Santa and a bit more

Just in time (on December 23rd) the Johnson kiddos got to visit with Santa Clause. Mulu was excited, impressed and happy with the experience. Aaliyah was nervous, a little coy and then chatty with the big man in the red suit. And Aria was sooooo excited to see him. She squealed when we made it around the corner he was in view - immediately said her "ho ho ho" and was frusterated when we didn't approach right away. Even when we walked up and the bigger two were talking with him she was reaching out to touch him and all smiles . . . UNTIL I set her on his lap - she wasn't impressed with that! So below is our standard crying baby on Santa's lap photo.

enjoy

Christmas songs for you.

Mulu's rendition of Jingle Bells -notes: he is watching himself on the screen (it looks like he is reading a cue card or something) the fist in the face is a microphone and the ending is thanks to "A Christmas Story"!



Song via Aaliyah - this is very Aaliyah - the close up is so she can see herself better and the silliness is very much her right now. and of coarse, a cameo from her brother


Aria's contributions: Ho Ho Ho (and a couple of her other tricks)

Thursday funny: thanks to Aaliyah

On one of our busy mornings Aaliyah decided she wanted to "help out" and give Aria some more Rice Crispies cereal for breakfast. This is what it turned into. Aaliyah was proud, mentioning that Aria could play with it as well as eat it - and as you can see, Aria didn't mind! Make sure you are looking closely at the floor - as I was trying to clean up it just kept coming - under the tray - in the sweater - on her foot rest . . . and then when I picked her up - more Rice Crispies.

Johnson Elves

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The count down to Christmas . . .

This year I remembered that we should probably get an Advent calendar once December had already started (and especially when it is cold outside my errand running with three kiddos in toe seems to be infrequent) so I came up with our own Johnson Family count down that only required red, green & yellow construction paper. Each day one of the kids gets to tear off a ring (and yes, usually an argument has insued by this point as to whose day it is).

It is much shorter now compared to when I took this picture, but the kids are enjoying it and it allows me to divert the "when is it going to be Christmas?" questions by pointing at the wall.

Thursday Funny!

Tuesday I was able to do a large grocery shopping run kid free - yup thats right! Me and a cart taking on the entire grocery store without the input of little ones (thanks to my wonderful hubby). I took advantage by stocking up on multiples of things - extra cereal boxes, extra snacks, stuff for Mulu's school lunches, etc.

Mulu was helping me carry the extras to the closet to store them (picture him with a wobbly stack of boxes stacked up to his chin) when he blurts out with

" hey mom - are we kinda like squirrels? stocking up on our food for the winter?"

yea - kinda!

Ara's 1 year pictures

Thursday funny

When I pick up Mulu from school today - I usually don't get a lot of information. "How was school today?" "good" "what did you do?" "I don't know"

I've started probing more specifically "What did you do in art class?" "Who did you sit by during math?" etc.

but sometimes he comes home with random bits about his day:

last Wednesday, November 29th (the day before Thanksgiving) Mulu gets in the van after school and starts the following conversation:

Mulu: "so Mrs. O (his teacher) changed our class calendar today to December - even though its still only November - but when we get back after Thanksgiving it will be December"

Me: "Oh, that makes sense"

Mulu: "she wanted to be on top of it"

pause

Aaliyah: "on top of the calendar?"

pause

Mulu: "I guess"

and who said she doesn't have hair

Aria after a bath . . . (that is almost enough hair for a comb-over)

Thursday Funny - I am thankful for . . .

I am thankful for . . .

Mulu: "the snow on the ground"

Aaliyah: "people coming to our house"

Mulu: "God helping us"

Aaliyah: "TV"

Mulu: "a good teacher"

Aaliyah: "cake"

Thanksgiving cards

We got a little crafty here in the Johnson house and sent Thanksgiving cards to the Grandparents, Great Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles (and if some of you are checking this it is on the way - I didn't get it out in the mail on time).

WE GOT SNOW!!!!

YEA FOR SNOW !!!!!!

Last night while we were sleeping it snowed enough to cover the ground and stay there until we woke up! Technically it was only about a 1/2 an inch, but enough to get the Johnson Kiddos ALLLLLLL excited!!! I was going to do a "big reveal" when they were all awake - having them close their eyes while I opened the patio blinds and yelled SURPRISE! but Mulu must have had a feeling b/c by the time he made it to our bedroom after waking up he was jumping up and down - exploding with excitement because it had snowed!!!

He showed Aaliyah as soon as she crawled out of bed and couldn't wait to show Aria (although she was not as thrilled about it as he was expecting).

Here are Mulu and Aaliyah posing in front of our new snow!!


And the kids were so excited about the winter weather at our house that when I came around the corner they were both sitting at our piano singing Christmas songs - too cute!

