Just a video of Joee on the phone with Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, and herself- "Jo" apparently.

There's a primary song that goes "If you chance to mean a frown, do not let it stay! Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away. No one likes a frowny face, change it to a smile! Make the world a better place by smiling all the while." Joee loves that song. But this is how she sings it:


(for those of you who receive our blog posts via email, the video may not appear in the email. You will have to visit the blog directly to view it- Grandma Griffin, that may be you!)

There are few TV shows or movies Jo gets into. Movie wise, Tinkerbell and Toy Story take the cake. TV shows, Fresh Beat Band, Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We don't have TV, so she only sees these things when we go to Mamaws (almost every day anyway) so it is shocking to me when she picks up on the words to the songs they sing.
The other day we were watching Little Einsteins at Mamaws when Jo started singing along. I didn't know the sound on the video was so poor until I went to upload it. You can't hear the TV theme song or her singing it very well but you can hear her count and say "Yeah!" at the end along with them. It is funny because the song goes "5! 4! 3-2-1!" and Jolene, despite how hard we work with her on this, counts like this '2! 9! 2! 90!". Yeah, you read that right. She counts two, nine, two, ninety. We have no idea why and she gets so mad at us when we try to correct her and help her. So for now, that is how you count in our household!
Here is the poor quality video, if you care to sit through it :)

For a year now we've been looking into active activities for Jolene to do. Last summer, she wasn't old enough for anything except gymnastics. We had taken her to a few trial classes at a couple different locations to get a feel for it. While she did love gymnastics, we never were fully thrown into the idea because we basically were paying for an instructor to tell me how to do gymnastics with her instead of her being taught by an instructor.
This summer, she is old enough for dance. I was a little weary of the idea. I just couldn't see Jo following directions (I'm sorry, I couldn't! She's so stubborn!). Although, she DOES love to sing and dance to music, I couldn't picture her following routine. Nonetheless, we attended a trial class.

To my shock and amazement, she did awesome! She followed every direction, did every move and stretch, and did not once try to take over the class. She wasn't even scared to go in the room by herself. Parents are supposed to wait in the lobby and watch via monitor, and I was nervous she'd react to this like she does Nursery at church. But again, she proved me wrong and went running right in with the other kids. I watched on the monitor as she twirled and pointed her toes. She marched and clapped and sat down when instructed to. I know I'm pregnant and hormonal, but I got teary eyed watching her on the monitor. She seemed so grown up. The other moms teased me a bit for being the nervous one not Jo.
They happened to be having a special this month for her age group. Normally it is once a week for 30 minutes and a 5 week session. The promotion was to get 2 for the price of one, so Jolene now has dance twice a week for 5 weeks and a recital at the end. We're very excited. I can't wait to go buy her leotard and shoes.
I'm throwing this picture in there because it is semi-relative. Jolene loves singing. She screams "LA LA LAAAAAA!" and throws her head and arms back (like she's seen on BGT youtube clips of opera singers).
She's such a little ham. Jonathan and I don't know where she gets it from...... ;)

 On a less gross note: Jolene loves the pool this year! Last year, she was super hesitant. This year, Mamaw and Aunt Ali took her to the pool and you could not keep her on the cement! She just jumped right it and kept on jumping! Luckily for us, our tiny girl still fits in her suit from last year (lol) so we can invest in one of those really nice arm and chest floaty things.
 Then, this past Saturday Aunt Ali took Jolene for the afternoon so I could get some well needed rest. They went to Ali's in law's for a few hours and played in the backyard with the splash pad. How cool is this thing? You hook it up to the hose and it only puddles about an inch of water and sprays up through holes! I guess they got it at K-Mart. I fully intend on investigating that claim, because this thing is cool and Joee loved it!

Can I just put a plug out there for Ali? Dude, she is freaking a rock star. She has a 5 month old of her own and still is constantly volunteering to take Joee so I can have a break. She has more energy than any working new mommy I know! When Jo was 5 months and I was working, the LAST thing I wanted was another kid to tag along. Props to you Ali. I don't know what I'd do without you.

 See those red boxes? I gift wrapped bulk diaper boxes and glued the wrap on. It will work for now!
 I didn't realize how many books she had until I started putting them in the cubbies. I think we need to pass some down to Adi now. Jo has her favorites and that's all she'll touch anyway.

