Recap of the last 3 months!

I seriously haven't opened my computer in probably 2+ months! Having a TV in our house has changed how we do electronics and shows around here. We've been cranking Downton Abbey on the TV and iPad, completely neglecting using the laptop at all! I'm not complaining though... The last three months have been busy and so, so good! I'll try to do a quick recap with pictures:

September: 

Living at the farm was going well! We were still waiting for Jake to receive more invites to interviews, so checking his email super often! Jake was still in training for work so he was mostly working at the farm. It was super nice to have him around since he's working more now and his shifts are super weird!

The best thing that happened that month was Brooke and Blakely coming for a visit!! They came just for a couple of days and we were able to go to the Jonas Brothers concern while Jake and Brent watched the girls! It was SO FUN!! I'm so glad we went, it was such a fun night hanging out with her. We had a fun couple of days hanging out with the girls at the farm - we only wish they could've stayed longer! Blakely and June were funny together, I wish they would've gotten along better but I guess that's what you can expect from two toddlers!

The same couple of days, Jessica was in town with Emma so we had three one year olds hanging out all at once! That was fun. The girls did chores, swam, ate, napped... It was a great couple of days!!

The weather started to cool down which was a relief. We did the zoo, Washington Park in downtown Cincinnati, and did a birthday scavenger hunt for the September birthdays in the family.

October: 

October was fun and finally welcomed more sweater weather!! We had a few SUPER cold days (including Halloween), but I feel like the rest of the month was pretty nice! It went by so fast.

The BEST thing that happened this month was . . . Jake getting into the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine!!!! We are sooo, soo excited!!! October 15th is the first day that medical schools are allowed to accept students all over the country. Jake had interviewed about 5 weeks before that and they said that that group of students should for sure hear back by October 15th. They said they were going to email, so he turned on notifications for his email and we started checking it right when we woke up! Haha it was the first question he asked me when he rolled over in the morning, "Can you check my email?"

We went through the day like normal, trying not to focus too much on the wait! We were doing flowers that day and Jake was doing his regular work on the farm. He had gone back to the house to change or something and he got a call from the Cincinnati area and he answered it and it was a guy named Gil. He basically said, "Congratulations!! You're in!!" And Jake immediately ran around the house and was freaking out, of course!! He talked with the guy and figured out that he is an M4 and that he graduated from BYU too! Jake immediately facetimed me when Gil hung up and he told me he got in and we couldn't believe it!! Tracey was there too so we were all SOO excited. He rode the motorcycle over and we were just hugging and laughing and making him tell us about the phone call! He still hadn't gotten an email or notification in his portal (and didn't until hours later), but it was so nice to know!! And then we ended up getting a physical letter in the mail a few weeks later. :) We went to Mazunte's to celebrate!! I'm seriously beyond proud of him, words could not even explain. He truly worked so hard for this!

We had two sets of fun visitors in the month of October! Our first set of visitors was Lisette and my Grandma! They flew in the first weekend of October and we did everything pumpkin patchy and chores! It was nice just to relax with them for a few days, have June play with Lisette, and we got a bunch of cute Halloween outfits from my grandma! The trip was super quick but it was fun - I'm glad we got to see them since Thanksgiving and Christmas are so far away from then and we still hadn't received any invites to Texas schools!

Our seconds set of visitors were my mom and Amanda!! I had asked them to come to help me finish June's room. I had started on it, but I was stuck and needed to do some work on it! My mom decorated her house so cute and nice so I knew she'd enjoy helping me do it! She ended up getting June sooo many good things for her room and for her closet. It was such a fun, quick trip and it was really nice for Amanda to be able to spend more time with June! I'm so glad they're able to just drive up really quickly and hang out with us for the weekend!

We did King's Island, hikes in the woods around the house, chopped and stacked wood, pumpkin patched it up. It was such a fun month. I love the month of October. It's no surprise I always tell people my dream is to have an October baby hahah. One day!!

*obviously in the middle of strapping her in ;) 

November:

November FLEW by!!! I can hardly believe tomorrow is December!! But I am reaaally excited about it. :)  

This month was fun for us - We got a calling in church to teach the 5-6 year olds, Aubrey and Nate visited for a couple hours, the weather got cold and we layered up for chores almost every week day, and then the holidays began with Thanksgiving! 

Our days are mostly spent doing chores in the morning with Tracey, June taking a nap in the early afternoon while I try to prepare dinner and clean, and then we spend the rest of the afternoon playing with cousins or just finding some fun things to do around the farm! Jake has been working about 2-3 times a week, so June and I have been spending a lot of time together. It's been good - she is an expert with farm chores. She is so brave getting the dogs' food together and then trying to go through the gate to give them each their half! This evening she was trying so hard to open the gate to give Pierre his food, even though he had been barking at Kate the goat because she was eating what Pierre already had! She didn't care about the barking and just decided she was going to go in and give him some more. Haha I love her so much, it's fun watching her be brave and try new things. I know she probably won't remember any of this, but I hope some pictures and videos will do her time here justice! She's learning and doing so much every day! 

