Johansons

19 weeks

2012-02-18T00:14:00.001-05:00

Oh man... These two little boys are gettin big! One is 10 oz and the other is 11 oz which is right on track. I feel bad for the one that is squished on the bottom so I try to lay on my side a lot so he can have a little bit of extra room to move. I don't want the one on top to get too spoiled either and think he can push the other one around once their born ;)

My crazy story for the day

2012-02-10T22:21:00.001-05:00

A guy cut me off today, which is one of my pet peeves, you were the idiot who didn't pay attention to the signs... Just take it and make a u-turn, or at least wait for someone to let you in.
Gainesville traffic is way better than South Florida, but that almost makes me more upset when people drive uncourteously here, because its not "just how everyone drives."
So this old guy in a van just like mine hadn't realized he'd been in a turn only lane and tried to merge over, but wasn't going in front of me, he was just going into the side of me. Like about to hit the side of my van. So I honked and braked, and then as he just kept going and pulled in front of me, I honked some more. For about 30 seconds. I refrained from yelling, because Nicholas was in the car, but I was mad.
So I grabbed a bag of baby carrots out of my purse and rolled down the window. I was biting off proper chunks to throw out the open window at his car when I realized I was about to cross a line of craziness that was probably not ok. Up to this point, the idea of crazy hadn't even occurred to me. So I debated in my mind wether I was mad enough to go there or not, rolled the window back up and ate my carrots.
Am I proud of myself for not throwing carrots at an old man and his old wife in their minivan? Yes. Do I get to be proud of myself for anything at this point? No, probably not. Truth is wether I did it or not, I WAS that crazy and there was nothing I could have done about it anyway. Luckily the hormones subsided or something and it didn't happen but either way I will always have a pretty funny story about how I almost did a pretty funny thing. I mean CARROTS?! REALLY?! WHO DOES THAT??!!??!!

Bubbles in the Park

2012-02-04T16:19:00.001-05:00

Here is a little video of him romping around, but he was talking a lot so I thought it was fun to share. If you aren't a grandparent though, I'll understand if 4 minutes is too long. Maybe I'll make a condensed version for non-grandparents. :)

17 week belly

2012-01-30T12:09:00.001-05:00

Tyler was making me laugh.

ABCs

2012-01-26T19:52:00.001-05:00

We got Nicholas an alphabet toy on Amazon because he wan't showing any interest in the letters. He loves them now, and will randomly pick one that he points out everywhere. The first letter he learned to recognize was Q, I thought that was funny!

Anyway, he loves to sing the ABC song too, it's one of his favorites. He pushes the button and says "Mommy sing!" "Daddy sing!" This was one of the first times I caught him actually singing with it, I don't know how well you can hear him, but he got close on a few parts! :)

Here are some other pictures of our goings on lately, on MLK day. I just haven't been updating very often because I'm a bit distracted with other things.

This is a little cream cheese mustache!

Twin progress

2012-01-12T00:13:00.001-05:00

Here are the ultrasound pictures from my doctor visit today.

This one is cute, this little guy is doing a faceplant. His head is on the right side, and he is face down so if you look closely you can see where his little mouth and nose are, and then down on the other end his legs are bent all cute.

This little guy is facing the other way. His head is on the left side, and then you can see his ribs some, and then his feet are tucked up under him, so you can see his thigh there.

Everything is looking good and they are doing well, so now we just wait until next month. On Valentine's day we'll find out what sexes they are!

Week 13

2012-01-02T21:11:00.001-05:00

Christmas Day

2011-12-30T20:31:00.002-05:00

On Christmas morning we woke Nicholas up at about 6:15 because Tyler couldn't wait any longer and because we figured we needed to get started if we were going to make it on time to 9am church. Nicholas usually needs a little bit of time before he is willing to socialize, but we figured the excitement of presents would override any grumpiness. He got distracted by a gift he had opened the night before though, on his way to the tree and so since we were trying to usher him to the new presents he thought we weren't going to let him play with Thomas train. You'll see his reaction. Eventually though we got the reaction we were hoping to see, it just took about 3 presents to get there!

Here are some other pictures from the day as well.

This is the face he made when I said "Smile!!"

After church both boys were so tired that they fell asleep on the couch! It's normal for Tyler, but Nicholas never does that! :)

Christmas Eve

2011-12-29T12:29:00.002-05:00

This year Christmas Eve was chore day. I did more chores than I had done in the last month. That's not saying I did a lot... my contribution was pathetic really. But I did stuff. :) Nicholas and Tyler cleaned up the back yard. Nicholas had so much fun "helping" Daddy rake and shovel. You can tell how hard he's working by how much his tongue sticks out!

Tractor!!

2011-12-27T13:52:00.001-05:00

We stopped by Tyler's work today and Nicholas "helped." He was in 2 year old heaven!

