I'm baaaaaack!

Wow! It's been FOREVER since I've posted! My computer was out of commission and had to be replaced so I was not able to post or really do much except check e-mail and facebook. So I've got a lot of catching up to do. I'll do it over a few posts in the next couple of days. My great hubby got me a new computer for Christmas so I'm good to go now, except that I need to get some anti-virus software on here before I do too much. So sorry, but no pics for this post. I'll get them up soon. Here is just a small taste of what is to come:
Christmas
Family pictures
Mr. Man playing in the State Flag Football Championship game and Superbowl Flag Football Game
School starting
Life happening...etc, etc, etc....
Sooooo....welcome back me and the Johnson family and I promise to get up to date!

Catching Up!

 Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. My computer is not feeling too well and won't turn on. I have lots of pictures on this post to try to catch you up. Ok...starting with (I think Labor Day weekend). We went out in the boat and had fun tubing and cliff jumping. This was the first time that the kids let us pull them crazy (not to the point of falling out of the tube, but making lots of waves and going faster). They really loved it.

Miss M riding the wave. 

Mr. Man going sideways.  

 After the tubing fun, we headed for the cove that we hang out in. The water is so clear and there are always fish swimming under the boat and off of the back, so the kids put on their woggle goggles and tried to catch a fish. They were able to touch one, but never caught it! Don't these faces look so cute?!

 Then Mr. Man suprised us and decided that he wanted to jump off of the 25 - 30 ft. cliff. So we loaded up our stuff and swam on over so he could jump off.

 It's VERY high up there and you have to jump out so he had daddy throw him off. This made sure that he was far enough out and cleared the jump. He LOVED it! He would have done it again if we'd have let him.

 Here is the big boy after his jump.

We promised the kids, the first week of school that they could each get a fish at the end of the week if they were able to get up, get dressed, brush their teeth, and eat breakfast (this is a big one for Miss M) in a timely manner for the week. Mr. Man earned his fish the first week and named him Spike. Miss M earned her fish the second week and named her Arial (I need to get pictures of "her" and post them). They love their fish and take very good care of them.

 

 Miss M had a Grandparents Day program at her school. This is her class, in their room, doing their program. It was a great little program. They welcomed everyone, sang songs, counted in Spanish, and prayed for our meal. They also made gifts for each grandparent and passed them out. They did a fantastic job on their program.

 One of the things they did was their grandma's glasses. Here is Miss M showing off her grandma's glasses.

 Singing her little heart out.





Mr. Man started Flag Football this year. This is their first scrimmage. He is wearing red shorts. They warmed up, then played a really good game.

 In the huddle, ready for a play.

 Look at that form while running!

 Miss M had a field trip to the County Fair with her class. Here she is ready to go in.

 She got to hold baby chicks and LOVED it!

 Photo opp with Momma.

 Meet Missy the brown cow. Mr. Man was able to see Missy at his school during rodeo week at school and Miss M was able to see her at the fair. Missy did a demonstration of how they milk a cow. It was fun to watch and the kids really enjoyed it.

 Here she is with her class. She loves the kids in her class as well as her teacher.

 Mr. Man had his first football game and here is the team ready to go. We are the Dragons and our colors are green and  black. When we showed up to get our shirts, they were red and all in adult S, M, & L. So the shirts were HUGE! But that did NOT matter. These boys ROCKED!!! They scored 6 touch downs and were able to get 5 extra points. They ended the game 41-0. I think we are going to be a contender team this year.

 Ready for the first play. I love seeing the intensity.

Mr. Man is in the middle of the picture.

High Fives after the game. Good game guys. Keep up the good work!!!

I'll try to be better about updating the blog.

Goofing off

We've been having a lot of fun around there these past few weeks. We've been playing a lot of games, doing many puzzles, doing "school work" as the kids call it, and seeing what toys we have hidden in our closets. It's been 100 plus degrees outside everyday with it feeling like 105 or more, so we've been staying inside with the lights off trying to stay cool! Here are some pictures that I took as the kids were finding all of Mr Man's old Halloween costumes. It was a fun day of playing dress up.

The duo of Spiderwoman and Hot Bumblebee...watch out world, we are here to protect.

And maybe have a little play fight here and there.

This picture just cracks me up. She put on the Cat in the Hat costume Mr Man wore for his second Halloween...mind you she's 4 1/2 years old now. Then she had to add Spiderman's mask. Silly girl!

Of course, we can't stay inside all the time. So we busted out our little blow up pool and were swimming in it, until it started to loose air and the fun archs that go over it and spray out water lost it's battle and went into the trash. So, we went out and found a slip-n-slide. Mind you, it couldn't just be any old slip-n-slide and I knew that they would be fighting over who could go and when so when I found this double one, I knew we HAD to have it. We do still have the little pool with the slide that the kids love to run between.

It was a Hit!

