The Johnsons

Moves

2012-01-26T14:26:00.001-08:00

Check out Emily's dance moves.

Memory Jar

2012-01-24T10:04:00.000-08:00

I found an idea on Pinterst that I loved. We have a jar and everytime I have a funny or cute story, I write it down and slip it into the jar and read all of the little papers on New Years Eve. I think that would be so fun especially since the girls are at such a fun age right now and they change so fast. We got our first story in there and many more to come.

Catching up

2012-01-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have been pretty bad about updating my blog. We haven't done much of anything exciting but here's some pictures to show off the last little while.

On Saturday we went to Disneyland as a family. It was a lot of fun and the first time in a while that we went to Toon Town. The girls loved all the chaos.

Mike and Emily decided to go on the Teacups right before we left so Allyson and I hung out and played by the front.

Emily was really excited to wear her Minnie ears to Disneyland.

On Monday, Mike had the day off so we did some major cleaning in the morning and then took a bike ride to the park that afternoon. We didn't realize it would be so cold so we didn't stay long.

On Tuesday, I decided to just go for it and get rid of Allyson's binky. It was hard the first day but she is getting the hang of it.

On Friday we were supposed to meet up with some friends at Disneyland but that didn't work out so we had a fun mom and girls day. We went early since I had to be back home to babysit a friend's daughter at 1:30. It was a great time. We walked on to a bunch of rides and the park wasn't too full for the first little bit.

I don't know what's with Emily's new tilted head pose but Allyson thought she should do it too.

Emily has been much more of a ham lately and willing to smile for pictures.

This weekend my dad is in town for a work training that he had this week.

I have a picture just like this of me on my dad but I was actually sleeping.

Emily thought that was great fun that she could stand and lay on him.

Keeping busy

2012-01-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

On Friday, a friend of ours asked if we wanted to play at Scooter's Jungle. The girls had a great time and it just confirmed what a dare devil Allyson is. She climbed all the stairs and went down the slide time after time. We all had tons of fun.

Last month, I signed the girls up for these free state-funded programs. They are through the School of Continnuing Education. One is Kindergym and the other is called Joyful Parenting. We have the Kindergym class on Mondays and most of the kids are around Allyson's age. They just play and do fun little activities and circle time with songs.

Then on Tuesdays the Joyful Parenting is kind of like preschool with parents there. They have freeplay, do storytime, crafts, lunchtime and circle time. There are a lot of kids but this age group is more along the lines of Emily's age. The only problem is that it's 11:00-1:00. Right smack in the middle of naptime. It went pretty well today so we are going to see how it goes. By the end though, Allyson really wanted to just take her nap.

Blast from the past

2012-01-10T17:58:00.003-08:00

The girls and I were looking through old videos and we found this one. I think it's so funny!

Moving on up

2012-01-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Today was a first for both of the girls. Emily had her first day in Sunbeams and Allyson had her first day in nursery! Emily was really excited to be a sunbeam.

Emily did well except for a little meltdown she had when Mike left but they said she snapped out of it and was fine the rest of the time. She should be better next week. She was so excited for the crown she made though when we went to pick her up.

Allyson has been in nursery a little before the last couple weeks and when I went to drop her off, she didn't even glance back at me. Just went straight for the toys. She did great but I am a little worried about the time change in our church schedule. 11-2 is brutal for a toddler who takes her nap then.

They are growing up.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year. Here is a recap in pictures.
Emily and Allyson with Grandpa Johnson

Grandma Johnson skypes with Eric and his family and reads The Littlest Angel every year.

Santa and his reindeer ate some of the cookies, carrots and milk we left them.

I'm not kidding when I say she wakes up with her hair like that. :)

Emily loves this princess book that Grandma and Grandpa Lakey gave her. She takes it with her everywhere.

They both got a little oven mit for their pretend kitchen and Allyson had to try them both on.

She just won't smile for pictures anymore.

The girls had to get ready for church and Emily was doing her hair with her new pretend hair styling stuff.

One of their favorite gifts was this princess castle that they got from Aunt Elizabeth.

Our pink/princess room. It was crazy in there.

Allyson got everything and anything to do with babies. She loves it and is such a cute little mommy.

We had some snacks on Christmas day.

Cookies for santa, pita chips and hummus, candy, apples and toffee dip and homemade soft pretzels.

This year I made our Christmas dinner.

Roasted chicken, homemade mac n cheese and steamed veggies.

Ally got her own pretend vaccuum. She loves cleaning and loves to use this.

Thanks everyone for a great Christmas. It was wonderful and we missed the Lakey side but had a great time skyping with them.

18 Months old

2011-12-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

Allyson turned 18 months today. It's so crazy that she is already that old. We had her check up today and she was great. She is 31 1/2" (46%) and 23 lbs (31%).

Here she is in her 18 month picture:

Her 1 year picture:

She keeps growing and changing. Here is Allyson in a nutshell:

-We once had to buy two pairs of church shoes in one month because she grew out of them so fast.

-She loves to climb on anything.

-Her favorite foods are greek yogurt, cooked carrots and graham crackers.

-She loves anything baby related and loves to wear princess shoes and use a purse like she is a grown up.

-She is starting to talk more and more. Some words from her vocabulary right now are: mommy, daddy, ball, uh-oh, more, milk, no, grandpa (if we ask her to say it), and door.

-She is a nightmare to take shopping. She stands up in the cart (the front part) while it's going.

-She is starting to throw tantrums and they are the full on stereotypical ones when she throws herself on the floor and kicks her feet.

-She loves to play with Emily and Emily loves to play with her.

-We know when Allyson really likes something because she is very quiet and observant. She doesn't get overly excited, she just gets very quiet.

-She has so much blond hair. People constantly think Emily and Allyson are twins or much closer together since they have about the same amount of hair and Allyson isn't far behind her on the growth chart.

-She gets to go to nursery now and she will adjust just fine. She loves it in there.

We love our little Allyson and look forward to watching her grow even more. It's so fun to have our two girls and see what little people they are becoming.

And for some extra pictures.

Fail!

2011-12-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Okay so the advent calendar thing sort of failed when my plans were derailed and we had to go to Utah. We have still been doing fun stuff though! Here are a few pictures.

We made gingerbread houses on Saturday night with some friends and family! It was a lot of fun! Emily decorated a couple graham crackers but mostly just snuck candy.

We also went to the library and got some Christmas books. Emily really loves to "read". We read books to her and then she repeats a lot of it back. Sometimes it's not in the same order but it's cute and funny to hear some of the bigger words in the books that come out of her mouth.

Mike and Emily had a blast watching The Muppets Christmas Carol together last night. Mike was singing along and now he's about ready to take the music off his phone so Emily won't ask again to listen to it.

I also made some goodies. Of course I didn't get a picture but this is what I made. Those and some marshmallow pops. Emily and Allyson had a lot of fun delivering them yesterday.

We have also colored Christmas pictures, made Christmas stuff out of play-doh and they visited the Live Nativity with some friends of ours while we went to Mike's work party. Tonight we are going to go to our favorite neighborhood in Brea and look at the lights. We still have crafts, service and other fun stuff in store.

I'm also not very good at taking pictures so none of Allyson for now but her 18 month appointment is coming up and will have some of her soon.

Madge

2011-12-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, my grandma Barton (Madge) passed away. It was kind of sudden. Allyson and I flew out to Utah on Wednesday morning with my brother and sister and neice, Audrey. I brought Allyson since she was free on the plane and it would be easier for Mike to find someone to be with Emily. My grandma was a funny lady. I remember playing Skip-Bo with her and she would swear every once in a while and for some reason, it was hilarious. She loved everyone and from the amount of people that came to the viewing, she was very loved and adored. She worked for the school district there for 34 years and continued to volunteer for the following 10 years! She was so fun and lovely and we will miss her dearly. On Wednesday night, we had the viewing. My mom said every time she would visit she would tell her that she wanted to have a viewing so everyone could see how beautiful she looked. We did that and although she didn't look quite the same without that glow, she looked beautiful. The next morning we had a graveside service for her and all she wanted was for some of her grandchildren to sing a primary song. We sang My Heavenly Father Loves Me.