Terrible Twos

2011-12-22T15:36:00.001-05:00

I recognize and appreciate the fact that I have one of the best behaved two year olds in the world. I know we are so lucky. Every once in a while though we are reminded that he is a pretty normal two year old. Sometimes he gets an attitude, i know he sometimes pushes in nursery, and goes into all out war mode when someone tries to take his toy away. Today we sort of bonded over one of the worst tantrums I have ever seen him throw. Definitely in the top two.
For this kind of meltdown there are a lot of factors that come together and create little baby chaos, and today had a lot of those factors. But they were masked by the fact that he was with his best friend and his mom, so I was taken a bit off my guard. And of course the melt down came when I tried to pry him away from his best friend and his mom so that we could go home and take our respective naps. It started with the normal protests and turned to screams and hitting. I tried to talk him through it but he was having none of that. So, I dragged him out to the car kicking and screaming, without shoes on, and let him calm down in the car while I went back for my purse and both our shoes.
When I got back to the car though, he was still crying! This totally surprised me, he should have calmed down by then but instead he was crying out for "Lyndsey! Jakey! No night night! Lyndsey! Jakey!..." So I gave him kisses and explained again that we were going home so he could sleep and rest his little body, and when he woke up everything would be better." he sniffled an "ok" and we drove home. During the drive though, he would randomly start to cry again and kept sniffling, so I thought maybe talking to Daddy would help. We called Tyler and I handed Nicholas the phone so they could talk man to man-cub. Tyler asked him why he was sad and he said "Lyndsey... Jakey... Mommy... Night night..." there you go, the whole explanation in 5 words. It calmed him down though and helped enough to keep the sniffles at bay so I could get him home and into bed. Whew!
But before he went to bed we had some snuggles and some kisses, and I think he had forgiven me. Which shouldn't really be my main concern but I love my little boy and am glad that he was willing to forgive and forget after such apparent trauma. <3

Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-14T12:01:00.001-05:00

This year when I was decorating our tree, I was enjoying some of the ornaments we've collected since we've been married. Some were gifts to each other, some were gifts from friends. Some were passed down from our family's trees, and some were found on our family adventures. All of them tell a little bit about who we are. Here is just a little sampling:

10 week belly

2011-12-13T19:51:00.001-05:00

Shenanigans

2011-12-02T17:11:00.001-05:00

This is mostly just a picture dump, but there are some fun ones! We went to the park today, which is one of my favorite things about the winter time in this area. It's cool enough that we don't get sweaty and gross, but warm enough that we don't freeze our fingers off. It's not as cold as it will get, but it's never too cold for the park. :)

The other day we had spaghetti for dinner. I LOVE SPAGHETTI! My son didn't inherit Tyler's or my love for olives, but he sure does love spaghetti. Don't judge me for using paper bowls, I don't do dishes these days. :P

And... one last thing. I've mentioned the bug thing before, but this is the final project:

ew.

The Surprise!

2011-12-01T09:19:00.001-05:00

So a few weeks ago, I went to the doctor for an early visit. Usually he wouldn't meet with me until this month, but because of some other stuff he wanted to meet with me early. Since I was only 6 weeks along, I didn't know if he would do an ultrasound, which is what he normally does on the first visit, so Tyler didn't get off work to come with me.
I got there and he told me he would be doing the ultrasound because at 6 weeks we should be able to see a heartbeat. I was really excited! So, this doctor is great, and you can tell he loves his job. As he was doing the ultrasound he looked around a bit, and then zoomed in on the baby. I could immediately see the heartbeat fluttering, and was so happy! So, he explained a little bit more of what we were seeing. He took a picture, and then moved around some more and said, "And here is the other baby, and it's heartbeat!" He was so sneaky!!!
So, of course I was in shock and he had a hard time taking a picture of the 2nd baby because I was laughing too frequently in sort of a "are you serious?!" kind of way. But, eventually he took that picture and then zoomed out so we could see both babies right next to each other and took a picture of that.

He could tell I wasn't going to be absorbing much information after that news, so he just said that we would talk a lot more about twins later.

I walked out of the doctor's office and to my car in shock, and sort of on the edge of tears from information overload. When I got to the car, I tried to hold it together and called Tyler on the phone. Now, he loves to joke, and through our whole first pregnancy he kept insisting there was a second baby hiding in my belly that we just couldn't see. He's always joking about having twins or some crazy number of babies. So, I told him on the phone that I had gotten an ultrasound that day, and he said, "Are there three in there?" (LOL!) I said, "No, just two."
He said, "wait, really?"
"Uh, huh."
"Are you joking?"
"No."
"Wait, I'm confused. Are you serious or joking?"
"I'm serious."
Now, to his credit part of his confusion was that by this time I was crying and kind of hard to understand.
So, then he said, "Well, I'm excited!!!"
And that stopped my crying.
So, I stopped by his work and showed him the ultrasound and we were excited together! Then, we just wanted to tell everyone!

Big news

2011-11-25T19:55:00.001-05:00

Here is Nicholas's t-shirt that he wore to Thanksgiving dinner. And also my belly shot at almost 8 weeks. Kind of embarrassing to be so big already, I sort of feel like a cow. But I guess that's what happens when you're expecting twins!

Alligator Book!

2011-11-16T07:22:00.001-05:00

Nicholas loves his Alligator Book that he got from Nathan and Leora. He finds it at least once a day and asks us to read it to him, or tries to read it on his own.
He always shouts, "Alligator Book!" when he finds it, and brings it over to the couch. It's pretty cute. I posted this video on facebook, but not everyone sees that, so here it is!

And now, because it's seven thirty in the morning and I'm awake, I'm going to share something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Being a parent.
There was a vision focusing moment for me a few months back, when I took a look at my son, Nicholas and realized that he fulfilled me. We went through a little bit to get him here with us, to join our little family, and I remember feeling this sense of urgency and at times a little bit of panic that we would never be able to have kids. Now that we have him, we would like more kids, but that sense of urgency for me is gone. We had been talking about when we wanted to have more kids, and discussing the idea that it might be as difficult or more difficult than the last time. That's where my moment of clarity came in, and I realized that if we were unable to have any other kids, I would still feel satisfied because I just love him so much! Tyler and I talked about it, and we both felt that sense of peace, like everything would be ok no matter what the future held for us. Being a parent is great, for those that want it, and there is nothing in my life that fulfills me so much.
I mean, look at this face:

Sunday Drive

2011-11-11T21:16:00.001-05:00

Last sunday we went for a drive out in the country. It was very peaceful. :)

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T22:30:00.001-04:00

We had a few different activities for this year. On Wednesday we went to our ward trunk or treat. Tyler was a golfer, I was a rocker, and Nicholas was a shark. Cutest shark ever!

