ABC's!

We'd first of all like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support, prayers, and everything did for the Dibbern family after we tragically lost Mark, Lindsay's uncle, just a few weeks ago. It was all very overwhelming. We appreciate everything you did.

Jolie has been very active since last month, she's talking more and more, getting into more and more things, I guess the theme has just been "more and more" She loves to play dress up and be a princess, she loves singing her ABCs, twinkle twinkle, and the itsy bitsy spider, and going outside to water the flowers and play with the sprinklers. She also gets very annoyed with her parents who haven't quite picked up on all of her new vocabulary yet to totally understand what it is she wants! We're getting better though.
Here's some pictures and videos from the past month, we'll try and get this updated more often as I'm sure summer will bring many photo/video opportunities!

ABC's!

Filling up the bucket of water she tries to dump on Daddy

High heels and 5 tutus...yep

Making sure papa planted his corn in straight rows

Busy month!

Jolie and her family have been busy since our last post. We've been to Des Moines to see old friends and coworkers, figuring out how to drive Jolie's new ride (see below), had a successful garage sale, and more playing outside!

One of our first rides on the new "Vespa"

But we got better at it...

We got a new bubble maker!

Jolie stayed home with dad one Saturday and picked out her own clothes...

And then made a small mess...

Then we helped Papa Dibbern plant some corn!

Watered the flowers

And then finally took a break!

Birthday weekends part 2,3,4.....

Jolie has been super spoiled by all of her family and friends and after 3 or 4 weekends of having some kind of present to open, she was settling very nicely into opening some kind of present at least once a week. She has become more and more adventurous (see video below) and has really started talking more and more. She is always on the go running her parents ragged! She gets quite annoyed when mom and dad want to sit down for a meal or to just relax. She also took her 2 year pictures and they turned out great! (we might be a little biased)

Grandpa helping to blow out candles (yet, that's drool dripping from Jolie's mouth and soon on to cake)

One of Jolie's many birthday presents

2 years old!

Cheeseball

She goes from this.....

...to this. What a goof

And Jolie got a new ride, but mom had to test it out first so that........

.

Yeah, we'll keep her off the highway for a while

Vacation Time!


Jolie and Josh made the trip up to Deadwood, SD this past weekend to meet up with Papa and Nana Buechler and some of their friends. We also got to see Aunt Ali and Austin, Sara, and Henry! As you can see below, Jolie and Henry had a great time together while Josh was skiing/snowmobiling. It was a great trip!

Jolie's snow angel!

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We ceelbrated someone's upcoming 2nd birthday....no big deal.

Ice Cream Cake! Thanks Papa and Nana!

Even got a kiss from Henry

Buds

Josh and Jolie had a great time out in the hills! Special thanks to Papa and Nana Buechler for the awesome cabin and all the meals (for Josh) and the snuggling (for Jolie)!

And we're back

Sorry for the delay everybody, we've had colds, the flu, and been gone almost every weekend since Christmas!   Jolie has gotten to travel a lot and see all of her grandparents, great grandparents, extended family, and even got to go meet Elmo and friends on Sesame Street! Here's some pictures and video to sum up our last month!

Happy New Year from Great Grandpa and Grandma Pedersen! 

Cards at Great Grandpa and Grandma Buechler's

While it's cold outside, we practice bike riding in the basement

Count em. Yep, that's 3 tutus. (and lately we're up to 4....at once)

Sesame Street Live!!!!

Jolie LOVED the show! (Sidenote: Notice the awesome seats we had!)

We did not teach her to count to 10. She just started doing it one day. Daycare rocks.

Christmas time is near, time for toys and time for cheer

Merry Christmas everyone! Of course this is late, but technically we are only about 1/3 done with our celebrations.  It's an extended celebration for us. 

Let us begin with some pictures taken randomly.  Jolie and I took a Sunday afternoon trip to the Children's Museum when someone (JOLIE) decided she was too cool for a nap.  She loves playing there!

 We had a raffle at work and I won one of the prizes...and it was all guys stuff!  But this worked in Josh's favor and he cracked me up by modeling his winnings including this coat, scarf, hat, sunglasses and wallet.  Merry Christmas to Josh! :)

 Jolie thinks it super fun to carry gift bags around the house.  Notice her latest BFF Christmas Penguin, the hair clip, the halloween necklace, and the tutu.  No, she's not girlie at all!!!

