Documenting Life: Favorite Summer Activity! (Week 1)

Jenny Collier (Photography) has made a challenge to Document Life! I really want to be better about keeping track of Molly's milestones as well as every day moments, so I thought I would give it a try. Each week she'll give a different topic and hopefully I can keep up with it. The first entry is Favorite Summer Activity. This was a no-brainer. Joel and I love the lake and we found out this summer that Molly's does too! YAY!!! Here's some pics of Molly at Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dean's lake.

Driving the boat!

Floating and eating Cheezits = Perfect Lake Day
(nice bunny ears Dad- haha)

Ok and just for the record, I did take Jenny Collier's Mamarazzi Photography class, but these pics were taken with my cell phone. It's what I had. :)

Love, Jen

Easter!

This was my favorite Easter yet! I love having a kid- especially on holidays! We started with our annual "Easter Dress Fashion Show" (well it's only our second year). It's basically just me dressing up Molly to decide on which dress she'll wear. She loves this annual event. Lol- not really! Here are some few pics of last year's show:

This year we only had 2 dresses, so the show went better. :)

We went with the plaid and she was so adorable!

She participated in an Easter Egg Hunt with my work employee association. She only found 2 eggs, but she had a ball doing it. We hid those 2 eggs over and over again.

She had an Easter Egg Hunt at school too. Here's a pic of my big girl carrying her basket into school that morning. When did she get so big?!?

We also practiced at Grandma Donna's and at home in preparation of the big day!

Like a good mom, I completely forgot to take pictures of her on the actual day. Grandpa Dean and Grandma Karen came to church with us and then we headed to BA to Grammy Tonya's and Papa Dave's to eat lunch with family. I guess in all the hustle and bustle, I forgot my camera. :(

And this is how Easter Day ended...complete exhaustion!

It was a great day with family and friends. It's even better knowing the real reason why we celebrate Easter. Thank you Jesus!

Love, Jen

New ears!

I'm so thankful today! Molly got tubes in her ears and she did great! I'm one proud momma! She was the happiest baby in the hospital, walking around in her gown, talking to the nurses. (she doesn't meet a stranger). The doctor said that she had thick, glue-like fluid in both ears, so she should be able to hear a lot better now. She cracked Joel and me up this evening....She was playing with her toy maraca and would shake it right beside her ear. She thought that was hilarious! We just can't help but wonder if she was so amused by it because she's never heard it before.

It was quite a day for the family though. We feel incredibly blessed for having a healthy child, other than chronic ear infections. When Molly was in her hospital gown getting wheeled away for surgery, we were just so glad it was a routine 10 minute procedure and not an invasive surgery. We also want to thank everyone for the gifts, flowers, thoughts, and prayers. We have great family and friends!

Here are a few pics of the day:


Just changed into the gown.



Jack Nicholson??? :)



Daddy rocking Molly after she got the loopy medicine.



Looks like daddy took the loopy medicine too!

And Molly headed off to surgery...she was brave. We were the ones fighting back our tears. I just love her!!

Love, jen

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Life in the red barn...

For those of you that don't know, we live in a one-bedroom, 800 sq ft red barn on 10 acres. So we all share one room. It's fine most days but every now and then it gets cramped with all 3 of us and our 100 lb "Moose".

The past couple of nights Molly hasn't been sleeping throughout the night. She wakes up around 2 am, sees us, and then starts crying to get in our bed. And it's not like we can just ignore her and go back to sleep. Well I was talking to one of my friends that said that when they're on vacation and their baby is in their room, she hangs a sheet up so it's like she is still in her own room. So I thought I would try it and see if it helps Miss Molly stay in her own bed. First night= SUCCESS! I heard her stirring around but she went back to sleep. We'll see how it goes tonight and then decide if we'll keep Molly in her "own room". :)



Her crib.



My normal view.



What I wake up to.



And my attempt at our own rooms! :)

Love, Jen

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's Show Time!

Since I've met Joel, I've started going to livestock shows. This is a whole new experience for me! Being from Broken Arrow, showing animals was not the most popular activity they offered. I remember seeing FFA jackets, but honestly I didn't really even know what it was. Joel grew up in the country, showing livestock. It took some getting used to for me, but I've come to really enjoy them (once you get past the smell)! Joel has always said that he wants Molly to show livestock when she is old enough. I thought it would be a few more years at least...but she started this past weekend! She was in the Pee Wee show at the Wagoner Junior Livestock Show! She did really good, until she decided that she needed to suck her thumb. However, she was intrigued again when the judge gave her a ribbon. Something else to suck on! :) Here's some pics of our little country girl!

