Can you believe this?!

Yesterday morning I put on capri pants, sandals, and a t-shirt to go to work. Not super dressy, but comfy -- I was warm!

In the afternoon yesterday (maybe 4 ish?) Joanna and I headed out to check the mail and take a little walk up the street. It was amazing because we actually felt the cold front come in. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped considerably. It was very cool to witness.

Joanna had a fever again this afternoon :( but was mostly feeling good today. After nap she really wanted to go outside, so I got her all bundled up. I didn't really realize it was sleeting outside at the time -- I was a little concerned about my little sick child being outside in the cold and wet. We went ahead and took a little ride around the cul-du-sac and checked the mail. Doesn't she look happy!
She was sooooo sad to come inside. She kept saying, "outside, push" over and over again. She is such a winter girl!
Speaking of... It is really snowing outside... here, in Houston!! I cannot believe all the snow coming down. It's been snowing for HOURS! There is actually snow ON THE GROUND! I haven't seen anything like this since I was a child -- and I lived in Oklahoma!
I am loving it soooo much. I want it to last for days. I don't think I'm going to get that wish. Tonight Matt and I had a Christmas Party over at a BBQ place in Atascocita.
It snowed the whole time we were inside -- we got to watch it come down through the windows. I had to break out the camera and take some pics before we headed home.
Here I am in front of our snowy car. All those little dots are snowflakes!
Yummy!
Matt and me.
My husband -- isn't he cute?! Look at the snow on the ground behind him!
A snowball in my hand:

On our way home, we drove by a friend's house. He has built "Christmasville" in his front yard. I had to have a picture of it all covered in snow!

Back at home, we took a few pics of the front of the house/yard.

Our new little punkin' yard stake. I know, it's December, I need to take it down. And I will once it dries up a bit. I really like it!

Me in the snow in my front yard! MY FRONT YARD! In HOUSTON!

My house.

Matt in front of his car. It really is white...

Me by my mail box covered in snow in my yard covered in snow in front of my house COVERED IN SNOW!

My mom watched Joanna tonight, and her friend David came over to keep them company. He built this snowman on Little Green:

Back inside, we had to take a picture of our outfits for the evening. Aren't we so cute and matchy?!

I am so pumped and giddy tonight. I LOVE THIS WEATHER!! I WANT MORE!!!

Unfortunately because we weren't home this evening when it was snowing, and my mother is allergic to cold weather, Joanna hasn't actually seen the snow. I really hope there's some left in the morning! We've got to get up and going for a handbell rehearsal; poor Joanna doesn't get to go to school. :( Maybe we'll get to play in the snow instead. :)

One of those days...

A "brief" rundown:

Joanna woke up a little earlier than I'd like this morning, but not too bad -- we had a nice time getting ready for school/work. We stopped on the way to the church to take care of Didi the dog. That went smoothly. I realized then that I'd forgotten Joanna's nap mat. Oops. (I should probably just leave that thing in the car.) I decided to go ahead and drop her off then run home for it. I was thinking about skipping staff meeting this morning to get some things done at home anyway. I dropped Joanna off, let people know I'd be back in the afternoon, and headed out to the car... which wouldn't start. My NEW car...wouldn't start. It wasn't the battery I was pretty sure -- the lights came on, the radio would play, the ding you don't have your seatbelt fastened dinged. But the engine wouldn't make any kind of enginy noise at all. I sat there thinking, "have I forgotten how to drive; am I missing something; am I doing something wrong?" I called Matt a few times 'till he answered and he had me try a few things. I decided then that I would head back into the church, NOT skip staff meeting, and get some work done. I had a soft blanket in the car that I brought over to Joanna's classroom so she'd have something to nap on. Then a few minutes before staff meeting, I grabbed my keys and went to check on the van again. It started. Wanna know why? When I wanted to leave with the intention of skipping staff meeting, it wouldn't start. When I just wanted to make sure it was working, it started just fine. I clearly was supposed to be at staff meeting today. Whatever. I felt a ton better after that though. After staff I headed home to get Joanna's nap mat and grab something to eat before my afternoon meetings. I was stressing a little trying to figure out some possible childcare after MDO. I had my regular 1:30 worship planning meeting followed by a Christmas Eve worship planning at 2:30. Joanna gets picked up at 2:30. I of course just found out about this today so had no time to make real arrangements. I decided to just bring snacks and stickers and stay as long as I could with Joanna. I really wanted to be at as much of the meeting as possible so that I could get nice and caught up/ahead with everything before Baby Sister's arrival. Just about as soon as I got home, though, I got the call from Ms. Joan (Joanna's teacher). Joanna had a fever. So nevermind needing to make any kind of arrangements for this afternoon. Nevermind all the stuff I have to do around the house. My day had just been reprioritized.

Writing about it now, it all seems so trivial. Earlier though, it was a very rough day emotionally. I'm tired. And I want chocolate.

Joanna snuggled on me for a little nap when we got home, hopefully she'll take another one later. I can tell the Tylenol has kicked in; she's got more energy. I think she was feeling achy earlier; she kept saying "ow." How sad! Hopefully this will run it's course quickly. I hate to think of her so pitiful (although I do love the snuggles) and I have a lot of work to do!

A First

There have been several things about this pregnancy that are different from my first; here's one: I felt what I believe were Baby Sister's hiccups this evening. It was just this very rhythmic movement over and over again. Cute! I want to eventually get around to making a list/chart thing with my different "symptoms" from the two pregnancies. I think it's interesting!

More Fun today!

