Hello!

Sorry for the lack of posts and the infrequency. I hope to do better. As you all know we moved to Georgia six months ago and it has been a difficult journey for me. I am beginning to "feel" back to normal and I love my God more passionately as He has carried me through this time! (see about me) I have truly learned 2 Timothy 2 "if we are faithless, he remains faithful"

Anywho. . . Here are my recent favorite picks of the boys.

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!)