Happy Spring from a Cute Chick!

Each new day brings more sunshine - longer days and warmer temperatures! Us Withrows can't wait to get the summer started, we are looking forward to an awesome Alaskan summer! :) Hope you all are enjoying spring, wherever you may be.

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Yesterday was my birthday! :) Every Friday the corvette club picks a local restaurant to have dinner. Last night, Outback was chosen - yummy! We decided to join the group and Jeremy coordinated with club friends Dave and Margo and the restaurant to surprise me with a cake! I LOVE cake, I could eat it for every meal of every day. So, this surprise was especially sweet and loving! Thanks babe! :)


Look at these two cutie-pies! Miss Jillian looks so grown!! She ate too much frosting and was up most of the night. Super-fun. She also loves cake and frosting and everything sweet. She gets that from me.

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter! Hope everyone had a fun Easter weekend!! Miss Jillian had a very busy weekend, starting with attending her first Birthday party on Saturday. Mr. Zach turned one yesterday and his family celebrated with a friend party on Saturday afternoon. There were lots of kids and Jillian had a blast playing with everyone. She has no fear, a couple times she walked up to the bigger kids and took their toys away. We are still working on the sharing thing. The Easter bunny visited Jillian Sunday morning and she had fun opening her presents before church. Then Jeremy and I went to church and Jillian played in the nursery. The church we go to is HUGE with thousands of members, they have different nurseries for almost every age. Jillian was in the 12-18 month group. After the service, it took us a bit to get back to the room and when we arrived there was a line of parents picking up their kids. We could see Jillian standing at the gate looking for her mommy and daddy - it was so cute! We think they must have wore her out because we came home and she slept for 3 hours!! Joy, Josh and Luke came over in the afternoon to visit, play x-box and eat ham. Yummy! :) All in all, it was a wonderful first (technically, second) Easter for Jillian.

Kindermusik

Last Wednesday Zach, Jillian, and I met Zach's mom to attend a music class - Kindermusik. (I hope I'm spelling that correctly.) We had a great time! I brought the camera thinking I would be able to take all kinds of pictures....we were so busy that I was only able to get one shot at the very end. We had so much fun that we plan on going again this week! :)

Spring Sun

The weather has been so lovely in Alaska lately - warm and sunny! On Wednesday we got about 3 inches of snow, but it melted the next day. We are enjoying spring! We have a window in the front of our house that looks out on the street. Jillian likes to stand on the windowsill and wave hello or good-bye. She likes to watch over the neighborhood and see whats going on. BUT, she needs one of us to hold her up to get a good view. One afternoon, she knocked over the air purifier and pushed it over to the window. She was able to get a good view all on her own. I thought her creativity was adorable and had to capture the moment.

Busy Baby Returns

The other morning Jillian woke up full of energy! She crawled through the house and left her mark in each room. She emptied out kitchen cabinets, my dresser drawers, and spread books all over the floor in our bedroom - all before getting dressed for the day! I had to take pictures to document the whirlwind we call daughter. Her nose is still a little runny, but her energy has(thankfully) returned. I believe that she is feeling better and she is eating more too! I still think that when this is completely over, that we'll take her in to the Dr's to have her ears checked. I want to feel secure that she isn't suffering, when I called the Dr. last week his nurse told me that sometimes kids will have ear infections with no symptoms!!!! Then I read that if a parent got ear infections as a baby, oftentimes their baby will also get ear infections. Jeremy's mom said that he got ear infections after colds. Hmmm, we'll see and keep ya'll updated! :)

One More of the 4-Legged Baby.....

OK, I had to add this one. Jeremy made Athena a few signs to wear. On the back of one, I wrote super beast - because that is what she is!!!! He took a picture of her wearing it and sent it to me at the Guard this weekend. I love it! She looks huge (super-sized lab!) and is sitting so still! What great posture. :)

Our Other Baby

I just finished the most wonderful book - Marley and Me-Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, written by John Grogan. This book was a gift from my sweet husband - Thank-you Jeremy! This book is all about Grogan's dog Marley, a yellow lab, who was quite ill-behaved and still a cherished member of their family. I wanted to share some pics of our sometimes ill-behaved and much loved member of our family, black lab - Athena Isis! We adopted Athena from Wetland Retriever Lab Rescue when she was about 8 weeks old in October of 2003. She was an adorable puppy and has grown into a beautiful dog. She will be 3 years old on August 8th. She is most certainly a mix-breed dog, but she looks all lab.

