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.

mother of the year

Holy freaking crappoli June kicked my trash today!

Aaron watched June while I was at work this morning (so nice!!) and when I was done, I was bringing our cousin's baby Emma who is the same age as June home with me because they were going to see a play in Salt Lake. It was going to be a fun little play date for June and Emma. . . right!?

WRONG!

Haha when I got home, June was so excited to see me and then luckily went down for a nap really easily IN HER CRIB!!!! for a little over an hour. I was able to do some dishes and clean up around the house, eat a salad, all before she woke up. Then Aaron left, Jake got home, and it was time for Emma to go down for a nap. I wasn't able to get her to stay asleep so I gave up and had Jake try. He got her to sleep in less than 5 minutes and she stayed asleep for over two hours!!!! I was amazed.

ANYWAY, while Emma was snoozing like an angel, June decided to wreak havoc on Jake and me. She has turned into such a little punk, but only randomly. She will cry and SCREAM (literal screams) if she doesn't get her way and I'm really trying to break that habit by redirecting her. She loves to bang on keyboards and was trying to get Jake's iPad keyboard, but I didn't want her to mess up anything with his personal statement so I closed it down to where she couldn't press the buttons. Holy crap she screamed so loud and for so long and not even cuddling would shut her down!

I gave her to Jake who gave her back to me after a few minutes of trying to calm her down in his shirt (which almost always works) and then I just wrapped her in a blanket, put her on my side, closed all the blinds and put on white noise. She finally calmed down. She didn't fall asleep, but she just laid there calmly. But when she was ready to get up again, something set her off and she did the same thing again!!!!

That time I just took her outside because it was so sunny and I let her practice walking on the sidewalk and she kept wanting to touch the snow. I don't know WHAT was going on with her, but it was so unlike her. Maybe it was because her first nap was really late in comparison to what it usually is, but man it was rough!! I was seriously so frustrated with her behavior and I was rethinking ALL of my parenting choices.

With that being said, she went to bed around 6:45 pm and I have zero regrets. She might wake a little early tomorrow, but we will both at least be rested and happy again. It's always nice to start a new day.

Motherhood really kicked my trash today.

New year and new schedule!

January is practically over! I truly do feel like this last month has lasted about 60 days haha. It already feels like Jake has been in school for forever, but maybe that's just because we both have a lot on our plates right now! But in a good way. We are definitely staying busy and happy.

We started out the year in Cincinnati and came home a few days after school had started. We were definitely ready to get back into the swing of things and find a groove that fit our family. Jake has been working night shifts at the local behavioral hospital and is enjoying it! He has already come home with a lot of crazy stories. I am really proud of him because working full time night shifts has got to be one of the most exhausting things. On top of that, he's a full-time student, teaching anatomy, and doing research with a professor! It's been interesting trying to find a rhythm that works for us where we don't all three feel drained and we are finally getting there.

I have been working at Jake's aunt's business M-F from 8-12. It's been the perfect amount of hours and it's nice making some extra money on the side! Most of the time June comes with me and plays with Emma, her little cousin that is about the same age, or I have a family member watch her. Luckily I never work more than a few hours so I don't feel like I am spending too much time away from June.

It's been nice to work and have something else to do besides be a mom and wife. Although I truly feel like those roles are my "calling" in life, I'm not quite busy enough to not go crazy with that being the only thing on my plate. So having a part-time job and one class to finish online before I graduate, I am feeling like this is my sweet spot!

June is growing bigger and smarter every day. This is definitely the best age yet. She's still cuddly, loves being with me (maybe a little too much sometimes), but I also see her gaining some independence. She has been taking more solo steps lately and I can seriously see it in her eyes when she realizes she can do it and feels confident. She doesn't take more than 4 steps in a row usually, but she truly does get better and more confident every day! On top of that, she learned the word "DOG"! We have two my little pet shop dogs and she loves them. They are the most random toys but she holds them and will just crawl around the house with at least one of them in her hand. Anyway, for weeks I would tell her it was a dog. Or I would point our a dog if we saw one outside and I always point them out in her books telling her they say "woof woof". One day I was asking her if she could say dog and she just said it! Now every time she sees her little toy dog or any kind of animal (like the cat on the bag of cat food at Trader Joe's) she says "dog"!

One activity that Jake and I have been doing together lately is working on redoing the entire Seven Brothers Farm website! It's been a really fun late night activity for us to do together while June sleeps, although we have definitely learned that we would probably not work well together ALL DAY haha but we do good work as a team. It's been really fun to learn a new skill with WordPress and gets me excited about vamping up this blog one day (probably switching to WordPress one day!). We have seriously learned how to make a very simple pretty website. It has taken us HOURS AND HOURS hahaha but it's been super fun.

That's about it on an update for us. We're trying to budget better and make more homemade meals this year so we can both be a little healthier. Jake started crossfit for the month with his brother Aaron. I've been doing at least 20 minutes of yoga daily. It's been great and I'm hoping we both keep it up with a little bit of a "healthier" life style (I still love my daily coke from McDonald's. I will probably never give that up lol)