December

The first week of December was a little crazy with Joselynn being so sick. Somehow we managed to get the tree up and decorated but poor Josie wasn't able to participate.  Jules had a great time helping out and even stayed up later than usual to watch a little bit of Rudolph for the first time!  She also recieved an Elf on the Shelf from Mimi at Thanksgiving.  She named him Dominick, after the Christmas song, Dominick the Donkey.  For those that don't know, this is Juliann's favorite holiday song, although we have absolutly no idea why!  She enjoyed searching for him each morning and no matter how hard Dominick "hid", she found him in less than 5 minutes upon waking up! 

 Jules helping Daddy put the angel on the tree

cheesing next to a few ornaments she hung

By the second weekend in December she was back to normal and we headed up to Northern Virginia visit my Ed School friends for a brunch.  It was great getting together with my friends and the girls enjoyed playing with Kristen's two children. Jackson is 3 years old and Jules adored him and all his cool boy toys.  Claire is just a month younger than Josie and it was cute to watch them together.  After the girls napped, we met my grandparents at Olive Garden.  They were able to see the girls and give them a few small Christmas presents.  We had not seen them in quite a while so it was a wonderful way to catch up!  Of course, we left our camera in the car so I don't have any pictures to share.  :(

 Joselynn and Claire

Jackson and Juliann

We also had our first real accumulation of snow the following Monday.  It was only about 2 inches but Juliann enjoyed playing outside in her snowsuit and tried making snow balls to throw at me!  Luckily it was too soft and fluffy to form anything! 

 trying to make a snowball!

Later that morning we had a secret Santa exchange with play group.  It's amazing to me how the kids have changed since we first began getting together almost 2 years ago!  The kids are all walking and talking AND we've added 3 new baby girls to the group!  They big kids enjoyed a pizza party lunch before opening gifts from each other. 

The girls at our Secret Santa exchange

Here are all the toddlers in our play group-crazy how quickly they've all grown up!

We went to see Santa the following weekend and the girls took the CUTEST picture! 

Josie also turned 9 months on the 23rd.  She's growing up so quickly and will be a year old in a mere 3 months.  Here are a few things about Joselynn at this stage:

• At her well check she weighed 14lbs 12oz (she's a peanut in the 5%) and was 26.5 inches (25%).  
• She LOVES eating solids and is starting to eat table food (bye-bye purees!).  I honestly think she prefers food to nursing these days.  She's just starting to get the hang of feeding herself and usually gets about half of it in her mouth on the first try! 
• She's finally got teeth!  The first bottom tooth began to pop through at the beginning of the month and her second bottom tooth has just appeared in the last week.  
• She's also a speed demon and can crawl across the room at warp speed.  Amazingly she doesn't face plant in her attempts to reach a particular person or toy of interest.  
• And about two weeks ago she started pulling up to standing and attempting to cruise.  In fact, last week she pulled up on the coffee table and the dare devil that she is, let go with one had, smiled up at me, then let go with the other hand.  For about a two seconds she was standing completely on her own before falling back on her thickly padded diaper!  She was so proud of herself and I think my heart was in my throat.  I know this is the precursor to walking so it took lots of inner strength not to pick her up once I realized what she was about to do!  I'm just not remotely ready for her to be walking yet.  It's hard enough with how quickly she zooms around the place on all 4s.  Walking takes it to a whole new level.  I know its coming but I'm okay with it taking a few more months!!!
• She's been babbling for a while but is actually saying mama and dada.  I know that she doesn't exactly realize what it means but she has called me mama and David dada and we love it, even if its an accident!
• She's learned a few signs!  I have taught her about 4 signs (eat, more, milk and all done) and she's signing milk and eat.  Sometimes she signs at the right times, other times not so much!  But its great she's catching on and I'm looking forward to her learning more signs.  I loved being able to communicate with Juliann through baby sign and hope the same holds true with Joselynn!
• She's waving hello and bye-bye, although I often get her started.  She gets super excited about it once she realizes she's doing something she's supposed to and gets the biggest grin on her face! 
• She LOVES to dance, just like her big sister!  Its so funny to watch the two of them bobbing and moving to the music!  

  Joselynn pulling up and holding hands with her friend, Rylin

 crawling around the kitchen

Speaking of the kitchen-here's a picture of the remodel!  The new island is not shown and it is wonderful! It is much smaller than the original island, is a trapezoid shape and its on wheels!  We still have some work to do to finish up the kitchen but its functional and we LOVE it!

I'm going to attempt to write a post sometime this weekend that covers Christmas and New Years.  There were just WAY too many pictures to share!  Hope everyone had a nice holiday and is enjoying the start of a new year!