Here and There

I don't really have a theme here. These are just some random pictures that I thought were funny and I think really show you all of the dynamics of the Boss (Jolie). hehe

Lately she's been big into her stuffed animals. Not necessarily the same ones, she kind of will pick a few that she's attached to for a few days or week or so and then change to something else. Or I think she just enjoys throwing us curve balls any time we think we have her figured out...
Last week it was her Snoopy dolls...all of them! She had to eat with them, take them everywhere and watch TV with them.

Trying on my hat

One day she LOVED eating grapes...

This is what happens if you do not cut up grapes fast enough for the Boss

The Boss is once again pleased with our grapes.

And now we gave her some tonight and she just smashed them up and tried to give them to Petey (but dogs aren't supposed to eat grapes so that was a fun game!)

Thanks Jolie for always keeping us on our toes! :)

Ribbon FUN

I found some cute ribbon curtains on super, duper clearance at Hobby Lobby that I thought I'd try in Jolie's room. Then I found a small curtain rod on clearance at Target--win, win WIN! So I really figured I had nothing to lose by trying it out. While I was getting ready to hang the curtains, I set them above Jolie's closet doors to get them to lay nice and not tangle while I put the hanger things above the windows...and this is where Jolie spotted them.

Who's in there???

Peek!




Jolie LOVED playing in them and seriously sat in her closet for over an hour! I kind of felt bad hanging them up on the windows afterwards, but I think she already forgot about them. :)

Farm Animals!

We stopped by the Hall County Fair Friday evening to check out the livestock. As a former Reserve Champion Junior Showmanship in the Swine division myself, I thought we should get Jolie started early in her love of farm animals.--Ha! Yes, I was in 4H, but it was typically a terrifying event for me and I just did it for the socializing :) --So after we got past the large cattle (which terrify me!) we finally found some animals I was a little less nervous about. Luckily for Jolie, Nana was there to protect her.

Jolie wasn't sure what to think at first and started out pretty shy...but it's still a cow, so I don't blame her...

She wasn't sure about the bunnies either

The birds looked a little suspicious too!

But then, a duck quacked at her! And Jolie quacked back!

She thought the chicks weren't too scary.

Dad helped her to get a closer view.

Soooo gentle

Jolie loved riding around on Dad like this...however, afterwards, Josh had a wet head. Haha!

Words for July

Check out all the words she's added in just a month! She loves reading books and she was going over her Old MacDonald book with Daddy. She's so funny with her animal sounds. She's also points at some body parts like her tummy, nose, eyes, ears, mouth and tongue (although she would only allow me to film her animal sounds here--she doesn't do well with 'performing' on the spot yet--haha!)

Now if only I could get her eat regular food...

The Words of June

Here's a video we took in June. This is usually how things go when we all get home in the afternoon...we'll be getting something ready in the kitchen (well, Josh sort of handles that and I'm in charge of Jolie-wrangling) and Jolie tells us about her day.

Deep Conversation

We recently got a new laptop, changed internet providers and blah blah blah, so I'm finally getting around to getting our new laptop all set up, including adding our videos!

I caught Jolie having this deep conversation with herself in May. It just cracks me up! She loves talking to herself in the mirror and even plays peek-a-boo!

My First Cruise Night

Every year Kearney has a big Cruise Nite. I think it started out as a classic car thing but now vehicles of all sorts go. If really want to know more, they have a website here. So on Saturday evening, everyone lines the street and all the cool cars cruise up and down. My parents brought down their restored '71 Chevy pickup and we went to a big tailgating party at my aunt's work along the strip.

Even though it was crazy hot out, it was a lot of fun! They had cleared their parking lot and had lots of stuff for kids like water guns, sprinklers, toys to ride and of course lots of FOOD!

Jolie had lots of fun and we ended up staying super late since she was having so much fun! I'm totally embarrassed though because I didn't take any pictures of any vehicles...just Jolie! So just imagine lots of cool vehicles cruising by...

Jolie tried out the police cruiser (mommy is hoping this is the only ride she'll ever take in a police car! hehe)

She needed to carry as many water guns as she could.

Doesn't she look so grown up here?!?!?!

Turning up the tunes to jam out!

Riding with Sam and Hannah--they actually made it move around, Jolie couldn't reach the pedals yet.

Jolie and Nana watching the cars car by after dark.

4 Kiddos+1 Normal Picture=MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

Here are a few pictures from Art in the Park with the Wulf Pack kiddos--Sam, Hayden and Hannah! It was so crazy hot out, I'm not sure how they were able to sit together (did Jolie make them?!?!?) They took a little break in the shade to listen to the band for a little bit so I tried to take a nice little picture of them together.

Take 1: Ha! I don't really know what the girls are up to, but good picture for Sam!

Take 2: Jolie, look over here!

Take3: Now Sam's not looking! :)

Well, we tried at least, right?

