MIckey's graduation & other pictures

My brother Mickey's graduation was really nice! We went home to my parents, and both my sisters were there as well. Josie had a blast seeing everyone, and, we also got to help move cows to summer pasture so that was pretty enjoyable as well.

Mickey is going to come to NJC next year so he'll be close to us, and both Luke and I are really looking forward to that.

Update on Josie- she's doing really good. Not taking to potty training (resuses to sit on potty when she actually has to go) so we're taking some time off. She's talking up a storm, among my new favorites are: trif-kit! (terrific), I can't believe it!, Dirty Hippies (thank you Daddy), and Check it out! Pretty cute. We're also workning on erradicating our first swear word from her vocabulary 'Damn It'. Pretty cute when she says it though (how horrible is that??!!)

Anyway- below are some pictures of our trip- enjoy!
Mickey walking into the auditorium...

Me and Mickey following the cerimony...

Marika, Josie, and Annalee following the cerimony....


Josie being 'shy' and Annalee laughing at how silly that is!

Recent photos-

Here's some pictures of what we've been up to lately:) We've been busy! Farming is taking off again so Luke's been out in the field, spraying mostly. I have my little online job and that I do when Josie naps which is nice. Josie is talking so much now! Tons of words/phrases. Most notable: "I can't believe it" "Holy Cow!" "Hmmmm, where could be?" "I'm gonna get you!"

We are all excited for the arrival of Hazen and Andrea's baby, Josie has not idea what's going on... a few weeks ago she patted my tummy though and asked "Momma, you got a baby in there?" I had to tell her no:) She does like the baby in Andrea's belly though, and will pooch hers out to match ;)

We don't really have a ton of news, just day to day stuff- we did get Josie and outside playset which is really cool! It's used to wasn't terribly expensive, but it features a play house, two slides, a tunnel, and climbing tower:) Pretty cool! Enjoy the pics! Love to you all-
Josie helping me make bread- she loves to help in the kitchen, she'll get her step stool and climb up. Heaven help you if she does not have her step stool and cannot help- it doesn't go over well!

A beautiful fairy princess, Josie all dressed up as Tinkerbell. She was singing too, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but unfortunately I don't think you can post video on the blog:( I like this picture though:)


Josie and her partner in crime, Aidyn. The terrible twosome, they make a good team:) This is a nice pic:)




Dying Easter eggs- which mostly I did, but Josie had fun putting stickers on them when they were dry:) Easter was a lot of fun this year, but, of course we forgot to take any pictures while we were dressed in our best:(

Josie's new outside play gym- lots of fun! :)

Long overdue....

At long last, here are some photos from Schlachter Sausage in March. We had a lot of fun, nice to see all the family, and Josie of course loved getting so much attention.

Luke and the 'men' loading sausage into the smokehouse- we had stuffed the 'guts' the night before:)
Luke, Aaron, Uncle Perry,and that's Stacey with Josie in the background...

The sausages are hung on the rods to dry before smoking, it's a tough job because you have to make sure none of them touch, if they touch they'll stick, and if they stick the casing breaks and you've wasted a link...

Aunt Gail caught one of the kitties, Josie loves them, but it was so nasty, cold and windy, he wanted nothing to do with being petted! They had fun anyway:)

It was also fun to have a lot of other kids around, Josie really enjoyed that part!

After standing in the wind putting sausage in the smoke house everyone headed to Schmidts for coffee and cookies- here's a shot of the kids table, Josie had so much fun being a big girl sitting with the other big girls:)

Josie's birthday.

I just realized that I have yet to post on that, so, here ya go. I think I'll let the pics do most of the talking though:) It was a very nice day, we had a lot of fun. Josie's favorite presents are the two blankets she got. One has is purple with different colored eliphants on it from "Aunt" Gail, and the other is white and blue with Cinderella from Christy...

Pictures from our Grand Junction portion of the trip...

