Thankful in November - Day Twenty

Day Twenty - My Brother Craig and his lovely family - Casey, Larissa and Layne! My brother is one of the craziest people I've ever known.  He's sarcastic and always mister personality.  He can make me laugh hysterically and make me fiercely angry like no one else.  I treasure all of the childhood memories I have with him.  He's a great dad, husband, brother and son.  I love you brother! Now, the rest of the family ain't so shabby either.  Casey is amazing.  Girlfriend has been apart of our family"since she and Craig were in high school.  She's so fun to be around and to poke fun at, lol.  Casey has worked her booty off to lose a ton of weight over the past year - she runs races and she's a training fool.  She is my real life fitness inspiration.  My niece Larissa and nephew Layne are such blessings!  I love being their aunt.  We had them over for a sleepover this summer and had such a good time!  I only wish we could spend more time with them.  They are full of life, absolute sweethearts and I love them dearly.
I'm so thankful for Craig, Casey, Rissa-Roo and Layne!!

A little Catsup errr Catch-up

Going through my endless phone pictures today – I realized that I didn’t post about the Indiana State Fair, our recent trip to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum or just about anything all summer, so today, I give you a little of our last couple of weeks.  Not too sure I’ll go back through the entire summer, but we’ll see….

We visited the Indiana State Fair on August 9^th.  Cooper loves him some farm animals.  He calls the fair the “zoo” because of his love for the animals I guess.  No matter how much I correct him, it’s still the zoo to him.  Sometimes that boy belongs in a zoo!  He got to pet a calf and ride on a pony.  He’s been talking about riding on the pony since last year’s fair when he was still too small, so we figured we’d better let him this year.  He did great and I think we need to find another place to take that boy for a horseback ride!  (Tim – I’m thinking a trip to Brown County is in order this fall!!)

Then there’s my girl.  She had the best time in her stroller that day.  Riding along people watching I guess.  She was all smiles most of the day.  This was the first day she got to sit up like a big girl in the stroller, without the use of the pumpkin seat attachment.  She did great!

Andrew went back to school on August 11^th.  This was him before he left – Cooper misses him like crazy already.  Katy was not having a good time during this photo, but we just had to snap a picture of big brother leaving for his SENIOR year of college!  Yay Bobo!!

The children’s museum was last Wednesday, the 14^th.  My mom brought my nephew Layne up and we took the boys to the museum.  They had a blast.  They loved riding the carousel, with the tractor, in the sand, with the lawn mowers, playing in a tree house, and anything else that was made for them.  These boys are so fun when they are together.  They’re definitely the best of friends!

Last week pictures of Kate.  Sitting in her bumbo smiling, sitting in the high chair smiling.  She’s just a happy baby and I kinda like that!

If anyone tries to tell me babies develop personalities as they grow, I’ll probably show them these pictures to prove them wrong.  They have personalities as soon as they are born!  This little girl can only sleep on her left side, in a bouncy seat, with her face half way dug into the seat with her pacifier in.  She falls right to sleep in this position.  I just hope the bouncy seat will hold her awhile longer, because I’m not ready to deal with the fight of moving her to her crib on her back quite yet…….  I took these pictures on Sunday night just so that I could show the babysitter how to get her to take a nap.

Last, but not least, these are my babies from last night.  They really are my heart!

Happy New Year

Well, after a looooong break, I’m blogging!  Happy New Year everyone!

We’ve had an eventful 12 days.  I was off work from 1pm December 21 to today.  I cannot explain to you how wonderful and much needed that break was.  I was burnt out, and I really wanted some time to rest, relax and unwind.  I’ve got about 5 months of nonstop work without a day off coming up and I really wanted to enjoy this last Christmas with Cooper before his brother or sister comes.

Speaking of brother or sister….. My anatomy scan is scheduled for January 14 so we are hoping to find out the baby’s gender that day.  Yippee!  Only 12 days away.  Back to our break….

We got to visit lots of family, the weekend before Christmas we visited Tim’s family in Ohio….

All of the cousins

The Johnson Siblings

Then, on Christmas day, we open presents at our house, then we visited with my dad at his house, then my mom at her house.  My brother and his family visit with us at dad’s then mom’s also.

Christmas morning at our house

At Dad’s house Christmas day

At Mom’s house Christmas evening

Our Christmas was wonderful, we are truly blessed.  Time with family was the most precious, and Santa went above and beyond, as usual.

After Christmas, we spent the rest of the week hanging out around the house.  We had about 7-8” of snow on Christmas night, so Tim and Andrew spent the majority of the day after Christmas snow blowing the driveways of our neighbors and our house.  Cooper and I spent the day inside enjoying new toys and watching too much television.

We finally left our house on Friday, only because Tim and I both had dentist appointments.  We were home by 1 and Cooper and I did our normal daily nap from 1-3.  Boy am I going to miss those naps.  Saturday and Sunday we spent at home, not leaving for anything. 

