Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Spring 2009 Stomach bug makes it rounds

The Spring stomach bug has officially touched everyone in the house. John came home sick today. He's in a bad way. Then I was woke up around midnight by the sound of LeAnne crying a cry that tells mama something is wrong. I walked into her room to smell the stench of puke. It was everywhere! I got her clothes changed, then she got to watch an episode of Handy Manny while mama cleaned up her room. She hurled one more time so it was off to the bath tub and fresh clothes. Then we rocked and watched Creation Scapes on Day Star until she drifted back to sleep at 2am. I am waiting on her clothes to finish up so I can be ready for the next round, then I am going to sleep here on the couch with my snoring spaniel. Oh let's pray our little girl gets over this stomach bug quickly.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Spring break 2009 has begun...

Spring break got off to a bit of a rocky start. On Friday I was more sick than I have been in years. I am on the mend and very thankful that John was home this weekend and as always extremely thankful he stepped up to the plate in a big way to take care of his girls while mama was sick. He's the best!!

Updated to add video below of LeAnne golfing, and say were having a GREAT first day of spring! I love spending time with my daughter. Also Please pray for Stellan & his family!



Then since rain was forcasted for all day Saturday we headed into town to do some shopping. I was still feeling a bit out of it but there was stuff to be done so I pushed myself. We found LeAnne a toys for diggin in the dirty ( a dump truck, & different shovels) and she got her first little Tonka truck. Daddy also got LeAnne her first set of golf clubs. He showed her once how to hit the ball and away she went. It was too cute. We also scored on a great deal for a nice car seat for daddy to have in his truck. LeAnne had fun helping daddy assemble the car seat.

Snow in the end of March? HUH? We couldn't believe it when we woke up to 4" of snow Sunday morning. John had planned on doing a bunch of yard work and was none to happy to be shoveling snow instead. This weather is NUTS! LeAnne's first reaction was to say "ICK"! Later yesterday morning she wanted to go outside so bad. She had her shoes on and kept say "out, out, out" so I finally said okay lets go, figuring it would be very short lived trip outside. More on our trip outside later today....

Well I hear LeAnne waking up so I will go ahead and publish this blog and update later with a cute video of her golfing.

LeAnne reading the instructions for daddy as
he puts her car seat together. We found a deal
on a nice/safe car seat for Daddy's truck.



Snow on March 29th?


Ready to cruise while we shop!


Kickin back while mom & dad grocery shop.


Practice Easter egg hunt
Take note - PJ's & shoes.
She loves her velcro shoes!


This is her serious look which we
see a lot more these days.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Spring Break 2009 is just 4 days away

Good Morning!

We've survived another cold! Mama & daddy are on the mend praying lil girl does not get sick! Even though we felt crummy on Saturday we made the best of our family time. The weather was nice so we took LeAnne outside to play for almost 2 hours. I tell you this kid LOVES to be outside. Funny story... she has this small mound of dirt in our flower bed that she loves to play on, queen of the hill, she was on top of the hill, bending over to pick something up when in slow motion she just tipped over right on her head. I wish I had a video of it because you'd be laughing so hard right now. She stood up, brushed the dirt off her head and looked at us like that was strange and went on playing. She is going to have so much fun playing outside. Daddy has a picture of an amazing swing/slide/house play set he is going to build for her next year!

I am so EXCITED for Spring break! We have 4 days of school this week and then it's Spring break from March 27th until April 5th. We have a ton of things that need to get done outside and inside the house. Spring Cleaning time! I am also looking forward to taking LeAnne to Toddler story time at the Dayton Public Library on Tuesday. I'm hoping we will have some nice spring weather so we can walk to the park, get some outdoor pictures to put on our updated blog background, and let LeAnne swing.

You know you take way to many pictures of your kid when they start looking alike. I am in a photo rut, it's time to get some fun, and candid outdoor shots. Here is one of her coloring on Sunday. It looks like she is pausing to study her art work. Hee hee! She really enjoys coloring but we can't turn our back for a second or she may eat the crayons. ICK!


We've decided that she is working really hard to figure out how everything works right now and then when she's ready she will tell us all about it. In the picture below she's wondering if the she can stack the crayon on top of the blocks. We have also decided when we give her away at her wedding (when she's MUCH older...30 sounds good) that when the pastor asks us who gives away this bride were are going to say "me me me me" in honor of how she is asking for things now, then exchange a high five. Hee hee! I tell ya the "me,me, me" is cute the first few times but oh boy does it wear on ya. We are really working on verbalizing what she wants, saying the names of the toy in her hand and she is listening. I thought I heard her trying to say block last night. It will come in her time!



