This Week

We had home group at our house this week, and I believe 4 kiddos were in attendance. Caleb and Joanna played soooooo well together in this car. They both climbed in and drove around. In there with them is Caleb's new polar bear which he kindly let Joanna hold some. Barely fitting in:
Since they were parked by the kitchen, Joanna had to stop and check on the baking in her kitchen. What a mulitasker!
We were thinking this was going to turn into Joanna's first black eye. Luckily, it stayed just a little cut. She sort of jumped into her headboard on the bed (under my supervision). I guess it could've been worse!
Yesterday we played with sidewalk chalk for the first time! You may think I held off for an awfully long time, but given Joanna's inclination to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, I think waiting was good. I only had to pull chalk out of her mouth a couple of times.
Isn't she so talented?
Who knows.
Check out all the chalk on her face. We had to have a mini-bath when we went inside.
Later that day: She looks like some kind of gangsta or something.
It finally happened. She climbed in the coffee table/toy box. I knew the day would come! She had a great time in there. I helped her out; I'm not sure if she could've made it out on her own or not.

Still more from the photo shoot

Some of these may have already gone up -- I'm not exactly keeping a list, and I didn't feel like going back through the blog and looking, so...

She just looks so cute. Funny face and shrugging shoulders
Smush face with the kitty
I'm dancing or something...
Patting the bear on the head
Tickling the bears feet!
Silly look

Weekend Project

This is what our front porch looked like back in April. Well, after some seriously hot weather and some seriously bad watering habits, it did not look so good. There were a few impatiens holding on to life, but mostly it was a mound of yuckiness. There were some mushrooms on steriods, a colonly or two of ants, and a plethora of weeds. We tossed the ferns some time ago. One thing I've been wanting to do with this area was to turn it in to a porch, nix the flower bed. Nothing grows there, and I'd like the space for Joanna to ride on her little toys (if we ever make it outside) or for Matt to sit and drink his coffee, or whatever. I decided that I really wanted the grody bed dug out THIS WEEKEND. I told Matt he could wait until it was cooler to lay pave stones, but I at least wanted a hole, ready and waiting. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here it is after a little bit of digging. You can see a few impatiens hanging on for dear life.
Matt's sister Mindy came over to help Saturday afternoon. That girl can work, let me tell you. Digging. After all the junk was dug out: This is what my goal was for the weekend. Well, before we even got started, Matt's mom and dad came over, and Matt's dad was like, "We can get this WHOLE PROJECT done today." Yea! I'm sure that's not exactly how everybody had planned to spend their weekend, but... Thank you!
So Mamma and Aunt Mindy stayed to entertain Joanna while Matt, Pop, and I headed to Lowe's for some pavers. The very nice guys at Lowe's had to get the fork-lift out to get us what we needed. Thank you, Fork-lift guys!

They even put the stones we needed on a flat and into the back of the truck.
Back at the house, Aunt Mindy was teaching Joanna how to rake. Apparently, she loved it!

Look at her shadow:

Tamping down the dirt and leveling it out.
Queen of the pavers!
"Okay, guys, let's get to work now."
Our basic pattern:
Guess what? Matt's dad has a wet saw:

This was actually day two. Can you believe all these people came back? Mindy even brought Steve, her husband. MORE workers!

Leveling out the sand for under the pavers.
Joanna was outside for a bit, but I brought her in to try and "wind down" for a nap. She was pretty content to watch everybody work out the window. I'm sure she was a little distracting, but she's so cute!
Mostly layed out -- beautiful!
Pop cutting lots of stones.

This is what the inside looks like:
I don't look very sweaty, do I? I think Joanna was working harder than I was. I took on more of a supervisory role on this project.
The stones are all in -- almost done!
Mindy and Steve filling sand in all the cracks.
Joanna likes brooms as much as she likes rakes.

Tuckered out. This is what your face looks like after a couple of hours of using a wet saw to cut stone. Just FYI. :)
The finished product! Obviously we need a cute little table and chairs, maybe a little self-maintaining potted plant...
A close-up view.
Taking a little break on the porch after all her hard work!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you family for helping!!! I'm so impressed with everybody's work, and I think it looks FABULOUS. All I was expecting was a hole this weekend -- this is SO MUCH BETTER!

18 months!

Get this: Joanna is 18 months old! I know, I can hardly believe it myself. She's actually been 18 months since Friday, but we've been busy. I did take a few pictures on the actual day, but Blogger is having some issues, so you'll have to see them later. Here is something even more surprising/amazing/unbelievable than Joanna being 18 months old: she is ON THE GROWTH CHART. Yup, we had a well-visit (and shots!) today, and I thought the Dr. Harper's eyes were going to bug out of his head when her plotted her weight. He actually didn't think it was right at first. She made a HUGE jump in weight since 15 months. Trust me, I feel it in my arms! She did have a really big growth spurt at the beginning of the summer -- shoes, clothes, my arms -- they let me know. It was really big to see it on the chart, though. She was padding along at a steady rate, then BOOM! huge spurt. And she's not just barely on the chart; she's really on the chart. I should've taken a picture -- did not occur to me at the time. We had to break the news to Dr. Harper that we're on Blue Cross Blue Sheild so we will have to leave him in March. He was sad. I mean, wouldn't you be? Luckily, the timing will allow us to get in to see him for Joanna's 2 year check-up as well as all of New Baby's new baby stuff. So here's what I'm praying for in regards to all of that:

1. That BCBS will be nice and work with TX Children's Pediatrics Associates so they will continue to carry our insurance. Or,

2. That Matt's work will see our distress (and the distress of many others in our situation) and offer another insurance carrier for us to choose from. Or,

3. That we will find another fabulous pediatrician in our area NOT affiliated with TX Children's Pediatric Associates.

Unfortunately, Matt's company is based out of California so I don't think they're actually going to care about the few people over here having this issue.

I've rambled far more than I intended to, and I still have another post to work on!

Yea! Blogger worked out it's issue, so here are our lovely 18 month photo shoot pictures. Joanna wasn't exactly being agreeable to sitting and posing.

Aerobics, anyone?Awwww, kissing the Cow.

Being silly with Daddy.