Thursday funny

It's been a whole week with nothing inbetween our Thursday Funnys - but things here have been good.

Preface this story with a reminder that Aaliyah is 3 (so has that cute toddler speak to her) and Mulu still has a bit of an accent (especially the sounds that they didn't have in his native language).

So last spring there was a storm rolling in one evening and Aaliyah started to get anxious (and probably happy that she now had a "legit excuse" to want to be in our bed).

Aaliyah started getting upset and said "but I'm afraid of the "sunder"!"

Mulu, slightly annoyed with his little sister rolled his eyes and said "Aaliyah . . . its not "Sssssunder" its "funder"

tee hee

Thursday Funny - thanks to the election

So the presidential election has been a common topic in our house the past couple of weeks - partly because Brian and I have both been really excited about it and partly because Mulu has been hearing and talking a lot about it in school - so its been a topic of conversation at the dinner table pretty consistently.

The kiddos were all three in bed when the winner was announced, so they didn't know the outcome. On the Wednesday morning following the election Brian mentioned something about our new president which sparked the following conversation:

Mulu: "oh yea" (looking very excited) "who won"

Aaliyah: "who won what"

Mulu: "the race to the whitehouse" (something he must have picked up at school - and I'm not for sure that he didn't think the candidates were literally RUNNING.)

Aaliyah: "oh" (in a "that didn't clarify anything" sort of "oh")

Brian: "Barrack Obama won"

Mulu: "yeaaa"

Aaliyah: "oh man" (sounding disappointed)

Brian: "whats wrong Aaliyah?"

Aaliyah: "I thought Martin Lusser King was gonna win - oh man"

tee hee - so a bit of the info got jumbled up inside her little 3 year old brain - but its still pretty cool that she can pull out MLK's name!

Outward dispays of affection

While making breakfast Sunday morning Mulu and Aaliyah were busy making this for me. I knew something was going on because they kept shouting "don't look Mama!" - and they didn't want Daddy's help - working on it all by themselves. I was super thrilled when I was finally allowed to look down the steps and see the message from the kiddos. It's even MORE perfect with the "Y U O" instead of "Y O U" (and as fate would have it "you" is on Mulu's spelling list for this week)

I won't have to think very hard of what I am thankful for at Thanksgiving - I have pretty awesome kids!

general update

It's been a bit since I shared info on the kids that didn't include an event or outing. Because all three Johnson kiddos are, honestly, fabulous, this may come across as bragging - but what else do you expect from a proud Mama.

Mulu - 6 years 7 months old and in 1st grade. . . and he is rockin at 1st grade. He loves his teacher, has a great group of kids in his class, and is doing super well! He is reading like a rockstar (already at the level that they hope the kids are at - at the END of 1st grade) - is keeping up with math and, of coarse, loves recess. He has really blossomed lately and still has one of the sweetest hearts around. Lately he has been asking "if there is anything he can do to help" and had the epiphany that "I'm gonna be good tonight like last night, because being good is more fun than being naughty" NICE!

Aaliyah - 3 years, 8 months old and in preschool. Aaliyah attends preschool two mornings a week and is doing very well. Her teacher reports that she has awesome manners and is fun to have in class. She is still her spunky self, loving to dance and sing and tell stories (we have few secrets at the Johnson house now). She has an amazing memory, is already learning her letters and numbers, and has an great vocabulary. She insists on dressing up almost everyday, but still fights me on doing her hair in the morning (this may just be a theme in our mornings that I will have to accept).

Aria - almost 14 months old. She is still a very happy baby, who giggles and laughs all day long. She has started taking steps between people, but still shows little interest in doing it on her own (crawling is much more functional and fast). She can tell you what a dog says, what a chicken says, what a kitty says and her favorite is what a tiger says (I started by asking her what a lion says, but it sounded too much like I was asking about her sister - so we are sticking with tiger.) She says "tickle tickle" when tickling people, "boo" when playing peak-a-boo and "Da" for go. She is inconsistent with knowing where her nose is and loves the itsy-bitsy spider. She adores her siblings and loves music.

Thursday Funny - thanks to Mulu

Brian went to school at Oklahoma University, whose mascots are horses named Boomer & Sooner. So, years before kids we talked about having kids whose nicknames would be Boomer and Sooner. In August on our vacation Brian mentioned that we had three kids now and none of them had those nicknames.

So that night around the camfire I looked over at Mulu and said "hey - you look like a good "Boomer" - from now on instead of calling you Mulu, we will call you Boomer."

He thought for a moment and said "no - I don't like Boomer" pause - - - "but you could call me wiener"

ummmmmmm No.

Changes to the Johnson Kiddos blog

So, I've been re-energized with keeping up on this blog (it may have something to do with Aria finally sleeping through the night at least 3 days a week!!!!) - and I have some new ideas.

