J & D's Boys

Up up and away

2012-01-21T16:20:00.003-06:00

These boys are growing up fast! A week ago I took Levi to his 6 month doctor's appointment. He is now 18 lbs 10 oz and 27 inches tall. I believe that puts him in the 67th percentile for both height and weight. Hey doctors, look how proportional our asymmetrical baby turned out to be!!

Levi enjoys sticking out his tongue, chewing on his toes (and everything he can reach), pulling his brother's hair, and sitting up by himself for a few minutes at a time. He can roll from his back to his belly, but he mostly chooses not to because he can't roll from his belly to his back, so he gets stuck (and then tired and then mad). He is getting up during the night, sometimes only once but most nights twice. Where did my good sleeper go?! Oh well, at least he is still his smiley happy self!

Levi is almost too big for some of his 9 month clothes, and has several 12 month pieces that he can wear. The kid is only 6 months old! Josiah is getting so tall that his 4T t-shirts are turning into midriffs. Pretty soon I will have giant children that can carry me around in their pockets. Josiah enjoys playing Legos, GI Joes, Star Wars, and mostly anything involving chasing, shooting, etc. He loves watching PBS kids shows (Dinosaur Train, Curious George, etc.) and also loves watching movies, so much so that I am trying to re-direct his attentions to more productive activities. He also loves talking to Levi, and Levi thinks he is hilarious. It is so fun to see them interact.

Pictures coming soon (and by soon I mean within the next couple of weeks)!

Jason and his girls

2012-01-17T16:56:00.002-06:00

Well Jason officially has another woman in his life. 9 more actually. Heifers of course! Here he is with his grandpa the day he brought them over (a week ago Sunday).
Here's one of the girls standing in the nice luscious rye grass Jason planted.
Three more who have not figured out how yummy rye grass is yet.
Josiah, the proudest he can be of his daddy's new girls! Now he just has to figure out how to not spook them. Less running at them while mooing might help.
Let us know if you want to buy some beef from us in about 7 months! Just one disclaimer: the price per lb will be about $20 so that we can cover all the farm stuff Jason wants to buy! ;)

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

2011-12-29T19:24:00.004-06:00

Your Christmas present: a blog update!

The boys hanging with their daddy:

Josiah can write his name! Not sure why blogger is turning my pictures - urgh!!!!

Some great friends came to visit! We miss them.
Josiah turned 4!
We splurged and got him a big present for his birthday!
Levi started eating solid food the day after Josiah's b-day! He is now eating baby cereal, bananas, and avocados.
Got some family pictures taken by a local photographer. He got some great ones of the boys, but the ones of all 4 of us are terrible. It is disappointing that Jason's mom got a better picture of our family with her iphone than the professional photographer did! Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes I guess!

Some fun Christmas pics!

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Buried

2011-10-20T14:19:00.007-05:00

I am way behind on everything. Over the past two months we have either had guests at our house, or we've been out of town almost non-stop. We've been able to see a lot of our friends and family, which has been great, but the down side is that nothing else gets done. I am starting to think that I will never catch up on laundry. It may just swallow up our house. So anyway, here is a quick recap of the past 2 months before I go collapse in bed.

KC friends came to visit:

Josiah had Grandparent's day at school:
Levi continued to get cuter by the day. He is laughing now!
We took a family trip to the local farmstead:
Took a trip to visit my side of the family, where Josiah got to hang out with his cousins:

Levi continued to entertain us:
Went to Jason's cousin's wedding. Josiah loved the dancing! But his version of dancing is mostly people holding him while they dance.

Went to St. Louis to visit friends - went to the City Museum which was super fun. Josiah loved having more play time with friends!

Another happy Levi picture:
Went to stay with Jason's parents for a couple of days, ending with Halloween night where I took Luke Skywalker trick or treating. Yoda stayed home and slept.

There are several events I am leaving out, just for the sake of time.

In the midst of all of this fun stuff, our cats got fleas, which they brought into our house. So now they are outside cats. We treated our carpets, and also had an exterminator come and spray everything. I have been washing everything that will fit in the washing machine (adding to my laundry problem). We have been vacuuming every other day for over a month now. I have had a couple of nervous breakdowns over this, but am slowly starting to feel comfortable in our house again.

Praying for peace, rest, and sanity in the coming weeks!

P.S.

2011-09-11T21:19:00.001-05:00

In case you are wondering, Jason loves his new job! I am very proud of him!

Our cute boys

2011-09-11T17:02:00.004-05:00

The cutest boys!

Levi smiling - he loves his big brother.
Jason and Josiah camped out in the back yard - Josiah loved his 1st camping experience!

More pics, just because they're cute.

Josiah's 1st day of preschool! He is doing a great job and learning how to write his letters. He is a little shy with his classmates, which was quite unexpected. This is the same boy who chats with strangers at the grocery store, in the elevator, etc. I guess it's different when there's not someone there that he knows. I am sure that with time his natural outgoing exuberance will shine through!
Josiah loves Daisy. I am not sure she always reciprocates. But thankfully she has learned to be extremely patient.
A visitor that showed up literally on our front step - ironically on the welcome mat. I thought it was dead, but later when I went out it was gone!
My birthday was Labor Day. Don't worry, it's not too late to send a gift (kidding!). Jason made me waffles for breakfast (and did all the dishes), then we went to Springfield for lunch, and Jason took Josiah to Chuck E. Cheese while I went shoe shopping. Then we all went out for ice cream at a local homemade ice cream place. It was a fun day!
I think Josiah enjoyed the ice cream place more than I did!
Levi is 2 months old! He has been smiling at us a lot, which we love! He enjoys pooping through his diapers, standing up (with assistance), and sleeping in his swing. I have been very lazy and have been letting him sleep in the swing at night. It is a habit I will have to break, but for now we are both sleeping so my motivation is very low. He has slept through the night twice already! At his 2 month doctor appointment Friday he was 13 lbs 10 oz - in the 88th percentile!
We love our boys!!

A note about our sheriff

2011-08-16T15:00:00.003-05:00

Josiah starts preschool on Thursday next week. I can't believe he is old enough to go to school! He will go 2 days per week for about 4 hours per day. He is really excited. Last night we went to the school orientation/open house, and he cried when we left. He said he wanted to sleep there. I am not anticipating any separation anxiety from our independent little boy! We are so proud of him!

New sheriff in town

2011-08-15T11:33:00.002-05:00

Levi updates:

He is almost 6 weeks old!
He is having more and longer alert times during the day which is fun!
Periodically he has some gas issues...so we have stocked up on Mylicon!
He has the cutest little fat rolls on his legs and neck. I am excited that he is looking so plump and healthy!
He went through a couple week spell of peeing and/or pooping every time his diaper was off. Thankfully he has quit that habit!
Speaking of poop, he has already pooped through his diaper a couple of times. Once was right before my Grandma Lucy's 80th b-day party, onto his white shirt and my shorts! It is amazing how much poop can come out of such a little person. I had forgotten about the radioactive yellow color of newborn poop. We have also stocked up on spray-and-wash. :)
He is a super cuddly baby, which makes it hard for me to put him down!

After 7 months at Bass Pro Shop, Jason got a new job! This was very unexpected and not something he was looking for, but we are excited about this new opportunity. The new job is with City Utilities in Springfield. He starts one week from today!
Since Jason will no longer be working at Bass Pro, we spent this past Saturday evening taking advantage of his discount. Josiah got a new pistol and is now a full fledged sheriff!

Movin' on up

2011-07-23T16:53:00.004-05:00

I took Levi to his 2 week doctor's appointment yesterday. That little dude is growing like crazy! He is now 8 lbs 4 oz, so he has gained about 1 lb 8 oz since in the 11 days since his first doctor's appointment! He continues to be a good eater and sleeper, and just an all-around happy baby. Here are some more pics - enjoy!

Happy baby

2011-07-18T16:09:00.001-05:00

I just had to share another smiley picture! What a happy little dude!

Pics

2011-07-12T16:25:00.003-05:00

Josiah looks like a giant next to his baby brother! He is holding up Super Why and on my lap is Alpha Pig - gifts from Levi to his big brother.

Levi

2011-07-11T16:09:00.002-05:00

Our little Levi is 5 days old! He is SUCH a good baby. Maybe I have a skewed view of things since it was so rough bringing Josiah home. No fault of Josiah's - it was just hard having a preemie. He had to eat more often (which meant less sleep for us); he was so small and we were more worried about him; and I had to bottle feed him every other feeding, which meant pumping in the middle of the night and cleaning the pump every time. It was exhausting. By the time I would change his diaper, bottle feed him, then mess with the pump, sometimes I would only get 20 minutes of sleep between feedings. Of course part of why it seems easier is probably that we are 2nd time parents and know a little more of what to expect (and are a lot more relaxed). But I still have to give Levi a little credit. He really only cries when he's hungry. He didn't cry when the doctor circumcised him, and he doesn't complain too much when we change his diaper. He figured out how to breastfeed the first time he tried it, and has been a great eater. He has been giving me one 4-hour stretch of sleep between feedings at night, which means I get over 3 hours of sleep at once. That is amazing! I am not sure when Josiah started letting me sleep that long, but I am positive it was not the first week (probably not even the first month). Sorry Josiah - not trying to say anything bad about you - but it is much easier to have a full-term baby!

We went to the doctor today for his weight check. He was 21" long when they measured him at birth, but today at the doctor's office he measured 19 1/4". So either he's shrinking or the measurements are off. I'm guessing his real length is somewhere in the middle. He was 7 lbs at birth, and when we left the hospital he weighed 6 lbs 11 oz. Today he was at 6 lbs 12 oz. The doctor thinks that he probably lost a little weight the first day home and has started to gain it back, so he is not concerned. Other than that they said everything looks great. They even gave him the "cutest baby we've ever seen" award. This is not an actual award they hand out, but I can tell they are wishing it was.

Every time I look at Levi it's like I'm looking at Josiah when he was a baby. Two of the cutest boys in the world! Speaking of Josiah, he does great with his new brother. He likes to touch him and talk to him, but has not been brave enough to hold him yet.

I caught this little grin after I fed him one night. I love his dimples! More pics to come soon!

He Has A Name

2011-07-07T10:27:00.003-05:00

The name selection process has ended. The official name is Levi David. Levi and Mom are still doing well. He was a good baby last night and slept a little between feedings. He has been sleeping most of the morning.

Here is another pic from last night after the goo was put on his eyes.

Chewbacca Alien

2011-07-06T23:24:00.008-05:00

Baby R 2 arrived today at 7:48. We don't have a name yet but he will soon.

Mommy and baby are doing well after another rush delivery. Today when Danita woke up she (assuming she slept at all last night) was having contractions every 30 minutes. They had progressed for a while to every 6-8 minutes but had slowed again by noon. Around 5:22 I received the “we need to go to the hospital call”. We arrived around 6:15 and I dropped her off at the ER while Josiah and I parked.

By the time we got up to Labor and Delivery she was getting ready and had dilated to a 4-5. They moved us to the spacious delivery room around 6:45. By now she was already at a 7 and the intensity had picked up and the time between was shorter. She had asked for an epidural after having contractions since yesterday morning but due a low blood count she was rejected! She had then asked for stadoal (sp?) another pain medication and by the time the Dr approved and nurse made it back, she was at a nine. We were having a hard time with the baby monitor and the nurse had to reposition and hold during contractions…which didn’t go over well with Danita. This also keep the nurse from having a free hand to inject the pain medication. At this point Danita was in so much pain that she couldn’t really ask for anything. By 7:48, he was here. However the cord was wrapped around his neck twice and he was a very pale blue. The nurses grabbed him and did their magic and we heard him cry and knew all was well.

Josiah was able to come and see him around 8:20 and was excited. He made the comment that he likes him. Thankfully my Aunt Dana was on her way to Springfield for other reasons while we were on the way and she offered to watch Josiah. That was huge since it allowed me to be in the room with Danita before our Mom’s and Aunt April arrived. Thank you very much Dana!

Again I just have to say how amazing Danita is to do this without meds, she rocks! We now have him and will attempt to get some rest. Thank you all for the prayers and support.

Odds and ends and a hospital visit

2011-07-05T19:38:00.006-05:00

Josiah loves peeing outside. One day after church he dropped his pants and peed right there on the front lawn of the church as people were leaving. Then we had a talk about appropriate places to pee outside.

Here are our kittens. They really are cute. They're getting spoiled though. The one on the left is Daisy - named by Josiah for a kitty in a book he has. The yellow one is Truman - named by Jason after I commented that he looked like a tiger.
We got some fireworks to shoot off with Josiah for the 4th. He loved them (and wants to know why we can't do them every day). Here he is doing sparklers with his daddy. After this we roasted marshmallows. It was a fun fire-filled evening.

Today was eventful. I woke up at 4 am with chills. I couldn't stop shaking. I was also having stomach cramps so I laid there and tried to decide if they were contractions or intestinal cramps. We called the nurse help line around 6 and they said to just drink lots of fluids. Then I went to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of bleeding. So we called the hospital around 7:30 and asked if I should come in or wait and go to my 11 am doctor's appointment. They said I should definitely be seen today, and I was running a fever and didn't feel like waiting until 11. So we loaded up the truck and headed to the hospital. On the way I came to the realization that I was in fact having contractions, which seemed to be about 4 minutes apart. When we got there, they said I am still only dilated to between 1 and 2 cm. So they decided I was not in labor despite the contractions. They said I must just have a virus and the contractions were because I was dehydrated. So they hooked me up to an IV and gave me anti-nausea medication. Then they did an ultrasound to check amniotic fluid levels. Everything looks fine with the baby, so they sent us home. I was still having contractions every 6 minutes when we left, but as I drank more they continued to slow down. It is annoying to have contractions and not have any progress. I am still achy and tired, but hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

One week until the doctor's due date of 7/12! Praying that the baby comes on his own without me having to be induced!

Craziness

2011-06-30T21:43:00.003-05:00

It's been a crazy week.

On Saturday we got 2 kittens. The kittens are to kill the mice so that the snakes will leave. Reminds me of that song about the old lady who swallowed the fly. For now they are so small that they have to stay inside all the time, lest they become owl food.

We had some new friends over on Tuesday to play, and Josiah was swinging in the back yard with his friend when he decided (mid-air) to let go of his swing with both hands. I have no idea why - he has never done that before. Thankfully I was not pushing him as high as I normally do. He did a gravity-defying back flip in the air and landed on the top of his head. It looked really painful and really scared both of us. I called the nurse helpline and they said just to monitor him - his movements and behavior - for the next couple of days. So the past 2 nights we've had to wake him up around 2 am and make him talk and walk around to check on him. Maybe it is training for getting up with the baby soon. I think he is OK from the fall, but now he is running a fever so I'm planning on taking him to the doctor tomorrow to see what's going on.

