Some fun high lights of our kiddos

Joey had his first solids 3 days ago and loves eating! He seems to enjoy the rice cereal mixed with peach mango applesauce. Usually I would not have done so many flavors at once in case because of allergies, but I forgot that it can be an issue. Though it wasn't that long ago since Addie was there, I forget about little details like that. But he has been doing great. He can sit up for a few seconds without any help, but does pretty good if he has something to lean against.  Our little guy is growing up. He is so sweet, full of smiles and squeals. He seems more interested in toys now. He really likes to stand up with assistance. And he almost can roll from his back to his tummy. He gets so close but that's usually because he is reaching for something and when he finally gets it, he goes back to his back.

Addie has been really growing in her words. She asks "what's that?" And points to whatever she has interests in. And now she has learned how to say thank you. Her voice always makes me smile.

Addie is such a big helper. She is learning to throw her and Joey's diapers away. In Lehi she kept playing with the garbage and and throwing toys and remotes in the garbage so we put it out of reach. Now, she has the same problem.  So far we have found binkies, bowls, keys, dishwasher knob that turns it on, and more keys. I'm excited for the day when she looses this obsession.

Oh, and we found out a couple of days ago that Addie didn't lock us out of the house. She can do the door knob, but the sliding door locks itself if we close it.....too hard? All the way? Lol we don't know how but it locked on Joey and Addie was down in her room....fun quirks you learn the hard way when you move to a new place.

We finally bought a grill! Well, we actually bought it for our new home back on Memorial Day sale. We decided to keep it because we have been wanting one ever since we got married. Here is a picture of Joe's first meal. He loved it! And boy was it yummy!!

Joey eating his first solid meal of rice cereal and apple sauce. What a good boy!

Adaline is 19 months and Joey is 5 months. ...it's getting hard to keep track

We were able to do so many fun things this month! We have been to enjoy the Fourth of July in Arimo with family. We went to a parade and got some candy. But both kids and parents were pretty exhausted so we had a relaxing rest of the day. We've been swimming at Lava Hot Springs with Kevin's family. We went crawdad trapping up the Portneuf by Pebble. Joe and Addie went with Kevin and the boys wading in the river. Joe jumped off some 6 foot falls and had fun swimming.  Addie couldn't get enough running out in the dusty road. And joey took a nap alongside the river in my mom's arms. Everyone had a lot of fun. And we got to enjoy some tasty crawdad broil, meaning obviously crawdads, ears of corn, potatoes, onions, and sausage  boiled together in a pot of creole seasoning.

Addie was in heaven! She loves loves loves seafood and couldn't get enough of the crawdads. We even caught her having their legs in her mouth chewing away, gross! Lol she is a seafood fan just like her daddy. Joe loved it too, and was so proud addie did so well so young. It took me awhile before I could handle them. I Love lobster and have no issues with eating them. But these little guys were so cute and I saw them a lot before we ate them. It was a little disturbing eating them. But I pushed past it for Addie's sake because Joe couldn't keep up with her demands of more crawdad.  We even had sausage,  potatoes,  and crawdad in front of her and when she could she would eat the crawdad.

Addie, trying to grab some crawdads. She has no fear!

Our yummy dinner

Addie loved living with family. She played a lot with Caleb, but it seemed like she had an attachment with Adam. She leaned in an kissed him on the cheek! She hardly EVER gives me and Joe kisses, let a lone kisses when we didn't beg for them. Adam had that special bond with her.

And Benjamin was so good with Joey. He was always fussing over him, holding him, and wanting to feed him. Joey was loving it. I wish I had a picture of him with Ben.

We also enjoyed running through the sprinklers on a hot July day. Addie really enjoyed grandma Hebdon's swing in their backyard. She would spend hours out there if I would let her. She also enjoys running on the driveway. But tends to not enjoy the grass as mu h. I think because it's lumpy and she trips. That's how she was at the parks too. Hope soon she will enjoy it.

Our last day in ID we went swimming at Twin Lakes up past Downey. We went with Kevin's family again. As you can tell, we love water! It was fun until we had to come home and get this gs ready to pack. We headed to UT July 16, I had a job interview for a PRN US position at TOSH hospital in Murray.  I currently work PRN US at AF Hosp, but am trying to find something  lose to Kaysville.  Joe was able to find us on really nice townhouse in Kaysville that's 3 bedroom and 1.5 bath. On good days he gets to work and home in 25 mins. It's awesome!

