Tunnel Vision

We we have this awesome tunnel that was given to Joey from Kelli and Brian.  She loves it and it has been living at Holli's for a while.  The other day it came home and we popped it open to play in.  Joey was having a ball and Sammy was watching her.  I went to use the restroom and heard Sam start crying. I thought Joey had knocked her down or something like that, but turns out she was deathly afraid of the tunnel....so rather than console her I grabbed the camera :]

All the crying thrilled Joey to death, she thought it was the funniest thing :]

Of course I picked her up after the camera went down and she calmed down.  I had her touch the tunnel and she didn't really want anything to do with it....we will see how she reacts the next time!

Christmas Eve

So this year we have been blessed beyond measure with the birth of Sammy, great family, and great friends!  Even keeping all that in mind, we have had no greater blessing than the birth of Jesus!  Without him we would be destined to a life lived in hell, and because we have him in our hearts, we are truly able to celebrate the true meaning of the holiday on Christmas!!!  We've been trying to inform Joey about the real reason we celebrate through Bible reading, her Veggie Tales nativity and songs.  We've been singing Happy Birthday to Jesus :]  All of that said, come Christmas day, she was only interested in the presents :]

Let's back up though, the whole celebration started Christmas Eve with the Stout side of the family!  We went to church and had a blast!  They asked the kids to come on stage to sing and dance!!  Joey was so cute, and I'm so sad I didn't have my camera to take a video of the whole thing.  She danced and sang and shook her booty and I kneeled down in front of her watching and tearing up.  I always cry when I see her do things like that!!!  She was so cute and during the service she kept asking when we got to go back on stage :] Who knows, maybe one day she will be singing on stage with a microphone and everything!!!

After church we headed over to the Stout house for some dinner, and present opening...

Uncle Bret handed out the gifts as usual!

Grandma held the little girls :]

Joey got a new color wonder book and Aunt Lisa helped her figure it out!

Dakotah loved his book from us!!!

Sammy got a blanket from Grandma!!!  It's so cute and soft :]

Aunt Becky got a Fancy Nancy doll.....oh wait, I think that's Mily's :]

Brittany was so surprised at her gifts from Grandma :]

Sammy got clothes and they obviously tasted yummy!!!

Johnny and his new orange Adidas sweatshirt...

Aunt Lisa helping Sammy figure out her new toy!!

So we were all done opening gifts and we were all just hanging out in the living room.  All of a sudden, Mily and Joey came out of Mily's room...we didn't even realize they were gone...and they were wearing Mily's new fairy dress up clothes.  We're not sure who got Joey dressed, but that is the skirt she has on as a top :]

We could not stop laughing, and I was actually in tears and we all had side stitches when we stopped laughing :]

She had the real top on as panties over her own panties of course!!

Ahhhh, much better!!!  Doesn't she look so pretty???

So Christmas Eve was a blast, and we got lots of fun stuff!  Stay tuned for Christmas day!!!

Sweet Sisters :]

Joey loves to play with her sister any chance she can get and she does such a good job with Sammy! After we fed Sammy the other day Joey dragged a chair over to Sammy's high chair and started to play :]

Sweet sisters!!!  I hope these moment carry on into their teenage years :]

Super Dad!!

The other day I got a text from Johnny with this picture included...

This is our living room on crack :)  Johnny is such a fun daddy and pulled out all the blankets, opened up the tunnel, and made Joey's "fort dreams" come true!  He reminds me of Bigman who used to always do fun things with us like playing hide and go seek and putting lamp shades on our heads as a means to hide :)    

Thank you Lord for putting Johnny Stout in my life, you knew he would be an amazing husband and daddy!

Dog Days of Summer

Woooo doggie, it's hot out there!  How do we remedy this problem?  Lots of time at the pool and sprinkler time!!!  I've shared pool pics, so here are some sprinkler pics!!

{Of course Naked Baby had to play too!  She named her, not us :]}

It's all about the simple pleasures!  Hope you are staying cool this Summer!

Paint!!!

