Countdown to Josie

Photo

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:33:37 -0600

Photo

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:33:03 -0600

Thankfulness

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:32:24 -0600

I know, I know, another cheesy post about what I am thankful for. But seriously, I am realizing I in NO WAY can truly ever be thankful enough for all the things that God has blessed me with. My human mind cannot wrap itself around the awesomeness that is God and what He has done for me and provided for me. I pray that I will not take my blessing for granted, but how can I not? I cannot even grasp how MUCH I have been blessed, so of course I am going to take those things for granted. But for now, in my own very small way, I can at least acknowledge some of the things I am thankful for:

-My God

-Jake

-Josie

-a wonderful, loving family

-a wonderful church home where we are learning and growing SO much!

-a house to live in

-clothes to wear

-food to eat

-friends

-jobs to go to everyday

-health

-happiness

-SO many material blessing that we could definitely live without, but that we still have

-a place to go on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day

-the opportunity to be a parent

What are you thankful for today?

Good mood

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:17:59 -0600

Josie was in an especially good mood last night. Which meant she was also especially hyper. I have learned that, here lately, a good mood for Josie also means more disciplining-she “tests the waters” a lot more, trying to see what she can get away with. We have definitely entered toddlerdom-learning new things everyday, getting into more and more stuff, having to say “no” a LOT more. This morning she got my dishwashing liquid while I was cleaning up the kitchen. She spilled some on the floor, and before I realized what she was doing, she had went and gotten one of her wash rags out of her cabinet, said “towel” and started cleaning up her mess! :) THAT I am NOT complaining about-cleaning up her own mess? Awesome.

Tooth

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:46:59 -0600

I think Josie is cutting a new tooth….not eating, diaper rash, runny nose, slight fever….yep, gotta be a tooth.

I have been posting lots of new pics to flickr....

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:38:55 -0600

I have been posting lots of new pics to flickr....

17 months old

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:49:00 -0600

Josie,

Today you are 17 month old-just one month shy of me being able to say “a year and a half.” Time has flown.

Here is what you have been up to in the last month:

-You say a snake says “hsss”

-You spotted a bee in the yard and said “bee”-without us even saying anything at all

-You said “love you” back to Mommy when I said “I love you Josie”

-You do the splits on command

-You, of course, have learned all kinds of new words, and I haven’t even written them all down, because it is too many to keep up with; but here are some-scarecrow, Hondo, lap (when you want in our laps), stuck, trick-or-treat, ope (open), jacket (this is the most clear word you say other than mama), blanket, “pick up”, doctor

-You carved your first pumpkin, and went trick-or-treating as a flower with a tutu-you were VERY proud of your costume and your basket! You even said “trick treat”

-You went to your first fall festival at Mommy’s school, and we had to drag you away from the fish pond and the duck pond-we had to tell all the fishies and ducks “night night”

-You love to say no to lots and lots of questions

-When we ask you a question you want to think about, you tap your chin with your finger and say “uummm…”

-You sing along with anyone who sings “God is so Good”-You sing gooood and mmeee

-You do the motions to the songs “Only a Little Boy David” and “Little Caterpillar”-you really love singing songs right now

-You fill in the words to the puppy book and the Bert and Ernie books at Grammy and Pappy’s house.

-Brown Bear is still your favorite book at our house…but First Words is still a close second

-You had a play date with Caroline Reasoner….I think you liked it. We also helped Mr. Bob and Mrs. Shane move, and you played with Liam all day long.

-You are beginning to get a respectful fear for dogs-you love them, but you don’t want them to come really close…although you did pet Bumble on Halloween (Mrs. Diane’s dog)

-You still give your Daddy the best kisses

-You are beginning to go through a bit of separation anxiety stage…not just with Mommy, and Daddy, but anyone who happens to be leaving your vicinity

-You still go to bed SO GOOD, but you are beginning to try to stall bed time sometimes…but then you lay right down and go to sleep when I put you in your bed.

