Jolly Holiday with Josie... or Bert?

We took Josie to her very first play on Sunday December 5th. It was so much fun to see her light up throughout the plot line of Mary Poppins. My mom, Billy, and I probably watched Josie's face as much as we watched the play.

Since the play, we've listened to our Mary Poppins soundtrack non-stop and have done numerous dance routines to it. She now likes to wear this sweater with pockets from the Gap since it is similar to Bert's in the play. We've learned that train hats can make excellent chimney sweeper hats and gold clubs are clearly made to be a chimney sweeper.

While we were really into Gaston from Beauty and the Beast last month, due to his cool pony tail which is similar to Josie's. This month Josie prefers to be called Bert...

Oh how I heart her.

Josie the Rockstar!

Josie loves to sing. Often she pretends to be her favorite singer, Justin Roberts or the Fresh Beat Band or these two guys James and Brian. They started doing sing-a-longs once a month. We have gone to about 4 of them. The first two Josie just soaked it all in. She was mesmerized. They asked if kids wanted to come to the microphone and sing and she watched them. The last two the minute they mentioned someone coming up to sing, Josie's hand flew up. She jumped right up and belted it out. More confident as the song progressed. That's what I love about her, Josie is rarely shy.

Check out our rockstar singing her ABC's.

Happy Halloween!

Night Eyes at the zoo. The highlight was Spiderman!
Josie's preschool picture
Lining up for the preschool parade
Beggar's Night!

The kids had a great Halloween week. Two church events, preschool parade, night eyes at the zoo, oh and how could I forget beggar's night?! Between all of the above, they got to wear their costumes a ton!

Big sister Josie was Woody, Ben was Buzz Lightyear, and Will was slinky dog. All from Toy Story.

Josie loved her costume so much. She only answered to Woody in it!

Viva Las Vegas

Mickey Mouse magic show
Behind the scenes at the horse show. Two judges fell in love with Josie and gave us the hook up.
Josie shopping till she dropped! When Bre asked if she was tired she said, "Bre I climbed a mountain today." which was true thanks to Uncle John!
Swimming with Grandpa. She swam up to people and ask what their name was. Later when we were in the sun chairs a 20 something fella walks by Josie and says "Hi Josie!" and she says, "Oh hey Shawn!" I looked at Billy and shrugged my shoulders. I didn't think we'd have to worry about her picking up boys this early in life!
This picture is at Rich and Bre's house after the BBQ.

We went on our first family of 5 trip that involved an airplane at the beginning of this month. Was it a lot of work? I would be lying if I didn't say heck yeah. But it would have been a lot worse if Josie wasn't such a rock star. She was so good on both flights to Vegas. She always helped with her brothers and 99.9% of the time she listened to her parents :) We are so lucky to have such a good girl.

When she had to fill out a sheet for school regarding her favorite places to go on vacation she put Vegas! How many other 3 year olds have been there twice?! (once for Uncle Richie and Aunt Bre's wedding and now family vacation).

We got to do a lot of things while we were there. Time at the hotel pool, petting horses that were at the hotel for a horse show, Mickey Mouse magic show, climb a mountain with Uncle John, and hang out at Uncle Rich and Aunt Bre's house. It was a very fun vacation.

On the flight home ALL 3 kids (and Billy and I) fell asleep on the way home. We were all exhausted.

In January we head to Hawaii! We learned a lot of tips for that trip for sure!

A month of firsts...

Within the last month Josie has gotten to experience so many fun things for the first time. She started Preschool at Seeds of Faith on the Tuesday after Labor Day. She absolutely loves it. She is making so many new friends and we enjoy carpooling with our buddy Lane.

A couple of weekends ago, Josie, Daddy, mommy's best friend Mindy, and I all went to her first Husker's game. She enjoyed the atmosphere so much that after the half time tailgate Josie was the one who was ready to rush back into the game with Dad. Mindy and I opted to stay out in the tailgate. It was surprisingly warmer than we anticipated for September.

Last weekend we went to our friend's house in KC. We had such a wonderful time visiting with Hank, Todd, and Amy. While we were down there we got to knock off a few more firsts for Josie. She got to ride in Todd's truck and boy did she think she was cool. She ended up riding everywhere with them!

We went to an apple orchard and they had a pony merry-go-round with real ponies. We named Josie's horse bullseye from Toy Story. She was super brave and super cute!

We went to fishing and Josie caught her first fish! It was so fun.

Oh and the last first, which I am sad to say I don't have a picture of it, was Josie rode a mechanical bull! She was so funny. Amy told her to put her hand up in the air so she could ride it one handed and she did. It was a riot. I've got a great mental picture of my daughter riding a bull.

Summer Fun!

This has been a great summer. Between morning walks, time at the pool, or just hanging out on our new swing set we are taking full advantage of the sunshine.

We started doing walks before the brother's morning nap. It's a great way to start the day. Either Josie will walk along with me or I'll put one of the brothers on my back and she'll jump in the stroller. This particular morning Josie decided she needed to wear her winter boots. The ones with the wool lining. It was one of those mornings where you pick your battles, so Josie wore the boots. And as she sash-shade in front of me I beamed. Josie will always have an opinion on life as she waltzes through it. And for that at times I am sure I'll be frustrated, because I may not agree. But overall it makes me proud that we are raising such an opinionated little lady.

