The Filleman Family

Happy 36th Birthday, Mark

2011-05-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

There were multiple birthday celebrations for Mark this year, but we spend his actual bday in Alaska with family. April and I made his favorite cake - Banana Spice (Gram Boyd special). Probably wasn't as good as Gram's but it did the job. I'm very grateful for all of his 36 years but especially the last 9 birthdays that he has been with me :) Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and best friend - we all love you very much.

First Lost Tooth

2011-05-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

The first day we were in Alaska, Davis literally "lost" his first tooth (might actually be a milestone I'll remember since he lost it on Mark's birthday). It has been dangling for weeks. He has been asking me to pull it but the thought of that brings forward the panic of my own loose teeth as a child so no tooth pulling for me - at least this round. He came inside for dinner and I looked at him and realized it was missing. He had no idea when it had fallen out but he had been in the front yard. My husband was committed to finding his first lost tooth. I thought he efforts in the front yard were hopeless but sure enough he found the thing. I hope in twenty years Davis is super glad that we saved his first lost tooth :) He looks very big and was excited to show people his new smile.

Kindergarten Graduation

2011-05-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

These aren't in order as I am blog-uploading challenged. May 26th we celebrated Davis' Kindergarten Graduation. The morning started with the K-4th grade awards so we got to see Eli's class also.

Davis looking so big in his graduation hat :)

Davis with his teacher Mrs. Shelberg - she really gave Davis a wonderful first year of school. He love her class and learned a ton.

The requested Angry Birds cupcakes

Class picture

Family picture - Grayson is incapable of standing normal :)

With Grammie and Granddad (he was all done with my requested pics)

With Grandma and Gram

All the boy cousins after the awards and grad ceremony

Getting his award in the all school part of the program. His teacher selected fruits of the Spirit that she saw in the kids. Davis received an award for kindness. She said that he was very kind to her and others in the classroom. So proud of him.

Singing in the kindergarten program

In the program with his friend Connor

In the program with his friend Zoe

Water Day

2011-05-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

The last week of school was filled with lots of fun things for the Kindergarten class. One day they had water day with water slides, spash pools, water guns, water ballon races, slip-n-slide, and popsicles. So fun! Parker and Grayson got to stay and join the fun.

This is the entire Kindergarten class in the play pool :)

Davis' friend Zoe

Parker and his buddy Emet

Davis popping a water balloon in a race with his friend David

Mother's Day

2011-05-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day we celebrated with my family after church for brunch and later in the evening with Billie for dinner. I love getting to spend the day with my most favorite moms in the world and of course with the sweet boys that make me a mommy.

Ok, so this is actually an easter photo but we failed at taking a picture on Mother's Day. Close enough! Me, my mom, my Gram and my sister = I love these women. Such amazing examples of godly moms for me to follow.

My mother-in-law with Parker and Grayson. Another amazing mom in my life. I can't imagine being a mom without the encouragement, love and support of my mom and Billie.

Me and my boys. I love these little men so much. I don't think there is a day that goes by that I don't thank God that He made me their mom and ask Him to help me be faithful to the huge responsibility of caring for them and shepherding their hearts - one of the most rewarding things in my life!!

Lego Club and Other Fun School Stuff

2011-05-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Davis got to participate in the Lego club at school this year. They met every other Thursday and built different projects and competed with other friends. He had a great time. Eli, TJ, Parker and Davis were all able to join. Legos are pretty much the single best activity for Davis these days so a club at school was very fun for him.

While the boys were in club, Grayson and I often went to my favorite Coffee Bean for a green tea/chocolate frosty thing date. He is so sweet in one-on-one time. I love this little boy.

One time per semester the Home based learning day is planned by the mom instead of the normal curriculum for the day. This semester one of the moms arranged for us to take a class at the Mac store. Davis was proud that he could already get through the basic computer mechanics and the teacher taught them to make a DVD of a photo slide show. He made a show of our trip to Disneyland.

Christmas Day

2011-02-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I do not have a single photo of Christmas Eve which is the day we spent with the Filleman side of the family - so those will come after I steal them from my father-in-laws camera :)

I love Christmas and my husband and boys all love Christmas. It is very fun and full of memories. The boys had lots of memories this years of traditions we have been establishing and I really enjoy seeing them excited about things they remember from the previous year. We do an advent calendar counting down to Christmas each day in December and it is a favorite. Parker also checked his stocking every morning after we hung them up. He tried to be all sly about it but I would watch him come in the kitchen for breakfast and just tap the outside of his stocking to see if it was empty. So precious.

Christmas morning the boys were very excited to open their stockings. Our tradition is to do stockings and one gift from Mom and Dad at home before heading out to the other houses of family.

If Grayson looks a little bewildered it is because his brothers woke him up after they couldn't wait any longer. He doesn't know quite what the commotion is about just yet!
Parker in his new cowboy get-up. This boys loves to dress up and really loves cowboy stuff.
Sweet buddies in their matching Christmas jams. Two months later I can hardly pull Parker out of these "kitty" jams and he has worn a hole in the bottom of the slippers.
Sporting their new Alaska jammies on Christmas night. They were missing the AK Johnson cousins!!!
Obligatory family picture at Gram's house.

Matt and Nicci looking a whole lot more pulled together than the rest of us. We shall see if they look that nice in a couple years when they have to drag babies out of the house on Christmas morning . . . . :)
All kinds of cousin happiness at Grandma and Papa's house!!! When it was all said and done the boys had a very fun day. Really the routine of spending two days out of the house is just getting easier and easier and much more fun. Davis was super excited about his Lego Police station and his new DS. Parker wanted a pillow pet more than his next breath and he got one so he was thrilled. Grayson couldn't quite process everything but enjoyed lots of new things - probably in particular his new Megablocks dump truck.

Random December Happenings

2011-02-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

As I type, this is very old news but Phoenix actually did get snow this year and my kids thought it was very cool. It melted before it hit the ground but the clouds were impressive and the flurries were very fun. Obviously the snow on the ground behind Parker is not the product of that storm. My Gram's neighborhood did a thing for the kids were they covered the Community Center's parking lot with snow so I took the kids down to see it. It is sad when this is your children's first snow experience but we are hoping to fix that in the next couple of weeks.
Nonetheless, they thought it was novel and fun to see snow on the ground and play in it. Parker kept asking if he could lay in it and make a "sand angel" - haha - desert boys!
This is either documentation that I am old and boring or a really cool picture. My blog so I vote that it is a cool picture. These were the awesome clouds that eventually produced snow. They don't look as impressive in a photo but really it was cool to see how you could tell just by looking that it was going to be a crazy storm.
Little boys loving each other in the mall play center while Mark and I took turns Christmas shopping.
And sadly, the last iPhone picture is a commentary on the illness that struck our family in December and January both. My boys have really had a bad run with colds this season. This was a night in the ER after Grayson had had a fever of over 103 even 5 days after antibiotics. He was so sick that he slept through the long 3 hour waiting room process (and it wasn't even that late in the evening). The verdict was he was resistant to the strong antibiotics he was on for a bad case of strep so it did nothing and he just got worse. New drugs=healthy happy baby!! Yeah.

All Things December . . . .

2010-12-28T23:40:00.000-08:00

Davis has been particularly aware of books talking about seasons and made the correlation to the unfortunate LACK of "typical" season type events in AZ. aka "Why don't we have piles of orange leaves?" "When will we have snow here?". Anyway - he was excited to see some slightly brownish leaves on one of my mother-in-law's trees. She let them shakes the leaves off the tree and rake them up into a small pile. They then threw them over their heads and lived out their "fall" dreams!! haha

So Davis wants absolutely nothing to do with the Santa tradition. He couldn't rationalize Santa even last year and asked flat out if he was real or not and wanted a full explanation of how that was possible. We decided not to fib to our kids about Santa if it came up and for Davis it came up early. The logic just wasn't there for him. Parker, however, still thinks it is fun. He wanted to go see Santa at the mall. After a very direct conversation with Davis about absolutely NOT mentioning anything about Santa wearing a costume while in line, I hauled the kids to see mall Santa. Davis was refusing to even go through the line - looking at me like it was insulting his intelligence to pretend. Once Parker got up there and Davis realized Parker was getting a photo, he decided he wanted to be in the picture too. Santa says to Davis, "So what do you want for Christmas?" Davis gives Santa an exaggerated wink (yes . . wink!!) and says, "How about I just tell my mom." - as if to make it clear that Santa was pulling anything over on him. Ahhhh, Davis. Classic.

Finally zoo lights with our neighbors. Davis took the picture of the lion - it was his favorite. My kids love Christmas lights and really, really loved them this year. Grayson would gasp like he had never seen a light before every time he saw a new lit house.

We also took the kids to walk a fun street in Mesa. They had a house on the street that opened up their backyard to a beautiful "walk through Bethlehem". They really did an amazing job. Each of the major events of the birth of Christ is portrayed with pictures, displays and scriptures all the way through to the death and resurrection of Christ as the reason why he was born. My boys all really liked it. Parker LOVED the sheep and shepherds. In a big grass area the guy had a fake camp fire surrounded by probably 100 little wooden sheep and it really did look like a flock out at night. Parker loves that part of the story and jumps in when the angel appears to add that the angel told the shepherds to "not be afraid". Davis asked later, "Do you think those people did that so that people who don't know Jesus would know about him?". I said, "well yes, I think that that is what they are hoping." He says, "Well how come we just lights on our house then? Don't you think we should get some big signs that say 'You need to read the Bible because you need to know about Jesus'." Yep - good thought D :) I love that is so simple and obvious to them.

sorry mom

2010-12-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

it is super late and my computer battery is dying - I made an honest attempt to get all the way through Christmas - but I didn't make it. You should have enough there to read until I get it posted tomorrow. Christmas pictures are coming - I promise. I noticed that you have to click "view older posts" to go back to where I started tonight - how about all that blogging!!!!

Davis' on Thanksgiving

2010-12-28T22:13:00.001-08:00

I don't know if you will be able to see this well without clicking on the picture to make it larger, but I love this. Davis had to write this for school and he did most of it himself with a little help. These people are important to me:

1. Mom because you make dinner.

2. Dad because you play with us and the Wii.

3. My brothers and my cousins. (He was upset that there was only one more line and he wanted to list the brothers and cousins - I convinced him it was okay to put them all on one line - love the brother/cousin love)

What are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving?

"Jesus"

When I think about Thanksgiving I think of: "sweet rice".

My best memory is: "going to Gram's house".

The classic turkey hand!

Davis writes this several times every day. He loves to color and to write and often writes the names of our family on his papers. He always wants everybody to be listed!

So this page I copied because it shows several things that I like about how he writes right now. 1. He dots his eye with a little "circle" instead of a dot - jr. high-notes-to-friends style:) Every time he writes his name, the "i" has a little circle.

2. He learned punctuation marks and love to draw question marks and exclamation points. When he writes exclamation points he thinks there needs to be several. Don't know where he gets that love for dramatic expression!!!! haha (note the exclamation points also have the circles instead of dots)

Happy Birthday Eli!

2010-12-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

A belated Happy Birthday to my nephew Eli. I can't believe he is SEVEN! Crazy! We saw a movie and then lunch at the park with cousins and friends. It was very fun for all the kiddos. Eli is considerate, helpful, smart, a good leader and great friend to my boys. Each one of my boys looks up to him and asks to be with him often. I am so grateful for him. It seems like yesterday that I was spending as many work lunch hours as possible at my sister's Hermosa house to get my hands on my new nephew. It goes by so fast. One thing Eli does right now that I love is whenever ANYONE says "Hi how are you?" (even if it just a standard expression of a stranger and not necessarily an honest inquiry) He looks right at the person and responds, "I'm great and how are you?" I've heard him do it many times and it always sounds so grown up to me. My boys pretty much duck into a shell when someone talks to them so that contrast probably makes E's response stand out to me even more :)

Haircut

2010-12-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Okay so technically not his first haircut, but I either didn't take pictures of the first, or can't find them :( so this is probably more like the third official hair cut - but he looks super cute anyway. When he is older (assuming he cares, which he won't because he is a boy) I'll just tell him that this is his first hair cut :)

Field Trips

2010-12-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

On the first parent directed HBL day (basically a field trip on a homeschool day) I had a really hard time coming up with a creative activity as my two great ideas weren't an option on a Monday. So I decided at the last minute to join a bunch of other moms from Davis' school. (Minus my sister/Janet/Jenna comfort zone of going to a group function - just me and the boys, btw:) They took a group picture which cute. This is literally close to 90% of Davis' school I think. He is at the bottom right.

Parker at the zoo - just cuz he is so cute :)

They also went on a field trip to Schnepf Farms. This was just their Kindergarten class. Davis' absolute favorite thing about this trip was the baby goats. For whatever reason he LOVED them. He hung out by their cages even after the other kids had moved along. They also had this overhead track-like thing built for the goats to encourage them to climb and exercise. It wove around the animal cages up above our heads and he thought that the course was pretty cool. He was really looking forward to picking a vegetable also but because AZ had crazy warm weather this December, the only veggies they had ready to pick were turnips . . . this made him much less interested!

This is a great buddy from his class, David. And below is a class picture with teacher Mrs. Shelberg.

Car Rides

2010-12-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

You would think that riding in the car would be pretty horrific with the boys so tight, three-in-a-row but they do great most of the time. (MOST meaning that there are occasions that I want to swerve into a median if they don't stop bugging on each other) but much of the time riding in the car is a soothing part of the day because they are contained, calm and happy to be with each other. It is VERY common to look back and see them holding hands - especially Parker and Gray. Warms my heart every time.

Grayson is the entertainer in the car for sure - trying to be silly to get a laugh out of either brother. I have noticed he is especially theatrical when we get in the car after picking up Davis from school. I think he is super excited to see D and excited to get his attention. I know that this will undoubtedly invite my sister's comments on how liberal I am about car seats, but another "car" happening right now is that Grayson wants to ride in a booster. Obviously he begs for this because sometimes I let him - bad I know! But almost every single time we are walking to the car he starts begging to sit in "Parker's seat" and this can definitely lead to some conflict when he realizes that he still needs to sit in the 2-yr-old appropriate 5 point harness :)

Ah, yes. Sleeping in the car. This is Davis' m.o. and it has been this way his entire life. Davis' eyes begin to roll back in his head when the car is still in the driveway. For Parker it is more rare. He has to be very, very tired. When they are all passed out in the car it cracks me up for some reason. Who could keep there eyes closed with heads bobbing and thrashing all over the place? My kids, I guess.

And Grayson - he truly has to be very tired to sleep in the car. It is so funny to me when I look in the back seat at nap time and the two non-nappers are drooling away and Grayson is smiling like the king of the castle. Sometimes in the car he sits like this with his arms crossed and this really makes me laugh. Not sure what he is thinking . . .

