4 months!

Here are the stats:

14 pounds 15 ounces (75th percentile)

24 3/4 inches (also 75th percentile)

Loves:

grabbing at everything

sucking on her pointer finger

music, especially when mommy and daddy sing

new faces

kicking- she'll kick the blanket off before I can even finish covering her with it

blowing "raspberries"

Sleeping habits:

UGH.

What happened to my good little sleeper? I don't know what her deal is. I think she may be teething already. She drools like mad, always has to be sucking on something, and doesn't sleep well. Dunno. We'll see. At least she takes good naps during the day. She is on a schedule, I just don't like the one she's chosen at night. She goes to bed at 8 (it's a struggle to even keep her up that late, she is SO ready by then.) She wakes up at 12:30, 3:30 and 5 and finally gets up at about 7:30 or 8.  Of course, we don't go to bed till late and often I just stay up till her 12:30 feeding cause we barely go to bed before then anyway. She does take 2 really good naps during the day, fortunately. 

It's not like I go in there as soon as I hear her stirring. I never go in unless I either know she's hungry or she is full-on crying. Most of the time, she'll wake up for some unknown reason, then start off by playing around loudly in her crib for a little while. I leave her alone hoping she will go back to sleep. Then, finally she realizes she's hungry and cries till I go in to feed her. I'm hoping that when we start her on solids this week, she will be able to sleep longer without eating. It just goes through her so fast! 

It's been SO long since I've slept through the night myself! I haven't slept longer than 5 or 6 hours straight since before I was pregnant! Someday.........

Anyway, here are some pics Kevin took the other night. She was SO not in the mood and it was almost bedtime. You can tell cause there are no smiles and her finger in her mouth in every shot.

What Baby Dreams MUST Look Like

Since Josie first came to us, she has been an active dreamer. Judging from the talking I do in my sleep and the morbidly-vivid nature of Emily's dreams, I am guessing that Josie must be having some pretty awesome visions (I have always said she is keeping Satan's minions at bay or something.) However, as the veil between this world and the one she just came from starts to grow more concrete, I wonder; does she see herself in these dreams as she IS, slaying dragons and leaping gracefully through Fangorn Forrest upright on her pudgy little legs? Does she see herself as she was in the pre-Earth Life, a manifestation of what she will be as an adult here on in the future? Or is it a combination of both? Whatever the case, I am pretty sure this is how she imagines herself in her dreams currently:

Bath and Playtime!

I just had a few cute pics of tummy time, playtime and bath time with daddy.

She loves her play mat! She can lay there forever batting at the toys.

She loves steamy showers with mommy and daddy. It's part of her bedtime routine now.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Usually we celebrate Valentines Day by going out to dinner or something and we give each other something small. The funny thing is, we do more romantic things on regular basis so V-day is not really a big deal. I woke up Saturday morning expecting Jos to cry any minute for me to come and get her. I got up and realized the house was empty. Kevin had taken her with him to run errands so I could sleep in. He walked in the door and told me to stay in bed. He came up with this............

 .....and we had breakfast in bed.

We had the nicest day together as a family! Kevin had gone to the grocery store in the morning so he could cook a 4-course dinner for our romantic evening. Some of you may know that Kevin is the cook in our relationship and makes very yummy food. (I'm slowly learning to cook too.) It was such a nice surprise! We put Jos down early to bed and this is what Kevin cooked:

Course 1:

Lobster Bisque Soup

Wheat dinner rolls

Course 2:

Salad

Shrimp Cocktail

Course 3:

Filet Mignon

Twice-Baked Potatoes 

Grilled Asparagus

Course 4:

Chocolate Ganache Cake

It was SOOOO good! Kevin really outdid himself. I'm so glad he cooked instead of going out to a restaurant. What a nice day!

A little winter break....

It's been much warmer the last few days and it's felt so good! Yesterday it was in the upper 60's and today it's in the 50's! Compared to the 19 degrees it was last week, this is awesome. All the snow melted at our house and revealed a bunch of things that had been covered by 1-2 feet of snow. We celebrated by going on a nice walk along the St Joseph river and running errands without jackets on. It makes me really excited for the spring. It also makes us really excited about planning our Florida trip. We have debated about taking a cruise also while we are down there, but we're not sure yet. All I know is that I want lots of time at the beach. Well, I mostly just wanted to post new pics from the week. I got a new camera a couple weeks ago and I still am trying to learn how to use it. It's a Nikon SLR that we got for a good deal at the Circuit City closeout sale. I love it so far but am not a very good photographer so the pics don't look as good as they could. I'm also having Kev show me how to use Photoshop. We have it on our computers cause he sometimes uses it for work, but I haven't really learned much yet.  

Here's Jos ready for our walk.

We live a couple blocks from downtown where there is a beautiful riverwalk. We love going for walks there.

Jos helping with dinner.

All tuckered out!

Thankful.

