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.