An Unexpected Snow Day

Well, last Friday, the weather forecasters were predicting we could get significant snowfall on Monday night and into Tuesday, so of course all of us were getting very excited and planning our day off for Tuesday. They said the weather pattern appeared to be very similar to the Blizzard of '93, so we were very excited at the prospect of getting more snow than a dusting. I'm amazed at how little snowfall Knoxville gets--even in comparison to Cleveland, an hour south of us. I definitely wanted Jenna to experience snow before she was 5 years old!

Back to the weather forecast...by Saturday, the weather advisory was gone and there wasn't a snow prediction anymore. Apparently, the weather pattern had changed, and we weren't expected to get much of anything at all. So this morning, I went to work expecting nothing, but by 10 am, the snow had begun...big huge flakes and all! By 10:30, Jenna's school had decided to close at noon, so I had to leave work to get her. I had plenty to do at work, but was glad to have an unexpected half-snow day! The roads were pretty slushy by the time I left work, and I was glad to not have to drive in them later in the day when they would potentially be worse. I couldn't even get up our driveway (which is not that steep) until I'd shoveled it!

This afternoon, we just took it easy--Jenna napped and I did some stuff for work. Then came the fun when we built Jenna's first snowman. She really wasn't excited about playing in the snow--she more liked playing in the melted snow (i.e. water puddles). I asked her if she wanted to lay in the snow to make a snow angel, and she said nope.

Enjoy the pictures!

Our Growing Girl

Here are a few pictures of Jenna before going to church today. She's growing up so fast. I worked in the nursery today with her, a 13-month old, and an 18-month old. In the past, she's been totally jealous of other kids and didn't even want me to hold them, change their diapers, etc. Today, she didn't act jealous at all, and was actually very helpful. She brought toys, pacifiers, books, and anything she could think of to help entertain them if they were upset. She was such a big helper and made me proud. She even tried to teach the 18-month old how to jump by showing him and telling him to "watch!" It was so cute. Afterward, we went to a restaurant where we weren't sure what she was going to eat. And she did good there too. How pleasantly surprised we were!

Words of Wisdom

Here are two short funny stories from this week. Jenna is getting to be quite the conversationalist, and sometimes the things she says just crack me up.

Story 1:
On Tuesday morning, it was pouring down rain when I was dropping Jenna off at school. So before I got out of the car, I told Jenna I was coming around to get her but that I was going to be wet when I got there. When I opened the door, she was pointing to the floor and saying her version of "umbrella." Duh, what an easy solution to not be wet! Why didn't I think of that?!?

Story 2:
This morning, I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit before going to work. Odds and ends usually accumulate on our island throughout the week and stay there longer than they should. So I cleaned it off completely, and it looked great. My bubble was burst a bit though when Jenna responded, "Uh oh, all gone!" as if she was so used to seeing it a mess, she thought it was supposed to be that way. Ah, the life of a busy family!

This week in pictures

On Monday afternoon, the weather forecasters started saying we might get some snow on Monday night. I have learned to ignore such predictions so as to not get my hopes up. However, we actually did get some accumulation, probably about an inch. It looked very pretty, so we had to take some pictures. It was very cold, so Jenna didn't get to play in it. She did touch it and thought it was too cold to hold. : )




I thought this was a cute shot of Daddy singing to Jenna. She sang along with him during parts of the sing-along, but the sweet look in her eyes watching him in this picture was priceless.

This morning before church, I had to snap a few shots of Jenna in her skirt from cousin Steven. I thought she looked so grown up in it! I took the first shot, then she saw her friend Mr. Vacuum nearby, so she wanted a picture next to him too. This child has been infatuated with the vacuum since she was about 7 months old. She loves the thing and laughs every time she sees it. She treats it like a person and always says hi to it. Funny girl!

What a month!

WOW! I think this is the longest I've ever gone without posting. After having 17 days off of work during the holidays, it was a rude awakening starting the year! The first 3 weeks of January have been crazy: we had a week of special church services, I was on a business trip for 3 days, we went out of town to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, and now we should be getting back to normal.


Jenna is changing everyday, and we're amazed by how grown up she is! She is saying longer sentences--with the last word being the main one we can understand. She's singing and dancing a lot too, which is so cute! She'll even request us play certain songs by starting to sing them. Some of her favorite words are nope, I like, yo, oh my gosh, and many other grown-up phrases.

Another thing that is cracking us up is how she's started stalling when it's bedtime. When we say it's time to go to bed, she says eat, then she says juice followed by movie, book, and any other stall tactics she can come up with. She got confused the other morning when I was leaving for work, and she wanted me to stay for a while longer. She started going down her list trying to get me to stay. How funny!

She started the 2-year old class at school at the beginning of the year, and she's really having fun. She's also counting and recognizing most letters--we're amazed how quick she is learning!

I'll try to post more soon.

Happy New Year!

This week, we returned from our 8-day, 1450 mile trek (with a 2-year old) across the Southeast to visit family. Jenna did great on the drive (the new portable DVD player helped). We had a great time with both sides, but we're glad to be home. Here are some pictures of our fun. We wish all of you a happy and healthy 2009!

Atlanta, GA with Emilie's Family:

Jenna enjoyed distributing presents:

Here she is modeling a new skirt.

