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.