6 Weeks Old/Family Pictures

This little Squish is 6 weeks old today.

 

I just can't handle the cuteness.  I mean, look at those sweet cheeks.

 

And those beautiful eyes.

 





 

And those tiny feet. 

 

 

And then there is her 3-year-old sister and her big personality.

 

And her strength and beauty.

 

And then there is the two of them together.  My heart.

 

I'm in love with the little family we have created.

Thanks to Nik for capturing our little girls so perfectly.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Labor Day Edition!

I didn't really realize that yesterday was Sunday until about 2am this morning when I realized I didn't post!  Luckily, I have the excuse that since it is Labor Day weekend, the weekend doesn't technically end until today. :)

We didn't have many big plans this weekend, but it was nice to have Chris home for 3 days and have a lot of family time.

Saturday
*Hanging out at home with Auntie Cat

Notice the preschooler...she is becoming increasingly non-compliant for pictures

Squishy Squish Squish

Can't get enough of those eyes

*Having our old Munster neighbors over: Mike, Trang, Wes, and Lewis.  Mike and Trang got married about the same time we did, and they had Wes a month or two after Callie was born.  Lewis just turned one.  We haven't seen them since before Lewis was born, so it was fun to reconnect and watch the kids play.  I didn't get that great of a picture, but that is to be expected with four kids under four.

Wes, Maya, Lewis, Callie

Sunday

*Meeting Nik at Centennial Lakes for a family picture photo session

The pictures turned out great- I'll post them tomorrow.

*Playing Ping-Pong and hanging outside

Just hanging out with the recycling bin

Still trying to figure out how to bike

*Hanging out at home some more...after dinner out with the Held family (no pictures...darn)

Play time!

Monday

*Trying out a new dog park...wearing a doggie shirt!

*Playing outside making a nest for ping pong balls chicken eggs

LONG LEGS!!

*Walking around Centennial Lakes with Auntie Yoda...which included a massive preschooler meltdown (no nap today!) because she purposefully threw a flower she had picked into the water and promptly started screaming because she wanted the flower back.

Mid meltdown

That's about it.  We're anticipating some baby screaming and preschooler tantrums later this evening.  As much as it was great to have so much time together this weekend, we will welcome kid bed time when it comes. :)

Favorite-Things-Phone-Dump Friday

Once again, happy Friday!  Every week I'm amazed that Friday comes so quickly.  It makes me wish that time would slow down a little bit.  I have 13 weeks for maternity leave this time around (4 more weeks than last time!) and it is going SO FAST.  Argh.

Anyway...on to the favorite things...

We didn't have any play dates scheduled this week, and it was SO HOT.  So we had a lot of time at home.  Because of that, I took a lot of pictures of the girls.  The sisters are ridiculously cute together, and Maya is changing so much and awake so much more I just can't help myself.

Favorite Thing #1: The growing and changing baby

Favorite Thing #2: The sisters

I especially love it when they read together.

One thing we did do a little bit of each day was explore our "new" city: Sea Life Aquarium (not exactly new to us, but in our city), a splash pad and a park.  And we went to the library again too.

Favorite Thing #3: New and old things to do in our town

  Since I'm home with the girls all day, I do a lot of baby holding.  Which is awesome.  But what is also awesome?  When other people hold the baby and I get a bit of a break.

Favorite Thing #4: Family holding baby

On Monday night we had my family and our Johnson cousins (except Emily...we missed her!) over for dinner and to hang out.  It was so great to (mostly) be all together!

Favorite Thing #5: A Henderson/Johnson/Gosselin/Johnson-Knapp reunion of sorts

And then we have a few miscellaneous things...

