New picture of Joshua

Since Joshua's been breech for so long, it's been difficult for the ultrasound techs to get any pictures of his face. Since he's now turned head down (thankfully), we've finally been able to get a sneak peak of what he'll look like. Within 4 weeks, we should be able to see him in-person!

My Little Helper

A few weeks ago, Jenna helped me sort through her infant clothes to find some items that we could use for Joshua. She separated the pink or purple clothes from the rest of them, then I went through what was left. She was quite a big help!


Several times over the past few weeks, she's also reorganized my lazy susan. She's done a good job; I just don't always know where she's put everything these days. I'm sure it's organized in her mind though!

Valentine's Day Weekend

We had a great Valentine's Day weekend. Jenna started out with a party at school on Friday from which she came home with lots of Valentines from her friends and lots of candy too. She also brought us this card that she made. Isn't it adorable?

Saturday morning, I made heart-shaped pancakes! : )

Sunday after church we decided to try Mr. Gatti's pizza as a special treat for Jenna. She's not a huge fan of eating pieces of pizza, but she enjoys eating the toppings off of it and she loves spaghetti. We'd never been there before--believe it or not--and were very impressed with the service and how yummy the pizza was. Jenna really enjoyed herself too:

After pizza, we went to Target, one of Jenna's 4 favorite stores (along with Kroger, Best Buy, and Guitar Center). She got a new set of blocks (I'll post more about that later), so she definitely enjoyed her special Valentine's Day. To top it off, we took Randy to a wonderful frozen yogurt place that Jenna and I recently discovered. If you have one in your area, I highly recommend it. It's so yummy!

It snowed off and on throughout the weekend, which made it very pretty when we were out and about. The highlight of my Valentine's Day weekend was this beautiful bouquet of flowers Randy gave me. Isn't it gorgeous? It smells wonderful too.

I hope you enjoyed a great weekend with friends and/or family too!

A Snowy Winter!

This has been the snowiest winter we've had in quite a while in Knoxville. The biggest accumulation so far was about 3"-4", which is more than we've had in several years. Here are some pictures of Jenna enjoying the snow day.





I've gotten some really pretty pictures in our neighborhood with a white blanket of snow.



Jenna even helped Daddy shovel snow and ice in the driveway and the street. She loved helping and enjoyed the reward of hot chocolate at the end!

The One-Shoed Girl

Jenna's been walking around with one shoe tonight. When I asked her why, she replied, "So I can dance easier!" She knows what's important in life!

A New Umbrella

For the past few weeks, Jenna's been asking for an umbrella. So while we were at the mall the other day, I splurged and bought her this adorable Stephen Joseph umbrella:

She was so excited and proud of it. She said on the way home that she was going to walk in the house with it, open it for her daddy, and say "Ta Da!" That's her new phrase. I had already thought of adding to her collection with the matching rain boots and rain coat over time.


Here she is modeling her new "bumbershoot," as her Yaya (grandmother) used to call it. Too bad within an hour, she'd broken it and the fun abruptly ended. Maybe she was a little bit too young for it, or maybe I shouldn't have let her walk around with it inside the house. Either way, we'll be waiting a bit longer before buying a replacement for her. It was fun while it lasted though!

Jenna's Second Haircut

This time, Jenna's haircut was a breeze! She did so much better than the first time!

Funny Girl

Jenna cracked me up last week with the things she said. Here's a few examples:

She was playing in my closet with the door closed, so I asked her what she was doing. She replied, "I'm just hangin' out; I'll be out in a second!" Alrighty, then!

We went through Jenna's baby's clothes last weekend to see if any were gender-neutral that Joshua could wear. After we washed them, we were putting them away in his room. She came over to my belly and said "We're getting ready for you!" So sweet!

When I was looking at a magazine, I showed her something to see what she thought. She said, "That's so adorable!" I wonder where she got that from!

Driving home from school on Monday or Tuesday, she asked "What did you do at work today, Mommy?" I was very impressed with this question; I'm sure she was unimpressed with my answer. My job probably sounds pretty boring to a 3-year old!

Another modeling shot!

Mimi & Poppa Visit

Mimi and Poppa came to our house last weekend, and we had a great time. Daddy, Poppa and Jenna broke open some new toys she'd gotten for Christmas but hadn't had a chance to play with yet. She loved the new building blocks--well, I think they all did! Here are some of their creations.



Saturday evening, Randy and I took advantage of the grandparents being here and spent the evening out celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary which we'd had the week before. We enjoyed a yummy meal at Lakeside Tavern, a delicious local restaurant, and topped it off with ice cream afterward. We enjoyed the adult time and a meal without interruptions. Movie times didn't work out, so maybe next time!

