A little emotional....

Max and I are on a cleaning spree at the moment (as you can see, I'm taking a break;)) However...I was cleaning/organizing our closet and began to take a trip down memory lane... At the moment, all of my scrapbooking stuff was in the closet so of course I had to take a peak at some of my favorite pictures (and realized how behind I am at printing pictures, Gosh I am awful at doing that!)...went through some clothes to decide what is going on the garage sale load....and then found myself face to face with my wedding dress. I couldn't help it. I haven't put it on since the wedding over 8 months ago!
.....Needless to say, there I was at 10:30 at night hopping into my wedding gown and no, it didn't end there. I rummaged through my bathroom and put my headpeice in my hair, earrings in my ears, and my wedding necklace. I walked out and Max just kind of gave me a weird look...Luckily, after 8 months of being married, he no longer questions my randomness :)

Well then since I had the dress on, OF COURSE I had to flip through my wedding album (where I also realized how many more pictures I have to print!!) and got a little emotional! My sister is getting married, my best friends are getting married and all this wedding talk just makes me want to get married all over again! However....I will say that my lovely little stroll down memory lane makes me realize how grateful I am for the way my wedding turned out. It was truly the EXACT wedding I have been dreaming about since I was a little girl.... Nothing big, nothing over the top fancy, just close friends and family out enjoying the amazing gift of nature that God put in our world celebrating love and happiness.... I honestly don't think I would change a single thing, and THAT my friends, is a feeling of contentment like no other :)

"It won't be like this for long...."

As I'm reflecting back on the last couple of days in the johnson household, that song is what comes to mind, anyone with a small child in your house right now more than understands the meaning of this wonderful song by Darius Rucker....For those of you unfamiliar with the lyrics, the song talks about being up all night with a newborn, then dealing with toddler tantrums down the road, etc etc. The point of the song being that sometimes we all just need to take a deep breath and realize that although sometimes raising a little one can seem like the most chaotic/frustrating thing in the whole world, we need to still appreciate every minute with our child (good and bad) because 'it won't be like this for long' and soon they will be grown....

It has been battle royale at our house for the past few days involving a 3 foot tall little monster with a bad case of napolean complex (aka, Ryder). Everything has been a huge power struggle in our house, as Ryder seems to think that he makes ALL the rules. Not a chance, little man.... Needless to say it has been extremely frustrating for allllll of us and can lead to a very emotional mommy... So far, I have survived this wonderful toddler stage that can make me oh so crazy, but believe me, at the moment, I am hanging by a thread ;) --However, I did just go peep in at Ryder to say one last 'goodnight' and he said "I'm sorry mommy, I won't make you sad anymore, I will be good boy" ....ahhhhhh love :)

Other than that, nothing too exciting to blog about at the moment... This weekend was super busy (as I have a feeling they all will be from here on out!) as we celebrated with Mellissa and Nate on Friday night in St.Cloud and had a housewarming party for our friends Ryan and Kelly in town on Saturday night, very laidback night but spent with GREAT friends, nonetheless! Today we spend majority of the day outside, doing more landscaping, moving stuff around, cleaning up, and checking on our GARDEN!! Which, by the way, I am PLEASED to say is thriving!! Max and I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, sweet corn, cantaloup, peas, green beans, beets, carrots, onions, dill, strawberries, raspberries, chives, basil, tarragon, lettuce, and spinach. So far, everything has been coming along great! Shocker for us, because last year was a bit of a different story ;)

Ps...Just asked Max if there was anything else that would be blog worthy to write about and he thought for a long time and said, "Well, our dogs stayed home all weekend..." So there ya have it folks, Props to Mickey and Macie for doing what most dogs do naturally, staying home! (I also feel obligated to say that this is nothing new for Mickey (my dog), as he ALWAYS stays home and is obedient, Macie (max's dog) however, is quite the wanderer.

.....Wedding Bells Are Ringing!!!

Let me start this blog first by wishing my sister and her new "fiance", Nate, CONGRATULATIONS on their engagement!!!! FINALLY....IT'S ABOUT TIME ;) Mellissa and Nate have been dating for a little over three years and Nate just proposed to Mellissa on Saturday--we couldn't be happier!! Of course, I got excited right away and it didn't take me long to get 100% in wedding mode.... Within hours, I had her surfing wedding websites and chatting up plans -- we even found a HUGE bargain on a BEAUTIFUL wedding dress, and we even ordered it!! Yes, that seems a little crazy, but that's how I roll ;) As of now, they are currently talking about having a DESTINATION WEDDING, possibly as early as MEA of this year, so mid-October....Very exciting, and even better, it means I have yet ANOTHER vacation to look forward to other than our Atlantic Beach trip which is coming up in the end of June... Again, Congratulations Mellissa and Nate!!

The rest of our weekend was just as amazing... The weather was GORGEOUS which made me soooooooo happy!! We were able to spend ALL of our time outside as a family. Saturday morning I went to Babe's Blossoms, a nursery outside of Cosmos/Hector area, and wow. It is now my new FAVORITE nursery! They had soooooo much stuff, and such a great selection! It ended up being a spendy trip, but I consider plants an investment for our house, so that's okay ;) So, approximately two carts full of wonderful perinnials and shrubs later, I was one happy girl... Ryder and I spent the rest of our day hanging out with my mom since it was her birthday! Max was off doing his own thing since it was fishing opener and turkey hunting this weekend, blah. Then came today, Sunday....Although we didn't make it to church (oops), it was what I would consider very close to being the PERFECT day! For majority of the afternoon, if you would have driven by my house, you would have seen this mommy laying out soaking up the sun in some lawn chairs, a little blue eyed blonde running around screaming and giggling running through a sprinkler, and my shirtless husband puttsing around the house doing who knows what...What a great day!