Tonight we went to the Santa Fe Teaching Zoo for the special trick or treating they had there. It was fun, and Nicholas was so excited about saying Trick Or Treat because he knew that meant they would put candy in his bucket!

After that, we went to the mall for the trick or treating that they had there. After a bit of that, Nicholas got free and was running circles with Daddy chasing after him. He thought it was so funny!

... even when he couldn't see...

Then Daddy caught him, and we went to get some dinner, but Nicholas wanted to run some more

He was glad to have some dinner, though and drank all of my lemonade.

It was a super fun Halloween, since Nicholas really got it this year and was excited to dress up as a shark. He was also so excited to carry his bucket around and go trick or treating. And he is especially excited to eat the candy he got!

The most handsome boys in the world!

2011-10-31T21:59:00.002-04:00

Gwilliam Birthday Wishes!

2011-10-26T18:00:00.002-04:00

Nicholas was so excited for the gifts he got today from Grandma Gwilliam, and from Grumpa. He wouldn't put his "choo choo train" down after he opened it, and loved the book, and the blocks! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam! We love you!

Pumpkin Carving 2011

2011-10-26T17:57:00.001-04:00

Um... Really?...

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-26T17:43:00.000-04:00

We went to a pumpkin patch, and Nicholas was more interested in playing on the playground, but we got some cute pictures and picked out a good carving pumpkin.

Shelly & Janice

2011-10-26T17:21:00.001-04:00

I took some pictures of some of my favorite people in the whole wide world :) They are so wonderful!

2011-10-13T15:27:00.001-04:00

Well, it's been a while... I kept thinking "Oh, I'll wait until this happens and document that" but then I got lazy and didn't. :)

Here is some random joy:

I have been making these little bags for a bunch of the kids in our ward.

This is our new fish. His name is Shark, because that is one of Nicholas's favorite words. Every night when he's going to bed, Nicholas says "Night Night Shark!"

The play area at the mall was closed for whatever reason, so we let the kids climb around on these things for a few minutes.

Nicholas had SO MUCH FUN getting to know family in South Florida for Yom Kippur. He has been asking for all of them randomly ever since.

I just loved how much he enjoyed helping Aunt Sammi make brownies! <3

I am slowly trying to make Nicholas's room cute and comfy. These are actually shower curtains, but they were cheap and cute, and I didn't even have to alter them!

Woohoo Football!

2011-09-25T21:35:00.001-04:00

We went to the park today and Nicholas had fun playing football and soccer. If you have ever been in our house, you have seen that Nicholas has at least 3 of every kind of ball. (Except for baseballs, because that is not on the approved list of sports, per Tyler.) This little guy sure loves sports! When we watch football, we have him trained to say "Woohoo football!" and "Touchdown!" I recently taught him to say "Blue, thirty-two, HUT!" (I don't actually know what that means, but it sounded good at the time.) So, we brought a couple of balls to the park and let him run free. Plus, I wanted an excuse to practice my picture-taking and photoshop skills. ;) Eat your hearts out, Folks! This kid is amazing!

I sure do love this kid!...

2011-09-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

Hammer in the evening

2011-09-20T14:50:00.001-04:00

We went to Lowes last night to get some stuff to anchor Nicholas's dresser to the wall because he has started climbing on everything. He's always climbed to some extent, but now it's at that more determined phase. Yesterday morning when I went to let him out of his room, I opened the door to find him hanging from the top drawer which was pulled out. I instantly had visions of him being crushed by the dresser, and so I was determined that he wouldn't go another night without it anchored. We took the changing table out and moved things around a bit. He seemed to handle the change well. His favorite spot is the reading corner. It's too cute.
But, the cutest was him walking around Lowe's with his plastic hammer:

Blankie Wars

2011-09-12T23:54:00.000-04:00

Nicholas is a blankie boy and has been for a very long time. The one he decided to attach himself to, happens to be the first baby blanket I was given. My mom sent it for Mother's Day while I was pregnant. It was soft, yellow and green, and crocheted with love.

When we leave the house we can usually get him to put it down by the door by letting him know he can't leave with it, but he'll hold on to it until the last possible second.

Because he won't let it go, my mom was kind enough to make some backup copies :). The first one came just in time for the poop incident of 2010. Blankie #1 (no pun intended) was retired after that one... But we usually have 2 at a time so that we can rotate them out when we need to wash them.

Last week I realized it was time for a wash, so I took the clean one out of the closet and switched them. I put the grungy blanket in the hamper. A couple of days later, I noticed that his blankie was looking especially grungy already, but I didn't think much of it. Then today we were doing laundry and the blankie that I pulled out of the hamper was nice and clean. That little stinker had switched them! So, I marched upstairs and swapped them right out of his hands, and put the dirty one directly into the washing machine.

When I went upstairs he was crying for his blankie, and refused to take the clean one. He said "No, no no," and ran to the top of the stairs so we could go fetch the other one.

