Christmas Catch Up

I hope you don't think I forgot all of you--we have just been crazy busy!
Where to begin? Well let's see...

We are officially moving to Kearney, Nebraska in mid-February. Josh got a job at the hospital. So that has made us quite busy--we found someone to rent our house, secured a place to live in Kearney (which was super hard thanks to a certain 6 lb dog!) and have even checked out some schools for Jolie.

We also celebrated a few Christmas celebrations and Jolie had her first slumber party! Since Jolie was in Wood River December 30-January 2 and we realized it would make the most sense for us to come back again January 5 and would be a lot of extra time in the car for Jolie...so at the last minute she decided to stay in Wood River. With Josh and I being a little neurotic about everything Jolie-related, not having much time to freak out about this was actually better for us! So Grandma and Grandpa did a little shuffling with their schedules and Jolie had a great time!

Here's a random group of pictures from the break.

Santa came while we were at Christmas Eve church services. Here's Jolie in her Christmas dress.

An action shot of one of Jolie's favorite activities--running with Dad up and down the hallway really fast!

Petey got a Snoopy bed that he loves and has already spent a lot of time in.

Jolie got an iPad! Ha--just kidding! But mom and dad got an iPad and Jolie does love it!

Jolie smashing her Bacon. Uncle Brett, who is obsessed with everything bacon, found a stuffed bacon that says 'I'm Bacon.' Jolie loves giving it hugs and it may have provided more entertainment for the adults! hehe


We got to see a lot of family which was super fun but unfortunately Jolie was also sprouting some toothers and had a cold so she was a little cranky! My apologies to all those that she wouldn't let hold her--I always feel so bad when she does that but just trust me that it wasn't you, it was those dang toothers! And thank you so much to everyone for all the amazing gifts for Jolie. We can barely see the living room floor!!!!

And she's off...10 months old!

Jolie's growing in leaps and bounds and her mom and dad are left chasing after her! Here is what she's been up to:
-Wears 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes
-Enjoys bathtime in the sink
-Loves to squirm like crazy during diaper changes and sometimes it's a two person job to change her!
-Crawls and doesn't army crawl anymore!
-Pulls herself up on everything
-Has starting 'walking' with her dinosaur walker (pictured below)
-Claps her hands
-Still just has her two bottom teeth, but with how crabby she's been I think more are on the way
-Drinks 5 bottles a day, but they seem to be getting smaller like 4 ounces
-Started eating less tub/Gerber food and more puffs and other regular food
-Really likes feeding herself...and dropping her food on the floor for Petey
-Drinks water from a sippy cup when she's eating...and throws sippy cup on the floor repeatedly
-Says 'ma ma' and every once in awhile 'da da' (at which point Josh will do absolutley anything she wants!)
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the very special Christmas tree

Jolie was feeling crafty this weekend so she made a few Christmas cards of her own. First we put some green paint on her toesies.

Then she'd stamp her foot!

The finished project!

Well the pictures may be kind of blurry, but it turned out pretty cool! :)

Tube Installation Success!

Jolie had tubes put in her ears early Friday morning and she did GREAT! She's so awesome! She couldn't eat after midnight and we had to be there at 6:15am. She did really well with not eating. Anytime she started to get fussy, she could be easily distracted--unlike some of the other kiddos there! Then you have to meet with several people and sign lots of forms--admission, pre-op nurse, anesthesiologist, ENT, surgical nurse..good grief! I just wanted to get it over with already! I think they took Jolie back around 8am or so and then we went back to get her about 10 minutes later.

Even though she had just finished her last medicine Thursday, the ENT said she already had more fluid in her ears so I'm very glad we decided to get her tubes! She was starting to be a revolving door for antibiotics--not to mention the 'death farts'!

Once we were back with her, Josh told me he was more nervous for this than when she was born!!! Seriously!?!?!? I guess he didn't have to do the whole labor and delivery thing! I think because I'd heard from so many people how easy this was, I wasn't really nervous at all--maybe even excited for Jolie to get some relief!

Jolie did great though and I don't think she has any idea anything even happened! What a champ! Here she is hanging out modeling her lovely hospital bracelet. Look at that smirk--'surgery? no big deal for me!'

Blizzard blows in some grandparents!

Saturday we had our first snow--or rather a blizzard! Although it wasn't super bad in Des Moines, Grandma Lori and Grandpa Jeff were on their way home from Colorado and all the routes to their house were terrible so they decided to stay with us. Jolie did great again with Grandpa Jeff and was very excited to show them how she pulls herself up and many other new tricks!

On Sunday, Grandpa Jeff went back home but Grandma Buechler stayed with Jolie until Wednesday so no school for Jolie! They had lots of fun and even celebrated Grandma Buechler's birthday!

Here was a picture they sent to Josh and I at work! Thank you for playing with Jolie and Happy Birthday Grandma Buechler!

I'm not sure about this...

