Treat!

How our Halloween weekend began...

Boo! I think the skeleton was more scared of the girls then they were of him! Innocent little game of wrap the mummy... turns into tp fest :-)
Peyton...skeleton disguised as and old fashioned football player :-)

Mickey Mouse!



The end!

Am I in heaven?

My girls are amazing. Peyton is the happiest little gerber baby...she loves to smile and show those precious little dimples. And she is the BEST little sleeper. I thank God everyday for her ~ multiple times ~ she is such a little blessing. And Kayla...oh my Kayla. This morning daddy brought her up to curl up in bed with me (which I love) as he was leaving for work and he kissed me goodbye...she started whimpering because he hadn't kissed her goodbye...so I told her to roll over and go back to sleep and that I promised he would come back up to kiss her goodbye before he left for the day...and she said okay. I thought she would just go back to sleep and forget about it but I could see she was lying there waiting for her daddy to come back upstairs...so I went downstairs and told him and he came up and sure enough...she gave him a big smooch and smiled happily and curled back up and went to sleep. Oh ~ what would daddy do without his two lovely little ladies :-)

My adventurous one...

I think Brook said it right that Kayla is a "cautious adventurer". She goes into things cautiously, but once she has it figured out, she goes at them full force. Example: First time at the lake this summer = Kayla would only jump in holding my hand and had to be touching me at all times while in the lake. 2nd time at the lake this summer = Kayla would jump in holding my hand but once in would swim around by herself. 3rd time at the lake this summer = Kayla jumps in and swims all over the place and then tries to catch me when I'm jumping in :-) She also went tubing...and waved ecstatically the whole time.

7 foot shark...what?!

Potty Training...could it be this easy?

My first and greatest thus far dread of parenting ~ potty training. For some reason it is always the topic of conversation with parents and typically not in a positive way. And as your child grows through the two's the topic goes from "how do you plan to start" to "have you started" to "how is it going" and on and on...but always right on topic. So...as Kayla approached two, we bought her a froggy potty. In the beginning she thought it was cool and enjoyed sitting on it but doing nothing in it...she was very proud of herself just for sitting on it so we found joy in it as well. Then the mid-two's came along and I was uber pregnant and although this was when Kayla was the most interested in attempting to use the potty (but, mind you, on a very inconsistent basis), this was when mommy was most dis-interested in assisting with the use of the potty, wiping (and pretty much anything associated with bending over at that point). I kept saying to myself - I will work on it during maternity leave! Perfect timing...three months free from work...I'll have plenty of time to keep Kayla out of school and work on potty training! Along came maternity leave and all I wanted to do was snuggle up with my precious little infant and enjoy the cuteness of the sisters...potty training was the furthest thing from my mind. So...I beat myself up for it a little bit but said...she'll get potty trained eventually. Noone goes off to college not knowing how to use the potty (or at least I hope!). It's moments like these that your child can totally surprise and amaze you. Two weeks before my maternity leave is over, Kayla wakes up one Friday morning and says she wants to use the potty. Although she had said it many times before, I could tell by the gleam in her eyes that this time was different. So I asked her if she wanted to go to the store to buy big girl panties and she said "yes!". So off to Target we went...which we actually opened up since our target doesn't open until 8am...and Kayla picked out 5 packs of big girl panties (I probably would have bought 20 if Kayla had put them all in our cart). We went home and Kayla peed on the potty all day. Julie came over for a run and we brought our froggy potty in the stroller...Kayla even peed in the froggy potty on the sidewalk no problem. She had one accident all day. And all weekend..none. We went to the aquarium...she had no problem in the car to Baltimore...asked to go pee pee everytime she felt the need. And not an accident since! This girl is absolutely amazing when she makes up her mind to do something!

PEYTON ARRIVES!!

In with the Blizzard of 2010...

...came beautiful, wonderful Peyton Elle Johnson! 8lb4oz @ 12:20pm.

All grandparents were there to welcome her into the world just minutes after her birth...which was absolutely wonderful! We arrived at the hospital for our induction at 8am...watched grey's anatomy on Bryan's phone...the grandparents showed up and a few minutes later...out she came! Easy as could be!

First visitors~!

Her funky little toe which proves she is her daddy's daughter :)

And we were welcomed home by a neighborhood of kids playing in the 3 feet of snow! And since it was superbowl Sunday, we had a party!

How the neighborhood greeted Peyton Elle her first day home! All of us went sledding (even mommy...that's how easy the labor was:-)

Peyton's first walk...

Welcome to the world my sweet little babykins!!

NEW YEARS 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEARS 2010! Can't wait for the little peanut to arrive!!


Evan and Bryan Burasha take a polar bear swim...

December 2009 Blizzard!

Love this snow! Do we live in Colorado?

Can we stay in this moment forever?