All the cousins minus one.

Brady, Kelsey and I by Bryan's grave. He would be 26.

Advent calendar-day 4

2011-12-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we made some cookies and watched a Christmas movie. We decided to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Emily and Allyson loved it. Well Allyson watched the first 30 seconds, bounced around a bunch and went to bed. That girl just couldn't care less about TV.

Advent Calendar-Day 2 & 3

2011-12-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

On Friday, the activity was to draw a Christmas picture and Emily also got a surprise message via email from Santa. (You can customize your own at portable north pole online) She was kind of quiet during the video but after just got really excited and said "Daddy is going to be so proud of me!" Yesterday we took our Christmas pictures and today we get to enjoy a Christmas movie! I'm thinking Elf if Emily will watch it or How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Advent Calendar-Day 1

2011-12-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

I am so excited that Emily is finally old enough to get excited about doing Christmas stuff. I made an advent calendar with activities that we get to do everyday and I am going to take a picture of each activity. Today was day one and the activity was to write a letter to Santa. (I addressed it to my parents in Utah and doubled it as her Christmas list.)

Crafting

2011-11-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

I have been bitten by the craft bug. I am not a seamstress and even if I wanted to try, I don't have a sewing machine but I've had so much fun trying out new things. Especially for the holidays. I have some other things up my sleeve too.

This is the stuff I have done so far.

An advent calendar

I love this because it's just scrapbook paper and magnets on a mini muffin tin. It makes it really easy to store for next year. Just put the paper magnets away and there you go. I wanted to find something that I could do activities in. I might do some surprise days with treats but I look forward to doing something fun every day before Christmas.

A yarn wreath

I saw this online and loved it. It's so easy and pretty cheap too!

I am so excited to try some other things.

A worm named Wormy

2011-11-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

Emily noticed a worm on the ground as we were coming in from running an errand today. She was so excited to play with it. First we named it Bob, then Fella, and then Wormy Wormy.

Untitled from janica Johnson on Vimeo.

Changes

2011-11-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

This year brings a lot of changes for us. My mom is moving out to join my dad in Utah after a year of him working there. He was unemployed for a while and found a job out there and now my mom is moving out there. We decided to have an early Thanksgiving this last weekend before they move. I was so excited to see my whole family again. My dad flew out to help my mom with the move and my sister and her family drove in from Twentynine Palms. We haven't seen Audrey for a while so I was excited to see her again. She loved being here and watching the girls.

My "little" sister and me.

Emily has been so obsessed with taking pictures. She is actually pretty good and gets some good ones.

What a sweet angel.

My dad fell asleep after flying in early that morning.

My mom made these cute turkeys.

The cousins

It was a great night. It gave me some confidence in making our own Thanksgiving meal. I made most of it and it turned out well.

This is Allyson's normal morning look.

The next day we went to help my parents pack up the truck so they could leave today.

It was not the day I was expecting. My dad called me at 6:30 Sunday morning and said that someone had broken into their apartment WHILE THEY WERE SLEEPING and stolen phones, and his computer and some money and gift cards. We had shown him how to put Latitude on his phone while we were in Utah so he wanted us to track it. We tracked it in Laguna Woods which is a retirement community so we think they were robbing someone else. Then it went up to Santa Ana and stopped at a house there and so we were coordinating with the cops.

Then as we left to go down to the storage unit, I walked outside and into the garage and noticed the garage door was open. I thought maybe Mike had come out before me but it turns out I had left the garage door open after my parents went out the back. I got distracted putting the girls to bed and forgot and during the night our bikes, bike trailer and some nice tools were stolen! It was not turning out to be a good day and it was only 8:30am.

Then we made it down to Laguna Hills and finally got started moving the stuff into the trunk. It rained but we got a bunch done at the storage unit then went to lunch and moved most of the stuff out of the apartment. Emily and Allyson were SO good considering they both woke up at 6:30 and didn't get a nap. Emily was a great helper and Ally loved trying to take things to the truck too.
Picture taken by Emily

We will miss the Lakeys. After our drive to Utah in September though, we are optimistic about the other times we will be traveling there to see them.

Sensory Bags

2011-11-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this is true for all kids but I have learned that Emily really likes anything sensory. Whether it be water, beans, sand, she loves to play in it and it will keep her entertained for a while. I have been slightly obsessed with looking at Pinterest lately. I found this great idea and went for it.

Clear hair gel (99 cent store), gallon sized ziplock back, food coloring and glitter (I forgot to include that)

La Habra Children's Museum

2011-11-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Mike went to a football game with his dad so I decided to take the girls to the La Habra Children's Museum. Verlanne tagged along with us. I was excited to hear that that day was free. Normally it's $7 a person over 2.

It was a lot of fun and they had some cool stuff there.

They had this Medieval area with a castle and all the old stuff from that era.

Of course the little grocery store section was a hit.

Daily happenings...

2011-11-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

Even princesses have to clean

(She wanted to clean. I plugged in the plug, she moved it into her room, reclined it and turned it on. I could get used to this.)

I got ALL of Ally's hair into pigtails.

Emily wanted to play with shaving cream. I thought Ally could give it a try.

All was going well until I heard Emily call my name.

Allyson had an itchy eye or something. Poor girl. We cleaned her right up and she was shirtless for the rest of the night.

And after an after-dinner Halloween candy, she was being as goofy as can be.

Halloween

2011-11-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

This year for Halloween, Emily was obsessed with pumpkin patches. Since we live right next to one (we can see it from our bedroom window) Emily was constantly asking if we could go to it again or if we would pass it.
Saturday was our ward's Trunk or Treat. It was a lot of fun and Allyson picked up the whole trick or treating thing right away. She is much more aggressive with that than we remember Emily being.

Rylie, Kenzie, Emily and Emma

My poor friend, Krystal was due on Halloween and last I heard, nothing had happened. And it's her third!

We went trick or treating in the houses behind our condos and it was a lot of fun. The girls did great. They got a good stash of candy that we helped them munch on. :)

I thought this one was really funny. She looks like she is saying "touchdown!"

I guess Allyson was anticipating a lot of candy with three buckets.

We went to some members house in our ward and they boys love Emily and Allyson.

Ballerina

2011-10-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

We have a room in our house that used to be two. The previous owners took out part of the wall to combine it. We have our master bedroom in one and our "office" in the other. Usually in the afternoon, I will come upstairs to put laundry away, look something up on the computer, etc and the girls always have to follow. We turn on music and I let them dance. Emily put on her dress up tutu and danced around that little wall.

Allyson thought it was just hilarious that she had chapstick in her mouth.

Mickey's Halloween Party

2011-10-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

We did this last year and had a blast so we wanted to do it again this year!

This is the best picture I could get with the girls.

Our little cowgirl with Grandpa Johnson

You can't really tell but Grandma is there too. She was dressed all in black.

Mike and I even got to go on Space Mountain with Elizabeth and Gabe.

After we went through the trick or treating lines, Allyson wanted candy and positioned herself on the ground ready to eat it. She couldn't eat and stand I guess.

Our cute girls!

Halloween Festivities

2011-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

This time of year is busy especially since Emily is old enough to enjoy a lot of the fun things we can do. For Family Home Evening on Monday we walked over to the pumpkin patch right by our house.

Please excuse the picture quality. All of these were taken with our phones.

This was Emily's favorite part. There were a bunch of boys around 12 years old and she had no problem keeping up with them and maneuvering around them.

