End of August?!

We have had such a busy couple of weeks here at the Johnson/Salzwedel house!! Harper has started getting into trouble with all the places she just scoots to! She is so close to walking (more so at daycare than here) but she just goes, goes, goes! Daycare says she's so different here versus there. She can walk down the block with Harper only holding onto Suzanne's one finger! She is getting so big, we can't believe it.

The other day, we turned around and found her in the pantry playing with the Swiffer. I hope this is an early sign of her wanting to be clean. Phew, at least my days of cleaning are numbered.

Monday, August 16 was a very big day in Emma's life! It was the first day of 5th grade! I can't believe my baby is the oldest at the school! In addition to being back to school, she started Hip Hop dance class. It's a 5th & 6th grade class and she is the 3rd shortest girl! It's hard to imagine with taller parents, that she's so "short," but I think she'll sprout up like me once high school starts. She absolutely loves dance class. It starts at 5 on Monday's so I have to skip my lunch hour at work to get off at 4 so I can take her. (I'll write more about my new job later)

Here Emma is on the first day of 5th grade! She loves her teacher, Mr Colford. First year with a man teacher and he is also the Student Council advisor. She wanted to be in it, but didn't make it this year..there's always next year!

Last Saturday, was my family's birthday party at the lake. It was a 4 person birthday party as in a timespan of 2 weeks, we have 4 bdays! Emma (7/27), me (7/29), Harper (8/9) and Maddy (8/10). It was fun for all, except me. I'd been sick my first week at work and Sat was by far the sickest I got. In addition to my sinus-thing, allergies hit there and my eyes and nose just ran! I felt better once we got home!  Above is Eric helping Harper open her gifts while Evi looked on!

Here is Harper's very first day of bed-head! She still doesn't have a lot of hair, but yesterday she woke up and head crazy hair! We also noticed yesterday her first upper tooth is coming in! Finally, after months of acting like teeth were coming, I felt the click click of my nail hitting her tooth! So far, she only has the bottom two, but she pretty much eats anything with those two! Her favorite right now is fruit cocktail!

Also, over this weekend, she will sit in the Elmo chair for about 15 minutes watching Baby Einstein videos! She's mesmerized! Finally, a meal in "peace"

This was one of her birthday presents from G & G Olson/Bethany! she doesn't get up on it yet, too much, but it plays music and she loves to push the button & rock out!

Today while getting ready for church, she was enthralled with my mirror. She started giving kisses to herself. It was precious. Our big girl is just getting so big and fun! This week will be the last week I can write in her 13 month calendar that I write all of her milestones on, which just means she's getting so big, so fast! We are blessed with such beautiful girls, but they grow up way too fast!

My new job at First Dakota National is going well! other than not having a voice for the first week! Everyone seems very nice and really excited to have me start! I will be working downtown until our new branch out east is done. They say anywhere from 3 weeks-2 months, so who knows with construction! I know they need 5 dry days before they can pour the parking lot & with this summer, that's been pretty tough to get!

I already have 16 mortgage files, which is a lot, considering I've been there 1 1/2 weeks and my loan officer, Susan, is on her mandatory week long vacation! It's nice not having a manger hovering over my shoulders (she's based out of Yankton) and I've been having to do lots of mandatory compliance training online, to get it out of the way. I truly enjoy my job so far (other than parking 2 blocks away in a parking ramp!) Glad I don't have to do that in the winter! And, we have mandatory outfits. We have to wear suits that are company issued. they won't order mine until I've been there 30 days, and they take about 2 months to come in. So until then, I have 1 suit & 2 jackets that are company issued. One jacket is way too big and neither are my favorite, but I don't have much choice! They are very particular on their dress!

