Already September!!

Wow...it has been a whole month since I have updated...sorry. Life is going well for us here in St. Louis/Godfrey. My Granny has been very sick and we have been spending time getting to see her in the hospital. It has been a blessing to be close to family. Annabelle just loves getting to go to Gusta's hospital (now Gusta's nursing home!) She also got to see Joe's grandma in the hospital and she is quite good at cheering up people who are feeling pretty yucky! All is well with baby number two. According to the ultrasound the baby is growing well, has all of it's parts and should come sometime late January. We were able to stay strong again and not find out the sex of the baby. We hope Annabelle can be patient and wait a few more months...she has tried to feed my belly button a bottle and she keeps asking if she can hold "little baby." I'll share a few more cute Annabelle accomplishments. She has certainly mastered her colors and now she seems very interested in shapes. She also counts 1-5. She needs to slow down, because if I do end up homeschooling her I don't know what I'll teach her in kindergarten! She is also putting together really good sentences! "Happy Birthday to you mommy!" "Allison made that for me." "Where did the lid go mommy?" She is still very interested in the moon. Whenever she see's it she asks if she can hold it! She knows the answer, because as soon as she asks me she shakes her head "no" and says "it huge!" She has such a sweet heart and many times will be playing and then come over to me and say "Amen Gusta" which is her way of saying we need to stop and pray for Gusta or whomever. The other night we were leaving Brad and Joy's apartment and it was raining very hard and Annabelle was getting quite wet. She looked up at the sky and said "No thank you!" Of course in her mind if you use your manners you get what you want, but unfortunately God doesn't stop the rain just because we ask nicely!
She is also starting to tell people "I love you SO much!" Let's see...we close on our house in two days and are very excited to get to move in and get all of our stuff out of storage. Annabelle loves going to her empty house and dancing on the carpet and hiding in the empty cabinets/closets! Thanks for reading my ramble! I will post pictures tomorrow...I'm heading to bed now!

VBS week

Life with Annabelle sure is fun! Her excitement and energy never cease to amaze us. This past week at church was VBS every night! All Annabelle talked about was "V-B-S!!!" When we got finished every night at 8:30 she would jabber the whole way home about "Jesus born" and "God made moon." "Jesus, bible." How awesome! We thought it would wear her out, but no...she was pumped up until about 10:15 each night! She also has really become attached to Pastor Steve and lets us know that at church she wants to see "Pastor Steeeeve!" We had a Dr's appointment to check out how the new baby was doing and Annabelle was thrilled to get to hear the "puh puh" of the heart beat. When the Dr. asked her who was in mommy's belly, she said "Jesus!" Ha! We had to explain to him that it was VBS week and Jesus was on the brain!! Well, here are a few pics of this week, including our house progress. We close 1 month from today!

Annabelle and Nana in "Annabelle's house!"

The kitchen is looking good! I am most excited about this room!!

The sidewalk has been poured all around the house...it's just waiting for Annabelle to drive her car on it.

"Hey Daddy! I'm playing too!!"

"Hmm, was it the yellow or the red button daddy said to push?"

"Oh no, Thomas! There is a crack in the train track!" Granny Gusta was in the hospital this week and Annabelle certainly enjoyed getting to go see her and have her read her a book! She was very concerned about her and kept asking about her nose, because of the oxygen tube!

We went to Sears Appliance Outlet this week and bought a new washer and dryer!!! Yeah! Annabelle had the best time! I guess they don't get a whole lot of little bitty kids in an appliance store, so they really made over her! They gave her a big red balloon, and she squealed with excitement!

Number 1 Fan!

Annabelle is still quite the Cardinals enthusiast! She is now equipped with a Cardinals cheer outfit and pom poms so things will only get more intense! She still yells as them to score a home run. She also shouts "YES!" when they make a hit. She also likes saying "Pujols!" It certainly is entertaining to watch her even when the Cardinals are not playing well, which happens on occasion! We hope you enjoy her spirit!!

