6 Months

Ayyyee the photo of Channing is missing. 

Why? 

Because things have been so garsh darn crazy around here. Not a first for us...however these things are! 

First time writing a short novel via MacBook.

First time styling her own hair using fancy baby hair wax...flown in from London. 

First time purchasing prime time hockey tickets and sampling powdered donuts. 

(On a serious note, thank you Capone family for hosting us!) 

First time making a rescue at a water park...a submerged spinal victim for those of you from Mom's life guarding days. 

 First time scooping and sampling ice cream for a family. 

(NUMMY!)

First time building, and then sitting, in her own wooden high chair. 

(Nosworthy's for the win!) 

 First time watching Daddy's first-time-being-called-up-on-the-first-day-of-Spring-Training at bat. Do you know any other 6 month old who watches MLB TV so intently?! 

Kyle left for Spring Training a week ago and we've smoothly transitioned into our in-season jive. We've had 18 people offer to help with babysitting, a 16 day vacation to Spring Training on the books, 9 month clothing making it's way into the nursery, 4 flights booked, 3 bosses who have let us set our own schedule, added 2 lenses to our line up, and have 1 doula training coming up this weekend.

Whew.

Kyle is doing well getting settled in. He's staying with our wonderful friends, the Conley's, and is cruising around in a borrowed truck from my Aunt Mo and Uncle Hep. We decided not to drive one of the cars down this year after paying for the shipping back to the West Coast last year.  Yuck, a rental would be much cheaper, and hey a sweet loaner is even better. Thank you Aunt Mo and Uncle Hep! Kyle arrived at camp and spent about half an hour on the minor league side before being asked to fill in for the big league team. Only temporarily though, he expects to be back in minor league camp soon!

Channing likes to ride in her Lillebaby, throw a few punches when she goes into the car seat, Facetiming Daddy at least once a day, and waking up to his good morning texts. She enjoys seeing Dr. Chelsea her chiropractor, going on jogs with Mommy, and Mom's milk. She's eaten organic pear and breast milk puree three times, and is pretty sure she likes it until she realizes it doesn't include nursing snuggles. She's trying her hardest to crawl, and sleeps in the roomy (now that Daddy is gone) king sized bed with Momma. She hasn't seen a pediatrician, and we might actually think this is really cool. (If you're not sick, then you're not sick, and that rocks.) She swung on the swing at the park for the first time, with her friend Harper, and regularly entertains her friends at Lake City High School and Safe Passage. She still rocks her fluffy cloth bum and thinks Flips are her favorite. What a sweet blessing you are Channing Mae, we love you more than you'll ever know!

5 Months Old!

Channing is FIVE months old! 

I can't even believe it. 

She loves moms milk, riding in her Lillebaby, going to work and watching Dad practice. She sleeps in bed with mom and dad, and has started picking up food and putting it in her mouth! (Fruits and veggies!) She loves her Johnny Jump Up and cloth diapers. I say that last part with all sincerity, when she wears a disposable from Honest Co. she cries the second it's damp. She spends one day a week with her Grandma Jody, another with her Grandma Chris and then has a very special nanny who comes to watch her one other day. It's pretty tough to leave her, but she's in such capable hands, I don't worry too much. She likes to stick everything in her mouth, talk to herself in the car, and watch Baby Einstein's.

She's pretty pumped that her Dad just received his Spring Training letter. She can't wait to head to Florida to visit her Great Great Great Aunt and Uncle and meet our baseball family. 

Kyle is working on the Big League Locker launch before he takes off - a cool article with more details about that here: 

The Front Row with Mark Nelke

Kyle became a business owner a few months ago, and with how photography has been taking off for me, we decided that I should do the same. So we've submitted all the paperwork for my LLC to the State of Idaho and we're just waiting to hear back now. What a crazy blessed year...I never imagined I would be the owner of an LLC at any point in my life. The new website is up and running, and right now I'm preparing my table for Baby Fair in the Bella Cova Natural Corner. If you're attending, swing by to see me, I would love to chat! And I'll finish with a few of my favorite shots from this last month. Xoxox

2016

Boy it's been awhile since I last posted. Things have been...hectic. To say the least. But I did promise good news for the next post, and it's finally here. First, here are updates on our little ginger snap!

