4th of July!

Hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th holiday!  This year marked the first Independence Day in SIX YEARS that my husband did NOT have to work, so we enjoyed a full family day together! 

First we water-parked it up...

 Enjoyed some bomb pops...

 Cheers!

 Added a patriotic touch to dinner (flag straw printable HERE, thanks Oh Happy Day!)

 

 

 Skewers made with glitter paper + Cricut + masking tape!

 Even got a half way decent family picture ... wish Avery would smile more 'on command!'

 

 Front porch

 Fireworks time!

 

 Listening for 'boom booms'...

 Cousin love!!

 A few others joined us at the park...

 Rockford, Illinois does an AWESOME show!  Avery loved it!

 

New Baby Gift

 Our good friends' Hillary & Andy just brought their second baby (a beautiful little boy) into the world this week and we decided to treat them to a home cooked meal when they got home.  As a new family of 4, I can only imagine how tricky it gets to get laundry folded, beds made, and dinner on the table, so a meal is the least we could do!  Thanks to Pinterest (inspiration found HERE), I decide to make cute little labels for the food - just to bump up the presentation a little! :)

 Cherry Dump Cake Recipe:
* Preheat oven to 350
* Melt 2 sticks butter in 9x13 baking dish
* Pour melted butter in a container and set aside - making sure bottom and sides of pan are coated first
* Pour 2 cans pie filling (cherry is best) into baking dish
* On top of pie filling, spread 1 package of cake mix (Yellow or French Vanilla is best).
* Pour melted butter over cake mix. Spread evenly so there are no large patches of cake mix on the surface
* Sprinkle entire top with cinnamon to taste (pecan pieces optional)
* Bake for at least 60 minutes, or until all cake mix on surface starts to firm up (my oven takes 65 minutes)
* Serve with whipped cream or ice cream

 Slow Cooker Zesty BBQ Chicken Recipe: found HERE

Bump Watch: 20 Weeks

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, we're halfway there!  So excited that we are 50% through this pregnancy!  Although this pregnancy has been verrry uneventful, that just means we are getting closer to meeting our second baby girl!  We just met our good friends' newborn baby tonight (3 days new!) and I totally forgot how tiny they are starting out!

It's a....

GIRL!  The Johnson house is still celebrating the news that we are going to have another little girl in November!!  Avery can't possibly get anymore girly than she already is, so we knew she would adore having another girl in the house!  Neither Nick or I have a sister, so it's going to be so awesome watching the bond between Avery and the babe grow as it's something that neither of us were able to experience in our own lives.  So bring on more pink, ruffles & princesses ... we are more than ready for you baby girl!!

 

 

6 months!

Look what ABC Family brought to my attention tonight on Facebook - 6 months until Christmas! Am I the only person who is excited to see this?! 6 months until holiday movies (3 a day, why not?!), Christmas tree decorating, shopping, wrapping, more shopping, more wrapping (with a theme in mind of course), caroling, fireplace fires, family, and for the Johnson's, a snuggly newborn under the tree!  My favorite time of the year - and it is going to be extra special this year! Makes me wanna pop in Christmas Vacation... 

Gift Wrap Tip

Wanna make the Bride smile?  Wrap her shower present in the same colors/theme as her wedding!  My friend Roseann is having a "black and white gingham, upscale garden picnic wedding" (can.not.wait. to see how pretty it is going to be - the girl has great taste!) so it was super fun (not to mention easy!) to match her shower gift to her wedding invite.  Kraft paper + gingham ribbon + silver initial Christmas ornament = a pretty good replica of her adorable wedding invite!  I love wedding season!

Bump Watch: 18 Weeks

18 weeks!  Which means only 9 more days until we find out if this little babe is a boy or girl ... not that we are counting!! :)  Feeling really good - 5 lb weight gain so far.  I'm not having any 'weird' cravings, but definitely have a 'food of the week'.  The past few weeks I've been on a lemonade kick.  Last week was Little Debbie Brownies & this week it's applesauce and raspberries.  Looks like I am now craving sweets over salt/sour! Also notice how crazy high I'm carrying - and my placenta is low ... makes total sense doesn't it?!

And this week starts my baby 1 & 2 bump comparisons ... looks pretty similar to me ... carried high both times, just a little bit bigger this time around!

 

AVERY - 18 WEEKS                                                  BABY #2 - 18 WEEKS