Very Thankful . . . .

As we are approaching Thanksgiving I am in awe of all the blessings in my life. Over dinner the other night I asked everyone to mention one thing they were thankful for. This is what I got:

me: being surrounded by love

Brian: our family

Aria: my brother and sister (we helped her with this one - although she may have been able to come up with "the muppets" all on her own

Mulu: that the Indians helped the Pilgrims

Aaliyah: money

tee hee

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Fall

We have had a very busy and fun beginning to fall

Here is Aaliyah, Aria, Mulu and cousin Charlie at the pumpkin patch





playing in the leaves - Aria (sorry about the runny nose)



Aaliyah - with a hat on (it wasn't that cold, but I wasn't going to let her fabulous curls be infiltrated by the leaves/dirt/nature in general)


Mulu loving the leaves (and he worked very hard helping to rake them all up)


some fun Halloween desserts



presenting the Johnson kiddos as: a zombie ninja, Kermit and Ms. Piggy



our trick-or-treating gang


Daddy and Aria

Aria's Professional Photos

We had Aria's 2 year pictures taken professionally - here are some of the best shots

Aria is 2!

Ok, so this really isn't new news - since she turned two in Sept - but I am slowly catching up.

So . . . . our little miss thing is two. I am so lucky to be able to be the mom of such a sweet little girl. Aria loves to make people laugh - almost as much as she loves laughing herself. She is still really easy going and fairly mellow little girl. She loves her brother and sister, can't wait for her Daddy to get home from work everyday and continues to be a "Velcro baby" - which makes me smile.

She is running and climbing and a little daredevil. She tries to keep up with the big kids, and most of the time she can. She loves playing babies, singing songs, playing outside and loves anything Muppets (from the Muppet Show, not Sesame St). Hence her birthday invite:



Here are some pictures of her birthday party.


Here is Aria starting to get into opening her present - and Cousin Charlie close by for reinforcements if needed



Daddy and Aria - who is wearing her new hat and bow



this was hands down her favorite part of the party - everyone singing "Happy Birthday" and her blowing out her candles



Aria shouting "TWOOOOOOO" when asked how old she was. She was stuck on saying "one" (because up until now that was the correct answer to the question) so I had to make 2 a big deal. So we practiced - "Aria how old are you?" and Mulu, Aaliyah and I would yell "TWOOOOOOOO!!!!" to make it fun - she learns quickly



some of the party goers having fun outside

End of Summer

ok, ok, ok, finally catching up on summer -

big news! We are moving (or hopefully moving!) We have an accepted on a house - contingent on the sale of ours - so we have spent the last month painting/cleaning/organizing/beautifying our house for sale. It's a bit slow at the moment - but we are all REALLY excited about the new place and are trying to be patient until it all works out!

So . . . the end of summer

For Brian's Dad's birthday we took a family trip to Mt. Olympus - amazingly fun day - but had so much fun I forgot to take a lot of picts - but here are two


going into Mt. Olympus - Aaliyah and her buddy holding hands on our way in.



Daddy, Aria, Auntie Lex and Cousin Charlie on the train ride (this as a big hit)



My Grandmother - so the kids' Great Grandma Hubacher with the Johnson kiddos and my cousin at the zoo.


too cute




Mulu about to blast the ball at one of his coach pitch baseball games


Mulu on his first day of 2nd grade



Brian, I and Mulu on his first day

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Summer Hodge Podge 3

Here is a fun story. One Saturday night in July Mulu and I went down town to hear some hip hop groups at the Memorial Union. He has been taking hip hop dance classes and loves to show off his break dancing moves - so I thought it would be fun to do together. He got to stay up way past his bed time, because the bands didn't START until 9:30 - we had a great time - listened to good music, people watched, walked along the water, and then we sat down on some steps. There was one guy break dancing close to us and a nice lady told Mulu to check out how good he was - Mulu gave her the "you haven't seen anything" look and without saying a word got up and started dancing. Naturally (because one random 7 year old was dancing by himself at 10:30 at night) a group of people stopped to watch him and for about an hour he had an audience all to himself! He was on cloud 9 (as was his proud and smiling Mama). At about 11:15 we started walking back to our car and a food vendor hollered at Mulu to ask what a kid his age was doing up this late. Mulu said "dancing at the union". Food vendor guy replied " then show me some moves" and Mulu obliged. Two random college boys walking by threw out a "hey - not bad - kid" and gave him some money! Mulu thought this was amazing! He got to stay up late, dance and earn $3! When we got in the car he said "Mama - we should do this every Saturday night! but next time we should bring a blanket to dance on ( his hands were pretty torn up from the concrete), a pillow for my head and a bucket that says "money"! He's got it figured out!

Mulu showing off his moves.




more tricks (he spends a lot of his life upside down)


all three Johnson kiddos on a rainy afternoon - doesn't it almost look calm at our house - its all a facade . . .


Aaliyah with our two favorite neighborhood friends at a botanical gardens.


We had been working on Aaliyah spelling her name (that's a lot of letters for a four year old) so each time we would sit down to color you could hear me saying - over and over - A a l -- i y -- a h . . . . A a l -- i y -- a h. So now Aria refers to colors or writing as "i - y's".

Here is Aria hard at work on her "i-y's". and . . . . oh yes . . . . that is one of my Harry Potter books she is writing in. While I was vacuuming she asked one of the older kids for an "i-y" and they hooked her up with a pen. So my "Half Blood Prince" book has some adaptations by little Miss thing.

Summer Hodge Podge 2

At the Johnson family land up near Rhinelander over the 4th of July

All the kiddos watching the fireworks



Charlie and Aria taking a break from swimming - mmmmm that's a big bowl of snacks


Mulu showing off his catch - he was so proud


Aaliyah and her 1st fish of the weekend. Reeling it in was much cooler than actually dealing with the fishy out of water


Aaliyah out for a canoe ride with Uncle Dave, Auntie Lex & Charlie

sleeping arrangements in the pop up camper - Mulu on the right, Aaliyah on the left, Aria in the pack n play & Brian & I in the bed behind - cozy quarters, but I loved having all of the family within arms reach.