So much to Blog, so little time...

Okay, so I feel there's a lot to catch up on, so be prepared for a lot of pictures and depending on how much time I have, a lot of writing. First up,

Galveston!

We took soooo many pictures; here is just a small sampling:

Joanna and Daddy on the deck of the house we stayed in.

Mamma and Pop with all their kiddos. Awwwww. From left: Uncle Mark, Mamma, Pop, Uncle Mike, Aunt Mindy, Aunt Missy, Daddy Pretty. This bridge thing took us from the house to the beach without having to crawl through the brushy stuff.
It was cold on Saturday. I did not come prepared for cold.
Brrrr..... Matt's nephew Josh with his son Brendan, 18mos. So cute!
Joanna and Mommy
Joanna and Daddy on Sunday, which was nice and warm. We got Joanna all decked out in her swimsuit and cover-up. Of course, the water was a little chilly for us to actually let her get in :)
Feet in the sand for the first time.
Mommy and Joanna collecting pretty shell pieces. All tuckered out. She actually fell asleep on the short walk back from the beach and stayed asleep for over an hour!
Isn't this swimsuit adorable?! Look closely, what do you see?
There are actually 3 generations in this photo. Matt and his nephew Josh with their kiddos. Brendan and Joanna are first cousins once removed because Joanna and Josh are first cousins.
This was when we were about to head out on Sunday evening. We got Joanna all ready for bed so she could sleep on the way home. Do you see the giraffe PJs? I love how she's looking out the door at Brendan. There was a deck out there with like 87 steep steps, so that's why she wasn't allowed out there. She's too fast and unpredictable, and she doesn't know how to go down stairs yet.

Our next adventure of the week was taking care of Anna while her little sister was born. The girls are a little over 5 months apart, and they play pretty well together. There are of course the occasional disputes of the toddler property law, but mostly they are very sweet. I decided to stroll the girls to the park on Tuesday, which they very much enjoyed. I don't think I heard a peep out of either the whole trip; they loved the walk. We stopped at the gazebo for a photo op -- look how they're holding hands! Such sweet girls! I couldn't really aim the camera here because I was holding on to the children. I was pretty sure Anna could stay on on her own, but I knew Joanna couldn't, and I was also thinking they might just up and push each other off. We also swung (swang? swinged?) for a while which they loved, and I got to work on my arm muscles.
Next up are random pictures of the exciting developments of Joanna's new life as a non-baby-not-yet-toddler.

This is kind of disgusting, but what can you do. I forget what she was eating here, but her mouth is completely jammed full and she's trying to wash it down with milk. She was a mess after this meal.

This was just this weekend. See the tiny toes?!This is at Matt's brother's house, but we have a similar fireplace which is why I'm worried. If you can't tell in the picture, she has climbed UP onto the fireplace (a foot or so step). I'm now looking for ideas on blocking the firebox once she gets up there. We have stuff (pillows, keyboard) on our hearth, and so far it hasn't occured to her to climb up, but I know it won't be long. :(And her she is IN the basket of toys. That's how to play. And now for our most recent big girl change. Here is Joanna after her final ride in the infant seat. She's officially too long for it, but she's still not heavy enough to forward face in a big carseat.
So here she is rear-facing in the convertable seat. Pretty cushy, huh Joanna? She doesn't seem to mind/notice the change.
But later that night: "Just one more ride, mom?"

Joanna's been sick this week. Yuck, but I was expecting it after the weaning :( Poor Joanna. She had a cold last week, then a couple of days of seeming healthy, then on Wednesday she got a fever which she hung on to until Saturday. It was her only symptom, besides the extreme (even for her) crankiness. I took her to the doctor (her first sick visit!) on Thursday and of course he couldn't find anything wrong with her. Her ears looked good (yea!) and the strep test came back negative, so he thought it could just be a little virus. Who knows. We kept her on Tylenol and just babied her as much as we could. We saw a different doctor for the first time; ours was on vacation. Vacation?! While Joanna is sick? I can't believe it! Oh, well. This doctor was very nice, too. Here's the unbelieveable (to me) part: she weighed in at 18lb 1oz! Oh my goodness! That's a gain of almost two pounds in less than a month! She's never gained weight like that -- wow!

Up until last week, Joanna had perfect attendance at school. She has now missed TWO weeks in a row! I'm going crazy! It is too hard to work without MDO! And my house hasn't been vacuumed in FOREVER! I took her up to the church on Thursday because I still had to work, and because it was picture day, which she was NOT going to miss. Unfortunately, she couldn't take a picture with her class, but she got her individual one done. I LOVED the photographer. She was young, high energy, and great with the kids. She also took like a million pictures, so I know we'll get a great one!

Our most recent big event was a really big one. Like 40 kind of big, you know.