Here is a scrap book page I added pictures and journaling to yesterday while she napped. I am so thankful for these pre-made pages that I had my baby shower guests do for me. It has been so nice to scrap her milestones with these pages. My goal is to have her 1st year book completed by the end of summer and I think if I get organize and commit some time to scrap booking it will be an easy goal to meet. I realized 1/2 way through doing this page oops there are no pictures of her standing so I found one that was near the time she start walking. I remember it was difficult to get pictures of her walking. The journaling was taken from our blog about the weekend she took her first step. Click HERE to read that blog entry. I'll always cherish the fact that John & I got to see her first step together.


LeAnne gets to spend the next 2 days with daddy. I LOVE it that they get to spend so much time together. He loves the time and she loves her daddy so much!

A little birdie told me that one great auntie was out shopping on Saturday, she was at umm BabiesRus and her cart was 1/2 full soon after she got there. Auntie, auntie, auntie! LeAnne is one lucky/blessed niece! :-)

Have a great week & I hope to post some fun Spring break pictures next week!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Good Morning!

It's time for another edition of Thankful ramblings from Jana... Here is my list this week in no particular order:

1. My student has a new OT (Occupation Therapist) who is educated/trained in Sensory Integration (SI). I met her yesterday & she is young, energetic and seems wonderful!! Next week she is going to bring a check list so I can share more about his SI behaviors. :-)

2. One more week of school and then it's SPRING BREAK! Praise God! I am so ready for a break, ready to spend more time with my fave lil girl and have a ton of Spring cleaning to get done. Plus our blog is in desperate need of a Spring make over.

3. I am so thankful for all my mama does for our family! LeAnne is very lucky to have a grandma who adores her!

4. I am very thankful to have found Angie's blog. Her daughter's legacy is so beautiful, Angie is an amazing person and I am thankful she leads her blog readers to those who need prayer. I am honored, and humbled to be able to pray for these families! I've spent a few drives to work in tears as I lift up these family who have lost children or are facing a difficult journey with a complicated pregnancy or a sick child. Thank-you Angie!

5. I am VERY VERY thankful I was so blessed growing up!! I wish I could give what I had to many more children. My heart aches for what they must endure and I wanna slap some sense into their parents.

6. Oh so thankful for my daughters

** Hold on one moment, I need to interrupt this regular broad cast to bring you a few CUTE pictures of LeAnne coloring in her high chair yesterday. I was cleaning up dinner preparations and getting ready to give her dinner when she wanted to color so I thought Ah ha I'll tape a piece of paper to her high chair tray and let her color there. She loved it and I got lots done! Gotta love these win/win moments!

She loves to put the crayons in the box, then
dump them all out and put them back in again.


Notice her adorable little feet... when she is
concentrating hard she crosses her feet.


Coloring is serious business!


7. Thankful Spring in on the way!

8. Thankful Summer break is CLOSE.. in less that 3 months I'll have a few months off. School is out June 11th and the first day of school is Sept. 8th. Wahooooooooo!!

9. Very thankful God lead me to a job where I feel I have a purpose. I can see he's been preparing me for this for a while. I have a huge heart for children with challenges and I know it's where I belong. I've thought about going to back to school to get my BA & then Masters degree so I could become an Occupation Therapist. Once our kidlets are older of course.

10. Very thankful for my health, and for my husbands health, and for our children's health!

11. Thankful to have grown up in the Pacific Northwest/Seattle area. Until I moved away I didn't realize how lucky I was to have so many attractions at my finger tips. I was lucky enough to go see the Ocean, the Mountains, beautiful lakes, evergreen forests, an amazing zoo, a very cool science center, The Space needle, an active volcano a year after it had erupted, camped in a rain forest, went to many concerts, my grandpa Fran took me to us to see the Nutcracker I was little, attended professional basket ball, base ball games, went to horse races (worked at the track), and the list goes on and on. WOW I was blessed!! I wish I had the means to scoop up all of our school kids and take them to experience even a few of these attractions!

12. Thankful for the cold medicine I am about to go take! :-)

This is just a short list of what I am thankful for. What are you thankful for? Please feel free to comment. Have a blessed day!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

When will we hear more words?

Good Morning!! We had a wonderful family weekend! We love it when daddy's home! We went grocery shopping on Saturday. LeAnne rode in one of those cars attached to the shopping cart for the first time. She LOVED it! Next shopping trip I'll get a picture.

I know I'll regret saying this but I can't wait until LeAnne can tell us what she wants! I know, I know I am sure all you experienced parents are going oh man she'll eat those words some day. LOL! It is just so frustrating when she walks into a room saying "me, me, me, me" (we know that means she wants something), sometimes she'll throw us a bone and point but other times I have to follow her gaze and try to figure it out. YIKES! If I am frustrated think how she must feel too. We have no idea where the "me, me, me" came from either. Oh yeah I forgot if you hand her something she doesn't want she'll push your hand away and get really mad. When will she begin to put more words together? Is she behind with her speech? I know ever kid is different but I thought by 17 months she would be saying a few more words. Should I be concerned? She is always babbling about something, trying hard to put those words together and she watches/listens to everything we say.

