Catch Up Part 2: 4th of July

Last year for the 4th of July we visited our good friends, the Rondeaus in South Carolina. We had so much fun we decided to do it again this year and start a little tradition. My parents also come out to South Carolina for a family reunion so we get to see them as well. Of course we had great fun and the Josie got to play with Noah again! When we told her we were going to see Noah she kept saying, "Greg... Noah...Greg...Ca." Of course "Ca" is Alicia. She eventually put another syllable in and she now says Lisa. It was fun to watch the two play together. Josie followed Noah everywhere and wanted to be right next to him. Poor Noah was a trooper and handled it well. She is definitely a social butterfly.

This picture cracks me up. Josie is playing with his emergency ride on truck. Noah sees her and immediately crawls over there. He wants to play with it and squeezes his way through. Josie is so excited to see him that she shouts, "Noah!" She puts her arm around him as she would greet a friend then continues to play with the toy over him.

Their matching shirts this year were homemade complete with their own hand prints and pipecleaner fireworks! Even the Dads helped with these. All the hands were necessary in pulling this off!

Matching monkey pajamas are so fun! We can only get away with this for so long! Be sure to watch the videos in the "more videos" section of our blog. I am having problems loading them onto the blog. For some background I love how Josie just followed Noah everywhere and wanted to be with him. I had to literally pull her off of him at one point. He was standing leaning on the coffee table and she was sitting leaned up against him. He goes along with it sometimes, ignores her at others, and just flat out crawls away from her after a while. Josie doesn't quite get the hint and there is one video where Noah is trying to push her away for some space. Still our little Josie is oblivious to his unsubtle cue and thinks its a game. They did have fun playing together.

Grandma and Pop

She had a fun but short visit with Grandma and Pop. Josie also got to see her first movie in the theater, Eclipse. How will I explain to her in the future that it was a movie about a girl caught in a love triangle between a vampire and werewolf? Grandma went with us and it was fun. It was our first movie since Josie was born and she actually did really well. Grandma brought some graham goldfish and that kept her happy most of the time. She liked the action parts but not the slow talking scenes. I knew it was time to take her out when she is leaning far forward then far backwards over and over and talking bored out of her mind. I miss the last 30 minutes or so but I went the next day by myself to see it again. We only got to see my parents for the day but it was well worth it! It was time to head back to see Greg, Alicia and Noah.

Grant finally got to play a round of golf after unsuccessfully finding an affordable public one near home. He and Greg enjoyed some of male bonding time. Thanks to growing up with my dad who is from South Carolina, we knew we had to have boiled peanuts and some peaches. They never disappoint!

Josie's 18 Month Pictures

Ok, I can't get the video of Josie's 18 month pictures posted so I will put it in the "more videos" part of our blog. Sorry!

Playing Catch UP

June

Summer is flying by and I need to play catch up. After our wonderful Memorial Day weekend with dear friends we prepared for a trip to Philadelphia a week later. Grant went to a conference and me and Josie tagged along! We stayed in downtown Philadelphia and once the conference was over we enjoyed some of the historical attractions. We went and saw the liberty bell and took pictures outside of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We wanted to go inside but we didn't have much time and I think you have to reserve tickets or get there early if you walk up to get them. Josie was such a trooper in her little splint. It never slowed her down. She wanted to be a part of whatever we were doing and let her do! The trip was a short one but a fun little getaway for all of us!

Independence Hall


The Liberty Bell

We got back on a Tuesday and Grant was off for his first Green Friday. He gets every other Friday off in the summer and we decided to set those aside for fun things to do. So we decided to go to the National Zoo. It was fun to actually show Josie the animals that she sees in her books. Her favorite were the elephants.

And what happened next? On Friday June 25th Miss Josie got her splint off! She was so cute in the doctor's office. As I was explaining to her that the nurse was taking her splint off she kept repeating it. She was so excited to have it off. She kept rubbing her leg and when we asked her where her splint was she would reply with both arms in the air, "Its gone!" She had a little atrophy but the doctor said that her strength and movement looked very good and to let her stand and do whatever at her own pace. Yikes now to start trying to get her to walk. She is a little nervous but she will do it!