Matt's birthday!!

The reason this sign looks like it's being reused is because it is. It was out at the beach for Matt's parents. The funny thing is that Matt's mom and dad are Monte and Joann, but this sign originally said Monte and Jordan. We hung it anyway 'cause we thought it was funny. I made a button for Matt to wear on Friday -- don't you love it? Anybody else see Joanna on that little face?
Friday we partied at Aunt Mindy's house; Saturday we partied at Uncle Mark's house. Here is just ONE of Matt's cakes:
After blowing out the candles. I guess he was glad he had the energy.
Awww.... Doesn't look 40, does he?
I love this. Matt's mom always writes all kinds of birth info on her kids' birthday cards. Matt's Uncle Dick and Aunt Charlotte were also in town this weekend. Joanna and I had never met them.
Just ignore the crying baby. Pretend she's smiling instead. Joanna with Uncle Mark and Aunt Allison.

We've been so busy but had so much fun! Joanna APPEARS to be back to normal health-wise, but we'll see. There are all kinds of illnesses she hasn't had yet.

If you're reading this, don't forget to post a comment and let me know what's going on with you. I LIVE for comments!

Excitement!

Our friends Lisa and Tony have been expecting another baby girl, and she got here this morning! Emma Ruth was born at 6:07am weighing 6lb 6oz and measuring 20in long. The plan was for us to watch their daughter Anna while they go do the baby thing, so I got a call this morning at 2:48am. My immediate response when the phone rings while I am asleep is to reach over and silence it. I looked at it (still dreaming a little) and figured out I should probably answer it. By the time that message got to my hand, it had gone to voicemail. So then a spent a minute trying to figure out how to listen to voicemails in my sleep stupor. Luckily Lisa called right back and said "Hey Jessica, my water's breaking..." I hopped in the car to gather up Anna and her things, leaving Matt to set up the port-a-crib. When I got there (they live really close by) Lisa seemed to be doing great. She was gathering a few things together while Tony rushed around getting Anna's clothes, shoes, diapers... Miss Emma was about 4 weeks early (!) so they weren't ready for this early morning surprise (are we really ever, though?). I grabbed Anna and her bag and headed back to my house. After a few minutes of snuggling, Anna was ready to lay back down for the night. She is so sweet! And she went right down. I, however, could not sleep. I think I was hyped up on adrenaline. Luckily the girls slept until about 7:30ish, so I did get some rest. I had planned to take Joanna with me to staff calendering over at one of our staff members houses this morning, as I still needed to gather my bulletin information for the week. I decided I would go ahead and take both girls. We actually managed to get dressed, eat breakfast, and make it to the meeting at about 8:30. Wow. Hopefully we weren't too much of a distraction. Most of the staff is pretty easy-going! I just stayed long enough to get my information from everybody before we headed home about 10:30. The girls were sooooooo good, especially Anna. Joanna's still a little rotten. (Yes, that's right!) We had such a busy weekend and she just got over a cold that she spent all of yesterday glued to my hip (when she wasn't trying to actually burrow into me.) Today is much better; I think Joanna likes the distraction. I will blog more about our fabulous weekend and other exciting things later. For now, both girls are asleep (!!!), so I'm going to have lunch and SIT DOWN!

Oh, and I keep forgetting to post this, but Joanna is officially weaned. I didn't know it at the time, but Saturday, March 29th at 4:00am was the last time she nursed. We had some rough patches a couple of days after she quit, but mostly things have gone smoothly. I can really tell she's tired when she wants to nurse. Most of the time she's happy drinking her Milk of a Cow, and she's drinking better from her cups all the time. I definitely miss nursing, I've been tempted to forget we quit a couple of times, but I know this transition is good for us. We're enjoying finding other ways to bond.

Busy Week!

I've been trying to post for a few days, hopefully Joanna will nap enough for me to finish! I expect this will be a long post -- beware! Last Monday when Nana and Popo were in town, Popo cooked for us (the first of many times that week!). Here we are in the kitchen making Hoppin' John (or Hoppin' Phil after my dad altered it a bit). It's this fabulous dish we served with cornbread. I'll probably make it again, but it won't be as good. Dad brought a bunch of his own canned stuff to use in it; I'll have to buy stuff at the store.

The last time Dad and Renee were here, Joanna was almost 3 months old and she was still pretty uninterested in anybody holding her except me. Now, she's was as happy as could be with Nana and Popo. She has this new thing we call "the fake out" where she holds her arms out to you and lets you get really close before she pulls back and won't let you get her. It's a game, of course. Mommy very rarely gets the fake out, but everyone else has had their share.

