Totally "Chawed"

So, on Kelly's Korner a few weeks ago she was talking about a word she and her friends use when they are embarrassed. "Chawed". I thought it was pretty cute and it TOTALLY fits in this situation. At work we have to send out email campaigns to reach professors in different ways - those we wouldn't normally be able to talk to, to send messages about certain books - you know, lots of different reasons. Well, one of my co-workers came around the other day with a camera. I was like, hmm...what do you need a camera for? She was like oh, we are taking pictures for the email campaigns! AH! My ugly mug will be pasted on the side of the email campaign that I send out to 3,000 schools and about as many professors! I am TOTALLY CHAWED! I get that it is more personal for them to see the face of the person helping them - but as previously stated, I am not super happy with post-baby body - but what are you going to do? I will get there eventually and I don't think any of the professors are going to take enough of a look at my picture to notice :) I actually think it will be really cute - and I sure have had fun planning my email campaigns!

My Angel...

Just being sweet. I just love him to pieces.

Wrestle Mania!

The little man has decided that he ONLY loves to be on his belly these days, or sitting, or trying to pull himself up on something. So, my once very sweet little diaper changer is now auditioning for lead role in the "Diaper Wrestling League!". It is actually kind of funny - the minute you get him on the changing table he flips over! I don't even usually have time to get out that fancy shiny object to distract him with before he is on his belly! He is an animal! It is actually kind of funny, but Lord have Mercy I don't know what we are going to do with this child! He thinks it is pretty darn funny too - he just giggles away and I mean...with that sweet giggle, how can you help but chuckle yourself! It is amazing how fast he is able to get around too, it is making us realize that he is going to be on the go any day now! He is just going to take off and there will be no going back. The other morning I was changing him out of his jammers and diaper and he looked so cute flipped over with his little naked butt up in the air that I took him off the changing table, ran to get the camera and put him back on. I am insane - but I got a cute little naked bum picture :) And a few with him playing with the snot sucker - that was my distraction object of choice! What you can't see is that in the next picture he is practically hanging over the edge of the changing table performing all kind of acrobatics in an attempt to flip over - which he did!

A Rainy Day

We had a rainy day on Friday and it seemed to suit the little man and I just fine! We knew it was a pj-ammy kind of day and we took full advantage of it! For some reason I was in a picture snapping mood (shocking, I know!) and I got a few of the little man!

Nothing too exciting to share other than the fact that I love the look of concentration on his face and how he know pretty much knows to pose for pictures when Momma brings out the camera!

No one was spared my picture snapping hiatus, not even Scout and Sedona!

Arms Up!

Oh, and in case you were wondering - he is totally playing with my dirty laundry on the floor :) I can honestly say that I have been waiting (patiently as I have loved going through the stages with Connor) for the day that I would come into his room and he would sit up in his crib with his arms up. Ah, it just melts my heart thinking about it. While he hasn't figured out how to do that yet, he has figured out how to throw his arms up in the air when he wants to be held! It is about the sweetest little thing I know! He will even, while laying on his tummy, look back at you and throw one arm up in the air. Oh, he is too sweet for this momma to handle. I swear he is growing like a weed these days and always up to something new. He is the happiest little man and he just loves hanging out. I get excited when he wakes up and I know I will run in his room and go "uh! there is a MOOSE in here!!" and he will grin, giggle, kick his legs, shake his whole body and just wait for me to pick him up. My second favorite would have to be when he is sitting on the couch, floor, bed, with his little belly hanging over his pants and the arms go up like "momma, daddy, I need you." Love you, love you sweet pea!

"...Take Me Out to the BallGame...

...Cause it's root, root, root for the CARDINALS!"

That's right - Connor Francis went to his first official Cardinals game this afternoon! The Cards won five games in a row and had a deal where you could get $4 tickets and Momma scored three! We were so excited to take the little man to the game, HE was so excited that he woke up at 5:30 this morning to crawl in bed with us and "chat" about how excited he was :) We got all of our gear together the night before and we were ready to hit the road as soon as I got home from work!

