Free Digital Scrapbook Stuff

Visit http://digitalfreebies.com/ and sign up for the Friday Freebie. You'll get an email on Fridays notifying you of a link to some neat digital scrap booking files. The links are only good for a period of time, then they expire. If you really get into digital scrap booking, you can purchase inexpensive kits from this web site. I had this site recommended from a friend. It's neat to browse the gallery to see some really fantastic ideas. There are some super creative people out there!

Jason is 35

So, Jason is turning 35. Let's see. This makes the 13th time I've had the privilege of telling him "Happy Birthday." This has been a neat year. We've enjoyed travelling to Great Lakes, IL to see Jon graduate Navy Basic Training, and to South Daytona Beach, FL for vacation. Joanna had swine flu and Thomas had RSV. We "dedicated" Thomas to Christ. We sold both our nice cars and got rid of that debt. We are driving reliable and respectable paid-for vehicles. We mourned the passing of our dear friend Ed and tried to help Joanna cope with and try to understand his absence.  Our kids have grown in emotionally and physically. We haven't stopped growing and learning as well. We have gardened, made scratch biscuits, canned food, and butchered meat.  We are blessed with health and happiness our family and friends.

A collage of fun pictures from the last year.

Some firsts

Joanna "spat" for the first time while brushing her teeth!

Thomas tried to say "baby" when he saw the baby hair wash.

TV Commercials

I had the opportunity to tell Joanna, "We don't let TV tell us what to do" the other day. She decided she wanted some chocolate during a commercial for Lindor Truffles.

Joanna's third birthday was a special day.

Three! Today is Joanna's third birthday.

She woke this morning and I told her it was her birthday and sang her "Happy Birthday to You" and she smiled.
We went to church and on the way Joanna said "Happy Birthday to Thomas and Joanna."
Her friend Kadie gave her a big hug today as we were all saying goodbye. It was so cute.

I got a phone call from my special friend, Audry, a.k.a "Buddy." Today is her birthday as well. It really is unique! Really, just how many people out there have a special friend and a child sharing the same birthday?

Here is a photo of Joanna showing everyone that she can say "three" with her fingers. She's been really proud of this ability as it has taken her a lot of practice to hold down that pinkie finger with her thumb.

We had a birthday party at 3p.m. today, 10/10/10.

Joanna had a fabulous time as 4 generations of our family gathered together just for her. She is as loved as she is loving. I think she is a special blessing to everyone in our extended family.

We were happily surprised by a call from Uncle Jon and Aunt Barbara. Joanna still pronounces Barbara sort of like "arbra" but that's o.k. :-) She remembers them exactly.

Jason and I got Joanna "Beauty and the Beast" and Nana gave her the pink flip-flops she asked for. Big Momma gave her my Raggedy-Ann doll, cleaned and looking nearly brand new. Rachel gave Joanna a green courderoy Christmas dress. The latter two will make a fantastic Christmas photo together. Neena (Brenda) gave Joanna a plaque about her special birthday being 10/10/10 and wrote a letter about the date's meaning. Jason helped Joanna open presents--not sure what happened to me--perhaps a Thomas-diaper change. I have no idea who got her half the presents but she got so many that I feel overwhelmed to be honest. I'm not complaining... I took a few of the toys and put them away to bring them out in a few days or weeks, when she needs something different. It just makes sense to me to do this.

Everyone has been so generous to give their time to come or call today. Joanna and Thomas are some really blessed children to have so many people to love and care about them and spend time with them.

Kids update

Thomas was stomping around the house in a size 3T T-shirt that has a
picture of a dinosaur wearing boxing gloves. He looks like a little
man in his boy clothes. He's wearing 24-months sized pants and some
tops too, but the 3T fits with the sleeves rolled up. He's so handsome
and sweet. Just exactly like his daddy. He ate his first strawberry
today. He liked it, but he made the same kind of goofy faces that he
made when he ate his first tomato.

Joanna has a stubborn streak to her. I don't know where that came from...
She is absolutely precious though. Last night, she grabbed my fork
from dinner and took it with her little red chair to the kitchen sink
and washed it off (water only) and laid it on the counter top. Does
she watch every move I make or what? It is so neat to see her do
things herself. This morning she went to "school" aka "Miss Kristie's
Castle" and I mentioned to her to tell Miss Kristie when she needs to
pee and poo in the potty. She said, "I need to go pee in the potty,
now." So I went ahead and took her. She did it! I'm so proud. She went
poo a little in the potty tonight as well. I gave her the "two
chocolates" except they were little chocolate chips instead of big
Hershey kisses. I mean, it was like 9 o'clock! She didn't say anything
about them not being big (didn't even hint at complaining), they were
still "two chocolates."

Poo on Saturday

Joanna went poo in the potty today. Twice. Without help. All by herself! Nobody even asked her to go. She is just growing up! Hooray.

This morning, Joanna woke up early and went potty and then went back to sleep. Thomas woke up at 7:15 and I got up and we went to the grocery store. I was out of coffee filters and I just had to get that checked  off my things to do list right away! We had a neat time. I don't recall taking only Thomas to the store with me. I enjoyed that time with him this morning. He said "bye bye" and waved to the cashiers. That was really neat. 

Thursday night, Thomas signed "more" and "finished" at dinner. He was mimicking us, but he was doing it alright! 

We arrived home and were greeted by Joanna. She had only been up a few minutes. She was cuddling with Daddy. She had already got out of bed by herself, gone potty and also poo-poo too! All by herself! She told Jason about going potty, but he didn't know she'd done number two. So anyway, I came in and she helped me bring in a couple small bags. After we got the bags in, I saw the poo and I was so happy for her! We got really excited and gave each other "five" and dumped the potty chair contents into the toilet and Joanna flushed it down and we said bye bye to the poo poo. Yay! We washed our hands and Joanna got two pieces of chocolate (Hershey kisses). Later just before nap time, she went in the bathroom unannounced and went poo poo again. I told her she could have her two chocolates after nap and she went along with the idea. 

She was really geared up today before nap, I mean, going potty is exciting! So, it was hard for her to get settled down. I did let her watch Nemo to fall asleep. I usually just read to her and we cuddle, but that really wasn't working today. Within a few minutes of simply staying still to watch Nemo she was out.

Once she was asleep, I put the two chocolates in her little pocketbook with her small bubbles as a surprise. She liked that and carried her purse for a while and wanted to take it with us when we left for the balloon festival. She ate one chocolate at home and one in the car.