Laura: 12 months

Oh my goodness... this beautiful girl has simply been a light and a JOY for the last year!  We adore her!!  We are so grateful that she came to our family and we love her so much!!

Things to remember about sweet Laura at 12 months:

- She has the BEST head nod ever!! She responds yes or no to things.  So cute!!
- She pulls herself up to a stand and walks along furniture.
- She is starting to get into drawers and things.  She loves pulling toys out of bins and books off of the shelves.
- She likes to be down and exploring and is happy to roam on her own down the hall and venture off.
- She loves baths!  And will crawl up to the bathroom door and pat on it.  Or crawl up to the bathtub, stand up and squeal.
- She loves sitting up to the table with us at dinner time.  We try a lot of different baby foods and regular foods - but mostly she just eats a LOT of yogurt and bread - but not much else...
- She just recently started taking MILK from a bottle (yay!!).  She will take two bottles (4 oz. each) a day and we are trying to increase that. She takes sips of water here and there from sippy cups, but not much.
- She takes naps when she can (1 or 2 naps a day depending on our family schedule) and is just super flexible and easy going about that. She sleeps from 7 pm - 7 am BUT gets up 2-3 times at night. When she does get up she just nurses and goes right back to sleep, so it's no big deal.
- She still sleeps in our master closet and we love it that way.
- She still nurses a lot.  6x a day.
- She is quite the petite little one.  We are trying to fatten her up!  But it's not working.
- She does great in the carseat, I think mostly because she likes having Elise sitting right there beside her playing with her.
- She dances and bobs around a bit to music. :)
- She LOVES her brothers and sister.  She likes to be right in the middle of the action with them all the time.  She knocks down their towers and grabs at their books.
- She is usually very laid back, but every once in a while she lets out a shriek that lets me know she is made of some tough stuff and WILL be heard!
- She loves her daddy and her mommy!  And her separation anxiety seems to be lessening... she does well with most babysitters.  And is excited to see us when we get home.
- She is a binkie girl! Need I say more?
- She is a little genius baby!!!  She is picking up on sign language so quickly.  We show her something once or twice and she repeats it.  It's amazing.  Right now she just signs eat, milk, daddy, thank you, and more... but this is just the beginning.  She also says hi, mommy, and daddy. 

So grateful for this girl!!

Elise's 5th Birthday Interview

Straight from Elise's mouth...

Favorite color: pink.  no.  purple

Favorite TV show: The Boxcar Children

Favorite sport:  Is ballet a sport? Ballet!


Favorite Toy:  Cinderella wedding magiclip princess and prince 

Favorite Thing to Do:  play with mom and make my cupcakes with mom

Favorite thing to do with Dad: put makeup on him

Favorite thing to do with Mom: paint nails

 Favorite thing to do with Isaac: play house

Favorite thing to do with Caleb: play silly with him

Favorite thing to do with Laura: play babies

Favorite game:  tea party

Most proud moment from last year:  that i got my sister (when Laura was born)

Favorite Food: macaroni & cheese

And what about treats? gum

Favorite Scripture Story: john the baptist.  because I like when you baptize someone and you don't make any mistakes

Best Friend:  All of my friends!

Favorite thing about church: having snacks because we always have snacks

Favorite Book:  Sophia the First

Favorite Animal:  horse

Favorite thing to do outside: swing!

Favorite Song: Let it Go! Frozen

Best memory from the past year: When i just turned 5. 

What are you looking forward to this next year:  Go out of pre-K and start Kindergarten and learn to read.

Any other comments: Getting to hold baby Laura when I am standing up and walking!

Laura: 11 months old

Oh my goodness!  This girl is really growing up... it makes my heart feel tender just thinking about it. I feel like in the last month she is really changing fast.  I see her leaving the baby phase and becoming one of the "big" kids. :)  She plays with the big kids, roams around the house investigating and exploring and getting into things, babbles away, is starting to sign, and sits up to the table at meal times.  She is beautiful and such a special little person in our lives! 

