Organic Blue Agave and lunch with daddy

So I have to share one of Josh and my favorite things these days. At Trader Joe's I found an organic Blue Agave sweetener and it is fabulous! We have been searching for way to feel healthier and this is one way. Our morning coffee now is not sweetened with chemicals and it tastes yummier than ever. We love this stuff so much that we went to one of the Trader Joe's in Charlotte to get more over the weekend to only discover one bottle on the shelf. I asked if they had more and was told that that was the last bottle, it was currently unavailable for reorder and they weren't sure when it would be again. Well...this was just not a good thing for us. Needless to say Josh, Jenna and I drove to the other store on the opposite side of town to see if they had any. Their shelves were stocked...until we loaded up on 10 bottles. We figured that in 10 weeks (1 bottle only lasts a week with us) they should be able to get more in and we couldn't risk the chance of not being able to have any now that we are in love!

Today Jenna and I had the rare treat of going to lunch with daddy. We decided that we would go visit daddy at his office today and take him cookies. That was when he asked if we wanted to grab lunch. So the three of us went to Chick-fil-A and had lunch. It was such a nice way to spend part of our day since we usually only see daddy briefly in the morning and then at night. Now we are back to spending the day playing.

She's gonna be 2!

It is so hard to believe that our little girl is going to be 2 soon. You can really see know how she is growing and maturing from a baby into a little girl. She is getting a grasp on emotions and compliments. Tells her own little stories to you and just says silly things some times by piecing together things that she has heard others say. What a cutie!

So many silly things have happened lately. This past weekend we took Jenna to see the Wiggles in concert. At first she was scared of the dancers who came out and kept saying "No Wiggles...go home". Then the Wiggles came on stage in their red car and she started getting into the concert. By the time the other characters: Henry the Octopus, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the dog, and Captain Feathersword came on stage she was really into it, was smiling and dancing to the music. It was fun to see that she really enjoyed it.



Jenna's feet have also grown again and it was time for yet another new pair of shoes. While she was at daycare on Monday I went and picked up a new pair. I picked them because they were her size, I thought they were cute and they were a great price. Well, when I showed them to Jenna we noticed a tag that said "I light up" The shoes light up whenever she stomps her foot or takes a step. Needless to say that were a HUGE hit! She wore them most the night. Today at daycare she kept her shoes on practically the whole day which is unusual for her.



This morning, Jenna made me laugh when Haley our dog "fell" (she really just dropped to the ground to scratch herself). Jenna said "Haley fall down". Then proceeded to walk up to Haley, brush her coat, and say "It okay Haley. Brush it off" Can you tell that she hears that a lot?!

New pic of Jenna as Blog photo

So I had to use this new photo of Jenna as our blog picture, because this is the spitting image of her daddy. You can see the intensity, focus and determination not only on her face and in her eyes but also in her body language. She was completely focused on the toy her daddy was fixing and was ready to get it the second he was done. Josh calls her pose the "pseudo-wrestling stance". Too funny how much she is like her daddy.

Josh just looked at it again and asked to see the original. We both just started laughing at her intensity...

Growing Imagination...and personality

Tonight Jenna cracked me up with her imagination. She was taking a bubble bath and here was our conversation:

Jenna: (playing with the bubbles) "My castle"

Mommy: "You are building a castle with your bubbles?"

Jenna: "Yeah. shark...raaar!"

Mommy "Your castle has a shark in it that says raaar?"

Jenna: "Yeah. and Zoe."

Mommy: "Your castle has a shark in it that says raaar and Zoe is there too?"

Jenna: "Yeah." (continues to play with bubbles as if she hasn't said anything funny or out of the ordinary)

Fun times to be had

We just returned from a trip to Ohio where my Grandma Shirley's side of the family had their annual reunion. We stayed in cabins at Dillon State park and Josh and I got the worst one in the park I think. It was run down and a smoking cabin so there was a stench in the air. Luckily I had packed everything I could think of so we had a clean bed (brought mattress pad, sheets, quilt and pillows). Jenna slept in her pack 'n play so that was clean too. Fortunately we did not spend much time there...just enough to nap, shower, and sleep. The first night Jenna climbed on the bed in her room and said "This Jenna bed" and crawled up into her suitcase. She cracks me up.




















It was nice to be able to see family, but I most enjoyed getting to spend time with my grandma Shirley. She's doing great, but I worry about her a lot since she doesn't have my grandpa around as her companion. We snapped a quick picture that first morning of Nana with her only granddaughter (me) and 3 great-granddaughters (Callie, Brianna, and Jenna).




We rented a pontoon boat for everyone to use and it was Jenna's first boating experience. We brought our own life jacket for her that I got for her to have in the pool. She didn't really react one way or the other. She wasn't scared and wasn't excited. She just wanted to sit with her mommy. In this picture the sun is in her eyes so she is squinting big time. The motion of the boat started to put her to sleep, but then we had to stop so little Carter (my cousin Billy's son) could take a potty break. We literally stopped for only a minute, and when we went to start again the motor was broken and could only idle. Needless to say we have a long, slow trip to the beach to meet everyone else, tell them the boat was broken, and meet the park ranger who was also the "pontoon boat expert". That was the end of our boating experience for the day.





















At the beach there was a playground area and a kiddie wading pool with a fountain. The kids had a blast in the pool running, splashing and getting wet. The water only came up to Jenna's knees and boy was it cold. For some reason the kids didn't seem to notice or care. Josh was such a good daddy and splashed around in the water with Jenna. It was so cute to watch.

The reunion was also where I spent my 30th birthday. Not a bad way to enter into a new decade of life. It was great since I spent the day with my honey, my little girl, and some extended family.