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!

Family!

We have had an unusual set of circumstances this past week/week and a half. We ended up finding a fantastic family for our dog, Lincoln, to live with. I suppose he's having a great time - 4 kids and 5 acres of land. Wow! Our cat, Tony, was going back home to live on Lakes Blvd. with all the neighbors... he jumped out of the car before we made it home. No joke... we were on Whitfield and he JUMPED OUT OF THE CAR. I've never seen a cat do that. Hopefully, he's fine and he found his way back home!

We were on our way back to Starkville this weekend to get our home ready for an open house this weekend. It was going very well - we got to go out to see our friends on Saturday night and spend time at our home (just the three of us...).

Chip got a call Sat. night (late) that his aunt Jessie was diagnosed with breast cancer and the doctors had given her 48 hrs and sent her home with hospice care. Chip and I got up early Sunday morning and cleaned the house, hoping to get out of town and see his aunt before she passed. Chip got a call on Sunday morning from his mom that she'd passed in the night on Saturday. It was very quick.

The visitation was Monday and the funeral was on Tuesday (today). We got to go by his aunt Jessie's home on Monday morning and look at some of her personal "stuff". His aunt was 75 and she was very attached to her family. She kept any and all newspaper clippings from all of her family. We found a lot of stuff about Chip's dad at her home (in and amongst all kind of other family records). It was very cool to find such unique things that Chip didn't even know existed. What a nice surprise! We have a yearbook from the school he was teaching at when he passed, pictures from his high school days, and his bible from college with some personal notes written in. It is very very neat and I know Chip is so pleased to have all of those things now. His aunt Jessie was very special to him. She opened up her home and her heart to him and she rejoiced in his happiness just like a parent/grandparent would. She was very special to me, as well. I did not know her for very long, but she was always so kind and welcoming. She loved unconditionally and it didn't matter to her where you came from, what you were, or who you were - if you were part of the family, she loved you. She really got a lot of joy out of Josephine also and she saw Chip's dad in Jo - which was very special to me. I know that Jo brings a lot of happiness to Chip's "Frazier" side of the family. She DOES have a lot of facial expressions and mannerisms that are very like her "Grandpa Glynn". Nature vs. Nurture??? Nature... definitely in THIS case! :)

We were very lucky to have this time to go down to Meridian and see Chip's family. Jo LOVED spending time with her Mamaw, Papaw, and great-Grandma. She had a great time taking them around on walks. She also got to see her aunts and uncles and her cousin Davis. Family is a wonderful thing and I'm so thankful that Jo has so many loving relatives. We couldn't be more blessed! :)

It's Been a While

Sorry it's been so long. We've had a lot go on.

I quit my job... then we moved some stuff up to Tupelo... got Jo into a daycare here... started working again... and now we're kind of stable!

Today we went to Creative Cakes on E. Main and ordered Jo's birthday cake (her birthday is April 1st... party will be April 2nd at 2:00... I will get the invites out soon...). On our way back in to town (East Tupelo is technically part of Tupelo, but it's a VERY different part of Tupelo...) we stopped at Elvis Presley's Birthplace. I haven't been there in a while - last time I went to actually take in a visit, it was not very busy, there was just his house and the memorial chapel and small museum. The city has done a great job expanding the area. They have added an "Elvis Walk" with dates from his life and what he was doing at that time, there's a statue of him from about the time when he moved from Tupelo to Memphis, and the city has moved Elvis's boyhood church from WHEREVER it was to the site near his home. It's very nice and the weather today was pretty perfect for being outside. We let Jo run around - she had a blast. I took some pictures from my phone, but right now I don't have our laptop up in Tupelo and there's not a bluetooth connection here... I'll have to tranfer those later.

After the Elvis side trip, we went to Vincent Boot and Shoe and bought some on-sale shoes (12 bucks for mine!!!), then to PartyWorks, then we had to stop for some lunch - we went to Newks. I don't know what sandwich I got, but it was AWESOME. I think it was called the "Q"?? I'm not sure, but it's got chicken, cheese, bacon, and white vinegar sauce. The white vinegar sauce was SO good. I totally recommend that sandwich.

