I’ve been itching to do a blog post, one on each of my children actually. However it is something I want to put some thought into…. I don’t have that time! Here is a quick update on our lives ~ all typed one handed as I have a sleeping baby on me (don’t dare and try to put him down).

Jacob~ He’s my little chunker. He was supposed to have his 8week check up last week but the Dr. cancelled so we go in on Tuesday. He’s a gassy baby. He only poops once every 4ish days, and generally is fussier after. I’ve got him on some probiotics to help, will see. When he is not screaming in pain from gas he’s full of smiles and very content. This morning he laid in the crib cooing at the mobile for a good half hour! He’s also a very warm baby, spends his day in nothing more than a short sleeved onsie ~ if that.

Olivia ~ she’s decided she’s going to be sassy like her sister… fun… Actually she does everything her sister does, she’s like a mirror. Even if she sees Joy do something that gets her disciplined she does it right after. Her 3 favorite  things are bugging/mirroring Joy, ‘snuggling’ Jacob, and pretending she’s a puppy dog!

Joy turns 4 in just 9 sleeps! We are having her party the Saturday before, I decided to make some tutu pom wands… silly me. It’ll be a fun princess theme. Where did the time go? I just had her! She’s grown up so much. We also have her in speech therapy, what a smartie! Every new sound we learn she figures out how to say in the first 2 minutes of class then does it perfectly for the rest of the hour! I catch her at home forgetting to say them properly but she’s doing great! Next class is also our last and she’ll be learning SH, which is the hardest for her.

Some fun things Joys said recently ~ “Daddy, fome time I need you to leave me alone” (that was before she learned the s sound), Orlund asked her where his baby went and she replied “I ran away”, And on Sunday Grandma said she couldn’t keep up because she’s old and Joy said “Poppa’s old too”.

Orlund and I are doing good, trying to get stuff done around the house. Life is just so busy. I’m also trying to work out every week day, doing pretty good. I’m also watching what I eat. Week 1 was good, dropped 3lbs and 1″ off my waist. Week 2 not so good, ate out 2 days and missed 2 days working out. I didn’t lose anything. I’m not really to concerned about my weight, I can lose that later. I want to ensure I can still Breast feed Jacob for as long as he needs. That being said I find I have more energy if I work out and therefore get way more done

With all this business with our baby boy I haven’t really blogged much about the girls, so today is about our girls

Joy is “Mommy’s helper”. when I’m having a rougher day, or I just need a break she seems to be able to pick up on that and helps me out without hesitation. The other day I asked her if she could grab a diaper from their bedroom for Olivia’s diaper change, she said “Okay” and went and got one. As soon as I sat on the floor to change Olivia she took off running down the hall, I turned to Joy and asked if she would mind bringing Olivia to me. Sure enough Joy gently guided Olivia down the hallway and within arms reach (Olivia likes to do as her sister wants). Joy is having a bit harder of a time now that Olivia can reach on top of the fish tank and the counter tops (Joy’s hiding spot for toys), and often she gets frustrated with having to share. Olivia follows Joy around because she’d hate to miss out on anything, and I think Joy sometimes misses her private, alone play time. Joy is completely potty trained (although she sleeps in a diaper she rarely uses it). Joy still loves to sing and dance, and spin Olivia too fast so they fall down. She’s really gotten into praying and loves to talk about Jesus (I’ll blog later about that). All in all she’s just growing up too fast!

Olivia has spunk! She is going through what many refer too as the ”terrible two’s”. she’s 18months old but she’s always been a bit strong willed. Now she knows how to talk so she tells us what she thinks. When I say she talks it’s not full sentences but she sure can repeat words and her favorite is “NO”. If she doesn’t want to do what you ask, she’ll reply firmly “No” then the bottom lip extends and her chin tucks in turning into two. It’s really cute, but sassy. She also likes to ‘help’ me however it usually ends up being more work for me. She likes to stand her ground and not give Joy that toy she’s playing with, however if Joy breaks down into tears, Olivia is quick to hand over whatever will make her happy again. Olivia loves to please people. She still loves to snuggle. We are trying to get her off of drinking her bottle at night. We would brush her teeth then give her her bottle (felt like a waste) so we now try to get her to drink her bottle before we brush, and during the night when she wakes we try to get her back to sleep without drinking anything (usually she would just suckle anyway). She is wearing size 2 clothing, which means some of the clothes Joy still remembers wearing as she was just wearing them this past year. It takes a bit of explaining to Joy that she’s to big for the clothes, and after a few tears, she understands.