Also the other favorite of the girls. Once Emily figured out she could make it go on her own, she was cruisin'.

Family fun

2011-10-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

We got a bike trailer from Mike's co-worker a few months ago and Mike got a bike for his birthday so we were finally able to get out and use it. It was a lot of fun and a great start to the weekend. We look forward to doing it more often!

Little Mommy Emily

2011-10-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

Lately Emily has been such a little mommy. She wants to take care of everyone, especially Allyson. And Allyson wants to do what Emily does. Yesterday Emily got her Tangled dress on to dance to music and Ally wanted one too. Emily got it for her and tried to help her put it on. She even has this little clicking thing she does to her. I guess I would do it when I fed Allyson but I haven't done it for a while since she can mostly eat by herself. Funny the things she picks up.

Every once in a while, I watch some of my friends' kids while they go to work. Yesterday I watched our friend, Holly and Emily loved reading books to her while she drank her bottle.

It's so cute and I love to hear her have so much empathy for other kids.

When we were in Utah, we were heading back to the hotel one night and it was late and Allyson was tired and fussy. We told Emily that maybe she should try to sing her a song. Emily sang her the ABC song and wouldn't let us sing with her. She calmed Allyson right down and made her happy. It was the cutest thing ever. She really loves being a big sister to Allyson. Sometimes I will overhear her telling Allyson, "what's wrong sweetie? Are you okay?"

Simply melts my heart.

Utah Vacation

2011-10-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made a trip up to Utah to see my dad and other extended family. Just to warn you, the pictures aren't in order.

On Saturday we decided to take the train down to Salt Lake to Temple Square. Emily loves the train but has never taken one before.

There was this gigantic shovel right by the tracks.

We went to Temple Square. This is the best picture we could get. Mike was trying to get Emily to smile for the camera.

They have these cool smart board things for the area now. You just press on a place and it shows you where it is and give you some info.

Mike took this awesome picture of the Salt Lake Temple with his phone.

That night we met up with my grandma and aunt and uncle for pizza and then came back to my grandma's apartment. My uncle gave the girls green suckers...

This was the result.

Here he is trying to tie an elephant toy in Emily's hair.

Emily with her great grandma Barton.

Emily, uncle Dave, Roni, Allyson (and Mike)

My dad also has a friend who has a few horses. So we drove out to Centerville to look at the horses.

And then we got to ride one. His name was Bo.

Centerville just happens to be where I got my first speeding ticket. I went 12 years with no speeding ticket and then got it in Centerville, UT. I should have known, those Utah cops are everywhere! We saw a ton on the freeway on the way there. And on the night that we drove to Vegas, I was driving and all of a sudden I see a spotlight on me. This cop behind me was shining his spotlight. I got over not knowing what I did and he just sped right on by. He just wanted me to go faster and then in the next little while, we saw him pull over two people.

That night we went to my other grandms's house to get together with some extended family and have dinner. We all thought this was hilarious. I don't know what to do with Allyson's hair. She has so much of it and we are trying to let it grow out. I tried to put it up but it falls out and with the dry weather, it makes it so staticky and this is the result. She doesn't even notice but it was really funny.

Emily got along really well my my cousin's kids, Cadence and Brayden.

The girls seriously did so good. I guess I should have had more faith in them but I was a little worried. The got fussy a couple times but it was usually when they were hungry so we would stop and eat and then they would be fine.

On Friday night, I wanted to get the girls calmed down before we put them to bed. We got some Toy Story 3 on Netflix and watched it. It helped and they were exhausted that day so they went to bed really easily.

We always try to get to Burger Bar when we go to Ogden. It's been featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives. They have really good shakes.

Emily watching a movie on the way home.

We thought we would be clever and leave on Thursday night after Mike got home from work and stop in Las Vegas so we could get some extra sleep. That plan seriously backfired on us. We made good time and the kids fell asleep about their normal bedtimes but when we got to Vegas around 10, this is what Allyson looked like. They were awake for another 3 hours. We all finally went to bed at 1am and woke up again at 5:30 to get back on the road.

My grandma Lakey has this little ball pit in her basement. Emily LOVED it. Allyson didn't quite know what to think. She didn't like sinking down into them.

This is as we arrived home on Monday. We made great time and were home in less than 11 hours.

We had a great time and look forward to seeing family more.

Up All Night

2011-09-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have started watching a new show. And when I start to watch a new show, (most of the time) it means my kids are teething. When Emily was teething it was Law and Order, which I why I have seen all of the episodes. This time it's Bones. Mike says it's timing but for some reason, pain killers have the opposite effect on my kids. One dose of pain killers and they are up at all hours of the night for 2 hours, happy (and high) as can be. This was Allyson last night. The pictures are not very good but she was in the best mood. Just playing and being silly. Of course, all while I wanted to be in bed watching the inside of my eyelids instead of a new episode of Bones. But I'm hooked and I might just get through the whole show if those teeth don't just cut through! Luckily they are coming pretty fast. At least faster than we remember Emily's coming. Plus, since my kids get their teeth late, I wonder if it's effects them more. But I wouldn't know, I have nothing to compare it to. I always know when to put her back down too because she rubs her eyes, grabs her pacifier and blanket and heads for the stairs. And people wonder how I can still take naps when I am 28.

Mike's 'Stache Bash (Picture overload)

2011-09-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

For Mike's 30th birthday, he wanted a mustache party. He requested this last year and I had no idea how to throw a mustache party. I google it and found that it's the new cool thing to do these days, so I had a lot of ideas. Mike started growing his mustache in July to be ready for it.

We got a bounce house for the kids and they loved it. It kept them busy the entire time.

Emily

Charles

Naomi

Porter

Uncle Brady and Allyson

Anna

I love her and her dirty face.

Cute EmmaJane

Claudia

Cassie

We ate tons of food thanks to those who helped bring stuff.

Mike's mustache cake

The girls were all over that (Alexis and Bryton)

We lounged (and friends laughed at our fake mustaches)

Brynn

Tahi

We posed for pictures.

We lounged some more.

Mike did mustache awards.

Robert got the Chester the Molester award.

And his prize a small toy ice cream truck.

Mark got the 14 year old mustache award

And his prize...a Tiger Beat magazine

Tyler got best mustache.

And his prize...a copy of Gettysburg (just full of mustaches)

It was a good party and a fun day.

Happy 30th birthday Mike!!

And just for some extras:

Some funnies while we were cleaning up to go home.

And cute Ally with her chocolate mouth.

Also thank you to Marilyn and Steve who let us borrow their house and Jasmine for being my personal photographer.

Huntington Beach 10K

2011-09-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did the Huntington Beach 10K with my best running partner, Jessica. Since she moved, I don't get to run with her but we still like to do races together. We did this one with the goal of getting our time under an hour. She had this cool watch that kept us on track to make sure we were going to meet our goal. We made our goal and ran the 6.2 miles in 58:32 and was 20th in my age group! It was awesome! That brings my time down about 5 1/2 minutes from my last 10K!

Mike took the girls later to meet me at the finish line. He said the girls had a blast playing in the sand.

Otherwise, some random pictures.

Emily wore a cute new dress that grandma Johnson got her to church today.

On Friday night we went to Disneyland. I rode the carousel with Allyson.

She is getting so big.

One of Emily's favorite things to do lately is to "do" our hair. Today she did Mike's and was very proud of all the clips she put in by herself.

Happenings

2011-09-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Last week, Emily had her last day of dance. It was so cute to see her do her thing. Unfortunately my videos aren't loading very fast so I will post later. And sadly I forgot my camera and took pictures on my phone and my phone got stolen. :( So I don't have pictures.

Yesterday I babysat my friend's two little kids. One is Emily's friend, Emma and her little brother, Carter. The girls had so much fun playing together. They love playing pretend and anything involving princesses. On Wednesday night, Emily and I dyed some noodles so they could dry over night and then the next day we made colored pasta necklaces with Emma. They loved it but somehow lost them within an hour of making them.

