December 2010

Greetings from snowy South Dakota! Things have been busy here. Last week, Eric & I both had our work Christmas parties, so I drove the girls to my mom's house on Friday afternoon. My party was on Friday night at the Country Club and it was much fun. Saturday, Eric & I went to lunch and to a movie! What a treat! That was a struggle, due to the 7" of snow that we had received the night before. Lots of things were closed and the roads were hard to manuever, but we were a few of the people that made it to Eric's office party at his boss's house. It was fun, but sad that only about 1/3 of the people made it. On top of that, the interstate was closed most of the weekend, so we didn't get to pick up the girls until Monday!! Momma was missing them like crazy!! Emma was so "sad" to have missed a day of school :)

(This post will be a little out of order due to the way I put the pictures in, so excuse me)

I am so very proud of my husband with his tremendous weight loss! He's been on the Atkin's Diet since June and has lost about 75lbs! We actually picked up his wedding ring today at the mall as it had to be resized a whole size!! It's crazy, but he looks amazing! He is so much healthier & no longer snores!! Thank you, God!

Yesterday, I took the girls to see Santa. Emma didn't want to go, since she no longer thinks he's real (dummy), but I wanted her to help with Harper. Well, good thing she did! She crawled up Emma when it was our turn. I've never seen her behave that way, but Santa was NOT something she was a fan of! So, I got one picture (compliments of Emma) of Harper! Maybe next year!

We tried to bribe Harper into the picture by watching Emma with Santa, but that didn't work. I did get a good picture of Emma with Santa tho, so I guess I still won:)

Here was a cute picture of the girls while waiting in line to see Santa, it was too cute. Emma is such a great big sister! I'm so proud of her!

Last week, we tried to take Christmas card pictures..it didn't go well either!

This is a very good example of how it went over!

Our tree this year. We decided to put it downstairs to prevent a little someone from pulling off the ornaments. It's nice down there, but sad to not see it when I walk in at night.

Emma had a chorus concert a few weeks ago at school. This was her "boomwacker" time - to - shine - event. It was basically a tube that made noise, but it was cute.

I do need to explain a little bit about how cute Harper is. Right now, she's carrying around a package of instant soup. That's normal behavior, right?! Also, at night at dinner when we pray, we all hold hands. She now has to hold our hand and says "amen" in her own version of the word!  She's begun to kind of use utensils (sometimes the spoon goes upside down, but it's a good effort).  She's begun sleeping most of the night...last week she started to stir around 4:30, so guess who else was up that early. I feared a sinus infection as it had been going around daycare, supposedly, but I took her to acute care today to find out toddler's don't have sinus cavities yet, so I don't know how kids at daycare have it!

It's going to be a busy week! Emma only has school thru Tuesday. Eric has Friday off, but I work until noon. We will spend Christmas Eve just the 4 of us. We will go to Eric's parents on Saturday and my grandma's on Sunday. Emma will spend New Years weekend with her dad's family and then my mom's side the weekend following.

Lots of running & I pray for everyone's health & happiness. Merry Christmas & I hope you all have a wonderful 2011!

Eric, Nicole, Emma & Harper

Busy - busy - busy

Where does the time go? I just don't understand how it's all of a sudden 2 weeks since I've written!

Thanksgiving was nice at my parents house. My brother, Matt & his family came, as well as my parents.  We came back home Thursday night and brought Bethany (my sister) home with us! It was so fun to have her here for a few days! Because I'm 18 years older than her, we've never really spent sister time together. We did some shopping that Thursday night & a few other times over the weekend. She graciously watched the girls for us Sat night, while Eric & I went to dinner & a movie!

This past week was a lot of running around. Emma had her first dance recital this week, so Monday, she had rehearsal. We had our first bought of freezing rain/snow that night, so our commutes home were exhausting!

Emma went to her dad's last weekend, and I got a call at around noon on Friday that Harper had thrown up at daycare = come get her! She threw up & walked to the time out corner, like she was bad?! How sweet! So, we came home & she napped for a few hours & I got some much needed cleaning done!! Harper threw up a few more times (including once on the dog!) and then seemed to be just fine.  Due to my short day on Friday, I had to go back to the office on Saturday morning, so Eric stayed at home with Harper.

Here's a picture of Emma in her hip hop outfit! they danced to "Christmas in California." It was so great & she did so well! I have never been so proud of her!! They danced on the Great Stage in the Washington Pavillion. She was in awe of it! "Mom, actors/actresses & singers perform on this stage, and now I am!" It was a great show! I'm looking forward to the next one in the Spring!