 Grandpa Jeff, Grandma Lori, Ali and Matt came on Christmas Eve to celebrate.  I'll have to find the rest of my pictures, but we had lots of fun.  I was super nervous about having people over especially on Christmas Eve because I was worried about the meals, but Josh promised he'd take care of it and he delivered!  Although we were making a roast in the crockpot and after 4 hours we realized our crockpot wasn't working! Lori, Ali and I made a trip to the mall and I found a sweet new one on sale too!  So the dinner was saved! Although I had Christmas Pizza on the backup menu if needed! :)

We went to church that evening but Jolie decided that she wasn't too interested in the service so I spend most of that time out in the entryway chasing her.  She also through quite the fit when we tried to get her dress on her but it was absolutely worth it! It was soo cute!  I might have to try to wrestle her back in it to get some better pictures!

 Our attempt at a family photo.  Notice Josh and I are both holding Jolie in place.  haha

Jolie has a very hard time taking pictures with Uncle Matt because she always wants to roughhouse with him! This was the best I got. :)

Jolie got so many presents and had so much fun!  But we haven't had much time to play with any because she went with Grandma and Grandpa to Iowa for the week.  We'll meet them in South Dakota this weekend so it has been a very boring week for Josh and I!  This is the longest we have ever been without our little goober and we are missing her lots!  But Grandma and Grandpa are sending us lots of pictures and updates but we can't wait to see her!!!!!!!

A Dashing December

Sometimes I check other pages and I think 'oh bummer, they haven't posted any updates' but every once in awhile I realize I haven't posted any updates!  Eeeeks!  Well today was one of those days which then got me thinking how fast this month is going!!!

In early December, the Wulf's went to Disney World for a week and had a great time.  Unfortunately during this time, they had a very pregnant dog! (They did not realize that dogs' gestation periods were so short! haha!) So their dog Maggie came to stay with us. Petey and Maggie get along pretty well (after the obligatory sniffings) and Maggie's been here and around all of us before so it just seemed like a better option than sending her to the vet to stay in a kennel.  Maggie is a bichon frise and the daddy dog was a shih-tzu.  I guess this mix called a 'teddy bear'  Anyway, we weren't sure anything would happen but after an afternoon of her having to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes, she had the puppies that night!  I texted the Wulf's some pictures and they were so excited! They had about 2 days left before they came back home and they could not wait.  I sent them some pictures to hold them over.  This puppy photo shoot was NOT EASY! Even though they were only about 18 hours old, they were already squirming all over! :) 

Maggie is a super great mom so the only way I was able to get the puppies away was when we gave her a bath and changed the bedding quick.

She had 6 puppies but one was a very little runt, like about half the size of the others. We tried bottle feeding him and even using the 'kangaroo method' with him, but 2 days after they went back to their house, he wasn't able to make it.  We don't think he was fully developed though because it seemed like anything we gave him with the bottle would come back out. :(

But the other 5 puppies are doing great and Jolie gets so excited to see them. At first she would look at them and say 'mine!' and we said NO WAY!  But we've been over to see them quite a few times and she always yells 'PUPPIES!' almost as excited as when she sees cookies or Elmo! :)  

Once we got settled down from that, we had a nice relaxing weekend at home.  Only to have Josh and I wake up in the middle of the night Sunday night/Monday morning with the stomach flu!  It was awful! We had to make an emergency call to Nana and Papa to pick up Jolie because we weren't able to take care of her (which just makes you feel like the biggest loser of a parent ever!!!)  But luckily they were available and came right up.  Jolie got very lucky and didn't end up catching it and instead spent a fun couple of days farming with Papa and helping Nana at work and playing, playing, playing.  I don't know what the deal is, but ever since Jolie was born Josh and I have had the stomach flu like 3 times! I hope we can grow out of it soon!  But I guess on the bright side it has always been that 24-hour type were you kind of want to die for 24 hours and then you wake up the next day feeling pretty normal again.  How is that even possible?!?!?!  And how do they not have a vaccine for this or something?!?!?!?  :)

So the rest of the week carried on with lots of hustle and bustle getting ready for the holidays.  Our babysitter (that come one Tuesday and Thursday evenings for a couple of hours) had her last day Thursday since she's now on winter break, so we'll have to get back to working out when she gets back.  And since we had the flu and weren't really up to going to the Y for class, we used that time to get some Christmas shopping done.  Between those trips and Amazon, I think we've done a pretty good job with our lists! :)

