more pics

here is a link to pics from stacey's birthday party.  i will post more pics later.  check out our new patio furniture.  also note the bad weather so we moved the luau indoors.  baby colette jones had fun at her first party and felix even joined in the festivities and wore a lai.

luau pics

a little late...

well, i missed my goal of adding to the blog every monday.  but i made it within a week so that should count for something.

i was able to capture maddie in her normal sleep position.  one is of her in her room with felix keeping guard (yes, that's a cloth diaper).  another is in the office on her play mat.

and here she is hanging out and being her happy self in her rocker seat.

and our garden has grown since these pictures as well as survived (barely) an attack from the local rabbit(s) - not sure if one rabbit did all the work by himself.  luckily he only ate some leaves off the green bean plants.  we have a liquifence border but i need to reinforce the actual fence.

herbs galore
cucumber, squash and zucchini
marigolds, snap peas, green beans
tomatoes, marigolds, bell peppers

we hosted a birthday luau bash for stacey last weekend as she turned the big 3-0.  there will be more pics posted from this grand occasion later.  but for now, here's one of the birthday girl upon arrival.  we had a great time and were finally able to use our patio and new patio furniture (pics to come later).  the morning after steve and i enjoyed a french toast breakfast with maddie, kc, ellie and stac on our new patio.  great job to steve and his parents for their hard work on this project.

i'll hopefully have updated pics of the garden (after i weed it), patio and stacey's party on monday.  and as always...more pics of maddie.

we have also finally booked our trip to texas in august.  we are all flying down on aug 20 and steve will return aug 26.  maddie and i will be staying until sept 3.  looking forward to spending two weeks with my parents and taking care of dad.  felix will be residing at his "summer quarters" also known as "the camp" with grandma and grandpa josti.  he's really looking forward to it (C:

weekly activities

steve has been taking the commuter rail into work.  so i'm making it a goal to try and meet him halfway on the walk home every evening with felix and maddie.  felix goes crazy as soon as he sees steve walking down the sidewalk.  here are pics from this week.  i was going to try and get a pic of felix going nuts but it's hard to hold a baby, hold a leash with a crazy dog, and take a picture.

maddie has also taken to a standard sleeping position.  these shots of her on the changing table are not great examples because she was so exhausted that she just passed out while we were changing her diaper.  her "real" sleep position is currently on her right side with her right two middle fingers in her mouth with her left hand holding her right arm in place and her left leg draped over her right leg.  hopefully she doesn't start to get a flat spot on the right side of her head.  she's been lucky not to have one on the back of her head even though she has a distinct bald spot from sleeping on her back.  she ended up sleeping in her diaper this night because we didn't want to wake her up to put clothes on.

during the day when i'm working maddie has one of five places that she might be.  on her floor mat (sleeping or playing), in her high chair while i'm eating lunch or cooking, in her rocker chair, in her crib taking a nap, or in her exersaucer.  here is a video of her in the exersaucer.

and as many of you know, steve and his parents have been working on our new patio.  we have done our best to take progressive pictures.  steve finished the border on one side and is almost done with laying the remaining stones.  here is the latest.  we cannot wait to use this...we'll have pics with our new patio furniture next week.  while steve has been working on the patio, i have been working on the vegetable garden.  steve's mom has provided her assistance in this project as well with weeding, purchasing the marigolds and sunflower seeds, and taking care of maddie while i plant.  just about everything is popping up now.  cannot wait to have veggies from the garden.

felix is sniffing the liquifence i just sprayed for deer and rabbits.  doesn't really do anything about dogs (C:
green beans sprouting in front, zucchini sprouting in back.

we usually cap off the week with a trip to the lake on saturday and sunday.  we sleep at "pond view" while felix enjoys sleeping with grandma and grandpa at "the camp".  for those of you who don't know, "the camp" is seeing its last days since it will be coming down in the fall.  steve's parents are building a new house that will accommodate for year round living and a growing family.  there are two geese families that frequent the yard in the early morning before felix disrupts their eating.  here are pics of the "not so small" babies and some pics of steve with maddie on father's day at "pond view."  then a few more of us at "the camp" celebrating father's day with steve's parents.  we had a lazy day of playing with maddie and playing pitch (card game that you must learn in the josti family).

felix likes to be the center of attention.

fun mirror pic

sleeping with the moose
she scoots herself off the mat.

big blue eyes
carolyn's tan legs, my white legs...and felix snuggling
a little family time...

happy first father's day, steve.

that's all for now.

firsts

today maddie wore her first cloth diaper.  of course, she did a spectacular job of getting it dirty for mommy to clean.  but that's part of the experience, i guess.  i also put her baby einstein exer-saucer together today as another form of entertainment for her.  i sat her in it while i was attaching the toys and she was so excited to see each new toy.

in other news...i started my first vegetable garden.  this is going to be a learning process so i'm not promising anything yet.  but hopefully we'll have tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumbers, yellow squash, and zucchini soon.  of course, the weekend we planted we had high 90 degree days so i'm doing my best to keep them appropriately watered.  i welcome any tips or suggestions.  i'm also growing a little herb garden on our porch.  right now it looks like we'll have basil galore.

maddie loves to tell us stories.  some are happy and some are sad.  we've only had a few angry stories.  this is a sad one.  and then she gets scared (or is mimicking) her monkey hanging from her play mat.

she has her four month doctor appointment tomorrow.  hard to believe.  i'll post about that next week.  i'm taking bets as to what her weight and length are.  she was 17 pounds; 27 inches at three months.

new post...new goal

okay so i've been told that i do not post nearly enough on this thing.  and it's true.  so my goal is to post a new blog each monday.  we also don't take nearly enough pictures anymore.  but i do have some new pictures from last week.  i posted a video but that's hardly enough.

so here's some news to get you up to speed...

we had a cookout for may birthdays at our house.  the weather cooperated and we all had a great time.  it was also a farewell to the douglas family (second fam from left in large group pic) as they moved to texas this past weekend.

ally and maddie watchin' the red sox...one of many games i'm sure (C:  maddie looks like she's commenting on something jerry remy had to say

and the list goes...cavin, brent, sharla, noah, troy, baby audrey, amy, eric, karin, baby eric (who's 1 year old now!!!), kelly, baby maddie, and steve

ellie and maddie

jeremy, laura, tj and chelsea

and here's a little photo shoot of maddie and her expressions...she has the best (C:

and here are some shots of maddie and her first "swim" memorial day weekend.  once she was "all the way" in she was fine.  not too crazy about just dipping her toes in though.  it will be awhile before we get her in the lake.  she's not ready for the cold frigid water just yet.

and finally...as previously mentioned, the douglas family left this weekend to move to austin, texas.  so maddie and i went with karin and eric to say farewell to amy and audrey at panera bread this week.  here are the kids in birth order (backwards).

and steve and mom and dad josti went to work on the patio this weekend and here is the latest...steve lays a few bricks each night.  and also the tree that is still on our patio but will soon be planted in the front yard.  but it now has lots of leaves!

so there you have it.  hopefully our next blog will have a video of maddie rolling over!  she's made it most of the way but keeps getting stuck on her arm rolling back to stomach.  hasn't done stomach to back yet.  soooooo close.