Scott and Sara Johnson Family

Michael joins the AZ Seals

2009-11-09T10:34:00.002-07:00

Michael wasn't all that interested in doing any sports other than swimming, so he joined the AZ Seals, a local year round swim club. He's seemed to enjoy it so far. There's been a couple of cold practices now that it's cooling off, and it tends to be really windy down here. We'll see how long he lasts. :)

Getting some last minute pointers from Coach Lisa

Almost there.... don't forget you have to back to the other end too! One of the adjustments to the new swim team... swimming a 50 instead of a 25 for a race.

He actually did have a neat opportunity to meet Misty Hyman, an Olympic Gold Medal winner.

School Time

2009-11-09T10:19:00.002-07:00

The boys have headed back to school for the year. They both really love to go to school. And I love them to go to school too! Macey hasn't seemed to bothered that they leave... she's been busy too.

Michael Started Kindergarten this year

Matthew is attending Pre-School again.

Macey has been playing dress up

Sleeping in her new big girl bed

and reading with daddy... she's cute.... don't look too close... her book is actually upside down.

Hmmm.... Some how I mananged to not post for about two months

2009-11-09T09:39:00.003-07:00

Guess I should recap our end of summer activities....

Michael finished his swimming season with the Casa Grande Geckos.

My nephew Andrew got baptized

Macey celebrated her birthday with Papa

Macey celebrated her birthday with her cousin Ben

And I tried my hand at sewing a doll for Macey.... She might be still trying to figure out what it is.

Is Summer Over Yet???

2009-07-27T11:19:00.003-07:00

We're pretty much all tuckered out over here.

Hair

2009-07-27T10:51:00.004-07:00

Macey has the coolest hair of any of my kids. Michael had some pretty sweet baby hair.... but Macey's is something special. I think she'll be limited in her career choices though.... Maybe Rockstar.... or Superman?

Think Flock of Seagulls here

Clark Kent?

Swim Team

2009-07-27T10:22:00.004-07:00

I"m sure you're all really surprised that Michael joined the swim team this summer. It seems the Johnson's are a little crazy about swimming. When Michael started he was only swimming freestyle, but with in a couple of weeks he was swimming all four strokes.... now he's no Michael Phelps... yet.... but he did a really good job for it being his first summer.

School's out for Summer

2009-06-04T21:23:00.005-07:00

Michael and Matthew both finished up pre-school for the year. Matthew's class had a fun picnic to finish their year up. I guess at Matthew's school they'd be getting the kids excited about going on to kindergarten, and said something about it at the picnic. I then made the mistake of telling Matthew that he wouldn't be going to kindergarten the next year. The first photo there is what happened next. He was fairly grumpy about it. Eventually he got out of his funk, and let me take a picture of him with his teacher.

Sadly we missed Michael's end of the year party, but I got to hear him sing all the songs that they were going to sing at the program. For any of you who don't know Michael... he is quite the singer. He often makes up his own songs. He has been having a harder time adjusting to the idea of going to a new bigger school. I think he'll be ready though... it's fun to see him getting bigger all the time.

Well now that school's out we've been pretty busy. We've been doing some of this...

and some of this...

and just a tiny bit of this...

For some reason Michael likes me to take pictures of his toys after he's lined them all up.

Happy Easter

2009-04-22T12:59:00.002-07:00

It's always a tradition to go and spend Easter with Grammy. She has an early church time so we get all dressed and head of to church before doing any Easter egg hunting. Then when they get back I don't let them change, because they look so cute all dressed up... except for Michael, who seems to get more handsome all the time. We had a great weekend with Grammy... and a great Easter dinner too.

The kids had a good time collecting their eggs... Grammy has a good house for egg hunting. And Macey looked super cute in her new dress!

Here's our best attempt at a family photo... at least we're all looking at the camera.

Matthew goes to School!

2009-04-17T15:43:00.002-07:00

Matthew started school this past month. I think he's really enjoying going. He's attending one of the public schools here in town that has a preschool. He has a bit of a speech delay, and they have a program there to help get him on track. His teacher there is very nice, he has a big playground, and he gets to ride the school bus. He often gets upset with me if I try and take him to school, or pick him up. He insists that he needs to ride the bus two times.

Michael is a bit jealous that Matthew gets to go to a "big school" and ride a bus. But he understands that Matthew's school will help Matthew to talk better.

So that leaves me at home two days a week with just Macey, who happens to be taking a nap at that time... what luck! I always enjoy a little extra time to myself.