She enjoyed blowing bubbles with
her Uncle Aaron and Cousin Steven.

Jenna spent a few minutes on Christmas Day

catching up with her friend Ella.

I think Jenna decided at the beginning of the trip that she didn't want to wear socks and shoes. She was pretty much barefoot the entire time.

Baton Rouge, LA with Randy's Family:

Our tradition each time we visit Louisiana is to eat beignets.
We hoped Jenna would be more interested in eating them this time
versus last time, but her only interest was in the powdered sugar.
(click on the picture to zoom in)

We also went to the zoo, and caught
some sweet shots with Daddy & Mommy.

Christmas Baking: Part II

We're spending a few days in Atlanta before heading to Louisiana for a few days. We've had a great visit and have had some time to do more Christmas baking. Here are some of the final results:

Mom's Famous Pumpkin Pie

Gingerbread Men and Sugar Cookies (decorated by Jenna):

We had a great time with our family, and Jenna really enjoyed the Christmas experience. Here is a picture of all of us before we began the Christmas meal.

Here is a picture of Jenna grabbing the last of the presents from under the tree. She enjoyed helping to distribute all of the gifts.

Here is a picture of Jenna modeling a new skirt (over her pants, of course). She did well opening the presents, and enjoyed all of the new, fun toys to play with.

Christmas Baking: Part I

Jenna and I have been baking the past few days. So far, we've made two batches of peanut blossoms, two peanut butter pies, and batter for gingerbread cookies. We'll continue baking when we go to Mimi and Poppa's tomorrow. Here are a few pictures...

Jenna loves doing this job:

A finished peanut butter pie--YUM!

Sampling the chocolate to make sure it's good
(notice Snoopy and Max watching her in the background).

In the oven:

Jenna very seriously doing her job...

notice her creativity this time; she put all of the kisses upside down.
The finished product--YUM again!

Jenna Loves Elmo!

Last night, we had our church Christmas party. I had on black corduroys and a red shirt, so I thought Jenna would look cute in red corduroys and a black shirt. I put her pants on, and everything was fine. Then I put her shirt on, and she started saying she wanted to wear her Elmo shirt instead. At the time, it was in the dryer, but it ended up being dry enough for her to wear. So, I reluctantly allowed her to wear a pink Elmo shirt with the red pants (at least Elmo matched, right?). Next, I found some Elmo socks that I thought she might like to wear. She didn't like the fact that Elmo was on the top of her feet, she wanted him on the bottom of her feet. So after a few minutes of trying to explain Elmo was supposed to be on the top so she could see him, I gave up and let her wear him on the bottom of her feet, with the heel on the top of her ankle. I tried to get a picture, but it was difficult. Here's my best shot. I can't imagine how particular she's going to be when she's a teenager when she's like this at two!

Father-Daughter Bonding

OK, so I was trying to think of what I could blog about for the past week, and when this happened, I couldn't resist. Tonight, we were putting Jenna to bed, which has developed into quite the routine: bath (most nights), clean diaper, pajamas, brush teeth, reading a story, then getting settled for bed (which includes starting her Fisher Price Aquarium, covering up with 2 blankets, and cuddling with her favorite toy, currently Max the Dog from How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

Tonight, I had left the room to start getting ready for bed, but I noticed Randy was still in there 5 or so minutes later. Apparently, she had asked him to sit down next to her crib and shut the door, so they were having some father-daughter bonding time. Jenna began pointing to the door, and saying something that he couldn't understand. He asked her if she wanted the door shut, and she said no. He then realized she was saying "go" and asked her if she wanted him to leave. She said "yes." I guess the bonding time was over, and she was ready to go to sleep.

Lunch with Friends

Today, we had lunch with some good friends from Ohio. Karen was my best friend from elementary school (unbelievably we've been friends for over 23 years!), and she and her husband Joe were in Tennessee celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary. We had a good visit with them, and took some pictures afterward. Jenna was very shy until it was time to leave, then she opened up. She even did some dances for them! Randy caught a great action shot when she was in midair.

December 3rd

Jenna's birthday was a fun one. She relaxed at home for a few hours at the beginning of the day, which is when she posed for this picture. She was dancing around too, so I caught a picture of that too!


She went to school for part of the day, and shared ice cream sandwiches with her friends. They had written a special message to her outside her classroom. They said every time they sang "Happy Birthday" to her, she kept saying "more, more." I guess she loved the attention.

Randy and I picked her up and took her to a playground. Although it was a little bit cold, she had a blast swinging and going down the slides.

All in all, it was a fun family day to celebrate 2 years since our little girl was born!

Jenna is 2!

It's hard to believe this was two years ago already. What a wonderful two years it has been. We've learned a lot and we love Jenna more than we ever thought possible.

Here are a few pictures from her birthday celebration this weekend. She was much more interested in the cake this year--last year Randy had to put goldfish in it (which she loved) and make her dig for them to get her to even try the cake. This year, she ate all the icing and a little bit of the cake.

Jenna did several dances for us...what a ham she is!


Jenna enjoyed riding on the same toy that me, my brother, and my cousin used to ride on when we were little. Kudos to Playskool for making such a durable fun toy to outlast all of these years and riders!

Last, but not least, here is a funny movie of Jenna "blowing out" her candle. Her look at the end is hilarious. I'll post more pictures later of her big day.