Potty Excitement

Tonight, while getting Holly ready for bed, she asked to go potty. I thought it was just a stall tactic, but decided to encourage the potty behavior. Well, much to all of our surprise.... she actually went potty! It is probably a fluke thing, but we were very excited! While rocking her before bed time, we talked a lot about being a big girl now, and she was smiling and giggling about it. So we are extremely hopeful that this is the start of potty training!

Sorry for the potty picture, but I was so proud of her that I had to take this picture!

Is anyone out there?

So, Erik and I have been blogging for about 3 years, and I started to wonder today.... "Does anyone actually read my blog?" We originally started this blog to update family and friends on what we were doing, and to share pictures of our kids. But maybe Erik and I are the only ones who look at our own blog. How sad would that be! But it isn't such a stretch since we have no followers, and rarely do we get comments on our post.

And this brings me to my sad, little plea. If you read my blog, could you either leave a little comment on this post to indicate you are a reader (please leave your name - don't just be anonymous) and if you really want to make my day, consider becoming a follower of my blog. I feel a bit pathetic asking for people to leave me a note in the comments, but as I refuse to join Facebook, I feel a little lonely and yet curious to know who checks out my blog.

Thanks in advance to all my family and friends who leave me a post or become a follower!
Love,
Andrea

Two years ago...

Two years ago, my sweet little girl was born! I had the choice of 2 different dates for the c-section... either Friday the 13th or 7/11. Hmmm... either my baby would be born on a superstitious day, or on a date that sounds like the local convenience store. I chose 7/11 for the grand date. So 2 years ago, we met our little convenience store baby girl! And what a grand day that was!

As a result, we were able to celebrate her 2 year birthday today. The weather was PERFECT today -not to hot, but lots of sunshine! Holly wore her cute little sundress that she got from her daycare provider (I have since learned that the provider's 3 year old daughter actually was the one who picked out the dress!). Holly initially was not super convinced that this was the right dress for her today (basically.... this means that she totally tantrumed about me forcing the dress on her and she failed at her attempts to rip it off her little body.) Once she came around to my way of thinking, the day got off to a good start. But then I brought out the cute princess birthday hat.... and that, my friends, caused her to totally tantrum because it wouldn't really stay on her head. Finally, my brilliant husband decided to remove the hat and hide it so that we didn't have to deal with it any more. Good move Erik!

Family joined us sometime after 11:00 am for some yummy grilled cheese burgers and a bunch of side dishes. Cake was had immediately after that since Myles was totally whining about it. Next was the gift opening. Holly seemed to like everything, and played with most of it all after her nap this afternoon.

Basically, it was a wonderful 2 year birthday party, and we are so glad that people could share it with us! Thanks everyone! And we love you Holly!!!

The group singing Happy Birthday to the sweetest little girl in the world!

Here is Holly's cake - not what I initially wanted, but I couldn't get the cute little animal one b/c the store ran out of the little animal toppers. Bummer. So I ended up going with a Tinker Bell theme. Table cloth, cups, plates, napkins.... all Tinker Bell!

Just a close up of the cake topper.

So here is Holly in the really cute Princess Birthday hat - it was sooooo cute and she was really into it. I'm super bummed that it kept slipping off her head.

Holly with her cake

The best part of having a birthday, is eating the cake!

Here is Erik, our 2 kids, and Patrick & Nicole all eating cake with ice cream!

Same group, different angle - Loving the new hat honey!

Mom (Grandma), Dad (Grandpa), and Erica (Auntie)

After cake, we moved inside for the gift opening - Holly climbed up next to Patrick

Holly opening up the main gift from Erik and I ... I wonder what it is....

Oh look! Mommy got Holly a noisy, music playing, sound making Rocket from the Little Einsteins! What was I thinking!

Grandma got Holly these super funny ducky slippers. I think she will wear them every day!

Opening more gifts. This was from the Lehners - a cute dress and some awesome bugs! Always a big hit at the Johnson house!

Holly with her beloved Rocket

Holly with Grandma - so cute!

