Life with two

We are adjusting to a household of four pretty well! Trying to care for a newborn in addition to being the taxi cab driver of a very involved 3 year old has proved to be challenging at times but we're making it work and loving it!

This is a picture of Addison before preschool the other day, I just thought she looked so darn cute. She has found her ways to stay in the spotlight. If I'm nursing she just runs crazy through the house or jumps on the couch but the good thing is, it keeps Colton awake, I don't fight him drifting to sleep when she's around, that's for sure! She loves to help change diapers and give Colton a bath.

Here's baby Colton at 1 week old. He continues to be a great baby. He's getting a little more alert every day but remains a complete snuggle bunny which makes it very hard to get anything accomplished every day!

Favorite Firsts

We are home! We got home yesterday afternoon. Colton has been doing great! It's amazing to me how much more relaxed I am with this baby. I was so nervous with Addison, I guess because she was my first baby, and I had no idea what I was doing :) It helps that Colton has been such a good baby so far! Here I am with the world in my arms!

Colton meeting both sets of grandparents! Our room was really loud that night! I guess now we know how to get two proud Papa's in the middle of a very late harvest season out of the field on a dry 60 degree day. See their smiles? I don't think they minded :)

What's also exciting is Colton and his Papa Bruce share a birthday!!

Headed home...Colton weighed 6lbs 11oz yesterday, over a pound bigger than Addison when we brought her home!

Addison is an awesome big sister. She loves her brother very much. She is learning how to be gentle with him and wants to be a big helper.

And here's my little man just this morning sleeping away!

Travis and I feel so blessed!

Baby Boy Johnson!

Introducing Colton Travis Johnson! He was born at 1:55am this morning. 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. We are doing really good! More to come, just couldn't wait to announce our new arrival!

Singing away

Last week, Addison was sent home with a note saying that three year olds through 2nd graders were singing in church this week. I usually go to the opening portion of Sunday school where the kids have been learning this song and like a typical 3 year old, Addison usually just sits and watches or attempts to sing along but is still mostly obsessed with watching the older kids. So really, we didn't talk a lot about her singing in church this Sunday, I just kind of assumed she wouldn't do it. So of course this morning rolls around and I tell Addison that she can sing in church today. I got a big N-O. I WILL NOT sing in church today. Fine, you're 3, we'll have plenty of opportunities to sing in church, I'm not fighting this battle. So, today when I picked Addison up from Sunday school, I said, okay lets hit the road and she said "NO, I'm singing in church this morning!!" She was set on singing so they must have talked about it in Sunday school. So I called Travis and told him of the sudden change of heart so, like the good daddy that he is, headed to church with the camera as fast as he could. So for not wanting to sing in church today, I think our little gal did a fine job! Enjoy!
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Trick-Or-Treat & Party

So much for being Dora. Addison was dead set on being a cheerleader when she woke up yesterday morning! It didn't turn out to be so bad because I was able to keep her nice and warm a little easier than had she been Dora. We had a great day yesterday full of treats and fun. We met our friends the Beck's for trick-or-treating in Spirit Lake. This was the first year Addison really understood what all of this excitement was about and Beck's took us to a perfect neighborhood for it. Tons of kids, every house open to trick-or-treaters and the weather, although cool, was pretty darn good considering all of the rain we've had lately.

This is Addison and lady bug Ella.

Ella sat in the stroller while Parker, the safari guide, Evan the elephant and cheerleader Addison made mad dashes to all of the houses. Addison's trick-or-treating did come to an abrupt stop though. The kids went to a house that was completely decked out for Halloween and the people handing out candy were dressed as gorilla's. She stood on their steps, screamed and cried until I came to get her. Poor pumpkin. After that she told me her bag was full enough of candy and she was done!

