Hey you with the camera.....

He's just a little squirt here....

Sleepy Cheeks

Zzzzzzzzz........

Friends???

As I've probably mentioned before, Rudy hasn't exactly been chipper about our new family addition, but tonight, he took a big step toward acceptance. The picture says it all.

He jumped up on the bed, came over to where Joey was napping, sniffed his little arm, and the curled up next to him.

((Don't worry, Mom and Dad!!! I was watching him REALLY CAREFULLY!!!!))

....this is good, but I still don't trust the little stinker.....

By the way, check out that baby jungle gym Joey is under. He's having a ball with it!!!....that is when he's not napping on it.

Wanna see what Joe's been up to?

As I've mentioned, JOe's on the road these days with Steve. Here's a little footage they caught at the end of one of his sets. Steve's been receiving standing ovations every night of the tour, which is great! Check it out!

Bath time fun!!!

I captured this pic tonight at Joey's bathtime. I can't take it.... he's so cute!!! I want to squeeze him! :)

Iowa vs Irish

Two great teams..... look out! :)

((Funny after I mentioned i had no pics of joe, this one mysteriously popped up. I'll get more. All our pictures lately show us all looking pretty rough. We hardly have time these days to "dress up"...but that's alright.,...not too many folks to impress, and Rudy and Happy said they don't care what we look like.))

All smiles!

I need more "Joe" photos. When he's home next, he's going to get it. haha! Here's another of Joey and me. A little blurry, but it'll work.

Mt Hood

Joe has been on the road touring a lot these days. Saturday, he flew in to Porland OR, and he captured this AMAZING picture of Mt Hood. The same day, the 3 climbers and their dog that you've probably been hearing about in the news, reached the summit of Mt Hood, and on their decent, they were caught in some horrible weather and stuck. Rescuers helped them out today, thank God.

I wouldn't want to get caught up there in ANY kind of weather. Geeeessshhhh.....

Peanut Drool

My mom was here for about 11 or 12 days just recently and she captured this shot of our little Joey Peanut. Not much to say but .....awwwwww :)

Sock fetish??

I couldn't figure out why, today, my socks kept following me around. Sounds odd, I know.....imagine how I felt!

I'm not talking about the socks on my feet. haha! I just realized that you all might think i'm nuts. But this truly happened.....

As I've gone about my day today, every now and again, I've noticed my little below-the-ankle socks have been popping up in the wierdest places throughout my home. I really didn't think much about it until just a few moments ago. I just figured maybe I dropped a few out of the laundry basket sometime between last night, and this afternoon.

The first time I actually turned my head about it was just a few moments ago, when I was walking out of my bathroom. I had gone in to fix my hair, and when I turned around, Happy (our big bassett hound) was RIGHT behind me. (I didn't think this was out of the ordinary, as he's slightly "clingy" and likes to go where ever a warm body is.... in fact, he's laying on my feet right now.) I bent over and patted his head and said "hey baby Happy, what are you doing?", tugged on his ears, and then stepped backwards so I could regain my footing to step over him (as he is longer than he is tall). At that moment, I stepped on something, and before I knew what it was, I jumped off of it, thinking it was Happy's toe. Then I realized that he didn't cry out, so i looked down, and there was my sock.

"That's funny.....that wasn't there a moment ago," I thought to myself. But at that moment, I recalled that wasn't the first time I had seen a randomly displaced sock.

Normally an anal "pick everything up off the floor that doesn't belong" kind of person, I didn't think twice about shrugging it off, thinking that I'd grab it later....I've become a little lazy on the weekends. I walked back out into our bedroom towards my side of the bed to check my phone. Realizing that my phone was elsewhere inthe room instead of where I was heading, I whirled around, and again.....there was Happy...RIGHT behind me, clingy as ever. But.....what was with him.......my sock.

I picked it up, and it was all wet. (EWW...Happy slobber!!)

That's when I realized he had grabbed a couple of socks out of my laundry basket throughout the day, and has been following me around the house with them.

I picked it up, and put it back in the laundry basket. He reached in with his long face, and grabbed it out, along with one of Joey's socks.