Currently both the girls (and myself) are fighting off colds, which means our gentle princess Joy becomes more violent. She’ll smack Olivia if she gets in her way, it’s weird to see her hitting like that (she spanked Olivia the other day for climbing onto her chair!). Olivia becomes more whinny, which is really not like her either. She usually will tell you what she thinks then run away shouting “No” (then circles back for a snuggle) but now she just tosses herself onto the floor crying (very dramatic). I find we let Olivia get away with a lot more ‘drama’ then we ever let Joy get away with, but I hear each child gets away with more and more. We are trying to deal with the screaming run Olivia does but that all takes time (and age understanding). Joy went through this phase as well, however she was never as strong willed as Olivia.

Well that’s the just of it

Today I was continuing on with my ‘fall’ cleaning when Joy called me into her room. I went in to see her sitting reading her storybook bible (has about 5 OT stories). She flipped through it quickly and said “Mommy,  No Jesus. Where Jesus?” “Oh, Jesus isn’t in there?” “No mommy. No Jesus, why Jesus not in Bible? No whale too”. “oh, No Jesus and No whale?” “Yeah, no Jesus or whale”………I tried explaining that they were just a few Old Testament stories but that’s hard to explain to a 3 year old. I told her that Jesus was in her other Bibles and this one just has a few stories, but not about Jesus or the whale (Jonah). She sure melted my heart though. At 3 asking why Jesus wasn’t in this Bible. SO CUTE!!!

We took Joy in a while ago to have her speech assessed (don’t know if I’ve blogged about that or not?), well either way, she is a bit behind where she should be so we’ve been working with her. The main part is sounding out the first consonant. The other day Joy said “happit” for rabbit. Gabe piped in and said “no Joy it’s not happit, it’s wa wa wabbit” “no Gabe it’s not” “it isn’t?” “No it’s rrr rrr rabbit”. He was very surprised he was saying it wrong. He’s been trying to help Joy with her words as well, however I find often he’s giving the wrong example! LOL

Then yesterday during lunch he said to me “Jenn, tell me if you can hear me when I do this” And lets out a big sigh. “Yes Gabe I can hear you sigh” “WHAT!?!?! You can??” His mouth dropped open in an astonished look “but, but how could you? I was plugging my ears!” LOL  It took a great deal of explaining to get him to understand why I could hear him even though he was plugging his ears….and I still don’t think he fully understands (or perhaps he doesn’t believe me?).

As I sit here typing I am taking my second listen to a beautiful song that is on my friends blog…I don’t know how to do that fancy tagging but her blog is ~ dankasworld.wordpress.com Check it out

So Today I dropped Olivia off with Grandma Norstrom. It was her first time being left alone without at least one of us (as in Joy, Daddy or myself). She did great. I dropped her off as I had to take Joy to her hearing test. Babies have their hearing tested when they are first born before leaving the hospital. Joy’s test came back fine, however my Dad is deaf in one ear, so they like to retest later on. (9months and 3years ~ although that’s since changed and now it’s just at 3years old). I was so surprised at how grown up my ‘little’ girl is!! She did awesome during the check up. she knew what all the pictures were (they said the name she just pointed them out ~ didn’t know she knew what some of those things were!). Her hearing is awesome and she doesn’t need to go for another check up (Yippee!). Although I am going to take her in to meet with a speech therapist just to make sure she’s on track.

Then we went out for ice cream… which at 9:30am is harder than it sounds! DQ was closed. McDonald’s was cleaning their machines…. Joy wasn’t very happy at that, luckily Shell had some. We even had time to hit up the dollar store. Then Joy had a regular doctors apt (just to check on a funny toe nail she has). Then we went up to Grandma’s house. I still wanted to get some shopping done, so Grandma watched both the girls so I could run out and do the grocery shopping. Thanks Grandma!

