New Years At Noon!

A couple months ago I found out about a place called Linda's Playhouse. It's an old house, about 30 minutes from our house, that a lady turned into a children's musseum.

We loved the Imagine-It in Atlanta, but it honestly overwhelmed Josie everytime we went.

So I thought Linda's Playhouse would be perfect.

When I found out they were doing a "New Years At Noon" party on New Years Eve I thought it would be perfect. Not only was there no way Josie was going to make it to midnight to ring in the new year, the only way I'm ever up that late is if I drink too much water and have to go potty in the middle of the night.

Tiffany came with me and we had a blast!

I had to laugh that my kid wanted to spend most our time playing with the one thing we have at our house, the grocery store set up!

How sweet is Sissy?!?!

After I coaxed Josie away from the scanner, we hit up the dress up area.

And ended up in the Art Room.

This one was my favorite.

What I wouldn't give for a room with linoleum floors and great lighting where I could set Josie free with all the glitter and paint her little heart desired!

And boy, do these girls like glitter!

I could watch her concentrate all day.

We paid $5 for the kids to play and it was worth every cent.

I hope it doesn't get discovered. I loved that nothing was crowded.

When 12 Noon rolled round we were treated to Sparkling Grape Juice, Cupcakes, Popcorn and all the noise makers we wanted.

Which I wanted zero of and was sneaky enough to "forget" Josie's on the way out!

"Cheers to 2010!"

Then we counted down and rang in (12 hours early) the new year!

I will be fast asleep when we actually ended 2009.

Oh well! Maybe next year we'll make it to midnight!

A Year In Pictures

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

This was a big year for our Josie.

She ditched the paci, potty trained herself, and moved on up to a big girl bed.

She went from wanting to be our baby and have us "feed" her a bottle, to strongly protesting any association with the word "baby."

She added about 5000 words to her vocabulary (at least it seems like it!) and went to her first dance class.

She had a temporary sister (Karmen) for two weeks and went on five vacations.

She started the year spending most her time in daycare and ended it spending 24 hours a day with her Mama.

And as you can see from the pictures, she lost the last of her baby fat and somewhere along the last 12 months, she decided to start looking like a little girl.

I can't believe all the changes she's made this year.

And I really can't believe that she will be 3 in a month and a half.

Don't tell her, but I'm still calling her my baby in 2010!

My First Born

Have you met Boomer?

He's our big ole doggie that's been living up at Mr. Terry's house.

Some people say we abandoned him.

We say he was away at college. Learning to not jump on little girls and chew on her toys.

A couple weeks ago his wireless collar ran out of battery and the company seems to have decided to quit making them.

Thus, our first child is back under our (porch) roof.

He seems to have majored in house protecting and face licking while he was away at school.

He also seems to have minored in toy chewing and trash ripping:

Oh, and squirel killing.

Thanks for that gift Boo Boos.

If he keeps this up, he's getting sent to Boarding School.

Family Date

Yesterday Andrew asked Josie and I if we would like to go on a date with him.

Of course we said yes.

He loaded us up and took us out for ice cream!

It was so nice!

I love Family Dates!

Just Call Me Scrooge!

Yup, it's two days after Christmas and I'm already taking down Christmas.

I had a hard time getting into it this year.

Not only did the temperature rarely drop below 50 degrees, but after seeing everyone else's decorations, I decided ours were not very kid friendly.

Fear not, I hit up a ton of stores yesterday and racked up on bright, glittery, super fun decorations for next year!

My Dad and Step Mom and coming to visit and celebrate Christmas this weekend so I hope they aren't disappointed at the lack of, err, Christmas in the house.

I will leave out an Evergreen candle for us to sit around!

Sneaky, Sneaky

She may look like her Daddy,

But she likes chocolate like her Mama!

My Rolly Polly

This chunky monkey:

makes my heart sing.

And this picture:

makes me love her even more!