I skipped my ultrasound this week. I was not able to get my doctor's appointment and the ultrasound scheduled for the same day, and it was too much stress for me to figure out babysitters for Josiah for two separate days and make two separate treks into Springfield. Plus I really don't see the point anymore. The baby is full term, over 6 lbs, and if I can feel him moving (which I do all the time) then why do I need to have his heart rate verified via ultrasound? Anyway, I don't think my doctor is super happy with me but I am not all that concerned with her feelings at this point. Had my appointment today and I am dilated 2 cm now, still 70% effaced, and the baby is now at a station -2 (he moved a little lower). Also found out that I tested positive for Group B Strep bacteria, which exists in about 25% of all healthy adult women. I guess most women that have it have no symptoms or health effects from it, but it can be passed to the baby and could make the baby very sick. So all this means for me is that I will have to have IV antibiotics during labor. Hopefully won't be a big deal.

I am praying that we can all get some rest this weekend and that we can all stay healthy!!

Too much information

2011-06-21T14:52:00.003-05:00

Today marks week 37. Full term!!! Here's me and the baby. Went to the doctor today and he is measuring at 5 lbs 14 oz. I thought he would be a little bigger, especially since I made cinnamon rolls on Friday and have been eating 4 per day ever since. But, he is in the 22nd percentile, and everything looks good (fluid levels, cord blood flow, heart rate). His belly is in the 20th percentile while his head is in the 50th, so there is still some asymmetry going on, but not really any reason to be concerned at this point.

If you don't want to know the TMI part, then stop reading now. For less squeamish readers, I lost my mucous plug on Sunday morning. I was surprised and have been carrying a towel around with me ever since just in case my water breaks! Josiah was born 6 hours after this happened, but I read that you could lose it 2 weeks before your baby comes. Plus the doctor told me today that it could regenerate and I can lose it again. Weird. Anyway, things are the same as last week - 1 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and the baby is at a -3 station (meaning he has not dropped very far yet). Jason still thinks he will come before July 1st. Feel free to place your due date bets on the new poll!

Week 36

2011-06-16T15:20:00.002-05:00

When I went to the doctor on Tuesday, she told me that I am dilated 1 cm and 70% effaced. I was pretty surprised. For some reason I was not really expecting to be dilated at all yet (probably because of the due date discrepancy). That really doesn't mean much though - it could still be several weeks before he decides to make an appearance (which is fine with me!). I am still feeling good and even got in the pool with Josiah today (thanks Liz!). Luckily there was no one there besides the lifeguard and my friend to see my big belly hanging out of my pre-pregnancy swim suit!

Here's Josiah singing part of the Phineas and Ferb theme song. He can sing the whole thing, but here he chose to be silly instead (Mi Mi is his name for Jason's mom). Enjoy!

1 month to go!

2011-06-11T14:16:00.002-05:00

Here's me and the baby on Monday, 6/6. Tomorrow will put us at week 36 - only 4 weeks to go! Today I'm washing the baby's clothes, and I finally started packing a suitcase to take to the hospital. I am already WAY more prepared for this little guy than I was for Josiah!

Last Saturday I toured the maternity ward of the hospital where he will be born, just so I will know where to go and what to expect when I get there. The nurses were very nice - they showed me the labor/delivery room, the nursery, the recovery room, etc. and then they said, "see you soon!" when I left. I almost had a panic attack. I had been so preoccupied with moving, unpacking, etc. that I had not given much thought to labor and delivery. I clearly need to do some mental prep!

Seven years ago (tomorrow) Jason and I got married! We are going to dinner tonight to celebrate. Jason's mom is coming over to hang out with Josiah (thanks Debby!!). And then, like most of our special date nights, we will probably end up at Home Depot. We are quite the romantics.

Josiah updates:

He is into Star Wars right now. He routinely calls me Princess Leia, which I really don't mind at all.
He named our tractor Mary Anne, per a book we checked out at the library (Mike Mulligan and the steam shovel).
He has watched Toy Story 1 and 3 multiple times, but when he is pretending to be Buzz Lightyear, he still says, "To infinity and beyond here". Not sure where the 'here' came from. At least it's better than earlier this year when he would say, "Whointattily and beyond here".
He has a very active (sometimes overactive) imagination. He frequently tells us about how he has several jobs. One is at the zoo (selling animals of course), one is at Bass Pro Shops selling boats, and there are others I can't think of right now. The other day when we were driving, he would talk about everything he saw, and tell me that he and his friend Andrew built it. From buildings to flags to trees to even birds. He told me that they used a crane to lift bricks, and that all of this took place while I was a baby. He is very serious when he tells these stories, and would be rather convincing if he wasn't 3.
He can sing the whole Phineas and Ferb theme song. I will have to get a video of this, because it is hilarious.
He told me this week that he wants to be a police officer when he grows up.
He will start preschool 2 half days/week in the fall. He is getting SO big!

Keep checking our blog in the coming month - this will be one of the main places we post baby updates and pictures when he arrives!

Uncharted territory

2011-06-03T19:51:00.003-05:00

We are almost at 35 weeks! That means we've surpassed the point in the pregnancy at which Josiah was born! I can officially say I have never been this pregnant before (that is of course, according to the July 12th due date the doctors have given us). They did measurements of the baby on Tuesday (5/31), and he is now 4 lbs 13 oz. That puts him in the 20th percentile - until now he has been in or below the 10th. The doctors of course feel that we should continue our weekly monitoring despite his growth spurt. I guess I can put up with it, since that is only 5 more times! And yes, I am overdue on a picture of my belly, but will try to get that soon.

We are getting close to being unpacked. After getting rid of 1.5 truck loads of boxes on Craig's list and donating 2 truck loads of stuff we don't need, I am finally starting to believe that we might find a place for everything that we want to keep. It is slowly coming together. I finally found the baby's crib sheets, so I was able to wash them and make his bed. His room is looking more cozy. He won't be sleeping in there for a while, but it makes me feel better to have it more put together. We also uncovered the guest bed over the weekend, so we are officially able to accept guests! They will still have to navigate around the other stuff in the room that has not been put away yet, but at least they have a place to sleep (clean sheets coming soon).

Jason and Josiah left tonight to make the trek down to Dallas for our oldest nephew's high school graduation (congrats Alex!). I am not able to travel that far at this point in the pregnancy. And of course, this being a weekend when I'm here by myself, the air conditioner stopped working today. I was one unhappy pregnant lady in our 80 degree house this afternoon. Jason was able to come home a little early and get it to work again. I am praying that it keeps working all weekend - otherwise I may be spending a lot of time in Springfield at Target (or other air conditioned stores). I'm hoping to get some things done while the boys are away this weekend, but I already miss them. The house is way too quiet.

We live about 45 minutes away from Joplin, MO where the EF5 tornado* destroyed a lot of the city on May 22nd. Last week, Jason was out in our field mowing, when he found an x-ray from the Joplin hospital. It is scary when a huge natural disaster is so close, and debris from the storm literally lands in your backyard. We are so thankful that all of our family (who live much closer to Joplin than we do) is safe, but we are still so overwhelmed by the destruction. If you want to know how you can help the people of Joplin, you can go here for more info: http://www.facebook.com/joplinmo?sk=info

Here is a creepy but cool photo I took of the sky that evening (5/22) after the storm that produced the tornado had passed over where we live.

*The National Weather Service says the tornado that swept through the southwest Missouri town of Joplin was a highest-rated EF5 storm, with winds greater than 200 mph. The twister was the deadliest single tornado to touchdown since the National Weather Service began keeping official records in 1950. It's the 8th-deadliest single twister in U.S. history.

Cattle are weird

2011-05-18T14:49:00.003-05:00

We are currently leasing our land to the guy whose cattle were here when we moved in. They are weird animals. When Jason brought the tractor implements over, the cattle could be seen the next day licking it. I guess they like the taste of motor oil. Then today Josiah and I witnessed them trying to eat a tarp. Seriously. I will have to get a video of Josiah interacting with the cows. He likes to talk to them and try to feed them dandelions. It is quite hilarious. While you anxiously await that video, here is another one to entertain you. Josiah helping his daddy. It is so cute to watch him work!

In completely unrelated news (no fat pregnant lady/cow jokes please), here's a picture of me and the baby at 32 weeks!

Slow progress

2011-05-16T09:35:00.004-05:00

On May 7th we officially started sleeping in and living in our new house! Here's the view from our front step (and from our living room window), complete with Josiah in his daddy's cowboy hat:

We spent the past week moving things from the apartment to the house. Yesterday we cleaned the apartment one last time and got most of our stuff out. There are a few things left which Jason is grabbing today. It feels so nice to be in one place!

I failed to mention this in my last post, but Josiah has been such a trooper through all of this moving and transition. He has been very patient and played on his own a lot while we were cleaning and painting. He is such a great little boy!

Currently our time revolves around unpacking. Unpacking is no fun. It is slow and painful. It really wouldn't be too bad if we didn't have other things to do - grass to mow, food to cook, dishes to wash, laundry...keeping up with everything else plus unpacking is the trick. And where did all this stuff come from?! I really didn't think we had this much. I am certain that it multiplies while we sleep. Our goal is to have everything out of our storage unit by the end of May. So we will be unpacking for a while.

Jason was able to get his tractor moved over to our house last week. This is a tractor that he inherited from his Grandpa Regehr. It needs some work, but it does run, and hopefully will work well for what we need. Jason and Josiah are very excited to have a tractor. On Mother's day Jason's dad helped us move all the tractor implements to the house (thank you!).

We are about 32 weeks (according to the doctors) into our pregnancy now. Only 2 weeks away from when Josiah was born. Yikes. I hope this baby stays put much longer than that. Last week they did measurements at the weekly ultrasound, and the little guy is 3 lbs 4 oz! That sounds really big to me, but only puts him in the 10th percentile. I'm guessing that is a normal size for 30 weeks (by our calculations), but don't know that for sure. And the doctors are not willing to budge on their due date. Oh well. Just hoping they don't want to induce me as soon as I hit their week 40 mark. Will post a pic of my belly soon!

Moving weekend!

2011-05-01T22:07:00.003-05:00

We officially sold our KC house on Wednesday, and officially bought our new house on Thursday!

On Friday my mom, Jason's mom, and Grandma Camp all came to help us clean. And it's a good thing they did. The previous owners left us quite a mess. Piles of dog hair on the floor, gum stuck to the hardwood floors, food and candy ground into the carpets, collections of fingerprints and scuff marks on every door, mouse poop in the coat closet...we all came to the conclusion that the previous owners were allergic to cleaning in general. Nice people by the way. We have met them a couple of times and they are great. Just not cleaners.

On Saturday the moving company delivered all the stuff from our KC house. Josiah supervised. Actually I was the one checking off the boxes as they were carried in - a great job for a pregnant lady. I just sat around and gave orders. It was way better than all the cleaning I did the previous day.

Between Friday and Sunday we (with help that we are SO thankful for!!) got the whole house thoroughly vacuumed, wiped out the insides and outsides of all the kitchen cabinets, shampooed the carpets, mopped most of the hardwood floors, cleaned the bathroom, patched wall holes and removed wallpaper remnants and wiped down walls to prep for painting, painted all three bedrooms, touched up paint in other rooms, and a lot of other things I can't remember right now. The house looks infinitely better. And it is starting to feel like OUR house which is nice. It's getting harder to come back to the apartment to sleep.

This is Josiah's contribution to painting the baby's room today.
Luckily for Jason, there was a cold front that moved in last night. So today he got to figure out how his new outdoor wood furnace works. He loves it! And it really does a great job keeping the house toasty warm.
We have a couple of "pets" at our new house. On Friday Josiah was headed outside to play on the swing set, when I heard him say, "hey, some snakes!" as he walked out the door. Sure enough, I stepped out with him just in time to see two big black snakes crawling under our house. Luckily I was right there to tell him not to touch them, because apparently he has no natural fear of snakes. So hopefully they are taking care of the mice that I mentioned before who at one time had been hanging out in the coat closet.

We are having new carpet installed on Wed, and after that we'll be able to move our bedroom furniture to the bedrooms. Right now it is in the rec room, which is overflowing. We'll put the old carpet that we cleaned and pulled up into the rec room which currently just has rubberized mats over the concrete floor. Then we'll be able to start arranging that room to be the playroom/office/guest bedroom. The house is really coming together. More pics to come soon. For now I need to get some sleep! An exhausting but exciting weekend. We are very thankful for all the ways God has made everything work out so well and blessed us so much!

Baby updates

2011-04-19T16:40:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I had the follow-up ultrasound. The tech indicated to me that she could not see the cyst, and that she thought the placenta had moved out of the way, but could not tell for sure because the baby's head was in the way. She said the little guy weighs about 1 lb 15 oz. I asked her if she thought that was too small because my pregnancy book says the baby should be about 2.5 lbs by the end of this week. She said that was in the range and not a problem. Three hours later I got a call from my doctor's office saying that the baby is measuring too small, and they want me to come in the next day (today) for another ultrasound.

So today I went in for more testing. They did a non-stress test where they measure the baby's heart rate for 20 minutes. That came back normal. Then they did an ultrasound to look at the blood flow through the umbilical cord, measure the level of amniotic fluid around the baby, and get the heart rate (again). All of these things look normal. Then I met with a doctor to go over everything. He said that the concern with our baby is that he is a couple of ounces shy of the 10th percentile for this far into the pregnancy, and that his abdomen is the body part that is measuring the smallest. If he was getting lots of nutrients, his body would store them in his liver, which would then make his abdomen bigger. So the concern with a small abdomen is that he may not be getting enough nutrients. There are 3 possible causes of this:

1. The due date is wrong. This is our theory. The date based upon my cycles would be July 22nd, and he is measuring normal for that due date.

2. He is just a genetically small baby. This seems unlikely given how tall Jason and I are!

3. He has asymmetric fetal growth restriction. The most likely cause for us would be that there is something wrong with the placenta (worst case the baby would be stillborn if the placenta does not last the whole pregnancy). This is the assumption that the doctors are operating under, just to be on the safe side.

So, I will be going to the ultrasound office weekly for the rest of the pregnancy to make sure everything still looks normal. This is really kind of frustrating since we really just think this is an issue with the due date. But of course it's not something you would want to take a chance on if it does happen to be #3.

I have an appointment with my OB on Friday, which is when I will have the glucose test and they will test blood levels. I will obviously be asking more questions about all of this at that point. The good news is that I don't think the cyst or the placenta location are issues anymore! And, I get to see the baby lots of times. Praying that all of this is just hoops we have to jump through and that it just amounts to weekly assurances that everything is fine.

We'll keep you posted on the baby. In the meantime, here's an ultrasound photo of him from today! The picture was a lot clearer on the screen, and it looked like a twin of Josiah was looking right at me!