Our little Harper is quite the little ham! She realized her true love of ketchup!!  She is SO into music. No matter what she's doing, she will completely stop what she's doing to look where the music is coming from & she will bounce to the music!

She also is suddenly intrigued with time out. If she's being naughty & you threaten with time out, she'll walk to the corner & sit. It's cute & strange all at the same time!

Every time I take Harper's picture, she always closes her eyes! I can NOT get one lately with her eyes open! It's like she's trying to do it!

Tomorrow night, I have to take the girls' Christmas pictures (it snuck up on me!). Wednesday is my night for some fun (nails & a friend's party) and Thursday night is Emma's dance recital video at the dance studio. Friday I have the day off as Suzanne is closed. Harper & I will hang out & then go get Emma. I'm taking the girls to my folk's house this weekend as Friday night is my Christmas party & Saturday is Eric's. Mine is at Westward Ho Country Club & Eric's is at his bosses house. I don't know what to expect with mine, but Eric's is always so much fun!

Speaking of my husband, I'm so proud of him! He has lost about 70 lbs! He gave up carbs in May - yes, that's all! No exercise what-so-ever! But his body does really well with that type of diet! We even had to take his wedding ring in to the jewelers this weekend to get it sized a whole size smaller!

Well, it's time to go finish the daunting task of wrapping Christmas presents! I can tell I'm getting old....I no longer like to do it!

Have a good week

15 months

 I know I say this a lot, but where does the time go?! I just don't understand! Things have been busy, yet again.  Emma spent last weekend at her dad's house, so the three of us just did "stuff" and nothing real exciting, so that's why I didn't blog last week. Above is Harper helping take out a dirty diaper! I keep hoping this will lead to quick potty training:)

Last week was Harper's 15 month check up.  She had to get three shots =(. I hate them more than she does..well, maybe not, but I hate them. I appreciate that Eric always comes along so he can hold her down while I cowar in the corner.  She was 33 1/2" long (Yes, above the 99th%) and weighed just under 26 lbs (75%).  We were out at some friends' house last night & a 2 year old was only about 2" taller than Harper. They say that if you double a girls height at 2, that should be their adult height. At this rate, we're looking at a 6 footer! (I'm 5'10" and Eric is 6'5" or so).

 All else has been pretty good at home. Eric had an important trial last week, so he was gone quite a bit earlier in the week. He did win & we're so proud of him!  I've been real busy as well. We were all excited to see Paul, who arrived late on Thursday evening! He was only here thru today, but we were happy we got to see him for a little bit! He & Eric spent the day together on Friday. Friday night we all hung out. Saturday, Eric & Paul ran a couple of errands & then watched the Michigan game.  Later that afternoon, we drove to Vermillion to Carole & Jamie's for a little gathering. It was fun to get together with them and a bunch of other people from Eric's office.

This morning we had to say goodbye to Paul. Eric drove him to Worthington, where Eric's parents met them & they drove him back to Milwaukee. They will spend the week there & get to spend Thanksgiving there. The best part of Paul's visit was the announcement that baby Johnson is due 6/15/11!!! We're SO excited & pray for a healthy pregnancy!! Congrats guys!

Our big girl has definately got the hang of walking now. She's doing it all day long. I did teach her to go down the stairs on her belly tonight. Now she can go to the "big kid" room at daycare in the basement!  She's really started using her fork to feed herself. It's just so amazing how she's a little girl, and not a baby=( Where did that baby go? But she is also so fun! She keeps us busy, that's for sure!! She wants to watch "Elmo" or "Dora" all day long! So we'll put in a video & that entertains her for about 1 minute and then she's off for the next thing! Also, Eric made the mistake of watching Youtube videos of these characters. Now, she wants to watch them ALL the time..ugh. She does love to read books..but only if you read every book in the house! :) 

On that note, our Emma is such a good girl. When I told her that we'd probably go to Milwaukee for a week next summer to visit Paul/Jen & baby, she was excited, but also torn. we'd talked about spending a week in the Black Hills. I told her we couldn't do both, but maybe would start saving money to just do a long weekend out in the Hills. She went to her wallet & really wanted me to use $20 out of her money to start the fund! She's got such an amazing heart! The two of us are also going to start volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House after the first of the year. I think it's so important for her to realize there's more than just money to donate in this world!