We also made some banana muffins, played play-doh, watched Tangled during the babies' nap, dressed up like princesses and played Freeze dance. It really isn't very hard babysitting when they just keep my kids entertained the whole day. Carter is about 7 months and Allyson loved him. She would try to feed him his bottle and play with the toys with him. It was really cute.

Today we read this book that we got from the library.

And dressed up

Apple painting

Sensory tub with beans

Play Doh fun

2011-09-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Emily has been waking up early again. I don't know why but she goes through these phases of waking up before 6am! So it becomes a very long day. We decided to make some play-doh the other day. This is the result. We used the gel food coloring and it made the colors a lot brighter.

She insisted on posing with each piece.

I don't know what's up with the tilted head thing.

Emily's first dentist visit

2011-08-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today we had our regular dentist cleaning and check up and since Emily is now 3, I added her on to our plan and set up an appointment for her too. She loved this fish tank that she saw first thing when we walked in.

She was really good. I had no idea if she would be okay or not.

She sat down just fine but got freaked out by the chair going back (of all things) so I let her just sit on me while they cleaned and counted her teeth. She did great and has NO cavities. She was super excited about the toothbrush and flossers that she got after it was over.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our dentist. I found them just by looking through the dentists for our insurance a few years ago and they are amazing. I have referred them to a few people and if we ever move, I will most likely just drive to go to an appointment with them.

The Adventure of 2011 (picture overload)

2011-08-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

We went for a crazy adventure last week. We planned to go on a Mexican cruise with Mike's family. We were excited for it and looking forward to a new and fun experience (we've never done a cruise before). Well Saturday night we went to go get the birth certificates and passports out and ready for the next morning. We couldn't find the girls' birth certificates. I didn't panic at first and thought it was just loose in our file box instead of in their individual folders. Well we couldn't find them. We had no reason to doubt that they were in the place we put all the girls important information. We tore the house apart, I cried. I was dreading telling Emily that we couldn't go on the cruise with her cousins and all of our family. We tore the house apart more and couldn't find them as well as some other important stuff from Allyson's birth. We think that we may have accidentally lost a whole folder of stuff when we moved. Well since it was a weekend we couldn't go get more birth certificates so we were stuck. We decided to miss the boat and try to get on in Cabo San Lucas on Wednesday when the ship was ported there.

On Monday morning I went and got the birth certificates. BUT if we wanted to fly to Cabo the girls had to have passports too. So we gathered all the paperwork and went up to L.A. to a 24 passport service. We got all the stuff submitted and then we waited. Tuesday, Mike drove back up to L.A. to pick them up.

Wednesday morning, my mom picked us up at 6am to get to LAX to fly to Cabo. We flew to Cabo with no problems and then took a taxi from the airport to the Marina in Cabo San Lucas. It was quite the adventure. It all went smoothly but we were really worried about missing the ship or not having the right stuff. When we finally got to the marina, we tipped the taxi driver and got out. We showed our passports to about 6 people before they let us get in line for the water taxi to get on the boat. While we were there, the guy working the gate at the port came over with his cell phone asking for Mike Johnson. He gave the phone to Mike and it was someone claiming we didn't pay the taxi driver. We knew we did. The airport was very organized that way. Mike asked what his service was called and all the guy said was Carlos. It was a complete SCAM! He wanted Mike to just give in and pay the guy at the port. Mike told him that wasn't the service we used, and hung up.

The flight went well. Emily did pretty good watching some of a DVD and keeping herself busy. Allyson was pretty good too.

We got back and took naps. Allyson was a good napper on our trip.

The room on the boat was pretty small. There was a queen size bed and this bunk that came down from the ceiling. Emily loved sleeping in it and thought it was just the coolest thing.

Getting ready to go swimming while we were in Puerta Villarta. We didn't get off the boat since there wasn't much there and we enjoyed the empty boat.

Emily did get off the boat though to go on a pirate excursion with her cousins, aunt Michelle, uncle Eric and grandma.

Allyson's favorite part was just walking around all over the boat and exploring.

Mike and Allyson in the pool. I was not so excited about the salt water pools but it was nice having the pool to ourselves that day.

We got these animals every night.

This was the formal night at the dining place where we ate dinner every night.

That night was Michelle's birthday. They sang to her and got her a cake.

Allyson was clapping along with the entertainment. On this night the waiters were up on the tables dancing. It was a lot of fun!

The ship had unlimited soft serve the entire time. Emily always wanted ice cream on a cone.

Matthew and Emily loved playing together.

Emily played mini golf and got a hole in one!

One day they had a 80's music trivia game. The girl lost the 80's music so we did 90's (actually mostly late 90's) and Rachel (and Liz and Gabe) got a trophy.

Sunday night, Eric and his family and Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner since they are getting their kitchen re-done. We heard Brian say "introducing Princess Emily" and Matthew brought Emily down in her dress up clothes. It was so cute. Matthew might hate this in a few years.

We had a great time on our adventure and even though we made a big mistake, it's something fun to remember.

The End

2011-08-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's the end of Emily's swim lessons and I really think they helped. She has become so much more comfortable in the water. She still has issues with putting her head under water but on the second to last and last day, she put her whole face in. She really liked going and even got a "tan" (meaning she is not as white in some areas as in others) from all that time in the sun.

She had two other kids in her class. This is Jamie and Emily. There was a little boy but he wasn't there every day.

Practicing their ice cream scoops.

Emily loved to kick around on this "egg"

This is Emily's teacher, Kristin. She did a great job with her!

***************

Allyson has become somewhat of a picky eater. Right now she doesn't eat much at all. We think it's from her teething. She does drink a lot of milk though so we really aren't worried. Just frustrated. The other day I gave the girls Macaroni and Cheese with peas. Emily loves it and Allyson will eat the peas if I give them to her but she decided to pick them all out and put them on the table while she ate the noodles.

Emily's swim lessons

2011-07-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

Most people can say their kids are fish when it comes to swimming but not me (at least for Emily). Emily seems to be afraid of water. She's always been very cautious of things (she's never been a climber or jumps off of stuff) and has a lot of issues with water being in her face. So we decided that she needs swim lessons. She was so excited the first day. She did pretty good although there was crying involved. And we learned really quick that her go-to excuse is that she has to go potty. Luckily I had just taken her minutes before so I knew she was bluffing. She is slowly becoming more comfortable with the water. Hopefully after the two weeks, she will be completely comfortable and will be a little fish.

Emily before we left

Waiting our turn

Allyson and I just hang out

The lessons are at my Alma Mater, Cal State Fullerton so I don't know if they were doing tours or something but all of a sudden all of these people came in and recorded and took pictures.

This is actually a common occurance for us. For some reason, we have noticed that particularly Asians LOVE little blonde, blue eyed kids. I sort of felt like Emily was on the other side of the fence at the zoo.

She's growing up

2011-07-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got in an organizing mood and decided to see if Allyson would be big enough to sit in a booster seat at the table. She was and she loves it so we got rid of that big, bulky high chair...well banished it to the garage.

She is also following in Emily's footsteps and loves to push around the stroller. Emily drove hers into the ground so we finally threw it away and then got a new one a couple months ago. Allyson loves it and is so funny with it. If she wants to turn it, she just picks it up and walks with it until she can go straight.

Here is Emily as a little tyke with her stroller:

Love our girls!

Catching up

2011-07-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

We have been a little busy the last week yet, not much to blog about. I'm also a little annoyed with my camera lately. I don't have any desire to become a professional photographer but my little point and shoot just doesn't seem to be cutting it these days. There is way too much to distract my two girls, instead of holding still for the short delay. We will hopefully be saving for a nicer one.

