And He's Growing... {Ryan @ 2 months}

I love these pictures that Kevin took of Ryan with his miracle blanket. I think the first one was when he was around 2 weeks old... and then the other one is from last night (at about 2 months old- his 2 month birthday was last Thursday). Man has Ryan grown. It is CRAZY! He looks like a completely different kid now.

The 2 month old Ryan...

• weighs over 13 lbs (we'll know exactly how big he is when we go to the doctor next week)
• wears size 0-3 month clothes
• wears size 2 diapers
• sleeps between 4-6 hours in a row at night... and then eats... and then usually sleeps another 3 hours. Lately he goes to bed at 11/11:30, wakes up at 5 or 6am for a feeding, and then wakes up for the day around 9am. Not too shabby... and then he'll throw me a curve ball a few other times a week and be up every hour or two or want to eat for 2 hours, etc. There still isn't much consistency... but I am not sleepwalking through the day any more and feel less like I am a demon. :) Hooray
• smiles and coos (so adorable)
• rolls from front to back when we put him on his tummy and it totally cracks Andrew up
• takes very few naps... so we're working on that... most are like 20 minutes long... today he slept for an hour in his crib and I kept checking the video monitor wondering if something was wrong. I enjoyed every minute of my time playing princesses with Catie with my arms free
• is sooooo sweet and happy and chill. We are hoping this continues. He usually is a little fussy at nighttime once the kids go to sleep, but generally is such a relaxed kid. I love to cuddle with him.
• likes his pacifier, but isn't a total addict... still deciding if this is good or bad :)
• loves to be moving around and checking things out... he is not a fan of people sitting down when they are holding him... so he is keeping me on my feet. I guess since I rarely sat down when I was pregnant with him this shouldn't be a surprise at all.

We feel so incredibly blessed to have this little sweetheart in our family. I am so excited to see how his personality works in with the rest of our kids. Catie and Ryan absolutely adore him and are always trying to give him kisses. 

Hopefully I'll get some better photos of him with my actual camera soon!

Candy Train

Kevin's sister Shauna sent us a cute rice crispy candy train kit before Christmas. We talked about doing it every day of December and finally got a chance to do it last Sunday. The kids had a blast.

Catie mostly ate everything we put in front of her.

And tried to figure out new ways to use the frosting

Andrew was extremely focused on creating.

Kevin helped add a few final details and the train was finished!

Thanks Johnsons!

Christmas Vacation to Monterey

On Christmas Day we headed down to Monterey for a short trip (3 days, 2 nights). It went way too fast. Here are the highlights/lowlights and loads and loads of pictures!

Highlights

• Girls Night out to Les Mis on Christmas night (while Kevin watched all 3 kiddos at the hotel... it was my first time leaving Ryan for that long)
• Boys night out to Les Mis the following night (while I watched many many episodes of TV shows on Hulu Plus in the hotel room cuddling with Ryan)
• Monterey Aquarium with the kiddos! The toddler enclosed area was the best place ever... I relaxed and Catie played. Yahoo!
• Dennis the Menace Park- 3 adults, 2 kids (plus one that didn't move)... and we still couldn't keep up with them.
• Ghirardelli!
• Sweet Ryan sleeping 6 hours in a row at our hotel. Love that kid.
• Awesome hotel with delicious breakfast every day, swimming pool, and an elevator that kept the kids so happy.
• Lots of cute Catie & Andrew iPad sharing... that is the only thing they know how to share these days... but it is progress :)
• Seeing adorable baby Sophie every day
• Tons of time to hang out with Scott, Cat, Jess, and G&G Smith. We are so depressed they are gone now.
• "Boys" (including Jess :)) bike ride on 17 mile drive loop 
• Dance party at Johnny Rockets. Andrew did his booty dance in the middle of the restaurant and it was hysterical. 

Lowlights

• ODing on Diet Coke and M&Ms... so sad. I haven't eaten either since Christmas... or much else.  
• Sitting next to Mr. Sniffles at Les Mis... I think he passed along a lot of germs to me! Ugh!
• Andrew screaming for the first 45 minutes of our road trip to Monterey
• Andrew screaming a bunch on our road trip home AND Catie getting car sick. Crazy! No road trips are on our schedule again for awhile.

Overall, the trip was fabulous.
And now for loads of pictures!!

Telling Ryan about Les Mis

Riding the elevator

Lots of TV time and relaxing 

Dinner at Pizza My Heart Monterey

Dennis the Menace Park

Aquarium

And... so sad we had to go home.

Christmas at Home

With a newborn in the house, there was no way we were traveling far this Christmas... so we loved getting to be home on Christmas morning this year.

My parents, Scott & Cat, and Jess were going to spend Christmas down in Monterey, but they tweaked their plans and decided to spend Christmas Eve and Day with us and head down after the big day! We felt so loved!

Here are loads of pictures from our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations. I can't believe Christmas is over already!

Cuddling with Baby Sophie

Dinner at Don Jose's

The kids all got new pjs... Andrew got rocket pjs and the other kiddos got holiday ones

Failed attempts at a family photo

Ryan loved watching us play "pass the present"

Jessie wrapped the presents in sparkly glitter wrapping paper so we were all shiny by the time we were done playing.

We also tried to re-enact the nativity story with the Fisher Price nativity set... but it kinda bombed... which meant we were ready for dessert! :)


I made peppermint ice cream pie and Kevin made his mom's special hot fudge for the top.

We set out cookies and milk for Santa and sprinkled Andrew's reindeer food outside (that he made at school). We also ate lots of cookies from the yummy Santa cookie jar Liesl sent us!

Once the kids were asleep, the babes got to party a bit... and we watched Home Alone... and wrapped lots and lots of presents.

We aren't early risers, so we didn't get things started on Christmas Day until after 9am.

Andrew was dying to come downstairs... but we held him off till Scott, Cat, and Sophie arrived!

Grandpa chilled with Ryan while I got a few last minute things done.

After a quick picture with all of the kids (and Uncle Scott), the Christmas fun began!

Sophie couldn't handle the suspense

We loved watching everyone open their presents. First we opened all the kiddo presents, then we had breakfast (at noon), and then the adults opened presents while the kids played with their toys.

Santa surprised the kids with new bikes. Unfortunately it was raining on Christmas, so they didn't really get to try them out.

Catie's loved her Minnie doll from Grandma Julie

And her tutu and wand from Aunt Shauna. She had to put it on right away. She also loved her crowns, wands, and more princessy stuff from Aunt Elise. Our house has now become much more girly!

We also had fun snuggling with little Miss Sophie who looked so adorable in her holiday outfit.

Kevin made us yummy homemade waffles for breakfast

The babies cuddled

And then just as fast as it came, the day was over! 

Our kids napped and then we packed up our cars and headed off on our mini family vacation to Monterey!