Christmas 2013 and Our Year in Review

Christmas came so quickly this year! I feel like I hardly had time to think about it before it was over and gone. In the few weeks before Christmas Neal and I tried to think about the gifts we could give our Savior. I tried to focus more on my scripture study, in particular the Savior's birth and surrounding time. 

We really have had a great year and are blessed with a wonderful family! The first half of the year we were blessed to house sit for the Mayers while they were on their mission. When they came back in June, we made the big move across and down the street to an apartment (Neal's parents own a triplex here). We love Bountiful and feel blessed to still be here close to many family and friends.

Neal: He's stayed busy being a wonderful husband, father, and breadwinner for our family. He's still working at Academy Mortgage in Sandy, but has switched to the marketing department. He loves sports (both watching and playing) when he can find time for it, and is currently teaching the 14-15 year old Sunday school class.
Becca: I love being a stay at home mom and wife for Neal and our two cute kids. A big part of the year  was being pregnant and bringing a new member to our family in October. I also spent a lot of time painting furniture, doing projects, and turning our new apartment into a home.
Lydia: This has been a huge year of growing and accomplishments for Lydia. She loves to talk and has quite an extensive vocabulary. With the arrival of Jacob, she became a big sister and does great! She's my little helper and Momma's girl, whatever I'm doing, she wants to do too. Potty training was another of her big accomplishments this year (although she still wears diapers to bed) and she's doing great at it! She also loves to sing songs, pray,  make people happy, and going to "bamas" house (grandma).
Jacob: Jacob made his grand arrival October 4 in the back of our SUV on I 15, making us a family of four. He's our happy little boy who loves to coo and smile at us and we can't imagine life without him.

We spent Christmas this year with Neal's family. Christmas eve we had a nice dinner and enjoyed reading the nativity story and singing Christmas songs at Neal's parents. Everyone was there except Bradley , who is on his mission. The next morning we woke up and opened stockings here before heading over to his parent's house. Lydia was so excited to find fun things in her stocking, but she especially loved her fruit snacks! After making some bread for neighbors we headed up the street to grandma and grandpa's house. It was so nice being with family and we were spoiled with so many gifts. Lydia is at such a fun age and  it was so fun to watch her open presents and get excited about them. After presents and a late brunch we were able to Skype with Bradley. The rest of the day was spent visiting family, eating, playing games, and sledding. What a great day! I forgot the camera so I only have one picture of Lydia with her stocking ( before we left home) .

December

December was a fun and busy month filled with lots of family get-togethers and parties.

Lydia, Sadie, and Kaitlin

My sister Melissa came to visit from Alabama with her three girls. While she was here we met up with Jen and Rhonda, so we had four of the five sisters together. It's always so fun to get together with them and Lydia loved playing with her cousins. We tried to get the three little girls together for pictures but they were not very cooperative this year. These were the best I could get.

Jen also recently had another baby (Hannah) and she and Jacob are a month apart. I love that my kids have cousins their age to play with.

My mini me. :) I came out wearing this and Lydia wanted to match me, so I let her wear her red pants and white shirt too. She loved it.

Jacob and Lydia watching each other and hanging out at home.

Santa came to both the Johnson and Swalberg family parties (Neal's dad and moms side of the family). Jacob didn't mind sitting with him but Lydia wanted nothing to do with him. The first night she just cried and wouldn't go anywhere near him. The second night she still wasn't anxious to have anything to do with him, but she did let me hold her next to him so we could get a  picture.

Flossing

Neal is a flossing fanatic. In all the time I've known him, he always has to floss his teeth, every night. (Don't get me wrong, I think flossing is important too, I just don't do it as often.) Recently, he's been helping Lydia floss her teeth and she loves it. Well, one Saturday morning she woke up and came into our room with this...

... She had taken a package of floss (of course it was brand new), pulled it open, and unwound the whole thing. She was so proud of herself for flossing all by herself.  How can you get mad when she's so cute and just trying to learn good habits?

