Guess who's in town???

Grandpa, Grandma, and Mammaw arrived yesterday after a trip that seemed like a breeze compared to coming all the way to hawaii. Juneau has been soooo cute. she is really grasping the concept of " Grandma". She has been saying it all day. I LOVE that! There has been lots of playing, book reading, and snuggling going on around here.

Nova's not really into books. at least not compared to Juneau. When J first came home at 10 months she would sit still to read whole books. Nova can barely make it through a page without getting fidgety. Until grandpa read to her, and she stayed still through 2 entire books!

Grandma reading to the girls. so cute!

Baby Nova and Great Grandma Nova (Mammaw). Double Trouble.

After work today we headed to Colorado's version of "The Luau". The Flying W Ranch was a perfect place to celebrate Mom and Dad Stickley's Anniversary!!! We all had a fantastic time.

These adorable little jackets Mammaw brought came in very handy today when we had some very chilly rain while at the ranch.

The Crew!

Daddy and Grandpa carried the girls all over the place

The show was kind of late for the girls - didn't end til 9, way past their usual 730 bedtime. Nova fell fast asleep in Grandma's arms

Juneau held out until after the show before she fell asleep on the car ride home.

We had a FANTASTIC night enjoying good food and great entertainment. Unfortunately Nova scared us all when she fell out of the very rustic highchair contraption and bumped the front of her face on the table, then her head rebounded and she smacked the back of her head on the bench. Aside from a little bloody lip she shook it off and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

we have an action packed week with the grandparents, and lots of fun in store!

remembering this weekend last year

This was a huge weekend in 2008. Click here to read Cris' post last year about the very first time i held baby Juneau. Nova and I had been in a living hell (a.k.a. gyn-oncology rotation in Michigan), which was salvaged only by the fact that my amazing mom had taken a leave of absence to live in a tiny little hotel room with us in michigan to take care of nova (and me!) Cris had been traveling across the world to bring home our new baby. My time in Michigan had FINALLY come to an end, and I remember being on the verge of tears with excitement the entire plane ride back to Hawaii. Tiny little Nova was only 3 months old, and was fast asleep in the frontpack as i literally ran through the terminal to baggage claim and saw june-bug for the first time. It was indeed a scene for anyone who happened to be at the baggage claim. I cried and cried when i got to finally touch juneau's little cheeks. She just stared at me with the most curious look. I loved that little girl more than i ever imagined possible from the very second i laid eyes on her. It is hard to describe how this baby felt a part of me even though i had never met her, but i knew immediately that i was this little girl's mommy.

This has been such a fun month with Juneau. She is learning soooo fast. She has an unbelievable memory, and she talks non-stop. Last week Junebug and Cris were downstairs, and nova was napping. Nova woke up crying, and Cris asked Juneau if she wanted to go get sissy. Juneau ran up the stairs, and before cris could make it up behind her he heard Juneau say "Don't cry sis, Juneau here". is that unbelievably cute or what?

anyway, here are some pics from our weekend

Much to Cris' dismay we moved to a neighborhood that is Garage Sale Central! I LOVE GARAGE SALES! Why buy new junk when you can buy other people's used junk for a fraction of the price? That is how we ended up with this awesome Elmo Sprinkler for Fifty Cents!

Cris became a little less skeptical about the garage sales when he scored this oldy but goody, from back when a good video game was just a series of red dots on a printed grid. He has been playing this football game like it is a brand new Nintendo DS.

Seriously, every time i look over Cris is playing this thing. He made it clear that this is Classic Football 2, so not only can you run, but you can also pass. High-tech.

The girls' first experience with licking the beaters. A huge hit.

