Happy Birthday Justine!

I have about 500 things to blog about but I'll just have to get back to that later. Tonight I want to blog about Justine on her 3rd birthday.


Three years ago today we had no idea that she existed or was even born. We didn't learn about her until she was a week old and didn't meet her until she was 10 days old. After her placement into foster care I looked back at what we were doing on the day she was born. My father in law was over (I don't remember why-probably helping Waylan learn taxidermy) and we ate Dickey's for dinner. Other than that it was a normal day.

When she came to us she was 5 pounds 15 ounces...such a tiny baby. Now she weighs about 33 pounds (I'll get the official tomorrow at her 3 yr check up).

Who is Justine at three years old? (in no particular order)

• a big talker although we are working on "s", "th", "v", "r" sounds
• has a HUGE imagination
• loves pink
• still loves Dora
• favorite shows are Dora, Curious George, Word World, Word Girl, Super Why, Caillou
• is familiar with the time out mat
• knows all the princess names
• loves her babies (both her baby dolls and her imaginary ones)
• is an awesome big (foster) sister
• thinks Natalie Reid hung the moon
• loves to help Mommy cook, do dishes, sweep the floor, etc
• likes to pretend to "work" on Mommy's 'puter'
• will steal the camera and go on a photo shoot adventure
• loves to help Daddy
• loves to watch tv with Daddy
• claims she is going to help Daddy put the fires out when she is big
• says she will going hunting with Daddy she she is older (Daddy will shoot the big one and she will shoot the little one)
• is completely potty trained (can I get an "AMEN")
• can be very stong willed and stubborn (aka a handful)
• is a bit chicken to swim unless the water is no more deep than the bathtub
• is a morning person (oh my...Mommy and Daddy are NOT)
• is full of energy
• the word "Why?" is very much a part of her vocabulary
• loves to color and has recently demonstrated she can pretty much stay in the lines
• her scribbles resemble letters and sentances
• loves to swing
• she absolutely loves to sing (until you look at her then she instructs you to 'stop doing that')
• she absolutely loves to dance which much resembles galloping
• she eats like a bird and can live on chicken nuggets and mac & cheese (or 'Donalds')
• knows that Mommy and Daddy's favorite drink is Dr. Pepper and sneaks a drink any chance she gets
• has a sweet tooth
• wants the light on and door open when she goes to bed (opposite of how we've raised her)
• wears size 3T clothes and 8 1/2 shoes
• sleeps in a full size bed (with pink princess bedding)
• and Waylan's contribution..."she's mine!"

For her birthday we and her extended family are purchasing her a swing set for the back yard. Hopefully we can get on that as soon as construction of the shed is complete. I also got her a princess castle alarm clock. Not only does it have the radio, it also has princess music and projects stars on the ceiling. I so wanted her to have an alarm clock because as soon as light shines in her window she is up and ready to go. This occurs between 6:00-6:30 am and I hate it! Before Justine came along I would sleep until noon so you can imagine how much this makes me crazy in the mornings. My eyes just don't function at that time of the morning. So this is our test night. I set the alarm for 7:45am with the princess music. I told her that she must stay in bed until the princess music comes on then she can come downstairs and wake us up. I'll let you know how goes. We knocked out 2 other pet peeves with the clock too (bonus!). We had to turn her lights off and shut her bedroom door so she could see the stars. It worked! She went to sleep pretty quickly so I'm happy. I'll let you know if that continues also.

We took Justine to dinner at Peter Piper Pizza tonight; a first for us. She had so much fun. We had to MAKE her eat. She just wanted to play. She was literally running around through all the games. Talk about overload. She found some girls to play with which made her happy. She said to one of them, "You want to play with me? What yours name?" It was so cute. Here are a few pictures from today.

Being silly when I want to get a decent picture:
Trying to hold up 3 fingers: