Pacific City - Post Xmas Trip!

Deven is 18 months today. I wonder if this means I can start saying he is a year and a half rather than the monthly equivalent?

We celebrated by taking a trip to the beach. Actually, it was our bi-annual Oregon beach vacation with our friends Codie and Alex. This time the Blocks were back in the US so they decided to drive over from WW to join in the tradition. I must say I was a little apprehensive about the 6.5 hour drive to Pacific City, OR but Deven was actually pretty good. We only had to stop twice; once for a diaper change and again for some lunch. We rolled in just in time for afternoon snack. It's interesting how we have started to measure the day in terms Deven's food schedule.

Codie and Alex were able to research and locate a house with five bedrooms (and a spacious laundry room) fitting our 6 adult 3 children and 2 dog brood perfectly. The beach was just a quick walk around the local surf shop, perfect location!

The weather this year was not very kid friendly though. Nick and I were thinking about it and a couple of years ago when we did this trip it wasn't great either but with kids I guess it was a different ball game. The first afternoon was pretty good but not until the morning we left (pictured herein) did it clear up for an extended period. Everytime we tried to get the kids out the rain, wind and freezing temperatures would get the better of us. Thankfully the house was huge and the kids got along well (unless Deven decided to steal hadley's baby doll stroller).

As I am sure everyone is aware little tykes like ours are always fighting off some sickness and it is always a toss up as to whether or not it is going to get better or worse when decide to risk it and leave the house. Deven and hadley both had a nose and cough issue when we got to the beach. Unfortunately while Deven got better hadley got worse. So much so that the blocks had to make an early departure. Deven was having such a good time with hadley learning new words like, oat meal, baby, hadley, light, beach, toast and more I'm sure. We were sorry to see them go but when kidos are sick the best place to be is home!!

We had one last stormy night at the beach house hanging with Codie and Alex and then one last walk on the beach in the morning and now we are on our way back to OUR home. 2 hours in and Deven has been asleep for 1.5 hours of it. Cross you fingers folks!

PS, Deven has an official check up first thing next week so I will give an up date on stats and other milestones then!!

One More!

For good measure. This is just after a big face plant on the cement...Dadda helped with an excellent recovery.

To ensure my friend maintains credit for her hard work, please do not crop out her copyright or alter images if you repost them.

Christmas 2010

We are just about ready for Christmas here at the Johnston household. I have officially completed my shopping and only have a few more presents to wrap. This year Deven is old enough to recognize that something is going on around here and just loves looking at the tree all lit up. We developed a little routine that has helped us (for the most part) keep the tree in tact which includes a count before I switch on the lights and then he says hi to the rocking horse ornament and the chu chu (train) ornament. Then we ring all the bells (my favorite ornaments) and say night night to the tree! Routines are a very good thing I have discovered these past 18 months! Here are some fun pics of Deven saying hi to the ornaments. ; )

A Sneak Peak

For a few years now I have been facebook and Internet stalking my old drill captain's growing photography business Some Like It Shot Photography. I finally couldn't take it any longer. I emailed her and begged her to sign us up for a session next time she was back in the NW. Thankfully her family still lives here and she visits at least once a year. We booked a session with her this last weekend and we couldn't be more please with the results so far.

In line with my continued stalking I found out that she was going up to Bellingham. Nick and I both went to Western and have a love for the city. We got our engagement photos there and thought it would be great to take our little family back for a photo session. Alisha thankfully thought it was a great idea and allowed us to invade her road trip.

Deven amazed us by his ability to make it through the day without a nap. If you know Deven at all, this is not something that should be attempted lightly! But with Alisha's help we just kept changing venues, giving snacks and distracting him from the blistery cold weather. He made it through 3 hours of pics and lunch where the grown ups were focusing on catching up rather than cute little boys. As his reward Nick and I decided that Deven deserved his very first hot chocolate complete with whipped cream. I thought for sure Alisha had had her fill us but she couldn't miss a little boys first hot chocolate - who can blame her!! No worries, she got it all on her memory card.

Deven was asleep about 2 minutes after we started back down the road home but it was totally worth it as you can see in this sneak peak!!

To ensure my friend maintains credit for her hard work, please do not crop out her copyright or alter images if you repost them.

Enjoy!!!

