Birthday Party Pictures

We had so much fun celebrating Jolie's first birthday!

Here is a picture of Jolie opening her present last weekend from Grandma and Grandpa Buechler. We had ice cream cake to celebrate! Yum!
She got a very cute monkey book and little stuffed animal monkey.

However, she carried the tiny tag from her monkey around for days afterwards!!

On her actual birthday we had a celebration for anyone who was able to make it. We had The Very Hungry Caterpillar decorations! Woo hoo! Grandma Buechler had made Jolie a Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt so I thought it would be a great theme to go with!

Here is Jolie's SMASH cake

Here's everyone else's cake--delicious! We also had homemade ice cream!

Uncle Michael with the birthday girl

Very careful with her cake

She'd say 'mmmmmmm' after tasting each bite.

I think I just ran around like a crazy person and didn't get many pictures, but I know many other people did! Jolie had almost 25 guests help her celebrate (well, Petey thinks they were all here to see him, so we haven't told him otherwise) and we are so thankful for all the love and support that everyone has given us! She received lots of nice cards and packages in the mail and is getting pretty good at tearing paper into tiny pieces!

Thank you all so much for being such great role models for Jolie! :)

Mmmmm...cake!

I'm still working on collecting pictures I took from Jolie's birthday, but I made a little video of her eating her cake and playing with a few of her toys at her party. Enjoy!

Patio doors are awesome AND I rock!

Monday was Grandpa Dibbern's birthday so we went to Grand Island to celebrate! We went to eat at Whiskey Creek and they even sang for him and brought him a Birthday Brownie--haha! Jolie helped eat some whipped cream too!

Tuesday I kind of locked myself out of house, but it was more a case of all of the entrances were broken, I swear! Jolie and I were headed to Wood River and our garage door wouldn't close. We've had some sensors that were acting a little funny, so I went and manually put it down. This was interesting because I couldn't reach the top of garage door so I had to haul a spare tire under it to stand on, then jump up to pull down the door. I was just hoping that none of our new neighbors saw me!

When we returned, I just figured I'd use our house key to get in, but I couldn't get it to turn or work on any door! Josh was at work and I was picking up the Wulf kids from school so they were nice enough to let Jolie and I hang out at their house while we waited for Josh to get off work. Of course, everything worked just fine for him when he got home! But the manager did come by today to get everything fixed so hopefully I won't be looking like an idiot jumping on a tire again! Haha!

Anywho, I'd just like to tell you about my Domestically Dominating Day! Wednesday, Grandpa came to watch Jolie for a bit while I did some job hunting. How fun, bleh! Jolie, Grandpa and I went to eat lunch and then he went back to work. Then I did some laundry, cleaned, dusted, invented AND cooked a supper, ran errands AND did the dishes--heck yes! And Josh even ate seconds of my supper! It was kind of casserole with noodles, ground beef, cheese, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce baked to a delicious goodness. Josh said there may even be hope to get me domesticated yet!!! Little does he realize that since I did so much today, I'm not doing squat for the next week! :)

While I was in the midst of my awesomeness, I took Petey out and Jolie came to the patio door and made some awesome faces! We were both laughing to hard!

Yes, that is a booger in her nose. Classy! Also check out her big front tooth on top! She has one giant one and several smaller ones coming through.


I think I stood outside for 5 minutes watching this!

Apparently this day was very exhausting for Jolie, or maybe she's just resting up for her first birthday Saturday! She passed out at supper time!

We decided to have a little celebration for Jolie's birthday this Saturday for anyone who can make it. We weren't sure if we'd be settled, but I think we are settled enough for cake and ice cream! So if you are free, stop by for yummies around 2pm!

Week Rewind

Our first week in Kearney flew by! And I thought I would would have all this extra time since I'm on the job hunt and staying home during the days. So far this has not been the case--although I can't really think of what I've been doing and I don't really have anything to show for it! haha!