Athena is watching the ducks at Connor's Bog here in Anchorage - a very fun place to go run and swim off some of that extra energy. (I wish I could bottle her energy for me!) Jeremy and Athena love to play fetch-the-stick.....and sometimes Athena even brings the stick back to Jeremy.

I love this picture....Athena had been with us maybe 2 weeks. She was so little as a baby! (She was so little that she could come and go through the cat door to the garage! Very cute!) I had just come home from shopping where I found this great tub for Halloween candy. (This was before I learned that not too many kids go door-to-door in our neighborhood and normally one bag of candy will be too much. Thanks Josh and Luke for always visiting us! You both always make my night!) I brought the tub upstairs and Athena jumped right in for a perfect photo opportunity! You can see in the background a bucket of cleaning supplies....in the beginning this bucket was always near-by for puppy accidents. :)

This is Athena during her first Christmas - look how big she has gotten! This is only 2 1/2 months after the picture of her in the Halloween tub!!!!!!! She is chewing on her Christmas present from my sister Katie. I think this bone might have lasted 2-3 hours.....yep, 3 hours tops. She is wearing the Christmas collar she got at the doggie Christmas party we attended. It was a lot of fun and very crazy!

I enrolled Athena in puppy obedience classes...so far we have taken 3 classes and Athena knows the basics. She is also great at going through tunnels and hopping over hurdles. My next goal is to take a class on agility or maybe flyball. She'd be great. The first teacher we had is a wonderful lady who LOVES dogs, she has 4 herself and also trains and rescues many others. Her students used to get together at a local ball field and play - we called it puppy park. It was a blast - Athena loved getting together with all the other dogs and playing. It was also a safe place for my runner, the field is fenced with a gate. After Jillian was born, we took a family trip to the ball field so that Athena could get some play time with us. This is a great picture of Athena chasing the ball. The municipality has started fining folks $50-100 if they catch you there with your dog off leash. Its too bad, especially considering not one of our off-leash dog parks are completely fenced-in.

Athena the mountain climber! Here she is on top of Flat Top! On this day, I was at home sick as a dog (hee! hee!) - I was pregnant and just beginning to learn how this baby would rock my world. Jeremy took our out-of-state visitors (cousin Brian and wife Rochelle) hiking to get a great view of our lovely city.

Athena is wild - she can be destructive when left alone, is a crazy-jumper (initially) around visitors, she will run away at the first opportunity to explore, she has selective hearing when we issue commands, and when we're not looking she will sleep on the furniture. She is not the perfect, most well-behaved pooch. But as I write this blog, Athena is laying at my feet. She is loyal and loving. I remember being 3 months pregnant and so sick of being sick. I came home from work crying and only Athena was there to greet me. She got on the bed with me and just sat there and listened to my woe-is-me's, then she laid her head in my lap and stayed with me until I fell asleep. She is not perfect, but she is family and we love her. Athena, you enrich our lives and we are better for loving you!

Daddy's Girl

Right now Jeremy spends his days in bliss, naive to the knowledge that before too long those baby blues will bring him to his knees with the slightest flutter. Underneath his manly exterior, is a Daddy who adores his daughter. Observing Jillian's reaction when he enters the room, one might say she feels the same about him. And I consider myself to be the lucky one.

Miss Jillian has been sick the past few days. This is a first for us. She had a little something back around 9 months - it was nothing compared to this though. She started getting sick on Saturday and had a fever that was 101 degrees at its highest. (It was high enough for me to worry. But, that wouldn't take much.) She has been coughing, sneezing and her nose is running like a leaky faucet. She has not been sleeping well or eating well and last night her fever came back. Thankfully it was gone again by bedtime tonight. We're hoping she's over the worst of it and tomorrow will start the first day on the road to health and happiness.