I called Joe to tell him the funny story, and he said that every time he comes home off the road, Happy has pulled down every one of his socks off his shelf and lays them on the floor next to the bed. I've never noticed!!!! What a crazy dog!!! I think he just wants to play a crazy game of "pull your teeth out" tug-o-war. :)

Big Burps

Burp...burp. He's up to 8 oz in his bottle now. Slept ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT last night. WOW!!!! It only took one night of screaming to get him to sleep all night. Good job, Joey! Now mom and dad can be functional all day for you. :)

He's the best baby in the world....so far. :)

Da Bearsss

Joey was all suited up for the big Super Bowl game last night. He was cheering loud for the Bears. Ah well. I suppose it was time for Peyton Manning to win something big. He deserves it. We were really cheering for both teams. We have friends that are former Bears players (Tom Thayer, Jim McMahon) as well as a guy named Lil' Z who helps Tom Thayer (who is now the voice of the Bears) on the field. So we were pulling pretty hard for them. But then there's Peyton Manning of the Colts, of which, all of Tennessee was pulling for him. He's kind of the "pride" of the state, i'm learning.

I don't know. I'm just up for a good game. I wasn't impressed with the Half Time show though. I'm not that big of a Prince fan. He's ok...and I know he's considered legendary, but he's another one of those artists that I just don't "get," along with U2 and the Rolling Stones. Maybe I'll get it someday....or maybe not.

Anyway....Joey's pretty darn cute, huh. ;)

Growing...

Joey is growing more and more each day. He had his two month check up the other day and he is about 12.5 lbs already! He was a big boy, and had 3 shots and an oral vaccine. Eeesh. Needless to say, he hasn't felt himself for the last few days. I think he is just now coming out of it.

Every day he becomes more and more active. I read to him every day, no matter if its from a kids book, or the newspaper. I talk to him all the time, and tell him what i'm doing, whether its "Now we are walking down the stairs" or "Here's the refrigerator." I introduce his stuffed animals to him everyday too. He seems to like elephants. He fixates on them whenever he's around anything having to do with elephants.

He is in his cooing stage now, and its a very neat time..... he talks all the time. :)

Joe is on the road alot these days, touring, as he's opening for Bob Seger. This is a great time for our little company, but its sad that he has to be gone in this growing time for Joey. We'd rather him be gone now, rather than later, because when Joey gets older, then he'll notice more when he's gone. But what is so sweet is......when Joe calls, Joey likes to talk to him, and is fully aware when its his daddy's voice coming across the phone. He could be awake, but quiet....but once I put Joe on speaker phone, Joey instantly becomes excited, flailing his little arms and cooing into the phone. I say "Joey, tell daddy Hi. Tell him you love him," and he instantly coos sweetly to Joe. Its the sweetest thing I've ever seen in my life!

Everyday, i am so thankful for our little family. Joe, Joey, Rudy, Happy..... I don't know where I would be without them all. There is nothing sweeter. Life is good. :)

Joey!

Our beautiful Joey was born NOvember 29th, 2006.

As you can guess, I've been a bit overwhelmed by new motherhood, that i'm a little bit behind on my blogging. Recently, i was blessed with a brand new laptop, which is going to be very helpful to me, as I can carry it around the house with me anytime i want, and be everywhere that Joey is. So I don't have to go all the way down to my office at midnight when i'm ready to crawl in bed, after Joey is sleeping, and I can finish up my "day," close my computer, and go to sleep. Can you say "blessing?"

ANYWAY...back to Joey.

Wow. He's amazing. Joseph Spero Azar III was born at 11:53am. He was 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and 21 inches long. Healthy and beautiful! The labor was quite short, in consideration of the average "labor" for first time pregnancies. In fact, the nurses and doctors were asking me if this was truly my first pregnancy/labor. I guess I was just blessed. I thank God it all went well. It wasn't easy, by any means. I got the hospital at 1:00am with some significant contractions, but nothing to cause major alarm...just enough to notify me that it was "time." So by 1:30am, i was hooked up to all the machines. I figured it wasn't time to order up an epidural, and that i'd wait for the contractions to get a little more intense. Next time, I'll know better!!! By 2am, I was howling. My luck, there were 14 other women on the floor pushing out babies that morning, so it took 2 and a 1/2 hours to get the epidural. Note to future mothers: DON'T TRY TO DO IT WITHOUT DRUGS.

So I finally received the pain killer at 4:30ish, and then all was right with the world. At 5am, they broke my water. We were a little nervous because at that point, they discovered JOey had already had a bowel movement, so the docs ordered up a neonatal team to be on standby for the delivery. I slept for a few hours, and by 8:30ish, i was pushing. I pushed on every contraction for the next few hours. (EXHAUSTING!!!!). Finally, 11:53am was the magic moment....and out he came. I'll never forget it.

My labor nurse was amazing. Her name was Rebecca. I swear, she was an angel. She was so knowledgable about everything, and so soothing. Very sweet spirit. She kept Joe, mom and me very calm through the whole thing, and she was an amazing encourager. I couldn't have done it without her.

Here are a few photos of him while we were inthe hospital! We can't wait for you all to meet him in person! He's pretty cool.