Let's see, Monday evening, Great Grandpa and Grandma Dibbern (Jer and Vern) stopped by with some Valentine's Day goodies--a bear for Jolie and an Eileen's cookie for Josh and I--heck yes!

I think Tuesday through Thursday we spent every evening at Verizon trying to work out our phones. We ended up having to get new phones and new numbers and you all know how much fun spending time negotiating phone contracts is!!! Bleh! We even missed the Wulf Pack coming over on a bike ride! The good thing was that the weather was awesome and me and the Jolie and the Petey got to take some nice little strolls around the area during the day.

On Friday we went to a Storm hockey game with a girl I went to high school with. She has two adorable kiddos, Raegan, almost 2 1/2 and Cole who is 4 months. Her parents have a box at the arena and it was awesome! We had a great area for the kids to run around and roam free and Jolie found the whole thing very fascinating and really enjoyed watching EVERYTHING! Thanks for inviting us Katie!

Josh's parents came for the weekend and got to try out our new 'guest basement' They survived so I think it went okay! Haha! We got to try out several of the area restaurants and show them the little we know of Kearney. We did some retakes of Jolie's one-year-old pictures with Brooke at Legacy Fotography Her sister-in-law Heather did our engagement and wedding photos and passed away from breast cancer when Jolie was born. She's been doing some amazing work out of Heather's studio and we are so excited to see all of them. Both of Jolie's grandma's came to help us cheer her on in the background and after some coaxing, she finally came around and did great. She even tried the frosting--and liked it (after a meltdown of course!)

On Sunday, we had all of Jolie's grandparents to Kearney to eat lunch. My cousin Colby was playing in a basketball tournament and he and his mom and dad chauffeurs had some time to kill between games, so they came to check out our house and we all went out eat together! Party! Colby even wanted to sit by ME--ME and not Jolie!!! Woo hoo!

After that we decided to check out the children's museum and IT WAS AWESOME! We plan to make many trips back! Here is a random assortment of photos from the week--courtesy of my new iPhone, because even though I had an iPhone before, it wasn't a VERIZON iPhone...good grief!

Jolie has a drinking problem! :) Notice the tears from her not being able to balance herself, toys and two cups.

Action shot going down the slide at the children's museum. She loved it and even threw a little 'fit' when it was time to go.

Checking out some Lincoln logs

Crawling through a tunnel in the "Peek-a-Boo Park"

She took several laps around the museum using this alligator walker. She also 'drove' a car around for a few laps but after a little 'accident' where she slipped off the seat, she preferred her walker. haha!

Hello Kearney!

We have arrived! And amazingly, we are pretty much settled! Thanks to all the help we received we got so much more accomplished than I even thought possible! We have all the boxes unpacked and even some things hung up on the walls!

I'll try to get some pictures posted of the place soon but we were all surprised that our new place seems so much bigger than our house in Iowa. I know it sounds silly, but I thought once we got all of our stuff it, it would seem very similar in size, but after getting things unpacked, we actually have a LOT more room! It's awesome!!! We also don't have all the stairs so I think Jolie has been loving roaming all over and we can actually relax and let her roam a little.

Petey is also starting to relax a little--FINALLY! The last couple weeks have been a little stressful for the little guy but I think he's finally understanding that we are staying here. On moving day, he wouldn't get out of my car! But he seems to have come around and realized that everything is okay.

Josh started work today so I hope that went well. I know he said his commute was a whole 6 minutes today! I think we'll enjoy the change in commute times and no longer having to listen to traffic reports every day!

We got a new washer and dryer that are front loading so you can watch your clothes spin around. Holy entertainment! Jolie watched these all day on Sunday!

Jolie is great at unpacking. She demonstrated by unpacking these Kleenexes.

Bye Iowa! :)

We had lots of help with our move and can't thank everyone enough! The move was super smooth and nothing broke! :) We got our place cleaned up and rented out and have set up shop in our new place!

Des Moines was very good to us! It was our first home as a married couple, where we bought our first place together, where we had our first 'real' jobs and where Jolie was born! It's safe to say that Josh and I grew up a lot during our almost 5 years in Des Moines--from newlywed college grads to new parents! We'll always have great memories and friends that we'll never forget!

