march 28th

ready to go home...just one more snuggle in the hospital rocker

definitley room to grow :)

finally home!!

the girls

welcome home, josie!

as of about 4:30 friday afternoon, josie was chillin' at home!

after 57 days in the peaceful nicu she's getting used to life on the outside.

she thinks it's a LOUD life.

shhhh!

i should add that she is quickly resembling a typical newborn.
on the ride home she had her first blow out.
her "take home outfit" was short lived.

snack time

i give you garrett's favorite afternoon snack

blue moon AND cookies 'n cream

before you judge me on my child's unhealthy eating habits...keep in mind that he weighs only 28lbs and is 3 years old. yes, i will pretty much let him eat anything that has lots of calories!

maybe, baby

tomorrow afternoon josie might be coming home!!

as of 5pm wednesday, josie has taken all of her bottles. she has to continue this trend for 48 hours which puts her eligible to come home friday afternoon. i just talked to her nurse and they've removed her feeding tube. no guarantees...but they are fairly confident she can come home tomorrow.

so pray that josie stays strong and can finish all her feedings from here on out.

q: when's a tattoo and a butt crack cute?

a: when you're 19 months old

happy easter

this year my family invited over another family. we all grew up together... the 4 of us kids and the 4 of their kids. fast forward many years... and here's just some of the additions to the 2 families.

in total, i think there were 20 adults and 18 kids (age 7 and under!)
ryan thinks that's way, way too many people!

(joy - can you pick out the "mini russ" in this picture?)

garrett thinks easter pictures are way over rated

and of course, happy easter to little josie!
don't worry baby, you'll have an awesome easter basket next year :)

the hospital does a good job with making the cribs look homey and not so "sterile"
we are always finding new little decorations in her crib :)

a fab-u-lus saturday (or how to damage 2 cars in less than 2 months )

nothing says "breakfast" like a bubble gum sucker on top of pancakes

what will ihop think of next?

for once we were we were running ahead of schedule...
note to self: rear ending a car slows you down

RUN! we're late for the show!!!

"please stand by this cute display, kids.
no, i won't buy you the $30 shirt."

pure sugar and a cool hat... only $10
(but it was a big bag, at least!)

a vist to see josie...
a fun end to a fab-u-lus day!

this call may be monitored for quality assurance profanity

for the past 5 years i've been wanting to buy pottery barn easter baskets. but since i like things to match (ok, a slight obsession) i have been waiting till our family is complete to buy them. and since i'm such a fan of the baskets, i know that they always go on sale after easter. so my plan was to buy them some time this spring once they were on sale.

today a "save $25 on a $50 order" coupon came in the mail.

of course, i went to the easter basket listing immediately.

small baskets on sale for $15, regularly $25.

cool!

on the same page it was posted that the gingham liners for the large baskets were sold out. but no mention of the small liners or the polka dot liners - which is what i really wanted.

so i decided to call pottery barn and just make sure i wasn't missing the listing for the polka dot liners. i've never called pb customer service before, but here's what i imagined it would be... a nice lady, probably with a southern accent, agreeing with me that the baskets and liners were ohh so cute. here's what my call was like...

pb: hello (rough man's voice)

me: hi, i'm just calling with a question about the sabrina easter baskets and the liners

pb: oh. well what do you want to know? (not at all the pleasant southern lady i expected to deal with.)

so then i told him my question and i got a very lengthy story about how the buyer didn't purchase enough liners to meet demand, yada yada...

then i asked if he thought i was safe buying the baskets now and getting the liners next year. or did he think they might change basket designs next year. i figured that since he was in the know about the liners he might have an idea about this question.

pb: well, i doubt if they will change the baskets. you know these are the best damn easter baskets. they are so well made they will last several years.

ok, so i'm not sure what was more funny - the fact that he used the phrase "best damn easter baskets" or that he was impressed by them lasting several years. don't most easter baskets last several years, it's not like they spend months & months in the toy rotation.

in case you're wondering, i did buy the easter baskets. with that kind of selling pitch, what other choice did i have?

our miracle

today at my post-partum checkup my doctor had the results back from josie's birth.

the average cord length for a 30 weeker is 45 cm with 35 cm being the very low end of acceptable. josie's cord was 11cm.

the other major problem was with the placenta. she didn't really go into all the medical details, but once again she said that my little car accident was the reason josie is with us today. with the placenta problems and the tiny cord, she would never have made it to term and i wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong until it was too late.

every night when i head to the hospital, i go past the site of my accident. i don't think i'll ever go past it without thinking of josie. we are so lucky and blessed that she's in our lives!! it's pretty awesome how god used a car accident to bring us our little girl :)

all set

no official word yet on when miss josie will be coming home, but we think it will be soon. she's been taking full bottles 3-4 times a day and practically full bottles the other times.

we are all excited for her to come home. in terms of the kids, olivia is by far the most excited. this morning i let her "help" me get ready for josie. here are her creations...

#1 - the living room bassinet

since we couldn't get the music to work on the bassinet,
the logical thing to do was put an ariel music box under it.

thanks allison for the bassinet! it will definitely help keep little hand off josie :)

#2 - basket of diapers

how a 5 yr old organizes diapers

(is it wrong that i'm dying to re-organize them?)