Auntie Erica hugs Holly good bye!

Mommy holding Holly - I still can't believe she is 2 years old.... feels like she was born just yesterday!

The Popsicle Family

When it comes to Popsicles, Team Johnson can sure pack them away! Erik, Myles, and Holly LOVE to eat popsicles... almost daily! I would say I'm the weak link for this team when it comes to popsicles. I have maybe 3 per summer. But Erik has one daily, and the kids almost have one per day. So needless to say, we have stock in the tastiest brand of popsicles!

Holly having a cherry flavored popsicle! She ate about half of it before I found it melting on the coffee table.

Myles devoured his orange flavored popsicle, and wanted more. I think he has seen how is dad can consume the popsicles. Good thing we buy sugar free ones! They are like 10 calories per popsicle. Good deal!

After eating 1/2 her popsicle, Holly decided to pull all the stickers off her Birthday crown that she wore at daycare. She thought she looked so pretty with all those stickers on her shirt!

Celebrating our Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!! Yes, I know that it is now July 7th, but I didn't have a chance to spread the cheer to the country on Saturday so I'm doing it now! :)

Team Johnson (yes... that is a new phrase that I'm starting now!) packed up and loaded into the car on Friday morning for our annual trek to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to spend quality time with out extended family (Maternal side of Andrea's family). This is something that I look forward to every year since there are so many that I only get to see during this family gathering. Much preparation went into this 5 hour road trip. I hit up the dollar section at Target to get silly little trinkets to occupy our busy little kids in the car. They really do ride fairly well in the car - and can I say "I love the travel DVD player!!!!" It really helps to pass the time for the kids.

We got to Sioux Falls around 2 pm and hauled our stuff into the hotel room (thank goodness for hotel suites!). Then headed over to Grandma's house a few blocks away. We basically hung out there for most of Friday before retiring for the day back at our home away from home. Took the kids to the hotel pool, which ended up being a major let down. The pool was FREEZING - they didn't turn on the heater. Bummer. And it was to deep for Holly, so I had to get into the water to prevent her from jumping off the bottom stair and sinking to the bottom of the pool. After about 20 freezing minutes, an opportunity presented itself (not to be mentioned here) and we made a quick escape up to our room & got the kids ready for bed.

On Saturday we played and ate ALL DAY LONG at Grandma's house. It was great to catch up with family and have the annual picnic. But honestly.... it really is just 12 hours of non-stop eating. Food is every where. I haven't even weighed myself to see what the damage is. I'm hoping that by the time I do so, it will have gone away. We basically let the kids gorge themselves on junk all day. Holly ate chocolate cake and cheese balls for dinner on Saturday. What good parents we are! Myles played most of the day with his favorite cousin, Lily. I'm sure he will be talking about her for the rest of the summer! He loves that girl! I'll have to tell him someday that even though he is legally able to marry his 2nd cousin, it will be frowned upon by all. Maybe we won't have to worry about that since he did shove her down off the chair during the picnic - she may not want to marry someone who pushes her.

Saturday night was a long one at the hotel. Holly didn't sleep well, and as a result... we didn't either. Oh well. Someday she will sleep.... We went over to Grandma's on Sunday morning for a little while before hitting the road for the 5 hour trek home. We actually made good time, and got home around 3:30 pm or so. That was good timing so that we could run around and play outside for several hours to get our energy out before bed time.

It was a really good trip, and we enjoyed every minute of it! So wonderful to see everyone, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Saturday picnic - not sure why Patrick and Nicole are smelling their hands......... what's up with that guys?

Another shot of people eating lunch

Here are Myles and Lily - they were so funny to watch, and had a good time playing. I'm so glad that they are so close in age because that makes them perfect for hanging out together during the family gatherings!

Erica and Pete after eating a yummy 4th of July picnic lunch!

My Uncle Ted had his 50th birthday, so we had to get a cake to celebrate it! And if you look closely, you will see that his shirt says "I put Ketchup on my Ketchup" and that is sooo true for this guy! The cake was very tasty, and most had a piece along with the 5 different kinds of Pie that were sliced up next to it.