The little family picture! We were way up in Big Mac Land, so we came down a few levels to get a shot with the arch in the background. Our seats were perfect though - we were in the shade on this warm day and it couldn't have been nicer. We sat in front of some really nice people who were laughing at all the pictures we were taking. Connor was great for the game! He didn't quite know what to think about all the clapping and screaming - but he sure enjoyed himself! He was having so much fun flirting with the lady behind us though he wasn't paying all that much attention to the game! I don't know what we are going to do with that one!

We brought his little booster seat and he sat in between us, it was pretty darn cute. He just played away, checked out the game and had a great time. We can't wait for the rest of the games in the future - it will be so fun to have him grown up a tried and true Cardinals fan - just like Momma and Daddy! I was laughing about how cute it will be when BJ is explaining all the rules to him and who all the players are - it's just going to be a little sweet. The Cards didn't pull out a win, but we sure had a great little family afternoon!

Pre-Gaming

In anticipation of Connor's first Cardinals game this evening - we did a little pre-gaming last night. We played a little "Fisher Price" baseball - getting him used to the baseball lingo and gear. He seemed to take to it pretty well, even putting his "game face" on in the last picture...

We can't wait to see how he does at the game - he is decked out in his Cards gear - the hat, onesie, bib and khaki shorts! He is a little too cute for words!

Confession...

There is a pretty good chance that I wore the same pair of pants to work three days in a row. I also MIGHT have worn that pair of pants today even though Connor spit up on them last night...OOPS! I guess that's what happens when I only have two pair of "business casual pants" to wear to work!

Who is that Baby?

It's Me!

I was going through some stuff tonight and came across a few pictures of my brother and realized that a few of them looked like Connor. So, I figured if Connor looked like my brother in some baby pictures, then he must look a little like me, right? So, out came the scrapbook my amazing mom made me - and this is what we found! By the way - sorry about the flash on the pictures, I didn't want to take any of the pictures off the pages, so I carefully photographed a few.
We have so many people who think he looks just like me, just like BJ, or a perfect combination. I think that sounds just perfect - I hope he looks like his handsome daddy and I figure with all the work I did to get him here I at least want him to have a smidge of me in him!! :) We were having so much fun looking at these pictures because he really DOES look a little like me! I am 9 months in these pictures, so almost exactly his age.

I think in the second row of pictures he looks like me, more so than the top two. We decided that he looks a lot like me when he is sleeping, and I was a belly sleeper! It was really crazy to look at all of these and see so much of MY son in me, you know? I just had to share - mostly because it's fun and secondly, I am a little proud that he does have some of his momma in him! Next up are pictures of daddy because once you see them, I think he also looks a lot like his sweet daddy - and you will also see that he gets all of the hair from his daddy! Look at those little blonde wisps - I think I was 10 before I had as much hair as he has now! We decided, as the poll said all those months ago - he seems to be the perfect combination!

Baby Sign Language

I had never heard of "Baby Sign Language" until I moved to Colorado and worked with toddlers for a year. I was actually blown away by just how smart little baby brains are - it is just amazing what little sponges they are. I knew when I had a baby of my own, I would try and incorporate sign language - at least with the basic signs for eating, needing a new diaper and getting sleepy. The Easter Bunny (Granny D!) was kind enough to drop off a book for us to use as a reference. I started getting Connor used to some of the signs ("more" and "all done") at 6 months, when I started feeding him big boy food, though not pushing it. Now that he is 8 months, I have started really trying to teach him and get him used to the signs at meal times. It's kind of fun! So far he just looks at us and laughs, laughs, laughs away when we do "All Done!". It's hilarious - he just thinks it's the funniest thing he has ever seen! It made me think about it when last night, as I was taking pictures of him in the bathtub, Bj came in to see him and then started doing "All Done!" to get him to laugh for the pictures! As you can see, he is looking over to the side (at the doggies and daddy) in all the pictures and he just chuckled away like we were about as amusing as it can get! I thought that was too funny not to share! I will keep you posted as to whether or not he starts signing or continues to just be amused by us :) Oh - and I found apricots last night!

