3rd Christmas

Christmas Day in the afternoon we drove over to my parent's house. I was a bit worried we weren't going to make it because of the weather, but, once again, they made the storm out to be worse than it actually was. It was warmer than expected, so the roads were perfectly clear. Both my siblings and their spouses were home for Christmas this year, which was such a treat! It's been a year since we've all been together, so it was great to spend 5 days with them. I don't think I changed a single diaper the whole time we were there! We brought the Wii over and had fun trying out the different games. It was a little too cold to do much outside, and the snow was really icy. We did play in the backyard a bit one day. Mostly we just hung out and enjoyed being together. However, we did stay up late every night and slept in every morning. One morning Jocelyn didn't wake up until 9:45! So, tomorrow is going to be a rude awakening when the alarm goes off at 6:00!

Brian works at Boeing, and they got Jocelyn this cool shape sorter, remote control airplane! I don't know if she gets that pushing the button makes the plane go, but she just likes to hear it talk.

My sister-in-law, Katie, paints, and she did this one for my Mom for Christmas. Isn't it beautiful? It goes perfectly in their basement, and Mom absolutely loved it.

Kailee brought her Nerf gun over, and luckily Brian still had a bunch of his old ones, so they had a Nerf war. I'm not sure who won, but I have a feeling it was the boys....

Mom and Brian playing the Wii - we laughed a whole bunch this weekend!

On Christmas Eve (before we were there) everyone went outside and made a snow-reindeer! Isn't it good? I was impressed. The dogs weren't too sure about it!

Jocelyn loved playing in the snow!

She really loved being pulled around the yard in the sled. She just laid there and smiled!

Jonathan sledding down the stairs...looks like a Funniest Home Videos skit, but luckily no one was hurt.

Splashing in the tub with Aunt Katie

Playing the piano with Aunt Katie

Brushing her teeth with Uncle Jonathan

Reading with Uncle Brian

Playing in the slide with Uncle Brian

She loves the slide, and can go up and down all by herself now!

She can also blow her nose by herself (kinda) as we still have our colds - there's been a lot of nose-blowing!

2nd Christmas

Christmas Eve we were at Calvin's parents house. We went to 5:15 church, then came home (got stuck in the ditch on the way there - luckily we were close to the house so his dad came and pulled out) and had a delicious dinner and opened presents. We had a sleepover at the house; the roads were slippery, it was late, and Kailee was coming in the morning anyway. It was so nice to spend a relaxing evening all together! We had 6 dogs in the house, so it was a bit wild, but that's how we like it!

Apparently I really didn't get many pictures of anyone besides Jocelyn at this party....

Playing with her Holly Holstein Ice Cream Truck from Moe & Nicole

Wow - a farm that makes animal sounds! This has already proven to be a big hit. Thanks Angie, Adam, Moe & Nicole!
Sitting in the box with her farm animals

Sitting on the box...boxes just never get old!

Bed head on Christmas morning. She thought the air mattress was really fun to jump on.

Kailee sporting the cute headband we made her wear - I think she was embarrassed.

Moe & Nicole gave her a Nerf gun - it's pretty cool, actually. She can now stand a chance against Cory.

Chillin' with the dogs.

Ellie was not embarrassed to wear the headband.

1st Christmas

I'm going to put our Christmas season up in 3 different posts...I think I have too many pictures! But, of course, not a lot of posed ones. I didn't even get a picture of Jocelyn in her first Christmas dress! Not a family one, either. Next year, I guess!

We did our small family present opening on Tuesday last week. It always gets a little hectic with traveling and making sure Kailee is at every house that we decided to have ours a little early so we could enjoy it more. It was fun watching the girls open their presents - Christmas is so much more fun with little kids!

Helping Daddy open his present. She really got into tearing the paper this year.

Kailee opening the Wii...Calvin got it for us - it was even a surprise for me!

New trick

Jocelyn has learned that putting her hands in her hair while she's eating gets quite a response from Mommy and Daddy! It was cute yesterday when it was bath night, but tonight wasn't bath night, and therefore wasn't as cute. Try explaining that to a 1 year old!

We both have come down with a cold...boo. I was hoping to make it thru Christmas without getting sick, but no luck. Hopefully the worst will be over by Thursday.

Daddy helping to make it stand up really well...

Jocelyn found a bag of potatoes in the one cabinet we don't have a lock on. I was trying to get cookies made, so I didn't really care what she was playing with as long as it kept her occupied! She carried it around for at least 10 minutes!