On Saturday we went to one of my best friend's wedding! I loved seeing her get married but it really puts a damper on things when you have kids. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay very long and we were regretting telling Emily that later we would be going to Mike's company picnic where there would be a bounce house. All we heard during the wedding was "where's the bounce house?", "when are we going to go to the bounce house?"

I didn't join the picnic until later because I had to stay home to give Allyson her nap that day but Mike went and Emily also got her face painted. All the little girls were getting flowers and butterflies but apparently she wanted to be like the boys and got a rainbow snake. We joined them later and had a good time. We won those chairs.

Allyson has suddenly become really attached to her blanket. It's the cutest thing. She is a GREAT sleeper (I'm sure now that I have made that public, she will change her mind) She takes one long nap during the day and sleeps from 7pm-9am! Much different than our wake-up-with-the-sun first daughter. I can't help but think about how hard it's going to get her up to go to seminary though. :) We will come in and get her and she just snuggles up with her blanket and doesn't want to let go.

I also LOVE this new blog that I found. I have made a few things from it already. We made these strawberry lemon muffins for the company picnic and they were great. And last night I whipped up these yummy rolls. They were really easy and quick and tasted so good. I tend to get bored of our dinner menu so I look around for more ideas and they are very yummy.

Lately we have been working on Emily's letter recognition. We do a little craft to learn about 1 or 2 letters per week and it's great how quick she has caught on. She spots letters everywhere and is even recognizing some we haven't learned with our craft yet. Then we put them on her wall to display.

Allyson is becoming a pro at walking and loves to follow Emily around. They are really cute together. Here are some other cute pictures.
Allyson discovered that she loves walking through the lines at Disneyland and metal bars are even more fun.

I got this toy out that used to be Emily's and Allyson didn't quite know what to do with it.

Emily did and of course, made sure she had a turn on it even though she's way too big for it.

Emily loves being with her dad. After we put Allyson down, we let Emily watch a show or movie to wind down. Yesterday I recorded The Incredibles when I saw it was on and Emily loved sitting with Mike and watching the movie.

Emily loves to get involved in doing anything in the kitchen. She was being extra silly on this day and put the bowl on her head.

The girls love to sit at the little table together. It's so cute when Emily begs me not to put Allyson down for her nap. She loves to play with her sister and vice versa.

Heritage Park

2011-07-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today we went to this park and it was so cute! I am not very good about taking pictures so I only got out my camera after we ate lunch and sat down for a minute. They also have an island that the kids can play on and ducks and we even saw a turtle. I would definitely recommend keeping this on your list of parks to visit!

A day at the farm

2011-07-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

We are really fortunate to have a great bunch of kids (mostly girls) and moms to do playdates with. A friend has organized field trips for every week during the summer and this week we went to Centennial Farm.
We were missing a few kids but this is the majority of them.

Allyson's Birthday

2011-06-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had Allyson's little birthday celebration. We had a great time and Allyson got to open her presents and enjoy a cupcake of her own.
Here she is in her cute 'I'm the birthday girl' shirt.

She was very frustrated that I wouldn't let her touch the cupcake while the candle was on it.

We got her a water table and the next day her and Emily had fun getting it out.

Happy Birthday, Allyson. Can't believe you're already one!

ONE

2011-06-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl is ONE today! It's so crazy how fast time flies when you have more than one kid. Allyson is such a fun girl and has such a goofy personality. She loves to see her daddy when he comes home, claps and waves like crazy and even tries to say hi sometimes even though it doesn't sound like anything more than a yell. She LOVES her big sister and gets so excited to play with her. She finally started walking and is taking more steps every day. She is getting more confident and soon we will really be on our toes with her. She gets in to more than I remember Emily getting into.

She weighs 20 lbs and is 29 inches tall.

She finally cut her first tooth and is still a great sleeper. We have really gotten lucky with such a great baby! She smiles constantly, laughs randomly and dances frequently. We can't wait to see how she grows even more and we just love her to pieces.

11 Months

12 Months

Cute girl with her PB&J face.

Dance class

2011-06-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Today was Emily's first day in her dance class. I wanted to put her in something and she has been really into dance since she came upon this Angelina Ballerina show. She was so cute, I could hardly stand it!

Please excuse the dark pictures. My phone seemed to be taking quicker pictures than my camera for some reason.

In other news, Allyson has started walking. She is a little wobbly but she is taking more steps every day! I have been looking forward to the day that I don't have to hold her all the time!

Our girls are growing up...

Picture fun

2011-06-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Random picture time

On Memorial day we spent some time with our friends, the Harps. Emily loves little Anna!

Later that day, we went to the park for some fun.

Emily loves to "dress like a princess" She puts Mike's tie around her neck and put my church shoes on. We even put some make up on. (The lightest colors I had). She felt so pretty!

Pretty in Pink

2011-06-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Emily got $10 from my grandma for her birthday. We saved it for a while and then she decided she wanted to get her nails painted. So we went on over to the nail salon and she was great! She sat very still and let them do their thing. She was so excited to show Mike and Allyson. And the best part...it only cost $8.

We are also (hopefully) a pull-up free home! Emily has been waking up with a dry diaper for over a week now so we thought we would give it a try without the diaper and she did great. She had to wake up in the middle of the night but I'll take it. Now we only have to buy diapers for the little one.

Hand me downs

2011-05-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Allyson wore a hand me down of Emily's today.

Videos

2011-05-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

For funsies

11 months old

2011-05-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Allyson is 11 months today. She is getting so big. She is very mobile now and does pretty much anything short of walking on her own. One of her favorite games is to climb the stairs and look back every couple of stairs to see if we are chasing her. Then she starts laughing and cracks up when we come get her.

She loves to play with Emily and sometimes it just melts my heart when they play so nicely together. They love to tickle each other.

She has caught on to things like when we give her a bow, she tries to put it in her hair. Even though when we do put them in her hair, she takes them right out. She loves to clap and wave.

She is such a sweet, cuddly and loving little girl. We love her so much.

10 months

11 months

Happy 3rd Birthday, Emily Anne!

2011-05-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Today Emily turned three years old! She's such a big girl now! We had a pancakes and pajamas birthday party for her. (By the way, one of the cheapest parties to do). Her friends showed up in pajamas. We ate pancakes with all the toppings, played Freeze Dance, had a pajama parade on the sidewalk in front of our condo, opened presents, ate pink and purple cupcakes and played. It was a lovely, yet simple party and they all had a blast.

(I don't know why the whole thing didn't show up. Just click on it to see all the pictures)

After Emily and Allyson woke up from their naps, we went outside to play with Emily's new bubbles. Allyson is starting to get closer to walking. She can stand on her own for a little bit.

The writing's on the wall

2011-05-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

I put Emily down for her nap and heard her about a half an hour later. This is what I found when I walked in.

Ugh...she is usually good about not doing this kind of stuff. I guess it had to happen sometime. The good news is that after she scrubs and scrubs and scrubs, we could just paint over it if we can't get it all off.

I had to take pictures for future viewing, of course.

Crafts Galore

2011-05-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to jump on the craft train again and find some fun things to do with Emily. I LOVE these three blogs. Plus I'm sure there are a ton more out there. On Thursday, we decided to make a castle. I had to get diapers for Allyson anyway so we used the new box.

The finished product

She wouldn't let me take a picture so I had to sneak this not-so-great one.

Yesterday we did chalk paint. You just crush up some sidewalk chalk, add water and then paint and it stays. It looks much more bright than just the chalk too.

Bird is the word

2011-05-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today Emily and I painted bird houses. I saw them for $1.00 at JoAnn's so I got a few and we got out or painting gear and went to work. I just have to find some birdseed and something to hang them with and we are good to go.

Before we started

Us with our finish product

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day this year!

