Another Birthday

Okay seriously, I tried to post this yesterday and I have no idea why it didn't go up. So really it's two days late now. Sorry.

My goal was to get these up on people's actual birthdays, so let me start by saying sorry it's a day late...
Happy birthday Michele. We miss you and hope you had a great day.

She's getting so big!!!

On Tuesday, I was a little bored and wanted to get out of the house so JoAnn and I went swimming. For the longest time she would have nothing to do with the water wings we have for her, but the last couple times I've taken her out I've finally gotten her to keep them on longer than 2 minutes. The only problem is that I haven't been able to show her that they can help you float because she won't get in the water. She only wants to sit on the edge and play or pick the flowers around the pool. So, on Tuesday we were outside for a little over an hour and it wasn't until about the last 10 minutes that I convinced her to actually get in the water. Once I got her in though, she did so great! She quickly figured out how to float using the wings and after a little coaching was able to figure out how to kick her legs in order to get where ever she wanted to go in the pool. It will still be a while before I will let her swim without me in the water, but I'm so excited that we are on our way to that point, especially with hot season right around the corner. I think this year she might be able to play with the bigger girls instead of staying on the steps with the babies. It is a little crazy for me to think that she is getting old enough to start (and I stress start) learning how to swim though.

On another totally unrelated event, for the last week or so I have been trying to get things together so we are ready for the baby around the house. I cleaned out a drawer and washed his clothes. I set up the swing and washed the cover. I'm having a new carseat cover made. A couple months ago, we moved JoAnn to a big bed and put the crib where we are going to have him sleep and yesterday we finally got the curtains hung so the sun won't be shinning in his eyes whenever he sleeps. I absolutely love the fabric I got to make the curtains out of. When I first found out we were having a boy I wasn't sure if I would have as much fun picking out blue things as I had with pink, but I've come to the conclusion that it's just fun to pick out anything for a baby. Anyway, since our entire place is nothing but cement, they had to drill in order to hang the curtain rods, which meant we had a thick layer of dust all over the entire house by the time they were done. So, immediately I started cleaning up and evidently JoAnn decided she was going to help. She looked so cute I had to put a picture up...

(I'm not sure what she was doing with the tea cup in her hand???) I can't believe the little guy is due to arrive in 4 weeks, but I will say getting everything together makes me much less anxious and just leaves more excitement than anything else.

A few cute things

So, I don't really have much that happened this week to write about, but I do have a few things that JoAnn does that I think are pretty cute and don't want to forget, so I thought I would create a little list of things that I love when JoAnn does.

*Every time Dora or The Backyardigans come on TV, she will go running through the house screaming at the top of her lungs, "Mommy, Dora" or "Mommy, Backigans" or if she is looking for Daniel, she'll scream Daddy instead.

*Every night when we give her her vitamins and allergy medicine, she will call it her "medimis."

*When we go to McDonald's she asks for "French fries and hammermer."

*She often says phrases backwards, for example instead of pineapple she calls it "apple pine" or a red truck is "truck red."

*When Daniel isn't home, she always says "Daddy at baskball" regardless of where he is.

*She calls her belly button her "belly butt."

*She loves to go to the pool, but isn't a big fan of actually getting in the water.

*She likes to stretch and do sit ups when she sees someone else doing it.

*Whenever she sees someone else wearing socks (which is rare), she wants to put on socks too.

*She loves to "help" cook anything.

*She gets really excited every Sunday when we tell her we are getting ready for church.

*She loves to give massages to us whenever we are laying down and recently has been also using "water" (really she just licks her hands). This is a picture of her giving Daniel a leg massage last night. She was so into it that I had a hard time getting her to look at the camera.


*She loves any animal and will point them out every time she sees one, but any time they get even remotely close to her, she gets so scared she starts shaking and clings to whoever she is with.

*When she's riding in a car and hears a horn, she starts yelling "GO!"

Anyway, I am sure there are plenty of things that I'm forgetting to put on the list, but that's just a few of the things that she does that makes me smile. I feel so blessed to have a daughter like JoAnn.

Another B-day

I know I sort of sound like I'm repeating myself but....


Happy Birthday Ryan! It's Daniel's brother Ryan's birthday. We have been able to be home the last few years at least around his birthday, so it seems strange to not be able to tell him this in person, but we miss you and hope you have a great day.

Starting off 2010 with a bang

Before I get to the other stuff, we wanted to share this with you...


Happy Birthday Mom B!!! We love you very much and wish we were able to spend the day with you (especially since you are in FL). We hope you have a great day.

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Alright, now to back up a few days, we experienced a very interesting New Years Eve here in the Philippines this year. One of the biggest things that they do to celebrate the day is set off fireworks, so it was a very loud and colorful evening. JoAnn loved watching all the explosions and would yell, "Look, firetruck!" It was really cute. Anyway, at one point we had some neighbors who were a little too close to the building for my comfort setting off some of the loudest firecrackers I have ever heard, but thankfully JoAnn slept through the whole thing. I couldn't believe it. The other thing that made our night a little more interesting was the partial power outage. Something happened around 8:30 or 9 that all of the sudden made everything in our house turn off except for our TV. I immediately assumed we blew a fuse and had Daniel checking the fuse box when we noticed our fans started turning again, but very slowly. We got a little suspicious and asked around the building and pretty much everyone was in the same situation as we were, which made me a little relieved to know it wasn't just us. So for an hour or two we had enough power to weakly run a fan and the TV, but not much more. Then once again everything went out except for our TV. After midnight hit and we still didn't have a fan we tried to plug the fan into the same outlet that our TV was plugged into and it still wouldn't turn on. After which we plugged the TV back in and evidently we never should have unplugged it because it no longer would work. That left us with absolutely no electronic device that would work in our house until sometime around 2:45 AM when they were able to fix the problem and things went back to normal. It was very strange. I have never experienced a power outage like it before. Once again, I was very thankful that JoAnn didn't even wake up. So, it was a little bit of a rough start to 2010, but by the time I went to bed and woke up things we looking much better. On New Years Day we got together with some friends and had a yummy American style BBQ for lunch. It was great.

That is where the "looking up" part ended. Last night I found one of these in my hair...


That's right, I have lice! I was brushing my hair last night before I went to bed when I noticed the bug crawling around on my comb. I sat there for a minute completely grosed out and a little in shock, until I decided it was too late in the day to do anything about it right then, but first thing this morning I tore apart the house and started some major cleaning. I also found a neighbor who was kind enough to share some left over Nix to help us get rid of them. Lice is pretty much a way of life for a lot of Filipinos, but I can't handle the thought that I have bugs crawling around on my head. It is just another reminder of how much I admire the fact that they can go through stuff like this and not complain. I have a lot to learn from them when it comes to not complaining. I will say I am slightly thankful for the much needed motivation to clean my our place since I was wanting to do it before the baby comes, which is getting so close. Anyway, I'm off to throw in another load of laundry and wash my hair.