We went then to Hobby Lobby where we got invitations and monkey stickers. Jo LOVES her "monkey paper" and "monkey tickters". She also got to go to TJ Maxx where we bought her a Curious George story book - yay!

Right now, she's at Ballard Park with her three cousins (Lilly, Annie, and Emily), her Nana, and her Aunt Leigh. She will have a great time.

I will TRY to update with some pictures soon, but don't hold your breath!!!! :)

Ending One Thing, Starting Another.

Today was a "snow day". As you can see below, there's not much snow here. Actually, the roads were probably in worse condition yesterday as there was ice on the roads where water had accumulated. Today, it's just wet. So - we are all at home watching things on our DVR that we haven't had time to watch this week. It's a nice day to spend with the family, but I'm not looking forward to making these days up! :)

Jo's having a fabulous time at home with her mommy and her daddy. She has gone back to her "pacy" to help with her teething pain. This was a mistake! She's had it since Christmas - we had totally broken her of it, but we pulled it out again just so she would have something to teeth on. She will give it up in the morning, but she is insistent that she have it to go to bed and sometimes in the morning. TEETH! I'm glad she has them, but they REALLY need to come in quickly. She's on her final two to come through for a while. Thank goodness. She's been teething nonstop since about 7 1/2 months old.

One of the funniest things is when she wants to read her pop-up book that Papa and Winnie got her for Christmas, she will run up to us and request, "BIG!" She calls this book her "big" because of the big pictures that pop up. It's really funny and I'm glad she enjoys all her books.

She also really enjoys the sticker books that she got for Christmas and will ask us, "uder ticker" (which means, "another sticker"). The amount that she says and what she understands is really neat. She want to tell us all about what she sees and it's neat what kinds of things she is recognizing and we did not teach her. She also likes to say goodbye to everyone in her class in the afternoon. She'll go through each one individually, "bye bye josh, bye bye lake, bye bye ginger, bye bye joel." Then, she'll look at us as we're walking out and go, "I Jo." I guess if she addressed everyone else, she felt left out. Haha. I love it when she tells us, "I Jo." As if we didn't know.

She is still very anal and likes all her things "just so". She likes the leather love seat empty so she can play "night night" on it. Yesterday, I put my jacket on the love seat and the first thing she did when she saw it was to throw it off the love seat. She does not like other people's things on her stuff. She will also "hide" her pacifier in the morning - she puts it in between her bed and the wall - I guess so no one else will take it, but who knows? She likes to put on coats, and always wants them zipped up! (Even if she's inside and she's already warm!) We have to hide a lot of things from her now because she will become obsessed. Shoes, coats, pacifiers, etc. all have to be hidden or else she will want them on!

She only wants to sit in big people chairs now - she does not want to sit in baby chairs. A lot of the time, she doesn't want you sitting on the same furniture. About the only time she'll share the couch with me is if she's pretending to go "night night" and I pretend with her. Otherwise, she thinks the couch should be all hers.

If there is a big person spoon and her spoon, she will use the big person spoon all the time! She's decided that she's old enough. :) She's starting to show interest in the potty as well. It's fine that mommy and daddy use it, and she'll sit on her little potty, but only as a seat - not as a potty. She will not sit down and try to use it. She does NOT like that. Haha. The other day, she was sitting on her potty reading one of her books. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

As the title of the post says, we're ending one thing and starting another. Chip and I have had a really difficult year this year. (Well, we've had difficult YEARS, but I think we're finally over being gluttons for punishment...) Anyway, we have told our higher ups that we will not be coming back next year. That was a weight lifted off of our shoulders. The night we sat down and decided, we really did have a celebration at the Frazier household. We are very happy we will not be returning, but it is hard to get up each day and love what you do when you know you won't be back. We are doing the best we can.

