Life rewinded part II

These events are pretty much in reverse chronicle order. That's how the pictures were downloaded and I have to leave it that way or I'll never get this post done.

Spencer had his 32nd birthday. We were at the Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's residence to celebrate and it's one of their family traditions that everyone says something nice about you on your birthday. It was the one day in like 17 years (that was pulled out of my rusty memory) that every single person including in-laws and grandchildren were there and it was only for one evening so lucky Spencer got to hear a lot of nice things from all his nice family members!

I didn't get enough pictures of Sofie and her cousin's but she had sooo much fun with all her cousins.

Christmas morning with the long awaited Santa stash. She was so excited she stayed up soooo late in her bed listening for Santa's reindeer. I thought she was never going to go to sleep.

Dentist Barbie from G & G Swendsen.

Finally some boy toys. I don't know who will enjoy this more Spencer or Luke. Spencer and his 5 brothers always had a game of pig going on in the house since Luke got this for Christmas.

So I have to record this story for the history books. So Christmas day we went tubing on Taylor Mountain behind the Johnson residence. The hill was pretty big and pretty steep so we had been only going about 1/2 way up the hill to sled down. Well I was at the bottom pulling Luke on the sled (that cute girl in the photo is not me it's my sister-in-law Kelsi). Meanwhile my sister-in-law and a Johnson cousin had decided to go all the way to the top and come down. They started barreling down the hill. When I looked up they were coming straight at Luke, who was laying belly down on the sled. Everyone started screaming and I yanked on the sled trying to get him out of the path of destruction but when I pulled on the sled it slid right out from under Luke leaving him in the path, not on the sled. Things happened so fast I remember thinking "Oh my gosh he's going to get run over" by the time I thought that it was already done. A huge tube with 2 adults on it pounded over the top of Luke. I'm not talking grazing him or over his legs or only part of his body I am talking completely over him. He came flipping out the back in a huge flurry of snow with his boots and socks flying off. I ran as fast as I could to pick him up. Luckily I heard him crying and knew he was alive. His cheeks had some minor scraps and were bleeding a little bit and he was a little glazed over for the next couple of hours but other than that he had no injuries. I keep re-living the moment and it was like a bad nightmare it happened so fast. Spencer said he has never felt so much rage as he did seeing them head straight into Luke. It was so scary. I'm just so grateful he was ok. Now that it's over I just think add it to the list. . . Spencer getting hit by a car, Luke getting run over on the tubing hill. aghhh!

Here is the survivor Luke with Santa, not real thrilled. . .

Unlike his sister Sofie who didn't miss a beat getting on Santa's lap.

So here they are the two boy cousins that were born 4 days apart. This is at the first part of the week. Notice Luke was picking on Noah. Well Noah figured out how to stand his ground and by the end of the week if Luke crouched in on his territory Noah went up and gave Luke a little shove- basically saying- stay back this is mine.

Temple square visit with the Swendsen family.

Candid of the kids.

Sofie was a little dare devil with the sledding. She loved sledding and would be so sad when it was time to go.



Snowman with a Sofie head in Grandma's yard.

On the trip from OK to UT we stopped for a couple days in Colorado Springs to hang out with Spencer's brother and his family- Here is me and my super tough sister-in-law Tina. She took Spencer and I up the incline. It's like stairs straight up a mountain- killer! I think it's like a mile long- but don't quote me.

Here we are at the top.

Oh what's that little thing in the packing box?

Sofie's last day of gymnastics with Coach Andrea.

A last girl's night out with some of my really fun friends from Oklahoma City. Oh, this picture makes me miss Oklahoma so much. I really have learned soo much from these girls and feel so blessed to have them as friends.

So this is Spencer and Sofie at a Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball game. There is a funny story that goes with this. You know how you tell your kids they can't eat too much candy or they will get a belly ache? Well Spencer let Sofie have free reign to treats and popcorn this night and in the middle of the night I heard Sofie say "My tummy hurts" I knew what was coming and dragged her into the bathroom just in time for the vomit to make it into the toilet. Turns out it's true- you eat too much candy, you will get sick.

