The Johnson Blog: March 2016

Thursday, March 31, 2016

March Recap

Oh goodness has this been quite a month! Between waiting for and then bringing Ryan Charles into this world and celebrating Easter, our cups are full over here, but we're doing really well! We spent a lot of time outside when it was possible leading up to his birth, but we had a cold snap that lasted a good solid week, which made that more difficult. I also twisted my ankle, which made getting around a lot more difficult as well. After Ryan was born, we spent a lot of time snuggling and resting and just getting by for a week or so, but quickly fell into a comfortable routine. Even being two and a half years removed from the newborn stage, by baby #3, it's a heck of a lot easier adjustment than it was for baby #1, hands' down! In fact, aside from the chaos from 9-11pm each night, when Ryan *should* be sleeping but fights it, it hardly feels like much has changed from 2 kids to 3. So for those of you who have recently been adjusting to having just 1 baby, a word of encouragement: Going from 0 to 1 was by far the hardest adjustment for us. ;)

I've been slowly knocking projects off my project list during maternity leave, including painting and decorating the nursery (check it out here).

The whole first half of the month was busy with work and prep for my maternity leave there, as well as trying to not be completely boring at home, but feeling like calling in sick to home life many evenings. The second half of the month was just the adjustment at home, and lots of really, really sweet snuggles with Ryan :) I mean...

Mark and I squeezed in one last date night the week before Ryan was born, where he introduced me to Larry's World Famous Onion Rings, which was so yummy. We also made it to the park once. Beyond all that, highlights include...

Highlights:

Cashel's 4 year Well Child Check (March 2) (recap here)
Welcoming Ryan Charles to our Family (March 11) (recap here)
Visiting the Easter Bunny (March 19) (recap here)
Visit to Worthington / Ryan Meeting Great Grandma Vi (March 25) (recap here)
Easter (March 27) (recap here)
Visit to the Farm (March 26) (recap here)

Photo Highlights:

You're in for a treat! Being on maternity leave means I'm almost caught up on my family scrapbook for 2016, so instead of a barrage of photos, you get them all in scrapbook form :)

Looking Ahead...

We're excited for the beautiful weather, which is allowing us to finally get outside more! I've got a lot of projects to keep me busy during nap times on maternity leave, including getting Cashel's new room painted and decorated, getting our bedrooms switched around, putting the finishing touches on Ryan's nursery, a few shopping trips, and hopefully another trip down to the farm to see the Ropte family. I'm sure we'll be making countless trips to the nearby parks, and hopefully seeing lots of family and friends, now that I have my energy back.

Now that Ryan is finally here and thriving, we're starting to put some fun little family vacations on the calendar again! We're headed to the Wisconsin Dells at the end of May for a long weekend, and then we just booked a week in Alexandria in July, staying at a vacation rental home on one of the lakes there. I'm equal parts excited and terrified at the thought of taking the boys on vacation at this point. I suppose prepare for the worst and hopefully be pleasantly surprised, right? ;)

Until next month...

Lately in Windom (March 2016)

The month started with me finally having to suck it up and admit that my coat can no longer zip :(

Kendrick and Cashel were helping me make cookies and decided that the cookies needed sprinkles.

SO ready for Spring at this point. The technology bug has been a bit *too* present in our house the past few weeks.

So very close to baby time!

4 Year Checkup for Cashel - HOW is he this old already?

I sure do love these guys!

Daddy has been SO fantastic with the boys lately. I managed to make it out for a nice walk with them just before I twisted my ankle and went down for the count later that weekend :(

The verdict is in: NOT labor-inducing.

Cashel pretending to be Mr. Hippo Head.

4 days post-sprain. It felt about as good as it looked.

The big thing lately at our house has been (FOR THE LITTLE BOYS ONLY) going topless. They don't want to get "messy".

Necessary for the whole last half of my pregnancy. I never thought I'd despise soaking in the tub in my life.

My favorite part of this picture is the piece of pretend swiss cheese on my belly lol

Bags packed: Ready to go!

Our favorite thing to do after the snow melts (or it rains): Scoop the water into the drain.

On our way to have a baby! Little did I know, I was probably at 5cm here!

Meeting my baby boy! Boooyyyyyy what an intense 2 hours it was from getting to the hospital to this moment :)

Super sleepy and all wrapped up :)

Fun fact: The boys both had colds leading up to baby Ryan being born, and I figured, "Eh - as long as they don't get right up in his face, he'll be fine." I think I forgot that I have a 4 year old and a 2.5 year old. Luckily, no one else got sick as a result :)

Yeah, he was pretty much big enough to NOT need the newborn insert :(

Newborn pictures are super hard work!

I think if these guys could decorate cookies and paint all day, they'd totally do it.

If you recall, last year Kendrick was terrified of the EB, but by the time we finished eating breakfast, they were the best of friends. Well, folks, apparently EB didn't return Kendrick's calls, because they were NOT on good terms this year. Not even close.

Not. Even. Close.

Kendrick's favorite thing is taking silly photos. You can't even get him to smile even a little bit. Goofball ;)

Ready to die some Easter eggs!

We tried the swirly kind this year. They were oddly sticky...

My little squish :)

Finally got the nursery finished!

Looking in the general vicinity of the camera = WIN when you have 3 boys age 4 and under.

Disclaimer: No babies were harmed in the taking of this photo ;) Brotherly love!

Also, no Great Grandmas were harmed in the taking of THIS one ;)

These guys did AWESOME at their dentist appointments! Whoever came up with the idea to give them sunglasses was one smart cookie!

My Mama finds that the itsy bitsy babies are the easiest to hold these days. That being said, this chunker required a pillow under the arm!

Cashel and Kendrick talk nonstop about Uncle JJ and cousins when they come home from a trip to the farm. Non.Stop. They ask every week when we can go back, and pray for "cousins and the kids in the city" every day.

You see the chick with the messy pony tail in the gray sweatshirt? Yeah, that's my sister. She's phenomenal. She invests so much energy into taking care of everyone and making sure that everyone is entertained and fed, and I truly believe she has no idea how much we all appreciate her. You are the best sister I could have ever asked for, Amanda Joy!

I'll totally claim this goofball ;)

Annnnddd...this one :)

Seriously...why are my kids the only ones who put on weird stuff and look like weirdos? lol

Puzzles with Aunt Mandy :)

Coloring more Easter eggs with Aunt Mandy. (I told you - she's a rockstar!)

Half of the Ropte cousins!

Cashel doled out "breakfast" on Easter Sunday. We actually ate at the church, but apparently we needed a single mini chocolate doughnut to hold us off until 9am ;)

Breakfast at church...and I'm pretty sure everyone there thinks our kids our completely out of control.

This is pretty much how most of our Easter pics turned out. (This is for you, cousin Lori!)

We had Mark's Dad, Pam and Jess up for lunch, and in my business with getting things together and then doing the Easter Egg hunt, I realized we never did any sort of group pic - this was the best I got!

We hunted lots of eggs. Then, Cashel didn't feel we had hunted enough (even though it was flippin' cold outside!) and proceeded to re-hide all his eggs again. Except Kendrick just kept walking behind him and picking up each of the ones Cashel had re-hidden, which threw Cashel into a wild raging tantrum. #boymom