An afternoon at the beach

I am not going to lie I do love living in Alabama. 

 Our family LOVES the water!  

That is definitely a "framer" SO precious!

My parents live on Mobile Bay and Philips parents just bought a house on the river so we are going to have fun wet and hot summer!! This past weekend we drove to Gulf Shores to visit so wonderful friends of ours for the afternoon.  Greg and Lizzy were friends of ours in college and I just love them so so much!  They were in Gulf Shores this weekend so we went for the afternoon and a delicious dinner made by Chef Greg.  We also got to see Ryan Brown another friend from college.  They were practicing praise and worship.  It was so wonderful to hear them all play!  It was also great to see them and catch up!  It was a little chilly this past weekend but we managed to get out to the beach anyway.  Joseph just LOVED the sand!  Here are a few pictures from our outing at Gulf Shores :)

Smiles in the sand

More smiles... I think he is smiling at Lizzy :)

Very serious...

He loved the sea shells

This one is so cool mom!

I just love the beach!

Daddy and Joseph

Family photo

So much fun in Gulf Shores!

Happy Friday! 

Mardi Gras

It was so much fun to finally be in mobile for Mardi Gras!

We had fun going to a few parades, checking out all of the floats for Philips dads organization KOR (Knights of Revelry) and going to a ball!

Philip, His Dad (Jimmy-josephs name for him) and Joseph

Standing at Jimmy's spot on the float

Joseph and Dad on the "New Dad" Float

The Farmer float

The theme of their parade this year was "Dirty Jobs" because the show Dirty Jobs on Discovery came to KOR in mobile and learned about Mobile Mardi Gras.  On the show the KOR's showed him how to fill a cow's bladder with air and paint it silver (gross I know) ... You'll see later

Jules,  Joseph and I on the float

Sweet Joseph

The front float.  A man stand in the cup and bangs the cows
bladder during the parade... again you will see...

At the Parade...

There is the dude!! And there are the silver cow bladders

And there he goes...

The butcher float

Joseph was concerned... he just clung to us
during every parade... they are very loud

The coal miner

Oil Spill clean up

New dad float... philips dad is the furthest one from us on the bottom

And here we are actually right after the ball.  The KOR ball is and afternoon ball so women wear dress suits and hats and men wear suits.

It was a very fun time and I am looking forward to next year!

Joe's Birthday

So I know I am two weeks late... but here are Joseph's 1st Birthday pics :)

WARNING... there are TONS of pics below!!

Good Morning Joseph and Happy Birthday!

A good morning breakfast consisting of sausages, oranges and fruit loops... 

some of his favorites for his birthday! 

Now time for a birthday bath!

So much fun in the tub!!

Here we are with the birthday boy before cake :)

He was a little concerned why we were all singing... 

Time for cake! He was also unsure...

He actually was not a big fan... once he got the icing all over his hands he got very upset... 

so he didnt eat any cake which I was ok with because i was 7pm...

After everyone left the birthday boy played his favorite game... Empty the DVD cabinet

He just loves this game!

Now here we are the next day enjoying leftover spaghetti...

Time for another bath... no pics though.

Here are pics of his Mickey Mouse Birthday Party...

He got mickey and pluto for his birthday :)

And here are some of the decorations I made (which are still hanging) because I am too lazy to take them down I think they are so beautiful!

Although I do love looking at how much Joe has grown in the past year!

Birthday banner and table

Mickey mouse cupcakes :)

The oreos made a mickey mouse shape on the cupcakes!

Now here is the birthday boy!!

Still concerned everyone was singing to him...

Finally grabbing the cake to try it :)

He did a little better but he is a very clean eater... 

He was upset once again when he got icing all over his hands...

Here we are again with our ONE year old boy!