Jacob's 2 month checkup

Due to a busy season and late scheduling on my part, Jacob's 2 month checkup didn't happen until last week (so he was 2 1/2) months. He's growing fast and things are looking good.

2 month stats

Weight: 13 lbs 13 oz (90%)

Length: 24 in (75%)

Head 16 in (50%)

Hanging out at the dr's office

I forgot just how fast they change and grow. He is a very happy baby and is starting to coo and "talk" a lot more. He loves being out with us and especially loves watching whatever Lydia is doing. He still is not a big fan of being on his tummy, but will tolerate it for a while. Since we moved him to his crib (sharing a room with Lydia) he's been sleeping much better. Some nights he's still up every couple of hours, but mostly he'll only be up once or twice to eat and then go back down. There were even two nights this last week where he slept through the entire night! 

Jacob's blessing and attempted photo shoot

Wintertime is definitely harder to get everyone together for a baby blessing. It seemed as though each Sunday someone was always sick. Jacob also picked up a cold (complete with congested and stuffy nose- which made it  hard for him to breath, eat, or sleep) which lasted for about a month. Because he was still sick when we originally planned on blessing him (Dec 1st), we pushed it back another week. Unfortunately it snowed a lot that weekend so most of my family was unable to come, but most of Neal's family live very close and were here. Those in the circle included: Neal, his Dad and Grandpa, Brent, and Josh (Stephanie's friend). My sister Rhonda and family made it up here for the tail end of the blessing, due to the bad roads. The blessing was very nice and Jacob was quite content and happy throughout it (unlike Lydia). What a blessing it  is to have the gospel in our lives and to have Neal be a worthy priesthood holder to preside over our family. We didn't get any pictures taken on Sunday, so Monday morning I put him back in his outfit.

As soon as I pulled out the camera, Lydia wanted in on all the action, so we did a little photo shoot with her as well. What a job! I think that I'll leave picture taking to the professionals, or at least when I have someone here to help out.

Trying to get a 2 year old still and smiling! I think that I took about 30 or 40 pictures trying to get one that I loved and still wasn't super happy with any of them. Oh well, we're getting family pictures taken next month!

Fall

Oh Fall, how we love you. Your cool, crisp days, and of course lots and lots of leaves to play in (and rake and rake and rake!). If only fall lasted a long time instead of winter.

Lydia had a blast playing in all of the leaves. She just couldn't get enough and especially loved grabbing handfuls to throw in the air so it would "rain" leaves.

Our cute kids!

We bought this swing for Lydia's birthday and she LOVES it! She would happily spend all day there if we wanted to push her that long.

Jacob is a very happy little boy and we love seeing his smiles. They are becoming more and more frequent, but it's so hard to get them on camera.

Halloween

Halloween was a lot more fun this year as Lydia was old enough to know what was going on. The whole month of October she kept saying, "Halloween!" and we'd have to tell her, not  until the end of the month. I think a lot of her excitement came from seeing our calender with last years Halloween pictures each day. The long awaited day finally arrived and she loved going to Daddy's work and getting treats from everyone. We also found a cute bat costume for Jacob to wear. After getting way too much candy at Neal's work, we headed over to a neighbors home for dinner and visiting, followed by trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa's house and a few other close neighbors. 

Jacob Neal Johnson: Birth Story

I've had a lot of requests to hear Jacob's birth story. Two months later, I'm finally posting something. This is going to be a really long post, so if you  want to read it, you'd better get comfortable! It also gets a little personal and probably too much information, so if that's not your thing, just skip this post.