This morning we headed over to Town Center for "Christmas in the Park." We were there just as it was kicking off. It was a little chilly this morning, but very sunny, and it warmed up quickly.We took a stroll around the square, smelled the yummy food, then stopped to have our picture made (yup, again) with Santa. Joanna's not unhappy to sit on Santa's lap, she just won't smile. It's like she's trying to figure out what the heck is going on. What has happened to make everyone crazy, and who is this guy?
Here's our "official" picture; the above one I took. I like how we have a close up and a full body shot.

I also bought Baby Sister her first bow from a little boutique vendor! I got a sweet little pink and white clippy bow and a headband to clip it on. If she's anything like her sister (or her mother!) she won't have hair for a while. I've decided I'm going to try putting bows in #2's hair -- I never did with #1.

We didn't stay long because we had much more fun things to get to -- birthday party!

Our friend Riley turned 2 this week so we went over to her house to celebrate. They had two big bouncy things, this Barbie jeep, and another scooter-type thing for the big kids. Joanna loved running around in the yard. She got a chance to drive this and actually made it jump forward a couple of times by pressing on the pedal. Won't be long!

Mmmmm... pink cupcakes make wonderful lipstick! And, if you'll believe it, I wiped all but the tiniest bit of icing off this cupcake before we ate it. Wow -- pink sugar sure is something!

Happy Birthday Riley -- we sure had fun!

We headed home expecting to put our little girl to bed, but she never did go. I guess she was wired from all that sugar. I needed to run a couple of errands and decided just to go, and see if she might sleep in the car. Nope. Funny child. She was in good spirits, too, so I can't really complain too much. I have a feeling this child is going to give up her naps earlier than most. She never has been a good napper.

Such Faith

I've been thinking about the faith that Mary must have had at this time so long ago. Very pregnant, not married, and having to travel a long way from her ObGyn (well, you know). I'm due soon, too, but I have all my comforts around me. I know we'll be taken care of if I go into labor at any time. I feel secure that the hospital will still be open even if it's Christmas Eve, that a doctor from my practice will be on call, even if (s)he's celebrating Christmas. I know that someone will rush to take care of Joanna, even in the middle of the night. Do I know all of these things because I, too, have such faith? Nope. I'm a bum. I rely on these things, these people, these places around me. I'm not relying on God like I should. Do I need a little fear to fuel my faith? Hope not. I'm working on it.

Staying Warm and Santa's Farm

My mom recently made Baby Sister a little blanket and a hat out of this pretty pink yarn. She had some left over, so Joanna got a hat, too! For grins, I put her little backpack on her the other day before school. Except for the fact that she could barely stand up, it was really precious! Here she is giving me another "cheese" smile. Love 'em! Most mornings I not only have to get Joanna and all my stuff out of the house, we also have to have 67 babies with us. When it's chilly, the babies sure keep her snug in the carseat!
Last night we headed over to the Ag barn for Santa's Farm. This is something Kingwood HS (and now Kingwood Park, too) has done for years. I remember going as a youth! Anyway, we took our wagon out on it's first mission and we had a great time!

The new hat from Gran came in very handy -- Joanna keeps it on really well. I also just picked her up some mittens (which are huge!) to keep her little fingers warm. When we got there, we jumped in line to see Santa. Joanna did pretty good with the wait, especially when we got close to the front and there were pretty lights and decorations. Mrs. Clause was sitting beside Santa and Joanna reached her arms up for her to pick her up. It was cute!

At first she shook her head when it was time to move to Santa's lap, but she didn't really have a problem with him. She wouldn't really smile, but she wasn't sad, either!

We walked through a couple of the barns and looked at the animals. This high schooler asked Joanna if she wanted to ped the sheep, and of course Joanna nodded yes. Then when the sheep actually came close, she decided yes was not really what she meant. She enjoyed waving at all the animals, though -- so cute!

We also had hot chocolate and cookies and saw the live nativity with real animals! Joanna's favorite part was picking up rocks.

We had a very fun evening, and even managed to get her into bed at a reasonable time. Her fingers were sooooo cold when we got home! She loves it, though. That's my girl!

LOST...

Sunday evening Matt, Joanna, and I went to the Hanging of the Greens service at church. We sat up close so Joanna could watch and listen to everything. She did really well! She sat still with us for quite a while before needing to get down. She was pretty content to stand in the aisle with her backpack for a little bit, then she wandered across the aisle to where Rev. Judy was sitting and played with her for the rest of the service. It was very cute! And I'm pretty sure Judy didn't mind too much. :)

On the way home Matt realized he didn't have his wedding band on anymore. Uh oh. He was sure he had it before we left for the service, but didn't know beyond that. I remembered hearing Joanna say "ring" (which sounds a lot like whee! but isn't) sometime during the service. It passed very quickly through my brain -- I assumed she saw something in the church that looked like a ring.

So we came home and Matt started looking everywhere. I called Gary, our music director, because I knew he'd still be at the church, and asked him to check where we were sitting. He called back saying he couldn't find it but that he'd alert Hector, our maintenence/custodial/everything else person to be on the look-out. I felt better, but Matt needed to go up to the church to see for himself as well as look in the parking lot and everywhere he could remember walking. He didn't find it.

This morning (Tuesday) Joanna and I got up and got ready for school/work. We were running a little late so I wasn't going to transfer her stuff from her little blue school bag to the new Dora rolling backpack because it meant cleaning out the backpack of all our weekend stuff. Something made me do it, though. I sat on the floor and pulled everything out and layed it in a pile. When I thought I'd pulled it all out, I looked inside. Guess what I saw?

THE RING!!!

She HAD seen it during the service! Either Matt had dropped it in there or he'd dropped it on the floor and she'd picked it up and put it in there! Whoo hoo!!

...FOUND!