Big Boy Bath!

I don't know if you can tell, but I am letting out a great big s-i-g-h right here...my big boy is sitting in the bathtub sans the rain forest bath. Wow, where is the time going?! The other day I thought why not, let's give it a shot!? He LOVED it! He loves his little man bathtub, but he was pretty stinkin' excited about all the freedom that the big boy bathtub allows him. He just sits in there and kicks, splashes and giggles up a storm! He is so sweet, but he made me smile when at the end of his bath he looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes and held his arms up like momma, I am ready...pick me up and snuggle me! Melted my heart right to pieces!

Little Bookworm

Most of you may know that I love to read. My parents used to yell at me because I would read into the wee hours of the morning with no lights on, straining my eyes. Connor has a full bookshelf and my hope is that he will grow up loving to read as much as I have. I try and read to him everyday, for as long as he will sit - just so he gets used to it. So far so good - he loves "thumbing" through his vast library. His new favorite book is "That's Not My Teddy" - he reads it morning, noon and night! I get so into my books that sometimes I can't put them down and most often I enjoy books more than movies. I got hooked on a few books (ahem, Twilight) while pregnant and I would sit in my hospital room, the bathtub, or Connor's room and just read to him. We read the whole series in about a week - I laugh that maybe that means he will grow up to be an author, from all the reading I did just before and right after he entered the world!

Swaying

I keep meaning to blog about this - as I laugh about it all the time, but I can't stop swaying! I don't know that I ever really blogged about it, because I was too tired, but Connor had quite the case of colic as a wee one and we did, have done and will continue to do a lot of swaying in our house. I seriously can't stand up and talk to someone without swaying! I usually don't notice it, but when I do I try and make myself stop, and I will for a second but then I am usually right back at it. If we were holding him standing up, or he in the Bjorn, we were swaying. I was at the store last week, without the little bugster, and the woman behind me started laughing - I kind of looked behind me like great, what did I do this time?! She goes - are you a mom? I said, yes, and she said do you know that you are swaying back and forth?! That just kind of made me chuckle - mom's out there, are you swayers too?

A Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend, how about you? We didn't do anything exciting at all (Momma went to a shower on Saturday night and that was fun!) but other than that we just hung out. With all the moving and shaking it feels like we have been doing lately, a nice weekend at home was just what the doctor ordered. Granny, Connor and I had such a nice time hanging out in the backyard yesterday afternoon, I couldn't help but take a picture or two. I thought these were pretty sweet and summed up the weekend rather nicely!

The 50

He is going to be zooming around on this before we know it! Daddy will show him the ropes - as it used to be his little motorcycle - look at the smile, he is ready!

Cutie Pies

Steph's sweet friend Heather, (thanks Heather!!!) took the time out of her busy schedule to take some pictures of Connor and Reagan. Steph and I MIGHT be a little biased but we think these two are pretty stinkin cute! I just got the cd in the mail and I think the pictures turned out precious - this kiddos are just a pair of cutie pies! I just think this one is precious - they both have the fingers in or near the mouth and they are just sweet, that is really all there is to say about it!

After the picture session I asked if we could snap a picture of the sweet boy on the rocking chairs and I think this is one of my favorites of just Connor - he looks so big sitting in the rocking chair in his cute little outfit, I just love that child to pieces.
I also think this one is hilarious - Connor has carrots all over his face (way to go Momma!) and they are like "seriously?!" But, I also think it's cute how they are leaning on each other in their darling little outfits...notice the matching seersucker and sweet monograms?!

I think sweet little Reagan looks precious in this picture! She just looks so big sitting up, hanging out...and I just love those sweet, big blue eyes! She is such a beautiful little lady!

A Perfect Pear

So, thank you to my lovely blog readers for voting on Connor's next fruit! I searched high and low for apricots, but could not find them anywhere! So, I decided to go with the second place winner of PEARS! I think it is pretty evident from the pictures that he loved them - as he was trying to eat them straight out of the food processor!