At 11 months:
- Laura is very mobile. She crawls (regular style) all over the house, exploring all of the rooms and getting into all sorts of things.  The dishwasher can never be open!  The drawers and cupboards are not safe.  No books can be left on the ground.  And the kids squeal out when they are doing puzzles or building with blocks and she starts heading their way. 
- She is pulling herself up to stand on everything and even walks along things!  One of her favorite spots is climbing under the kitchen table and pulling up on the chairs when we are sitting at the table.  And we have even seen her transfer from one thing (like the couch) to another thing (like a box) once or twice.  It amazes me to see how capable she is! 
- She is the pickiest worst little eater we have ever had!  (sorry Laura - we love you, but it is true!)  She will hardly eat anything.  And she only eats small amounts of stuff and she just isn't interested much in food. It's a stress to feed her.  She does like yogurt.  That's pretty much 90% of her diet.  She will occasionally eat bread and some baby food (only fruits).  She will also eat graham crackers.  And... that's it.
- Nursing is still a big stress.  Laura has a really hard time with distraction and won't stay latched on and nurse long enough to get enough milk!  And consequently my supply has been dropping, leading to more problems - like Laura never getting enough milk! (she won't take formula at all).  Anyway, I've been pumping and trying to work on it and I think things are slowly improving.  But nursing and feeding this little one has not been an easy business.
- She still gets up 1-3 times at night (depending on what you call night).  She gets up around 12 am, 3 am, and 6 am (and usually goes back to sleep really easily).  She goes down for naps well and takes 1 - 2 naps a day.  She has a really hard time going to bed at night though and is up until about 9 pm getting "quality" one on one time with Mom and Dad.
- She has started signing!  She signs milk consistently.  And I need to introduce more signs to her.  I'm excited about that.
- She loves her brothers and sister. She likes being down and exploring (she will happily just hang out with everyone).
- She likes books.  She loves her binkies.  She does okay in the car.  She puts absolutely everything in her mouth and she is able to pick up the smallest little things!!
- She LOVES baths.  And she tries to crawl into the bathroom and pull up to the side of the bathtub multiple times each day "begging" for another bath.
- She loves paper and anything crinkly.
- It's cold out, so she spends most of her day in her warm pajamas.  Since she pulls her socks off right away all the time.  She also pulls out hair bows, hair rubber bands, and if she is wearing a headband she pulls it up and snaps it back down on herself.  Poor girl. 
- She likes to dance.
- She says "mommy" and "daddy" and "hi" consistently.  It's adorable!  She waves and claps her hands. And I swear I have heard her say "Isaac" and "Elise" before... but no one believes me.
- She plays peek-a-boo.  And when we come after her she giggles and crawls away like we are chasing her.
- She always sleeps on her tummy with her bum in the air.
- She babbles and mimics us so cutely.

LOVE HER.  SO GRATEFUL FOR HER!!
- She

Laura: 7 Months Old

Oh sweet Laura! We just adore her.

Here's some of the things we want to remember about 7 month old Laura.

- She is army crawling!  It's a left arm, right foot maneuver and she is fast at it!  She went from "Oh look she scooted forward!" to "Yikes!  Laura just rounded the corner and is in the bathroom and down the hall!" in just 1 week.  She is curious and interested and honestly, pretty busy!!
- She likes to be down exploring - not held and cuddled.
- She is sitting up pretty well (although she still topples over every now and then, but I feel comfortable leaving her sitting up at this point - when she loses her balance she just catches herself by moving into her crawling position).
- She sleeps okay at night.  She still gets up 2-3 times at night, but she eats and goes right back to bed so it isn't a huge deal.
- She is napping very well at home (puts herself to sleep after crying for just a minute or two).  She takes 45 minute -2 hour naps 2-3 times a day.
- She is still a champion nurser!  She probably eats 8ish times a day.  She is distractable though - so that can be tough.
- She does still fall asleep in her car seat, but not like before.  She sleeps when we are in the car - but won't stay asleep when we go in somewhere.  Anyway, when we are out and about she will just stay awake for super long periods of time!  It's crazy.
- She loves toys and puts everything in her mouth.
- She is petite. :)  She is still in 3-6 month clothes (6-9 month ones drown her!) and I think there are even a few 0-3 month things in her closet as well.
- I SWEAR she says "mama"!  She makes the sound and crawls towards me when she does it (I'm not joking - Jeremy agrees with me).  She makes the sound when she is upset or tired or hungry and wants ME.  (I don't think she is actually "talking" obviously - I just think it is ironic that her sound for distress and needing me is "mama" - I kind of like it ;)
- She smiles and laughs and loves her siblings and her dad (and me, of course).
- "Solids" (aka food besides nursing) is not going great.  :(  She gags a ton and doesn't actually eat anything at all... and spits it all up - awesome.  So... we will call that our "area of improvement" to keep working on.
- She is usually super easy going and an easy baby... but when she wants to be heard - watch out world!  She can screech and scream with the best of them!
- We adore her!

Laura: 6 months old

Happy 1/2 birthday to our little Laura!  We adore this sweet girl so much.  She is an absolute delight.