It started with me getting to sleep in...well until 7:10 but that's what happens when you have 9:00 church. Mike got up with the girls even though we only got a handful of interrupted hours of sleep from our noisy neighbors.

I came downstairs to see my girls and Mike playing and then saw their gifts. I got a few kitchen things and a gift card to Target. Plus some really nice cards that they made. I got a muffin tin which is sort of a joke. My friend, Jasmine and I both have one muffin tin (they live about 10 doors down). We are constantly borrowing each other's muffin tins so we finally got a second one.

Then we went to church and other than Emily's random meltdown about getting water (I'm talking from a spray bottle) on her dress, she calmed down and they were good. When we got home, Mike made me lunch, and I got to take a nap. It really helps that the girls sleep a long time and at the same time on Sundays. We got up, I Skyped with my mom and dad really quick and then we headed off to Mike's parent's house for dinner! Liz made a lovely Mexican feast. It was great and I really enjoyed my Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's day to my awesome mom and Mother-in-law!

I didn't take any pictures but this is a cute picture Mike got of Allyson and another little girl, Crissa at church.

On the move...

2011-04-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

She did it. Allyson climbed the stairs.

Here we go...

My two cute girls playing. Emily is starting to love playing with Allyson. She gets sad when she has to take a nap or go to bed. And of course, Allyson loves to follow Emily around.

Look at our "twins"

Easter

2011-04-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Easter and a good one. We started the day off with church. My mom even came along. The girls looked so cute in their Easter dresses. (They also got other ones from grandma Johnson) The lighting is weird in this picture but it's the best I could get of them both smiling.

We had a great low key Easter potluck dinner. I made French Dip sandwiches and a fruit salad and everyone brought something like baked beans, German potato salad, green salad, veggies, chips, pasta salad, brownies and lemon cupcakes. It was a great meal.

The Easter bunny made his appearance this Easter. Emily had a blast looking through her Easter basket. Allyson didn't really pay much attention.

After church and naptime, our family came over. We had Grandma Lakey, Brady and Alex, Kelsey and baby Audrey, Elizabeth, Rachel and Gabe and we even Skyped with my dad later that night. It was a blast. Allyson loved playing with Audrey's flower on her headband.

Emily being silly. She got a TON of candy. From all sides of the family. It was torture trying to calm her down last night enough to fall asleep.

Allyson looked so cute in her little dress and new headband from the Easter Bunny.

**********

On Saturday, Allyson turned 10 months! She is seriously growing up so fast!

9 months

Our baby Allyson has changed a lot in the last month. At her 9 month check up, the Dr. confirmed my thoughts that her not sleeping through the night was not necessary and a habit. That night, we cracked down and she has been sleeping through the night. Occasionally she will wake up but it's usually because she has worked herself into a weird position and just needs to be readjusted.

She also wasn't mobile at all when we went to her appointment. She couldn't even sit herself up from laying down. A week later, she started crawling. She is all over the place now. She crawls, cruises, pulls herself up on anything imaginable. She isn't comfortable standing alone yet but we think she may start walking soon.

She still has no teeth (which we expected since Emily didn't get her first tooth until 13 months) but we think she is teething now. Hopefully we will see one pop up soon so it doesn't bother her as much.

She has started waving here and there and pointing to things. She thinks it's great when we give her something and she holds it up to show us what she got. She babbles like crazy and has a funny little voice. She eats pretty much anything but especially loves bananas and graham crackers.

She has finally become a little less clingy to me. She can be held by family and friends and be just fine. She is also growing hair like crazy. It's VERY blonde now but she has a lot of it and her bangs are already getting pretty long. She is going to outgrow Emily in hair and size soon. She loves her sister and they are starting to play together a little bit. It seriously melts my heart when I see them play.

She is such a sweet and cuddly girl. We love her so very much.

Our growing girl

2011-04-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

Allyson is getting to the really fun stage. She is growing so fast. I got some little stick tails in her hair the other day. I was telling Mike that in a year or so people are going to think Emily and Allyson are twins because they will be close in height and have the same amount of hair.

She is starting to get her own look though now and doesn't look identical to Emily.

I decided that we are going to skip the bottle altogether when I wean her since she has been exclusively breastfed forever. So I bought a sippy cup to get her used to it. She picked it up pretty quickly. She loves to drink out of her sippy cup!

Our Washington Adventure

2011-04-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to Washington for our new neice's baby blessing. We had tons of fun and Emily loved seeing her cousins.

After we landed in Seattle we went to the zoo.
Emily and Brian

Allyson has been really into eating her feet lately.

In our hotel room

We went on an urban trail. It was beautiful.

Allyson has really discovered that she likes to stick her tongue out at people.

Naptime (Emily is actually sleeping next to Mike)

The cousins getting ready to go swimming in the hotel pool.

Allyson wasn't really into the swimming.

Cute girl!

Ally and Grandpa

Allyson was getting to know her new cousin.

Brian was very adament that we have a math lesson. We all knew exactly how his teacher teaches.

Siblings and Ally

The kids had fun playing Mousetrap with Eric

"You are in the bands of steele"

All the cousins. I can't wait to look at this in a few years.

We had a great time. Congratulations to Eric and Michelle on their new baby girl! We look forward to seeing you in August!

2011-04-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

This is part of the reason we bought our condo. One of the major priorities on our list was to have somewhere for the kids to play outside. We fell in love when we saw this park like setting right outside our door.

But this is what I love right now. This is our back enclosed patio area. That door goes to our garage so we use the area a lot. The grass is fake so it looks good but we don't have to do anything with it, the bushes are obviously real but aren't too big of a hassle. And Emily loves to play outside.

The left side of the backyard

The right side of the backyard

Tonight, after Mike left for Priesthood Session, the girls and I came out to play. I love that Allyson and Emily are really starting to play with each other.

Notice the vast difference in hair color since Allyson was born.

Our two cute girls looking out the window in our room yesterday.

**********

On another note:

Today I was registered to run the Seal Beach 5K. It's a fun race and a great route. Well I was doing my run when I saw our friend, Joel. I thought I would be silly and tap his shoulder and run past him. So I ran past him and didn't pay any attention when the 5K route turned. I kept going and ended up on the 10K route. I have done it before so I thought I should just try. I was actually surprised because I did most of it. I walked for a couple minutes but did almost the entire thing. I don't know my exact time but I think that I did just as well as the last time that I trained for it two years ago.

Our performers

2011-03-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

When we took Allyson in for her 9 month check up. I told the doctor that she wasn't very mobile. She couldn't sit herself up, crawl or even scoot much. She was pretty good at pivoting herself around on her behind but that was it. That day, she decided to sit up by herself, pull herself up to standing more and yesterday she started to crawl a little bit! It was very exciting. She's the master of reaching so far to get things but would never move herself.

Emily REALLY has a hard time when Allyson gets attention. She gets pretty jealous and it was kind of funny to watch her reaction to all the attention we were giving Allyson.

Emily loves to sing random songs. Just about anything she sees. It's really funny so we thought we would share.

(Warning: it's a long one)

Here are some fun pictures we got today.

Allyson loves homemade smoothies.

9 Months old!

2011-03-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Allyson turned 9 months today. Her birthday is just around the corner. April is when all the chaos starts in our house and continues through the summer with birthdays, our anniversary and Mothers and Father's Day.

Allyson is changing all the time. She is getting more and more mobile every day. She gave up on trying to crawl but loves to stand and cruise when she can. She is still working on pulling herself up with something besides us. She is STILL not sleeping through the night, so we are going to activate major sleep training this week. She still has major separation anxiety, so we are just trying to deal with that the best we can. Otherwise, she is a very fun girl and loves to watch and play with her sister. She can say "mama" and has just started saying "dada". We love her so much!

