Catching Up from July - September

Hello All! This post is going to have a lot of pictures because I am catching up from photos from before Jack was born. It's hard to believe summer is over and that fall has arrived! We had a great summer!

Crazy...maybe... I let Ashley paint her own nails. She did a great job!

Ashley at the 4th of July parade in Forest Lake.

It's become a tradition to enter the kids in the kiddie parade held during Karl Oscar days. This years theme was all Hula! (Pictured from left to right is Ashley, Jada, Violet and Maddy)



Ashley wearing her wings and hula skirt.





For the first time in 5 years of having a dog we got to deal with the dreaded spray of a skunk! Matt ran for the necessary skunk spray removal gear of a Vegas visor, crazy sunglasses and rubber gloves. My girlfriends also got to witness the occasion as we were all hanging out and sitting in our screen porch when Ruby was sprayed by a skunk just 5 feet from where we were sitting.

Ashley with her new baby brother Jack. Ashley is wearing a dress my mom made for me when I was Ashley's age.

Jack's first bath at home.

Jack at 1 week old. Sweet little baby!

Jack - 1 week old and I caught a picture of him with his eyes open.

AJ...exhausted from the week of change since baby Jack was born. She fell asleep on the living room floor mid day. We did have a bit of excitement when we brought Jack home on 7/27. Matt picked Jack and I up from the hospital around 5pm. We had to stop at Walmart in Forest Lake so that I could fill my pain meds prescription. (Jack's first outing and it had to be to Walmart). We left Walmart and drove for about 5 minutes when Jack broke into "the scream". We pulled over at the gas station and I feed the poor starving boy. It started to pour and get very windy...with threats of a tornado in the area. It was now approaching 7pm, neither Matt or I had eaten so we picked up Chinese on the way. Grandma and Grandpa J had Ashley and met us at our house. Within minutes of getting home, Jack wanted to eat again. I was sitting in the living room and Ashley wanted to be right next to us. She was horsing around on the couch when she fell backwards off the couch and smacked her head on our metal/stone coffee table. Instant screaming. The sound of her hitting her head will haunt me forever. Blood was oozing out of the back of her head and she reached back to feel her head and her hand was covered in blood. She freaked out. I have no idea how I leaped up so quickly with an open incision in my stomach but I did and Matt ran in from the kitchen. He quickly called his parents back over as we were sure we were heading to the ER. I handed Matt Jack who was screaming because he was hungry and I called the nurse line. They asked me 1000 questions, told me the signs to watch for with concussions and then advised that I braid the hair around the open gash. She finally let me braid her hair. We called it the magic braid. We then had to monitor her for 2 hours. She didn't get to bed till after 10:30... you can imagine how overwhelmed we all were!

Our first garden. I should call it Matt's garden! He and Ashley take care of it and we have had wonderful produce all summer. We had to double fence it and raise the fence to keep the rabbit and deer out but our efforts were successful.

Violet and Ashley hanging out while the Johnson family came over to visit baby Jack. Aren't they adorable? They love each other. Every time Violet comes over the girls run back to the bathroom and brush their teeth together. Never mind the sharing of toothbrushes and the splatter all over the mirror, they just have a blast together.

Jack - 1.5 weeks old. We visited the doctor on 8/4 and Jack had already gained 1.5 lbs!

We were visited by a bald eagle who was pecking away at a dead fish on the lake shore. Too bad I was so shaky from lack of sleep and the drugs or I would have been able to capture some great pictures! This is the only one that didn't turn out blurry.

Jack - 2 weeks old! Isn't he cute?

Our first family photo outside of the hospital.

Family gathering for my nephew Jacobs 2nd birthday. Jack got to meet his Great Grandma Marianne for the first time.

Ashley admiring her cousin Luke and brother Jack. Luke and Jack are almost exactly 2 months apart but they are nearly the same size! Luke was born 3 weeks early and Jack is just a big boy!

Luke and Jack. Ya know...Jack might even be bigger!

Ashley with her second cousin Riley.

WHAT? Do you think a naked girl sitting out in the screen porch wearing pink doctors gloves with her face painted like a kitty is strange? Well, this is normal behavior for a 3 year old! Too funny! My my do I love this little girl!

A Johnson family gathering of enjoying our lake on a sweltering summer day!

Snuggle bug!

The proud big sister holding her baby brother.

Jack's first bottle from his big sister! Jack is 3 weeks old in this picture.

Ashley Jane sitting next to Auntie Lydia's beautiful hibiscus flower.

Jack A Roo - 3 weeks old. On this same day, I caught Jack smiling for the first time. Three weeks later as he hit the 6 week mark, he is smiling all of the time.

Ashley nursing her baby. She's even equipped with her blankey as a burp rag and the boppy. She did this all on her own.

Ashley looking so adorable. She wanted to wear these crazy socks with this outfit. We thought she looked like the next generation of rollergirls!

