Julie's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated Julie's first birthday this weekend! Her actual birthday is on the 11th, but we celebrated over the weekend so my parents could be a part of the festivities! I don't think Julie really knew what was going on, and big brother pretty much opened all of her present for her, but it was fun just the same. I can't believe my little baby is not so much a baby anymore. Sigh, they grow up too fast!!

Little pretty is getting so big!

The big cake!The cake just for Julie!

The princess in her crown - that she wore for about 2 seconds!

Blow out the candles!

big brother helped - and stole the crown :)

Dig in girl!

Cake is good momma!

Big brother enjoying some cake - still wearing the crown :)

Present time!Julie playing with her present - cooking up a storm!

Quick Halloween Pics

Joshua as Mr. Fix it...

Julie as my precious pumpkin...

Quick Update

Our house is finally finished! We have been in it for about a month now - I will post pictures some day, but have been slowly trying to get organized before I do a bunch of picture taking.

Things have been a bit crazy around our house the last month or so. About a week after we moved into our new house, I started a new job in Texarkana. So we have been transitioning from mommy being home all the time to working mommy! The kids have done pretty well with the transition. It has been a little harder for Joshua probably because he is older, but overall they have done really well. While I am working they stay with their Grandma JoJo one day a week and the rest of the week they stay with a wonderful lady who just keeps a couple of kids in her home. I really like the arrangement because Joshua and Julie get to interact with other kids, but not so many kids that it is a big germ fest of chaos all day :)

I will hopefully write more later, but being full time momma, wife, maid, and CPA keeps me pretty busy - not to mention there isn't much exciting to write about, unless of course you find endless tails of tax return preparation exciting - yikes!

New House is almost finished!!

Front of the house
Back of the house
Front Door

Kitchen Cabinets

Just another Sunday

What do most people do on a Sunday afternoon...NAP! Not me, Josh needed help raking hay yesterday so I, of course, was nominated for the task. So yes, yesterday I spent 8 hours on a tractor driving up and down the hay field a million times bouncing along. Josh can drive a tractor like crazy for hours on end in jeans and a t-shirt without the heat bothering him. Those of you that know me well, know that I HATE to be hot!! So, I can't just sit on a tractor and sweat to death with bunches of clothes sticking to me. No way! It was super hot so I thought I would work on my tan while driving the tractor - oh yeah, I broke out the swim suit! Do you think you might be a redneck if you drive a tractor on a Sunday afternoon in a bathing suit with the cows mooing at you in the background?? Ha - just another day in the life of me... who knows what will be next!

New House Update Again

Brick and Vinyl The house and my little man
Joshua tripped on that cord in front of him and got himself a mouthful of dirt
and a busted lip, he recovered pretty quickly though!

New House Progress

Front - Roof, windows, and doors

Back of the house

Our house is being built by Walker Construction - and yes, we are related in some way, I think they are like our distant cousins or something :) It is a family business and the nicest group of guys on the planet - they must be to put up with my millions of questions! They work really fast and have done a great job thus far - needless to say I am super excited!!

New House Pics

Dirt - Before constructionThe slab
Walls

Insulation Stuff
View from front porch
Trusses

Where have I been?

I have taken a brief hiatus from blogland and what seems like all other methods of communication this past month as things have been a little busy around my house. We are in the process of building a house and let me tell you it has been the most frustrating experience thus far. Not only have we never purchased a home before, but definitely didn't know all that was involved in building one. The bank has been the most frustrating part because they were taking forever to get our loan approved and the appraisal was apparently the hold up so after 8 weeks of waiting, we dumped that bank and went to a new one. Thank goodness the new bank was on top of things and got our loan approved in 2 weeks. So now we are ready for the fun to begin, they started bringing in dirt and will start the foundation work next week. Oh man am I excited!

In addition to the house building project, one of the ladies that works for my in-laws' company had knee replacement surgery at the beginning of March so I have been doing her job for the past month. Since I have connections with the owners, I take the kids with me to work :) It has been nice to use the grown up side of my brain again, but it has also been challenging getting the kids ready and out the door at a normal time and trying to concentrate with Joshua getting into everything in the office and Julie not wanting to stay in her car seat. For purposes of illustration, the following is a glimpse into a typical day in the Walker household.

