Jana: 3 years, 4th month

Jana's such a sweetheart these days.

We are mostly having success in trying to get rid of the bad habits Jana picked up at preschool. She and Kara are enjoying their time at home together and are definitely learning how to play together better.

Mommy and Jana trying to do a cute self-portrait. Ehh. She looks cute!

It was so neat to see how Jana reacted to Kara's birthday this year. She was very excited to pick out a present for her and proceeded to carry it around all day, telling everyone she saw that it was her present for Kara's birthday. Oops!

Here's Jana very excited about Kara's new birthday presents.

Our silly girl in her "cool dudes" as Grammy calls them.

At the beginning of the month, Mama had to head out of town to finish up one of her consulting contracts. So we had a wonderful friend helping us out with childcare that week. The girls love her, so it was great. I dropped them off on my way to the airport. Apparently Mama forgot to mention that Jana was in her jammies still because she did some very cute braids in her hair, but sent her to school in her jammies. Hee, hee! Here they are having a picnic dinner with Daddy - both still in the jammies Mommy dropped them off in.

Now that the weather is nicer, we spend a lot of time outside. Bubbles are our favorite toy outside.

Kara got a doll stroller for her birthday, so they also like to play to with their dualing strollers int he backyard.

A new battle we're having this month is over the hair. She hates having her hair combed and Mommy hates her looking like a rag-a-muffin. I think I was able to get one side of her hair combed.

Mommy had a bit too much fun at Gymboree this month and Jana is very proud of her new clothes. So far this is her favorite outfit.

Trip North for a Visit!

The day after school got out for Daddy, we were able to head up to Grammy and Papa's house for a long weekend. Daddy had his big LiveStrong ride and Mama and the girls got to spend some quality time with Grammy and Papa and we even got some time with our nephews.

One of the great perks of Grammy and Papa's is that their neighborhood has a park. And, what makes it even better is that we get to ride in the golf cart to get there. So, as long as the weather cooperates, we're at the park at least once a day.

Both girls love the rocking frog (or "a rocky-rocky woggy" - rocky, rocky froggy as Kara calls it).


"Look Mom, no hands!"

And of course there's the slide. Gotta love spazzing out hair after going down the slide. (Please note Jana covering her ears. We'll come back to that, but right now she has a thing about planes and went from loving to find them in the sky to being afraid of them.)

We almost had a collision here, but in the end, Kara let Jana climb up before going down. Phew!
And of course the swings. Unfortunately one of them was broken, so we had to take turns... yikes! That was difficult for them.

Both girls LOVED the huge sandbox. I got some pictures of Kara playing, but I missed the special trip that Grammy and Jana took - where she played in the sandbox for over two hours straight. Yikes!
In the end, I think Kara's favorite part of the park is just having all the room to roam and climb.

But, Grammy and Papa's house its own charm: Pool table to play "pool balls", a great garage and driveway for riding bikes, trikes and scooters, a basketball hoop... (I have to get some more pictures from Auntie L - I know she has some great ones.)


But we can't forget the hot tub. After cooling it down, the kids loved it. Kara refused to stay in one place long enough to put her suit on, so she just went in her swim diaper, but she had a hard time with the contoured seats. She went for a swim a few times. Oops!

While we were there, we got to experience another spectacular thunder storm. Jana greatly dislikes any loud noises that she can't control, so airplanes, thunder and fireworks are not well tolerated by her. This one is hard to see because I took it with my iphone in the dark, but I had to try. Here is Jana asleep during a storm. She was very unhappy about the thunder, she had to sleep with her hands over her ears. (The window is in the upper left corner, then the big comforter is in the background. You can see her shoulder, arm bent and hands over her ears. Then you can see her face and blanket tucked under her chin.)

More winner conversations with Jana

We had spent the day with Auntie Meg who is very pregnant.

Jana: Why is Meghan's tummy full?
Mama: Because she has a baby in her tummy.
Jana: (with a look on her face like I had said the most ridiculous thing on the face of the earth). That's just silly, Mommy. Why does she have a baby in her tummy?
Mama: The baby is growing in her tummy.
Jana: Oh.
--- End of conversation---

In the car on the way home that night...

Jana: So Auntie Meggy has a baby in her tummy?
Mama: Yes. A boy baby.
Jana: And he is growing in her tummy?
Mama: Yes
Jana: So, when he gets big, she'll just take him out, right? And she'll put him on the ground and he'll walk. Oh wait, he won't be able to walk - he won't be big like me. So, he'll just sit.

Oh, the funny things that go on in a three year old's brain.

While driving over the bridge (over the river) to Grandma and Grandpa's house...
Jana: Look, Mama! It's a pond. Let's go fishing.
Mama: No, baby. That's a river.
Jana: No, it's a pond. Let's go fishing. There are fish in the pond.
Mama: It's a river - see how it keeps going?
Jana: Oh. Then we can't go fishing.
Mama: Why not?
Jana: Because, Mom... (in that teenager, "duh" voice). There are alligators in rivers, not fish.

Oh, okay! We'll leave it at that! :-)

Megan is amazing!

We have a wonderful family friend who took some pics of our girls this weekend for us. She's amazing! Not only does she take fabulous pictures, she's so good with the girls.

If you are in the area and want AMAZING pictures by a very talented and absolutely wonderful person, go see Megan: www.meganmjones.com

I just got these from facebook from her, but I had to post them on here... (because I know they will make you cry, Mom!)

Enjoy and thank you so much Megan!

Engagement Party

We were able to go up to Washington to join in the celebration of Dave and Jenny's engagement.

Gramps and Glenna were wonderful in allowing us to take over their house and backyard on a lovely evening for a BBQ.

The "kids" (and bigger kids) had a wonderful time running around and playing.

Jenny's cousin's kids were there and so the kids had a great time.

Kara had a wonderful time trying to keep up with the bigger kids.


This stump was the favorite place to be.

It's too bad that Jenny doesn't like kids and they don't like her. Jana and Mesa were working pretty hard to compete for Jenny's attention.
And then it was time to open presents. It reminded me of a feeding frenzy when you throw open a bag of bread around ducks.

Jana did stop long enough to take a breath, but man she was working hard to get first dibs on those presents to open.

Not surprisingly Kara had no interest in opening presents, but the garden was very interesting.

And before we headed home, Cousin Trevor arrived with Max, his son who is a month younger than Kara. The three of them headed out on to the golf course to run around. They slowed down long enough to watch a plane overhead, but that was the closest we could get to getting a picture of them all .

And Kara had a great time swinging around the flag. Silly girl!
Then we were off for a really long drive back home! We had a great time, though!