August 2011

Sorry - these pictures are a bit out of order, but they'll tell the story just the same...

We took Josephine to her 4th football game ever - she has been to at least one each year since she was born and this was the first year where she really enjoyed the experience. She LOVED the fly over and the fireworks. She also enjoyed the bugs in the lights at the stadium. We got to campus around 4:00 pm (for a 6 pm kickoff) and we got home around 9:30 (we left early...) and she STILL wanted to stay up and play. She's a bit of a night owl!

Here's a pic of us from the LA Tech game:

Neither of these pictures are especially great - oh the joys of taking a photo of a 2 year old. You either get THESE faces - or you get that really fake smile where they squish up their face and just show their teeth. It's cute, but not as cute as their REAL smiles!
Caught in the middle of something - I actually got a cute smirk out of her. We had to go "walk" around campus before the game so she could DO something. She was not fond of sitting and watching football on TV when there were SO many places to go. Here we are at the Vietnam Memorial on MSU's campus. It is also the "free speech" zone on campus - there's some history for ya...
Here we are - probably playing with leaves or sticks or something equally exciting. How cute is she in her little jeans and her maroon shirt? ("JUST like MOMMY," she says...)
Josephine and Daddy outside the Union.
A few weekends ago we took Jo to a local park. It's a really nice area - the playground is used by the elementary school next door - there are also tennis courts, softball fields, and the community pool. As of yet, we've only utilized the playground. Josephine LOVES it - not only does it have slides and stairs and ladders, but it has SWINGS! She could swing for HOURS it we'd let her.
Getting ready to slide...
What a BIG girl! :)
Sliding!
SEE? The squished-my-face-so-I-just-show-my-teeth smile. Cute, but not AS cute as her real smile...
Her school photos were last Friday. I'll be QUITE interested in seeing how they turned out. We dressed her in such a cute little jumper with a white long sleeve t-shirt underneath and had plans to put on her nice brown shoes. NOPE. She wore her Dora tennis shoes with her dress. Oh well. I hope the photos are from the waist up... :)

How Big!

Here we are at LG's dance recital (back in April/May). It's been a while since we've had a pic of all three of us... decided to share...
Some of our best friends, Matt and Aimee, had a NEW baby boy last Wednesday. We went up to visit them and meet little Camden. Jo and Matt & Aimee's oldest daughter, Mikaiya, played the WHOLE time. Mikaiya is 6 and Jo is 2 and although they're very far apart in age, their personalities are very similar. They played with blocks, colored, and Mikaiya read Jo books on top of her very cool lofted bed. We stopped afterwards for dinner before heading back.

A tired 2 year old with a full belly is a 2 year old who will sleep during the trip home!

Here she is enjoying her chips and salsa. She LOVES chips and salsa - heat does not bother her. Wonder where she gets that from? :)
Jo and Daddy...
She has recently discovered painting. We have recently discovered that this is an activity which will sustain her for hours and she's actually pretty good at it. Below she's telling me, "gentle, gentle Mommy - you have to tap tap tap..." We're working on watercolor skills - she's actually a pretty good little artist. I should take some pics of her painting book, but my camera died today - it's charging...
She also LOVES getting everything off her bed and bringing it to us. Here she is getting her blanket... See how BIG she is in her little girl jeans? I couldn't believe how OLD she looked this morning when Chip dressed her. What a BIG little girl! :)
This last picture is a photo of her right after surgery on her right eye. She had surgery on Tuesday and stayed home (with her Nana) on Wednesday and half of Thursday - she went back to school on Friday. She was really a trooper - had no idea why she wasn't at school. I am very thankful for all the thoughts and prayers for her that day. It is definitely a scary situation when your child goes in for surgery - even if it is a minor one. We are especially grateful for the doctors and nurses at LeBonheur East. Her doctor is Dr. Pandya-Lipman who is a pediatric opthamologist in Southaven. She is wonderful! She's quite knowledgeable and is great at explaining all the little details. We are lucky to have such wonderful doctors!
ALL BETTER!

Yesterday, Chip asked Jo how old she was. Her response - "Too old." Yes, Jo - you are two YEARS old. We'll work on that! :)

July 4th...

Josephine has grown so much recently - not just UP but matured a lot. She is quite the talker and comes up with her own ideas which she willingly shares. We're working on learning names of people (i.e. Mommy is Wendy, Daddy is Chip, etc...). The other day, I asked her what Papa's name is (John). She thought for a minute and said, "His naaaaaammmme...... BIG BOY." Haha! I have NO idea where she got that from, but it did not seem out of the realm of possibilities for that to be my dad's name. Funny kid!

Speaking of "Big Boy", he and Winnie bought Jo a toy golf set. One afternoon, we put her down for her nap and when we went back in to check on her, this is what we found:

I guess she just had such a good time playing, she fell asleep right in the middle of the action! :)

Jo's Self Portrait.

We went out to the Tupelo Country Club to watch fireworks the Friday before July 4th. These were Jo's 1st fireworks to go and watch. I was nervous because I thought she might be scared - they are quite loud! She LOVED them. Above is my brother's family watching the fireworks. All 3 of his girls were quite entertained by the show.
Another picture of my brother holding (I think) Lilly Grace, his oldest.
Jo watched the fireworks with her "sunglassies" on. I guess she's so cool she wears sunglasses at night.... (Note the glow necklace around her neck. My dad supplies these to the country club every year. When the cracked them and gave them out to all the kids, I was with Lilly Grace. She got so excited when she saw all the necklaces, she turned to me and exclaimed, "WHERE did they GET all those NECKLACES?!?" To which I laughed and replied, "I have no idea... maybe you should ask your daddy. ")

Jo and Daddy before July 4th.
Jo showing off for the camera.
I was showing her how to show her teeth. I like this photo!
Jo and Mommy.