These next several pictures are from our trip to Old Town Spring last Tuesday. We had a great time! Joanna fell asleep in about the last 5 seconds of the trip down there, but she stayed asleep in the carrier that we put on the stroller for a good 20 minutes or so. After she woke up:

Joanna and Popo
Renee was the photographer, so there aren't very many pics of her!
We ate at Puffabelly's for Lunch -- yum!
...24 hours later, and I'm finally getting back to posting...

I found this handy little travel kit at the baby store that has a cup, fork, spoon, bib, and sticky placemat -- all disposable. Very nice for traveling and eating out.

I love this stoller! Sure it's bulky, but it lays flat -- perfect for diaper changes on the go!
A fun butterfly bench. ...and again a break...7 hours later... Joanna's gone down for the night; I really should be able to finish now!

We managed to get the stoller up the stairs and into a store -- Joanna's first antiqueing adventure! Trying on Popo's hat... a little big, but sure cute.I just thought this was cute -- much better than an orange cone.Nana and Popo, taking a rest.We stayed in Spring a little while longer after lunch, long enough to lose the giraffe (yes, you read that correctly). Luckily, I was in a little baby boutique store that sold similar items, so it made me realize we had lost it. We split up and retraced our steps and found giraffe, (!!) seemingly unharmed in the middle of a driveway. Yea!

We drove home while Joanna had a nap. I was soooo pooped when we got home, but she didn't want to take another nap, so I didn't get to. :(
Joanna and I were outside enjoying nature when Nana and Popo drove up on Wednesday. Aren't we cute?
Flying.
On Thursday afternoon, we headed to Nana and Popo's hotel for some swimming at the indoor pool. Yes, this is Joanna's swimsuit from last summer. (Although, side note, I just picked up a new suit this afternoon -- guess what it has on it? Giraffes!)
It's hard to see in the small picture, but her eyes are huge here -- she just looks so silly!

Joanna had a blast! She loooovvveeed being in the water. Frankly, I was cold. The water temp was okay, but I think the room was air conditioned, brrrrr.

A totally unrelated event (and baby!). This is Joanna's friend Abby riding on her daddy's shoulders after church on Sunday. I took the picture because it looked like she was just about to fall asleep up there. If you look closely, you'll see that Miss Abby is wearing the same little strawberry outfit that Joanna has -- so cute!

Finally some Easter pics!

And others, too. First up: Joanna crawling around in some grass. We played a little outside at our last play day at Anna's house. As you can see, there's a lovely blanket to sit on. Joanna wanted to feel the wet cold grass, I guess. Lisa, Anna, and Joanna. Joanna -- just stand up and walk! It will be so much fun!
On Saturday Matt and I dyed Easter eggs. We let Joanna watch until she got tired, then it was off to bed with her while we finished! Here she is enjoying an egg full of snacks while we work.
Oh, what a cute face!
Our finished products: 3 misc. eggs plus Zoe, Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, and Elmo. It was fun!
Our little family on Easter morning: Aren't we just the cutest?

After church a little "Easter bucket" for Joanna. I just wanted her to have a little book about the Easter story and a new little doll.
Giving the doll a sweet hug.

My dad and step-mom are in town this week and we are having lots of fun! We went to Old Town Spring today, and both Nana and I took lots of pictures. I will get them uploaded and tell you about our day later. I'm pooped!

100th Post!

I just noticed when I signed in to blogger that this is my 100th post -- I just think that's neat. Happy Easter everybody! Hope you are having fun with family. We stopped home after church for Joanna's lunch and to put miss super tired pants to bed. We'll head over to Uncle Mark's after she wakes up for some food and family time -- yea! We had a lovely morning at church -- Matt and I went to the 8:30 service and Joanna went to "Sunday School" (aka the nursery). They actually got her dressed and fed her breakfast for me -- what fabulous ladies! We loved the 8:30 service; Easter at 8:30 has two of my very favorite songs: "Was it a Morning Like This?" and "He's Alive." I only get to hear them once a year, but they both give me such good chill bumps. We took family pics and Joanna pics in front of the flower cross -- I will post them later when I'm not feeling so lazy. :)

I have to share this sweet story: I was in at the computer the other night (working on my endless Holy Week bulletins and screen programs!) and listening to Matt give Joanna a bath. This is what I heard: "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can. Put it in the oven... and somethin' somethin' somethin'... whatever." Then I heard a perfect rendition of "Eensy Weensy Spider," Joanna's favorite. Matt is so cute.

Also, he's really been working with Joanna on animal noises. We have a puzzle with cats and dogs on it. Today I pointed to the dog and said, "This is a dog, what does a dog say?" Joanna said "woof." Then I pointed to the cat and said, "This is a kitty cat, what does a kitty cat say?" Joanna said, "ow." (You know, like me-ow.) She's so smart! And so cute! I will post Easter pictures later!