Before Josie's Accident

So we had our first visitors on Memorial Day Weekend. The Rondeaus (Greg, Alicia and Noah) came and stayed with us. It has been a year since we've seen them last so it was nice to see them and get the kiddos together again. Little Noah wasn't feeling well with an ear infection and teething but he didn't slow him down. He showed us his mad crawling skills and climbing skills on the stairs. He loved holding on to our ottoman and walking around it. I believe that Josie was inspired to do the same after his visit. It is just too bad she had her little accident a couple of days after they left. I am not too worried, I think she will be moving like crazy once her splint is off.

Josie and Noah July 4, 2009

Josie and Noah May 31, 2010

Josie's New Splint

She is not upset over her leg but over the fact we will not let her have the camera.




Thank you Nordstroms for your fabulous umbrella bag! No worries over Josie's leg getting wet during her bath.

Josie's First Visit to the ER

Our little girl fell off the bed this morning, more like jumped off. I had left the room to get something and came back to find her scooted to the edge. I was at the door when I saw the back of her leap off the far side of the bed. I immediately ran over and found her tummy down crying hysterically. It had totally scared her and me too. I wanted to remain calm so that I could calm her down. She soon stopped crying but just wanted me to hold her so I did. I decided that the fall scared her more than anything because I was able to calm her and she acted as if she was fine. I decided that I did not need to take her to the ER. I then laid her on the bed. She wanted her blanket and me to lay beside for a while so I did. Finally I decided that she needed to eat, it had been an hour past the time she usually ate.

Still in her footie pajamas, I took her to her room to change her. I touched her right foot and she whimpered. I then played around with her foot and she started to cry. I touched her ankle and nothing just when I messed around her toes did she cry. I then tried to stand her up and she would not put any weight on it so I decided that I needed to take her to the ER. Where we live there is an emergency center right across our townhouse community. Her carseat was wet from being washed so I put her in her stroller and walked over there.

She did fine until they took us back to a room. As soon as we walked in she immediately started to cry from fear of getting the shot. That's the only reason we show up in a room like this is to get a shot and have strangers poke around at you. I got her to calm down but then the doctor walked in and she started up again. He had the personality of a wet rag which is probably common in an ER setting but he examined her and set us up for some x-rays. At least the nurses were very nice and comforting.

Two girls who were the x-ray techs came back to get us. The let me hold her in position which I was very grateful. I laid her down and she immediately started to cry. She just knew there was a shot coming. They put an apron on me and a tiny one on her. They instructed me how to hold her and we took three or four pictures, a couple of her foot and of her leg from her knee down. We went back to the room where the nurses were very attentive.

First the x-ray techs asked me if I wanted a blanket for her or if I wanted to lay down with her. The nurses showered her with stickers. The doctor came back with the news that she fractured her leg. I was totally not expecting that and the tears just flowed out of me. She fractured her tibia right above her foot. He told me that they would splint it and I would need to follow up with an orthopedic for a real treatment plan.

He left and I just held her close to me, probably smothering her and bawled. A very nice woman from registration came in and consoled me. She hugged me tightly and reminded me that I am not the only mom to go through this. Her advice is to have a couple more and this will seem minor. Still she is so tiny and young and to think of her suffering in anyway while I am fine just cut right through me. She was a trooper the only time she cried is if I touched her foot or medical personelle walked through the doors, mostly for the medical personelle.

Of course what would an ER visit be without the need to give an IV. One nurse came in and once I told her what happened she immediately started spouting out IV, "she needs an IV," without talking to the doctor. I was not having an unnecessary IV placed in her. Anyway she talked to the doctor and later apologized saying that she only needed to apply a splint. She measuered her leg and gathered the supplies. She put on the splint and it looked so tiny on Josie's little leg. Another nurse came in and gave us some instructions then discharged us. She will go to the orthopedic doctor tomorrow at 11am for a follow up. Until then here's a picture of our little girl's first injury.

Thursday June 3, 2010

Ok it is now tomorrow and I have an update. I actually put up this entire post today. My computer is so slow that it has taken me a while to get to my photos and videos.