Thanksgiving

2010-12-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It is basically Christmas-type celebration without the distraction of shopping, gifts, and other related chaos. I guess that might be slightly exaggerated because I am still currently recovering from Christmas hectic-ness. We were able to split and do Thanksgiving lunch with my Nothum fam and then pack in a second meal with the Boyd family at Buzz and Billie's house. There really is nothing I don't like about this meal - might be my all time favorite - but I love the 'tradition' of the meal and the time we get to spend with family. I love that my kids remember it now and anticipate those traditions. All time fave for the kids this year was sweet rice. I think they asked all week "How many more days until we get to eat sweet rice for Thanksgiving?" :) love it! Davis also like the sweet potatoes and Turkey but nothing beats the rice. One of the best parts of the tradition for me is helping my Gram prepare the food and get the turkeys in the oven early (4:30 am) on T-day morning. I've been doing this with her for almost ten years and I love that morning. She always gives the same instructions and makes me look up cooking times in her old, old, old cook book instead of trusting the published times in the paper (adjusted, I'm sure, for current ovens and cookware). Since there is always several HOURS difference - I write out the check times based on the newspaper and she thinks it comes from the cookbook :) I know that Thanksgiving won't always be at her house - but I have spend every one of my thirty Thanksgivings at that house and it wouldn't be the same anywhere else.

Halloween

2010-12-28T20:10:00.001-08:00

Sadly, my continual chase after three boys has left my blog quite rejected. I'm writing about Halloween just after Christmas which means that the cute, sentimental comments are going to be few and far between, but at least my photos will be up to date! Halloween events were pretty typical this year. We had a pre-Halloween party at my mom's house to carve pumpkins. The cousin all dress up together and the big boys got dirty and carved pumpkins this year. Davis carved (lots of "administrating":) a Mario face into his pumpkin. Mark sadly did not love his carving work this year since I bought him a rotten pumpkin. So sad.

I took the little boys to a pumpkin patch to buy pumpkins for the above carving party. They had such a great time. There was a barrel train, tons of fun animals, a bounce house and one of those "carnival style strength tester machines". Parker asked me to go first and I only got it about half way to the bell. He took two swings at it and it rang the bell . . . hmmm, strong Parker (/weak mommy)! I'm choosing to believe that it was because I was already so tired from lifting 8 gigantic pumpkins into my car.

Davis and Parker had wanted to dress up as Mario and Luigi all year. They talked about it all the time and there was no question when Halloween finally arrived that they wanted to be the Nintendo Brothers. Gray got to wear a hand me down dragon that I chose to call Bowser since his Toad costume would not stay on.

Halloween night we toured our neighborhood. The boys were only good for about 1 1/2 streets. In fact, they were fighting over who got to ride in the double stroller. At one point Davis even asked to be rolled up to the door to say trick or treat so he wouldn't loose his spot. (True Davis fashion - carted around to get candy - awesome!)

The boys with our neighbor - Adalyn - just love that little lady bug.

We love living one street away from Uncle David's house. They let us crash in there for a little bit for chili and some more cousin fun. This was a standard photo op for the Kronwald cousin clan - I love the continued tradition :)

Playing in Pinetop

2010-10-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

We spent most of Davis' fall break in Pinetop with my parents and the Johnsons. The kids had a great time up there and it made me very excited for the day that my parents' cabin will FINALLY be done being remodeled. We spent almost all of our family vacations in Pinetop as kids and so something about being up there with my kids is just very fun for me.

Parker quickly mastered doing a flip over the jungle gym bars and was very proud of his accomplishment. Davis found some very cool creatures including grasshoppers, (Eli's) praying mantis, and a tarantula. I'm pretty sure that that tarantula was regretting the path it took to land itself around my kids who chased it around and got great enjoyment out of putting sticks in its path to make it hiss at them.

First Field Trip

2010-10-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

They got to special order a cookie design from the bakery. I'm pretty sure that he chose a star because he saw that kids that had stars had more frosting than those who chose things like a smiley face :) Smart kid!

The highlight for him was seeing the deli man pull a lobster out of the case and feed it a shrimp. My boys love that 12"x 12", nasty tank of Lobsters at the grocery store so to get a first hand experience with the lobsters was very fun for him.

I got to be a chaperone parent on the first kindergarten field trip to the grocery store and the library. They all had a great time together. It is always fun for me to be in the school environment with Davis and get a glimpse into how he interacts with others in his classroom environment. I felt like he hung pretty close to me during the grocery store part of the tour but by the time we got to the library he was wondering around with his friends some more. Davis loves the library and is very proud to know have his own library card. He chose two fire truck books. He told me the other day that he really like reading books about true things, like his Bible Story book or this kids news magazine that we get from the school, more than other story books.

Busy Family

2010-09-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so terribly behind blogging all the events of the past couple of weeks that I am just going to make one post with highlights! It has been a very busy schedule around here lately settling in to the new routine of homeschool/regular school. This week BSF starts for the little boys and myself so we will have even more events for the week . . whew!

First picture is the boys working together on a computer program in the school room. Thanks to the help from some moms at Davis' school (and my very gifted sister) I am learning a good system for homeschool days that is fun and beneficial for each of the boys. Davis is learning a ton and so quickly. I feel very fortunate to get to participate in this with him 2 days a week. If you ask him about his favorite thing about school he will always tell people that chapel is his favorite but I have been surprised to see how much he loves all things math related. He enjoys math tubs and counting or seeing what type of adding/subtracting problems he can build with our magnetic numbers. Parker has also loved the routine and he gets his own folder of activities for the homeschool day. He feels very grown up like his big bro. Grayson doesn't get to participate in "school" too much but he is learning the great lesson of "mat time" which is just good for everyone!!! :)

Soccer started this week and the boys are so excited to have Troy as their coach. Seriously . . SO excited. They think they are super special that their coach is their uncle and since the team isn't very big, it is almost all kids from church which they love too. Parker is so glad that he gets to play this year and wear all the soccer gear.

The whole crew - Jackson, Parker, Emet, Logey, TJ, Davis, "little girl I can't remember", Zoe and Lincoln (I think)

Yeah for having your buddies on the team :)

I know I have mentioned before that it is not uncommon to go in and find Grayson all mangled up in his pj's in the morning. The other day I went in and found him like this . . . and all his clothes and animals outside the crib like this. It appears he got naked, cleaned out the crib, and then fell back to sleep while reading! Ah, classic Geebee.

I turned thirty this year - ugh. Not much to say about that except that thirty feels very old to me and in my head I am still 23. My great husband planned a surprise overnight in Las Vegas and we had so much fun. It felt very fast, but ANY time (even a short time) to get away and be by ourselves is priceless to me. We did a ton of walking, talked for hours without being interrupted, did whatever we felt like instead of picking the time that worked best for nap schedules, ate amazing food (probably still at "kids in the restaurant lightening speed" - bad habits die hard) and relaxed all before jumping on the plane to come back home to our sweet little boys. I think we might have taken some pictures in Vegas on our phones so maybe that will get one more post. I have definitely been very blessed in my thirty years.

Finally, a random "hat day" photo - Davis and Eli before school.

Happy Birthday Grayson!

2010-08-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

On August 13 Geeby (as he has affectionately become known in this house) turned two years old. You know how you usually say that it seems like you can't even remember a time without them . . well that is kind of true, but with him it seriously feels like he was a baby in my belly - yesterday! Time has gone by so fast with him and I can not believe he is already two years old. The doctor said he is 29 lbs (50%) and 36 inches (95%) - not that that means much for the future but he is a healthy, growing little boy and for that we are thankful. We had a family party for him on his actual birthday which almost never seems to work out.

He wasn't very sure what I was doing putting fire on his puppy cake.

But he figured it out and all the cousins actually let him blow out his own candles - such restraint :)

The puppy cake

Opening some presents with some help from brothers and cousins.

Each of the boys is their own little personality and I love seeing how each of them develop each year. Grayson is all about loving, cuddling, being playful, and trying to keep in step with his brothers. He can also be equally feisty, mischievous, and . . . . 'opinionated'. :) His sweet smile and expressions are pure joy to me.

He is saying lots of words. His first four word sentence was "I don't want to" - each word clear as a bell - not so precious. He also says 'No' in an almost Russian accent which makes me laugh when I should probably be disciplining! Even other people can understand most of what he says these days. In CA he finally starting saying "Parker" instead of calling him a version of "davis" and it is one of the cutest words he says. He calls for him all the time. He really loves both of his brothers a ton. Favorite things are still stuffed animals - preferably this huge dog, a cat that is actually Parker's from Legoland, a stuffed sheep that he calls Baaaa and some new motorized, yippy puppy things that he got in CA and for his bday. He also loves to read. He likes to be read to but also likes to look at his favorite books on his own. He usually chooses to play whatever the boys are playing but if he were choosing, I think he would want to play some time of ball game. He loves to play catch or kick a ball back and forth. He loves frozen yogurt and recognizes the Kokomo sign when we drive past (probably also a commentary to how often we frequent it:)

He asks to pray all the time and has always reached for my hand - even when he was pretty little - to 'ask' to pray with me before bed. This put it on my heart that God would grow in Grayson a dedication to Him through prayer that would shape and dominate his life - that he would be known as a prayerful man like Daniel. We love this little boy so much and will need a ton of prayer to parent him in this next year of life!!

Funny Parker . . .

2010-08-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Parker: I'm going call him Grayson Peace . . . like his name from the Bible.

Me: Parker, you know the Bible is saying "grace and peace" (slowly emphasizing each word)

Parker: Yeah, I know. . . Grayson Peace . . like I said.

Okay - sounds good - we'll go with it :)

This kid seriously could not be any sweeter. I think I say it all the time but he just gets sweeter and sweeter. He was so tenderhearted about his brother going to school and while it made me sad for him, I also thought it was precious how much he missed his Big Bro. He is also a great little friend. He has finally grown into really enjoying playing WITH other kids and has some little boys in his life that he loves and talks about all the time. It is so sweet to me to see him loving others. He even had his first sleep over without a brother. He and Logan had a "little boys sleep over" while the big kid stayed here. He is still talking about how much fun he had sleeping with Loges in the car movie bed. AND in true "Johnson family" fashion - Parker had to be woken up at 9:30?!?!!? What in the world? I swear my sis pumps sleeping gas through the air conditioning vents or something.

He is desperate to be in the school room with Davis and I during homeschool. It is going to be challenging to have things planned for him but he learns really quickly so it will be interesting to see what he can get out of this year. He is getting so big!

First Day of School

2010-08-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple months of summer solemn about school and overwhelmed with the "where did the last 5 1/2 years go" feelings. When it came down to it though I was so excited to see Davis off to his first day of Kindergarten and I'm so excited to see what God will do through this next stage of his life.

The brothers have not really adjusted to the new school routine yet. Grayson has to be pulled out of bed and thrown in the car in jammies on school days and he is still not a fan.

Davis gets to attend Crossroads Community School with his cousin Eli and knowing that E is across the hall is very reassuring to him. I'm so glad that he has such a great big cousin to look up to and I know that Eli looks out for him.

I'm so proud of Davis and I'm so very, very thankful that God made him my son and has entrusted Mark and I to shepherd him. I know that God is going to use this school and this experience to work out great things in Davis' life. It is so fun to see him excited to learn new things.

He has two friends in his class from our church, Zoe and Noah.

Things from the first week of school:

-Parker was surprisingly much more tearful than me on the first day of school. He started crying when we walked out of the school hall and was solemn and tearful for much of the morning - poor sugar. He kept saying that he missed Davis and wished Davis could be with us.

-The hardest part for me about that first morning was watching Davis get very teary eyes, but trying to hide and pull back the tears to pretend he wasn't sad. It broke my heart to watch him work through that and try so hard to be brave. I'm glad for this for him at the same time. All three days of the first week he had this same type of morning, but this week on the first day he seemed so much more confidant. YEAH!

-Thursday when I picked him up (day 2) he had had music class and he was smiling from ear to ear - so excited - to tell me about music class and his music teacher Mrs. Grigg. He LOVED music and the "songs about summer" that they sang and the "funny stories about her very tall husband" (?) that the teacher had told them.

-Friday (day 3) he worked with the math tubs for the first time and he absolutely loved it. He got to work on counting and adding with beads and colored stones . . no surprise that he loved that!

-Davis is in a very unique program that allows me to partner in his learning. He completes 3 days a week in the classroom and we do two full days of school here at home. It took me 3 1 /2 hours to complete home school for the first time this week. Wasn't expecting that! I have much to learn through this process too. I LOVE to watch him learn and to see some of those things happening first hand at home is such a blessing to me.

-We read tonight before bed and Davis was already reading more words than he knew last week. Crazy how fast he is picking things up. I have learned that my son is a very good memorizer - not a bad thing.

Legoland (and last CA post:)

2010-07-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have plugged this place like crazy lately, but it really is so fun. For little, active boys this is an ideal amusement park type place. There is fun rides, splash pads, and lots of different interactive play-gym type areas. My boys could probably never tire of this place. After posing with the Lego man at the entrance, Eli was asking questions about how the lego figures got to be so big. I think it is precious that my very knowledgeable nephew still has an imagination that believed that this guy might be real :)

Parker with Bob the Builder - it really is impressive what they have built out of legos - especially since it can take me forever to assemble something that only kind of resembles a vehicle or house!
The first couple of rides were roller coasters (Davis' favorite - I've had to 'brave up' a lot after having three boys). Grayson was getting so sad that he wasn't big enough to ride. When we got over to the smaller kid area he was so excited to ride the rides.
Uncle Marky was so kind to troop around with us for the day since Mark and Troy were both working. The kids had a great time with him. Isn't my niece Evie just the most angelic, beautiful little thing??!!
Oh yeah, good times at lego land :)

Beach Fun with Cousins

2010-07-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

The boys dug this big hole (courtesy of Jake and Jake:) and were happy to play in here for hours. Picture doesn't do it justice. Parker couldn't even get out without someone pulling him out. It was a seriously deep hole!

Mark said I was taking an endless summer vacation - it was only two weeks - but it really was a great time with the kids and awesome to be out of the heat. I ended up working out a way to stay a couple extra days so I could overlap with my sister. Besides the fact that I got to live with my sis and her kids after not seeing her for weeks - she was in Alaska:( - the kids also got to play on the beach together and take a trip to Legoland. We really didn't have many great beach days because of the unusually cold CA weather so I was glad for those couple of days with the AZ Johnsons.

Me and my boys one of my favorite places - this was our first really nice beach day

Parker would ask me to dig him a "beach chair" = hole in the sand with a bump for a foot rest - ahhh this is the life :)

Mom and Gray

Troy took Evie out to just sit in the water - this looked so peaceful to me - he loves his baby girl :)

Cousin love

Daddy and Grayson taking a walk - lots of Papa bonding time on this trip!
Mom and Parker with her sand castle masterpiece. Davis loved it until she carved a face in the top fitted with sea shell eyes. Then he was so bothered by it he insisted on jumping on the castle. My kid doesn't like anything "clown like" = shocker!! :)

More California Fun

2010-07-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

These are not in order and I am sure that most of you are all done seeing California pictures, but I want them all in my album.

