Spring Break

This week is our spring break. Jo's still going to day care and it's allowed Chip and I to do a lot of needed things around the house (and some not-so-needed things).

Today was a beautiful day in Starkville. I'm guessing around 70 degrees and slightly breezy. Anyway, we felt like going outside to catch the sunshine, so we picked Jo up at day care around 2:30 (after her nap) and took her to campus.
She and Stella had the best time hanging out. She spent most of the time in her stroller, but we pulled her out to take photos at different stops on our walk.

Again, we're outside - exploring campus - and Jo's much more interested in the thing that came FROM HOME. They're best friends though - she had a blast.

Checking out the engraving on the seat bench near President Lee.

Mom, baby Jo, and President Lee. It's not quite exam time yet, so we did not give him the obligatory salute! (We'll go back in May...)

Josephine had a wonderful time exploring leaves and grass. To my knowledge, she's never crawled around on grass until today. She really liked the leaves and pulling them apart - and only tried to eat them twice.

Here I am with my first two babies!

Again, like I said, she's never really crawled on grass before, so she was skeptical at first, but I think she really enjoyed it when she figured it out. She did whine when we took her and put her back in the stroller. She wanted to stay and play with her leaves! The grass was a little wet, and although she didn't put enough pressure on the grass to soak up any residual moisture from the rain a few days ago - I did. I had a wet spot on my rear end the rest of our walk.

Here's Jo giving you her best BULLDOG face. They look alike in the cheeks, huh?

At home earlier this week.

She's started to watch TV - we'll put on Dora or Diego - or any cartoon movie Chip has recorded. He's good about picking out good movies. He's recorded The Land Before Time and the Veggie Tales movies for her and she's really enjoyed those.

Jo loved shaking my Hot Tamales box, then it ran out... and it wasn't so fun anymore. But here she is while it lasted. I'm in the background (do not pay attention to how I look - it's SPRING BREAK). I'm reading aloud in this picture. I checked out a copy of The Giver from our school library. It's one of my favorite books ever, but Chip's never read it, so we're reading it as a family this week. Even Jo's getting to hear it, although I know it doesn't mean anything to her now. She mainly serves as a distraction, but I enjoy the family time.

Here she is with her big puppy dog. It's multifunctional. It serves as a body pillow for her, as well as a toy, something to climb on - you name it! This night she was being especially silly. Singing and dancing - she was so fun!

Jo is often generous to the dog. Here Jo is eating and Stella's hoping for a snack. We're trying to train Jo NOT to feed her, but Jo gets such enjoyment out of Stella's reaction - it's going to be hard to break!

Here she is eating CHICKEN! By far, one of her favorite meals is chicken nuggets. We gave her mac-n-cheese yesterday and she enjoyed that too. There's not a lot that goes in and comes back out with this child. She is much like her father and mainly just enjoys eating.

We are so thankful for her - she's added so much to our family and made life so much more fulfilling. She's strenghtened my relationship with Chip and helped us find mutual enjoyment in so many things. Now that she's almost a year, and each day seems to get more and more exciting - I can't wait to see what's in store. I've never enjoyed something so much as having my family! I love being a mom and a wife and I know Chip really enjoys his role as father and husband - he's wonderful at both!

AMS Spring Musical

Well, we've been working since January (almost every day) on this musical, and now it's here. We had our first performance on Thursday morning for AMS and it went really well and I think all of the kids really enjoyed it!



We've had a fabulous time, and I just wanted to post a few pictures that we took...

And the link to the news article: http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/content/view/200508/60/ (There's a misprint - the Saturday performance is NOT at 6, it's at 7 like the Friday performance.)

We will be FINISHED on MONDAY!!! I can't wait. What a relief! The kids are great and have worked so hard, but I'm wiped out. :)

Update

Sorry it's been weeks since updating... Chip and I are kind of swamped right now with work and extra curricular stuff.