I am thinking one day it will just start to click and then watch out! This is how it has been with other new skills she has learned. She is so busy all the time. She is always trying to figure out how things work, stacking everything she can get her hands on and their is definitely no worries about her fine motor skills. This last week we started coloring with her a lot more and she loves it. She knows what drawer I keep the crayons in and every chance she gets she's at the drawer "me, me, me". Once we start coloring she chooses a lot of different colors, colors mostly with her left hand and on Saturday enjoyed a game of crayon pick up (she'd dump out the crayons, then put them back in the box over & over).

On Friday I was showing John the clean up song on Youtube and we found the 5 little monkey song, which she loved. I like to sign or use hand motions with her a lot because she is very receptive so I found the signs to the song. In just 2 days she's knows jumping, and bumped his head! :-)

She was not in the mood to have her picture taken this weekend. I tried really hard to get a cute picture of her in the adorable skirt outfit she wore on Saturday but never did get a good one. I did capture a cute video...





Have a wonderful week! We sure do miss all of our family & friends in Western Washington!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

She's something else for sure...

Notice what hand her crayon is in? Why it's
the left hand. It's still early but I know my
sis would be very happy to have another
lefty in the family. :-)



"Oh pretty pretty"



She's reading Parenting magazine. I'd better
watch out or she'll start telling me how its done.



Notice the blocks... color/texture side up
I turned a few to the clear side & she promptly
turned them back to the color/texture side.


I love our little girl so much!! There is nothing like 1 nuzzle wuzzle good morning,I love you hug to start my day on the right track. I could kiss her a billion times a day & not get enough kisses. Sometimes I find myself just smiling from ear to ear as watching her play and think about all the times I wasn't sure I'd ever be a mama! She is changing so much everyday. She has started to say "OW" when she hurts herself. She loves to color & look out if you take away her crayons -- she has started to throw mini temper tantrums. I am like WHOA what was that. When stacking her blocks they all have to be turned the same way - color side/texture side up) She loves taking walks, reading books/magazines, and bath time is the best. Her & I had a wonderful girls weekend! I love it when we play and she giggles! She is trying really hard to communicate with us and boy does she get frustrated when we can't figure out what she wants. Now lucky girl gets to spend 2 whole days with daddy. :-)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I am going to focus on specific person I am thankful for. I am very thankful for my husband, he truly is a blessing from God. Some of the qualities I most admire about him are his: kindness, loyalty, leadership, and his sense of humor. I appreciate his honesty, and how we always try to communicate. Our journey together has had it's fair share of bumps but we've pulled together, supported each other, loved each other unconditionally, and grown with each others help. Our marriage took a huge turn for the better when we both recommitted our lives to Jesus. I believe letting God be the center of our lives, praying for each other and growing in our faith together are just a few reasons we are where we are today as a team. It's awesome how we step up to the plate for the other person and we take turns being the stronger one.

Having our daughter LeAnne has taken our relationship to a whole different level. It started when I was put on bed rest do to pregnancy induced hypertension. He stepped up and went above and beyond. He cooked, cleaned, ran errands, organized the cupboards and nurtured me. He supported me in my quest to use hypno-birthing techniques instead of medication to cope with labor & delivery. He was amazing, he never left my side and helped me through each contraction. I'll never forget watching his emotions as he helped deliver LeAnne. He's been very supportive and involved since day one.

Our girls are blessed to have a dad who is so involved. I know it broke his heart to not be able to be with Amanda. He calls her at least once a week and we stay as involved as we can. I am incredibly thankful for the days LeAnne gets to spend with daddy. It gives me peace of mind to know LeAnne is home bonding with daddy. I love that he loves to spend time with her.

Today was a wonderful example of his love. I walked in the house and noticed right away that he'd been cleaning. It looks beautiful, clutter free, laundry going, dinner in the crock pot and coffee made for morning! I am so thankful!! I was able to spend more time playing with LeAnne tonight.

I am thankful for our friendship. We have fun together. I love to listen to him sing in the car and sharing new experiences.

I pray that we will continue to love each other as God loves us! I pray we continue to grow and take care of each other. I am so thankful for my husband.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Her pretty purple sweater

LeAnne is wearing the pretty purple sweater that my Aunt Lois made for her! Thank-you so much Aunt Lois. I will make sure to get a picture off to her in the mail. :-) We've had a great weekend together as a family and we are so EXCITED John is now on days for 3 months! :-)

LeAnne grabbing Lucky's ear -- When you
press his ear he sings a song.


Ride em cowgirl!


Reading Good Night Seattle.