Ashley and Jack resting together.

On 8/18 I was observing Ashley as she was watching the movie Cars. As the music started to play, she began tapping her feet to the beat of the music! How do they learn these kinds of things?

On 8/20, I had to go to the hospital at 7pm to get an ultrasound of my gull bladder. Since we were going to be out so late, Grandma and Grandpa J took Ashley for us. They picked her up and surprised her by taking her camping at a KOA for the whole weekend! She got to go swimming and sleep in the RV. She had a wonderful time. Our house was so quiet that weekend. When Jack was sleeping, Matt and I worked on cleaning up the landscaping and other random projects. We had a nice weekend. Oh, and everything turned out ok with my gull bladder. :)

Look at all those blondies celebrating Elsa's 4th birthday.

Another cute picture of these two cuties, Violet & Ashley.

Jack - 1 month old

Peppers from our garden.

Kabobs we made using the peppers from our garden. YUMMY!

Jack - 5 weeks old wearing a cute little outfit that my little brothers used to wear.

We even made it to the Minnesota State Fair! It was 93 degrees and very humid but we stayed for 5 hours! Ashley and daddy did a lot of fun things together this year. Ashley was so brave! They went down the big yellow slide and rode on the ferris wheel. She also loved the butterfly house this year. Last year she went in but would not touch them or let them land on her. She also really enjoyed the big fish at the DNR building. We didn't eat much while we were there as it was just too hot. We did manage to share pork chop on a stick, mini donuts, cookies, sweet corn and a slushie. Ashley enjoyed the parade and watching all the marching bands. We had a very nice time.

Jack - 6 weeks old

Ashley Jane - just a few days shy of 3 years 6 months

Allie, Ashley and Maddy looking at the crysallis' we found on our adventure walk during our stay at the cabin over labor day.

The crew roasting marshmellows over the campfire.

Jack's first campfire.

Ashley enjoying her kids sized icecream cone at the best icecream shop in Crosslake, Minnesota!

Shelly braided the girls hair.

Ashley and Maddy caught huge sunfish at the same time.

Allie caught one too! I just love this picture of Allie! She's such a beautiful young lady.

Ashley and Jack snuggling.

Goodbye cabin! See you again next year for the 3rd annual labor day getaway.

On Saturday 9/11 we finally got together with my girlfriend Kelly and her triplets. The triplets will be three in November so they are very close in age to Ashley. It was so fun to meet these little cuties and we look forward to the next time we get to play!

(Left to right: Sylvia, Lucy, Max, Ashley and White)

Jack and Ashley. Ashley is such a big girl. She loves her little brother and will help any chance she gets. On Tuesday 9/7, Ashley got to move up to the next room at daycare. She is now in pre-2. Big things happen when you are in pre-2. She told me, Mom, kid's don't scribble in pre-2, only the little kids in pre-1 do that! Speaking of coloring, Ashley now colors within the lines and she is very good at it. She really enjoys coloring with markers.

Although we didn't capture it with a picture, on 9/14, Matt and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. We went out for dinner on 9/15 while G & G J watch the kids for us.

Jack and Ashley

Ashley and Daddy. As we switched over to our winter wardrobe we discovered a bunch of leotards. Ashley couldn't wait to put this cute leotard on and to dance with her daddy. We discovered, the girl can DANCE! Evidently they dance at school.

Jack - 8 weeks old. Such a handsome little man!

On Saturday 9/18 we took a family drive to the bakery. From there we took another family drive and we ended up seeing our friends pulling into the co-op gas station so we followed them in. It turned out that the co-op was having their grand opening party of thier pet store. They were giving away a lot of freebees one of which was goldfish. So, for $4 we bought a tank and food and Ashley got her first pet. She named him Disco.

Later that day we went to Kost Dam. Ashley caught a crappie. It was a beautiful fall day.

Jack caught a few zzzzz's.

Ashley and daddy fishing at the dam.

Sunday 9/19 was another beautiful fall day. We headed to Grandma Terrys to take an adventure walk out in her trails through her woods. She has 20+ acres and it was a fun hike.

Me and my babies.

Grandma Terry pulled out this fold up fort while we were at her house. Ashley didn't want to leave when it was time to go...she just wanted to stay at grandmas in the fort. Grandma let us borrow the fort and Ashley made her bed up in there the minute we got home. She slept in there until about 2am when she snuck into our bed. She loves to sleep in our bed. She will try everything she's got to get to sleep in our bed. Her latest is "but mommy, I feel sad when I am all alone." Bedtime around here lately has been...crazy. We were all playing house the other night and Ashley was the mom, I was the sister and Jack and Daddy were themselves. We got to hear from Ashley what we sound like every night... You start to wonder if your kids can even hear as much as we find ourselves repeating the same things over and over and OVER! Anyhow, Ashley can definitely hear... as we were playing, Ashley put me to bed in her bed and she said "now, stay in your bed. If you get out of your bed, I will have to shut your door and then it will be dark in here. Moms tired and I'm going to bed so you have to stay in your bed". Then off she marched into my room and climbed into my bed. So, I decided to try all of her tricks on her... I yelled out, Mom.... I'm thirsty. Mom, I'm hungry. Mom, my tummy hurts. Mom, I'm lonely. Ashley responded to every one with our normal responses. :o)

I'm sure there is more stories to tell from the last few months but, this will have to do it for now!