I have been working with 20 kids after school every day on the musical. The children are wonderful - I could not have asked for a better group of kids. They impress me every day and they are such sweet hearts - I'm really enjoying the time I get to spend with them. It is, however, a time committment and something I've never done before, so I'm quite overwhelmed.

Chip is also working hard after school tutoring for Project Assets. He is busy until 5 and I'm busy until 5:30 - poor Jo gets picked up at 4:30 and taken to play practice until all the kids get picked up.

Jo is growing a TON! She's been quite sick this past week. (I think just with the weather changing - all the kids at school have it too.) She's trying to pull up to stand, although she really doesn't trust objects - she only wants to pull up on us. She's been cruising a bit on the furniture, especially if there's something nearby she wants to get to. She is also saying different words and trying to repeat us, which is really cute.

The other day I got her to stand on her own, but as soon as she realized that she was all alone, she sat down. Falling on her booty is not as traumatic as it once was, she kind of looks around and tries to get back up. She's rolling over from her belly to her back and can sit from both positions. She has a mind to go now and will cry if we change her plans. She's very easy going, but here lately she's been quite stubborn. (Dang, why'd she have to get that from me?)

She's also getting very tall... wearing a lot of 18 month things. I can't believe she's so big! She'll be 10 months old on Monday. Does that even seem right??

Sorry no pictures (Joe, you're just going to have to get over it...). My camera's been kind of tricky lately and really needs to be replaced. I'll try to post some from this weekend. My mother is coming down to visit Jo and has promised to bring Lilly Grace. I'm looking forward to it.

Until then...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Baby Jo had a really bad cold which led to a double ear infection over Christmas. We propped her up in her pack and play so she could sleep more comfortably, and this is how she ended up... she's getting too long to sleep sideways! :)

Here's a picture of Jo on her first Christmas! We were at Papa John's house...

Annie did not have any pants on because she sat in the cat's water... it did not seem to bother her in the least.

Here's Em climbing up and down the stairs... one of her favorite things to do.

Lilly Grace got an umbrella like Fancy Nancy... I think this is her favorite toy from Papa John and Winnie.

Jo's Aunt Bonnie got her this hat (and a set of matching mittens). I could only get one mitten on her, but the hat she really enjoyed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2010!!!

We hung out at home on New Years Day... here's Jo with some ribbon she found tied around one of my teacher gifts.
Isn't she cute!??
Sorry I didn't have more pictures from Christmas. There are NONE of me! I posted almost every picture I took... I was too busy enjoying it to take photos!

Beginning of the Christmas Season

Chip and I are approaching exams... they start tomorrow! I can't believe that an ENTIRE semester has gone by. This year has FLOWN by so fast. I'm taking it easy on my kids this semester for their exams. Being an exploratory class, I don't want to stress them with my exam AND I've worked their butts off this nine weeks with all the stuff they've done. They've really learned to meet my expectations and done a great job meeting deadlines, too. This week we're going to have fun after their exams watching Christmas classics like The Polar Express, It's A Wonderful Life, and Home Alone...

This past Friday we went to eat breakfast with Santa (at the CLC). Jo had no real interest in Santa when she had her photo taken, she was most interested in his beard. I'm pretty sure the photographer got NO good pictures of her with Santa, but we've got them for proof. One day she'll want to see her first photo with Santa...

Today I made some treats for us to enjoy. Between Jo, Chip, and myself, we've gone through 1 1/2 custard pies today!!! Jo LOVED custard pie and ate an entire piece herself. (It was a small piece.) I also made cocoons for our "team" Christmas party at work. I just realized that our faculty gathering is Tuesday. Still haven't worked out whether we'll be able to go or not. Chip tutors on Tuesdays at the family school in Starkville, so our schedules may not allow us to go.

