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!! :)

Photo Updates! :)

Since I'm so far behind, I'm just going to post mostly pictures because, really--it's all about Jolie! :)

Jolie at a baseball game in Wood River during a chilly evening.

Jolie in Lincoln with Nana and the Rathke's

Uncle Jordan

They told me every princess needs a wand. Good grief!

Playing the sprinkler again.

Yay for Daddy!

Don't forget about our first baby--Petey! Look closely and you may see him snuggled up in bed. No, he's not spoiled at all...

Jolie had a summer party at school that they invited parents to come to. Since my work is super close to her school, I was able to run over and check it out. Unfortunately the weather was yucky on the first day of summer so their party had to be moved inside. They played with water and sand (holy mess!) but I didn't get too many pictures because Jolie was attached to me almost the entire time! I do not think having me visit went over well at all! :)


Even though she has like 4 different chairs, Jolie's new favorite spot is the laundry basket, cuddled up with a Husker pillow and Husker snuggie.

Internet Restored!

Sorry for the delay in posts. We had some serious internet issues and ended up changing companies and they just got us hooked up a few hours ago!

I'm planning on a blog overload soon and hope you all didn't give up on me! :)

15 Months

Jolie recently turned 15 months and I almost forgot she needed to go back to the doctor for a check up--haha! So we went in today to get checked out and we just had to get one shot. Jolie has gotten pretty smart and knows the nurses are the ones who give the shots so she's a perfect angel when the doctor is checking her out, but as soon as that nurse gets around--it's panic city!

She checked out okay and is progressing along! No major concerns besides Josh and I still being neurotic, over-analyzing, first-time parents! :) She is weighing in at 20 1/2 lbs. We thought she was bigger, but I guess the last few times she'd been in she was weighed with clothes on. This put her in the 15% for weight--woo hoo--on the chart! And she's 30 inches tall which is 30% on the chart--awesome! (I was never on the charts and Josh was on the small side too, so we are super excited she's on the charts!)

We are still working on eating regular food but we know it will come with time. She has some 'texture issues' with food so we still do quite a bit of baby food but if any of you know me, I also have some texture issues as well so clearly this is an inherited problem! :) You should see her though when we put new food in front of her. Just looking at, she'll make the maddest face! Where do they learn this stuff?

So Jolie was a little 'sensitive' after her shot so we needed to create some super fun to get us through to bed time. So we hooked up her fancy sprinkler to the hose and headed outside for some fun! We consider this 'training' to get ready for the splash park and for later trips to water parks and swimming pools. So today's training went pretty well! She was a little skeptical at first, but pretty soon was filling up her buckets and running around the yard.

Jolly June

Finally the weather is starting to perk up and we can get outside more! Jolie has been loving playing outside and I'm pretty sure she is already on her way to having that beautiful sun-kissed tan look that kiddos get from spending lots of time outside. Me on the other hand...I couldn't buy that look! Luckily I think Jolie definitely got her Daddy's darker skin because she was already more tan than me when she was born!!! What the heck?!?!

Anyway, Jolie's Uncle Brett came to stay and play with Jolie this weekend. We went out to Summer Haven (a small private lake nearby that great, great uncle Dennis and Karen have a cabin at) for the afternoon on Saturday and Jolie had a great time playing in the sand! She even tried some out--gross!

On Sunday, Rathke's stopped by in between a softball tournament (which Jolie's shirt happened to match their team colors--sweet!) and we went and played with the Wulf's for a little bit. We even had time to play bubbles outside--and she tried some of those too--yuck! She really digs bubbles and tries to blow them, but usually she ends up eating the bubble stick. Lovely.