Halloween

Well another Hallween spent as a princess. Sofie was Tiana from Princess and the Frog and Luke was Louis from Princess and the frog.

Sofie had a couple parties so she decided one time to go as the "blue" Tiana. She refused to wear a shirt underneath this dress. Good thing we live in Oklahoma and it's like 80 degrees outside.

I have found out that a lot of people don't know who Tiana is so I am providing a visual aid here.

This is the inspiration for the outfit- Tiana.

So here she is in her costume. Pay attention to the detail that she WOULD NOT be content without. i.e. The ringlet curl in front and one in the back under neath. The pearl necklace and gloves and the only way I got away with a shirt under this dress is because it's brown :) The Tiana crown and you can't see them in this picture but you can in the "blue dress" picture- tiana shoes. She doesn't miss a thing!

Now here is Luke as Louis- doesn't even have a clue what is going on- unlike Sofie- luckily because really his outfit is a dinosaur that we are saying is Louis.

Sofie had her last Soccer game with her favorite coaches Coach Carrie and Gretchen. She learned so much and we will miss them as our coaches (they were also the coaches for her T-ball and spring soccer.)

Happy Birthday Luke

We will start with his favorite part- the cake. Don't you just love his 2 front teeth.


Usually we can't get an expression out of this boy- one way or another. I think he was so excited for all the special attention he couldn't stop smiling.

Of coarse he has more than enough help from Sofie opening the loot.

So excited for his first bike. Already at one year old- suprised? Our friends told us about this little contraption called a strider glider. It's a pre bike where they learn to balance and is supposed to transition them into a bike with pedals without the training wheels. I'lll have to keep you updated of whether it works or not.

CHEESE!

The bike mechanics hard at work.

Tada! First appreance on a bike. Making his dad so proud. We might have to get him walking before it's really going to work- ya think.

Finish off the post with our family pumpkin carving night.

Are you suprised that Sofie wanted to carve a cat? Happy Halloween everyone

Spencer

So I am soo far behind on my blogging that I have broken it up into 4 posts- one for each member of our family. Starting with the man of of the house- Spencer.

So besides the nagging grind of the usual student life, Spencer spent the summer doing what he loves the most (besides spending time with the fam :))- cycling. He participated in a variety of races and rides but some of the top ones lead him to be the Oklahoma State champion in the open division, 3rd place in the big Texas race "Hotter N" Hell" and then just recently took 1st place in a race that was against all categories. Good job babe! I hope our kids get your lung capacity :)

Luke already taking after his dad- Our friends gave us this shirt and so he had to wear it to all the races.

I hope the pictures of Spencer throwing the kids around can't be used to incriminate us, but the kids just LOVE IT! Spencer is such a good dad- and husband- I try not to use the blog to boast but these pictures just prove it- he's the best dad ever-

Stephanie

It was so hard to find pictures of me. Does anyone else have that problem? Not to mention that if I am in a picture it's usually a close up head shot from me extending my arm as far as I can and taking my own picture. Anyways this summer and fall have been rushed away by heckling with the kids, attending baby showers and last but not least 2 girls trips. One to Dallas with some girlfriends here in OK and then a long awaited San Francisco trip with 2 amazing friends from dental school.

So much to do in San Fran. I have been lucky enough to hit up so many cities moving and traveling around while Spencer is in school and of all the big cities I have visited I think San Francisco might be my favorite so far. For a big city it was so clean and felt pretty safe. It is so cool that there are such tall building all over these super steep hills. And SOOO much to eat. I could go back a hundred times and probably still not sample everything I would like to. The shopping was great, the food excellent, the activities wore us out and the company- something I have been missing for too long, not to mention the late nights just catching up. I always think that you know a good friend when you have been apart for so long but when you meet back up it's like a day never passed. That is how I felt with these girls. I have come home feeling like a better person along with new ideas of how to save, time management skills and grateful for all the little things in life.- Thanks you guys. Also thanks Spencer for taking time off of school to stay at home with our little rascals so I could venture off by myself. I sure love you.