The first - you can probably see for yourself - a new look for the blog. I love reading other people's blogs & have been admiring that many were more creative and much more fun that what we had going - so I changed ours up a bit. I hope you like it!

2nd. I want to start sharing a Johnson Kiddo funny moment weekly. Clever, witty, and sometimes ridiculous things happen daily here at our house (I keep a journal of them to help me remember) which I would love to share with all of you. AND I have been trying to commit myself to posting more often, so I decided to combine the two and write "Thursday Funnys" (something one of my favorite bloggers - and friend - used to do on hers. THANKS E.)

3rd. I have a Write Plate at our house that I decorate according to what is going on in our lives (holidays, birthdays, special events, etc.). I love, love, love it! I can use Sharpies to decorate it like I want, change the ribbon to match and when I am done, erase it with rubbing alcohol. I thought I could post a picture of what is currently on our Write Plate as another way to share all that is going on with the Johnson Kiddos. I have been trying to think of a clever title for it (so I've been procrastinating with starting it) - but haven't come up with anything - so if you have an idea - please share! I will change the photo as I change the plate.

Thanks to all of you for continuing to read the blog. I am so blessed to have 3 amazing kiddos and love sharing our adventures with all of you. and don't forget, if you are inspired you can comment on any of the posts - the Kiddos, especially Mulu, love to know if people see their pictures and what they think.

Love,
~C

Halloween

The Johnson Kiddos had a wonderful Halloween this year! We had a great time decorating and carving pumpkins (see below post), had lots of family stop by to see the Kiddos in their costumes, had a wonderful group of friends to trick-or-treat with and - oh yea - a HUGE loot of candy that will last us until Easter at least!

All three Johnson Kiddos were bugs this year - Mulu was a nasty/scary bug, Aaliyah was a butterfly and Aria was a dragonfly.


Here is our pumpkin display in our living room (and yes, that is also our Nuk stash for Aria - no idea why they are lined up in a row like that )



Here is Mulu with a closeup of his facepaint - he wasn't sure about me putting "makeup" on him - but allowed me to anyway and was very please with the results.


Aaliyah's facepaint - girl was all about the glitter - and I couldn't have enough pink on her!


and Baby Aria with a little dab on her nose -



Aria, Mulu, Aaliyah and Cousin Charlie the Lion


Our Trick-or-treating group. It was a fairly flawless trick-or-treating adventure this year. It was absolutely gorgeous out (the kids just wore long sleeve shirts - no cutes crammed under the costumes) that most of the people handing out candy were outside waiting - which cut down on the "who's gonna ring the doorbell fighting" a lot! There were some older kids for Mulu to speed along with and younger ones for Aaliyah dawdle a bit with - so it worked out great!



Aria along for the ride while trick or treating. It got a bit late for her - but she was fine to watch all the excitement around her.




Brian stayed behind to hand out candy (and scare the pants off of little harmless trick or treaters coming to our house - hence the costume). You can see Aria isn't too sure about this ape-guy holding her.

carving pumpkins

.
Because of our Denver trip we waited until Oct. 29th to carve pumpkins -but still had a great time. Our friend, Eric, joined us for the evening too and helped a lot (as either Brian or I was always holding Aria and keeping her from eating handfulls of pumpkin guts)

Daddy & Aaliyah working on hers



Eric working hard on Mulu's - and Mulu showing his model moves.



Mama & Aria



Aaliyah and her finished products



Mulu and his finished products



Aria and her pumpkins

Trip to Colorado.

This past week, Aaliyah, Aria and I flew out to Colorado to meet the newest member of our family - Cousin Evie! Brian's sister Marie and her husband, Kyle, have a beautiful one month old girl - Evelyn "Evie" Grace. The girls and I had a pretty uneventful flight out there (which is truly the best case scenario traveling by myself with two Johnson Kiddos) and we had a marvelous time in CO. We got a good combination of cousin snuggle time and bonding with the baby - who is absolutely sweet and adorable!

We also were able to visit some friends that we had met while in Ethiopia adopting Aaliyah. We have stayed in touch with them over the years (can you believe it will be four years in June) and had a wonderful time with them too. They have 6 kiddos under the age of 6 - so the energy and noise level that Aaliyah & Aria bring with them just got mixed into the group.

Here is Aaliyah, I and Cousin Evie.


Aaliyah "holding" Evie (which really just means she was sitting in the same proximity as her) - she is a pro at this baby thing now



Sleeping Evie -by the way - I am sooooo in love - she is the essence of sweet and I got in as many snuggles as I could (and that jealous little Aria would allow). She has very delicate features, dark eyes - that may just end up brown - and is starting to make the cutest cooing sounds. She is a super sleeper so far and has as laid back a personality that a four week baby can have. I know these pictures are very cute - but she is even waaaaay cuter that I could catch on camera. We will get to see them at Thanksgiving and at Christmas - but it is going to be hard to wait.