Week 27

2011-04-14T13:44:00.004-05:00

We are nearing the end of week 27 - in the 3rd trimester and feeling good. Monday is the follow-up ultrasound, and then Friday (a week from tomorrow) is my next doctor's appointment. I'll post again as soon as we know something about the placenta and the cyst. Not too concerned about either one at this point. Just enjoying feeling good, getting out with Josiah in the great weather, and still being able to sleep on my back. Oh and lots of baby movement. Sometimes my belly moves like a wave on the ocean. He may turn out to be a surfer.

Jason bought himself a cowboy hat (so then Josiah stole his baseball hat). This hat puts him yet another step closer to becoming a farmer. In spite of myself I do like it. Maybe I will turn out to be a good farmer after all.

Things are slowly progressing with selling our house in Kansas City. The appraisal came back fine and the foundation people should begin work soon. We signed the closing docs and had them notarized and sent back in, so we are all set for the buyers to close on the 27th.

The house buying is also coming along. This week I have been calling to set up utilities here and cancel the ones at our old house. Trying to sort through all the little details, but it is all starting to seem more real!

Here's a video of Josiah singing the alphabet song. He misses the letters TUV on this video, but he really can sing the whole thing the right way. I just thought it was cute this way for blog purposes. He learned this version (complete with hammer action) from Alpha Pig on the TV show 'Super Why!' (although he calls it 'Super Wide'). Thank you public television!

Enjoy!

Week 24

2011-03-22T16:32:00.002-05:00

I went to the doctor yesterday for my week 24 appointment. It was just a quick checkup, but everything looks good! In a month I will have a follow-up ultrasound to check on the cyst and also the placement of the placenta. That's also when I will have the iron test and the glucose test. Seriously, if they want to spike my blood sugar, I could just eat some ice cream. Why do I have to drink that nasty sugar drink? There are other (much tastier) high-sugar alternatives. I should become a doctor just to change that.

We are loving this weather! And we have met some new friends that we've gotten to hang out with a couple of times and enjoy the weather with. Josiah loves having some playmates again. And I of course love having day time adult interaction that is not with a realtor, insurance agent, or foundation repair person.

Speaking of house stuff, we are officially under contract for the house in the previous post! We are hoping to have inspections soon, but barring a bad inspection report, we should close on our new house the day after our old house! In the meantime, lots of details to iron out, but we're just trying to take things one step at a time. I'll try to keep this updated as things progress!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Frustration and hope

2011-03-18T14:55:00.003-05:00

We are in the process of selling our house. It has been painful and frustrating. We are very thankful to be selling it so that we can move on with our lives, but we are taking a huge hit. Basically at the end of the day, when I figure up all the costs from owning our house for the past almost 8 years, then subtract out any savings from having the house (i.e. tax deductions), we could have lived in a luxury 2 bed 2 bath apartment over that same time frame, had $100 extra in monthly spending money, and been in the same spot we are today. Less all the sweat, headaches, backaches, and frustration from all the remodeling we have done over that time frame. It is super depressing. The basic reason is that there are foundation issues. I'm sure God is trying to teach us something through all of this, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. Maybe just a lesson in dealing with frustration. I don't think I'm a very good student.

On the bright side, we are selling our house. And soon will be buying a new house! We hope to work out the timing so that we can have our things moved straight from the old house to the new one. We are meeting with our realtor here in Springfield tonight to sign an offer. The house is 20 minutes outside of the city on 30 acres. Jason will be farming before you know it!

Please pray with us that the sale of our house goes through with no more glitches, that we are able to come to an agreement on the new house, and that the timing of everything works out. And pray for grace and peace over us in the meantime in dealing with all the annoying details!

"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." Phillipians 4:6-7 (Message translation)

Week 21

2011-03-03T13:56:00.002-06:00

Per a special request, here's my belly at week 21:

I think it looks much bigger in real life. Maybe that is just because I have to look down to see it.

Grow, baby, grow!

Doctor's update

2011-02-24T12:36:00.002-06:00

Heard from the doctor - the placenta is only partially blocking my cervix, so the doctor is hopeful that it will completely move out of the way. Yay! We'll do another ultrasound to check in 8 weeks.

She also told me that they noticed a choroid plexus cyst (CPC) on the baby's brain. She said these are very common and usually go away on their own with no issues or complications. She said that in 0.2% (that's 0.002) of cases it could be linked to chromosomal abnormalities. But generally nothing to worry about is what we've been told. I am not very concerned about this, but would love you to join us in praying that it goes away with no problems.

You can read more about CPCs here and here.

Some highlights:

Between 1 and 3 percent of all fetuses will manifest a CPC at 16 to 24 weeks of pregnancy
Regardless of their number, shape or size, choroid plexus cysts are not harmful to the baby
Nearly always go away by the third trimester of pregnancy
The fetal brain may create these cysts as a normal part of development

Praying for a healthy rest of this pregnancy with no more ER visits or abnormal ultrasound discoveries!

It's a boy!!

2011-02-23T12:05:00.003-06:00

Meet baby Regehr #2! Despite what I thought were accurate calculations, they tell me based upon the 2 ultrasounds I have had now, that we are 20 weeks into our pregnancy (we thought it was week 18). They confirmed the due date of July 12 (original due date was July 22). Half way there! It is hard to believe. The little guy keeps kicking me to remind me that it's true. They tell us he weighs about 12 oz. right now, and that must be all leg muscle. :)

That makes 2 strapping boys to work on Jason's future farm! Since he found out about the baby, Josiah has been telling us it's a boy, or that he really wants a boy. The first thing he said when the ultrasound tech said "it's a boy" was "I wanted it to be a girl!". Little stinker. He also has been saying he wants the baby's name to be either Watson or Jackrabbit. But in the ultrasound room, he thought Alien would be a better name. I guess the pics do look extra-terrestrial, but I think most of that influence came from the Toy Story movies.
When I was in the ER about 3 weeks ago, they said that my placenta was low. So that is something they checked again yesterday at the ultrasound. I won't get the official results until tomorrow, but if the placenta is too low, they will plan on doing a c-section to deliver this baby. Placenta previa I believe is the medical term, although no one has told us that yet. I asked the tech if the placenta could still move...she said it is possible but unlikely. I have mixed feelings about c-section. Mostly I'd rather not do surgery and just naturally have the baby when he is ready. But, there is something very alluring about scheduling your delivery, with no contractions or pushing involved. I'm sure God will work things out either way. I'll keep you posted on the outcome!

Baby R2 says hi!

Was it the beard?

2011-02-06T13:16:00.001-06:00

Just had to post this video that my brother made to congratulate Jason on his new job!

Enjoy!

Springfield

2011-02-03T13:43:00.005-06:00

Due to the weather, we have not done much in our new city. Josiah and I did venture out to the library one day, which has a really cool train in it. And then on Saturday Jason's parents came to visit and brought us some yummy ginger snaps and brownies! While they were here we took Josiah for the 1st time to the BIG Bass Pro store. He loved it!

This is what happened when we told Josiah to put his HAND on the boar for a picture.
In front of one of the fish tanks which you can't really tell because of the glare from the flash. I just liked the little mischievous grin I caught.
This bear is insanely big. Not even sure if the picture does it justice.
Poor Mi Mi had to hobble around the store on her broken ankle. At least now the cast is gone and it's just in a boot.
Here are a couple of pics of our apartment in case you were curious.

This is the master. The room is huge with a desk at the other side and a walk-in closet that is about the size of Josiah's room in our house.

Josiah's room...
Kitchen...
Nothing too exciting, just thought I would share!

Nostalgia

2011-02-03T13:26:00.005-06:00

In no particular order...to enhance my long-winded Feb 1st post with pictures...

The fun kiddos from our KC couples group. So sorry that Casey & Luke (and Tim & Crystal) weren't there! They had a send-off lunch for us on the day that Jason left town.

Some great friends (Kirsti, Stephanie, and Janna) from a small group I used to be in - we did brunch the weekend before I left and it was great to catch up with them.
Jen, Karen, Julie, and I at the going away party they threw for us and the Hardins.
With spouses and kiddos (and a large stuffed dog):

Us with Joe & Sydney at the going away party.
Joe & Jason hard at work on the kitchen floor:
We miss you all!!!

Unwelcome excitement

2011-02-03T12:20:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we spent 4 hours in the ER. I had some spotting which made me nervous for the baby. So I did some research online and then called my doctor in KC to see if I should go to the ER. They said yes. So I had to call Jason at work to come pick us up - there is no way we could have gotten the car out of the snow drifts.

Long story short they said the baby is fine. They did all sorts of tests and the doctor said that I have a slight bacterial infection which they are treating with antibiotics. The ultrasound looked great and the baby is actually measuring more like 16-17 weeks (we thought we were in week 15), so they gave me a new due date of July 12th. The whole ordeal was scary, but it was reassuring to see the baby on ultrasound. The little one was moving a lot and I could see the heart beating. I felt much better after that.

Josiah was such a trooper through the 4 hour wait! Especially considering that he had to skip his nap to hang out in a waiting room. While we were waiting for test results to come back so we could see the doctor, Jason and Josiah were playing doctor. It was hilarious. Josiah wanted Jason to check out the baby in his tummy. And logically, he used the TV remote to do so.
"I don't believe that man's ever been to medical school." -Buzz Lightyear

A few minor life changes

2011-02-01T21:00:00.007-06:00

Going back to the foreshadowing in my Dec post, if you couldn't guess or haven't already heard by now, Jason got the job with Bass Pro Shops (BPS). Within about a month, we went from not having moving or job change on our radar at all, to changing jobs and moving almost 165 miles away.

Here's a timeline of events:

Dec 20 - Jason has a phone interview with BPS

Dec 22 - Jason has an in-person interview with BPS in Springfield, MO

Jan 04 - BPS offers Jason the job

Jan 05 - Jason tells YRC he is leaving

Jan 16 - Drive a u-haul full of stuff down to Springfield to put in storage (to de-clutter the house)

Jan 19 - Jason's last day at YRC

Jan 23 - Jason moves to Springfield

Jan 24 - Jason's first day at BPS

Jan 25 - Get the house listed

Jan 26 - Danita & Josiah join Jason in Springfield

In the time between Dec 22nd and Jan 4th, Jason was sure he had been passed over for the job. I told him that it was the holidays and he should just follow up with HR to see where they were in the process of filling the job. I got a text from him later that day that said something like "you should never kick a sleeping dog". Well I didn't know the dog was going to get up a maul me!

On Jan 6th I had our realtor at the house. I had a list of projects that we had been meaning to do and asked him which ones we needed to do to sell the house. After getting his advice, Jason and I spent the next 3 weeks scrambling to get the house ready to sell. My parents were such a huge help in the process - we could not have done it without their help. They helped with a ton of the painting, cleaning, lots of other random work, and they took Josiah home with them for several days so we could have uninterrupted work time. We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to our friends who helped us along the way - by watching Josiah as we worked (Charlotte, Jen, Michelle, & Adrianne), by painting for us (Adrianne & Greg - you are awesome!), by helping us put the kitchen floor in (thanks Joe!), disconnecting our water softener system so we could take it with us, and doing some heavy lifting (thanks Matt!!), helping unload the Uhaul (thanks Ryan!) - plus all the people who offered to help, and for the fun send-off lunch and the going-away dinner party - we have some super amazing and giving friends and we are so thankful for each of you!!! Hope I didn't leave anyone out - as you can see it has been a whirlwind! Here's the house listing in case you know anyone who might be interested!

http://portal.heartlandmls.com/de.asp?k=145908X94QD&p=DE-4381552-110

So if all of this weren't enough, God in his infinite wisdom and humor, has blessed us with another pregnancy. This is something we had been hoping for and praying about for almost 1.5 years. We found out we were pregnant on Nov 17th. I was super happy but feeling pretty sickly for the first month and a half. So through the crazy 3 a.m. black Friday shopping (I really thought I was going to puke but couldn't tell anyone), the planning and celebrating of Josiah's birthday, Christmas shopping and wrapping, Christmas celebrations (when we had the joy of telling our families)...I was really just wanting to lay down and sleep! But when you wait that long to get pregnant, really you are even happy about the morning sickness. It reminds you that your prayers have been answered. And you have to keep telling yourself, "no really, this is what I asked for!". We got to hear the baby's heartbeat at our Dec 20th (9 week) prenatal appointment, and then again at our 13 week appointment in Jan. What a wonderful sound. Josiah was with me both times. The first time he heard the heartbeat, he put a ball up his shirt, pulled it out and said "this is my baby Watson". Who knows? Maybe that name will stick!

So now we are 15 weeks into the pregnancy, and I want to apologize in advance to the 3 inch baby in my abdomen. Sorry for all the painting, the sanding, the late nights, the poor diet, the forgetting to take the prenatal vitamins, the stress. I pray that you are well and that the mask I wore while painting and the respirator I wore while sanding kept you from most of the chemicals and airborne junk. I know that God knew before He created you what I would be doing while you were developing, so I have to trust that He is keeping you safe. Now stay in there and grow for as long as you can, or at least longer than your brother did.

I also owe an apology to all three of my bookkeeping clients. I really did not plan to move at year-end close. Thank you all for your patience as I have been dealing with "just a few minor life changes", and haven't always been available when you needed me. Again, God must know what He is doing with His timing, right?

Now we are in Springfield, surrounded by 6+ inches of snow and ice, and trying to acclimate. We are temporarily living in an apartment provided by Bass Pro. That is a huge blessing - not as much pressure or stress to get the house sold right away. And it is nice - it is a fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment with our own washer & dryer. Josiah is doing pretty well with the new apartment. The first night he did not want to sleep in his new room, but it didn't take him long to get comfortable with his surroundings. He really does not understand the concept of an apartment though. He keeps asking me where our basement is. And the other day he told me that he wants to move to "a new Springfield that has a basement". Luckily there are over 30 cities/towns in the U.S. named Springfield, so maybe one of them will have a basement.

We want to ask you guys for your prayers. That our house would sell at the right time for a fair price, that everyone would stay safe in this crazy blizzard weather, that Josiah and I can figure out how to get around in Springfield and find fun stuff for a 3 year old to do, that Jason will continue to acclimate to his new job, that I can find a good OB, and that our new baby (due July 22nd by the way) will continue to grow and be healthy. Only 3 more weeks until we find out if it's a boy or girl!

Exciting and crazy times for us. Thank you all for your continuing support and love!

Dec 2010 Family pics

2011-02-01T20:18:00.004-06:00

Some of our favorites. Enjoy!

December = birthdays

2011-02-01T19:37:00.005-06:00

December kicked off with Josiah's 3rd birthday. This year we did a fire station tour with just a few friends and family (any more and our little house would have maxed out). Josiah loves anything to do with fire officials, police officers, etc. Here he is holding a helmet - those things are heavy.

With some of his friends next to the fire truck...
AND - bonus - got to check out an ambulance too.
My mom and I spent WAY too much time making this fire truck cake. Just a tip, if you're thinking of trying to make red icing from scratch - DON'T. Just buy it.