Sofie

Here is our little make believe diva in her little brothers Halloween costume. She just can't resist the urge- even though she had to squeeze to get in.


Here is a modge podge of what Sofie's been up to. One of the biggest events is that she started going to a little preschool that my friend does for 2 hours 2 days a week. We also had a garage sale were Sofie sold homemade chocolate chip cookies and made out like a bandit. (Thanks so Spencer's ortho friends that stopped by). Then I had to add a picture of her little twin friends here in Oklahoma Brielle and Izzy.


She has been a busy little bee doing so many activities, which is funny that I don't even have a recent picture of her doing her favorite thing, gymnastics. She did turn into a little fish this summer. The beginning of the summer she didn't even like getting her hair wet and by the end of the summer she was swimming short distances without the floaties. Soccer is a work in progress. She made her first goal last week- shocker!!

It finally came, the long awaited Princess and the Frog- Bayou birthday. We had bought stuff from Oriental trading for the big event- (Since Sofie's favorite part of the party is the 'bag of stuff' you get at the end) and I think she told all her friends plus any stranger she met about it for like a month before. Then there was the "I'll get that for you for your birthday" saying she said to all her friends whenever a commercial came on or they were at each others house playing with toys they didn't have. I was thinking "I'm glad no one is keeping a list." I just love this age!! She is trying to act so mature but yet is so little.

For Sofie's 4th birthday I wanted to list my 4 favorite things about Sofie:

1) She is so pleasant to have around. She is so good at remembering her please and thank you's. She is so well behaved I don't worry too much about having her with me wherever I need to go.

2) She LOVES to pretend and play make believe. Though my voice gets strained from talking like a man or a prince all day I love that she has such an active imagination.
3) She is so sensitive and cares so much for those around her. I love hearing her explain why you don't do mean things stuff like "It will hurt my feelings" or "It will make me sad" or one day she did something that she shouldn't and when I asked her what she was going to do next time she said "be like Jesus".

4) Which leads me to my last thing. I am so impressed at her communication skills. She doesn't initially come running to me to tell on others, she doesn't yell or get upset (unless it's Luke) she just calmly talks her friends through the situation- then when all else fails she comes running to mom. I am always amazed at what comes out of her mouth. She can comprehend and then regurgitate so much that I wouldn't expect a 4 year old to understand.

I'm so lucky to have her in my family. I love having Sofie for a daughter.

Luke

It has been so fun watching Luke's little personality come out. He is, for the most part, pretty easy going but yet he has a little temper on him. He has started getting to the point where he runs from Sofie or tries to fend for himself. I only worry about that because I see it rubbing off on other kids like, grabbing things away or letting out a shrill if he feels them creeping in on him etc. He is such a homebody though. I remember Sofie at this age hated to be held, always wanted to be put down so she could explore. Luke is so chill- he loves being carted around and never wants to be put down. He isn't walking. He is so stubborn because he could walk if he wanted. We have been working with him, and he would stand alone so good but WOULD NOT for the life of him take a single step. So he has this fetish for straws, which is usually a nuisance like when I am trying to watch Sofie at gymnastics and I look over to see him drinking some random person's sonic drink- anyways we put some juice in a cup with a straw and the first time he walked he took 11 steps sat down- didn't even fall down- and started drinking his juice. That is our little Luke's personality coming out, cracks me up.



Here is a little man that likes to get down with it. Sorry it's sideways wasn't thinking about that when I was recording and of coarse this isn't the best shot of him doing his favorite thing- backing it up- but I can never get the best moments on camera- anyways enjoy!