hot water.

appliance number three to need repairs in the johnson home this winter? the 16yo hot water heater. repairs in this case = full replacement. and relocation. and sooner rather than later.

well, cheers to our neighborhood plumber/mechanic/generous fellow who gave us the better part of our day to get us back up & running. and cheers to nj who labored beside him and is now versed in hot water heater installation. hopefully we can pay it forward someday & help someone else with an emergency water heater fix.

and really, when i start to think about all the other things that could fail in this house on a moment's notice, i am thankful it's only been three things this winter! and oh so thankful that we currently reside in a warm home, with hot water and cold food.

fridge.

daddy & kj had a big task this week: fixing the fridge. thanks to uncle dan's diagnostics, nj pinpointed the trouble at a broken heating element (part of the fridge's self-defrosting system). he replaced it, and wa-lah! we could bring our food back into the kitchen rather than storing it in a cooler on the deck (lucky for us we had zero degree weather to keep our food frozen! another plus to living in MN...). you can see in these pics that it was a small space for nj to work in, but just the right size for kj to utilize her handy little baby-sized pliers... thank goodness for helpful little girls!

furnace.

in an attempt to beat out our 39yo furnace from its inevitable end, not to mention the year-end deadline of tax incentives for high-efficiency furnace upgrades, we replaced our furnace this year. kj helped. a little. ;)

one.

a winter ONEderland party for kj! we had such a blast celebrating this first birthday with our little girl. we invited almost all of her favorite people, set up a red-turquoise-snowflake theme, prepped all kinds of refreshments and decorations befitting said theme, and finally partied it up with all who came from near & far to bless this birthday girl. 

favorites of the afternoon included balloons, storytime, the hat & mitten collection, white hot chocolate, and jello jigglers. kj was less than enthused with the sticky icing on her cake, but nobody else seemed to complain.

kj's newest trick, designed for this party? "kj, how old are you?" and sure enough, she holds one finger high in the sky. that girl is ONE!

matching.

matching christmas reds. matching auburn locks. matching blue eyes. matching cheery smiles. matching last names. matching admirer named rj. these are happy times right here.

leftovers.

leftover pizza is a wonderful thing. although pizza is really quite wonderful any time at all, if your name is kj.

girls.

remember this fantastic shot from circa six weeks?

she's grown up a little bit in the past year ;) and this is only year one!