Wake up, take shower, get dressed before sleeping toddler emerges from bed, wake Joshua, change diaper, get Joshua eating breakfast, wake Julie, change diaper, give Julie reflux medicine, feed Julie, dress Joshua, dress Julie, get Julie in car seat, get Joshua in car seat, drive to Ashdown, unload Joshua, unload Julie, do some work, time to go, get Joshua in car seat, get Julie in car seat, drive home, fix Joshua lunch, feed Julie, change both diapers, put Joshua down for nap, do any farm bookkeeping, phone calling, laundry, cleaning, put Julie down for nap. Joshua gets up from nap wanting to go play outside, get Julie up, feed Julie, go play outside, Joshua immediately jumps in mud puddle and covers himself in mud, go inside, bathe Joshua, get dinner started, Josh comes home, feed everybody, clean dishes, bathe Julie, give Joshua thyroid medicine, give Julie reflux medicine, brush Joshua's teeth, read bedtime story, put Joshua to bed, feed Julie again, put Julie to bed - collapse in the bed myself!!

So, you see how I haven't had much time to write up my ever so witty and interesting blog posts. I will try to do better. Other than the new house and working, there really hasn't been much happening that seemed blogworthy. April is a busy month full of cattle breeding projects so I am sure something interesting and weird will come about soon. Until then....

Sweet girl

A sweet lady that works with me gave Julie this outfit when she was born. I have been waiting for it to be warm enough for her to wear it so we could take pictures in it - is it not the cutest thing!!

Cowgirl Up

February marks the beginning of calving season on the farm when all the momma cows are having lots of baby cows. Because momma cows sometimes have trouble birthing the baby cows, Josh is constantly out in the fields checking on the cows to try and minimize any losses. Well, the other day one of the cows gave birth to an 130 pound calf which is HUGE (normal is around 70 pounds)!!! This calf was it's momma's first baby and she had a lot of trouble having it - Josh had to "pull it" in fact (i.e. pull the baby out of the momma with his hands - yuck!). The night after she had the baby calf, Josh and I went out to check on the momma only to find that her lady parts had prolapsed (e.g. her uterus fell out). So, we had to load up the momma and the baby on the trailer and haul them up to the barn so Josh could try to keep the momma and baby alive. Sounds simple enough right - wrong!!

Josh's dad usually helps him with tasks such as these, but he was out of town for this particular fun so I was the next in line as the designated farm hand. Josh picked up the momma cow with the tractor - lady parts hanging out and all (this made me gag) - and put her on the trailer. But the baby calf who was moving around pretty good at this point, had to ride in the back of the truck with someone sitting on top of it so it didn't go crazy and try to jump out of the truck while we are driving down the road. Do you see where I am going with this story? Who was nominated to sit on the baby calf as we drive down the road? You guessed it - ME!!

Now, keep in mind that this calf weighs almost as much as I do. I like to think I am pretty strong, but let's face it I am a girl and am not into wrestling baby cows. But, I suck it up and try my best anyway. I plop myself down on this calf as we bump along down the road praying that this calf does not go crazy and buck me out of the truck! As it turned out, the calf stayed pretty calm and only tried to get up a couple of times. It did, however, pee all over me which was pretty gross, but at least I lived to tell the story!

Sadly, both the momma and baby died after a few days. We pretty much expected the momma to die after she prolapsed - not much you can do for that, but we were hoping the baby might live if Josh could get it to bottle feed. He was pretty weak after a day without food and just wouldn't take the bottle so he eventually died as well. Sad, but that's life in the cattle business unfortunately.

25 Random Things

1. I live on a cattle farm in Arkansas and have helped my husband work cows on numerous occasions. On one particular occasion, I was eating a ham sandwich in one hand and was twisting a cows tail in the other. Those who know me well, find this extremely funny for some reason - probably because I was such a girly girl growing up :)

2. I have a throw up phobia - a true phobia. I haven't thrown up since I was 12 years old and can't talk about it or be in close proximity to anyone who is throwing up. If I feel remotely like throwing up, I start to have a panic attack! Funny story, there was this boy in high school that my mom wanted me to date - but he threw up in class in the fourth grade and I just couldn't get past that. My kids are helping me through this phobia :)

3. I am extremely claustrophobic - I hate feeling like I am in a place where I can't get out. I hate flying because I feel trapped in the plane - I hate malls because I feel like I can't get out easily (the recent popularity of promenade malls are a great remedy for this) - I hate sitting in the center of the aisle at church because I feel like I cant get out. I think I need therapy!

4. I lived in Colorado for 5 years and love the friends I made there and miss them terribly!

5. I have a masters' degree in accounting and think it is the most boring profession in the world. I should have majored in something I enjoyed rather than something practical.

