Happy Birthday Joey :)

So a year ago today, this is where I was...in the hospital with my good friends and family.  I remember waking up at like 2am having to pee, then my water broke :)  During my pregnancy, I prayed that God would have my water break on it's own because I was so nervous that I wasn't going to recognize labor until it was too late for an epidural!!!  So the Lord was super sweet, broke my water, and showed me patience during my 17.5 hour labor!  Here is Elizabeth, Myself and Tonya waiting for Joey to arrive! It was a party in my room all day by the way!

Toward the end of hour 17 I asked my nurse "When do we just get her out?"  In 30 minutes to and hour, Joey was here via C-Section!  Here is our first family pic...I was pretty out of it!

Our Bible study friends decorated the house so it was ready for Joey's big homecoming!  When we got home that day, the power was out for some reason.  We sat in the living room knowing that there were no nurses or doctors to help us this first night...we were flying solo!  

I love this picture of Joey...She now barely fits on this changing table!

This is Joey today!  Super fun and full of life :)  We just love her and can't wait to see what the years to come hold for our family!

Unfortunately Joey is sick on her bday today :(  She stayed home with daddy and got some good play time in with him though, so I don't think she even noticed that she was sick!  Her big party is this Saturday, and we can't wait to see everyone!

Fun Stuff

Last night some of my good friends and I had a girls night!  Before I went to Amanda's house, I was helping Johnny get Joey ready for bed.  I was changing her diaper, and in a blink of an eye, she was rolled over buck naked and pulling up on the ottoman in her room.  Her little booty was so cute, and Johnny rushed to get his camera phone working.  He was taking a picture, and it wasn't working...it took a little longer than planned, and before we knew it, Joey was PEEING on the floor!!!!  She just stood there and looked down at herself peeing as if she were thinking "What's going on down there?"  It was probably one of the funniest moments we've had with her!  I ran to the laundry room to get our cleaning rags while Johnny promptly diapered her little bum!  After the fun, I went to Amanda's to hang out with her, Kelli, Ally, and Brooke.  We ate ice cream and watched Twilight.  When I got home, Johnny was asleep on the couch and Joey was asleep like this :)  It doesn't even look comfy, but she was just fine!  Today is another day with more adventures!

My Birfday :)

Ok, so no surprise...it's been a while!  Since my last post, tons of things have gone on, but here are a few snippits:)

My birthday was April 3rd....as a fun treat, Joey had her first sleepover at Nonny's house.  Johnny and I went with a group of friends to the Rock and Worship tour at the American Airlines Center.  There were tons of great bands!  My favorites were ironically the 2 we got to see the least of: Addison Road and Mercy Me.  The concert was great..loud, but great!  After the concert we went to Fox and Hound to drink some beers and play some shuffle board!  The last time I looked at the clock that night it was in fact 2 the next morning!  Johnny and I haven't stayed up that long in a looooooong time!  We went to my mom's at noon for lunch...yummy!!!  We picked up Joey, and she did just fine at her first sleepover (we will have to do it again..hint, hint Nonny)!  Here is a pic of Jae, Brad, Johnny, Me, Amanda (and baby girl in the oven), and Brandon at the concert.

This is not an event, but we always get compliments on Joey's eyes..here is an insane picture of them!  Man, they really are blue!!!

Joey's new favorite toy is not made by hasbro or playskool...it's our side table with magazines, remote controls, and coasters on it!  She goes to this table every chance she gets!  The other day we had to block her with some pillows just to get a point across...the point that we told her not to go there, and she persisted!  In this picture she is looking up at me as if to say "mommy look at me, I'm going to my table to play!!"

Easter is an amazing holiday!  It's the day Jesus rose from the dead for goodness sake!  Our Easter started a few weeks early when we went shopping for Joey's Easter dress...Johnny was like "Why does she need a special dress?  She's got dresses in her closet!"  I couldn't come up with a response other than "That's what you do, it's Easter...you get a new dress!"  So here it is, her purty Easter dress :)  She seemed to like it..what do you think?

Yummy!  We are moving toward big people food for Joey instead of baby food.  Last night we tried lasagna!  The minute we put food on her plate she didn't stop eating!  We ended up cutting her off 45 minutes after starting dinner to give her a bottle!  She does not eat quick like mommy and daddy!  But check out that grin...the girl loves to eat I guess!