Channing turned TWO months old on game 2 of the World Series.

She turned THREE months old just in time for our family photos. 

And here she is, at a whopping FOUR months! She loves to ride in her Beluga Baby wraps or LilleBaby carriers. Santa brought Daddy a manly LilleBaby for Christmas and they are loving it. She puts her little hands together and prays to Jesus. She loves Mom's milk, and will only drink breastmilk from her Mimijumi bottle when I'm away. She's still rocking cloth diapers, but we've moved out of newborn all in ones and now have a hearty stash of Rumparooz, Bumgenius and Flips with AppleCheek microterry inserts. (I really promise to post a full blown blog on the cloth diaper adventure.) On the rare occasions that call for disposables, the only diapers we trust are from The Honest Company, and we've only purchased two packs of them since she arrived! She loves her amber teething necklace, visiting Dr. Chelsea at Thrive Chiropractic and jumping in her bouncer from Grandma and Grandpa. She's already a baseball travel guru, flying to Georgia with us for the annual PAO conference. (Details of this incredible conference on my bestie Kendall's blog starting here: Know Better Love). She loves to sleep with Mom and Dad at night, and watch Baby Einsteins in the morning. She has a darling collection of rolls on her arms and legs, just rolled over, and likes to coo and gurgle. We absolutely can not believe how fast she's growing, and I can't believe how often her Dad begs for another sibling for her. However, I'm shooting to get through the next baseball season with out a baby in my belly.

So the good news. The long awaited good news is two fold. My agency has retained the intervention and prevention contract a local high school, which means that I now work part time out of that high school! I spent a good portion of time during my maternity leave writing the contract between the school district and our agency, and it finally was voted on by the school board in early December. I guess all good things take time. The agreement basically says that our agency will provide a staff member trained in crisis management and power based personal violence advocacy, to provide all the necessary intervention and prevention services needed to students to foster a safer and healthier student environment. We all felt fairly confident that this contract would be approved, even though it's the first agreement in the state of Idaho (and maybe the country, according to the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence) of it's kind; we went ahead and launched Green Dot at this high school in mid December after months of planning. Green Dot is an effective proactive bystander intervention training targeted at reducing sexual and dating violence, as well as bullying. I'm so excited to see where this new journey will lead my agency. 

You might have caught that part time piece. I'm leaving time in my schedule to continue growing my photography business. I'm absolutely shocked by the growth that it's experiencing but God couldn't have provided it at a better time. I wasn't expecting this at all, but He certainly was because things are aligning so well...ahem, as He planned. Do you remember this summer when I learned about a local birth center's opening and quick hurry dropped off a ton of things for them to sell in a yard sale while I was majorly preggers back in August? It's okay, I barely remember that either. Anyway, that's what happened and while I was there I got to chatting with the midwife behind this crazy cool vision, her name is Sarah. (She's really good friends with my rockin' doula, Kayla). She told me all about her plans to open a birth center, while standing on her front yard, which in retrospect was kinda crazy because I just met her (again, how does He do it all so perfectly?) I told her I really liked to take pictures and I dreamed of taking birth photos. She told me she already had a photographer she was partnered with, which made a lot of sense to me, because people don't just open birth centers with out a plan. I dropped the photography talk and told her that healthy birth and female empowerment was a movement near and dear to my heart, and for her to just reach out if there was ever anything I could do to help. Over Keurig coffee, building random pieces of furniture before the grand opening, taking head shots for the staff, and discussing birth insurance billing questions with Sarah at the birth center, I realized that I still really wanted to do that photography thing with such a knowledgable midwife, and for strong mommas birthing at the center. Before I was able to verbalize it, Sarah brought it back up and said she wanted me to have that option too! Yippy! So I saved some of the income from my family sessions and with just a little help from relatives at Christmas I was finally able to purchase a lens just for birth and newborn photography, props for newborn sessions, a backdrop stand, and the super spendy posing pillows for newborn shoots. Sarah let's me use the birth center as a studio when needed, which is an incredible blessing. And you may have noticed the new logo! I'm rebranding for the New Year! The new website should be launching by the end of the week with a new look, and new packages.