Baking

Per my previous post I have had a little more time on my hands and I have rediscovered my love for baking, much to Nick and my waste-line's dismay. I think the holidays have played a role in this but non-the-less I have been trying new recipes and we have been eating some good sweets lately. To my surprise I realized that I had never made gingerbread cookies before. I decided that this tragedy had to be fixed. I ended up not being able to find a gingerbread man cookie cutter so I made due with a snowman, a Christmas tree and a holly sprig. Nick, who is not known for his unearned cookie complements, approved and so I believe we have a new December tradition!!

A New Job

Most of you now know that I have a new job but I guess I should make it official by putting it in "the blog."

It has been almost a month now since my last day at JJCo. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I was given there. I have been in public accounting about 7 years and one of the biggest things I have learned is that I NEED to be learning constantly. I also NEED to be surrounded by people that help me accomplish this. I found this 10 fold at JJCo and was honestly really really nervous to leave. It was an extremely tough decision but the time it took me to commute was just cutting too much into the time with my men.

One of the great things about public accounting is the experience you get in a relatively short amount of time. I have been able to "dabble" and work with financial groups in many different companies, organizations and governments. I tend to get really close to my clients and have kept in touch with them through the years. This is actually how I found out about a job opening up here in the Everett area. For about 2.5 years of my career at my previous firm, Moss Adams, I had the opportunity to work on the Snohomish PUD audit. I stayed in contact with the folks there and when a new position was created for the Risk Management department they forwarded it to me and asked me to apply - a great honor!

I talked with Nick, who as you can imagine was on board, so I went ahead and made the decision to apply. A month or so later I got an interview and then the offer. It was a bit of a whorl wind but I am so happy with our decision. I say "our" decision because Nick and I really made this one together. We weighed the pros and cons and ultimately me working up in Everett meant Deven had an hour less of School a day, I would get to spend an additional 2 to 3 hours with them both.

This first month has been amazing. I have a 15 to 20 minute commute and I am working with very smart people that help me continue my career and life goals.

For this first year at the PUD I will be setting up a process and ensuring the District is in compliance with its Bond Issues. In this last month I have learned an entirely new financial vocabulary and I have been digging through bond documents and related IRS code - I am in heaven. I know it is sick but its true!!

Nick and I both agree the added time I can devote to the family has increased our quality of life significantly. So while I was really nervous to leave a great job with great people I am grateful to say, so far so good! ; )

Hair cut

We celebrated the start of the holiday season and Deven's 17 month marker by going to get Deven's hair trimmed up for the first time. As you can see he was a bit nervous or curious - its difficult to discern. I was a little hesitant but he started pulling at the hair over his ears so Nick and I thought it was time. The stylist said that he was a great little man; much better than a previous visitor! That's our little man, fooling everyone!

Entertainment

To all my stay at home momma friends, I salute you. If we could, I would but as I told Nick today, there is a reason why we need to PAY for child care...it is tough. It has been over a year since I went back to work and I miss hanging out with Deven every day all day. That being said, keeping this busy guy entertained all day is insanely difficult. Here are some fun pics from our adventures so far this week...please note that I chose not to document hair pulling (Sam's and mine), tantrums (devens and mine), throwing food and reading the same book over and over and over again! In between all this there were tons of kisses, new words, new signs, extremely successful lunches at new restaurants and walks with Sammy in the snow (no stroller)!!

SNOW!!

We ditched plans for our first bus trip into Seattle and decided to play in the snow instead. The snow suit was supposed to be a Christmas present but I figured the snow and ice were a sign and I let him open it early. It was a challenge keeping Deven entertained inside all day but getting to play with him in the snow for the first time really helped balance the day! It's 15 degrees in LS right now. Though its about a month before the winter solstice I think we can say it has officially arrived non-the-less.

Hanging down town

Last Sunday we attempted to see the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. Along the way we had fun but with the time change proved to much for all of us. We did get a small peek though. We (Nick and I) will need to go back before its gone! Here are some pics before the family melt down!

Guy's Day Out

While momma was away today there was swim class where Deven was reaching and pulling like an Olympian, there was foot ball watching (note beer and sippy cup), a three hour nap (why doesn't this happen when I'm around?) and finally a trip to the museum. A fun day with dadda for sure!!

November! ?!

How is it November already? How is Deven 16months old already? Do I really need to start thinking about Christmas already?