He had fun at his party! Thank you to everyone who was there to help us celebrate!

December of course represents the birth of Jesus (hence 'birthdays' in the post title). The next weekend was our 1st Christmas of the season. Here's Josiah with his cousins on my side:
And here he is before the church Christmas service. There are little dogs on his clip-on tie. Can I get an AWWWWW?
The next weekend (the 18th), we had some family pictures made. More on that in the next post.

Then Christmas weekend we went to see our family in SW MO. Jason had an interview in that area, so we went down a day earlier than originally planned. A little background - he wasn't even looking for a job. Last year he had applied with Bass Pro Shops in Springfield (his dream company), but they kept telling him the position was on hold. Then he got a phone call the week before Christmas saying that the position was still on hold, but another position had opened up. They wanted to do a phone interview on Monday the 20th, and then they scheduled an in-person interview a couple days later. Driving down I told him that I do not want to move to Springfield. He told me "it's just an interview". I told him "yes, but they are going to love you and beg you to stay". More on this later.

Back to Christmas...here's Grandma Mary with most of her great-grandkids:
Here's Josiah opening his stocking gifts on Christmas morning:
We had a great Christmas and loved seeing all of our family throughout the month. We are so very blessed! We ushered in the New Year with lots of sleeping and movies because we had a sick 3 year old. Poor guy. Ear infections are no fun. Here's to a healthy 2011!

p.s. If you sent us a Christmas card and did not get one in return, that is because we completely failed to send any Christmas cards this year. Sorry. Please don't take us off your list - we will be sending them in future years!

November = hunting

2011-01-04T16:16:00.007-06:00

November was a fun month marked by hunting and more hunting. First MO deer season. Jason got a 6 point buck (just the head in this picture to appease the squeamish). He spent the next week processing it. Poor guy's mean wife did not help much this time.

Here's Josiah hanging out with his friends Ashdrew (Asher) and Spencer who have gotten him addicted to gluten free, dairy free pretzels.

Went with our friends the Buhrles out to central KS for some pheasant hunting. One afternoon the guys let the boys come out a walk a field with them - complete with orange hunting caps, ear and eye protection. They looked cute all decked out in their gear. I'm sure "cute" is the word the dads were going for.
Hunters in training...
For Thanksgiving weekend we went to visit Jason's side of the family. It was a fun time and Josiah had a blast hanging out with his cousins. His favorite thing was getting to carry around Uncle Derek's badge (see it hanging around his neck?), and using Aunt April's handcuffs to "arrest" his cousin Samantha. She spent a lot of time in jail that weekend.
A fun pic of some of the family...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to Bass Pro to visit Santa and his caribou, er, I mean reindeer. Santa asked Josiah what he wanted for Christmas. Josiah threw his arms in the air and said "LOTS OF TOYS!". Later, my mom asked him: "well what did Santa say?". Josiah: "he said 'put your arms down'".

Merry early (for Nov) or late (for Jan) Christmas!

October 2010

2010-11-02T16:30:00.008-05:00

Let's take a trip back in time to get caught up with our blogging!

At the end of Sept/beginning of Oct, Jason took a guys hiking trip to CO. I was very jealous but happy for him to get some relaxing time away. While he was gone, my mom & Grandma Lucy came to visit and help me with some de-cluttering. I am pretty sure I have kept every cardboard box I've ever gotten. Luckily we were able to recycle them - and clear a chunk of space out of the attic. Thank you!

The next weekend, Jason's sister April & her family came for a visit, and we got to hang out with our family from the northland also! It was fun to see everyone and share the monstrous cinnamon rolls I had made that week. We also had our Parents as Teachers Messy Day that weekend. Josiah had a lot more fun than last year. I, however, slammed a door into my toe while carrying a 50 lb bag of rice (this all sounds ludicrous), and my toenail is still black (it is currently Jan 2011). I am just thankful that it has not fallen off. That would really gross me out. Somehow we did not take any pictures of this weekend's activities at all! What is wrong with us? Sorry family. But we did get a good shot of the cinnamon rolls...

That Sunday (the 10th), we went to a local pumpkin patch/corn maze with some friends. It was fun to let the kids run around, and of course enjoy some apple donuts & fresh cider. I love fall.

Oct 15th Paw Paw made a surprise stop by our house in his big truck! You should have seen the look on Josiah's face. He was SO happy. We got to visit with him for a few minutes before he headed off down the road. Josiah got a cheese stick and a juice from Paw Paw's stash on his truck. He was in heaven.

That weekend (the 15th-16th), I went with some friends for a fun girls weekend getaway. We wore helmets the whole weekend for safety. Just kidding - this is us in Branson zip lining! We had a blast, got some much needed girl time and some "retail therapy". Jason took Josiah to visit his Mi Mi for the weekend while I was gone.

That week we went with some friends to the Deanna Rose Farmstead. Fun times as always. This picture is not the friends we went with, but Josiah and Andrew seemed to have a strange connection with them. :)

On the 22nd-23rd, we went to Omaha to meet up with some of my family from North Dakota that we had not seen in about 6 years (and then it was briefly at our wedding). It was super fun. We got to go to the zoo, and just spend some quality time hanging out. Josiah loved wrestling with all the boys. He was definitely the instigator.

Halloween: Josiah was a dinosaur. When asked if he was a scary dinosaur, he would reply, "no, I am a nice disaur". His costume looked suspiciously like a dragon, so he corrected several people that day. He got that correcting people thing from his mother.

Happy Halloween! Only 3 months late. You can expect our Christmas cards in March.

The blur that is September

2010-09-26T15:15:00.008-05:00

We've been gone at least 1/3 of this month. It has been fun, but it's gone insanely fast!

The first weekend in Sept (Labor Day) we visited my parents. My mom and I both celebrated our birthdays. I have to say it was fun to turn 25. Just kidding...26 (plus 7). I got to do some kid-free shopping, eat lots of carrot cake and cheesecake, and go tubing behind the boat at Mark Twain Lake.

Josiah got to do a lot of fun things too...like ride on the tractor,

hang out with his cousins,
ride on the lawn mower,
more hanging out with cousins,
play games,
go out on the boat,
swing,
and play in the kiddie pool.
The 2nd weekend in Sept we visited Jason's parents for a fun family reunion/7 person birthday celebration.

Here's Josiah with his Paw Paw:
Helping Mi Mi wash dishes (he loves to help right now):
Hanging out with Paw Paw Camp at the park:
Posing with second cousins:
Hanging with cousin Trent and a stray dog they both liked to pet:
A "friendly" game of family football. No one got injured that we know of.
Uncle Derek and matching Missouri shirts!

We had fun visiting both sides of our family! Two days after we got back from SW MO, we left for a week in Seattle! The next posting will contain the highlights.

Seattle vacation

2010-09-26T14:07:00.013-05:00

Josiah liked getting on the airplane and flying, but he was not as excited about it as we thought he would be. He acted like he was a seasoned world traveler.

Since he was not distracted by being on an airplane, we were very thankful that we were able to borrow a portable DVD player to keep him busy for the 2.5 hour flight (thanks Tim & Crystal!).

This was our view of Mt. Rainier from the plane as we descended over Seattle (and our view leaving Seattle). It was really cool to see, and it was our clearest view of the mountain during our trip.

We had SO much fun visiting our friends Mick & Genevieve (and Olivienne)! They are the best hosts. We had a blast hanging out, going to the park, and watching hoarding shows after the kids were in bed. We also enjoyed some amazing food with them, some of which they made and some we got at restaurants. Jason got some great sushi (although he says not enough), and I enjoyed the cooked seafood.

The 2nd day we were there, we ventured into the city to see some sights. First we went to Jason's favorite outdoor store (REI) where we misread the parking meter and subsequently got a parking ticket.

Then we took the monorail to Seattle Center where we saw
the Space Needle.
From the Space Needle, we got our best view of Rainier without being on an airplane.
Then we took the monorail back and walked to Pike Place Market. This is the vendor famous for throwing the fish. We did get to see one being thrown but I didn't get a picture because I was RIGHT behind the guy that was throwing it and was a little afraid of getting slapped in the face by a flying fish. While at Pike Place we went to the original Starbucks so, understandably, Jason had to get some coffee.
The next day we drove almost 3 hours to Mt. Rainier National Park. It was a very cloudy day, so even though we were really close to a huge mountain (actually an active volcano covered in glaciers), but couldn't see it at all.
Within the park, we went to Paradise Visitor's Center and hiked around there for a couple of hours. It was really fun to do some short hiking. We got to see a couple of waterfalls, and some deer roaming around.
Josiah liked hiking, but after a few minutes would start saying "my legs are tired". So then we would stick him in this great jogging stroller we borrowed from Mick & Gen (conveniently comes with a rain cover!). After hiking up a big hill, we were headed back down and the front wheel of the stroller started to wobble...and then it fell off! So our trek down the mountain was Josiah riding on Jason's shoulders and me trying to push the jogging stroller on just the 2 back wheels. Quite a humorous sight. I'm sure the deer were laughing at us.
Myrtle falls:
After leaving Rainier, Josiah took a nap in the car while we drove to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. This was a really cool park in which they allow the herbivores to roam free (they have some carnivores like bears and wolves in enclosed areas), and you can take a 45 minute tram tour of this huge amount of acreage and see moose, deer, goats, rams, bison, and elk roaming free. Here's Jason & Josiah on the tram:
And here's a huge elk that really was right next to our tram. It was almost breeding season while we were there, so we even got to see a couple of male elk locking horns!

Olivienne and Josiah played really well together. She called him kuya which is Tagalog/Filipino for an older boy. Josiah just called her Olivia, because there is no word in Tagalog for a younger girl, and also because he kept just leaving off the end of her name.

The video gaming company Mick works for (Bungie) just released Halo: Reach, a game which Mick helped work on (he created the level of the game that won the most awards...not that I know anything about gaming). So, the company gave him some gifts after the launch party - one of them was this hand painted collectible action figures thingy. I'm sure if gamers heard my terminology, they would die laughing. So he and Jason spent some time checking it out (or as I would say, two grown men playing with action figures).

After a day of rest, we headed north 2.5 hours to Vancouver, B.C., Canada. We had our passports ready, but they did not stamp them. What a bummer.

We parked near the Olympic countdown clock.
As luck would have it, the Lamborghini Club of America was having a little street fair with lots of expensive cars (not just Lamborghini) to look at, face painting, music, free soda, and samples of different products. Josiah got his first face painting - a blue car.
We grabbed lunch, and then took a 2.5 hour walking tour around the west end of Vancouver, and Granville Island. It was very informative and interesting. We got to see lots of cool buildings and hear about architecture and history. Josiah was very patient for most of it, and finally fell asleep toward the end of the tour.

Granville Island used to be industrial, but when most of the industry moved off the island, the government got artists to move there, so now it is a really artsy place with only a few industrial companies left. This cement truck company commissioned some artists on the island to paint their cement trucks. We loved this little island, with a great public market, street performers, breweries, etc.
After the tour we walked to Canada Place, where cruise ships dock.
Then we walked to Historic Gastown - here is the famous steam clock:
We ate dinner close to the steam clock and then walked (see a theme here with the walking? I am pretty sure we walked at least 10 miles that day) back to where we thought our car was. At 7:45 at night all the parking garages were locked down for the night. So we were starting to worry that we would not be able to get to our car. We finally found security and got into the garage, only to discover that it was the WRONG garage. Then we had to re-trace our steps to try to figure out where we had parked. We finally found the right garage and our car, and were very relieved as we started to drive out of the city. But then we took a wrong turn leaving and ended up spending an hour driving around. I guess Canada wasn't ready to let us go. We finally made it back across the border and got back to Mick & Gen's around 11 pm. It was a long day, but we had fun exploring Vancouver!

The next day was another recovery day, which was much needed! The kids had fun playing,

and then we decided to take a little road trip to Federal Way, WA for the World Championship Sand Sculpting. It was a drizzly rainy day, and on our way there, our rental car windshield wipers got crossed (literally), so we had to take a detour to the airport to switch out rental cars. You can't survive in the Seattle area without windshield wipers.

The sand sculptures were so amazing. It is unbelievable that people can make these things out of sand (and a little depressing that the rain can very quickly destroy them!). Here's Genevieve and Olivienne meeting Oprah:

Josiah liked the sand dinosaur. It was really hard to get him to not play in the sand/destroy the art.

The next day we went to downtown Seattle and took a ferry to Bainbridge Island. The ferry ride was very windy, and Josiah liked running out to the hull of the ship (into the strong winds), and then running back. It was pretty funny to see the look on his face when the wind took his breath away.

Bainbridge is a quaint little community with shops and restaurants and docks. We walked along the docks and around the shops, but the best part of the island to us was the food we had at Cafe Nola. Jason got this open faced sandwich with a fist sized lump of crab meat. It was SO good. I think Josiah's favorite part of this day was the ferry ride. Here we are on the ferry ride back, with Seattle in the background (the space needle is by Jason's right ear).

We had a great trip, and are slowly getting settled back into our daily routine. It is nice to be home for one weekend this month!

Injuries and challenges

2010-09-03T14:36:00.005-05:00

Despite the ominous title, the past month has really not been THAT bad. Just a little bad. :)

First some fun events.

Jason and I ran the Susan G. Komen race for the cure (5K) on 8/8. We pushed Josiah in the jogging stroller for this race. When I say "we" I really mean that Jason pushed him most of the way and I took over at the end. It was fun to do that together, even on a sweltering hot day. Josiah liked pointing out to us as we ran that we were on a street and we were supposed to be on the sidewalk. But mostly he enjoyed the post-race snacks. I guess he was saving this yogurt for later:

Remnants of yogurt on the pants...

On 8/18 we went with our friends Jen, Andrew, & Charlotte to the Chiefs Training Camp. It was a beautiful day (not too hot), and we had a great time. We even got five autographs. Coach Todd Haley was one of them. The others I had never heard of, but maybe they are up and coming MVPs and we'll be able to sell the autographs on Ebay. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

While we watched the Chiefs, Josiah and Andrew enjoyed rolling trucks down the hill we sat on, and coloring.
Then we stayed in St. Joseph for lunch. We picked an Irish pub (see the shamrock?) that was decorated inside with Mardi Gras decor...what? Oh well, at least they had good sweet potato fries.

Then the boys "played" Golden Tee. Jason was so proud.