Again, Stephanie and Kevin's families helped us move our stuff out of storage to our new place. Aw! It's so nice to have a place again! It was nice to be at my parents and they let us use the basement, so nice!  But there is just something about having your own space where you can be messy, or organized, or be lazy. Lol we missed our bed the most!

Russell Hebdon family reunion at Downata Hot Springs ID

We haven't been able to make it to a Hebdon reunion for 3 years or more so we tried to make sure to make it to this years. We wanted everyone to meet our sweet babies and also get a picture with Joey and his great grandma Hebdon. Her health has been  little less stable so we were so happy to see her looking so well. She was fun to see and talk with. She was swarmed by new born babies. The heritage just keeps growing and growing. It's amazing!  I asked her how many great grandkids she had, and she guessed around 97! And she has great great grandkids too.

It was fun to see cousins and aunts as well. I didn't know half of my cousins kids. Life gets so busy, we need to do better at attending events. Family is important!  Agan, we enjoyed swimming and Joe and i even got to go down some slides. The first since Addie was born. We love slides so we are grateful kevin watched Addie for a few minutes while we went twice. Mom watched Joey the whole time we were swimming,  so sweet. He was tired and so she offered to hold him while he napped. And she chatted with grandma and some others around the tables.

What a fun day! Here's a picture of Joey meeting his Great Grandma Hebdon for the first time.

a little scare...

I'm sure there are just certain "events" that are bound to occur in parenthood,  but it doesn't make it any less frustrating or scary when they occur. And it doesn't help that my mind automatically assumes the worst will happen. We call it the "Johnson" curse. People don't believe us, until they hang out with us and see it happen.

We moved to Kaysville,  UT this weekend with the huge help of Kevin and Stephanie's families. So grateful to them And their kiddos for their patience and muscles. So we are still unpacking, Joe had to work Sunday day and I worked Sunday night. So Monday was pretty much shot for getting anything done,  and Tuesday Joe had an appointment at the 3 in AF, so again with naps and keeping quiet, not much has happened.  However we did make sure to get spare keys copied of the house because Addie has already reached that delightful age of locking us out of the house. Thank goodness the other one of us has always been inside to help the other out. So we moved in on sat and copied keys on Monday.  So today at 5 pm, I'm about to make dinner and I notice our grill cover has blown off our grill. So I go through the sliding back door, and make Addie stay in to prevent her from falling down some serious stairs. I get the cover on in 2 min,s go to get back in and viola, my 19 month old has figured out how to lock the sliding doors... that's ok because we have prepared for this very thing. I get the spare keys, go around the fron,t in the rain mind you. Get the door handle unlocked, try for the dead bolt and the key won't go in past 2/3 of the way....I fiddle with it, no luck! Seriously? Long story short, I left Joey on his tummy in the front room and I'm automatically thinking what if he gets tired and can't keep his head up? What if Addie stumbles on him? Or knocks something on top of him? What if she tries to console him while he's crying and hurts him? I call Joe and ask what I should do? Call the locksmith?  He leaves work early, but of course it's rush hour....what would take only twenty mins will take double if not more. Meanwhile I can hear both babies screaming,  but at least I can hear them, right? Joe calls the locksmith,  who will be twenty mins. I go the the back again, seeing if I can somehow wiggle the lock loose, desperation doesn't always equal logic. But I can at least talk with Addie. She plays around with the handle, but never gets close to the lock, which I am just praying she opens the door.
The locksmith finally arrives, keep in mind I had been crying my eyes out minutes earlier.  He comes out of his car, no shoes, with a 3 yr old girl tailing behind him. Now I can laugh! I'm not sure if he was trying to hurry for my sake or why he was barefoot. Lol, doesn't matter. He fiddles with the lock for what seems like twenty mins. Nothing works. Even drilling through the lock, it breaks his bit. He is frustrated,  and his little girl is drinking from the puddle, running around barefoot too, trying to crawl in his trunk, I'm laughing glad there are other crazy girls like my Addie who no matter how you try to teach and stop from doing things,  does them any way.  I thought girls were suppose to be easier then boys at this stage?
We get in, Addie is fine and happy, but Joey is on his tummy lying very still. I rush to pick him m up and he slowly stirs. He never falls asleep like that! But I am b so grateful my babies are ok. I've  held him until Joe came home 5 mins later. I kept holding him until he fussed. What a relief!
So excited I'm not sure how we will all survive them growing up. It's a miracle Rea that children survive growing up, and that their parents stay sane. Every day I wake up and think how glad I am that all 4 of us are hear, happy,  healthy,  and safe.