I am also very grateful to still have a friend of mine with us. Kristi fell about 2 weeks ago at work and broke her left ankle so bad, she had emergency surgery to put in two plates and some screws. I got a call yesterday that while at her parents house recouping, she passed out and fell. Turns out, a blood clot passed into her lungs and it's usually a deadly outcome! Thank God for big favors to keep her on this earth with us! She's only 37 and is the youngest patient currently at the Sanford Hospital Pulmanary unit! She had to be air lifted from Sioux Center, IA here so she could get her here fast enough!

Hope you all have a safe and healthy week!

1 year old!!!

Phew! What a week!!! Above is Harper on her actual birthday on Monday. She got a new chair and baby for her birthday & they were definately the most popular gifts! She got some great gifts. We're very blessed with friends & family:)

Harper & daddy had some snuggle time before work.

A good picture of her full birthday outfit! The greatest thing, is that she'll get to wear the outfit three times! Once for the party, once for her birthday  & this weekend we're having her birthday party with my folks at the lake!

So after work, Harper got to experience her first cupcake! Harper really dug into this one! Well, she really liked the frosting anyways! A girl after my own heart!!

Harper's new favorite thing is balloons! She calls them balls, but she definately has the gist of it!! She's talking so much now. Still lots of babbles, but she definately looked at the dog today and said "puppy!"

Wednesday was my last day of work at First Bank & Trust. After almost 5 years, I left with some sadness and some excitement for a future advancement opportunity with First Dakota National Bank. I start on Tuesday of this week. It's been nice for a mini vacation, but reality is coming back! My office sent me off with a very nice going away party at Bracco restaurant! Many people came and wished me well. Many tears were shed as some of these people meant a lot to me (Liz - I know you'll read this:)

Thursday, Emma & spent the day together. It was a lot of fun! We went to the dance store and bought her very first Hip Hop shoes for her dance class she starts this week. We got a leotard and all the stuff she needs to get this going. I pray she likes it as the start up is a killer!!

The rest of the day we got PE shoes and some other school related things. We got home around 4:00 and this is what I saw out the back deck:

I was scared to death! It looked like a UFO!! The thunder and lightening hit.. Oh I forgot to show  you what happened earlier in the week, due to the hard & fast rain:

Sink holes!!

Our landscaping light was about a foot down in the ground. A plant was swallowed up! Our driveway is not being driven on towards this side due to the massive sinking in our yard.

Our builder stopped over and said the excavator should be able to do some backfill and fix it - PRAY to God! Seriously! The neighbors have had this happen a few times since we've lived here.

Emma went to her Aunt Tara's yesterday so, Eric, Harper, Montana & I went to the bike trails and Harper got a good ride in her new wagon! She kept saying "Hi" to all the passer-by's! It was truly adorable! Then, we stopped to do some swinging!

Today, Eric & I took Harper to the Japanese Gardens to have her 1 year pictures taken by a photographer. Who knew we would've needed her sweater!! It was SO cool this morning!! Of course, the dress I had all picked out was too big, so we switched up the outfit at the last minute! **All of her clothes are too small and I'm hoping for a cool fall, so I don't need a new wardrobe for this kid**

I think Staci got some great shots! I'll find out in about 2 weeks!!

While Harper took her 3 hour nap (WOW), Eric got Emma's desk put together in her room, and I got the deck floor done with the 2nd coat of stain! Tomorrow, I should be able to finish it!

Wish me luck on the new job! SO excited. I'll write more about it next week, but the job is the same as my last one, but with potential underwriting advancements. I spoke with my new co-worker yesterday and she informed me that the current underwriter is very excited about my want to do this and has already set up a training schedule!! YA

Have a good week

Harper's first birthday

Honest to God, I don't have a clue where the last year has gone!! Can anyone help me out? I know that a year ago right now, I was wondering when this baby would want to come out and now, I'm wondering where the last year has gone!

Yesterday, we celebrated Harper's birthday by having a party at our house. We had many friends & family over. Harper enjoyed "opening" her presents..or trying to get inside them! We had many fun experiences and Harper enjoyed all the attention! She did so well and took an early nap and woke about 10 minutes before the party started. Right now, she loves to say, "Hi" "baby" "no" "ball" and "ugh oh". We're still debating if she said balloon.