I did take Josie to the orthopedist and he said that her leg looked really good. It was a clean break. She freaked out and would not let him touch her foot to which he replied, "well she just showed me everything I needed to see. She has great movement in her toes and she rotates her ankle. There is hardly any swelling." They put a better splint on her with a lot more padding in it and supports on the back of her leg down her foot to her toes as well as down the sides of her leg. They also put tape around it so she couldn't pull at it as much. She was really cute when they were wrapping her leg. She held it out and would talk and point at it as if she was knew all about what they were doing. They did a splint because little ones can maneuver easily out of any kind of splint and cast so there was not any point in putting her in a fiberglass cast. I take her back in a week for more x-rays and back again the next week. He said that is her third x-ray looked good she could get her splint off at that time. So if it looks good that is a total of three weeks only in her splint! She will also not need to go to physical therapy! He said that by a year's time that you would not even be able to tell that she ever had a broken bone! Yay!!!!!!!!! I will post her new splint soon. She is napping at the moment hence why I am able to do this post!

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a really nice weekend although it was mostly filled with unpacking. We originally planned a trip to Ikea because we need a dining room table to eat at and a bookcase but we figured that it needed to wait. We still had and have a lot of unpacking to do and we are expecting a visit from some dear friends Memorial Day weekend so we figured we needed to get our priorities straight.

Unpacking with a little one around is challenging but fun. We have to take turns or involve Josie somehow in the process if its possible. It slows us down but its so entertaining to watch as she tries to do everything we do and beams with pride for accomplishing the task at hand. This task was putting together a set of table and two chairs. Our little one is so observant. She watched as Grant and I twisted the screwdriver to move a screw into a hole in her chair. Once the screwdriver was placed on the floor she saw her chance and made her move. She immediately grabs the screwdriver and sticks it into the whole and twists her wrist not the tool to mimic the motion she had just witnessed. We complimented her on her swift technique and fine craftmanship to which she gave us simple smile of agreement. From that point on she was hooked and had to be involved in the whole process. If we were using the screwdriver she had the allenwrench. If both tools were being used she helped hold the piece that was being worked on. It was a fun project and she beamed at that finished product. Afterall it was full of butterflies and flowers, two of her favorite things! Grant and I decided that this day was turned out much better than originally planned!

For Mother's Day Grant surprised me with some beautiful daisies on Saturday and Josie treated me to a Relief Society Meeting by myself. She had decided that she was Daddy's girl and just could not stand to be away from him for one minute. It was pretty darn cute! My flowers are gorgeous and perfect. I feel so happy just looking at them. At the time my vases were packed but I had a big mason jar that I used for canning and put them in there. It was a perfect look for them because it looked like we had just picked them wild from a field. It gave them charm!

All in all the weekend was perfect. We were all exhausted from working but it was just so simple and peaceful. It was just nice to be together as a family!

The finished product!

And of course my beautiful Mother's Day Daisies!

Mmmm... grilled cheese!

So we are in a bit of a crossroads with Josie and her eating. She didn't really start to eat solids until she was 11 months. Her stomach couldn't handle it. She is doing great and her tastes are broadening a bit. We still give her a little bit of the pureed baby food stuff but she has moved on to green beans, marshmallows, pretzels, cereal (so far its Golden Grams and Cheerios), cheese, chocolate (loves it like her daddy), grilled cheese, and as of a couple of days ago chicken and rice. She has many dislikes as well and finding fruit that she likes is difficult. She only eats peaches right now. She does not like bananas but she will eat banana bread. She eats other things as well I just can't remember them all at the moment. It also depends upon her mood and what she will eat, but aren't we all that way. She is our funny girl. The crossroads is that she is really wanting to feed herself and its really cute. I had to record her eating her grilled cheese.

I know how many grilled cheese pictures and videos do you need, but she is just so darn cute!

Easter Finale

So Easter came and poor Josie didn't get her Easter basket until that evening. We still had to put it together. We didn't get to do it the night before because we got home so late from preparing our new home. We all slept in and we finally put her basket together while she was down for her nap. That's why she is in our bedroom during all of this. I found the bunny ears I made for her and she looks more like a little kid now than the baby that wore them last year. I could write more but we have lots of video footage to get through and it tells the story well.

Last Year's Picture

My little baby is getting big :(

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend started on Friday with a visit to a very cute park not too far from our new home. It's called Frying Pan Farm and this time of year is the perfect time to go and see baby farm animals. It is wide open with different pens and fields for the animals. There is a visitors center, a playground, an old country store, several barns filled with old farming equipment, a 4-H building, a show arena, and a grill to get some food. It's free to go in but you have to pay for the wagon rides. Grant liked the fact that the wagons were pulled by an old Farmall like his Aunt Alice has.

