4th of July Weekend

For 4th of July weekend we were lucky enough to have my sister Brittany, her husband Leon and their cute little girl Ellie come down from Arizona and stay with us.  It was so nice to get to spend some time with them all especially since in mid August they'll be moving across the country to Boston so Leon can become a Harvard Man.

Ellie in her big girl seat

Carder and Miss Ellie at Steak & Shake

Carder and Ellie wrestling in what they like to call their uniforms (naked on top diaper on the bottom)

Ellie was so funny about Brenn she just had to get her anytime she saw her.  She also would refer to her as "Dog Dog."  Ellie loves dogs so I took the overextension as a sweet way of her letting us know she loved baby B too.

The girls...Ellie is a little bit pale but Brenn made her look super albino.  I guess Jake's greek heritage came out in her.

Ellie had so many kisses for B

Brittany & Ellie

Jake with the girls

Ellie in her cute 4th of July outfit

The Johnson's had to leave in the afternoon on the 4th so they could get home in time to enjoy some fireworks and since Brit had school and Leon had work the next day...I attempted to get a cousins pic while they were all dressed in their 4th of July get ups but wasn't too successful...

Ellie thinking about getting Brenn

Carder getting Ellie

Carder doing his ridiculous faces

 

At this point I gave up...

That night we drove up above the valley to watch all the fireworks shows.  There is an empty field right in front of the fire station by our house so Carder and Jake went to go walk by the big fire trucks while we waited for the fireworks to start. Carder totally scored because I guess that when they walked by the fireman invited them in and Carder came away with a medal as well as a homemade car which he was so proud of.  They invited him back for a full tour of the station if he'd come back on a weekend so now he talks about his buddy Captain Nate all the time as well as fire station number 47 which he calls his fire station. 

Jake with Brenn...of course when I took the picture it captured zero fireworks.  But there really were several displays going on at this time.

Me with the kiddos watching the fireworks

After we watched the big fireworks show we went over to my Aunt Kimi's house where my cousin Brandon put on a show of his own in the driveway.  Carder was hilarious, he hated the little fireworks especially the noisy ones.  He kept covering his ears and then ended up running inside their house.

Carder reacting to the noisy fireworks

Brenn had no issues with the little fireworks, she was just happy to be snuggling her Daddy

Then the sparklers came out and Carder thought that they were the coolest thing ever...he called them "the stick you write fire in the air with"

All in all it was a great weekend and a great 4th of July!

Month One

I know I have been a horrible blogger lately, but here I go trying to play catch up...

One day I will be current I promise.

(just not sure when that day will be)

The first month of Brenn’s life has gone by in the blink of an eye. The doubling of our kiddo inventory that first month was defiantly an adjustment (and still continues to be)…The first two weeks I was lucky enough to have my Mom and Jaxon here to help me out and helping to keep Carder entertained (I think that defiantly helped him with the transition).  When she left I was so scared. How was I going to do two little ones all by myself all day, but somehow I have managed even though some days I feel like I might be admitted to the Looney bin thanks to a certain 3 year old (according to their pediatrician this is all normal behavior for an older child welcoming a new sibling…she called it "negative attention seeking" I think, and told me to just ignore it, but Oh my goodness some days I seriously think I might pull my hair out!)

For example...One night Jake and I were sitting in the front room watching a show to unwind for the night . Anyway we had Nick Jr on in our room for Carder who was wandering in and out of the two rooms.  Carder comes out to the front room buck naked and a little damp.  I ask him why he is naked and he informs us that he had tried to take a bath in the toilet but that he is too big to fit.  I tell him that probably isn’t the best idea and that he should stick to the bathtub, he says OK and just continues to meander around our house playing/watching his “kids shows” as he calls them. A little bit later I go into our bedroom to get ready for bed only to find the sheets and pillows all pulled off the bed our fitted sheet now being adorned with purple crayon. I take a deep breath trying not to lose it and go into the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed only to find the lid off the tank of the toilet (another one of Carders favorite things to do lately)  with TP covering the floor.  I step in the room to pick up the toilet paper only to find the floor to be totally soaked with toilet water (sick! I can only assume that this was from Carder's earlier bathing attempt that evening).  Since this bathroom was pretty much unusable at the moment I go into our other bathroom only to find the toilet filled to the brim with all Carders tub toys...let me remind you this was all found out within a 5 min period one night...the child is seriously going to have me institutionalized one of these days!

Other than the occasional Carder antics as we so lovingly refer to them, we have just been enjoying all the time we have gotten to spend with family as well as bonding with the new addition to our own little family.

Jaxon just LOVES babies...he took such good care of Brenn

The day I came home from the hospital Brittney, one of my best friends in the whole wide world just happened to be in town visiting her sister...she came over immediately to see little miss Brenn

The little lady was so ity bity that hardly anything would fit her at first...my mom and aunt Kimi were able to find her this little newborn dress and then they went picture crazy...

Jake bonding with baby B (thank goodness for a pump...it's a definite must especially with two little ones)

The Carder antics began a couple of days after we came home from the hospital...He and Jaxon made a nice little mixture of hand sanitizer, baby lotion, hand soap among other things which they then covered Jakes night stand and side of the bed with

The Super Buds

Kyle (aka Carders self proclaimed best friend), Brenn & Kelsie
Kelsie came up for Fathers Day weekend to meet her new little niece

When Mimi was here she let Carder do all the fun things, one of which was finger painting.  I am pretty sure more paint was on his little body then on any of the papers.  Here he is with all of his silly poses...

My Grandparents were in town for a wedding over Day weekend so they got to meet our new little lady.  Since they were in town we all went over to my Aunt Kimi's for a Fathers Day dinner where my Aunts (two others came down from Utah/Id Fathers aho since my Nana & Papa were there) decided to go picture crazy with Brenn

 

It was so fun to see my Aunt Krissi and some of her little ones while they were out here

Jake and Papa on Fathers Day

Uncle Jaxon giving the love to Lady B