Joselyn's first Christmas!

People have been noticing that I am rarely in the pictures that I post. So I thought I would try to get a self portrait of Joselyn and myself. This is what I saw when I looked back at the pictures. Oh how I wish we were centered. That face makes me laugh so hard. I guess Joselyn is not a fan of self portraits:)

She is so silly:)
and so sweet!
But mostly silly!!

Once again, the monthly quilt picture ended up being "good enough!" After multiple attempts on different days, this is the best I got.


Jay and I gave Joselyn her Christmas presents before we left for New York. She is a big fan of the ball popper. I dare you to not laugh;)

Joselyn's first Christmas 10 months old from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

We spent Joselyn's first Christmas up in NY with our families. We had SO much fun! Christmas eve was spent at Aunt Lisa and Uncle Peters house. We tried to get a picture of Nana with all her grand babies, but Elise was not in the picture taking mood. The addition of Gina (who is actually carrying grand baby number 5) did not help. This is the best one that I got, maybe Jamie got a better one with her camera:)

Christmas morning was spent at Nana's house and everybody had a great time opening presents.





A couple days later, we went to Eastview mall and Joselyn took her first ride on a carousel! She loved it!

The next day, the stomach flu ran rampant through the house. So no pictures were taken until New Years. We went to hibachi for New Years Eve dinner...at 4pm to accommodate bed times:)
The last thing we did before leaving NY was go to the Little Gym for a holiday party! Our good friend Laurie planned the whole thing. All the kiddies had so much fun. And although most of the activities were a little advanced for Joselyn, the bouncy thing made up for it in spades:)
The whole group! We all went to high school together and now here we all are with kids!
We had such a wonderful time in NY, and even though were were there for 2 weeks, it wasn't long enough. We miss you all so much! Till next time... MUAH!

Happy Thanksgiving and MORE!

Have you ever started something, walked away because your baby was screaming and then two weeks later think... did I finish that?? Things like that happen to me now that I'm a mommy.

Anyway, we will start by celebrating my birthday.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Jay brought me cake and even sang happy birthday to me!! He also brought me some beautiful flowers, which it turns out, Joselyn is afraid of (see video at the end of this post)

This year we spent Thanksgiving with our very good friends. John, in the striped shirt, returned from deployment just in time to be here when his little boy came into the world. He and his girlfriend, Danett, hosted Thanksgiving dinner for all of us just a week later (way to go Danett!!)

These guys used to spend all night drinking and carrying on... now their lives are a little different, and they seem pretty happy about that:)

This...

is the only picture that I got of the three of us on our first Thanksgiving together. Its a good one, right?

Nothing like banging a plate on some cookie sheets to keep everybody on their toes.

YAY for Thanksgiving!!

Last week, Joselyn decided it was high time she start feeding herself, so she grabbed the bowl when I was looking the other way, and dumped the whole thing in her mouth. I probably should have stopped her, since she was wearing white, but instead I just let her have at it and took pictures:)

(yes, the bowl changed colors... it was a 2 bowl dinner)

mmmmm...

Who thinks this is the face that Joselyn will give her daddy in 16years when she wants the keys to the car?? Poor Jay, he's in so much trouble:)

after a minor wipe down, she went straight into the shower, there was no other way.

Here are the videos... the first one is of Joselyn and the roses, the second is some live footage of the dinner fiasco:)

Joselyn is afraid of flowers? from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Dinner mess #2 from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Guess what Joselyn and I did today??? WE PROMOTED JAY TO SGT FIRST CLASS!!

I know it is hard to see, but that is me and Joselyn promoting Jay! We are taking off his old rank, and putting on the new one:)

Here is Jay saying a few words after the promotion ( I was not given instruction on what to do AFTER I promoted him, and he went first, so I had no one to follow. So I stood there, very uncomfortably. Now that I see the picture, I realize that I should have stepped back, or down, or to the side. Anything really. Oh well, too late now)

We are SO proud of you, Jay!!

9 Months!!!

Our little Joselyn is growing so fast. At her 9 month check up, she weighed in at 17.6lbs and is 28 1/2 inches long(90th percentile!) She now plays independently for up to 45 minutes!!! She sits in her little corner with her toys and just plays...and usually, I just watch:)


9 month quilt picture... take 1

take 2....

take 3...

take 4...

take 5...

take 6...

take 7 (I tried including the monkey in hopes she would sit still for the 3 seconds I needed to snap a picture...it did not work)...

take 8...

take 10...

AND I WIN!!!! her hair is messy there are toys everywhere and the entire blanket isn't in the picture, but its the best I could get this time around. Boy does she move fast!

Joselyn is such a daddy's girl(that was pretty clear very early on). It makes me smile that she gets so excited when he walks in the door. And the way she just watches him. This is the way she looks at him....


And this is how he makes her laugh. It makes me laugh too :)

Laughing at daddy- 9months old from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

Family Pictures

Jay, Joselyn and I had family pictures taken in October. There are too many to post so I've uploaded them to Snapfish...

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5288500008/a=50131122_50131122/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/


Enjoy:)

Daddy's difficult day

Yesterday Jay and I cleaned out Joselyn's closet to make some more room. We had bins and boxes of toys and clothes that she can no longer use... she's a big girl now:) Jay was going to bring all of it to our storage unit. After we cleaned out her room, I put Joselyn down to sleep. I came out of her room to help Jay load up his truck and he was a mess! He was just looking at all of her stuff remembering how much she loved playing with this, and how we barely used that because she got to big too fast, and how tiny she was when she wore this outfit ("are you SURE it wont still fit her??)
It continues to amaze us just how fast she is growing... Daddy (and Mommy) is sometimes overwhelmed by the speed at which it is all happening

He was able to pull it together for a picture for the blog:)

This video is a bit long, but it is for all the people that think Joselyn is a quiet, still child:) She sure is getting the hang of pulling to stand, in fact, she'll stand with the help of anything that doesn't run away (aka: Moe) including your head if you happen to be on the floor.

81/2months old-pulling to stand from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

videos!!

Ok, here are the videos that I promised.
I have a hard time getting a clear picture of Joselyn now, this video shows you why:)

8 month blanket picture from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

I walked into her room the other day and this is what I found:)

Untitled from Jodi Rivera on Vimeo.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This has been an eventful month for us! Joselyn turned 8 months old, we had family pictures taken (coming soon) and Joselyn celebrated her very first Halloween...well, maybe not her VERY first. Remember this??

Jay and I fight over who will go get Joselyn up from naps on the weekends. Granted I get to do it all week, but getting this look never gets old. And Jay usually wins, since I get to do it all week:)

Getting her 8 month blanket picture was a bit of an adventure this month. She has become quite efficient at getting away

tada:)

Happy Halloween!!! Here is Joselyn with her monkey friends

And here she is as our little Princess Leia

We went to our friends, KeithAnn and Rob's house, to have a little get together. Their son, Gabe, was a monkey, so we thought Joselyn would just love him...not so much.

Who could be afraid of this sweet monkey??

She eventually warmed up, but was still a little unsure

Have I mentioned that she now PULLS TO STAND??? oh my this is all going so fast! She just started crawling!!

I have a couple of videos of Joselyn for you, but for some reason I cant get them onto this blog. I will try to get them up later today:)