We also have quite a few new additions to the johnson farm :) However, it is with great sadness that I announce the death of our beloved kitty, OJ. OJ was tragically killed during an unfortuante (yet accidental) car accident. (Okay, so my brother ran the poor little thing over). However, only minutes later it was discovered that our OTHER cat (who I could have sworn was a MALE all this time) suddenly gave birth to SIX, repeat SIX, new baby kitties!! So, within a matter of minutes, we went from two cats, down to one, and then up to SEVEN within a time span of approximately one hour! Also, tonight, we added three new little baby ducklings to our family :) Welcome, Fatso (named by Max, he's so rude.), Daffy and Donald! They will fit in nicely with our baby chics that will be arriving soon..... According to my husband, baby lambs will be joining us soon as well! --There is also the prospect of a horse joining the farm in the future, Max just doesn't know that yet ;)

Only in Darwin, Minnesota....

Do you hear the dreaded four letter word, S-N-O-W in the forecast in MAY!!! What the?!?! If you haven't already figured it out, this may not be the most 'cheerful' blog, considering the fact that it is FREEZING outside, RAINING, WINDY (yet again) and I even have heard talk about 'up to three inches of snow tonight'... Really, Minnesota?? Really??

First of all, this week has been a bluuurrrr because I had Monday off, which was nice to hang out with Ryder and relax after his party on Sunday...But then worked three 12 hour days on Tues, Wed, and Thurs this week. It was suuupppppeerrrr busy at work this week, but I am glad to be done with it and happy to have today off (Friday) but wish it wasn't so damn gross outside! Poor little Ryder is going nuts lately not being able to go outside, and so am I! I am so frustrated because Max and I have spent BIIIGGGG bucks lately on getting ALL of our landscaping done (although still have a ways to go!) and now all of it looks like a tornado has come and torn everything up/apart! A lot of our mulch has blown away since we just laid it down last week, which sucks because it is so spendy! My beeeaaauuutttiifffullll poor little plants are all drooping from all the nasty wind and everything just basically looks like hell. I'm not impressed.

Which makes me MORE THAN HAPPY to annouce that Max and I and Ryder are hopefully going to the BEACH for one week in June :) We keep scouring ticket prices daily and I'm hoping they go back down because they just shot up, but my mom and her sisters reserved a house on the beach in sunny North Carolina for the last week of June, and my sister and Nate are going too. Hopefully we are able to buy tickets soon and be on our way, this girl needs some sun, a cocktail in my hand, and niiiiiccceee dark tan :)

Screw you, Minnesota.... :)

...I am now officially mother of a three year old.. :(

So, Ryder's third birthday came and went... I still can't believe that my little boy is already three years old!! Makes me miss having a little baby in the house, although Ryder's in such a fun stage that it makes up for it ;)
April 28th, 2010: We started off Ryder's birthday morning by sleeping in as a family (LOVE THAT!) and then having some breakfast where I was surprised with a huge bouquet of flowers, just for bringing Ryder into the world! What a great surprise!! My husband has his moments :) We then gave Ryder a small gift (just some books, small trucks etc) since he already had gotten his REAL birthday present (Backyard Adventures Swingset) a few weeks earlier.. Then, we allpacked up and took off to COMO ZOO :) We were so blessed to have had a BEAUTIFUL day to check out all the animals and have some yummy lunch outside! Ryder was so sweet, he insisted that all the animals were wishing him a happy birthday, and then for a while he forgot that it was his birthday, so he started telling all the animals "Happy Bir-day, Lion, Happy Bir-day Zebwa" etc, etc. So cute! We then played at a park and eventually headed home where Ryder (and Mommy ;) took a nice afternoon nap while Max drove.. In the evening, Ryder went to spend some time at his daddy's house and played --overall, a great birthday for my little man! He is so excited to be "free" (aka-three!)..
THEN.... Yesterday (Sunday) was Ryder's birthday party at our house... With about 25 people in our home, things were a little "cozy" but we made do just fine and I think everyone was comfortable. It's so fun to see Ryder get together with all of his cousins on the Johnson side... All in all,there are 6 cousins (and one on the way, Amy is due in July with another little boy:)) Yes...that will make SIX boys and ONE girl in the family ranging from age 2-7-- crazy!! The odds are not looking that great for me to bring a little girl into this world someday, but I plan to try anyway ;) Anyway, the kids played like crazy, we had a great lunch, yummy chocolate cake, and then of course opened presents. I couldn't help but feel guilty about all the presents Ryder received... An automated tball baseball machine, a scooter, basketballs, baseballs, bow and arrow, clothes, sandbox toys, a set of golf clubs, money, cowboy hat, etc just to name a few...Then, we took him outside to show him his final present from his Dad.... It was a DIRTBIKE! If you know my son, you would know that he ABSOLUTELY LOVES anything with a motor and moves! He talks about dirtbikes all the time and was so excited to find out he now has one of his own! It's a yamaha pw50 (and yes, it has training wheels on it, THANK GOD!!)...It seems crazy for a three year old to own a dirtbike, but I think he will love it eventually once he gets a little better at driving it, I couldn't believe that he wasn't scared of it at all, but he wasn't. He had to take it for a drive right away and loved it.. It makes me one nervous mommy, but I know he'll get it eventually and we will make sure he is SAFE as can be on it!
As for today...I'm working three tens this week so I have Monday off AND Friday off this week, love weeks like that! Praying for some nicer weather soon, this windy/cloudy/mess that we've been having I can do without....