Goofy Holly at lunch. She didn't eat much more than her hot dog. Maybe because by this time she had already eaten a pound of junk food....

My cousin Stacey and I - maybe I should have gotten someone to take the picture for us. Oh well - next year!

This is Erik with my cousin's husband, Jason. These two are so funny and get away with murder during these family gatherings!

My cousin William at the picnic - he brought his "friend" to the family gathering. I wonder if this friendship will result in a wedding someday...........

Myles climbing Grandma's tree

Here is the cutest picture of my kids with Great Grandma.

Fun at the park

Sunday was wonderful weather (windy, but a nice temp) so we took the kids to the park with our friends. The kids had a blast running around for about an hour, before we called it quits and headed home for dinner.

Holly and Preston on the teeter totter

Cutie pie Preston pauses his fun for a picture!

Myles spins Mason around on the spinny chair (I would personally call it the torture chair, but that is because I'm old and it would make me sick!)

Erik chillin with Justin at the park. Zone parenting can be a plus!

Holly hasn't figured out that chucking sand behind you isn't behavior that we approve. But she sure had fun doing it!

Dizzy kids

If you think it is funny to watch kids spin around and then fall down, well here are 3 funny videos for you! This Sunday afternoon, we went to the park with our good friends/neighbors. They have this spinny chair that the kids love!

Myles in the spinny chair - he seemed to love it!

Here is Holly's video in the spinny chair - just like her brother, she loved it!

Finally, here is Mason in the spinny chair - this little guy had a blast!

Date Night @ Lord Fletchers

On Saturday night the kids spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa's house, so that Erik and I could go on a date. Erik had never been to Lord Fletchers on lake Minnetonka, and it had been 10 years since I ate there, so we got dinner reservations for 7:00 pm. Lord Fletchers is so great - the dining inside is fancy and serves super great food (Erik had a tasty Steak, and I had a wonderful Sea Bass). We were seated by the window, which made for great people watching below us (as you will see from some pictures below). Out on the patio it is a whole different kind of environment. Not so fancy, but rather more like a beach party. After eating, we moved down to the patio to do more people watching and saw tons of fancy boats pull up to the dock. I invited my friend Katie to come join us, and she did with a friend of hers as well. We had a super fun time hanging out, chatting, and people watching. I didn't want the evening to end. But alas, all good things come to an end. I can tell you that we will definitely go there at least once more this summer! I give Lord Fletchers high praise and a 10 out of a 10! Go there if you can!

Here is the view down the patio from where we were sitting.

Self portrait of Erik and I. Not bad aim!

So while we ate dinner, we watched this dude in the white shirt with a gold chain & gold sun glasses prowl for chicks. But we finally noted that no women were going for his look, but he sure knew all the other goofy men who looked just like him. It was such a riot watching his goofy behavior that I just had to take his picture. I only wish that I had gotten a better shot of him!

Finally, to wrap up the night, Katie and I decided we had to get our picture with these goofy guys - they were totally trying to pick up women by dressing up in their military dress. I don't know who the girl on the far left is however. Weird. After Erik took the picture, the "sailor" to my right asked me for my name. I said "My name is Andrea, and my husband took our picture." For some reason he quickly stopped talking to me and turned to Katie (who gave a great fake name to the guy!). This pretty much ended our night and we all left. But it was super funny!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Myles decided that the best way to watch a cartoon was to lay on the floor all snuggled up in his transformer blanket. As soon as Holly saw him, she grabbed a pillow and asked if I could lay her blankie on her "just like Myles". It was so cute, that I had to go get my camera. And immediately I knew that the posting headline would be "Monkey See, Monkey Do". Holly totally loves Myles and wants to do what he does. Super cute!

The Bills

I just wanted to post 2 more pictures of our California friends/family. It was so great to see you both!

(L to R) Bill senior, Erik, and Bill junior (just incase you couldn't figure it out!)

The kids really were digging Billy - Holly climbed up in Billy's lap for one last picture before he left!