18-months-old

Today Adeline Grace is officially a year-and-a-half old.

Wowza. She is growing so fast!

New life

Many of our friends in Helena are having new babies. In the past two weeks Adeline and I visited two friends in the hospital. We congratulate Tracy & Jason who welcomed Sarah Anne. And Emily & Jonathan who welcomed Clara Jo. Life is so beautiful, praise the Lord that both babies and mommies are healthy and recovering well.

Sarah Anne Egeline

Born ~ Wednesday, June 15

Clara Jo Weaver

Born ~ Friday, June 24

Buffalo Ranch

Last month we visited Grandma Cathy at the Greybull Buffalo Ranch. Addie tried to help water the flowers but mostly watered the floor.

Addie gets a good smell of the mint plants waiting to be transplanted.

Addie maneuvers an irrigating pipe on the ranch. The 20-acre ranch is a school district owned real life classroom. In two greenhouses they grow flowers, vegetables and herbs. They also have chickens and a larger outdoor garden.

Addie helps grandma and a student transplant herbs in the greenhouse.

Getting her fingers dirty.

Visit from Uncle Tom, part 1

Adeline's Uncle Tom visited from Vermont this weekend. A short visit but a nice visit. We walked around downtown Helena, hung out at our house and of course stopped at Big Dipper.

My big brother...

Reading books...

Having hugs...

Tom, Julie, JD, Addie and I on the walking mall. Love this nice weather!

Happy Father's Day

Today on this Father's Day I am thankful for my father Jim. What a great dad and role model. A true man of God and leader of our family. I love you dad. And thanks again for walking with Adeline and I in the Governor's Cup when I had a sicky husband.

Mama drama and melting my heart

Mama drama...part 9: The beginning of my day and the end of my day was completely opposite. It started with mama drama. We woke up at 6:30 am, all three of us, for our garage sale. By 6:50 I needed to be out the door to hang signs and be at the garage sale to set up. After a breakfast of a giant plate of scrambled eggs for everyone, we are walking out the door and Adeline has a diaper blow out. Really?! Now, when you haven't had one in months? We get that cleaned up, signs hung around the corner and head to our friend Sarah's for our multi-family yard sale. While setting up, Addie proceeds to cry, whine and exhort her temper for the next half hour. She didn't want anything to do with JD, toys or snacks. Oh child, I love you but I can't always hold you. I'm thankful my friends and Sarah's neighbors were patient with not only my toddler but with my short patience. Sarah's mom came to my rescue - she watched Addie while getting her grandson Caderyn ready AND she made a big pot of delicious coffee!
My morning was full of drama but the day -- and Addie's temper -- got better and better. The garage sale went over great, we purged a lot of our belongings and earned a nice wad of cash. The Baby Bin Walk also happened today, more to come on that :)

And the last short story for the day is when Adeline melted my heart. After her bath we were snuggling in the rocking chair talking about bedtime and how much I love her. After a pause she whispered, dada. What else do you love I asked? She says, mama. And? Papa. What else do you love Addie? Showers she replies. And with that I laid her in the crib and she soothed herself to sleep without a fuss or a cry.

Governor's Cup

Since JD was feeling ill Saturday morning (and we now know why) my dad took his place and walked with Adeline and I in the Governor's Cup mile walk. We had a blast. She rode in the stroller most of the mile but walked across the finish line. My mom brought this flag for Addie and wouldn't you know....she loved that flag. She held onto it and waved it the entire mile.

My mom, dad, Adeline and I after the walk.

Here Grandpa Jim pushes Addie during the walk. Sarah posted some more photos too, so check those out. We walked last year in the Governor's Cup too. We are planning on making this a fun family tradition. Grandpa John said something that stuck with me today...imagine Addie 10 years from now and she's at the finish line before you. Oh dear.

Recovery and thanks

Friday morning JD woke up with a terrible, sharp pain in his lower abdomen, by Saturday night he was in the ER preparing for surgery to have his appendix removed. It all happened so fast. My parents just happened to be visiting from out of town, so they were able to watch Adeline so I could be at the hospital with JD. I'm glad he went in to get checked (even though he didn't even have a third of the symptoms) the doctors were able to catch the appendicitis early, it wasn't too inflamed and they performed laparoscopic surgery, three small incisions. Since JD is in good health and came out of surgery great, he was discharged from the hospital yesterday. He is pretty much on bed rest for the next two weeks with the restriction of lifting no more than 10 pounds. Isn't modern medicine amazing??

