...."here, fishy-fishy!"

Yesterday Max had the afternoon off and he took Mr. Ryder Scott ice fishing... They had a blast. I was at work (boo) but when I got home and talked to him he was ecstatic for the following reasons:
1) He caught a fish all by himself! --Not to mention, he caught the ONLY fish ;)
2) He got to eat "reese's" (which is his and max's "thing" together) --and also "doritos" (Ryder can't really figure out how to correctly pronouce this word and it is hilarious to hear him try!) ---Very healthy, Max. (Men....honestly)
3) It was "boys day" and there were 'no girls allowed'
4) He got to ride in the front seat of the truck on the ice, which he was obviously pumped about.
5) Jo-Jo joined the boys later in the afternoon too.

Seriously, Ryder was just beaming when he got home and didn't stop smiling all night. He had to call his dad, his auntie Lissa, his Papa Steve, and just about everyone else he could think of... Such a proud little boy! Someday I will find motivation to post a picture....

Crazy?? Maybe.... Desperate?? ....Absolutely.

Definition of Crazy: Registering and paying a $50 entry fee for a 7K race (4.35 miles) when it has been AT LEAST one full year (give or take) since I last ran……… And by run, I mean jog- because I am by no means, a fast “runner”….These short stubby legs of mine really don’t get me far. Literally.


Um, yeah. Probably not the smartest thing I’ve done recently, but my sister provided me with an opportunity to run the “Get Lucky” 7k race along with our aunt Karen, and for some reason, I felt compelled to do so. So I signed up. And now I am already stressing over it because I really have not been running at all lately. Not to mention that even when I was running fairly regularly with my friend Becky before I got pregnant with Piper, the most I ever really ran at one time was about 3 1/2-miles… Not 4.35 miles. The race takes place on St. Patrick’s day, and the bright side is that after you finish, you get a free beer from your choice of 3 Irish pubs downtown :) I’m not Irish, but I like the color green, and I like free beer, so how bad can it be, right??

Anyway, I don’t expect to do well, whatsoever, but my ultimate and only goal is just to finish the damn thing. I am not going to stress over having to walk for part of the time (because I know I will probably have to) but I know the overall feeling of accomplishment will be so worth it, not to mention the statement I will be making to this stubborn baby fat that does not want to go away!! To be honest, if I didn’t think I could run the entire thing, I normally wouldn’t sign up for the race at all, because that’s just how I am-- but thanks to a refreshing convo this morning with my bestie, Kristin, I’m willing to try it. She just completed her first 5K down in Key West… She made me realize that it doesn’t have to be pretty, you just have to do it. :) Needless to say, I will be running tonight ….

...a sneak peak at peeps :)

Piper just loves when her mommy whips out her camera......not! However, it was time to start snapping for Piper's 3month pictures. This was just a few from 'round one' -- I'm sure there will be a couple more mini sessions here and there in the next week or so, but so far, I'm liking what we got!

...love my sweet little girl!

isn't this little buggy adorable?? -compliments of cindy :)

one of my favorites..

she had the cutest purple boots on, but was not having it this day - so off they came!

love.love.love!!

Merry, Happy, and all that jazz!

