October so far...

Apologies for not being more diligent with the posts. We are enjoying the month of October and keeping busy. The weather is finally cooling down a bit and even the heater is coming on at night. But the Alaskans in us keep the windows at least in our bedroom open - nothing like that cool breeze while you are snuggled under the covers. The girls are doing well and changing everyday. We think the next set of teeth are making their way out since the drool and stuffy nose have amped back up with Ms. Emma. The humidifier in her room helps. She is rolling over a bunch and getting stuck on her stomach at night which sometimes is an issue and sometimes is not. I just returned from a 3-day weekend in Denver with my mom and without kids! Kirk took care of the girls while I whisked away to shop, eat, sleep and get massages at the Brown Palace with my mom. It was a nice break though I missed the girls and Kirk a bunch. It helped that I made frequent check-in calls. It's now back to the ol'grind. The biggest news here that I can now share is I'm going back to work, kind of. I'm a contractor (or consultant by title) now with ConocoPhillips doing portions of my job that I left behind before maternity leave. I'm going to work from home, support my old team and determine my hours. On occasion I'll go in for a meeting but plan to call in for most of the meetings. This will be good, a bit challenging and will keep me off the Internet during Emma's nap time. (like now - ha!) And if it doesn't work out, then no biggie.

We have another busy week with a trip on the Durango Silverton train to visit Snoopy and the gang at the Peanut's Pumpkin Patch on Saturday with our ol'AK/BP friends. We are headed to Phoenix next week to celebrate the Halloween weekend with my oldest brother and his family along with my mom. We can't wait!

Enjoy the pictures!

A'hoy! Sarah dressing up as usual on a weekend morning.

Sarah at the Pumpkin Patch at Sutherland Farms. (more pictures below)

Emma enjoying the sunshine at Sutherland Farms.

We hosted the local Moms Club one Friday morning and made caramel apples.

Sarah and Kirk LOVE to make little houses and forts for Sarah's little princess dolls with her Magz magnet toys.

Naked Emma going after her toes.

I got Sarah's old exersaucer out for Emma and she loves it!

September

It's been a busy September so far and I can't believe we are half way through the month. We enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend 4x4 driving up to Kennebec Pass which is located between Durango and Mancos. Once we were at the top, we got out for a small walk up the hill to look over the San Juans. The view was amazing and the girls did great both on the ride up/down and during the walk. Both during Labor Day weekend and this past weekend, we enjoyed visiting with Brant and Clotho our great friends who were in Colorado visiting family and attending a friends' wedding. Kirk and Brant were able to hit the streams for fishing on two different occasions. Clotho, the girls and I did some shopping and we all enjoyed the arts festival in Durango. We topped it off with a pint at Steamworks Brewery before having to say our goodbyes last night.

This has been a busy time for Emma. She is now rolling from back to belly all the time. She loves to lay on her back and grab her toes. The biggest news is her two bottom teeth are coming in! It's two months earlier than Sarah. But she's handling it like a trooper for the most part. We also started oatmeal cereal that is heavily diluted in formula. She now eats a smidge during dinner time.

Sarah is doing well. One of her favorite activities lately is tracing letters and numbers. She does pretty well with telling you the letter, the sound the letter makes and providing an example of a word using the letter. As an example, you will hear almost always that "S is for Sarah!" She's back in ballet and tap class on Tuesday nights and loves her new teacher. She can't wait for Halloween and loves when a new catalog advertising Halloween costumes comes in the mail. The Chasing Fireflies catalog can keep her occupied for a long time. We've made plans to celebrate Halloween again this year in Phoenix with my oldest brother and his gang. We can't wait!

Kirk is set to venture off on a 5 day guy fishing trip on the Arkansas River later this week. While he is gone, I'm hosting a trunk show for an ol'AK girlfriend who is now in Farmington (her hubby is a manager in the BP Farmington office). She is a new stylist for Stella and Dot jewelry. Wish us luck!

Here are a few pictures from our recent adventures.

Kennebec Pass

Girls playing with the beads together.

Posing with the Scarecrow at the front entrance. Sarah had a death grip on Emma.

Yummy oatmeal.This is what happens when you leave the room and dad is watching the baby.

Emma is 4 months

Our sweet Emma is 4 months, 1 week and is such a doll. She had her 4th month check up last week and her stats were as follows:

Height: 27 inches - 97th percentile

(though we measure her at home more around a smidge over 25 inches)

Weight: 16 lbs 7 oz - 85th percentile

Kirk jokes that she is our volleyball player given her height. She is growing like a weed and is now in 6 month clothing. She also rolled over yesterday from back to belly. She's been working on it for a few weeks but finally made it over on her own yesterday. She is a talker and has found her voice these past two weeks. The volume and pitch of her coos get increasingly louder as she becomes more tired. We joke that our ears are left ringing at times. The best part is Emma loves to smile and is such a happy baby. We feel so blessed.