After 9 months of pregnancy and going 8 days past my due date, our little son was finally born- on October 4th- though he came in a way we did not expect. The morning started out pretty normal, I did wake up a bit early with some very  mild contractions, but nothing painful or super noticeable. I decided to stay up and finish up the car seat cover that I had started the night before, since Lydia would be up soon anyway. Neal had taken the day off work as he figured that we would have had our baby by then, so we enjoyed breakfast together and headed off to run errands and go to the library. After finishing up errands, Neal took Lydia swimming at the Rec center and I  headed to the gym for my daily workout. I guess I wasn’t paying much attention, had my hands full (headphones, cell phone, and water bottle), and ended up locking the keys in the car. I knew that Neal wouldn’t take his phone in while they were swimming, so I decided to bike for 30 min and then start walking home. I did try to call him a few times, but he never answered. The gym is just under 2 miles from where we live, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to walk home, although it was a bit cold without a jacket and I was having some mild contractions every so often. Still, it wasn’t anything too intense and I didn’t think much of it. After arriving home, Neal and Lydia still weren’t back, so I waited downstairs in the storage/laundry room (luckily that was unlocked and warm) about 10-15 min for them. As we got inside, and got some lunch for Lydia, my contractions started getting a bit more painful. It was now about 1:30 pm, and I decided to take a bath to see if my contractions were the real deal or just braxton hicks, while Neal helped Lydia finish up lunch and get down for a nap. The bath did not help anything and the contractions were getting stronger and more painful so I decided it was time to call the midwife. She was down in the Orem office so she told me to meet in about 45 minutes. While I was on the phone with her, I heard/felt a pop. I didn’t know what had happened, but in hindsight, it must have been my water breaking, though I didn’t notice any water because I was in the bathroom. Things got really intense after that with each contraction. I was so glad that Neal was home! I asked him to please call his mom to watch Lydia because we really needed to leave right then.  I had to wait for in between contractions to go out in the car, because it hurt too much to move during them. Luckily the car I’d left at the gym, was Neal’s little car, and we had our bigger, Honda Pilot, at home. I really did not feel like sitting in the front seat, so I climbed in the back (we had the third row seats down) and lay down there. At about 2:45, Neal’s mom was still a few minutes away, but I told Neal we couldn’t wait and needed to leave right away! The birthing center was down in Salt Lake (about 25 min away) and I never knew it took so long to get there! Each contraction was super painful and my body felt like pushing each time. I still didn’t think much of it though, because with Lydia I pushed for over an hour (although I had an epidural with her). Lydia’s car seat strap (where the seat is hooked on the back of the car’s seat) was right in front of me and was so nice to grab and hold on tightly to, so I could get through each contraction. We’d only made it 10 or 15 minutes down the road (about 17th south on I-15) when I yelled for Neal to stop the car and come help me because the baby’s head was out! He quickly pulled over in the emergency lane and came back. I couldn’t see the baby well, but Neal had to unwrap the cord from around his neck a couple of times. With one more push, the baby was all the way out. Those first few seconds are always a bit nerve racking as they come out somewhat blue/purple and before their first cry, but especially as we were by ourselves in the car. He did finally cry a bit, but mostly we could just hear and see him breathing. What a relief! Neal tossed back a towel (he had put one on the front seat for me) so we could wrap him up and keep him warm. We felt so blessed that our baby was ok and we know that Heavenly Father was watching over us. I did feel much better after that, now that the most intense part was over, so I was able to sit up and hold our little boy while Neal hopped back in front to finish the drive. I called the Midwife to let her know that our little boy had already been born. She was still about 20 minutes away, but she told us to just keep him warm and to not cut the cord until they got there. She also called another midwife who was closer, so someone could be there when we arrived. The other midwife wasn’t as close as she thought, so we ended up waiting about 10 minutes in the parking lot before anyone got there. After she finally got there, she brought out some towel/pads (like the thick kind they put on examination tables) to wrap around me . Going inside, I’m sure,  was quite the sight for anyone driving past the birthing center. Me, in my baggy cougars t shirt, holding tightly to my towel wrapped baby (who was still attached to the umbilical cord), the midwife holding the pads around me like a makeshift skirt, and Neal following closely behind. We did make it safely inside and upstairs where I was able to deliver the placenta and the cord was finally cut. I ended up tearing a bit, so the midwife stitched me up while they cleaned up Jacob, checked, and weighed and measured him. Afterwards, they left us mostly to ourselves (there was a phone in there to page someone in if we needed anything) and it was so nice just to have Neal, Jacob, and I in the room. They did bring us up some dinner and snacks as well. I had a much more enjoyable and relaxing experience than I did with Lydia in the hospital. The atmosphere was also much nicer than in a hospital because it felt like a warm and inviting bedroom as opposed to a cold and unwelcoming hospital room (plus the bed was much more comfortable then a hospital bed). After a few hours, I was feeling pretty good, so we checked out and headed home. I also think that recovery is going more smoothly because I didn’t have the drugs from the pitocin and epidural going through my body, like I did with Lydia. We’re so happy to finally have Jacob home with us and are enjoying being a family of 4.