In case you haven't been watching the news, President Obama is in Elkhart, IN today attending a town hall meeting. I kinda wanted to go since it would be cool to see the president, but we would have had to sit out in the cold all night to get tickets. Not easy when you have a baby.  Elkhart has the highest unemployment rate in the country at almost 16%. Kevin works in Elkhart and we've seen this first hand. The economy here is so rotten because Elkhart is where almost every RV and Hummer is made.  Of course, these 2 industries are struggling harsh and most of the people that work here work at one of those plants. It's a major hub for musical instrument production as well, and Conn-Selmer  has had lots of lay-offs. Fortunately, Kevin would not be in danger since the company cannot run without a marketing director. We know so many people who have lost their jobs and are trying to get by. We are so thankful that Kevin has a job in this tough time and that it is good enough that I don't have to work. 

Of course we haven't been totally immune from the effects of the economy. We have a house that we can't sell in Florida which is preventing us from buying another house here. We are fortunate to have good renters in our home for the time being. Our family has been so blessed! Our blessings are too many to name, but I am constantly amazed by how easy we have it. I'm not sure if we really did anything to deserve this and I hope we can attempt to try to be worthy of it.

  Especially in this difficult time, I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Kevin and I were both raised with these teachings and count ourselves as extremely fortunate to have the truth taught to us. Even more than that, we are both thankful for the opportunity we have had to gain testimonies of it for ourselves. We are constantly seeing the Lord's hand in our lives and having our prayers answered by him.  We are also constantly reminded that we are not doing enough. We should be serving more, giving more, testifying more, teaching more, and showing more kindness. Kevin is very good at being kind and cheerful to everyone he meets and I am trying to do the same. 

I'm so thankful to have such an awesome husband! He may be embarrassed about me blogging about this, but last night, we were talking about Jos and he just started crying. He kinda laughed and asked me if I thought he cried too much.  Kevin is a rare breed of man. He thinks things are "cute" and can easily cry about things that are ridiculously adorable. He has never said anything derogatory about me. Ever. We occasionally have our disagreements, but even then, Kev is always very loving to me. He is always telling people how much he loves me and how awesome I am even if it's not entirely true. Everything he does is for Jos and me. I was looking through his planner (aka Kev's life in a book) which he has written in for the last 15(?) years. There are several entries with his goals for the year. Under each one, the first goal is always "Be worthy of "the one" meaning the girl he wants to marry. The next one is "find her." I'm so glad he has done both of those. We are so unbelievably, ridiculously, crazy in love and it just keeps getting better.

I'm also so thankful for my amazing family. My parents are some of the greatest people on this earth. They raised me well and are still coming to my aid almost daily. I am constantly calling them for advise. My mom is so selfless and is always serving other people. She has done so many great things for us and sacrificed unbelievably for her family. My dad has so much wisdom and quiet humility. I am so glad we have such a great relationship. My beautiful sisters have so much talent and sweetness. And who can forget Arron? He has come out of so much crap to become an amazing example and strength in the gospel.

Anyway, I just wanted to express my thanks to my Heavenly Father and anyone who has helped us become the people we are today. If we haven't returned the favor, one of our resolutions this year is to be better friends. Thanks!!

Just some pics and stuff............

I have been really unmotivated lately. I think it's partly that I am sick of the cold and because of it, we're stuck inside all day. Also, Jos has been really unpredictable lately. She is still really happy most of the time, but nighttime has been a struggle lately. It seems we are back tracking. For a while, she was sleeping at least 6 hours at a time at night. Now, it's no more than 4 and often she is up every hour. Not fun. Sometimes it's that she is hungry, but lately she just gets lonely and wants to play.........at 3:30 in the morning. I don't know how she is not exhausted all the time. I will hear her crying, go in, and as soon as I get up to her crib to see what the drama is about, she looks up and gives a happy squeal as she beams up at me. It is painfully cute, but I almost think she does it just to see how many times she can get me up to see her. As much as I want to, I try not to indulge her. I want her to get used to sleeping at night, even if she wants to play. I usually give her a binky and go back to bed ( as long as she doesn't need food or a diaper change). Then I sit and listen to her talk, laugh, and blow raspberries to herself for the next 45 mins. I'm glad she can amuse herself, but it makes me feel just a tad guilty that she is sitting in her crib for up to an hour at a time just begging for someone to play with her. I hope she catches on soon and decides to sleep longer. The crazy thing is, she isn't much better during the day. She doesn't like naps, so she forces herself to stay awake all day. She finally gets so tired and overwhelmed in the evening that she gets super fussy for a couple hours before bed. Of  course because she's been tired all day she wants to go to bed at like 7 or 8. We have been trying to keep her up a little later (till 9 or 10) so she will sleep in longer. She cries and cries until she finally falls asleep. Every night we think, "Ok, she just cried alot. Now she'll really sleep for a while" Nope. 3 hours later, she's up. Grrrrrrr.......

We can't help but be crazy about her, though! I mean, look at this face!