We were so blessed to get to spend so much time with my Gram - the boys really love her.

Davis loves the insect exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. He loved it so much he wanted to stay to trek up there even after everyone else was leaving to go to lunch - if you know my kid this means that he really, really likes it because he usually just humors me at the zoo :) Here he is with a huge centipede.

Rachel and I at the zoo

We rented this family bike thing one day to find something to do in the very chilly weather. It was very fun - and pretty hard work since the kids couldn't reach the pedal to 'pull their own weight' :) Every time we walked past one of these for the remainder of the trip Grayson would ask to go for another ride. He loved it.

My sweet, tan little boy

More sweet boys at the zoo

Trip to the Aircraft Carrier

2010-07-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a trip to the Midway Aircraft Carrier. Big huge ship, Navy planes and helicopters, a flight simulator, planes you could pretend to drive, big open spaces in cool weather = five very happy little boys.

Standing in front of the Midway, getting ready to go inside. When we were buying tickets right here in front of the Midway, Parker said, "Where is it? I don't see the big ship". He thought the boat was a building and didn't realize it was floating on the water until I took him up to the edge.

They liked walking through the living corridors and seeing how the sailors would live/sleep/work on the aircraft carrier. They especially loved being on the flight deck and playing in and around all the aircraft. Those ships really are amazing. It was crazy to think that something that huge had been built in the 1940's and participated in two wars.

We took the boys in a flight simulator that was an actual representation of a battle that happened in the Desert Storm attacks. The technology was not fabulous by any stretch but the boys thought it was awesome. I was a little worried Parker might not like it because he doesn't love loud noises. Not to worry - the kid loved it. Within three seconds of the "take off", Parker was super excited. He kept yelling, "Oh yeah . . rock and roll . . . let's rock this!!" It was cracking me up :)

Fun on the Beach

2010-07-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sadly, we have yet to see the sun even though we are a week into our trip. The boys have still had a good time on the beach but it never lasts more than an hour or two because it is so chilly down there. I really don't know how they can be in and out of the water when the high is 62 degrees, but they don't seem to notice until we have been out there for a little while. Still hoping for a nice sunny day before we have to leave . . . . . .

Conquering the Coronado 15 K

2010-07-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

Before Pictures

After Pictures

I hope this become an annual tradition. It was so much fun and a great way to start off the festivities of the day. Matt putting together an awesome outfit made it even more entertaining. He was fitted with the world's shortest shorts and several flashing reflector bands. It was hilarious. I have to say he was upstaged by many other runners, including the guy in a huge top hat and very tiny flag speedo, so I'm sure he will be inspired to go even crazier the next time. Several miles of the run go through the naval base on the island which is not an area you can usually enter. It was very cool to see the ocean and island from that angle.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

2010-07-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

For Father's Day, the boys gave Mark tickets to the Padres game. It was very fun to see the stadium and to go to a game in the beautiful California weather. The boys were so excited. Parker kept asking questions why we were going to "this place" to "watch baseball on t.v." because to him 'watching baseball' is something that he does all the time from home. I don't think he had ever made the connection that he could watch that in person until we were in our seats. Parker loved the food and loved doing the wave. Davis enjoyed it very much. The game didn't have much action until the 8th inning, sadly, but when we got up to leave mid-9th to avoid traffic - he didn't want to leave. They would have loved it even more if it would have been the D-backs. They are big fans!!

Davis, so excited to be at Petco Park

Parker - excited about his seat that goes up and down every time he gets up to get his drink :)

Brothers :)

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

Braving the chilly, drizzly weather to watch the parade

Later that night we had a picnic outside and watched the fireworks. Even though it was one of the coldest "4th of July's" that I can remember, the kids had a great time. It is always fun to do traditions like the parade and fireworks because the boys remember them and look forward to doing it again. It is also fun to be in Coronado for the 4th because it is a military town and I love being surrounded by and participating in the patriotism with the boys.

Happy Birthday TJ

2010-06-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

TJ might just be one of the sweetest little boys ever!! And he will be five tomorrow - so in his honor we went to the movies and PPP the other night. I love that these boys have such a great time with each other. They have built-in buddies with their cousins and that is a precious gift! TJ is definitely the heart of this crew. He is kind and tenderhearted and has the best imagination. I love that he is so even keel and considerate to others. He brings a "calm" to any situation. Happy Birthday - WE LOVE YOU, Teej!!!

Buddies at the movie together

The sweetest of friends - Logey and Parker

Future buddies :) eating their cupcakes - Hubey was all about the "please" for chocolate frosting - seriously though - when Aunt Lissa bakes . . . delish!

Watching TJ blow out candles and open gifts - sorry Uncle Marky - the phone camera cut your head off - operator error

And Pregnant Batman made an appearance at the party - AWESOME - leave a comment if you want me to message you the info to have this awesome character make an appearance at your next event :)

My sweet "Momma's" boys

2010-06-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

We saw Toy Story 3 last night. They were both excited to see the movie but Parker was excited on a huge level. He wanted to wear his Toy Story 3 shirt (from Grammie) and bring his Buzz and Woody to the theater - so cute! He propped Woody up next to him in the theater chair so he could "see" too! Parker thought it was super fun which is evidenced by the fact that he needed no candy to sit through the two hour film - perfectly content to sit and watch when it is his favorite characters.

When the movie was over, I looked down next to me and asked the boys how they liked it. (Davis was sitting next to Eli). Davis just looks really concerned and says, "ummmmm . . . so . . . when Andy is going to college does that mean he leaves his house during the day and then he doesn't ever come home at night?? Is he leaving his mom and never coming home????" (as if I wasn't having a hard enough time containing the lump in my throat while watching the end of the movie!) Then Eli adds, in an equally concerned tone, "Yeah AND my mom said everyone HAS to go to college and if you don't go to college then you go to jail . . it is the LAW". And now I'm just cracking up :) Such sweet boys - love their mommas - which is a-okay with me!! In the car, all the way to PPP, we talked about how he didn't have to go to college for "4,267 days" and he was "going to college where you still sleep in the same house as your mom and dad". Fine with me buddy!

Later that night Mark asked both the boys what they thought of the movie:

Parker: It was super AWESOME!!

Davis: It was kind of sad, Dad. But also good.

That about sums it up for them :)

All of this on the tail of the fact that I got Davis' meet the teacher papers and school calendar in the mail a couple of days ago. Meet the teach is August 5th and school starts on the 10th!!! Where did the last 5 1/2 years go?!?!? Gulp!! I hope I'm ready to look like a strong, happy, confident mommy in just a month - start praying for me now. At least I know that Davis isn't looking to jump ship anytime soon - whew :)

Happy Birthday to Mark (a month ago:)

2010-06-24T10:12:00.001-07:00

Here's the deal - Mark loves celebrating his birthday and it is important to him = NO Pressure (yeah right!). I am always worried that he won't feel celebrated enough and try to plan something fun. It is our tradition to have the kids spend the night with my mom and then to do something just the two of us. It is one of the only nights/year that we do something like this and it is ends up being a gift for both of us!! This year I found a new hotel outside of Tucson that had summer specials - booked it - but then they called to confirm the reservation when I wasn't home and Mark said "too much money" - he didn't need a fancy hotel to have a nice, quiet time together. I found another, even better, summer deal in town and we had a great time. It is so nice to know that you have almost 24 hours to only think about each other and not worry about what the kids need or what time you need to be back to pick them up. Don't get me wrong - I love my kids and I am always excited to see them when we pick them up - but it is so nice to just be a "couple" for a few hours.

We ate dinner - slowly - we have to remember that we don't have to inhale our food :), then walked around as long as we felt like it and then rented a movie in our room because it didn't matter if we stayed up late because we could wake up whenever we felt like it. We are early risers so we were still up pretty early - but that meant we could hang out on our little porch and relax before getting bfast at the hotel. Ahhhhhhhhh

Eating breakfast together

Reading outside on the porch in the morning - after getting up whenever we felt like it!! This is also the look of "why are you taking my picture" . . so I can blog about this, Silly :)

The look of relaxation :)

The pretty view right outside of our porch - Davis asked me to take pictures so he could see what the hotel looked like :)

Father's Day

2010-06-23T12:02:00.001-07:00

The boys were excited to give Daddy their presents - two new D-backs shirts and tickets to go to a b ball game in San Diego.

Grayson is more interested in his "Happy Father's Day Bosa donut" than taking a picture with Dad!

Father's Day was pretty simple around here because we had just gotten home from vacation the night before. Both of the big boys knew it was Father's Day and were excited. Parker wanted to know when it was time "for the party". He is always ready for a good time. The boys all love their Daddy very much. I made something for Mark's office and each of the boys was telling me things about Daddy. Parker said that Daddy's very favorite thing to do is "to love me". I'm so glad that my sweet boys have a Daddy who loves them very much.

Recent Happenings . . .

2010-06-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've been terrible about blogging the day-to-day lately - which is sad because those are always my favorite posts when I read back - here are some random musings . . .

- It is most common for me to go in to get Grayson out of his bed and find him disheveled. No pants and an arm through the head hole is a good day. Some days he is so twisted up in his shirt I can't see his face or he has managed to also take off his diaper . . NOT good! Cracks me up with the strip down.

- Grayson knows a ton of animal sounds and surprises me with how many random animals he can identify, but the sheep sound is his favorite and if he is not feeling it - every animal you ask him says "Baaa".

- Parker plays lots of different imaginary games. Right now he names lots of different characters based on Super Mario Brothers names. A knight with a green shirt will always be "Luigi" or a super hero bad guy with a red cape will be "Mario". He will also randomly decide that we all have SMB names. He did this one day with the girls down on the beach in Atlantis. I think Elisabeth was Luigi, Kendra was Mario and he was Peach. He would call them by that name and insist that they called him "peach". Funny boy.

- We were walking into Chick-fil-a the other day and Davis yells, "Oh wow, look at that, the cow is wearing a fire hat, usually he is just standing there with a chicken sign". That, my friends, is how you know that you go to CFA too often - when your child notices changes in the decor. The people at the counter thought it was hilarious.

- Grayson doesn't have tons of words that anyone other than me can understand - but sometimes he will drop something new like he has always said (probably been saying it in his head for a long time:) On the beach I said, time to get out of the water and he yells with a huge smile "Nooo Waaay". And then I crack up. This is the tragedy of parenting as right now this is hilarious to me and soon I will remember that him replying "no way" is unacceptable :) As for now - still funny when he drops that one.

- My kids had a yucky cold in Atlantis (cold in the summer??) Anyway, one morning Parker's nose was going crazy and he told me, "I have SO MANY bless you's in here that won't come out of my nose!!" (sneezes - so cute)

Atlantis Family Trip 2010

2010-06-21T18:13:00.001-07:00

In the ocean together on the Catamaran day

walking to the pool

Playing in the pool

on the boat

Best buddies and I love watching them play together - they could disappear together on the beach and be happy as clams!

Parker LOVES himself some Elisabeth

Attempt at a family picture

Mark and I on family "fun" day - right after Melissa and I crushed in the water bikes

the amazing aquariums

Parker and Mark after swimming with dolphins

Some highlights from our trip to Atlantis this year. We had even more fun this year than last. I think the biggest difference was the boys were a year older making everything easier - airplane travel, sleeping arrangements, ect. They were also able to enjoy so many more things and look forward to the things that they remembered from last year.

The beach is always the highlight for me. I LOVE the catamaran day. It is my absolute favorite and it was made even better this year because of this amazing, private beach where they docked. All three boys love the ocean and have become great swimmers so it is so much fun for me to be in the ocean with them. Clear, beautiful water, soft sand, no crowds, riding out on a sail boat, cool fish and coral, boys enjoying God's creation and their cousins = it does not get any better to me!! Matt and I swam down the beach and raced back on the sand . . . I lost . . badly :( I also loved that we could throw on suits and go down to the pools whenever we had a block of time.

Parker said his favorite thing about the trip were the dolphins and sea lions "giving them kisses and hugs and fishies" (kind of surprised) he didn't seem that into when we were out there. He also said his favorite was playing with Logan and sleeping (?? again). I will inject that he really loved Elisabeth and Kendra and still talks about them everyday. He also loved the kids pool and swimming anywhere I would take him - including the ocean - head down swimming - he loves it!

Davis said his favorite was swimming in the pools, getting to go on the big water slide (one of the guys let him go down one time even though he didn't meet the height requirement - yikes - but excited for him), being on the boat (catamaran), the beach and playing with his cousins. I think that about covers the whole trip!

Grayson also had a great time. He didn't love the sand (guess the progress from last summer wore off in the winter - have to work on that) but he LOVES the water - pool or ocean. He is becoming quite the little fish. He also was sick on and off on this trip - but trooped along everywhere and still slept great at night - Hooray! He was pretty smitten with Miss Kendra also :)

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess what my husband liked . . . he loves himself a good meal at a restaurant and that gets even better for him if we can go out and enjoy that without the chaos of eating with the boys. We ate some great meals this week, and thanks to Kendra, Elisabeth and Miranda, we were able to spend several nights "on a date". Sadly, he doesn't love the beach. The Caribbean ocean is completely lost on him - SO SAD! But he does like the water slides. They have some pretty fun slides at this resort. I think he also likes the lazy river. It is a super fun thing to do with the boys.

This trip is such a blessing. Beside getting to enjoy some of God's most amazing creation (nothing like doing your Bible study starring at the ocean), I get to watch my family build great relationships with each other and this is priceless to me. Nicci was able to come with us this year and it wouldn't have been the same without her. Our family is a precious gift of God to me and being somewhere where we can enjoy so many things together is amazing. I laughed with my siblings and cousins harder on this trip than I can remember in a long time! Good, good times.

Mother's Day

2010-05-25T18:36:00.001-07:00

The whole clan on Mother's Day

All of us kids with my great mom!!

Me and my sweet boys - I am a blessed lady!!!

I had hoped to get some better pictures of Mother's Day from my sister, but decided to just steal some poor quality ones form my uncle's facebook page. We had a great morning at the Farm at South Mountain. The food was amazing. The kids had tons of space to run around and play which made sitting around eating actually enjoyable. The weather was beautiful for May in AZ. I was surrounded by the people I love most and I didn't have to cook a meal all day long!!

I have three boys so I am going to limit myself to three of the things I love most about being a mom:

- I LOVE putting my boys to bed - everything that goes with it - reading stories, singing songs, laying with each of them and listening to them talk about their day, praying with them and getting good-night hugs and kisses. A couple of weeks ago I was picking up the boys' room while they were waiting in their bunk bed. Davis said, "Come up here Mom, I forgot I hid a surprise for you up here." I came up the ladder and he JUMPED at me with a huge hug and told me I was the best mom ever. So sweet!!