Hanging out at home

Lydia loves to hold Jacob and be near him. Jacob isn't always so sure that he likes it.

Our handsome little boy.

Painting and more projects

Back in June, we bought a table, 4 chairs, and a bench for $20 off KSL. Talk about a great deal! They were all solid pieces in great condition, but they were black/brown and kind of ugly. After doing some research on painting furniture and looking at a bunch of finished pictures, I decided that I needed to paint them. I chose a clean white for the table and a light blue for the chairs. I was happy with how the table turned out, but I thought the chairs were a little too "baby blue" so I repainted them to a soft light blue/teal color (which I love!). Wow, I had no idea how time consuming it would be! The table wasn't so bad because I could use a roller on the tabletop, but the chairs took forever and needed a paintbrush for everything. Because  they were such a dark color, they also needed quite a few coats.

The chairs before (the table was the same: black legs and brown top, but I didn't get a picture of it) and after. Sorry about the glare on the table, but it is all painted white. I also made the curtains to add a bit more color in the kitchen.

After finishing the table I had some white paint leftover, so I started painting Lydia's changing table and dresser...

Both her dresser and changing table were the same light brown color, although I only took a picture of the changing table before painting (top right). I painted both white and sprayed the knobs blue. They look so much better now, I don't know why I didn't paint them a long time ago. As I was waiting for the first coat on them to dry, I decided to also paint the dresser and 2 night stands in our room...

More before and after. Once again, they were both the same color, but I only took a before picture of one of the night stands. I also spray painted the handles a pretty silver color. Now our room looks so much cleaner and bigger. I really should have painted them 3 years ago when we got them!

While I was still in the mood for painting and doing projects, I also did a few quick ones. Neal and I were always misplacing our keys, so I bought an old frame at DI, spray painted it, and added cup hooks on the bottom. Viola... new key holder. We do still lose our keys on occasion, but not nearly as often now.

I got this great mirror for $3 at a yard sale. In fact, the guy who sold it to me took it off his bathroom wall just for me ( when I first got there, he asked what I was looking for and when I told him  I wasn't sure, something to hang on my wall like a mirror maybe, he ran inside and brought this out). Talk about great service! I loved the size, shape, and detail on it, but didn't love the gold finish. I had leftover spray paint from redoing desk/dresser pulls, so I taped it up and gave it a few quick coats. It came out great and works really well in the living room!

Before and after. Sorry, I didn't think about taking a picture before until after I had already taped the mirror part. 

I also really wanted a white crib, but by that point, I was getting tired of painting and was almost out of paint (not to mention just a week or two away from my due date) so I sold it on KSL and bought a white one. I did make a crib bumper and crib skirt for it though. 

Random Happenings

This post is a bunch of random pictures I wanted to put on here. Just a day in the life...

I found a recipe for finger paint online and thought it would be fun to make with Lydia. She loved it! We didn't have any paintbrushes, so we used q-tips. After a while of "painting" pictures, Lydia decided it was much more fun to paint herself! 

