Holiday! Celebrate!

What a fantastic holiday season! The only thing that would've made it perfect was if we had some time with Larry's family, some time with Lauren and her family, and if Larry was able to take off work this week. BUT, we are thankful Larry has a job and L3 has work, so we are blessed. I have a new appreciation for all parents of families who celebrate with Santa. Whew! It's hard work preparing for his arrival and delivery of gifts! This year was a practice run for us...the bar is set for next year and I so hope we succeed. I'm taking notes. Leading up to Christmas Day we worked hard making and delivering gifts for friends and family to help teach Rya the true meaning of Christmas. She kept reminding us that it was Jesus' birthday. Even though she LOVED giving presents to everyone, I must admit, that the morning after Christmas Day she woke up asking for more presents for her to open. :) Santa was very good to our family this year. I was given a new washer and dryer (with steam function on both!) along with other items to make me a fantastic domestic diva and mother of two. Larry was given a beautiful guitar and some new electronics, clothes and photo keepsakes. And the kids were spoiled rotten with clothes and toys. Rya's favorite gift is a truck that Luke was given. And Luke's favorite toy is a Special Agent Oso car that Rya was given. Go figure. :)
Mom and I have been busting our bums since Thanksgiving getting ready to deliver the books to the children. We set out with 94 bags of books for children. We delivered almost all on Dec. 15th. We were unable to deliver to a few homes b/c the homes had been abandoned or a new family had moved into a house and the children we had on our list no longer were there, or we just couldn't find a particular address. Overall it was a success and we learned a lot about how we'll go about it next time. We are still being blessed with books and donations so we are planning for our next delivery to be sometime in March.
Rya is doing fantastic. She is just the sweetest thing. I think she is still worn out from Christmas. It's nice having her and Luke home this week from "school". I know it's only Monday, so that song might change by Thursday, but I do like it. We are trying to decide on preschool for the fall. Registration opens in February and we are already on a wait list for one school. I think we have it narrowed down, but ideas and thoughts keep popping in our heads so we'll have to keep thinking and praying about it over the next month or so.
Luke is now 9 months old, has two teeth (both on the bottom) and is working on his third (one of the big ones on top). This one must be a doozy b/c he is one unhappy camper. He is crawling and pulling up & cruising. I walked into the room he was playing in the other morning and he was just standing there...not holding onto anything...but I told him to cut that out b/c I'm not quite ready for him to be walking yet. He gets into EVERYTHING as it is...add walking and running on top of that and we just might have a disaster or two on our hands. He has his well baby tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some stats shortly. Here are some pictures from pre-Christmas celebration:

My Michelle...

...takes the most beautiful pictures. Here we are at Baytowne. We went to listen to the symphony brass band. They didn't show up, but we still had a nice time hanging out and eating pizza with Michelle and Richard. We love them so much and cherish the time we get to spend with them.
Time is flying. Luke will be 6 months old tomorrow. All I can say is "DANG! Where did the last 6 months go?!" He is rolling all around and trying so hard to sit up. Poor boy wants to, but he gets so excited that he starts kicking his little legs and makes himself fall over. He truly is a very happy boy. I was worried for the first 5 months b/c he was just so unhappy and so sensitive. He's much happier and just loves anything that involves causing a commotion...aka, his sister. :) Speaking of Rya: she is doing fantastic with potty training. We ventured out of the house in just trainig underwear the other day and we didn't have ANY accidents. YAY! She was also sick this past week and had to go to the doctor. 5 days of fever = no good. The dr. thought maybe she had a urinary tract infection, so she wanted Rya to give a urine sample. She asked Rya is she would go pee pee in the cup and Rya was like "yes" so off we went to the lab. I admit, I was thinking "Yeah right, like this is going to happen" to myself the whole way there while also pumping her up with confidence. Ha ha. Sure enough, she peed in the cup! It took a little bribing, but she did it! I was so impressed. Of course every other time going pee that day, she asked to pee in a cup, but still. She's getting to be a big girl and it just amazes me. She's just the sweetest thing:



I have a feeling, her brother is going to come in at a close second:

Rya feeding Olivia

Warning: May contain adult content. ;)

I love it how her lips move as Olivia is "drinking". Kind of like when you feed a baby from the spoon, your mouth opens too with each bite. Too cute.

Happy Birthday Larry!

Larry celebrated his 33rd birthday on Tuesday. Since Memorial Day fell on Monday, we celebrated with a four day weekend and it was very nice and relaxing. Larry is a homebody so I think he enjoyed just laying around watching the Rays (and Rya) play. I did drag him out on his birthday for about two hours to go get some food and do a little shopping. We went to HarborWalk Village for some BBQ. It was nice sitting outside overlooking the harbor...and parking lot. Thanks Mimi for watching Rya & Luke for our little getaway. :) I can't believe this is the 15th birthday of his we have celebrated together! So crazy wonderful! I'm so fortunate to have all these years with such a fantastic man, husband and father!