On 8/21 we got Josiah a big boy (twin) bed! He has been asking for one for a while, so I had him sleep in his blow-up Lightening McQueen airbed to see if he was really ready for the freedom that comes with sleeping without rails. He did great so that weekend we got him a bed! We just got him some Lightening McQueen sheets, so we'll have to post more pics with the cool sheets. He did great sleeping in it the first week... (more on this later)

On 8/28 we got to hang out with our friends the Byers, who have twin boys (Connor & Jacob) that were born less than 24 hours before Josiah. It is always fun to see them playing together!
Picnicing outside...even though they spent the whole time trying to catch flies.
Then the injury. On Monday (8/30), we went to drop off some checks to a bookkeeping client/friend. While there, Josiah was getting restless. He started kicking the door. Of course then we had a talk about how the only thing we are allowed to kick is a ball. He ran around a little, then he proceeded to lean over the arm of the couch and kick it. So I told him to go sit in time out. He sat down on the floor, looked at me and said "NO" (like the well-behaved child he is...just kidding, he really is a good little boy - just being a 2 year old). So I took his hand to pull him up and place him in time out. Of course he was pulling backwards while I was trying to get him up. Then I heard a loud *pop* and my stomach started to sink. Long story short Josiah had his first trip to the ER! They did X-rays and nothing was broken or out of joint, so they called it a sprain, wrapped it up and sent us home. As you can imagine, I am feeling like mother of the year at this point. We got home and I was trying to make him comfortable, when he said "mommy, you are so nice to me". I wanted to say "really? have you seen your arm lately?", but instead I just gave him a huge hug.

At the ER they gave us this great ice pack thing that I was also able to also use as a sling to hold his arm still since he seemed to cry more when it moved.
We took the ace bandage off Wed afternoon, and he seems to be almost back to 100% now. He is using his wrist more and more every day. So part of my guilt is subsiding. :) The doctors and nurses at the ER said that these types of injuries are common and that made me feel a lot better.

Along with the injury came interrupted sleep, and now staying in the big boy bed has lost it's charm. He wants us to sleep with him. He wants to leave the door open and have lights on. He has always slept in a pitch black room with the door closed by himself before this week. At least he is getting some sleep, and hopefully we'll be able to convince him that staying in bed when we put him to bed and sleeping past 6 am are beneficial things to do.
On a happier note, today we went to a bookstore to see Bob & Larry from Veggie Tales! Josiah was very excited to see them but was confused by the fact that they had hands. They don't have hands (or feet) in the movies.

Here's to a happy and HEALTHY rest of the year!

Reading and other updates

2010-08-09T10:39:00.003-05:00

Josiah loves to read. We go to the library every couple of weeks and get new books (about 10 at a time). Within about a week he has most of them memorized. He will recite them to us, use random phrases from them in conversation, and if we pause while reading he will finish the sentences for us. I keep getting an error with the blogger video, so check him out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97qXzL6E3qk

Other updates:

He started calling me "mom" last week instead of mommy. He announced "your name will be mom".
He is doing awesome with potty training and does not have very many accidents.
He has a hard time saying the letter "F". He substitutes the letter "T". So we play "tarm" every day with our "tarmer", barns, and animals.
He knows about 10 words in Spanish which are so cute to hear him say.
One of the most recent additions to his vocabulary is the word "investigate" which sounds more like "inbestigate".

Here is a fun video of one of his favorite things to do in our backyard. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1RDpRQ9osY

Summer fun

2010-08-08T21:49:00.004-05:00

We have been having a great summer!

Josiah is helping me in the garden this summer. Mostly he digs in the dirt, pours water in the dirt, and then stomps in the mud. But he does help me pick the ripe cherry tomatoes, even though he won't eat them. We also have a jetsetter tomato plant. When the first one turned red, this little guy ate it for us:
I had to shake the plant for him to run away. I guess our tomatoes are really good!

At the beginning of July, my bestest friend Genevieve and her daughter Olivienne came to visit. It was super fun to see them! We drove them to Hays and stayed a couple of days with Gen's parents. They were so gracious in hosting us.

They had a bike for Josiah to ride - he called it his "girl bike".

We are looking forward to seeing them again next month!

We also had fun in July going to a big truck day in Olathe. Unfortunately we picked one of the hottest days of the year to go! But Josiah got to enjoy a snowcone. Those always help. Here he is "driving" a trash truck. He also got to drive a police car, ambulance, bus, and some other trucks; plus see McGruff the crime dog. Not sure if he really got the point of that big dog.

At the end of July we went with my parents to Mark Twain Lake for the day. We were very impressed by how well Josiah did in the water. He was swimming on his own (with a life jacket of course) and did not want us to help him!

Of course by the end of the day he was exhausted!! We rode on a tube on the way back to the car and he attempted to fall asleep on my head. Luckily we got him back in the boat before he passed out.

Last weekend we got to go hang out with Jason's side of the family. We had a fun weekend just hanging out. Josiah talked his Mi Mi into making a chocolate cake. Who could say no to this face?

We were also able to visit Grampa Camp on his farm and help feed cousin Jared's horse, as well as "drive" all the tractors (several times).

Last week we went with some friends to have lunch and play in the fountains. It is hard to tell that it is 100 degrees when you are soaking wet! Josiah and his friend Andrew playing with a tractor and an airplane (those are water-going vessels, right?):

We are having fun hanging out with friends and trying to stay cool! Let us know how your summer is going!

Potty expert

2010-06-29T21:30:00.005-05:00

Last Monday we started potty training. I was not sure how it would go since we tried 6 months ago and it was a complete disaster. This time I went in with no expectations, covered everything with blankets, and let him run around naked for almost 2 days.
He is doing AWESOME!!!! The first couple of days he had to mop a couple of times, and we've washed several blankets, but he really has had very few accidents, and is even staying dry most days through nap time! I am completely amazed at his quick progress. He pooped in the potty on day 2 of potty training. Does anyone else think we have the most amazing child ever?!

I would just like to note that he is doing most of this himself. I cannot take any credit for his progress. He is pulling down his own pants, and deciding when to go to the potty (I am not reminding him for the most part). He loves wearing his big boy underwear and even gets a little upset at night when he has to wear a diaper to bed.
As you can see, each day we have been adding more clothes. I just keep taking pictures because he looks so cute running around in his underwear.

This past weekend we went to visit Jason's parents for their 4oth anniversary. Congrats!! It was fun to celebrate with them.
At the 40th anniversary party, he was very sleep deprived, and his craziness was taken out on the food. He put a finger into the back corner of the cake you see above, and later grabbed 2 hot dog buns from the food table and was running around eating them. Between that and him walking into the living room a couple of times with his pants half off, he was a great entertainer!

I was a little nervous about how the potty training would go during the weekend, but again Josiah amazed me. Mi Mi took us to see Toy Story 3 at the theater - Josiah's first movie at the theater! He did great and had a lot of fun (and did not get the theater seat wet).

I am so proud of my big boy!!

More cowboy adventures

2010-06-15T21:58:00.004-05:00

At the end of May, we got a free evening at the local farmstead, courtesy of our internet provider. The farmstead is usually free, but for this night they had all the paid activities for free. Josiah got to fish, feed baby goats with a bottle, go on a hayride, AND ride a pony. They usually do not let kids under three do the pony rides, but luckily they were not checking IDs.

Look close - there is a fish there.

The baby goats also enjoyed eating Jason's shorts.

Our little cowboy:

The first week in June, Josiah and I left Jason at home and visited my side of the family during the week because my great aunt Alice was in town from Texas. It was really fun to see her and get to hear about her family. Here she is with my newest niece Ella:

Josiah got to ride around with his Paw Paw on the mower and the tractor. As a side note, when I was growing up and had to mow that grass, I used a push mower and a really slow tractor. This thing practically mows it for you while you take a nap. So not fair.

I tried to get a picture of Josiah and I with our Missouri shirts on (Jason would be so proud), but you can't really see the shirts in this one.
That weekend, Jason's mom came to visit. She took Jason and Josiah to a Royal's game Friday night, took us out to brunch on Saturday, and then to Bass Pro Shops (Josiah's request). They are doing a family summer camp thing right now, and they even put your picture on the cover of Field & Stream! Thanks for coming to visit, Mi Mi!
This past weekend was our 6th anniversary. We celebrated by dropping Josiah off with my mom and staying in a bed & breakfast for a night. We had a nice dinner, took a winery tour, and biked 14 miles on the Katy Trail. It was a fun getaway. Here we are in front of the muddy, er, I mean mighty Missouri river.
We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with my parents to celebrate my dad's birthday, my parent's anniversary, and Father's day, all a week early. And yes, those all fall within a week of each other.

We got to see extended family, and our friend Eve and her daughter Annie who are visiting from Taiwan.

Eve gave Josiah some body crayons. Before that night was over we all looked like Josiah below:

Josiah got to play with my cousin's kids (is that his first cousins once removed, or his second cousins? I can never remember). Evan, Hunter, Annie, Emerson & Josiah:

Last but not least, Josiah got to "drive" his Paw Paw's fishing boat. He has been talking about doing this for months.
Jason and my dad were fishing from the boat, so Josiah got to help Jason reel one in - but then he was not interested in touching it. He said "it dirty" in a very grouchy voice. Can you tell he needs to catch up on his sleep?

In the midst of the fun weekend, the truck started making a noise that sounded like a dog that then mutated into a bird. So we took it to the dealership and they did not have the part to fix it. So we added another day our long weekend to get the truck fixed (they did not think we could make it back home before the fix). Then we got home around midnight last night to find that all the recent flooding had caused the circuit board on the fan for our A/C to short out. So no A/C. Got that fixed today. Ouch, those little circuit boards are not cheap. But, we are thankful to have air conditioning and realize how spoiled we are.

Have a great week and don't take your A/C for granted!

Day at the farm

2010-05-24T16:23:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, we took a tour of the Shatto Milk Farm.

Josiah got a chance to try milking a cow (which he did not want to try twice):

And we got to pet some calves that were born about a month before.

On the tour, we learned about how the milk is stored and bottled. They still use glass bottles so their milk does not taste like plastic.

Then we got to sample some of their delicious flavored milks. Chocolate, strawberry, root beer, banana, and orange creme. They were SOOOOO good. We also got to sample their cheeses which were delicious as well.

Here are Josiah's friends that came with us for the tour. This is the split second we could get them all to stand still.
They also had these cute hats for the kids. Josiah called it his doughnut hat. I may have taken him to Krispy Kreme a couple of times...
It was a fun day at the farm remembering where milk comes from and supporting local farmers!

Family fun in SW MO

2010-05-24T15:47:00.005-05:00

For Mothers day weekend, we visited Jason's side of the family. We had a fun trip, but Josiah did not get much sleep. He has outgrown his pack-n-play (and can easily climb out of it), so we bought him an inflatable Lightening McQueen airbed to take to his Mi Mi's house and sleep on. Well, he was excited about playing on the bed, but sleeping was a different story. He would only sleep on it if he was already sleeping when we laid him on it. The first night we were a little too trusting and laid him down with strict warnings about staying in his "big boy bed". He decided to quietly get up, get into his suitcase, and into his toiletry bag, and grab the chest rub (it's the kids version of vicks vaporub). When we found him, he had rubbed it all over his arms, neck, chest, and of course it was all over his hands. Then he must have tried searching for the light switch, because this is how Mi Mi's wall looks after the 'Josiah big boy bed experiment':

These hand prints will NOT come off. We tried several different methods. Mi Mi's guest room will be getting a new coat of paint soon! Somehow, after all of that, Mi Mi and Paw Paw were still smiling.

We spent Saturday at Granny and Grandpa Camp's farm. Josiah of course had a blast riding on the tractor:

Playing in the pasture:

And (for real) driving the tractor with daddy:

As a Mother's day present for Granny, we spent some time re-doing part of her landscaping. New brick edging was laid, rock was poured, flowers and bushes planted, trees trimmed, and gutters cleaned out.

Here are the landscaping supervisors:

We also got to go visit Grandma Mary and wish her a happy Mother's day.

The next day, Josiah got to go to Aunt April's house, and play in uncle Derek's police car! He was so excited. He got to play in there for a few minutes, until he figured out where the sirens were.

It was a fun trip and it was great to see everyone. Jason and I snuck in a date night, and we also got to go running without pushing a jogging stroller. Little things that we no longer take for granted!

Happy (belated) Mother's day to all the moms out there!

2010 Public Works tour

2010-05-24T15:32:00.003-05:00

Another one of Josiah's passions: big trucks.

Hanging with friends

2010-05-24T15:12:00.003-05:00

We have had some really fun get-togethers with friends lately.
Here's Josiah with his friends (twins) Connor and Jacob who are less than 1 day older.

We went with Michelle, Quinn & Reese to the local farmstead for a very fun morning. Swings, farm animals, and tractors - what could be better for a couple of 2 year olds?

We had a couple of friends over to play - and where do they ask to go? The place they do not want to be at naptime and bedtime!

We have so much fun hanging out with friends! It is fun to see Josiah now as he is getting pretty good at interacting with his friends. Their conversations are pretty hilarious!

Becoming just like daddy

2010-05-24T14:43:00.003-05:00

Josiah wants to do everything his daddy does. Here he is helping to mow. Jason is looking forward to Josiah doing this by himself one day...although when that day comes I'm sure mowing will not seem quite as exciting. As a side note - notice his new summer (super-short) haircut!
Eating raisin bran with daddy. No frosted flakes or fruit loops here - he's a bran kid like his daddy was (and is)!

And of course his love for tractors and all things farm-related definitely makes him just like his daddy!

He also mentions from time to time that he wants to go hunting and fishing with daddy. Notice his shirt which reads: I only smell like this when I fish. Yes, he is Jason's mini-me.

Dave & Jess visit

2010-05-24T14:10:00.003-05:00

My little brother and his family came to visit in April. It was so fun to see them! Josiah had a blast, even though he got a fat lip at the playground while they were here.

Here's baby Ella:
Dave & Jessica:

Josiah with his cousins Kason (who he calls Kakey) and Ava (Asa):

Posts coming soon: Hanging with friends, becoming just like daddy, Public Works tour, family fun in SW MO, and a day at the farm (yes, I have a lot of posting to do)

Walrods in KC

2010-04-21T13:49:00.005-05:00

We were very excited for Jason's sister and family to come visit! Our nephew Trent saved up all his money because he wanted to stay in a hotel room. So he was able to stay on the Plaza and pay for it (mostly) himself. Pretty impressive! We all got to hang out at the pool:

Trent and Josiah had fun playing in the hotel room closet. Trent kept reminding us that this was HIS room.
On Sunday we all went to the zoo. It was a great day and Bryan pulled the wagon with Josiah and Trent in it, so Jason and I got off easy!

Josiah and Trent had fun riding the caurosel. I think Josiah liked that better than seeing the real animals. Probably because he can't ride on the real ones. Pesky zoo rules.

Have a great week everyone!

Fire Station

2010-04-21T13:33:00.003-05:00

Josiah had a blast at the Parents as Teachers fire station visit. He loves anything to do with trucks, especially when he gets to drive. Here are some fun pics. Enjoy!

Easter at BPS

2010-04-21T12:35:00.002-05:00

We went to Bass Pro Shop for Easter. What? That's not everyone's Easter tradition?

Josiah had a great time getting his picture taken with the Easter bunny, and was not scared of it at all.

BPS is one of Josiah's favorite places. He likes to go to the boat center and "drive" the boats. I'm sure the employees hate us. We generally do not buy anything, and Josiah runs around screaming "dive boats!". And of course he is not a gentle boat handler. But, I figure we make up for it with Jason's purchases. Plus I am indoctrinating a future BPS shopper.

Fire Station and Walrod visit pics coming soon!

St. Patricks Weekend and Easter

2010-04-12T14:53:00.006-05:00

The weekend after St. Patrick's day we visited Jason's side of the family.

We got to see Grandma Mary (who had just had shoulder surgery):

Josiah bonded with his 4 year old cousin Trent over some fresh fallen snow (retrieved through the doggie door).

Cousin Samantha helped babysit:

Discussing big trucks with Paw Paw:

The week before Easter, we went to our friend Lisa's house for a great party. She had fun activities including planting flowers, making/decorating wear-able bunny ears, and of course hunting for Easter eggs. The party was complete with egg-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and a take-home goodie bag with an egg-shaped rice kripy treat!

Josiah, however, was most impressed by the lawn mower in Lisa's garage. Here he is with his friend Asher:

On the hunt for eggs:

Driving his friend Andrew around in the yard:

We went to visit my family for Easter.

This is the "before" picture in the Easter egg dying process. Josiah quickly got bored with this, so there isn't an "after" picture.

We got to meet our new baby niece (Josiah's newest cousin) Ella for the first time!

Josiah enjoyed riding on the toy tractor. Especially when someone else was willing to push.

Hanging out with Grandma Lucy (this was the first time he had been to her house!):

Posing with Daddy at the church breakfast:

Happy belated Easter! Hooray for spring!!!

Coming soon: picture with the Easter bunny at Bass Pro Shop, Fire Station tour, and visit from the Walrods!

1Q 2010

2010-04-12T08:55:00.005-05:00

Playing in the snow...

Our friends Genevieve and Olivienne visit!

Which one of these blocks is the lighter?

First time bowling:

Daddy's boots are fun toys.

Jason's birthday:

Wearing Daddy's hat:

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Blog updates coming soon: St. Patrick's day weekend and Easter!

Story time

2010-01-19T14:16:00.006-06:00

Josiah is hilarious. Just wanted to fill you in on a couple of things that have happened over the past month.

Snow Days
When we first had our big snow (just before the insanely cold temperatures came and before he got sick) I took Josiah sledding. We got all bundled up and went to Antioch Park. We found a good hill and I got him out of the truck along with the 2-man sled. Unfortunately he had no interest in walking in the snow. So I ended up carrying him and the sled to the top of the hill. The first time we went down, when we got to the bottom I asked him if that was fun and he said "yeah". Do you want to do that again? "No". So being the good mother that I am, I told him "too bad - we are already out here so we are going to sled and you are GOING to have fun". After carrying my 30 lb little guy up the hill a couple of times, my arm was getting tired. So while I was walking up the hill he would gradually start sliding down my hip. He did not like the feeling that he might fall, so he would start grunting as if he was trying his hardest and using all his muscles to stay up. It was hilarious. I had to stop in the middle of the hill several times because I was laughing too hard to continue. Sorry that was SUCH hard work for you Josiah! By the end of our time in the snow, he was having fun and had discovered that he could make snowballs and throw them at me. I guess I deserved it. And now he loves to walk in the snow - in fact today he was tromping through the yard in the drastically decreased amount of remaining snow. We even built a miniature snow man today. Well, mostly I built it - he just enjoyed knocking it's head off and laughing. Sorry there are no accompanying pictures, but I just wanted to share that story (which I'm sure would be much funnier if you had been there...).

In other news, Josiah continues to amaze me with his talking skills. A couple weeks ago he said the words "mistletoe" (I got him a clearanced Christmas book with mistletoe in it) and "green anaconda" (which sounds more like 'geen conda'). He got the latter one from watching this song/cartoon. He also loves this song about elephants. And this song about rhinos. He is only 2 and already addicted to YouTube.

To make up for the lack of pictures in this post, I am adding a cute video. Enjoy!

Neglected holidays

2009-12-31T12:42:00.007-06:00

Christmas is an important holiday, but it seems that I have overlooked Halloween and Thankgiving altogether (at least as far as this blog is concerned). So I am back tracking to remedy the situation.

HALLOWEEN
Trick-or-treating with his friend Andrew at the businesses close to our house:
Showing off his loot (M&Ms were his favorite):
This picture is just so you can see his authentic Samurai pony tail:
Indiana Jones and the littlest Samurai:
Trick-or-treating at the Parents as Teachers playcenter:
We got fun Halloween balloons and decorated cookies at Whole Foods:
HUNTING
While not technically a holiday, hunting pretty much has the same status in our household.
Making cookies with grandma:
Posing with daddy's 4 point buck (he still says "daddy broke deer"):
Making a pie with granny:
"Driving" one of Paw Paw's tractors. I could barely get him away from them:
THANKSGIVING
The highlight of Josiah's Thanksgiving was getting to "drive" the fire truck at the fire station where my cousin Kurt works:
He also had fun hanging out with his cousins:
We also had fun visiting family and getting to see my mom's cousin Pat who drove up from TX to see everyone.

This ends my tribute to Halloween, hunting, and Thanksgiving. Happy New Year's Eve - I won't be blogging again until 2010!

Most wonderful month of the year

2009-12-29T12:53:00.007-06:00

As is probably the case for you and your family, December is a blur. A fun, exciting blur, but a blur nonetheless.

We kicked off the month with Josiah's 2nd birthday party. His 2 sets of grandparents were there to help us celebrate with a dog-themed party (no we have not gotten a dog yet).
I went a little overboard with the desserts. We had 48 cupcakes (we had both white and chocolate cupcakes), dog bone shaped cookies, and dog shaped cookies.
Josiah did not complain about there being too many desserts. But, he did not quite understand why he had to wait until after we sing and blow out the candles to be able to eat his cupcake. He thought we were torturing him by dangling this cupcake in front of his face and making him wait.
As you can see, he was not shy about digging in once the candles were out! A big change in his feelings toward cake since his 1st birthday. He liked the cream cheese frosting more than the actual cake part.
He had a blast unwrapping his presents. He was confused by the fact that we wanted him to not play with the cool thing he just opened, but to open the next thing instead. He also was not a fan of the time it took to get all these cool toys out of their boxes.

This is the tractor that his daddy picked out for him. He was so excited, but could not understand why he was not able to climb inside of it. That was kind of frustrating for him. He went to every person in the room to see if they had a solution to his dilemma.

The next 2 weeks of December were packed with putting out the Christmas decorations (we decided to wait until after his b-day to do this), wrapping presents, baking, doctor and dentist appointments, a Parents As Teachers event, getting our windows measured (to be replaced soon!), etc.

Our friends Genevieve and Mick got to stay with us the night of the 20th while they were passing through - it was great to see them - we had not seen Mick in 2 years! Josiah had fun playing with Olivienne and we all ate Jack Stack and relaxed. I guess I was too relaxed - after they left I realized that I had not taken any pictures! D'oh...hopefully we'll get another opportunity before 2 more years fly by.

We had our family Christmas on Tuesday the 22nd right before we left town.

It is so fun seeing how excited Josiah gets opening presents. We have fun playing with his toys too.Then we packed up and headed to Pittsburg, KS where Josiah got to check out his Mi Mi's office at the hospital and terrorize the hallways with running and screaming. They were happy screams. Hopefully the patients knew that.

He had a blast seeing his family in SW Missouri that he talks about so often. And of course opening more presents.
We spent 4 hours Christmas afternoon driving up to mid-Missouri to see my side of the family. On the 26th Josiah's cousins arrived, and he thought the best way to say hello would be to tackle them. You're looking at the future faces of WWE.
Two more batches of present opening followed in the 2 days we were there. Here's Josiah with his new guitar. He loves it - a little too much. I am wondering how long it will stay in one piece.
Throughout this fun and crazy season, when we ask Josiah what we're celebrating - who's birthday it is - he says "JESUS!". It is so cute. And a great reminder amidst all the chaos.

We are home now, thankful for all the fun we had with our families and trying to sift through the mountains of new toys. We are truly so blessed in millions of ways, big and small.

A couple of random updates - Josiah is now saying 4 word sentences. Like 'my daddy take truck'. I plan on posting some videos of him talking soon. He also is trying to sing parts of Jesus Loves Me. Right now it sounds like this: 'Yes, Jesus. Yes, Jesus.' That's pretty much it. Sometimes he will also sing 'bible tell.'

We hope that you also had a great Christmas and that you have a happy New Year!

In case you forgot...

2009-11-03T13:06:00.002-06:00

...Josiah will tell you AND show you how old he is going to be on Dec 6th, all while eating grapes.

Big weekend

2009-10-22T14:06:00.004-05:00

We had a lot going on this weekend! Saturday morning I ran the KC Half Marathon (13.1 miles) with my friend and fellow mom Sydney. It was a great race - the weather turned out to be perfect and the course took us through downtown, Westport, and the Plaza with several bands playing along the way. We enjoyed the views but not the hills. :) We averaged about a 10 minute mile pace. We finished a full 30 minutes ahead of the elite marathoners - yes, this means that there are people who run 26.2 miles in only 30 minutes more than it takes us to run 13.1. Jerks.
We made these fun t-shirts to say thanks to our supportive husbands who (mostly without complaint) watched the kiddos for all those training runs for the past 3 to 4 months.
Saturday afternoon we got to see Jason's parents as they were passing through town. Josiah loved seeing Paw Paw and Mi Mi (he made up this name for Jason's mom - none of her other 6 older grandkids calls her that), and especially loved driving Paw Paw's big truck!
Sunday afternoon we went to a pumpkin patch with some friends which had lots of fun stuff for the kids. Josiah loved feeding the goat:
and hanging out with his friends:Yes, my shirt says "Single", but the fine print says "during hunting season". Always read the fine print.
Sunday was a momentous day - Josiah peed in his potty for the first time ever!!! It was very exciting. There has not been a repeat performance since, but I know it will take time, and we are working on it.

Here's a fun picture from breakfast - not sure how he got a Cheerio stuck to his forehead. That takes talent.Josiah is talking up a storm. He started saying 3 word phrases last week like "need that book". It is fun - you can pretty much have a real conversation with him now! His new favorite words are hurt, broke, and naked (i.e. "mommy hurt" because I hurt my finger, "broke" when his crackers or bread break in 2 - he prefers them whole). He loves to be naked (fully or just in a diaper) at any and every opportunity, and usually twirls in circles when he is naked.

In a little over a month he will turn 2. It's hard to believe how much he's grown and learned in the past 2 years. We are having so much fun with him!

Family fun

2009-10-08T14:05:00.007-05:00

Labor day weekend we went to visit Jason's side of the family. Many thanks to Ericka, Colynn, and Jason for each running a part of 8 miles with me! And thanks to Debby for making me ginger snaps to fuel my running. We had a fun weekend - here are some pics:

-with Grandma:
-with Grandma Mary (and the discovery of delicious Smarties suckers):
-with Paw Paw:
-with Samantha (the best babysitter):

During the trip, Grandma gave Josiah the bear that Jason used to sleep with as a kid. Now this is how we eat breakfast:On Sept 19th Jason, Josiah and I had a great family day. We went to the zoo and then roasted marshmallows to make s'mores after dinner. Here are some pics:

At the end of Sept we went with my side of the family to Branson for a couple days to get away. We had a great time...more pics!

-Playing the guitar with Paw Paw (yes, there are 2 Paw Paws):
-hanging out with mommy:
-more hanging out on our way to a playground:
-at Silver Dollar City there were a grand total of 2 rides Josiah could do, but only accompanied by an adult. He LOVED them:

-riding in the jogging stroller with cousin Ava:

We hope you all had a great September!

Big talker

2009-08-28T13:53:00.007-05:00

Josiah seems to be adding more words to his vocabulary every day. He started saying 'no' a couple of weeks ago but he says it in the sweetest way possible (most of the time). And now he says "no way". His affirmative response to things is "yeah" - but lately he has been saying "oh yeah". His most recent word is "cookie". Jason made his mom's famous ginger snaps this week, and now he cannot walk into the kitchen without saying "cookie? cookie?". It is cute but hopefully he will realize that there are other foods besides cookies. I think he also said "coffee" this week - he is obsessed with Jason's coffee mugs and thermos. He loves to just carry them around (don't worry, we only give him empty ones to carry). I will get a recording of him talking and get it posted one day soon, but wanted to let everyone know how he is progressing!

Since my last post my bestest friend Genevieve came to visit (and we decided on the spur of the moment to paint our kitchen), my parents came to visit and brought my nephew & niece (Kason & Ava), and we went with friends to see Disney's train tour (including a 10 minute 3-D movie trailer) to promote their Christmas Carol movie coming out in November. Here are some pics:

Summer fun

2009-08-07T12:22:00.008-05:00

Summer is flying by! We are loving the weather and trying to get outside as much as possible. Here are some of the things we've been up to (I'm listing the ones we have pictures for):

We visited my side of the family for July 4th.

My family came here on July 10th/11th and we were in a fishing tournament.

I took Josiah to a BBQ at his friend Isaac's house on 7/18.

Got Josiah's picture made:
http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/
To log in use my (Danita) email address and this access code: 21b44d1385

Picked some cucumbers from our garden:
Bathtime fun:

He must have been really tired, because he thought this was hysterical. I was talking to his Elmo toothbrush:

More updates soon!

Dancing fever

2009-06-16T12:27:00.005-05:00

Last week I took Josiah in for his 18 month doctor appointment. I can't believe it's been 1 1/2 years since he was born! He grew 2 inches and gained 2 lbs. in the 3 months since his last appointment, but the best news is that he doesn't have to get any more shots until he is ready for preschool!!

Last week he also figured out how to make a pig noise. We'll have to get a little video of that to post for you.

At the end of May we went to a family wedding (congrats Joshua & Stephanie!) and Josiah ate mashed potatoes for the first time at his granny's house, and he also ate fresh blueberries at the wedding reception. These things may not sound like a big deal to the average person, but this is a huge victory for parents of picky eaters all around the world! He had a blast at the wedding, which was held at a country club (hence the golf cart pic). He even figured out how to do part of the chicken dance the week before the wedding. Here are some pics:

"What! I can't believe I have to go all the way to the first tee to play with my toys."

"If only I could reach the pedals..."

At the reception:

Just bust a move:

Cutting a rug with grandma:

In other news, Jason and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this past weekend by staying at the Hyatt at Crown Center and relaxing for a couple of days while my parents watched Josiah. Everyone had a great weekend - Josiah did not even seem to notice we were gone, and we got some much needed down time.

Have a great week everyone!

Picture updates

2009-05-29T14:38:00.005-05:00

Over the past 3 weeks we have had fun hanging out at home and hanging out with friends. Here are some cute pictures...

Our old frozen cookie dough container is now a very stylist hat (and yes, he does do all his own stunts).Josiah loves cars. He loves to sit in them unrestrained by those annoying safety seats. Here he is with his friend Asher...

"Look how sweet and innocent we are!" "Ok, I think they are distracted. I'll steer if you man the pedals."
"Wait - first let's roll up the window so they can't hear our escape plans!"
"Oh, you heard all of that? We were totally joking."

Josiah got a pair of Hot Wheels sunglasses as a gift from the amazing Parents as Teachers board. He looks super cool but he only wears them for a couple seconds at a time.

Wearing his daddy's boots. He wants to be just like his daddy when he grows up. Be very afraid.

Hanging out with one of his long distance girlfriends (Allie) who was in town for Memorial Day weekend. He's driving her around in his sweet (pink) ride.

First time drinking out of a straw!!! We were so excited that we caused a scene at the restaurant. We love you Crayola!

Chillin' with friends who are 1 day older - Connor & Jacob.

He loves Connor & Jacob's dog Millie. She is the first dog he ever really tried to pet without us forcing him. And then he found her very fun ears.

In other news, Jason replaced our back door last weekend. We are excited that we can no longer feel air coming in around the back door! The battle against the house continues. We won this round!

Have a great weekend!

On the farm

2009-04-29T20:04:00.004-05:00

Last week I took Josiah to a nearby farmstead with some friends and their little ones. He got to show off his John Deere hat and boots. As you can tell from this picture, he had a blast seeing the animals......at least the ones that were behind the fences. He was not a fan of the goats.

But he did like the cow bench, and every bench swing we came across.

Josiah loves to play in the pantry. Here's a picture of when he got stuck in there - his foot is in the organic toaster pastry box.

Have a great week!

My little flirt

2009-04-07T19:10:00.005-05:00

Josiah and I went on a tour of the Public Works department today! He had fun seeing all the big trucks, but at times was more interested in the other kids and/or their strollers. Here he is in the big warehouse where they keep the salt for the streets.

He is flirting with some little girls who were just off to the left of this picture...

I wasn't brave enough to try to climb up there with him. This bobcat made him so excited that he fell down.

Happy Easter everyone!

Not 'goodbye', but 'see you later'

2009-04-03T10:34:00.003-05:00

This is my Maw Maw. She is my great-grandmother - my dad's grandma. She passed away on Saturday at the age of 91. She was an amazing and beautiful person and I will miss her. She lived in Belle Chasse, Louisiana so after we moved when I was 2, I only got to see her once or twice a year. These pictures are from the last time we got to see her in May 2008. She was full of life - she loved to dance and play cards and she was always happy and made everyone laugh.

I am so thankful that she got to meet Josiah!
Here they are taking a nap together...

Here she is telling me stories and making me laugh!

She always used to ask me "are you happy?" and say "just make sure you're happy". Now I know she is truly happy and always will be.

I won't quit my day job...

2009-03-26T14:15:00.003-05:00

This week we went to the park with some friends. Josiah had a blast feeding the ducks and geese. He also LOVED the swings!

I attempted to cut Josiah's hair this week...the good news is that it will eventually grow back. But at least he still has both his ears and is too young to be embarrassed.

Josiah has become a picky eater, so I have been making him food out of the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Basically you steam and puree vegetables and then sneak them into your food. Today I made him brownies with spinach and carrot purees. He was more than a little excited about them!
Have a great week everyone!

College bound

2009-02-16T14:09:00.013-06:00

Josiah is now headed off to college! OK, so it hasn't been THAT long since I've blogged. It could be worse.

I would like to say that it is dangerous being a mom. Josiah tried to take out one of my toes last week. He dropped a heavy metal thing on it while I was holding him (so from about 5 feet in the air). Then another day last week he stuck his finger up my nose and made it bleed. He also slams his head into mine on a regular basis. I really can't get mad at him because (1) he's so cute, and (2) he doesn't do these things on purpose (yet).

Josiah currently has an ear infection. I don't know what it is about that bright pink amoxicillin, but he loves it. I think he gets sick on purpose so he can have more of that stuff. I, however, have issues with amoxicillin. I think there are magnets in our floor that only attract penicillin products. This is the 2nd bottle I have dumped on the floor. Luckily I didn't dump out the whole thing this time, just part of it. During a separate incident with the same bottle and a tricky syringe, I somehow got amoxicillin on our ceiling (Jason saw it - I didn't even notice) and cabinets. Jason did not appreciate the pink polka-dot kitchen redecorating I did. I will be glad when Josiah feels better and we can throw this stuff away!

As promised, here are some pictures from Josiah's 1st haircut. Many thanks to Jason's sister Ericka - she did a great job cutting Josiah's hair and missing his ears, which was not an easy task. His hair looked great...but it's been almost 2 months since this haircut, so...when are you coming to visit, Ericka? :)

Jason's birthday was last Tuesday so tell him happy birthday - he loves it when a lot of attention is drawn to him.

Josiah got to see one of his long-distance girlfriends for Valentine's day! Genevieve brought Olivienne to see Josiah (well, I guess they came for other reasons too).

We got to watch our friend's son Benjamin twice last week. He had fun playing, but Josiah got a big streak of jealousy!

Josiah isn't quite running yet, but he is starting to walk fast - and he keeps his hands up by his head while he does it (I guess in case he starts to fall). He looks like a dinosaur, especially in his green PJs.

More fun updates

2009-01-02T15:12:00.003-06:00

Josiah now has 8 teeth! He is now mostly eating whatever we eat but is a somewhat picky eater depending on the day and/or his mood.

His Aunt Ericka gave him his very first haircut over Christmas week! Pictures forthcoming...our camera's memory card was full.

And last but not least...he is walking! Not all the time, but a lot more. He is getting braver - watch out world! This video was taken Dec 21st, so his walking skills have improved since this was shot...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T10:35:00.010-06:00

What better way is there to start the New Year than to catch up on my blogging?

Let's see...starting back in Nov:

-Julie and I successfully completed a half marathon! 13.1 very cold (19 degree wind chill) miles of way more hills than we had trained for. :)

-Jason went deer hunting and shot an 8-point buck! It was very exciting (sorry to any animal activists who read our blog, but he doesn't just hunt for sport - we really do eat the meat!).

-Had a fun dinner with our friends Heidi & Ben and their twin sons (who are a day older than Josiah) Connor & Jacob.

-We spent Thanksgiving weekend at home and ended up processing Jason's deer ourselves...picture us in the kitchen with a meat grinder, sausage casings, a jerky gun, and piles of raw meat. Feel free to laugh if you want to (it was pretty comical) but we are very proud of how good the sausage and jerky turned out!

-Got to see our friends Natalie & Gabe who live in Virginia and recently got hitched!

December was definitely eventful:

-Josiah turned 1 on Dec 6th. We had some family & friends over to help us celebrate. Josiah was a little freaked out by all the people at his house, but he had fun and enjoyed the cake we gave him (well, mostly just enjoyed the frosting).

-Dec 7th we had his 1 year pictures made. He was starting to not feel very well so he wasn't his smiley happy self in the pictures, but they still turned out great.

-Dec 8th Josiah and I were out Christmas shopping...and he started puking everywhere. He wasn't acting sick but I still felt like I jerk for having a sick baby out in publilc...which I of course would not have done if I had known he was sick. The next day we had the 1 year doctor's appointment with several shots - this did not help him feel better. That night Jason caught whatever Josiah had, so he was throwing up too. The next day I was taking care of the boys and trying to avoid Josiah's open mouth kisses, but to no avail. That evening I was also praying to the porcelin gods. It took us almost 2 weeks to feel like eating again was a smart idea. The good news is that we didn't have to worry too much about gaining weight over the holidays!

(lucky for you I don't have any pictures regarding the paragraph above)

-Dec 13th weekend we had Christmas with my family and despite not feeling 100%, still had a fun time seeing everyone.

-The next week we were battling colds. We were thankful for a sickness that still allowed us to eat.

-The week of Christmas we spent with Jason's family, and we were feeling much better by then. Josiah was finally back to his normal happy-go-lucky self, and enjoyed playing with all his new toys (and trying to eat the wrapping paper). He also really loved his Grandma's sugar cookies!

(notice his new cowboy boots above)
Here is our little cookie monster in action:

-We spent New Year's eve hanging out with friends and playing games. We had a lot of fun and did end up staying up until midnight, but since a lot of us there had little kids, we realized exactly how much we enjoy our sleep!

We hope you all enjoyed your holiday season, and that you have a great 2009!

Tag, you're it!

2008-12-22T10:34:00.005-06:00

We were tagged by our blogging friends (who are WAY better bloggers than we are) Nate & Jen (http://www.babyhardin.blogspot.com/). We are supposed to post the photos from the 5th post of our blog. At that time I was 16 weeks pregnant with Josiah! That was before we saw the ultrasound pictures, before we knew he was a boy...wow, it is crazy how time flies. The only picture we posted on our 5th posting was to document Josiah's size...he was then weighing in at about 3 oz. and measured only about 5 inches long! He is now about 20 lbs and 30 inches long!! Can you imagine growing 25 inches in less than 1.5 years?

To keep this going - Genevieve & Mick - tag, you're it!!

E*trade baby

2008-11-24T13:20:00.003-06:00

"Hey girl, can I hit you back?"

Josiah loves playing with phones, especially his grandma's Crackberry.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-29T20:13:00.003-05:00

Josiah was not very happy today when I took him to the Parents as Teachers playcenter to show off his tiger costume for their Halloween celebration.
Here he is saying "I am SO over this":He got hot in his costume, so I unzipped it for him - only to uncover that he really is a tiger!

His friend Andrew is a horse this year - he did not want to sit by the tiger.
This picture is solely for the purpose of showing off his tail.
Happy Halloween!

Fall fun

2008-10-26T14:59:00.005-05:00

On October 12th we went with some friends to a cider mill/pumpkin patch/corn maze. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed some yummy apple cider and donuts!

Here's Josiah at the cider mill (he could care less about the pumpkins):

Here we are in the corn maze...

...and the pumpkin patch:Josiah & I went to visit my parents this past Sunday through Tuesday. It was good to see them and relax. Josiah got to hang out with his 2nd cousins - he was especially enamored with Addision:
We got to have lunch with my aunts and grandma one day - here's Josiah with my aunt Naomi:
Josiah now has 4 teeth - 2 on top & 2 on bottom. He is now eating Cheerios and of course loves them. He is also practicing walking (not quite on his own yet, but it won't be long!).

Sears pictures

2008-10-09T21:29:00.002-05:00

Mischief

2008-10-09T16:09:00.003-05:00

Josiah is 10 months old and is definitely developing a mind of his own! Things that used to be easy and even fun are now challenging...for example, bathtime is like a wrestling match that I really only win 50% of the time if I'm lucky. Getting him dressed is the same story - sometimes he crawls around the house half dressed while he tries to get away from me.

He has figured out how to open some of the cabinets in the kitchen. This one is his favorite, and he loves to pull everything out that he can reach and use whatever he finds as teething toys. He figured out that we store the paper bags in the small space between the oven and the refrigerator - so now he likes to pull those out as well. Of course I had to take a picture with him carrying around a Jack Stack bag! I see a large amount of smoked ribs in his future.
Here he is at Jason's cousin's wedding (congrats Rachel!) dancing the night away with his cousin Trent.
He was exhausted at the end of the night, but he had a blast! Here he is with a 'I-got-to-stay-up-past-my-bedtime' mischievious grin.

We are having fun trying to corral him - he keeps us on our toes!

Updates on his growth:

*Last week we went to the doctor, and found out that he is in the 25th percentile for his weight and the 90th for height.

*This week he got one of his top teeth!

*He can now say the 'Ma' sound. I like to pretend that he's calling me mommy (after all, he is a genius).

*He is getting a little more graceful at going from a standing position back to a seated position (he used to just fall).

That's all I can think of for now. Have a great weekend!

Aaaautumn

2008-09-19T16:44:00.005-05:00

On Monday it is officially fall! Yay! The weather has been amazing, and that puts everyone in a good mood.

Since my last posting...

*We visited Jason's family for Labor Day and had some cute pictures made! I will share those once I get the soft copies because the Sears picture website sucks. It was really fun to see everyone, and Josiah had a blast.

*I turned 31. Yes, I am old, but I still had a fun birthday!

*Jason's dad made a quick trip up to help us re-do our driveway. It looks great!!! Then my parents came and painted our under-construction-pantry and installed a light in it. We are excited to be making progress on house projects, and very thankful for our parents!

Here are some additional cute pictures of Josiah. He is super active and curious and loves to explore everything. Here he is happily digging in his toy box.
This picture was taken right before we went on a walk on one of the cooler days we had. I just thought he looked cute!
This is how he sleeps. Always on his stomach with his butt in the air; sometimes with a foot between the crib bars, or his head mashed into a corner.

He picked up a runny nose at church - here he is blowing a snot bubble and drooling simultaneously. He is so talented!
Happy fall everyone!

Crawling

2008-08-29T09:26:00.004-05:00

Josiah really took off with his crawling on Monday evening. Then on Wednesday he started pulling himself up to standing! I went to get him from his crib and he was standing up, holding onto the bars, and laughing at me. He has been trying to stand up on his own ever since. He really has no sense of fear, and has been pulling himself up on Jason or I, and then letting go!

Here he is kneeling in his crib. I tried to get him to stand up for the picture but he was too worried about getting out of his crib (a.k.a. not having to go down for a nap).
Sorry for the shaky-ness of this video, but here he is crawling to me and trying to pull himself up. He didn't quite get there in the video - I think he was too interested in the camera.

He will be walking before we know it!! Yikes!

Sicko

2008-08-23T09:24:00.010-05:00

So I guess I'm past due for my once-a-month posting, but here's what we've been up to.

In the 2nd half of July I got to visit with some of my dearest friends who (or is it whom?) I don't get to see very often. Genevieve was here from San Francisco and it was so great to see her and pass on what very small bit of baby advice I have. Joyce was also here from Chicago and it was really fun to catch up with her. I also got to hang out (on separate occasions) with Amy, Angela, and Kristin - it was so great to see all of you guys!!

The first week in August we went with my side of the family to Branson for vacation. We had fun just hanging out at the pool (Josiah loved the pool) and playing Settlers and relaxing - and Jason, my brother & my dad got to do some fly fishing.

It was a good trip, but the day we left Branson Josiah started running a fever. We kept giving him Tylonel and Motrin, but that evening it got up to 102.5 and I was freaking out a little bit. We were with Jason's side of the family at that point, and Jason's mom helped bring Josiah's fever down (and calm me down) by giving him a lukewarm bath. Josiah's fever broke on Monday so I thought maybe he was getting better. Long story short, I took him to see a friend who is a nurse later that week (thanks Janna!), and she told me that he had an ear infection - despite the fact that he was sleeping ok, not running a fever, and not acting sick! He's been on antibiotics for about a week now, and is doing much better.

