Josephine's 3rd Birthday Party!

Josephine celebrated her 3rd birthday this weekend! Her birthday isn't until next weekend, but we had the party early. We had the immediate family over for a pizza lunch and cake and ice cream.


Josephine is thrilled about her Cinderella doll. She's obsessed with taking her "glass slippers" on and off. She does it over and over and over again.


Grannie Ratch, Granna Lynda, Uncle Brian, Nathan, Josephine, and Aunt Leah (and Isaac). Nathan is wearing a mask that goes with the Horton game.


Josephine received Candyland as a present.

Josephine eating the entire marshmallow from her cake.

The pink dragon cake. I surprised Josephine with a dragon cake. She kept saying that she wanted a pink cake for her party, so that's what she got. :)

Thanksgiving 2008

Since I'm short on time, I'll just narrate the pictures.


On Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Josephine and Naomi made "Pilgrim Hats" as a dessert for Thanksgiving dinner. Here they are placing the cookings on the cookie sheet.


They dipped marshmallows in melted chocolate and placed them on top of the cookies. The marshmallows should be completely covered in chocolate, but 2 two-year-olds made them, so that didn't happen. But they're cute anyway. You put a yellow square on the front of the marshmallow for the buckle and then you're done.


Ada sleeping in her swing, holding on to her octahedron rattle. She kept falling farther and farther forward and had the rattle in her mouth. Eventually she gagged herself and woke herself up.

Thanksgiving Day

I forgot to take my camera to Grannie and Papaw's for Thanksgiving breakfast. When Grannie sends me some pictures, I'll put them up.


Aunt Leah is showing off my nephew Isaac Anderson Sandlin. : ) He will be here in April.


Josephine and Naomi eating their pilgrim hats.


The Thanksgiving drum line. Even Audrey joined in.

Fantasy of Trees.

On Friday evening we went to the Fantasy of Trees.


Josephine and Grannie in line for the carousel.


Papaw carrying a sleeping Ada.


Josephine and Elizabeth doing snowflake rubbings.

Elizabeth and Ada.

Growing Up

Ada has done a lot of growing the past couple weeks! She can roll over from her belly to back, although I've never seen her do it. She'll only do it if I leave the room. I leave her on her belly to play then the next time I look at her, she's on her back. She's also starting to stand up (as long as we balance her). Sitting up, the beginning stages at least, is a new skill she's developing, too. She has no problem pushing up on her hands and holding her head up now either.


Josephine and Naomi were being very sweet to Ada and gave her lots of toys to play with. I think Ada was a little overwhelmed.


Nathan and Josephine made a fort in our living room one morning while Ada and I were out running errands. They're showing off their cheese in this picture.



Ada sitting up by herself.

Josephine has grown up a lot this fall, too. Since Ada's been born, she's been potty trained, switched bedrooms and into a "big girl" bed, she is dressing herself (including socks, which is a new skill this week), she can write "JoJo" and spell "Josephine", she attempts to trace her own hand, and is learning to share her parents' attention with someone else. That's a lot of learning!

Jo is really into dancing these days. She likes for me to put on our "Baby Bach" cd while she does "ballet" in the living room. I need to get some video of that.

Josephine will be 3 in 2 weeks! Time is flying by! The family is going to celebrate a week early (next weekend). She knows her birthday is coming up, but she doesn't realize that her party is next weekend. I'll put up a post after her party.

Halloween 2008

Josephine chose to be "Angelina Ballerina" for Halloween this year. She was actually just a ballerina, but she has an Angelina Ballerina book, so she calls all ballerinas Angelina. We gave Josephine the option of going trick or treating or answering the door and giving candy to people. She chose to go trick or treating. We took her over to Papaw's and figured that she could go to one or two houses and if she freaked out on us, we could just go on home. That didn't happen. We went through the entire neighborhood. She never said "trick-or-treat" but she did say "thank you" to everyone who gave her candy. Her mom is proud. :)

We tagged along with a couple older girls and went house-to-house with them. Towards the end, there was a police car patrolling the neighborhood and he/she knew the grandmother that we were tagging along with. She had the police officer flash the lights for the kids to see. That certainly got people to come to their front doors! We were in a cul-de-sac and it took about 5 seconds for every front door to be open to see what was going on. Josephine liked it too.

Ada went with us too, but didn't wear a costume. She gets really heavy after walking around for over a half an hour. Poor thing was so worn out by the end that she fell asleep on the walk back to Papaw's.


Josephine and Ada before we went trick-or-treating. Josephine refused to wear tights, so we put black pants on her. Ada didn't dress up.


Josephine, Ada, and Elizabeth.


Josephine with her loot.

Just had to share:

. . . sometimes you just gotta go to sleep no matter what.