So when you view these it looks like I took them all at the same time. This is not the case. I took them over the 2.5 days we were there, but Josie wore those goofy St. Patricks day sparkly headband antennas the whole time we were there!!! Grandma Debbie got them for her, she loved them. Now, I have no idea where they are in our house, but I'm anticipating they'll reappear at some point:)

Catching up!

Well, it's been quite some time since I posted, so, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Josie had a wonderful Valentine's Day (Luke and I did too, we snuck away and had a long overdue romantic dinner that was lovely). Josie got some beautiful roses from her Grandma Judy (and another mylar balloon that she is still dragging around with her!).

We also took a little vacation west to see my college friend Sarah and her little girl Kathrine, and my sister Annalee and her new house in Grand Junction. So, here's some photos from the trip.

Kathrine and Josie hanging out in their PJ's. They played together really well, I think that's because each one is a match for the other, so rather than fight they just sort of co-exist. Lots of fun to watch them together!

While at Sarah's we had the opportunity to go watch cow's being moved by her neighbor. We also got the chance to ride and of course jumped on! Josie loved the horse, she sat up there like she'd been riding all along, and cracked me up by saying "neigh, neigh, pretty horse, neigh, neigh" over and over the whole time we were up. It was a blast though.

The scenery over there is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We were in Parachute, about 50 miles east of Grand Junction and those cliffs are made of oil shale (mining is big business over there).

I've run out of time for today, but I'll post pics from the rest of our trip as soon as I can!

Vote for us!!!!

I entered a photo contest on a John Deere website and wondered if anyone who reads this would like to go check it out, and of course vote for us:)

Here's the link: http://www.rungreen.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=37

We're photo number 16...

The picture was taken this summer, there's Josie (on the right) and my friend Sarah's little girl Kathrine playing on one of the tractors. I think they really wanted to take it for a spin!

Thank you to everyone who goes and votes for us!!!

Happy 21st Birthday Marika!!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day:) I wish I could be there to share it with you, but alas, I'm all grown up. At any rate, you're a rockstar and you know it, have a blast (but be safe!).

We love you and if you come and visit us soon I'll make you kraut burgers...

Live it up!

Catching up on pics and what-not...

It has taken me some time, but I finally downloaded pictures off our digital camera. I don't know why I drag my feet in doing it, every single time, but at long last it's done! So, here are some pics:)
Helping put sugar on cookies right before Christmas. Jose was a huge help that day!

Chugging eggnog after Christmas Eve service. Josie loved the stuff and couldn't get enough this year.

Not the best pic, but it lets you see how pretty her Christmas dress was...

And the back of her dress...

Sitting on the couch displaying some of her loot after opening presents on Christmas Eve...

Honestly, don't you think it's hard to be THIS COOL?

Cabelas Rules!!!


Checking out the llama at National Western Stock Show, the lady who owned it held it later for Josie to pet, she still wans't sure what to think though.

Josie at the rodeo, she slept all the way through, only waking up at the very end in time for the barrel racing and bull riding.

All the way to Denver to see new things and what does Josie want to do? Look at tractors:)!

Being a princess... She walked around like this ALL DAY LONG the other day!


Chillin' like a villain...




Also, in other news, the big girl bed is a success! Her first night was Saturday a week ago, and she has yet to get up and wander in the middle of the night! She loves it and gets excited to take naps now:) Her duvet cover is purple (I actually sewed it myself!) and she has all sorts of pillows that I made to match with Tinkerbell, Cinderella, some random princesses, and stars. It's a pretty cool bed if I say so myself. I need to take pictures so that I can show everyone...

Also, potty training update: not so much success so far. She did go poo-poo in the potty last week but other than that, nothing. It's okay, we have lots of time. She does understand that there are "no more diapers" and she wears underpants (training pants) now. We just have to work on the going in the potty part! Also, no more worries about her dipping her booty in the water. Apparently the "seat" part of her little kiddie potty is designed to fit into the seat of the big people potty so now she perches up there like a princess on her throne (pun intended) and reads. We did get her a potty book that she thinks is pretty cool, so cross your fingers for us!