Thanksgiving was more casual than I thought.  A lot of people showed up that weren't family, but it went really well even with June being surrounded by a bunch of people! I made green bean casserole which is currently my favorite Thanksgiving dish. We hung out by the fire while June jumped on the trampoline with her cousins, scootered around, and played on her car! I wonder if June will remember her dad playing pickle ball outside and her constantly pumping her scooter right into the court! 

It's been a fun start to the holiday season! This week I'm hoping to decorate for Christmas a little bit and go get our tree!! I know Jake's family gets a real one every year, so we'll probably get one from the same place they go ever year. I'm so excited for this season and I'm going to try to update more often for myself and for my 2 loyal followers. Haha

Trip to Toledo!

Yesterday we left Cincinnati on our way to Toledo!! It’s a little over three hour long trip to northeast Ohio. We decided it would probably be best to leave June in Cincinnati while we went on this quick trip, especially because we would be in a place where not many others (if any of the others) brought / had children.

This is Jake’s first interview! We were SOO excited when he got the email that he was invited to come and when we chose which date we wanted to come, we chose the first date available. That was a few weeks ago and we’ve been preparing a bunch of things since. Jake’s been practicing routine questions, ethics questions, and actor / patient questions. Toledo does a series called multiple mini interviews rather than your typical, expected one-on-one or three-on-one interview, so he was preparing for all different scenarios. On top of that, we did some other little things like make sure he had a clean haircut, clean beard, dry cleaned suit, a new white shirt that fit him well (he probably hasn’t gotten a new white shirt in three years...), and he even shined his shoes!! Haha all of these are a little bit of an investment but they will last us through the whole interview process!

We stayed in a hotel right by the university and went to a little meet and greet last night. Most of the people that were in this group were seniors in college right now, so we felt a little older but in a good way. In that group, there were no other applicants that had children or were LDS! There are 20 total km each interview group and they interview until March, so I’m sure there will be families similar to ours that will come. The meet and greet went well, we all got to ask the ambassadors some questions about the school so it was really nice to learn about it some more. It does seem like a really awesome school! The only thing that’s hard is to compare to BYU that was soooo family friendly, where this place is not as family friendly. But that’s what we get coming from an amazing church and family-oriented university!

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to sit in on the presentation about the university or go on the tour, hence how I have the time to write this blog post. I should probably talk to someone about how spouses should be allowed to do those things, especially since I have a big say in whether or not we will attend here. But right now i’m just going to keep my head down and pray that everything is going well in there. . . He’s literally in the interview session as I type this!!

We are liking this school so far and it would most likely be a great choice for our family, but I’m excited to see where else he gets invited to interview at! And next time, I will be bringing our Junie to explore with us! ,

June's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated June's first birthday at the Mauldin's house!! It was complete with my favorite Magelby's chocolate cake (June having her VERY OWN to smash, of course), family, and friends! It was so fun to see her be celebrated and get a few gifts from people that love her. And she loved the cake! I'm pretty sure that cake helped urge my labor along with her so it's only right that she have it on her first birthday!

June is 16 months old as I'm writing this, and the last few months of her learning and growth have been such a blur. It's amazing watching her every day, learning something new or being willing to try something new. It's going to be even more of a blur these next few months, I'm sure, so I need to be better about writing things down now that we're in Ohio! She's so much fun to watch and her personality has TRULY made an appearance.

One funny thing she does, that I'm hoping doesn't carry along for too long, is when someone comes up to her that she doesn't like that much, she'll just do a huge screech. It gets squeakier by the day, seriously! So high pitched!

She also will pretend to share with you or someone else and right before (or after) it touches your lips, she takes it back and puts it right back in her mouth! Haha she is so sneaky and doesn't want to share! She knows what she wants and she's not afraid to show it.

She learned how to climb the ladder on the little kids' play ground in the backyard on literally her first try. I don't even have to help her, I just stand behind her in case she falls! She also tries to ride a scooter and the tricycle, hasn't succeeded yet but she will still try! She jumps in the water, goes off the diving board (occasionally), and goes down the slide. I seriously am so proud of all the things she accomplishes and attempts!

Here are some pictures from her first birthday:

Our move to Ohio

I can't believe I haven't written here since February! I guess that means my journal has been getting all the love and attention for the last few months. So much has happened since then . . .

• June turned 1! And 15 months. And 16 months. 
• She's walking, running, screeching, hugging, kissing. 
• She can say: mama, dada, dog, kitty cat, clock, and she's working on her "B" sound right now.
• She still uses sign language every day. Her regular signs are: water, all done, more, please, thank you, and sometimes "I love you" (which I taught her is just blowing a kiss).
• I graduated! Got my diploma in the mail and everything.
• Jake graduated! He just got his diploma in the mail this week. 
• I finished working at Nature's Fusions.
• Jake applied to medical school, worked on secondary apps, and already got his first interview scheduled! 
• Jake went on a major road trip with Aaron and Brent to the Redwoods and Yosemite and a few other places. They camped and did some sweet things!
• While he was doing that, I was in Texas visiting my family with June! We got to hang out with Brooke and her daughter a few times which was so fun.
• And then we made it to Ohio!!! 