Pictures from Larry's birthday weekend at the beach

Praying HARD our beaches will continue to look this beautiful for our children. This BP oil spill has really put a damper on people's moods around here. It seems like everyone is coming to get "one more look" at the beaches before they are changed forever. We enjoyed this evening at the beach together and hope to have many more nights like this.

May 9th, 2010

I can't believe Rya is 2!! We had such a special day this year. Her second birthday fell on Mother's Day this year and we also had the kids baptized that Sunday. Such a special and memorable day for our family. Rev. Ed Chandler baptized me when I was confirmed and it was such an honor for him to baptize Rya and Luke for us. I've attached some photos of the day. The pictures aren't the most beautiful (I just had a baby for Pete's sake), but they are definitely special. It was like Christmas in here! Rya had so many presents to open...spoiled little girl. She's worth it~she's a big sister now! :) Some of her gifts include (but aren't limited to) an awesome folding camping chair, some play earrings and tiara, a vacuum (hopefully this will help her get over her fear of the vacuum), a lawnmower that blows bubbles, clothes and a cool computer learning board from our dear friends in Jax, new books, finger paints (those haven't come out of the box yet), a Bullseye from Toy Story flashlight, a Wonder Pets Fly Boat, STICKERS, a stroller for her baby dolls and a 120 piece train set!! She loves all of them so much! Last year she flipped out when we gave her the cake. She just wasn't a fan, but THIS year...watch out! She LOVED it and ate the whole HUGE piece.

Merger

I have decided to cancel www.ryajohnson.com and just make one big blog/website for the whole family's updates. It will be easier than trying to keep up with one for Rya and one for Luke plus doing all the other "extra" memory making things I do around the house. I merged all of the posts from ryajohnson.com and so hopefully nothing will get lost. :)

Thank You!

Waking Up Video

Two Week Well Baby Checkup

Luke weighed in at 7.4 pounds and is 19 and 3/4 inches long. He is growing and gaining weight, which is all we can ask for. We've had throwing up issues for the last week and a half or so. We took him to the doctor and they took some blood and urine samples to rule out anything major. They came back negative. The doctor thinks he is just getting too much milk too fast, so we have shortened our feedings until he can handle more. This seems to be helping.

Larry went back to work on Monday. Rya was at Mom's Day Out so that made the day easier. We did pretty good for our first afternoon with just me and the kids. There was only one time when we were all three crying at once...pretty good, right? Yesterday my mom came and hung out with us all day. She was a life saver and it was so nice to have the extra hands and company. Rya is adjusting SO well to her baby brother. I was beginning to worry at first, but she is doing so much better this week. She can't quite make out his name and it comes out like "Gook"...super cute and it makes me laugh everytime. Last night was our first really hard night. Luke was grunting and groaning and posturing all night long. We are still only sleeping in 2.5 to 3 hour spurts, but last night was more like 1 to 1.5 hour spurts. Lame. I was so tired and grumpy. Thankfully Rya had Mom's Day Out today so I got a little nap before she came home. It's amazing how much my mood depends on how much (or how little) sleep I receive. I try to talk myself out of a bad mood, but it just doesn't quite work. It's just impossible for me to be chipper and excited about the day when I'm so incredibly tired. Speaking of sleep, it's about that time. Thanks for reading!

US Map Puzzle Part 2

Part 2 of 2. Scroll down to see Part 1. :)

US Map Puzzle Part 1

Part 1 of 2

...and Luke makes 4!

Luke Alexander Johnson arrived into this wonderful world at 4:08pm on Friday, March 19th. He came a little early, but that's okay. I had an AFI (amniotic fluid index) of 5 and so it was decided it would be best for Luke to be delivered by C-Section that day. (Normal range is 8-18.) Even though I fought it, the c-section ended up being a blessing because he had meconium in the womb. He weighed 6 pounds, 12.8 ounces and measured 19 inches in length. His 1 minute APGAR score was a 9 and his 5 minute APGAR score was also a 9. :) He is absolute wonderful and the perfect fit for our family.

12 days

 

Larry is missing from this picture, but I promise he hasn't run for the hills quite yet. He is being the best "Mr. Mom" a girl could ask for. He has his hands full with Rya and is getting quite a good taste of what my life has been like for the past 23 months. :) (He's better at juggling her and the housework though.) Luke is 12 days old now and we are doing great. I get very anxious when I think about next Monday arriving. This is when Larry heads back to work. I have my two week wound check on Friday and I'm hoping the doctor will say I can attempt driving. I know she will say I need to wait a little longer before lifting Rya (or anything heavier than Luke), but hopefully I can at least drive and figure out the rest. We shall see though.

