Kicks and Giggles

Chloe’s haircut

bandtjohnson — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:06:46 +0000

Chloe has not had a haircut ever. On Monday we went for her first haircut. Here’s some pictures

Before:

During:

After:

Fancy

bandtjohnson — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:20:52 +0000

So, I’ve just discovered they wordpress has an app and will let me blog from my phone, which is cool. So, my first update in a really long time will come from my phone. When I’m done typing, I’ll see if it lets me add pictures. It’s been a pretty busy summer so far. Not too much special, but we’ve been out and about quite a bit. Brian went to Algeria for a couple weeks for work, but he’s back now and we are very happy about that. We’ve gone to the park quite a bit, bought a pool for the backyard and Brian built a sandbox so we’ve also played outside quite a bit. We went camping with my family and although Brian couldn’t make it, we had fun. I’ve taken a ton of pictures which I will hopefully get scrapbooked sometime before the kids graduate high school. I’m only a little over a year behind, so not too bad, but still an enormous pile of pictures to scrapbook. I’m gonna see if I can put pics on here from my phone. If not, I’ll have to do another post with pictures, which I’ll probably have to do anyway, since I only have a few pictures on my phone

Choices

bandtjohnson — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:01:56 +0000

As a parent, I am required to make choices every single day. Some of these are pretty mundane choices, such as what Jacob wears, or what the kids have for snack. Others are more controversial, such as breastfeeding, discipline methods, health procedures (circ, vax), screen time, and numerous other choices. Personally, I try to make the choice that Brian and I feel is best for our family. Usually, it works for us. If not, I reevaluate and possible change my decision. Despite this, people constantly feel that it is their job to criticize our decisions, and vehemently try to get us to change out position to the same as theirs. A friend has this quote on her facebook today, “We are each uniquely designed by God to mother our uniquely designed by God children, therefore we have uniquely designed approaches to raising them.” I loved it and completely agree. Every single parent and every single child is different, so why should we all be doing the same thing? Parenting is a hard job, and I wonder why as mothers we have to rag on each other for doing the best we can. It is in no way helpful. I always wonder “helping or hurting.” (yes, there is a possibility I’ve watched too much Scrubs). Both my kids still have soothers when they sleep (yes, I know, they will probably grow up to become serial killers because of this). I was talking to Brian about taking them away. The dentist said they were fine, since they only have them at night, and I have orthodontic soothers. Brian asked me why? and I responded “because people are judging me”. He just kinda looked at me, because that is one of the worst reasons to make a decision, and he’s right. When I make a decision based on what somebody else who does not know our family as well as we do, then I am not making the right decision for us. And that is what it really comes down to, what is the right decision for US!

And pictures!!

watering the garden

waving bye to Daddy

Riding his trike!

2!

bandtjohnson — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:21:07 +0000

2 years ago

He was so tiny!

Yesterday

He’s gotten so big! I can’t believe he’s two already! Happy Birthday Baby Bean!

10 years

bandtjohnson — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 03:42:03 +0000

Tonight is my 10 year high school reunion. Due to having something back in Saskatchewan every weekend in June, I had to pick and choose, and unfortunately it lost out. I thought I would be disappointed, but I’m not really. I am disappointed that I am missing the pre-reunion BBQ that one of my friends from high school is having, as the majority of my high school friends will be there. I must be getting old. The reunion is at a bar, and I’m not overly interested in going. It doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. Also, probably at least half the people who will be there, I only talked to if I had to for an assignment or something. I’m a little sad that I won’t be able to get together with the girls that I actually hung out with, but such is life. And so, to all my fellow 2001 graduates, in the words of Dean Brody, I hope your trail in life has been good to you! Yes, even you, girls who I would’ve liked to hit with my car.

(I’d throw a picture, but all my high school pictures are pre-digital camera)

The Blessing of a Mess!

bandtjohnson — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:23:31 +0000

Recently, there have been a few devastating articles in the news. The body of a three-year old found in a river, an 18 month old died in a house fire, a toddler that fell out of a fourth story window. Needless to say, not happy stories. Reading/hearing stories like that make me hug my kids a little tighter and be so thankful for them. A book (fictional, but still) I was reading had a woman in it who lost her husband and two children in a drunk driving accident and she mentions how her counter is clean and it never used to be that way. It reminds me that the mess all over my house means there are happy, healthy children to mess it up! I’ve decided that I would way rather have a loud, messy house than the clean quiet one that does not have happy, playing children. I will try to remember this the next time Chloe and Jacob’s shenanigans make me wonder what on earth could be going on in their heads or that pile of laundry looks like there must be a large civilization buried underneath it.

Playing with mommys phone

Bubble Wrap is fun!