On Monday, New Year’s Eve, Tim went to work for 1/2 day, and while he was gone, Cooper and I cleaned some and ran some errands.  Then Tim picked up Kampbell and we spent the rest of the day hanging out with the Coop and the Soup.  That night, we had some friends/family over.  Erica and Mel, Andrew’s friend Garrett and girlfriend Hannah, and Stephanie and Ryan of course.  We played a euchre tournament and had lots of good food.  We also let Cooper stay up until after midnight, it was almost 1am before I put him to bed.  It was the first time he has stayed up that late and he did great.

Yesterday was spent catching up on sleep, laundry, cooking breakfast for all of the overnight guests and getting the house back in order. 

All in all, it was a wonderful break.  I’m so glad I was able to start the New Year fresh and relaxed!  I’m glad to be back in the blogging world too!!  I’ve been reading blogs so I hope to get back into the groove of writing! 

Happy Wednesday ladies and Tim :)

Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend was my Dad’s birthday.  Tim, Cooper and I headed south on Saturday morning for the festivities. 

First we stopped at my grandma’s house.  I love to visit her and she loves to see her great-grandchild.  Cooper sure makes her laugh.  And he loves her too.  I was dumb and left the camera in the car, so I have no pictures, we were there for a couple of hours –  Love my grandma!

Then we went bowling with Dad, Gwen, Craig, Casey, Larissa and Layne.  Cooper and Layne had never been bowling before, so that was quite an experience.  They don’t quite have the attention span necessary yet, but I still think they had fun.

Cooper and Tim rolling his ball down the lane.  The kids had bumper  bowling.  Thank Goodness.

Craig	Gwen
Dad	Larissa
Craig helping Layne	Me

Then there was the goofing off of the boys when they got bored.

Scores

Dad and his grandkids.  So hard to get a good shot, this was the best one.

Then we headed back to Dad and Gwen’s for pizza, cake and ice cream.

56

Dad opening cards.

The boys tackling Larissa.

Caught grandpa sleeping while Cooper and Kieran are watching Dora.

That was a fun day.  Sunday we had breakfast with Dad and Gwen, then went to my mom’s to visit and have lunch.  It was a wonderful weekend – especially celebrating Dad’s birthday.  I love my dad so much!  How was your weekend?  Happy Monday, ladies.

Cooper's 3rd Birthday Party

Prepare for picture overload….

Saturday October 6^th, 2012, we had Cooper’s Circus Birthday Party.    There were many in attendance, and it was a lot of fun.  The kids played with each other, they played on the trampoline, they played with the bean bag toss, they played with Cooper’s toys, they just played.  We ate, we ate some more, and we visited with folks that we haven’t seen in a while and others that we see nearly daily.  I think his party turned out to be pretty successful.

Ryan (RyRy) the juggler.  As the party was winding down, Ryan found enough room to actually perform for the crowd.  Everyone loves watching juggling.

Opening presents.  The pumpkin (From Bill & Mary) was filled with Tim’s not so favorite things, lol.  A Stanford tshirt and a Giants baseball.  Then there was also a Snoopy doll, which Cooper just loves.

Thomas the Train pillow for his big boy bed, from Great Grandma Heil.  J

Cooper’s friend Jackson (my friend Shannon’s son).  He decided to wear a clown nose.  One of the first kids to actually try it on.  Brave soul.

Digging right into the cake.  That boy loves chocolate.

Picture with Mommy and Daddy after blowing out the candles.

Posing with the awesome cake.  (Can you tell he’s already had some M&Ms?)

Julia and Gabby, two of the three neighbor girls and Cooper’s buds.  (Alexis couldn’t make it, boo!)

Party fun.  Layne and Larissa playing with Nana and Pappa Shawn.

More party people.  Mary with Kampbell (Soup) bottom left, Erica and Mel with Addison (Shannon’s daughter) Ryan and Steph, Jill and Jason and Max (Cooper’s best friend) and Layne in the middle of the room.

Janna and Julia, digging into her treat bag.

Grandma Gwen trying on the clown sundglasses.

Larissa going all out in the hat, glasses and nose!!  Oh, and our still open and dirty pool in the background, yuck!

All the kids fighting over the balls.

I couldn’t believe I got them all mid jump!

More trampoline fun.

Max and Jackson checking out the bean bag toss.

Larissa was brave and put her head inside the clown face J

Somebody got sleepy.  Cute Soup!

I just had to share this picture again, aren’t we just the cutest?  Three clowns!

Pappa Smith and Cooper when everyone had left, playing on the iPad.

Finally trying on a nose and a hat!

Nana spoiling Cooper with MORE sugar!

Look at that precious little girl.  She is getting so fun!

Smiley Soup.

Mom, Shawn, Coop and me!  3 generations.  Missing Grandma Heil…

Grandma Gwen, Grandma Kieran, Grandpa Norman, Pappa Smith and Coop and me.  4 generations.

Well, I told you picture overload!  If you made it through all of those, I’m proud of you!  I think everyone had a pretty good time, at least I did.  All of the hard work was definitely worth it! 

I’m so thankful we do not have a crazy full weekend this weekend – visiting the zoo for Zooboo on Saturday, church on Sunday and I think that’s it!  AMAZING!  I hope you have a great Thursday, I can almost taste Friday, it’s almost here!!