Melly's 3rd Birthday

Today is my baby's 3rd birthday. I really don't know what to do with that. Part of me wants to cry because she is growing up too fast and how beautiful and totally independent she is getting. It's sad that she no longer needs me for things for example her bed time prayer they are short and sweet and to the point. I love you so much my sweet little girl. You are and will always be my little Princess. Sweetest, cutest girl in all the land.

We had a birthday party yesterday where everyone came from our family. She had a blast playing with her cousins and aunts and uncles. Anyway I will post some pictures and videos tomorrow. Mostly because my camera in downstairs and I don't want to go find it. Good night all.

Pictures Galore part 1

We have been filling our SD cards with pictures and haven't offloaded them to the server in a long time. Tonight I backed up 1123 files all photos and home video clips totaling 6.6 GB.

I'll share the best ones here, with a few comments mixed in occasionally.

Alaska - Melly was about 8 months old at this point

This was clear back in Alaska

This is an old one but one of my personal favorites.

Note: Don't call DCFS, he climbs in here on his own and shuts the door.

That's all for tonight, I'll get some more up tomorrow.

(So here is the last part of the story, I worked on this late into the night last night and hit submit. When I hit the button to view post I first noticed that the background wasn't the right color, then it dawned on me, I had posted to the wrong blog. So here is a copy and paste of that entry, I hope everything transfers correctly.)

August Craft Night

Last month we started a girls craft night on Peter's side of the family. Anyway it is held the first Wednesday of each month. This month it was at my house but that is irrelevant information. Anyway, I don't have pictures of all of us with our crafts but here is mine. the flowers are made from fabric which is obvious I'm sure. I was excited about this one for weeks. I think they turned out great. The batteries are dead in our camera so the pictures from Peter's phone will have to do.

Melly's Bargaining Technique

A little while ago while helping Melly go to the bathroom she says to me: "look mommy a dime (penny)". I respond "Let me hold it and you can have it when we go to the store next time". I thought nothing else of it until a few minutes ago when Melly brought it up. Our conversation went something like this.

Melly: "Mommy, give me a quarter."
Mommy: "No, remember I said you could have it when we go to the store."
Melly: "Mommy, give me a dime."
Mommy: "No!"
Melly: "Give me a dollar."
Mommy: "No I'm not giving you a dollar"
Melly: "Give me a dollar and a bag?"

I think I couldn't say anything I was laughing to hard. I don't think she really understands how to bargain. In due time I guess.

I think she learned to ask for money while we were grocery shopping at Macey's on Friday when she saw a Grandma give her grandchild a dollar to buy their own treat. When Melynn saw this the light bulb flipped on. "I want a dollar, Mom!". You can probably guess my answer.

The Swagger Wagon

I have really thought about when the time comes that we HAVE TO get a mini van we will be purchasing the Toyota Sienna. It has a lot of really cool features that we really like and my friend has one and when I rode in it, it felt great. Well when Peter showed me this video it made me more sure that this is the minivan for us. Enjoy!

Amazing Kid

Alex was sitting on my bed this morning at about 7:50 when the alarm clock started to sound. Alex whispers loudly "OFF" And walks over to the alarm clock and hit the snooze button. This is not just a freak accident. A minute later when Melynn turned on the alarm Alex immediately went over told Melly "DON'T" and proceeded to try and turn off the alarm.

Since We Got Lola

Since we got Lola, Alex has picked up a couple of phrases that we hear nonstop through out the day.

"NO BARK, SIT" -Let me explain this one. He learned to say "no bark" from his sister and the sit part he started because when he is sitting in the grocery cart he likes to stand up. I simply say to him "sit" and he does exactly that. It's actually pretty amazing.

"NO LOLA" -I think that's self explanatory.


On a side note we are discovering an amazing talent that Alex has. He can see a sign done once and he will never forget it. The other day while I was cooking dinner he was trying to touch the stove and I signed HOT and he did it right back, then reached for me to pick him up to see what was hot. Now was we have realized is that Melynn loved/loves signs Alex picks them up and can do them a lot quicker than Melynn can. What a smart baby.

Success at last

I am happy to say that Melynn is finally potty trained. Yes she still does have the occasional accident 99% of the time she remembers and is great at telling us that she needs to go potty.

About a week ago we got a puppy (see previous post), Peter's brother (Scott) and Sister-in-law (Jen/Jenalee) wanted to see her and offered to take the puppy and the kids to the park while we ran an errand. When we picked the kids up after we were done and we were putting the kids down for the night Melynn out of no where says to us "I went potty in the park...outside". Peter's response was something like "Really...why did you do that, who told you that?" Melly's reply "Jen helped me". I guess as soon as they got to the park she needed to go. Jen didn't know what to do so Scott told her to let her go outside and to not tell mom and dad. Rule #1 Jen, Melynn can't keep a secret.

My point is that we are so proud of our Beautiful BIG girl and that the time that I was dreading is finally over.

Lola Belle

The newest member of our family is...Lola.

She is a Rat Terrier/Beagle mix, but she looks like a boxer. She is 10 1/2 weeks old. The kids absolutely love her. I was asking Melly what she would like to name her. I asked a series of names and she liked Lola.

We are proud to present Lola Belle Johansen.
Melly isn't chocking her she is trying to turn her head to look at the camera.
Gotta love Alex's expression...Classic!

My Melly Belly

I love you Melly. You and Alex make everyday worth waking up for.
You don't have to watch the video just listen to the song.
In My Daughters Eyes by Martina McBride