Merry Christmas?

Jolie visited Santa for the first time. From the instant I put her on his lap she was smiling at him. She LOVED him! But then it was time to take the picture.

The picture taker lady (Santa's little helper) asked what her name was. I told her. Then she began waving a feather duster and saying, "Jolie! Jolie!" Well, Jo didn't love Santa's helper as much as she loved Santa. She just stared at her with a very confused smile. (shown above) It was awesome.

I told the other helper that maybe I should get her to smile because she doesn't really smile for strangers. And in that moment, the woman helper grabbed a squeaky toy and began to squeak it rapidly at Jo and yell, "Jolie! Jolie!" That was too much. Jolie lost it!

Merry Christmas!

fish out of water

When they took her cast off her legs were so floppy that they seemed like fish out of water. If I wasn't so happy that the cast was off, I would've been way sad because she was in a lot of pain and discomfort. But it's wearing off, and the baths help.

Jolie loves water and being in the cast meant no baths for 3 months... so this picture pretty much captures her excitement.

We love our new town home/condo apartment very much. It has so much room and storage, but it has one set back... the only shower is a ghetto like RV shower. No joke, they built our house and forgot the shower so they added one and it is a flimsy, RV type shower.

So we had to improvise for Jo's bath time.

She doesn't even notice the difference. (Sorry if you catch a peek of my daughter's privates. She's so chubby that you really can't see because of her rolls and the water too. Does this mean I should make our blog private? She's just a baby.)

She's much happier now. At this point her sitting skills were struggling. Her muscles weren't strong enough yet.

3 days later we had Thanksgiving and we had A LOT to be thankful for!

We took some random family photos of "Castless Jo".

We had Thanksgiving at the Baker's in Salt Lake. After dinner, we all went to an indoor pool where our cousins, aunt, and uncle were staying.

I don't know what Jolie loves more, food..... or swimming!

She NEVER gets sick of playing in the water!

She swam with Dad, TJ, and cousin Jack.

She loves to splash.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Jo and I went to California to stay with my mom and visit. I didn't take many photos because we didn't really do anything besides go shopping. Jolie can finally wear pants and tights so here she is ready for church. Her first time wearing tights and pretty much the first time wearing shoes. So fun and soooo cute!

She is starting to get her leg strength back. She has no problem sitting by herself now, but standing is something we're working on. She's getting better and better. (In this picture above, I asked Jolie what she thought of the Utah Utes. Wow, babies really are so pure, innocent, and honest.)

She still spreads her legs out far because, you know, her legs were permanently in the split position for 3 months. She stands with them really wide, sleeps with them really wide, and goes into the splits after standing too long. It's funny.

Basically life with "Castless Jo" is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier and happier. Marcus and I would seriously contemplate having any more kids, but now that the cast trial is (hopefully) over we think having a kid is awesome, fun, and pretty easy. We're so grateful for her and her squishy, free, wiggly, chubby legs!

The end to an era

Jolie got her cast off! Woo Hoo! After 3 horrible months she is now free!

(If I get enough requests I'll post the video of them sawing the cast off.)

This is the nurse cutting the cast off. Jo got scared by the loud, vibrating saw thing so, she ended up screaming through the whole process. I don't blame her.

So, let's look back and remember the "good times" we had with the casts...

Bath time changed but Jo still loved it! (probably because she's obsessed with water)

The cast went many places including a BYU football game. Go Cougs!

Marcus had an interview for dental school at UNLV (Las Vegas), so the cast went there too!

We stayed at Excalibur

It was a short trip but it was very fun!

Jolie loved the room... well she loved watching Baby Einstein on the laptop while we got ready.

We thought up many ways to entertain Jolie and ourselves during these past 3 non-self-mobile months. Marcus practically had Jolie grinding her cast's bar on everything that he could. She seemed to enjoy it.

We also figured a way for her to still be able to ride her little car. She fit perfect and we just grabbed onto her bar and pulled her all over. She loved it!

In conclusion, it was sad that we had to have the cast in the first place, but we had to get over it and figure a way to still have fun. In January we have to go get an X-ray of her hips again to make sure everything is ok. They'll put her knees together and take the X-ray. If her hip shows that it is dislocated then we have another surgery and 3 more months with the dreaded cast. Think positive!

Halloween, 7 months, and more!

Well, a lot has happened in the last month...

Jolie got a month older and is now 7 months old!

She gets really messy when she eats.

She thinks that her dad's funny when he plays, cover Jolie with "Wells Fargo" balls!

She also loves to play with her cousin Jack.

Her "tummy time" is a little different than most babies her age.

Of course Grandma came to visit!

Jo had her 2nd surgery and got her 2nd cast (purple). She gets it off, hopefully for good, on November 23!

Sometimes she plays too hard!

Jo met a new friend.

