On her "Pure Day"!

After she spotted her presents that morning, it was like torture for the poor girl. So after countless times, of catching her just looking up at her birthday presents and her asking me...is Daddy coming home now? I gave in and gave her one present, but she had to wait on Daddy to get home to open the others. I bet yesterday seemed like an eternity to her!

Dipping the mix into the cupcake holders!

We had such a good day! I took her to the store and let her pick out the cupcake mix, icing, and sprinkles that she wanted and we went home and baked them together.

Adding the sprinkles!

Throughout the day, she would say...Mom, can you sing happy birthday to me! There is no telling, how many times I sang that yesterday!

Jolee and her finished cupcakes!

She loved them! I guess, because all she eats is the icing and they were chocolate her favorite! So we snuggled on the couch and watched Beauty and Beast while she licked away! She got to pick where she wanted to go eat for her birthday supper and yes, she picked Chick-Fil-A her all time favorite restaurant! Then came home and opened presents, I don't have those pictures uploaded yet, but she was so cute and loved them all! She was so grateful and kept saying...I always wanted this mom and dad! After she opened the present from Sophie, she went and gave her a kiss and said....Sophie this is a wonderful gift! I kid you not, she said that to our dog!

Last night as we were laying in bed, she said this has been the best day Mom! She melts my heart!

3 years old!

My baby turned 3 today, where has the time gone? Everybody always tells ya, kids grow up too fast, but you never really believe it, till its your kid!

My heart hurts, she's not a baby anymore. She doesn't need me, to do every little thing for her anymore, because according to her...she's a big girl now and she can do it by herself!

Last night, I tell you it got to me. I shed a few tears, thinking to myself...this is the last time I will bathe my 2 year old, or this is the last time, I will tuck in a 2 year old. I know, I'm a sap when it comes to things like this.

I decided a couple of weeks ago, I would start writing down things she said or did and put it in her Birthday post, so I can always remember it.

So here's a few:

• Jolee's sense of time is: Last Morning! She will say, you remember we did that last morning. No matter if it was a week ago or a month ago, it was last morning to her!
• Her Daddy said to her the other day...Jolee it's bath time and she replied, but I don't think I'm dirty today!
• We can say, Jolee your silly...she says....no I'm funny!
• Jolee what time did you wake up today....30 o'clock! Jolee what time is it (as she is looking at the clock with a concentrating face on) it's 30 o'clock mom!

Sometimes she shortens my name to mom or mama...what happen to her saying mommy all the time? Jolee loves and has learned so many things lately. She loves to go to the Library, loves to sing, and absolutely loves to hear stories about when she was a baby.

She is growing up, way too fast! She has learned to bathe herself, brush her teeth by herself, and after we tell her a story, she now makes up her own story to tell us. She has also started to make up excuses of why she can't do something we ask her to do. Example: Jolee go clean up your play room.... I need to go take a nap and rest (knowing good and well, when it is nap time we have to make her go take a nap)!

But to her, her biggest accomplishment that she has learned, is to open the refrigerator door all by herself. She loves it and is so proud of herself! The other day, I was in the living room and here she came with the chocolate syrup and said she wanted some chocolate milk. As we laughed, Silas and I looked at each other and said yep, we are in trouble!

I interviewed her last night and got her to tell me her favorite things. Again, mostly for me so I can always remember when she turned 3 what a few of her favorite things were:

• Jolee's favorite color....Black and Red
• Jolee's favorite number....#2
• Jolee's favorite restaurant....Chick-Fil-A
• Jolee's favorite food....Chicken
• Jolee's favorite drink....coke and orange juice
• Jolee's favorite place to shop....Wal Mart
• Jolee's favorite place to go....Pappy and Granna's house
• Jolee's favorite "girl" friends to play with....Abby, Emma, Carrigan, & Katie
• Jolee's favorite song...This is the Day
• Jolee's favorite church song....Holy, Holy, Holy
• Jolee's favorite princess....Belle
• Jolee's favorite TV show....The goodnight show
• Jolee's favorite movie....Beauty and Beast
• Jolee's favorite toy to play with at home... Her kitchen stuff
• Jolee's favorite animal....horses
• Jolee's favorite animal to sleep with....monkey (but she said, I really need them all)

Jolee what is the #1 thing, you hope you get for your 3rd Birthday.....A Belle dress!

When I woke her up this morning, I was singing... The Happy Birthday song to her and when I finished I said Jolee do you feel 3 years old? Her reply...Not yet!

I could go on and on about her and all she has learned and does now, but this post is already pretty long. But my baby will only turn 3 once, right? I'm so blessed to have her as my daughter and so thankful that I'm her mommy. She makes me laugh every day and her smile brightens my day. I love her to pieces! She is such a good girl, who is growing up way too fast! I thank my God everyday for her (our little 5lb 3oz miracle).

Happy 3rd Birthday Jolee! I love you so much, Love Mommy

She has loved wearing her little ribbon, that has all the princesses on there and says..It's my Birthday! Everybody all day has told her "Happy Birthday" everywhere we have went and she gets so excited and says...thank you, I'm 3!

"Under the Sea"

Last Saturday, we had a "Little Mermaid" birthday party for Jolee. All of her friends from church came over and we had a blast! Her actual birthday is the 26th, but our annual meeting at church is that weekend, so we had it the weekend before. One party down, one more to go, with the family in Alabama!