So we have had some cruddy weather here in McKinney, Texas lately, so imagine my surprise when I picked Joey up from Miss Holli's on Tuesday and it was beautiful outside!!!  I called Johnny and we decided to meet at the park at our church which is right by the school he teaches at.  We got there and it was FREEZING!!!  We lasted until Daddy got there and about 5 minutes after that which resulted in no pictures from our park outing :) Burrrrrrrrrr

On a different/but similar note, today was also a beautiful day, but instead of kinda being beautiful, it was full on beautiful!!  We didn't meet Johnny at a park, but we did decide to paint when we got home!  I dressed Joey in some pants that don't have a matching top, and one of my old favorite shirts that I used to wear when I was a skinny mini, and we went on our way!  It was nice to be in the sun and even nicer to create something from nothing!  My roomie from college used to paint all the time, and she would let me use her stuff :)  I forgot how much I like to just sit and paint......keep in mind an almost 2 year old was helping, so my personal work is not represented in the pictures to follow :)  Here's how the painting went.....

All the paint is out...let's go!!

Don't worry, her left arm is not that short....my shirt that is skin tight on me is way big for her and she has her elbow bent :)

She didn't like when the brushes were dirty so she'd put one down and start with another one :)

Like a true artist...sitting back and preparing to create!

Oooooo La La!!

She also didn't like when the paint would get on her hands till I let her know she could wipe them on the shirt! {Notice the shirt says "Everyone loves an Irish girl".  I absolutely love this shirt and I'm so sad that there is a hole in the shoulder and that I have too big of a belly to wear this anymore!  Alas, it is now Joey's painting shirt....and she looks very Irish in it if you ask me! }

Daddy's home!  Check out what we have done Daddy :)

Now she's really going after it!

Go Joey Go!!

She threw her paintbrush down and said "I'm done"

Showing us that her sock also got paint on it...Oh well, we will manage!

How do you get the creative juices flowing with your kiddos??  I like crafty things, and would love to let Joey help with some stuff, I'm just too darn particular :)  So I need some ideas!

Wishful Wednesday......Book Character

So Kelsey at the Seattle Smiths poses the question below on her Wishful Wednesday Topic this week....

'I wish' .... I could play a character's role in a book and it would be __________!

Now that I have a child, my answer to this question is certainly reflective of that! Take a look :)

'I wish' .... I could play a character's role in a book and it would be one of the girls in the Backyardigans Books!

So these guys are really from a TV show, and I just happened to know that they also made books, so I guess I cheated the topic just a little by answering the way I did {I call it creativity}!!

These kids are so much fun!  They remind of how important it is to let your kids be kids, and how much fun it was to be a kid!  The object of the show/books is that these kids play in their backyard and create different adventures just by using their imagination!  Oh to be a kid again :)  Here are a few titles I found online...

 

  

  

  

Things like this make me long for the day when we have a backyard for Joey and Sam to play in!  These kids come up with the coolest things to do, and they always end the day with a SNACK!!  Yummo :)  

So what's your answer to the question??  Which character would you play in a book??  Hop over to the Seattle Smiths and play along...write your response then link it back to Kelsey's blog when you are done!

Ready for Summer!!!

In honor of the cold weather, I thought I'd post some pics from last week when we got all the way up to 60 somthing!  Joey and I had to go outside to get some fresh air, so I toted her basketball goal out to the ally and we played for a good 45 minutes before the sun went down and daddy got home!  Here are some fun shots :)

 

Slam Dunk!!!

  

Get the ball Joey :)

  

2 Slam Dunks in 1 day...Maybe we should raise the goal????

  

Look mommy, I can dribble too :)

  

Now I'm going to go over here, and you can't catch me :)

 

And now I'm going to throw the ball in the grass!

The sun was out and we seized the moment, glad we did with snow in the forecast for this upcoming week!  Where is Summer???  I'm ready for sunny weather!!!

Joey's 1st Snow...

So Joey was asleep or sick or something when it snowed on Christmas Eve, so when it started to snow today, we had to bundle her up and go out and play :)