8 Months

9 Months

Just for fun...here is Emily at 9 months

(Notice how Emily and Allyson look exactly alike in this picture and the one below)

Yesterday we went out to play and Allyson had a good time playing in the grass.

Emily wanted to wear her princess stuff and we were pretending the grass was water and she was fishing.

Then I told her to go run around the tree...so she did it. If only she was that obedient all the time.

Allyson is 9 months old and her birthday is just around the corner.

Pretend City

2011-03-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to Pretend City with my mom and sister and little baby Audrey.

It was fun. There were a TON of kids though. I think if we go again, it will be on a weekday because there were so many kids that it was hard for Emily to do a lot of the things. I think she liked it. There were so many things for her to do that she was in this weird focused state. I got one picture of her smiling because she just wanted to do the next thing. Her favorites were the dress up/theater, the water table area and the garden area.

Here's Emily in a pretend Ralphs shopping for groceries.

Water area--notice how she's holding the fish while she's fishing.

Playing dress up

Storytime sitting by Aunt Kelsey and Audrey

The story was about trucks so the lady was dressed up like a construction worker.

The only smile I got out of her on camera. She also loved these little cars and trucks they had all over.

They had an art room where they could paint or stamp with real food.

We had a lot of fun!

Chores and a fort

2011-03-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

The other day we decided that Emily is old enough to be responsible for a few things around the house. Yes, we are mean parents and our daughter has chores before she's 3. We made a cute little chore chart for her to put smiley faces on if she does them. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon but for now she's excited about it.

This morning I remembered my days of making forts and decided to make one for Emily. She didn't really understand what I was doing at first but then we read a couple books inside and she got used to it. It was cute.

She wanted me to take a picture of her and her little friends.

I might add that she chose her outfit today and I was impressed that it matched.

In a funk

2011-03-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling like we have been in a funk. Ever since the kids have been sick multiple times this season, we sort of got into the habit of just hanging around the house. I am trying to do more things to get out so we went to the library, the park and the Great Park in Irvine to ride the orange balloon and carousel for FREE this week.

This duck was crazy. It was so close to us that it was trying to peck a little at my feet.

Eight Months

2011-02-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

7 Months

8 Months

Allyson is growing so fast. She is already 8 months! I can't believe it. She is such a sweet girl and is really showing her loving personality. She is still quite a mama's girl but is doing a little bit better with her seperation anxiety. She is starting to move around all over the place. She doesn't crawl yet but wants to and reaches so far to get things. She pulls herself up more and more everyday and loves to scoot herself around.

Allyson loves to watch and play with Emily. It's so cute to watch. I can't wait until they get a little older and can really play together.

Sorry about the weird lighting. I took this with my phone in Allyson's light pink room with the blinds closed.

Cute girl!

Our New Car

2011-02-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

Last year we decided we needed a new car. Our car that we had was a quick buy and we put way more money into it than we needed to just to maintain it. So we started saving and we finally got our new car yesterday. We were looking around for a Ford Edge and decided to wait until the holiday weekend to see if there were any sales. We found a great dealership that had great incentives so we were finally able to get a new car and we LOVE it!

Peace

2011-02-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

We've had a rough week. The girls were not sleeping well. Tuesday night, Emily was up about every half an hour, we were so frustrated but thought maybe it was because her night light broke and she was scared. The next day I made it my top priority to get a new night light. That night was almost as bad except it didn't start until midnight. Yesterday morning Emily was complaining that her head hurt so I felt it and it was pretty warm. She or Allyson have never had a fever. Mike and I have talked about how we think maybe we all just have lower body temperatures or something because Mike and I never get fevers either. I took her temperature and it was at 100.6. I didn't freak out but got some Tylenol and gave it to her. That day she took a 4 hour nap and seemed better after so I thought it had broken. We went to run some errands and when we got back, I took it again to make sure and it had jumped up to 102. Then about an hour later it was at 103.9 and then around 11pm after she couldn't fall asleep and we were trying cool baths and letting her get ready to sleep in bed with us, I took it again and it was at 105! I freaked out a little and called my mom to ask if I should wait or go to the ER. We decided to let her sleep because she had fallen asleep on Mike and see how it was in the morning. Well she woke up and couldn't get comfortable so I took her into the ER. She had also thrown up three times that day too and she has a wicked cough. Once we got in the ER, her temperature had actually gone down a bunch since I had given her one last dose of Tylenol even though she threw it up. She slept pretty much the whole time we were there but we found out she has an ear infection. I was sort of relieved. First, because I didn't want to look like the crazy mom that takes her kid in for a little cold or low fever, and second, because ear infections are bad but we always sort of hope for them because they aren't contagious and with some Amoxicillan they go away pretty quickly. So we got back after 1am and put her straight to bed and we went straight to bed. She woke up at 7:15 this morning and poor Mike had to wake up before 6am to get ready for work. We are both so exhausted and are really hoping for a good night's sleep tonight. Both Allyson and Emily were in great moods tonight and we really enjoyed just playing with them. Emily loves her bear that she calls "Meatballs" (don't ask me why) and Allyson is *this* close to crawling. She also decided that it's okay for her to roll over again.

Family pictures

2011-02-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

About a month ago (I know, I'm a neglectful blogger) we got family pictures done by our friend Ali. Her husband Jeff came along and got awesome smiles out of the girls.

Enjoy!

Thanks again Ali!!

Update

2011-02-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

We finally got our new table that we ordered. It took about 6 weeks to get it and we love it. It's much nicer than eating on a Costco table.

Allyson had her first dose of table food today (besides the french fries that Emily told on Grandma about). We gave her some banana and avocado and she seemed to like it.

The other day we went for a walk around the block. Allyson is starting to get to be too heavy to carry for too long so I put her in the stroller and Emily insisted on pushing her the whole time. It was very cute.

I just love that it's finally a fight to get Emily to let me do her hair because she has hair to do. This is what it looked like this morning.

This last weekend, my dad was able to come down from Utah to help us move my mom. He was lucky enough that Kelsey had little Audrey that weekend too. Made the move really crazy but I'm glad he got to be here when she had her.

Yesterday I decided to take the girls to the park and let Emily ride her bike around the lake. She had a great time!

My cute girlies today.

The other day, I let the girls take their first bath together. It was really cute.

Sleepy girl on the way home from a lunch with Grandma Lakey.

We have also been working with Emily so she can learn how to spell her name. We put her name into the BINGO song and now she is pretty good and can tell you how she spells her name. She wouldn't know what all the letters look like but she remembers how to say them. It's weird that she is getting to that age already.

Coming soon...

2011-02-04T12:09:00.001-08:00

There will be a blog update! I just have to find time to get all my pictures that are sitting in my phone and camera on the computer.

7 months

2011-01-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Allyson is 7 months today. As always she is still a happy and very good baby. She is tasting all new flavors of baby food and getting better at eating small pieces of food. No crawling as of yet. She is definitely a mommy's girl. We love her to pieces too!

6 Months

7 Months

While the sister is away...

2011-01-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

...the baby will play.
Allyson loves Emily but is seriously such a happy and different girl when Emily is napping.

Painted rooms

2011-01-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I painted Emily and Allyson's room. Mike was on his way home from Arizona so I tackled it on my own and then he helped do touch ups when he got home. (He can reach a lot higher than me) Emily loves her purple room and Allyson's looks so nice and clean. I think paint makes a place look clean and I love it. I haven't gotten decorations on the wall yet but those will come soon!

P.S. Thank you to Grandma Johnson who took both the girls yesterday for a few hours so I could get it done in peace.

Possibly Pink

Potentially Purple

Just for funzies, I took a picture of Allyson in this same dress to compare my "twins" as someone thought they were in Walmart the other day. I'd think so if they were both close to the same age but 2 years apart? Not so much.

