Josie says

Her famous interjections (the utterance of a word or phrase expressive of emotion; the uttering of an exclamation):


"Oh my goodness!" (She says it slow but with great excitement every.single.time.)

"Oh Gosh..." (Plenty of emphasis on the shhhhh)

"All right." (She only says this when she really wants to do something and doesn't want to wait for my permission. So, in a sense, she is giving herself permission. It's so funny but I can never laugh when she says it...)

"Ok!!"

"Wooooow" (She says this every time she sees something new. It doesn't actually have to be impressive, but you'd never guess that it isn't by the way she says it. There always seems to be a bit of wonder to her voice too. I should try to get it on video.)






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Firsts, pancakes, and blizzards: A Weekend Update

This weekend, we continued the annual tradition of going to the Kiwanis Pancake Feed with my hubby's family. The highlight was definitely the play area. Josie was big enough (just barely) to play inside one of the inflatables so we threw helped her in and took a step back. Would she know what to do? Would we ever be able to get her out of it again? How could we get to her if she needed us? I'll admit, we were a bit nervous, but she was a champ. At first she just sat there....

But then some kid tried to tackle her. She didn't like that so much. So she came to the edge, hubby picked her up, and we moved to the slide area. After a few attempts, she figured out how to get up the ladder and go down the slide, but it was way more fun for hubby to just lift her up to the top over and over. 

I managed to get it on video. The place was chaos, but you get the idea.

Afterwards, we walked around a while more to see if there was anything else for her to try out. We got to the huge slide and noticed another tiny little girl climbing up the ladder. After finding out that she was the same age as Josie, we sent her up. It took a solid five minutes before she made it to the top (and a few times where I thought I was going to have to climb in there after her), but she eventually did get up there. We got a picture of her at the top. She looks absolutely tiny. She loved it though!

We only did that slide once since the line was long (some tiny kid took FIVE MINUTES to go up so it was a little backed up... oops...). We went back to the table where Audrey was hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. Josie immediately had to tell A all about it.

Audrey was captivated, obviously

Last year when we went, Josie was only seven months old. 

Next year when we go, Audrey will be just over one and Josie will be 2 1/2. They will both be able to play in there. I can't even wait.

Later that afternoon, we went outside to play before the blizzard came. I shoveled a path in our yard for Josie to walk around. It seems to be her mission to "walk" whenever we play outside. She can't really do much else, so I tried to at least give her that option. Mostly, I just wanted to keep her out of the street. Audrey chilled in her car seat, watching us with mild amusement. She was probably the warmest one since she had the garage wall to shelter her from the wind. 

We tried "sledding" but the snow was too deep for me to pull her and actually progress without falling over myself. The shoveled path was a lot more fun (for both of us).

Then she discovered the chairs. She just had to sit in one. She also invited me to sit in the other one, but I respectfully declined. 

We'll be going back out this afternoon since we've been stuck inside ever since this little outing on Saturday. We watched movies and had some quality family time inside yesterday, but we are all feeling cooped up in here today so outside we will go after naps. 

Enjoy this beautiful winter day!

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Catch Up

A little catch up post if you will...

I impulsively joined the gym again this week. If I go 12 times a month, it is free, so I have that motivating me. I also want to run in the Fargo Marathon. We all know that I will not be able to do the full or even the half, but I'd love to do a 10k or 5k. We'll see as it gets a little closer. I can run great outside but treadmill running does nothing for me. I usually quit way too early for it to be effective. I'm giving it another go though, so maybe I'll be in shape enough by the time the weather is nice for me to run outside for longer distances. Whew, hope you understood that.

I am also doing the stair stepper and elliptical machine on a regular basis. Hopefully mixing it up will keep me motivated! When all else fails, I will probably end up going to classes again because having someone yelling at you is a lot more motivating than staring at a wall.

We're starting to get just a wee bit of cabin fever now that it's been a solid two months of "inside only" days. We try to leave the house every day, but that only helps a little. Today, we're going to the library to run around quietly read books in a different environment. Anything's better than sitting in our tiny living room all day every day.

You like the random pictures in between each change in direction? Just trying to keep your attention. :)

I really thought I had more to say than this, but I guess not... 

Last weekend we went to my parents' lake and got to play outside even though it was ridiculously cold. It was fun to just be out of the house!

I assure you that she was dressed much warmer than this when we actually played outside.

We also went to celebrate my grandpa's 85th birthday with some of the family. They living in an assisted living/nursing home so we used the sitting area that was on their floor to have enough space for all of us. It was fun to see everyone, and Josie ran around entertaining everyone. 

Sitting on the floor while we eat... easier to keep her attention this way

Hubby and my uncle 

The birthday boy and his bride with their  second great grand daughter . They have four great grand kids. Pretty sweet!

Last week, I went to a funeral to support a friend of mine (so hard, but so thankful I could go). My dad jumped at the chance to take Josie to work with him. He is a teacher at the Tech College, and apparently whatever he was teaching left room for a 1 1/2 year old to take up most of his time. He had a ton of good pictures and it looks like they had a lot of fun. I took Audrey with me, and she was a little angel, sleeping through the service and being happy and even a bit smiley when my friend got to hold her.

She is so tiny in this room! Can you even find her? Also - notice how they are watching "Bambi" - the students loved it I'm sure!

Excellent student, a bit mature for her age

She loved it! Proof!

Bappa and Josie have become quite the pals these days

(I like how the spelling of my dad's name from his grand kids is always different. Bappa, Papa, Bapa, Boppa, Poppa... someday we'll settle on one.)

Also - Josie is currently singing "trouble trouble trouble" from the Taylor Swift Song "I knew you were trouble". Be still my heart.

Josie says

I saw that title on another blog and I'm stealing it. Deal with it. It's a good one. It may or may not be the start of a new series around here.

So...

Josie says (all the time): "Audrey Joy!" whenever she thinks of her sister, hears her sister crying, hears her sister chattering, sees her across the room... you get the idea. It's so cute. The best part is that it sounds more like "Audwey Choy". He toddler lisp cracks me up. I have no idea where she got the idea to say her full name like that, because I don't feel like we called her by both her first and middle name until after Josie started to. Either way, it's sticking and I hear all of us calling her that more often now. 



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