- I LOVE watching them learn new things or be proud of something they have accomplished. Davis has learned a lot of new school related things in the past couple of months and he is so excited for himself. I really like watching those "lights" come on for him. Parker is a great helper and he is always proud to show me when he has done an "unasked for" chore for me. Both boys also get excited to tell me something they learned at BSF or Sunday school. We reread the stories or talk about them later in the mornings after and they like to help retell the story with the things they remember.

- I LOVE watching them build relationships with each other. Ever since Davis first became a brother, I have prayed that God would use their relationships with each other for a unique purpose for His Kingdom. I have asked God to make them best friends and one another's biggest encourager. Obviously, this is probably always going to be a work in progress :) but in those times when I sit back and see them doing something really kind for each other or just playing really sweetly with one another, or chatting together in bed before lights out - my heart is full of joy for those answered prayers and to see them learning to love each other.

I am a very blessed momma! I have a wonderful mom, sister and "mom" friends who encourage me daily and help me to be a better mom and set amazing examples for me to follow. I have a husband who tells me often how grateful he is that I take care of our boys and he allows me to be home with them (an amazing blessing!) And I have three little boys that I love more than I ever imagined possible. Happy Mother's Day indeed!

Rawhide

2010-05-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

My in-laws brought G this raccoon skin cap - so cute - and he loves it - it is like a stuffed animal he can wear!! haha

We all know my boys LOVE themselves some Rawhide. When my in-laws told us that there was a farmers market and yummy breakfast out there right now, we were excited to have another reason to take the boys out there. They had a ton of fun running around like cowboys - as usual - and the breakfast was very yummy. I know it runs through the month of May if you are interested. The farmers market was also really nice - seems like it is getting too hot for most of the produce but there were still a couple of vendors out there. We bought some delicious green onions, tomatoes, and some crazy hot habanero salsa.

The End of Hiking Season

2010-05-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hiking at Papago with Logan for his birthday - playing in huge rocks - super fun for all the boys!

Mark and the boys on South Mountain

Parker and Gray on my back - wouldn't look at the camera

Davis and E - hiking buddies

All three boys on the way down - arm in arm - love it!

One more try to get a picture of Grayson - still not feeling it :) Hiking with the boys these past couple of months has been so fun! Most of the time we went with the Johnson clan, but we were able to go up as a small fam too. The boys are always so proud of themselves when we get done and Parker really likes to look out over the valley at the stop point on the way up to the "house". It really is an amazing way to see God in the magnificent things He has created. Sometimes Davis would get really tired on a pass and it was also cool to see how encouraged he was when he was able to keep going and finish. We have had so much fun doing this on Sunday mornings and will really miss it in the hot summer months. Hopefully by the time it cools down and we get going again, Parker will be big enough to come down on his own :)

Davis

2010-05-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it took me over a week to finally posting a Davis update to accompany the ones I did for his brothers so that is reflective of the busy pace we have been keeping around here. Something to do just about everyday which isn't the usual pace I prefer. The biggest addition to the schedule is those daily swim lessons, but both the big boys love to go and are doing amazing so it is worth it.

Davis has been doing preschool work at home. This has been an unexpected joy for me to watch him learn new things and watch his mind grow and develop. I don't know yet what school holds for us next year, but I know that if this changes, I will really miss getting to be a big part of his learning process. After meeting with Anne Stirber (family/ex-teacher) early in the fall, I decided that the focus of what we would work on at home would be the phonemic awareness stuff. It was so cool to watch Davis grow from not know/separating sounds to really understanding and enjoying learning that. One of his favorite games, whether "in school" or not is to take turns separating words by their sounds and having the other person guess the word. Well, I couldn't exactly see progress in him making the visual connection to the sounds. All of a sudden, last week when we were working with sounds and letters on his magnet board, it just started to click for him. He start making those connections between hearing sounds and seeing them in the letters on the board and just started reading the short words and even building words himself by sounding them out. It was really, really cool to me!! Isn't God just an amazing Creator - I see Him all the time as I watch Davis' mind grow and develop.

Let's see . . . anything else new for Davis? He almost always has a pocket full of collected rocks . . . nope, not new :) My Gram did just tell me yesterday that my mom always had a pockets full of rocks she had picked up . . . . hmmmm, genetic? He has learned to ride his bike without training wheels - this happened about a month ago - can't remember if I had mentioned it before but I am an awesome mom and haven't taken a picture yet. By "learned" to ride his bike, I really mean he just got on and did it - truly amazing - that athleticism/balance/skill is NOT from his mother. He has also done really, really well at swim lessons. He has always had strong skills from early ISR lessons, but this year he really learned freestyle well and I can tell he is going to have a great time in the water this summer. Beach/pool here we come!!!!

I also continue to see God's grace in teaching Davis His Word. Davis really likes to read his Bible and has asks regularly to read, reread the story of the Passover through the Resurrection in our Jesus, Bible Story Book. We talked and read a lot about it at Easter time and he learned a lot about it in BSF. When we read at home, he like to tell me thing he remembers about the story from BSF that aren't in the Story Book Bible we read at home. He also asks great questions like, "When Jesus died on the cross, could His heart still pray to God? How was God in heaven and dying on the cross at the same time?". Sometimes he asks things that I can't fully wrap my mind around either. I'm thankful he has a desire to read and learn. I pray that God would be merciful in allowing that to grow into a saving faith in Davis.

Sweet Parker

2010-04-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

I think that this has just become a given . . "sweet" Parker. He is just sweet, through and through. He has such a precious, kind heart. He can be feisty for sure - but it really is more rare for him. He is so quick to do something kind for me, unprompted. He also speaks very kindly to others most of the time. He tells me he loves me and that I am his best mommy in the world at least everyday. Sometimes when I feel like I am being pulled 5000 directions, Parker will just spontaneously do something so kind to me or one of his brothers and it makes me feel so encouraged.

This kid loves music. He loves to sing. I am kind of slow with mac computers but just figured out last week how to buy music on iTunes and then make a CD. I made him a CD with all his favorite songs on it and it made his day. The boys listen to it in their room at nap time and before bed. I love to hear his little (off key:) voice singing - seriously it is wonderful. We were driving with the cd in the car the other day and I was on the phone. I heard the boys bickering and then realized it was because Parker was correcting Davis to sing the correct words to "Glorious and Mighty" - that was not so sweet :) but kind of funny - and kind of reminiscent of Liss and I - seriously I was always having to tell her the right words to songs, hahaha.

He had a friend over to play last week and Davis was gone. He and his buddy played SO well together for hours. He was acting so old and in charge with the big boys gone and he was being a really good friend which was encouraging for me to watch. He is also in love with his cousin Logan. He gets super excited about all his cousins, but Loges is his buddy and he really loves playing with him. I'm grateful for that friendship for him. Sometimes I think a house full of "second borns" would be a very serene place :)

He is Super Cute So I Guess We'll Keep Him!

2010-04-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

Just had to post this - This nuk is not his - he has never like/used a pacifier - his older brother still does however and this is so classic baby brother Grayson . . . he gets a huge kick out of finding something like this of his brothers and pretending like he is getting such great enjoyment out of it himself - don't his eyes just scream "nah nah nah"!

I have not been good about remembering to post updates about my growing little boys and right now I feel like Grayson is growing and learning tons of new things everyday. I love to see his unique little personality developing.

He has new words just about everyday. While he is no where near the verbal skills of Parker (which is confusing to my husband who only remembers that P was giving dissertations at 20 months:) he is slowly learning to express himself with words - less grunting and whining - YEAH! I love his little voice - note to self . . get out the video camera. He says: mama, dada, dog, Eli (which is what he calls ALL Johnson boys), Davis (which is a hard word that he says surprising clearly), moon, more, drink, shoe, night night, sing, Papa (a fave), Grandma, . . . and probably a few more that I can't think of right now. My favorite little words are when he asks in a questioning tone, "Where Davis . . Where Eli . . . Where Dada?" He holds up his hands and shrugs and then when you tell him the answer he says "ohhhhhh" like you really just cleared that up for him. He does this often all day - doesn't want to be missing out on the party :) He also knows some of his animal sounds - his favorite is the sheep. He also really likes to pray with me. When I lay him in his bed he asks "Amen?" to ask to pray and holds my hand while I pray with him. When we are done he says, "Aaaaaaaamen".

He has some likes that seem to be a little different than his brothers. He loves stuffed animals (nothing new) and I am currently trying to figure out how to transport a 4 foot stuffed dog on all our family vacations as he does NOT want to sleep without it . . Thanks Aunt Liss :) I'm trying to transition him to a sheep he really likes that is a much more manageable size - I'll let you know how that goes. He also really likes to push around and play with cars and small trucks. This was never really a fave of the other boys. He is in swim lessons and seems to really like the water when he gets to put his face in and swim and he HATES the water when he has to float.

He is full of energy and can be quite the little monkey. He can climb up just about anything and is fearless to bound around recklessly after his brothers. Sometimes when he runs he looks like he will wipe out hard face first at any moment . . . uh! It is not uncommon to find him jamming dvd's into small slots, chewing on the edge of cabinets (???) or finding a random marker that I was sure were completely out of reach and drawing on something . . . . busy, busy all the time. Good thing he is so stinkin' cute!

He still loves to snuggle me - I have always rubbed his belly when he is laying down while I sing him a song before bed in his crib. Lately he will just climb up onto my lap on the couch or where ever and lift up his shirt so I will rub his belly. Funny :) Mark thinks he looks like a puppy. I hope he always wants to love on his Momma!

Shamrock Farm

2010-04-13T21:44:00.001-07:00

My boys together at Shamrock Farms - waiting for the tour bus

Pretending to be cows - they all kind of have a look on their face like "why is the lady making up do this?"

Grayson, Davis and their friend Isaiah.

The boys and I went to Shamrock Farm today for a tour of their dairy. It was very interesting and I think the boys thought it was pretty cool to see how they get milk from cows. I asked Davis what he liked best and he said that he liked seeing the tractors working by the barn and eating lunch with his friends . . . so obviously the fascinating dairy part didn't leave a huge impression. One of the sweetest parts of the day, for me, was watching Davis play with friends he doesn't get to see very often. Davis usually only feels bold if he is in the comfort zone of Eli or other buddies he is used to being around. He has become good friends with Isaiah at BSF this year and they palled around together for most of the day. He even lined up and got on the tour bus on his own with is friends without insisting I be in the same place with him (average for most kids maybe, but a BIG deal for Davis). He seemed very old, but it made me glad to see him growing in confidence and being a good friend to the other kids. I guess he IS ready for school next year . . sniff, sniff :)

Finally Home

2010-04-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Uncle Andy and I in 2005

Uncle Andy and I at his 90th Birthday party last year

A couple days after Easter my Uncle Andy died and went home to be with Jesus. I loved him very much and will miss him very much. While I will be sad that he is gone, it has been amazing to me over this past week to imagine what it must be like to be where he is and to be able to see Jesus with his eyes and be in God's presence. When I have been listening to my favorite worship songs my mind has reflected on what joy there is for him to be able to praise God in heaven right now at this very moment. I'm so grateful for the hope and expectation God's gives us as believers of our future in heaven and knowing my uncle is experiencing that this instant grows a desire for that in my own heart.

My Uncle Andy loved Jesus very much and sharing the gospel was very important to him. What I love about being at the funeral of believers is to hear about the ways that their ministries touched the lives of so many people - things I never even knew about them when they were here. One of the things that was said at his funeral that has stayed on my mind was the pastor's comments on our perspective about heaven. He said that you usually hear it said that when one dies they have gone from the land of living into land of death. He explained that this is really backwards. Because of sin, we are all now in the land of the dying, all moving toward an eventual death. Because my Uncle Andy knew Jesus, he has left this land of the dying and is NOW in the land of living. What a great check on my perspective. Thank you Jesus for the precious gift of a heritage of faith that You have allowed in my family.

Easter Celebrations

2010-04-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

Our family all dressed up for Easter

Evie and I at our worship service outside at Tempe Town lake - such a beautiful time of praising God with the Body

Cousins at Mike and Jo Ann's house for brunch

The boys together with Buzz and Billie in the afternoon

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!

Time to die Easter eggs. The boys were super excited but after breaking three and them getting tired of the idea - we only got eight colored eggs, but that is okay.

Davis

Parker

Grayson with a banana to keep him occupied. There is no way I was letting this crazy monkey get his hands on eggs or colored dye!! He is quite the busy, mess maker these days. . . into EVERYTHING!!

We are very excited to celebrate Jesus tomorrow with our church for a morning service outside and then several stops to be with all of our families.

Disneyland

2010-03-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Our family on the ferris wheel

A highlight for Parker - meeting Buzz Lightyear - His costume really was very cool and real looking

Grayson absolute faves were the carousel and the Winnie the Pooh ride

The only picture Mark and I took together - copied from the ride on the roller coaster at CA Adventure - lame - why do we not take more pictures together?? Thank you to Aunt April for keeping track of all three boys so we could ride this together!!

Our family with Buzz and Billie

Family Picture at the main gate

Parker in Toon Town

Davis in Toon Town

We spent this past weekend in Disneyland celebrating my mother-in-law's 60th birthday with most of Mark's extended family. The boys remembered a lot and anticipated certain things because they were there for the first time last fall so it was super fun to see them so excited to go back. Davis loved the Matterhorn again. Parker said that the Matterhorn was his favorite but you should have seen how opposed he was to going on before we road. Glad he left it with good memories. In reality - I think his fave was Dumbo (he repeated asked for that ride and the line was SO SO long) and meeting some of his favorite characters - Buzz, Woody, Chip and Dale. Grayson didn't love the characters as much this visit. He was much more afraid of them but he LOVED the carousel. We definitely go our money's worth on that ride. He seriously probably rode it more than 50 times in the course of the trip. He also started saying a new word. (He only has about 6 consistent words - they are reserved for things he really loves - "mom, dad, eli, papa, davis and all done"). I didn't realize what he was saying at first but then the sign language helped me interpret . . "RO RO-O-O" was begging for another churro. Ah yes, a child after his father's own heart for sure. My husband brings cash specifically designated for his churro consumption. Another particularly great treat of the trip was the amount of time we got to spend with April. She flew in to surprise Billie and was without kiddos in toe so she spent most of the time trooping around with us. My boys loved the undivided attention from Aunt April :) In a group that size we didn't get to really see other family members as much as we had hoped but I think everyone had a really great time. Our little crew definitely did!!