The picture of Josie poising by the swimming pool was right before one of her lessons this summer. Josie was an excellent student for the two weeks of swimming classes. She was almost too good. The kids that were a little rowdy ended up getting more of the teacher's attention. So there were times that she would get one turn and the other kids got two. But she didn't mind. She knew she was listening to instructions and obeying the rules. She would sit on the side of the pool smile big and wave to us as she waiting her turn. It's moments like that that make me beam. I also got a kick out of her little penguin waddle, starfish walk, and alligator crawl.

We moved the "big kid swing" to the middle of the swing set in hopes of ensuring we don't have another black eye incident. So far so good! She can pump her legs really good now. She will forewarn the airplanes in the sky, "Look out, here I come!"

Needless to say, Josie makes summer extra fun!

The sweetest thing

If I had to describe Josie, I'd say she just might be the sweetest thing. When she wakes up from nap, if you ask her what she dreamt about, she says "I dreamed of you." She let's Billy know that we will miss him when he is at work. Then she tells him to drive home fast to see us. While eating a popsicle after dinner tonight, she randomly informed me that "She needs to teach Uncle Danny some of her dance moves." Josie has a great gift of making you feel special. I hope it's something that she shares with everyone she meets throughout her life.

She also says some funny little things right now. Like when we are playing her memory game she says we need to put the cards in "roses". Instead of rows. She also says, "This is mines brothers." Instead of mine. Josie has a excellent vocabulary for 3 years old. So I really adore these little mispronunciations as they remind me that she is still my little babe.

Above are a couple of cute pictures of Josie being sweet with her brothers (Will is in green and Ben is in white).

Josie Girl is 3 Today!

Today is Josie's 3rd birthday. That's the good news. The bad news is she fell off her swing last night and landed on the wood from the club house. She is ok, but bruised pretty bad under her left eye. Poor buddy.

To start her day off right, we blew up 20 balloons and filled her room with them this morning. When she woke up she loved it. We let her wear her cool basketball outfit to school too. We all got up early and went to Josie's pick, My Favorite Muffin for breakfast. Tonight we will eat Aunt Terri's special birthday spaghetti, eat leftover basketball cake and one final present.

The attached pictures are from her party at Grandma and Grandpa's over Memorial day weekend. The last one is this morning when she woke up. The video is her signing her favorite Justin Roberts song :)

Basketball Baby!

Josie loves sports. She has said for over a month now that she wants a basketball and a hoop for her birthday. So we decided to give her a sports themed birthday. We've asked all the kids to dress in sports attire. I think it will turn out cute. This is a video from last Friday of Josie practicing her dribble. You can't tell in the video, but she is getting it. A mom at the place said, she is really good at that! Way to go Josie girl.

BIG Girl Bed

Today before our friends came over for a play-date, Daddy and "Bob the Builder" aka Josie took her crib apart and made it into a toddler bed! Josie never tried to climb out of her crib. Instead she would patiently say, "Mommy please come get me, I'm ready to get up." We figured before she turned three we'd put her in a big girl bed.

When the bed was complete, Josie was so excited. In fact, she was anxious to take her nap. While all of our friends were here, (a total of 3 moms, one grammy, and 5 additional kids) she said she was ready to take a nap in her big girl bed.

Josie-isms

Josie is so entertaining. She says things that make me burst out laughing. For instance, when she is being grouchy she says, "Mom, I'm having a rough day at the office". Or when she tells a joke she says "ba-bom-bom-ching!" She'll give you a giant hug and as she is squeezing you she says "Hugs not drugs." She looks at hand-me-downs from Maeve and tries each one on as she says "oh adorable!"

If she wants to join in on the conversation she will say, "What are you talking about. Oh I want to talk to." Daddy says Mommy now has someone to share air space with...

When Mindy asked her to be a flower girl, I said I was so excited I could cry. She jumped into the conversation and said, "I want to be your flower girl, I'm so sad I could cry!" So somethings get lost in translation. I mean, who cries unless they are sad, right?! She is my little shadow and I am her biggest fan.

Here is a video from when we helped Mindy try on wedding dresses.

Time Flies...

When you are having fun (and when you are a parent of three!). OK so a new year's resolution, which is sort of late since it is April now, is that I plan to post more on here. Maybe not daily, maybe not weekly, but the boys blog and Josie's blog will get updated MONTHLY. Yes. Monthly. I can commit to that.

Lots of things have happened since I was on here last. For starters, I went back to work then I quit work. Which is why I now can make the monthly commitment above. But this isn't about me. It's about Josie!

So here are some bullet points of what is going on with Josie.
-She has a new wave. She waves to cars as they go by almost like she is giving them a stop sign, but shakes it a little and gives them a funny look with it. It's awesome.
-When I carry Josie down the stairs she does this pat pat on my back that warms me from head to toe.
-When she does the pat pat above, I tell her she melts me. She then responds with a "you melt me too, mom."
-Josie still LOVES her brothers, but now that they are crawling she doesn't love them in her stuff.
-She loves Toy Story, Cars, Cinderella, Justin Roberts, and a new found love of gum.
-She is still daddy's little girl. When he walks in the room, Josie beams. And he beams right back.

Here is a family photo from Easter. Just look at our little lady!