Here Come the Updates

Oh my oh my, it has been way WAY too long since my last real update. I will need to be better or I will end up never keeping you all up to date. OK so that last post talked about the butt paste. We added one more ingredient to the mix that made it work so much better, lanolin (go figure). I had spent some time researching butt creams and came across a natural discussion board that suggested lanolin. So the diaper changes went as follows... open dirty diaper, using the little squirter that Jolee came home with we rinse her down with warm water, remove and discard dirty diaper, pat dry with damp wash cloth, using the blow dryer on the lowest setting we would then dry her bum, place new diaper under her, apply cream, then close diaper. To say the least, it was very time consuming and Jolee had diarrhea quite often (more on that later) so we were always changing her diaper. But all the effort was worth it, her bum is completely healed and we are having no more problems, hurray! About the diarrhea, it turns out that Jolee is very sensitive to what I eat. If I have anything with diary in it, citrus, bananas, or chocolate, she will get an upset stomach and diarrhea. So long to my most favorite foods. It is a really good thing that Jolee is so wonderful. She makes it easy to sacrifice for her.

We have been going on walks.

Jolee is starting to like her sling more and more.

Taking naps (look we both put our arms up to sleep)

I have been getting some reading done.

Our garden is doing well. We ate tons of snow peas, bunches of bush beans, and now we have tons of tomatoes.

Next. After Randy finished his first summer session of summer school, we traveled up to Goodyear and spent the night with Randy's brother (Jeremy) and his family. Jolee's cousins got to spend some time holding her. Tyler wanted to spend the whole night holding her. She really liked getting to met her cousins. The next morning, Jeremy dropped us of at the airport and we flew up to Utah to visit our parents and for my sister's wedding. Jolee had her first plane ride. It was pretty uneventful and she slept through most of it.

When we landed, Randy's mom (LeAnn) picked us up and we went to another one of Randy's brother's (Ryan) home and visited with him and his family. They just recently had a new baby too. Timmy is 11 days older than Jolee and he is a cutie. He has a grandpa hair-doo, hair on the sides but none on top, sooooo cute. Jolee is quite a bit bigger than Timmy, well she is quite a bit bigger than most other babies her age.

Our time with our families was wonderful. Jolee quickly worked her magic and won the hearts of everyone.

Jolee went swimming for the first time.

Jolee had her first ever bottle. Randy really enjoyed getting to feed our princess.

Randy and I enjoyed our 5th Anniversary. Randy gave me a gorgeous amethyst and diamond (his and my birthstones) antique ring. We took it easy most of the day. When we went to the grocery store, I was so happy that I was dancing around and I got caught by a store employee who pretended not to see and quickly walked away. We laughed and laughed. It amazes me that Randy and I have been married for 5 years already. It feels like we just got married, but at the same time it feels like we have always been together. Randy makes me so happy and I am so blessed to have him for my husband.

We were privileged to get to go to the temple with Collin and Emily when they got their endowments out. It was a wonderful feeling to be there with my sister. I love her so much and I am so happy to be in her life. The only hard part about going with Emily, was that I had to leave Jolee for the first time. Even though we left her with her Grandma Swann (GrammS), it was so hard to leave. I cried as we drove away.

My family and their neighbors all did fireworks together in front of the house the day before the 4th. Jolee definitely did not like them. All the bangs scared her and made her cry. It was so sad. So we went in and watched a movie while everyone finished up with the fireworks. The 4th of July was fun. Jolee wore her special 4th of July shirt from her Auntie Meg. My family's puppy also wore a special 4th of July shirt that Emily stuffed her into.

We drove up to Preston, ID to spend some time with Randy's family. Jolee had her first ever campfire/wienie roast, she slept through it.

My sister and her husband looked absolutely stunning at their wedding. Welcome to the family Collin!

During the wedding, Jolee got her second experience at being babysat. My Uncle Chris was so wonderful and watched her for us.

During our time in Utah, we went to the Scottish Festival in Payson. It took all day for Randy's smile to unstick. He was thrilled to go. We took my baby brother (who is no longer a baby, but almost taller than me) Max with us. Our favorite part was the bagpipe playing. Max's favorite was the swords. (Look for movies to come)

After the festival, we went to a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. It is just amazing to see all of my cousins with their children. It is so weird to grow up.

When we flew home, we stayed in East Mesa for a few days to spend some time with Meg (my best friend for the last 23-24 years).

After coming home, we spent a few days resting, then we drove to Sierra Vista to visit C and C. Their new baby (E) is so beautiful. E is about half the size of Jolee. Jolee has really tanked up. At a recent check up, she weighed in at 12lbs 13 oz (97th percentile). She is definitely growing well.

I had my postpartum check up and I am good to go. Randy and I restarted Weight Watchers. I felt like saying "Hi, My name is Sarah and I am a food-aholic." I am glad to get back to the program to start losing my pregnancy weight.

Jolee loves her bath. (Look for an upcoming video on this)

Alright that is enough blogging for me. Goodnight.

How to get your Garden to grow!!

Are gardens like a watched pot? Otherwise, if you are constantly watching your garden does it never grow? It certainly seems like it. Our garden has been growing for about three weeks and as of Tuesday morning they were only two inches tall. Because we were leaving fro a few days we saturated our garden with water the night before. When I say saturated I mean it, we ran the soaker hose for about an hour and then we ran a sprinkler on it for about another hour. We did not want it to get dry and burned while we were gone. Upon our return we found that our garden had grown several inches while we were gone. Thus, to get your garden to grow, saturate it with water. Then leave town for a few days. :)

How to fit a garden in a Kia?

VERY CAREFULLY!

It also requires multiple trips. Our first trip was to the brick yard to pick up some cement blocks to help us build up the garden. Then we headed to Lowes and bought about 50 cubic feet of dirt and some cedar chips and Randy stuffed all of that into the back of our Kia. The tires were an inch from the wheel well. We literally couldn't have fit one more bag of dirt into the car, talking about good guessing on what our car could fit on my part. I did get a little nervous that we wouldn't be able to get everything in as the car started to fill up. Upon arriving home, Randy put the bricks up and we started to fill our new above ground garden. After getting the dirt and such ready for planting, we took another trip to Lowes and bought seeds, tomato plants, a strawberry plant, and a rhubarb plant. We excitedly scurried home and started to plant our hopefully new area of plenty. So far the seeds are coming up great, we have even had to do some thinning recently. We have bush beans, zucchini, snap peas, watermelon, carrots, lettuce and spinach growing, along with the plants. Chonkiri has already gotten himself in heaps of trouble over the garden. All he wants to do is get into it and dig up the plants and eat the dirt, so we had to build a fence as well. It was my idea to plant flowers in the cement blocks around the garden.