The Never Ending Christmas - Part 1

So we have the been experiencing the ultimate drawn out Christmas:

Christmas Eve Eve - Family Christmas at Home

Christmas Eve - Christmas in Eatonvillle with the Simpson side

Christmas Day - Christmas in Des Moines with the Johnson side

Day After Christmas - Christmas with Nicks Dad

Day After the Day After Christmas - Drive to Oregon

And that brings us to today - Christmas in Salem with the Jones Family

We've determined that though it has been fun seeing lots of family, this will be the last time we travel this much.

Here are a few photos of the last few days:

First is Maddie with her gifts from Mom and Dad

Next is Maddie with her GPop Marty

And last is Maddie with her favorite gift of all, the bag that her other gift came in

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.

We're sorry it's been so long since our last post, but it gets busy this time of the year. I'm sure you all understand.

A few weekends ago we headed down to Oregon to visit family. The trip was tons of fun and we snapped a few great photos of Maddie while we were down there.

Here is Maddie acting out for the camera. And here she is enjoying one of Ron's extremely entertaining stories.

And lastly here she is enjoying some time with her Great Grandpa Howard.

Then last weekend we went down to Des Moines to kick it with Great Grandma Peg and Great Grandpa Jack. Here she is watching football with Jack.Then it started snowing like crazy over the next few days. We ended up with about 10 inches at our house and are expecting a few more inches tonight.
All this snow allowed Nick to stay home from work and we all went out and enjoyed Maddie's first snow! We think she liked it, though she just stared wide eyed the whole time.

Well, that's all for now. Sorry again for the delay, we'll get some Christmas photos up here soon.

Merry Christmas to all!

Oh the weather outside is weather.

The Christmas Spirit is slowly spreading into the Johnson household. We unpacked all of the Christmas boxes from the attic. Dianne started decorating the house while I strung lights outside. Awhile later we took Maddie out to cut her first Christmas tree (the tree has slightly more character than we at first anticipated). Then we spent the rest of the evening listening to holiday music while decorating the tree. You could say it is a true Christmas in the Northwest.

Kitty Torture

Not a whole lot to report around here. We're getting ready to kick off the holiday season by heading down to Oregon for Thanksgiving and for the raging party that will be Jenny's wedding.

Other than that, things are pretty low key. Maddie has been on a few playdates with her new friend, Drake, which has been entertaining and Dianne and I have been preparing our kitty, Sadie, for the upcoming joys of having a toddler in the house.

Mr. Mom

So Dianne took off to The Great White North (Canada) this weekend and left Me alone with the baby for 3 days and 2 nights!

Here are a few thoughts:

Being a single parent must be hard! I have a whole new respect for single parents (and for stay at home mothers!).

Maddie was great, she was on a steady schedule, she at well from the bottle, and she slept well both nights. None the less, I'm exhausted! I didn't realize how constant caring for her would be. I mean every little thing you do revolves around her and the mood she's in or if she's asleep or awake. It's crazy.

Also, I love her to death but she is a terrible conversationalist. You get really tired of talking to yourself and eventually crave some sort of social interaction (Sunday morning I had cabin fever so bad that I went to the mall just to walk around). Luckily, I planned ahead and had some company lined up: Friday was Grandpa, Saturday was football watching with the boys, and Sunday was with Auntie Amanda.

Last thought:

Being alone for the weekend brings into sharp focus how lucky I am to have a wonderful woman to share being a parent with. By far the hardest part of this weekend was not being able to laugh and joke with Dianne about whatever Maddie was doing. Be it farting or burping or smiling...

One more thing:

Maddie didn't poop the entire weekend until right when Mom got home, just in time to change the diaper. Sweet.

Giggles!

Just wanted to post a short clip of Maddie doing her new thing.

Happy Halloween!

Our "Little Sasquatch" enjoyed her first Halloween on Friday. As you can see, Mommy pieced together a beautiful Bigfoot costume for her. She was way more cuddly than scary.