These are the questions going through my mind this 4th day of November as I sip my short soy no water chai tea latte in its red holiday cup - which incidentally answers my last question above.

Working backwards - Deven is now 16 months old. Nick and I are amazed how the time flies. We have no official stats as his next doctor visit isn't for a couple of months. On a side note, we are also amazed that we haven't had to take him to the doctor in between our visits. That isn't to say there hasn't been all sorts of nastiness floating around in the Johnston house...if Deven doesn't get a bout of wheezing or febrile seizures everything else seems doable! ; ) So back to the 16 month Check in. He likes to weigh himself like a big boy on my digital scale, so with his cloths on he is over 26 lbs. Not sure if that is big or not but when he wants to be carried all evening after school it feels pretty big to us! Height wise, not too sure on this either but his head almost reaches our cutting board and he can definitely get into the bathroom top drawer. The past two weeks Deven has had a streak of no biting. It was great, but on 11/2 the streak was over. I am convinced that it was because he got bit the day before and now he is just getting the little fella back ten fold! So really this is just about Deven defending himself, right? Fortunately Deven has been learning some signs to help him communicate, which is why I think he hasn't needed to bite as much to get what he needs. He knows: more, please, food/eat, water, up and hot. This last one is definitely his version of the sign but it works none-the-less. So. in general, things have been a little less challenging around the house. We are working on teaching Deven to brush his teeth but last night I had to take matters (devens mouth) in to my own hands and what did I see in there but a ginormous molar. Tylenol and a numbing agent are the best. Hmmm anything else you all would be interested in (I'm assuming I've kept your attention thus far)???

I guess that leaves me with my first question - November? This can only be answered by relating the events that led up to this late date. Most notable, was Halloween weekend. We started on Saturday with the husky v. Stanford tailgate. It was sort of miserable weather but Deven and I decided to make do and went next door to do a little shopping, please note his little frogger boots in the pics above. The next day was Halloween and we decided to go to the Everett museum for their story time and disappearing ghost poop. We never did see the said poop but perhaps that was because it had disappeared before we got there? The story time, however, was a huge success. For all that have spent even a few minutes with Deven you know that him sitting still for the 10 minutes it took to read the story was a down right miracle. After nap time and a visit to the jungle gym mecca at the local elementary school we hit the Lake Stevens town center for a mini trick-or-treat session. The two biggest hits were the fire truck and a blue lolly pop. When Deven saw that truck he must have said every babble word he knew. Pointing and running back and forth, he just couldn't get over it. The fireman noticed Deven's "interest" and offered to open up the cab to show him. I lifted him up and he was speechless - in total awe. The city opened all the business so the kids could trick-or-treat safely; we went to the bank. They had lolly pops there, he couldn't say trick-or-treat but he signed please and the candy was his! I still wasn't sure I was going to let him eat it but he seemed to know just what it was for and stuck it in his mouth. I took the wrapper off for him and it was love at first taste. Needless to say Nick and I had to wrench it from his hands a while later when blue goo had made it down his whole front and we were afraid he was going to choke when if it came off the stick. By then it was getting dark and little man was getting pretty tired. The next day we woke up and poof...it was November.

Pumpkin Patching

We had an early morning trip to Bob's Corn Farm. Now that I am linking to the website I see the farm was not actually open until 10am. Whoops - we got there around 9:30. Thankfully everyone there was super nice and didn't make us leave!! We made the trip with our friends Chip, Renee and their little man Charlie. The boys lasted about an hour, which was pretty awesome given the temperature this morning. Deven was so cold when we left his hand were bright red. I need to do some hunting for some little man gloves! Anyway, before the cold set in Deven was having a blast picking out pumpkins, rolling around in the mud and playing on the huge tractor. Good fall fun!

Bed head

In an effort to become more like his dadda, Deven has some serious hair this morning and I felt like we needed to document this moment! A hair cut may be in our near future!! We weren't able to get this tuff of hair to settle down all day, thankfully he lets us put a hat on him.

