Life.....

Here we are. Weeks from my last post. I can't believe our sweet Elise will be 12 weeks old on Wednesday and I'll be returning to work next Tuesday. I'm not that excited about the return, it doesn't get any easier, even the third time around. Elise is becoming more fun, smiling and talking a lot. She definitely hates the car, getting dressed, and being hungry. She will let you know how unhappy she is. Gerrit is hilarious and says and does the funniest things. Anything to get a laugh out of us. And, our big girl Avery is learning to read! She's picking it up so quickly, it's really amazing to watch her sound out words and watch it click. I just can't believe she's that old already! I really need time to slow down!

Mommy and Gerrit had a date night, while Avery and daddy did the same.

Enjoying the only snow of the winter.

Gerrit playing soccer with daddy. 

He made his own chuck-it (dog toy). He was so proud!

Fun with homemade slime!

"Elise eat my fingers!"

We're firefighters!

Fun at the Seattle Children's Theater with her friend Marlee!

Sweet, smiley baby!

Serious face....

Happy 2014

Our family of 5! Life is so full and we are blessed. Though our house has sen better days and my to do list has been shorter....

         This is what life looks like most days....

                             Go Seahawks!

                       Excited to start soccer! 

              She's a Michigan girl at heart. Thanks for the adorable shirt, Frazee family!

Starting Over....

I decided that I should take another go at the blog. Luckily Chris and the kids got me an iPad for Mother's Day and "there's an app for that". So here are some pictures from the last couple months. From Avery's first day of school to pumpkin patch fun. 

Gerrit keeps us on our toes every day. He also keeps us laughing most of the day. He is constantly saying something to make us laugh or making one of his "mad" faces at us. He climbs on everything and never stops talking. He is starting to singsongs spontaneously and is making proclamations on his own. He can often be heard telling in Willie for eating something that he may or may not have actually eaten.  We are enjoying every minute of him and watching the amazing little person he is becoming.

Avery is keeping us busy also. She is in school 5 days per week for 1/2 days, which is going really well.she loves it and has a lot of great friends who she's become close with. She is also taking tap and ballet and gymnastics. She's recently been asking about piano lessons as well. I see why parents have to limit the activities. There's not enough time in the week! We just had our parent/teacher conferences with Ms. McConnell, Avery's pre-k teacher. We learned that Avery loves to learn and is great in class and is really sweet to everyone in class. All things ex know, but don't get to see at home, since she seems to like to give us the opposite at home.... She has turned into an amazing little girl. I can't believe she'll be 5 in 9 days! Where have these years gone? I promise to post photos from her big day next week!

                            "I'm freezing!" 

                                                         Our little climber

                                                   Family date night

                              First day of Pre-K!

Apologies....

For the very large lack of posts from the Seattle Johnstons these days. Lack of sleep, working 4 days a week and the arrival (sort of) of summer have made blogging very low on my priority list. We are having so much fun with our little people. Avery is so fun to talk to these days. We love hearing the things she come up with on a daily basis. She has created her own language now too, so half the time we have no idea what she is saying! She is becoming such a huge helper with Gerrit (even feeding him solids) and he falls more in love with her every day. Speaking of Gerrit... Where has our little baby gone? We had to lower the crib mattress today because someone has figured out how to stand up already! I didn't sleep at all last night because I was so worried he was going to crawl out of his crib. He is officially crawling as of last Friday too. It's so fun to watch him grow, but so sad that my baby is growing so fast. Though, at his 6 month appointment he was only in the 25th percentile for height and weight coming in at 15 lbs, 10 oz and 27 and 3/4 inches. I'm ok with that, it makes it easier to snuggle him! Here is a link to some photos from the last few months. Everything from Avery's dance class, her first real race, swimming (and swimming lessons, which did not go the greatest) and everything in between. I'm only posting on this other site because I had so many photos I wanted to post, it would have taken me 2 months just to upload them all to this site! Hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly in the future. See you in Michigan in 3 short weeks!

Happy 6 months Gerrit Christopher! And happy Independence Day!

Click on this photo to view the entire album

4 months!

Gerrit is 4 months old already! He had his 4 month well-baby check today. He is doing really well and growing just as he should be! 


Head: 42.5 cm (50%)
Height: 25.5 inches (75%)
Weight: 14 lbs 1 oz (25%)


He's becoming quite the active little man these days too. The doctor actually said we should not be surprised if his weight gain keeps slowing down for a little while because he is so active, it will be harder for him to keep gaining so quickly. Here are a few things he is up to...


-He is the happiest baby during the day, all smiles unless he's tired or hungry. He smiles the biggest for Avery. He already thinks she is the coolest person in the world! If she sings to him he can't even contain himself. 
-He loves any one to sing to him. His favorite is "Happy and you know it". 
-He is a flirt already. When I'm feeding him and not looking at him, he'll stop and stare at me until I look and then give me a huge smile, then go back to his business. 
-We're starting to get little giggles out of him, which is so fun, especially given that Avery didn't give us a real laugh until she was like 9 months old. 
-He can roll multiple times, back to front and front to back. It's really funny though, he will roll to his tummy and then get mad because he dislikes tummy time! 
-He already loves the jumperoo. He loves to jump while you're holding him too. It reminds me of his cousin, Hunter, who use to do the same thing when he was just about the same age. It's super cute, but exhausting after a while. 
-He is NOT sleeping through the night. Not even close. He still likes to wake up every 2-3 hours. We've tried many things and this was a big topic of conversation at his check-up. We've tried many things, and we have now decided that he is just a baby who doesn't sleep great yet and we've got to be patient. It stinks at night, but as soon as it's daylight again and he gives us one of his huge, toothless grins, I forget (almost) all about the nights!


We are so thankful for our little family of 4 and can't imagine our lives without our newest addition. We love you so much Gerrit Christopher!

"Stronger"

I shared this on my facebook page already, but it's too good not to share as much as possible. This video was made by some of my awesome coworkers on the SCCA unit and the amazing/inspiring patients we work with. Wish I would've been there for this. So great! Check it out....

3 year and 3 month photos.... respectively.

This was our 3rd attempt at Avery's 3 year photos and 1 and only attempt for Gerrit's 3 month photos. I guess 3 is the magic number! It's amazing what a little bribe of ice cream can do to get what one wants. Just the mention of it and Avery was the most cooperative 3 year old I've ever met! Here's a preview of a few of the photos....

Menchie's!

Avery loves her ice cream. We have a new frozen yogurt place near us that she and I frequent. She gets to choose her flavor and toppings all by herself. We decided to take daddy this weekend for a date.

Smiles!!!

Finally captured some real smiles on camera! Love this boy so much. I can't believe he'll be 11 weeks tomorrow!

Beach combing.

Chelsea and Liam were in town, so we got to spend a night with them at the beach house. Sadly, we didn't get any photos of the babies together, but I did capture Avery collecting some shells at low tide.

Showing me her loot. Check out the mountains in the background.

Bucket full of sand dollars.

Not hard to collect sand dollars when they're this abundant.

Self Portraits....

This is what happens when Avery gets a hold of the camera....