Happy Easter!

The Easter bunny came to see Josie!!

Josie had been asking for the Lion King DVD for weeks. So, we kept telling her to ask the Easter bunny. Well... I guess he got the message :) He also brought her a swimsuit, coloring book, stickers, candy, silly string, sunglasses, sidewalk chalk and crayons.

We went to church this morning. My parents and grandmother were there, as well.

It was a beautiful service!

The church was full of Easter lillies that church members had purchased in honor or memory of loved ones. We had one in memory of Josh's dad. We were able to bring it home and look forward to enjoying it in the days to come.

After church, we went to my parents' house for lunch with my family.

Can you believe that the Easter bunny left something for Josie at their house, too?!!?

Obviously, the Easter bunny hasn't heard about Josie's terrible two fits lately!!! :)

Four generations

Popee, Nonni & Josie

Nonni made Josie an Easter bunny cake!

We have really enjoyed time with our family this weekend.

It's been a gorgeous Easter weekend!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

John 3:16

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Easter Eve"

We started our family Easter festivities on Saturday night with Josh's family.

Grandmommy and JJ had quite a night planned for Josie and Addison!

Our Easter celebration was full of the girls' fave things....

Hot dogs, cheetos, chips & rotel, candy, Easter basket goodies and adorable cupcakes!

Sweet cousins :)

Fun times in the yard!

The girls loved the Easter Egg Hunt!

Who knows what these two are talking about!

Josie was covered in green icing from her Easter cupcake when we got home!!

We hurried to get ready for bed so that the Easter bunny could come :)

Safari Park

We went on a safari this morning..... In Alamo, TN :)

We have been wanting to take Josie to the Safari Park in Alamo for quite some time. The beginning part of the park is really neat. You can ride through a trail that has all kinds of animals walking around and the best part is that you can feed them from the car!

The animals walk right up to your car and eat out of buckets of food that you purchase.

Josie was not so sure about this part! We took our friend Hooper along for the ride, as well. He and Josie just watched the animals, but didn't want any part of feeding them! They didn't even want their windows down!


They had a lot more fun once we got out of the car and let them run around and play!

Petting Zoo!

I think we can mark this adventure off of our "to do list" and say "we have been there, done that !" It was a lot of fun to see them run around and point out the animals that they knew!

Cake Pop Disaster

So.... I thought I had a great idea. I had seen a great recipe on another blog for "cake pops." They looked like the perfect Friday night project for me and Josie. I thought we could make them for our friends and family for Easter. I bought all of the ingredients and was very excited to share the fun with Josie! The general idea is to mix cake and frosting, roll into balls, put onto sticks, refrigerate, dip into melted chocolate and decorate.

Sounds pretty simple, huh?!?! Yea, that's what I thought....

Well, fun was definitely had by all :)

Ha!

We shared lots of laughs....

lots of "sugar"...

LOTS of messes....

And... I learned lots of lessons! I'm not sure that giving food coloring and a bottle of sprinkles to a 2 year old was very smart....

Our "Cake Pops Project" turned into more of an art project and a MAJOR clean up session for me after bath and bedtime. Our cake pops did NOT turn out, but we had a blast and made some fun memories!

Easter Egg Hunt #2

Thursday was a fun day for Josie! She actually had an Easter Egg Hunt at school that morning, but I wasn't there and didn't get any pictures. I heard they had a blast!

On Thursday afternoon, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at the retirement center where my grandmother lives. We also took Hooper along with us for the fun. Hooper's parents were just getting home that afternoon from the hospital. Hooper has a PRECIOUS new little brother, Harrison.

Josie, Oaklee, Tanner and Hooper

This picture cracks me up! You just had to be there for this one.... Hooper and Josie were VERY anxious for the Easter bunny to LEAVE!!! They were both watching as the Easter bunny made his exit!

These two sweet kiddos were having quite a conversation as they both chowed down on the candy from their eggs!

sweet Josie

Mott-Mott & Josie

I was so bummed that the glare in this picture was awful. So, I did a little editing with my new camera and it just looks the best as "sepia." I 'm going to work on it some more.... As you can see, I still have a lot of learning to do with my new "toy!"

More Spring Pictures

silly girl!

Josie loves to paint these days. However, we had to have a talk about NOT putting the paintbrush in her mouth (notice the blue teeth).

HAPPY SPRING, Y'ALL!!!

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Josie had a blast at the Easter Egg Hunt at our church!!

A wild 2 year old + Bright Sun = we will try for a family pic again later :)

Hooper & Josie... best buds!

More Cooking Adventures and Josie Update

I haven't blogged much lately, but not a lot has changed around here... Josie STILL loves to help me cook in the kitchen. In Josie's "world", everything that goes into the oven is a cake! If she sees me mixing up something or cooking, she will run in there and say " I help you!" and she pulls up her kitchen chair and climbs up to be my assistant.

Josie's little personality is becoming quite hilarious! I wish I would stop to write down every little funny thing that she says. She cracks us up everyday! Josh and I are constantly talking at night about the funny things Josie said to us during the day. I can't even imagine how life could have been any fun before she was born! We watch Elmo at our house NON-STOP. I'm not exaggerating... NON- STOP. Josie wakes up in the morning asking for Elmo (the Barney days are over!) When Elmo and friends sing "Hey Diddle Diddle...", Josie will scream "OUR SONG!!" That's our cue to come to the den, all hold hands and dance and sing to Elmo! She LOVES it (and we secretly love it, too!)

At 27 months, we are still working on potty training. She really started out really "gung-ho", but not so much these days. I'm really fine with that. The potty still stays in the den and she will randomly run to use it but certainly not consistently. She still wants "MM's" (not M&M's) when she does got potty, but even that excitement has worn off a bit for her. I know that she will do it when she's ready. I have found lately that she is more likely to use the potty at home if we will just let her run around with no diaper or pull up on. Hey, whatever works :)

For my own record, I want to remember....

Josie is still wearing a size 5 shoe (but I'm buying size 6 for summer) & size 2t in clothing.

Fave foods: Pancakes (would eat them breakfast, lunch and dinner if I would let her!), bananas, turkey, chicken nuggets yogurt (particularly Dora yogurt), cheese (but no longer cheese cubes... only shredded cheese!), and anything sweet! She's been more interested lately in kid's meals when we go places... hamburgers, fries, chicken nuggets, etc.. We try our very best to only let her drink water and milk, but I know that they are giving her juice at daycare.

As of now, we have a very independent young lady on our hands. Josie is very shy in new situations and will take a little while to warm up (gets that from me... I hope she will outgrow it!). She loves to dance, sing, dress up, but can also hang with the best of them outside playing in the dirt! She's also a very sensitive little gal and will cry if you even look at her wrong. Poor thing! I can already tell that she has a heart of gold and is so kind to others. She is very nurturing to younger kids. She also has very good manners (most of the time). Josie is a daddy's girl and has him wrapped around her little finger. I love seeing her personality develop. I'm pretty proud of our sweet girl!

Dyeing Easter Eggs and More!

More pics of our get together with friends....

Future farmer on our hands???

Josie, you better get busy.... Robert and Sharon have LOTS of grass to mow!

Lovin' the outdoor playset!