Our first christmas...just the three of us

What a lovely Holiday season! Our little angel just made our Christmas so much fun. I was kind of sad because this was the first Christmas I ever spent away from home but I realized that when I am with Andrew and Joie I am home. Watching Joie get so excited about the silliest little present was the best Christmas present I have ever received! I just hate that Christmas always comes and goes so quickly...I just hope I can keep that spirit of Christmas and the love it brings in my home all the way until NEXT Christmas.

Joie opening her Christmas Jamies

The only toy Joie cared about all day!

Deck the Halls

Oh I love this time of year!! Any one who knows me knows that I HATE winter with a burning passion. If fact, around February every year I hit the tanning bed every day and take a trip to Arkansas for a few weeks just because I hate being cold and stuck in side all day. In spite of my deep hatred for winter, I love it from the last week of November until New years. I just love the Christmas season for so many many reasons. Of course I love to decorate my house and I love how pretty the snow looks against peoples Christmas lights. I love seeing how it brings out the charitable side of so many people. There is a man who lives on my road and he owns an ATV with a snow plow attached to the front and he goes around and plows the whole street and everyone's drive ways! I know so many people hate the commercialism of Christmas and all the advertising when it is a time we should be celebrating Jesus Christ but I love it. To me, it is just a huge way of celebrating Christ! I think all the gift giving, both of material things and of your time and love and such, is an amazing way of honoring Christ's teachings of charity. I just love this time of year!! Of course, here is my newest reason for loving it.......

mothers

"Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease." Oh, thanks Lisa Alther for taking exactly how I feel today and putting it into words!


This is Joie's huge smile face that normally only comes around when she is being super mischievous.

My little unicorn

Since Joie wasn't even two months old last Halloween we didn't make a very big deal out of it but this year we were so excited to dress her up...as a unicorn! She was such a good girl and she let us take her out trick or treating to all our friends houses for hours! We are pretty stinkin' lucky!

Unicorn on the Go!

Loving Fall!

Joie and Summer are only 2 months apart....Joie needed a matching soothie for her Halloween costume.

Joie with her cousins, Amber, Summer, Jackson, Thomas, and Carter

First sucker of the night

Giving lots of snuggles to Uncle Craig

College Gameday

We had a total blast this morning going to college game day. Since we live so close we just put Joie in the stroller at 5:45 and walked down to the football stadium parking lot to wait in line. It rained until about 6:30 and was kind of freezing out but the masses of people made it much warmer. We got past the barricades at about 7:30 and unfortunately Joie was already not very happy at this point. We stayed until about 8:45. Once the show started, Joie just sat on Andrew's shoulders dancing the whole time...she also had a brief cameo on ESPN! We also made a sign for Renie that said #70 Mammoth that also made a few appearances on screen! It was really fun despite the rain and cold!

Us crazy women

I had an experience at the grocery store the other day that serious cracked me up!

So Im sure you have all been to those grocery stores where they have those machines that print out in store coupons that are applicable for the things you are purchasing. Example; if you buy diapers they may print out coupons for formula. If you buy spaghetti they might print out a coupon for marinara sauce or french bread or something. I think they have these machines at Albertsons and Smiths. So I was at Albertsons the other day buying ice cream with my dad who was in town for like a day in a half. We had eaten a huge dinner and weren't ready for desert right after but after a half an hour to digest we were ready. After much deliberation we decided on Loaded Chocolate Fudge Brownie. So I went to go check out and I used the self check out machine. The ice cream was the only thing we was buying and after I scanned it the crazy little machine printed out a coupon for me. I grabbed it with my receipt as I was leaving and I looked at it while I was walking out the door....I seriously laughed out loud in the middle of store. The coupon machine printed off a coupon for Always Infiniti Maxi Pads. After looking at it for a moment I realized that coupon machine, or whoever programed it, thought that whoever was buying Loaded Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream must be a menstruating woman. I have thought about this many times now and just thought it was so funny and had to share it with all of my lovely friends who did go buy crazy ice cream during that time of the month and inspired Albertsons to just go ahead and give us all a deal!

13 months

It has been far to long since my last blog post (besides the one I posted like ten minutes ago). Joie is asleep and Andy is at the library so I figured this would be a good way to wind down before I head off to bed.
My little Joie is 13 months now! I remember when I was younger and it really annoyed me when babies turned 1 and the parents wouldn't say they were 1 they would say, "oh he is 15 months" because before you have your own children that means nothing to you! But it seems that ever since Joie was about 8 or 9 months she literally growns and learns all kinds of new things every single day....so now I understand why people continued to count in months after the first birthday because there is a huge difference between 12 months and 13!
When Andrew and I first started dating I always would joke with my mom that since we both have so much energy that if we every had kids they would be OUT OF CONTROL....and I was right. Joie literally runs all day long. She gets into EVERYTHING! She also learns like 5 new words a day and has full on conversations with herself (but she uses her fake phone and she thinks she is actually talking to someone) She just cracks me up!
After I had Joie I seriously thought it would be years and years before I wanted another baby. Pregnancy is so hard, delivery is so hard, nursing is so hard, and i thought those first 3 or 4 months were so hard because that little baby can't do anything for its self. Now I keep thinking that if I could just pop out another kid thats about Joie's age, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute!