Julie's Big Day

Last Thursday was Julie's 1st birthday. We didn't actually celebrate until Friday since my mom and younger brother came in. We made her a small cake and made a bigger one for us. She was so cute eating it. She wanted to share it with all of us and kept grabbing handfuls and trying to stick it in our mouths. She's so sweet. Here are a lot of pictures that I tried to condense.

She also had a doctor appointment today. She is 18 pounds 6 ounces. She was 9 pounds 6 ounces when she was born so she really hasn't gained a lot of weight. She has grown, she's now 29.5 inches long compared to the 20 inches when she was born. She started crawling a day or two before her birthday and cut her 3rd tooth. She is still super happy, doesn't sleep as long but does sleep through the night. Andrew and her play in the car and sometimes when she's crabbing Andrew will be great at keeping her laughing. She can even say Andrew (da dew). She's also saying "daddy" and "mama" and "do..." for dog. She's great at mimicking, she wanted to see the fish so I took her over and said "fishy"...she would copy me saying "di dy". She's growing up so fast. The doctor even said she was mentally at a 15 mo old level. I know that's not a big difference but it sure does make a mommy proud. Sorry to keep going on so I'll end it here.

BiRtHdAy GiRl!

One year ago today Mark and I were unable to sleep, knowing that we were having to be at the hospital by 6 am the next morning to be enduced. We were so excited! Andrew was with my MIL who came in for the birth. When we got to the hospital, I got on my beautiful gown and waited to get started.

I was told that there were a lot of births going on and limited staff so they had to wait to enduce me. Mark decided to test out the "father" bed.

Around 9 am they were finally able to get started. I was hoping it would go a lot quicker this time since Andrew's took 36+ hours and this was my second child. No real luck. My mom got to the hospital about 5 pm since she flew in that day so I'm glad I was able to see her and talk to her a bit before it all happened. I was ready to start pushing around 5:30. The nurse wanted me to do some pushes just to get me started before the doctor came in. Well, little did she know I was further than she thought. I pushed about 3 times and the head was coming, she had to put her hand on Julie's head to stop her while the other nurse was told to get the doctor. You would think that the other nurse would rush right out seeing what was going on but NO. She had the nurve to ask the nurse that was KEEPING MY BABY FROM FALLING OUT to just come over for a second so they could talk. The nurse holding Julie looked at her dumbfoundly and back at me and back at the nurse and said that she was kinda busy and needed the doctor. Thankfully he made it back just intime for Julie to plop on out and see the world.

She was born at 5:40 PM weighing 9 pounds 5.8 ounces and was 20 inches long.

We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

She has been such a wonderful little girl and is almost always so happy and can always make us smile.

We love you Julie! I hope you have a great birthday.

EASTER!!!

So we started Saturday night, Mark had to work so after work we started our 'dying of the eggs'. I LOVE dying Easter Eggs. Even though we might not eat all of the eggs, it's such a cheap, fun way to spend time with the family and we all enjoy it. We get to be creative and just have some fun. I found a GREAT tip for when Julie can join us, you put the egg inside a wire wisk! How great is that? Anyway, here is what we did this year.

This was MY basket...Julie's basket (also stuff for Mark since she's so little)...Andrew's basket, at the bottom there were Lego Star War jammies. The blue thing to the right is a rake/shifter and behind it is a green shovel for when we go to the lake.Here's his Easter suit, I didn't get a picture of Julie's, maybe next week when we have church again (today was confrence).

I let her play with the remote today while watching confrence. She would get it, point it to the tv and act like she was hitting buttons...it was SOOOOO cute!

She also liked this little game where Mark would smell her feet, he would pull the "ewe, stinky feet"...then she'd laugh and stick her feet in his face to do it again. Andrew still loves this game.

I bought this had a few weeks ago, before this little outfit and realized that they match! I couldn't resist...so cute!

ApRiL FooLs dAy...

Last post tonight, I promise. So today was the first April Fools Day that I've done something in a long time. I made Andrew a sandwich using food coloring to make an A as well as put red drops in his water to "fool" him. He liked it but then again, he's 4 1/2.

Mark stayed late at work last night working on covering his boss's desk in aluminum foil. He bought 8 rolls and only used 4. This is how it turned out. What was I to do with the other 4 rolls? I hate the dollar store version of aluminum foil so I did what I do best, decorated his desk in foil too...I started with the monitors, keyboards, mouse and lamp. Then I got the rest including his chair and his hat that he always leaves on his lamp.

Mark laughed when he saw it, I think it turned out to be a great day! Andrew had fun helping me out and I got to teach him how to pull a prank.

Such CuTiEs!

I know I have a lot of pictures of my kids on here but they are just too cute!!!

Fun with Pictures

Recently I found an edit program that combines my pictures and I've been having some fun with that. Here are a few...

Julie's been rolling a lot lately, don't mind the laundry, it was laundry day but she was trying to roll to my bedroom and made it all the way down the hall.

This dress is sooo cute! My good friend, Heather let me borrow it. The ukulele was a gift for Andrew I believe but Julie likes to drum on it.

I found these hats at Walmart for 2 for $5. She let me keep them on her all day. It's so much fun to dress up little girls!

Honest Scrap

So I have been given the Honest Scrap Award by my good friend Kelsey, and have been challenged to list 10 honest things about myself, and then award it to 4 other people. I've had a hard time thinking of things so it took me a while but I'm finally done. Sorry for the delay in posting but I hope you like it!

1. I have OCD but try to hide it. My husband has been great about this. He’s used to me turning up the volume to only certain numbers or putting things in certain spots, whatever it may be. When I have people over or around others I’ve been pretty good at hiding it. When I was pregnant with Andrew, I was working full time and my boss and co-workers were well aware of this as well. I guess I got worse when I was pregnant and went around straightening name tags or pictures, whatever it may be. They would walk around tilting them just to see if I would notice, or how long it would take me to notice I should say. It was great fun for them, sometimes I’d play along just to see their reaction.

2. I’d like to be more adventurous than I am. I used to love going hiking/fishing/camping but now I have a hard time getting myself to do them even though I’d love to go. I worry about being all talk and no action so I hate making plans because I worry that when the day comes I’d try to find an excuse even though I’d love to go, I don’t know why this is, it just is.

3. I love pranks. I love being involved with them and pulling them. As long as they are not mean and they don’t backfire. I love my husband because he humors me when I pull pranks on him and he also likes to do things to me so it all works out well.

4. Lately I’ve been really into reality shows. The Kardashians, Kristy Ally, Biggest Loser, Shear Genius, Kendra, SYTYCD, Say Yes to the Dress…I need to STOP! Oh, and I can’t spell either so don’t judge!

5. I love to go out. Shopping, Movies, whatever! I could be away from the house all day, go on vacation for a week, come back home and be ready to go to Target at any given moment even if I don’t buy anything.

6. I really want to go back to school to be an interpreter for the Deaf! I took 2 years of sign language in High School and loved it. Once we can get all caught up on the bills and my kids are in school then I want to go back and get my degree.

7. Even though my son and my husband LOVE Star Wars, I’ve never seen 4-6 all the way through. Every time I try I fall asleep, without fail! I gave up but I still support my son in his new found love.

8. I want to sew and scrapbook. Growing up my mom made our Halloween costumes and I would LOVE to do that for my kids. I truly admire those that sew or scrapbook. My best friend has a lot of scrapbooks and her mom also has a lot done. They get together and work on them together.

9. I want to travel the world on a roller coaster trip. I’ve never been out of the country but I’ve seen some great looking roller coasters outside of the U.S. I’ve been to a few parks around the States and want to get a map, mark where I’ve been and then hit as many other parks as I can before I die.

10. I’m in LOVE with Mr. Potato head. I think he is my favorite childhood toy. I have calendars and holiday decorations. I’m not sure why, just love him!

Now I would like to award the Honest Scrap to:

Leah Moore
Ali Cannon
Tiffany Guymon
Shersten Buchholzer