Orlund is in Vancouver tonight. hence why I’m still up at 11pm! *Gasp* I find I have a hard time going to bed when he’s not home. I decided to tackle our office/craft room while he’s away (hope he doesn’t read this before coming home, although he rarely reads my blog). I put up a painting I got from my mom’s mom (she was the most talented woman I’ve ever met!). And a crafting shelf thingy (on the wall). I’m pretty proud of myself for doing that. Over the past few weeks I’ve slowly (very slowly) gone through my book shelf and boxed up the books I just really don’t need out. Tonight I took everything that doesn’t belong in that room out and organized in piles (garbage, to go into crawl space etc). I have about an hour of work left before the craft room will be done (on my side, I’m not touching Orlund’s stuff). I think Orlund will be happy to see the progress I’ve made. And of course I want the house all clean for when he gets home… but my time is going to be cut short tomorrow ~ hockey night! And I plan to go to my Dad’s house and watch the game with him and my brother.

I have also taken on a new task. I’m excited about it. Orlund thinks I’m crazy as it’s just something else to add to my to-do list. However it is only once in a while job. At our Church whenever someone has a new baby the mom’s get together and bring them meals for an entire week. It’s a HUGE blessing when you are on the receiving end. The two ladies that have been doing it aren’t wanting to anymore and they have been looking for someone to take it over for a while. I didn’t want to, however then I decided that it’s not that hard of a job, and I like the organizing possibilities. I now have a binder with papers all ready to be filled out~ Who’s baby, allergies, time for meal drop off, etc etc. I love lists and this just falls beautifully into my ‘addiction’ to having to write things out. (I find that if in the evening I don’t write anything down on paper, I feel like I’m missing something. I think it soothes me… weird I know). There are 4 babies I already know of coming to our Church in this year (okay one is at the start of January). I’m excited to give this a go!

Well my kitchen is messy, my laundry is still hanging in the living room, I’m surrounded by all my ‘organizational’ stuff, and I’m headed to bed! lol.Good night!

This morning Joy walked out of her bedroom speaking in clear full sentences. As she got tired through the day her speech started to slip back to it’s old ways, but to start off Orlund and I were both in Shock. She turned 3 today! Well actually she was born at 11:36pm, it’s only 10:30pm so it’s getting close. She turned 3. wow. We had a fantastic birthday party for her, she was completely spoiled rotten. The house was NOISY! 10 kids, 11 adults! NOISY.
Here are the kids ages~
Girls~ 5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 9months. Boys~ 7?, 4, 2, 2(in June). 4 kids age 2!
Olivia was up coughing for most the night, so she slept through most the party. Which she also slept through most of her own birthday party too… hmmm.. perhaps large loud groups tire her out too? I know they do me!
It was a raining day but over all we had fun! Hotdogs, Hamburgers and salad made the yummy lunch. Frog cupcakes made for tasty desert! Orlund took pics, I’ll post soon! (uh huh, got lots of pics to post!).

Well I’m pooped out, and need to find where I left the diaper bag. So I’m sighing off!
Good night and God bless!

My baby turned 3 today…… I just can’t get over it…. 3….

While Orlund works on something mysterious downstairs I figured I might as well get to updating the blog. I have a bunch of pictures to post, however I can’t find the cable thingy to download from my camera to the computer. But here are a few snips of our life as of late;

~ Olivia got a cold the day after her 1st birthday. She still has it. The Friday after her birthday she had her 1year shots, two weeks later she had measles bumps as a reaction. We had a bunch of sleepless nights.

~ The week leading up to Olivia’s birthday she started nursing more, adding back in her 10am feeding.And still didn’t sleep through the night with 2-5 feedings.

~ The Thursday night BEFORE her shots she was up all night screaming. She couldn’t breathe due to a stuffy nose. At 4am we realized she was hungry as she hadn’t eaten all night. She couldn’t lay down to nurse, so we gave her the bottle.

~ Olivia didn’t go back to breastfeeding after that…. I was NOT expecting that sudden stop. Shed a bunch of tears. Orlund couldn’t understand why I was upset by this as even I had said she was old enough to wean. It was just so sudden, especially after she’d started nursing again. I felt like a special time with my baby was over, she’s growing up. It takes a bit to get used to.

~ Joy also got the cold the same day Olivia did. And she still has it. She also got Croup in there….fun… She’s over the Croup but still has a bad cough.

~Last night Joy didn’t sleep. So neither did the rest of us.