6. All of us have names that start with a J - Josh, Jennifer, Joshua & Julie.

7. I was diagnosed with unexplainable high cholesterol at 12 years old. I am always the youngest person in the cardiologist's office when I go for check ups.

8. I am obsessed with our budget. I am always worrying about how we spend our money and the possibility of not having enough of it.

9. We are in the process of building a new house and I am so excited!!!

10. My husband has a PhD in reproductive physiology - he knows more about the female reproductive system than I do!

11. I love potatoes - I could eat a baked potato or mashed potatoes every day for the rest of my life and be happy!!

12. My daughter is named after my life-long best friend - Julie (Hardin) Whalen. I pray that my little girl will be as amazing as her namesake.

13. I love me some lime cokes from Sonic!!

14. I hate cleaning, but love things to be clean!

15. I almost lost my life during the birth of my son, Joshua. It was incredibly scary and not fun, but I got an amazing little boy out of the deal!

16. Both my parents and Josh's parents have been married to each other for over 30 years. All of our grandparents were married to each other for over 50 years.

17. We live less than a mile from my in-laws and I work for my mother-in-law. Some might find this a scary situation, but I love my in laws very much and love having them close by!

18. I almost passed out in the middle of our vows during our wedding. It was the middle of July in Arkansas and I got so hot in my dress that I almost fainted. You can tell in the wedding video that Josh is basically holding me up - ha ha!

19. I did pass out during my sorority initiation in college! It was super hot in this little room and we were standing up for a long time and hadn't had anything to eat - recipe for fainting!! Thank goodness my wonderful roommate and BFF Lyndsey took care of me when I got home. My parents were in Europe on vacation and we thought I might have a concussion - I hit my head on the concrete floor pretty hard. Lynds was studying to be a nurse at the time and it was obvious she was going to be good at it - I am not a good patient!

20. I fell down the stairs from the balcony at church in college. There were a whole bunch of cute boys standing at the bottom of the stairs where I fell and I was mortified!!

21. My husband and I met because we were both tall. My college sorority and his fraternity were paired up for a dance competition thing. Josh and I were assigned as partners because I was the tallest girl and he was the tallest boy in the group - I guess he really did sweep me off my feet!

22. I am terrified of getting food poisoning (this ties into the throw up phobia problem). I will not eat meat that is remotely pink and am paranoid about things going bad in the refrigerator. It drives me crazy that my mom lets things expire in her fridge. Whenever I visit her, the first thing I do is clean out her refrigerator!!

23. Before I had kids, I worked for a big public accounting firm in Colorado. I worked all the time and pretty much hated every minute of it - I met a bunch of great people though!

24. I am the first born grandchild on both sides of my family. Joshua is the first born grandchild on both sides as well.

25. I love to cook and would buy everything in the Williams-Sonoma catalog if I had the money!!

What a week!

Thank goodness this week is over!! This has been the week of sickness to say the least! First Joshua got sick (see my previous post), followed by Josh getting the same bug as Joshua had. Just when I thought I was safe from the disease, I got sick too. I was really, really scared that little Julie was going to catch the plague, but she has seemed to escape it somehow - thank you breastfeeding!!
To top it all off, the day after I started feeling icky, I walked out the door of our house only to discover that the neighbors puppies had puked and had the big-D all over our steps. So, my morning was spent dowsing the steps and porch with water and trying to get rid of the doggy grossness while running to the bathroom ever 5 minutes not feeling so good myself.
So, needless to say I am one pooped (no pun intended) mommy and am so very glad that my family is feeling better now! I guess if you want to look on the bright side I lost 10 pounds as a result of my sickness so I am just one more stomach flu away from my pre-pregnancy weight - I think I prefer to lose it the old fashioned way :)

There's a first time for everything!

