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!

Spring is Here!!

**Just a warning before I get started... We FINALLY bought a new camera a couple of weeks ago and I'm soooo excited (and picture happy!) Lots and lots of pics taken the past couple of weeks as I play with my new "toy" and discover all of it's features!

We got together with some good friends last weekend to let the kids play, cookout and dye some Easter eggs! How fun! ( My blog is acting up right now and won't let me download more than 5 pics on this post, but I'll post more pics in another post. )

Serious about dyeing eggs :)

Josie actually did dye and decorate one egg, but then she became distracted by the stickers on the table (imagine that!) and all of the outside toys at Thomas's house!

We were so glad that cousin Addison was there! These two had a blast together!

Look at those red cheeks! Josie was running all over the place! Again, I am reminded how much I want to get busy making our backyard more "kid-friendly" for the summer! Josie begs to be outside all of the time!

First Pigtails!

It's official..... Josie wore her hair in pigtails yesterday for the first time!!! We were playing on the floor (and watching Elmo, of course) and she wanted me to brush her hair. I then got the bright idea to try pig tails. I didn't do a great job at it... I was just trying to get a general idea for how they would look and I was surprised to see how cute the new 'do turned out! Josie kept staring in the mirror.....

She got VERY excited and started jumping up and down while screaming, "PIGTAILS!!!"

Speaking of hair and accessories, we had a bit of a "mini crisis" pertaining to hair accessories a few weeks ago at day care. After naptime, the teacher went to wake Josie up and realized that her hand was extremely swollen and a little discolored. Well..................... Come to find out, Josie had taken the itty bitty rubberband out of her hair and put it on her wrist!!!

(sad to say that she obviously sees that I wear a pony tail holder on my wrist a lot) It was soooo scary! She had a deep line on her wrist for a few days and she wouldn't let us look at her hand for days :( Poor baby! This poor kid has had a rough start to life.... She had a tiny string from her newborn gown get tied around her little toe when she was 3 months old. The toe turned really black, but it ended up being fine!

Warmer Weather.... Not For Long

We had some GORGEOUS weather a few weeks ago... too bad it didnt' stick around!

Josie lined up all of her "friends" on the Sunroom steps to read them a book. She's starting to "role play" some... she prefers to be the teacher (I wonder where she gets that from... both grandmothers were teachers!). She will pick up a book and tell her class to "listen!"

Helping Daddy in the yard...

We decided to cook out later that night and sit out on the patio to eat. Josie thought it was fun! (although you could never tell by the look on her face! ha!)

So, this is a look that is pretty common around our house these days :)

Josie has discovered her "bossy" side!

And, she's pretty funny, too!

Catching Up!

I took a little break from the blogging world for a couple of weeks! We have all been trying to adjust to our new schedule (or lack of!)the past couple of weeks since I started my new job. We have done a little bit of juggling in an effort to make it all work!

We have still been working on potty training.....

and rewarding with M&M's when she goes potty......

We are still having LOTS of fun around our house and plenty of silly time with this funny girl.....

I had to share this picture. It's one of the last times that I will put Josie in a bubble/romper (all of those snaps do NOT work with potty training!). So, I had to take a picture of this sweet girl....

I think she looks like such a little bitty girl in that outfit...... Who can resist loving this sweet face?!?!

Silly Josie after church today in Daddy's shoes....

Somebody LOVES her daddy :)

Feeding the ducks at the park today....

All in all, we are doing great! We really have all had our own little "kinks" to work out with me now working full time. I feel for Josh as he's trying to take on all of the work at the restaurant. I'm having moments of guilt for being away from Josie a lot more and not being able to help Josh when I know he needs it. Josie is going through a "clingy" stage with me, which I think is just part of me not being around as much :( These are all things we are working through and trying to find the best routine and balance possible. I am enjoying my new job. I am still training and have no idea when I will have my own territory. I just received my first real paycheck for the first time in almost 3 years! That's a nice feeling :) We are enjoying the extra (and steady) income and INSURANCE!!! :) :) :)

We are also loving this Spring weather! I hope it's here to stay! We are looking forward to working on our backyard and making it a fun place for Josie to play this summer. We never really got around to that last year like we wanted to. I see some fun "outside toy shopping" in our new future :)