~ We’ve been looking at all the things around the house we want to do. It’s extensive! But this year we hope to tear down our old fence (on one side of the house) and put a new one up. Put mulch down in the back where Orlund had a garden last year (this will give room for the kids toys that isn’t on the grass). And install a ‘lattice’ like contraption on our back cement wall and plant some vines to crawl up them. I think that will be all we can afford this year. But it’ll make a HUGE difference around here!

~ Our neighbors trimmed our front Junipers (I think that’s what they are called). Completely cleans up the front of the house!

~ A bunch of people I know just had babies. I know a whole bunch more that are pregnant. Sigh. I held a -almost- week old today, he was so adorable! The same weight as Joy was, but 2″ shorter. So cute!

~ Joy is pretty much Potty trained. I say pretty much as she still wears a diaper at nap/bed times but otherwise she’s doing great! Even played at Grandma’s today and didn’t have any accidents. I told her if she goes until her Birthday (1 week away) without accidents then she can go to Sunday School with her friend “Ky”.

~ Joy is obsessed with her friend Ky. She talks none stop about Ky. “Ky nap?”"Ky nummies?” “Ky go outside?” etc etc. it’s cute. However whenever we actually get together with Ky Joy just stares at her and is shy! Unless we are at Ky’s house, then Kylie bosses her around and Joy is happy to play along.

~ Joy is getting better and better all the time with her language. She’s saying words I didn’t even realize she knew, and picking up words wonderfully. Sure she still seems behind other kids her age, but she’s doing GREAT.

~ I have a book (like a binder but not, forget what they are called) that is full of my “to do’s and goals” for the year. I have each month written out. Of course I’ve fallen behind, but I’m doing alright. I finished Olivia’s cross stitch and bought the frame today to finish it off completely.

~I also have another book that has other lists in it. Part is organizing for a trip we plan to take to visit our Grandparents, and the other part is organizing for Joy’s Birthday party. The first part isn’t very big yet, just dates and people to contact etc. Joy’s part is big. I have people to invite, time, what to feed everyone, and that sort of stuff. I have grocery lists, cleaning lists, organizing lists, decorating, and general prep work lists. I like my lists. And I’m getting them checked off wonderfully! I have the goodie bags all purchased, and any groceries I could prepurchase purchased, cleaning is on schedule. I actually got ahead on the cleaning, then I noticed and somehow fell a bit behind now….Oh well, it’ll all get done. I plan to have it all done by Thursday, so Friday can be decorating and any outdoor chores (we will be in the back yard). Then her party is Saturday morning, so before the party I don’t want to be running around, I want to be getting the girls dressed, hair done etc. I’m looking forward to it.

~ Have I rambled enough? Once I find my camera/computer cord I’ll upload some pics of Olivia’s birthday. Promise.

Oh I think Orlund is done the ‘mysterious’ business (think perhaps its to do with Mother’s day? Just a thought.). I’m going to go now and spend time with him! God Bless!

So our Beautiful girls are growing up WAY to FAST! However it sure is fun watching them play together. Olivia is now into exploring toys and trying to play with her sister. They dance and sing together (no Olivia can’t walk yet, but she sure can bounce that bum!). They even let me leave them alone in the basement to play! (only for short times while I cook lunch etc).

Olivia has discovered that it’s loads of fun to toss her food on the floor! We skipped this step with Joy, Joy was always a neat and tidy kind of kid so that would just be to messy! Olivia isn’t like that at all! She is also at the stage where whenever we say “No” she bursts into tears and has a good cry. She is trying to talk, and her words are becoming clearer.

Joy is doing AWESOME potty training. We were at a friends the other day and even though she was in a diaper she asked to go pee on the potty. She did so at Starbucks last night too. She’s only had one successful poop on the potty, but that’s okay, it’s coming. She woke up this morning very upset, if I understand right she had gotten up and while leaving her room she went pee. So she got all upset and went back to bed having a little cry ’cause she went pee. She didn’t come see me or anything, this is just what I figured from what I heard. She was wearing a diaper so it was no big deal, but she sure was upset by it! She is also working on her words. I think it’s in part due to visiting our friend. Her daughter turns two at the end of this month and she speaks more clearly than Joy, I think Joy took notice of that and is working harder (and it’s about time too). Now she seems to pick a word out of every sentence I say to her to repeat back to me. She just said Meat a minute ago. Never heard her say that before! It’s so exciting to hear her clearly repeat a word back to me, especially since I didn’t ask her too! And to top it all off she’s putting more words together, she’s always rattled off sentences but there was only a word here or there that we could understand, now it’s becoming that we understand more of her words and just a few are still her own language.