Well, he's not even two yet, so I figured that I could just bring the clean blankie downstairs and when he went to look for his blankie he would find it, and forget about the whole swap. I thought everything was going well...

Tonight when we went to put him to bed we brought him upstairs with his binkie and his blankie and got him all set up for night nights, when he handed me back his blankie and said "No, no, no."

Well, too bad, it will have to do. Crazy kid! He never cries after we put him to bed but he cried for a few minutes tonight and finally fell asleep with his little legs hanging off the side of the bed. But he did fall asleep with his blankie, and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

These pictures are from Sunday. We got him ready for church, and he decided he needed his hat on. So, he put it on and I couldn't convince him otherwise. I had to trick him into leaving it in the car when we got to the church, and it went right back on when we got out. (You can also see his blankie on the floor with his binkie)

Game Day

2011-09-11T00:05:00.001-04:00

We got together with some friends again to watch the gator game. It was a good game! We like shut outs :)

Growing grass, but not that kind.

2011-09-08T19:56:00.002-04:00

Nicholas loves eating plums lately. He sometimes calls them plums, and sometimes calls them apples.

Tyler has been doing all sorts of fun things for his classes. He has to take care of a grass plant that he has affectionately named "Auggie." He has also been collecting bugs. I love that assignment... (that was sarcastic, in case you didn't catch that).

going through our pictures, here are some faves

2011-08-28T17:03:00.000-04:00

Girl's Night

2011-08-24T09:41:00.000-04:00

I went with a few friends to a place called Corks N' Colors to have fun painting and visiting. We were celebrating Lyndsey's birthday, it was a blast!

Work it, girl!

PS- when did get get to be so short?...

Froggy Jump!

2011-08-20T09:53:00.000-04:00

I don't know where he learned this, we were playing together this morning in his room and he just did it! So, I brought him down to show his daddy. I sure love this kid!!

the beginning of the end

2011-08-06T18:35:00.001-04:00

You know how you always hear people's stories about what they put up with as their kids get older? You never really think of it in terms of yourself because it seems like such a long time off. So you forget about it and focus on all the cute things your little one is doing... Until one day...

(knock knock knock) Momma? Where are you? Hi! Potty? (knock knock knock) Hiiiii! Potty? Mommmaaa!!! (knock knock)

Learning and Growing

2011-08-05T00:51:00.000-04:00

-Today when we got out of the grocery store Nicholas was pointing to the sky and saying "nana! nana!" I thought he was asking for a banana that we had just bought, but knew he wasn't hungry so I investigated some more. He was pointing at the moon. It's a crescent, and he loves to say "crescy" when we draw them together. So, then I always draw a line down the side which makes it a banana. Silly boy, the moon is made of cheese not bananas. :D
-He finally learned how to jump and get his feet off the ground. It comes from many jump practices off the side of the pool. Now that he's figured it out, he jumps everywhere. Including off the coffee table onto the couch, down the stairs and in his crib. (He has done the crib thing for a while, but gets way more air now)

He is saying more and more words every day, it's hard to keep track. But here are a few favorites:
-momma, daddy
-gator
-tree
-flower
-nana (banana)
-apple
-crescy (crescent)
-peeze (please)
-where are you? & where did you go?
-boom
-oofs (oops)
-bubbles
-baskeeball
-uh oh
-color
-car
-truck
-George
-boo hoos (blues clues)
-kung foo

I better stop before this list turns into more than "a few"... lol

Lazy Days

2011-07-30T15:08:00.000-04:00

I am the epitome of the lazy days of summer. We are enjoying having Tyler home around three every day since he has this small break from school. It starts back up again in a few weeks, and so we'll be going back to craziness soon. In the meantime we are just appreciating what we have.

Our new ward is really fun, and we are getting to know some of the families a little better. Funny thing, there are 3 people from my high school that are in this Gainesville ward. It's such a small world, especially when you live in a college town!

Here are some pictures from yesterday at the new play group, and some from today when we went to the pool with Tyler.

Also, just as a little side note: a few weeks ago I ran into a problem with my blogger page. It said that I had run out of capacity in my "picassa" account that hosts the pictures for our blogs. It wouldn't let me upload any more pictures. I don't know if any of you have run into this, or what you did... but I figured I would throw this out there just in case you have or ever do. I didn't want to delete pictures to make more space until I am able to back up my blog entries, because the picture will no longer appear on the blog entry if I delete it from picassa. But, it fixed itself when I signed up with google plus. I'm guessing that each google account that you have gives you so much capacity, and so my limit expanded when I added google plus.
So, when I run out again (I'm sure it will happen) then I will probably just add Tyler as a contributor to the page, and do it through his google accounts. :) That is all.

Recovery

2011-07-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

You know how everyone always says you need a vacation to recover from your vacation? So, we're just coming out of that, and I think we'll be rejoining the land of the living here any minute now...

I have no pictures for today. But, does anyone know what kind of bird has been outside my window for the last week... it sounds like a cat being stepped on when it squawkes. I hate that bird.

We are going swimming today, maybe I'll take pictures of that. :)

Vacation Shenanigans pt 3

2011-07-19T11:05:00.000-04:00

Girls Night Out

Family Pictures

2011-07-18T21:01:00.000-04:00

We wanted to take some family pictures while we were all together, and here are a few outtakes. :) Enjoy!

Dear David, you know what you did...

and you will pay!