Here's a rare picture of the two of us before we left for our date.
As usual, I have red eyes!

We were given a great seat at the restaurant--
right in front of the fireplace.
It was very romantic and cozy.

Here's a picture of us on our wedding day, over 10 years ago now!
Time has flown by!

Thanks, Mom & Dad, for watching Jenna. She had a great time playing and watching Horton Hears a Who, now one of her favorite movies!

Lincoln Log Fun

Jenna is getting to be quite the builder with Lincoln Logs. She loves playing with them, and really impresses us with what she builds. Here's a few shots of a recent creation.

A Visit to the Doctor

Jenna woke up a few Saturdays ago, not acting like herself and feeling warm. We called the doctor because we didn't want her to be sick all weekend. Once she found out where she was going, she said she was feeling better, but we knew she was just trying to get out of going. : ) We took her to the weekend office where a female doctor was there instead of her usual male doctor. It was amazing how calm she was through the entire visit; she didn't cry at all. After the doctor left the room, I asked her if she liked the girl doctor better than her other doctor. She said, "I like girl doctors not boy doctors," so we'll be working on switching to her.

They ordered a strep test and a flu test (one in the mouth and one in the nose), so she wasn't thrilled at all with the nurse. Thankfully, both were negative, so the virus just ran it's course for a week or so and she was better. After the trauma of the test, I asked the nurse if they had a sucker, and they offered a popsicle; I never remember getting a popsicle when I went to the doctor! She survived the visit, may have found a new doctor in the process, and enjoyed a blue raspberry popsicle too!

Winter in Tennessee

If I remember right, for the first 2 weeks of January, Knoxville didn't get above freezing. We had snow/ice on January 7-8, and our driveway didn't melt until Saturday, January 16! It was very cold, which we're definitely not used to here! Here's a picture of the entrance of our subdivision (where last year I'd rear-ended someone in the ice because it was so bad)!

Jenna didn't want to get out in the snow (what little we had) because it was too cold--smart girl! Hopefully, later this year, we'll have a good snow where Jenna can enjoy playing in it. Today, we're just getting rain, rain, rain.

Yikes!

It's going to be a long 10 weeks! Here's how I looked at 38 weeks with Jenna.
Here's how I look now at 29 weeks!Yikes!

And the baby's name is...

We've decided on the baby's name and wanted to share it with you. Of course, when we see him, if the name doesn't fit, we could always change it, but this is what we're going with for now. We can't wait to meet him in just a few months!

My Favorite Jenna Quotes

Jenna has been saying 3 things lately that I think are so cute:

1) "I so love you!" - The so inserted in the sentence just makes it so sweet and emphatic.

2) "I was missing you!" - This is another one that tugs at the heart!

3) "You may pick." - I've been giving her choices for some time now to give her the opportunity to learn to make her own decisions. She's just started with this, which to me is an early sign of preferring others.

She's really growing up and will make such a great big sister!

Pretty Dresses from the Grandmothers

Both of Jenna's grandmothers have recently given her dresses, so I thought I'd post how cute she looked in them. She loves to wear dresses and even likes wearing tights...we'll see how long that lasts!

Here's the dress from Randy's mom--she made it!

Here's the dress from my mom & dad; Jenna enjoyed being a princess in it!

Christmas Baking

Jenna and I started Christmas baking last week with a new recipe for cookies. My favorite kind of Hershey Kisses are the Candy Cane type which, thankfully, are only available during the Christmas season!

If you also like these type of kisses, I recommend you try this recipe for Candy Cane Blossoms.

Jenna was responsible for unwrapping all of the
Hershey Kisses and for rolling the cookies in the sugar
before baking. She did a great job!

Another job of Jenna's was to put the Hershey Kisses
on the cookies after they were finished baking.

As you can see, ours turned out very similar
to the picture on the Hershey's Website!
Jenna even added some creativity by mixing red and green
colors. She was so proud of these cookies!

While celebrating Christmas in Atlanta this weekend, Jenna helped Mimi do some more Christmas baking. Mimi found this adorable apron and was so excited to share it with her. Of course, Jenna wasn't interested in wearing it. We finally got her to put it on for a few minutes so we could get some pictures.

Does she look cute or what?

Mimi and Jenna with their aprons on

Do you think Jenna was getting aggravated
with all the pictures???

She was ready to start baking again!

Christmas is coming quickly, so hopefully we'll still have time to do more baking. If not, we can always resume in January!