Announcing Johnson Baby #2

Hello! We have exciting news, baby #2 has arrived. Here is your first look at Jack Lee Johnson!

Jack was born on Saturday at 2:49pm. He weighted 8 lbs 11 oz and was 20.75 inches long. My labor started Thursday evening and the contractions got regular around 9pm on Friday. Matt and I headed to the hospital. I was dilated to a 3 upon arrival and made it to a 6 without any pain medication. I then received some neubane. When I reached 8 my water broke and i went back to a 6. I tried all I could to avoid an epidural but it ended up being highly recommended as my desire to push increased and was creating swelling and slowing down the process. Within a short period and clever positioning my swelling subsided, I was fully dilated and pushing! Unfortunately Jack couldn't take the stress and his heart rate dropped in half. We were then on our way for an emergency c-section but his heart rate did recover so the c-section wasn't considered an emergency but it all happened very quickly after his heart rate dropped. Upon his arrival they do a Apgar test which evidently tests 5 or so factors and they are added to determine a score of 0-10. They test at one minute and five minutes after birth. 10 is the best. He scored a 9 and then a 10. My doctor was floored by those scores. 10 is evidently not that common and to have him score such high Apgar scores after giving us such a scare with the heart rate patterns was shocking. I was very disappointed to have another c-section but I did all I could and obviously the choice is simple once your baby is at risk of brain damage or other complications. Unfortunately, I will be doing wound care similar to what I had to do with my incision after Ashley was born. This too is very upsetting news as I had really hoped I wouldn't have to have an open incision to tend to for the next 10 weeks but this is yet another thing I couldn't control...now we just have to deal with it. I pray the wound recovery time is quicker than it was with AJ. We'll just take it one day at a time.

Ashley came to visit for the first time on Sunday afternoon. The greeting was priceless. She is so excited to be a big sister. She had a bazillion questions. She has thought all along that we would have a girl. She is now telling everyone that her baby sister is a boy. :)

Ashley and Jack. See how proud she is? She moves quickly and we are learning all of the rules about new babies but we can already tell that she is going to be the best big sister!

Jack Lee Johnson

Ashley, Jack and Daddy. Ashley and her school friends made Jack a great big card and they also made Ashley a crown that says I'm a Big Sister.

I'm just a few hours from getting released from the hospital. I'm looking forward to going home and to having the comforts of home but I will miss the around the clock care and attention from the wonderful nurses here at St John's.

We love the sunshine!

We had a beautiful sunny day mid May and invited a few friends over for a BBQ. The kids had a blast playing in the lake and around the yard. Pictured from left to right: Henry, Gracie, Violet, Elsa and Ashley.

All this picture is missing is the noisy pop cans dragging behind and a sign that says Just Married! So cute.

Grandpa Bob, Ashley and Jacob. Jacob and Ashley had a great time chasing each other around Uncle Dennis' house. Auntie Marianne and new cousin Luke had gone back to the hospital to make sure Luke's jaundice was under control.

Girls Weekend 2010! Had a great time with the girls as usual. Weather was a bit cold and cloudy but that's never stopped us before!

Ashley with her two princess Aurora's. Ashley LOVES princess things these days.

Ashley and daddy riding on the four wheeler down on the beach. With the lake so low, we have enough beach to be able to ride the four wheeler down there! We've been waving Ashley's magic princess wand in hopes that several inches of sand would fall from the sky and cover our beach but so far our wish hasn't come true. :)

Here we are celebrating my Grandma's 80th birthday!

Ashley was very excited to eat a radish from Daddy's garden. She could barely wait for me to wash the dirt off of it. I gave it to her and she took a huge bite out of it and then made the same face most people do when eating a radish. Needless to say, she ended up spitting it out in the garbage and then begging for water.