Vacation Shenanigans pt 2

2011-07-16T18:34:00.000-04:00

Just Pictures. <3

Vacation Shenanigans pt 1 :D

2011-07-12T21:40:00.000-04:00

Here are a few things we've been doing on vacation!

Sunday BBQs and Walks

2011-07-10T20:11:00.000-04:00

My parents are in town for a visit pre-vacation. Tyler grilled up some dinner for us during a small break in the rain, and then after dinner when it cleared up for a while, we went over to Lake Alice for a walk. After that we stopped by the stadium to show my parents around. All in all, it was a lovely sunday.

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-05T13:59:00.004-04:00

We are so blessed :)

Independence Day Parade

2011-07-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from the parade we went to this morning in Micanopy (Mih-cuh-noe'-pee). I edited a few of them just for fun but not all because we have more festivities to get to and I could spend hours and hours lost in the world of photoshop. So, here you go:

Only the first three were edited, but the others will be edited soon. I just might not post them again. Then again I might.

The "New Place"

2011-07-03T22:41:00.000-04:00

No explanation necessary?...

Pay no attention to the mess behind that door!

Nicholas's new favorite toy ;)

Insomnia

2011-07-01T13:06:00.001-04:00

I couldn't sleep last night, so I was just laying in bed playing with my iPhone. I ended up finding another fun photo editing app and was messing around. I liked how some of them turned out, and needed to post some pics anyway so here you go! (then I'm going to go take a nap)

I love his expression! He's saying "mmmm!"

Look, we're ghosts!

I wanted a picture of Nicholas with this gator that is in the middle of the mall, but as I walked closer to it he started growling at it, and then started to actually shake and tremble the closer I got. So, I took this picture instead, and have to admit it does look a bit scary!

Filler Post

2011-06-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not posting lately, we have had our hands full. We have been doing stuff, but truthfully I haven't taken many pictures. Here are a few updates to fill in until I get some more pictures.
-We moved: we had the opportunity to move to a bigger place for a smaller price so we took it. It is in a different ward than we were in before which made us sad, but the new ward has been warm and welcoming.
-We moved: seriously guys, we hate moving and so it took us a while just because we could. We started bringing stuff over a few weeks ago (or more) and then a week ago did a big haul and that's when we started living here, but then we still had stuff at the old place that we finally got all cleared out yesterday.
-Nicholas is sick: :( as far as I can tell it's just a stomach bug because his only other symptoms are no appetite, extreme crankiness and high fevers. But this afternoon he sat on the couch and just cried inconsolably for about an hour and tooted every few minutes. It made me want to cry with him.
-We LOVE our new place: It's awesome. We feel very comfortable here and Nicholas has loads of fun running up and down the stairs and having a lot more freedom around the house. He especially loves the backyard and says "side! side!" when he wants to go out. Today, after his crying thing, we let him go out and play with bubbles in the backyard, and then Tyler gave him the hose and turned it on and let him run free. LOL it was the funniest thing I've seen in a while.
-I have been traumatized by the bugs though: If you know me, you understand that this is basically an obsession that I cannot control. It's called a phobia, they have real names for stuff like this. I am not making it up. There have been 5 small black spiders, one medium white spider, one giant cockroach, two small something-or-others, and one gross looking dead thing that I never want to see again. All after the guy came and sprayed. PS- did you know, because I was not aware that the bug spray is not effective on spiders? I am proud to report that I only freaked out twice from all that.
-I finished a semester of online classes: I took two classes for an 8 week semester and got two A's. My next two classes start in a couple of weeks.
-Tyler has his Associates!: He got his grades in, and passed both classes (Duh!) and so he is done with school for the rest of the summer, and starts at UF at the end of August! We are so excited, and happy, and I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard since we came out to Florida and gotten such good grades while working more than 40 hours a week and so this milestone is exciting. He has about 2 years at UF and then he'll have his bachelors.

Alright, that's all I can think of right now. No pictures. I will post pics of our new place this week, and if he will get out of his cranky funk I'll post pics of Nicholas's cuteness. :)

More Pictures from Janice's 70th

2011-06-14T22:00:00.001-04:00

Here are some of the pictures from our camera at Janice's 70th birthday party out in Utah. The ones I posted before were taken with AnnJillene's camera (by all sorts of people ;).

This is what Nicholas was doing right before the prayer. It was like he was just smelling it or something, just putting it up to his face... but then the prayer started so he put it on his plate and folded his arms, and was doing so well. He lasted much longer than he usually had with his arms folded. But then all of a sudden during the prayer, he just reached over and grabbed the roll and took a giant bite out of it! And then I heard a couple of his cousins giggling ;)

The restaurant brought out some cheesecake for Janice with a candle and she blew it out... and then a few seconds later it lit back up! She kept blowing it out until it got down to the end of it and finally didn't relight, but it was pretty funny. All the grandkids started pitching in and helping :)

I really like this one. :)

Trip to Utah 2011

2011-06-07T17:50:00.000-04:00

We had such a fun trip to Utah. A few things about this trip that were extra special:

A whole row of seats on the plane, and a baby sleeping on our laps-

A birthday party, complete with custom cake cutting-

A surprise birthday party, with breakfast in the back yard-

A planned birthday party for an Awesome Mother-In-Law, Happy 70th!-

Playing in the back yards- (this was probably Nicholas's favorite part of the trip)

A fancy fancy dinner-

"Sandwich kisses"

Peek-a-boo-

Tractors-

Bottle rockets-

Roasted marshmallows-

COUSINS!!!-

University of Florida

2011-06-02T09:46:00.000-04:00

Every day for months now we have been checking Tyler's account online with the University to see if he got in, and today we checked and this is what it said:

Congratulations!!! Your application to the University of Florida for the Fall 2011 term has been approved!

