Happy 1/2 Birthday, Josie!!!

Today marks 6 months of total blessings. It has been the hardest and most rewarding time of our lives. Josie is such a sweet baby. I have friends that will testify to how laid back she is. She loves going to the movies. She will either sleep (Toy Story 3) or watch every minute with out a peep (Eclipse). She loves her big sister. The smile she gets when Abby is around just melts my heart every time. She is growing up so fast. She has mastered rolling over and even likes to sleep on her tummy some. She's sitting up mostly by herself. She LOVES to eat. Rice cereal is good, but the recent addition of veggies has been a big win. (Uncle Ron, you will be glad to know she and green beans aren't the best of friends.) When she laughs, it fills the room. It's my favorite. However, a close second is when she talks to her toys. It is so fun how she seems to have a conversation with them. She is such a blessing. I know it may sound cliche, but it is as if she's always been with us. Life is so blessed right now.

Jumping remains her favorite past time.


Luckily, the jumperoo offers her second favorite thing–
chewing on stuff!!

Speaking of chewing. . . she will chew on anything and
every thing.

Our sweetie is sleeping in her big bed in a room
with her sister. They love it.


Sisters and B.F.F.s. . .


Never a dull moment.


Abby loves to teach Josie the ropes.


Love those baby blues.



Our sweet baby girl.

Jumping with Josie

Here at the White house, we have been really focusing on our jumping lately. Josie has made fast friends with the jumperoo. However, the favorite activity is "bounding." This is what Abby calls jumping with her sister. Josie seems to really enjoy it, too! Abby will tell her to "Get a leg up, and slap it on down," just like in the Pixar short We do it a lot because the giggles are so sweet and addictive. Here is a video of how I spend a lot of my day ( and why I don't get to blog a lot anymore).








****Please pardon the extra baby weight I am still carrying around. As always, my diet/exercise program starts tomorrow.

4 Months

She has found her fingers, and
she likes 'em.

Though it has been a little over a week, I still wanted to update you on Josie's 4 month check-up. She is perfect (but we knew that). She weighed 12 lbs, 11.5 oz, is 25 inches long, and is right on track with development. She is even a head of the game on some things. She can almost sit independently and she is rolling over already. Her birthmark is slowing its growth. The doc says she may recommend laser treatment when she is about to start pre-school just to speed up the process. She is very happy. She loves to watch her sister; and now that we have the jumperoo out, she loves to jump with her sister. (They call it "bounding.") She's still very laid back and is game for any adventure Abs and I can come up with.

The White girls up for a Father's Day photo shoot.


B.F.F. pose it up for Daddy.


Jumperoo = Bliss


This is what Heaven looks like– I'm sure of it.


She's my little buddy.


Here's the sweetie watching the toddlers
splashing in the pool. She knows they are
silly.


The girls have Bamps right where they want him...
in his big, comfy recliner.

She's already a gamer, just like her daddy and sister.


Daddy has been working a lot, so Josie has
offered to help him relax when he's at home.
(It's amazing how much they look alike in this
picture.)



The momarazzi is at it again.

The girls keep me hoping, and I don't get to blog as much as I would like to anymore. However, I love every minute with my gals. Please forgive the lack of updates.

Bokia

Last month, Steve had to go to Slovakia for work for 9 days, so the girls and I packed our bags and headed across the mountain. When asked where her daddy was, Abs would say, "He's in a plane in Bokia." It was cute how she thought that he was in the plane the whole time (though the 21 hours one way of traveling made it feel that way). Anyway, we were able to get plenty of visiting in while we were there. It was a bitter sweet trip since a very dear friend passed away while we were there, but we are so glad that we were able to be there for Atticus and to honor Susie, who Abby called "my Princess."

Cousin Ann was very excited to meet Josie and
to spend some time with Abs. Abby was excited to see her too
and to find that Ann had a toy box full of fun things.



Swingin' with Paw Paw makes life
seem somehow more fun.

Roadtrip w/ Ben to the Aquarium was
a blast. They loved that they were
in the "way back" of the SUV.


Abby, Emma, and Ben all enjoyed the
aquarium. (The blonde on the left
was starting to get tired by the time we
go to the penguins.)

Josie saw the opportunity for some down time.


Maybe she was planning her lesson for her
first teaching gig at SDHS. Here
Atticus is introducing her to Mommy's
former students. (Congrats Class of 2010)

We also even got a suprise visit from
Brenda and Aunt Dot. Too much fun!!!


Awesome trip!

This is just a sampling of what we got to do while in TN. We came back tired and missing Daddy. However, the latter did not last long. We got home about 3 hours before time to meet him at the airport. All are home and safe. We loved our visits with everyone and hope we can see them soon.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

We wish our precious Abigail a happy 3rd birthday. Actually, it would be more accurate to say we hope she had a wonderful 3rd birthday. We were having so much fun yesterday that I didn't get a chance to post. We had party last Saturday at the park complete with friends and a Tinkerbell cake. Yesterday, the actual birthday, was spent at home with friends coming over with an Abby favorite "tiny doughnuts" (a.k.a. doughnut holes) and another cake last night with Josie.

