The Johnson Clan

Merry Christmas! Last night we had the cousins and aunts and uncle over for Christmas Eve Dinner. Dani made a ham, I made green bean and sweet potato casserole, and Sierra made rolls. I used all my fanciest table settings,  and even brought out a table cloth. After dinner we played many games. One Johnson tradition that we did was acting out Luke (or Mathew) 2. We gathered props and costumes from around the house and tried to recreate the scene of the birth of baby Jesus. Sierra was baby Jesus since she’s the Christmas baby, Dani was Mary, Greg was Joseph and King Herod and the donkey, and the rest of us played the angel, the wise men, and the shepherds. Clayton narrated.  The cousins all got matching Christmas pjs. Even Abe got to match the kids. Around 7:30 Ruby asked me to put her to bed, which never happens, but I guess all the excitement was exhausting to her. Cora stayed up until 8:30 and then reluctantly went to sleep. Everyone kept playing games until about 11.  Christmas morni

We moved over the weekend. Dani and Whitney took the girls home on Saturday, and Clayton and I started our cross country road trip. Dani said the flights went well. The twins slept for most of the first flight and the car ride home. They spent the whole weekend with the Brandt’s, and apparently it was a good time. Ruby and Cora are so lucky that they’ll have cousins nearby.  I was dreading the drive to Utah. Clayton had to drive the moving truck with his car towed behind it, and I had to drive the Forester alone with Abe. I loaded up my phone with audio books and music, prepared lots of snacks, and had a list of people that I would call to talk to when I got drowsy.  Our trip had a rocky start. After waking up at 3 am to get the girls to the airport, Clayton and I finished throwing things in the moving truck and loading up our cars. We had a couple of errands to run and then we needed to go to Uhaul to get the towing attachment. Our plan was to be there right as the Uhaul opened at 7 a

Nana, Abba, and Uncle Brian came up to see us before we move this Saturday. We went out to dinner at the Burntwood Tavern and we also went to the Akron Children’s Museum. The girls LOVED it. There was so much to do and not too many kids running around.  Ruby and Cora could have stayed and played there all day. They had a dozen or so different areas with cool sciencey things to play with.  (Abba helping the girls roll cars down a track) Clayton had just as much fun as the kids. He built a giant LEGO castle that ended up being a big hit with all the other kids at the museum.  Ruby like pretending to drink tea out of the little wooden tea set. She was so cute sipping air! Cora spent a lot of time pushing these carts around. She and Ruby both enjoy pushing strollers, carts, chairs, poppers, etc.  There was a little hospital section with a row of babies and a row of dogs in kennels. Both girls carried around babies and dogs most of the time we were there.  (Uncle Brian playing in the sensor

This year is a year of many firsts for Ruby and Cora, as this is the first year that they show any excitement for holiday fun. Today we carved their first pumpkin! They loved standing on the table, and they loved dipping their spoons into the pumpkin, but they were not big fans of the actual pumpkin guts. So after a few minutes they wanted to get down, and I finished scraping out and carving the pumpkin.   We have many Halloween parties coming up. Our neighborhood trick or treat is this Saturday, the ward Halloween party is on Wednesday, and the library’s Boo Fest is next Thursday.  We’ve been packing up our house and consolidating. It’s such a long process. We’re less than 3 weeks out! 

Ruby and Cora are a year and a half old. They each weigh a little over 20 lbs, they’re averagely tall for their age, and they are all developmentally caught up to their age group. They say many words, they’ve made up a few of their own that they use consistently for one thing so that Clayton and I know what they mean when they say it, and I’m convinced that they have their own language to talk to one another. Finally, FINALLY, they like going to the gym day care. I’ve never in my life been so motivated to go to the gym as I am now that I can get 2 hours of free babysitting every day at the day care. So we go almost every day. Sometimes I go to a exercise class, sometimes I meet up with a friend and talk, and sometimes I just go sit in the hot tub all my myself. It’s fabulous. We also go to story time at the library, play dates with our church friends, and of course run the day to day errands. Clayton’s last day of work was last Friday. He’s going to Atlanta this week for a in person st

6 years has flown by. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I married this tall glass of water? We went out to dinner at Beau’s. The view from our table overlooked the river, and a couple of white water kayakers entertained us the whole time. Then we went to see a movie and got ice cream afterwards. Our friend Jenny watched the girls and successfully put them to bed. It was lovely. 

