SNOW what fun!

Today Bella and I plalyed in the snow for the 1st time! I think it was officially her first time to really play in it! She loved it! We filled up a spray bottle with green food coloring (thanks to the tip from Aunt Val who read it in Parents magazine) but our spray bottle wasn't working very well so the "art project" in the snow was a flop. The sledding in the plastic tub and tasting the snow was a HUGE hit though! I can't wait to take her sledding for real next time!

Christmas Traditions

A few of the new traditions we started with Bella this year was to make and decorate sugar cookies, wear our new Christmas pajamas, and to also make homemade gifts for each family member to open on Christmas Eve. I am continuing the sugar cookie tradition from my own childhood and I think it's one that the kids will enjoy as much as I did!
Rolling...

Pressing...

Baking...

Eating...

This year I made Bella a princess fleece blanket. Her favorite bedtime book is with the Disney Princesses so I thought she would love it and I was right! She wrapped herself up in it as soon as she took it out of the box!

We also read the Christmas story from Bella's children's Bible and she put together a "Happy Birthday Jesus" puzzle with a little help from Momma!

Workshop time

Last weekend we went to the monthly workshop the Home Depot provides free for kids! Bella loves it! She gets to wear her Home Depot apron and earns a pin to put on it and a certificate when she completes the project! This month they were making wagons. Bella decided to make it as her homemade gift for Benjamin this year. We painted it blue and put stickers on it when we got home!

Bella helped sand the wood, hammer the nails, and apply the wood glue! She's getting to be so big!

A Visit from Grandpa Bob

Last week Brandon's dad came to visit for a couple of days so we could celebrate Christmas together. Bella loves her new Dora big wheel! Her feet are just a little short to reach the pedals but I'm sure she'll grow into by the Spring so we can ride outside!


This is how I found her the next morning when I opened the door! She's ready to go!

Guier Family Christmas

Sunday was the Guier family Christmas get together. He was so excited to get his sock monkey from my Aunt Shirley! Thank you!

Isabella and Sophie had fun together opening their presents and eating lots of good snacks!

My Grandma Guier gave Benjamin his stocking! I was so excited! This is one of the most anticipated Guier traditions to welcome you to the family! Every single member of the Guier family has one and the lucky ones to marry into the family get one and all the babies get one on their first Christmas!

Benjamin got to meet lots of new family members today! Sweet Ava loves little babies!

Crown Center and Kaleidoscope

This past weekend Brandon and I took Bella to Crown Center again. We went to the Candy Store which was a tradition for me as a little girl. She got to pick out one piece and she picked out smarties! She was so excited to hand it to the lady and pay for it!

Bella had already gone to the Santa playland and to see Santa last week so because the line was so long to do that we went to Kaleidoscope for the first time with her! She had a blast exploring and dancing around in this little cave.

This little table has nails hanging on the inside so you can stick your hand up underneath and see your handprint up above. I remember this from when I was little. I had Brandon stick his hand in to feel it and he jumped back and ended up hitting his hand pretty hard because he was expecting some kind of soft sand or something. Haha, Bella and I were both laughing with him!

She loved playing with the cool water can sink!

I think her favorite activity was painting the Christmas tree with Brandon and then sending it through a big dryer.

Gingerbread houses! Yum!

This was our first year to attempt the gingerbread house craft for our play date. Bella enjoyed stuffing her face with the candy more than helping me decorate! I couldn't get the candy on the house fast enough! She was shoving candy by the handfuls into her mouth like she hadn't eaten in days! Haha, well next year hopefully things will be a little calmer and she'll be a little older to really help participate!

Our gingerbread village!

Lots of hot blond mommas!

Jeremy was the honorary guest at our play date! The kids loved having a guy around and they all cried when we had to leave the couch and Thomas the Train video to go home and take naps!

First Big Boy Bath

The other day Benjamin finally got his first "real" bath! Bella was such a big help and couldn't wait to hold him afterwards!

One Month old!

Today Benjamin is one month old already! It's been a really exciting and busy month! I've loved having a new little one to hold again even with no sleep! He's such a content baby and I can't complain at all! He eats and sleeps like clockwork! At this age he is pretty much eating and sleeping all the time. He does great running errands and being toted around. Having a boy does have it's differences! New things I've experienced with Benjamin are the diapers...I've gotten pooped and peed on a lot more already than Bella ever did! And it's always a surprise! Haha. He also is pretty loud while eating, burping, and dreaming. He grunts like a real boy already! He also has these crazy man burps! It's the most hilarious thing! He also has some crazy projectile spit up. It's so funny to me how different little boys and girls are even at this young age!


