Merry Christmas!

Before we get to the Christmas pics, here is a funny picture of Joanna -- 10 months old!!

I think she is tasting the wind. She LOVES the cold weather.

Last week Mamma and Pop got their track all set up and started loading the trains. Joanna likes watching them go around and around. She doesn't totally grasp the moving out of the way part, but she's bright; she'll get it soon enough.

Okay, so here's the basic run-down of our Christmas activites before you take a look at the pictures: Christmas Eve Matt, Joanna, and I went to the 5:00 service at church. We came home and put Joanna to bed and set up our train and tree in the living room, complete with presents and stockings. Christmas morning, I slept in (yea!) while Matt and Joanna hung out, then we opened presents and played in tissue paper and ribbon. After a while we eventually got out of our pajamas and headed to Uncle Mark's house for "lunner" and more presents! And tomorrow, we're headed to Aunt Mindy's for more dinner and even more presents!! Joanna isn't spoiled... really.

Mommy and Joanna by the tree. Joanna: "You lookin' at me?"

Daddy and Joanna in the Sanctuary at church.

Don't get me wrong, I love the candlelight part of the service, but I've always thought it a bit silly to have that much fire at 5:00, a service so full of children. But, as far as I know, there were no injuries!

Our Christmas morning set-up. I love it!

Here's a shot of the same part of our house last year on Christmas Day.

We had just closed on the house, and Christmas Eve was the first night we slept there (on a mattress in the living room!) I think it definitely looks "homey-er" this year!

Opening presents -- what a pro!

Two of Joanna's favorite gifts, a gold bow and a blue bow.

After the mass destruction of opening presents -- yea!!

Joanna and Aunt Missy

Joanna and Kurt

Joanna and Jenny (Joanna was exploring Jenny's stocking.)

I just think this one's cute:

After more present destruction!

Joanna's cousin Kurt got a Wii for Christmas, and everyone had a blast playing. Here are everybody's Mii's (players).

Joanna is the tiny one in the back!

We had such an incredible Christmas and were so blessed to get to spend time with family. Merry Christmas everyone!

Sweet Joanna, Baking, and The Children's Museum

Shopping!

We finally got around to getting a cart cover (thanks, Gran!), and it really makes our shopping trips very cushy for Joanna. She likes it.

Baking!

This year for Matt's co-workers and Joanna's teachers, I decided to bake them something for Christmas (that's right, I said bake)... from scratch. Here's what I came up with. Of course there's a chocolate theme, although the cookies actually have raisins in them!

Have a closer look:

Yummmmm.

Kitchen Fun!

We're discovering more finger foods lately. Joanna likes to feed herself and make a mess. A new favorite is shredded cheese -- yum!

I finally got around to clearing out a cabinet for Joanna to play in in the kitchen. She LOVES it! We've got empty plastic containers and stuff to play with in there -- very fun.

Play Group at the Children's Museum
Today for a change, we went to the children's museum with the little ones. Joanna's friends Abby, Anna, and Caleb were there with their mommies.

The kiddos before all the fun.

They have this fantastic room for little ones at the museum full of stairs, switches, balls, soft toys, music, and all kinds of other things. Joanna enjoyed it very much!

This picture is blurry, but I think it looks cool. She's pulling up on a little wall.

Sliding! Oh boy!

We played for a little while then had lunch, and got ready to go home.

The kiddos after all the fun.

Looking a little more dazed, now.

We took a picture of a choo-choo train for Daddy on our way out. We'll have to bring you back with us, Daddy!

The kiddos were all getting pretty tired, but we decided to walk on over to Herman Park for a few minutes -- it was such a beautiful day! Of course I had to take a picture of Joanna Rose by some roses.

Christmas stuff and other cute Joanna things

Joanna is so cute! Although this week she has been a little rotten. Sometimes it seemed like she was just bored, other times it seemed as though she might not be feeling a hundred percent. Of course, I could just be paranoid because all of Joanna's friends have been getting sick lately! She's also teething like a champ. She had the one on the bottom; now she's cut two on top. The first one she cut on top was the one to the right of the "middle" two teeth. Not the usual second tooth, but Joanna's special. :) She just cut the right middle tooth, so I'm sure getting all these teeth is not the most fun ever for her. I'm certainly more careful about where I put my fingers.

Joanna got her picture made with Santa last week at Christmas in the Park at Town Center. She did fine; she liked playing with Santa's fluffy beard. I think she was curious about all the fuss. Matt and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday, and Joanna fell asleep on the way there. She actually stayed asleep in her carseat for a bit while we shopped! Since Joanna was dressed in a cute red holiday-ish dress today, we tried to take a few pics by the Christmas tree. It's kind of like trying to get a really fast baby kitten to do what you want. I think a few came out pretty sweet, though. Tonight was "Advent Workshop" at the church. It's really intended for older kiddos. They're crafts and pizza and cookie decorating. We really had fun, though. I'm looking forward to enjoying it as Joanna gets older. I'm really impressed with Joanna's crafting. Here she is playing with part of the Nativity.

Here is she looking at her completed work -- Amazing!