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10 reasons why Clayton is a great dad: 1. He plays games, reads books, and goes on adventures with Ruby and Cora. 2. He likes doing research on their current developmental stage and likes applying what he learned to their play. 3. He’s always around. Morning, lunch time, evening, etc. Just the way we like it. 4. He leads our family in scripture study and prayer. 5. He’s gotten really good at picking out outfits and getting the girls ready. 6. He makes the best scrambled eggs, and he does it almost every morning for everyone. 7. He’s very organized, which makes him an excellent diaper bag packer. 8. He’s always willing to change the dirty diapers and clean up all the gross bodily fluids that make me gag. 9. Often he’ll wake up early with the girls so that I can sleep in an extra few minutes. I love that :) 10. He really really loves his girls. And we really really love him!

This week we had a few play dates, played at a couple of parks, went to the library, went grocery shopping twice, spent Saturday at the Natatorium pool, and did lots of house work.  Ruby and Cora are learning a lot of new things really fast. They play games together, they have started liking puzzles, they always want to read books, and they’ve picked up a few new words: dog, cat, cracker, shoe, mama, dada, ball, duck, toast, turtle, and banana.  Ruby loves pushing around her baby doll stroller and sticking random things in it, usually some kind of snack, a couple hot wheels cars, and her actual baby doll. Her favorite way to torture Cora is to chase her around with the stroller until Cora falls over and then she tries to run her over. Cora hates it and now cries whenever Ruby gets too close with the stroller, but it happens almost daily. Ruby has also taken an interest in puzzles this week, which has been really cool to watch. She’s so smart! Cora is all about reading books right now.

It’s getting better I think. We’ve been traveling A LOT lately. Whether it’s a weekend trip or an out of state vacation, it’s been non stop. In fact, we are flying out to Utah in a few weeks, and we have another Utah trip planned in September that I’m seriously considering canceling just because we’ve been gone so much and I need a break. Ruby and Cora are not happy travelers. They like to be in their own beds, on their schedules, doing the same things we always do. So it’s been a little rough for them. Hopefully character building?  Luckily the actually do pretty well on the plane. They’re pretty content hanging out with us for a couple of hours as long as there are plenty of snacks.  Last week we went to Florida. We spent a couple days with my mom and most of the week in Palm Coast with Clayton’s family. We rented a giant beach out right by the beach. It was awesome.  Most mornings I was able to go out with Becky for a beach run. If I could go for a run on the beach every morning I’d

Women are amazing. That’s what becoming a mother has taught me. There’s no other role like it. I’m forever thankful that I get to be the mom to my two beautiful baby girls, and also that I have a wonderful mother of my own.  I heard a quote once that said something along the lines of “you’re not a perfect mother, but you’re the perfect mother for me.” It resonated with me. As a parent I never know what the heck I’m doing. Seriously. Never. I try to approach every challange with optimism/gentleness/patience, and I do a lot of research. I rely a lot on advice from moms that I respect, and with the rest I just kind of wing it. Most things don’t go as planned, or how I think it will go, but we’re all still alive and healthy today. So I guess I’m not doing a terrible job 😉. I’m not trying to be a perfect mom, but I hope to be the best one for Cora and Ruby.  Today started out with Cora feeling sick. She had a fever, so Clayton stayed home with her while I took Ruby to church. The primary k

We went to Florida for a long weekend. Tori and Emma met us there, and we all stayed at my mom’s house. Friday Emma, Tori, mom, and I went to Harry Potter world. It was awesome. I’m not sure which I enjoyed most, the rides or the food or just the atmosphere. All of it was magical and exactly how I thought it should be. Clayton stayed at home with the girls all day. It was really nice to get away, but I think we all missed each other.  Saturday was beach day. I love the beach. I was really glad Clayton had Ethan there so that they could run off and play tennis together. He gets a little antsy just hanging out at the beach for a long time.  The girls liked playing in the tent and eating sand. They were not huge fans of the water.  Sunday was church and hanging out. We saw the new Avengers movie. Admittedly, I fell asleep during the first part. But in my defense we went to the 10:30 showing, and it’s a 3 hour movie! I still thought it was great and am planning on seeing it again soon. Rub