With as crazy as the situation was, everything went so smoothly. Yes of course I cried but both JD and I had the feeling of everything was going to be okay. God was in control and took care of everything. We have been blessed by many of our friends and family reaching out and supporting us. Within moments of the prayer chain being activated before the surgery I had three phone calls of people offering to watch Addie. We've had visits to our home, meals brought over and uplifting phone calls, texts and facebook messages. It's good to know JD and our family are loved and have not only good friends and family but a church community. Thank you to all of you ~ we love you too!

I've been spoiling JD with plenty of love and support (and trying to get my rest when I can.) His dad is visiting right now, it has been great to have him around cheering up JD and helping me with the heavy lifting around the house since my main man is out of commission. Now we are just praying for JD's swift recovery and saying prayers of thanks.

Footnote: Addie has done great with the whole situation and she showed genuine concern for her daddy when she visited him in the ER before surgery, too cute.

Rainy days

It has been such a rainy week and we have been cooped up. We try each day, usually under cloudy skies, to spend a little time outside. The grass is soaked and she loves tromping around in her little boots. But please sunshine come back! I need to be outside longer than 10 minutes!

Mama Drama

Mama drama...part 8: Total and complete meltdown.
Really that's all there is to say. However the details must be gushed.
There Cathy and I are standing in Target. Not even five steps inside the store and Adeline begins what will become her worst temper tantrum ever to date. It starts with "no" to everything.
"Would you like to ride in the cart?" - no
"Would you like grandma to hold you?" - no
"Would you like momma to hold you?" - no
"Would you like to push the cart?" - no
We distract her with a bright red umbrella and move along into the store. After picking up a few things in the baby department she starts to cry again. Big crocodile tears are streaming down her precious cheeks. I talk to her in a quiet soothing tone, I hold her close, I even try a stern voice and lecture her about good behavior and being a big girl.
She throws herself on the floor and full meltdown mode, screaming and crying. I am out of options and beginning to feel her emotional distress....
"The look on your face was of total dismay," my mom-in-law later told me.
Somehow, while on my knees in the paper product aisle, I calmed Addie down. We were able to make it out of the store with only a few more whimpers.
Sadly our shopping trip was cut short, no more perusing the fun things in Target and forget the other tings on the list. This toddler was ready to go home. And home we went. With Addie falling asleep in her car seat.
I am so grateful Cathy was with me, somehow it made the situation less embarrassing. I know some of you other parents out there can relate -- meltdowns in public are awkward.
I'm sure there will be another in my future. But now I'm ready and I know it's okay to abandon the rest of my shopping list and take my sweet kiddo home.

Spring flowers

Life with Addie...I spend a lot more time outside in our yard. Today as Addie was busy playing with her toy shovel and JD was planting more flowers I spotted these triple raindrops nestled among the bulbs. Aaaaah Spring.

Gardening with grandma

Nasturtium, sweet peas, dahlias, cosmos, begonias....Adeline helped Grandma Cathy plant flowers in the new flower bed JD made in the front yard. Yay for summer.

Mr. Caderyn James

This week I had the pleasure of babysitting my friend Jeff and Sarah's son Caderyn. It was fun getting to know this little guy over a longer period of time. I usually only see him for short bits with his mom while we go on walks, short play dates or to get ice cream. But this time it was Caderyn time at morning, lunch and afternoon. Adeline enjoyed having Caderyn around too. They played and played and played. Fought only a little, over cars. Caderyn loves cars and trucks. Where I'm going with this....I loved getting to know him and it makes me think about other people who take care of other people's kids and how much fun it would be to get to know all the different personalities of kiddos. But then I thought about the harsh reality of dealing with that many kids, no thank you.
Yes, having two toddlers was easier at times than just one. But you should have seen me Friday, ha ha. Two was more than enough. Thankfully I did have a little help from JD, dealing with car seats, hauling the two diaper bags, my camera bag, my purse, why did I pack all that stuff??



Pictured above, Caderyn loved making sure things were equal, each has their own car and water cup. Another great part of having another toddler around the house, was watching how Adeline responded. She loved doing what Caderyn did, running like he did and playing with what he played with. The most obvious example of the peer influence, besides the photo, was later in the week when Caderyn had a cup of milk before lunch. Adeline demanded that she too had a cup of milk. {Side note, my child does not like to drink cows milk} But there standing next to Caderyn I watched my little girl suck down the milk.



Tuesday we went to story time at the library. The kids played with the parachute after reading books.

Adeline enjoyed holding onto the parachute versus running under it.
Caderyn's full-time daycare will start next week but I will hopefully get to watch him on Fridays. Getting me practiced up for when we add another one to our family...

Water baby

On Monday we met up with some friends at Fairmont Hot Springs. We had a lovely time. Soaked and played in the water for nearly two hours! It was so good to see you Cami!