The Johnson Clan

I bought a couple of high chairs from IKEA and now we are eating table food like mad men! Ruby and Cora sit at the table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They get mostly whatever we’re eating. Today was eggs and toast for breakfast, chicken and tomatoes for lunch, and black beans, grapes, German pancakes for dinner.  The girls received many fun books as Christmas gifts. Their favorite right now is one that makes animal noises. 

We went to Dayton for Christmas. There was a lot of family in town. We packed a lot of fun into the 4 days we were down there, including reindeer games, church, white elephant gift exchange, shopping, movies, cooking, eating, and lots of desserts. The girls didn’t sleep well, as usual. They woke up extra early every morning, so Clayton and I got to spend a lot of time sleeping on the floor while watching them play.  The girls are crawling on their knees, pulling themselves up on anything they can find, and babbling up a storm. They get cuter every day. We had a wonderful time. Sadly even though everyone is still in town for a couple more days we had to drive back to Akron for Clayton’s work. It’s been ok though. They girls have been catching up on sleep, and I’m slowly cleaning and undecorating the house.  Tonight I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Ruby loved it, she ate way more than I had expected, and Cora gave everything a try. Ruby is turning out to be quite the adventurou

For my birthday this year we went to Chick Fil E for dinner and Marshall’s for shopping. The girls gave me the best present by taking a long nap during the day, and the weather cleared up so that we could go outside. So all in all it was pretty fabulous.  One of our Christmas traditions is to host a caroling party. We have a bunch of friends come over, we eat dinner, carol to our neighbors, and then come back for hot coco and desserts. It’s always so fun. This year I made chocolate dipped pretzels with crushes candy canes on top as a treat for the neighbors we sang to. It was raining and a lot of people didn’t answer three doors, but we still had a good time. There were so many babies crawling around on the floor. Ruby and Cora love watching other kids run around and scream. A fun time was had by all. 

This picture is a perfect representation of Cora and Ruby lately. (Cora’s on the left, Ruby on the right) Ruby is having an awful time teething, poor thing. Everywhere we go she has been very moody and clingy, and she won’t let anyone hold her or comfort her except for me. Secretly, I don’t mind one bit. I’m soaking in all the extra love I’m getting from her. Cora, on the other hand, is becoming very social. She let’s just about anyone hold her, and she always always wants to play.  However, when it comes to sleeping during naps Cora is having the awful time. She’ll barely nap for 30 minutes at a time. I don’t know what to do. Both girls are still sleeping at night though, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.  Cora and Ruby are becoming very speedy army crawlers. The other day we were sitting in the living room when both girls zipped away in opposite directions. Ruby went for the Christmas tree plug, which she’s been pulling on lately, so I raced over to stop her and

Cora and Ruby are 8 months old now. Yeesh, it’s starting to go fast. Every week they learn something new. Ruby has two little sharp bottom teeth poking through. Cora doesn’t have any teeth yet, but I suspect they’ll pop up soon based on her extreme fussiness and clingy ness lately. Both girls are getting really good at sitting in their own, army crawling all over the house, and eating purple rice cereal crackers. Ruby gets up on her hands and knees and rocks, Cora gets up but doesn’t rock.  Both girls sleep through the night!! They go to bed at 7, dream feed at 10, and then wake up between 7 and 8 the next morning. It’s glorious. Although apparently sleeping better at night means that they no longer take decent naps. You win some, you lose some. Both girls say dada, not that they know what it means yet, and I’ve gotten a few unintentional mamas.

We just had the best best week in Florida for Thanksgiving. All the siblings and their spouses and their kids were all in the same house. So fun! On the way down the girls did really well. Everything went according to plan. The way back was a whole different story.  We went to Epcot and played in all the different countries. My favorite was Mexico. I’ve always had a thing for the Hispanic culture. Clayton really enjoyed Epcot, and said he was surprised how cool it was (he wasn’t the biggest fan of Disney, but is now a total convert!). The girls did okay with all the trips and missed naps. It was definitely worth the hassle of traveling with their giant stroller.  I loved that Cora and Ruby had lots of time to play with Tatum, Penny, and Marshall. They were all so sweet with the girls. Cora and Ruby went swimming for the first time. They love baths usually, so I thought they would enjoy the pool too. Cora did, but Ruby did not. Cora even liked the little floaty that goes around her neck

I have about a million pictures of Cora and Ruby, and I always have the hardest time picking which ones to post when I’m reminiscing. So here’s a bunch of them. It’s National Prematurity Day. My twins were born at 34 weeks exactly,which means they were about 6 weeks early. Although technically they want you to deliver twins 2 weeks early at 38 weeks anyway, even if you make it to the end.  I remember when I first held both girls for the first time (well, I don’t actually really remember the first time because I was so drugged up. When I say the first time I mean the first time that I was totally cognizant). I just couldn’t believe how teeny tiny they were. I remember thinking that the word precious had just taken on a whole new meaning to me. Those were long, hard days in the NICU. The doctors kept pushing back the day that we could go home, and I was going crazy in there. What started out as an estimated 1 week long hospital stay turned into 3 weeks. I watched as other babies came int

As always, we had a wonderful time at Nana and Abba’s house. The high light was going to the Christmas parade and seeing the Clydesdale horses. It was pretty dang cold, and I was really glad Nana had suggested that we bring the girl’s snowsuits with us. Other than their noses, Ruby and Cora were toasty warm!    Ruby and Abba became best friends this weekend. I guess he has the magic touch with our little stranger danger gal. 

We’re hanging out with the grandparents this weekend.  Nana made these awesome beanies for the girls. Now they won’t be able to pull their hats off. 

Ruby and Cora are 7 months old! We had a pediatricians appointment today. Both girls have gained about 1.5 lbs in the past month, they army crawl, and they grab everything they see. Cora thinks it’s funny to scratch people’s faces with her razor sharp talons, and Ruby thinks it’s funny when you react to pain. Weirdos.  The best update is that they can now ride in the shopping cart, making grocery shopping 1,000 times easier. I used to wear one in a carrier and put the other one in her car seat in the basket. The one in the basket didn’t like being stuck in her car seat, and I couldn’t fit very many items in the basket. Today’s grocery shopping was much more enjoyable for everyone.  Cora and Ruby have brought me so much joy and love. Being their mom is my greatest blessing! 

We loved Austin. It’s such a vibrant city. One of the things that Clayton and I both agree that we don’t like about Akron is how dated and old school it is. Austin was a breath of fresh air with it’s cool culture, new businesses popping up everywhere, and overall forward thinking vibe.   We stayed with our friends the Clements. We met Kennedy and Wyatt when Wyatt was interning with Goodyear a couple of summers ago. We were instant friends and spent most days that summer together. We’ve kept in touch, and when we found out Clayton was going to be attending a 1.5 day conference for work in Austin, we called them up and planned a whole week with them. It was awesome. On one of the days we toured the state capital building. It’s a few feet taller than the U.S. capital building in D.C. You know what they say, everything’s bigger in Texas! We also made it a priority to try as many of Austin’s most well known restaurants as we could. It. Was. Amazing. The BBQ and Tex-mex were to die for. My f