Busy Summer so Far...

It has been a busy summer - but a great one. We've gone down to Starkville for a friend's going away party, to Meridian for a family member's wedding (of which I took no photos - but take my word for it, it was a wonderful weekend and a beautiful wedding), and up to Memphis to visit Chip's best friend, Matt and his family.

I had to put this picture in because it is so telling of who Josephine is. She's wearing her pink "princess" dress and her dad's tennis shoes. Mixing styles already!

Chip and I together - married for 4 years now! (Can you believe it??? :) )

For Memorial Day, my dad invited my family and my brother's family to the Tupelo Country Club for a true Memorial Day buffet (BBQ, wings, slaw, potato salad, etc.). Afterwards, we went outside to let the kids run together a little bit.

ALMOST all the grandbabies. Mary Frances is out of the country - but Jo still talks about her. She refers to her as "Many" and points to the calendar of Mary Frances's pictures my dad has in his house (as if that's where Mary is always and forever... haha).

Here Jo is ready to go to the zoo in Memphis - she had her sun "glassies" and her hat (seen in a later photo). She LOVED the zoo. Below are more pictures of our Saturday adventure:

Here we are in the reptile house (there's a scientific name for it, but I'm not sure what it is... it had snakes and turtles and stuff... an "herbarium" or something??) There was a step that Mikaiah and Jo could stand on to see the animals better - Jo had a blast. I look impatient in this photo - I'm not, I promise. We were watching all the snakes and alligators and such, our friend Matt and his wife Aimee were waiting to see the giant python be fed a rabbit. There was a large group of people waiting for that and I KNEW my 2 year old wouldn't wait for something like that.

There were several photo op places in the zoo. This one is inside the Panda area at the zoo.

There were also a few places to go inside and get cooled down (as you can see in the photo - Jo's about as red as a beet...). There was a coloring station and a tangrams station and a puzzle station. Neat - until kids about 15 years old came in and also wanted to play. We left shortly after. We're not going to compete!
I think the Komodo dragon was the first exhibit we came to where Jo was that close to the animals - she thought he was very cool - and Aimee had her pointing out the dragon's eyes, ears, etc.

Jo and her daddy!
I didn't know this picture even existed until I sat down to do the blog. This must have been Mikaiah's ONLY moment of weakness all weekend - both she and Jo were troopers and neither had a break down. Amazing! They are very good playmates.
Jo with her "Uncle" Matt.

Most of the exhibits had rails too tall for her to see over, but this one she could see through (this is in the China area of the zoo...). So funny!

After the zoo, we went downtown to the Peabody to see the ducks (what? Peabody AFTER the zoo??? Yes... the Peabody's an experience... AND we went to eat Rendezvous after the Peabody, so it was something to kill some time before we went and ate dinner).

Our Memphis trip was SO fun - we had a blast.

Chip kept Jo home from "school" today to have a father/daughter play date. After a morning of watching Dora, he took her to the park this morning for about an hour, we went out to lunch, he took her home for a nap, and then took her to a local kids museum called Healthworks.

She had such a good day with her daddy. I'm sure she doesn't want to go back to school tomorrow. She does want to go see her friends today. At lunch, she was telling us how much she liked all her friends and listed every one of them! She's very very sweet and really enjoys being around people. (I think she gets this from her Grandma Carolyn...)

BIG girl.

Josephine LOVES the camera now. This morning I had to take three photos before I could convince her to get out of the house. She was standing up showing me the outfit she picked out. At least all the color matched...
This picture is just to appease her... to get her into the car... (whatever it takes). She LOVES taking pictures, only for the sole purpose of seeing herself on the camera. She is cute though, huh?
We went out to eat for Chip's birthday (thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the b-day money!!!). Chip had steak and chicken. Jo had chicken and ketchup. Which is now her new favorite food... see below:

She's getting very big now. She's using the potty on a somewhat regular basis. She can count to 5, say parts of her ABCs, and can now do a somersault all by herself! I can't believe how much she knows!

Today she had a "boo boo" on her knee. We were talking about it and she told me, "I boo boo on my knee..." I asked her what happened and she told me, "I fell in de dirt... I ok now..." SO sweet! :)

Easter Egg Hunt

My mom's church had their annual Easter egg hunt this past Saturday out at a farm south of Tupelo. Mom invited my sister-in-law, Leigh, and her three girls (Lilly, Emily, and Annie), Josephine, and myself to go with her out to the farm. They had games for kids, horse rides, cake, etc. It was a real blow out!

The kids were split into different age groups - the youngest group was 2-3 yrs so Jo got to go with her twin cousins, Emily and Annie. She was very interested in picking up eggs - not so much because she knew what was going on, but because the eggs did NOT belong on the ground, so she thought it was a game of "clean up" and put eggs in the basket so they're not all over the yard. Haha.

The girls with all their LOOT. They were allowed to each get 12 eggs. (Parents were supposed to be keeping count.) I think the only one of the three who actually got 12 was Emily. Jo and Annie realized before they got to 12 that there was something IN the eggs...

Jo figuring out the eggs... she was so excited to see that there was candy - but even MORE excited to see the chocolate! Here she is eating her FIRST candy from the eggs she "hunted" (or "cleaned up").

You could probably tell that Jo was wearing an adult sized jacket. It was SO cold outside that day. The temp was about 60, but the wind was blowing SO much - it was pretty chilly. Below is what Jo looked like all afternoon - she kind of looks like a monk. Too cute!