Heather Johnson Photography

I did it, I did it, I did it! Well….at least part of it. I have the photos and words, interested to see if I ever get them into pages! I am going to take a day to think about this, but I do intend on setting myself up with some plans/goals to get this done. I seem to do well with self-imposed deadlines here (heavily influenced by what “everyone else” is doing). I am interested in how Ali plans to share her stuff, and am pretty certain I will follow her lead.

The girls and I spent the day at my in-law’s farm at a Wedding Shower pretty much all day today. And although that was a special event, there was still quite a bit that went on that is representative of a typical day at the farm.

Breakfast

Holly LOVES breakfasts at the farm. Typically they involve waffles, but this morning she enjoyed Grandpa’s super moist coffee cake, scrambled eggs, and lil smokies. My daughter LOVES her some meat! Judging by the pile I see here on her plate, I am guessing she is not all that into eggs anymore…..

There was plenty of time before getting dressed and guests arriving to enjoy some playtime on the floor–

followed by some playtime outside with Grandpa. He scored this great basketball hoop for $8 last week at a Thrift Store. Holly made a ton of baskets, and really liked to celebrate when she did!

Holly changed into her dress, but still wasn’t ready to give up any Grandpa time (she is his shadow for sure) so off they went to enjoy the swing in the big old oak tree–

Guests started to really arrive around noon, so we gathered for a wonderful lunch of taco salad and had a great time looking at all of the gifts. I have decided I need to throw myself a “I have been married nearly ten years and need neat new gadgets and household goods” kind of shower here soon.

During the shower Marie got to try out the family high chair. This puppy has been around since the 70′s! Love how she is looking at her reflection!

My sweet baby was the hit of the party–love my little charmer here:

wearing her first nametag!

Holly occupied herself by playing outside with cousins before it was time to go–

When we returned home, both girls were excited to see their daddy again. He had had a nice 24-hr break from the wife and kids. His review of the experience? That our house can be very, very quiet…

What a great week!

Lots of stuff happening today. The day started early, too early for me considering I didn’t go to bed until 12:30pm. I couldn’t sleep–I was planning a last minute trip to Disneyland in California!!!  We go in eleven days–AH!

We had a lot of things to do today, so the camera didn’t make it out as much as usual. I had a big drive, too, so that ate up a lot of time. Here is a little bit of our day.

Morning-

Morning Cuddles

Costco Runs

Birthday Parties with Face Painting. I wish you could have heard Holly giving the artist instructions on what colors she wanted where. I had to apologize for all of the “art direction!” My girl knows what she wants!!!

Getting ready for the long drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s. Don’t I look excited? (I was so exhausted that I promptly fell asleep when I got there. The wake up in a puddle of drool kind of nap…)

Time with Friends

Rounding out the night with a swim in the tub at Grandma’s!

Friday. Almost there! Today was a bit of a different day….I had another sleepless night and was up from 230-6, only to get woken up at 7am after finally falling back to sleep. (I was too lazy to grab a camera this time around.) When I finally got out of bed it was a scurry to get Holly off to school. Notice the winter gear this AM…weren’t we outside without jackets yesterday?!

Somebody is teething pretty badly right now, so refused to nap at 9am AGAIN–

So while the baby watched my friend Lisa came over and taught me how to make my own baby food. Easy Peasy.

Yes I still have bed-head in this picture. Don’t judge.

That took up our entire morning. When she left, baby and I crawled into bed–

where we stayed until 4pm. (And yes I need, and use, all of those pillows. One under my head, one at my knees, and two behind me as I nurse the baby lying down. It takes a bit of talent I tell you!)

Daddy surprised me and picked up Holly from school, and then came home where he had a chance to bond with his baby girl–

before she tried homemade rice cereal for the first time.

She opened her mouth right up for it, I would say she is ready! Before we knew it it was time for evening snuggles–

but since a mom’s work is never done I made a batch of steel cut oatmeal

and made a last minute run to Target for the gift we need for tomorrow’s birthday party Holly and I are attending.

What’s not pictured:
-me finding Holly playing in her room a full TWO hours after I put her to bed
-me face timing my sister-in-law in Guam about a possible surprise California trip in two weeks (!)
-me realizing it’s now after 11pm and I have stayed up too late AGAIN

See you tomorrow!

It’s really late on Thursday, and both kids did not nap today. I am exhausted, so this will be short on words for now.

Here was our day today. I am taking a page from Ali’s playbook yesterday where she used a word or two to describe the photo:

Educating

Moments before this picture was taken she pointed out the recycling symbol on the juice bottle.

Showering

Cleaning

 

More cleaning (Week In The Life does not lend itself to keeping up with everything else!)

Playing (Restaurant, of course.)