Christmas and talking

Here are a few pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses. I have another one for Jocelyn (of course) but this is a cute Christmas skirt that Grandma bought for her. So far I've had to rewrap 4 presents. However, Jocelyn is not the one opening them...Ellie is. If you look closely on the picture of Kailee, there's a big red present on the right side of the picture. She chewed off the corner of the wrapping and got down to the box and styrofoam packaging! She ripped open 3 of my presents (luckily they were just socks...) and today she got into a bag (again mine, but Kailee hid it before I could see...) and a present for my mom! I'm about ready to pull my hair out! The worst part about it is that Calvin wrapped all of them but one. And he hates wrapping presents and puts it off until the last minute. The one year he does it early, and look what happens!

This is a little video of Jocelyn and her loud voice. She still hasn't said any words, but she likes to talk very loudly! We were Skyping with Mom and Dad, so I think she was wanting to tell them about her day.

Not a baby anymore

I've finally come to the realization that Jocelyn isn't a baby anymore. This is a sad day! Of course it's so fun watching her grow and learn new things, but still a bit sad. She is starting the transition to the toddler room at day care. This has been a hard transition. Lately she's been really upset when other kids are around. She's fine if they don't come by her, try to touch her or play with her toys, but once they do she starts crying. At nursery she cries as soon as we walk in the room! Then she just sits on a chair and plays by herself the whole time. She's fine with older kids and adults, but kids her age she just doesn't like. I'm starting to stress out about it - even more so when her daycare teacher told me this morning she's never seen any other kid act like this before (she's been a teacher for about 15 years). Yikes! Who says that to a mom?

But, today she spent the whole day in the toddler room and did great! There were only 4 other kids there today, but she was good after about 45 minutes, and then played with dolls and did an art project. She ate a good lunch and ate well off her plate - no more high chairs in that room! She sleeps on a nap mat instead of a crib, and put herself to sleep and took a 2.5 hour nap. She was playing happily when I picked her up tonight. So, we'll keep doing things on our days off where she has to be around other kids, and I'm sure she'll get used to it eventually. I consider myself a pretty laid back mom, but this one has been tough for me.

Catch up

I've been so awful about posting pictures/updates lately! Sorry about that - I really have no excuse...although we haven't been doing much, so I haven't taken too many pictures. We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving weekend; went to Calvin's parents on Thursday for a much smaller group than our normal 25! Then we had my parents and Calvin's family over on Saturday for another dinner. Sadly the dogs got into the leftover turkey, so no leftovers. :( Ginger didn't hardly move for 2 days - I imagine she ate most of it. Jocelyn and I went shopping on Black Friday, but only made it to Target. We stood in line for a very long time, and she was so patient! But I saved a lot of money, so it was worth it. We went and got our Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend too, and got the house all decorated. I'm having a hard time believing it's really Christmas already - maybe some snow would help.

We went to urgent care for the first time a few weeks ago. Jocelyn had a fever all weekend, and then on Sunday got a rash. I did some research and figured it was probably Roseola, but day care prefers a real doctor's opinion over mine. :) Sure enough, that's what it was. It's a harmless, not contagious rash that a lot of kids get. It wasn't itchy, just looked bad. She had a rebound rash last week, so we went back to her regular doctor just to be on the safe side, but she's fine. It was just a virus. She's finally feeling better - she was just really tired and crabby while she had it.

Jocelyn has been learning a lot of things lately! She's learned to walk in shoes! I had never put her in shoes before, but thought we should probably start since she's good at walking now. It was so funny to watch her - she just stood there like her feet were glued to the floor! And then when she picked up her foot she acted like it weighed about 20 pounds. But she's used to them now and is so proud of them!

She knows her first sign (after bye-bye) - it's 'more'. This comes in handy when she's eating as she wants more of everything! She has discovered light switches and can't get enough of turning lights on and off. She knows where her ears, mouth, nose, feet and hands are. She can do some of the motions for 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and thinks that all animals make a growling sound. She loves to read books (only if she can turn the pages). She only gives kisses easily to Ellie - she walks up to her with her mouth wide open! And then she does the same thing to Ginger, but Ginger's not a licking dog, so Jocey just stands there with her mouth open! She's learning how to eat with a spoon by herself and has used a fork, but we had to put that away because she cried when I would try to help her. She's quite independent! It's so much fun watching her learn so many new things. She understands so much of what we say to her - it just amazes me. She's truly a joy to be around, and I treasure the 4 days a week I get to spend with her!

Trying to do 'This little piggy...' with her puppy - kind of hard to do with shoes on!

Laughing and dancing with the puppy (it sings and talks)

Taking blocks off carefully - she normally just knocks them over!

Looking at the tree - so far she's left it alone and hasn't paid too much attention to it. She touched it once and discovered it was pokey, so doesnt' really want anything to do with it.

Laughing at the dogs