Joey rolled for his first time today....

I wanted to write about Joey rolling! He was laying on his tummy, sitting up pretty high and all of a sudden he rolled on his left side to his back. So I put him back on his tummy, thinking I must have placed him uneven. I square his shoulders up and not a minute later he rolled to his left again onto his back! Yah Joey! For a guy that does not spend a lot of time on his tummy, you shocked me! Anyways he did it one more time on his left and then once on his right. He was pretty proud of himself.  Grandpa Hebdon was there too. And big sister Addie patted you on the chest and cheered you on. Grandma Hebdon said you tried to roll over 2 days ago but her arm was in you way of completing the roll. So pretty exciting day!

Addie is 18 months and Joey is 4 months....wow! Where does the time go?

Our babies are growing up so fast. It's so fun to see their progress but it also makes me sad too. Adaline is getting pretty emotional....in a not so fun way at times. She can be laughing and giggling but as soon as she wants to throw a tantrum, screams and tears erupt in seconds. It seems like she has been having these bursts since she turned 16 months old and they just keep getting worse. They very well might be the beginnings of the terrible twos....heaven help us! But she behaves well with others, especially strangers at church or relatives. I am glad for that. Don't get me wrong, we love our emotional time bomb, and will always look back at this time with jokes and reminiscing. We adore our baby girl and think she is pretty special.

Weight: 25 lbs 2 oz
Height : 33  in.

She is learning more words every day it seems like. And she likes to show off her running, coordination skills. Backwards, sideways, circles, you name it, she can do it. We moved in with my parents the 29th of June and so it's been fun for them to get to know our kiddos better. I think it's been very good for our babies. They love the extra attention.

Joseph is so sweet and happy, what a cutie! Once again I love this stage with both of my babies. They seem so happy and easy going. Just as long as they get fed, changed, naps and stretching time they are happy. He has the biggest smiles that erupt into some pretty high pitched squeals, he has found his voice and likes to exercise it everyday. He is doing better with tummy time it seems. Or maybe now I just have the extra help to get it done. We are so grateful to my parents and Kevin's family for their help. Especially when Joe is gone to Utah for 7 days of work, I get so lonely so it helps. I miss him so much on those days. It's hard not to see him every night,  even if it's just for a couple of hours. And I think the kiddos miss him too.

Both cutie pies are doing so well and we couldn't be happier with them. We think they are the cutest babies ever and we keep saying how did we get blessed with such beautiful happy babies? They get exhausting at times and we are going to wait a few years before considering any more, but we know they love each other so much already and hope they will be best of friends in life. Addie tries to comfort Joey and gives him hugs, Melts our hearts. And Joey only has eyes for her whenever she is near! And he smiles so big for her.

So quick update, long sad frustrating story short, our buying a house turned upside down on us. And we ended up losing our apartment because we had already given our notice. So we were suppose to close multiple times but the last time was set for June 18th at 6 pm. We had been in touch with the loan officer and agent making sure everything was being done and at 4 just before we were going to drop the kids off at my visiting teachers so we could drive to the bank we get the dreaded phone call. So at least the bank fessed up that it was their fault and covered all fees except for our inspection. But we had to move and try to find another place before the 29th. What an emotional nightmare that I wish no one has to go through. Wow! But we have a place to stay and we are going to try to find a place closer to Joe's work. When we initially moved to UT, Joe was suppose to work nights so we weren't worried about the commute. But his boss messed up and he has always worked days, which is good, but makes  long commute with rush hour traffic. Scares me he is going to get in an accident.

So we were able to get huge help from Stephanie's and Kevin's family. We are so lucky to have so many strong willing help. We don't know what we would do without them. We hate always having to rely on them so much. Believe me, we HATE moving beyond anything else and have tried to make this our last move into our house....only to have to put it into storage to move within the month, hopefully....

I can't help but post some sleeping shots of Joey in my arms. I love these moments.

Again, of him being so good while we were in and out of cars....

Grandma Hebdon with our kiddos. They love living with Grandma and Grandpa. There are so many to love and give so much attention. And Kevin's family comes over all of the time and Addie loves that too.

Our little guy doing better and better practicing tummy time. He is getting so strong.