Josie is going to be two on Friday too! I know, I know, ALREADY! We're going to be having her party at 2 on Saturday, nothing fancy, just cake and ice cream for anyone who would like to stop by. Call first though so I know how many cakes we'll need!

Enter the.... potty!

So, we have officially started potty training. Sunday was our first "real" day of it. I had the packs of training pants ready to go in the closet and I told Josie when her diapers were gone she was going to wear big girl underpants and go in the big girl potty. As if...

Actually she's doing really well. We have yet to go in the potty, but she's cool with pulling down her little pants, and little underpants (I can't call them panties for some reason, it makes them sound so grown up, like you know- teenage girls wear panties! So we're going with underpants which is handy because underpants rhymes well with lots of things)... Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Josie is very good at sitting on the potty, she was all about flushing it too, until I told her she can only flush if she does something in it.

I think Josie is ready, and I'm cool with this being a long-drawn-out process. I mean, it's not like we have another kid on the way or anything so we may as well take or time. Josie is ready because 1. The minuet she wets or messes her diaper she tells me "Mommy, diaper change". If she can do that I think she can tell me she needs to go, we just have to work on it. 2. She has this new thing about anyone but me changing her diapers. Let's face, it, that's just annoying. Grandma Debbie was here and totally capable of doing it, plus she wanted to, but would Josie let her? Nope. Mommy got to do it instead. 3. She likes to flush and wipe (she's been doing that for awhile) and she knows what the potty is for.
So- we begin our journey!

Yesterday though, Josie decided that she no longer wanted to sit on her little "trainer" potty, she wanted to sit on the big potty like Mommy and Daddy. This is okay, but makes me nervous (I have visions of her dipping her little booty in the water). So we turned her potty into a step stool (luckily I had the fore-thought to buy one that converts) and she sits on the big people potty. It's pretty cute.

Also, since I'm all about rewards (I know, I spoil) she gets a sticker for every successful sit-down on the potty (it was a battle, I needed a prize for good behavior) and she will get a sucker on the event that she ever poo's or peepee's in the potty. Cross your fingers for us!

Breif update...

Well, we have been getting ready for Christmas and it seems like things have been so busy non-stop. Josie got a cold after Thanksgiving and wasn't sleeping well (which made my days seem longer)it still isn't gone, so she's pretty much not been feeling well for nearly 3 weeks. Also, Luke has been driving sugar beet re-haul and working the 12am-12pm shift, then coming home and sleeping afternoon/evening. All of this has sort of combined to make things all out of sorts for us. Then theres the baking, shopping, wrapping, stress that is Christmas *sigh*!

Other than her cold Jo's doing really well. She's talking like crazy and has added the word "crazy" to her vocabulary. Also, some new phrazes "round and round" "diaper change" "good stuff" "super cool" "I get it" and others that I'm not thinking of right now.

I cut my hair and got contacts after Thanksgiving so that's my big news. It's not the best pic, but not too bad. Could be worse!!!

She's pretty jazzed up about Christmas too and has been wandering around with presents that she's stolen from under the tree. She's really interested in two that came from our good friend Laura in New Hampshire (THANK YOU!!!!). Laura and I met when I worked at Arabian Horse Association (Jen, you will remember her I think) and she's the kindest, most wonderful person, someday I hope we get to meet her! Anyway, she's had those two gifts all over the house, but to her credit, not a corner of the paper is torn so she's doing really good:)

I just wanted to wish everyone a merry merry Christmas and happy New Year, in case I don't talk to some of you in the coming days. Take care of yourselves everyone!

Pictures

Here's the photos to go with the last entry...






Josie and Luke at my parent's house.



Making fruit salad at the Schlachter Thanksgiving


The advent wreath...






Smilie girl in the morning:)


Super cool in her sunglasses!