~~ A little side note ~~
Saturday night Orlund returned from the men’s conference. After he and his dad finished unloading Orlund’s stuff and Hugh headed home I got a big surprise. I was expecting Orlund to be excited about God etc like most of us get after a conference, however what happened next I would have never expected. Orlund gave me a great big hug, and while holding me tight said “I am so Thankful that you are my wife”. SMILE. He’d done a bunch of talking I guess to people with broken families and he was feeling very thankful for our relationship etc. It was truly God’s timing. I was feeling Thankful for everything (read my last post?) and here he was feeling the same way. It made for a special evening of lots of talking and hugging.

So we have decided to try potty training…. The thing with Potty Training, once you start you can’t (shouldn’t) stop! And well I hadn’t really thought about that… I had purchased two ‘panties’ for Joy (the padded ones). Found out we needed more than that, thankfully a friend had given me some previously. Day one was great! I kept reminding her, and asking her, and she only had one oops (and one poop oops). But other than that she was good! We even made a “Joy’s Potty chart” for her to put stickers on every time she’s successful.
Day 2~ Not so good. I had the boys and she’s running a fever. We were only successful twice. sigh.
Day 3~ Today. Again not so good. Again I had the boys and she’s still running that fever. I think we were again only successful two or three times. But I’m sticking to it. She knows what’s what, it’s just a matter of her doing what she’s supposed to do. I kept asking her if she had to go, figured if I asked her then it would get her thinking about it. At one point when I was asking if she had to go, she came over to me, put her hands on my cheeks ~ holding my head so I had to look at her and said “No pee” then went on to explain in her own language that I’m bugging her and she’ll tell me when she needs to pee……..Okay dokay. She didn’t but it was cute that she held my head still to tell me what’s what.
Wish me/her luck for day 4!
Oh and one other thing I just want to share. When Olivia and I were in the hospital Joy started calling Orlund’s mom Didda. Then she called my mom Didda. So we figured that was her word for Grandma, she calls both our dad’s Poppa (although we call my dad Poppa and Orlund’s Grandpa). Then however one night Virden and Kerry were over and Joy called Kerry Didda….hmmm, perhaps it’s a way of talking to a lady…. Now however she calls Solomon Didda on a regular basis and occasionally calls Gabe Didda as well… I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean, someday perhaps she can tell us. Right now however whenever I ask her what Didda means she just starts laughing hysterically!

Joy’s new two favorite words “I do”.

“Do you want to go on the potty?” “I do”.

“Do you want some food?” “I do”.

“Do you want to go to bed?” “NO”. lol.

Anything you ask her (that she wants to do) is answered with “I do”. It’s cute, although her manners have been slipping some. That’s more our fault for letting it slide.

Another ‘fun’ adventure is Joy has finally figured out how to climb into the crib. It’s great for in the morning, when Olivia is awake and just needs entertainment (gives me a few more minutes). Joy can’t get out of the crib either so that keeps them both busy. Smile.

Joy had nightmares the other night, and well since then doesn’t seem to want to sleep in her own bed. Poor girl. For nap time yesterday I ended up taking Olivia out (since Joy kept waking her up) and left Joy to sleep in the crib. (Olivia and I got in some good snuggling). Then at night around 11pm I went in to feed Olivia, I had just gotten out of the shower so Orlund had picked her up. I went in nursed her then as I put her in her bed I felt something strange. I was curious what it was as Joy often ‘gives’ things to Olivia (like picture frames, books, shoes, you know ‘fun’ stuff to sleep with). So I pulled the curtain back letting the moon light filter into the bedroom. There curled up with her bum against Olivia’s was Joy. Fast asleep. I was tempted to leave her, but I happen to know Joy moves around enough to worry for Olivia’s safety. I put Joy in her own bed and she slept great! Nap time today, Orlund was able to finally convince Joy she should sleep in her own bed… we will see how it goes tonight.