We will be moving to Tupelo - so we had to put our house on the market. That is surreal. It's very odd to see your house on the internet, with pictures and all that stuff too! We hope we will sell quickly and be able to purchase in Tupelo soon. We have patience and some wonderful people helping us.

I am so thankful for my family and the fact that they are able to have me come and work for them. I am looking forward to this career change and I know that Chip is also looking forward to what's ahead. I'm asking everyone to keep us in your thoughts/prayers. This year has been very difficult and we have about 13 weeks left. We appreciate everyone's support this year - a lot of you have been behind us and very kind and helpful even when you did not know what was going on. Some of you still do not know the full extent of what we go through/have gone through, but you still have been there for us. For that we are very grateful.

As I said before, we are REALLY looking forward to the future. We're just ready for the future to be the PRESENT! :)

Christmas Break (so far...)

It might be easier to describe our Christmas break going day by day, but I'm not sure I can even do that! It's been a very busy Christmas break. We are very lucky that we both have jobs that give us a few weeks off during this time of year. It has given us the ability to do a lot and see ALL our family during this holiday.

We got out of school on Friday and we had a relaxing night at home - our last for while. On Saturday (Dec. 18th), we woke up early-ish (we were on the road by 8) and drove to Meridian, where we picked up Chip's dad's truck and his brother-in-law's trailer. We drove down to Baton Rouge. My sister is going to be living in HONG KONG for 3 years and was moving out of their home in Baton Rouge. We are going to be storing a lot of their stuff here in Starkville while they're out of the country.

This was the first time Jo was really able to "play" with her cousin Mary. Mary is a year and a half older than Jo and Jo's always been too little to really enjoy doing stuff with her cousins. They did lots of really cute things the two days we were down there. SOME of them I got on camera...

Here they are "sharing" the laptop - I think they were watching an episode of Super Why. Thank GOODNESS for Netflix. It was a chore to move stuff with two little ones underfoot, but the TV always stopped them in their tracks and kept their attention. We had a lot of discussion about "sharing" the TV - neither of them really wanted to (both being only children), but they did OK. It was funny for them to slowly ease their way in front of the computer and completely in the way of the other one. We thought it was cute - they did NOT.

Uncle Chip was MOST POPULAR among the children. He got to be the jungle gym and play toy for both of him. He was EXHAUSTED when we left, but he had a good time with the kids.

Here's Mary on the first day we were there. She was trying to interact with Jo like Jo was a fellow 3 year old. Jo had no idea what Mary was doing, but she was interested.

Mary told Jo, "Show me your silly face. Here - put your fingers in your mouth and stick out your tongue. This is your silly face. Look!"

We brought a lot of Elizabeth's stuff back to Starkville and the next day packed up the trailer with a table and chair set that is now at Max and Leigh's. We left Jo with our good friend Brittany (Aunt BEE BEE, as Jo calls her) who is expecting their first child in September! We had a nice, relaxing 25 minute lunch break at Chic-Fil-A (YUM.) and we were back on the road.

The NEXT day Elizabeth and Mary came up to spend the night with us and drop off some more things for us and to store. Elizabeth and I got up on Christmas Eve and made cookies. It's a family tradition to make cut out cookies and desserts for Christmas - something that my mother has always had us do. Whether we really want to or not, it's just not Christmas without a lot of baking. (Mmm... one thing that we did NOT do this Christmas was sausage balls.... I thought of that later, but it will definitely be on my list next year.)

Elizabeth went on up to Tupelo on the 24th and we stayed in Starkville. We went over to Brittany and Jim's house to help them install their Christmas present to each other (a 55" flat screen TV). Jim made a steak dinner - it was excellent!

On Christmas morning we woke up to find that it was SNOWING! We had a WHITE CHRISTMAS in MISSISSIPPI! The roads were fine though and so we had no problems traveling to Tupelo for the Prince family Christmas. If it has to snow (I'm not really one for winter...) that's the kind I like - it's pretty and doesn't make travel dangerous.

