6 months of loving this boy....

We took the kids to get Jonah's 6 month pictures taken! Oh, how I love this boys and his face! He is the sweetest, happiest baby. He LOVES to play on the floor with toys now and has just started eating cereal and bananas...which he LOVES! Can't believe how fast the months are flying by.....:( I wish I could freeze time and stay "here" for a while....it's a really good place.

It's that time again.....

Wow, am I behind...I just found this post and the next one, sitting in y "drafts" I never realized that I forgot to go back and type in them and post them! So, now that it's January, it seems less than exciting to post about getting ready for Christmas. We did have fun though! Jonah, as you can see, loved the lights!

This year, Jeremy assemble the entire tree and put the angel on the top.

Jonah was putting his "first" ornament on the tree !

This is the 1st year that Louie and I sat and watched while the kids decorated the whole tree. They did a great job spreading them out and varying them! Another fun night for our memory! We LOVE this time of year and try to start as early as possible!

Our sweet baby girl turned 7!

As usual, there was at least a week of festivities to celebrate a birthday in our house. On her actual birthday, daddy had to work. So, he took the morning off to take Julia out to breakfast. She was so surprised and excited by this. When they got home, she opened her gifts from us. Her favorite was her new American girl doll, Rebecca. We loved her coat, boots and curls!When daddy went back to work, grandma took the boys for the afternoon. Julia, mommy and her 2 American Girl dolls went to Starbucks, then for a pedicure then for a light dinner at Corner Bakery. It was fun to have some girl time with her.

Julia insisted that we have matching nails!!!
In between that day and now, we went out to dinner as a family to celebrate, celebrated at each grandma's and went out to dinner with her Auntie and Uncle. For the Grand Finale, we had a small party with a few close friends yesterday. Lots of girlie colors, sweets and crafts....and tons of fun!
The boys helped make most of the dipped pretzels and marshmallows!

Making candy and Froot Loop necklaces

Our designated "helpers" and make-up artists!

Decorating cupcakes (with newly "made up" faces)

Very Rainy, very fun day!!!! The boys showed up at the end to participate in the fun! Well....the week or so of events is over. I can't believe our baby is 7. It's so weird to think that for 6-1/2 years, she was the baby. Now, there is a new baby (who we all adore, of course). Still hard to get use to the part where she isn't the baby anymore. She is growing up and it is so fun and so sad at the same time. She is such a joy to me. She catches every detail and is so "on top" of things. she is thoughtful, independent and thoughtful! She holds her own with the boys and even tries to fit in with them quite often. We do love this girl that God blessed us with. She is truly a treasure to us all!

Sweet little buddies- Then and now....

So, when I was digging through old pictures, looking for the pictures of Josh and "fishie B's", I was flooded with so many memories that seem so long ago, and seem like they were only yesterday at the same time. They bring joy to my heart, yet make my heart heavy because they are a reminder of how fast time flies. I don't want my babies to be older this quickly. I dread the day when they are all out of my house. I could cry thinking about it. I love having a full home with lots of activity going on. (There are those days, I admit, when I am starving for a quiet house...however, I am often more thankful for the noise)! Anyway, when I was looking at old pictures this one of Josh and Julia came up. It looked familiar because I had just taken one of them like this, this last summer. I had to post them side by side to see the difference. These 2 children are so precious to me. I love their relationship. I remember how shocked and overwhelmed I was when I first found out I was pregnant with Julia. It seemed, at the time, to be a bit too soon. However, the fact that Josh and her are so close in age, has allowed them to have such a precious friendship. They play all their little pretend "kitty games" together for hours. He can beat up on her from time to time, but overall, he takes really good care of her. I hope they grow up to be close friends always!!! God knows what He is doing and it is so nice to rest in that, even when I initially think my plan is better! :)

"Fishie B's"

Ok....this is a long story that I will try to make short. When Josh was born, he got PJ's and a blanket from Gymboree from my grandparents that had little fish and turles all over them. This is a picture of Josh as a newborn wrapped up in them.

This became the blankie he carried everywhere. When he was little, he couldn't say "fishie blanket" so for some reason, it became named "fishie B's" by him.

To this day, Josh still sleeps with them and still calls them "fishie B's"...if you can believe it!
Well, to his surprise, I pulled out the Pj's that match it, and put them on Jonah the other night. As if he didn't already love Jonah enough before........Now he said, he can just sleep with Jonah instead of his blanket!

The PJ's are a MUCH brighter shade of white.....but, the blankie has held up rather well for 8 1/2 years, considering it is slept with every night!!!!

Awana Drive In...

