The Little Pianoman

In my last post I said that Josh was quite talented on the piano.
I give you proof:

Click here to see a video of Josh singing and playing the piano.

Click here to see a video of Josh's "piano stomp" technique.
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Our New Abode

This is where it all happens...The Snow home! It's just a rental for the next year or so until we figure out where Matt's going to business school. We love it! We finally have a garage, a washer/dryer, a backyard, a second bathroom, a bedroom for Joshua, and even an extra room for guests. (Hint hint...Come visit us!) And all for WAY less than we were paying in California for our teeny one bedroom apartment. (Sorry Walnut Creek friends -- the truth is hard to hear.) We actually moved in in the middle of September. Sorry it took a while to get pictures up.

Our kitchen -- with counter space!

The front room. You can see my new rocking chair/recliner that I absolutely LOVE! It's so much easier to feed Josh in a nice comfy chair than on the couch, which I sink so far into that I can't get up!

Joshua's room. He doesn't actually use the crib much yet. He'll sleep there for about a couple hours at night and then I bring him into bed with me. He just won't stay asleep by himself. Plus I love to snuggle him. I suppose I'll man up soon and try to sleep train him, but I'm in no rush. By the way, for you bargain-hunters out there, I made those curtains out of pillowcases I found on sale at Bed Bath and Beyond. Cheap and easy -- I recommend it.

This is our little dining area/office. I wanted the computer toward the front of the house so I could listen to itunes and work on school stuff without shutting myself away from the world.

This is perhaps the coolest part of our house -- the piano! Yes, I actually have a real, beautiful, in-tune, shiny, new piano in my home. My mother-in-law rented a piano for me for the year that we live here. It was an early Christmas present. I love it!! I play the piano almost every day now. Josh does too. He's quite talented. (More to come on that note.)

This is our backyard. There is a porch for our little camping barbecue, grass, a grapefruit tree, a lemon tree, a shed, and a gate that opens up to an enormous park with baseball fields, volleyball courts, playgrounds, batting cages, a wave pool, and a big man-made lake. Matt walks across it to take the bus to work. (Not the lake, the park.)

And this is just a cute baby that was sleeping so I could take some pictures of the house. :)

Screaming Baby!

Josh has found a new favorite activity -- screaming, when he is perfectly happy, just to get attention. It might be annoying if I had another child who was trying to sleep, or if we lived in an apartment with paper-thin walls. Since we don't have either of those things, Matt and I find Josh's screaming absolutely hilarious! It's so cute to watch him discover his voice. We took some video of it, so click here if you care to see it.

Halloweeeeen

Halloween hasn't really been too exciting for me since I stopped trick-or-treating. Yes, dressing up is always fun, but you can do that any day of the year. However, this Halloween was different. This year I had a cute little baby to dress up and an actual house for trick-or-treaters to visit! What an excellent holiday.

Here is Matt working so diligently on our pumpkin. I wasn't very much help -- I got as far as cutting the top open and then decided that playing with the baby was cleaner than scooping out pumpkin slime. But that's what men are for, right?

This was Matt's vision of our jack-o-lantern. He did a great job copying it, but we didn't get a picture of the real thing before it started to rot. Interesting fact: in Arizona, you have to wait until a day or two before Halloween to carve your pumpkins or else they shrivel up and turn black in the heat.

Here is my sweet little Tootsie Roll. We bought this costume a few weeks ago and I was soooo excited to dress Josh up! He didn't hate it as much as I thought he would, either.

The night before Halloween, our ward had a Halloween party. Instead of a "trunk-or-treat" like I grew up with, they just have people decorate the doors of classrooms around the church. Here we are sitting at our "doorstep" waiting for trick-or-treaters. Matt's sister Michelle is the one holding the baby.

I know, our costumes are lame (except for Josh's). Another last minute costume from the Snows. I'm actually wearing Matt's football jersey from high school. He's wearing Cardinals gear.

We had a bunch of friends over for a little party on Halloween. (That way we could party and hand out candy at the same time.) These are a bunch of Matt's friends from high school. We have Dr. Greg House, a ladybug and her flower, Mrs. Claus and a crying baby, a football player, Juno and Paulie Bleeker, a cowgirl and her hick boyfriend, a nurse, the Grim Reaper, and a construction worker (who is taking the picture).

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Only 52 days 'til Christmas!

Josh's First Hickey

Today I took a shower with my baby boy. He doesn't do baths so much anymore. He really likes the shower, plus it's just easier for me. When he's in there he always holds onto me really tight and likes to gnaw on my shoulder, especially since he started teething and constantly has to have something in his mouth. Today he must have been super hungry or something, because when I got out of the shower, I realized he had been sucking so hard that he left a dark red mark on my shoulder. And it's still there twelve hours later! My little boy gave his first hickey to his mom! Oh the years of teasing and humiliation that will come from this little incident. Babies are so much fun.