Merry Christmas From the Johnson's!

(This was originally going to be the card we sent out this year, but I decided to use pictures throughout our year instead of these more formal ones!)

The Johnson crew is hanging in our jammies this morning, jamming out to Christmas tunes, and prepping for our upcoming festivities including church, hosting with my family afterwards, dreaming of sugarplums tonight while Santa visits (hopefullly!!), and then spending the morning together opening our gifts and celebrating Jesus' birthday before heading to Grammie Cindy's and Papa Mark's house for more festivities :) I love this time of year...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Kicking off the Christmas Season!

One of my favorite ways to kick off the Christmas season (aside from all the gift buying!) is to take a trip to Turck's Trees. First we walk through rows of trees to find just the right one ;) Then Max does the 'manly' thing and cuts down the tree for us where we bring it to the workers to shake all the excess branches/etc out. After that, it gets loaded into our truck and we head into the giftshop to visit Santa Claus and have some cider. Before leaving, we make a quick visit to the reindeer outside and then head home to begin decorating our tree.
Piper was a little intimidated by Santa this year (I figured she would be, but she did let me hold her and stand by him to take a picture). If you ask her what she wants Santa to bring her this year, she will tell you, "a teddy bear-- a blue teddy bear". (Which means my shopping is not actually done, because apparently I need to add a blue teddy bear to the loot!) Ryder chatted it up with the big guy and asked for "legos, snowshoes, and a flying helicopter". I have a feeling he will be a happy boy come Christmas morning!
My parents live close by and stopped out while we were there so I could snap some photos of them so the kids were excited to see them. :)

Hoping you and your families had a great Thanksgiving weekend as well! Between taking in our first movie as a family (Frozen--we all loved it!), stuffing our faces all day on Thursday, relaxing on Friday, shopping ALL DAY Saturday with my sister, and doing the tree thing on Sunday after church-- we are exhausted!! Spending this dreary/snowy Monday relaxing in sweats, cleaning, and finishing up with decorating for the holidays!

11.5.13- First Snowfall!

I'm not quite ready for old man winter yet, but I have to admit the snow was a nice distraction for my kiddos for a while and they were SO excited to be able to play in the snow. I'm even happier that it is long gone by now though!

snowballs were a must, obviously.

miss p wasn't quite sure at first what to think of it...

she did eventually warm up to it eventually and had a blast sledding later that night with her big brother :)

day to day living

Since staying at home full-time is new to me, I get asked frequently how I am enjoying it.
My answer is usually, "I.Love.It."
I never intended to be a stay at home mom, it was never in my plan. I loved every minute of college, and I've always considered myself to be career driven. That plan was great, for awhile. Until I started feeling like I was constantly putting more work into OTHER people's lives and families, than my own. I loved working, but I couldn't help but start to feel overwhelmed with being at a job that emotionally demanded more out of me than I could handle some days, and then coming home to two children who quite frankly didn't care what kind of day I had- they just wanted a good meal, some playtime, and maybe a bath here and there ;) Oh, and there is a husband who needed a little attention here and there also! So this year, my 'job title became "simply mom" --(is that an oxymoron??) :)
--I'll also be honest that before I stayed home, I always kind of wondered what SAHM's did all day. Certainly they had time to hit up the gym, get manis and pedis, keep up with the local coffee shop crowd while frequenting the Gap on a day to day basis, right?? Well, I quickly found it's not as glamorous as I probably once thought! Well, maybe it would be if money was no concern, but let's be real! Here's a quick play by play of what my day usually consists of....

We usually invite guests for breakfast, and by guests I mean any 'little people' she can get her hands on.

After breakfast, P usually gets to watch one cartoon while mom attempts to get ready for the day. Her favorite these days is Caillou, or Superwhy. 

Then we are off and running errands for the day, visiting Papa Steve at the post office when we can :) 

And we take naps....and by we, I mean her.... :) 

Oh, did I forget to mention we spend a vast majority of our time on the potty? She usually averages 2-3 successful pee pee's on the potty per day, so she's learning!

Well something has to keep us entertained while we are in the bathroom........ 

Oh, and pants are negotiable at our house. There are no rules during potty training :) 

Then finally, these goofballs come home and expect some type of edible food in their bellies. (I'm still working on the 'edible' part of this equation! ;)) 

Sunday's Juggling Act

At one point in time yesterday afternoon, Max and I were 'relaxing' and not doing a whole lot of anything and we both commented on what a perfect end to the weekend it had been. Now, thats not to say that we weren't busy, because we were. Here's a quick glimpse of what our Sunday was like:

Early A.M-- Max is up and out the door to go bowhunting. It's his "happy place" :)
8am- I am up with the kids, got them dressed and fed them breakfast.
9am- Max returns home (no deer, unfortunately!) and takes a shower while I get dressed and ready for a run.
9:40am- I head into town for my LAST long run before the half marathon this weekend! It was brutal and I had to run in the rain for the first 4 1/2 miles, but it was worth it and I made my goal of 12 miles. My leg issues are nearly healed and I was so happy to get that run over with!
10:30am- While I am still out on my run, Max takes the kids to church
12pm- I return home, stretch out with some yoga poses while playing with the kids, and feed them lunch while Max goes on HIS run for the day.
2pm- Piper is down for her nap, we spend some quality time with Ry before he heads to his dad's for the evening.
3pm- Ryder leaves with his dad, Max and I lounge around with coffee while making our meal plan/grocery list for the week -- (**We use the Paprika App on our Ipad and we love it! Check it out if you haven't already!)
4:30pm- We wake up Miss P from her nap so we can head over to my parents for the evening. Max and my dad went out bowhunting and us girls just relaxed, played, and watched House Hunters repeatedly!
7pm-- We headed home so we could put the kids to bed.
8pm- Kids in bed, Max runs to the grocery store and I picked up the house and started in on some laundry.

