cute face, poop face

a few of my favorite faces:

stubborn "i'm asleep, leave me alone" face




i love my daddy face

smiley face

poop face - proceed with caution!

coveting? okay, maybe a little...

so i've been shopping for a fabulous wool coat... the one i have is quite old, and let's just say it doesn't quite house the old girls the way it needs to anymore. ah, the sacrifices we make for motherhood - shopping! darn.



why is it that my favorite favorite coat happens to cost about 5 times what we can afford? but i have to keep a picture just so i can remember how cute it is! i think i'd give my left arm for it (not my right, of course, that arm is too useful).

there is a debate going about whether i could even pull this style off, to which i say duh, of course i could. i guess i'll have to "settle" for the uber-cute red twill coat from vicki's.

a yugoogly for nessie

oh, dear nessie...

struck down in your silvery years, drug off unceremoniously to meet your doomiest doom in the junk yard! if only your enemy had not been on his teeny tiny cell phone, you might not have been smashed to tiny bits. but you were, and we were sad, so we went home to watch some espin, looking for a little light football, but only demolition derby was on...and it only made me sadderer!

how i miss your quality leather-plush interior...how i feel cut off from the rosy sun without a window to the stars! how music will never be the same without your premium sound system, even if the cd player had broked, nor will my body temperature without your climate control system and duel airbags.

you carried me from hither to thither without much further ado. but alas, i am left only with fred's dump, barely wobbling to and fro in its final throes.


oh for the daiye when again, i will meet you in our happy heaven above! i know you were a little bulimic, but at least reading minds can come in handy in a paradise full of strange people.

until we meet again!

baby's first... accident???

oh my!

so, we were on our way home from a party last weekend, late, a bit tired, baby rather cranky, and suddenly out of nowhere, shabam! ok, it was more like "clunk slide clunk bump squash" or something... apparently, some kid on his cell phone didn't notice fred slowing down, and managed to swerve just enough to side-swipe us all the way down the side of my car.

good news, we were all fine, and the baby was already crying, so i don't think she even noticed.

bad news, since my car was so old to begin with, it's totalled! unbelievable. an appropriate eulogy will be presented forthwith, and we'll be having a "nessie wake," details to follow.

good news, i made such a good deal when i bought the car some 5 years ago, they're actually giving us $400 more for the car than i paid for it to begin with (i'm such a good bargainer, just ask sergio). don't tell the ins. company.

bad news, i don't know if you've checked recently, but $4700 still doesn't get much of a car. so, we're probably stuck with having only one car, fred's very old, very beat-up, very smelly, very dirty, very difficult to drive chevy blazer. dang i hate that thing (sorry fred), but i guess we'll have to deal :(

good news, the ins. company had us replace her car seat, which only comes in a set, so we now have 2 strollers!

bad news, did i mention we only have one car now? and it's me who'll be stuck at home! BOO!

good news, we're coming down the home stretch with school, so by next fall we'll be able to afford a much nicer car, and i get dibs!

more good news, our rental is a buick enclave... can you say luxury SUV? we're taking a road trip to park city tomorrow just to bask in its glory.

ok, that was 2 more goods than bads, so i guess things will probably work out somehow... poor, poor nessie.

more cute baby

baby's first evil grin, in cahootz with pinky & the brain


waaay too cute for words...


first real bath... what is all this stuff??

with grandma johnson


with cousin chris jr., the first johnson grand-babies, due two days apart! (ok, but chris was born 3 weeks early and maddie a week late...)


baby cousins!


the johnson men (plus maddie...what is she doing there?)


the whole johnson clan together!

things i've learned from maddie...

how to eat a full meal in less than two minutes.

how to put my makeup on one-handed. heck, how to do just about everything one-handed, and sometimes with my feet.

why it is you're supposed to "clean behind your ears." never actually needed to do it before, but babies get guck in the strangest places :)

how to sleep sitting up.

how to sleep standing up.

how to fall asleep in less than 30 seconds, and feel rested in 5 minutes.

why oxiclean really is all that amazing.

how to change the sheets in no time flat.

how to hold it for several hours longer than anticipated... which is a far cry from going every 20 minutes!

never leave a bottom exposed for more than a second, or risk projectile baby poop all over everything in sight! (that is everything, and i mean everything, except maybe my socks)

jury duty? ex-ca-yuse me?

ha! can't believe the timing... i just received a jury duty letter, for october through december... hmmm... still healing from a giant hole in my stomach (still not supposed to even drive)... and sure, i'll come if i can bring my infant, don't mind the screaming, poopy smell, and periodic jury "flash" when i feed her :)

think i can get out of this one? oh, but i look so good with a serious face!

introducing madeleine frances

my beautiful baby girl, madeleine frances johnson was born Saturday, August 30th at 9:50 am... she was 8 lbs, 1 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.


at a doctor's appointment the day before, we were getting a little worried because she was still showing no signs of coming. after a non-stress test at the hospital, we figured out why - she was breech! oh no! so she came via c-section saturday morning. everything went well, and we're both doing much better.

it's likely my fluid level was too low for her to turn, and the poor girl was very squashed with her head jammed under my ribs and her feet squashed underneath her. but she's enjoying her ability to stretch out now!


she's SO adorable. and she's such a good baby :) she's very alert and was wide-eyed and interested from the moment she was born, and even hours later when i finally got to hold her for the first time. those baby blue-eyes are so beautiful!


