So, it's been a while!

Hello!! How has everyone been? We just kind of disappeared there for a while. Thanks to a couple of months of internet trouble and just being really busy we haven't really had a good chance to get on here and go crazy until now. We've had several requests for more pictures of Janie so here you go!!! And while I'm sure there are a lot of other interesting stories I can post (like the super fun Jazz game that Mark and I went to where we sat on the 7th row and got free Rodizio Grill!!) I'm going to keep it just kind of general, and about Janie of course. I'll try to do a better job of keeping up with the new things as they happen.

We had a really fun Christmas with her. She didn't get a lot from us but everyone else took pretty good care of that. She got a lot of books which have been really fun to read to her. She loves looking at the pictures and pays attention better than I thought she would. One of the funnest parts of Christmas was that she got to meet her cousin Ella. They're only two weeks apart but when you put them right next to each other cute Ella seems a little older. That's what Ella gets for having two really tall parents who give birth to a 10 lb plus baby. They were sure cute together! The first time they met Laura and I swapped each others babies. Shortly after we put them on the floor together and Ella reached over and grabbed Janie's hand. While we doubt it was intentional, it was sure cute. We didn't get a picture of that specific time, but they kind of tried it again for this one.

Since Janie was over there a few other days while we were at work she had some more time to spend will Laura, Mike, and Ella and they had some fun together. Both of those cute girls decided they liked toys and started playing with them. Janie's loved her rattles and sticking everything in her mouth. While she still hates her binkies, she sure enjoys sticking her fingers mouth too. We also learned a better approach to tummy time that Janie actually enjoys most of the time so she's been getting better at lifting her head up. The only catch is she needs to have her arm pinned under her or she's still just a flopping fish on her belly. She hasn't quite figured out the whole pushing up with her arms thing yet. But what she has learned is that she REALLY wants to learn to roll over from her back to her belly. She's been trying to but that head stands in her way of making it all the way over.

She's still a pretty easy baby too. She just gets grumpy when tired or hungry for the most part. There are times she'll squawk when we're not in seeing distance and she wants us to pay attention to her. Her sweet newborn cry is a thing of the past too. Her talking has changed from the sweet soft cooing to loud squeaky chatter which is actually pretty funny. She finally found her laugh too!!! She doesn't use it very often and it still has some developing to do, but it's sure fun making her giggle.

As for the rest of life, Mark is officially enrolled in Bellevue University. It's a good old normal school (as opposed to a technical college) in Nebraska that has a reputable online program for what he actually wants to do. So about one more year and he'll be done!!! I'm finally almost caught up at work. It's still hard to drop Janie off at her sitters, but it's been going a little better for her than I expected it to which makes it just a little easier. But all in all, things are going really well for us which we won't be complaining about.

Now hopefully we can stay a little more up to date on this, huh. :o)