I always dread this night.....the night where they all have to decorate a box to watch the movie in and get it judged for prizes. You should see some of the boxes that the parents go "all out" on. Last yearm I sent them with no box. 4 boxes to decorate is a bit much. This year, we made a flower for Julia and jeremy helped josh make a "tank". jake had a plna, a box and paint but ended up staying home with H1N1......thei first of our vicitims......

Boy Birthday...

Jeremy's birthday was rather spread out. He celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson early, because they were leaving town. On his birthday, he opened our gifts (but we had already given him a wetsuit for his birthday in Refugio). Then, daddy made a big breakfast for him, and that night we went to Macaroni Grill wiyh his Aunt and Uncle.
His party was a week later. He simply wanted a couple of his closest friends to spend the night. It is so nice when birthdays simplify as they get older. He ordered In-N-Out for dinner and Banana Cream Pie from Marie Callendars for dessert.

Of Course, daddy had to get in on the X-Box

!

Andrew thought it was fun to wrap his gift in a pink, flower bag!

Next:Rock Band

Julia was excited that Cory's hair was a bit longer than her brothers. The next morning, she decorated him with curlers!

My First Teenager....

Well, on November 1st, I became a mom of a teenager for the 1st time. I dreaded this day for years, yet nothing actually feels different. The kids have gradually been growing older every day, and unfortunately, I have had to get use to that fact. Every stage has brought such fun times. I feel so old having a teenager. Yet, in the same year, I had a baby. So funny! I can't imagine my life without Jeremy. He is such a hard worker, is self-motivated, a goal-setter, (stubborn), and huge helper to me around the house (with the baby and my honey-do lists)...when he wants to be :). He is funny, loves adventure, always pushes himself to the next level, wants to do right, loves learning new things, and is very independent. This year he has improved in guitar and has taught himself songs from youth group, he has learned how to surf totally independent of Louie, he has learned to build things with wood while using Louie's saws, he has started golfing alone with dad, he has developed a desire to search God's Word for answers, he has become a sweet big brother to baby Jonah and so many more things that I can't even think of all of them right now. I have been blessed by him for 13 years. Not all of them have been perfect. My relationship with him has revealed to me many of my own weaknesses and sin. I see my flaws in him. It is both humbling and rewarding. I do love that boy so much and am so thankful the Lord has entrusted him to me for the last 13 years. I pray that there are many many more to come!

Halloween 09

Well, it was another Halloween without daddy. :( And, it was Jonah's first Hallowen. :) Daddy also decided to take the kids to Lombardi Ranch to each pick out a pumpkin to carve. They had so much fun. I almost don't have a stomach for cleaning them out anymore but the kids loved it. They cleaned ot the seed and we roasted them...yum.

It was a bit of a challenge to get 5 kids ready by myself but we did it! It just took a bit longer than I had expected! I think they all looked really cute!Here's little caterpillar Jonah!

Here are all the kids before we went down to the Hartungs to trick-or-treat!

This is part of our group before we took off for houses.

My dad came this year and Stef's dad was there again. We were thinking back to the fact that these 2 dads started taking us trick-or-treating 29 years ago, and here they are taking our kids. So precious....I love it! Overall, it was a really fun night. Most importantly, the kids got tons of candy and handled all of their trading at the end. We will have this candy until after Christmas if mom doesn't secretly dump it sometime in the near future!!

Oh, that Boy!

Oh...how I love that boy! It has been so much fun to see Jonah's personality come out! He is so sweet and so silly. Now, he is 4 1/2 months an starting to interact so much more.

Now, he has graduated from playing with toes to eating toes!

Our little "dash ornament" in the RV!!! Before you judge us, we were loading the RV and were parked!

Refugio...

This was our 1st time camping at Refugio. We LOVED it there! We had the most beautiful weather and loved the private cove at the beach. Hope we an go again next year!

There was a dead shark on the beach. Josh and Julia were obsessed with it and had to have their picture taken with it!

Jeremy's surfing had improved a ton. He would go out on his own all throughout the day! So fun for daddy!When Josh went to the RV to change into his trunks, he also decided to change into Sophie's cone for her stitches! Such a silly boy.
Julia insisted we took pictures on the beach....all the pictures that I have of the kids are missing Jonah (since they were before he arrived). It makes her very sad to see pictures without him in them. So, we took pictures of all of them. So glad we did!



This seems to be becoming a tradition. On our way home from the campground, after we are all packed up, we stop to take a group picture. Pretty scroungy looking after packing up from a camping trip! Maybe we should take the picture wen we arrive instead. Hmmmmm????