still here!

I have a quick minute before I need to wake up Charlotte and run to pick up Joel to go to therapy. So, just to let you know we are all still alive. Nothing earth shattering is going on-- Joel is in summer camp every day from morning till afternoon, then off to therapy and swim lessons, which he loves. Rob is still happy to come home at the end of the day, so I guess we must not be toooo crazy around here. Charlotte has started sleeping under her bed at night, silly girl. I'm fighting off a silly summer cold and finally ready to get back to exercising after my foot surgery. Summer here is hot, as always, but full of fun and water and swimming. We will be headed up to Utah in July for a quick visit, so we hope to see some of you then! And now some pictures:

Loves wearing sunglasses

Driving through Zion's Canyon. SO excited, he felt like we were Lightning McQueen

drugged up ramblings

Back in July, we got health insurance. This was a happy day for us, meaning that we were covered for quite a few things we hadn't been able to do before. I finally made all my appointments for the kids, and its taken until now for me to get around to making appointments for ME.

Remember this? Yup, 4 years ago it was recommended that I have surgery on my feet. Which I declined, since I was having a baby that month. A couple of months ago I noticed that every time I exercised, my left foot would swell up huge. I ignored it, but soon it started happening every time I went barefoot, ran, walked, or exercised at all.  Finally I went in to a podiatrist who told me I need surgery on both feet. The day before I had gone into the dentist and found out I have 8 cavities and 2 root canals that need to be taken care of. Super fun! Between the root canal and the foot surgery I have been on painkillers off and on for the last two weeks. Monday was my foot surgery, where I got a screw put in my foot and my toes chopped up a bit.

Things are going well with my recovery, I got my surgical boot on Thursday which has made a world of difference. Friends have taken the kids ALL week, so all I have had to do is put my foot up and sleep. It's been great, but also super lonely! My kids have come home every day super happy with cute hairdos and saying new words and it makes me sad that I'm missing them for a little bit.

Rob is never home. Poor guy is so tired, and then he gets home and has to help me hobble up the stairs or get the kids ready in the morning. He starts OB in a couple weeks, which is another tough schedule for us. On the plus side, we are getting a lot of projects done in our weekend time. I need to post some photos!

Charlotte has started bringing me things that she wants to show me. We played with her music box for over an hour today.....

Post surgery gigantic foot

Bored and playing on the phone!

march?

Well, I am averaging a post a month so that's promising, right? Maybe we will make it two a month just to make it interesting.  I thought I'd write a little bit about what we are up to. Actually, it's better than talking to me because I just had a root canal and my mouth doesn't let me talk as fast as I like to :) It's been a fun couple of weeks, we've been trying to keep busy!

I have no idea why she loves this, but it makes her feel like a big kid to sit in Joel's car seat. She grins the whole time, like "Hahaha, I am in HIS chair!"

It's gorgeous weather out here (today is in the 90's!) so we have been spending lots of time outside. Every year I forget that Joel has sever reactions to bug bites, and every year it takes a couple bad experiences for me to remember. He had quarter sized welts all over his arms and legs yesterday from the ants in the playground.

I was too slow to take video, but Joel has been speaking "whale" to the fish. He brings his Nemo fish and Baby Nemo fish and Turtle (I think all of these are from grandpa winter too) and makes them talk to the fish in the tank-- it's hilarious and so funny to watch his little mind go!

Yeah- I kind of thought getting her a big girl bed would mean she would sleep in it. Nope, she loves sleeping in a pile of toys on the messy floor. The girl can sleep through anything, but if you move one of her toys or try to get her onto the bed-- she's wide awake and ready to play.

I've started a random hobby of hoarding old plastic toys. I wish I was joking, I am not though. In the past two weeks I have bought a picnic table, play house (this photo), one of those little orange and yellow cars, a big wheel, and a play kitchen. I think I spent $50 for everything? Anyway, we've been using a special plastic spray paint to make then new to us. Here is Joel, demonstrating how nice it is to go pantsless in your own house. This house was originally super gross, had a blueroof, green shutters, and a pink front door.  It now has a brown roof, red shutters and door. It looks much better, I think.

february

Wow! We've been busy! Rob had his vacation the first two weeks in February, and we went to Disneyland with his family. We also finally finished (at least for now) repainting, putting in board and batten, and bought a new couch with the good ole tax refund. And now, a few pictures:

the new couch, board and batten, and the tv has moved to the other side of the room

She loves trying to eat an apple with her feet. I tried to get a picture, but she was too quick!