Tailgating 2010

It's been a year since we were first crazy enough to bring a baby to the Husky tailgating scene. See D's First UW Tailgate for a flash back. Things are a little bit different this time around though. Deven was racing around, flirting with the ladies and showing off his football spirit. Above we are celebrating my almost win of the traditional Lasso Golf or, per Wikipedia, Ladder Toss. Alex made his famous chili, Steve grilled roast beef sandwiches and we experimented with some Pumpkin Feta Muffins. Deven tried them all and surprisingly was big fan of the chili, which was super spicy. We will see how that sits with him this evening! There is only one more Saturday home game left but if we can't make it to that one I think we have safely done our due diligence with Deven's college football activities for the season.

Ohhh S#*t

Oh S#*t was right! I can't remember if it was morning or evening but last week we were getting Deven changed. He was just chillin' on his table reading his book as usual as momma and dadda took care of his business. All of a sudden - to his book - Deven says, "Ohhh S#*t..." Nick and I look at each other in a moment of silence and then laugh and shake our heads - there is no way he said what we thought he said. A moment later Deven clarifies for us, "Ohhh S#*t." Yup, its official momma (yes its me the momma) needs to start watching her dug-out mouth. Fortunately, since then I haven't heard him say it again.

Stadium Burritos

A couple of weekends ago we were fortunate to be invited to a Sounders game by Nick's sister Anne! The seats were phenomenal! Deven of course joined us but only after an overnight delivery of baby ear protectors.

I was a good momma and packed a bunch of snacks and etc. for Deven to eat while were there but of course I left it in the car and didn't realize it until the man got hungry! So Nick saved the day and in pure hunter mode located the healthiest lunch he could find - a burrito. All food groups were represented as long as you consider craft cheese wiz a dairy.

Deven was able stay in our seats until shortly after half time and then made it, as we walked around the stadium, until right before the game ended. Nick and I considered the day a success - we walked back to the car with a happy toddler, two hot dogs purchased for $4 (I know - a steal) and we got to hear the crowd roar as the Sounders won the game. A great day!

First Kiss

As discussed in the previous blog Nick and I are trying to teach Deven more socially acceptable ways of expressing himself...rather than hitting Deven should pat people nicely...rather than biting Deven should give kisses. So I ask Deven on Sunday if he could please give Dadda a kiss. He giggled and gave Nick a kiss on the check. It was the cutest thing I have witnessed to date. Hopefully soon we will eliminate the biting...fingers crossed.

Nice!

Nice, is what we have been trying to teach Deven this month. Well it was only in the last week that we started trying this method. Deven is a biter, a hitter and I am sorry to say very emotionally exhausting when he is unhappy. I am hoping this sounds familiar to everyone so that I can know that we are not the only ones! We love Deven greatly but he has entered some sort of stage that I hope passes quickly. It has been a few weeks now so...

I have gotten really behind in blogging this month but other than dealing with new challenges it has been a good one. The weather has been up and down but regardless we had are usually at a park on the weekends. Deven digs the slide (head first) and if not distracted by little rocks or pieces of bark, loves to climb up and down all the tires and jungle gym type stuff! He can say momma, dadda, bye bye, hi, and Nick has heard thank you a few times and when he says nice it is more like sssss (so polite). "Uh oh" is very common too!

Interestingly enough he loves trees, flowers and plants - even better he loves to water them. We bought him his own watering can and once set to watering we are hard pressed stop him.

In the last month he has really grown up into a little man - no baby food and no bottles. He weighs over 24 pounds now and picks his own stories for bed time. He ate an apple...without me chopping it up...I know...I was equally as ecstatic. Seriously though, this is such an exciting time. All the milestones almost overshadow the daily incident reports from school...almost.

So future Deven, we love you but sometimes it is really great they you go to bed at 7!! ; )

Sliding through walla

Deven is having a blast at all the beautiful Parks here in walla walla, thought we would share. This afternoon kids day at the fair!!

Weekend warriors #3

We are off and driving again to places unknown or rather, Walla Walla, so I thought I would take this moment and attempt to draft my third installment of our crazy weekend trips. I'm typing this up via Droid so I may need to edit at a later date.