Papa

2010-03-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

watching Papa work on his taxes :)

Grayson had some pretty sweet bonding time with my dad this week in CA. He has been super attached to me as of late (even more than usual:) so it can be a little difficult to pull him away sometimes. My dad was persistent and won him over. He even started saying Papa really well - he says something more like "BaaPoh" which sounds really cute to me. He doesn't say too many words so I like hearing him start to say things that people other than me can understand. We are so blessed to have times like this to spend with my mom and dad.

Who could say no to that face :)

2010-03-23T20:40:00.001-07:00

This is a stance I see about fifty times a day - he wants to be held :) And I couldn't possibly love him more than I do so I hold him - most of the time. So what would one try when they think that their crying baby is keeping everyone up: (I didn't realize what I was setting myself up for on the last post because nursing him didn't cross my mind - obviously it crossed most of your minds - some how I managed to peg myself as the woman who nurses forever . . not too sure how that happened, but I don't really care - I did love to nurse my babies:)

- I gave him multiple cups of warm milk (back fire on the throwing up issue)

- I jammed myself in the closet that he was sleeping in to rub his back and sing to him

- I tried to get him to lay down on the twin bed I was sleeping in but he was only willing to lay on my head not on the bed - so that was awkward and uncomfortable

- I paced around the room holding him

- I read him books

- I finally put him in his bed and when he started to cry again, I resorted to telling him that crying was disobeying mommy

See - and you guys had it worked up as something so much worse :) I guess I was feeling like a push over for letting him attempt to sleep smashed against my face. It was a mixture of pressure to get him to stop crying and love for my sweet boy AND he was kind of sick.

Vacation???

2010-03-22T22:09:00.001-07:00

I had to start off with a very cute picture of the boys doing what my boys love most . . playing/digging/running on the beach. This is a reminder of why we endure things like the night before. It was so eventful it is pretty much comical - thus I thought it was blog-worthy :)

8 pm: All 5 big boys go to bed peacefully and quietly with any complications - babies go right to sleep too, in their respective pack-n-plays of course. Wow that was easy!! (stupid mommy)

8 pm - 2 am: Watch a totally lame movie with Liss and then proceed to play Scrabble with each other on our phones until 2 am (WHAT was I thinking . . . . . )

2:15 am: Troy comes out with a look on his face that you can certainly picture if you know him - it is a combination of WHAT the screw are you two doing and at this hour and why am I the ONLY one who hears Grayson screaming his head off. (Oops sorry Troy - thought you could sleep through a hurricane and G cries for an hour every night - yes people - it is true)

2:15 am - 3 am: Do everything I can think of to try to get G to go back to sleep without letting him cry and disturb everyone else - this is the worst. You don't even want to know what I tried.

3 am: Grayson starts coughing really hard - it looks like he is going to gag from the coughing - he starts vomiting his entire dinner and multiple cups of milk all over me - AWESOME. Clean him up - clean the bathroom up - bag all the nasty clothes - change Gray.

3:30 am: Gray is just finally getting settled from the episode and finally falling asleep in my arms. Enter Davis who needs to pee.

3:35 am: Re-enter Davis who now needs to go #2 and be wiped and YES I'm still holding a baby who is finally.almost.asleep - aaahhhhh. Bummer. Now Gray is back up.

4:00: Gray is finally settled and back in bed. Does it sound like I hear something? Yes it is Eli and Davis sitting up talking. I walk in and Davis just casually looks up and says, "Um, Eli says that I can go to High School next year even though I'm five, will that work?". WHAT?!?!?! It is the middle of the night. Pull Davis out of the slumber party room. Set him up to sleep on the couch. Tell E to go back to sleep. Finally I fall asleep on the couch for about and hour and a half.

5:45 am: Enter Logan. Just casually walking around the family room. Checking it out. "What are you doing Loges?". I send him in to find my sister but Davis is already awake and now wants to stay up. I try to convince Davis to try to go back to sleep.

6:15 am: Do I hear something again? Yes, Melissa fell asleep and Loges thought she was boring so he headed back in the room with the boys and woke up Parker and TJ. I'm guessing Eli was sleeping through this since he was up chatting at 4 :)

And with that, the day officially begins. Vacation? I learned my lesson. Do not stay up and play iphone scrabble all night!!!! Even running on no sleep - I loved seeing the boys enjoy the beach today. More fun pictures coming. Good times.

For Jenn :)

2010-03-22T00:07:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that it has been a month since I posted anything to my blog. Sad, I'm sure I have failed to write down things that came to mind. I haven't been able to find my camera cord until I committed to finding it for California so I have a lot of catch up to do. Until Jenn brought it to my attention, I had no idea it had been so long. While I start to work on the back posts, here are a couple "Parker-isms" that have made me smile:

Picking Parker up from Sunday school:

Me: What did you learn in your story tonight?

P: Ummm, mostly it was about Uncle Matt.

Me: Huh?

P: Yeah, they just kept saying Matthew. (Sure enough the take home paper said the story came from Matthew Chapter 27 - guess the first few seconds really made an impression:)

While I am getting ready to go out:

P: Here mom, here, here . . (forcing something toward me)

Hands me a funky object.

P: It is my booger. It came from my nose.

Parker LOVES all things super heros. It is kind of his thing. His personal favorites are Supergirl and Superman. He hauls them around everywhere!! I particularly love that he says, "my super-herios" (said like Cheerios)

The other day he was bringing me a shirt and asking me insistently to change the shirt he had on (which is sometimes an hourly occurrence) so I was not wanting to change it. He kept telling me the same thing over and over to justify his need of a new shirt but I couldn't understand what he was saying. Finally I said, "what is it you are saying?" and I realized that he was saying, "I have ahh-choo on my shirt". He had sneezed on himself and that was the only word he could think of to describe his snot. Made me laugh :)

Out of their mouths . . .

2010-02-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

I just remembered two more things that I meant to right down on the last post:

My dad taught the boys the I'm Down by the Beatles. They loved it (for some reason) and sing it in the car all the time. This cracks me up in general since I grew up listening to lots of oldies in the car. It also makes me chuckle because Parker will use the phrase from the song almost every time that he uses the word "down". He will say, "Mommy, can you help me get down, down baby down from this chair". I try not to laugh :)

We were talking about dinosaurs in our Children's Encyclopedia the other day and we were talking about what extinction means. They were trying to understand why there used to be dinosaurs and now there aren't any dinosaurs. The book gave several explanations for why they might have become extinct, one of which was the flood of the Bible. I was asking Davis, "can you think of anything that you know definitely happened because it is in the Bible that would have been BIG BIG enough to kill all those huge dinosaurs??" He thought about it for a while and then said, "Ummmm, Goliath?" Oh, it still makes me laugh a little.

Today Parker got a shot at the doctor and he keeps telling me his arm hurts but he keeps saying, "the shot really made my feelings hurt" while pointing to his arm :(

Valentine's Day

2010-02-17T21:47:00.003-08:00

This is "my valentine" :) Sadly I had to go back to November to find a picture that was just the two of us . . note to self . . more photos with less children! We aren't usually big "valentine's day" celebraters but since the kids celebrated at a party, thought it was fitting to include a picture of MY valentine!

The boys and I are at a fun Valentine's Day party at Aunt Lissa's house. She went all out! They had a festive lunch, decorated cards for each other, decorated cookies, exchanged valentines and ate yummy treats.

My pretty momma with Evie Grace

My little sugar!

Davis putting his valentines in his cousins' mailboxes. They had so much fun with this. It was so cute to me to watch him find each person's bag and put in their card. He looked so big!

Alaska Cousins Visit!!!!

2010-02-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the FLOOD of pictures, but a visit from our Alaska family is a highlight of the year. You can not even imagine how much my kids anticipate this visit. They love their cousins so much. It has always been my priority that my kids would really esteem and value the relationships they have with one another, as brothers, and then also with their cousins and extended family. While they don't see them nearly as often as we would like, they are really best buddies and I love that! The ten days seemed to fly by, as usual, but we jammed as much as possible into them. The week was filled with park play dates, a Valentine's party, a sleep over, playing at our house, hiking together, celebrating birthdays, more playing, and even some adult time (imagine that!). While we jam a lot of random fun stuff in that we would never normally do, my favorite part is just having them around for the day-to-day stuff like church together, Sunday night dinners, watching our fave reality shows together . . that type of stuff. I wish that was a reality more often :( I think we even did more together as adults that we usually do and it was so, so fun. Here are some of the highlights.

Park play date - Kara and Parker

Kara and Hugh

Clay Clay and TJ

Pretty Kara at the Valentine's party - cute Evie in the background :)

Clayton beating down Logan with a bat - he was laughing hysterically and for the record he hit Clayton first!

Clayton and Hugh - check out the aviators on that pilot . . hahaha

April and Eli

The kids together in dress up clothes the morning they stayed the night at our house

Eli and Clay

Clay, Kara, and Davis

All the cousins together - man I love that group of kids!

Davis loves his cousin Kara in a big way!

Sweet girl - love her!

Parker and April at dinner after church

Out of their mouths . . .

2010-02-17T20:42:00.001-08:00

Parker has said some things lately that have really made me laugh.

I had to go to the bank the other day and asked which boy wanted to come with me. Parker got to come. When we are walking inside, he said "Where are we now? I thought you said we were going to the piggy bank??" Made me laugh.

A new thing for our house is playing on a mat for a period of time. When we started a couple weeks ago Parker asked what he was supposed to do. I told him he had to stay on his 'play mat'. Now when ever it is time for that activity he tell his brother, "Don't forget to stay on your placemat".

Parker asks to pray for most of our meals (Parker actually wants everyone to pray with him even if he is sitting down with a couple of crackers). Everyday for months he prays, among other things, "Thank you Jesus for hiking, thank you Jesus for sleeping at Aunt Lissa's". For New Year's Eve we let the boys sleep there until we went home . . . made QUITE the impression I guess.

I was reading them a story out of their Bible book and Parker said, "Was Eve a girl? Does that mean she had boobs?" Well, I would guess so. I suppose he wouldn't be a boy if that distinction wasn't important to him :)

Parker's Birthday

2010-02-17T20:17:00.001-08:00

Parker got a big boy bike for his birthday. He was so excited. It didn't occur to me that he would have to learn how to ride it (a first in our family and yes it has training wheels) but after ten days on it he is doing really well!

After a hike in the morning, we all went to Jason's Deli for birthday lunch and ice cream! Parker was thrilled to have ALL his cousins around for his birthday lunch.

Parker got this knight costume for his birthday and he absolutely loved it (above). He also got this quilt from Aunt Amy (below) another hit of the day!

Parker is a very, very special gift to this family. There are certain things that were on my heart when I prayed for my kids as babies. When Parker was a newborn, I happened to be reading a lot in Psalms. The great love David had for God was on my mind a lot. I prayed over and over that Parker would grow up to love Jesus the way that David did and that he would have a soft, loving heart. Not that I have seen this come to completion or anything, but I tell you this is the sweetest little boy. He has a very compassionate little attitude and he is such an encouragement to me. He speaks very sweetly most of the time. It is very common for him to see me sitting on the floor and to come over and snuggle me or just sit down next to me and start to rub my back. He is also quick to say encouraging, sweet things to his brothers. "Good job G! . . You look so nice today Davis . . . ect" Three years in and this kid still doesn't love to eat . . good food that is. A bowl of ice cream or some other kind of treat goes down in abundance but dinner time continues to be a battle for him. This hasn't hindered his growth however. He is the biggest (on the scale) of all the boys. He hasn't been to his dr. appointment just yet but the last time they checked he was still off the charts for height and weight and looks to be almost the same size as Davis. His very favorite things to do are dress up (pretty much anything, but the two current favorites are a cowboy outfit and a knight outfit - both bday gifts). He dresses up everyday! He also like clothes in general. He wants out of his pj's and into his clothes for the day within minutes of getting up in the morning (trust me this is not modeled for him by me:) It is also common for him to want to change clothes throughout the day - not mommy's favorite. He loves super heros. He plays in a much more imaginative way that his brothers. He will play for a long time with his figures, imaging some kind of an story with them. Parker has a characteristically deep voice. Almost everyone that talks to him is surprised at first how low his voice is. I can't imagine what it will be like after puberty! However, when he says "I love you Mama" it is always higher - like he is being gentler with me or something. He does the same thing when he talks to Evie and Hugh - this is just sweet to me for some reason. Most of the time Parker seems so much older to me than he is (probably because he talks like a six year old) but sometimes he will do something that makes me realize that he is still just barely three years old. He still wants to be snuggled when I read to him, (he still uses a nuk - don't tell my dr:), and he still wants me to help him eat. Parker loves to sing together. Again - this is something more particular to him. Davis loves songs, but Parker actually want to sing along. I love his little - very out of tune - voice. His very favorite song is "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus" but he also regularly asks for "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", "If You Are Happy and You Know It", "Holy, Holy, Holy" and whatever the current car CD has on it. I really need to record his voice - it is precious. I love this little boy so much. He is a great, great joy to me. Happy 3rd Birthday Parker.

Davis

2010-02-17T20:05:00.001-08:00

I hesitate to put this on the www because I can't control how it is read but I really want this documented in our family journal so I hope that my tone and context isn't lost. I want to cushion this story in the reality that this has been a particularly hard week with Davis. I know it goes in phases with the whole child rearing process but what happened tonight made me so grateful. God reminded me that lots of opportunities for discipline also means LOTS of opportunities to tell your kids the gospel over and over again. (Consequently Davis has heard the gospel ALOT the last couple of days) It should also be said that Davis very rarely chooses to pray. We have chosen not to "require" our kids to pray with us or before meals because we want it to flow from a personal desire not obligation (just our choice). Anyways, he doesn't very often ask to pray. Parker on the other hand is eager, eager to pray before meals - another story for another time - but it is very sweet too. Tonight the boys were having a snack at the table before bed. Parker asked to pray (he prays for ALL food consumed - very thankful little boy - good reminder for me!) He prayed and I started to walk away from the table and let them eat their snack. Davis said, "Wait, can I pray too?". So he prays:

"Jesus, will you please change my heart. Will you please help me to obey my mom. I want to obey You. Please make my heart obey. I love you Jesus. Amen". I'm still a little shocked as a type this that his heart was so soft tonight AND that he chose to pray that out loud. Not sure what God is doing in his heart exactly but I know that God in His grace GREATLY encouraged me that He alone is in control of my boys and their hearts and that in His time he will reveal truth to them and that I need to just continue to be obedient and tell them the good news of Jesus. This is huge for Davis. He is not easily swayed into praying and praying something like that for that matter. Thank you, thank you Jesus. Please, please give him a heart that love You very much!

