Jana: 2 years, 7th Month

Jana is such a little girl now - sweet, opinionated, sensitive, and full of drama! Hee, hee. She's starting to figure out that her words have power, which can be used for good or evil. We get things like, "Mommy, I just love you so much." Or "Mommy, you are frustrating me today." Or "Kara, I just don't want to play with you ever again." Ugh!

Jana is so funny about family. She asks every day if we get to go to Grandma or Grandpa's or if we can go to Grammy and Papa's. She has been known to collapse into a pile of tears: "I just miss my family." I guess that's the good and bad about getting to spend so much time with our extended family this summer.

Can you tell that they have Grandpa wrapped around their little fingers? But really, what else are Grandpas for, other than spoiling? :-)

Here she is hanging on the back of Papa's golf cart on a trip up to their house.

She also adores our nephews, Tyler and Justin. A trip to Grammy and Papa's just isn't complete without some cousin time. One of their favorite things to do is to have us cool off the hot tub so they can go swimming.

Sadly though, this was when she was happiest in the hot tub - just her and all the toys.

She absolutely loves to swim and is pretty proud of her ability to swim. Now we just need to learn how to tread water and then I'll feel a little better.

Our little water bug has become pretty brave. During a trip to Spokane, we went to Auntie Sarah's aunt's house and did some swimming. Oh, how she loved the diving board! Over and over and over again!

Jana is hilarious about getting dressed these days. Some mornings are better than others for the battles over what to wear. She would wear nothing but dresses if she had her choice. She would mostly wear pink if allowed too, but as long as it has some kind of pink in it, she can be convinced to wear it. Despite it being about 90 degrees, she insisted on wearing the new jumper she got.

Oy vay! It's really too bad this kid doesn't think she cute. Ha! Also, please notice that she's sitting in the push car. She still loves this thing despite being WAY too big for it.


Here's Jana at her new school on her first day of school. She goes to school two full days a week and then one half day. She seems to be really enjoying it, except that she doesn't always want to go on Wednesday mornings because she knows Kara is staying with me. She really enjoys her new friends and likes having Kara there too.


Here she is on her second day of school. I had to take this picture because she was so proud of herself for picking out her outfit. :-)

These two are a crack up these days. Jana decided that they need popsicles in the bath tub, so she brought one for herself and one for Kara. I guess there are worse things, right? :-)

Have I mentioned that these two are inseparable?




Here they are all decked out in Daddy's riding gear.
Sharing the chair and reading stories to each other.

Having lunch on their little table.

Here she is after her haircut. She was constantly getting food, paint, anything possible in her hair and fighting me to brush it, so we cut it... okay, mama was a little sad with how short it was and how big she looks, but it's still cute.

Here are our silly girls on Kara's first day of school.

Here she is with her favorite bear - still. This is the bear that Great Grandma Mary Jean gave her when she was about 13 or 14 months old. She LOVES "pink bear."

Snacktime when Lexi came to visit.


Jana has been talking for months about how she wants to be a dalmation for Halloween. Lucky for us, we got the last one at Old N*avy. Of course, she now says that she wants to be tinker*bell or a princess, but oh well.
Also while at Old Na*vy we picked up new hats and mittens for winter and Jana got new slippers. Here is Jana in one of her spectacular outfits. I don't know if you can actually tell, but she's also wearing my headlamp on her forehead. Wow, is all I have to say.

Jana is continuing to amaze us. She has been bitten by the reading bug and has decided that she wants to learn how to read. She knows how to sound out simple words and can spell simple words she hears if she can sound out. It's so neat. We are doing our best to keep it fun so she enjoys it, but it's so exciting to watch her learn.