-You love to check the mail

-You are really beginning to like to play with babies, and you recently fell in love with your Glow Worm

-Your favorite thing to do is to sort “snacks” from one cup to another

We love you so much, baby girl, and every day our love just grows stronger and deeper.

Our fun and productive day

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:14:00 -0600

helping Daddy with the leaves

Who? me?

swinging

getting the mail

"helping" vacuum

dusting her bike

Our fun and productive day

Whew!....

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:11:00 -0600

What a week! Between car duty, meetings (plural) at school, having to make lots of phone calls to parents, BOTH of our cars having to go to the shop, and various other things, we had a very BUSY and hectic week around here. Luckily, today we got to stay home and catch up. It was MUCH needed. Jake and I have both talked about ways to slow down our schedule, get more time at home. We are both very tired of always arriving home after dark, almost at bedtime. We are working on it, and I think things are going to improve… I definitely need to work on saying that little word “no” that I have never been good at saying! So today we had a nice, relaxing, productive day at home. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it was so nice to be able to just take things at our own pace, not have a schedule, and get some things done at the house that have been needing to be done. Josie had a lot of fun “helping”, too! She “helped” Jake rake leaves, check the mail, helped me feed Percy, dust, put up laundry, and vacuum. She always loves to help, and she is acting like such a big girl here lately. She hardly even looks or acts like a baby anymore! I guess “time flies when you’re having fun” is NOT just a saying…because it has definitely been true for our little squirt monster.

Josie was SO tired on Saturday that she fell asleep while she...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:08:49 -0600

Josie was SO tired on Saturday that she fell asleep while she was eating dinner…still eating!

Josie had a really fun day today, watching her Pappy and Uncle...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:00:47 -0600

Josie had a really fun day today, watching her Pappy and Uncle Chad play with the deer…

A VERY busy weekend..

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:50:00 -0600

we just had! And it did not get any better today. Friday we started off with dinner with Jake’s family. Saturday we helped some friends of ours move, which took literally all day, and then we had dinner with my family. Josie was so good while we were moving-she listened well, and really never fussed, even though she only had one 15 minute nap. The. whole. day. Sunday we went to church, of course, and then we went out to eat with Nick and Mel. Josie was so tired, that she fell asleep in the two minutes it took to get to the restaurant from church, and did not wake up when I got her out of her car seat and laid her in the booth. She slept most of the time we were in the restaurant, on the booth seat. We went to Nick and Mel’s new house for just a little while so that Jake could help Nick with their washer and dryer, then we were back at church for our first Christmas choir rehearsal. I am really excited to be in a choir again, and I think this choir is going to be really awesome. I’ll post our Christmas service dates and times when it gets closer, in case anyone wants to come! On our way home from church after choir rehearsal, we stopped in to see Chad, and he ended up not being there, because he was tracking a deer. In fact, Jake ended up going with Daddy and Kyle to help Chad track the deer, which they ended up not finding. So we didn’t get home until after 9 last night.

Today was supposed to be more relaxing, finally a night at home that Jake and I were both really looking forward to. Nana had even invited us to supper, but we had said no so that we could be home (it has to be bad if we refused a Nana dinner!). BUT, then I ended up having to stay at school until like 4:15 (very long story). Then, my car wouldn’t start, so Jake had to come jump me off, then we had to take my car to the shop. So long story, short, we just ended up eating with Nana (which was REALLY good-thanks Nana!).

If you held on until the end of this very long, very boring post, man! you love me more than I could ever imagine! So, I will leave you with some very cute updates on the girl-she now says “pick up” when she wants to be held; she loves to play “night night” where she lays down with anything relatively soft, and says “night night” over and over again. She also loves to put her babies “night night” and cover them up. (or anything that remotely resembles a baby or animal). She continues to say more words every day; I can’t even write them all down or remember them all. She does speak very clearly though, and recently she started saying “jacket” and “blanket” and those are both VERY clear.