Emily

Allyson

Allyson update

2011-01-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

Allyson turned 6 months old right before Christmas. We had her appointment this week. She is 17.3 lbs (75%), and 26 1/2 inches long (78%). She is doing well and getting better at sleeping through the night. She can pull herself up with our hands and wants so bad to be mobile but just can't figure it out. She's a cute girl that's looking more and more like her big sister everyday. Last week after church we realized that the dress that Allyson wore was this one that Emily wore at 13 months old. We didn't get a picture though. Ha! They are so similiar yet so different.

Here's our cute Allyson.

Emily watching our muffins cook one morning.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

I realize I have been a total blog slacker. This post actually says 12/28/10 because that's when I started it but couldn't get to it. The new blogger seems to be slower in uploading pictures for me so I had to leave it and do something else. The pictures aren't in any particular order.

We had a great Christmas this year. We celebrated on Christmas Eve with the Johnson family by going to see True Grit, eating dinner and then opening up presents. They really spoiled us. In the morning, we did our own Christmas at home and then got ready and headed down to the Lakey house for presents and brunch. We got spoiled there too. Then we came home around noon, put the girls down for their naps and then started getting our first hosted Christmas dinner ready. I just have to say that next year will be spaghetti for dinner. That was way too much going on and there weren't enough hours in the day. We had a great time though and it was a great Christmas. We got skype cameras from my dad so we can talk to him in Utah.

Emily's First Haircut!

2010-12-24T10:28:00.001-08:00

Emily was born VERY bald. She started to get a bunch of her hair around 18 months. I trimmed it once but she had never had a real haircut. She went down with her friend and her mom to their friend's house while she got her haircut and they asked if I wanted her haircut but I wanted to be there so I said no. Yesterday I went over to a little kids haircut place and did it. She had quite the mullet/mop top going on so I decided to get it tamed. She did great and they gave her a cute little bob and her hair looks a lot thicker and healthier.

Before-front

Before-back

During

After-front

After-back

Half of a year

2010-12-23T09:57:00.001-08:00

Allyson turns 6 months old today! She is getting so big.
We don't have her appointment until January 4 so I won't know stats or anything for a while.

My girl, Allyson is such a sweet baby. She loves to sit on the ground and play with her toys and watch her big sister dance around the room. She loves to smile and is a little bit of a mama's girl. She has lost all but a tiny bit of her dark hair and will most likely be another blondie. She has cute little cheeks and is looking more and more like Emily every day. She loves her rice cereal/oatmeal and a little elf told me she is getting baby food from Santa. She is a messy eater and loves to blow raspberries while I am feeding her. We love her to pieces and can't believe how fast she is growing up.

6 Months

5 Months

1 Month

Merry Christmas

2010-12-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

The last couple months have been very busy so this is the best we could do for a Christmas card. So a little run-down on the basics of the year in case you haven't looked at the blog for a while.

This was a big year for us. We had our second daughter, Allyson in June and bought our first home at the end of November! They are such big life changing events but we are doing well with the change and know that we are so so blessed. Our new condo is in Placentia and only about a mile and a half away from our old apartment. We just don't like being inconvenienced with big moves, I guess. :) I always said I would never live in Placentia because of the name but it's a nice area and has a good school nearby that Emily will eventually go to. We also are able to stay around our friends so that makes the transition for Emily so much easier. Emily is a spunky two and a half year old that loves to talk our ear off and have dance parties. She is now fully potty trained and has really transitioned great with all the change in the last 6 months. Allyson is becoming more fun everyday and is such a mellow, happy girl. She loves to watch Emily and in turn, Emily loves to perform for her. It's crazy to me how much they look alike. She is a good baby and her easy-going personality makes big changes easy. She had a couple weeks of clinginess but we think that was mostly due to all the commotion of moving. Mike is still working for RailPros in the L.A. office and enjoying it. We are fortunate to stay near the Fullerton train station so he can take that to and from work. I am enjoying my life as a stay at home mom still and learning different ways to entertain two very different ages. We had a great year and hope to have another great year ahead. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Happenings

2010-11-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year. I forgot my camera though so we have no pictures. It was a good time with fun people and Emily really hammed it up for everyone.

Here are some random ones though.

In other news...we are owners of a new condo as of today! We are SO excited and are eager to get out of boxes and move. We won't be moving until next weekend though since we are pretty busy this week and it just closed today. Life is moving into a different direction and we are so blessed in so many different ways. We really do have such a wonderful life and family and we couldn't be happier.

Five Months

2010-11-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

Time for another bear picture! Allyson is 5 months. It's so fun watching her grow. She is now sitting up by herself and has experienced some rice cereal. She is getting used to it. She loves to watch and play with Emily and gets such a kick out of her. She isn't sleeping through the night yet but I am hoping that is just because she is still in our room. That will hopefully end in the next few weeks. She does go down most of the time without having to be rocked so that makes up a little for it. She is such a fun and cute girl!

4 Months
5 Months

Poor girl has the old man hair right now.

A perk

2010-11-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

A perk of working at a preschool in the past means I can remember some fun toddler activities.
Here is one that Emily loved.
All you need is some shaving cream and we added some food coloring to make it pink.

The best part: it's already soap so there isn't much of a clean up.

My glowing child

2010-11-17T17:54:00.000-08:00

We are going to miss these guys. My white child is almost glowing!

Toddler Fun

2010-11-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I watched some friends' daughters while they prepared for the Primary Program at church. Their husbands were both working so I decided it might be fun and it would be much easier for them to get through the practice. They are all about the same age and get along great. We had Emily, Alexis(2), Kenzie(3), Rylie (1 1/2) and then Allyson. We had some fun playing outside, pizza, a craft, a dance party, and some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with grapes as a snack. I think the girls had a lot of fun. Kenzie didn't want to leave so that's a good sign and Mike and I were pooped! We both went up to bed around 9:30. We had also spent the earlier part of the day, jogging, getting our brakes fixed, attending a 2 year old friend's birthday party and going to two grocery stores. It was a really busy but fun day.

A New Adventure

2010-11-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

People have been asking about us moving and I realized that I haven't posted anything about it on my blog.

After about 6 months of looking around in all different areas to buy a place, we finally found a great condo that we are so excited about. We were getting pretty discouraged because of the junk we saw or, on the other hand, stuff we liked but got snatched away from us by people paying cash. I was looking around on the real estate website and stumbled on this one that I hadn't seen before but had been on the market for a while. I scheduled a visit to see the place and we loved it and called our awesome realtor on the way to the car. It is a 3 bedroom (originally 4 bedroom, the previous owners took down a wall to make a larger master bedroom), condo only 1.5 miles away from our current apartment. It is near a good school, in our ward (which we love), by a couple nice residential neighborhoods, and quite a bit bigger than what we have now. It also has a two car garage which is going to be really nice for storage. No more bikes and strollers in the house. We are truly blessed and everything is working out so well. We are set to close escrow at the end of the month and are so excited to own our own place. We will miss our neighbors here and have made great friends, but we aren't too far away. We are a little nervous about the whole prospect of becoming homeowners and all the responsibility that comes with it but are very excited!

Family Tree

2010-11-06T09:37:00.001-07:00

I love this idea and am seriously considering making it part of our family wall when we move!

Cute Cute

2010-11-03T19:47:00.001-07:00

Allyson is starting to hold onto things a little more and she loves this giraffe that Emily got for her with Grandma Johnson while I was in the hospital.

Cute girl out on the grass, just like almost every other day. Poor girl is really losing her hair now.

Trunk or Treat

2010-10-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to our ward's annual Trunk or Treat. It was fun with a little craziness mixed in. Here is Elizabeth and Allyson with her flower headband on.

Riley and Emily

Emily kept "buzzzzing" around on the stairs.

Emily won the cutest kid costume! We were so proud.

Posing with Daddy doing her half grin thing she does.

Trunk or Treating

Our cute little Bee!