Several posts...

February 3rd, 2007 A new question...
JoElle started asking us "What is that for?" about various items in our house and out and about.
Sometimes, it is hard to answer her questions........this parenting thing is getting harder and harder!!! But it is still fun! (frustrating at times, but fun nonetheless)

January 17, 2007 JoElle is Two Years Old!!
Happy Birthday, JoElle!
She loved it that we both stayed home with her for her birthday, AND we had a wonderful suprise; it snowed!!! JoElle loved playing in the snow. She especially loved eating it off Daddy's car, what can a little snow hurt? We all ate it as kids!
We didn't get to visit the Dallas World Aquarium like I had planned due to the inclement weather, but we still had fun. We ate at a little breakfast place in Arlington and Grandad stopped in to eat with us. JoElle loved it! She loves the waitresses there, she says hi to them all the time we are eating, and of course she says hi to the other customers the whole time, too!
We gave her one of her presents, a Little People School set. She loves it! She lines the Little People up to get on the slide, then she said "I'm standing in line, too!" and she stood up behind them, then said "I'm too big!" She had us cracking up, as always.
That night, we sang Happy Birthday, she blew out her candles without any prompting, she sang right along with us, she loved her cupcakes and opening her presents. Granny was there with us, JoElle loved having her come over.

January 12th, 2007 Lately, JoElle liks to open and close doors. She is finally tall enough to reach the doorknob to open the doors.
This has resulted in her opening her bedroom door early in the morning and coming into our room. She will just stand in front of me (our bed is too high for her to climb in by herself)and wait for me to wake up and see her! Usually Tim has to tell me "JoElle is standing there..." because I am a heavy sleeper...
She very patiently waits for me to see her, then I put her in the bed. She normally kicks Daddy until she drives him nuts, sometimes she scoots him off the bed. After a little while, we put her back in her bed and she stays there for a while.

January 9, 2007 First Visit to the Library
JoElle and I visited the library by her school and she got a library card. She was so excited to be there surrounding by all those books!
She picked out several Maisy books (she loves Maisy!) and two Little Brown Bear books that she found. We read through them a few times and then checked them out. I told her she could read them to Daddy when we got home. Later that night, she remembered and wanted to read them with Daddy!
We also painted, what fun! I gave her a paintbrush and some canvases; she loves painting. JoElle loves art, she expresses so much joy when she is painting or coloring. She loves to giggle as she paints. She learned that she could drop paint onto the canvas if she gets a lot on her brush and shakes it. JoElle was painting "squiggly lines". I didn't know how she knew this, but Tim and her color squiggly lines in the tub, I found out!
She can also draw a straight line, a circle and an oval if you ask her too. Oh yeah, also a big circle and a little circle. She know little and big quite well from reading "It's Not Easy Being Big" with Big Bird and Elmo (it's not easy being little, either!).

January 5, 2007 Happy Birthday Cousin Isaiah (9 years old today)
We wish you a Happy Birthday.
It breaks my heart that we are not invited to celebrate with him.
I really don't know if I or we did something to insult or hurt Billy and Carrie, but we are never included on birthday or holiday plans. I really don't understand; maybe there is nothing to understand.
All I can really do is pray over the situation, that we will be at peace with this. I am sad for Isaiah and Elena because they will never have a relationship with us or with their ONLY cousin. JoElle is their only 1st cousin. I am also sad for JoElle because when she gets older, she will be wondering why they never come around, why they never invite us over, why we don't spend special days with them, why they never come to her school activities. It's ultimately up to both Billy and Carrie to decide they want to involve us and be involved with our lives, you know?
I asked JoElle if she wants them to come to her birthday party and she told me "Yes!" so I hope they come. Carrie didn't bring Elena to JoElle's 1st birthday party, so who knows?
Please pray over this broken relationship.

Week of January 1st, 2007
JoElle has been off and on in the 2 year old classroom this week. We were going to wait until the week of her birthday, but Ms. Judy (daycare director) decided to start the transition. So, she has some adjusting to do, but it's not bad. Just a little crying, a little bit of longing for her old teacher and old friends. JoElle loves Ms. Stacy so much!
She likes to say by to her friends before we leave, she tells them "bye friends!" then she has to tell her old classmates goodbye, too. The first day in her new class she got to play with Play-Do and when Ms. Stacy came in there with her old classmates, JoElle came to her and told her "turtle!" since she made one out of Play-Do.
We also started working out at the YMCA, JoElle knows when we drive up it is the "Y" and she can play with Thomas, since they have a Thomas train set. She cries when I drop her off, but only for a brief moment, what a rough week!
The other day, JoElle was standing up on our bed and she told us "Careful, don't hurt yourself!" hehe, it is too funny when she repeats stuff we tell her all the time. Sometimes I don't even realize what I tell her until I hear her saying it!

December 30, 2006
I am amazed at the sentences JoElle is now constructing, she was using sentence before, but they are more complex now. I can't even think of many examples, but JoElle has great articulation, too. Oh yeah, last night told me "I'm tired!" so that I could say "I'm tired, too!"
Usually I am the one who says, "I'm tired" then she responds with "I'm tired, too!" She will do this with just about anything, but mainly when I say things, not anybody else!
Whenever she has a messy diaper, she says "What did you eat today?" because we ask her that all the time, since she is always being given stuff that makes her tummy hurt!!
I'll try to remember to pay attention to some of them :)
Also, JoElle loves to take her medication; she nows takes her medication out of the cup that comes with the kids medicine. She is so good with it, she takes the cups and drinks it herself. She is pretty much off a sippy cup now. We still give her one in the morning since she is drowsy and clumsy that early, but the rest of the day I just give her cups. Pretty soon she will be in her new room (2 year old room) and they don't use sippy cups at all. She is ready for it!

