Catch Up

It's been almost a month since I've posted! Yikes. The good thing is, I've been taking pictures. I just haven't had much time to sit down at the computer.
Warning: Long post here... many pictures to look at.


Two weekends ago, we had an overnight in Glen Rose for a church retreat. Jules loved running around with the big kids and Daddy.









Last weekend, we had a couple of birthday parties to go to and then Phoenix and Jett came over Sunday evening. This is Jules and Daddy enjoying the bounce playground at Jump It Up.


This morning we went to our next door neighbor's 3rd birthday party. They had a couple of kiddie pools to play in and then they got to paint their own wooden cars. We know how much Jules loves vehicles... so now she has a race car that she painted herself! (Mommy painted the base to show her how it's done.)

If you can't tell in the last of these pictures, Jules wanted to see how the paint tasted. I had to convince her that the paint went on the car, not in her mouth... especially the red (ketchup). Thank God for non-toxic paint.

(And Yay that she's finally getting some hair on the top of her head!)


This week, Mommy's friend Julie came over to hang out. We don't get to see each other often enough. Poor Jules was extremely jealous of Mommy's attention... no pictures unfortunately...


Aunt Meredith came over the next night... to see Jules (not Mommy)! So that night was much better. Jules bossed Aunt Meredy around (Hence Mer sitting on the Pooh couch) and ate half of her Arby's dinner. Aunt Meredy used to pick Jules up after work every Monday and spend a few hours with her... but since she's working in Coppell this year and Jules' babysitter is in Azle... it's just not possible. So they needed some Aunt/Niece time.




And FINALLY...
We are so ready for football season!
Let the brainwashing begin! :-D

Milestones?

Okay, like every mom, I think my daughter is gifted. She speaks pretty clearly, learns new words all the time, walked early, etc., etc. I don't know when this is supposed to happen, but she's pretty darn good at putting the blocks in their shape holes on the shape sorter.


My dad does it with her almost every time she's at their house, but I'm amazed. I took a couple of pictures of her doing it over the weekend.


And for those of you that weren't already aware, I'm no longer with Target. I'm not going to go into why... but it's all for the best. We've been able to make some decisions that are better for our family. I'm starting a new job tomorrow, and I'm excited about it. It may not be where I'll end up... but it very well could be where I'll develop and stay. Suggestions or options are welcome(amykati@gmail.com).

I'll finish the blog with a fun picture. It's from us going to Chuck E. Cheese after church on Sunday. Sometimes, Jeff and I have too much fun with her and can't help but being a bad example.

Pink Icing

Jules, my mom and I had a bridal shower today for Jeff's sister. It was a lot of fun and a great success. Jules is not much of a cake eater, but she ate a cupcake without frosting while we were putting stuff together... then afterward, she ate most of the frosting from one of the cupcakes.


















Thanks to Aunt Meredith for helping ice cupcakes and cookies. She was a major help. And Jules really enjoyed playing with her today.



















Hopefully, I'll have news on a new job soon. More info to come when I get it, but I'd appreciate any prayers!

Great News!

At least part of the curse has lifted! The FDA treated Jeff right. They didn't come to his company until he was already on his way back from the bachelor party on Tuesday. He spent the afternoon Tuesday with them, all day yesterday and the morning today. And passed with flying colors! Now, we can go down to Austin next week and he won't have the Looming FDA stressing him out. We needed some good news in this house.

Bachelorette Weekend

Jeff's best friend is getting married in two weeks. I've become close with his fiancee, Eva. So, after our super rough week, it was nice to get away from reality for 48 hours in Austin. Didn't take any pictures of the festivities, but here's a picture of breakfast this morning (from my phone). We had a great weekend and although it was tame by bachelorette party standards, it was fun to "go out". I even got hit on a couple of times. I needed that stroke to my ego.

Grammy and Gramps had Jules all weekend and Aunt Meredith hung out with them and helped them a lot. Meredith sent me this picture from them shopping at the party store.

Mom made a late lunch for after Dad (Grammy and Gramps) picked me up from the airport. This is a cute picture of Jules that I took while we hung out over there.

Over the weekend, Jules actually called Grammy "Grammy"! What a big girl! Mom said she handed her a cookie (another new word over the week) and Jules said "Thanks, Grammy." Finally starting to get some manners!

After Jules' bedtime tonight, I decided it was time to make a dent in our mess at home. Four bags of trash later, I actually found my bathtub (a safehaven for many things that we were trying to keep from getting wet). Plus, I had all of this (in the picture) for goodwill. Probably, more will come for that pile. You can see that our floors are now concrete. Luckily, the foam floor playmat didn't get messed up... so we have that for Jules to play on.

16 month old

Saturday, Jules will be 16 months old. Yesterday, we had her fifteen month well baby exam. It was delayed due to a conference that the doctor needed to attend.
She's 22.5 pounds, 30.5 inches. 25th percentile for length and weight. Head is still 97th percentile, but it's in the correct curve. I was thinking about all of her words on the way over there. She has a lot... thanks, gracias, dog, kitty, more, Dadda, Yeah, No, Sit (she's bossy) Juice, Apple Juice, Cheese (one of her faves), vroom (is that a word?), and on Friday night, she said that phrase in the previous post... plus many more. I'm putting myself on the spot right now.
On the way out of the car, and on the way in to the doctor's office, I asked her "Do you want to take your truck?" (because she's very entertained by vehicles) She says "Yeah, truck"... I thought... new word!

When the doctor asked whether she had started saying a few words, I told him all that. Then he asked her what she was playing with and she says "truck". Love it when they actually do what we want them to do! He actually called her "very bright". We know that... but it's nice when the professionals agree! ;-) -I had previously been seriously irritated with this doctor for delaying two appointments in a row. He just won me back over. How easily a mother is swayed.-

Oh! And, it turns out that Jules has an ear infection. She didn't show any signs except for a bit of crankiness (tendency to bite lately, which has gotten better in the last couple of days?) and a runny nose. I felt horrible for not having any clue about it... so I cancelled plans with friends and stayed home with her. Jeff did the same. (so I could have met the friends anyway)

Just for fun, the interspersed pictures are from our play date at the mall with Kelly and Caitie (the other little one) almost two weeks ago. I had my camera set on some strange setting, so some of them aren't great.

A Weekend

So last weekend was awesome. This weekend was crap (to put it nicely).

We just had another flood at our house. Just a thoughtless accident. I'm so overwhelmed right now... Ugh. Sad to say, but I'm lucky that I had to close tonight. I came home to an explosion of crap (I want to say- just throw everything away) and a husband that is mentally and physically exhausted. Oh, our AC went out Friday night too. What a peachy weekend!

Enough about that... We will deal (although, eerily, in 7 days, it will have been 2 years since this last happened.

On to bragging about my little munchkin. Being around Jett has been really good for her. She's popping off sentences and surprising words all the time now. She and I were playing in the living room on Friday evening... she tried to hand me something and it fell. She says "I got it." and proceeds to get it! Imagine the shock on my face. Then I think back to when we have hung out with Jett and Phoenix in the last couple of months and I can almost hear her exact inflection with Jett's little boy voice. Jules is growing up too fast.