Several posts...

Christmas Day 2007
JoElle so sweetly asked me "Mommy, when is the baby going to get out of your belly?? I want to play with her NOW!"
She is very excited about having a little sister and can't wait! She tells me all the time she is going to take care of her, not me. She is going to feed her at night, change her diapers, and hold her. We have explained that she has to do it with us, but she doesn't like that idea, after all, she is a big girl and can do it herself...

Christmas 2007
We had a wonderful Christmas holiday; JoElle is at a great age to really enjoy all of the sights and sounds. She loved looking at Christmas lights and plugging / unplugging our Christmas tree. JoElle doesn't like Santa Claus and she doesn't "believe" in Santa. One night she was asking me if Santa is in her heart, like Jesus, and I had to tell her no, he is not real, he is just for fun. She is ok with that because she didn't want him to come visit us anyways (I never mentioned the part about coming down the chimney, I figured it would terrify her and we are already having problems with her vivid imagination at night!)
She opened presents for what seemed like forever on Christmas; we were all exhausted by the time we were done! Then Granny and Grandad came by, she was so tired we had to open presents for her. Then Nana came over...it was crazy busy!
We visited cousins Peyton and Madison later on Christmas. As soon as we got there, Peyton started telling us how Santa brough him a truck and ate all of his cookies an milk! They had a blast playing together as always.

Thanksgiving 2007
We had a lovely time at Peyton's house, where we ate lunch and played with Peyton and Madison. After Aunt Ana put Madison down for a nap around 2:30, JoElle turned to me and told me "OK, I'm ready to go to Carrie's house now." I guess she was bored with Madison down for a nap!
JoElle was feeding Madison chips; Madison loves to eat like JoElle. Peyton and JoElle were funny interacting with Madison, they kept telling her she couldn't have things and when Madison was headed for Tim, they both ran to him and got on him! They didn't even care before Madison wanted him.
We ate dinner at Unlce Billy and Aunt Carrie's house, Elena was already asleep, she was tired from the day. But JoElle got to play with Isaiah. They have fun playing together.

November 24, 2007
Baby Alexa was kicking a lot, and I normally tell JoElle "your sister is kicking a lot!"This time she looked at me, paused, and the asked me, "Does she want out?"
Aaron, Tim and I were cracking up, but she was serious :)
JoElle was singing a new song she learned at school, 5 little monkeys swinging in the tree, along came the alligator, teasing the alligator you can't catch me, no you can't catch me, the alligator snapped him right out of the tree; complete with hand motions and everything! It was very cute. She is learning so much in her new class.
Oh yeah, can't forget that she came home this week telling me Sandra is not her best friend anymore. When I asked her why, she told me because Sandra put leaves in her hair. Her new best friend is now Bubba.

November 25, 2007
JoElle and I were driving to the store when she told me, "Jesus was born for me."
She is very excited about Christmas this year! She loves the Christmas lights and decorations, but doesn't like Santa. She tells me she is scared of him. Yesterday, she asked me if Santa was in her heart (like Jesus), and I was forced to tell her he was just pretend. I have found it very hard to lead her to believe in Santa Claus, since she is asking so many questions about Jesus and God. I want her to believe in Jesus, not Santa!
JoElle has been wanting to go to "Big Church" every Sunday, so I have been taking her when Tim is singing in the choir, so she can see him and enjoy the music. She loves to sing to God, she has a kids praise CD that she knows just about every word to!
After our Advent service, we met Nana and Uncle Aaron at Campo Verde, where they have thousands of Christmas lights up inside and really great Mexican food :) We had a great time, then Nana came to the house and we put together a gingerbread house; we got really messy and it was fun.
We put up our Christmas tree today and JoElle was able to put the ornaments on, even the glass balls with hooks. She told me "I will be carfeul, Mommy" and she was!
Tonight, she also asked me why my belly button was so little, guess it is shrinking, wonder if it is about to pop out on me??

