Fun in January

Not alot has been going on so I thought I'd just update with some cute kid pictures. Mom got Josie this dress for Christmas and I just happened to already have it for Maggie! I dressed them in them for church a few weeks ago and they looked so cute.














My friend Sheila made this hat for Josie last year and Josie now LOVES it. She wears it everywhere. This day she wore it to church and the nursery worker told me she left it on the entire morning.





Too funny.









































This was a different day, but hat still on.












And this is one of two faces you get when you tell Josie No about something. This is her sad, pouty face where you hear her sniffing over and over loudly and breathing heavy. The other face you will see shortly. :)









Josie was eating oranges the other day....she was quite happy about it as you can see!














She and I ate it all and she wanted me to cut another one. I told her we were all done and this is how she felt about that.....


















I told her to let me wipe her hands and face and again......not really thrilled with my idea of not eating another orange!
















By this time she was furious and so I raised my voice telling her "NO NO, you are not going to act this way Josie!" She stopped her screaming instantly, looked down and did her "sad" face....

















And when I repeated my "NO NO" this was her final response....full blown tears.









Ahhhh, I do love my Josie....never a dull moment. :) And 2 is only a few weeks away, I can only imagine what age 2 holds for her!












The kids love playing games and this is one form of "playing" that I don't mind. The other night they were playing Hungry Hippos and Josie decided to join in. Surprisingly she caught on pretty well!
















And lastly, here is Josie in an outfit I had gotten for her. Joe dressed her in it and I immedietly thought we need to plan another disney trip when she can wear this! He put her minnie ears on her and it was a total disney outfit. She prefered the bow though....,













































I got my jumperoo back from a friend the other day and the second Josie saw it she was insistent upon getting in. She climbed right in it and jumped for a good 15 minutes of so. she likes it more now than when she was age appropriate! She can climb in but cannot seem to get out of it, she says, "Mommy, I tuck I tuck" (that would be "stuck" in case u aren't used to baby lingo) Anyhow, I have kept it out just to give myself a little extra help during the days!

Snow day with friends!!

We got more snow and ended up having the next day off of school as well. So several of my friends packed up their kids and headed over to our house to sled some. The kids all had alot of fun and since there were 10 kids and only like 3 or 4 sleds they all did a great job of sharing. They liked piling up on top of each other and going down which made them go super fast with all the weight.



























































Here is a picture of the group....(minus the 3 babies, Molly, Josie, and Ian)
Julia, Isaac, Tucker, Bella, Owen, Maggie, Kylie Nicole.















































Owen and Tucker took some time out to swing!





















Maggie, Nicole, Julia and Kylie lasted the longest outside. After they came in, warmed up, and had a snack we headed over to our church to meet up with more friends and try out some bigger hills.

Josie got in on this sledding trip and was so bundled that she could not move her arms and could barly walk.

















She LOVED sledding down the hills. At first she'd just go with Sheila but before long she was willing to jump on a sled with anyone who'd take her. She was walking around and fell face first in the snow since she couldn't get her arms out to catch herself. I of course picked her up immedietly and cleaned the snow off her face....and immedietly wished I had taken a pic of her snow covered face first!!

Joe took the kids out sledding the next day as well and I look out my window to find they had packed snow all down our deck steps, which are very steep, and he was having the kids sled down them. Only a dad.....I am sure a mom would NEVER come up with a game like that. I just walked away from the window and was very thankful when I saw they had moved onto making a snow fort. :)

We have had fun in all this snow but now that we have had a few snow days I think we'll all be glad to have spring arrive!!

SNOW DAY!!!!

The kids and I had a PERFECT winter day. We FINALLY got a big snow here that the kids could sled in. We have never since living in Ky had a good one, we have had a few snow/ice storms, but nothing that was great for sledding. It was so cold that it wouldn't stick so we couldn't build a snowman despite our efforts. School was cancelled, which not only Maggie, but I was THRILLED about but the roads weren't bad enough to keep Joe from playing hookie from work....unfortunatly. the kids wanted to play outside soooo badly so after I laid Josie down for a nap we got them all bundled up, which took a good half hour, and headed outside.













































The kids were so excited and couldn't wait to try out sledding so we made a good path and let them go at it.



























































We have a well at the end of our yard that goes over into a ditch. It is a good ways down so I never drempt that they would get that far. Maggie took off picking up alot of speed and the further she went I realized she was headed straight towards that well and began yelling, "jump off Maggie, jump off!!" Luckily she realized what I was saying and dove off just before the sled went over. It isn't so deep they would really get hurt too badly, but it is lined with rocks so after that they made sure to pay attention when they were getting close.

We sledded for along time and then went up and made snow angels and tried for a snowman. We probably were out about 2 hours which was very good since I had thought they may last 30 minutes at the most!








Here are some more pictures of them enjoying the snow!!!


































































































After heading in we of course had to have some hot chocolate with marshmellows.
















Maggie even wanted some...although she left about as much in her mug as I put to begin with. :)







I think she just liked the idea of it!







Owen drank every last drop......
















We are hoping for a few more snow days before spring gets here and may get Josie out in the snow if Joe is here to give me a hand with it.





Josie didn't get any time in the snow, but here she is today keeping warm in the bath!!

Happy New Years!!

This was our 3rd year that we have had our New Years Eve party, and every year the crowd is different....but it's always lots of fun. The kids were very excited about their friends coming over and about Aunt Amanda coming to bring in the new year with us. This year it was our friends, Jeff and Sheila, and their 4 kiddos. And our friends Betsy and matt and their kids. Their daughter Zoe is in class with Maggie so we have just gotten to know them this year.
Here is Maggie waiting for everyone to arrive...and posing for me to try out different settings on my new camera.








































We ate and ate all evening long and the kids all played great together and watched movies while the adults all played games. We taught Amanda our favorite game, Catan, and I think she liked it pretty well...she caught on fast!

We played and the kids watched movies right through midnight so they totally missed the ball falling! Josie went to bed around 8 30 so she slept right through the new year. Jeff and Sheila and their kids ended up spending the night at our house and the kids all went to bed sometime after 1 or so. Sheila, Amanda and I followed not long after..but Jeff and Joe stayed up playing Xbox who knows how long!




















Owen wanted to go to sleep in his bed, Isaac fell asleep on the chair, and the girls all made a bed on our beanbag bed.....
















We had a fun New Years, but missed Shannon, Preston and their girls who were in NY for the weekend. Hopefully they can be there next year!














Josie loves going around the house finding clothes, undergarments, bathing suits, etc to put around her neck. Not sure why but she can sit forever in front of a drawer pulling out whatever she finds and getting it over her head until she can't put on anymore. Here are some pictures from 2 different days......once she gets them on she can't get them off which results in the furious screaming until you help her. But someday she can look back and see how silly she was!!!