Official notification will arrive by mail, including the conditions of your admission as well as important orientation and immunization information.

We look forward to seeing you on campus soon, and welcome you to the Gator Nation!

Yay!

Memorial Day & Backyard Fun

2011-06-01T17:12:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day was fun, we went to a barbecue with friends at their pool. It was nice to enjoy the weather and visit with friends. I made my first attempt at potato salad, :)

It started out with all the moms in the pool with the kids, while the dads hung around the grill and ate. So, when the dads got in the pool, the moms took advantage and got some food while they watched the kids. We maybe got stuck visiting though and abandoned the dads with the kids ;)

Last night, Nicholas was needing some fun, but mommy was needing some relaxation, so we went over to our new place (that we are moving into in a few weeks but have the key already) and played with bubbles in the backyard. We also raked up some leaves and watered some plants, and looked at the birds nest in the hose hanger. I am excited to live there :)

Starting off our Memorial Day

2011-05-30T11:24:00.000-04:00

We took flowers over to Nicholas's grave to start off our Memorial Day.

Road Trips and Pent-Up Energy

2011-05-24T23:50:00.000-04:00

My friend and I went on a road trip last weekend for my cousin Stacy's baby shower. It was way fun, and I was totally glad to have such a good friend with me the whole way because driving that far with just my kid is not what I would call fun. It's just stressful. So, this was fun! It totally felt like a slumber party, up talking all night, getting scolded by the "adult" for making so much noise, giggling like crazy, and random lizards freaking us out.

Here are some pictures of our cutie-patooties in the car. Poor things were so sick of the car...

He woke up and his hair was all crazed :D

not happy to be awake :(

Then, when we got home Nicholas had all this pent-up energy. I was cleaning in the kitchen and realized it was quiet (uh-oh) so when I looked in, this is what I found...

Play Date with balloons

2011-05-14T11:35:00.000-04:00

There were two little boys who had balloons, and they were the sweetest most well behaved and kind children ever to be raised. Seriously. They were such great kids! And they of their own volition decided to give their balloons away. So, Jake and Nicholas were playing with their newly acquired balloons and having loads of fun. When they weren't trying to make a break for it, that is. That play area seriously needs a gate. Oh well :)

Pool Time!

2011-05-14T11:23:00.000-04:00

We love pool time. We take it every chance we get :) Here are some fun pictures from yesterday at the pool:

If you click on this to see it bigger you can really see the snot bubble coming perfectly out of his nose :) But I love the look of excitement on his face. This is him right as he came up out of the water from being dunked

knitting night

2011-05-14T11:06:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday nights I attend a knitting group (see the link to Wednesday Night Knitting blog on the sidebar) and for the last 3 weeks I got to guest host it at my house! I felt like I should document it, because Jennifer always does such a great job, so here it is, being put out in the universe:

Ethel's Market Bag all finished

This is a project Ethel is working on now. She plans to make one that looks like her son's old pet.

This is what she has so far of her first mouse

I'm working on another square for my sampler afghan and this is what I have so far, but you can really see the pattern. It's coming out nicely!

Baby A made a guest appearance. So cute!

I thought this went well with the theme, my mom crocheted a replacement "baki" and it arrived Wednesday

You can see the difference in color and cleanliness :) Thus the replacement

Tina has been using a loom for this panel which she is planning to felt and then make into a purse

Lisa was working on this adorable hat for her sister

Here it is from the front showing the panels of it she has done so far

Here is it looking from the top. It shows the rim of the hat.

Sesame Street

2011-05-06T12:06:00.001-04:00

Nicholas loves to watch Sesame Street. Seriously. Check out his concentration:

A couple of days later...

2011-05-01T22:44:00.000-04:00

We dyed Easter Eggs! Nicholas wasn't really interested because... well, he was interested but not in the good ways. As in, not in the ways that mom and dad appreciate. Meaning... he wanted to throw the eggs like balls and drink the "juice" in the dye cups. So I distracted him with stickers while Tyler and I decorated the eggs. :)

EASTER MORNING!!

2011-04-24T12:43:00.000-04:00

This has probably been my favorite Easter ever, so far. :) Nicholas was a blast going through his Easter basket and then we took him out for an Easter egg hunt in a little retention field next to our building. It was very cute, he was running for the eggs as soon as he spotted them, and then throwing them into his basket.

This is one of his favorite new toys. :)

Play Dates

2011-04-21T14:11:00.000-04:00

Nicholas and I are so excited because we have recently gotten to know more people in our ward, and made some great friends! We went for a play date this morning with some of those friends. It made me think of that Tostitos commercial where the moms are all like "I'm so glad we decided to do this for the kids..." and "Yeah this will be really good for them" all the while they are chomping down on tostitos and salsa, and chatting it up, and then it shows you the kids who are like... 4 months old in their carseats just sitting there. Hillarious.

But, our kids do enjoy hanging out, so it's not the same but still made me think of it because we were really enjoying our "grown-up time" too, haha!

Anyway, here are the adorable pictures of the 3 kids, Nicholas, Jake and Sawyer.

More Visitors, Easter Egg Hunts, and Pool Time!!

2011-04-20T21:53:00.000-04:00

Our apartment complex had an Easter Egg Hunt last saturday, while Tina, Kevin and Charlie were here so we all went down and let the kids find eggs :)

Afterward there were cupcakes in the clubhouse

The visitors have moved on, but should be back in a few days so we can play some more.