It was such a beautiful spring day and many families were there. We went around lunch time and there were several families having a picnic with blankets spread throughout the grassy areas designated us people. You could pet the animals and they had hand washing stations once you were done. They also had little areas for talks about the animals and a cow milking station where they show you how and I believe that you could try milking them as well. The sign there said next milking session 4pm. Fun!

So now for the animals. We saw turkeys, a peacock, goats, chickens, baby chicks, ducks, cows, calves, sheep, lambs, horses, a pig and piglets. Josie had fun and it was nice to show her animals that look like the one from her play farm! When we looked back at the video it seems the only animals she wasn't thrilled about were the pigs. It could be there were so many kids in there. She enjoyed watching the other kids as well.

The rest of the day was spent at our new house sealing the grout in the tile and running errands. We did not make it back home until after midnight. We were all tired. Grant had to do some work so Josie and I just vegged on the couch for a little bit. She loves kleenex boxes and to pull the tissues out one by one. She usually has her own box but being tired I just handed her the one we were using. This is what happens when mom zones out.

Wow, I think I will have to do a part two later. To follow will be an Easter Basket for Josie and Moving day for us! We move Thursday!

So since this weekend is General Conference, Josie got to wear her Easter dress last Sunday. This year Easter snuck up on me and I totally forgot to get her matching shoes. So she wore her black ones to church... oh well. She was such a cutie regardless!

Our New House is Finished... well almost.

So Friday we got up at 6am to make our 9am final walk through appointment for our new house. When we arrived I even noticed that the yard was landscaped so they were completely done! We met with Wade, the head builder, and another guy I want to call him Bill and hope that is his real name. I am so horrible about names. Anyways It was nice to see them set the example and remove their shoes upon entering our new home. We did the same and made our way inside. We crossed over our little patch of honey something colored hardwood floor and into our nicely beige carpeted living room. Everything looked great. We could see our stainless steal appliances gleaming in the kitchen and the reddish tan tile looked great. We love the shiny black granite counter top and our backsplash that lines the wall between cabinets and counter top is... oh no it doesn't look good at all what were we thinking? Oh wait a minute its the wrong tile! Yep they installed the wrong tile and when we told them they were totally shocked because supposedly they love their tile guy and he has never made a mistake like this. So when looking at our pictures make a mental note that the backsplash will match the the kitchen floor. Also in the pictures you will see blue tape on the walls. Its for the painters to do touch-ups

The back with our garage and that is our deck in upper right corner.

Our little side yard.

Our garage and house number






Our half bath next to the kitchen


Our stairway


Master bedroom


Master bath


Hallway


Guest bath


Josie's room


Guest bedroom

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Construction Site Walk-through

A month ago we visited the construction site of our townhouse. They had just begun the framing that week and were going to put on the roof the next day. It wasn't much to look at but we were excited anyway because they were making progress.


Our unit is on the bottom of the building, floors 1 and 2. Looking at the back, our garage is on the left. There is another unit above us, it starts on the third floor, you have to walk up two flights of steps just to get to your living room.


So today we were able to visit our new home and do a walk-through inspection of the framing, electrical, plumbing and window installation with the builder.

The front

Our lot is #89, this is our living room window and our front-door. The ground was very muddy because of all the melting snow.



So much progress in such a short time, it was very exciting


The back


In order to go inside the construction zone we were required to wear hardhats. Josie kept reaching up and touching them so finally I let her put mine on.


Mindy is looking stylish in hers.


It was an interesting experience to be able to see where all of the outlets, plugs and other receptacles will be. Also to know which walls are load bearing and which ones have pipes running through them.

They will begin hanging drywall this week and should be all finished by the end of next month or the first week of April. We'll get to do another walk-through right before closing.

Here are some pictures of what it looks like now.

The living room

Looking out the window

On the other side of that wall is the stairs for the upstairs unit


The kitchen (Builder on the left, inspecter on the right)


The stairs



Master bedroom

We have a box window that can be a seat.


From inside the closet, where there is also another window


Looking at the door towards the hallway and stairs


Josie's room