Here's the amazing cake we got for her first birthday! It was amazing & had a chocolate cream filling in the top cake & a vanilla in the bottom cake. She really didn't get into it and I don't know if it's because it was fondant and was more of a shell than a frosting, but it tasted great! I highly recommend Tonna's cakes, if you're in the area!

One of Harper's gifts was this great chair from her God parents. Thanks Don & Shauna! If you can't read her shirt, it says "I'm the birthday girl" and has a matching #1 hat. I washed it and will put her back in it tomorrow for her actual birthay & take better pictures!

Mom & dad bought her a Radio Flyer wagon for her birthday. (here's the hat!) and Emma took her for a small ride around the cul-de-sac. We were planning on taking her for a longer walk today, but it is about 100 degrees today & for sure 100% humidity. It has now started to rain, and I'm sure we'll get a thunder storm (yep, there's the thunder!)

I start to cry when I think about my last baby turning one year old! I am truly sad that the year went so fast but I am SO grateful to have her healthy & happy and I get to be her mommy & see her grow up!  Happy birthday tomorrow to my little angel! We love you PJ!!

Birthday week - 2010

Been a busy week of birthday's here at our house! Today, Harper enjoyed her first cup of milk..I believe she loved it! Now, I should back up a bit!

FIRST CUP OF WHOLE MILK

Harper no longer lets you feed her, she HAS to do it herself. Here is her finishing the cottage cheese container..

UGH..this is the mess we get to clean up nightly! She still loves her cottage cheese! We have added pears to the mix! She would eat that for every meal if we let her!

These are a little out of order as I couldn't get the software to correct it, so after 5 minutes of messing with it, I'm keeping it!

The above picture is Emma yesterday on her 10th birthday party. She invited 4 girls, but only 2 could come. She chose to go to the Laurel Oaks pool and spend 3 hours there. She doesn't love birthday cake, so we changed it up this year with a massive cookie!

The girls had so much fun..for the first hour or so. Emma had come home sick on Friday and in the middle of cake, ended up throwing up at the pool. I wonder if part of it had to do with her being too hot. She stuck it out for the rest of the party, but went right home to bed.

Backing  up to Thursday night, we had a massive rain (3-6" in town) that led the falls to explode with a loud, thunderous roar! Since it was my birthday, I wanted to go down there to see them. It was an amazing show of God's greatness, that's for sure! The falls had raised over 8 feet overnight. Many houses had water in their basements Friday morning:( I pray for those people that they can get it cleaned up!

Again, out of order, but Emma did have a couple of presents to open this year. (Reminder, she chose no gifts this year and opted to spend the money on buying things for our 2 sponsor kids in Haiti). Emma collects snow globes, so I found a couple awesome deals at some garage sales earlier this spring! This one is Winnie the Pooh

Harper has really been working heavily on walking with help. She still isn't close, but definately wants to work on it more than I remember Emma wanting to. Had to buy a new baby gate today to get that up before she plummets to the basement below!

Other exciting news this week..I got a new job!! I had a call about 2 weeks ago asking me to send in my resume to another bank. It's with First Dakota National Bank. I'd worked with one of the loan officers almost 10 years ago in my first processor job. After a couple of interviews later, the job is mine! They are building a new branch that will be where I will work in October or so, that is much closer to home! I will get to come home for lunch, if I want! So, I'm hoping for good things! I will start there on Aug 17th.

We're getting closer to school starting again! Two weeks from tomorrow is the big day! We are signing Emma up for dance classes this year, per her request! She's taking a class on Hip Hop, so I'm hoping she likes it! She will also be going to a different daycare after school..not very much supervision! it's to get her used to it for the next year..when she's in MIDDLE school! UGH

Well, I think that's about the whole week! Hope you all had a good one & have one next week!