Josie "ism's" and more....

I haven't written to update on the girls stats much, so I thought I'd steal the time to do that today. This is partly so that I have things written down and when I look back I can remember. Summer is winding up for us here, Luke finished cutting millet yesterday so they'll start picking that up in a few days. I can't believe the summer is nearly over, it really flew by!

Josie is amazing. She really blows me away. Her grasp of things is continually evolving, and she understands things above what I think that she does. She also really thinks about things and it makes for some pretty funny statements from her at times. I have been told recently:

"Don't yell at me or you'll get in trouble with my Daddy." Apparently he is the White Knight. I was not aware of this, but I guess it is so. And here I thought he was the stricter disciplinarian out of the two of us....

"You try being the Josie, it's not easy Mommy!" Told to me when she was in trouble for not listening.

"I'm too tired to take a nap."

"We went to the doctor, and our baby just popped out." *sigh* if only it were actually so easy...

More and more often I also hear the phrase "When I was little..." She is getting so big! She also will watch a toy commercial and say "I wish I could have that" which is new. Before she didn't seem to notice, now she knows that we can go and get things that she sees on TV. Hooray.

Marie is doing great, eating cereal like a champ. She actually was going through 2 4oz feedings a day and nursing before and after so about 2 weeks ago (she was 5.5 months) I started including a little baby food with the cereal just to give her a bit more. She is so hungry all the time I'm having a hard time keeping up! So far, she's done squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, and apple sauce. She hasn't had any of it straight, I've been mixing it with cereal, but so far I haven't seen her having any trouble. She also doesn't seem quite as ravenous now, which is a good thing.

Josie's stats:
Fave toy- Bunny (still)
Fave color- purple (still)
Fave TV show- Dragon Tails
Fave Food- ice cream or German pancake
Fave Song- "Mother" by Danzig (totally blows me away)
Fave Book- Fancy Nancy












Marie's Stats:
Fave toy- whatever is soft and nearby
Fave color- green (because Josie asks me all the time what her favorite color is, so I keep telling her that's what it is)
Fave TV show- n/a
Food- so far she's liked the applesauce best
Fave Song- anything playing. She likes to be danced around with though.
Fave Book- whatever Josie is reading, so, it's probably Fancy Nancy.

Swimming lessons

Josie did swim lessons this summer for the first time. They ran for three weeks, and she loved every day of it! I was sort of hoping that she would make friends with a few little girls through the process, but once again it was Josie and a bunch of boys. Out of the 5 kids in her class she was the only girl! She holds her own though:)

Recent photos

Luke loves this picture.... Marie likes shiney things.









Marie, Luke, & Josie at wedding our good friends wedding. Josie was the flower girl and did an awsome job, she had a blast. Luke and I were in the bridal party (hence the John Deere tee, it was a themed wedding).




Marie passed out in her crib and pulled the blanket over her face to sleep. It cracked me up, because, Josie used to do the exact same thing.





Josie and Max, the ringbearer. They were a lot of fun together.









Marie enjoying an ice cube. She's a huge fan of anything water, and will drink water from Jo's sippy or Luke's cup. Her favorite though is an ice cube!

Harvest 2007 cont....

Luke driving the combine...










Deer crossing the road by Webber's.










Storm rolling in from the west on Webber's.

Harvest 2007

As most of you know, this year was a blessing, wheat was much better than recent years. Josie loved riding in the combine, and Marie, well, she screamed a lot. Mostly because she hates her car seat. Luckily that seems to be passing. Here are some photos, though I can't take credit for them all. The man we hired to drive grain cart took some really beautiful shots so I thought I'd share them with all of you!


Beautiful Josie....










Daddy and Marie...










Happy girl on the grass at Steve's one night after I brought dinner out to the guys.











Old sprinkler just north of Dutton's.











The old red truck...

Updates, because I'm a slacker.... July pics of the girls

Wow, can you believe the summer is half over already? We're finished with harvest, and both girls are growing like crazy. Josie is awsome, really learning her letters right now, and into writing things down. Marie is teething, found her feet, and changing daily. They're both a ton of fun!

Napping in style, GO RAMS!










Marie is now on rice cereal, and finally starting to "chub" out a bit. She definately loves to eat, though that probably runs in the family!












Watching movies in Mom & Dad's room.

Rain, and then some more rain.

The angle highway...