 The slide we are borrowing from Mamaw Griffin because Jo is in love with it. She stands on her tower and just hangs out, then like a dare devil takes off running down the slide. The tent to the right is Jo's Christmas gift from Grandma Coffey. She LOVES hiding in it to read. She also has fun throwing balls through the tunnel to the other side, then back again. The curtain is obviously temporary. All the curtain rods we had at the apartment are not wide enough for these house windows, and the heat was getting to us so I just tacked them up for now. We will get curtain rods soon enough. They are not top priority.
 For right now, the other side is holding her stuffed animals and balls. I need to find a permanent solution for those two things.
 This is the view looking into what should have been a 4th bedroom. That cardboard box has got to be one of the greatest $20 investments we've ever made. We got it for Joee for Christmas and she LOVES coloring on it. As you can see, she has a long way to go. This gift will last her forever! And that horse on the right, we fully plan on restoring it and giving it a fresh layer of paint. But, it's not top priority.
I love having the loft upstairs. It keeps downstairs so much cleaner and ready for unexpected (or even expected!) visitors.

When we bought the house last October, this is what the backyard looked like:


Nothing but dirt. And we were thrilled because that meant clean slate and we could do what we wanted with it.
Our first big accomplishment back there was Jonathan built Pergola. He only worked on it on Saturdays and only for a few hours at a time because of family activities we participated in, but it is finally done!










 See how all our junk accumulated in the back yard too? Those are just Jo's things to keep her occupied while we work in the backyard. It will look better when we finish the patio and deck and get rid of the junk and borrowed tools.

A few weekends ago, our family of 3 took a trip down to Tucson for a morning of birding. Jonathan had seen on the birding website that there were some pretty rare birds recently there and we were anxious to find them. Bright and early in the morning, we packed Jo up in the car with lots of distraction just in case and headed south. We completely thought Jo would fall back asleep once in the car- but she did not. Surprisingly, she was not cranky despite the lack of sleep! She actually was rather pleasant! We arrived just after 7 and found that our research of the weather (which was supposed to be 60's and overcast) was dead wrong. We opened our car doors to 40* and rain! We had not planned for that at all. Luckily for Jo, I always over pack a diaper bag. I had a jacket and leggings I could put under her pants.





 I also had brought a towel just in case our shoes got muddy, so we could wipe before getting back in the car. That towel quickly became another jacket.


For me being preggo, I admit it was cold, but it felt SOOOOO good! I am recently constantly hot! Jonathan froze his cuttie patootie off. Jo was somewhere in between. I think she was so excited to be outside roaming where ever she wanted that she didn't want to admit she was cold. About an hour or more into it, she gave in and admitted she was cold. She insisted mommy hold her to keep her warm. Mommy. 8 months pregnant mommy. 8 months pregnant mommy who also had been nature walking for over an hour with no rest. Get where I'm going with this? I quickly grabbed the keys to the car from Jonathan and we ventured back to the parking lot.



We sat and ate some snacks, but mostly just defrosted for about 40 minutes or so.


Then, she was ready to go back out! We found Daddy and finished the trail with him (about another hour). Jo zonked out in the car on the way home. She was exhausted. But it was so much fun to get out and just walk in cooler weather (or cold weather, depends on your expectations lol).

For our 4 year anniversary, Jonathan and I went to Sedona for 2 days/1 Night. It was a lot of fun! We walked (a lot) around different boutiques and did small (very small) hikes.... if you can call them that... Basically we parked and walked away from the road to go birding. Jonathan didn't spot as many new birds as he was hoping but we still had fun. We also visited the Page Springs Fish Hatchery. There, they have a trail specifically for birding. It was really pretty! We really enjoyed eating out and window shopping. It was a nice break of routine and only a 2 hour drive from home (double plus).
For some strange reason, I only have 2 pictures from the weekend- the first is from our "walk off the main road" to go birding. We ended up finding a spectacular view of Sedona and Red Rock.


The second picture is from a diner we found to eat breakfast at- Red Planet Diner. It was... interesting in theme ("Welcome Earthlings") but the food was DIVINE! I would totally eat there again.