Lydia loves to follow me around and always be doing what I am doing. One morning I came out to the living room to discover that she had gotten Neal's bag from the bathroom. It happened to have a disposable razor in it and she was running it up and down her legs (just like she had watched me do at times). Thank goodness the protective covering was still on it. I quickly took it from her and made sure the rest were out of reach. I guess I need to be more careful what I do in front of her. :) Another day she had gotten my makeup bag and I found her with my eyelash curler in front of the mirror. Doing makeup is one of her favorite things, she is constantly getting into my bag and playing with whatever she can get her hands on. 

I did a lot of painting in the last few months so Lydia loves paintbrushes. I finally let her play with a couple and "paint" with water outside. She loved painting the stairs, drawing pictures, and writing names (with my help)! (top right) She loves going to the park with her friends. She and Caleb had fun riding on the dinosaur together. (bottom right) Neal's dad had a large bin/tub/trough (I don't know what to call it) that Lydia loved to play in as her own personal swimming pool.

At the end of August, we bought Lydia a "big girl" bed. I was worried about her not sleeping well in it and being able to get in and out all of the time. I was surprised at how well she did, from day one she stayed put in her bed and would still be there when I came in to get her in the mornings. A few weeks into this, Neal went to get her one morning and this is how he found her. Apparently she thought this box would be a better place to sleep than her bed. What a silly girl! She'd even brought her pillow and blanket with her.

Hogle Zoo

Near the end of August, my friend, Natalie, invited Lydia and I to go to Hogle Zoo with her and her 3 kids. We went with them last year as well, but Lydia loved it so much more this year since she was older. We were able to spend a few hours there before nap time, and could easily have stayed there all day!

Watching the elephants.

(left pic) They also has a lot of lego animals and displays. They are pretty neat! The turtles are made completely out of legos. (right pic) Watching the monkeys, sorry there is a glare on the windows and you can't really see them well.

She loved the watching all the animals swim in the water; both the seal lions and the polar bear.

(left) Christian, Alvin, Lydia, and Ariana. Watching the giraffes.

There were lots more animals that we were able to see, I just didn't take many pictures. Hogle Zoo is such a big place, we probably only saw half the animals, and we need to go back soon!

Camping and Fishing

As August was ending, we realized that we hadn't gone camping over the summer, and if we didn't go soon, it would be too cold. We picked a weekend and drove up near Eden (UT), with Neal's parents and Dallin, for a quick weekend camping/fishing trip. We took Lydia camping last year, but this year she was old enough to really enjoy it! I know the pictures aren't very good quality, but they are all that we had.

We brought her pack-n-play to put in the tent, and she did great sleeping all night. 

 She was fascinated by the fire and was really excited when we pulled out the makings for smores. Daddy tried to help her roast the marshmallows, but she didn't want to wait for it and just ate them from the bag instead.

  

Waiting for the pancakes to finish cooking and enjoying our morning out in nature. 

After breakfast and cleanup, she went for a walk with grandpa to look for some moose (per her request). Luckily they didn't find any. :) When they got back we drove up by Ogden to a fish farm. Neal really wanted to take Lydia fishing and have her catch something.I told Neal I was fine with going fishing as long as I didn't have to clean or cook the fish.  Dallin really enjoyed it and caught a few fish. Lydia loved the water and watching the fish jump for the food, but wasn't a huge fan of holding the pole in the water. With Neal's "help", she did catch one little fish.  

Lydia turns 2!