A Perfect 12!

bandtjohnson — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:46:11 +0000

The last few days have been about 12 degrees here and it’s been great! I think about 12 is the perfect temperature. It is warm enough you can be outside for long periods of time in just a t-shirt yet not be uncomfortable in jeans. It is not too hot so as to be gross either. I love spring. I love wearing flip flops, with fun toe rings and painted and decaled toes. I love not having to wear a jacket or worry about the kids jackets. I love being able to easily strap my kids into their car seats not worrying about bulky jackets. I love being able to spend the majority of the day outside, and so do the kids. I love how great the kids sleep when they have spent the majority of the day outside! I love frequent BBQ’s. We’ve recently started going for walks in the evening once Brian’s home from work and I love that! Chloe has started asking to go for a walk with Daddy! She loves it too. I love how Jacob points in the air and says “aipane” whenever and airplane flies over. I love that running inside to take Jacob pee only takes seconds, and that Chloe can run in by herself, since we don’t have to worry about boots, or snowpants. These last few days, we have gone to the park, for multiple walks, played outside, gone to the zoo with friends, and came inside dirty and happy tired from a day of sun and fun!

Brian teaching the kids how to blow bubbles

The kids riding a dinosaur at the park

Filling the dump truck with snow

exploring at the zoo

Chloe pulling the wagon while Jacob pushes

Chloe and Jacob looking at flowers. Jacob also killed a butterfly in the butterfly exhibit at the zoo. Oops

This is what Jacob looks like when he eats ice cream.

One Less Iron in the Fire

bandtjohnson — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 04:15:28 +0000

For some, this is old news, but I’ve withdrawn from my Biology class. I did a few weeks ago and feel nothing but positive about that decision. It was stressing me out, and stealing time from my family. I also had very little patience for anything, which is not good as a mom of young children. My house was constantly a mess and I was always on edge. My house is still often a mess, but I can get it presentable in about 20 minutes if necessary, due to the fact that I don’t just wanna collapse into a ball and not worry about anything. I now enjoy most days instead of impatiently wait for them to be over. I am able to play with my kids and do fun things with them. We were going outside on a regular basis when the weather was nice, and I also picked up a bunch of art supplies for the kids and we’ve been enjoying those, Jacob especially (see earlier story about the beads). I am also able to read a book for a bit, while the kids play on the floor, which is a wonderful change. I no longer feel guilty if I have some spare time in my day, thinking that I really should be doing Biology, but all I want to do is take a nap, or sit and read a book for a while. I am also more willing to clean, since I know that I will probably have more than 5 minutes of time for myself and no longer feel like I don’t want to waste it cleaning! While I know that many moms raise their children while working, going to school, or heading numerous volunteer committees, I feel that at this point in my life, God has given me these two beautiful children and He wants me to make them my priority. There will be time for all those things later. For now, I’m going to enjoy being the mom of my two amazing children, and maybe get in a few good books!

Duplo!!

Playing Outside!

Playing with mommy’s phone!

Jacob and the Beads

bandtjohnson — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:50:43 +0000

Recently I purchased some art supplies for Chloe to use while Jacob is napping. She really enjoys them. Among these art supplies are some beads. Yesterday, Jacob woke up and we still had them out, so I let him play with the art supplies as well. Despite the fact that I was sitting right next to him, he somehow managed to get a bead up his nose. I couldn’t get it out and was calling Brian to come home so I could take him to the doctor when Jacob managed to get it out himself. He then proceeded to swallow the bead. Great. I thought I had cleaned them all up, but Jacob managed to find one that had hidden under the couch or something. They were playing nicely, just before nap time when Jacob comes up to me and says “nose.” I looked, but didn’t see anything. He continued to cry, and I tried to wipe his nose, and he cried even harder, so I broke out a flashlight, and sure enough, there was a lovely red bead way up there. Brian couldn’t come home from work, so I dropped Chloe off at a friends house and took Jacob to the walk-in clinic. They weren’t taking walk-ins, so we went to a different one where they used a very skinny pair of tweezers and pulled the bead out of his nose! I’m hoping we don’t have to deal with this again.

I know these aren’t relevant, but they’re cute.

Wearing my hat. I think he looks like a train engineer

He sleeps with his arms behind his head like this quite frequently. I think it’s really cute.

New phones!

bandtjohnson — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:17:26 +0000

Brian and I have been debating getting rid of our land line for quite a while now. The biggest problem was that we call a lot of long distance, which is not cheap on a cell. However, on Thursday, Brian stopped at our local cell store and they had a plan that lets us pick a certain amount of numbers. We get free unlimited talk, text, and picture to all these numbers. So, we just chose the numbers of the people we needed, and we should be fine. I did all long distance, since we have a pretty good amount of anytime minutes, as well as free after six for local numbers, and free between each others phones. And, I now have an iPhone4! It’s fun! I found the greatest app ever for meal planning. It lets me enter all my recipes in, and then I pick them when planning my menu for the week. Then I hit Sync and it generates my grocery list, which I can then delete things that I already have (I probably don’t need to but new olive oil every time that I make a recipe that uses it) or add things that I need that aren’t in recipes, such as snacks for the kids and toiletries. It’s great. It also functions as an iPod for me, which is great! Now if only the snow would melt, I could go roller blading, although I am debating buying a pair of good shoes and taking up running, but we’ll see.