Hiking with the Fam

2010-01-30T23:24:00.001-08:00

Troy and Melissa started the tradition of hiking South Mtn on Sunday mornings and my boys have been really loving it. I love it too. Hubey is missing from this picture - but he is often a part of the clan. Parker prays before most of our meals and there are some things that always make it into his prayers - everyday for weeks he thanks God that we get to go hiking with Uncle Troy and Aunt Lissa and thanks God that Uncle Matt carries him down on his shoulders. He did get a ride down with Matt one time - but Parker really holds his own. I'm so proud of him. We've never carried him "up", only down to save time. Some of those steps are really huge when you are only three feet tall! He tells me he is Grandma's hiking buddy because she is usually willing to hang with him and go at his pace (which is a bit slow sometimes:) I also love to watch TJ hike - he loves it and always looks so very proud of himself when he gets to the top. I don't know if Davis loves it as much as P - he just loves hanging with all the boys . . . but he pretends . . for me:)

Should I have four more ?????

2010-01-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

Should I have four more . . . NO! But we had a very successful first run at a Johnson/Filleman sleep over. My sister had plans before our husbands made plans to go meet Clayton in Las Vegas this weekend so I suggested the kids come here and you would not believe how smooth it was to get them all in bed. Evie Grace and Grayson slept up stairs and all five other boys slept downstairs. None of them got baths or anything, but I had five sleeping boys within 30 minutes of laying them in their beds which felt like a victory for sure! My boys are still talking about how fun it was to have them sleep over. AND for old times sake my baby sis came back to spend the night with me so I didn't have to be home alone either!! Yeah for little sisters :)

Waffles in the morning for b-fast

No joke, Eli is one of Grayson's FAVORITE people on the planet - "Eeee-yi" is even one of his only five words that he can say and he yells it the whole time he is in Eli's presence. Eli is super sweet to him and happy to play with him - Grayson beams the whole time!

Logan wore Woody jammies over here and Parker was so excited. He called him "Woody" all night and Parker wore his Buzz Lightyear wings around until I took them off for bed.

It should also be said that I would do just about anything for my niece and I believe she might have gotten old enough to figure that out. First of all, she loves me (at least, I choose to believe that:) When I laid her in bed she started to cry - which I have never heard - so naturally I picked her up, took her out with me and held her for a while until trying to lay her down again later. I must have "sucker for babies" written all over me in words all small children can understand! Oh well, it is my job as an aunt, right? Thanks for sleeping over boys - it was so much fun. I love these kids!

Happy Birthday Davis

2010-01-30T19:06:00.001-08:00

I think I say this every year, but Davis' birthday is a particularly special holiday to me too because it the anniversary of the day God made me a mom and the memory of that will always be so overwhelmingly special to me. But . . on to the other thing we celebrate on January 28th, our precious, oldest son! I keep this blog because trying to come up with memories of the entire last year would be next to impossible for me. These are the things that stand out in my mind about this year. We started an at-home preschool program with Davis and it has been my privilege to watch him grow in the learning process. I was just telling my mom that when Anne Stirber introduced me to "phonemic awareness" stuff it seemed like Davis had no idea what we were doing and now he is breaking apart words/putting together words himself and has recently started sounding out words in books by himself (just in the last couple days). So cool to watch their minds grow and learn new things! Davis has also initiated a lot of very cool conversations in the last couple of weeks about spiritual things and I am always grateful for the chance to tell him what I know is true and trust God to hide it in his heart. He is really interested in understanding the differences in God's Word when it talks about God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He has also talked a lot about "the children of God", making that connection from what he learned about Israelites in BSF last year to understanding who are "God's people" now. He has finished such conversations, on many occasions, saying that he loves God and wants to be his child too. We pray everyday that God would do that work in his heart. While some things has grown and changed, some things only stay the same :) This kid LOVES tools, any tool or anything he can make into a tool. A couple months ago Mark let him help him hammer and staple gun four stakes together to make a square that Davis then turned into a doorframe and added a piece of cardboard to make a door. His mind his very methodical but he can also be very creative. I would say his other favorite activity, hands down, is digging a hole. Our side yard is a dangerous place to walk in the dark! He is a great big brother. If someone asks him if he wants to do something - he always mentions that his brothers should get to come along too. I think he really sees he and them as a package deal and I love to watch that relationship develop between the brothers. While he can be very "firstborn" about 'directing' them (I have a lot of compassion for this quality in him:) I know that he often does it with good intention. He really loves his brothers and cares for them in a sweet way. I love this kid SO much I don't even have words. He is a joy of my life and I am so thankful for him. My boy loves me back and I am glad for that. He told me on his birthday, "I'm five but I'll never stop being your baby boy". Makes me cry just to type it. Okay, I'm done :) Happy Birthday Davis! Mommy and Daddy love you so much.

Davis' Special Day

2010-01-30T18:15:00.001-08:00

For Davis' fifth birthday, I wanted him to feel very celebrated and special even though we had some regular "day-to-day" stuff on the agenda. Our day of fun started with Bosa donuts before BSF on Thursday morning

TJ and Logan came too - so fun

Then we went to lunch at PPP after BSF - don't worry - Davis and Parker are having a birthday party that is a little more put together than this last minute luncheon - we are waiting for the AK fam to get here!!

Davis and E at PPP

Blowing at candles on his birthday cupcakes from Grammie

After naps - Daddy took everyone to Fuddruckers to have dinner together - Fudd's is a favorite for Davis and was his pick. Of course I forgot to take pictures of that outing. I think he had a very fun day. He has been talking about his upcoming birthday for weeks so I think he had really built it up in his mind. When I tucked him into bed I asked him what was the best part of his day, he said "The whole thing because it is my special day". Then he said, "I don't really FEEL like I'm five though". (What do you mean buddy?) "Like, I didn't feel myself grow or get bigger or weigh more - I don't think I got any bigger today." I guess deep down I wish he didn't get any bigger too :( but I'm always mindful, at times like birthdays, how grateful I am that God has protected him and kept him healthy.

Brotherly Love :)

2010-01-30T18:04:00.000-08:00

I have always thought it would be nice to have the boys pick out birthday presents for each other and this year was the first year that I thought it would really work and reciprocate. (After all, this time last year Parker was ONE turning two . . . could that be right? in fact it is . . crazy!) Anyhow, I took Parker to the store the night before Davis' birthday so that it would be close enough that there was a potential of him keeping a secret. I thought it would be super, super hard to get him to focus on picking something fun for someone ELSE and not for himself. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that not only did Parker 'get it' right away, but he was really into it. He walked up and down the isles for a long time trying to find something Davis would really love. It was just so precious to me how excited he was to pick something for Davis and how he never mentioned one time getting something for himself. In the morning when Davis woke up, Parker came running upstairs to find his gift - he was SO excited to give him his Nerf ball blaster. This is a picture of the two of them right after Davis opened his gift and I think you can see in his face how proud Parker was of his gift to his big Bro! I'm just not sure they make 'em much sweeter than Parker!

Late Christmas in Duncan

2010-01-11T08:26:00.001-08:00

We took a late trip to Duncan to celebrate Christmas one more time with family there. Unfortunately I failed once again at having the camera out very much at Gram Boyd's house and didn't get any pictures with her but we got to spend the second day with Great Grandma Jeanette and I managed to have the camera out that day!

It was so, so, so cold there. The low was 16 degrees and the high was about 42 degrees - waaaaaay to cold for this desert rat! The boys stayed warm enough to play outside and I was warm enough when I could wear Mark's ski jacket. I'm a baby, I know! They could play out in the dirt outside all day long and never get bored.

After lunch with GG we got the boys treats at a cute ice cream/fountain shop. It had a pretty bar with stools and the whole bit. The boys thought it was pretty fun. Davis ordered root beer and Parker and Grayson both had ice cream. The hit of the stop was the balloons they received from the lady at the shop.

It was a quick but great trip!

Sibling Outing

2009-12-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

My parents got Cardinals game tickets for all of us for Christmas this year. We went today and had so much fun. I love football and enjoy any kind of a stadium football game (and while it wasn't Mile High Stadium :) the company was even better). We laughed so hard throughout the whole day. Random funnies: My sister's "overly enthusiastic fan" routine, Matt and Melissa ducking away and making me think I lost them in the crowd when I stopped to check the score of a different game - haha guys, Marky's sunglasses, Matt trying to convince me to army style crawl under a pylon, and so many more. I would have some memories of Mark and Troy but they were . . . . oh yeah, up in the private lounge - toughing it out!! Very fun! I love my brothers and sister. Thank you mom and dad for a really great day! (and thank you Buzz and Billie for keeping the kids)

The Christmas Marathon

2009-12-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

(Our Family on Christmas Morning)

Christmas for us is a bit of a nonstop marathon of houses and family events. This year's schedule: Christmas Eve lunch at Buzz and Billie's house, Christmas Eve dinner with all the Kronwald extended family at Mom & Dad's, Christmas morning stockings at home, breakfast with my siblings at Mom & Dad's, quick Christmas lunch at Gram's with the Nothum side, a trip to Camp Verde for the Boyd family celebration and a final trip back to Gram's the day after because we didn't have enough time to exchange gifts with her on Christmas Day. Whew!

We used to say, "we are NEVER doing this much in two days again". I don't really feel that way anymore. I love how much my boys enjoy being with all of the different groups of family. We have an amazing family and there is not one stop that I would want to miss or want the boys to miss. Of course it is never without some casualties . . . this year's mishaps were the banged up Acura/the mailbox that took the blow and a banged up Grayson - he fell and was left with a very bloody mouth and nose. He woke up pretty upset about 2 am and I did not know what to do for him - crying and keeping everyone else up was not an option. I considered driving him around in the car, but the 15 degree temperatures were a deterrent. I pulled him into bed iwth me and pulled a huge blanket up over him and he was asleep on my should in about 3 seconds. He pretty much slept on my until about 5:45 am. As a one time event - I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy my snuggle!

This was the first year that I can remember my boys 'anticipating' Christmas morning so much and were SO excited when they came in our room in the morning. When I tucked Davis into bed on Christmas night (on a couch in Camp Verde) he said, "Mom, this is like the MOST fabulous day of my whole life!". I chuckled at my dramatic kid, but seriously, to him, at that moment, he could not think of a better day - that is a success in my book! Our family hopes that you too enjoyed a very Merry Christmas!! (Below you can choose to endure a flood of pictures from all these events that I really want for photobook purposes:)

Random Christmas funnies:

Parker: (when opening one of our nativity advent calendar doors - he pulled out a donkey) "Oh, look, Eeyore was in the Christmas story!"

Parker: (reading a Christmas story book - page of the 3 Wise men and they were giving Jesus gifts that were a metallic paper in the book) "Oooh, yeah, the wise men brought some Kryptonite". (laughed hard about that one)

Davis: (handing Mark a WRAPPED gift) "Here Dad, can I help you open your new shaving kit?" - way to keep it a surprise buddy!

Davis: (in Camp Verde after Erin let him play with some of her old Star Wars toys) "Mom, I didn't really have anything to play with in Camp Verde until . . . Dum , Dum, Da Dum, Dum Da Dum, Dum Da Dum." (singing the Darth Vader song - maybe you had to be there - SO FUNNY)

Driving home on Christmas Eve, we were talking about the fruits of the Spirit and how when the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, you can see Him coming out of your actions and attitudes. (This whole conversation stemmed from some things my Dad said to everyone Christmas Eve before we read the Christmas story - very cool to me.) In the car, Davis said, "When will I be ready?" (Me: For what?) "To have God the Holy Spirit living inside of me?" I prayed with him right then that God would give him a genuine desire for a relationship with Him and that in His timing would give Davis a heart that is committed to Him. To be clear, Davis didn't make any commitments out loud or anything but I was so encouraged to see God possibly growing in him that desire. I know that a true desire for Him can only come from Him - there is nothing more I would ever want for my kids. This was such a sweet conversation to have on Christmas Eve and a sweet reminder of the greatest gift worth celebrating - my God who loves me and was born to live and die for me. We continue to pray that God would grow desires for Himself in all three boys.

Christmas 2009 Photos

2009-12-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

Evie and her beautiful Christmas dress - it had a matching bow too (below:)

Getting ready for Stockings at Home Christmas Morning

Grayson gets a dog

Davis and Daddy

Troy and sweet baby girl

Davis

Eli

Parker - got dress up clothes for Christmas - he was so excited about them - he didn't take this jacket off for about 24 hours!

I'm sad to say that I did not give my child his favorite gift - he got this 4 foot dog from my sister and he is IN LOVE with it. It is crazy how much he loves this dog.

Boys doing stoking in C.V. with Grammie

Grayson with Gram

Family Picture in Camp Verde

Cousin picture - Boyd family

Grayson and Grammie in C.V.

Parker loves cousin Erin - even though he calls her "dray-dree-in" most of the time - he thinks she is pretty great.

Christmas Pictures

2009-12-09T21:37:00.001-08:00

Family photos can be a dreadful experience. Lucky for me, my super talented cousin is willing to do our family pictures for us every year! There is a slide show on her blog if you are interested. You can link to it on the right - One 3 Photography. Thank you Kelly. We love you!

Check out my sweet baby boy/super handsome child model . . . I know, I know . . not biased at all. My cousin is the best ever, but it must help a little bit when the kid is SO PRECIOUS :) Grayson can be 'finicky' about people (I'll just leave it at that) and he actually loves Kelly - lets her carry him around and everything - so she can get some great pictures of my baby boy.

Tradition, Tradition

2009-12-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

I love so many things about this season and one of the things I really love is traditions. I love the old ones that we try our hardest to keep so our kids can experience them too and I love the new ones that we are creating with our family that the boys will hopefully grow to expect and enjoy.

I take a picture by our tree shortly after we get it up and decorated and then have it made into a porcelain ornament. It is my favorite set of ornaments to put on the tree because I get to see their little faces from the previous years - so precious! This picture is the keeper for this year.

Another tradition I love is our advent calendar. I have a very cool advent calendar that has little doors with a magnetic manger scene in the middle. They open a door each night and there is a character piece inside so that on Christmas Eve we have assembled the entire Christmas nativity. We also read the Christmas story together when we open the little doors. When we were talking it about it last night . .

Me: So who is Jesus' daddy?

Parker: God!

Me: So who is Mary's husband?

Parker: Moses!

(he was channeling TJ's love for Moses - haha)

I am also a sucker for all the old Christmas movies. My kids love them so we bust those out after Thanksgiving and watch a movie together as a family a couple times a week before bed. Even my hubby loves the old school Grinch movie or Frosty the Snowman.

We also sing Christmas songs before bed instead of their usual favorite bedtime songs. Davis loves this and sometimes asks for these songs year round (which is kind of okay with me:) Their favorites are Silent Night, Away in the Manger, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

We have some other things that we try to do in the month of December like looking at Christmas lights, making hot chocolate at night and going to Zoo Lights. I love this time of year. It is all about Christmas over here!!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-04T11:58:00.001-08:00

I don't really have any good pictures of Thanksgiving because I didn't have a camera with me but I stole this one from my Uncle Mike. We had a very pleasant, uneventful Thanksgiving which is a success in my book. It has become our tradition to have an early Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night with Mark's parents and then we eat lunch on Thursday with my Nothum side of the family. This is fabulous because you get to eat that fantastic meal twice without trying to pretend you enjoy eating it twice in one day!

