What did I just tell you?

What did I just tell you?

Are you not listening?

I guess we need new couches anyway...

What can I do to make you more comfortable?

Thanksgiving at Dad's "Farm", Part II

These pictures are of loved ones that make long plane rides worth it: Dad, Lindsey and Rachel (also Tammy, Kurt and Trent--not pictured). It pains me that we literally only see each other a few times a year. We all live in a different state, so we count it as a miracle when we can get organized enough to all get together.


Hiking with Dad and Lindsey

Lily and her Aunty Linds

Me and Rachie

Thanksgiving at Dad's "Farm"

About a month ago my dad left big city Atlanta and moved to a tiny little town in Vermont, called Woodstock. He's always dreamed of having land and living a quiet little existence and now with his career winding down he jumped at the chance to live his dream. We thought he went crazy until we saw the place (we still think he's a little crazy). The population of the town is 1700. It is a picturesque, quaint little town and now with his land and his farmhouse and his tractor, etc. etc. my dad is a self-proclaimed "fake farmer." He has the land and the barn, just no cows to milk or sheep to graze...He lives in a cute farmhouse, built in 1790. Yes, you read that right. It is adorable and charming, but very funky. None of the walls or floors are straight, flat, square or perpendicular. If it weren't so dang far away I would go there every chance I could get. There aren't direct flights and the closest airport is a 1 1/2 hour drive from their house, so let's just say that flying/layovers/long car rides and Lily don't exactly paint a pretty picture. The first picture in this post is of how we survived our flight: tylenol before and sugar during (exemplary parents, we know). While we were there we had lots of fun with things that have wheels: atvs, motorcycles, tractors, etc. We each gained an embarrassing amount of weight for such a short trip because of my step-mom's fabulous and fattening cooking (Thanksgiving dinner was just the tip of the iceberg). The highlight of our trip aside from being with family we rarely get to see was driving to Sharon, Vermont to the birthplace of the prophet, Joseph Smith. We attended church and visited a monument erected in his honor and the small plot of land where his birth home rested. The peace and the spirit surrounding that place is hard to describe. Loved it! It was a great way to end the Thanksgiving holiday and made us so grateful for all that we are blessed with.

The longest flight of our lives

The barn, house, and swimming hole

Fun on wheels

Fun on wheels, Part II

The white bench is where the prophet's house rested.

Highlights of this Week

Okay...so I used to do these posts and I am going to try and get back in the habit. Like many, I'm sure, (I hope) I find life as a mom to be totally crazy much of the time, and if I don't stop and remind myself how lucky I am, and that I spent many a year looking forward to "arriving" here- I find myself focusing on the stressful things and not on the wonderful things. So here goes...

* Today's beautiful weather and the scenic mountains. Living in Michigan taught me that not only do I love the mountains, I REQUIRE them to feel at home, at peace...and also as a frame of reference because I have zero sense of direction. And I do mean zero.

* A very friendly neighbor who invited me to playgroup with the other neighbor/ward moms and kids even though my kid is not yet of playing age. I think she sensed that I needed to get out of my house.

* A wonderfully working dishwasher. Never had one until now.

* A very hot, very long shower during Lily's nap.

* A tantrum-free jaunt through IKEA.

* Christmas stuff hitting the shelves and the way it makes me giggle with delight.

* And a very well-timed call and a great conversation with a wonderful friend.

Our Very Own Randy

Yesterday's weather prompted the purchase of this cumbersome, way-too-big-but-we-think-she'll-grow-into-it ensemble, dubbed the "randy."

Tolerating it mildly.

I left the room for a second and heard sounds of struggle...

Followed by crying...well Lil was crying, and call me mean, but I was laughing my head off.

All very reminiscent of my favorite Christmas movie.
I LOVE winter, and I am already excited for Christmas!

Buddies

I came downstairs to this cute scene last Saturday. It is so fun to see Chris interact with Lil. She really hams it up for her dad. She seems to understand that Mom meets most of her needs, but Dad is more fun, a.k.a. he is the guy that'll throw you up in the air or hang you upside down (not my favorite trick of theirs.) And he is the guy to watch the Utes win with!