Dec 29, 2006
I was terrified today as I was leaving my house to pick up JoElle from school, the tornado sirens were sounding, so I rushed back inside to find out that a possible tornado was within a mile from our house, but the terrifying thing was that it was heading north to 30, right by JoElle's daycare. I attempted to rush to pick her up, but of course visibility was horrible from the rain. I prayed for God's protection over her. When I got to her school, they were all huddled in the bathrooms! JoElle thought it was exciting that they were all in there!
We stopped by to try to open JoElle's savings account at Wamu with my friend Leigh Anne, but their power was out! We played inside the branch for a while. This was JoElle's first time to meet Leigh Anne! So she was shy at first. But Leigh Anne gave her a lollipop and she soon started talking. She was telling us "It's dark in here!" but she loved running around in the dark branch! When we were leaving, Leigh Anne told us, "Bye girls!" and as soon as the door closed JoElle shouted back "BYE GIRLS!!" Too cute!
Then we stopped by Aunt Tandi's house; Shannon and Jonathon were also there. JoElle was a little apprehensive at first, but soon her and Jonathon were playing together. He is huge compared to her!! He turned 4 yesterday. They were cute together, she loved giggling at him. Tandi's friend Fred dropped in and brought them those little poppers that we play with on the 4th of July, so they had fun popping those outside the door. They both kept saying "My turn!" and "I got it!"

December 25, 2006
Wow, I think we are all relieved that this Holiday season is wrapped up... What a busy week!
One of my best memories of this Christmas is JoElle singing "Happy Birthday Jesus" just about anywhere, anytime. Like in the middle of the hustle and bustle at Wal-Mart two days before Christmas, as she sees a Christmas tree, as she sees a manger, or when we get home and she sees the green cupcakes left over from her Christmas party at school!
This year, JoElle also loved singing carols. She will bust out with "Jingle Bells", "Rudolph", or "Noel" - but she thinks they are singing her name!! It's precious to hear her sing it!!
JoElle and Peyton had a great time this year unwrapping presents. This year, we got together on Christmas Eve since Aunt Ana was on call on Christmas. The two of them kept saying, next present...every once in a while, they would stop and ask us to open the box.
JoElle especially liked her Little People Farm and Dollhouse. Peyton liked it, too, he played with her. He probably liked his Little People Car Garage and his huge dump truck the best.
Aunt Ana, Peyton, Madison, Uncle Aaron, and Nana came with us to our candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. JoElle was so excited they were at our church with her! She kept telling Peyton hi during the service and he would tell her "NO!" so she kept telling him hi over and over, just to get under his skin :)
We tried to visit Santa at Santa Land by my job. We waited an hour, JoElle colored and watched the other kids go up and talk to Santa, but when it was her turn, she cried! She told us she didn't want to sit on his lap...so we didn't make her. When we left, we asked her why not and she told us because she was "coloring", 'tis true, we shouldn't have let her color all the way up until it was time to sit on Santa's lap! She also didn't want Santa to come to our house....
JoElle got a ton of stuff this year, way more than last year! I haven't bought her many toys this year, she needed to stock up! She loves her different ways to color: she has a Fisher Price Desk to color at that helps her with letters, numbers and shapes, then converts to a piano, also she has a dry erase board and chalkboard, a MagnaDoodle lookalike, and of course plenty of crayons, coloring books and blank paper!
She loves her baby stuff: Santa brought her a stroller, highchair and baby bed for her Baby Alive doll that Nana gave her. As soon as JoElle opened her Baby Alive doll, she exclaimed "Another Dora!!" because the baby is "hispanic" I guess that is what everyone tells me the baby dolls with brown hair, brown eyes, and brown skin are. To me, they look kinds like JoElle with straight hair! She does resemble Dora! JoElle took all this into her room with her new Dora bed from Granny and Grandad, which she loves! She also has sheets and a comforter to match now from them. Nana got her a Dora lamp, too.
JoElle got lots of dress up items, Nana bought her a collection of dress up shoes, which she loves and a cute pink Flapper dress. Aunt Tandi bought her a tiara, necklaces, earrings, shoes, and some other cute dress up items!! Also, Nana gave her a backback full of makeup, which she loves and has already used. Oh yeah, not to mention Backpack from Dora and a purse full of candy necklaces (courtesy of Granny).
We still need to explore her Dora book with the movie projector and the Elephun game that spits out butterflies, which you catch (sounds like fun!!) We gave her a few scratch and sniff books and Peyton's Grandma gave her the 10 Ladybugs book.
She probably got some more stuff...I just don't remember right now!!!
Oh yeah, another fun thing today: JoElle counted Daddy's fingers, correctly!!! From 1 all the way to 5 by herself! I am so proud of her!

Dec. 9th, 2006
We ate at Campo Verde today. We took Peyton and JoElle there last year. There are thousands of Christmas lights and a train above all the tables. It's fun and helps get you in the holiday spirit!
We took our family pictures tonigh at J.C. Penney's. The photographer did a great job. JoElle did a great job, she smiled a lot and was cute for the lady. I can't wait to get our pics back, if you are reading this and don't get your card until after Christmas, I am sorry..... :) BUT they are coming!
We also went to the dress rehearsal of Fielder Road's Christmas Around the World, our church's Christmas celebration/play/choir concert. It was lots of fun. JoElle loved it! She was dancing to the music and singing to Feliz Navidad. I think she is learning this song at school. They are having a Christmas program this week and she is in it. JoElle liked the giraffes during the African part of the show. Then....when it got quiet, JoElle was extremely loud; she got a ton of laughs, the choir was sitting behind us (we are both in the choir) and they love JoElle. She was cheering for the songs before anybody else had time to start clapping!