When Dad is behind the camera...

...this is what you get...!  These pictures may all look similar or the same to you, but they are each unique, precious and hilarious to me.  They are 100% real life Lainey who is 100% toddler, and I mean that in the best way possible.  She is a joy.

That bed head...!

That FACE!

"Dad, why?  Why are you taking so many pictures?"

"CHEEEESE!"

There is nothing necessarily special about these pictures, nor are they tied to any exciting event, just a typical Sunday morning around the Johnson house.  They just make me smile.

Funny things (well, maybe just to me)

There are so many funny and precious things about our kids right now, I wanted to document a few for my memory....

Lainey, at 21 months, you...

-love to pretend to go places.  Every time we ask you where you're going to gleefully reply, "HyVee!"  We don't even go to HyVee all that often, but it is surely your favorite place.

-just learned to say, "Ow!" and I hear it constantly.  Even when I'm not touching you, which leads me to believe you don't understand the meaning of the word :)

-love to ask, "Momma/Daddy/Baby Wyatt, (where) are you?"  Always concerned about what's going on.

-are less interested in your ABCs than you were a few weeks ago at the moment but you can count to 7.  You also know most of your shapes and all of your colors.

-start every sentence about yourself with, "Lainey...." instead of "I"

-call pants "pantsies" and it's so cute.

-repeat whatever word or phrase you're saying over and over and over again until we affirm what you've just said.  It's precious and a little bit annoying, mostly because you never really stop talking so, it's just going, going, talking, talking all day long.

-continue to be an early riser.  Like, some days you're up with the sun, which is too early.  Therefore, some days, you do this around 10 AM... and on Sunday, you slept on your Daddy's chest all through church.

Wyatt, at 6.5 months, you...

-are not quite getting the hang of solid foods.  At all.  I've tried sweet potatoes and rice cereal and you just don't really get it.  You're more excited about rice cereal but most of it ends up on your bib.

-are scrappy.  I'm not sure how else to put it.  You're just way more aggressive than your sister was.  You will lunge forward with your full body weight to get whatever you are eyeing.  I think you will crawl much earlier than your sissy did.

-love to jump in the Johnny Jump up!  LOVE.

-are loving life now that you can sit up all by yourself and love sitting in the cart at the store.  I am loving not lugging around that infant carrier.

-still just smile ALL. OF. THE. TIME.  Your smile just lights up a room.

See?  They are totally precious!

Feeling blessed during this crazy, fun, challenging, (sometimes) sleepless season of life!

Cousin fun!

One of my most favorite things about having children and being a mom these past almost 2 years has been sharing that experience with my sister, Emily.  Emily has 2 little ones, a lovely little girl, Claire who is 10 months older than Lainey and a sweet new baby boy, Will, who is 3 months younger than Wyatt.  I think it's so funny how we both have an older girl and a younger boy - it is just too fun.  We both have great memories from growing up that involve spending time with our cousins and we hope our kids will have the same - that they'll enjoy playing together and growing up together and making fun memories together.

Emily sacrificially and bravely made a cross country trip ALONE with her babes so that I/we could all meet Will and enjoy a visit together.  Traveling with kids is no small task.  Jimminy, I sometimes struggle to travel to the library with my kids, but Emily had to take 2 flights each way and did it with relative ease.  I am SO SO SO thankful she did.  We had a great visit.  I was even able to go to Minnesota with the kids to my parents for a few days to spend some quality time with Em and the kids.

Baby Will is so so so cute.  He is just a peanut.  Wyatt could eat him.

Claire and Lainey picked up right off where they left off the last time we saw each other in August.  Claire and Will (as well as Em and Bud) are daily conversation topics in our house, so I knew they'd warm up easily.  First thing we did was walk to the park by my parents house!

The boys weren't impressed.

Lainey pretty much did everything Claire did, just a few steps behind.

Except for when it came to the iPad ... Lainey was showing Claire the ropes.

We enjoyed a trip to the Como Zoo one day too.  Not many of the animals were out but the girls still had a good time and did a TON of walking!

Crazy how much this crew grows and changes every few months!  Can you believe we got them all to sit still? :)

We spent 4 days in Minnesota, had one day back in Des Moines to ourselves and then my parents, Em and the kids came down to Iowa to visit our family here!  More time together!  Yeah!

This Papa is pretty proud to have 2 extra handsome grandsons!

We were able to spend some time Saturday in Pella, one of my favorite places on earth, to see the tulips!

Claire... she is just the cutest.

Claire running and Lainey trying to keep up :)  Not only is Claire fast, and 10 months older, but Lainey insisted on wearing her rain boots, per her usual, which definitely slow her down :)

Just the CUTEST...!  Lainey loves holding Wy like this, for about 15 seconds, and then he gets a good shove.

Here's Miss Claire showing off her flower from church on Sunday!

We had a fabulous visit with the Thomas clan and wish Bud could have joined us for the crazy fun.  We are already looking forward to July when we hope to make a trip out to North Carolina again!

wyatt [half birthday! 6 months!]

Wyatt turned 6 MONTHS old last Monday.  HALF a year ... big milestone.  He is still my sweet boy, but he really is no longer my sweet LITTLE boy.  I don't think you can call a 19 lb 8 oz 6 month old little.  But he is THE absolutely sweetest and happiest baby boy.

I feel like a broken record when I talk or write about him.  I can only say it so many ways... he's such a joy.  One of my favorite things about him right now, and something I need to capture on video, is when he or I catch one another's eye and a split second later, his entire face lights up into a giant, open mouthed, gummy, squinty eyed smile.  The boy doesn't know a stranger and will smile for anyone but he LOVES his Momma.

He's still eating every 3-4 hours, taking 3 or 4 naps per day and likes to sleep in.  He's wearing some 6 mo and mostly 9 mo size clothes.  He's a side sleeper.  It's pretty cute.  He's getting really good at sitting up on his own, but his favorite spot is in the corner of the couch or the chair with 3 or 4 of his favorite toys.   This way he can oversee his sister's antics all over the living room.  He loves anything with wheels.  He also loves to squeal, just when he's in his own little world.  Maybe he's singing :)  I got the go ahead to start solids at his appointment this week so we'll try... I'm really in no hurry but we'll see how he does.

I wanted to do some comparison and see how mister Wyatt has grown and changed the past 6 months.

Isn't he precious?  Just getting cuter, and cuter, and sweeter and sweeter as the months go by.  I can't believe he's all mine!  Hard to believe we're halfway to the big ONE!

Extremes

It's on everyone's minds (and Facebook/Twitter/Instagram feeds)... this crazy, extreme IOWA weather!  From tank tops, sunscreen, bubbles, chalk and sandbox time to coats, boots, baking and snuggles on the couch.  What a wild week!

At the beginning of the week, we were...

Checking out the new blooms in the yard and playing with Simon!

I can't decide if this caption should read Lainey: used car salesman or Lainey: driver's ed instructor.

Sandbox time = filthy, filthy, filthy but HAPPY Lainey!

Officially loves the swings!

Basically, we were LOVING the outdoors!

The weather changed and then we did a lot of...

Snuggles!

More snuggles!

Baking!

Thankful for the warm weather we had...thankful for a warm house to enjoy when it's not so nice outside and looking forward to ACTUALLY experiencing spring and summer and hoping they will stick around this time!