Last week my dad called Jason to see if he could get off for a last minute fly fishing trip (those 2 should not be allowed to talk to each other!). So we took a 1 day trip which counts as Jason's graduation present. I didn't have much fun because I was not feeling well, taking care of a sick baby who did not want to sleep, and I literally got around 30 bug bites on a 1/3 mile hike in the woods. But Jason caught a nice rainbow trout and had a fun time fishing, and we found out that he looks really cute in waders!
Also in the past couple of weeks, Jason got a new job! He starts this coming Thursday and he is very excited about the new opportunity/challenge. It is a well deserved promotion and I am super proud of him.

Other than having his 1st full blown cold, here are the other things Josiah has been up to:

*He now has 2 (very sharp) teeth (can you see them?)! I would advise keeping your fingers out of his mouth.
*He is eating baby food twice a day - I am attempting to make most of it. So far he loves sweet potatoes, avacado, brown rice cereal, and bananas; but he is not a fan of zucchini, papaya, or oatmeal.

*He started crawling this past week...just a couple of paces at a time, but he is making forward progress (before he could only go backwards)!

*He grabs everything close to him - you have to be careful when handling any liquids around him - he loves to knock them out of your hand and onto the floor. This happened last week with his antibiotic (it went everywhere and we had to get another prescription), and this morning with some hot coffee.

*He is 8.5 months old, almost 17 lbs, and about 28" tall. He looks about the same size as a lot of his 1+ year old friends!

See you next month when I have time to post again!

LOL

2008-07-16T21:40:00.002-05:00

Fun family time

2008-07-08T16:46:00.001-05:00

First the most exciting news - Jason is DONE with his MBA! I am super proud of him, and Josiah and I are enjoying spending more time with him. He just got his grade from his last class today, and found out that he will be graduating "with distinction" (meaning his grades over the past 2.5 years are an A average!). He worked really hard and we are glad it's over!

Two weeks ago we took Josiah to his first Royals game. Jason was very excited about it, while I was somewhat indifferent. :) Luckily our seats were in the shade and the weather was nice, so we all had a good time.
Here's Josiah happily showing off his new shoes!
Josiah is sitting up like a champ. He still falls over sometimes, but he is really getting the hang of it!
Last weekend we went to Colorado to visit friends (thanks Lazar & Tzvetanka!) and enjoy the great outdoors. Josiah was a trooper and didn't complain too much about all the new situations we put him in! While we were there, he perfected his rolling over skills. Jason got to see him roll over for the 1st time - and 2nd, and 3rd, etc. He has not rolled over since we've been home - prompting us to think we should move to Colorado!
Here's Josiah with his friend Alexander in a bike trailer. We thought it would be fun to go for a nice easy bike ride. Josiah disagreed. Maybe seven months is too soon to try something like this. Hopefully he won't be too traumatized!
While we were there, Josiah decided to start rock climbing. He is not yet walking or even crawling, but he was able to scale the north face of this rock.
Here he is looking for his next handhold. Notice how effortless he makes this look - he is a natural.
Other random news - while we were gone I finished knitting a baby blanket that I've been working on (off and on) for almost 3 years. I tried to calculate how much of that time was actually spent knitting, and I think it was approximately 25 hours, although that is a conservative estimate. When I told Jason that estimate, he wanted to know why I couldn't have finished it in a day. And then I punched him.

Have a great week everyone!

Awwwww

2008-06-24T13:47:00.004-05:00

I just had to share these cute pics! We had them taken at JCPenney with Josiah's cousins on my side of the family. We are planning on getting some official 6 month pictures made next month when he is 6 months from his due date and able to sit up on his own a little bit better.
I weighed Josiah today, and he is getting close to 15 lbs! He is too long to fit on the baby scale, so he may actually be 15 lbs since his legs were partially hanging off the end of the scale.
Have a great week everyone! Jason has ONE more class left (tomorrow night), and then he is done with school!!! YAY!

Don't Blink

2008-06-20T10:25:00.004-05:00

Josiah is growing up so fast! He is now over 6 months old (5 months old from his due date). Last night he had rice cereal for the first time. I think he liked it because he was really excited - kicking his legs, "talking", and trying to grab the bowl while we fed him.

Here's a picture from after he was done with his cereal:

Other stuff he's been doing lately...

*He has rolled over from his tummy to his back a couple of times in the past week, but is still not rolling consisently. Not that I'm complaining - I know that when he does become mobile, our lives will take on a whole new level of complexity!

*He has been figuring out that he can make different noises. When he gets excited he sometimes does this high-pitched scream that can shatter glass up to 1/2 mile away.

*He is able to sit up by himself for several seconds at a time before losing his balance & falling over.

Josiah now knows who Jason and I are, enough to get upset if we leave him. We left him with friends for the first time last week (thanks Ray & Kate!) so we could go out to eat to celebrate our 4th anniversary. Ray & Kate reported that he cried for about the first hour we were gone before settling down. We had fun going out without him, but it was weird!

In other news - Jason has TWO class periods left until he is done with his MBA!!!! We are super excited. After next Wednesday he will be able to come home after work every day of the week! That hasn't happened very often in the past 2.5 years.

Here are some cute pics of when we were with Jason's family last weekend. Happy Friday!

Spring break!

2008-05-21T10:32:00.004-05:00

In case you didn't notice, I added a note on the right about Jason finishing his MBA soon! Right now he is on spring break, and although we are not relaxing on a beach or hiking a mountain, we are still thoroughly enjoying his break from homework, quizzes, papers, and especially class time. Josiah loves seeing his daddy more often!

Jason's mission as a father is to turn Josiah into a farmer, starting with a John Deere hat and overalls. Josiah seems happy about it:

Here he is having a serious discussion with us about the rising grain prices:

Mothers day weekend we went to New Orleans to see my great grandmother (Josiah's great-great grandma). This was her 1st time to meet Josiah and she was very excited. Unfortunately all the pictures I took of them together are on my parent's camera so I don't have one to post at the moment, but I will soon! It was fun to get to see most of my New Orleans family. Here's Josiah on his first plane ride. He looks like he's nervously biting his nails, but he's really just chewing on his fingers. Jason & I were kind of apprehensive about traveling with a baby, but Josiah did really well and did not even seem to notice his ears popping.

Here's Jason & Josiah at Cafe Du Monde just before enjoying some yummy beignets (french doughnuts). It's a good thing we took this shot before we ate, because we were all covered in powdered sugar afterwards.
My parents got Josiah this hat as his first New Orleans souvenir. It signifies just how important crawfish is to our family. :) As you can see, he was a little worn out from his French Quarter outing.
Last weekend, Jason's parents came for a quick visit. It was a fun and relaxing weekend. Here is a picture of three generations of Regehr men!
Here's Josiah with his grandma:

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Baby Got Back

2008-04-28T16:10:00.001-05:00

I like big butts and I cannot lie...
Here's Josiah in one of his cloth diapers. They make his butt look huge!
Here are a couple of cute smile pictures:

Just to clear things up, I've been having some technical issues with the blog, so I asked Jason to post something just to make sure it was working. So he wasn't in trouble or trying to make up for doing something that made me mad. However, I cannot confirm or deny rumors that he was paid to blog nice things about me.

Testing a blog

2008-04-15T14:16:00.003-05:00

Have I told the world lately how wonderful Josiah's mother is? Probably not. But I should. She is wonderful and beautiful. She does so much to keep Josiah heathly and happy and allows me to work on my homework. She is the best and I love her tons!

Pics to go with the posting below...

2008-04-13T19:42:00.007-05:00

Here's Josiah with his new long distance girlfriend Allie:
Here's Josiah with his great-grandpa (they met for the 1st time Easter weekend):

And here he is with his cousin Trent after they finished coloring Easter eggs:
This one is Josiah laughing at his daddy. Jason makes him laugh more than anyone else!

Catch up

2008-04-13T19:42:00.002-05:00

Wow, it has been a month since I blogged last! Time is flying by. So much stuff has happened since our last post. I’ll start where our last entry left off…

3/21-3/23 - We visited Jason's family for Easter. His parents recently moved and are now much closer to us, so we were able to spend time with them without having to drive very far! We got to spend some time with Jason’s grandparents and to dye Easter eggs with Josiah’s cousins Chandler, Bryan, and Trent. Trent (2) loved dying the eggs and had a blast dropping them into the dye from several inches above each container, causing a few splashes and ultimately turning the palms of his little hands a nice dark purple/black color. Since Josiah couldn’t dye his own Easter eggs, I did a couple for him. Next year he will probably be the one with the colorful hands!

3/30-4/1 - My parents came for a quick visit. My dad was able to help us get MUCH better reception on our TV (we are living in the dark ages without cable), and helped us out a lot by putting an extra coat of drywall mud on the pantry. The pantry is admittedly a slow work in progress, but hopefully once Jason is done with school we will have more time to finish it.

4/4-4/6 - Our friends Erwin & Amanda and their daughter Aly came to visit. It was super fun to see them, and to introduce Josiah to his long-distance girlfriend. Aly loved Josiah and would toddle around the house saying ‘baby!’. She is adorable. We figure that it will be best for Josiah to have a long distance girlfriend so that when he gets a little older he won’t need to pay attention to any other girls!

This week has been entertaining. Here are the highlights:

>On Monday night as I was doing laundry, we thought we smelled something burning. Jason figured out that it was the dryer - the heat had stopped working so it was spinning the clothes but not really drying them. This also happened to be the week I decided to start using cloth diapers on a full time basis, and washing Josiah's clothes so we could switch from the 0-3 month size to the 3-6 month size. Great timing, right?

>On Tuesday I took Josiah to the breastfeeding group so I could weigh him. I had to wake him up to change his diaper before I weighed him, so he was grumpy. Then, as I was changing him, he peed all over himself despite my best efforts to prevent just such an incident. He actually sprayed himself directly in the face. I looked up from wiping his butt just in time to see his bewildered expression as he blinked the pee out of his eyes, right before he started screaming. I felt bad for the little guy, but all I could do was laugh. Several other peeing and pooping incidents happened that day - I will spare you the gory details but it was an exhausting day.

>I spent most of Wednesday at Jen's house (she was very gracious) drying several loads of laundry (remember the broken dryer from Monday?). As I was changing Josiah on the floor at Jen's, I turned to get a diaper, and when I turned back around, he was on his tummy! I was kind of shocked, so I rolled him back over on his back to see if he would do it again, and he did! He spent that night rolling around in his crib. He hasn't rolled much since then, and Jason is starting to think that I made the whole thing up. Luckily Jen was there to witness it!

>Thursday was Josiah's 4 month doctor appointment, where he had to get more shots. It really wasn't too bad - he was a champ and only cried a few minutes. However, several hours later he became VERY grouchy and stayed that way until Saturday morning. That was not very fun for the parents! We learned at the doctor’s office that Josiah is 12 lbs 10 oz, and that he is in the 25th percentile for his weight & head size, and the 75th percentile for length/height. That scale is not adjusted for him being 6 weeks early, so I’m guessing his height would be off the charts if we calculated it from his due date!

>Friday evening my brother & his family came to visit. Jason & I watched Josiah plus his cousins Kason & Ava for a couple of hours on Saturday by ourselves. It went really well - the kids were great and everyone survived, but we are worn out! It was fun to see Dave & Jessica and the kids. Kason cracked us up with his funny stories. He has a guinea pig who he named Bing Pingin (I'm not quite sure of the spelling on that). He is very creative!

Happy Tax Day everyone!

Hooray for Spring!

2008-03-21T07:43:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the official 1st day of spring, and it was a beautiful, sunny, breezy 70 degrees outside! Josiah & I went for a walk to celebrate. As far as I can tell, he loves being outside (a.k.a. he doesn't complain much).

I took the following picture of the back of Josiah's head because I think it's funny that all his hair has fallen out except for this little strip at the base of his head. I'm sure we're seeing a glimpse of his future - sorry Josiah!

Here's a cute picture of Josiah "talking" to me. Let me know if any of you can translate baby babbling.

And last but definitely not least...Jason was able to capture one of Josiah's big smiles!!! He is so super cute.
Happy spring and Happy Easter everyone!!!!

Oh Happy Day

2008-03-17T13:42:00.006-05:00

On Tuesday, 3/11 Josiah slept for 8 hours straight!!!! It has been at least three months since I've slept through the night, so my body was not sure how to react, but I definitely enjoyed the sleep. The longest he has slept since then has been 5 hours in a row, which is not too shabby - it's just not as nice as 8 hours!

Here are some photos of Josiah that I have been meaning to post. The first two are of Josiah with his great-grandmas on Jason's side, and the 3rd one is Josiah with his cousin Trent & his aunt April.
Those pictures were taken at the end of January, so he is a lot bigger now - probably getting close to 12 lbs (I hope to weigh him tomorrow to check). Just over the past week or so, Josiah has been figuring out how to smile, which has been super fun! We have yet to catch it in a picture, but we'll keep working on that. It is so cute when he smiles at us.

Last night we watched a movie called Fast Food Nation. We didn't really like the movie because it was less about the facts and more about fictional portrayals of the facts. Plus it was somewhat depressing and disturbing. One redeeming thing about watching the movie was the three short animated 'Meatrix' clips in the special features of the movie. You can watch them here: http://www.themeatrix.com/ We would like to encourage all our friends & family to buy their meat, eggs, milk, and cheese from family farms and/or to buy organic!!! Yes, that's right, we are becoming hippies.

Have a great week everyone - more pictures to come soon!

Odds & ends

2008-03-01T20:14:00.002-06:00

We went out to dinner to celebrate Jason's birthday (he turned 30 on February 10th!) and Valentines day, so we took some pictures since we were all dressed up. Josiah was in this super cute puppy sweater that was handed down to him from his cousin Kason. He says thanks because he is way into fashion right now.
I'm not sure what we were doing in this picture, but we were getting ready to go somewhere when Josiah decided to spit up to protest getting his picture taken.
Today we had beautiful weather and we appreciated it very much after a bitterly cold February. We underestimated how warm it was outside (about 68 degrees), so when we took Josiah for a walk today we may have bundled him up just a little too much...not to mention that his gloves are each about the same size as his head. His daddy dressed him, which is why his outfit does not coordinate very well! Here's a picture we took before the walk.Here is a picture we took after the walk - Josiah was a little warm so I decided to let him cool down!

Josiah has had a couple of 4 and 5 hour stretches of sleep which has been amazing for me! Then other nights he gets up after only 2 hours of sleep, so sometimes he is not sure if he would rather sleep or eat. He is now about 12 weeks old, but it has only been 6 weeks since his due date. He isn't officially smiling yet, although we catch glimpses of partial smiles every once in a while.

As you can probably tell, he is still getting cuter every day!