Happy Thanksgiving this week! We are going to my folks' house in Jackson & then plan to take Bethany home with us for a few days:) I'm so excited..she also heard back from Augustana college this year..they're offering her $13,500 in scholarships! How incredible is that!!!!?? She's so bright! I'm SO proud of her! Good job, B!

Have a great week!

Halloween/First Communion

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks again! Time just gets away from me! Plus, Halloween was last Sunday, so it was a very busy day at the Johnson/Salzwedel house!  Emma wanted to go to the Courthouse Museum last Sunday for some free holiday fun. So her & her friend Morgan spent the day there, while Morgan's mom chaperoned! So it was an easy day for me. Emma didn't go to her dad's last Sunday, so it was kind of normal for us to not have her with us! The Friday night before Halloween, Emma & I carved the pumpkin.  She drew several faces on paper, and we voted for the winner:) She drew the face on this guy & I carved it. Our little artist!

 Harper was quite taken with the pumpkins. She calls them "pum" so she has the gist of them. She bites at the gourd stems? I don't get it, but she's so dang cute with them!

Here's the most exciting part of the last few weeks...Harper is finally walking!!!!!! We are so excited! Daycare texted me last week that she'd walked & kind of forgot she was doing it until everyone started clapping! Then, she wouldn't do it again! Stubborn baby! But ever since that, she's done about 75% of the time walking.  Still very unsteady, but she gets applause and she's digging it!

 Here's Emma as a devil or something..on Halloween. She got quite a bit of candy and went all over town with Morgan. I think we're too "uncool" already for her:(

Here's our little lady bug! She didn't like the hood at first, but did pretty well with it. We only went in the wagon to 3 of our neighbors, including Nana Suzanne's house so the daycare lady's could see her. She walked to them in her costume & I thought Nana & Ggma were gonna die! It was so cute. After trick or treating, Harper would take everything out of her bucket & then put it back in. She must've put those 5 pieces of candy in & out about 100 times! That's her newest thing. She could spend hours taking things out & putting them away!  She LOVES Elmo & Sesame Street, Dora, any kind of music and recently, she loves to hit my curio cabinet:( It's pretty solid, but she laughs every time b/c she knows she's being naughty! UGH Too young to understand time out!

 Finally, last night was Emma's first communion! I can't believe she's old enough to do some adult things like that, but she took it very seriously. We had to go to a class a few weeks ago, in which we baked wafers (that we had for communion last night) and she painted her out chalice (which she has in her hands).  All 3 sets of grandparents came (thank you!) as well as her Godparents Chad & Jen (friends of mine ) & Aunt Brandi (Mason's sister). We had  a nice meal at home afterwards and she drank out of her chalice all night! Emma went to her dad's today to have a little celebration with the Salzwedel's. Guess we weren't good enough to all celebrate together! I offered...Oh well

Busy week again last week for me. Tuesday night was our bank's ribbon cutting for the new branch that I work at, Wed, I had to go to Yankton for work...and Thursday night was Emma's conferences. Our little gal got straight A's. It was nice considering she kept telling us how her Social Studies teacher "hated" her! She got a special reward.. $50 for her efforts. Now she/we knows she can do it, we expect it more often!!

Have a good week!!

October life

 As you can see from the first few photos, our little Harper loves bath time & the time leading up to bath time! She's still not walking, but is getting so close! She had calloused knees!  Today, she stood up from her Elmo chair, all by herself! We know she can do it, but she's just lazy!

She loves to empty out my jewelry while the bath is running!

Daddy spinning Harper in the office chair last Sunday!

Been another busy couple of weeks! Emma's thriving at school and she announced on Friday that the teacher let them peek at their report cards & she had all A's!! I'm so excited to see this first hand! Unfortunately, she thinks that's her way into getting a cell phone! Sorry, sista!

She's going to be trick or treating for the last time this year. I won't give away the surprise of her costume, but it will not surprise you!

Harper will be dressing up as a lady  bug:) SO cute

Work has been going well for me. I love my new job! The loan officer I work with is so supportive of me wanting to advance, so in the next few months, I'll start some underwriting training! This was so nice to hear after being told it for so long at my last job & it never happened!  Eric & I actually went to their house for dinner last night. We had a very nice time.

Bethany was kind enough to drive out & babysit the girls for us! It's so nice to have her do that. I have a hard time finding a babysitter to do that kind of thing when Harper's in a daycare 50 hours / week now! 

