Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful 2nd Christmas with Natalie! She was blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Dinse and Grandma and Grandpa Johnston come to Ashburn to celebrate as well as Uncle Sam from San Diego. On Christmas Eve Day we introduced Natalie to decorating sugar cookies - she did a great job picking the different sprinkles she wanted to adorn the cookies with. Surprisingly, she didn't like them as much as we thought she would, not sure if it was because we haven't given her that many sweets or it was just Kaija's cooking :-) Christmas Eve we enjoyed a lasagna dinner and then arranged our cookies and milk for Santa. Christmas morning Natalie must have been really excited because she woke up at 6:15! After checking to make sure Santa had visited and taking the annual picture at the top of the stairs, Natalie had her first look at the presents under the tree. She beelined for the baby stroller which promptly got taken for a spin around the house. After our traditional Christmas morning brunch we settled in to open the rest of the presents. The biggest hits were the piano from Grandma and Grandpa J, the baby doll from Mommy and Daddy, crocs from Grandma and Grandpa D and a tricycle from SANTA! We spent the rest of the day relaxing around the house and preparing the turkey dinner (can you tell we did alot of eating?). We tried to get a good family picture..as you can tell, hopefully we'll have better luck next year!

Getting In The Christmas Spirit!

This weekend the Johnston household dove head first into the Christmas season. Saturday we took our annual trip to Snickers Gap Farm to get our Christmas tree. Kaija envisioned a happy family frolicking amongst the trees - searching for the perfect one. What reality brought was a 1 1/2 year old that didn't want to walk or keep her mittens on in the freezing temperatures...maybe she'll appreciate it next year! Anyway, we did get a lovely tree which we spent the evening decorating. Natalie loved looking at all the different ornaments as Kaija explained the significance of each one. Her favorite ornament is the one that Grandma J gave her last year that has a picture of her on it - she just walks around with it saying "baby", "baby". Hopefully one day she will understand that it's her! Natalie particularly favored the "ball" shaped ornaments, which she proceeded to try and throw like her regular balls. We ended up with only one casualty and the tree has been toddler proofed...breakable ornaments on top and playable ornaments on the bottom.

Sunday morning we went to the Santa Breakfast at the firehouse. After Natalie devoured 4 pancakes (yes, 4!), we decided it was time to introduce her to Santa and Mrs. Claus. No sooner did we get up there than the clinging began, I didn't push it too much, little does she know we'll be headed to the mall later this week for the official Christmas picture! Later in the afternoon we had our good friends, John, Lauren and Emma Duffy over for football and chili. Natalie was very interested in Emma since she is a "baby" (10 months old). We are trying to teach sharing though, which she isn't very into yet - I guess it will come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we headed up to Rochester to spend time with the Dinse side of the family. Natalie fell asleep right at her regular 7:30 PM bedtime, but woke up as soon as we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's. Luckily, they were happy to entertain her for a little bit before we headed to bed. On Thanksgiving, Cole and Brittany, Heather and Audrey joined us for dinner. Much to Kaija's disappointment, Natalie was a bit overwhelmed with all the people and refused to eat turkey and mashed potatoes. Anyone who knows our little girl - she likes to eat! On Friday, Kaija's Aunt Marlene and Uncle Bob came for a visit. It was great to see them and they brought Natalie the cutest book - "Princess Baby"! On Saturday, Kaija had an afternoon out with Donna, Heather and Audrey to see "The Nutcracker". It was nice to get into the holiday spirit and get some adult time. After a quick pizza dinner back at the house we packed up the car and were off to Virginia again. Natalie fell asleep before we left Rochester, which led to a long night when we returned home, but at least we had Sunday to recover. We're looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa D again at Christmas in Ashburn!

Happy Halloween!

Well, we're going to give this blogging thing another try! Halloween was quite a big deal in the Johnston household this year. As you can see, our kitty cat was absolutely adorable! Last Friday Kaija took Natalie trick-or-treating at her office and she quickly learned the best part about Halloween...CANDY! She loved carrying around her pumpkin and helping herself to as much candy as she could stuff in it. She actually got upset when the bag got too heavy to carry!