Kyle's been working hard this off season in the weight room and in the cage. If you've been following baseball stuff, you may have seen he was not selected in the Rule 5 draft. We were anxiously awaiting to see if another team in baseball was ready to add us to their 40 man roster, but after battling an injury most of this last season, his agent really prepared us for the fact it was unlikely. And his agent was right. (He usually is, hehe.) It didn't happen, but we love our Met's family, and there's room for us here for now. That's a blessing in it's own. We're just waiting for Spring Training details to be sent our way and preparing to give this season all we have. So there you have it! The last few months have been crazy busy, but we're embracing each part of this journey with our hearts open and our trust in Him and His plans for us. 

One Month!

Our sweet little love is ONE whole month old today! She can lift her head, she's starting to smile with lots of coaching, and she's been working on tummy time for three weeks now.

And we've been oh so busy! 

We had our first bottle, with breast milk of course, and Mom almost lost it! After consulting with the lactation specialist, it was recommended that we very slowly introduce a bottle at three weeks to make sure she would be comfortable taking a bottle when I go back to work. I was worried she would try it out, and never look back to the....boob. But at the recommendation of a sweet Momma friend (thank you Ashley and Harper!) we started the very first bottle off right with pace feeding techniques and baby girl was back to nursing with Mom no problemo! Dad was super excited about this bottle feeding success and called in grandparent/auntie reinforcements, and then planned an anniversary dinner night out to Tony's on Lake Coeur d'Alene. I'd never been before, the food and view were incredible! And Mommy enjoyed her first glass of wine in a year!

 

This was our second wedding anniversary, and for the second year in a row, my husband totally surprised me a with a thoughtful gift. He had a custom glove made to fit me, that happens to be the perfect match to his own glove. Did I mention that he is the perfect match to my life? Gosh, I love him. 

Seriously, what's not to love? 

 

 

Channing had her first check up at the midwivery clinic! Everything looks great with her blood work, and her ears are healthy. She made the board! (Left column, halfway down in PINK).

 

 

Beluga Baby featured us for the first time this week! Make sure you check out their Instagram at @shopbelugababy and their website belugababy.ca! We are SO excited to receive our Lori Beluga Wrap and matching headbands any time this week, and in the picture below we're rocking The Sawyer Beluga Wrap! We love our Beluga Wraps. Channing went with me to an exciting meeting at Lake City High School in our Beluga Wrap, I'm grateful for the new opportunity there (just waiting for the school board to vote!), and for the wrap for making it possible!

This last weekend, we finally ventured out of the house for our first trip since Channing arrived, as a family of...FOUR! Holy moly, packing for four is a lot different than packing for three, these little girlies are double trouble. But we were oh so excited to visit Grandma and Grandpa at the farm and catch Prosser's annual Balloon Rally!

 

The only bummer is we were up bright and early on Saturday morning for the balloons, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, the balloons couldn't get off the ground due to the wind! Bummer, we had both the girls up at 6 am, and at the launch by 7 am! 

Look how awake we are! Eeep, it was back to the farm so Mom, Dad and Channing could nap off the previous nights festivities and Grandma took over watching the our other little lady. 

 

Once the rest of the Johnson's were a little more rested, we tooled around the farm, looking for eggs from the chickens, checking out the new calves, testing out Grandpa's new quad, and climbing willow trees.  

 

Once the sun was beginning to set it was time for the Night Glow, a special event where several of the hot air balloons are displayed at Art Fiker Stadium for families to view. Channing loved the balloons, she was mesmerized by the huge glowing orbs illuminating in rhythm to the music!

Sunday morning was breezy, but the balloons were finally able to launch! Yippy! We are so lucky to get a prime viewing spot down on the river at a long time family friends home. This year, we were "sprinkled," on by two balloons flying over the top of us after touching down on the river. 