Needless to say, we slept well last night! Weekends (well actually, everyday!) is a juggling act for us since we both have our hobbies/stuff we want/need/like to do. And of course, we both want to spend time with the kids as well... Days like yesterday make me so appreciative for the relationship that I have with Max-- I can't imagine doing this alone!

from a frustrated runner....

I had planned for today to be a great day. It was Monday, yes, but good old' Christopher Columbus was going to pull through for me and allow my husband to be home with P and I today since Max didn't have to work. I had visions of us having a great time together, being super productive, kicking ass and taking names getting stuff done around the house, and just having one of those awesome days.
It didn't exactly pan out quite like that.
I woke up disappointed that I was still in quite a bit of pain from a running injury that happened early LAST week. I had been to the chiropractor and although most of the pain had been taken away, my left calf was still very weak for the most part and I knew the best thing would be to just accept the fact that although I desperately NEED to be training right about now, it needed rest to heal. I told myself that over and over as I continued to wait for the day when I woke up and it would feel back to normal. Unfortunately today wasn't the day, but I did have a follow up appointment at the chiropractor already scheduled so I went in and expressed my frustrations to the doc. I still had some resistance/swelling in my calf and because of the way things had shifted since last week, I was also having a lot of knee pain. My chiropractor adjusted me, listened to me whine and complain about how my race is NEXT weekend, and again told me to stay off of it for another day or so and then try to ease back into some short runs depending on how it was feeling at that point. I was really sore after leaving the chiro, but I am hopeful and excited about the fact that very late this afternoon, I noticed that I was able to walk around the house without noticing any pain in my leg. Either way, I am bummed at the thought of this race coming up. The farthest I have gone to date is 10 miles which really isn't terrible but now after a full week off from any type of cardio at all, I feel behind and inadequate once again. My head was not in the game during the last few months of training. Clearly, my body wasn't quite on board with this idea either as this is the 2nd time I've been held up due to calf/knee/hip injuries in the last two months. I am so excited for this race to be over (although I know it will be fun and I'm sure I will be glad that I did it!) so I can give my body a nice long break from pounding pavement. My gym will throw open it's doors in excitement to see me, because well, it's been a while. I will greet the elliptical machine with a big fat kiss. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. I will give my body a well deserved break from running -- only of course until I realize how much I miss it when Spring rolls around ;)
Anyway, my day was not exactly as I had pictured it would be because of my running frustrations putting me in a bad mood. Combine that with the fact that my husband is quite positive he has strep throat (again) and really didn't feel great in addition to the fact that it rained for the better part of the day really made this Monday a flop. We did manage to run a few errands, but not much else. Oh well I guess! On a more positive note, I did make this stellar quinoa salad tonight and it's pretty delish if I do say so myself! It makes plenty to munch on throughout the week and it's packed with protein and yummy goodness. I found the recipe here:
http://fitfoodiefinds.com/2012/05/chunky-southwestern-quinoa-salad/

Enjoy!

little miss p....

Tomorrow morning, my baby girl will be a TWO year old.
I can't even begin to explain the emotions I am experiencing over this!! We are hoping the weather holds out for a fun filled day to spend time as a family tomorrow and we will be celebrating with a party on Sunday at our house...

Some other fun facts about Piper at age 2:

--usually wakes up around 7:30am, bedtime around 8pm
--takes one long nap (3 hours) every afternoon
--just recently began to eat vegetables, she would hardly touch them the first year and a half of her life!
--loves apples, her daddy's homemade pizza, and anything sweet that mama bakes
--she is fearless
--she has no idea when she is in trouble. She simply ignores the fact altogether and smiles and say, "no mom, just hug!" --(Honestly, how do you stay angry at that???)
--i'm quite certain that she loves getting to hang out with mommy all day, but she RUNS to her dad when he gets home from work
--she plays with mainly boy toys, she doesn't mind!
--she does, however, love a good pedicure from her grandmas and aunties
--she is also a big fan of sofia the first, "lella" (aka--cinderella), and minnie mouse
--she seems to think every piece of furniture in my house is a trampoline, especially her crib
--if you ask her what she wants for her birthday, she will tell you "I want pony for burday" :)
--she weighs in around 25lbs, give or take - and last I heard, she is a little on the short side
--she is a little mommy -- her newest cousin, baby jack, is her obsession. She feels completely confident that she is able to attend to ALL of his needs, including picking him up and feeding him. (Poor baby Jack!!)
she has many nicknames, including but not limited to: peeps, pipes, P, little miss P, peepsie pie, pips, pipsqueak :) --When asked which of these is her favorite, she says "Pipes"
--she copies everything her big bro does

Happy birthday to our sweet peeps! :)