I was just telling a friend about this third trip (WW #3), could this be synonymous with "world war"? I am most definitely exaggerating, but honestly, for a week after our trip to Victoria BC I sure felt like I'd experienced something similar. Just ask Nick, I was not pleasant to be around. So why in heck did we go? "Why ever not," would have been my answer a few weeks ago. We all have our passports and Nick and I wanted to celebrate our five year anniversary in the city we got engaged. For me it was sort of fun to get back up there and do some comparisons between who we were then to who we are now, or rather, who we were three weeks ago because surely we have learned a thing or two since then making us all together different at this exact moment. My digression back to philosophy class aside; I can safely say we have learned the following about traveling as our current selves:

1. Travel at night

We thought we would experiment with early morning travel. We woke Deven up about an hour earlier than he would have preferred and high tailed it to the anacortes ferry crossing. We made record time, met a cool young family with a little lady five days older than Deven and had a great family breakfast on the ferry. So what's the issue? Travel in the morning got us to Victoria just in time for Deven's mid day nap but we could not check into the hotel until 3...we knew this but didn't really conceptualize what this meant. Given our early wake up and all the fun and excitement of the ferry we ALL needed a nap but instead had to find something we could all get on board with until a dark room sufficient for napping could be had.

We were smart enough to check with the front desk though and give them our contact information; we only had to wait until 1pm.

2. Don't eat ferry food.

All I'm saying is that this lesson was learned the entire weekend.

3. Dine with air conditioning

The weather was fabulous. We didn't miss out on the 80 degree weather in Seattle because it followed us up to BC. It was great but got pretty hot. When dinner time rolled around we decided to be efficient and go where we knew bringing Deven wouldn't be weird. They have the spaghetti factory in Victoria and Deven loves pasta so off we went. We walked in and it seemed like all other families had this exact idea - jam packed. We were going to sit inside to avoid sun exposure but I made the poor executive decision to ask for out door seating because there was no AC in the restaurant and I figured it felt the same outside so why not get to see the sun on its rare visit into our lives. We really just should have gone somewhere different all together. The dinner was so so and it was so hot outside that I think it just added to our tired and grumpy dispositions. Nothing like sweating over some hot pasta!

3. Get a double room when traveling with a baby.

We totally did this but we gave Deven the nice pretty bed room and we got the pull-out couch. Bad decision! This is simply a case of not thinking. This location for nap time was great because Nick and I could drink wine and watch the canoe races that were going on in the bay that day. But really, for night time we should have switched it up. We ended up sleeping in the bedroom of course, which defeated the whole reason for separate rooms Deven woke up when we went to bed which set off a series of wake ups throughout the night adding to our already zombie state.

4. If you feel like going home early, do it.

We had a couple things working against us on this one. First, being "good" travelers we made ferry reservations to avoided any unwanted delays in our weekend away. To come full circle here, because we had chosen to come early Saturday morning rather than late Friday night we had initially thought we wouldn't want to leave as early as the first of only two ferry's would leave, which was 11:30. The next ferry was 5:55...dumb dumb dumb!!!

The hotels check-out was 11am and we did not consider where Deven would take a nap...I tried to have him take an early one...he laughed at me.

By the time we realized our mistake it was too late and we were stuck on the island. I didn't even check if we could have changed our reservations because I just didn't even want to know how easy it may have been...I still don't.

5. Don't park your car in neutral on the big radiation detectors at boarder crossings.

Don't worry, I'm not ending my story with a full car search at 10pm. However, after our 3 hour (1hour delayed) and 1 hour idle in a boarder crossing cage we were waved forward by one of the guards...or were we?? Nope we weren't, but it was too late to move back because our fellow Americans and or Canadian visitors were anxiously riding our bumper to get out asap! We didn't want to pull forward because they weren't ready for us so we just stayed put. The fine member of homeland security informed us however that a few moments longer and we would have likely been flagged for a bomb search due to radiation detected in the truck. I guess all things have radiation but when you sit on a big machine with the job picking up high or abnormal levels bad things can happen. Thankfully, we avoided this, Deven stayed asleep and we were home shortly.

So there you have it...our travel lessons. Not to worry though, its not like we are about to stop. See above, we on our way to Walla Walla as I wright. We did have some great times in 'Canadia': used Deven's passport for the first time, visit to the museum where d played for ever, visit the bench where Nick asked me to marry him, watched awesome rowing races, played with Deven on the Parliament lawn and tons more.

Stay tuned for all our other lessons!!

Farming

Deven and I took a little trip to the farm that delivers us fresh fruit and veggies every Tuesday. This farm gathers organic produce and other things and distributes them. They were having a fall festival today, so I thought we could check it out. We had a little picnic in their field and our lunch was full of things that they had given us this week!