Fashion Advice

The other morning I was in the bathroom getting ready for work when Owen walks in.

Owen: Mommy, what are you doing to your hair?

Mom: I'm making it straight so it's not silly anymore, like an iron.

Owen: Oh! Then it'll be beautiful, like a princess!

Mom: Exactly like a princess!

Owen: But mommy? (sounding a little disgusted) Your shirt's just not cute and princesses only wear cute shirts. 

I tried not to be offended by my 4 year olds fashion advice, and to his credit if you combine the pictures below you'll get a pretty good idea of what I looked like that morning- definitely not my cutest. 

Smashmallow please?

The boys LOVE to go camping. They started asking about camping a few months ago when it was still way too cold and for a few weeks everyday I'd pick them up from daycare and they'd ask if it was time to go camping. My parents decided to take them on a little overnight trip in their camp trailer and I think that took care of their camping fix, for a  while at least. There's a little town about an hour away called Lava Hot Springs. Yup, you guessed it, there's actually a hot springs there! We love going down there but really don't seem to find the time to get there too often. So the boys got to sleep in grandma and papa's camp trailer, go swimming, play outside, and eat a whole bunch of "s'nores" (no, that is not a type-o, they refuse to believe they're really called s'mores). We probably won't get a whole lot of camping in this year with the new baby coming (I kinda hope I won't get any camping in!) so the boys are pretty dang lucky their grandparents like taking them so much!

Too late to post Easter pictures?

I think that as long as the event happened within the last 6 months I'm safe to post about it. Anytime after that I may as well wait until the holiday comes around again, right? We really did have a great easter weekend, it was one of the first really nice weekends we had here. The boys had fun finding eggs outside and eating candy all day and I had fun eating the yummy pineapple upside down cake I made! We also dyed some eggs but I had forgotten to buy eggs so we had only had 8 to dye! Oh well, I don't think they actually ever got eaten, we left them up at my parents house. 

Brush your teeth brush your teeth...

I've got to admit that one of our pitfalls in parenting is brushing teeth. Bedtime with the boys use to be so hectic and long and frustrating that we never got into a good routine with brushing teeth. So, now we find it quite hard to keep up on it and most of the time it's such a fight. I've really been trying to establish the routine, especially at night and it seems to be getting a little easier except that they always want to do it without any help, which consists of them basically sucking the water and toothpaste off their toothbrush and saying they're done. We're working on it, though. I was super excited today when I picked them up from daycare (and so were they!) because they ran up to me with these bags full of dental care stuff they got because a dentist came in to talk to all the kids. They got a new toothbrush, some toothpaste, kids flossers, and (my favorite) some of those little pink pills you chew to find out where to brush your teeth more! I've actually never tried one myself but I knew the boys would think they were pretty cool, and I was right! Tonight they were so excited to do the whole routine and were very good about me helping them get all the pink off their teeth. I am trying to remind myself of all the other things that seemed to take so long to teach the boys and remember that eventually it clicked with them and this will too, in time. Hooray for a good night!

You knew I was pregnant right?

We've gotten a few comments from people we don't hear from too often that didn't know we were having another baby so I thought I'd post a picture to make sure there was no doubt in everyone's mind! And even though I certainly look like I'm due any day (and plenty of people remind me of that everyday!) this was taken at about 27 weeks (I'll be 30 weeks this week). 

The Nursery!

My husband is incredible! While I was in San Diego he got started on the nursery and totally surprised me. I kept thinking that we'd never get anything started until it was actually time for her to be born, we've been so busy lately. I've been pretty frustrated that nothing seems to be coming together, we hadn't started the nursery, we're no where near having her named, I haven't picked out bedding, I haven't even gone shopping for her yet! And now I am so excited that something is happening and that it will be completed (fingers crossed) before she comes! There's still quite a bit to do, though. We need to patch up all the seams in the wood, get it sanded down smooth, and a whole lot of painting. There's also that part of the room where we didn't do paneling and it sits back a couple feet, we're planning on putting in some built in storage there and a built in changing table. Maybe this means all the other stuff will start coming together, too. So excited! 

San Diego

I was sent to San Diego this past week for a work conference and I was lucky enough to have my mom come with me. I couldn't believe the sun still exists! It was incredibly beautiful. I'm never great about taking pictures so there's not much to show but I really did have a great time. We stayed at The Omni Hotel, which was easily the nicest place I've ever stayed. We found some yummy places to eat, good dessert, did some shopping, walked around some great little tourist shops on the bay, and just enjoyed not having to wear a coat!

Baby GIRL Johnson!

Inauguration Day

More Pictures of Inauguration Day

4:11 am in the metro

4:32 am waiting at the Silver Ticket Gate

The sun joins us at 7:14 am

9:10 am

Good Eats in Washington DC

We ate a lot of amazing food on our trip. Even the cafes in the museums had pretty incredible food. We had a pretty interesting experience one of our first nights at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant. None of us had ever eaten anywhere like this so it was new to us all. No menu, no prices listed anywhere, just a set 7 course meal to share between us with no silverware. 

Oh...and belly dancing!

Mt. Vernon

Mt. Vernon is where we traveled the furthest to. It's right on the Potomac river and really a stunning place to see. It was quite large even though it only comprised of a portion of the land that George Washington actually owned. This is where he retired to after being President and very much loved his life there. 

Here is the Mansion.

The back of the Mansion.

And the line to get into the Mansion. Needless to say we didn't wait in line.

This is a small monument dedicated to George Washington's slaves, and their burial place.

The burial place of George and Martha Washington.

Other Outside Attractions

As I'm sure you will see, we weren't very good at taking a lot of pictures. We feel like we saw just about every monument and site you could possibly see while in DC but it was so cold and we were so bundles up that it took too much effort to take pictures! Ah, excuses. 

These first couple pictures are at the World War II Memorial. These cold winter pictures don't do it justice, it's a beautiful site that I'd love to go back and see in warmer weather.

Here's Kara with the Washington Monument in the background. This is the same spot we took the picture of the White House (below). It's really cool how all these places, along with the museums, are all relatively close to one another. 

The White House, the place that's not decorated with cheap stuff like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, you know, the places where I dream to one day shop!

I could have sworn we took pictures while at the Jefferson Memorial but, alas, they are nowhere to be found. We were there the day of the big concert but we thought it started a whole lot earlier than it actually did! We were just about as close as you could get but when we realized it wasn't for another 4 hours and we hadn't eaten anything in hours we decided to leave. 

Smithsonian

The Smithsonian wasn't too high on my priority list for this trip, I basically thought it was just some old building with old paintings in it. Little did I know, literally, that it was made up of several different museums each incredible in their own respect. 

Seriously?! The ruby slippers?! Sure, they're really not very stylish, and sequins haven't been used in how many years, but certainly a sight to see. This was in The National Museum of American History. 

This is what you walk in to see when you enter The National Museum of Natural History, by far my favorite museum. There's no way you could see it all in one day, or maybe even two! Such a great place to  take kids to with everything from gems and rocks to whales and dinosaurs, Jack and Owen would have loved it!

Here's the Hope Diamond, in the same museum.

Still in the same museum we spent way too much to watch a 40 minute 3D movie on Dinosaurs. Oh well, experiences.