Merry Christmas!!

Here we are! I know that a lot of you have been wondering if I would EVER update our blog. Sorry, about the slacking on my part. I hope to do better in the months to come. It has been a difficult transition for me - yes we moved. For those of you that are unaware, we now live in Georgia. I will try to update some time early next year. For now, this is our Christmas card.

Ryan is 9 1/2
Trevor is 8
Anderson is 5 3/4
Caius is 2 1/2

Sorry you won't be getting an actual card from us this year. Believe me I wish you were:) Love to all and may your Christmas be filled with the love, joy and peace of Christ!

The Terrific Twos Have Begun!

As of June 15th, we have officially entered the toddler stage. Our baby is two! His vocabulary has just exploded within the last month. Potty training will be around the corner, as he now tells me when he goes to the bathroom and will even bring me a diaper to change him! Unfortuntely, with all the changes to come in the next several months, I am going to hold off until we are settled. More details to come. For now, let's just enjoy some pictures of Caius Aaron's 2nd birthday!

Ryan's Golden Birthday

Happy 9th Birthday to our dear, sweet Ryan! He turned nine on the ninth and so that is why we say it was his "golden birthday". We did all sorts of fun "9" things. All throughout the day he would get little cards that told him about the next fun thing to do. For example when he woke up there was a card on his doorknob saying happy birthday and asking him if he could eat a number 9 for breakfast. This is what he found:

of course we didn't let him eat all 9 donuts, though he wanted to:)

Then we went to visit our friends: their kids plus our kids = 9!

Grandma and Grandpa Johns were going to take him for "9" holes of golf, but it was WAY to hot! So they went to the Children's Sports Hall of Fame in Portsmouth. They had a great time where they were able to do hands on sports things. Here is Grandpa and Ryan seeing how fast they can pitch the baseball.

For his birthday dinner Ryan asked for crab and shrimp! Just what I would have asked for at his age!

And for dessert, he asked for angel food cake with strawberries - his uncle Ryan's favorite birthday cake. He loves that his birthday is the same day that Uncle Ryan's was and we love celebrating on that day even though Uncle Ryan is not with us. We look forward to birthday celebrations with him in heaven someday! This is Ryan's 2nd birthday without Uncle Ryan and our Ryan misses singing Happy Birthday Ryan & Ryan.

Some other "9" activities were making 9 bubbles with gum, 9 blue & gold balloons, 9 slides down the pool slide and tieing 9 knots on his birthday blanket. Here is Ryan opening his gifts:

Ryan, we love you so much! We are grateful that God chose to give you to us. You are such a sweet boy. We pray that your desire to know God continues to grow through the years and that you would choose to live your life for His glory! Happy Birthday!

Extreme Hair Makeovers

So, I have always wanted to be blonde . . .


What do you think? Be honest!!!!

And for the second makeover. . .

Isn't he so adorable?

Here's the haircut!

Still adorable and much more practical for baseball.

Our March

March was another fun and busy month for the Johns Family. One thing that I am not quite able to capture by picture is a little phrase that was started up during March. The phrase is "Dibs Day". This was started by the three older boys and when it is their particular "Dibs Day" that means that that boy is the one who gets to sit next to Cai at meal time. Very cute. They absolutely adore their baby brother!

I was able to get away for a weekend with friends. We went to Nags Head, NC for our annual scrapbooking weekend. It was a great time again this year. I am so thankful for the opportunity to get away and be refreshed by the Lord, for the Biblical fellowship and the friendships that the Lord has blessed me with in these ladies. Of course it wouldn't be possible for me to go without the support of my dear husband and my mother in law who watches the boys! I am very blessed!

As far as the rest of the month, we had Easter, Anderson turned 5, the Andersons came to visit for a week (which means we had a 8,7,6,5,4,3,& two 1year olds in the house), and we had a wedding in which Anderson was the ring bearer. Enjoy the slide shows from these events that follow.

Our February

Okay, so I am trying to catch up, here. Things have been busy. We have been showing the house a lot and I am trying to keep up with school, so the priority of keeping up here has fallen to the end of my list. Sorry, mom. I will try to be better, but things are looking even busier as the summer approaches.

February: The month began with a SuperBowl Party hosted at our house. A couple of ladies from our care group planned it. All I had to do was open my house! It was such a fun time and they did an excellent job planning it! Thank you, Jess and Sarah! We had amazing decorations, yummy food, games with prizes and a pinata for the kids!

We also had a sleep over for the boys and two of their friends at our house. We planned a Nerf War in our house. Ryan and Jorgen against Trevor and Grady. Then we watched a couple of episodes of Man vs Wild (definitely a show for boys).

February was busy with Valentine Fun. Here is a slideshow of our Valentine's Day and then another day spent with friends making Valentine cookies. The Valentine Cookies were in lieu of our annual Christmas cookie decorating with our friends the Rowlands. For more history on this fun and crazy event please visit Lauren's blog. (rowlanalong.blogspot.com) Our Valentine day started with waffles with strawberries and whip cream, decorations, games and place settings. Then our friends, the Breaults came over for more Valentine fun. We decorated heart shaped brownies, made clay hearts, did crossword puzzles and just had fun! Grandma and Grandpa Johns then came over for dinner. I had asked all of the boys, including Kris what they would like for our Valentine Dinner. They all wanted the same thing! Beef Stroganoff with green bean casserole. Grandma made dessert - black midnight cake -yum!

