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!

A visit from my sisters

So many pictures, so much fun- where do I start? Well 2 of my little sisters Lisa and Emily (I have 7 sisters only 2 are older than me) came all the way from Tennessee to visit. It was a BLAST. We went to the zoo, had a girls night out, went swimming- A LOT, jogging, coloring, playing at the park, even Spencer and I even got to go on a date. The week just went by too fast.

Lisa had Noah 3 days before I had Luke so we have high hopes of them being best buddies.

Sofie still talks about "your sisters". Or says mom I miss Noah. She LOVED all the attention these guys gave her. Emily colored more here than she had her whole life put together.

One funny little story about Sofie. She is at the stage where she pretends to be older all the time so one day we were at the park and she had been talking up a storm to all the princesses on her Cinderella cell phone Grandma Jaylene had sent her, when she asked Spencer to hold it for a minute while she was playing. Spencer put the phone to his ear and pretended to be talking to the princesses. When Sofie got the phone back she put it to her ear and said "This is Sofie, sorry my dad was borrowing my phone."- Already apologizing to her friends for her embarrassing parents.

Photo booth at the zoo

We watched Spencer do a time trial. He has been a biking fool this month. I am going to have to follow this with a posts of just of his races.

Idaho, Oregon, and Utah

A month has past and I'm finally getting our big summer trip posted. First we started in Idaho where the kids were spoiled rotten by Grandma Jaylene, Kelsi and Evan while Spencer and I got a little get away to Oregon. Then it was on to Utah to see the Swendsen's.

Of coarse a Johnson get together wouldn't be complete without some physical competition. I was impressed with Evan's effort this go around. He took some harsh shot's and pulled some muscles but he stayed in it- not bad for a "Old man" :)

A day at good old Heise Hot Springs. It was soooo cold- especially after coming from Oklahoma's 105 degree humid heat- but still a blast.

I don't know how he did it but Spencer somehow talked Sofie into going down the water slide twice, but you can see it in her face she was terrified.

Our first stop in Oregon was to Nike Town. So this is my dorky self chillin with Lebron James.

Isn't it just beautiful.

It was such a nice break. Thanks Evan and Jaylene.

Final stop- hangn' with the Swendsen's in Utah. We were so lucky to get 9 of the 10 siblings together (my lil' sis Susan is off serving the Lord in Germany).

Look at all the blonde hair and blue eye's. We almost doubled the number of grand kids in one year from 4 to 7.

These pictures just made me laugh, so I had to narrate some of them. My sister Lisa had Noah 4 days before I had Luke and then my sister Kathi has a 2 year old boy Boston, and the three little boys together were a hoot. I totally know Boston is going to give the little ones a run for their money. Every chance he got he was pranking Luke, pouring water on him or whatever was around. Luke loved it though- they are going to be so mischievous I can already tell.

I know Anne, KJ, and Lisa- you all want to kill me right now but since we are all mom's and we never had time to take some "unnatural" (these are definatly more natural mom moments) pictures of us mom's looking great with our hair done and our perfect smiles, these pictures I shot while wrestling with the kids will have to work. These were probably some of my favorite moments of the whole trip. I would always say I am not going to be one of those people that always talk about their kids- then I had kids :)- They consume every moment of your time it's like what else CAN I talk about. Anyways I LOVED IT. I just left feeling so lucky to be a sister to these great mom's. You all teach me a lot. I already miss you!

My sister Kathi had the funnest idea, since we came from all over the U.S. to be here at the same time, and since we never get to be together for the kids birthdays she had one huge UN-birthday party. It was another highlight of the trip- something we will have to do again.

Diva Sofie decorating her cupcake

Liking her candy ring she got to decorate.

Luke was in HEAVEN with his first taste of frosting.



I just love this moment- Boston making Luke laugh.

I can't hardly believe that my little brother is old enough to go on a mission but he is going to Peru in Sept. I was so lucky to be there with everyone when he went to the temple for his first time.

Sofie couldn't get enough of her cousin's or her Aunt Shelley. Shelley- even though she is almost 18 and would normally be out with friends spent so much time doing make-overs, sleepovers, looking at the stars etc. how fun!!!

The perks of a large family. I'm one of the oldest so I still have younger brothers and sisters to rough the kids up and they love every minute of it. Here's my littlest brother Andy putting Luke down the slide. Can you tell by Luke's face that he's a little nervous?

Well there it is in a nutshell, and over in a snap. What fun!

Kansas City

We took a trip to Kansas City to visit our super good friends the Frandsen's. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

They were due to have a baby on the 4th of July, so I had so much fun putting together a shower for her while we were there. One of our other really good friends from dental school, Melanie, flew in for the big event. We had so much fun and late night chats, I think we must have worn Michelle out because she ended up going into labor a month early- the day that we left. Sorry Michelle!

So I had so much fun looking online and getting ideas for this shower I just have to document the event. First here is the guest of honor and the 2 host's. Isn't Michelle's TINY belly adorable- she was 2 days away from having little Peyton.

The theme was sugar and spice- emphasis on the sugar-something Michelle and I have a strong affinity for. These were the invites.

The "Candy Bar". A friend brought a cake and it went in that empty spot.

Yummy cheesecake pops.

This picture is dark but I tried to stick with a brown and pink theme so I had these 5 candy jars with brown and pink candy.

Treat Bag for all the guests.

This is where the "Spice" fits in. We "spiced" up baby Peyton's wardrobe by making hair bows and bracelets.

I think it turned out pretty cute but looking at the pictures I think "that was it- what took me so long?" It was so fun anyways- thanks for letting me do it Michelle.

Colorado

We just HAD to take another trip to Colorado to visit Brandon and Tina. We just get so spoiled when we are there and we never want to leave. It's so beautiful there.


We drove to the top of Pike's peak and the elevation change is so drastic we were all dressed for warm weather when we got to the top it was freezing so we ran to the edge grabbed a picture and then headed out.

One of the many beautiful scenic vistas on the drive to pike's peak

We tried to dare our Nephew to get into the almost frozen over lake, he thought about it for like 1 second.

Sofie couldn't get enough of her cousins.

Look at the beautiful mountains in the back.

I bet that hurt coming out :)

Notice Spencer's fresh mountain biking wound- always pushing the limits and leaving me a nervous wreck.

Notice Sofie covering her face the fire was so hot you could barley roast a mallow- but such a fun idea.

One last action shot- Sofie on the slip and slide.

I have 2 more post's coming of our Kansas City trip and our Northwest trip and I have Luke pulling at my legs crying and it's time to make dinner- always planning on getting more done than I accomplish so I will just put

To be continued . . . . .