Holidays

Still here! It's been a busy couple of months, but I thought I would post a cute Christmas picture of the family. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Joelle

Sometimes I like to pretend I'm a professional photographer. :) I think I did pretty good with this one! This is just in our backyard against the fence with a little old wicker chair from the front porch.

Joelle Turns ONE!

Okay....so blogger is not letting me put my pictures where I want them!! So frustrating!! I wanted to have her birthday pics first and then take a look back, but I am not starting over in a new post so here you go with birth first :)

AND A YEAR LATER WE HAVE.....

Joelle turned one year old on Saturday!! Wow, that year sure flew by!! I told her Happy Birthday when she woke up that morning and she just smiled really big! I think she knew it was her special day. We had her party with a Winnie-the-Pooh theme and my mom even flew in to help celebrate. Joelle wore the same pink dress that I wore for my first birthday and also Sonya and Sage. I think my mom got her money's worth out of that one! We had lunch with our guests, then cake and ice cream, and opened presents. Joelle took little dainty tastes of the icing on her cake with her finger, but that's about it. I tried to encourage more, but she just wasn't going for it. Oh well, my other two weren't cake smashers either. :) She stayed in a good mood the whole time and enjoyed opening her presents and playing with the kids at her party. Some things she is doing these days.....DaDa is still her favorite word and person :), she does say MaMa some and we think we have heard something that sounds like her saying Sonya. She knows what CAT is and calls banana a nana. Joelle knows how to walk and will do it a little bit, but her preferred method of movement is still crawling. If you ask her "how old is Joelle?" she will usually hold up one finger. She also loves to dance and just learned to wave and say bye-bye. Some of her favorite foods are bananas, avocados, cheerios, and now goldfish. Definitely loves fruit, but vegetables are hit and miss sometimes. She is independent yet still loves to be around people and just adores her sisters. To read her birth story again click here.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this week and had a good time. I strived for the perfect picture, but with three kids and a bounce house nearby....perfection just can't be reached :) I think I got a few cute ones though. My girls are growing so fast....

We didn't bring this big pumpkin home, but it was fun to pose with it. It's hard to get a baby who is almost one...with a mind of her own already....to be still and pose.

I just love these girls to pieces!! Joelle just makes me smile! She is full of life!

Oh! That Sage! Pure cuteness, but don't you trust that little grin!!! :)

Sonya, my serious little rule follower :) Sweet as can be.

Me and my three beauties!!!

A Few Pictures

Refrigerator

Sage left the door open and Joelle saw an opportunity while my back was turned...

Nine Months Old

(this is not how I wanted my pictures, but for some reason I can't move them around!)

Well, she's about 9 and a half months old now! Gee, with Sonya I think I was emailing everyone monthly about her progress. Not so much with the second and third child. :) Joelle is still such a sweet, happy baby. She loves to smile, loves her sisters and daddy, and I guess her mom too. :) She is standing on her own now, has great balance, and is cruising around the furniture. I know it won't be long and we will be chasing her as she is running on her own two feet! She says da-da frequently and certainly knows who he is! Ma-ma comes out of her mouth when she's fussy or upset... Joelle is teething like crazy and loves to chew on things. For some reason I'm always having to pull a flip-flop out of her mouth because she finds them everywhere! Another favorite to chew on is a rubber duck and one of those livestrong type bracelets. Four teeth on top, two on bottom, and two more coming in. This girl could eat her weight in Cheerios and much prefers feeding herself solid food rather than eating from a jar. Last week we broke the cycle of waking up in the middle of the night by letting her cry it out. She was only waking up once, but since I am going out of town next month we knew we had to do something because it didn't seem like she was giving it up on her own. It only took about 4 nights and it wasn't horrible. The first night was probably half an hour and each night after was less and less to nothing. It's so nice and I am so glad! ( I know Daniel will be too when I am gone!) And now to complete this milestone post are some pictures!

Father's Day

We sure do love our daddy!!Self portraitSonya took this picture of us. I have a big camera that is a little hard for a 4 year old to manipulate :)

Peach Picking

We went to Red River Peach Orchard in Gainesville with my sister-in-law and her kids for some peach picking! The kids had a fun time and we came home with a lot of peaches, a few were ready to eat, but most of them needed a little ripening. It's hard to tell my four and two year old "just pick the pink ones!" "make sure it's a little soft!" while they are running from tree to tree picking whatever they see. I guess you just go for the experience. :) From those peaches the we ate several whole, I made some baby food for Joelle, and enjoyed a peach cobbler! Here is our day in pictures:

Here is Sonya enjoying some free lemonade before we beganThe kids eating the "fruits of their labor." Heehee :)

The group posing after the picking!
Walking back through the orchard.Supermodel :)
Hot and thirsty! Beautiful peaches
My sweet Sage!

My two big girls! Joelle was home with G-ma taking a nice long nap!