Sunday night Jolie spent the night at Nana and Grandpa's and went to the Wood River Country Club pool on Monday. The report back was that she did good and was getting pretty brave by the end! Then they headed back on Monday night and we ate at Luke and Jake's BBQ (which has the most amazing giant stuffed baked potatoes!) and followed it off with another trip to Topperz! Jolie was refusing any frozen yogurt unless she could do it herself. Goodness...this parenting stuff was a little easier when she didn't have opinions... :)

And just a little Lindsay Lung update: I went back to the doctor on Monday and my lungs still aren't sounding too great but if I take it easy I should be ok. I'm going to keep taking a couple different steroids and do breathing treatments for the next month and then recheck, unless things get worse in the meantime. I told Josh this means he'll have to do most of the housework....hehe! :)

Splash Park!

This weekend is kind of a take-it-easy sort of weekend. I thought my pneumonia was getting better, but Friday we kind of went backwards and now I'm doing breathing treatments every four hours, taking an antibiotic and steroids AND I have to get a shot of Rocephin on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday, then follow up on Monday. I had a Rocephin shot last Sunday and these are one of those shots you have to get in your behind...and my shot from last Sunday is still sore! So these are NOT going well as you can see I have two 'cheeks' and this is a total of 4 shots...this math doesn't add up! So I'm supposed to kind of take it easy, take lots of naps and I'm even doing a treatment as type...MULTITASKING! :) I'll admit I was totally having a pity party on Friday for myself, but so far today has been a lot better so I think we are making progress.

Anyway, back to the star of the blog...Jolie! After naps were enjoyed by all members of our household (and Josh even got in a round of golf this morning!) we headed out to the splash park at Yanney Park.

Playing with the 'music bars'

Getting brave enough to walk through the tube

Had to stop to touch daddy's nose!

Heading out to the water...

Getting so brave!

Then it turned off...

Then it turned on and panic followed!

So we headed back over to the playground and cheered her right up! (And I love her little 'Buddha belly')

Heading down the slide-weeeeeeeeeee!

Jolie decided this was her preferred size of splashing

But we've actually made great progress! She was getting pretty independent on the playground and made several trip 'to the water' which was kind of just within sprinkling distance but it's progress!

Afterwards we headed to Topperz, an awesome yogurt shop where you dish your own yogurt and crazy toppings. And although Jolie loved it last time, tonight she just had about three bites then thought moving the chairs around Topperz was way more fun!

Crazy Girl

I bet you were just sitting around thinking 'what's Jolie been up to lately?' Well, wonder no more!

Cruising in Uncle Michael's Cozy Coupe--it's VINTAGE! :)

Jolie loves helping me do breathing treatments--hehe! When she saw me doing one, she grabbed her mask from when she had pneumonia back in January and sat with me! Well, I guess at least she has pleasant memories of when she was sick! :)

She has recently taken a great interest in reorganizing...or maybe more like throwing-everything-out.

Here she is demonstrating on our pantry. She's also done our folded clothes in the closet, drawers in the kitchen, anything in the bathroom, any toys that look even mildly picked up...nothing is off limits with Jolie so if she stops by your house...BEWARE!

Very pleased with her work

Marker Meltdown

Jolie really thought she needed to play with the markers at Great-Grandma Dibbern's house. Things got a little messy so when we tried to intervene, it did not go over well.




Who is this little girl and when did she start having opinions?!?!? :)

And thank you to Crayola for your amazing washable markers!

Happy 4th of July!

We had quite the extended weekend for the 4th of July. Earlier this week my great aunt and Godmother, Karen VanWinkle, passed away. She had type 1 diabetes since she was 9 years old and had gone through many health issues and always did so with such a great attitude! While we will miss her so much, I am so happy that she is no longer in pain.

Although she was living near us in Kearney, her services were back in her hometown of Chappell which is in western Nebraska, near Colorado. Jolie rode with Nana, Grandpa and her Great Nana on Friday morning to Chappell and my brothers, Josh and I went on Friday evening. Everyone said Jolie did great at the visitation, despite having hardly any naps! Saturday was the service and she did very good through that too. I was a little nervous about bringing her at all, but am very happy we did. I think Jolie reminded everyone that the circle of life goes on and now we all have another angel watching over us.

Karen and her husband, Dennis, have always hosted this great July 4 party out at their cabin and we definitely wanted to continue the celebration this year in Karen's honor. We went out to their cabin and there were lots of people and of course TONS of food! I ended up leaving pretty early though because I've been having some breathing issues for the past couple of weeks but finally decided to go into urgent care on Sunday and found out I have pneumonia. What the heck?!?!? So I had to get a shot in my butt (which is way sore!) and am on some pretty powerful cough syrup that's making me a little sleepy. So Josh and Jolie stayed for the fireworks show and got a ride home from Grandpa and Nana afterwards. They said Jolie did great and really liked the fireworks!

Jolie and Uncle Brett

Bath Time CrAZineSS!

As Jolie gets older and older, she gets crazier and crazier! :) Some days I feel like I'm just running after her all day! Trying to change her clothes or diapers turns into a midget wrestling match because Jolie hates to stop for anything! Even bath time has transformed the bathroom into a puddle-filled mess! At least she has fun while in the bath! :)



Whoa! Dumped water on her face--thinking about freaking out...

Jolie decided that she's okay!! :)