Please don't look at the jungle yard. It had been over a month since it'd been mowed due to the fact that we went on vacation and when we got back, the front wheels of the mower fell right off. So we ordered parts and waited for 2 more weeks until they came and R was able to fix the mower. Just so you know, we've since mowed and our dog and children no longer get lost in what we like to call our back yard.

Racing down the slip-n-slide. Who will win?

Doesn't really matter. The fact that we are wet and allowed to be a total mess is all that really counts!

I think she likes it!

On a totally different note. The day that we were playing in the yard, I looked at our tree out back and this is what I saw. Isn't it beautiful?! I don't know what it is and it has only looked like this on this particular day. Most of the flowers have since fallen off and it's still pretty, but not like it was on this day. I just had to share it with you, I hope it makes you smile like it did for me. Enjoy your day!

Vacation

A couple of weeks ago we took our semi-anual trip up to Indiana to spend time with our families. It was so nice to see everyone since we hadn't seem most of them since Christmas. Indiana weather is so much different than Texas and we really enjoyed the "cooler" temps. It took us 20 hours to make the drive and by the time we arrived, we were more than ready to be out of the car:) I have to say tough, that the kids did a great job and didn't complain until about the last 2 or 3 hours of the ride. We left Thursday morning and arrived Friday afternoon. We were able to stop Thursday night and stay in some comfy beds. It's so nice having them bigger and in their own big beds. When they were little, we'd each take a kid and get kicked the whole night and wake up not at all rested. This time they shared a bed and we were able to rest up so that we were ready for the next days drive. When we arrived, we dropped off the kids to go to a wedding rehearsal and dinner and enjoy a night out with some good friends.

Saturday we attended our good friends wedding and celebrated with them. We were so excited to spend their special day with them. While we were there one of the grandmas was able to spend the day with the kids at her farm. I know that they all enjoyed their time together.

They "played" a little croquet.

Had water gun fights.

Washed their hands at the wash station.

Or maybe just played in the water and dumped it on their heads. But mostly just used a whole lot of water, used up an entire roll of paper towel and whole bar of soap. It was an enjoyable time.

Went for a couple of rides in the open air jeep. They went fishing, but I don't have any pictures of that...sorry. And went to have a drive in dinner at the local drive in. Then came home and spent the night outside in the tent. We were all a little suprised that they made it through the entire night in the tent outside.

While they were enjoying their time with grandma, we attended this beautiful wedding. We are so happy for our friends. Congratulations!

There was a lot of dancing at the reception and fun was had by all that night.

  

Then on Monday we went up to Michigan onto Lake Michigan for the day. We made a short trip in the boat for lunch. It was a fun trip, but really "bumpy," we had 3 to 4 foot waves coming at us. We stayed close to shore and I think that, for the most part, we all enjoyed the trip.

The beautiful lighthouse. The trip back was much calmer. The waves had laid down and we were going with them instead of against them.

We also saw this beautiful sailboat on our way back. I love this picture and think that I may have to print it out and blow it up. Good job honey for taking it :)

We headed to the beach and proceeded to burry Papa. All of the girls worked on this, not sure if there is a corrolation here?

Papa all burried. The girls were so proud and told all of us mommas and daddies that it was the highlight of their day...ha!

Mr. Man spent most of the day in water and I wasn't able to get many good pictures of him. But I will just say that the boy swam until his heart was content and had a blast playing in the sand.

Miss M swam a lot and played in the sand a lot. She was funny to watch though. I realized that she would NOT sit down in the sand. I can't blame the girl. I had fun, but I don't like sand either.

Daddie's highlight of the day was building a sand castle with the kids. They spent a lot of time working on it. Sorry to say that you can't really see it that well. I did get a picture of it, but realized that I had a lot of pics on here already and didn't think I needed a picture of a sand castle. All of the kids helped with it and enjoyed digging in the sand. They even dug a really long and deep trench to the water to fill the mote. Unfortunatly, it caved in shortly after water was reached.

Tuesday brought the local county fair with grandma and grandpa. It was a smaller fair, but it was alot of fun. We started the day with a turkey leg for the kids to share. This suprises me everytime. They devoured it in record time. They just love them! Then we moved on to the rides. They went on the swings for the first time. Don't let the look on their faces in this picture fool you. They had a lot of fun on them and really enjoyed themselves.

Then we went on the cars. This picture crackes me up. Miss M pushing Mr. Man out of the way. I can just picture them in 12 years. Her pusing him out of the way. I even overheard a man say that they must be brother and sister because of the fighting. They eventually realized that they both had a steering wheel and could drive however they wanted. And that they actually weren't in charge of where the car was going. This picture is just how our real life is everyday :) It makes me smile, because this is just my kids being themselves. They do love eachother and I am glad that they have eachother to fight with, take of, and love. And they do all of the above.