One of my most favorite traditions is making the turkey with my Gram. It started nine years ago when I lived with my Gram for a couple of years before I got married. Every year since, I have gone to her house very early in the morning to get the stuffing made and the turkey in the oven. I love being apart of that family tradition, I love hearing her tell me the same stories every year about how much stuffing my Grandpa wanted inside the turkey, and I love making recipes with her that are family favorites. I know those are memories that I will always hold close to my heart.

This time of year I am always very mindful of how thankful I am for my family. God has blessed me and my kids with the most amazing extended family. At the very foundation of our family is a unity that we have through salvation in Jesus and for that I am most thankful!

Davis' favorite thanksgiving food this year was ham ("pink meat" - I always forget he like this), sweet potatoes and sweet rice. Parker can never, ever have enough sweet rice (smart boy) and Grayson had a little bit of everything - he isn't overly opinionated yet. I think if he appeared to like anything above the rest it would have been the fruit platter . . . next year we will work on making the stuffing his fave!

Day at the Farm

2009-11-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

We had a particularly nice weekend this weekend. It was much busier than the usual Filleman pace, but tonight Mark and I both commented that it was just a nice weekend. Saturday, while I threw a baby shower, the boys got to spend the entire day with Mark's extended family - center of attention - their fave! Saturday night we had more cousin fun at Eli's birthday dinner and today we had a really pleasant afternoon with family and friends at an outdoor wedding. In any other circumstance, a wedding with all three boys would probably never have been described as "pleasant" but an outdoor wedding, on a beautiful day, surrounded by wonderful people, with hay rides and tractors to entertain the boys made for a really great afternoon. Davis was actually interested in the "wedding" part. During the ceremony he was full of questions: "Why is her white dress so puffy? THAT is what Eli wants to do?? (haha) Who will go next, do we all have to go up there to get married? Why did Grayson just eat your make-up puff? (uh huh, awesome!)"

I don't always see it - but Grayson's expression and chubby little face in this picture looks a lot like my baby pictures to me.

Hooray for Soccer

2009-11-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

This will be my last soccer post for a while - promise :) The last game was last week and the team had a party at PPP afterward. The boys had the best soccer coach. He didn't even have a kid on the team and he did such a great job of giving the boys some skills and primarily helping them to learn to enjoy the sport together. Davis loved all the different game style drills at practice. At the award ceremony they received a trophy but he also made special certificates for each kid, with a team nickname and their best attribute on the field. I know each kid felt special and each of the awards was so appropriate.

One funny (somewhat soccer related) story: After one of the games in the car . . .

D: "Great news Mom, I think Coach Travis knows God"

Me: "You do, Why do you think that?"

D: "Well, he was talking about Him."

Me: "Oh, (in my head, hmmmmm) what did he say?"

D: "He said, God made dirt and dirt is okay" - pretty sure that is D's version of the cliche "dirt don't hurt" :)

I tried not to laugh!

Davis was so proud of his trophy. His award says: Davis "Mr. Competitive" (hmmm, yet appropriate) and his award was for "most coachable player" - I'm very proud! Coach Travis said that when they would tell Davis to do something on the field he would always do it.

All three boys with their awards . . . great season! Come on Johnsons, play in the spring :)

Happy Birthday Eli

2009-11-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

My oldest nephew Eli turned six-years-old last week. I love all my nieces and nephews tremendously and I have especially memorable memories of the day Eli was born. There was quite a heard of us gathered in the hall waiting to meet my sister's first baby. I was working at an office close by and would often bring my lunch to Liss' house to hang with baby E for a while on my lunch break. I appreciate tons of things about Eli, but to name a few . . . in true first-born fashion, he does a great job of caring for all the little guys and he sets a great example for them, he is super sweet to Grayson, at a very young age he has a really great understanding of God's Word and applies it (SO super encouraging to me as a parent to watch God work in his heart) and he is always good for an awesome camera pose!! Recent, "so Eli" story: I was at my mom's while she had all the kids and she was trying to round up all the Filleman and Johnson boys for dinner in the kitchen, moments after sitting down Eli is out of his seat and in the kitchen. My mom says, "E come get in your seat". Eli says, "but I was just trying to serve you and aunt shell, you guys don't have any water and all the kids have water" - precious boy - "just trying to serve you" - cracks me up!

birthday lunch at PPP

who is that super cute blonde kid? :)

opening presents

sweet buddies

State Fair

2009-11-09T09:26:00.001-08:00

Family fun at the State Fair! Yes it is dirty and the same price as a ticket to Disneyland - but the kids had a really fun time. We got to see lots of animals - Grayson of course loves seeing and petting animals - and we rode a couple of rides. Our friends the Moores met us downtown. It was fun to get to do something together with their family.
This is the crazy slide ride that both the boys rode. They thought it was great fun - I was glad Mark was willing to go twice because it was a little too high for me. The kids would have been happy to ride this thing all night long.

Grayson got to ride a bumblebee ride and all the boys enjoyed corn dogs. Those things kind of gross me out, but Grayson thought it was pretty wonderful.

Out of their mouths . . .

2009-11-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

Parker was walking with my mother-in-law the other night and Parker was saying something about being scared:

Billie: Parker, we don't have to be scared, Jesus is with us.

P: NO he is not Grammie.

Billie: Well yes he is (you can just hear her voice - totally unsure why my son seems so adamantly opposed to the idea)

P: No he is not with us, because he has to come back someday, so he can't already be here!

As I mentioned before, Davis has been really trying to get his mind around the idea of Jesus coming back someday. Parker has never even engaged in the conversations at all . . . guess he is listening :) Of course we pray like crazy that when Jesus does come back, our little boys' hearts are ready!

This is just another classic way God is using my children to complete a work in me . . . This past Saturday my attitude was less than Christ-like (and by "less than" I mean MUCH "less than" . . as you will see . . .

In the midst of my grumbling in my head, Davis brings me his Bible and says, "Mom will you help me?". Already realizing I need this more than he does, "Sure buddy, what do you need?" Davis says, "I'm just looking and looking in here for a verse about happy hearts so I can show it to you . . . can you find one?" Yes, good idea indeed. I wish that I would have been modeling a better attitude but I am grateful he could tell my b.a. was in contrast to God's Word . . . looking on the bright side here folks!

And finally, Davis' introduction to the kindergarten we might send him to . . . We went to Eli's school for a jog-a-thon and Davis was super excited about cheering for him. He was asking 100 questions per minute on the way there about how fast the race would be, would there be a finish line, would they blow a horn, would E win a trophy . . the list goes on. Anyway, when we are on the sidelines before they start the race, Davis yells, "You HAVE to win Eli - just shove down all the kids that are in your way!!!!" Awesome! A proud moment indeed - maybe a good time to go meet the one and only kindergarten teacher . . and maybe I'll just save that intro for another time :)

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T09:36:00.001-08:00

We had a great time celebrating Halloween. We carved pumpkins at my mom's annual pumpkin carving party, trick-or-treated with cousins and friends and then spent time walking around in our own neighborhood. Random Halloween shots:

Davis with Papa

Getting some candy

Logan and Parker - looked so cute together!

The clan before heading out to trick-or-treat

My super cute cheetah

the boys dressed up

a cousin picture - all the boys plus cousin Dillon as James the train

Mark carving his huge pumpkin - sadly the only picture we took together at Halloween . . or in a while for that matter . . oops!

Halloween through the Years

2009-11-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

I am copying my friend's very cute post - partly because I loved looking at her blog and really wanted to go through my pictures and see my little boys in the past Halloweens. I was reminded of three sad things: I have aged 10 years in only five (so sad), I picked some notoriously horrible costumes for Davis the first two years, and I was a bad "third child"

mom to G and he didn't even dress up for his first Halloween. So sad . . how did that happen? Anyway, enjoy!

Halloween 2005 - Davis (10 mo) is a Care Bear

Halloween 2006 - Davis (1 yr) is a lion (or Tina Turner according to my family)

Halloween 2007 - Parker (9 mo) is a monkey, Davis (2) is Spiderman

Halloween 2008 - Davis (3) is Bob the Builder, Parker (1) is Swiper

Halloween 2008 - G's first Halloween (2 mo) - he is a trick-or-treating baby in pj's :)

Halloween 2009 - Parker (2) Buzz Lightyear, Grayson (1) Cheetah, Davis (4) Luke Skywalker pilot

Blast from the Past

2009-11-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

When looking through my old photos for my previous post, I came across these pictures and I couldn't resist . . .

Matt and Nicci 2007 carving pumpkins and below is Matt and Nicci 2009 dressed up - we are very glad she is still around - our family hasn't scared her off yet . . shocker :) Couldn't believe this picture was in my 2007 album - crazy how fast time flies!

When this picture came up, both Davis and Parker said, oh what a cute picture of G . . I don't always think that Davis and Grayson look as alike as other people do but I think this particular picture looks A LOT like Grayson. Davis is almost 2 here, but his build and everything looks just like G right now! (even his crazy little wispy hairs:)

Grayson . . .

2009-10-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

Grayson is also doing so many "big" things. You can tell that he is trying so hard to communicate. He will clearly have things he really wants or wants to tell you that he just doesn't have the words for. I can usually get the gist from his noises and motions, but if I can't he gets frustrated. (It is crazy to think back about how many words Parker had at G's age - P grew up so fast that way)

I love how excited he gets to see his Dad and "Daddy" is one of his best (and only) words. He is also thrilled to see his brothers and even though it doesn't sound like "davis" - he has a certain jabber that he always yells that means "davis". The other day Davis told him "just call me Day-day" (which was so sweet to me b/c that is what Parker used to say when he couldn't say Davis - even today Parker will call him "Day" sometimes when they are playing).

My favorite thing he does right now is crawl up on my lap. Whenever I come sit down on the floor with them, he runs over and backs himself in to plop down on my lap. He loves some cuddle and I love it even more!

He wants to do everything that the boys do - always! He really like to kick the soccer ball with Davis and is surprisingly good at keeping that ball moving in front of him. I also love that when we are doing bedtime routine he crawls in the extra bed in the big boy room and lays down on the pillow like he wants to stay in there with them . . . his day is coming . . . but not for a long time I am sure :) He also has a big love for his cousin Eli. E has paid him some special attention lately and he also has a sound he makes when he sees Eli that I can tell is the way he is saying E's name. He will let Eli lead him around pretty much anywhere - I can tell he is going to really admire his big cousin.

Probably because eating is still SUCH an ordeal with Parker, I am surprised and delighted by how well Grayson will eat. He will try almost anything. Obviously he loves fruit more than just about anything else, but he does good with most things. He even particularly loves bbq - like pulled pork or brisket.

Davis . . .

2009-10-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Davis is getting so big - I cannot believe that he is almost five years old! He is really loving school right now and soccer. He asks those two questions almost every morning: "Do I have soccer today? and "Do we do school today?". I am glad he is enjoying learning new things. When we started doing school, Anne was so kind to come over and evaluate where Davis was at with some things. At that point in September, he could not really identify individual sounds. For example, if you told him "S" says "ssssss", can you think of any words that begin with that sound - he really had no idea. For several weeks we would talk about all the words that start with the letter we were working on, but he couldn't make that connection to finding words on his own. In the last two weeks this has started to 'click' for him. All day long he will think of word that start with the letter we are working on for the week. Just this morning at breakfast, he said "Pantry and my Pancakes both start with the "p" sound". When we are riding in the car he also finds lots of things he sees that start with the letter we are talking about. It seems like such a simple little thing, but it has been a sweet pleasure and privilege (that I wasn't expecting) to get to watch him learn simple, little, foundational things. It is so exciting to me to get to see those lights turn on!

Another sweet thing is how much he loves babies right now. (Please refrain from the "time to have another" comments . . . those are outdated and fall on deaf ears:) He talks about Evie and Hugh all the time and can't wait to get his hands on those kids when he sees them. He was super into picking out a b-day present for Hugh and last night in the car, he asked if Mark was coming to Papa's birthday dinner and voiced his concern about him being around Evie since Mark has been sick. That baby girl will be adored by her cousins!

We have also had some great conversations lately about spiritual things. Davis used to be very opposed to talking about spiritual things and even reading Bible stories together, so it continues to encourage my heart greatly when he initiates talking about things. God has also used it to encourage me to think about Him with the intrigue and innocence of a little boy. Davis has been asking lots of questions about what it will be like when Jesus comes back. He will look up at the sky and ask what it will be like when Jesus is coming back through the clouds. One night, I was flustered making dinner and probably impatiently snapping at the kids to get to the table (Mark was gone) and the first thing Davis asked when we sat down was "why don't we get to KNOW when Jesus will come back?" - definitely made me stop in my cranky tracks and remember that my focus should be on that! He asked his Sunday school teacher two weeks ago why we call God, "God". This has given us the opportunity to talk about God giving Himself that name in Scripture and speak together about the authority of God. Last night in the car he asked, "who is Jesus' Father?" Trying to speak true things that he can understand about something like the Trinity reminded me of my study in John right now - that spiritual things can only be understood by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts - and so we continue to pray that God would work in Davis' heart to give him understanding of these things and I am so grateful that I get to watch and be used by God in that process.

Parker . . .

2009-10-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

I realized when looking for a "Parker picture" for this post that I haven't really taken any random, day to day pictures of my kids in months. Oops. So I am stealing a photo from my sister - a better photographer anyway! Parker and Logan - buddies for sure! Doesn't really have anything to do with the post except that I needed a cute picture :) P.S. they are going to be Buzz Lightyear and Woody for Halloween . . . so cute.

Sunday night my parents were loading my boys into the car with me. Parker yells out the window to my mom:

"Good night . . . sleep tight . . . . don't let those bugs bite ya". It made me laugh.

He just found out the Logan is pretty much potty trained (in like 2 days by the way . . ugh). Anyway, I was trying to make him excited about it and use the "your buddy wears undies" manipulation tactic.

Parker: I get to wear undies and big boy boxers when I go pee on the potty???

Me: Yes buddy - so exciting - want to try?

Parker: No thanks. I just wear diapers.

He is so helpful and sweet to me. All day long I hear, "I'm your big boy helper?!?" because he is bringing me a diaper for Grayson, helping me put toys away, or giving Grayson a toy in the car to keep him from fussing.

Last things about Parker - He went to his first movie last week. My mom took the boys to see the Toy Story combo and I went along to help. I thought it was very likely Parker wouldn't want to sit through the first movie, much less the second. He loved the whole experience - of course it helps that he loves Toy Story. I told him we could go home in the intermission and he was not interested at all. He watched the entire second movie also. He is still wearing his 3-D glasses around a week later. When the Disneyland Castle came on at the beginning of the movie - Parker said, "Oh Disneyland, I have been to that castle!!!".