Here's a little about her at 6 months old:

- She loves toys!  She is very content (as long as she is not hungry or tired) to lay on the floor and play with baby toys.  She rolls around and pivots and turns.  She grasps and gnaws on the toys.  She drools all over them.  She seems to stay entertained that way for quite some time which made me feel like she was so good at entertaining herself, until I looked up and realized that of course her siblings are always near by so there is plenty going on for Laura to watch and they are actually the ones entertaining her.  :)  Either way - she is happy and easy going about floor and toy playtime.
- Her favorite toy is probably a soft sided baby wipe container (she loves the crinkly sound).    But she loves all of the baby toys that she can gnaw on and rattle.
- No teeth!  But she sure is biting and drooling on more and more these days... so we'll see.
- She is still just nursing.  She nurses about 8 times a day.  She is ridiculously fast at it too!
- Spitting up has definitely slowed down and lessened (so nice).
- Blow-out diapers are also much less frequent (in fact - so are her dirty diapers).
- We have not started her on baby food yet, but she reaches for all of our food and wants to put everything in her mouth.  I definitely think she is ready.  We'll get her started on it this month.
- She takes 3 naps a day.  She sleeps unswaddled in her bassinet (sometimes on her back with her arms around her face, sometimes on her tummy).  She naps vary greatly in length.  It might be 30 min.  It might be 2 hours.
- She has a hard time going to bed in the evening hours (7-9ish).  She will go down, but then will wake up again and again.  But overall she is doing better at night (maybe up 2x between 9 pm - 5:30 am).  We still put her to sleep and then lay her down.  She transitions to being put down pretty well, so this hasn't been a big deal yet.
- She is smiley and happy and adorable!
- Her hair is starting to grow back in.
- She likes to be outside.
- Really she likes to be with the family.  So wherever all of those siblings of hers are... that is where she wants to be.
- We are working on sitting up.  Just practicing.  Definitely still have a ways to go on that one.
- She likes peek-a-boo.
- She has started noticing more and more when other people are holding her.  No stranger danger yet, but definitely stranger awareness...
- She is pretty easy going and flexible.  She is content and wonderful!  Oh we adore her!  And her gushing smile and her eager kicking legs.
- She is still petite.  :) She is wearing 3-6 month clothes mostly as of recently, but she still fits a lot of 0-3 month stuff and a lot of 3-6 month stuff is too big for her.  She wears size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 at night (we are considering moving to size 3 all of the time).
- She is very "talkative".  Which is apparently the only way that Johnstons come. :)
- She can get splashed in the face with water, a sudden loud noise will go off, and she startles... but doesn't cry.  She is baby #4 and with that is pretty tough and not easily upset.
- When she does decide that she is hungry or tired or wants to be held - then she will LET YOU KNOW.
- Oh she is the perfect little addition to our family and we just adore her and feel so lucky to have her in our home and in our lives.  We love our Laura Lou!!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had an eventful, yet relaxing, GORGEOUS and wonderful 4th of July!  It was pretty much perfect.

The day started off with Jeremy and the big kids going to a pancake breakfast and flag raising ceremony at Bennett Park.  Yummy pancakes.  Beautiful weather.  Playing at the park.  It doesn't get much better than that. (Laura was asleep or else we would have all gone).

Next up we went the world renowned parade in downtown Liberty (haha).  It is the smallest parade ever.  But luckily our kids don't know any better, so they love it.  It's not crowded so we got beautiful seats in the shade.  It was short and sweet and the kids even got otter pops and candy.  Happy day!

 

Then it was home to shuck and clean the corn on the cobb, slice up the watermelon, fold some laundry (what?!? chores on a holdiay?  Meanest parents ever).  Lunch.  Quiet time. 

After quiet time the weather was PERFECT for swimming.  So we packed up everything that we own and headed to the pool.  This was our FIRST pool outing of the year!  Side note:  It's pathetic that this was our first swim outing.  I know! I have a pathological fear of taking my 4 non-swimmers "swimming" without enough helpers... it's this whole fear of someone drowning... so we have mostly played at the splash pads and in the sprinklers this year.  I say all of this to explain what a big deal this was.  The kids were SO excited!!!

Laura was asleep when we arrived which was nice, but I am so glad that she woke up!  Because we finally got to put her in her adorable swim outfit (a hand-me-down from the Redd family - THANK YOU!).  And she was just too cute!  I wanted to eat her up.  Luckily I got to take a million pictures of her because she is just the cutest thing ever!!  And everyone at the pool got to admire her adorableness too.  :)   It was her first time in the water and she seemed to like it just fine.  She had a great time swimming with daddy and being admired by everyone.  Here she is:

After the pool fun we dried off, changed our clothes and headed to Brent & Michelle's house to play outside in the amazing July weather (high 70s with some cloud cover and a light breeze - it was beautiful!) and barbecue.  Dinner was yummy and the kids were happy for hours jumping in the trampoline, playing with water balloons, playing duck duck goose, and just being kids with their cousins and some friends.  The moms chatted and the dads even got a chance to play a game of bocci ball.  After root beer floats and picking up, it was time to head out to the driveway for fireworks!

