Playing in Pinetop

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

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

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!

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 . . .

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

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.

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Legoland (and last CA post:)

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 :)