I Love...

• Troy
• Luke
• Hannah
• The rest of my family
• Good friends
• A quiet moment to myself
• A good book
• The feeling of accomplishment when I make something new for dinner and it instantly becomes a household favorite
• Freshly mowed grass
• Digging in the dirt and watching my flowers grow
• Sitting on the beach listening to the waves crash onto the shore
• A newly cleaned kitchen sink (I have no idea why)
• A nap on a rainy day
• New scrapbook supplies
• Those random spurts of motivation you get that allow you to accomplish a ton of stuff
• Pajama day with my kids
• Surprise moments of affection from Luke
• Those quiet moments right before falling asleep snuggled up with my husband

Goings On

I know, I know, I know--it's been a while. I'm behind on my weekly updates but I'm not sure that's the way to go for me. I like to write posts when I feel like it not because a week has gone by in our lives. This is hopefully going to be a quick post because Hannah is on the floor sucking away at her hand (in other words she is hungry). We'll see how much time I get.

Recent happenings here in the Johnson household:

*Hannah was 2 months old last Wednesday. I meant to do a post about that but it just didn't happen. At her check-up she weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces and was 23 inches long. That puts her in the 75% for both categories. Other milestones include scooting around on her back, grasping at items (especially her cloth diapers), relatively good head control, starting to sit up with some support, likes to stand or rather put some pressure on her feet/legs with obvious help and starting to wear some 6 month clothes. Hannah also loves to suck on her hands; she will occassionally go for her binky but she definitely prefers her hand or a cloth diaper. Two other items of note: Hannah loves to be moving. By that I mean moving in someone's arms, moving in the car or the stroller and moving around by herself on the floor. She also loves to be naked. If she's fussy we can put her on the floor and take off her clothes and she is instantly happy. Troy is a bit concerned about what this means for later in her life :)

*Hannah has been talking a bunch and I mean a bunch. Her favorite person to talk to is none other than her big brother. They have really been interacting well the last few weeks. Luke figured out that she loves to be tickled and he loves the smiles and coos he gets in response.

*Hannah does not have much of a defined schedule yet. Although thankfully she is sleeping for a minimum of 4 hours at night. It's typically more like 6 and last night she slept for 9 hours. She is still sleeping in the bouncer so she is upright and she is also still in our bedroom. I plan to put her in her room starting tonight since she's been doing so well.

*Luke has really been into letters lately. He is constantly asking what letter a word starts with or what word starts with a specific letter. Luke's favorite letters are L-U-K-E and he is always pointing them out to us. He can write his name by himself although the K looks more like an E.

*Luke also has his own house. Yes, I said that right. He has his own house or at least he pretends that he does. For a while it was close to ours but on our way to take Sarah to the airport last week he sold that one and bought one closer to the airport so he could see more jets. Apparently at this house of his (that cost 5 pennies) he has a dog and a cat that are both named Doe (at least I think that's what he is saying). I just asked him to tell me their names again and his response was, "Philbert and Philbert. I changed their names again." Oh I love the imagination. He also has a big boat. We hear about this house daily especially at times when things aren't going exactly the way Luke would like.

*We have had a few visitors lately. My sister was here from February 18-21. She was here to help me out while Troy was gone for two nights in Houston--thank you Sarah. Luke had fun baking cookies with her and we also made some melted crayon art. Troy's parents were here from last Friday through Sunday. They were supposed to stay until Monday but unfortunately I came down with strep throat so they left early. We did manage to go to the natural history museum in Norman to see the dinosaurs on Saturday as well as going out to dinner. Even though it was a short visit I know they enjoyed the time with kids.

Just a note about the time for this to be completed: I started it at 1:31 and it's now 7:57. I worked on it three seperate times within that window.

Week 8: February 9-15

The end of last week was pretty uneventful. The kids and I had our typical stay-at-home in our pj's day on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were also pretty relaxing.

Sunday afternoon I did get to have some girl time with April. We went to see "The Vow" and to dinner at Charleston's. It was so nice to be away from everything for a few hours--thank you April for making it happen. Troy obviously stayed home with the kids. He fed Hannah her first bottle while I was gone. She wasn't too keen on it for about 5 minutes but then decided it was okay according to Troy. All three of them were happy to see me when I got home.

Monday was an exciting day for Luke. It snowed during the night which we had talked about before he went to bed. I heard him wake up, walk over to his window, pull open the blinds and then exclaim, "Mom, it snowed!!!!!!" He repeated that about 10 times at the top of his lungs--he could hardly stand the excitement. We had to quickly eat breakfast and get dressed to go outside to play. I set Hannah in her bouncer by the window (she was sound asleep) and Luke and I played outside for about an hour. We had a great time! Luke made snow angels with our neighbor and they had fun chasing Maggie around. Luke and I also built a snowman that was named Rudolph. Unfortunately because it warmed up so fast Rudolph had fallen over by lunch time and almost all of the snow was gone by dinner.