Despite Joshua's rough start in the world, he has been an especially healthy child. He has had maybe 3 colds and 1 fever in his entire 21 months of life - praise Jesus! Last night we had our first stomach bug. I was about to go to bed and heard this whimpering coming from Joshua's bedroom. I opened the door and immediately knew something was wrong. I turned on the light and was shocked by the large amount of red grossness all over Joshua and all over his crib!
As a side note, those of you that know me well know that I have a huge phobia when it comes to puke. I haven't thrown up myself since I was 12 years old and can't talk about it, see it, smell it, or have anything to do with it or I freak out a little bit. So, to make this discovery last night was a huge challenge for me.
At first, I wasn't sure what had happened - it looked like blood at first so I yelled for Josh who was sound asleep but came running in and was quick to point out that Joshua must have thrown up all the blueberries he ate for dinner. So, I start to freak out a little, but get myself under control to do what I had to do. Josh put Joshua in the bathtub to clean him up and I started changing the crib sheets. Joshua seemed to be feeling better so we put new pjs on him and put him back to bed. Before I left the room he started whining again and rubbed his belly which was soon followed by - you guessed it - more throw up. Poor baby was so scared by what was happening and was crying - it really broke my heart. I cleaned him up again, changed the sheets again, and he went back to bed for a little while. He woke up a few hours later after having gotten sick in his bed again. So, by now we are out of sheets and pjs. I put a huge beach towel in his crib, cleaned him up again, and then he goes back to bed for the rest of the night - thank the Lord!!
I was proud of myself for making it through the ordeal in one piece - a momma's gotta do what a momma's gotta do, but I still didn't know if Joshua had eaten something bad or just had a stomach bug. He woke up this morning asking for food and hasn't gotten sick again so far. So my questions are these: 1) How can you tell when a toddler is about to barf if he can't tell you his tummy hurts or that his tummy feels better? I have been feeling like I should follow him around all day with a bucket or something just in case. 2) I was terrified all last night that he was going to puke in his sleep and choke so I am wondering what the best thing to do with a sick little one is - I didn't want to put him in the bed with us because I didn't want him to puke in our bed. He got freaked out every time we went and sat by the toilet, so I was just completely at a loss as to what to do with him. It was such a helpless feeling - I felt completely incompetent! Any advice from you momma's out there would be of great help!!

Trying Two's

Although Joshua wont' turn two until April, he has already started "acting the part" if you know what I mean. I think part of his drama is due to the fact that he is not the center of attention anymore with the recent addition of his baby sister. He is really sweet to her directly, but has been acting out to me and Josh a lot more. Overall, he is a really good boy, but he has been having more and more moodiness and temper tantrums and I just can't figure out the best way to deal with them. Thus far, we have been doing time out in his crib when he throws a fit or blatantly disobeys. He has started to get a little attitude when you tell him no and will look right at me and do whatever I just told him not to do - oh this makes mommy unhappy! He comes by it honestly because both me and Josh are stubborn people so it is only natural that Joshua would be a stubborn little boy as well. I know I need to be more consistent with whatever method of discipline I choose, but it is so hard to know what works the best for a two year old who may or may not really understand what is going on. So, I just thought I would reach out to the masses for some helpful advice on how to best deal with the behaviour that is often associated with two year olds!!

War with Weight

So, as everyone knows I just had a baby and although my precious baby girl is an absolute joy and I wouldn't trade her for the world, she has left me quite a bit of weight to lose. It is always a little bit depressing for me after my babies are born because I no longer have an excuse to be fat. I was much more conscious of my weight gain during Julie's pregnancy than I was when I was pregnant with Joshua. I worked out until my 8th month and ate pretty well, but let's be honest here, pregnancy makes you hungry and I loved to eat before I got pregnant so putting the two together doesn't make for being one of those skinny pregnant women who walk out of the hospital in their pre-pregnancy pants - grrrhh!

Anyway, I managed to lose all the weight that I gained when I was pregnant with Joshua, but for some reason I am more discouraged about it after having Julie. It is probably due to the fact that I was just starting to look like my normal self again when I got pregnant with Julie and the fat cycle started all over again. The thing is I am really disciplined about exercising, but not so disciplined when it comes to eating healthy. I, of course, love all things bad for you and if I have a choice between a cheeseburger and a salad, I am most likely going to go for the cheeseburger. I also love to cook and have growing boys (my husband included) to feed which makes dieting a bit of a challenge. I recently tried the South Beach diet. I made it through one week of phase 1 on the diet and was so constipated (TMI - sorry!) from eating all that protein that I couldn't stand it. Josh was not to happy with the menu either - he kept asking me why the rest of the family had to suffer just cause I was on a diet - he followed this complaint with the statement that I look great and don't need to lose weight. He was being sweet, but I know he really just wanted to eat something other than broccoli and chicken :)
I was just wondering if any of you moms out there have any good weight loss tips that will help me shed the pregnancy pounds, but not jeopardize my milk supply (breastfeeding momma)? I just want to get back to my old self (and my old pants) as fast as possible! Any insightful tips would be much appreciated!!