Earlier today, when we were in the kitchen baking/cleaning, Jo was on the ground scooting around in the living room and when we looked around, she had made it all the way into the kitchen with us! Chip walked her back to her area with her toys, and she proceeded to scoot right back into the kitchen. She's getting around really well and starting to get up on her knees. It's so exciting. We've really got to baby proof. All the stuff on her level is safe, but we've got to get outlet covers and baby gates SOON!

Sooner than later, we'll be Christmasing with Chip's family and up in Tupelo with mine. And then, before we know it - it'll be 2010 and I'll be back at work!

Oh my.

Thanksgiving and a visit to Papa John's

This past weekend Chip had class in Tupelo for his administration thing. He normally rides with another guy, but it didn't work out this weekend. Jo and I accompanied him up to Tupelo. We visited with Papa John and Winnie Saturday - we went shopping for furniture!! Jo loves shopping!!!
She has a great time with regular household products (as all kids do). Anyway, we had a blast together and it was nice to spend a long day with my dad (and Jo's grandpa). She loves Papa John and Winnie!
Note in the picture below - the tshirt is an 18 month shirt and the overalls are 12 month... and the overalls are almost too small. She's an Amazon Baby. And quite a work out to carry around furniture stores - especially when you have to sit in every couch there.

Josephine really liked her cousin Stephanie's cheesecake. It was Key Lime cheesecake. She liked it, but that tang suprised her every time! This is the best photo I got. She was scooting around when we were feeding her.

Jo and her second cousin, Asher. Asher turned one about a week before Thanksgiving. They're about 4 months apart. They had a great time together. Jo was interested in EVERYTHING Asher did.

Jo and I - getting ready to go to family Thanksgiving. She discovered that the nuts can was a great drum! (We were in Meridian with Chip's family for Thanksgiving. His whole mom's side of the family gathered at the church to eat - it was wonderful!)

We did informal Christmas pics this year in front of our new tree. Jo was not all that excited to be in a dress just for pictures, but she was a good sport.

Family Christmas photo. Sorry we're not perfectly color coordinated! (It's not really our style...) For my siblings... this pic will be your Christmas present. Happy early Christmas! :)

Birthday

WAAAAHH!!! I'm getting old! My birthday's on Saturday. I'm not really thinking about it (quite honestly, I have too much on my mind... tryouts for our musical are Tuesday and Wednesday, we have a field trip to Meridian Monday, and I'm tutoring this afternoon...). Chip bought me two books for my birthday about the Kennedys. (I'm partially obsessed.) One book is about the male Kennedys through the generations and the other is Rose Kennedy's memoir. The latter is an original printing and he got it at a used book store here in town. I LOVE the smell of old books.



Some of my friends have Kindles and they're obsessed, but I still like to carry the book around with me and dog ear my pages. It's just not the same on the Kindle. The nice thing about those things is that books are significantly cheaper. Sometimes I'm just not about the technology.



In JOSEPHINE news, she cut her first tooth! I found it last Saturday. Since then, she's been drooling on EVERYTHING. She's so cute when she smiles and that one tooth sticks out! She's also starting to turn circles when you put her on her belly. She can turn circles and creep backwards. I'm sure she'll be crawling soon.



We will be traveling to Tupelo for my birthday this weekend. We're celebrating with a party on Friday at my mom's. Saturday morning Chip and I are going to Ballard Park to watch our girls comptete in a soccer tournament. We also plan to go to the Flea Market. Chip and I are getting a new TV for ourselves for Christmas, so we're going to try and find a good deal. Perhaps we'll be buying that the day after Thanksgiving, but we're going to look anyway. Saturday night is the Alabama game and, thankfully, we're not going to be in town. I promise - Starkville is NOT build for an extra 90 - 100 thousand people. I hope we win. I hate Alabama. Hate is not a strong enough word for how Chip feels about Alabama. I'll pull for Bama when they're playing Ole Miss... Chip won't watch the game.



Well... it's time for children again. I'll post some updated pictures that we have of Josephine soon.