Party time

We celebrated Luke's birthday on Monday when Grandma and Grandpa Johnson got here. The kids were extra hyper because of their arrival and the big party. The kids and I had picked up helium balloons to decorate with. Luke LOVES balloons and got so excited pulling on the strings. When the kids pulled the balloons down so he could hold them he would hug them tight and then let go watching them float back up to the ceiling -- and then point to them. The kids giggled. He smiled. If that's all we did he would have had a great party.

When we sat him down to open presents Chris said, "I can't believe we're going to teach him how to rip paper this close to Christmas!" Ya, what are we thinking. Chris did most of the unwrapping hoping he wasn't picking up on some helpful hints. He was thrilled with the boxes and tissue paper. Ryan's present was a Pokemon figurine in a tiny little box. He loved that box the best and kept putting the lid on and off while Ryan almost went crazy because he hadn't noticed the precious Pikachu inside. He loved the stuffed Dalmatian from Kyle & Ashlyn, and the Christmas book from Dan & Sarah. Thanks guys! His present from us was a little race car set. And on exactly the same wave length, Grandma and Grandpa Walton picked out another race track with the same little cars. Both were a big hit.... for all the kids. I had to swat the older kids out of the way just to take a picture of my little guy. He loved them both... thanks G&G.

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson got Luke a little motorized jeep. We didn't have it charged so that first night he just climbed on and off and loved every minute. He only knew how to climb on with his right leg so if he approached the jeep from the wrong side he sat on it backward. Too funny. Once we got it charged he learned how to push the button and smiles as he goes a couple inches at a time. No steering yet... but soon he'll be a pro. Thanks G&G!

Luke was stunned at his cake. He stared at it for quite a while before he reached for the flame. After it was out he sat starring at us and at it not quite sure what to do. Chris helped him get his fingers white with icing but he immediately made a face and pulled away. When Chris helped his fingers to his mouth he was even more disgusted. 'What kind of game is this?' he thought as he quickly wiped both hands on his shirt. After a few minutes of torture Chris cut him a piece of cake and handed him a plate. 'Ah, this is better'. He ate cake and really made a mess. It was a fun night for everyone. Happy Birthday Big Boy!

One Year

This little boy warms my heart. He is such a sweetheart and now he's ONE! Here is a little about Luke at one...

He's 23 pounds now. (58th percentile) and 32 inches (88th percentile).

He walks almost everywhere now. He's slow and careful unless he knows exactly where he's going and then he goes full speed practically collapsing at his destination.

He loves eating. We had a scare for a while when he was sick and didn't want to eat anything. Chris and I looked at each other and said, "What do we do? We don't have one like this!" But luckily now that he is better he's back to eating everything and lots of it. Whew!

He likes little cars and makes a 'Brrrrr' sound when drives them across the floor. How adorable.

He loves balls.... holding them and throwing them.

He says a few words. He points at most things and says 'Dada' but he does know that his Daddy is 'Dada' and gets so excited when he sees him. He loves to say 'Uh-oh' -- now he says it BEFORE he drops things over the side of his high chair. In the stores he says 'Hi' to everyone he passes. If I walk into the room he's in, he looks up and says 'Hi'. Those are his three big ones. He tries to say 'All done'... at least Ryan thinks he's saying it.

He loves playing with the kids and being with Chris but if I walk into the room he starts whimpering. When I say 'what's wrong?' everyone says, "He was fine before you walked in." Now I walk around the house avoiding main hallways and ducking behind couches to avoid him seeing me when he's playing happily.

He loves playing outside. Even though it's pretty cold here these days, he still loves playing with the basketballs and riding his little cars outside while the kids ride their scooters and Chris and Ryan play basketball.

We just switched his car seat around. He loves to be able to look out the window and especially watch the movie in the van.

He loves balloons. He points and says 'oooohhhh' when he sees them floating around in stores.

