A sad good-bye

It seems like just yesterday that our dear friends, the other Johnsons, were on their way to Oklahoma to be our neighbors. And now they are all grown up - graduated from orthodontics and off to Colorado. I know it was truly an answer to my prayers that brought this great family to us for a little while. Who else could have brought two best high-school buddies back together.

We had a scrumptious girls' night out at the Melting Pot to send Steph off right. I definitely filled the cracks of my broken heart with bread smothered in cheddar cheese.

And these cute girls had one last play date. A night at the ballet just seemed right.

It has been a total blessing to watch our girls grow up together. Sofie is more like a sister to June and Winnie, and we are going to miss that sweet girl like crazy. In fact, Winnie has since named all of her dolls "Sofie" in her honor. We will miss you Steph, Spencer, Sofie and Luke!

Klive's Blessing Day

We finally got around to blessing Klive this month. It's a good thing Kolby was home this fast-Sunday, because I'm pretty sure chunky here would have outgrown his blessing sweater by December.

This sweater and booties are very special to me. They were made by my great grandmother, Nana Louise. She made some precious stuff, including several more sweaters, booties, hats and even Winnie's coveted owl blanket. I love seeing the kids use these family heirlooms. It takes me right back to Nana's little apartment where we played concentration, ate fruit-filled cookies and drank mini-glasses of Pepsi.

I had my mom take a quick picture of our fam at church (not sure why Kolby decided to squat down for it). Kolby gave Klive a sweet blessing with the help of Papa Lee, Uncle Curt and "Uncle" Spencer. A nice gal in our ward even transcribed it for me, so I can share some of it with our family back home and save it for posterity:

We would like to bless you that you will continue to grow and develop normally. We bless you to be a great joy to your family.

We bless you to surround yourself with good friends and that your testimony will grow and develop as you grow older; that when the time is right you will go to the temple and serve an honorable mission.

We bless you to always be a force for good in the world.

Halloween in Wonderland . . .

I may be biased, but I think my kids' costumes put all others to shame this year. We've had some good ones in the past - who could forget Winn and June as the courageous duo of Sloth and Chunk from the Goonies. And our Scooby Doo crew last year was pretty sweet. But our adventure in Wonderland this year was by far our best work.

June made a lovely Alice, complete with ultra-goldy locks. She even wore black light-up heals to keep us trick-or-treaters safe from the crazy Halloween motorists on sugar-highs.

Winn was on the top of her game, strutting her stuff as the ultra-villainous Red Queen. She rocked that giant red hair poof better than Snooki.

Here she is ready to do some head chopping.

Klive definitely won for the precious factor in his White Rabbit sleep-sack. Ironically, sewing those ears on almost made us late for the very important date!

Mom went as the Cheshire cat, but her costume failed in comparison to the kiddos. I think I just ended up looking like I was suffering from a cold and tried to remedy it with powdered donuts. Also, I forgot about the fluffy tail I was wearing and gave myself a heart-attack when I reached back to tuck in my shirt. There's nothing like being attacked from behind by a furry creature on Halloween. It was definitely a trick, not a treat.

The kids had a ball at Aunt Becky's, as usual. She is the best! Her house is a Halloween masterpiece, she feeds us like kings, and she lets us trick-or-treat in her ritzy neighborhood. Definitely better candy out there!

And the icing on the cake after the long neighborhood raid was Ella's baby goats. The kids were in heaven giving loves to these little guys.

Too bad it wasn't a pig. You know the Red Queen loves a warm pig belly for her aching feet. Happy Halloween 2010!

Winn's Hippo Party

Winn, ever the patient child, waited for two whole months to celebrate her birthday at the zoo. Things got a little crazy after I had Klive. I got staph and then hospitalized, Kolby moved to Tulsa for a month, June went back to school, Klive demanded all of the parental attention, and this little girl's dream of having a hippo party sort-of fell through the cracks.

Winnie is such a kind-hearted girl. She never whined, complained or bugged me about the party favors gathering dust in my closet. She knew one day Mom would get her act together and we'd celebrate her 4th birthday in style.

So last week we slapped on our animal masks . . .

And headed out on an animal scavenger hunt to find the birthday treasure.

You couldn't fool these smarty-pant kids, they knew everything about the animals and found their way to the loot with ease.

Winn had a great day with all of her best buddies.

And the pink hippo cupcakes in navy blue-frosted ponds really hit the spot.

It was a great day . . .

. . . for a really great girl!

Our Little Man

I'm using this blog as my excuse for not making a baby book for Klive. I didn't do a very good job keeping the girls' books current anyway, so I have promised myself that I would write down the big baby milestones on the blog instead and share them with everyone.

Today Klive laughed for the first time. And he laughed at his best friend - Winnie. We were in the midst of our morning ritual - watching Ellen and having a bottle. Winn was being her usual goofy self and doing a little bum shaking with Ellen and it must have struck Klive funny because he did a burst of laughter. Winn was so excited. She prides herself on being the best big sister.

Here's a couple more shots of our little dude. He's just shy of three months, and I am so ready to start him on cereal. He demands feeding every hour, and lately he's been drinking 6 to 8 ozs. at a time. What a little porker.

He's very alert and wants us to pack him around all day, just so he can look at everything. He whips his head from side to side and his eyes are as wide as an owl, just trying to take it all in. He hates to nap in the day because there is just too much to look at. I think he's a lot like June in that respect. She didn't want to miss a thing either.

The Big Utah Wedding

Thanks to Uncle Cole and the miracle of the "Buddy Pass," our family had the pleasure of flying home to be a part of Uncle Kory's wedding. That's right, Uncle Kory finally tied the knot. Here's a picture of his lovely bride Misty, his new daughter Jett, and the two awesome families. Misty and her crew are from Australia and we loved every minute we spent with them. Her dad totally reminded me of Croc Dundee.

The ceremony was so beautiful and special. It was so nice to be able to make our way back to the Manti Temple. Kolby and I haven't been back for almost 10 years - when we got married. We carried a bit more baggage in the form of three rug-rats this time. It is still our favorite temple.

The reception was great fun. No standing in line to greet this couple. Those Aussies know how to entertain. Singing, dancing, even scary island warrior dancing. Winn had to cling to her twin, Aunt Rylee, for safety from the island dancers, and we all kept our distance from the kilted didgeree-doo player.

Me and my four Johnson sisters. I sure do love these ladies.

After the wedding, we had a few days to hang with the fam. It's never enough time, though.

All the grandmas, grandpas, and aunties and uncles got to meet Klive. I think he was a hit. However, they created a monster. He now won't let us put him down and yells at us if we dare try.

I should also mention that we were lucky enough to stay at the Washburn's lovely home. It was better than the Ritz. They made us breakfast, shared their craft room and home theater, and brought Cousin Conzo over to entertain the girls. AWESOME!

On our last night there, the kids carved pumpkins from Grandpa Kyle's garden.

It's always hard to say good-bye to the fam. I wish I took more pictures, but it's not easy when my arms are always full of baby.

First milestone

Klive started smiling yesterday. I've been exhausting myself trying to get him to crack a smile for weeks now. So of course he gave his first real smile to his Daddy, just like June and Winnie. Looks like Kolby now has three kids that adore him. And he didn't even have to try! He's been gone for two months doing an ER rotation in Tulsa. I guess that was just Klive's way of telling us that he's so glad when Daddy comes home. Well, at least he takes after me in the smile department. He only grins with one side of his mouth. That's all me!