Happy birthday!!!

Happy birthday Dad (June 21st) and Joe Jr (June 22nd)!!!

Joe Jr will be 2 tomorrow and is such a big boy. Always loving to help, this big boy is excited to be a big brother. He recently decided he was done with diapers (literally, Dana said he woke up one day and decide he would start using the bathroom and insisted on wearing bog boy underwear. :) He loves being outdoors and playing with "kitties and piggies" as well as doing whatever his dad and mom are doing.

"Grandpa Joe and Baby Joe - Christmas 2007"

Today was my dad's birthday. Some men were just made to be great dads and my dad is one of those guys. He works hard to provide for his family yet always knows how to have a good time too. Happy birthday!!

1978...

1978 must have been the year to have kids. Tonight we enjoyed our first of many 30th birthday parties for the year. Jake and two of our close friends will all be turning 30 within a few weeks of each other later in September; two other friends are leaving soon to go on vacation during the week between their 30th birthdays to celebrate. It's so crazy to see so many friends all so close to the same age! It also just made us realize the number of kids that our daughter will have close to her age. 4 of us.. yes FOUR friends here are all expecting girls this fall between September 21st and October 31st... two of us are both due October 13th. Last year, 6 of our couple friends all had their first babies between August and November (5 of the 6 were boys) so I guess we're just evening out the population. That's 10 kiddos all within about a year of each other! And that doesn't count all of the recent April & May babies our friends have had too... and then my sister is expecting... numerous cousins of mine are expecting... it seems babies are everywhere!
Speaking of babies, here are a few of our baby updates:

• She's about the size of a big ear of corn these days - 11 inches and about a pound.
• I read today that my uterus has now reached the size of a soccer ball, and looking in the mirror I'd say this is correct!
• She's moving on a regular basis these days. I still can't figure out when she's most "awake" - it seems I feel her nonstop all day long - but then nights seem even more active than the days. Jake has even been able to feel her now. Sometimes she kicks/punches (whatever it is she's doing) so hard that it kind of hurts. :( It's a good hurt though... I'd rather feel the jabs then nothing at all! My dad tonight just laughed when I told him this and said as the saying goes, "like mother, like daughter." :)
• I'm not sure if it's an unusally hot summer here or if it's just that I am bigger these days, but I always feel warm. Thankfully, I work for an amazing company that pays for a health membership for any employee who wants to join a gym, so I've been able to enjoy walking in the A/C lately... what a blessing!
• Jake has been having fun organizing lately... shed, garage, guest room, baby room, you name it. I think he's the one nesting, not I. :) Seriously though, he's just itching to have the baby room ready and has big ideas on what he wants it to look like. I never would have imagined he'd get into this so much but love hearing his ideas and plans on how he wants to set up the room.
• Oh yeah, we've also signed up for all kinds of birthing/nursing/baby care classes at the hospital. It looks like we'll be booked almost nightly come August and September with all of the classes we've signed up for!
• Work is going well for both of us. Jake stays super busy as do I these days. Today was exceptionally busy for me and I feel wiped out. Today is my day I should've left at 1:00 but didn't leave until after 3:00. Our jobs are such a weird combination... being in Architectural Engineering you would think Jake would be slower these days because of the economy, yet it seems the opposite is true. In my case, I work as a financial counselor and with the economy like it is, sadly, we seem busier than ever as well. It seems daily I come home counting my blessings.

I hope everyone is enjoying their week... tomorrow will be another long day so I think we're going to bed. :)

Fishing Trip

On Monday I headed to Lake Texoma to go striper fishing with all the guys on Alisha's side of the family. The only one unable to make it was David (Melissa's husband from Ohio). There were 7 of us that ended up going. We all arrived at the cabin and headed out to the boat dock around 4:00 p.m. The first pole was put into the water around 5:30 p.m. and within just a few seconds we hooked a fish. Within 1 hour, both boats were limited out. The limit is 10 fish per person so you can imagine we were busy if we caught 70 fish in 1 hour. We stayed out a little longer to do some "catch and release" fishing. The biggest fish we caught (Isaac realed it into the boat) was a 32.25 inch long, 10.4 lb striper, the biggest one caught so far this year. We were ALL excited to see this one in the boat!!

That night we ate supper at a very nice Mexican restaurant. It was fun just hanging out and talking. After supper we went to Wal-Mart to buy another cooler and to just goof around and then it was back to the cabin. We just watched tv and went to be so we could rise bright and early at 5:30 a.m.
Tuesday morning came a little sooner than everyone wanted it too. We awoke at 5:30 a.m. and were to the boat dock by 6:00 a.m. We headed out on the rough water to catch some shad for bait. It was pretty chilly once we got wet from the waves but well worth it. We put our first pole in the water at 6:30 a.m. and were limited out at 7:03 a.m. (including throwing some back because they were too big!). This is my type of fishing, action packed and not a lot of down time.
The best part about the whole trip was that fact that the guides had the privledges of cleaning 140 fish, not us. It only took them around 30-45 minutes each time to clean the fish. We had a total of 14-15, 1 gallon zip-lock bags full of fillet's. Hope everyone likes fish because that's what were having for the next year!
We left the boat dock and headed for breakfast and then to Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, Joe (Dana's husband) got sick, not from boating though. He looked pretty bad but once we got him some medicine and he laid down, we didn't see him the rest of the day. Glad you got some rest and are feeling better! Since we were done fishing, we hung out in the "Rec Room" which consisted of a pool table, poker table, and big screen tv. We played a friendly game of poker and then watched the lastest Rambo movie. Great relaxing afternoon!
That night we drove to Denton Texas to meet Aunt Susie for supper and then headed back to get a good nights rest before heading back home.
Thanks for such a wondering time Joe! I had a wonderful, relaxing time and can't wait to do it again sometime soon!