After finally catching the balloons, we were back to the farm to root on our Seahawks until half time. We loved on Grandma and Grandpa and then scooted over to our baseball family friends in Tri-Cities to finish the game. (Notice Grandma is not in the photograph, we do not support Green Bay! ;) )

  The girls did a great job on Channing's first trip! Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for all of their help too. We have another trip coming up this weekend, two of our wonderful college friends are tying the knot in Walla Walla. We won't have Grandparent back up for this one, but we sure are excited. Maternity leave has been such a blast! I think planning to return to work part time was the best choice I made during pregnancy. Just enough to keep me sane... ;)

Channing's First Three Weeks

You can learn a lot of new things in three weeks!

Your Mom is awesome. Kiss her lots. 

Your Dad is awesome. Well if he's anything like my Dad or husband. Kiss him lots too.

Midwives are the best. So is the bill for a home birth and midwivery prenatal care. Is it really possible to have a birth and entire 10 months of care that costs less than an ultrasound? We've got a winning strategy going here for the next one(s).

The majority of people in North Idaho are simultaneously blown away, and fascinated, with baby wearing. 

 

Picking a good God parent is like picking a great pair of shoes. Plus, if they ask to wear your baby on hikes, you made the right choice. 

It's a great success when your kid is hungry enough to eat off both boobs.

Spicy food, is a no. And green peppers.

A baby that sleeps 4-5 hours since birth is a true winner. Thanks pumpkin.

Baby hair. People are shocked by it. Hers is identical to mine at birth, but not as red. Seriously.

A BOB stroller is a worthy investment. Now that I think about it, it cost more than the birth itself, but it pulls it's weight and more.

A good fart can take lots of work, and a successful outcome should be celebrated. 

Sometimes, it's okay to sleep through a baseball game. Let's embrace that idea.

Don't believe what you hear around town, cloth diapers are great and easy to use.

Don't drive your newborn for the first time at 4 pm on the Friday before a holiday weekend. Unless you plan to wear your cloth diaper.

Sometimes you buy tons of things for your kid to sleep in, and then they just like to sleep in your bed. #AmazonPrimeReturns4TheWin

Baby sisters are the best companions for kindergarten orientation.

 Good baby photography means someone gets peed on. No exceptions!

 

  

 

4Moms MamaRoo. If you're planning on (or not) procreating, write that down.  

Discounted wipe warmers for upstairs and downstairs...worth every dollar

Being a brand rep, it's the new thing. But if your husband calls your baby a beluga in-utero for months, you should obviously enter her into the Beluga Baby brand rep contest! (We're super excited about this by the way, thanks for choosing us represent you guys, Haley and Beluga Baby!) 

Having two kids, is more than twice as hard. But it's also more than twice as awesome.

    

PS: Lets have a real talk about post partum momma bodies. I ate moderately well during my pregnancy, which isn't unusual for me, and I exercised a bit. Not nearly as much as I would have liked to. Many of you know that I've always been a competitive athlete and most recently I used to be a real gym junky. I was dedicated to Crossfit, HIIT and 5k races. I was in pretty impressive shape for most of my life and it would be fair to say I've done some outrageously tough work outs through out the years. That all considered, I'm still blown away by the physical feat my body accomplished on August 28th. No WOD, race or competitive match could compare. My body and everything it accomplished the day Channing arrived still blows me away. Last week, someone asked me when I was planning to, "lose the rest of my baby weight." (I gained 32 pounds while I was pregnant, while it made me mentally uncomfortable, this is in the healthy normal range.) I was really tempted to ask, "When do you plan on growing and birthing another human life?" Instead, I decided to document MY body that accomplished something incredible. I debated sharing these photos, but I ultimately decided that I want my girls to know pregnancy and birth bodies aren't something to be ashamed of, and that strong women come in different shapes and sizes. Which means I also want all women to know how incredible their bodies are. Don't let anyone bring you down Momma's, honor your strong and beautiful post partum bodies!