Harper is repeating so many words, its crazy! Daycare said "don't be mean" the other day and Harper repeated, "Me" She says so many words & it's so cute! She meows when she sees a picture of a cat, but has never seen a real one:)

We got some terribly sad news today about my uncle Todd (my step dad's brother). He passed away late last night from Pulmonary Fibrosis. It's a hereditary lung condition that my step grandma & many of her relatives died from. He was only 52 years old & had been on a lung transplant list for about 1 month before he just didn't wake up on Monday. My thoughts & prayers are with my 50 some year old aunt who is a widow! My you breathe in Heaven with no oxygen tank, Uncle Todd. We loved you very much!!!

14 months!

 We've had a pretty busy, yet uneventful couple of weeks. Last weekend, we just ran a lot of errands. Got the windows washed, car washed etc. Getting ready for winter :( Here is a picture of daddy & Harper today before he went out on his first adventure of blowing out sprinklers with a co-worker. He left at 9:30 this morning & just walked in the door, here at 5:30. Made a little bit of money, but got some good exercise. That left Harper & I for the day (Emma went to dad's after Sunday School). Harper & I headed to Michael's to look for some decorations for fall, and then to the mall to get a new battery for Eric's watch. The two of us just hung out mostly.

A few weeks back, Eric started the daunting task of putting the seal coat on the massive fence in our backyard. He got about 1/5 of it done when he quit as it was just too windy & it kept blowing on him. I'm hoping we'll get it done one of these days~

 Our little gal - she's such a happy girl. She loves books, and Elmo! It's her name favorite thing! Don & Shauna gave us some new videos that have Elmo on them. She likes to watch for about 10 minutes, and then gets bored. That's ok. We don't want her to become a t.v. junkie!

Yesterday, we had our bank tickets and went to the Augustana football game. Don & Shauna watched our girls for us. It was a great time and we truly appreciated it! In return, we watched their two kids while they went to dinner for their 11th anniversary. Here is Bella & Emma watching a movie in Emma's room. Max & Eric watched Toy Story in the family room, and Harper & I hung out upstairs.

This was the funniest part of the last few weeks. Eric's mom stopped yesterday prior to the football game. She had just had an awful week of chemo for her leukemia. We had a quick bite to eat, when Harper literally fell asleep while eating in her highchair! She actually slept in here for about 25 minutes before we left for the football game!

Things are going well here at the Salzwedel/Johnson home. Emma's doing well in school and is liking her new-found freedom after school. She's going to an after-school program, where she is more on her own. She has a little more freedom to come & go as she pleases. She always uses a friend's cell phone to let me know if she's leaving the school grounds.. Yes, these kids ALL have cell phones which is a real pain in the butt! Maybe going to have to break down sooner than later..I hate having them call me all the time! UGH. I'd said she wasn't going to get one until she was 13, but...

Other than that, work is still going really well for me. I love my new loan officer..and she loves me. She's very appreciative of me and strives to let me know..which is a nice change. Our branch is beautiful and it's a nice, quick commute. The biggest downfall at this point, is they're open on some holidays that I've always had off. For example, I now have to work tomorrow, Native American Day. So, Eric's going to stay home with the girls:( They're going to come visit me and take me to lunch tomorrow. Then, Eric will take Harper to daycare & take Emma to a movie.

We're getting ready for Emma's first communion the first week of November, as next year she will start confirmation. Hard to believe they grow that fast!

Have a good week!

Apple Orchard

I know! I've been very bad at blogging, but we've been SO busy lately, I can't believe it!

Last weekend, Eric & I were so excited to get away for the weekend, just the two of us! We dropped Harper off at my mom's on Saturday a.m. and headed to Cabela's. Then, we stopped at the Medford Outlet Malls & ended up spending hours there! Who would've thought?!

We got to our hotel in St Paul early enough to drop our things off and went out for dinner! It was so nice to visit with my husband again! Our conversations are generally cut off by a scream or a squeek from someone. We ended up getting our roomm for free as our jacuzzi wouldn't shut off! The maintenance guy had to be called in from home at 10:30 PM to try to get it to shut down, but no luck! I don't know if the motor finally gave out or what, but it shut off in the middle of the night!

Then, we headed to the dome to watch the Vikings vs Dolphins. I'm gotten Eric the tickets for father's day, as he's a huge Dolphins fan & they only play the Vikings every 6-7 years. It was fun (for him:) as the Vikings played horribly! We picked Harper up later than we thought (8pm) and got back home at 9 pm Sunday. (Emma had been with her dad that weekend)

My job has still been going really well. I moved into our new building on Friday! It's so close..about a 10 minute drive! I'll be able to come home for lunch if I want!

