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!!