7 mile road, just north west of Linhart's. This field sits about 4 feet lower than the road does, to give you an idea of how deep that water is.
I'm not completely sure where this is...
Dutton ground, Luke had a terrible time with this wash when we harvested off that field a few days ago. There was about a foot of debrie laying on top of the wheat on the edges of where the "crick" was.
Railroad tracks by Amherst, washed out underneath.
Smith ground, up by Amherst.

Catching up

Sitting up now! Marie is a huge fan of sitting (and standing) these days. She still needs supported, but she's getting really mobile. She can easily roll tummy to back, and from back to tummy.
Father's Day 2007- Josie and Marie in their "TEAM DADDY" shirts. They have pink and blue waves and say "Dad's Surfer Girl" underneath.

What can you say about that.... I think she looks like Luke here, right before he gets mean and starts teasing me about things. She's definately thinking...
Standing up!
Playing with their toy of the moment, the lego baby train. Marie is doing her "army crawl" which is actually pretty effective in getting her around. She can scoot about two feet like that before she's worn out.

Update

Somehow all of June flew by without my really noticing. We've been busy running here and there. Marie is growing by leaps and bounds, she's sitting up now (assisted) and can hold her head up on her own. It's amazing how quickly they develope, her hand/eye coordination is really taking off now.

Josie's doing great, getting smarter all the time. She blows me away with the words she sometimes uses, the other day she told me she was not angry "just frusterated". She also went to the dr this week for a fever she'd been running for a few days, and while she was fine, we did learn that she's grown almost 2 inches since February. That puts her at 39" tall, and 31 lbs (still a skinny minny).


Here's Marie in her bumbo, being a big girl.

Josie loves their matching dresses, which comes as a suprise to me. But, whatever... she's full of suprises.
Marie, as always, in her sling. We celebrated Great-Grandma's 80th and she spent the majority of her weekend this way. She's still in the sling a few hours a day every day. I don't know what we'll do when she outgrows the "cuddle" position.
Josie being all grown up. Her cousin's Jilson and Jerica played with her all weekend, and she adores them. She had such a blast she's still talking about everything they did while they were here.

Video! of a very chatty girl...

Some new pictures....

Won't take a paci but Daddy's hand seems to work...

Passed out...

I wish the flash hadn't been so harsh on this picture; do you think she likes her Daddy much?

Here's Marie helping plant flowers outside... she looks so sweet but really this only lasted a few minuets before the bouncy seat was no-longer a good thing.

Could it be, a smile! As close as I could get anyway with the delay on the camera. She smiles all the time now, a very happy girl (now that we've determined that dairy does not get along with her, anyway).
Beautiful Josie....

Josie had a "tent" in our entryway and passed out while "camping". She looks so sweet, but I'm sure in a few years she'll hate this picture...

More new photos

Since Marie seems to be changing day by day, I though you would all appriciate an update! Marie can smile now, and does, a lot. She's a pretty happy girl, until she gets tired, then the screaming begins. I've been using a Peanut-Shell baby sling and it's been a lifesaver so far. About 5 minuets after being in her "shell" she is generally out cold.



Josie is doing great, completely potty trained. She loves her sister, and is a huge helper. She really likes playing with Marie (reading to her, pretending to put her down for naps etc) but Marie is not always the most cooperative. Josie can write her name now, and she can regonize letters A, B, C, JOSIE (of course), T, M, & N. She also is a huge talker and recently has been overheard saying the following: "Can we have a piscetti pickmick?" "Bikini bread (zucchini bread)" "Under and lightening" I think that's all of her recent cute sayings. I list them here so that I don't forget.

Josie has also taken to referring to herself in the third person almost all the time, which is sort of interesting. She'll come running in and say "Mom, Josie wants some chocolate milk". Definately one of her cuter phases.

Marie was babtised on Easter, here is a photo of us with her God-Parents, Stacey (Luke's sister) & Glendon

Marie's cake

Out cold. Marie was having a real problem staying asleep on her back at night, so with her dr's permission we've started putting her down on her tummy. She's now a champion sleeper and generally goes about 5 hours a stretch at night, which is awsome!

The girls....

Me, Josie, & Marie in her beloved Peanut-Shell. As you can see the sling is basically just a pouch, no buckles or straps, and she fits right in. She really seems to like it in there, expecially since it's so close to her favorite thing, being held.

Almost a smile...