Historically our kids aren't big fans of fireworks.  Okay - they are all scared of them. :)  But we decided to give it another try.  We started with pop snappers and smoke bombs.  Those were both big hits!  Then we did some quiet  bright ones and the kids loved it!  I thought we were out of the woods this year.  But then the loud ones started and the kids climbed on our laps, cried, and eventually ran inside.  After a few moments of that we decided to pack up and head home.  Luckily it was late and we had already had a TON of fun!!!

The magical ending of the night came when we were back home.  The kids were all ready for bed and we went into Isaac and Elise's bedroom, turned off the lights, and opened up the blinds.  There in the dark and safety of the room, snuggled up together, the kids watched the awesome firework show that someone in our neighborhood puts on.  It's not overly impressive or anything - but for our kids it was perfect!  As each firework went off the kids would point and laugh and smile and chatter with each other and say "more!".  They loved it.  They were warm and cozy and safe and free to enjoy the beautiful spectacle before them.  We cuddled on the bed together there for a while (Elise and Jeremy even fell asleep!) and it was the end of a beautiful day.  Happy 4th of July!!!!

Triathlon Fun

I had the opportunity to do an "informal" sprint triathlon and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  

I did my first sprint triathlon back in 2009 and LOVED it.  However, logistically triathlons are difficult to train for and participate in - so I resorted to just running over the past few years.  But I had been thinking more and more about wanting to do another triathlon soon because they are just so FUN.  The problem was I couldn't find a way to make the training schedule and the day of competing work.  Then I found out about a group of girls (members of my church who were in a different ward than I was) putting on an "informal" triathlon in my town.  Just 9 ladies swimming laps in their neighborhood swimming pool, biking, and then running.  I got super excited - that sounded like something I could do!!!  I contacted them to see if I could join in, and they welcomed me with open arms.  By the time I heard about the triathlon I only had 3 weeks to train (yikes!).  I was a little nervous about that.  But I finished and had fun and that is what mattered.  It was a fun group of ladies and a great day.   :)

We started at 7:00 am.  

Swim 10 laps (20 lengths) of the pool.

My time: 13:19

Jeremy and the kids completely surprised me by coming out to cheer for me!  I knew they "might" come to the finish line - but I definitely didn't think I would see them during the swim and throughout the race.  It was so fun to finish up my lap and see those cute faces cheering me on.  (I won't lie... my first thought and words to Jeremy were "watch that boy!"  Caleb and water make me incredibly anxious.)

Next up: Bike 8 miles 

Time: 44:08

This was definitely my toughest ride yet and the hardest leg of the race for me.  The wind was blowing fiercely against me and it was just a rocky transition for me from swim to bike.  But I did it!  And it was super fun to have the bike course go to the temple.  It's always fun to see the temple.  I'm lucky to live so close to one!

I trained for the triathlon with my biking buddy Erin (on the right).  She didn't get to race with me since her awesome sister was in town visiting.  But she still came to cheer me on!  What a rockstar friend!  It was fun to see their smiling faces.

Finally: Run 3.1 miles (a 5k)

Time: 32:24

Getting started on the run was so tough for me!  I was tired and 3.1 miles left to run felt more than a little daunting.  As Jeremy and the kids drove by and cheered for me, I suddenly had an idea.  I yelled out "Jeremy, I need Isaac to run with me!"  So Jeremy pulled over to the side of the road and Isaac hopped out to run with me.

Isaac took off at a fast pace and I said, "Hey Isaac!  Slow down!  Stay with mommy.  I need your help."
"But Mom, I thought this was a race.  Why don't you run faster?"
Awesome.  ;)

Isaac ran with me for at least a 1/2 mile, if not more.  And it helped me a lot!  It distracted me, gave me some momentum, and gave me someone to talk to.  Then of course Elise and Caleb also both had to have a short time.  I loved it!  (At the end of the race Jeremy apologized about how the kids must have "held" me back - ummm... NO!  I was super happy for the cheering, the company, and the love).

Well... I did it!!!  Here's the after photos of us strong mommas.

Final time: 89:51

I placed 5th out of the 9 women participating, which I was completely happy with.  I did it!  It felt great!  And I definitely have room to make progress and improve.  There is talk of doing another informal sprint in late August.  I hope it happens!!  I would love to do that again!!

The support crew.  They watched kids, set up water tables, cheered for us, timed us.  So grateful!

And my own personal cheering section!!  Love them. 

And my friend Erin, who taught me how to ride a bike. :)  And also loaned me a bike for the race.

A triathlon is definitely a "team" effort.  I am grateful that Jeremy watches the kiddos so I can get away to bike, swim, and run.  Exercise is something that I love and look forward to.  It does wonders for my emotional health to get out and run, bike, and swim.  I love being outside!  I enjoy the time with friends.  And it feels good to push my body and work hard.  I don't exercise to be skinny.  I exercise to become strong (physically and mentally)!  I exercise for my sanity. :)  And I exercise most of all because it makes me happy!