Favorite Thing #6: Instituting "quiet time" because 2 days this week our preschooler decided not to nap...
SIGH...(that really is not a favorite thing, but I'm thankful she was willing to stay upstairs for quiet time)
Favorite Thing #7: Diner with friends and trying get a good picture of a 3-year-old, 10-month-old and 5-week old
(It didn't really happen, obviously)
Favorite Thing #8: Daddy working on getting a baby smile...she does it...we just haven't captured it on camera yet

Lastly, remember our potty difficulties?  I don't want to jinx it, but I *think* we might have turned a corner for the better.  This week she has been totally willing to go potty and has done it completely on her own a number of times.  Just now, she was upstairs playing and called down to me because SHE WAS ON THE POTTY GOING POOP.  I didn't tell her to, she just decided to do it ALL BY HERSELF.  She was very proud of earning that gummy worm.

Favorite Thing #9: Letting go and letting potty just happen

Thanks to Grandma (and the "potty station" she set up for Cal at their house) for getting the ball rolling on her going potty all on her own.

She was so happy she said "I'm so excited that I went POOP on the potty!" followed by "Tomorrow I'm going to do ONE HUNDRED poops on the potty!" 

On that note, have a great weekend!

Throwback Thursday

For this edition of Throwback Thursday, I'll start with baby smirks...

...and follow the cute baby faces with KUNG FU BABIES...

...and end with the babies and our sweet Kona Hope.

Preschool Parents

We went to parent orientation tonight.

We are officially parents of a preschooler.

And I'm not sure how that happened.  How did we get from here:

Baby Callie

To here?

Preschool Callie
(This picture will be hanging up by her cubby at preschool!)

I have no idea where the past 3.5 years went, but I'm so happy and excited for my Punkin Pie to start preschool.

It was strange being on the parent side of orientation tonight.  As a teacher for almost a decade, I'm so used to being the one giving the information to the parents.  Now it was my turn to BE the parent, and it felt weird.  I felt old, actually. 

But her teacher, Mrs. Lori, seems wonderful, the room was bright and cheery, and everything sounds like it is going to be great!

We go back next Wednesday for a conference so Callie can meet Mrs. Lori and see the room.  Then her first day of school is on the 9th.

Stay tuned for an adorable "first day of preschool" picture.

Weekend Wrap-Up

My sleep tank is running REALLY low, so I'm going to keep this pretty brief because I'm exhausted. Gotta love infants and their inconsistent sleeping patterns! :)

As I posted yesterday, we had a great morning at the State Fair.

After that we were all pretty tired so it was family nap time...including some cute Daddy/Maya cuddles.

On Saturday night Cal and Chris went to the Lynx game while Maya, Auntie Cat and I went to dinner and hung out at our house.

Sleeping through dinner

Today Chris and Cal went to the zoo this morning so I could try and get some things done around the house, but Little Miss Cranky Pants had a different agenda that included a lot of screaming unless she was sleeping ON ME.  OMG, I look SO tired.

Hanging out with a sleeping baby is tough work, apparently.
Well, it is if the baby was NOT sleeping and instead SCREAMING for
a good chunk of time before the sleeping.  Silly silly baby. :)

Who me?  Do I look like a screamer to you?

Boom and Bops came over for a bit this afternoon, and then Auntie Mari and Auntie Yoda came over for a bit tonight.

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the day that Chris, Nik, Dave and Nate were in their bad car accident out in Washington.  Chris, Nik and Dave were able to spend time together today to "celebrate" the anniversary, and I'm sure that they were talking with Nate as well.  Time flies and we're still so thankful that they are all okay.

State Fair

We spent the morning at "the great MN get together" with my parents and Auntie Yoda.

It was a great time as usual...hot, sweaty, yummy food, tons of people, fun things to do, etc.  We were there for about 2.5 hours and that was enough.

Callie did great- she walked for part of the time, rode on shoulders for a bit and had some stroller time.

Maya slept.  The whole time.  She was in the stroller for awhile, carried by Boom and Bops for a bit, and in the Baby Bjorn with Auntie Yoda for awhile.  Not matter where she was, she slept.

Here are some shots from our morning:



Things We Did: Space Needle, Ferris Wheel, Cow and Horse Barn...

And of course the big slide!

Alphabet Forest

Walking around/Resting

Last but not least...the food: mini donuts, corn, pronto pups,
freeze dried goldfish (or something like that), vanilla malt, fried pickles, YUM.

We love the fair!