He looks like his momma going after food in this one :)

They smelled so good too, it reminded me of fall - which is right around the corner! My mom, C-Man and I all sat outside and ate lunch this afternoon because the weather was just perfect! Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far :)

8 Months Old!

Where, oh where is the time going? I cannot believe that you are 8 months old Connor Francis! You have grown and changed so much this month. I think first and foremost you are a WIGGLE WORM! You are nosy as can be and into absolutely everything! It is quite amusing to be honest - and you are just as happy as can be. You have a bit of a stubborn streak coming out and you still get cranky when you are hungry and tired (but let's be honest - who doesn't?!). Other than that you screech, scream and giggle in delight most of the day. You are a total flirt (heaven help us when those girls starting calling you!!) and you have completely stolen our hearts. You have started eating some fruits this month - you love blueberries, bananas and pears. You have also started eating avocado and we think you are a fan of that as well! You are sitting like you have sat your whole life and you LOVE it! You just did it one day while we were in Michigan and you haven't stopped since, you have also started facing out in your stroller - you are just such a big boy. In addition to sitting, you can go from sitting to laying on your tummy and you are a little too proud of yourself. Granny bought you some new "developmental toys" and you ave so much fun stacking your cups and gnawing on them :). You have started tilting your head to the side and smiling and it is about the cutest thing we have ever seen. I have a feeling you are going to use it to your advantage here in the near future, but we still love you anyway! Your grasp is amazing - you grab everything and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! We have realized you have a love for the finer things in life as you have been trying to paw of Nana's tennis bracelet and Grandpa's watch. Your grasp is incredible and you just grab at everything you see. Sometimes we watch you as you are sitting with something you want just out of your reach and you have look of fierce concentration on your face - we just see your brain working trying to figure out how you are going to get it. You are getting so close to crawling and you "stealth army crawl" when you want to find a new spot. You turn all around and scoot, but we feel like we never see you doing it! We joke that if we had a blanket that covered the room, you would still manage to be just off of it :) You are starting to wave "bye-bye" the motion, we don't think you know it's for bye-bye or hello yet. You started giving "kisses" a few weeks ago - more of a mouth open snuggle with our chins - but I think it's adorable! You are still a little snuggle monster and you are the absolute joy of our lives.

Attempt #1...

Attempt #2...

Attempt #3 - the third and final :) He was clearly too interested in the paper to leave it be to get his picture taken :)

We couldn't love you anymore than we do! Can't wait to see what you get into this next month!

A Sippy Cup?!

I mean...when did our sweet precious child hit the age where I could give him a sippy cup? It is just amazing how fast the last 8 months have flown by, he is GETTING SO BIG! He was pretty excited about the sippy cup though found it much more amusing to watch Momma demonstrate how to use the sippy cup :) Apparently when Momma drinks from a sippy cup it's hilarious! He is also so big that I slipped him a few Puffs the other day - you know you are getting big when I can feed you the dissolve in your mouth fruit puffs from Gerber! And just for good measure - a picture of the sweet pea enjoying some avacado!! I think momma needs to learn how to prepare that a little better, it was a little lumpy :)

Future Alma Mater

We just had such a great time at Elon and Steph and I kept laughing that little did we imagine ourselves strolling around our college campus with our babies. We took them all around and showed them all of our favorite spots. We even stopped a few kind gentleman in hopes that they would document the babies first trip to their future college! They were so cute and we were laughing as we were both sitting on the fountain ledge changing poopy diapers that this was far different than the "passing by the fountain on our way home from the lighthouse" we used to get into!! I think we may have reminisced a few evenings involving being in the fountain and afraid we wouldn't graduate!!

I don't have much more to say than it doesn't get much cuter than this!!! Steph and I have a picture here from graduation and we have a picture of the two of us with our hubbies so logically we had had to get one with the babies!

We have already decided we are sending this one in to the alumni magazine! :) Maybe sending a copy directly to Leo Lambert to?!

Steph and Reags!

Momma and Connor!

Getting them acquainted with The Lighthouse early and $5 drink til you drown! :) NOT until they are 21 though...

