Girly girl updates

The other day, auntie Lara put her necklace around Josie's neck, much to her delight. A while later, Josie asked, "Why did you lock the necklace on me?" Auntie brilliantly told her that it only can break when she is playing with it, so it's safe around her neck, but Josie wasn't buying it. She thought auntie had locked it on her forever.

Josie is full of "the sillys" all the time these days. She is constantly making up words or changing words she knows to be nonsense, ie. delmet for helmet (which kind of drives us nuts but also shows a lot of creativity). She gets so hyped up that bedtime is a disaster, usually taking a solid three hours before she'll fall asleep, regardless of what time she is put to bed, what the routine is, how she napped or didn't nap that day, etc. We're banking on it being a stage. She's gotten a lot better at playing independently, but with that comes getting into anything and everything. She can be so polite when talking with others. I often find myself reminding her to say thank you while she is saying thank you, so clearly I need to back off and let her have a chance to use her manners. 

The other day, I walked in to find Audrey laying on her changing table while Josie had a wipe and was wiping her leg. Jo had pulled her little wooden table up along side so that Audrey could climb up, and then she stood on it so she was at "mom height" to "change Audrey's diaper." After realizing that nobody was hurt or about to get hurt, I definitely laughed about it. They can be quite creative.

Audrey, these days, is winning everyone over with  her charm. The blue eyes, curly blonde hair, smiles, hugs, and constant hand holding is too much to resist. I'm not kidding, you guys. Everyone is sucked in by her charm. To top it off, she doesn't whine/cry nearly as much and she's talking up a storm, so she's just fun to be around all the time. She's just at a fun stage in life, and each stage is better than the last. She still speaks softly, so often times she relies on her facial expressions to get her point across. She has the best surprised or excited face. Huge eyes, open mouth, often times saying "'cited!" (excited). 

This mini update is leaving out a lot, but I don't want to forget these little things.

Reunited, family style

We spent an unexpected long weekend with my family last weekend, and let.me.tell.you. We had a good time. (Warning: this post contains a lot of pictures and is most likely going to be relevant to my family only... but there are some good pictures of the girls if you don't know the other family members!)

The girls and I headed out first, planning to stay overnight and come back the next day. My aunt, cousin and wife and three sons were here for the first time. He grew up in Florida (now living in Texas) and we only saw him and his family a few times throughout our childhood. Needless to say, we felt like it was a big deal to get to see them (and really, to get to know them). 

We had so much fun with them that we decided to extend our weekend (even though I had prior plans that I had to cancel that would have also been pretty awesome...it was worth it). Hubby and my sister came down after they got done working on Friday and the lake house was at maximum capacity. Amazingly, even though the forecast said it was going to rain the whole weekend, it barely rained at all! We couldn't have asked for better weather. 

Grammy had the girls help make rice krispy bars, something that these Texans had never had before (hear our gasps?? Who's never had rice krispy bars before?)

Josie was thrilled to meet her "cousins" and talked about the boys nonstop. The baby was easy to play with and the bigger boys fascinated her. She did a lot of watching at first before jumping in to play with them.

My grandma loves holding babies, and Audrey indulged her just a little bit before running off. Those days are coming to an end I'm afraid! Audrey is hardly a baby anymore. :(

This guy (my cousin) enamored the girls. He managed to somehow get shy Audrey to sit on his lap and stay there for almost an hour. That's unheard of. Then, later, he got Josie wrapped around his finger by letting her fly their remote controlled helicopters. She couldn't get enough of him, and thankfully, he was very patient and sweet with her when she got nervous and silly. I so remember acting like that, and it was entertaining to watch to say the least.

Here is a typical Audrey expression, saying, "Hands!" I'll always say yes to that request because there is nothing sweeter than holding that little hand (and going at the slowest speed possible).

We got to go out on Papa's boat and as always, Josie was loving it. She even got to go fishing with Papa and Daddy the next day and told me allll about it in great detail later. She's been needing some serious one-on-one time lately and she didn't know what to do with herself when she got two-on-one attention for the entire morning while on the boat.

Most of my cousin's family on the tiny boat... we had to squeeze to all fit but the good news is we didn't sink it. :)

This snoopy life jacket was mine as a kid! You've just got to love second generation things like this.

After fishing with Papa and Daddy, Josie konked out on the way to the cemetery. We wanted to go and honor my Grandpa one last time since my cousin was up here. The coolest thing is that my cousin is in the army, like my Grandpa who was in WWII, and he has just been promoted to Sergeant. He wore his dress blues and it was just a cool tribute to this man we loved so much.