Life these days...

Hello Readers...assuming we still have any. I am finding it harder and harder to update this thing these days, for lots of reasons--3 in particular by the names of Lily, Ruby and Rex. But I am not ready to pull the plug on blogging and I still love reading all my friends' blogs so here goes...


This is my adorable girl doing her most recent trick- sitting up! I am loving every minute of being a mom. I can't believe that she is now 7 months old. It is a blast to watch her personality coming out. She is a sassy little drama queen, full of funny faces and pterodactyl-like noises. She is close to crawling and I am bracing myself for life to get even crazier when she becomes mobile!

This is our newest family member, Rex. He is a very sweet boy and we are glad Ruby has a playmate--although I must say that I feel very much like the mother of three children. These dogs are high-energy! They follow me around the house and can't bear to be apart from the rest of the family. Wherever I move throughout the house, I can be sure to have 8 little legs (soon enough it will be 10 little legs!) following close behind me.

Playing in the Pack n' Play

Lily in my favorite little yellow dress of hers.

This is our cute house. I'll post a picture of the front, but the inside still needs pictures to be hung, and lots of furniture to be purchased, etc. etc. We have moved into a wonderful neighborhood and ward, with no less than 21 babies having been born in the past year. We are finally settling into home-ownership. The idea quickly got knocked off it's pedestal in the 2nd week of living here. I will just say the modern-day-convenience gods had conspired against us...Things went something like this...closed on our home. Moved in. Washing machine broke-fixed it. S's car required very expensive repairs-fixed them. Broken sprinkler-fixed after three weeks of tinkering. Broken dryer-had to get that fixed too. C's car bites the dust- I mean completely. Sayonara '99 Subaru. Broken lawn mower- still in need of fixing. So all in all things are good now, but for a while we felt like the butt of a very mean joke.

Update

Quick update--We have been extremely busy and I intend to upload pics and such in the near future when life calms down a little. But just so I can shake my guilt for neglecting our blog for so long-here is a brief update:

All of us:

We are under contract on a house in Salt Lake in the Canyon Rim area. We close in a few days and are thrilled to be basement dwellers no more!!

Chris:

What started out about a year ago as an idea, a dream (a pipe dream, or so I thought) has become a reality--He and his business partners got funded and they now have a full-blown, fully operating business. His company deals with the land remediation industry, primarily with oil spill cleanups. It has been an amazing blessing and we are so grateful for the opportunity that he has to get paid to do something he is passionate about (which is to start and grow businesses--not clean up oil spills.)

Sarah

Sarah spends her days corralling (sp?) animals and playing peek-a-bo and doing everything with one hand. Her other hand is usually busy toting around an adorable, but demanding little one. I may or may not have mentioned that I quit my job and have been loving being a housewife, although I feel like I am more of a full-time baby carrier rather than a person who actually gets anything done around the house. How do some nice Lynn Wilson burritos sound for dinner, Honey?

Lily

Lily is almost 6 months old and is full of personality. She is rolling all over the place and eating solids and "talking" up a storm. She loves to play in her doorway jumper and she loves walks in the baby bjorn. She still insists on "hanging out" with me around 1:00 am and 4:00 am each morning and I am much looking forward to a full night's sleep at some point.

Ruby

Ruby had an acl replacement surgery for her knee a few weeks ago and we spend much time going on walks and doing an elaborate physical therapy regimen with her. She is so light and agile that we have had a hard time getting her to actually use and strengthen her knee. She can get around on three legs like you wouldn't believe.

Rex

What? Who's Rex you ask? Well we thought that we didn't have enough going on with starting a company, and moving, and hauling babies around, and recuperating Ruby--so what better time than to adopt another dog?? Rex is a two-year old black lab mix that we rescued. He spent his first night at our house smack in the middle of our bed. He is a big sweetie and he gets along great with Ruby . We always said that when we got a house that we would need to get Ruby a friend, but we figured why not rescue a fully trained dog instead of dealing with those first few nightmarish weeks of having a puppy. We will post pics of him soon.