Halloween morning we started off at Natalie's school for her parade. She had fun walking around the circle with her class. Then in the evening we met up with our neighborhood friends (including Alex as Blues Clues) for some trick-or-treating on our street. Since the weather was so beautiful, we sat in the driveway and gave out candy. Natalie loved watching all the big kids in their costumes. We're already looking forward to next year when Natalie can say "trick-or-treat" all on her own!

Meet Me At The Park!

Kaija and Natalie had a great weekend with friends! On Friday afternoon (thanks to Kaija's new work schedule) they met up with Maggie and Sydney at Frying Pan Farm Park. It was Natalie's first introduction to farm animals - we saw cows, pigs, horses, goats. All of the animals were met with a big "OH!" and alot of pointing. Natalie had a traumatizing moment when an over friendly cow got a hold of her shirt and was literally eating it and in the process, licking her stomach. She was beside herself after that, but a quick redirect to look at the goats and all was forgotten. Check out some more picture's on Sydney's blog: http://littleivey.blogspot.com/

On Sunday Kaija and Natalie met up with Annette and Jack at Clemyjontri Park for a picnic and to play. Clemyjontri was designed to be accessible to children with diabilities, including a rubberized surface, which was a great alternative to wood chips. The place is huge with something for kids of all ages - we didn't get through 1/4 of it. We ended our day with a ride on the carousel - Jack sat nicely on his horse but Natalie wanted to get down, so we ended up sitting on a bench. Maybe next time!

The other big news in the Johnston house is that we officially have a walker and the way things are looking, she'll be running soon :-)

On The Road...Again!

Labor Day weekend we headed to Danville to visit Grandma and Grandpa J. We've figured out that the evening is the best to travel with Natalie, so we headed out after dinner and she slept most of the 4 hour drive. Saturday we spent most of the day playing on the porch and Kaija and Vicki got some fall shopping done for Natalie in the afternoon. Sunday we took a walk and fed the ducks along the river before taking Natalie to a Japanese steakhouse for the first time - she loved watching them cook! We then headed over to the park so Natalie could display her newest talent of riding on the big girl swing - check out the video!

14 Months Old!

We can't believe Natalie is already 2 months into her second year and getting more and more independent everyday. While she is still not walking full time, she has definitely made some progress over the last couple weeks. She can now take 10-20 steps at a time on her own and is relying less on us to hold her hands. However, once she falls, it's right back into crawling mode. We're hoping the duck push toy that Grandpa Tom made her is going to help her learn! The funny thing is, while she is very cautious about walking she LOVES to climb everything and anything - stairs, furniture, playground equipment - with no fear. She is also saying a couple of new words - "baby" and "more". The latter comes in very handy at dinnertime! She has also started trying to feed herself with a spoon as you can see makes her very happy but is also very messy :-)

On The Road

In mid-August we made the road trip up to Rochester for the wedding of Kaija's friend from high school, Greg, and to visit Grandma and Grandpa D! We had a great time at the wedding, catching up with friends and introducing Natalie to new ones (Callie (Dave and Tanya's daughter - pictured) and Aubrey (Brian and Rosa's daughter)). It was so much fun to watch the girls interact since they were born within 2 months of each other. We had a relaxing weekend - going to the farmer's market, the park and a quick dip in the pool (it was a bit cold for Natalie's liking!). We also headed up to Lake Ontario to walk along the lake. This is a special place for Kaija because her Mom liked going there, so it was nice to be able to share that with Natalie. We tell her all the time what a wonderful person her Grandma Kitty (Oma) was! There was also some exciting news to report out of our visit...Natalie is going to have a cousin Kaija's step-sister, Audrey, is due in March!

Family Reunion!

Last weekend we headed to Minneapolis for Josh's cousin's wedding on Lake Minnetonka. It was a great opportunity to see Josh's Mom's side of the family since they all live in the Midwest. We had a house on the lake and both mornings got to watch beautiful sunrises since our Little Miss woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30 AM!

Natalie had her first non-family babysitter during the ceremony(her cousin Landon was there to keep her company) and then joined her Mom and Dad for the reception! Natalie entertained our table during dinner, danced with her grandparents (she loved the live band!) and posed for family pictures in the photo booth (great idea for a wedding!). She smiled right up until we left at 9 PM and then I think she was asleep before we left the parking lot.

Sunday we spent the day at the house of Josh's aunt and uncle. It was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone and introduce the little ones...there have been 4 born in the past 2 years! Natalie also decided to take the opportunity to start standing up without assistance and add another word to her vocabulary..."ball".

