Happy Birthday, Joe Johnson

2 and 4

Saturday we celebrated the kids birthdays with our friends for lunch and our family for dinner. It was a beautiful day, and we had a blast with all of our favorite people. Thanks everyone for coming out, and those who couldn't make it, you were missed!

It was a camping party... so here's the cake we had with dinner.

We grilled out hamburgers for lunch which the birthday babies ate in the tent with Aunt Hay.

Then we blew out candles over some dirt and worms.

Then we roasted marshmallows for smores.

Next up we hunted some bugs. Here's when we released them from the backyard. Don't worry no one was harmed in the stampede.

Lots of running, playing, bike riding, etc....

The birthday girl did at least 50 laps back and forth on her bike.

Kale, Joe, and Finn (he's pitching) played some baseball.

After naps it was time for the family to come over. Here are both of my grandmothers shoved into one chair. Their choice. I think they might have been cold.

Mos and Joe checking out some of the presents.

Daddy and Joe playing his new guitar.

Today is Blythe's actual birthday so here she is blowing out her birthday pancake.

Happy Birthday, sweet babies!

Privileges of the Chief

A couple months ago I read back through all our old posts. Don't worry, I'm embarrassed about it. However, I had forgotten the majority of things I had written about, and I'm also embarrassed to say I was laughing so hard at myself I was crying. Anyhoo, I realized that as long as the world doesn't implode this little blog will be a tribute to the ridiculousness of our family, and one day our kids can go back and read little snippets of the things we will forget to tell them about.

So that being said, this is for that reason and that reason only. This was just a little Corbin moment that made me laugh, so I'm writing it down (typing it down) so one day Blythe and Joe can have a little reminder of their grandparents.

My mom has been recollecting the little people stuff that we had when we were kids for the grandbabies. My sweet friend Jillian has amassed the greatest collection I've ever seen, and she passed down a couple things to my mom (thanks Jill, love you!). As with all things the new toys were the only ones anyone wanted to play with and I don't remember who even did this, but B or Joe put the firemen into the swing and the following conversation took place...

Me: "That's nice the firemen get to swing. I bet firemen never get to swing."

Lainee (my mom): "And I see the Chief gets his own swing."

Paw (my dad, Fire Chief of Wylie)" "As it should," he then switched to what I can only describe as the voice of the French guy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and added, "Get down one of you knaves and push me."

Made me laugh. Love everyone involved. The end.

Happy Halloween!!

Singing Joe Joe

He writes his own music too.

From the Phone

I emptied the pictures off my phone again and here's what I got...

Lainee got us some new costumes so I've been hanging out with Superman a lot lately.

Here is pouty time out face after someone hit superman

We had a broken pipe which caused us to be without water for 5 days. The upside? It made this fantastic mud puddle to play in.

We made a chocolate cake to share with some friends. I put it on the counter to cool and came back to find Joe helping himself to a taste.

I took Blythe to see Winnie the Pooh for her first movie. She couldn't have cared less. She just wanted popcorn.

We ate a lot of popsicles this summer. Notice how Joe's diaper functions as a juice catcher.

Carrots!! This was right before nap time and Joe appears to already be asleep on his feet.

I hope Mama Vernon Doesn't See This

We just buzzed Joe's hair. I know, I know, I know, I KNOW... but the poor guy was so hot and sweaty all the time. Mama Vernon is going to kill us.

Help Please!

We're trying to pick out backsplash tile for our kitchen which will also be on the wall behind the vent hood we're getting so I'll stop setting off the smoke alarms every time I make something on the stove. However, Caleb and I differ on what we like, Blythe changes her answer every time you ask her, and Joe just keeps pointing at the bananas. We're struggling because we inherited the countertops which are great, but probably not what we would've picked out. So anything we pick out tends to not really go with the countertops, but here's what we're looking at so far...

Option #1

Neutral stone tile with a glass & stone mosaic stripe running through it

Option #2

Glass tile with gold/bronze in it

Option #3

Good old white

So if anyone is out there and still paying attention to this blog, please cast a vote. We're stuck!

Time Flies

I emptied the pictures off the camera and here's what I found...

Playing ball in the hallway. I don't know how it works when they all sit together.

SNOW!!

Helping with the laundry.

Sup

Blythe putting Joe to bed in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Sweet hugs

He thought he was pretty cool with this back pack on. This is one of his new faces.

This is his thinking face. It was hard work getting all the crayons out of the box.

Deep Thoughts, By the Johnsons

"You can't even begin to wonder at the capacity at which I wonder." - Caleb

After a rough day at Expertus...

"It's just another day." - Caleb

"And there's always another one. Until there's not... and then who cares." - Court

Happy Birthday, B!!

Blythe turned 3 on December 12th and she had decided many months ago she was going to have a snake birthday. I don't know where this idea came from cause I'm not much of a snake person, so it's not like we talk about or look at snakes. But a snake birthday is what she wanted so a snake birthday is what she got. Here is my attempt at a snake cake...

After Joe's party, we decided to just have a low key dinner at home with the grandparents. It was nice and laid back, much like us. Here's the birthday girl enjoying her snake cake.

This is Gramma K. She's my 98 year old grandmother. The birthday hat was a bit too big for Blythe, but fit her perfectly!

One of Blythe's presents was this digital camera. The rest of these pictures are ones she took.

The inverse of the one above...

Some of the party goers, Paw, Ben, and Grammie. She kept telling us all to get together and love each other. I'm guessing this was a product of those instructions!

Papa Tim. I will admit I had a hard time choosing one of Papa Tim. She took some great ones!

Mama J posing for the photographer.

This is what a lot of them look like. She has trouble being still when she takes a picture, but I thought this was funny.

Happy Birthday, Blythe! You are such a sweet and loving girl. We love you so much!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year all. I'm gonna try and be really good this week and catch up on the major happenings around the Johnson house. I don't really know what happened in November, so I'm just going to skip to December.

First up, Joe's First Birthday! Joe turned one on December 23rd, but we had his party on the 11th. I really had a hard time finding enough days in the month for all the birthdays in our family so in all future years I think we'll be having just one big party.

It ended up being a beautiful day so most of the party played outside. Here's the birthday boy enjoying the nice weather.

Joe started walking pretty early so he has now moved on to climbing. This is a little stool Mama J gave him to climb on.
Opening up some presents...
Happy Birthday, Joe Joe!!
Joe is such a fun addition to our family. He is pretty much the complete opposite of Blythe which makes life oh so much more interesting :) We love you, Joe, Happy Birthday!

Thanks again to the Sears!! I found myself without a camera that worked when it was time to cut the cake so these are all from their collection!