October 30, 2007 Fall Festival at School
Today JoElle had a Fall Festival at school that I went to. They had a ton of games set up in Fellowship Hall and they won candy and prizes. Walking out, JoElle walked with Kylie with her arm around her little friend.
I stayed for a little while in her room and she and Elena were fighting over me. JoElle was saying "MY mommy" and Elena was saying "My Megan!" JoElle wanted me to take her with me to eat and wanted to go nap at home, she really didn't want me to leave. But, she loves her afternoon teacher, Ms. Shanessa, so she stayed with her.
At the Little Gym tonight, JoElle told them her name and my name like usual at circle time, but then when Mr. Jeremy asked her to give him high fives, she told him "No, I'm a princess!" She is doing awesome at gymnastics. She can do a backwards roll all by herself and can pull herself up on the bar and hang upside like a monkey! She is very good at hanging upside down by her knees and she gets into this position all by herself. JoElle can swing really well and walk the balance beam (when she has enough confidence!).

October 18th Art Frenzy
JoElle is in an art frenzy right now, she spent all of last Saturday doing art at the table, gluing things, cutting paper, and coloring. Every night she goes straight to her art supplies and goes to town. It's great! She went through two glue sticks, a bottle of glue, and an entire package of construction paper in one week.

October 15th, 2007
JoElle told me that Landon C. in her class is her "baby and I take care of him so nobody hits him!" She is the leader in her class and feels like the protector of the little ones. She loves to tell on her cousin when she is not doing something right!
Landon and her have been in the same classes for over a year and they have become really close. They hang out, play with each other, and are very silly together, like her and Gavin were when he was at her school.
Logan (the red head) loves to tickle JoElle and she giggles like crazy. He also likes to swing her ponytail. She thinks that is funny, too.
JoElle also told me she put Landon R. in time out for hitting :)

August 2007 Some of the cute things she says...
JoElle talks up a storm, but here are some of the things she says that I love so much. It is mostly the WAY she says it, she has great emphasis and intonations....
"Wait to me, Mommy!!" ---she means wait for me
"No, I'm a big KID" ---rather than a big girl, can't call her that anymore!
"I want some tan tan lotion" --sun tan lotion...
"This is my pack pack" -- backpack
"I need to take a bath, my tummy hurts, it makes my tummy feel better" --- she thinks your tummy has to hurt to take a bath, my fault, my tummy hurts all the time these days!!
"I don't know, I can't tell" ---if I ask her a question that she doesn't know
"I want to go higher!" --when somebody is throwing her up in the air
"Do it again!" -- same as above!
"I want some more chocolate milk please!" --enough said...all the time....
The one that drives me insane- "WHY MOMMY?" and it never ends!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh

August 8th, 2007 Sickness strikes
After being out in the sun, I got a fever blister/cold sore on my lip. Then, about a week later, JoElle starting running a really high fever, so I had to keep her home from school. The next day, she was sent home from school with a fever and that afternoon, she ran into the living room after brushing her teeth with a look of horror. Her gums were gushing blood all over her shirt. It took two washclothes to make it stop bleeding. Needless to say, we were worried about her and she couldn't eat for over a week. All she could consume was chocolate milk. Even applesauce made her gums bleed.
She finally showed me that she had sores inside her mouth on her gums and lip. So, we finally figured out it was from my fever blister. Aaron looked it up online and found that the first time you are exposed to the virus that causes fever blisters, you run a fever, have bleeding gums, and no appetite. We confirmed this with her pediatrician over the weekend via telephone call. The only thing you can do is give Tylenol for the pain and fever. It lasted about the full 10 days, then she came down with a nasty cough.
A little cough medicine and mucinex did the trick after 5 days or so. She is feeling better, but her 18 month old shorts are now falling off of her... I can't keep shorts on her, she is so skinny! This sickness didn't help any. She is 2 and 1/2 and is still wearing 12 month to 18 month old shorts. She can even fit into a 9 month old skirt still! It's crazy because when she was a baby she was huge and was ahead on clothing sizes. Once she started walking (around 9-10 months) she slimmed down a lot!