He LOVES his baby Einstein movies. If I say "Luke do you want a Lukey movie?" then he completely freezes and then points up at the TV. Then he crawls until he is directly under the TV. (and our TV is pretty high so he can barely see it). When the little Baby Einstein caterpillar crawls onto the screen Lukey goes crazy. He starts bouncing up and down and pointing at the screen and saying 'ooohhhh' and screeching. We all get a kick out of watching him. He is so excited. Then we pull him all the way back so he has a better view and he sits and watches for a long time... especially if you sit near him so he can look at you all through the movie and point to the screen several times a minute. We love it.

He wants so badly to climb up the stairs. We have a gate at the bottom so for months when the kids go running up the stairs and close the gate behind them Luke crawls to the bottom, stands up to the gate and screams. He is pretty ticked off that he can't go up too. Every once in a while he squeezes in before they've shut the gate and he feels like a King. He can climb up the whole thing but can't climb back down so the gate still remains in force... only now he's learned how to stand at the gate and violently shake it open. Not good.

He can climb onto the couch now and loves to crawl around on top of the couch and stand up and peer over the edge. He's dangerous. He usually gets off the right way but occasionally crashes to the ground.

He's still super wiggly when I change his pants and get him dressed.

He goes to bed at about 8:30 and wakes up at 7:30. Unless Chris is in charge of putting him to bed... then he's up till 10:30.

Smarty pants

I am finding Emily's pictures and letters all over the house. I just can't get enough of her cute hand writing, creative spelling and little stick girls with flippy hair and bows and I am saving almost everything!

One day in church she put her piece of paper in front of my face and told me to read this word...

"punkuwashenmarek"

Any guesses? I'm sure you'll get it if I give you the whole context.... Her paper said... "Thar is three thing's you can put at the end of your sentet's. Thay are pereid kwoshtenmarek and punkuwashenmarek." Tranalation... There are three things you can put at the end of your sentences. They are period, question mark and punctuation mark. (I think she means exclamation mark since that's what's pictured at the bottom of her paper... but you get the idea.)

She is the top 'popcorn' reader in the whole kindergarten class. That means she passed off all 250 'words Kindergarteners need to know' FIRST. She is super smart. Now I guess we need to focus on spelling.

Walking... but only with cheering.

Luke took his first two steps on October 18th, when he was almost 11 months old. It was at a ward party when he was standing beside his little friend and without thinking just took the two steps to be closer to her. Yep, a ladies man. Chris was so proud.

The next day, with the whole family watching, we practiced. (pictures above) With each step the kids clapped and cheered and Lukey could feel the excitement. He's learned that his actions could elicite such a response, but this was something else. He beamed as he took 9 steps. Whenever he lost his balance and landed on his padded bum the kids exploded with cheers, and Lukey, unable to contain his own excitement clapped for himself. It was adorable.

Since then Luke has been working on beating his record. Just yesterday Lukey made it34 steps. Why keep counting? Because there are a few in this family anxious to keep and beat records (big brother Ryan)... and because Luke still prefers crawling. He walks the four steps from the table to the chair and a few steps here and there but mostly he likes to fall down and clap for himself or just get where he's going faster... by crawling.

He is definitely a walker... he just saves it for big audiences and lots of cheering.

oh, the thing in his mouth? We gave him a toy to hold to distract him. He put it right in his mouth like a dog. What a boy.

October catch up

Chris' sister Ashlyn came for a week during October. Unfortunately I was a rather pathetic host but since she is pregnant as well I think she was understanding. We had a fun week playing Carcassone, visiting Chris at the hospital, going out to eat, taking her to church to meet our friends, playing with the kids, and talking non-stop. We feel spoiled that she would want to come!

One afternoon we went downtown Columbus, dropped Katie off at ballet, and walked part of the RiverWalk while we waited for her class to finish. We took pictures by the Chatahoochee River and then more of the kids sliding down the hill. Several times when we have gone there the kids have found cardboard boxes laying against the railing. Now it's a tradition to slide down the steep hills and tumble off onto the grass. Ryan wanted to go from the very top... even Emily and Megan wanted to go over and over.