Last evening, our friend's Jesse and Melissa Leiss and their little boy Talen had their annual Halloween party. It's always so fun to see the kids dressed up and Addison even had two fellow preschool friends to play with there. Melissa is a kindergarten teacher so she always has the cutest activities for the kids to do, they had to find parts of a skeleton hidden around the house this year and their favorite was breaking open the pinata.

Every year we try to get all of the kids together for a picture which is always interesting when you have kids ranging from 5 months to 7 years old! They actually did pretty good this year.

And finally, this is why Addison absolutely loves going to Talen's house! He has a huge room above the garage and right in the middle is this swing. This is pretty much all Addison did for the 5 hours we spent there last night!

Sugar overload and sore arms from this swing are probably why my daughter is on her 3rd hour of napping right now and I cannot get her up! Wish me luck on getting this gal to bed anytime before 10pm tonight.

Halloween Party

Addison has had a fun Halloween week so far. Tuesday night she got to dress in her costume for dance class and today was Halloween dress up day for preschool. She is Dora the Explorer this year, although just this morning she decided she wants to be a cheerleader when she trick-or-treats. I guess time will tell.

Here is Addison with all 12 kids in her class. They all looked so cute and were so excited this morning!

Last week, the teachers measured "how many pumpkins tall" each child was...

Here is the class with their 3 teachers all dress up. Addison loves her teachers, each one of them is so patient and so sweet. You can tell they love working with little ones.

So after two Halloween parties, we already have too much candy. I've got it hidden but I'm sure Addison hasn't forgotten about it yet, plus more to come when we trick or treat on Saturday and hit one last Halloween party Saturday night!

Happy Halloween!

We are home!

Well, the little guy has decided to stay put for the time being! Being in Sioux Falls on bed rest all day Friday through all day Monday may have been some of the longest days ever for Travis and I but we are also thankful those days weren't spent in the NIC unit beside a tiny baby! I'm also thankful to be 35 weeks along and the overall health of our little guy is pretty good. I had an amniocentesis test done yesterday morning where they were able to test for the baby's lung development. After waiting 8 long hours for the results, the doctor came in and told us the lungs are completely developed and we are good to go home!! Travis had our bags packed and in the car in about a minute flat. This was very exciting news for us, now we feel comfortable that the baby can arrive whenever he wants and Sioux Falls also gave me the thumbs up to deliver in Spencer with my regular doctor. Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts and e-mails and phone messages and texts and blog comments, etc.! It means a lot! I now have a feeling this little guy may have been playing tricks on us...I'll probably carry him to 40+ weeks now! That's okay though.

Now to my little Miss Addison. It was very hard being away from her for so many nights!! We were so excited to see her last night when we got home. Sometimes when we leave her for several nights which rarely happens but has in the past for vacations, etc. she is mad at us when we get home but not last night, she was so excited and gave us huge hugs...just what we needed! I almost started to cry. She was in fabulous hands with her Grandma Marline and Papa Bruce though...which Travis and I also refer to as "candy and sugarland" so we knew she was just fine. THANK YOU so much Bruce and Marline for not even flinching and just taking her on at 11pm Thursday night through last night. We are blessed to have you so close and open to taking our little gal on a whim like you've done so many times already!

And the pictures I put on the sidebar of my blog, thank you for your comments on those as well. I try to be Libba every once in a while only with a cheap camera and no knowledge of photography :) Last Monday was finally a beautiful fall day so Addison and I went to a trail near our house and I snapped pictures until my memory card was full. It was so fun, I just let Addison run around and I chased after her with the camera. The hands on the hips posing is all her!! So funny! So out of my filled up memory card, I did get about 40 good ones and these are my favorites. Thanks for inspiring me Libba!

And finally (sorry for the long post), thank you Travis for continuing to be the best husband ever. The fact that you hung out with me for 4 days straight locked in a hospital room makes me realize how lucky I am. I know you are completely overwhelmed with work and are now up to your eyeballs because of having to be gone! I will attempt to keep Addison and myself from straying into your office and letting you get things done....unless my water breaks of course :)