Sometimes Juliet Makes a Mess

One day there was a lot of commotion coming from the girls' room during nap time. In all honesty there is often a commotion during nap time, but this was a little different. 

I rushed into the room and found this:

And then this:

My dear Juliet had gotten a hold of the diaper rash cream. She smeared it all over herself, the room, and...

all over poor Charlotte - her face, her hair, her bed.

The diaper rash cream now resides up on a high shelf.

September Birthdays

In September, we celebrated Charlotte's half birthday! 

She was pretty darn cute (surprise!) 

Juliet didn't seem to mind too much that the focus wasn't all on her. There was cake, after all.

Then we celebrated my birthday with Brent & Carissa.

It wasn't nearly as cute, though. But that cake was AMAZING. And later that month Dan took me to the opera (as my birthday present) to see Placido Domingo perform in I Due Foscari. Whoa.

Summer 2012

One of these days I'll be all caught up. It won't be today, though.

We had family pictures taken which resulted in my all-time favorite picture of Dan and Juliet.

Dan and I took the girls to the beach - okay, once all summer. We're bad Californians.  Juliet is still pretty scared of the ocean.  She won't go anywhere near it.

At the end of June we had the Johnson Family Reunion. The chaos was monumental and wonderful. 

We all competed in the Johnson Cup. Amazingly enough, our respective families all wound up with the exact same score! Was it fixed? As the official tallier for the competition, I can't comment on that. However, here is the most amazing video of the patriarch of the Johnson family...

In case it wasn't clear, his goal was to shake all the ping pong balls out of the tissue box.

Still Catching Up

After Charlotte was born, all the grandparents came to visit. Bud and Leslie were making the rounds, so to speak, so were only able to stay a few days. But my mom got to stay for two weeks! And let me tell you, she saved me in those early days after my children doubled in quantity. She cooked, she cleaned, she entertained Juliet, and SHE LET ME SLEEP.  The woman is a saint.

Dan blessed Charlotte on Easter in a dress made especially for her by Grandma Chapman. My mom was able to be there, and Brent made the drive up, too.  

 No pictures, please.

We all celebrated Easter at the Ashworths' (and aren't they wonderful for always adopting us for the holidays?) 

Dan exclaimed, "That dress is wider than she is long!"

Juliet wasn't so thrilled about having her picture taken.

And later we had an Easter egg hunt in the park.

Charlotte didn't really care a whole lot.

Charlotte! (13 March 2012)

On March 13, Charlotte was finally born. This little sweetheart gave me quite the time of it while in the womb. I was done being pregnant, but more than that I was ready to meet this little angel.

She looked a lot like Juliet did when she was born. But Charlotte has the Johnson nose! We were pretty sure the Buckley nose would win out over anything else (it had with all the great-grandkids so far), but Charlotte is all Johnson!

 

While in the hospital, Juliet was not too sure about this new little creature.

  

But as soon as we were home, they fell right in to rhythm with each other. Juliet is the perfect big sister: very loving and protective. Juliet even showed Charlotte how to play with her toys.

 And of course Dan fell in love with Charlotte immediately.

And I could not have been happier.

My girls are wonderful, and they love each other. But being a big sister can tire a girl out!

The Couch Debacle (February 2012)

In early 2012, we had one of those stereotypical parenting moments. We had recently moved into our new apartment and were still getting things situated. One afternoon, Juliet was occupied, so I took the opportunity for a quick potty break. This, apparently, is not acceptable.

In the few minutes that I was in the other room Juliet managed the following:

1. Maneuver over the baby gate.
2. Work open the utility drawer.
3. Pick out the black permanent marker.
4. Scurry back over to the couch.
5. Color ALL OVER my white couch, pillows, her clothes, and her face.

When I came back in, she looked at me innocently.

I handled it pretty well, if I do say so myself. After the initial shock wore off, I laughed. By then it was too late to do anything about it anyway. I then practiced the art of cushion flipping and strategic blanket placement. Then it looked like this:

Not too bad, eh?

Now I know what some of you are thinking. "White couches, really? With kids!?!" But give me a minute to defend myself. There is a method to this  madness. These are IKEA couches with removable, washable covers. Generally speaking, we can wash the covers every so often and they come perfectly clean. Sometimes, however, something dreadful happens (see above). In these cases, the white covers are a couple hundred dollars cheaper than any of the other covers. See? I'm not so daft after all.

Christmas 2011

Here's some more review:

Christmas 2011

After Juliet's birthday, Dan and I decided she needed her own play kitchen. For Christmas we bought her one, and she fell in love.

We went to visit all the family in the Midwest, and Juliet formed a love/hate relationship with dogs of all kinds. She is so excited by them and wants nothing more than to pet them and play with them, but she is so terrified at the same time that she just can't quite bring herself to do it. This results in her maniacally screaming, "Buppy!" and dancing just out of the dog's reach.

We played a lot with family.

We celebrated sweet Lilli's birthday.

We celebrated dear Haley's birthday, but Juliet didn't like the Sorting Hat so much.

And Juliet and Kaylie formed a lasting bond.

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas - even if I was gigantically pregnant (more on the result of that, later.)

A Year In Review

Let's face it, when I'm pregnant, I'm incredibly unproductive. All right, even that's an understatement.  So here's a quick look at what's been going on in our family.

Independence Day 2011

We baked apple pie.

We hung out with Brent & Carissa at the Ashworths', and the girls ran around in their tutu swimsuits.

Mexico City

Right after we found out I was pregnant, we flew down to Mexico City to visit Bud & Leslie while they were on their mission at the Mexico City Temple Visitor's Center.

 They took us around to do some sightseeing. The Pyramid of the Sun was on Dan's must-see list.

Halloween 2011

We went to a pumpkin patch. In Los Angeles that means a parking lot temporarily filled with bales of hay and severely overpriced pumpkins, but we had a lot of fun (we bought our pumpkins from the grocery store, though - much cheaper!)

Juliet dressed up as a wonderfully chunky ballerina.

 

She went trick-or-treating with Eliza and Victoria.

Then somebody answered the door wearing a scary mask. She was terrified and insisted we carry her all night...it wasn't all bad :-)

Juliet's 2nd Birthday

For Juliet's birthday, we met up with Brent & Carissa at a play place. They had an entire room full of play kitchens, a ball pit, and slides!

Christmas 2011

 We tried to take family Christmas pictures, but they mostly turned out like this...

or this...

or this...

There were a couple cuties...

but we gave up on the idea of sending out Christmas cards.