So if you come to Georgia, we may just have to take you sliding on the hill by the Chattahoochee. We couldn't get Ashlyn to do it for some reason.

Peek-a-boo

These pictures are from mid October when playing peek-a-boo was Luke's newest trick. He carefully placed his hands over his eyes and kept them there waiting for the perfect moment to surprise us. Of course he always had a cheering audience and an encore performance! -- Luke at almost 11 months

Year of the Cowboy

We had a rootin' tootin' Halloween!


Most of Ryan's pictures have a mean tough cowboy look to them... but this one captures how happy he was to be a cowboy. He loved his spurs, his gun, and his Sheriff's badge.... and had a great time posing for all of his pictures. More on his blog.

Katie was most excited about being a Cowgirl. She actually wanted to be one last year but I told her if she waited until this year then she would have an almost one year old brother that would be the cutest cowboy ever. She agreed it was worth the wait. "I just think I look so good." she kept saying all night. She wore her cowboy boots all weekend long and is even wearing them to school today. Check out Katie's blog for more pictures.


Classic Emily, she was super smiley for the camera. But tonight for some reason she kept laughing hysterically. Chris kept asking, "Emily, what is so funny?" which would only make her laugh more. She's so funny. She was super excited about being a cowgirl, especially because she could have braids 'just like Jesse from Toy Story 2'. She even called herself Jesse all night.

Megan wanted to be a ballerina, which she was for her Preschool Halloween party, but when she saw the hat and boots, she was definitely game for being cutest cowgirl in the posse. Megan loved trick-or-treating and looking in her bag frequently to check out her loot. When I was tired and ready to be done she was happy to quit the door to door and start the eating. She and Emily divided all their candy into piles and went at it.

Luke had absolutely no idea what was going on. Chris kept making all the kids laugh when he told them that Luke really thought we had all turned into cowboys and cowgirls and would keep saying 'Howdy Partner!' for the rest of our lives. Luke loves being outside so he was happy to just hang out, crawl around and scuff up his cowboy boots during our photo shoot. Luke only made it up to a couple houses for trick-or-treating. He held his bag with his few pieces of candy and didn't think much of it but loved watching the kids run and being held by Dad. When he tasted his first sucker back at home then he probably wished he did a few more houses.

Sheriff Ryan and his Deputy, Luke and three beautiful cowgirls.


***Thanks Chris for being the best Halloween Daddy ever. Like always, he comes home from work early, helps get the costumes on, entertains the kids for endless pictures while smiling the whole time (seriously, he's amazing), and after half of us are tuckered out he takes the big kids trick or treating until they decide they've had enough. He always makes it a great night for the kids AND for me. Your the best, babe.

Week by Week

12 weeks along...

I signed up for the weekly pregnancy emails this time around. It has been fun to read them each Thursday. At 12 weeks along our baby is now the size of a lime. This week our baby's fingers will begin to open and close, it's toes will curl, it's eye muscles will clench, and it's mouth will make sucking movements.

I am still nauseaus and exhausted most of the time but I am feeling slightly better... only throwing up only one or two times a day instead of sometimes four. It is amazing what a lime sized baby can do to my energy level.

I'm having trouble regulating my body temperature these days. Chris teases me that I have a very small range of the perfect temperature anyway... but pregnant it's even worse. I'm freezing cold or boiling hot, always.

My favorite time of day... 11:00am... naptime. That's when Luke goes down for his first nap of the day and after getting Megan set up with Dora and a buffet of food to snack on, I quickly follow suit. Megan has been a real trooper.

My favorite foods... potatoes-- mashed or baked, hot chocolate, chicken noodle soup (althought that's getting old now), and popsicles. I want to eat fruit but usually it makes me feel awful. I sure hate trying to find something to eat. What a chore! Just the smells of the fridge make me close it right after opening. Then I spend a couple minutes standing in the pantry staring at the shelves and usually coming out empty handed. Thankfully Chris has been doing the grocery shopping... otherwise I'm not sure the kids would eat anything other than potatoes and soup.