So as we head to Kearney, here are a few more pictures of Jolie that Grandma Buechler took while we were packing and finishing up at work.

Action shot speed reading!

Cheering on the Packers during the Super Bowl

This is where you put the food, Grandma Buechler! :)

Pushing a stool--she uses anything to help her walk around!

Blowing and making fog on the glass

Packing it up!

The time has come for us to get some serious packing done! On Saturday, Josh took Jolie to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Buechler and they are having so much fun!!!

In the meantime, Josh and I are working on getting everything packed. There are towers of boxes everywhere (seriously, where did all this stuff come from?) and we've taken car loads to Goodwill and the dumpster-especially since Josh forgot to set the garbage out this week-haha! And the cleaning and paint touch-ups have begun!

We miss Jolie like CRAZY but there is NO WAY we could have gotten so much done while entertaining her! In the meantime, Grandma and Grandpa have been texting us lots pictures. I had no idea she was such a Packers fan, but apparently she really enjoyed cheering them on with Grandpa Buechler! She's also been having lots fun with Grandma B doing all sorts of fun stuff. Here are some action shots they've sent!

Last Day of School

Jolie's last day of school at Mercy was Friday and she made sure her favorite teacher Amy gave ALL of her attention to Jolie! They sent Jolie home with a nice binder full pictures and projects that she worked on during her time at school.

Amy also sent home a Valentine bear and some Sesame Street books--Jolie's favorite!! We can't thank Amy enough for taking care of Jolie. She is the BEST teacher and we were so glad that she had Jolie! She was also so sweet with working with Josh and I--as anxious, nervous, over-reacting first-time parents! She was great suggesting to us when Jolie was ready to try new things--I think she'd still be on formula-only if it wasn't for Amy suggesting we try some cereal! It was also so fun to watch Jolie get to spend time with other little kiddos her age. They would all learn so much from each other and it was always a treat to pick her up and see her playing with her friends!

Snow Day Sledding

I don't know if you heard, but the Blizzard of 2011 blew through Iowa! I mean, how could you have NOT heard about it! We woke with a 4 foot drift in our driveway so Jolie and I were snowed in. She is having lots of fun standing and pushing her dinosaur walker. When her dino's not in reach, she'll use anything as a walker, including her toy/laundry basket!

After awhile of this, I put her in the basket and she did some 'sledding' around the living room. She thought this was super fun and didn't want to get out! She even watched Sesame Street in her 'sled' Notice that she is almost ALWAYS chewing on something! Watch your fingers around this chickie! :)

Shift Change

Grandma DeDe and Grandpa Phil were also feeling bad for Jolie, especially since Jolie's Uncle Michael still does breathing treatments, so they decided to come up and stay with Jolie Friday and Saturday. We had a great lazy weekend and even did a little shopping--shocking, right? :)

I recently got a rice cooker/steamer and have been attempting to get Jolie to try some new foods. Grandma DeDe got us a little food processor that I was super excited to try out, but so far the squash, spaghetti and broccoli I've made have NOT been well received. I also discovered steaming broccoli makes your house smell like a dirty diaper!!! Gross! And then Jolie tried the broccoli she gagged AND cried! Good grief! I think I'll just stick to the simple Gerber foods for now and save my time.

On Sunday, Josh and I (well maybe mostly Josh) started getting things ready for the move. We taken things we no longer use to Goodwill or sold them on Craigslist (I LOVE that site!) and started boxing a few things we don't use on a daily basis. Seriously, where did all this stuff come from?!?!?! Jolie even helped, although she definitely prefers unloading boxes and throwing things everywhere! I finally told Josh to stop her from unfolding all of our clothes, but he said 'but look at how much fun she's having?' Who's in charge in this house!?!?!

Here's a couple pictures my mom took on her phone while we were cruising.
Blowing 'kisses'

Just cruisin'