The Johnson Clan

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. 

2019 2018

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 r...

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 eve...

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 ...

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 a...