Time to catch up a little bit… What else is new, right? Anyway, 2011 is officially over, and while it was a brought the Johnsons many blessings—we are looking forward to what 2012 will bring also! Back track a couple weeks, shall we? In our family, we celebrate Christmas the right way. Lots of places to go, people to see, food to eat, wine to drink, and gifts to give :)However, it is also an exhausting time for us, in a good way, but still… I’ll show you what I mean. The Friday before Christmas (23rd), Jen and I took the boys (and Piper- gosh, I need to stop saying ‘the boys’ all the time!) to New London and spent the day with Amy, Brynn, Gus, Reed, and Zane… We ventured down to the lake right by their house and the kids had a blast ice skating! Ryder hasn’t really been on skates except for a few times and this year he really got into it. He took his little chair and cruised around without a care in the world. Then, he discovered that it’s SUPER fun to fall on the ice (when you have tons of padding from snowpants, etc) and that became his new game for the afternoon. All in all, it was a great day and we headed home one tired crew—all four kids took a nap and Jen and I were reminded how sweet our kids are….(when they are sleeping!) The following day was Christmas Eve. I made my first ever spinach and mushroom feta cheese quiche and we headed over to my parents’ house for brunch to hang out with my immediate family… I used to think I had such a small little family, but we are growing, slowly but surely. It now consists of my parents, my sister and her husband, Nate, my brother and his long-time girlfriend, Erin, Max and I, Ryder and Piper… Doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you add in Goose (my parent’s German shorthair), TeeJay (my sister’s rat—I have no idea what kind of dog it is—the kind in lady and the tramp I think) Mickey (our lazy golden retriever), and Tuff (my brother’s adorable, yet VERY high energy lab puppy). Yeah, we are dog people, and it gets a little crazy. (And in case you were wondering, the quiche was delicious…I will definitely be making that again! YUM) After brunch we headed home for Christmas Eve church service and then just got to go home and hang out together. Ryder was so excited for Santa, he went to bed like a champ! The next morning, we were lucky enough to have both kids sleep in for a change, and then we opened Santa’s presents… Ryder was thrilled with his new things and is still finding new things to play with to this day… Later that day we headed to Grandma Betty’s, celebrated with the whole Johnson crew and that evening went to my parents for the Hendrickson get together. Are you exhausted yet? Because I was by this time... But yet Monday came and we had yet another Christmas brunch at Mark and Cindys with Max’s immediate family… More good food, more good people, more calories consumed, yada yada… It goes without saying that when we left, my little family took a 2 hour nap!!


After that week we dealt with a lot of puke and a lot of laundry, because Ryder got some type of flu-bug. Not fun, not cool. But we rolled with it and eventually it cleared up and he headed up for his annual trip to Breezy Point with the Barricks… Since we were down one kiddo, we decided somewhat last minute to meet up with some friends for New Years Eve since our other plans fell through… Little P went to visit Grammie Cindy and Papa Mark and Max and I headed over to Emily and Andy’s for a couple hours. So glad we did—nothing like ringing in the new years with good friends! :) We picked up P on the way home that night and enjoyed our next couple days off… RELAXING and working on the kids’ playroom downstairs. It is coming together, and I love it so far! Now my little man is back home with us, thankfully… 5 minutes after walking in the door, he had turned my entire living room into a ‘fort’ with draped blankets and pillows everywhere…. So much for my clean house!!

Happy Happy Birthday.....

To my Max! J He woke up this morning as a twenty-seven year old! My wish for him is to have a wonderful and relaxing day… Although I highly doubt the relaxing part will come true because he took the day off and is home with the kids! What a man to want to spend his birthday taking care of a four year old monster, and a 2 ½ month old monster-in- training…. But, that’s just who Max is. Each year I spend with him I find myself wondering what the hell I could have ever done to deserve this man… The other day I was in the car and heard the song, “I thought I loved you then” by Brad Paisley. I’m not a huge fan of Brad, (mainly because most of his songs revolve around fishing and other manish-hick stuff) but I will admit that song is sweet. It made me start to think how very true that feeling is in relationships! I first met Max when I was 17 and he had just turned 20 (big age difference back then, I know, I know). We met through mutual friends and something just kind of clicked. We started slowly spending time together and I guess you could say eventually became a ‘thing’… I had an ‘on again/off again’ relationship ship throughout most of high school and getting to know Max was just so refreshing as I could tell right away that he was just a genuinely NICE guy. In addition to nice, Max was also extremely SHY back then….Although most of our relationship was pretty low-key, we always had so much random fun together whether we were at a party at the ‘ghetto’ or the ‘pig farms’ or just hanging out in the shed (seriously, you know you are from a small town when these are the names of parties you went to). Our relationship was never very serious, but I have such great memories of random things we would do, like camping out in a sleeping bag on a hill outside of his parents house one night, or getting a flat tire on his truck at a party just as we were leaving, and many many poker nights spent in the learning center with friends… After our relationship eventually ended, we still kept in touch, even as we both eventually found ourselves in new relationships with other people.

