Josh's stuff

Snowmobiling in Yellowstone with the boys in his family.

Flying a plane at his pilot school.

Taking very good care of his pet turtle.

Playing drums in his U2 cover band.

 Running in the Ragnar Race in southern California with his cousins.

And because his life philosophy is "Work Hard Play Hard," he is still a lawyer too. When he started at Rick's law firm during law school, there were only two lawyers at the firm. Now there is this whole group. Pretty cool to watch.

Daddy Daughter Duo

I used to have to encourage - very strongly - these two to hang out. But not anymore. They are very close and great friends. I am so grateful for this, because I know there is nothing that instills confidence in a young lady as much as being adored by her dad.

Getting ready for the Daddy Daughter Valentine's Dance at Maddie's school. Looking older, and yet still so little.

Magical Moments

These are the magical moments when my heart is overcome with joy. I tried desperately for many years to get a sibling for my Maddie to grow up with. Who knew that even with eight years and a gender difference between them, they would still be best friends? My heart just can't handle this bursting feelings of happiness and gratitude. 

Watching cartoons together.

Jack helps Maddie put her clean laundry away by wiping his nose on everything.

Nowhere Jack would rather be.

They're all dressed up and looking adorable.

Of course, part of having a bigger sister is being forced to accessorize sometimes.

Jack spends lots of time playing with dolls.

But he doesn't seem to mind too much because he has a crush on one in particular.

The best part about having older kids is that I sometimes get to outsource chores I don't want to do.

Maddie informs Jack of the rules. He looks like he isn't too concerned about learning them.

Jack's favorite moment of the day is getting a bedtime story from big sister Maddie.

 A sweet moment when my heart really almost burst.

New Cousin Brother!!

We were so happy to find out that Josh's sister was pregnant with a little guy the same time that I was pregnant with Jack. Maddie has a sister cousin who is her same age, and they are the best of friends. We were so happy when Jack's brother cousin joined our family.

Jack and I got to hang out with big sister Scarlett while her mom was having the baby.

Meeting cousin Harrison for the first time.

Doing a celebratory brother cousin dance at Harrison's blessing.

Getting bigger and looking more and more like troublemakers. 

Trying not to gag while Mom is laughing hysterically

I introduced Jack to solids. Holy crap, I forgot how funny this is. Baby's faces can be so dramatic sometimes. For a moment there I thought that I must have remembered wrong. Feeding solids to babies is fun!

Then I remembered, nope. It still sucks. But at least he is adorable in all of his messiness.

Spring Time

So far, spring has meant insane, insane allergies at my house. I have probably sneezed more in the last two weeks than I have the rest of my life combined. It especially hit my little Jack buddy hard. Poor little dude can't even open his watery eyes.

But Spring has also meant lovely weather for us to use our backyard. Dad and Maddie playing croquet

while Jack and I cheer from a blanket on the grass.

Springtime also means Easter. Maddie suddenly turned on me this year and doesn't want to share her Easter candy with me which, of course, makes me have to steal it when she isn't looking. She only has herself to blame.

Josh felt it was important to introduce Peeps to Jack on his first Easter. (blah!)

First things first

I try to keep up on my blog so that this exact sort of thing doesn't happen. I now have about 100 pictures I need to download and now I'm annoyed.

So here goes....

First things first. My mom and dad both married in the last month. Do not underestimate me when I say that this makes me very, very happy.

Right before my very eyes.

Finding Nemo

I love coming up with nicknames for my babies. I let them come organically, so sometimes they might seem a little weird to an outsider. Evan was the Squeeky Burrito, Gremlin, and Bug. Madeline was Madster.com and Stinker Pants. Charlie was Mr. Charlie Pants and Charlie Brown. So far, Jack has been called Baby Bono, Little Man, Buddy, Poopie, Booger Buns, to name a few. We will see which ones stick.

My brother came up with the cutest nickname for Jack. He pointed out that Josh and I had a bunch of embryos to start with.

But ended up with just one little guy left. And the doctor wasn't even very hopeful that it would work.

But somehow it DID work, and we got our little Nemo baby.

Adios Uterus!

I hate my uterus. It is such an underachiever. It (sort of) worked four times, but otherwise it has been the bane of my existence since I was fourteen. (Yes, fourteen. I was a late bloomer.) So I took advantage of my baby still being tiny enough to lift, and cute enough to have people offer to help with him, and I got my hysterectomy and other plumbing repaired. Just so all the ladies out there know, I am available for consultation if you are considering the surgery. It wasn't as bad as it was back when our mothers did it (the surgery is a scope procedure now), it took about a week for the pain to subside (enough to make it through the day without medication), and on day ten I felt "normal" again (although I still need to take it easy).

Here is Jack trying to survive, I mean....enjoying his time with his big cousin. Aunt Jamie took some overnight shifts and fell in love with Jack and threatened to take him home with her to Virginia. 

There's nothing sweeter than getting a picture of bedtime story while recovering in the hospital.

Jack thought his overnight sleepover with Grandma Linda was awesome.

Maddie got to skip a day of school and fly alone up to Utah for some cousin time. She asked me when my next surgery was going to be because she thinks it is so fun. Ha!

I'm glad I did it while Jack is still little enough to lay on my bed with me and think it is so fun. He is a great little man nurse.

I fought like a crazy lady to get Jack to nurse for his first month and a half. Then we started to get into a flow. Then Jack started to hate it and I had to force him to do it. The 48 hours that I was in the hospital, I kept pumping every three hours even though I was very sleepy and high as a kite. Yup, I'm the hard core nursing lady that does that sort of thing. But when I got back, Jack told me very nicely that he was no longer interested in breastfeeding, thank you very much. So now we are on bottles. I hate bottles because formula smells, his poop suddenly got incredibly stinky and thick, traveling and leaving the house and worrying about bottles puts me into panic attacks, I hate having to wash bottles every day, the studies that tie lower IQs and obesity to formula haunt my dreams, and bottle feeding doesn't provide as much cuddle time. But Jack definitely made up his mind. So I'm trying to look on the bright side, and so far I've already lost five pounds in one week and Jack only wakes up once in the night for a feeding. Hmmm......seems like an even trade.