottle full of coke. Whoever chugged the bottle and burped the fastest was the winner. Problem was I used slow flow nipples and we could hardly even get an ounce out...it was pretty funny! Cake Time!Jay's encouraging him to dig in and I am in the process of trying to show him how it's done! I may have eaten more of his cake then he did! He wasn't real sure what to do with it at first...

Then he realized it was real fun to play with... As you can tell by the super messy tray and relatively clean face...he preferred playing with it over eating it! Opening presents! New wagon from Yaya and Pappa Bear! Josiah loves this! Playing with his Kiddijamz music studio/mixing table, one of the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn...this gift was a really big hit with the kids at the party!

(side note: I don't have a pic of Jay's parents b/c they are on his mom's camera and she has been dealing with her dad being in the hospital this week. Please say a prayer for Jay's Papa to recover fully and quickly.) Playing with more new toys!

These were his favorite things to play with...he opened these as part of an instrument set towards the beginning of gifts and carried them around for the rest of the party...and since the party he still carries them around banging on any surface that he can find! Future drummer in the making?!

After watching us sweep up the deck after cake, Josiah decided to bring the broom inside and sweep in there too!
Such a big helper...wants to help even on his big day!

We had such a blast celebrating our little man's 1st year of life! He had fun too and was his usual happy and charming self making the event all the more fun!

Our baby boy is 1 today!

Our sweet Josiah turns ONE today...actually tonight at 11:30pm! One year ago today...at this time of 7:23 am we were on our way to the hospital so excited our sweet boy was about to be in our arms. And after 14 hrs of labor...he was! We were immediately in love with the most perfect little angel we'd ever laid eyes on and today I can say assuredly that our overwhelming love for him one yr ago today has only multiplied by thousands each day since! We thank and praise you God for the precious gift of Josiah! This morning I made him a special birthday breakfast...his first french toast and I even put a little powdered sugar on it...his first small taste of sugar. I was sure he was going to devour it!
Instead he looked at it strangely...I broke it into bite size pieces and coaxed him to take a bite...he spit it out and looked at it...put it back in his mouth and ate maybe one or two more bites and decided it was not what he wanted! I even tried putting a little syrup on it...still a no go. It was some GOOD french toast too...Jay and I ate it up! We then tried oatmeal...nope! So cheerios it was...and our boy was happy. Seriously what can cheerios not fix for this boy?! Lately it is so hard to get him to eat anything besides cheerios at breakfast...I think he has learned that if he will hold out and boycott the other food offered first (even when he normally likes that food)...cheerios will come!

Oh...did I mention that Josiah was so excited about his birthday that he decided to start celebrating it about 2 hrs early this morning?! =)

Can't wait till his 1st bday party tomorrow...pics to come!

Happy 1st Birthday Josiah!

Mommy and Daddy love you SO much!

Quick Trip to Abilene

This weekend we made a quick trip to Abilene to see my sister and watch her team play. She is the assistant v-ball coach at ACU and we have never seen her in action as a coach so we decided a visit was in order! Plus I needed to see that cute baby bump in person! She is such a cute pregers! I got to feel little Ava moving around and it made me so excited for her to get here...my first neice! Linds doesn't get to see Josiah much and can't make it to his 1st bday part cause of her v-ball schedule so it was much needed bonding time for him and his aunt Linds! I didn't get a picture of Josiah and his Uncle JJ unfortunately but Josiah was so partial to him the whole wknd...he followed him around the house and cried when Jason left for work. Linds was a little jealous!
As you can see in the following pictures...the snack trap is back! We gave in and gave it to him while we were traveling because it makes him happy in the car and when he is off his schedule...cheerios can almost always do the trick when he is fussy but cheerios in the snack trap is a sure bet!

Playing in the colosseum after the match was over!

He was running all over the court and having a ball!

The UT jacket was a result of going unprepared to freezing Abilene! I checked the weather before I packed but an unexpected cold front came through after so I didn't pack any jackets for him and no long sleeves and only sandals for me. You'd think after living in Abilene for 4 yrs I would have known better! I was able to borrow Lindsey's clothes but we had to make a quick run and get Josiah something warmer!

We had a great time!

Once again....blogger won't let me upload my video! GRRRR!