Annabelle and her girlfriends

It is so much fun to watch our little girl play with other little ones. She just gets so excited when she has some one her size to play with. Hopefully that will bode well when baby number 2 arrives! Annabelle never ceases to amaze us with her verbal skills! She has become quite a little parrot, repeating EVERYTHING we say! Her new favorite phrases are "No barking, Miles!" "Good stuff!" "I'm Annabelle Jolea" (emphasis on "Jo"). She also thinks it is fun to call us by our first names. The other night as I was putting her in bed, I told her "I love you Annabelle." She responded "Ohhh, Sarah!" Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures. We really appreciate you checking out our blog and for leaving comments!

Annabelle and Sophia (from church) "swimming". Annabelle enjoyed the water as long as she was confined to the pink boat! She also had fun scooping water into the boat.

"Just catching some rays!"

Annabelle and her good buddy JuJu. (Julianne) Annabelle was thrilled to see Julianne and Allison Mobley when they came in town for a visit. She cried really hard when they left!

Big girls sitting pretty!

Annabelle cheesing and Julianne zoning!

"Say hello!" Annabelle couldn't quite understand whay Julianne didn't talk, except for "Daaa." We had to remind her that only big girls talk.

Oh, pat, pat Julianne!

We have had a nice week. We had an exciting 7 yr. wedding Anniversary on Monday, with Joey getting his stiches out! Now he can shower whenever he wants! We also got to see my dear friend Stacey Sisk and her crew (Jaden, 3, Zeke, 2, Violet 1 month) Annabelle enjoyed having all of the kids to play with. Other than that we have just been enjoying playing, shopping a bit, dancing to Daddy's cell phone tunes, watching Cardinal baseball (which Annabelle adores!) and saying the ABC's. Annabelle actually pronounces them all really well! She has also become attached to her Thomas the Tank engine book! We read it several times a day. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures!

Joey and Violet...she's hungry!

"Daddy, if I kiss her will she be all better?"

"Oh, pat, pat baby."

Say cheese cowgirl!

"Fine, I'll share my car with you Jaden, but I'm not happy about it."

Playing in the water!

Annabelle, Zeke and Jaden washing the "Man-mobile"

What a precious face

Annabelle reading her Bible to her babies!!

" Here you go Miles! Don't tell Nana!"

Picking weeds

Annabelle and her goofy smile!

"Where's Annabelle?"

"Here I am!"

" Do I look cool or what?"

SMILE Annabelle!

Help!!! Annabelle's smile has gone goofy! Today we took her to see Granny "Gusta" and each time we told her to smile she scrunched up her face so silly!!! Hopefully she will return to normal smiling soon!! Enjoy!

Big Smile!

Cheeseburger!

3rd times a charm?

"I see you Gusta!"

The past week or so...

We have had quite an interesting week or so around here. The men of the house (Joe and Poppa) are both laid up so Nana, especially, has been busy taking care of the invalids. Thankfully Joe gets his stitches out on Monday and Poppa gets to see a new back pain Dr. on Monday. Hopefully they will be new men after that! We also had fun having Gigi and Papa here from Minnesota for a retirement party...so Annabelle got lots of hugs and kisses! Annabelle has adjusted pretty well to daddy not being able to do much. At first she didn't really know how to respond; it was almost like she was mad at him or scared of him! But she has certainly softened up a lot. She takes good care of him, giving him lots of snuggles, ice packs, and she knows to get him his tray to eat on. She has suddenly developed and "owie" on her left knee too, and she needs it wrapped and iced with her Hello Kitty and Cars ice packs!!! Well here are a few pics to update you on the week!

We have a driveway, front walk way and part of a sidewalk. Inside they have mudded and taped everything!

This is the view from our front/side porch. The building you see across the field is our church! Talk about saving gas money!

Annabelle has gotten in the morning routine of eating her mini wheats and reading the paper with Nana. She really likes the funnies!

Playing a tune on my harmonica!

Joe's cousin, Shelley, just has baby number 2! Adam weighs just about 6 lbs. Annabelle just adored him!

"Look mama! Little fingers!" Annabelle loved playing with Adam's fingers and kissing him.

Joe and Annabelle proping up their knees and icing them!

"Look Maggie, I have a bandage just like daddy!"

Annabelle kissing daddy's owie

Annabelle loves taking Miles on walks around the house. He is such a good sport!