A LOT changed over those next few years, but at one point or another, Max and I both ended our relationships that we’d been in and we started spending time together again- now, with little Ryder in the picture too. It felt like whatever piece had been missing when we were younger was suddenly there and it just felt right. I can honestly say that right away when we were together again, I was pretty confident that I would marry Max, and somehow, I knew he felt the same. Our first real “date” out of the house was a football game on Halloween. My brother was a senior that year and we wanted to go watch him play, so we dressed up ryder (as a monkey) and headed to the game. I was pretty convinced that I could not possibly love max more than at that moment after spending the night with a crying one year old in the car and watching a high school football game with me and my family, while all of his other friends were out celebrating Halloween in the bars. I was wrong.

In June of that year, Max got down on one knee as we were watching the sunset on our front porch and asked me to marry him… I must have said yes, because on a beautiful September day that fall, I met him down the isle and became his Mrs.  After getting to know Max as my husband and father figure to my son that year, I was pretty sure I couldn’t love him more. Wrong again.

In October, Max became daddy to one beautiful little girl, Piper Grace. I am absolutely certain that there is something magical that goes on between daddies and little girls. I can’t describe the way Max looks at Piper and the way she looks back up at him. Don’t get me wrong, I know she loves her mommy too, but she really does light up around her daddy. And why wouldn’t she? He is the most patient man I have ever known, and he knows how to take care of his family in every way possible. From day one (even when I was nursing) Max would get up with Piper in the middle of the night without a single complaint. He comes home from work and is bombarded with requests from Ryder to play with him, and he drops everything to spend some time with him before getting supper started. After supper, he even helps me clean up  All in all, I just love him—like crazy. So there.

Bet ya didn’t think you were in for a love story today, did ya?! Me either!! It just sort of happened, my apologies…. Just thought Max has earned a well deserved shout out on his birthday… And for those of you who are ready to puke or punch me for all this emotional talk, don’t worry. Max is not perfect, and neither is our relationship—I’m sure I will have something negative to bitch about soon -- Until then—deal with it!! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

...a special day,

for a special girl!

Piper Grace was baptized this morning at our church- She wore the prettiest little white dress (courtesy of the gap:)) and looked sweet as can be.... She slept for most of the service, and awoke to Pastor Joe giving her head a little bath. Thankfully, little P was a trooper and just gave out a little squeal of surprise, but then just kind of stared up at her daddy and the church ceiling fan for the rest of the baptism like a good little girl! It was so fun to have both of our families able to be up there with us, it's a day we will always remember... When you have such wonderful families like Max and I do, it was extremely difficult to choose Godparents for this little girl. In the end, we decided on Josh and Jen, Piper's uncle and aunt, and Brynn (Piper's cousin) and my brother, Steven.
*Josh and Jen live right up the road from us and Auntie Jen will be Piper's first ever babysitter so there is no doubt in my mind that they will probably always share a special bond... Afterall, someday Piper will join us for numerous shopping trips, caribou coffee runs, and zumba classes! Since I officially go back to work tomorrow, Jen will be taking care of Piper and Ryder during the day along with her own two boys, Calvin and Graham.  *Brynn is Piper's only female cousin and we felt those johnson girlies needed to stick together! Brynn will be turning 9 in January and she is becoming quite the young lady! It seemed fitting for Brynn to be one of Piper's Godmothers because we know Brynn will always be a good role model for Piper :) *Steven is my younger brother and sadly, he was unable to attend the baptism today because he is on his college basketball team and they had a game today. The older he gets, the closer we've gotten and I love the young man he has become! He has a great sense of humor, he loves the outdoors, and he works hard-- what a guy, right!? :)
Overall, it was a great day and we were happy to be able to have everyone come back and celebrate the afternoon with us as well. Thanks to all who helped make Piper's day so very special!

first snowfall*

Mickey loves the snow....but he hates getting snow stuck in his paws!!

Even little P got to enjoy a little bit of the winter wonderland :)

Ryder was SO excited because Max taught him how to run and jump  on the sled...

Seriously, these boys are ALWAYS up to something!

...but they are so damn cute :)

Although I'm sure she had a blast, this is where Piper ended up when it got a bit chilly for her.

As you can see, our family DID enjoy the first snowfall of the year, although I will admit, I'm thankful that the snow is dissapearing and that we are going to have beautiful weather for Thanksgiving....We have been blessed with such a nice fall this year, but as of the day after Thanksgiving, then I will be ready to see some light snow on the ground again--just to get me in the Christmas spirit!! :) More busy days ahead!!