ChuckECheese with Grammy

2009-04-15T12:07:00.003-07:00

I bet everyone was wondering if we'd ever make it to ChuckECheese for Michael's birthday... well how could we skip it. It's our favorite Birthday hang out spot.... well, at least it looks like Michael was having fun.
And, as always, Grammy got Michael some really nice gifts.

Camping with Grandma

2009-04-02T11:20:00.002-07:00

Camping with Grandma and the cousins from the Montross side is always a big hit with my kids. Scott always jokes that they got the "outside" Montross gene... where they always want to be outdoors.

Michael celebrated his Birthday again... the dinosaurs which have interchanging parts were the biggest hit. The boys played with them non stop. I even caught Macey with them. Rebecca wasn't as impressed.

Other camping highlights included:

Riding (and crashing) scooters and bikes down the hill.

Hiking Picacho Peak... well... some of it

And some more hiking.

We all did survive the camping trip, with minimal injuries. Macey did fall on her face... so that pushed our family picture plans back a few weeks. After camping we left and drove to Grammy's house so we could celebrate Michael's birthday just one last time. Bet you can't guess what we did. More posting to follow.

Michael turns 5

2009-04-02T10:45:00.002-07:00

Michael turned five on March 16th. I'm really on top of all my blogging lately, as you can tell. He was pretty specific about what kind of cake he wanted.... although he didn't get everything he wanted.... I'm not sure there's a cake big enough to include everything on his list. He's been really into Scooby Doo for about the past year. He wanted a cake with the whole Mystery Gang, and Scooby Doo, and the Mystery Van, and all the monsters coming to get them, and Scooby-Doo written in big purple letters. Instead we settled for Scooby-Doo, the Mystery Van, and his favorite of the monsters... the Tar Monster. He was pretty excited about the results... so that made me feel a lot better about not having met all his requests. He should have been happy... he got to celebrate his birthday three times. More posts to follow.
As for Michael... he's pretty excited about being five. Anytime anyone mentions that he is getting so big, he replies... "I'm five now". I definitely think he's gotten bigger... much taller lately anyway. He really enjoys going to school, playing with his friends, and with his brother and sister. He's getting really good at ridding his scooter too. He's very sweet, and very smart. He has a tendency to want to learn about everything... so he asks lots of questions. We really love Michael.

A Semi-Fun Day

2009-03-07T16:39:00.002-07:00

I guess a little blog competition is good. It's motivated Scott to update our family web page a little more often than his usual once or twice a year. He's done it again. Check out our trip to Glendale's Touch a Truck event.

http://www.scottnsara.com/semi-fun2009.html

Stop Global Laming

2009-02-28T15:14:00.007-07:00

With everyone driving hybrids now, what could that giant black cloud be? .... "no... that's not smog... it's smug. It's one of the leading causes of Global Laming..."

Super Comic

2009-02-26T20:20:00.005-07:00

This may seem a little silly... but it's a comic strip I drew for a Home Family and Personal Enrichment meeting back when I was the Enrichment leader. I thought it would be fun to post it. It took a long time to do... so I might as well get some more miles out of it, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Some of it was traced and some of it I free handed, but of course the women super heroes needed some wardrobe updates. Their original costumes were a little less than modest, as you could imagine. The meeting was based on a talk by Pres Faust on "The Forces that will Save You" (you should read it if you get a chance). So we took a super hero spin on it. It was a good evening... I thought so anyway. Don't think I'm being sacrilegious in the strip... It's meant to make a point, while still keeping it a little light.

Matthew turns Three!!!

2009-02-19T15:23:00.004-07:00

Matthew turned three on January 16th. I'm sure you all can tell how on top of this whole blogging thing I am. I generally am about a month or so late on posting anything that happens in our lives. Anyone who knows Matthew shouldn't have too hard of a guess on what kind of Birthday cake he wanted, and where we should go to celebrate his Birthday. So I made him a Hulk Smash Birthday cake.... I even dyed the cake mix green so the cake and the frosting was green. I think he liked it.... and I thought it turned out pretty good. We went up to Grammy's house for Matthews Birthday because of it's proximity to our favorite Birthday hang out Chuck E Cheese... well that, and we like spending time with "Wa Wa" as Matthew calls her. She got him a few gifts, we ate pizza, played games, and took a trip to Toys R us for him to pick something out for himself.

