Our News

My pregnancies are always adventures, and getting to this one definitely has been. I had a couple of miscarriages before this one, and am now on some medicine which will hopefully keep this one healthy and in there for 9 months. We are thrilled and bracing ourselves for lots of mommy-in-the-bathroom-puking!

Pictures from the last post

So when I posted last night on my tablet, apparently the photos didn't attach properly to the post. So here they are. Fredrick calls it his little "house."

For anyone interested, the instructions can be found here.

Boys' Room Redo

So the boys needed a little room rearrange. Fredrick decided he would much rather snuggle up to his big brother at night than sleep in his toddler bed, so the toddler bed was only used for occasional jumping. He also lost patience with being rocked at night (stifled sob) so the rocking chair was just taking up space. So they never wanted to play in their room, and toys were always in the living room. I found this tutorial in a magazine a few years ago, and wanted to make it for awhile. So last Saturday, I bit the bullet and went to Joannes with my mom. We got all the materials, then during nap time we put it all together. Then yesterday we moved the furniture around, installed a ceiling hook, and voila! A brand new room for the boys to play in:

Train Ride to the Oregon Zoo!

My boys are kind of in to trains right now. Don't mistake, Lightning McQueen and company are still first in the hearts of these two little boys. But when they aren't playing/watching/talking Cars, they do really like trains. They like Thomas and Friends, and right now Wesley is on a bit of a Dinosaur Train kick. Thank goodness it is at least educational! (Side note: the conversation about carnivores/herbivores is an interesting one coming from a vegetarian. We asked Wesley what he is--we let him choose whether or not to eat meat, and he said he is a carnivore. When we further asked what animals he liked to eat, he said, "fishy crackers!")
So as a special treat my parents took us on a train ride from Salem to Portland, where we caught the light rail over to the Oregon Zoo. We had such a blast! I think the pictures of the train ride are on my mom's camera, so I'll have to post some of those later. But here are a few cute ones from our excursion:

Wesley in the eagle's nest. Joe, Mandy and Grandpa Johnson can attest to his uncanny bird call he loves to make.

Wesley and the beaver. He was a playful fellow!

Fredrick really liked the fish in the Northwest exhibit. He was pretty much dying to get out of that stroller and try to catch one.

One of Fredrick's favorite words right now is tractor. You can imagine how hard it was to pull him off this one!

Little cowboys!

Wesley and the goat.

He liked the monkeys!

He fits right in!

They loved the fish that were almost their size!

It was a warm day. A little water gave him some crazy hair!

Crazy hair 2!

Feeding the pretend elephant with some new friends.

Riding the hippo

An energetic drummer at the African exhibit

They really liked the big kitties.

Wesley the prairie dog. I don't remember the actual name of the animals hiding behind the glass bubble, but they were cute little burrowing critters.

Zebra bum!!

The giraffes are always my personal favorites.

There is this cool exhibit where you can feed the Lorakeets these cups of nectar. We got there a little late in the day, so I think most of them were already glutted on nectar. But we got one to take a sip.

We had such a fun, full day. The train was so fun, the zoo was a blast, and we all came home exhausted and happy. This years trip was definitely a success!

Quick Trip to Washington

Sunday afternoon we headed up to Washington for a quick trip to see the Johnson clan. We really missed spending time with everyone at the reunion, plus we owed Grandma Johnson some belated birthday hugs, plus we wanted to spend some time with Ashley, Morgan and baby Clara before they move to Denver later this week.

It was a short visit, but we had a really great time. We got a few card games in with the Fillmores, and Monday night we got to have a family night with the Chantrys, Grandma and Papa, Ben and Casey's family and Joe and Mandy's family. There were so many little boys all together! Very fun.

Joe and Mandy were so nice to come hang out with us for a good chunk of the time we were there. It was pretty cute to watch Brady and Wesley run around together. Tuesday night we were able to go to a Mariners game. Grandma Johnson was nice enough to watch Fredrick, Brady and Connor so we could enjoy the game. This wasn't Wesley's first game, but he was pretty darn excited.

Such a gorgeous night for baseball! Especially when the Mariners were on a winning streak! Look at that gorgeous Seattle skyline. Man, I love that ballpark.

Wesley loved seeing the players in real life. He's quite a little baseball fan!

Making some goofy faces!

Wesley was having a hard time sitting still through the whole game so I took him on a little walk. There is a little playground in the stadium for little ones with slides and big tubes (they kind of look like big gerbil toys) for kids to climb through. Wesley loved it! When we were done there (more like I was done--he could have stayed forever) we were on our way back and he grabbed my hand and dragged me over to see the Moose.  He was pretty excited to see the Mariner's Moose!

I miss this girl! 

Daddy bought him a huge foam finger to wave. He thought that was pretty cool. He still walks around with it saying, "Mariners number one!"

He has a special place in his heart for Grandpa Johnson. I had to get a picture of them together at the game, like the one from Wesley's first game:

Next time hopefully the game will start earlier in the day so we can bring Fredrick. Got to start these boys on baseball early and raise them up right!

Pictures I wish I had taken: Wesley and his cousins playing in the sand box, a million of Clara (although I can't compete with the professional ones her mom takes!), and Grandma Johnson with the boys on the porch swing watching the airplanes. I'm so terrible at remembering to take pictures. We had so much fun these past few days. Thanks everyone for making our trip so fun!