This poor dog is so patient with him, and he just loves her

it's that time of year

Well, we survived Christmas with our same old standby-- had a good Christmas, and everyone is sick. Just like any good family tradition, right ? Every holiday season we have spent nursing someone back to health. This year, we won the lottery with pneumonia, whooping cough, an injured back, ear infections and a cold virus. At least the dog stayed healthy :)

I'm excited to start a new year. I'm excited for the opportunity for a fresh, new start and and chance to course-correct. I'm thrilled with my life right now, but a few great changes for it certainly couldn't hurt. 2012 was great, and I am sure 2013 will be too. I have a great husband and kids, and we have lots of family and friends who care about us, so we can't lose!

We had planned to head to a part tonight, but the kids are still under the weather so we will be spending our new year here. Hope everyone has a safe night!

just our status quo

Ashley took some photos for my Christmas cards, and I love this one.

This weeks is chock full of appointments and fun, as always. Top of my list is to make sure Charlotte makes it into the ENT this week. Way back in April, when we had her tubes put in, her doctor rescheduled her  follow up-- twice. Since she had the tubes placed she has had one follow up, and as part of getting the Early Intervention process rolling we are required to do another hearing screen. At her hearing screen, we found that one of her ears is failing the hearing test, which means back to the ENT for a diagnostic test. But the guy won't answer my messages about rescheduling, and I'm really about to go all "mama-bear" on him. I'm turning into quite the pit bull when I need to be....

Joel is doing really well at school and seems to be saying a lot more things lately. He's repeating nearly everything we say, which is supposedly great for building his vocabulary, and thus his language development. We got all of our Christmas decorations up, and this year both kids are just fascinated with the tree. Joel loves taking ornaments off, running around with them, holding them softly, and then trying to put them back on the tree. He's been great at following a couple of simple directions too, like "pick up, out in". He's now obeying a two step command, which he has really been working on for awhile.

Both my kids are having issues with their beds, and bedtime especially. Joel was jumping on his bunk bed last week and snapped the whole bed in half. So he's now in a normal, non-exciting twin bed on the floor. This is good and bad, I think he feels more secure but also, he knows he can get out and wanders around his room peeing on things..... Charlotte has chewed the varnish off her crib and is down to bare wood, with a mouthful of sawdust every time I go in to check on her. I'm trying to figure out a crib rail teething guard thing for her, so I've gotta get cracking on that before she eats through the whole crib!

thanksgiving 2012

Well, I know the updates here are few and far between. Life is just busy right now!

Weeks and weeks ago, we were looking at Rob's schedule. I was excited to see he had Black Friday off, as we love shopping Black Friday. I was less excited to see he was working Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is Rob's "favorite" holiday, in other words he once said it was his favorite and now it's official and done. Anyway, we discussed what to do. Should we have Thanksgiving dinner later when he comes home that evening? Should we wait until he had the weekend off? At this point he told me he didn't really care, and to do what I wanted. And by the way, he didn't have Friday off and that was a typo.

So Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving is what I had to work with. And I decided I wanted a turkey. But of course, I decided this the day before Thanksgiving and I felt absolutely crazed buying Thanksgiving food at the last minute. I saw people get into a fight over the last two bags of collard greens. I couldn't find a turkey to save my life and had to go to three stores before I found one. I ran out of butter 3 times.

It was an adventure.

Imagine my surprise when I get a phone call from Rob on Thanksgiving. He tells me to go to the door to pick up something that someone had left for him, and what do you know, it's my husband standing there with a goofy smile. Home. On Thanksgiving....with no Thanksgiving food prepared because, didn't we already decide we were having Thanksgiving Saturday  Regardless, it was great to have him home and you know I squealed with delight at having that husband of mine home early on a weekday/ favorite holiday.

It was a Thanksgiving miracle.

Our Thanksgiving on Saturday went so well. We had declicious pie and turkey and potatoes and it was just awesome and great. And of course we all took epic naps afterwards. We capped off the night by watching "A Christmas Story". After being a bit shell-shocked with holidays (last year Rob was gone for everything and I never knew if he would be home or still out of the state on rotations or stuck in the snow or whatever. I basically skipped most of the holidays because I felt guilty holidaying around without him...) I am making up for it this year. Halloween is PUT AWAY this year, as opposed to last year when it got put away in January. Christmas is up, and we are excited!