she of course enjoys long naps :) and loves walks outside, and she makes the cutest baby squeaks you've ever heard!

here are all 5 generations of women - madeleine, me, my mother, my grandmother, and great-great-grandma frances eloise, from whom maddie gets her middle name.

i'm off to give some love to my new baby girl...but i'll post more adorable photos soon :)

4 days late... and still waiting!

i'm working really hard not to be one of those whiny pregnant women who complain every minute that the baby won't come out. but let's be honest, i'm starting to think she really won't ever come out! i think she must be stuck! have i eaten too much? have i coddled her so much she's comfy and just doesn't care to leave her watery home?

or - even more frightening - is she displaying classic signs of stubbornness which she likely inherited from me, making her first statement about who's really in charge here? i must really be in for it!

i realize that, in theory, she has to come out at some point...but i've forgotten what it feels like to bend over, pee less than 15 times a day, and climb into bed without flopping like a fish.

please come soon baby madeleine!

musical gems

i'm always so thrilled when i come across fantastic music like this - unexpected gems that just outshine all the junk on the radio and make me feel like there is hope left! just downloaded the entire album, and i haven't even heard it all but wow i love it.

a few other favorites that have blown me out of the water recently: melody gardot, tristan prettyman, frou frou, the new frontiers, and my recent go-to girl, natasha bedingfield (order the album N.B. from somewhere - she didn't release it in the u.s. but it is fantastic!)

check it out...i'm a published advertiser!

most people know that i run a small marketing/graphic design business from home, ispectrum marketing. well, my first ad just got published in a nationally recognized magazine! this appeared in "scrapbook trends" magazine - not a small fish for that industry, either. i was rather limited by the product photos we had to work with, and the very small size of the ad, but i think all in all it's not too bad...

not exactly the type of thing i can brag about at work though; "hey, congrats, you hired a marketing company so new we just published our first ad!" oh well, it's at least great fun for me :)

handmade guest book

so, a very good friend of ours got married over the weekend. we're hoping a little time in the temple, along with a little spicy food, will convince madeleine it's time to come! in yet another attempt to give myself plenty to do over the summer, i offered to do their guest book, and i think it turned out pretty well...these are so fun to do. here are a few of my favorite pages! i used a very cool felt-feel scroll decoration on the cover - really made the binding beautiful, i think.

2 years later... our honeymoon in hawaii

well, it's only been 2 years, and it only took a bit of bored desperation before we finally got around to going through our honeymoon photos! we were lucky enough to spend about 18 days in hawaii, both on kauai and oahu.

here are a few of our favorites (only 300 or so to choose from!):
here we are at the top of diamondhead - a beautiful view of honolulu! our hotel is right along the coast, just above my shoulder...
waimea canyon, at the top of which we spent a night in the quirkiest little rundown (translation = scary) cabin.
horseback riding through the countryside in kauai.

flowers the size of your FACE.
our hike along the napali coast - one of the most difficult hikes i've ever been on, but also probably the most beautiful thing i've ever seen...
i found my true love at the polynesian cultural center.
at the cultural center luau, they made all the honeymooners do a little dance on stage. it seems there were a lot of us!
yes, that's us literally dancing on the bar at the hard rock cafe...ok, so maybe we got a little crazy!
at the laie temple, which sadly, was closed while we were there :( ...but at least we got to see it!

still baking

well, the baby bun still seems content to just hang out. i'm starting a pool - my bet is she'll be born toward the middle of next week. 2 to 1 odds here people, anyone want in?? (ok, i have no idea what i just said, but it sounded convincing, didn't it?)

we're all ready to go - her clothes are all pre-washed, folded, and sitting in drawers...her empty, forlorn swing is sitting in the living room...her car seat is installed and gathering dust in my car (and apparently emitting a strange smell as well; new plastic and hot sun don't seem to mix well)...hospital bags are packed...

so did you know, madeleine will make the first living 5th generation baby in my family? yup, her great-great-grandmother is still alive and living in salem. here we all are:

maddie's middle name frances is after this lovely eldest lady you see in the photo! and, apparently, her great-great-great-great-grandmother another two generations back as well, who has a pretty fantastic pioneer story that involves hiding in a barrel. pretty special baby, if you ask me!

hola from mexico!

more catching up here... (geez, it's only 10 am and i'm bored stiff as a board). right after graduation, fred and i took a surprise cruise to catalina island and mexico, courtesy of hotwire and about a week's notice. SO much fun. i was about 24 weeks along.

kayaking in catlina (i'm pregnant, not sick people, yes i can wield a paddle! they almost wouldn't let me go.)

in catalina, the first time a complete stranger saw me and assumed i was pregnant. very exciting moment for me.
great room service...
at la bufadora in ensanata.

pregnant women should never carry their own bags. that's what mules, er, husbands are for. i guess goofy faces run in the family!

priceless photos are worth 1000 words...

so we recently returned from a family reunion for the whetten clan... we camped up american fork canyon, and yes, i slept in a tent at 35 weeks prego! i was so proud. (ok ok, we had an air mattress...but still...)

while there, all the adults went to the temple together, which was really cool. afterwards, my aunt cathy took what i think should go down in history as quite the priceless photo:


not sure how i managed this face, but for once, here's a pretty hilarious picture that even makes ME laugh, rather than want to find the nearest flame-thrower. (ok, so don't look at it too long...)