He made her a little uneasy.

Went to Sawyer's blessing. (Sawyer is Brandon's daughter. Marcus and Brandon grew up together.)

Auntie Shannon also came to visit!

Jolie now eats bananas and grapes, so far, in this little net sucky thing that Auntie Shannon got her.

The day before Halloween, Jolie's babysitter Tessa who we LOVE, dressed her up in her duck costume and brought her to school for the Halloween parade. She was a hit!

That night we went to our single's ward Halloween activity!

Marcus was 'Deron Williams' from his favorite basketball team, the Utah Jazz. I was a cowgirl/U.S Marshall.

And of course Jolie was the cutest duck you've ever seen!

Sometimes her hood would fall down over her face, but we wouldn't know because she wouldn't whine or anything. Who knows how long she would let herself be like this. It was so funny.

She got a hold of her first snickers...

and she LOVED it! It still had the wrapper on it so I'm wondering what she loved about it so much? Maybe it had a hole?

She kept her eyes peeled for more.

They had face painting at our activity, so I got my "noble steed" painted on my cheek. It's always fun hanging out with the singles. We love our ward!

On Halloween night we went to Papa and Gigi's in Salt Lake and went trick or treating.

Jack was a very sleepy spider.

Mitchell the cowboy, and Papa the pirate came with us.

Kenzie the nerd (she didn't dress up this year... JK) and Peyton the scary cat came too! She told me she was not a nice cat.

We used Jolie to get free candy. Having kids does have many perks!

We had a group of 13. We all dressed up and there were only 3 trick or treaters. They needed group support.

Taylor was a scary witch and her dad TJ, who I never got a photo of, was even scarier! He was soooooo red neck/white trash with snaggle teeth and a mullet and all! It was great!

Jolie's 1st Halloween was a BIG success!

We also found out that Jolie can do some amazing tricks!

This stunt was performed with adult supervision. Don't try this at home, or if you don't have a full body cast.

She's a little unsure about what she's doing up on that pole. Again, kids have perks... entertainment is one of them.

Marcus took Jolie outside during stake conference (church) because she was being really loud. I decided to go out and see what they were doing.

I found little Humpty Dumpty having a good time!

It was a challenging month, but we found time for some fun!

Trying

I'm trying to "Find Joy in the Journey" while my 7 month old has a full body cast and I have Swine Flu... but it is hard.

Seis Meses!

Happy 6 months Jolie Ryan! (September 25)

She now eats baby cereal and vegetables. (We haven't introduced fruit because we're too afraid she'll never go back to veggies.)

She loves her veggies, but cereal is her least favorite. She still eats it though... because duh, it's food.

Her reaction to her first meal that wasn't pure liquid. She was indifferent and confused.

She's a BIG girl! She sits on her potty (because it's the only chair thing that she fits in because she is so WIDE now) and plays with her entertainment center.

She spends more time than I like laying on the Monster Sak watching Baby Einstein. It's hard to find things she can do in her cast. She loves it though! She gets a HUGE smile when it comes on, so that makes me feel better.

She's such a happy girl! I can't believe how well she handles everything that happens to her. Way stronger than her mom!

She LOVES animals!

Especially small, little ones that let her touch them!

Best 6 months of my life!

Famous!

Preface: For those of you who don't know, I stopped teaching and I only work 8 - 11 AM ish everyday. I'm still at my old school. I now just help with the students who struggle with reading. I provide reading interventions that will hopefully help them catch up. I do this for all of the grades.

Now to the story...

You know those days when you're running late and you have time to do very little? Well, I had a day like that last week. The perplexing question on my mind was, "Eat or get cute?" Well of course I chose to eat! I mean I work with young kids who couldn't care less how I look as long as they get their well deserved Gummy Bear by the end. So, since I decided to eat, my greasy hair had to go back into a pony tail and my face remained sunken in and make up less. Sadly it was not my best look, as you can imagine.

I dropped Jolie off at the sitter's and got to school, but there was a welcoming group waiting for me. My principal, a woman from the newspaper, and a man with a very large camera who also worked for the newspaper were waiting for me in my room. (My room is now a little cave like thing that I use while I am there in the mornings. Now that I am not a "real" teacher I get to teach in a closet with no windows and it's right next to the bathrooms. So while I do my reading interventions I compete with the loud sound that a public school toilet makes when it gets flushed over and over again. Good times.) To my surprise our school has been doing shockingly well so the newspaper decided to do a story on us. They chose to take pictures of me doing my reading interventions with my students. GREAT! What a perfect day to get your picture on THE FRONT PAGE! Yes you heard me correctly.... it ended up being on the FRONT PAGE. Of all the days... what luck!

Enjoy!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705330627/Orem-school-shows-NCLB-success.html

PS I'm really proud of my school!