Shopping–I make homemade baby food tomorrow! Can’t wait to blog about that:)

Grooming (nice and blurry low-light iphone shot taken by a four year old!)

Lunching

Experimenting (plastic bottled milk vs glass bottle milk–glass wins! YUM!)

Recycling (She wasn’t so keen on this when she realized it actually involved work.)

Imagining (These are the two princesses of our block!)

Eating

 

Sleeping

See you tomorrow. Good night.

Day three. I feel like a little kid when I say, “Are we there yet?” I am beginning to feel like I am running out of things to photograph and the energy to do it.

Wednesday morning started with a flurry of activity to get Holly off to preschool. As she was brushing her teeth I remembered it was still Week in The Life, and ran for my camera. I Love this photo of her on the stool. *sigh* I look at this photo and know that in not so many years she won’t even need a stool anymore to reach the sink. (But we will need another bathroom. One bathroom, in a house of three women, is going to get tough.)

Wednesday was a very big day around here. At preschool there is a zipping party! All year the kids have been working on zipping their zippers themselves, and Holly often has mentioned a zipping party–but truthfully I thought it was something she made up. (Holly likes to create new and fun reasons to party.) Turns out there really is a party, and Holly couldn’t be more excited about what’s in store.

Thankfully school isn’t too far down the road, and was looking quite pretty this morning when we arrived. This put me in a better mood…I didn’t realize I would be taking Holly to school this morning so I looked a bit disheveled, and felt a little grumpy. This scene definitely cheered me up.

Yes, that’s exactly what her school looks like–it’s a little hobby farm. Best little preschool in The Cities as far as I am concerned, so sad that it’s her last year there. Can’t wait for Marie to get the chance to go!

When we returned home it was time for Marie’s nap and time for my “busyness.” (If you read my blog this week you know that that’s what Holly calls my housework.) While nursing the baby as we got ready for her nap this morning, Marie did something she never did before–she reached for my face. When I realized what she was doing I brought my face down closer and she touched it with her little hand. Thankfully I was holding my iphone (reading blogs you know) so I snapped this shot moments after it all happened.

You can still see the remnants of a smile on her little face. What you can’t see are the tears on mine.

Remember yesterday when I said that it’s hard when you know something is happening for the last time with your kids? Turns out the first times aren’t that easy either.

***the picture is insanely grainy due to the low light and iphone photography but I still love it. Damned if I am not tearing up again now as I write the story***

This time I remembered to get a photo of me doing my daily pick-ups (I call them my checks) while–you guessed it–talking to my mom on the hands-free headset. I LOVE that darn thing. It makes housework so much more tolerable. Sort of like running with an ipod.

While the baby continued to sleep, and I still had the energy to accomplish something and the headset on, I tackled a project from my house list–organizing Holly’s craft drawer in the kitchen. Man do we have a lot of paper, coloring books, pencils, markers, and crayons. I am a firm believer in a craft drawer in the kitchen if you have kids. This little drawer has saved my sanity at least 100 times.

When the baby woke up we played a bit in her exersaucer–

and she had fun from afar with her “Cake.”

So happy that technology has come as far as it has. My mom thinks it’s hard being a long-distance grandparent now? Ha! Could you imagine what this was like before the age of facetime, internet, or blogs?

We decided to get some fresh air and took a little walk–

and then returned home for another nap and lunch.

If you are wondering, yes, I really do weigh my food like that when I am on the WW program. Speaking of Weight Watchers, don’t you love the silver duct tape on my scale? I swear that piece of tape has been on there at least ten years to get it to work right. I don’t know what’s more pathetic–me not getting a new scale, or the fact that over the past ten years I have been trying to lose the same damn pounds.

Marie woke up just in time for my hair appointment, so off we went to make mommy a blonde again.

Marie did wonderful, and just sat there in her stroller the whole 90 minutes it took to get myself all polished up. All of the hairdressers kept telling me I had the best baby in the world, and I couldn’t help but agree!

My appointment ended and gave me about five minutes to pick-up Holly, which I did just in the nick of time. She had a balloon in hand, and stories of cake and celebration to tell. The zipping party was a hit, and she proclaimed, “Today is the best day I have had, EVER.” We decided to celebrate some more, so we headed to Punch Pizza for dinner. (They were having one of their free pizza nights. How’s that for kismet?) Holly LOVES Punch, and can easily eat an entire pizza herself.

We texted Daddy in line only to find out that he was already home, so we got everything to go–

and enjoyed a nice evening on the deck together as a family. (Don’t you just LOVE Marie’s crossed feet in this picture? She totally did that on her own. )

Wednesday is a wrap. I am too tired to take a new picture of my blonder self, so that will have to be on tomorrow’s post. Kids are in bed, and Justin is asleep on the couch. This Mom isn’t going to be that too far behind.