Other than Valentine's the month of February brought with it two over night getaways for Kris and me. The first was a marriage conference in Williamsburg. It was wonderful. The topics were based on the book, "When Sinners Say 'I Do' Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage" by Dave Harvey. Thank you, Lizzy for watching our boys for us!
The other overnight was a Care Group Leaders' Retreat. This was equally refreshing as we talked about unbelief and faith. Thank you, Annie and Chad for watching our boys!

As I type all of this, I realize, WOW! It was a busy month. Busy, but full of joy and blessings!

(Hopefully, March's review will come a lot quicker!)

Our January

Okay, so now that Christmas and the telling of our wonderful trip home for Christmas is complete. I thought that it was high time I start updating you all on what has been going on here at the Johns Home.

January passed without a single picture taken during the month. Now, just because there weren’t any pictures taken does NOT mean that there wasn’t anything going on. In fact, we were quite busy. The month started off well, as we rolled back into town on the first. Katie and Sean were here visiting and so we got to see them again.

Ryan’s basketball season was in full swing with practices on Thursdays and games on Saturdays. He absolutely loved it and guess what? It is his favorite sport - at least for this season. HMM. I wonder who he takes after? (Daddy? Uncle Aaron?) I guess typical for boys!

Here is a picture of his team. (taken in December)


Then of course Kris’ birthday came. I know what you are thinking - what? No pictures? Well, yes there weren’t any pictures taken on his birthday, nor did we ever even have a birthday party. You see, his birthday came in the midst of the flu. So, his special day started with nasty puke to be cleaned up in the bedroom. While I was doing that, Kris had Cai and Anderson in the tub. Before I could finish, Cai got sick in the tub. And I believe it was at that point that I turned to Kris and said, “Happy Birthday, Love!” Not really the kind of birthday you dream about or the kind of day you imagine on your wedding day when you think about what life together will be like. Yet, it is reality and there is no one I would rather spend any kind of day with than him!

Thankfully we recovered from the flu quickly. Then Kris went on a snowboarding/personal retreat one weekend. He came home with a swollen knee. It didn’t get better and the pain didn’t subside and so off to the doctor he went. We were thinking he probably had some loose cartilage. A quick surgery and he would be back to normal. What the doctor told us, completely through us for a loop. He said that Kris has NO cartilage between his knee cap and his femur bone. It is bone on bone which makes bending painful. He told him No more basketball or snowboarding. And he told him to find a new job. There are options, but not until he gets a new job. And even then they aren’t great or lasting options, unless of course knee replacement happens, which is a possibility. I think the hardest part for me has been the realization that Kris is going to be limited in activities that he LOVES to do and that could possibly have been done with our boys in years to come. And you all know Kris, always the optimist. He thinks that he’ll be doing those things again. I pray that he is right!

I think that is about all for January. As far as Kris’ knee and job situation we are in faith that this is from God and He will provide a new job for Kris. Would you please pray for that and for Kris, as he desires to finish well at Integrity and his knee really hurts. Thank you. We love and miss you all so much! February’s update will be around the corner!

Winter Wonderland Part IV

I know that Christmas was a long time ago, but I still wanted to finish up our trip to Michigan. In order to do this quickly, I made a slide show - a first for this blog!

Winter Wonderland Part III

Sledding with Curt, Sally and our boys!

Yes, we did a lot of sledding while in Michigan and it was a lot of fun. On Christmas Eve, early in the day, we met up with Curt and Sal. Here is the whole gang at the top. (Cai stayed home this time.)
Here goes Kris and Anderson down the hill with a big push from Curt.

Anderson wanted to be brave and go all by himself. Here he goes with a push from Daddy.

Doing great!

So proud of himself. He even had to carry the sled up on his own!

Kris and I went down a couple of times together. (A highlight for me!)

Curt and Sal (Mommy and Daddy to be - in July)

Sally and I even went down a few times together. I thought there were pictures, but they must have been taken with her camera.

Curt and Kris try "snowboarding"

Winter Wonderland Part II

SLEDDING WITH PAPA

Ok, so that is the big question. . . sledding or sliding? I'm pretty sure I called it sliding when I was younger and living in Michigan, but this year I awkwardly heard myself saying sledding. Well, whatever it is, it's FUN!

Anyway . . . . I haven't enjoyed a Michigan winter in years and I don't remember the last time I went sledding. In fact the first time, Dad, Kris and I took the boys out we had a very hard time finding a place to slide. All the places I went as a kid were over grown with trees - amazing how that happens. I don't have pictures of that first adventure, though I wish I did. They will have to live forever in our memory only.

The next day, however we consulted Sally, whose mom happened to be in the know of where the teenagers slide these days. And so, that spot is where these pics were taken - by the new high school and behind the cemetery.

Kris and the boys coming up after their pioneer run where they blazed a trail for us.
Caius had the joy of being left behind with mom. He loved being outside and I loved looking at him all stuffed up in winter gear!

Kris brought his snowboard along this time and took a couple of runs down the hill.

Papa (my dad) with Trevor and Anderson. They went down so many times that day. They were trying to beat my record of furthest down the hill - but never did!

(Ryan was tired of climbing back up the hill, so he played in a snow fort at the top most of the time that day).

The BEST part about going down the hill with Papa!