We had a great time at Papa John's house for Christmas. Jo was spoiled beyond belief this Christmas. I don't know if she knew what all was going on, but she liked it. Winnie had a great spread of food - pork tenderloin, ham, croissants, salami, cheese, chips, dips, desserts, and apple cider. Yum. (I can surely say we did NOT starve this Christmas!)

Jo got to play all day with all her cousins - Emily and Annie (who are both 16 months older), Mary (18 months older), and Lilly Grace (who turned 6 in October). Lilly Grace is such a sweet child and has a very gentle demeanor. She loves little children and is especially excited to see her cousin, "Baby Jo." Jo's cousins WORE HER OUT! She had a great time though.

On Sunday (Dec. 26th) we got up and had a good morning with Papa and Winnie and then hit the road. Again. We arrived in Meridian at lunch time and spent Christmas with the Frazier side of the family. Chip does not have a lot of surviving older relatives on his dad's side, but his Aunt Jessie has always hosted the family for the holiday events and we get to see all of Chip's cousins and Jo's second cousins. They showered Josephine with gifts - and she was so thrilled to be there!

AFTER lunch, we went to Chip's home and celebrated with his mom, step-dad, sister, grandmother, brother-in-law, nephew, aunt, and uncle. We had a great afternoon/evening talking. It was very relaxed and was good to have that relaxed atmosphere after so much traveling. I have to put this on the blog, because I'm still thinking about it days later, but Chip's mother had the most AWESOME dish which I ate for dinner AND lunch the next day. It was a white chili. Oh my goodness - it was fabulous. Josephine also thought so and probably could have eaten her weight in it if either Chip or I had let her.

On the 27th - it was finally time to go home. FOR GOOD! We first had to make a stop. I have long wanted Chip and I to go visit the cemetery where his dad is buried. (If you don't already know - I really LOVE cemeteries... I know, it's probably unusual, but I love all the history of the grave markers and the incriptions on them. It's a very moving display of love for those who have passed on before and it's heartening to know that people will remember you when you are gone - even complete strangers passing by in the cemetery.) Anyway - we took Jo and wandered around for a while before we finally found what we were looking for. We got a few pictures and this one was SO cute - Jo sat straight down and smiled for the camera!

We told Jo that it was her daddy's daddy and why we were there and showed her the grave marker. The sweetest thing happened when we left. As we were walking away, Jo turned around, waved, and said "bye bye." Isn't that so sweet?

----------------------------

Ok, that's enough with the stories of the travel! We've been home now for a few days and we got to visit yesterday for a while with Chip's best friend Matt, his wife, and their 5 year old. That was great. They live in Kansas and we hardly ever get to see them, except for when they come home for holidays. They are trying to move back to Mississippi - please pray for Matt and that he might find a job that is closer! He's been looking for a while for something that is both close and that he will be happy with. We know he'll find it, it's just a matter of something opening up!

Tonight we are going to the Starkville Country Club for their New Years Eve party. Nana and Lilly Grace are coming down to babysit Josephine. She will have a wonderful time, no doubt.

Ok, I know I haven't posted in a LONG time - is this enough information for ya?! Ha!

My 25th Birthday!

I had a wonderful birthday and I wanted to thank everyone for their kind thoughts on my birthday. Chip and Jo and I had a great weekend and Jo helped her Daddy celebrate my birthday by singing to me on Sunday morning. Chip was singing "Happy Birthday" and Jo was going "No... Daddy... No..." (She didn't want him to sing.)

Chip got me a phone for my birthday, my mom got me a Kindle, Elizabeth purchased me a book in a series I've been reading (and a GIANT box of Hot Tamales), Max and Leigh got me a gift card to Harvey's (which we used Saturday night), and my grandparents are always great to give money! Even with all these gifts, I think that the time I got to spend with my family and relax this weekend was appreciated just as much.

I can't believe I'm 25!!! And Chip's going to be 30 in May! Oh my goodness! :)