I just thought this was so cute and a pre-cursor to the first Kepplinger/Johnson family vacation where the momma's leave and get their toes done and the daddy's plan with the babies!!

Meeting Reagan Mae!

The day finally came - the day we got to meet Reagan Mae! We have been counting down the days of summer in anticipation of meeting Reagan and visiting with Aunt Steph!! We arrived VERY late Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning) and just had the best time. Connor was so great on the plane MINUS the fact that someone took all the diapers out of my diaper bag and when I reached into the diaper bag on the plane, ten minutes into the flight to change his poopy diaper - I had nothing there! I felt so bad for the people next to me, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do! After running through the ATL airport to hopefully make my connecting flight, I stalked down a woman with a son a good four months younger and borrowed a diaper. It was a size 1-2 and barely fit, but it did the trick! After arriving we hung out until about 2:30 am and finally went to bed. C was up twice and Reagan up once until 8am - so the mommies were feeling a little rough on Thursday! We just hung out in the morning and I got in lots of Reagan time while Connor man snoozed away!

Here she is, just snoozing away! She is just such a sweet little peanut - we already can't wait to see her again!!

Thursday night we met Stef, Shae and Taxis out for dinner. It was delicious!! We had the best seafood and the kiddos looked so cute side by side in their carseats.

I think this could be my favorite picture of the whole trip - look at how cute they look!!?? They just look like yep, we are best friends and we already love each other. It's going to be such a sweet picture at the wedding rehearsal dinner :)

Aunt Steph's sweet friend Heather came over and took some pictures of the little ones - I just had to snap a few before she started! She was so sweet and I can't wait to see how they turned out! The kiddo's looked precious in their matching seersucker!!

Just in case you were wondering - that is the sweet man in FIRST CLASS on the way home! Yep, somehow we got upgraded and I tell you what, it was amazing! Connor knew he was in first class and elegantly fell asleep in my arms and snoozed the whole way, while the flight attendant kept refilling my water. It was glorious! Our trip went by WAAYY too fast - we are already planning another one! On Friday we were also able to stop by Elon and get some super cute pictures of the kiddos - and those were cute enough to deserve their own post! :) Thanks for having us Kepplinger's, we had a great time!

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

This post is a week over due, but we have been busy around the Johnson household! Also, I don't know what is going on with my pictures? They show up crystal clear on the computer and when printed out, they just seem to be fuzzy on the blog...anyone have any tips? I am confused! Okay - so last week we had a lazy afternoon at the Johnson's swimming in the pool and enjoying some yummy food. We had such a nice day! We went house hunting in the morning, the doggies got groomed and then we enjoyed a beautiful St. Louis summer afternoon.

After his afternoon siesta the little man enjoyed some time poolside with Scout Man!

He also enjoyed a little rum punch and a father - son chat with Daddy and Scouters!

And then finally some quality time with Aunt Jen! He sure loves his Aunt Jen and we are so lucky to have her back in St. Louis. It was a great afternoon and it felt so good to just sit back and relax for the day. We all got a little sun on our bodies and had some great family time!

Blueberry Face!!

Even though the blog quiz voted for apricots - I couldn't resist making Connor some blueberries from our freshly picked four pounds first! He was so cute - he loves them!! We mixed them with his oatmeal and he was scraping the bowl :) He not only had fun eating them, he had fun playing with them!! He kind of looks like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar!?
I mean...I think this kid is precious - even with a face full of blueberries!

Daddy's Little Man

My handsome boys - so blessed to have them both in my life! I don't think I could love either of them any more if I tried!

Momma's Boy

My sweet and precious little man - I love you more than I ever imagined possible.
Thank you for being you!

Good-bye Michigan!

Goodbye Michigan and the little Celtic Cottage. Thanks for all the memories, we can't wait to see you next year! We had such a great trip and are already looking forward to the adventures we will have next year. I have already decided that a trip to Mackinaw Island and Ann Arbor are in the plans for next years visit!! We hope you enjoyed our vacation pictures :)

Scooter's!

We came across Scooter's Cafe in downtown Saugatuck and just had to get our picture taken!