We just got back from the OBX - had an awesome time with the family. Mom and dad, Brook, Sam and Joyce and Jay were all there (as well as Belle, Punky and Cali, of course) - beautiful weather, beaches, fun walks, great golf and fantastic food. Kayla was in her element with all of the people she loves most right at her ready - as well as a pool - she was in heaven. When we got home it was dinnertime and Bryan and I went downstairs to relax for a few minutes before we started dinner. Kayla was downstairs with us and she was her normal busy little bee self - off in the laundry room rummaging around. She came out carrying a new package of paper plates which she was adamantly asking for me to open - to which I obliged because I was too tired to explain to her that there was no need to open a new package of paper plates right now. She then went upstairs. We heard her up there knocking stuff around and giggling... but all sounded okay so we let her proceed. About 5 minutes later she was calling "mom", "dad"...come here! So upstairs we went...to which we found 3 place settings set at our places at the table, paper plates with silverware right beside them ...and a handful of cheerios on each of the plates. She had made us dinner :-) She was sitting at the head of table and said "sit!" which of course we did...and ate our cheerios and enjoyed every one of them. It's so hard to describle how adorable a moment it was...and perhaps it was only adorable because it was our babe and we were seeing in a single act how grown up she has already become...and also how sweet...but it was absolutely the cutest thing. Bryan said "I think this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me". We are so lucky she is ours ~

TOP 10 SWEET KAYLA/ ANIKA MEMORIES - DENVER,CO

10.Bathing baby dolls in waterfalls

9. Swinging from closet rods 8. Riding Carousels 7. Taking picures of flamingos

6. Talking to gorillas 5. Practicing somersaults on/off bunk beds 4. Jumping on beds with silk sheets
3. Giggling girls in jacuzzi tubs 2. Dancing around the living room in diapers 1. Flying high and fast in planes, trains, and automobiles (and firetrucks, boats and strollers!!!)

Backpacks and ponytails...already!?

This morning - as I watched Kayla trot into school with her backpack on her back, her hair pulled back into a beautiful little shiny pony tail of loose red curls, the confidence of a 16 year old in the adorable body of a 2 year old - I could not believe how quickly time flies and how fast she is growing up! She went into her classroom and hung her backpack on her hook and looked back at me with those big brown eyes and I just wanted to scream - slow down honey! This is all going too fast!!! This having all followed her waking up and as I went into her room she was holding her (fake) cell phone and saying "Nel Nel called!" with the phone held tightly to her ear. At least it's still Grammy Nel Nel that she get's excited about getting calls from rather than some little boy...although I'm sure that's not far off either! Can we please slow down time for a little while!?

Kayla goes to school!

Kayla started preschool this month! The first 2 days were awesome...the first day she was so excited seeing her classroom and all of the fun things to play with. I stayed for about an hour with her...we played in her classroom for a while...then she "giddily" ran down the hall to check out the other classrooms and then we went to the multipurpose room and met a bunch of the kids...there was one girl from the 4-5 year old class class who was really cute and said she would watch after Kayla (she actually wanted to carry her to her classroom...and tried :-) When I left that first day her teacher (Mabel) had set up some art stations in the classroom and so I rolled out playdoh with Kayla and some of the other children and then kissed her on the head and said good bye and she just said "bye mom" and turned back to what she was doing. They said that she did awesome and took to the other kids really well. She also napped fine on the cot which I was worried about because she's never slept on a cot amongst a bunch of children and things to play with before... but Mabel said she must have recognized her sheet because she went right over to it, crawled in and fell asleep. Bryan said she seemed so tired when he picked her up that first day but she was fine/ normal when she got home. The 2nd morning we went into the multipurpose room and she ran up and gave Mabel a hug and I said I was going to sign her in (I wasn't going to leave yet) and she just turned around and said bye mom! and went off toward the slides...So - I was really excited it was going so well/ so easily. Then... Wednesday happened...:-( She did not want to get out of the car...kept buckling herself back in...when I finally got her into the building she didn't want me to leave and kept pulling me toward the doors. Mabel ended up just taking her from my arms crying and when I called around 10 in the morning they said she was having a great morning and quieted down shortly after I left...and in the afternoon when Bryan picked her up she was playing with the other kids running around happily (and they had water play which they have once a week through the summers and setup pools and waterslides and stuff so I'm sure she loved that). But then dropping her off was worse the next day and it only seemed to get worse over the next two weeks...pulling my shirt off...screaming for me not to leave her! I felt so bad leaving her like that but yet I knew she was enjoying school because every day she would come home and tell me what she learned that day and show me her artwork! But then...last week everything became wonderful! We pulled up on Monday and she goes "yeh" and started clapping her hands. When we went inside she was so excited - showing me all of the dinosaurs and things on the walls. When we got to her classroom it was her friend Aiden's first day (from daycare) and so she was SO excited to see him. When I left she said "bye mom" and was taking him around the class showing him all of the fun things to play with. And that's how it went all week...I would pull up and she would get so excited and start cheering when we pulled in....she would practically skip to her classroom (still holding my hand) and we would put her things away and then she would say "bye mom"...give me a hug...and off I'd go with no tears! What a relief. Daddy even got her to wear her backpack on their way home from school! Today was hilarious...I brought her into her classroom and was talking to her teacher - she said "bye mom" and gave me my hug but since I was still talking to the teacher I hadn't left yet...she repeated "bye mom" and started pushing me out the door:-) I said to her teacher - my - how things change so quickly! I love that girl! Such a riot...

Hill Graduation!

I can't believe my baby nephew has graduated!!! Off to JMU he goes...Uncle Bryan is psyched!