After Jolie grew out of her tiny tub, she seemed to ease right into the big bathtub until about a month ago when she suddenly decided it was the worst place EVER! I think it stemmed from an incident when she was attempting to grab all of her toys at once and went for one that was way out of her reach and dunked her face in the water. Of course, I was right there, but apparently she remembers it because every bath since then, she's screamed the entire time. And Jolie isn't usually much of a screamer so it's clearly very serious!

For awhile I even ended up jumping in there with her--clothes on and all! While that did seem to calm her down, I knew that this was not really a practical long term solution.

So we tried to downsize again and try the kitchen sink. She was pretty skeptical of us at first but she gave it a try and it was successful! We've tried a couple of times since and have continued to do great! Woo hoo!

Here she is giving us her skeptical face. Once she decided it was okay, she was splashing and moving so much I couldn't get a decent picture with my phone!

ENT Repeat

We had a visit with an ENT today. We actually had one last week and had scheduled surgery for Jolie to get tubes, but then found out he didn't do surgery at the right place for our insurance--argh! So we went to another ENT today who was a lot more thorough. We had to do a hearing test which is hilarious to try to do with a 9 month old! We had to sit in this tiny, sound proof room and then there would be sounds on each side and toy that would light up. She was supposed to respond to the sounds and look at the toy I guess, but of course she was distracted by EVERYTHING else! The woman administering the test Jolie could see through a window in front of us, so she kept smiling and laughing at her. After awhile she said 'well she probably does about as good as any one her age' so, um, I think she passed. This doctor also concluded that tubes would be a great option and could even get us in earlier than the original doctor! Jolie is scheduled for next Friday, December 17--woo hoo!

Merry Christmas Jolie--you get tubes!!! :)

Well baby check?

Jolie had her 9 month check up today. That morning, she had her last dose of the medicine she'd been on for her ear infection from Thanksgiving so all should be good right?

I picked her up from school and they said that she just started running a little fever, just over 100. Weird but we were on our way to the doctor so that will work well, right? Holy buckets!!! By the time we got to the doctor, she was miserable! Jolie looked like she had a sunburn, but it was just her temperature rising! We got up to about 102 while at the doctor (while screaming the entire time!) AND she had a double ear infection! Good grief! So back on another medicine and it's causing what I call 'Death Farts.' She could clear us out of the room if she wasn't so mobile! I'm sure you wanted to know that too, right?

Other than the ears, Jolie was looking good. She's up to 17 lbs, 8 oz and I think 27 inches or so. Josh stayed home with her today and she required lots of cuddles and snuggles, but we think she's on the mend. Those dang ears!

I had this great picture of what Josh dressed her in today but I can't get it uploaded! So this is Jolie helping me get ready the other day--what a big helper!

9 month photos

We did our 9 month photos the other day and as you can see, we started out very shy.


But then...they brought out the mirror!!!


I call this one her 'karate pose' haha!



Thank goodness for that mirror! I don't know why it is every time we go to get her pictures taken, she becomes expression-less so I was excited to finally get some pictures where she was showing her goofy self!

Wild Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving in South Dakota visiting Josh's family. Of course, in planning for a long weekend, we didn't pack enough baby food or the camera! Luckily Josh's cousin Sara is an amazing photographer and caught a few of Jolie (I hope she doesn't mind me stealing them!)

Jolie had lots of fun playing with her second cousins Kaydyn (almost two years), Henry (almost one year) and Bryson (two months). And she even hung out with her Grandpa Buechler and he taught her to play some cards! (this has been an on-going battle with Jolie as she kept being a little stinker whenever her Grandpa Buechler tried to play with her) so this was a HUGE accomplishment!

We got to see her Great Aunt Cindy and Uncle Kevin, and Josh's cousins Travis and Amber, Sara and Austin and Tyrel. We also saw Grandma and Grandpa Buechler, Ali, Great Grandma and Grandpa Buechler and Great Grandma and Grandpa Pedersen--whoa! Jolie did great even though she came down with an ear infection (thank goodness Aunt Cindy was able to check her out and call in a prescription for her--made the rest of the trip much more enjoyable!)








We went to the new Children's Museum in Brookings and IT IS AMAZING! Jolie definitely was not feeling too good when we were there so she wasn't up for trying much, be if you ever get the chance to check it out-we highly recommend it! We are already excited to go back once Jolie gets a little bigger!

So after 14 hours in the car, one puppy chase down in South Dakota, a cracked windshield, one ear infection--we made it home! We were very thankful that we didn't see any snow to interfere with our travel plans and were so happy we got to see everyone!

Thanks for the pictures Sara--you are amazing!
We also met up with Petey again on Sunday and were all 'Reunited and it feels so good!' And yes, I believe I did hear the music playing in the background as we slow motioned ran to each other--haha! He had so much fun playing with Murphy and meeting Nelly in Wood River, but I think the little guy was ready to come home as he's been sleeping since we got him!