I just had to snap some pictures of Tyler and Nicholas playing together on the floor. So cute. Nicholas likes to honk noses these days. He is learning all of the body parts, he knows "nose" "eyes" and "stinky feet."

"Honk! Honk!"

The weather has been so nice lately (sorry Mom) and the pool is just perfect, so we have been going down to the pool, working on lessening Tyler's farmer tan, LOL

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

2011-04-05T13:49:00.001-04:00

Nicholas was going down slides hands first for a while, it was easier to get on the slide that way, but then he would get stuck because he didn't lift his hands... :)

My mom and dad took us to Sea World since we were going back and forth to Orlando to help them get to where they needed to be, and it was a BLAST! Nicholas loved every minute of it. :) Tyler had school and work the first day that we went, but we convinced him to cut out early the next time and he got to come with us the second day we went.

This was at the Elmo and Abby's Treasure Hunt show.

This was a thing the kids could crawl through, and look up into the bottom of the fish tank.

Nicholas thought this was fun until one of the Mantas came and put it's nose right in his hand and after about 5 seconds he decided that that scared him. He wouldn't put his hand in the water again after that, lol.

Nicholas had gone the whole day without a nap and was really starting to show it, until we rolled him past this... and he perked right up! Talk about a second wind, he went crazy!

Thanks so much to my parents for such a fun time, we all had a blast and it was so good to see them for a quick visit. :) We miss you guys!

Spring Break

2011-03-16T14:14:00.000-04:00

For the last part of Spring Break we took a quick trip to south Florida to visit family and friends there. It was a blast and just the little vaycay that we needed. :) Especially Tyler, he has had so much work to do this semester, we will both be glad when it's over. We were just sort of chilling and taking it easy, so I didn't get any pictures of the first part of the trip, but we got to go have dinner and hang out with Rich, Sammi, Joe, Jess and Steph which was A BLAST as usual. :) Then the next day we visited Melissa and her family, the ones who used to watch Nicholas for us down there. Nicholas's spanish is a little rusty, so we'll have to work on that for next time. After that we met up with some of Tyler's old work buddies and their wives, and a friend of mine from my old job. It was great to catch up and see how everyone was doing.
On sunday we went out on the boat with Shelly, Janice, Stacy, and a good friend of Janice's. I was so preoccupied putting sunscreen on Nicholas that I neglected to put it on my face. I got the rest of me where I usually burn, legs, arms, etc but didn't get my face... whoops! Oh well, it was SOO worth it. ;) Here are just a few pics of the fun.

Nicholas chilled like this on Tyler's lap and just fell right to sleep. He splept that way for like an hour until we stopped to have sandwiches for lunch.

Cute Stacy putting her feet up!

It took him a little while to figure out he could move and walk with the life jacket on, before that he would stand frozen. But once he figured it out he was all over, and wanting to play

It was great seeing everyone that we've really missed, and a special thanks to Shelly and Janice for putting us up for a few days, and for putting up with us for a few days ;)

2011-03-09T14:26:00.000-05:00

Eating With a Spoon

2011-03-04T14:56:00.001-05:00

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Beating Bama!

2011-03-01T23:27:00.001-05:00

We went to the basketball game against Alabama tonight and brought Nicholas. He was a little bit worn out from no naps during the first part of the day, so when I went to wake him up at about 6:30 pm to get him ready to go he didn't even budge! Tyler was rubbing his back and I was saying "Nicholas, Nicholas" and he just snored softly. It was the cutest thing! So we let him sleep and decided to go a little bit late. About 15-20 minutes later we got him up and headed down to the game. It was his first ever live sporting event, and we were a little bit nervous about the noise. He did ok when we walked into the stadium, but being close to the half, and being a close game when we scored the crowd went wild! We were walking right behind the student section and it frightened Nicholas pretty bad. He cried all the way up to our seats and then I took him and we cuddled for a minute with me blocking his ears and trying to let him know these were happy sounds. He clung to me for a few more minutes, and then finally let go to give me some high fives, and "pound its" and then went back to Tyler's lap. Everything was great and he was handling the cheers ok until there was a free throw where the whole crowd got super quiet, and then... he made the basket and the crowd went wild again! Well, that scared the buh-jeebeez outta him and he started crying again and came back to mommy. I think it was just the startling factor that got him, so I started commentating for him and saying, "Get ready to clap, they're coming down to shoot!" and then they would score and I'd say "Yay! Clap your hands!" Or, "Dance to the music!" or "Do the Gator Chomp, Buddy!" and he started to have loads and loads of fun. :) The night was a success. And crying, or happy he was the cutest Gator in the place. :) Here are the pics to prove it.

Charlie Weiss watching

He's been chewing on his fingers a lot lately for some reason...?

Billy Donovan walking off

A Whole Lot of Nothin'

2011-02-28T12:33:00.000-05:00

There really is a whole lotta nothin' goin' on around here... Other than the normal stuff that is. (School, work, parenting, video games, good food, good weather)

So, here are some pictures of "nothin" :)

Look at all those teeth!

Me and my Boy! <3

"I'm King of the Rock!"

Ready for "nigh nigh"?

I love this picture. Look at the face of concentration! It's hard work playing Mario!

Beautiful Weather

2011-02-19T15:01:00.000-05:00

The weather has been SOOO great the last few days and we are just soaking it up! We have gone to a park to play every day for the last 3 days. Today was a birthday party for my friend's son and so Tyler got to come with us this time too.