Stay tuned, because I have an AWESOME video to post that really will illustrate our busy weekend, but Vimeo is down right now…so STAY TUNED!

So, I was right in the middle of a one year photo shoot, and...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:45:41 -0600

So, I was right in the middle of a one year photo shoot, and Josie just decided to be cute…

Percy

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:31:33 -0600

Well, Percy is back up for adoption. It didn’t work out with his new family, and they brought him back tonight. Anyone want him? He is a wonderful dog!

Percy

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:20:49 -0600

Percy finally got a new home today! I am very excited, too, because he went to live with a wonderful family-a lady I teach with, her husband, her little boy who I think is 9 years old, and her daughter, who is 5. Percy will be the little boy’s dog, and he is SO super excited. I know he will get played with all the time-I am just so glad we found a good home for him :).

Halloween!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:13:51 -0600

Our little flower :)

This is her little basket

Waiting at Meemaw's door...

Leaving the Reasoner's..

Ella and Iz-adorable

Alec and Wyatt-Superman!

Beth was the tooth fairy!

Flower girls

Halloween!

Halloween

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:07:11 -0600

We had so much fun last night! Josie dressed up as a flower- I had so much fun making her costume and her basket, and it was super easy and cheap. I think I will probably always try to make her costumes. I made her a green tutu for the “leaves,” and dyed her some tights and a onesie green for the “stem.” She already had a yellow petal headband that I got on clearance at Target last year (gotta love Target clearance). So her whole costume cost less than 10 dollars. Then I realized Friday that she didn’t have anything to carry to collect candy in, and a friend of mine had shown me a blog that had made some really cute baskets out of ice cream buckets. Well, I wanted Josie’s to be smaller, so I just took a little basket we had laying around the house, some leftover felt, and some hair ribbon, and voila! Personalized Halloween basket for free :). That is always a good thing!

Josie loved trick or treating. She even said “trick treat.” We visited several houses-Meemaw’s, Becca’s, Mrs. Cindy’s, Mrs. Kelly’s, Diane and Andrew’s, Laurie and Steve’s and Mrs. Betty and Mr. Walter’s. Our last stop was Mom and Dad’s to see them, Shshr, Nana, Ta, Casey and Kyle, Chad and Lesa, and then Christie and Andy and the kids, came too. Mom was sweet enough to have chili, soup and hot dogs hot and ready for everyone-yum!

Fall Festival

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:18:06 -0500

Josie and Ta

Bean bag toss

Fish pond!

Fall Festival

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:14:54 -0500

Tonight was our school’s fall festival-what a crazy, but fun, night. I had to work at a game, but Josie came with me, too, and Ta helped me watch her, and watched my game some so I could take her around to all the games. (Thanks, Ta!!). This was Josie’s second fall festival, but the first one where she really understood that anything was going on. Her favorite game BY FAR was the duck pond, where you pick up the ducks and see what number you’ve picked to win a prize. Josie didn’t care about the prize, though-she just liked picking the ducks up! We kept having to back to “check” on them, and she even had to tell them “night night.” She also played the cake walk, the bean bag toss, and the fish pond (which she also REALLY liked-she had to tell the fish “night night,” too).

After we had cleaned up for the night, Josie and I got in my car to go home, and my car wouldn’t start, because the battery was dead. So we went back inside (the auction was still going on), and I called Jake to pick us up. So he came, and he called me to tell me he was in the parking lot, but also that he was in my car, which was running just fine! Go figure :). He didn’t mind though-we think my car is possessed :).

"My pumpkin is happy and I’m happy too. For God picked me out, and he made me like new. He..."

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:48:32 -0500

“My pumpkin is happy and I’m happy too. For God picked me out, and he made me like new. He washed all my sins and he threw them away. I show God I love him each time I obey.”

- My Happy Pumpkin by Crystal Bowman