The next week my Mom, Becca, Hannah, and Andrew came down to visit, and bring Matthew some nice gifts. Becca is Matthew's favorite Aunt (sorry Dawn, Katie, and Angie), and sometimes I think he might like her better than me. I think he's secretly plotting to move to Becca's house. So needless to say he was pretty excited for her to come and visit, and Grandma and his cousins.

Matthew is getting to be a big boy. He wants to go to school really bad, and has a great desire for learning. He loves to play outside with Michael on our play set, jumping on the tramp, or ridding his bike. He likes to play the Leapster, and is starting to learn how to spell his name. He gets most of the right letters... just not in the right order. He's a good helper, and will get dressed by himself, and put his things away when he's asked to. I'm looking forward for another year of Matthew. He has the cutest smile, and always has a hug and a kiss for me.

Fun Christmas Activities

2009-02-09T14:52:00.006-07:00

We had lots of fun over Christmas.... here's some of our more enjoyable activities.

Riding scooters with Daddy, and all the cousins

Hulk Smashing Uncle Derek

Playing Hungry Hungry Hippo with cousin Cassidy, by the way, Macey is surprisingly good at this game.

Playing at the zoo with the Montross cousins

And of course, some Macey Cassidy bonding... in matching jammies

Sleepy Kids

2009-01-23T22:44:00.002-07:00

Scott updated our home page with some really cute pictures of our sleepy kids. Be sure to check it out!

http://www.scottnsara.com//sleeping2008.html

Christmas

2009-01-23T13:11:00.003-07:00

Our Christmas gift from us to you... this wonderful Blog! ; )

Merry Christmas to everyone! We had a fun Holiday season this year. The kids and I spent a couple of days with my sister Becca before Christmas, so the kids could hang out with their cousins... and of course so Becca and I could hang out. Christmas this year was with the Montross family. We enjoyed a fondue Christmas Eve dinner (a Montross family tradition), and then spent Christmas day with the my family as well. The kids (and Scott) all enjoyed ridding scooters with all the cousins, and of course opening presents. After Christmas we went to the zoo, and enjoyed a visit from Scott's brother Derek, his wife Angie, and their little girl Cassidy. More pictures to come.

Macey got some new cups for Christmas... maybe now she can get off the bottle... or give it to her new baby.

She also got a stroller... to push her new baby in, and all of her other babies. And probably her favorite present of all... new shoes! Macey loves shoes. In fact, her first word, other than Momma or Da was ... shoe.

Matthew seemed pretty happy with his new hulk action figures... until he opened...

The Hulk Smash Gloves!!! Did Matthew get anything other than hulk stuff??? Let's see there were some pajamas... but those were Hulk too. Seriously... he did get some really nice clothes, a new leapster game and some other things.

Michael got some presents he really liked... and one... not so much. Overall he got a lot of nice things. He got a bug maker (we've made lots of fun little bugs), a craft that makes monsters, some nice clothes, and the Scooby Doo gang. On a side note, Michael's Iron Man action figure, and Matthew's Hulk action figure have had some really great fights.

Somehow I failed to take any pictures of Scott or Me opening any presents. But in case you were wondering, we both got some nice things. I especially enjoyed my multitude of sweaters, and my peppermint bark (my favorite Christmas time treat).

Disneyland

2008-12-20T20:19:00.007-07:00

This is my last post for our California Vacation. I had a really great time at Disneyland. It's one of my favorite places to visit. There is something about the atmosphere there, that other parks can't match. Legoland has some rides that are similar, but Disneyland makes every part of being there special. Even when you're standing in line, there are things that make you feel part of the ride before you get on it. That's not the case for every ride.... but a lot of them are like that. I really enjoyed walking around and looking at everything, especially since it was close to Christmas, lots of things had a holiday twist to them. The big castle was all decked out, and so was the Small World ride. All covered in tons of Christmas lights. They had a giant Christmas tree, the parade had Santa Clause in it, and the Haunted Mansion had been made over with the Nightmare before Christmas decor.