We also walked through the animal buildings. These calves were just laying there and Mr. Man asked me if he could pet them. I told him that he had to ask the girl that owned them. He did and she said ok. So off we went to pet the calf. The kids enjoy the animals and pet as many as the could.

Miss M enjoyed petting the calf as well. We were not able to go throught the entire pig building because Mr. Man thought he was going to throw up due to the smell. And the poultry building was not a hit was Miss M and we ended up leaving that building early as well. They did like the llamas and horses. We had fun at the fair and stuffed ourselves with our share of junk food for the rest of the summer. ha!

Our vacation was a lot of fun this year and we were very busy. Wednesday was golfing for the men and playing for the kids and mama's. Thursday was a party at our cousins house with all of our family members so that they were able to see us. And Friday morning brought us the road again and the 20 hour ride back home. By Saturday afternoon we were home again and R was trying to mow the lawn with a mower that lost it's front wheels. It's Friday the following week and we will HOPEFULLY get the lawn mowed tonight. It's only been a month and I worry that I will loose a kid in the forrest we call a yard while slip-n-sliding.

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! We did! This was the first 4th of July that we had not been with our families out on the lake. It was kind of fun to make our own "tradition". The weekend started off looking like it was going to rain the whole weekend due to some hurricane. I have to say, we CAN NOT GET AWAY FROM THESE THINGS!!! We have moved the past 3 years and they follow us everywhere we go! But, thankfully we didn't really get anything, just outer bands of rain.

So, all that to say, we had planned on being on the boat the entire weekend. But Saturday came with a 40 percent chance of rain and it really looked like it was going to rain all day long. We met up with some friends and went downtown to watch our little town's parade. It was so cute and we decided that we HAVE to be in it next year. Then we went to the local butcher and picked up 3 steaks for dinner. We came home and relaxed. Then our friends from earlier in the morning, came over for dinner and to play. They have 2 boys and all of our kids get along so well! I'm so gald that we have become such good friends.

Sunday morning came and there was no keeping us off of the lake! We got our stuff around, with a 30 percent chance of rain and the sky's looking like they may open up and dump on us at any moment, and R went to pick up the boat. We got everything ready and headed out for the lake. We went to meet up with a friend that has her boat on the lake too. When she got there she brought about 30 people, and 2 other boats with her. It was such a blast! I was not expeciting such a party, but loved every minute of it! I did not have my camera with me, but wish I did. The lake that we go on is surrounded by large rocks and cliffs. We were anchored back in a cove with one very large cliff at the back of it. It is also very deep (like 50 feet by the edge). R and most of the rest of the group decided that it looked fun jumping off of the (probably) 40 foot tall cliff. He said it was a lot of fun and a lot taller than it looks when you are hurling yourself off of the edge :)

Our kids were sooo tired that they fell asleep in the car on the way home from the lake (the whole 20 min. drive) and we had trouble waking them up for dinner. Since Sunday was the 4th and all of the fireworks were going on, we decided it was best to skip them. We made a frozen pizza for dinner and R bought some sparklers and bottle rockets...and popping things that the kids Hated! We went outside and did a few of our fireworks, then went in and put the kids to bed. Don't be jealous just because we had such an amazing 4th! ha!

Mr. Man doing his first sparkler. He loved them when they were the green sparklers. But then we pulled out the red and blue sparklers. He knows that in fire red and blue are the hottest parts, so he was scared to do them. And that was the end of our sparklers action.

Here's Miss M doing her sparkler. She had fun till Mr Man remided her that she was in fact playing with fire.

Daddy got in on the action too!

On Monday daddy was home from work, so off to the boat we went again. This time we just took a slow ride around the lake, had lunch, then floated in the middle and let the kids swim. And SWIM THEY DID! They had sooo much fun jumping off of the swim platform and splashing around.

Miss M doing ballet in the water. She is always posing one way or another.

Mr Man smiling for the camera.

Mr Man jumping in.

Miss M jumping in.

Then they decided to hold hands and jump in together. I loved this. I'm so glad they enjoy doing things together.

Daddy had to get in on the action. I love the shot and could NEVER had gotten it if I had actually tried to snap at this moment. This was during his flip into the water.

Then daddy put on the flippers and snorkle and went for a swim. He came back holding this tiny dead fish. Miss M took to it immediately. She loved it. She held onto it, pet it, and tried to clean it's eye (don't ask me why, I don't know!)  She did NOT want to let this poor dead fish go!

Here she is holding it and looking lovengly at it. I told daddy we may have to get her a real one. Now I'm not so sure, when it dies, we may have trouble convincing her to flush it!

Silly daddy! (He didn't, just for the record)

Then it was bath time. It is a tradition in this house to take a "shower" in the lake before heading in every time. We are trying to get the kids comfortable with this. I think Mr. Man will jump on board everytime, now that he knows if he does on the lake, he won't have to shower when he gets home :)

So, all in all, we had a great 4th! I hope you did too!