Then Friday came along and our heater was making a weird sound.  We didn't hear back from the repair guy that night and thought maybe we could make it until Saturday morning. Well late Friday night, it just quit working completely so we woke up to a 60 degree house--thank goodness the weather was nice this weekend and it wasn't colder!  So first thing at 8am Saturday, I made Josh call again to get them out.  They came out and determined our fan motor or something went out and we had it fixed by noon on Saturday.  Thank goodness we are renting! But also makes us hope that everything keeps working ok at our house in Iowa!  :)

So now it's already a week before Christmas!!!  Jolie has been in love with penguins lately and we had this Christmas Penguin I got at a white elephant party last year.  Christmas Penguin has been going many places with us lately.  He went out to eat with us the other night, often rides in the car, and enjoys sitting next to Jolie in his own chair at her table.  Being the girly-girl that she is, Jolie decided he needed some accessories too!  

Oh, Christmas Penguin, you're so fancy! :)

So now we are hoping for an uneventful week to enjoy the holidays! :)  

Magnet Board

Hey, hey, hey, Look what I made!  Jolie has always been obsessed with magnets and would probably spend all her time playing with them on the fridge, but since it out in the kitchen, it's a little inconvenient for us because we'd have to be in the kitchen all the time.  And you all know how dangerous it is to have me in a kitchen for extended periods of time...

So I'd seen this idea and had been looking for the supplies, but hadn't found it yet until last night.  This is an oil drip pan I picked up at Walmart for $10.  Then I attached it to our wall in the living room with command strips (so it won't leave any marks since we're renting, ya know).  Then I found some materials at Hobby Lobby, attached some magnets, and--BAM--we can play in the living room for hours!  

 Why, yes, we are wearing a tutu! As always! :)

Buzz

This is how Jolie let's us know what she wants to watch.  Her favorites are all of the Toy Story movies, Sesame Street and Tangled.  If she wants Sesame Street, she says 'Elmo', if she wants Tangled, well I'm not exactly sure what she says but she grabs the remote and says repeats the same thing. And if she wants Toy Story, this is what she does.  This is the shortened version too; it goes and on and on and on...  :)

Thankful for...everything! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone had a wonderful time wherever you may have been!  Josh and I especially thought this week was awesome because we went to Vegas.  We left last Friday morning and returned Monday about noon.  This was kind of a belated 5th anniversary vacation for Josh and I and my parents gift to us for our birthdays this year--sweet!  It's really nice because they have a direct flight from Grand Island to Vegas so not a lot of driving at all.  We had so much fun, had a great room on the strip, and did and saw so many thing!  It was AWESOME! :)

Nana and Papa watched Jolie and Petey while we were gone and they had a great time too! They took Jolie to a Mannheim Steamroller concert and SHE LOVED IT!  They had great seats in the first row and she apparently even made friends with some of them playing in the band (ahhh---she's a groupie!!!)  Jolie would clap after each song and just thought the whole thing was great!  They also had large screens up front where they would play videos or something to go along with the music, so she probably just thought she was at a live music video (she loves music videos!).

Thanksgiving was great!  We have all recovered from the food coma!  We went to Wood River and saw all of Jolie's cousins--Sam, Hayden, Hannah, and Sydney. Then Josh and I both had to work on Friday so she stayed AGAIN with Nana and Papa (we might have to move a dresser over there--haha!)  We went to the new Muppets movie on Friday night with the Wulfs, Culleys and Uncle Brett (it was Jolie's first movie at the theater) and she did great!  She was really into the whole thing, besides switching seats a few times, and even ate popcorn!  I think she's a Muppet fan and we all enjoyed the movie too!  Can't wait for that DVD to come out!

On Saturday, the Culley's were headed back to Kansas City so we went back over to Great-Grandma and Grandpa Dibbern's and ate breakfast.  Then we went back over to Nana and Papa's for the afternoon.  Uncle Brett and Uncle Michael were there so Jolie took full advantage of asking 'sat?' (what's that?) to everyone...lots.  It's her new favorite thing.  She also found nail polish and this girlie girl loves herself a pedicure.  She even got Uncle Brett to paint her nails! :)  Cute!  She has Uncle Brett wrapped around her finger.

As if we didn't already do enough, we went to a hockey game Saturday night with the Burg's (they have Reagan, 3 and Cole, 1) and had lots of fun running around with them, eating M&Ms and lots of giggles!  

So today, we declared it 'Do Nothing Sunday!' and didn't leave the house--it was also awesome! :)  I'm thinking this 'regular' week is going to be an adjustment for all of us from last week!