Seriously, though, she's great at supervising. :)

Finally an update!

I've been meaning to post for days, but...

Anyway, Joanna's doctors appointments went great this week. On Monday she had an echocardiogram at Texas Children's and saw her cardiologist. Back in July, she'd had an EKG and a chest x-ray and met with her cardiologist. He diagnosed her with a tiny VSD (hole) between the ventricles of her heart, but she seemed fine and he saw no reason to worry. He ordered an ECHO and a follow-up. That was the reason for our trip on Monday. The ECHO confirmed what he had diagnosed, and now he wants to see her again when she's about 2 years old to check on her VSD (which may even close all by itself by then). We made it down there and parked in record time, and found again that everyone is SO NICE there! Joanna had her ECHO first. Now, she is a really good baby, especially when she's the center of attention, but she hates being on her back. As you can imagine, an ultrasound of the heart is a test where the patient is on her back. Matt and I held her down as best we could while the technician took the ultrasound. As Joanna got fussy and jiggly, she (the technician, whom I'm not sure I liked very much), started hinting that Joanna would need to come back and be sedated. I was definitely not having any of that, so I said, "um, I could nurse her, and she'll be really still." That's how I found myself leaning over the table, partially unclad, nursing my sweet baby in an exam room. It worked; she was really still, and they got all the images they needed.

Pictures of our Texas Children's Hospital Adventure:

Joanna and Mommy in the waiting room

Joanna and Daddy checking out the view from the 20th floor

Joanna having a chest x-ray. It's kind-of blurry, but look closely and you'll see the tech holding Joanna's cheeks up. She did so good, and got lots of compliments!

I think Matt needs a purple apron for Christmas -- definitely his color!

We ate in the food court after the visit. Matt and I had pizza. Joanna had broccoli or squash or something.

On our way out, Joanna got to have her picture made with a wooden giraffe. Almost as good as Santa. :)

And, of course we had to stop at A Woman's Work on the way home. I need to remember to take a picture of Joanna's new GIRAFFE shoes!

On Tuesday, Joanna had her 9 month well-baby visit. She was pronounced practically perfect (I think his exact words were clean bill of health, but I'm sure he meant perfect). She's still off the bottom of the chart for weight, but she is gaining, so she's fine. She is 26 inches long/tall, and a whopping 14 pounds. Whew. For those of you who care, she's wearing 3-6month clothes and size 2 diapers. She can wear some of her 6-9 month stuff: the length is great, but her tiny butt can't hold up the pants. I have actually started buying her a few clothes, not because she's necessarily lacking, but because I'm starting to feel a little tired of the things she's been wearing since like May.

This is getting to be a really long post, but I think I'm almost finished! Last night, we had the Women's Christmas Tea at the church, and I was invited to sit at my friend Kim's table. It was so beautiful! I got to drink wassail, sing Christmas songs, and feast on fudge and this incredibly delicious honey apple bread pudding thing. Yum! Here's my side of the table:

Also we had play group today, and it was Joanna and the big boys (sounds like a rock band, right?) She had fun watching them play and scootching around. She also enjoyed looking out the window, which she could reach.

Thanksgiving, 9 months old, and heart stuff

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year. For my family (and many others, I'm sure), it has always been our big get together day. People drive and fly in from all around to eat and eat and eat with family. Matt and I are very lucky that we both have lots of close family close by. We got to eat two turkey dinners on Thanksgiving plus a couple more days of pigging out. I actually made a couple of casseroles and a dessert this year which is my official first contribution to a Thanksgiving dinner. Yea me. Joanna was absolutely fabulous as we carted her around town and made her eat in her carseat (not in the car) and sleep in strange places. Here are some Thanksgiving fun pictures:

Yes, Joanna watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And she liked it.Joanna with Mamma and cousin Kurt playing at Uncle Mark's house.

My Uncle John, Matt, and Joanna at my Grandma's house.Family picture in front of Great Grandma's treeWe also put up our Christmas trees and other holiday stuff this weekend. I got to thinking that this is really the first Christmas I've gotten to decorate. The past two years we've moved days before Christmas, and before that I've lived in a bedroom or a dorm room. It was very fun to get out ALL our ornaments, put lights on a tree, and set up the train. I love Christmas!
Getting Christmas decorations out: Joanna is so helpful!

Not my idea, but pretty cute: Joanna got one of her Christmas presents early so she can play with it in the season. I saw this Little People Nativity set, and I couldn't resist! So far she has enjoyed chewing on the animals and waving baby Jesus around.

My sister and her boyfriend drove down from Oklahoma late Wednesday night and headed back today. Here they are after church with sweet Joanna.
Here are some other cute pictures from recently:
Joanna's first school picture! Eating Cheerios and puffs -- yum! Helping "fold" laundry. Tomorrow we will head back to Texas Children's for an Echocardiogram and a check-up for her little murmur. She also has her 9 month check up on Tuesday, so I'll update here in the next couple of days with all her stats. Keep us in your prayers tomorrow. I'm eager to hear from her heart doctor, but anxious because it will be a hectic morning, I'm sure!