Monday afternoon we also went to Luke's school for his class Valentine Day party. It is so fun for me to watch him interact with his teachers and his friends. He had a great time hanging out with them and handing out his Valentine's to everyone (Life Saver suckers with a card). The highlight for me was figuring out that he has a "girlfriend" and her name is Bella. He has talked about her numerous times but when we arrived she was so excited to see Luke. She yelled, "Luke, you're here!" It was the sweetest thing :)

Valentine's Day wasn't too exciting for us. Luke and I made brownies in the afternoon for our dessert. Luke also helped me a bit making crab cakes for dinner. So we all enjoyed a nice dinner, then had brownies and ice cream and opened a few gifts. It wasn't super romantic for Troy and I but we sure enjoyed a nice evening with our too precious kiddos.

A couple of randoms about the week: Luke has held Hannah probably 5 days out of 7 and he is really interacting well with her. Hannah's hair is growing and she has a bit more fuzz. She is really holding her head up well and tracking more with her eyes.

In This Moment...

...the 3 of us are all still in our pj's and it's 10:21 am. This is our typical MO for Fridays.

...Luke is watching "Sid the Science Kid" on PBS.

...Hannah is talking/cooing and kicking her legs while looking at the ceiling lights.

...I am blogging and messing around on Pinterest.

...there are 4 baskets of laundry that need to be folded in the hallway.

...there is also laundry in the washer and dryer.

...it is cloudy and gray outside (the temp is 47 degrees).

...my house plants need to be watered.

...the kitchen sink is clean and the dishwasher is empty.

...I am looking at a stack of library books that need to be returned by tomorrow.

...there are countless cars spread across the floor with a few dinosaurs mixed in.

...Luke and I are both drinking sugar-free grape kool-aid.

...I'm wondering if I will take a shower today and when if I decide to.

...I'm looking forward to the weekend and having Troy home and also my sister's visit.

...Hannah is now crying because she is hungry which means I am done blogging...

...at least in this moment.

Sweet

Anyone who is around children knows they say the sweetest things sometimes. It's unpredictable and always heartwarming. Today Luke completely melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes. We went to MDO this afternoon because they were having their Valentine's Day party. I did not want Luke to miss handing out Valentines to his friends and there wasn't a party on Wednesday. I knew this would mean a day without a nap because the party started at 2. Anyway as we were getting Luke into his carseat to come home our conversation went like this:

Me: Did you have a good time at your party?

Luke: I did. Mom, you're a really sweet mom.

Oh man! Could it get any better?!?

Me: Thank you Luke. I love you!

Luke: Love you too Mom! Are we going home now?

Me: We are going home.

Luke: Thanks for bringing me to my party.

I'm so glad I opted for no nap and taking Luke to the party rather than staying home and having (maybe) a quiet afternoon while Luke was napping. I have the sweetest little boy a mom could ask for!!!

Feb 2-8: Week 7

Another "normal" week for us. I probably could stop using the quotes around normal now. This is our life. I realize I have done posts for weeks three through seven all this afternoon but I like the idea of doing a weekly post of pictures, activities and thoughts on Friday afternoon or Thursday afternoon before I pick up Luke from MDO. Of course I'll still have other posts throughout the week too (maybe).

On the 2nd Hannah had a check-up with the doctor and everything looked great. She weighed 10 pounds 12.5 ounces (75%) and was 21 3/4 inches long (50%). She also had to get one shot; I absolutely hate it when my children get shots. She handled it with only a few screams. Troy worked on Saturday morning so I took the kids to Home Depot for the free build project and to the library with some neighbors. Luke had a bunch of fun building his Valentine box and we both really enjoyed reading several books at the library before leaving. We then went and had lunch with Troy before heading home for some much needed naps!

Sunday was a lazy day. Grandpa and Grandma H. came over to watch the Superbowl with us and we grilled hamburgers. Troy managed to win $250 for having the right boxes in a grid pool at work for the 1st quarter, half time and 3rd quarter. His coworkers were not too happy with him. The odds of that happening though have to be astronomical--way to go Troy!

Monday morning we spent over at the McBride's playing with Benjamin and Andrew and of course talking for Ashley and I. She had hernia surgery about a month ago and we haven't spent much time together due to that and Hannah's arrival. It was great to hang out with them and let the boys play.

The rest of the week has been low key. I had a follow up appointment with my midwife on Wednesday and then went to lunch with April before getting Luke from MDO.

Week 6--Jan 26-Feb 1

We enjoyed the rest of Mom's visit this week; she went home Friday afternoon. Our weekend was relaxing. We did get to see Todd and Georgia for a bit as they stopped in on their way home to Dallas from Topeka on Sunday. This was the first work week I was on my own--I'm not counting the first week Troy was back at work because he was with me pretty much all day on Wednesday of that week. This was a good week. I went out to lunch with my dad and step-mom one day while Luke was at MDO and I was able to enjoy being home with just Hannah. The best part about the week for me though was the fact that none of us was sick! One milestone for Hannah this week: she started developing real tears. I remember this clearly with Luke as well and it broke my heart then just as it did with Hannah this week.

I couldn't decide which of these 3 I liked the best so you get all 3!

Luke was very excited about his potato penguin he made at MDO this week. Troy took it to his office for display.

Hannah's typical spot while we all eat dinner.

Kisses!!!