Addie getting ready to go to church. It is so hard to get her to hold still long enough for a photo. But I had to show my attempts of putting her hair in piggy tails. The back of her hair is long enough, but she doesn't like it. But, how cute! I hope she will learn to like getting her hair done and wearing bows and clips. 

I was packing and could hear some giggling. I looked over to see the curtain covering our food storage moving....I found our baby squirrel hiding her nuts! She loves finding hiding places.

Our family photo shoot

We finally were able to coordinate our schedules and get a family photo session. I also wanted to get some pictures of Addie. I have a goal to get my kids pictures once a year....well, I will do my best to keep to that. I did get some cute pictures of Addie when she was 10 months on my phone that I am absolutely love. But I still want to do better and try to get actual photo shots of my babies growing up. My mom did pretty well at this, and I like looking at our pictures when we were kids.

 I knew it would be hard to get them both cooperate at the same time, but it was worth trying. I scheduled it at 9 in the morning because generally speaking they are both the happiest first thing in the morning. They would both be awake by 8, we would feed them both, get them dressed and head out the door. We did just that....but Joey didn't eat very well, and Addie woke up not so happy....

So we didn't get very many good shots as a family. Joey was cranky and so I got him to fall asleep in the middle of the session. Addie was wanting to wonder around and do everything BUT what we needed her to do. LOL, we tried to keep her happy and were getting so frustrated!! We just knew we had bombed the session and had wasted money that we really couldn't afford to spend on another session....

So when we got these from the photographer 2 hrs later, we were so excited and pleased!! We were surprised to get some of Addie smiling =0)

Joey still has a hard time sitting up....good grief he is still so young! But the photographer wanted him sitting up on the bench.  LOL, he is still so cute, even if he isn't smiling!!

This is the only shot we have of them together. We had a hard time getting them to stay together for a minute. I will treasure this forever!!

This is probably my favorite family picture....at least we are all looking at the camera.

Our attempts to keep her from her tantrums. I asked the photographer to please take these pics. She just sat there and watched without taking pictures!! I was so frustrated. The only way to really capture Addie (and I think any toddler) is let them just be. Don't try to pose and force them to do anything. Just let them play...

Again, I had to ask the photographer to get Addie running around....

I grabbed some bubbles from my bag and kept blowing until Addie got bored. I am so glad to get these candid shots. This is what I always want, just to remember my family as they are being them.

Addie is 17 months and Joey is 3 months old!!

I made this goal that I would write about my kids each month until they were 24 months old. But it has proved to be a little hard, so I will combine their posts once in awhile just to make it easier.

This month has been a little bit crazy!! And these kiddos have been pretty good troopers. We have spent a lot of time in the car....first of all let me explain!

We have been looking for homes to buy since we moved here, but we were planning on staying at our apartment for 2 years and save up some money. But April we decided that if we were going to buy, we needed to do it now, because prices were just going up and up. Since we left 4 years ago, prices are just getting out of control. SO we took it more seriously and looked throughout Utah and Salt Lake counties for at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bath home, and hoping for at least 1800 sq ft. Needless to say that was out of our price range in these areas. So we extended our search to Tooele, a town 45 mins South west of Salt Lake, on the other side of the Oquirrh Mountains. And after looking for a couple of days there, we put on offer on a house on April 29th!! Wahoo!! We are suppose to close May 29th....we will see how that goes.

And I had was offered a PRN (as needed) job at American Fork Hospital as an Ultrasound Tech where I worked before. My start date was May 5th and I needed to do a three full days in a row to orient. Unfortunately this was also the time that they readjusted Joe's schedule so we decided to take the kids to Mom and Dad's, and Kevin's in Arimo to have them look after them. This was our first time away from Joey overnight. It was easier to let them go because of our experience with Addie in day care.  We knew they were in loving hands. It was so weird to be in meetings all day, and then to go home with no one home. I didn't know what to do without my babies!! But they did so well!! We are so grateful to Kevin and Mom for helping us out so much. What would we do without family?!

Addie on our road trip (sorry about the blurry quality). She was eating a Nutri Grain bar....and she wanted to stick some between her nose and binky.

This is the aftermath...messy!! Wow, does she like to make messes....in the worst places too.