As we were getting ready for the park yesterday I realized that none of Ruby’s and Cora’s shoes or pants  fit them anymore! It was like they literally grew over night.  So I took them shopping and brought home several shoes, shorts, and swim hats. We are going to Florida this weekend after all, so it was all 100% necessary. When I got home and put the shoes on them I found out that Ruby’s feet are actually a tiny bit smaller than Cora’s. They both wear size 4, but like all baby clothes not all size 4s are the same size. Ruby’s on the smaller end of the 4s and Cora’s on the large end.  I guess we’ll be going back tomorrow to find a pair for Cora.  The hats on the other hand are fabulous! They will definitely be useful in sunny Florida for my red heads.

We started Easter with an egg hunt in the living room. Clayton filled plastic eggs with Cheerios, and I “hid” them in plain sight. Ruby and Cora like anything that will make a noise when they shake it, so they thought those eggs were fun. As soon as we set them down to search out their eggs they bee lined it to the nearest one, but then they weren’t really interested in finding the rest. So Clayton had to find the other 10 ;) I don’t usually dress the twins in the same outfits, but it just seems so fitting for holidays. This year they wore these cute springy dresses with flamingos on the front, and Nana knitted them pink cardigans. Every time we wear those cardigans to church we get many, many  complements. We’re so lucky to have such a talented, sweet Nana! Anyway, this picture of us sitting in the chair is the best one we could get.  We went to church and then spent the evening at our friend’s house. We were in charge of bringing a potato side dish and a dessert. Clayton said that if

It was a beautiful day outside yesterday. 65 and sunny. We took the girls swimming at the Natatorium, did yard work, and went on a family bike ride. The girls didn’t complain at all about the helmets or the bike trailer, so we were finally able to take it out on its maiden voyage! We gave the girls a few interesting things to hold on to and they were content for a full 20-30 minutes of biking. Success! I spent quite a bit of time planting rows of foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and violas in my garden. Then I looked at the forecast and saw that it might snow on Monday! All that time and seed wasted! Why didn’t I look at that dumb forecast before planting? I guess I was too excited for the flowers. Oh well.  I have a friend from high school that just recently announced that he and his wife had triplets. I can’t even imagine. Luckily they live right next to both of their parents and siblings, so I’m sure they will have lots of help and relief.  Easter is coming up. I love Easter. Eggs hunt

Just when I thought Cora and Ruby were going to make it through a whole flu season without anything worse than a couple of mild colds... Bam! Some kind of plague hit our house. Ruby has gotten it the worse. She’s had a fever for days and spends all her time moaning. All she wants to do is lay her head on my shoulder and be held all day long. Poor poor Ruby. I took her to the doctor today and turns out she has a double ear infection and pink eye. Cora also has a fever, though not as high, and pink eye. She’s in better spirits than Ruby, and I’m hoping that her ears stay healthy.  Today they cried and cried as I tried everything I could think of to help them. Finally I just stuck them in the stroller and went on a walk around the neighborhood. The crying stopped the second we went outside and they fell asleep shortly after. I didn’t want to break the spell until Clayton got home, so we walked for almost 2 hours. It was a lovely, quiet marathon. 

Cora and Ruby are 1! I can’t believe it! Last time I checked they were just little babies, and now they’re basically toddlers. They learned how to walk over the weekend. Granted, it’s a Frankenstein style still, but it is walking none the less. We had a llama fiesta on their birthday. It turned out fabulous. What wonderful, creative, enthusiastic lady put on such a great first birthday party? 😉 There was mariachi music, pin the tail on the donkey, a llama piñata, a top notch taco bar, fancy llama sugar cookies, some amazing cakes, a slide show with pictures of the girls throughout their first year, a giant llama balloon that walked around, flags, chalk board art, and of course festive outfits for the whole family. Phew! Like I said, it was quite the party.  It was mostly great because of all the people who came to celebrate with us. My mom and Rob flew in from Orlando, Dani traveled from Utah, my Nana, Abba, and Uncle Brain drove up from Dayton, and then we had the Bergsten’s, the Par