A few July pictures..

We got home from Island Park on the 5th, just in time to celebrate the 4th of July with family. Kelley, Nate, Gavin and Tutu came over for a BBQ and some fireworks. We had a fun time, complete with a stray kitten that tried to make its home in our garage and even our house..

We had a mini-birthday with Tutu, since she decided she had to go back home to Hawaii finally..

The fireworks watching crew. (You can see the cat that tried to live at our house right behind me!)

Nate deciding which firework to light next. I didn't get any pictures of Justin because he spent a lot of time chasing the cat out of the garage.

About a week later, Josie and I went to the sidewalk sale in Logan with some friends. We got a coupon for a free play at the jump house/slide. The kids had a blast.

Josie even got brave enough to try the slide. Twice!

Next time I'll post some pictures from Josie's birthday party!

2 Year Check-up

We had Josie's 2 year-old check-up today. As we walked back to the exam room, Josie said, "This is fun!" She did great and fully cooperated with the doctor and nurse. She didn't like having to lay down on the table to be measured or having to lose the diaper to be weighed, but other than that, she thought it was all good fun. Plus, the doctor gave her a new book, so she was a happy camper. Here are her 2 year stats:

Height: 34.5" (69%)

Weight: 27 lbs 5 oz (59%)

We were a little surprised with her being TALL (Justin and I are anything but tall...) but we were not surprised to find that her head circumference is still in the 95th percentile. She needs a big head to hold her big ol' brain! According to the doctor, by 2 years old, Josie should know fifty words or more and be able to put two or more words together. Parents should understand 75% of the time and strangers about 50%. For those of you who don't know Josie, I don't think I could even guess how many words she knows. She's been speaking in complete sentences for months now. I understand about 95% of what she says, and strangers can understand about 75% of the time. Needless to say, she is quite advanced in the speech category. She's right on track with all her other development. Besides all that, she's pretty cute. :)

Island Park

Over the 4th of July weekend, we went up to Island Park with the fam. It was SO fun! Uncle Ron & Aunt Katie were kind enough to let us use their cabin. We had a wonderful time! I have a million pictures, so I'll try to limit it. :)

As soon as we got out of the car, Josie was ready for a ride.

First 4-wheeler ride with Aunt Kimmy.

Playing...

Kimmy and Gavin.. had to post this cause its SO CUTE!

A few of us decided it would be fun to float down the river (my favorite Island Park activity!) Josie STILL talks about riding in a red boat. Here are the highlights:

Here's a shot of the living room.. everyone hanging out.

Our campfire, and the brave men cooking the hot dogs.
We had lots of cute babies!
We made the normal trip to Big Springs on Sunday afternoon to see the fish.
We also had a parade on the 4th (it was 1 car long..) for all the kids to get some treats.

Well, there's the short version of our trip. We had a great time even though we had some rainy and cold weather. Josie loved having someone to play with ALL the time. It was so fun! Can't wait until we get to go again.

I'm slowly getting caught up. We had a birthday party for Josie last week and are excited for her to turn two on Saturday. She is so fun!

Other exciting news, Justin got a new job! And its in the Ogden area! We're excited to be able to move closer to family and friends in Ogden, but not so excited about trying to sell our house right now. Hopefully there's someone out there looking for a wonderful little starter home! If you know anyone looking for a house in Logan, you know who to call!

Is that MY baby??

I can't believe that Josie is turning 2 in a little over a week! How in the world did that happen?Just a reminder, this is my baby (December 2008):

I don't know who this HUGE little girl is.. can't be my tiny little Josie!

Every chance I get, I like to take a picture of Josie and her cousin Tucker in the same chair at Mimi and Papa's house. Its a great way to measure how big they are getting.

Here is a picture from Halloween 2008.

And here is one from a couple weeks ago:

I just can't believe my little girl is so big! And going to be TWO YEARS OLD! Oh and in case you were wondering, we're experiencing the terrible twos in full swing already. Here are a few of our "favorite" new phrases from Josie.

"Don't push me!"

"I not go to time out!"

"Don't talk to me!"

"Don't look at me!"

"Don't touch my ____!" (filled in with whatever item you are close to).

But even with all the yelling we experience, she's still a sweet little girl. She's very good to say sorry when she's done something bad, and I often hear "I love you Mommy!" She gives the best hugs and kisses! I love my little girl and I'm excited at how big and smart she is. I just can't believe it happened so fast! I feel like a need a rewind button.

The Month of June--Picture Overload!

I didn't realize how far behind I was on posts! My last real update was on June 2! So, here is what we have been up to this June.We had play days with Josie's friend Emmi. They have a lot of fun together. And they're so cute too!

Tutu came to stay with us for a week before baby Gavin showed up. Josie LOVED it, as we all did. Here are some of the things we did.

Josie jumped in bed with Tutu every morning to read some stories.

Josie had her first ice cream cone (one that was all hers) up at Aggie Ice Cream. She thoroughly enjoyed it! Getting Aggie Ice Cream is one of Tutu's favorite things to do in Logan.

We went to Summerfest, a yearly art festival that they have here in Logan. Our favorite things were the cinnamon toasted almonds, the gyros and the balloons. Josie got a flower, and for the next few days was saying "More Balloons!"

Justin's Uncle Chris got called as a mission president in Canada, and we got to go to the farewell for him & the family that is going with him. Josie ended up getting sick, so these are the only pictures I have of the whole day...

It was Josie's first encounter with the curling iron and her hair was too cute to not take a picture.

We were planning on having the baby shower for Gavin on the Saturday before he was due and he decided to come early--the day before the shower. So we hurried down to the hospital on Friday and Tutu and I were able to be there when he was born. It was amazing! Kelley did great, he's a beautiful baby, and everyone is doing great still.

After that, our little family had a get-together with some long-time friends.

The big excitement was when the horses came to the edge of the yard to say hello.

Tim shared his football with the horse..

Josie's favorite part was the swings.

Here are a couple shots of the group. We had a great time seeing everyone!

Other happenings, Josie still loves the laundry hampers.

She decided her potty is a hat. (Don't worry, it's CLEAN!)

Sorry, these next couple are blurry! Lance & Tassia came for a visit, and Josie had a fun time playing with Lucas and Delaney. Luckily it was a long visit this time, so we got to see them more this month (July).

We finally got to have the baby shower for Kelley and Gavin the week after he was born. Here are the cupcakes that I made:

And here is my little helper:
A few pictures from the shower (I wasn't a very good shower photographer!)

And here's a cute little girl! Can you believe she's almost 2 years old? Where has the time gone!?

A quick medical update for everyone, I am officially off of the predisone and my platelet levels have been in the normal range for over a month now. I have my final check-up with the specialist on Wednesday to see if my count has stayed up since stopping the medication about 2 weeks ago. Our family is doing well and loving the summer. I have a few more pictures for the month of June, but I think that's enough for this post, don't you? I hope you all had a wonderful month of June, and hopefully I won't get this behind on my posting again.