Last week Ashley asked daddy if he could take her to the "wing store". We were just as puzzled as to what a wing store was but soon learned it's where you can buy wings so you can fly just like Tinkerbell and the rest of the fairies. We took a family trip to Walmart to buy some wings and they didn't have any. After a small melt down we were able to drag her out of the store by bribing her with the Ariel princess doll and a voucher to look for wings at Target. Daddy looked online and found a cute pair of wings and told her in two school days they would be here but we never ordered them. Two school days went buy on the way home she said...it's been two days...are my wings at home? Ohhh, break my heart! So I told her in two more days we would get the wings. She was very sad that she had to wait two more days. But then, two more days went buy and I had stopped at Toys R Us and bought her wings and they came with a wand and two ponytail holders for $7. Good deal! So, I pick her up from school and while we are in her class she asked if he wings came and I told her they were in the car and she screamed with excitement and then told all of her friends and her teachers on our way out the door. Once in the car she found the package and just oogled over them. I told her she had to wait till we got home to open them. On the drive home she could barely contain her excitement or complete a sentence she was so excited. She said Mom, I am soooo excited to fly. It occurred to me then that she really believed she was going to be able to fly. Yikes...quick think of something to help explain the what if's if she couldn't' fly. Ahhh, ok, got it... So I told her, I sure hope you can fly honey but remember Tinkerbell and her friends all get magic fairy dust from Terrence and we don't have any magic fairy dust so I don't know if it will work but you can try ok? Ok mom. Then we got home. The next two video's explain what happened next.




Here's a video of Ashley telling me how excited she is about her wings.

This video is "They don't fly". Can you hear the disappointment in her voice. Oh I about cried.

Ashley's first trip to the dentist! I took her to a pediatric dentist because she has a tooth that is bugging her. She was so brave and did so good! The first appt is more or less to get the kids accustomed to the office and the process etc. They counted Ashley's teeth and they were able to get a look at the tooth that is bothering her. Because she will eventually lose all of her baby teeth Dentist Mark suggested that we just go the temporary route of covering it with a protective material rather than taking her to Childrens, using sedation and drilling the tooth etc. So I plan to take her back once I am on maternity leave. (Gotta save all of my PTO time right now). Dentist Mark and Anne sent Ashley home with a bag full of goodies, including a toothbrush, floss, floss picks, a mask, bitwings for x-rays and purple gloves so that we could play dentist at home and increase our success rate at our next visit. After we left the dentist, we then had to go to her 3 year well child check up. Our normal doctor wasn't in the office so we saw Dr Nick. Again, Ashley did fantastic and was so brave. She's pretty used to the gig at the doctors office now but she was so easy going I was amazed. She weighed in at 35 lbs which puts her at the 78% for weight and she was 3' 5" which put her at the 95% for height. Dr Nick also recommended a hearing test and eye test but said not to worry about it if she wouldn't' cooperate. They brought in the cart to do the hearing test but unfortunately the nurse was an intern from some school and was maybe 19 years old. Ashley allowed me to put the ear phones on her ears but then she was to hit the button when she heard it beep. I think just getting the ear phones on should have passed the test. Obviously she can hear but she didn't get the part about clicking the little button. So, test attempted. Next it was out to the hallway for the seeing test with the 19 yr old nurse... ok Ashley stand here and look allllllll the way down this hall and read off what letters I point to. Ummmmm.... she does know a lot of her letters but seriously do you expect her to do this test? Ok upon my pushing we'll try to use the picture shapes instead but can we first see if she even knows what they all are? We practiced and then went all the way down the hall and my little baby held the spoon thingy over her eye and told the nurse what she was pointing at. I couldn't believe what a good listener and how well she was behaving. Another nurse stopped in the hall to watch and kindly coached our 19 yr old nurse along with a comment to simply note the test as attempted. She did a great job and can obviously see but we can try it when she's a little older. (Did she read my mind...a hearing and sight test on a 3 year old? Kinda crazy in my mind unless of course I had concerns with either of those skills, which I don't). Then we had to go back to the room and our young nurse came in and said, ok, last step...two shots! Ummmm duhhhhh, can you not say SHOTS? I got AJ to sit up on the bench and the shots were done within a few minutes but I wished I had asked for someone else to do it. Don't practice your shot giving skills on my baby. Ashley of course screamed bloody murder and said NO MOMMY. I don't want shots. Break my heart. When we left the doctor Ashley got in her car seat and said "Mom, I don't want to go to any more appointments today, ok?" OK honey! Let's go home. Such a sweetie pie.

Here's my little helper wearing her purple gloves from Dentist Mark while cleaning the windows.

What else is new? Ashley's been bringing home projects from school that have them circling the two letters or animals etc out of three in a row that are the same. She's also came home with a few notes from school of stories she's told her teacher Tiffany. The last one said Ashley told me today that she had a "rough weekend" and had to spend time in the baby's crib for hitting mom. Seriously...what a little fibber! Where does she even come up with this stuff? I hope Tiffany can decipher which of AJ's stories are true and which are not!

Yesterday we were playing outside and Ruby (our dog) was getting in Ashley's way when Ashley turned to her and said "Go away Ruby, you're driving me crazy!" I'm telling you, 3 years olds provide endless entertainment.

I'm now 35 weeks along with baby #2, leaving us about a month with the life as we know it now.