This is Joey using her table as a walking toy....anything is a walking toy these days!  She is starting to get more and more brave with walking and has taken, at most, 10 steps by herself!  Her birthday is April 23rd...next Thursday...and I'm hoping she will be walking all on her own by then!  We will see :)

Yippee!

So my mom came over Friday to watch Joey :)  I let her know she has a few new tricks...she can climb all the stairs on her own, so you have to watch her super carefully now....she can walk super fast on her walking toy that Aunt Amy got her, and she has a new big girl chair that she has been sitting in at our table :)  So I went to work, and my mom texted me "you didn't tell me she could sit up on her own!"  I texted back "I didn't know she could!"  She practiced all day and I saw her do it like 4 times before her daddy got home!  I was wondering when she would sit up on her own, and how we could teach her to do it....she didn't need teaching, she just needed time!  Go Joey Go!!!  She's getting so big :)

We went to Greatmother's for a visit!

We went to Greatmother's for a visit over Spring Break!  She lives in Roundrock near Austin.  Unfortunately she wasn't feeling well while we were there, but she said Joey was a great distraction, so I'm glad we were there!  Joey would do stuff and look to make sure Greatmother was watching her!  It was really cute :)

We also got to see my cousins Lindsay and Sam, and Uncle Don and Aunt Paula.  Here is Lindsay playing with Joey...she has mucho baby feaver!!

There are 2 parks in my grandmother's subdivision...this one has a slide with a tree stump on the top...She would peek over and hold on tight!

This is a super cute moment :)  Johnny's a great daddy!

Here is a rare moment where I am in a picture, and not taking the picture!  We went to the Oasis for dinner, and we were waiting for our table, of course Joey wanted to walk around!

This is the Stout family at sunset.  Joey was getting sleepy if you couldn't tell by the look on her eyes :)  Dinner was fun with Uncle Don, Aunt Paula, Lindsay and Sam!  I can't wait to see them again!

The trip was a good one!  We can't for Greatmother to move to Dallas!!!!

11 Months Old Today!

So today Joey is 11 months old :)  Here is what we have been doing this month.....sorry for the not keeping up with the posts!

Johnny and I had talked about this and we agreed that we were ready to hop back on the old bikes, so we got Joey a trailer to sit in behind the bikes.  We also got her a helmet.  At first she didn't like the trailer or the helmet as you can see below!

After a bottle and helmet removal, she liked the trailer just fine!  We now have the freedom to travel the neighborhood just like we used to do before Joey got here!  It's really been fun to bike to the park, friend's houses, and just around!  We love to get out of the house, and the trailer also has a trusty compartment for storing items such as but not limited to: diaper bag, baseball gloves and ball, water bottles, blanket for the park, and snacks!

We also went to play Top Golf in Dallas.  This picture is of our friend Cory and his son Easton who was born 2 Aprils ago and is about to be 3!  Joey went to Top Golf with us, but she just sat in her stroller being a good girl!  If you don't know what it is, you should google Top Golf!  It is so much fun!

Joey is also using a big girl sippie cup these days too!  We went to Target to get some and I held up some green and blue cups in one hand and pink and purple ones in the other hand.  She picked the pink and purple ones...I put them behind my back and switched hands, and she still picked the pink and purple ones...she's a girlie girl I guess!

This is a picture at a cool park in Carrollton.  We went there for my friend Laurie's daughter's 2 year old birthday!  The park was way cool, it had this springy type floor, no wood chips or gravel...greatness!  Here is Joey in the swing, she loves this thing!

That's it for now, but stay tuned, I am going to post some pics from my Grandmother's house soon...maybe even tonight!  I will leave you with this video of Joey doing what I call "sleep eating".  This happens almost every night at the Stout house!

Not so cool time change!!!

I'm sure all of you mothers out there just love this time change! Clearly I am joking! Joey is upstairs crying as I am typing this. She is so tired, but is having a hard time going to sleep because it is light in her bedroom. Some people may think she doesn't know the difference, but she is smart, and she does! She takes her nap in the light, and goes to sleep for the night in the dark! Last night it only took her 5 minutes to calm down, tonight it is taking a little bit longer :( I'm sure she will be fine, and it will only take a week or so to get her acclimated to the new time, but I wish there was a magic switch or that we had black out curtains! That would help :) Until we invest in those, here we are listening to a sad baby! Oh wait.....she just stopped!! Hooray!