Thankful in November - Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen - SHAWN!
Today - I'm thankful for a person who has been in my life a relatively short period of time, but one who has made a major impact on our lives.  Shawn is my mom's husband, and he's my friend, and a great Papaw to my kids.  He makes my mom happy.  I could end this post right there, because that in itself is enough reason or me to be thankful for this man.  But that is not all!  Shawn gives and gives when he doesn't have to.  When Katy was born, Shawn stayed at my house with my mom, on an air mattress, just so they could take care of Cooper while we were in the hospital.  Shawn has given up actives so that he and mom can be there for us, he's driven to Indianapolis more times than I can count just to visit us.  He has been willing to help us when we converted Tim to a new phone that was just like his.  He's played with Cooper time and time again and Cooper LOVES him, and so do we.  When Mom and Shawn first got married, I'll admit, things were pretty awkward, but through the years, he's become family, and not the "family" that you wish wasn't.  I'm so glad he's a part of our lives (and not just because he smokes the best meat around, haha).
Shawn, I may not say this to you enough or at all, but THANK YOU for being in our lives, and Thank you for everything you do for us and for my mom.  

Apparently Nana, Papaw Shawn and Cooper like to match, lol.

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!!