Mother's Day

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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 :)