I've been here for almost a month now and we just moved into the house we're going to be in for the next year! It's Jake's brother Brent's house and I'm so glad he's fine with us staying here for the next year so we can save a little money, be near family, and have a nice house to live in with an extra room for June! When we got here, they were doing some renovations on the house. We thought they were just going to paint the interior a new color (white), but they ended up taking out all the carpet and putting in hardwoods that are beautiful!!!, painting the exterior of the house a new color, and knocking down a wall that was separating the kitchen and dining area. I've got to say, it dose feel and look really nice! Now we're just in the process of furnishing it and making it all come together a little bit more. With all the hardwoods, we need some rugs to fill some of the space!

For the past month, we've just been hanging out and having fun with the family! June's in her own slice of heaven with endless cousins and aunts and uncles to play with her, learning how to ride a scooter, swimming whenever she wants, playing with baby chicks, checking up on all the animals . . . She is definitely living the life! It's hard to keep up with her because she is so go, go, go.

Jake has been working on secondary apps for med school like a crazy person. It's honestly been kind of terrible because he will just sit in our room working on essays for hours on end! But that season is coming to a close, thank goodness. He only has a few more to turn in and will probably get to those at the end of this week / early next week! He's also been applying for jobs in the area. He's had 2 interview for 2 different positions so it seems like that part of our checklist is about to be checked off!!

I'm hoping the next month goes by a liiiittle slower. How does summer go by in an instant?! I am definitely not ready for fall yet. The most exciting thing we have coming up is our trip to Florida in late August!! I'm so, so excited to get some family time and take June to the beach for her first time ever!!

Photo dump coming now. I'm hoping now that we're more settled in and I have access to my computer all the time, I will be a little more up to date!!

Went to the antique market in Burlington, KY! Found some amazing pieces!! 

June's new dresser! 

Holding the chicks for the first time!!  

ELEVEN MONTHS

june woke up an 11 month old and I'm still in denial about it! how can she be THIIIIIIS close to being a year old?

every day she surprises me with a new trick. yesterday it was waving and today it was walking to and fro freely, without me asking her to. she only takes about 8-10 steps at a time by herself, but still, it's so impressive! she is getting more confident each time she ventures out to walk by herself and I love watching the expression on her face when she realizes that she can do it!

she loves saying dog, but it sounds like "dahh". she has two my little pet shop dogs that she carries around the house as she crawls and every time she sees them she says "doh!"

she loves pulling her books off the shelf still. her favorite snacks are cheerios and veggie straws. she's started gagging hardcore on puffs, so i've stopped giving her those for now. her favorite meal is chicken with any kind of bean, or eggs and raspberries for breakfast. she's honestly a champion eater!

she still dislikes getting dressed and undressed but it is what it is. she stays still for her diaper changes like 85% of the time so we can't really ask for much more from her! she's wearing size 12 month, but is quickly growing out of them. she's actually wearing size 18 month pants as i type this!

she understands what "no" means and knows what she's not supposed to do (like bang on the keyboard and open the cabinet where we keep the cleaning supplies), but sometimes she likes to test her boundaries.

the way I keep her busy in the mornings when I'm getting ready is by giving her my makeup bag. she loves emptying it and playing with all the different brushes. it seriously keeps her entertained every morning for like 10-15 minutes!

she is finally okay with being transferred to her cribs for naps! although she only sleeps for 45 minutes to an hour in her crib, it's an hour that I can do something where she's not climbing on top of me or whining! and at night she's only waking 2-3 times.

she loves nursing, but I can tell she's starting to love her new water bottle and binky a little bit more sometimes. it makes me wonder if she'll want to wean on her own in the next few months. otherwise, i think I plan to wean her by 14 months or so. that's my goal for now, anyway.

she is SO happy! she loves to laugh and cuddle and play. she has quite a few ticklish spots and we can really get her going when she's in the mood for playing. if she's not in the mood, she will just grunt until you quit trying to make her laugh.

she has 6 teeth and the top 4 really just came in the past couple weeks. she handled it great - two fevers and a little bit of throw up, but otherwise she's been great.

she loves to give open-mouth SLOBBERY AS HECK kisses! it's the best, but when I'm on the floor trying to get a kiss from her, she seriously gives me like 15 kisses. It's hilarious, and my cheeks end up all soaked from her slobber. another trick she knows is giving a high five. she hasn't quite figured out clapping yet but I'm sure she'll get it soon.

we've been trying to do a little bit of sign language with her. I need to be more consistent with it, but I'm excited for the day she picks up a couple of the words.

she's truly the most amazing, frustrating, magical being there ever was.