She has been so excited about her "Ariel" party. I let her go with me and help pick out all the decorations, cake, balloons, etc, and she helped me decorate and loved it! At 9:00 Sat. morning, she started asking... when will my friends be here, and well that lasted until 2:00 when the party actually started!

Time sure flies! Our little girl is about to turn 3!

We set up about 4 kiddie pools in the backyard and had a slip-n-slide, the kids had a blast and so did the mama's and daddy's watching them all play together. It is some kinda work, throwing a birthday party at your house. But it is so worth it, seeing their faces and watching them have so much fun with their friends.

In this pool, Emma is in the back ground playing, while Camdyn looks super excited about seeing Nathan coming in too. Mr. fearless himself, had a blast!

I wonder what Jolee is telling Carrigan and Emma, in this picture!

John getting revenge on Kyrie, Caitlyn, and Abby!

Jolee getting some birthday luvin from Nina!

Blow, Blow, Blow!

Last year, she cried when everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her. Saturday morning, she came to me and said....Mommy, I'm not going to cry when I blow out my candle, because I'm a big girl now!

Present time!
The girl racked up and got some great gifts!

Nathan and Jolee have it made. Look how many people are waiting to push them....John, Sister Sherri, Amber, and Wandy!

Thanks to all of our friends, for making Jolee's day so special!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

So what do we do, when it has been raining for 3 days straight....we play in it!

By all means, I'm not complaining that it is raining. Because according to my hubby, we need it! And it didn't start raining until Sat. evening, so that meant Jolee's birthday/swimming party didn't get ruined, Praise the Lord! Pictures and a post on that later.

We watch the rain, we play in the rain, we shove Sophie out in the rain to go do her business (she is scared of the rain) better her in the rain, than her messing up my new clean carpet, we watch alot of TV/movies, we play, etc, etc!

And Missie plays dress up! Nothing like a rainy day, with your girl in a hula skirt, purple high heels, a purse, and a clown hat! That will make any dreary day brighter!

Oh I almost forgot, since it has been raining... we have also been watching Jolee's straight as a board hair, turn curly and frizzy when she gets out in the rain! Easily amused, we are!

Mother's Day 2009!

What a wonderful Mother's Day I had! Actually, I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! Saturday night I got taken to dinner at Outback, my absolute favorite restaurant and then we went and had ice cream and sat outside on a bench and just enjoyed each others company and laughed our heads off at Jolee!

Then Sunday morning, I woke up to a beautiful purple orchid and some of the sweetest cards, I have ever received! After church, we 3 headed out to the beach and enjoyed the rest of the day. We had a picnic on the beach, played in the sand, got some sun (some of us (Silas) got more sun than others), and again laughed our heads off at Jolee. It was such a wonderful and relaxing day!

This is my sandcastle, that Jolee built all by herself. She said it was my Happy Mother's Day present! I know all you are jealous of it!

Jolee's kite!

Jolee flying her kite! She loved it!

Spinning, Spinning, Spinning! The chick loves to spin!

Me and my girl!

Thank you Silas and Jolee, for making my Mother's Day so special! I'm so very blessed to have such a wonderful husband and daughter!

Sign Language!

Jolee has really taken off with her sign language. She loves it! We have been checking out sign language videos from the Library and she has learned so much from them, and that little brain of hers just soaks it up. We started her out when she was a baby teaching her signs, not only for the normal reasons (supposed to make kids smarter, talk earlier, helps them communicate before they can talk, etc, etc) but because her MeMaw and PePaw are deaf and we wanted her to be able to communicate with them. So here you go, MeMaw and PePaw a little video to show you how much she has learned lately!

Water Play!

Last week, before we got Jolee a little pool to play in, I pulled out her old Elmo Sprinkler for her to play with. She loved it and I loved watching her squeal and run around it laughing.

Yes, she started out with shorts on too. But clothing just kept coming off!

Told ya, next thing i know she is down to her panties and sunglasses! It was HOT, I'll give her that. At least she had the 2 most important things on, right? Her sunglasses so the sun wouldn't get in her eyes and her panties!
Who cares, it's summer and we have a privacy fence!

She got brave that day, (brave for her, that is) I soaked down her slide and we made our very own water slide. She loved it! We sure our enjoying this beautiful weather!

Learning Patience

Personally, I'm still trying to learn patience and I think we always will be. But poor Jolee, is just learning about the word "patience" and what it means.

We were in Target the other day and looking thru the $1 bins, gotta love the $1 bins at Target! And just the day before, we had gotten back from Alabama. Where Granna and Pappy's whole yard is filled with beautiful flowers and plants, etc, etc! When Jolee picks up this all in one kit, that includes...the soil, the seeds, the pot, everything you need to grow your own sunflower. Well in her words.....she needed it! She said she needed to grow flowers like Granna. So I then proceed to tell her, that Mommy's not the good at growing and planting flowers or for that matter even keeping them alive, once they are planted for me. She then tells me it's ok, Daddy can help her!!

So what did we do, we got the all in one sunflower kit for $1 and Daddy helped her plant it that night!

I mean I got a lot of great genes from my mom, including Fibromyalgia, but I didn't inherit her green thumb!

However, if you remember last year I did plant some flowers and they were pretty, but they died!

Jolee and Daddy counting out the seeds!

Here is where learning patience kicks in! After everything was planted and done, she picked it up and said where is my flower? So that started the conversation of patience and how it takes time for things to grow!

She is so proud of her little potted plant and she ask several times a day, is my flower ready yet?