We've all adjusted well to welcoming Benjamin home! Bella took a couple weeks longer than Brandon and I did to get used to the idea that he's not going any where. But she's such a great helper! Just today we were down in the basement and I asked her to go get a baby diaper upstairs in my room. She smiled so big and ran upstairs and brought back exactly what I needed! She impresses me with how much she catches onto! She's learned how to use the breast pump, the nasal aspirator, the pacifier, the burp rags, and the car seat! She's a great helper with it all!

Santa Baby and Little Miss Christmas

This week for our playdate we took the kids to Crown Center to see Santa and all of the Christmas displays. They loved it! The playland before Santa was great! Bella was still not a fan of Santa this year even when he offered her stickers. Benjamin didn't seem to mind though!

Bella's wearing her Little Miss Christmas t-shirt to see Santa! She loved the slide as always and wanted to go down over and over. She was even pushing kids out of the way to get back to the slide...she did learn to take turns though! :)


Bella, Luke, Samuel, and Conner loved watching the trains go round and round the gingerbread village!


We also walked across the walkway to Union Station to see the big train display they had set up. Then we got ice cream at this little cafe that was right next to the train display.

The kids enjoyed throwing coins into the fountain to make a wish! This brought back memories of prom pictures! For those of you who aren't from Blue Springs, this is where we had prom in high school and this was always where we took pictures. :)

A little bit of this and that

The past couple of weeks have been really busy! We were so blessed to have Brandon's brother Barry and his wife Christie come and visit for a weekend. They got to meet Benjamin and played with Bella nonstop! Then, we had Thanksgiving at my mom's house this year where her whole side of the family got to meet Benjamin. We also celebrated Brandon's 30th birthday!!!

Last weekend after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. Bella is old enough now to "help" in her own way. She loves the ornaments or "balls" and quickly tried to throw them but learned that's not what we do!

My parents came over to give Bella her birthday gift a little early because they're going out of the country for a month. Bella and I made little cupcakes that morning to enjoy with them.

Bella is practicing her "two" fingers. Concentrating so hard!

She loved the candles but cried when we sang Happy Birthday!

Do you think she loves her kitchen??? Haha, she's been cooking up a storm with the burners, microwave and phone that all make noise!

Newborn pics are up!

If you want to see Benjamin's newborn pictures go to
www.m-mphoto.com
Then click on Photo Cart, then portraits, find Vanessa and click on the littlest cowboy! The password is Johnson.

Enjoy!

One week old!

Here are a couple pictures from this week. Today, Bella warmed up and asked to hold Benjamin for the first time! She has been very protective of him today and aware of where he is at all times! She's very gentle when she holds him and so curious about his little toes! It's so sweet!

Introducing Benjamin Auzy Johnson!!!

Benjamin was born Friday, November 6th at 1:04am! We are so excited about our handsome little guy! It was a great experience going into labor on my own this time! I started getting contractions around 6:30pm Thursday night as I was bringing Bella to my parents for date night and for the weekend. We were scheduled to be induced Friday morning. On the way there I got pulled over for speeding! I was almost in tears, but didn't try to talk my way out of it. Bella was with me, our hospital bags, and my nine month pregnant belly! I was going 51 in a 35 (opps) and just got a warning! I think the officer was afraid of me either having an emotional breakdown or going into labor right there on the spot! Haha!

As I was waiting for Brandon to get to my parent's house after work I started having contractions every few minutes. These were different than before! I knew it was time! Brandon ate a quick dinner ( I knew he was going to need the energy to deal with me ;)) and we drove home, grabbed our bags and drove to the hospital. I was admitted around 9pm and he was born 4 hours later!

All smiles!

Benjamin's wearing his "I love My Big Sister" onesie.

A proud daddy holding his future golf partner I'm sure!

We had lots of visitors! My brother Kevin made it back from Peru just in time!

Wow, do I really have TWO kids! I feel so grown up! haha

Grandpa Bob drove all the way from TX to celebrate with us!

He may be a paci guy???

On our way home.

Ready for his first car ride!