And finally, these are THE CUTEST outfits ever! The Matus girls brought them back from Guatemala, and i adore them. Random strangers were raving about how cute the girls looked everywhere we went on Saturday! Seriously Adorable.

blue and yellow?

i must be crazy! Alex and Lyndsey (our nieces who are buckeyes through and through) were quick to point out in the last post that Juneau's potty reward involved Blue and Yellow m&m's. For those of you not in the know, these are the colors of Ohio State's biggest rival, Michigan. It was a minor crime to give her a blue m&m (which according to cris should just be removed from the package immediately after purchase). But the fact that the blue was actually paired with a yellow constituted a major crime. I tried to fix the picture with my master Adobe Photoshop skills to be a little more acceptable to our superfan nieces. :)

momma and baby nova! love this little sweetie!

Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies. Ashes, ashes....

We all fall down!

Nova and Juneau LOVE playing ring around the rosy; however, this is the inevitable end to the game. Somebody always gets stepped on!

Juneau and Nova are the proud wearers of these awesome climbing harnesses passed down from Alex and Lyndsey. I think they look super cute, and i can't wait to get them out on the rock to try them out. Cris and I are excited about climbing in Colorado, but since we don't have any friends here yet to go climbing with, and we haven't quite figured out how 1 person can belay while chasing around 2 one year olds, we haven't ventured out yet.

J-bug in the gear bag

on cris' side of things, we have been up to the Air Force Academy twice since we moved here so he could meet with some of the researchers in the exercise physiology lab. they are doing some really awesome research (cris will laugh that i said "really awesome" and "research" in the same sentence, as i hate research) that is really pertinent to some research projects he already had going at UH. They definately want him to work with them, and are they are working on getting some grant money in the next few months to fund all the projects they have going. i am excited about this opportunity for cris, and hopefully the next few months will hold some good news in that department.

We cannot wait for the arrival of the grandparents and great-grandma nova next week! The girls have grown and changed so much since our last visit at christmas. it's going to be an awesome week!

Birthday Buddies

Yesterday was my brother Tommy's birthday! Tommy and Becky's birthdays are 1 day apart, so they have always been Birthday Buddies. I didn't get to post because i was working super late, and by the time i got home i pretty much just crashed, but i still want to put up a Happy Birthday one day late to Uncle Tommy! Tommy is the middle kid, between me and Bets. He is an incredibly hard working, super thoughtful, dedicated, funny and awesome brother. And to top it off he has the absolute cutest little kiddos ever. My neice Secily, and nephew Micah (who i have yet to meet, and i am dying for september to get here so i can hold that little cutie) are super cute and sweet. I can't wait to get Juneau and Secily together as they are only 3 months apart, and i think they will really hit it off.

anyway, i am so blessed to have such amazing siblings, and birthdays are a great time to remember how lucky I am to get to have these awesome people in my life!

The birthday boy and family!

Happy Birthday, Bestie!

Today is my older sister's birthday. My sisters rock. Seriously, they do! Becky is 19 months older than me and has been my best friend basically forever. I use the term "bestie" hesitantly, because although she is indeed my "bestie", she has also proclaimed herself the "Bestie" of the kids in our family (there are 5 of us), and is highly competitive to maintain the title of "Best Kid". The rest of us just go along with it because, hey, she's the oldest. Although each of us individually believe we are the Besties of the family. And in my opinion Betsy has the best shot at it because her name is practically already Bestie. Anyway, Happy Birthday to the awesomest, kindest, funniest, toughest, and down right Bestest in the world.

"Besties" Becky, Em, and Betsy

So, are you tired of potty stories yet? Too bad! Juneau earned herself 2 more chocolate beans yesterday. If you ask she'll tell you a hundred times over "Chocolate Beans!" "Eat 'em!" "Blue and yellow!"
Savoring her prize

The evidence of the blue and yellow chocolate beans!