First Walk of the Season!!

The weather has been awesome in Alaska! The sun is shining and the temps have been reaching almost 50 degrees! We have been really excited about that! This afternoon I called my good friend Joy and asked if she'd like to go on a walk with Jillian and I. Since she lives so far away (right next door), and happened to be available, we were all able to get out and enjoy the sunshine. I didn't get a picture of Joy today, but here is a picture of all of us from last summer. :)

The Withrow Family

Jeremy and I celebrated 7 years of marriage yesterday. WOW! The years have just flown by!!! In honor of our anniversary I wanted to post a few family pictures. The top was taken by our photographer friend (Lisa!) last October during our visit to Illinois. We are in Hawaii in the bottom shot, we had a lovely visit to paradise last December. (Can paradise be anything but lovely?)

2 Kids and 1 Silly Girl

This is Jillian and Zachary - I like to call them Zach and Jill. (Hee Hee) Mr. Zach will be spending his days with us and we are so excited! At times, Jillian and Zach appear to play nicely together - although I hear that play at this age is not so much interactive, more like parallel play. They are funny to watch. I am learning all kinds of new things about Jillian, spending concentrated time one-on-one with another baby her age is a first.

Miss Jillian is cracking up at Athena - our horse disguised as a lab. :) Athena is trapped downstairs by the stair gate and Jillian thinks that is so funny! She pushed her activity table over by the stairs. I think she wanted to play and tease Athena at the same time. Ornery. She must get that from her father. :)

The lighting in this pic is not the greatest, but, I just love Jillian's pose and facial expression. I smile just looking at her in this photo and thought you all might too!

Birthday Presents

We waited for a whole week before letting Jillian open any of her Birthday presents. Mainly because Jeremy and I weren't finished with our shopping for her. Finally, we got organized and opened presents this past weekend. We videotaped the whole thing and got lots of cute photos. :) We think that this will probably be the only year we will get away with being behind schedule.

By the time the last present was opened, Jillian was ready for a nap. She was worn out!! After her nap, she looked at all the toys in the living room with this expression of awe - like it wasn't a dream, everything is still here! :) Cute, cute. She is so much fun!

Oh, you may notice that I made everyone wear the same clothes we all wore at the party. So, in the scrapbook it will look like everything happened on the same day. Tricky, tricky.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hi All! Hope you had a fun filled Irish day!! Jillian is sporting her green, and looking quite cute at it, I must say. :)

More Birthday Pictures.....

Just wanted to add a few more pictures from the big day! I love this picture of my 2 babes. :) Cute, huh?

Miss Jillian is busy redecorating her high chair. I finished putting the crepe paper on maybe 10 min before her first guest arrived. In this picture, she is working on the second leg. I guess it was just too much temptation to leave alone. Made for a cute photo though. Since she had so much fun taking the crepe paper off, we've left the other legs alone for her to remove on her own time. We are down to 1/2 a leg now. :) I just need to watch closely to make sure she doesn't try to eat any of the paper!

Jillian Turns One - Hip Hip Hooray!

Jillian turned one year old yesterday! WOW! We can't believe how fast the past year has flown by; it feels like it was just last week when we went to the hospital to deliver! Jillian is an amazing baby and we feel so lucky to be her parents. She is such an incredible blessing. We had a party yesterday afternoon to celebrate and we did a Strawberry Shortcake theme. Jeremy let me pick the theme and all the decorations - and I had fun going crazy. :) Everything was Strawberry Shortcake - even Jillian's outfit!

Our friend Helena baked Jillian's cake and decorated it like Strawberry Shortcake and even made a yummy, yummy Strawberry filling. Yesterday was the first time Jillian tried cake and she LOVED it! :) What a shocker. When we first put Jillian in the high chair, she was sleepy and probably would have rather gone to bed. After half the piece of cake, the sugar high set in - she woke up and started laughing and have a good time! It cracked me up to watch her go from sleepy to wired....its a good thing she was happy-wired. She is definitely my child, I am a big fan of cake!