Another post that is way overdue! Lydia turned 2 this past August. I can't believe that our little girl is already that old! Where did the time go?  She has learned so much this past year, she definitely is growing up quickly. In fact, she tells me almost everyday, "I growing up so big!" She is still a people person and loves to talk to everyone. Her vocabulary really expanded and she mostly talks in complete sentences. She knows her colors really well (actually she has for quite a few months now), can count to 10, and knows some of her letters. Her favorite song is "I am a Child of God" and she requests that I sing it every night. Sometimes she sings along with me, and I've heard her singing it by herself when I'm not right there. It's so cute to hear her little voice "singing" songs.  Helping me with whatever I'm doing in another of her favorite things to do, as she doesn't like to be left out of anything. She's actually is pretty helpful with sweeping, dusting, and throwing things away. She is definitely coming into the "terrible twos" and knows how to throw a little fit, but she is usually very happy and wants others to be happy as well. Each morning (well, almost every morning) when I come into her room, she'll look at me and exclaim, "Mom, I wake up happy!" At such a young age, she is also learning how to get on my good side. I was a bit frustrated and sad with how she was acting one day. Next thing I know, she came up behind me and gave me a big hug. Then she started giving me a back/shoulder massage with her little hands while saying, "Mom, it's ok. Be happy Mom." How could I stay mad and frustrated at her any longer? We sure love our Lydia and all she brings to our family.

The birthday girl!

Every time I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she would reply, "purple." I didn't have a lot of time to make her cake, so it isn't the prettiest, but she loved it! Blueberries are also one of her favorite foods, so those had to go on the cake somewhere too.

So excited for her birthday! She loved opening her presents and eating cake and ice cream.

 Being outside is still one of her favorite things. She could be outside all day! We bought her a swing for her birthday (Neal hung it outside from one of the trees) and she loves it!  On her birthday we (Neal's mom, Dallin, Lydia, and I) went to Liberty park. I've never been there before, but it was really great! There was so much to see and do. We started out by feeding the ducks (which mostly turned out to be geese, although there were a few actual ducks there too) which Lydia absolutely loved! The loaf of bread that we brought did not last very long. :) 

After feeding the ducks, we went over to the water section. Lydia loves water and had a blast wandering around the little stream. splashing in the water, and playing in the fountain.

Next (and lastly) we headed to the playground area. I should have taken more pictures, but Lydia was having too much fun. I was surprised at the amount of equipment there: swings, slides, splash pads, and so much more. Dallin helped her go on the very tallest slide over and over again, and then they had fun on the teeter totter together. She also spent a lot of time on the swings and just running around. Unfortunately it was time to go home for lunch and naps. Next time we'll come and spend more time playing!

July 2013

July was another fun filled summer month. The Meyers (the couple we were house sitting for) came back home the very end of June. Neal's parents have a triplex down the street that we were planning on renting, but it needed some new carpet, painting, and repairs (turns out there was termite damage in the kitchen) so we stayed with his parents for the end of June and most of July. Lydia loved waking up and seeing Grandma, Grandpa, and Dallin everyday! Dallin and Lydia are so funny to watch, they chase each other, Lydia loves to tease him and take whatever he has with him (especially his red rope and Jessie doll), and often they would crawl around pretending to be different animals together.  

Fun at Grandma's house. :)  (top)Lydia with her crazy bed head and enjoying playing in the toy room.

(bottom) playing dance dance with Dallin, and having fun with sidewalk chalk

Helping mom do the dishes. Lydia is a good helper and loves to do whatever I am doing!

Neal and I also took Lydia to the Discovery Gateway center in Salt Lake. I hadn't been there since an elementary school field trip and it has changed so much! There was so much to see and do, even for the little kids. We stayed for a couple of hours and Lydia loved it! I feel like we could have spent all day and not gotten bored with anything. 

She loved the water tables and activities there. She really wanted to get on the horse but as soon as she did, wanted Neal to take her off again. I guess she preferred to just look at the animals and not get on them.

They also had a cute little house set up, complete with kitchen/dining room, and a living room with a vacuum, "babies" and their cradles, ironing board, a piano, and a reading nook with chairs and books, and more. There was also a grocery store, a farm, a post office, a construction site, and so many more things. Upstairs they had more science based activities and things to see/do. Unfortunately our camera battery died, so I didn't take many pictures. We'll definitely have to go back soon.