Party at the park!!
Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful day.
Black olives were the favorite food of the 2-5
year old section of this population.


The Tinkerbell cake that she picked out and chose
her own colors!



Luckily, the colors look good on her.



The festivities soon moved to the playground to swing.

Then, back to the tables for balloon animals
and bubbles with Ben.


After the party and a nap, Abs got her
present from Mommy, Daddy, and Josie.


On Monday, Treva, Emma, and Nana Jean came over
the mountain for some birthday fun and to meet Josie!



Cake #2 for her actual birthday on Thursday.
She chose strawberry cake with chocolate icing.

It is amazing how much she has grown-up, even in the past two weeks. She is now pretty much daytime potty trained. We are contacting pre-schools for fall enrollment information. The most exciting part is that we have gone almost 4 whole days sans the beloved papi. I realize that the last one is as much my fault as hers. She was so attached to it and I am just the push-over mom that wanted her to be the one to give it up. However, earlier this week, she misplaced it, and even though I found it shortly after, I just kept up the story that it was lost. She asks about it when she gets tired. She was only allowed to have it when she was napping or going to bed at night). Anyway, all that to say, we are so proud of our big girl. She's been a blessing everyday and makes our hearts happy.

Josie's Easter Debut

During the week of Easter, we were blessed to have great weather and good health. Therefore, we got to introduce Josie to some people who love her and will be special parts of her life, just as they are with Abby.

Atticus and Susie came for a visit while he was on Spring Break. We loved that they stayed all afternoon and snuggled Josie and played with Abby. They wanted to see us in our natural state, and we did just as that. Abby ate, played, and even napped. Josie did a lot of the same. :)

While we were in Tennessee later in the week, we were finally able to introduce Josie to more grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins who she had never met.

Mamaw Bivens grabbed Josie and didn't let go. That is until
Abby wanted to play.

And Mom was suckered into pushing Abs in the
"little red car."



During a Puckett picnic at Panther Creek, Little J was
introduced to her Aunt Debbie and Uncle Tim. Uncle
Tim got some flirting in behind Debbie's back.


Aliegh loved getting some time with
Josie.


Abby kept busy running around (literally) with Mathew.
(More on the picnic in a coming post)


The next day, we headed to Bristol so Josie could meet
Granny. We were so excited to finally get to travel
and visit Granny.


We were also lucky enough to go while Kathy and Randall
were there. Randall and Josie hit it off famously. He
is now known as the Baby Whisperer.'


Abby took a little bit of a breather and relaxed
on Granny's big, white chair.
(I think she looks so grown-up here.
Thank you, Eddie and Angela, for the beautiful outfit.)


But the down-time did not last long. Here she is playing
rock star. Thank you, Randall and Kathy for the awesome
birthday presents.

It was really great to see everyone and we hope to continue to visit in the coming weeks. Until then, I will try to update soon with pictures (and maybe video) from the many park adventures we have had and update after Josie's check-up on Monday.

White House Update

I have been pretty busy around here and not able to blog about stuff like I would like to. Something will happen that is blog-worthy, and it seems that I never get time to update. Here's a quicky for you. Maybe, now that we are settling into a bit of a routine, I will find time to post more often. Now, for what you really want to know. . .

Josie is doing great. She is up to 9 lbs now, which is wonderful considering she has already weathered her first cold. She has the cutest, heart-shaped birthmark on the inside of her bottom lip that came up about two weeks ago. She (as demonstrated here) loves to sleep on her tummy, which makes it great for snuggling!

The jaundice has cleared up, and she is getting a beautiful pale complexion which goes great with her dark blue eyes. Her hair is still really dark. (As you can see, she is not fond of the Momarazzi all the time.)

Here's chance to see her eyes and chubby cheeks. (one of my faves)She is so alert now and loves to study things. Her current faves are the ceiling fan and the window. The pictures on the wall are in the top 3 as well.

Daddy's girls love to take afternoon naps with/on him
when they get a chance.




She is doing great about sleeping. She only gets up once a night for a snack, then it's back to bed until 6 or so to see Daddy off and have breakfast before Abby discovers "Josie's Awake!!".

Speaking of, we finally got the nerve up to change her bed into the toddler daybed.
Apparently, we should have done it months ago. . .

because she says it's her "best bed ever" and so "beautiful." She is sleeping through the night without getting up to play (which was our main concern) and she will sit in it to read or play during the day.

Abby has had to to discover ways to entertain her self more lately.
Like her daddy, she loves playing games. Here she is creating her avatar for her Tinkerbell game. She is really good and can usually figure things out without our help.

We also got a few more inches of snow last week
and are looking forward to a warm up so
we can hit the parks.

It's okay, though. We have spent our time loving on Josie!

We are now awaiting the arrival of Mimi and Bamps for another visit. We will be introducing Josie to Tennessee this weekend. We have leased our house and need to make a quick trip over the mountain. If we miss you, please don't be offended. We will be back Easter weekend for a more leisurely visit. I promise to update soon with more pictures and updates on the girls.