MAP PUZZLE

Okay, so I must say, I'm impressed. Mimi brought Rya a puzzle of the 50 states today and here are two videos of her first day with the puzzle. I thought it would be neat to see her progress. Remember, she is sick on top of it. I can't wait to see what a little practice does for this one.

When snot hits the fan

Poor little Miss Rya has another bug of some sort. Larry took her to the Saturday clinic this morning in hopes to get on top of whatever it is infecting her since we have a very busy week ahead of us. She is prone to ear infections and we both thought for sure it was another one. Fortunately (or is it unfortunately) her ears looked great. That being said, the doctor couldn't say what was ailing her and that it's most likely a virus and to just let it run it's course. Is it bad that I was hoping for antibiotics to knock it out of her, but since it's a virus there is nothing more we can do but treat the symptoms? Thank goodness for a DVR and Olivia recordings...poor girl is miserable.

We had a really nice week though. On Monday, Rya went to Mom's Day Out (MDO) and I celebrated my 33rd birthday. I woke to coffee AND breakfast in bed. I thought those days were long gone, so it was a very nice surprise. After a little shopping, Michelle took Larry and I to lunch at Royal Orchid. Yum! It was nice spending time with her. Rya was major fussy when I picked her up and I guess looking back it was her way of saying "I'm starting not to feel too good, Mom."

On Tuesday we had MOPS and it was a fun and great eye-opening meeting. We had some husbands come in as guests and they accompanied their wives for a panel discussion. We asked questions in hopes to get some man honesty. Questions ranged from "What is your favorite thing to do for 'Daddy time'?" to "How many times a week is fair to have sex?" lol. They were also asked if they would prefer a tidy house or a hot meal on the table when they get home from work. The answer: tidy house. :) While I was at my meeting, Rya was getting beat up by a 2 and a half year old girl. Alright, so I'm a little dramatic. She didn't really get beat up, but she did get hurt. The other girl grabbed Rya's face and clawed both cheeks, neck and right arm. The skin was broken and red. I was so upset, I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing in fear of letting my tongue go crazy. As soon as we were in the car, I broke down. I was so upset that my little girl got hurt by a "big kid" and that the paid worker in the room didn't call me to come soothe her. (I was literally in the next building.) I just knew she was crying and crying for her mama. I'm sure this isn't the last time Rya is going to be hurt when I'm not around, but I guess I just wasn't ready for it quite yet. We've been treating her battle wounds with Neosporin and they are almost gone...thank goodness.

On Wednesday, Rya went to MDO and Larry and I headed to my OB appointment. We asked nicely for an ultrasound and just loved every second of watching our baby. It's so amazing to see what's going on in there. Our wonderful doctor says everything looks good and that the baby is in the head down position. Now, let's just keep him/her there! The baby is about 5 pounds 15 ounces. They grow about an ounce a day, so we are looking at an average sized baby. I am on weekly appointments now so time is going to speed up a little now. As if it's not already moving fast enough.

Thursday marked 36 weeks and it was a down day for Rya and I at home. I don't think we went outside once all day. It was chilly again and we just took some much needed snuggle time together.

On Friday, we went to Baby Bookworms at the library and then took the rest of the afternoon to just relax. I wasn't feeling well and so we just laid low.

Today, my mom and I went to the grocery store while Larry took Rya to the doctor. We are cooking a bunch of food on Monday for the freezer. I'm hoping to get at least 17 meals made ahead of time for us to enjoy after the baby comes. It took a lot of organization and planning, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. I was amazed at how affordable everything was when we got to the checkout. If this works out, we will be doing bulk meal preparing more frequently!!

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching Sunday School and we are having a little party. I hope to be back there shortly after the baby comes, b/c I'm sure I will miss those crazy wonderful kids! Next week we have cooking, carpet cleaning, doctor's appointments and all sorts of other fun stuff planned. Thanks for reading!! xxoo

Peas n Carrots

One way to get your child to eat peas and carrots...make little towers. :) I have no idea where she learned to do this. She wanted to see herself in the camera and even said "yes sir" while reaching for it. Too cute.

Rya Dancing with The Backyardigans & Olivia

The girl's a dancer, but also camera shy. So I was thrilled when I got these performances on video. :)

Rya completing her alphabet puzzle

First of all, I have FINALLY figured out how to make decent videos with my camera. YAY. Second of all, I am SO proud of Rya...watch her working the puzzle and hopefully you'll see why. Make sure your volume is turned up.