Monday we were back on the plane again and after a slight meltdown and a delay in Chicago we finally made it home!

Our Little Girl Is Growing Up!

During the past couple weeks Natalie has magically changed from a baby to a toddler before our very eyes. Her vocabulary has increased to 7 words (dada, mama, hi (her favorite), bye, up, uh oh (not really a word, but it's darn cute!) and that or what (we haven't really figured it out yet)). She also learned to kiss, so now when you say "Natalie, give me a kiss" she puckers her lip, sucks in her cheeks and let's out a big "MA" when she comes in contact with your cheek, lips or one of her stuffed animals (the Polar Bear that Uncle Cole got her is a current favorite). Kaija and Josh can't get enough of it! The most exciting news to report though is on Saturday she took 3 steps on her own! Kaija missed it, but Josh, Grandma and Grandpa J were all there. There hasn't been a repeat performance since, but Kaija and Josh keep walking around the house holding her hands hoping that she'll let go and take off. Hopefully it will happen soon, our backs are getting sore!

Grandma J Comes To Babysit!

Since Josh's Mom has the summer off from teaching, we decided that she would come up for a week in the summer to watch Natalie. Works out great for everyone because Grandma J gets Natalie all to herself and Josh and Kaija don't have to pay for daycare :-) The first weekend started with Grandma and Grandpa J watching Natalie while Josh and Kaija went to Richmond for the wedding of Kaija's college friend, Jen. Everything went great and Grandpa J took the opportunity to introduce Natalie to chocolate ice cream, which she thought was the greatest thing ever. Grandpa J left on Sunday and Grandma J spent the entire week entertaining Natalie with the maracas she brought back from Haiti, walks to the park and pool time in the backyard. She also managed to help Josh and Kaija a ton around the house with cooking, laundry and even surprised Kaija with a belated 30th birthday cake! Thanks Grandma J for everything and we hope you can come back real soon!

Happy First Birthday Baby Girl!

As you can tell, we're a little behind on our posting, but we figured we better share some pictures from Natalie's actual birthday as well. Natalie's first birthday started out with Happy Birthday and blueberry pancakes, which quickly became a very messy, but yummy experience. Then Josh was off to Annapolis for Greg's wedding, one of his friends from college. Kaija and Natalie spent the morning at the park for Grayson's 1 1/2 birthday celebration. Grayson's birthday is on Christmas, so his parents had the great idea to celebrate his birthday halfway in between! Natalie had a great time watching all the big kids run around and got her first taste of pizza, which she loved That afternoon Kaija and Natalie were off Skye's to play in the baby pool with Mallory and then on to a girls only date at Red Robin for dinner. It was Natalie's first experience eating off the kids menu. Her and Mallory shared grilled cheese and melon, which she devoured. The wait staff came over and sang Happy Birthday to her and delivered an ice cream sundae. While we're trying to keep her away from sweets, since it was her birthday we couldn't resist. Of course she loved it and kept opening her mouth like a little birdie. Hopefully the next year doesn't go by as fast as the first!

Our Little Ladybug's 1st Birthday Party!

On Saturday, June 21st we celebrated Natalie's 1st birthday early with a ladybug themed party. Both sets of grandparents and our closest friends joined us. The kids splashed around in the backyard water park Josh created complete with 2 pools, slip n slide and sand/water table. It was alot of fun!

Of course, the pinnacle of any 1st birthday party is the CAKE!!! It was Natalie's first taste of sugar and she did not disappoint. After tentatively sticking her fingers in the frosting, Natalie proceeded to stuff vanilla cupcake in her mouth and finished the entire thing!

Go Dukes!

Back on June 14th, Kaija and her JMU friends hosted a reunion. It was great to get caught up with everyone and reminice about old







times. Of course, the kids were the center of attention, 8 babies have been added to the mix over the past 8 years! Kaija's college roommate, Kellie, even made a DVD chronicling the college years, which was especially hilarious...oh how much has changed!

Kellie, her husband Jeremy and twin 9 month old girls, Kennedy and Ashlyn spent Saturday night at our house. Sunday was Father's Day, so we had a nice breakfast and girls had fun playing together before they headed home. We hope that we can make it down Yorktown this fall for a visit!