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.

While Jonathan and I were in Sedona (post coming soon), Jolene stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's. Kimber is in town during break between semesters and captured this funny moment between Jolene and Grandma's dog Lani. She shows her backpack to Lani, and shares her lip gloss.
 Jolene loves grandma's dogs. She is always hugging them and wanting them to chase her. One time on the way home from Grandma's, Jolene said "I want dog" i said "You want a DOG?" she said "Otay. Ummm TWO!" I said "How about we just love Grandma's dogs...." lol we are NOT getting a dog.