Milestones:

• A few words that she knows are: Momma, Daddy, Addie, Joey, Shoe, Hi, No, Yes. She likes to chatter a lot and is eager to tell us what is going on. She has such a cute voice and is so expressive. 
• She has started to help put away some of her toys in their bins....only to pull them out again. I am however grateful for the attempts. 
• Some of her favorite things are her books. She likes to hold them and open the pages. She will hand them to us to read to her, but that lasts for only a few seconds. Then she wants to take over.
• She is running around, twirling, climbing on furniture, flipping light switches. She almost refuses to climb down the stairs like a baby. She likes to hold onto our iron railings and walk up and down the stairs. And she is pretty darn fast. It's hard to beat her if I need to get something really quick without her following me into the bathroom or our bedroom. And why don't I like her to follow me? Because she is like a tornado! Everything in her path is thrown around.

Once again, what a trooper!! He doesn't like being in the car very much though.

Joey with Grandpa Hebdon, they did really well together.

Joey was getting some smiles and cooing in. 

Milestones:

• He can almost roll all the way to one side while he is on his back. It will only be a matter of time before he rolls over. He really likes to stretch and stretch. And he likes to have his time on his back without being held. If we pick him up before he is ready, he lets us have it!!
• He is drinking 6-7 oz now of formula. He transitioned well and we are so grateful!! He still likes to be swaddled when he sleeps. He likes fluffly blankets up close by his face. If his hands are free, he pulls the blankets over his face. 
• He is really jabbering right now. There are times that I think he is crying, but he is just happy and talking to his Angel friends.
• He loves to smile and has started to giggle. It's a 2 syllable giggle and makes me so happy. My favorite times with my babies are 3-9 months. They are so much fun but still like to be held. Their personality really blossoms during these months.

This was on May 17th, a Sunday. Addie wanted to hold Joey. She kept trying to pick him up off the floor. So I had her sit in the chair and I picked up Joey and placed him in her arms. She immediately wrapped her arms around him like a pro! It was so stinking cute!! LOL I know that he is almost as big as she was, but she was so happy. She loves her baby brother and he loves her. We sometimes think that his biggest smiles are for her.

Joey is 2 months old

Joey has really seemed to change a lot these last few weeks. He had a lot of gas and seemed like digestive issues. When he wasn't asleep or eating, he was crying. Poor little guy wasn't very happy. But now that his tummy has matured he is a lot of fun. He is starting to smile. It starts our as a crooked smile, his left side going up first. We love it!! He looks around with so much curiosity, his big blue eyes trying to make sense of his surroundings. 

We sent to Lagoon, and he was so good!! For the most part he slept through it all, and was watched him while his daddy and big sister tried on the rollercoasters. He made the whole experience so pleasant. We didn't know if it would be a disaster or not. Thank you Joey for being so easy going!!

This is our little guy sleeping in his car seat while at Lagoon:

I attempted to capture one of his smiles. My camera is to darn slow though!! He has one of the sweetest smiles that makes me laugh. I love to see his personality blossom! We can tell he is going to have a sweet spirit about him. And he is a cuddler and is the happiest being held. That's when his smile is the biggest! Sometimes, especially during his night time feeding I look down and he is looking up at me with a huge smile and his eyes full of brightness. We think he is going to have a big heart!

When he does cry, his lips turn upside down, chin starts to quiver, and then the tears and cries come out. Just like his daddy and big sister. They have the same crying face, which tends to melt my heart and make me want to fix whatever is making them sad. Cute little Johnsons!!

Milestones:

• He can lift himself up to 90 degrees for a minute or two. He still doesn't like his tummy time. The first few weeks we didn't really push it, but now that he is better at being put down we will work harder. I know it's important for development and also for helping to prevent SIDS.
• He is smiling. I have talked about that a lot, but we just love his smiles!!
• He is starting to sleep better too. He sometimes only gets up once during the night. Most of the time he is up twice.
• He is eating 4-5 oz. We are feeding him both breastmilk and formula. He now seems to prefer breastmilk, but its a little late to show preferences!! I dried up when he was 1 month, so hopefully he will do ok on the formula. 
• He likes to put weight on his legs and try to stand. He has really strong legs!! And also his arms, it's hard to keep him from pushing the bottle or binky away. His hands are his biggest enemy at times

His Stats:

• Weight: 13 lbs 1 oz
• Height: 22 in
• Head: 99th percentile. He does have a bigger head, but the doctor isn't worried about it and says he will grow into it. You wouldn't notice that it's bigger, it has such a nice shape to it.