August...so far

I can't believe it's August already. All is well here at casa de Johnson. Emma is still doing well with sleeping through the night and without a paci. I'm thankful everyday that we have two thumbs because those little digits have been our saving grace. Naps are still OK but not great. She'll get a good 40 minutes into the nap and then seems to wake up for whatever reason after that first sleep cycle. We are working on it. But I can't complain...I'm loving the longer nights. I feel somewhat like a functioning human again. I'm officially done with breastfeeding. It's weird and sad but good for Emma. I couldn't keep her satisfied without having to feed her every 2-3 hours and she seems thriving well on the formula. We have her 4 month check up in two weeks so we will see what the doc says. I can't believe she is already 16 weeks old! Sarah is doing great and enjoying summer. The days are still toasty but we are making more of an effort to get out in the evenings on the back patio which is shaded.

Kirk and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary last weekend. It's been an awesome 12 years filled with many adventures, two beautiful princesses and having to say goodbye to our prince. We are excited to enjoy 12 more wonderful years together. He surprised me with a bouquet of two dozen black velvet roses that were delivered to the house. The bouquet was HUGE! He included a nice card with the flowers along with a business card of a local and very popular jeweler. The next day he met me at the jeweler where I was able to pick out a wedding ring upgrade. Wowy wow! What an awesome surprise!!! The new ring is gorgeous with both yellow gold and platinum and goes will with our wedding bands. Plus the new ring has over 1 carat of diamonds. Bling-o-rama! I had my engagement ring cut off my finger when I was pregnant with Emma because I waited too long to remove everything. So the jeweler removed the stone and placed it in a white gold solitaire. I'm blinged out for sure. I pick up my ring today since it's being sized so I'll post a picture later. And my gift to my hubby....I surprised him with a membership to the "fly of the month club" through a fly fishing angler outfit out of Evergreen, CO. I know, a bunch of flies in the mail every month don't compare to the bling but he was happy nonetheless.

Below are a few recent shots. Also, check out the shots in the post below of Sarah in motion. Enjoy!

Beautiful black velvet roses from my sweet hubby!

Our little chunky monkey.

Strike a pose. One of Sarah's pre-dinner outfits complete with fairy wings on the back. Future designer candidate for Project Runway? Last day of summer dance class. She is scheduled to start again later this month for the fall.

Just Dance

Below are a sequence of shots taken of Sarah doing what she likes to do best...just dance! Got to love the outfit she pulled together for this number.

Detox it is...

As I posted previous to this one, Thursday was going to be Emma's first time in the crib out of our room. The nap was trying because of the constant replugging of the paci. But I thought I'd hang in there with the paci in hopes the evening would prove a bit better. Well, it didn't with me having to replug the baby every hour all night long. That in addition to fighting a cold and chest congestion (me) I was done. Come Friday I re-read my books including an old favorite sleep book by Dr. Ferber and made a plan with Kirk. It was time for paci detox which would require a gentle cry it out approach (not cold turkey but requires frequent visits for soothing and reassurance). That was hard. But for the past three days and nights, she has been doing well without the paci learning to sooth herself which now includes sucking her thumb and she is also out of the swaddle. Crazy! She is sleeping longer stretches in the night with the past two nights sleeping straight through! Wowy wow! I'm sure being on formula and splitting her feeds to stock her up before bed time is helping. Plus she is getting more calories during the day with the formula vs. breast milk which is also a good thing. So for the time being, we are in a good place. But like everything else baby, it will change and adjust as we continue on with her development. But no more paci!

Frustrating Mommy Moment

It's 2pm and I'm sitting in what is now Emma's room with the laptop in the dark typing this post while she naps (but I'm sitting in my new cushiony rocker recliner....ahhh, it's nice). OK, back to the post. I'm frustrated because our little Emma has what the books call "sleep association problems". That's why I'm sitting in here in the dark...I got tired of coming in and out. First off, the pacifier. We were charting on new territory with the paci with Emma since Sarah hands down refused the thing. The gig when it comes to sleeping is she goes down without it but falls asleep in my arms post nursing. I put her down (this is both at nap and night time) and all is well for the first 40 minutes or so. Then as she moves back into a light sleep phase, she wakes up. So I plug her up with the paci. But now as she is getting older, the paci is becoming a pain in my butt! The initial plug works, but sometimes requires subsequent plugs. I rarely nap during the day because I'm in and out of the room plugging up. And my nights are becoming a pain as well especially since she has been in the bassinet right next to my side of the bed. So tonight the little bugger is sleeping in her room now that we have it sufficiently darkened and the new baby monitor is in place. But that doesn't mean I still won't be up re-plugging. Unfortunately for Emma, I think the cry-it-out approach will be here before anticipated. I thought we would do cry-it-out and paci detox somewhere around 5 months but we may try earlier. In the meantime, I'm trying to find patience and understanding that she is only a baby and needs parental love.

Our other battle will be the swaddle. For Sarah, the swaddle was easily outgrown from what little memory I have of the earlier months. With Emma, the swaddle is still needed to get her down at first. Without it, the hands and arms are all over the place. I love HALO sleeper sacks and they now offer a swaddle option for up to 6 months on the sacks. It's been working great and allows her to get her arms out over the course of the night. But sometimes, once the arms are out, it could be good or bad. Good in that she is comfortable and free. Or bad in that the arms flying out all over the place wake her up.

Got to love the battles we face when it comes to sleeping children. Pacifiers, swaddling, crazy arms, mommy I have to go potty, I need water, my nose is running and need a kleenex, etc....oh my!