Isn't she the cutest cowgirl!?!

Sucking her thumb! I know, she's going to kill me when she's a teenager.

Getting her ribbon from the judge.

Her cousin, Chooch, that was actually showing the lamb.

Before I finish, I just have to give a shout out to Chancey (Chooch) for winning GRAND LAMB and GRAND STEER at the Wagoner County Show. We are proud of you! Good work!

Chancey getting his trophy with the Grand Lamb, and the judge picking his nose. It gets dusty in the barns. :)

Love, Jen

Moving to Colorado!

Gotcha! Actually we're on a 4-day ski trip to Breckenridge. It just feels like we packed the entire house to come for a long weekend. :)

It was Molly's first plane ride and I had it all planned out that she would nap through the flight. Wrong! This kid was too excited I guess. She finally snoozed the last 10 minutes of our 90 minute flight. Here's a few not-so-good pics of Molly's first airplane ride:


Daddy went to the lavatory so Molly got her own seat for a minute.



We wallered (sp?) each other to death.




Oh, yes! Peace for a minute. :)

We finally made it to Breckenridge and Joel and I hit the slopes Saturday morning. It was a great day to be on the mountain! We have 14 people on the ski trip so Molly played with the non-skiers. Thanks family!



Oh yeah, looking good honey!



The view is awesome!!! I heart the mountains!

Well that sums up the first 2 days of our vacation. I'll try to post better pics when I have a computer. Hope you are enjoying this long weekend too!

Love, Jen

- Posted using BlogPress from y iPhone

Molly's ONE!

My little bitty baby turned ONE last Saturday! It's so hard to believe. I can close my eyes and picture my newborn in my arms and smell her lil scent. Waking up every 3 hours to feed her and wondering if I'll ever go back to a normal life. She was precious. Now I have a kid that is full of personality and is BUSY! At her one year check-up, her doctor told me that I no longer have a baby, but a little girl! I wanted to cry.

I love her more than I could've ever imagined loving something. A mother's love is big, different, unconditional, and just flat out unlike anything I have ever felt. Anyway, thanks so much to all of you for sharing in Molly's big day (one of many). We are blessed to have awesome family and friends! Here's some pics highlighting her party:



Telling us she's 1! We've been working on that forever so I'm glad she did it!



She loved her cake. She ate on it a good 15 minutes! Thanks gma!


Two proud parents!

Love, Jen


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

MolllyPop goes to school!

So my mom had to go back to work after having three months off with me. She cried her eyes out like it was the saddest day of all, but she made it through. Anyway, now I get to go to school. It's really daycare, but I like to call it school cause we have art, reading, and recess! I'm really liking it and am making new friends. Since mom's been back to work I've learned new tricks like eating from a bottle, laying on my back in a crib, and entertaining myself. Here's a picture of my first day of school:

Baby Dedication

Just wanted to let you know that something pretty big happened to me. My parents and I participated in Baby Dedication at our church. One of our friends called it Baby Donation, instead of Dedication. Ha! (They are all crazy!) Bro. Monty (our pastor) said that this dedication means that my parents will bring me to church and help teach me about Jesus. I'm excited! I have lots of friends at church and we have fun playing together. You should come hang out with us sometime- Southeast Baptist Church! Here are a few pictures of this special day:

My First Easter

Yesterday was my first Easter and it was great! We started out at church where my Grandma Donna took me in to big church so I could hear all the music. I love listening to good ole Baptist hymns and the church choir! Then my mom got me so Grandma could go listen to the sermon and we went to the nursery to play with 13 other little kids. It was wild! Then we went to Grammy's for lunch. They said next year I get to hunt eggs... not sure what they mean by that, but they acted like it would be fun. The only part I did not enjoy about Easter is trying on all those dresses to find the perfect one. I could do without that next year! Here's a few pictures to show you what I went through:

Dress #1 (I'm not having very much fun)

Dress #2 (Mom, quit please!)

Dress #3 (Mom, this is horrible! I hate dresses!)

And the winner... so glad we finally picked one!

Once we got my dress attire established, Easter was a great day! I had fun celebrating the resurrection of Jesus! I already knew he had risen and was alive because I saw him just a couple months ago before I entered this world. (I'm smarter than they think). Hope you and your family had a great Easter too and really celebrated the reason for the holiday! Love you guys!
MollyPop