Aaliyah and one of her buddies - he is the little boy thatwas adopted at the same time Aaliyah was at the same care center in Ethiopia. It makes me very happy to see them reconnected on the other side of the world. I know they don't understand it now - but its pretty special.



Aria having a grand old time at the Children's Museum in Denver - she was way too cool to hang out in the baby area for too long and spent the day trying to keep up with the bigger kids (which she did fairly well)



All 8 kids (6 of our friends, and Aaliyah and Aria) eating Chinese take out - too much cuteness to pass up a photo op.

High School Musical 3 STARRING Mulu & Aaliyah!

I just found this at JibJab today - and it couldn't be more perfect as Mulu & Aaliyah are both HUUUUGE HSM fans! They have been eagerly waiting for the 3rd movie to come out in theaters and have been revisiting the songs and dances. Aaliyah, Aria and I will all be in Colorado (meeting our new neice, Evie) when it opens, but Brian got him & Mulu tickets to see it opening weekend.

Enjoy! I think they both look great - but especially Aaliyah when she is smiling in the crowd - she really looks like she "fits"!

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Waterpark weekend!

Last weekend the Johnson family had a wonderful couple days together at an indoor waterpark. We met 6 other families up there for a fabulous time of running, swimming, watersliding, catching up and laughing. It was such a total blast - with all 3 Johnson kiddos having a wonderful time.

Mulu went on every single ride that he was tall enough for - asking to go again even before he was done riding the first. He is a naturally cautious kid when it comes to taking risks - but has found that the being scared feeling can also be fun. There were a couple that he was nervous about (one that was pretty fast and the other that was covered) - but he slowly worked his way up to them and loved them all! He loved the fact that he could scream as loud as he wanted (which is quite a sound if you are ever in ear shot) and although he ran as fast as he could up all the steps over and over and over, he never ran out of energy.

And Aaliyah - who has turned out to be a total fish in the water - loved all the new things in the waterpark to try. She ran around, eyes almost popping out of her head, pointing to all the things she wanted to do. She started out slow - but peer pressure (or sibling pressure) is sometimes a good thing and she couldn't let her big brother show her up the entire time. She was so proud she went on the "big slides" (telling people about it all week), but wanted to spend most of the day in the hot tubs.

and baby Aria - always along for the ride and had a blast like her big brother and sister. She is a mover and a shaker - eagerly crawlig through the water (not even stopping when it was over her head - cue Mama & Daddy) and loved the little slides. She did her best to keep up with the other kids around her and minus the breaks we made her take (to eat or warm up - after too long in the water she would be so cold her lips would be blue - but that didn't stop her!) she climbed and splashed and laughed. We planned ahead and brought a pair of Brian's old wrist bands from drumming to put on her knees so when she crawled her wet knees wouldn't get raw from the cement - and they worked great!

Aria is one!!!

September 13th was baby Aria's first birthday - can you believe it has been a whole year?!?!

She has been an amazingly wonderful addition to our family and I am very lucky to be her Mama. Its been wonderful watching her grow and learn this past year - amazed at each new trick and milestone. She has always been a pretty "easy" baby (minus the sleep thing) and has added oodles of joy and fun to our life. She has a very even temperament - just goes with the flow of our busy days - although recently she has been more assertive communicating her wants and dislikes. She is rarely fussy, smiles all the time and has a contagious laugh that gets others giggling. I refer to her as a "velcro baby" - always attached to me somehow - and as long as Brian and/or I are in the room, she is content and playfull. She adores her big brother and sister, loving to wrestle and follow them around. She is not a fan of koosh balls, is a Baby Einstien junky and eats grapes by the dozen. She crawls super fast now, can get helself standing very easily and is starting to cruise on furniture. She loves to be outside, is a big fan of slides and falls asleep easily in the car.

We had a nice celebration on her birthday - she was a perfect little birthday star all day long - smiling, laughing, and waving at people - loving all the attention (as long as noone besides Brian or I tried to hold her).


Here she is concentrating on opening one of her gifts.



She must have been moving too slow - b/c here is Mulu & Aaliyah opening up the rest of the gift for her.




Her with her birthday bib, birthday crown, birthday cake and birthday smile. She had the whole group of adults in front of her with cameras and big smiles watching her with her cake - and you can see she loved all the attention!



post birthday cake smashing - she didn't eat much of it - but loves squeezing it through her fingers.


and some of the other kids at the party enjoying the cake too (yes, they are sitting on the floor in the kitchen - I didn't like the idea of chocolate cake all over the carpeting and our table was being used for the real food)