We Survived...

 

For a while there we were not quite sure what had happened to our sleepy, easy baby...and to our lives for that matter, but I believe we have made it through the worst of Lily's colic. Our nights used to involve two or three car rides of what we called "Lily's Loop." Lily's Loop would calm her down just in time to pull in the driveway and get out of the car...which is when she would inevitably start wailing all over again. But, rest assured, she started smiling and talking and being a content baby just in time...Chris used to lovingly threaten her that if she couldn't behave we were going to give her to the gypsies. She is a pretty good baby now so we have decided to keep her.

Driggs and Jackson Hole

 

 

 

 

Over Memorial Day weekend we drove up to Driggs and Jackson Hole to spend time with my dad and that side of the family. It was our first time road-tripping with a baby in tow and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The highlights of our trip included: Stopping for a quick "hello" with the Budges in Pocatello, me nursing Lily in the backseat while driving on the freeway...yikes!, the view of the Grand Teton from our condo, my dad playing the guitar, good talks and reminiscing with family, ice cream with the Becks in Victor, a big rainstorm, followed by a beautiful rainbow, shopping and lunch in Jackson.

Best Buddies

 

 

We were worried when we first brought Lily home that Ruby would feel displaced and ignored. After all she was our FIRST child and those of you who know us know that we really did treat her like our baby. We needn't have worried because Ruby is the sweetest, gentlest girl with Lily. She loves to be near her and is as social and happy a doggy as she ever was. She's always giving Lily kisses. Here are the buddies hanging out.

Lily's Blessing

 

Lily's Baby Blessing, May 3, 2009

Chris Johnson, MBA

After two years of back-breaking labor, Chris is finally done!!!

 

BYU Business Plan Competition

Chris and two other classmates set out last summer to enter this year's BYU Business Plan Competition. They spent literally hundreds of hours outside regular classtime to create a business plan for a new bio-remediation technique that cleans up all kinds of contaminants at an accelerated rate. Nearly 75 teams made up of BYU business undergrads and MBA students entered the competition and Chris' team won third place and $20,000 that they can use to get their business started. I am so proud of his dedication and hard work!!!

 

Our Easter Lily

It has been a long time since I have posted or even taken pictures of our Lil' Lily. Life as a mom is totally crazy!!! I am in awe of people who have more than one child...seriously! Lily is plagued with acid reflux and the poor thing is on two medications for it. We hope they start working soon, although getting an infant to swallow yucky liquid medicine or rubbing a pill on the inside of her cheek until it dissolves seems like a futile endeavor...not to mention that it just seems down right cruel! The first few weeks have been crazy with lots of ups and downs. I'll just sum things up by saying that after six weeks I think we finally have the hang of nursing and Lily's weight is finally on the up and up. Our peanut weighs a whopping 8 pounds 1 ounce now! We have just decided that she will probably grow up to be a delicate little flower, as her name suggests. In any case, parenthood has totally rocked our world. I honestly can't even remember what life was like six weeks ago, but she has filled our home with so much joy and love and we are so so grateful for our sweet girl. Here are some Easter pics.

 

 

 

 

Lily's first two weeks...

 

I make lots of cute faces!

 

Sleeping with Dad

 

I'm so tiny I sleep in my crib sideways.

 

Hello!

Lily Elizabeth Johnson

Meet Lily Elizabeth Johnson!!
Born March 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 p.m.
6 pounds, 6 ounces, 20 inches long

She's here!!! Born nearly three weeks early, but just as happy and healthy as can be!!! I felt my first labor pain at 5:35 a.m. on Monday morning. By 7:30 my contractions were excrutiating and coming every 4 to 5 minutes. Our daughter was coming...and she was coming in a hurry! I feel so lucky to have had an incredibly fast and relatively easy labor and delivery. She and I are home already and doing well. Stay tuned for more info and pics when I can get around to it...