My brother, Matt, and his family came down for the weekend this weekend! Our cousin got married, so we went to that Saturday afternoon and it was a nice day for a wedding! Matt & Kristina watched the girls for us while we went to another wedding dance later in the day. It was nice for all of the girls to play together.

Today, we woke up and went to church and then went out for lunch and headed out to the apple orchard by town to pick some apples! It was a lot of fun, except for the lack of apples! I don't know if we were too late in the season, or if they had a harder year growing, but we had to struggle to find our bags worth!

Harper helped herself to an apple and I tell you, it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen! I didn't think her 3.75 teeth could dig into an apple like it did! It kept her quite content for a long time! We were there over nap time, and I thought we'd struggle with a crabby baby, but the apple was the key to the day:)

Here's the group on our way out to the orchard. (Matt, Evelina on Kristina's lap, Eric with Harper, Emma & Annika)

This was a few weeks ago with Eric & Harper in the Dolphin's gear. It was so cute! Harper's got a cheerleader outfit.

Harper loved the tractor pulled wagon out to the orchard!

This is a rare picture of Harper & I! I'm usually behind the camera!

Again, with the apple. So sweet.

A rare picture with Harper loving her blanky. Usually when I get the camera out to take this picture, she's done loving the blanky!

Emma - still really liking her hip hop dance class on Monday's. I think school is going well! No notes to tell me any differently, so I guess that's good!

Harper - still working on teething! She's getting 2 1/2 right now, so lots of fun diapers and waking up several times a night:(

Eric - so busy at work, it's rare he doesn't bring home with him. He's working on a couple of murder trials on top of his normal daily work. He had to go into a home on Thursday that was a crime scene about 4 weeks ago. A man was beat so bad with a bar stool and a bottle, he was killed, and then they put him in a car and started it on fire. This house was pretty ripe after mid-summer weather! My  poor baby! Life isn't gross enough without the actual visualization..and smells to go along with it!

Me - just busy with work and the girls! Fortunately, my husband is the BEST he is a big helper around the house!

Hope you all feel back to know what the Johnson/Salzwedel life is all about!
Have a good week! I should be better for awhile again! No plans over next weekend!

Omaha zoo 2010

The Johnson/Salzwedel household returned from a weekend trip away today. We left the house Saturday morning and headed to Omaha. We made it down there around noon after repacking the car as Eric's battery died in his car!

This will be a short blog as I had it all done, when the blog site went down. Not going to type it all again! GRRRRRRRR

Here is Harper on the way to Omaha for a quick nap. How sweet is she?!

Harper was mesmerized by the Gorillas. One came real close to this window & she was absolutely stunned. She didn't understand why she couldn't touch them.

Our little soon to be walker is really getting good at it, but has choosen to only do it on her terms! Wonder where she gets that?

Our little girls are so cute! Harper was confused as to why she could touchc this gorilla!

We spent the whole day in Omaha, along with Eric's friend, Jason. We had to park a long ways away as the zoo was truly packed! We went slow, and I'm sure Jason was ready to go a little faster, but it's hard to do with a couple of little girls and a Red Flyer Wagon, which slows you down in a busy place! I didn't get more pictures that day due to pulling the empty wagon. Eric carried Harper around a lot so she could see.

We met Jason for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings to experience the season opener of the Nebraska CornHusker game! Harper was intregued by the noise and soon became a fan too!

We left the guys by themselves and went to the hotel to bed. Sunday, we had breakfast & headed to Lincoln. We got an early check in at the wonderful Embassy Suites and the girls & I spent the afternoon swimming and trying to get the baby to nap! She was not interested!

Eric brought the girls swimming again today after the amazing breakfast at the hotel & we loaded up to  head home. We stopped in Vermillion for lunch with Jamie & Carole and finally made it home!

Eric & Harper had some snuggle time when we got home.  We are truly blessed with our girls!

Better head to bed. Have a great week!

Harper's one year pictures

This is just a sampling of Harper's 1 year pictures that we took a few weeks ago! We will be having a tough time picking which one is the "One" to put on the wall!

We're headed to Omaha today to the zoo and Lincoln tomorrow..

Just wanted to give a brief blog before the next one about this weekend!

Enjoy!