I love this picture! Miss Jillian is playing with Mr. Zachary. Zach belongs to our friends Kay and Eric. They (Jillian and Zach) are only about 3 weeks apart in age and were playing so cute! They had fun going through the tunnel and ripping the crepe paper off the high chair. We are definitely going to have to get together to play again!

The Group! So fun to see everyone at once! It appears that everyone is looking at the camera but the Birthday Girl - her attention is focused on Brendan. Brendan really likes Jillian and was having fun being silly trying to get Jillian to laugh. (How did Mom and Dad not realize that Jillian wasn't looking at the camera??????)

I am so happy to be here one year later, it has been a truly fabulous year! I'm also sad and I miss the itty-bitty baby we brought home from the hospital. I miss cuddling Jillian through the night (yes, she slept with us for a bit) and at the same time I'm thankful she is sleeping in her crib. I miss her sweet baby grunts and coos and; yet, my heart melts when she looks at Jeremy and says "Da-Da". Is this what its like to be a parent? Will each new development cause me to mourn the baby she is growing out of at the same time I'm celebrating the young girl she is becoming? I think so. I think my heart will always feel torn with each new milestone. May I always show Jillian only true happiness with her accomplishments. May I never let her know that I may also feel sad about my baby growing up.

Here's to another truly fabulous year! Jillian, thanks for being ours!!!

Playdate

This afternoon Lara and Miss Allison came over to eat lunch with Jillian and I. We had such a fun afternoon! At first Jillian was very shy and quiet, she warmed up quickly though! And was soon VERY curious about Baby Allison. She wanted to be near the baby and watch what the baby was doing at all times. Jillian was so worn out from playing hard all afternoon that she went to bed an hour early tonight. (I think the single nap today also had something to do with this.) The above picture was taken right before they left to go home. Sweet, sweet babies.

Countdown to one year old : 2 days and 19 hours. But, who's counting?

Bathtime Smiles

Hi everyone! Its Monday and we said good-bye to Daddy as he left to fly out to Kotzebue tonight. Jillian and I took him to the airport, which was really nice being able to have a little extra time with him. He will come home again on Thursday, just in time for Jillian's Birthday party this Saturday! Jillian will be one year old on March 11th! We are sooooo excited!

After we dropped Jeremy off at the airport, Jillian and I went to the pet store to get a pinky mouse for Zorro the lizard. This is normally a Daddy job. We got home and I tilted the box so that the cute-little-pink-baby mouse fell into the cage. (There was NO way I was going to touch it.) Zorro got all excited (of course) and immediately came out to eat the poor thing. I was crying and pleading with Zorro to wait until Jillian and I left the room to eat his dinner. Thankfully, Zorro's eyesight is not the best, he stepped right over the little guy and started making a lap around the cage. I quickly put the lid on, grabbed up Jillian and went upstairs for bathtime. When I came back down, almost an hour later, Zorro was a stuffed, sleepy lizard. And I was very grateful to have missed the entire thing.

Cooking is Fun!

Here is a picture of Miss Jillian "eating" a whisk. She loves playing with kitchen gadgets almost more than her own toys. The bottom drawers and cabinets full of tupperware and dish towels provide endless amounts of entertainment for Jillian.

Daddy is home! Sweet! He got home on Thursday night around 12:30am. Jillian happened to be awake to greet Jeremy at the door and immediately wanted him to hold her. Daddy is the preferred parent right now when he is home. Its very, very sweet to see how much Jillian adores her Daddy. I went to get my hair cut today, so Jeremy and Jillian got to have some great bonding time this afternoon.

Master of the Stairs

Miss Jillian mastered the stairs today. She climbed up to the landing and about gave me a heart attack. So, I had her do it again and again until I could get some great shots.



Here are 3 of my favorites. She is such a little ham with the camera. Jeremy has the video camera with him in Kotzebue, where he is busy taking great footage of the blizzard up there. I'm sure you can guess what we'll be doing this weekend when he gets home. (If he is able to get home this weekend - his last 2 flights have been cancelled. We're hoping he gets out on the 3rd flight tonight.) Jillian will be getting a ton of stair practice. Now that Jillian has discovered her new ability, we're going to have to get another swing gate for the bottom of the steps. Amazing baby. :)