Ok, gotta go. Time for a popsicle.

Butter

Megan was sitting beside me today as I buttered my baked potato... a total craving these days. She was eating Doritos since every time I eat she wants to too... and I wasn't about to share my precious potato. "Mom, I think I'm going to put butter on my Doritos!" she said with wide eyes and a smile. I made a face and a pretend gagging sound (which comes very natural to me these days) to which she replied, "Mom, I think it's going to be very good, and guess what, you don't even have to try it!!" ---Needless to say I didn't let her do it or I would have made a real gagging sound.

Emily's Letter

This adorable letter from my five year old made it onto my bed exactly one week after Chris and I found out we were pregnant with baby #6. One week later we told the kids. Of course they were thrilled. We all are!

I'm eleven weeks along and feeling miserable... but happy. Exhausted... but elated. Moody... and well, just plain moody.

Due date: May 14, 2009. Emily, you'll be six!

Note: 'Cilly' is Emily's spelling for the name 'Kieli'. I told her it said 'silly' and she said, "Mom, a 'c' can have a 'k' sound!" You're adorable, Emily.

Megan

I told Megan I wanted a few pictures of her and she gave me a few sassy poses until she said, 'That's enough Mom" and ran to play with the other kids.

This girl is something else... well, ok, maybe I've had a couple others just like her... independent, silly, energetic, creative, stubborn... yep, a perfect little three year old rascal.

A couple weeks ago this rascal cut her hair. Not just a little. She grabbed a huge chunk right in front and cut bangs right above her eyes. Actually she did a pretty good job, I mean they're pretty straight at least. You can tell in the second picture all the little hairs sticking out of her ponytail. Luckily they are long enough to go back but during most of the day this girl has thick brown bangs. The day after she did it she was looking in the mirror and said, "Mom, I think I'm in Camp Rock!" She looks exactly like the main actress with thick brown bangs.

Maybe it's cuz she's bored. She misses Emily terribly while she's at school and Luke is not quite ready to follow her directions. I've tried to step up to the plate with play doh time, puzzle time, and even bought little alphabet and number books to have school time... all of which she loves because I am right there beside her.

She still loves Dora and Backyardigans and the Leapfrog movies and likes the new show 'Kai-lan'... the chinese version of Dora.

She loves to eat. She wants to snack all day long. A couple of days ago she came and asked if she could have a popsicle. When I said yes she pulled the popsicle out from behind her back -- wrapper off and everything. What a character. She often tells me to 'Look at the clock". When I say, "The clock says it's 9:15 and not time for a snack." she gets mad and says, "Well, then look at a different clock!" One time she was even so bold as to get on a chair and move the hands of the clock. She thought she was so brilliant. Then she asked me to "Look at the clock again". When I did I was both frustrated and silently amused.

The other day she said, "hey mom, check it out." I said, "Did you just say 'check it out'?" She said, "Ya, that's my 'check it out' thing that I say." What a character.

She loves it when the kids come home. She loves to go anywhere with Dad. She loves to play Pokemon with Ryan and house with Emily. She's pretty easy going actually. Almost always happy and fun.

She cracks me up. She is full of life, full of smiles and full of surprises.

Preschool Field Trip

Megan's preschool field trip to the Fire Station was so fun. The kids explored the big red firetruck from all sides, tried on the heavy jackets and big boots, got up in the drivers seat and pretended to drive, and held on with both hands to the heavy helmet atop their heads. They were just as excited about the old 1930's fire truck sitting inside the fire station. They sat on the open bench together and took turns ringing the loud bell by pulling the cord while plugging their ears. The field trip was perfect for Luke too. The firemen wanted him to try everything too worried he was being left out... or maybe thinking he was the most interested. He did love it. I haven't done the Firestation since Ryan was in preschool. So fun to spent the morning with Megan and Luke and our friends.