Heather Johnson Photography

I have one page completely finished, and am almost done with page two, so figured the best thing to do would be to share them here. *Hopefully* that will keep me motivated to churn them out. (Actually motivation isn’t the problem, it’s time. Even being all digital doesn’t help with this one. Turns out adding in WITL to Project Life was a bit too much for this somewhat overwhelmed mom!)

This is so tiny, I made sure to copy the journaling down. The journaling reads:

MONDAY MORNING

Our mornings at this point in our lives are filled with activity, chaos, and more chaos! Try as I might, I never seem to be that prepared for finding shoes, packing lunches, making drinks, cooking breakfast, and shuffling everyone out the door in time for preschool and work to start. Lately I have begun to not even attempt to eat breakfast with the family, and instead get things packed and ready to go while Holly enjoys her oatmeal and Daddy enjoys his eggs. It’s easier this way. After Holly is off to school, Marie and I settle into our own routine which consists of nursing and napping by 9, followed by a walk at around 11. While she sleeps I enjoy my oatmeal, read blogs, and pick-up the mess that is the worst on Mondays. Evidence of a fun weekend is left all over the house! This particular Monday was really tough, as I didn’t sleep well on Sunday night. So instead of sleeping I scrapbook!

I don’t know if it will hold true as I work my way through more days, but when I wrote about the day it seemed to come out more like a generalized overview versus what we did exactly at what time. (Honestly, I just couldn’t keep up with that much note taking with the kids being so young and active.) I have decided not to stress about it. It is what it is, and it’s neat that I was able to get it all down. When the girls look at it someday they are not going to care that it doesn’t have time labels, they are just going to enjoy seeing what we did that week.

And that’s all that matters.

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!