Sleep overs and more Johnson fun :)

2009-10-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

We got a special treat this week . . . Clay Clay came to visit while Clayton was working in Tucson. The boys were super excited to have their cousin in town. (For the record, Parker asked for Kara for the first three days, but then got used to the idea that she wasn't coming too) In true, "Johnson visit" fashion - we tried to pack as much cousin hang-out time into one week as possible. A "first" for my boys was a sleep over at our house. Yes, that is a graham cracker-icing sandwich - they are eating with their movie - maybe that is why they weren't very tired :) All three boys slept in the big boys' room and they did great. My boys thought it was extra special. The week also included Peter Piper, Pecos Park, Bounce House, Tumbleweed Park, family dinners, soccer practice/games, Desert Breeze Park (notice the park theme - hooray for fall!!!!), and LOTS of cousin Wii time:) We also had time to see Mark's cousins from NM (very fun - the boys LOVE Jimmie and Grant and we played at the Caruso farm! Whoa - a month's worth of outings for sure)

Above, the boys are at Tumbleweed Park together (TJ and Loges are at BSF). The boys below are all playing Mario Kart together. In a moment of weakness, Eli convinced me that I could make a trip to Walmart with D, P, G, Eli & Clay so we could get one more controller so they could all play. I wouldn't do it everyday - but it was a pretty successful trip for five boys, five and under :) We are always thankful for the time that the boys get to build relationship with ALL their cousins. They are great friends!

He shoots, he scores!

2009-10-11T07:28:00.001-07:00

Our third game into the soccer season, Davis scored his first goal!!! He was so excited. Eli actually took it all the way down the field and then got tripped up so Davis shot it in. The sweetest moments were the ones that followed.

Eli is so genuinely excited for him. E is a great encourager of others.

All three boys right after Davis shot the goal. I love how TJ has his arm on D. So precious. My boys have been blessed with some great buddies! Davis also shot a goal for the other team today . . . oops! But a goal nonetheless, as far as he was concerned I think. It was the most "action" he had seen on the field this year for sure :)

Soccer

2009-09-28T15:04:00.001-07:00

TJ and Davis . . . evaluating :)

Davis and E noticing that they have the same shoes - as opposed to listening to the coach!

It was my bright idea to sign up the boys for soccer this fall. I think once they actually get the hang of it - they will have a great time. The first game was on Saturday and it was pretty much little kid soccer chaos - but the boys sure looked the part :) Eli was kind of an all-star. He is a good six inches taller than the other kids on the team. Davis is super excited about it and really likes the idea of playing a sport on a team. Of course, he also loves that his cousins are doing it with him. I know that there is an element of confidence because he knows Eli and TJ will be there with him. That would have been me as a kid for sure, so I am grateful that he has those relationships with the boys. I hope that they have a great season. Hey . . . they are already off to a better start than the Cardinals and they haven't even had a practice - HA! Goooooo Tigers!!

Busy Life!

2009-09-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

My parents with all the Grandkids

Cousins (minus G and Evie) with Mickey

I can't believe it has been so long since I have had enough calm moments to collect my thoughts and blog. We have been pretty busy with just life in general and our very fun trip to Disneyland!

The boys getting ready to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Family Picture :) Just inside the gates on Day one

Eeyore was his fave! Meeting him and getting one to take home from Papa

Parker liked the characters - Davis wasn't nearly as excited about them - He was willing to pose with the Splash Mtn Briar Bear though - his favorite ride!

My parents took us, the Johnsons and my brothers to Disneyland and it was one of my favorite trips we have ever taken together. My kids had SO many favorite things. Davis LOVED Splash Mountain - he would ride it over and over again if he could, he also really liked the other big rides but he especially enjoyed S.M. - he also had a great time at Mark Twain's island running through all the rock forts and really liked the California Experience ride in CA Adventure park. Parker says his favorite was the "roller coaster" (Matterhorn) which he only liked as long as I would cover his eyes when the polar bear jumps out, he also really like seeing the different characters (particularly Lightening McQueen) and watching the parade. I didn't really expect Grayson to think one way or another about Disneyland so I was especially excited about how much he loved it. The first day he had a huge smile forever and would randomly just start clapping. He liked the Dumbo ride and all the other small rides, but what he loved was meeting the characters. Duh? Giant stuffed animals that interact with him - I should have known he would be in love! It was so sweet to me. My dad bought him an Eeyore on the last day and you should have seen the kid's smile when he came running out of the store with it. He still holds it all day long. Grayson has never liked that feeling of being lifted into the air - or that dropping feeling. On several of the rides when you would have that moment of "weightless"-type feeling he would get really scared. Several times when this happened he then wanted to move and sit with Mark instead of me. It was especially sweet to me that that made him feel even more secure, to sit with his Daddy. I loved everything about it - seeing all the kids so excited and able to have fun around the clock and also being able to do such fun things with my whole family. I love watching my brothers love on my kids and the boys adoring their uncles. I also love to watch the sweet relationships with the cousins that will probably be lifetime best friendships for my boys. On our last day, we ate lunch with my parents at the restaurant at DL where Mark and I got engaged. That will always be a special place and I really enjoyed being able to be there with the boys and my parents.

My Birthday - Grayson's Party

2009-08-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

In my family, my brother and I had birthday's in the same month and my other brother and sister had birthdays in the same month so it was pretty much the standard tradition to celebrate with a "together" family party. It was very fun for me to relive that experience a little bit today, sharing my birthday with Grayson. This was really the only weekend that worked to have a little 1st Birthday party for Grayson and it turned out to be my birthday - but I would be more than happy to celebrate with my baby every year! Sadly we didn't think to take a very cute picture together :( Of course Grayson always looks super cute!

My very thoughtful husband didn't want me to be without a cake at the party so he had this super yummy cake made for me. It had two different layers of filling, lemon and blackberry - does it get any better than that - my two favorites for sure!! So yummy and very kind! (definitely cuter than my attempt at a cake for G) I also got some very pretty flowers delivered from Great-Grandma Jeanette! Thank you for the sweet surprise!!

Grayson's Birthday

2009-08-29T18:45:00.001-07:00

Grayson LOVED everything about birthday cake (this was an early celebration)

His cake

He wasn't shy about attacking that huge piece

Can't leave any frosting on the plate

Delicious! You know at some point it becomes unattractive to be covered in your birthday cake - but at this point in life it is super cute!!!

His new very fun blow up toy from the Johnsons

Eating lunch - I made him some fancy mac-n-cheese

G & Aunt Liss

Opening presents - more stuffed animals - HOORAY!

Enjoying watching me open his presents - laying on my lap!

Grayson officially turned one-year-old on August 13th. How is it possible that my little baby is one already?!? I know everyone says it, but I feel like I am constantly aware of how fast this time goes and how blessed I am to have this time with all of my little boys. At the doctor, Grayson was 22 lbs 4 ou (45%) and 31 in tall (75%). At one-year-old: he walks all over the place, he consequently falls all over the place, he only says a couple of words (mama, a version of dog, and dada) but he really tries to communicate a lot of things, he LOVES stuffed animals (specific only to G in this house!), he likes to chase a ball or push a bigger car along the floor, he really enjoys food, he likes to be in the pool, he thinks he can do anything his brothers are doing and his smile in absolutely contagious. I have enjoyed him as a baby very, very much! He is pretty even tempered, a great sleeper and loves to love on his momma (all good things). In my mind he is my baby, but I see him do things everyday that remind me how big he is getting. The other day I was making my bed and talking on the phone (so I wasn't really watching what he was playing with:) and I heard him fussing at me while I was fixing the sheets. I looked down and he was whining because he was trying to show me that he was handing me the pillow to put on my bed. The other funny thing he did last week was he brought me a box of Rice-a-roni from the pantry and was pointing at the picture on the box to tell me he was hungry and wanted the picture of the food. It was almost like he thought that bowl of prepared rice was waiting for him in the box. There isn't really any food that he doesn't like, so far. He is pretty willing to try anything. He didn't really eat much baby food - his nine teeth were ready for real food early in life. He really loves noodles with meat sauce, pizza, any kind of fruit but particularly cantaloupe, and the reliable pbj sandwich is his favorite treat. My favorite thing to do with him is cuddle him before bed and do anything silly to make him smile because he has the world's best smile. I pray many things for Grayson, but above things, I pray that God would give him a heart to love Him and know and understand the things of God. I so look forward with hopefulness to what God could do for His Kingdom through the three boys together.

Ouchie!

2009-08-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

Grayson was my earliest walker by several months. He was taking random steps as early as 9 months and was really walking by 11 months old. I'm not sure if this is the reason, but he is such a clumsy walker. It is worse than when they are learning to crawl. He bonks his head multiple times a day and some of the bumps are quite bad. This knock on his forehead was one of his worst, but sadly he got another today to match! My poor little dude needs to grow out of his wobbly legs.

He Loves It!

2009-08-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

Grayson has not really enjoyed the sand much at all this year. He HATED it in Atlantis and was pretty unhappy to be down at the beach in Coronado this year also. During the July trip, he warmed up to the idea of playing with some toys on a beach towel but he didn't venture beyond that at all. It has been a little bit difficult to really play with the other boys on the beach this trip because there weren't any extra people along who could keep him to sleep while I took the boys to the ocean. When we were walking down this morning I literally said, "Grayson, today will be the day you learn to love the beach." I didn't really believe it would happen, but today he LOVED the beach. It was very uncrowded, we were really the only ones down there for a couple of hours and he was walking and crawling around everywhere. He even chased a bird into the water and let some waves come up on his legs. I was pretty excited about it. What kid of mine doesn't like the beach?? He had sand in every crevice possible and I will probably still be finding those gold/black flecks in his hair and ears for the next couple of days - but he really enjoyed himself . . . FINALLY!

Happy Birthday Matt

2009-08-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my brother Matt's birthday at Z Tejas. He is a great friend and a really awesome uncle to my boys. I am very grateful for him and the blessing of siblings that are our closest friends!

Swim Team here we come!

2009-08-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Parker working on his float

Davis swimming backstroke

Working on some freestyle - those arms were harder for him!

Well, not really swim team, but I do think Davis did well enough in the water that he could totally do a swim team next summer. Davis LOVES to swim and with the help of Mrs. Janice, he became quite the swimmer this summer. This was the first summer that he was introduced to actual swim strokes. I think his strongest stroke this summer was the backstroke. He can do it all the way across her pool - no problem. Parker took lessons this year too for the first time. He is definitely not "swimming" but he has gotten much more comfortable in the water and hopefully we will have more opportunities to work on it this summer and get him floating. He is much more hesitant about just being in the pool so I was glad he became more comfortable to even play in the water.

Visiting the Greats

2009-08-05T23:25:00.001-07:00

We took a whirlwind 24 hour trip to Duncan with the AK cousins. It is fun to make a visit all together. I know that the firehouse with Uncle Brad was a highlight for my kids, as well as their slumber party on Gram Boyd's floor and lunch at Gimmee's. (Parker is missing from the picture with Gram Boyd because his nose injury was only minutes old and he wasn't getting out of my arms for anything!) A highlight for me was lunch with Great Grandma Jeanette. We really had a sweet time together and Grayson was really loving her. I love to see them growing those relationships with the fabulous extended family we have been blessed with. All in all, it was WELL worth the drive! (All five kids, April and I all in the Acura by the way - it was officially packed to the gills)

So Blessed

2009-08-05T23:19:00.001-07:00

When I think about these kids, I am just so very thankful to God for each of these little kids and also the great relationships that they have with one another. Even though they don't all get to see each other all the time, when they are together, they are best friends. What a sweet gift from God. I can't even begin to recap everything that we were able to do with the AK cousins in town the last two weeks. The highlight for my kids was just getting to do the day-to-day stuff with their cousins - swimming, dinners, play dates. It is busy and hectic, but completely worth it because the kids enjoy one another so much. I know Davis was especially thrilled to have them come to church with us two Sundays and have Clay in his class. My kids also had a blast on our whirlwind overnight in Duncan. It is so great to have them in town.

First Break

2009-08-05T22:45:00.001-07:00

So sad - a picture doesn't even really capture how bad Parker's nose looks. While I was packing the car in the Duncan, Parker fell and landed very hard on the handle of a metal shopping cart. I could tell from outside that he was hurt really badly by the way he was crying. It immediately swelled like a golf ball between his eyes at the bridge of his nose. Now he is left with black eyes and lots of swelling. I am hoping that it will heal well and that it starts feeling better. Parker is not a complainer at all - but you can tell it is very sensitive. My poor, sweet baby!

New Friends

2009-07-23T21:32:00.001-07:00

I met my friend Miranda in 2001 at a shower - can't even remember whose shower. (eight years ago - crazy to me - time goes by so fast!!) Sadly she doesn't live in AZ anymore but I got to see her on Wednesday while she was in town for a visit. I had never even met her youngest little boy Joshua and the last time she saw my boys, Davis was in an infant seat. At first it was looking like Madelyn was not thrilled about playing at a house with a bunch of little boys, but then Davis won her over with his pet frogs. As you can see, they worked it out! I think Davis was quite smitten with her. They all played great with one another and Davis keeps asking when he will get to play with them again - sadly it will likely be quite a long time. I am so grateful for friendships and that I had the opportunity to see Madelyn and Joshua and watch them play with my kids!

Out of their mouths . . .

2009-07-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

More funny from Davis:

After his dentist appointment -

Billie (his Grammie): "Davis I have a present for you for doing such a great job at the dentist."

Davis: (see her getting something out of the closet) "Oh yes! Is it cash?"

Cash made me laugh every time I think about it - not sure what association he even has with that word.

Today after I finished nursing Grayson before his nap-

Davis: "Are you done already?"

Me: "yep, all done"

Davis: "Wow that was fast . . . did you only do one boob?"

(too many babies early in life has probably given them more of an anatomy lesson than necessary)

Bye bye baby food

2009-07-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

As Grayson gets bigger and bigger, I am a little nostalgic sad to see things go (favorite jammies all three wore, the swing, some favorite baby toys) but I am not sad to see the baby food era come to an end. Last night, Grayson kept pushing my arm away as I brought the baby food spoon to his mouth. Thinking he was just being obstinate, I just let him sit there for a while. When I came back he did the same thing and was grabbing for the table that had everyone else's dinner on it. I broke up a ground beef burrito for him to see what would happen and he ate the entire thing (green chiles and all). My other boys never ate that type of table food this early so I tried to keep feeding them the baby food so they would get meat and veggies but I guess G is all done with food mush and ready for the real deal. Fine with me! It is so much easier to me to feed them all the same thing and not have to mess with remembering baby food if we are out. Today for lunch he happily ate a sandwich and pile of blueberries. Hooray!! He is probably eating better than Parker - sadly a true statement.