This is Tyler's "crazy eyes" look...

Happy Birthday Tyler

2011-02-01T18:06:00.000-05:00

Current Cuteness

2011-01-22T22:52:00.000-05:00

Not much new going on right this second, so I'll just post some cute pictures. Who doesn't love cute pictures?

Can you tell that someone likes to pose for pictures? lol...

Oops!

2011-01-22T22:25:00.000-05:00

Apparently I missed some pictures from Christmas, so here they are! Better late than never :)

Back to School

2011-01-11T23:22:00.000-05:00

This one is for all those wives out there who have or have had husbands going to school.

-Staying up late with your husband so you can keep him awake while he reads those boring textbooks
-Keeping kid/s occupied while your husband works at the computer or kitchen table
-Going to a different room so you don't distract your husband
-Quizzing your husband for his upcoming tests
-Proof-reading papers, and then doing it again
-Reminding your husband that the video games can wait until after this next test

:) Here's to another semester! I am so proud of Tyler for all he does for our family and I'm grateful that he is such a hard worker and he really does so well with school. But I will be so glad when we're done! (PS- He should have his AA by the end of the summer and should be starting at UF in the fall. He submitted his application, so cross your fingers!)

Jan 2003

2011-01-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

These pictures were taken on our way down to the LDS Missionary Training Center where I was taught spanish. On the way down, we stopped at my grandparent's house so I could say goodbye to them. I was so glad I got to do that because a week later I was called down to one of the administrative offices and told that my Grandpa had passed away. So, this week I've been thinking about him a lot and how much I miss him.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T16:46:00.000-05:00

So, today is the first day of the new year, 2011. I figured we would start it out with something fun so we took Nicholas for a walk out around Lake Alice this afternoon. The weather was GORGEOUS! we didn't even need our jackets, and there was a nice little breeze. Nicholas got a cool tricycle for Christmas from Grandma and Grumpa Gwilliam, and so we let him ride in that and he is so dang cute in it!

When we got back Tyler finished watching the football game and I made some egg rolls. If anyone wants some, come on over, because I made a ton and I don't think even Tyler will be able to eat them all! :)

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T21:19:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Christmas in November

2010-12-02T14:38:00.000-05:00

As promised, here are pictures from our Christmas celebration with the Johanson family on the saturday after Thanksgiving.

Here are all the grandkids:

And here is a whole lot of Christmas Fun!

Here We Go!!! Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

So, this might get a little crazy folks! We were in Utah for a week and a half and here are just some of the pictures to show you what a great (although busy) time we had!!!

We started out by (barely) missing our airplane flight (stupid Delta...) and so we got to Utah just in time for the Johansons to throw a belated Birthday Party for Nicholas

The minute we got off the airplane, Utah's rain turned into snow. I guess they decided we needed a proper representation since this would be our only trip out this Winter. And it snowed all night. So the next morning I got Nicholas all bundled up and set him free in the front yard:

The next day was Chelley & KL's wedding which I don't have any pictures of yet... So skip that part and let's get to Thanksgiving #1 (the day before thanksgiving) at the Gwilliam's house:

He didn't like the olives which was a surprise to everyone...

but he LOVED the pink jello stuff...

"alright, I'm done eating"

"Well, maybe not"

"yep, definitely done! get me outta this chair!"

Well, that was fun. Let's see how it went at Thanksgiving #2 at the Johanson's:

Lots more people, that's for sure!

"Yeah, I'm a Thanksgiving Pro now..."

Here are a few other Tidbits from the trip:

This is a bad habit of his, but the little guy doesn't know any better. You may have already noticed the trend, he's been doing it since he was born... Someday someone will tell him. I've decided not to, it's kind of entertaining. ;)

Ok, I just wanted to get in some of those random pictures before we moved on to a new holiday all together! The day after Thanksgiving we go get Christmas trees up in the mountains and cut them down, so here is that:

Listen... this is getting out of hand ;) I am was trying so hard not to break this up, but I have so many fun pictures from our early Christmas celebration at the Johansons that those are going to have to be in a separate post! Maybe I'll put those up later today! :)

Nature Park

2010-11-15T19:49:00.000-05:00

There is a nice nature park by our home with a playground and everything, and I had gone there for a playgroup last week. I noticed they had a trail and thought it would be fun to check it out, so we went for a nice little walk on Sunday afternoon and it was such a beautiful day. :)

My Favorite Time of Day

2010-11-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

A lot of times after Nicholas wakes up he likes to sit with me on the couch and eat while watching Imagination Movers or some other Disney show. He just hangs out and I love every second! Also, if you haven't noticed yet, he is a real ham for the camera!

School Assignment

2010-11-08T17:58:00.000-05:00

Tyler had to take some pictures of Hispanic Culture here in the US for a class, so we went with the obvious choice: A Mexican Restaurant. LOL Hopefully between this and some help from a friend down south Tyler will be able to complete his assignment. I'm still actually a little bit fuzzy on the whole concept of the assignment, but whatevs... Here are some cute pictures of the boy-child.

Also, for your viewing pleasure we have some unrelated pictures:

New Videos

2010-11-02T12:21:00.000-04:00

We have a video from the night we went trunk or treating at the church, but it was too dark outside, so I just recorded him playing in the gym afterward.

Also, here is a video of him playing with Tyler on his mickey airplane. It's pretty cute, but kinda long. So, I won't be offended if you don't watch all of it. It's mostly out there for me :)