A perfect morning - watching Sesame Street on their potties

I know juneau looks partially insane in this picture, but this is pretty much the look she is going for when she plays with stickers

Nova was CONVINCED that she could fit in this little box. she wanted to sit down in it and have me push her around

she was very mad when she discovered it wouldn't work. This little box is one of nova's favorite toys for working on her "projects". She likes to go around the house and take things out of one container and put them into another container then repeat the whole process. This keeps her occupied for ridiculous periods of time.

sweet

Nova wore her hair in these little buns and it looked sooo cute!

Tomorrow is my first day running Labor and Delivery all by my lonesome. I love L&D, but i hate that the shift is 730 a.m. to 730 p.m. That's basically Juneau and Nova's entire waking day, especially since i don't get home until after 8. fortunately i only have to work that shift a couple of times a month. and it seems like if things are pretty slow the fam can come over to the hospital to hang out a bit. hopefully it will be a slow and easy day with no crazy emergencies!

green, orange, red

I have 4 pitiful tomato plants. they are closer to death every day, but they do have some tiny little tomatos on them. Juneau loves tomatos. and she is obsessed with the tomato plants. The first thing she does when we get home is to check on those tomatos. she picked a green one a couple of weeks ago, and was so excited about the whole concept that she ate the entire nasty green tomato. since then i helped her watch the tomatos go from green to orange, and now finally to red. today i let her and nova each pick a tomato. nova loved picking it, but did not enjoy the actual tomato. Juneau did great with hers, and ate it like an apple!

juneau, excited about trying out the tomato. Nova is not so sure.

First Bite
Delicious!

We also got a great box in the mail from my mom, full of little things for the girls. Juneau and Nova have never actually seen Dora, but somehow they know her, and Juneau says "Dora!" whenever she sees a doll or clothes with Dora. My mom sent 2 little dora dolls and a bunch of Dora DVD's, along with some other fun goodies!

They are definately both grasping the concept of presents

New sunglasses from Grammy

Dora!

Cris is rocking as the Primary Caregiver :) The girls are happy, fed, and adorable when i get home, and to top it off the house is spotless!! We are still very actively looking for a great job for him, but in the mean time the girls are the 2 happiest little things ever to get to have dad's attention all day. it makes me pretty happy too, to know they are in the very best care i could ask for. Nova is especially becoming such a daddy's girl. It's funny because neither of them ever really called Cris "Dada". They both went straight to "Daddy". I love it. I am still "Momma" to both of them. I also wanted to write down so i wouldn't forget how juneau groups people together. If she wants to refer to cris and i she will say "MommaDaddy", if Cris is holding nova and i am holding juneau she points out "Daddysis Mommajuneau". she does that all the time, and it is so funny!

Chocolate Beans

Chocolate Beans are a hot topic in our house. Juneau and Nova love black beans. The first time i gave them an M&M they thought it was some type of bean, and juneau has called M&M's "Chocolate Beans" since her first encounter with them. When she first started getting interested in the potty i told her if she pooped on the potty i would give her 2 chocolate beans. She likes to sit on the potty all the time, but had not yet earned a chocolate bean until yesterday! It was kind of a fluke that she actually pooped on the potty, but she did, and she will tell you all about how she got "two chocolate beans" and she "Ate 'em" and they were "red and green".
Nova likes to sit on the potty too. peer pressure i guess, but she thinks it is hilarious to sit on the potty, so they will both go into the bathroom fully clothed and just sit on their potties. kinda funny.

Anyway, things have been a little boring the last couple of days now that the Matus' are gone and we are back down to a little family of four. we had ridiculously beautiful weather yesterday and today (in contrast to the entire week last week when it was freezing with hail).

Today we went up to the REI store to pick up our new rock climbing rope. We are such suckers, and when we saw these Nalgene sippy cups we couldn't resist getting them for the girs. They immediately loved them, as you can see.

We had gotten pretty good about actually dressing the girls, but lately have fallen back into the old diaper routine. :)

A little video of our pre-bedtime activities this evening.

This last one is a video i found from our 2 weeks in the doubletree. Nova is laughing ridiculously hard. it cracks us up every time we watch it.