My grandparents' headstone:

 

My great-grandparents' headstone:

My cousin's older boys, who despite looking silly in this picture, were very respectful the whole time we were there:

My cousin and his family with my grandma:

This next picture was a keeper because of the oldest boy's face. I mean really. He thought he was so sneaky.

We had a moment of prayer, led by my cousin. Again, a great tribute.

A few of the cousins (missing a bunch though, we are never really all together):

Honored for Memorial Day with the flag and flowers, still looking fresh and beautiful.

This one is random, but I couldn't help but be touched by this one of a child that died at just one years old or slightly younger right by my grandpa's grave. It just broke my heart to imagine this family burying their baby. I know it was common, but this one stuck out to me.

It was so neat to see where the headstone was placed in the cemetery. There weren't a lot of trees in the cemetery, but of course his headstone was right under one of the bigger trees, with a perfect canopy above it. He would have loved it.

After we visited the cemetery, we all headed back to a family member's farm and spent the afternoon visiting, nature walking, shooting guns, and having a huge "burn pile" fire. The girls hardly slept that day but all the excitement and people kept them behaving and we were able to enjoy our time with family we hardly get to see.

I'm so thankful for my family, and so hope that we don't go so long without seeing them again!

Josie says

Some of these are a little older, but definitely worth saving.

The week that my grandpa died, Josie and I had this conversation...
Me: Josie, I'm sad because my grandpa is sick and I don't like seeing him in pain.
Josie: I love my papa.
I pull up a picture of him next to a picture of my dad so she can see her papa vs mine.
Me: tearing up at this point This is my grandpa. I really love him.
Josie: I really love him too! Mommy don't be sad. Your grandpa doesn't want you to be sad. He doesn't want you to cry. He loves you, Mama!
For real. The empathy of a two year old can be astounding. Of course this only made me cry harder. She followed with:
Josie: Can I sit real close to you and give you a hug? I love you, Mama. Do you love me? 
and we did sit together on the couch and hug for a little while. It was perfect.

Talking on the phone (whatever toy she's currently holding to her ear)
Josie: Hello? Is it you? The sun is outside in the morning."
or
Josie: Hello? Is it you? It's cold outside of the house." 
Always has to include the weather.

Again, talking on the phone after learning that the batteries were dead on her little keyboard: 
Josie: Hello? Grandma? The batteries are dying! Can you fix it? The batteries are going dead. We need to change them. Grandma? The batteries are going dead!
This went on for well over ten minutes. She was very concerned about the fate of the piano and only Grandma could fix it.

Looking at a calendar with square boxes...
Josie: Mommy, what is that?
Me: It's a bunch of squares.
Josie: Remember tangles? Is it tangles?
Me:
Josie? Mommy, remember the tangles??
Me: Yeah...! Rectangles!
We clearly haven't reviewed shapes enough lately... mama's already forgotten them!

To the waffle she was eating for breakfast, while screaming extra loud.
Josie: '"I wannnnnt to stab you!
Me: Me???
Josie: looking at me while obviously confused, No...
Me: Oh good, for a second I thought you wanted to stab your mama.
Josie: I want to get my waffle with the stab.
Grammatical toddler errors are my favorite. :)

April 3rd, Josie singing Jingle Bells...
Josie: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!!!!!
Me: Are you singing that just because it's snowing? Yes it was really snowing!
Josie with an extra cheeky grin: Yeah!
Me: Noooooo!
Josie: and I'm singing it to the cars out there in the snow.

After using the toilet (sorry for the bathroom humor)...
Josie: I used toilet paper!
Me: No, you didn't.
Josie: I took some paper and just freaked out.

On our drive to church one Sunday.
Josie:: while looking out the window, On the second day, God made the car so we went to church.

Her words are pretty accurate, so when she really stumbles, it's worth noting.
Umbrella has sounded like umdebetla. We get to hear this a lot since she loves anything that remotely resembles an umbrella. Lately, it's been our plunger (gross.......). She also used the plunger and a cup balancing on the handle end to make a light with a shade. Pretty clever, if I do say so myself!

Also worth noting? Her baby's name the other day was "Nanno" and she currently has a cow and horse living in her room with her. She feeds them hay bales and pets them and gets "kisses from their licks". All.day.long.