My favorite rides were Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, and Space Mountain. Michael says his favorite ride is Space Mountain too. I'm not sure if that's true or not.... it could be that he knows that we think it's cool that he liked that ride. I thought for sure he'd hate it. He complained about the Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. I thought he'd be scared in the dark... but it turned out that was the advantage. He couldn't see what he was getting into. After the ride he told me... "That's it??? Just one part??? We didn't even go down!". R i g h t .... we didn't go down.... sure Michael. I'm just happy he had a good time. He even went on again with Scott (we love stroller passes!). Matthew loved the Matterhorn. He was pretty excited that there were two monsters on it. Poor Matthew was too short for some of the rides... while we were fighting/convincing/bribing Michael to go on the rides, Matthew was begging us to go, but couldn't. He missed out on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain... which he threw a giant tantrum over. Poor guy.... maybe next year. Macey was just happy to get to ride anything. That's the one thing that Disneyland is good about. Babies can ride almost anything.... she even slept on a couple. I think that Scott feels that even on a slow day, Disneyland is far too crowded... but I think he had a good time too.

We had a great time on vacation. I feel like we wait, and wait, and plan so long for our trips, and then when we're on it they go so fast. I really tried to enjoy the time we were all getting to spend together. Time sure does fly by. Now it's time to start planning again.

Me and Michael on the Matterhorn, Matthew being eaten by a Jaguar

Jungle Boat Ride, It's a Small World Christmas Lights, Finding Nemo

Scott and Macey enjoying Small World, Autotopia (my kids are bad drivers!)

Where's the Meat?

2008-12-20T19:44:00.004-07:00

The other night I was making dinner... nothing too fancy. I had planned to make some omelets for everyone, and then decided that I would just make some grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids, and the omelets for Scott and me. Michael is convinced that he doesn't like eggs, even though he regularly eats them. Matthew, however, will eat almost nothing with out us forcing him to. I decided I wasn't up for a fight that evening, and broke my rule of "I'm not a short order cook, everyone eats the same meal". I gave Michael his cheese sandwich, and after eating about half of it he says to me... "Mom, this sandwich is weak". I was surprised by his choice of words, and asked him what he meant. So then he says... "It needs some meat". I just thought it was so funny. Michael has turned into some kind of man who always need some meat with his dinner... cheese sandwich just won't cut it. So I gave him some deli slices... just waiting for the day he eats us out of house and home.

Sea World

2008-12-17T20:10:00.006-07:00

We had a great time at Sea World too. This is Scott's favorite stop. I always enjoy Sea World too. There's something really amazing and still terrifying about those trainers swimming with a killer whale. The Shamu show was great. They like to include all this "feel good" stuff in the shows. But we would be happy with an entire show of just jumps and splashes. The dolphin show is also neat. Amazing how high they can jump. They're also really good at being funny. So are the animals in the sea lion show. They have this little otter that's in it.... it was so cute and funny. Who would have thought that sea animals could be comedians. Sea World also has a couple of rides. Matthew was too small to ride the big ones... and we didn't make it to the kiddie ones in time... they didn't have them last time we were there, and didn't realize they were there till the park was nearly closed. By that time the kids had discovered the giant playground, and were very reluctant to leave it. It's really cool, they have all these huge cargo nets to climb, and bridges and slides to maneuver. They also have a really big bouncy enclosure and a little toddler area that Macey could play in. And in addition to all of that you still have lots of animals to look at. My favorites are the manatees, polar bears, and beluga whales. The boys liked the penguins, and Macey liked the fish aquariums. We also fed the dolphins. I always feel a little bit gypped that I'm paying to feed their dolphins.... seems like we're just making things easier for them.... right??? Yeah... I know, I'm paying for the experience, and if they made it free then too many people would do it. But the boys all like it. They only give you three little fish, so I didn't get to do it. Maybe next year Macey and I will use all the fish. I thought the pictures we got at Sea World were some of the best of the trip. Michael has some classic faces.... on the splash ride, and feeding the dolphin.

Legoland

2008-12-17T15:33:00.003-07:00

Legoland was fun. This is Michael's favorite place to go. He prefers Legoland to Disneyland. His favorite ride is the Horse ride. And this year Matthew got to ride it, and he loved it too. There's something about them getting to ride it all by themselves that makes the ride great. Michael also liked the car racing ride (he drove much better here then at Autotopia). The downside to this ride was that you had to be 3 to ride it. So Matthew wasn't allowed to ride. And if you look carefully in the background you can see Matthew pouting on the bench, but still trying to sneak a peek... wistfully at the ride he wanted to go on. This would become a familiar theme for Matthew throughout the whole vacation. He wanted to ride everything.... while Michael need a lot of convincing for some of the rides. Unfortunately for Macey there was only two rides at Legoland that she was allowed to ride.... and one of them was closed. Poor Macey! She didn't let it get her down though. She enjoyed watching the boys, and walking around while they rode the rides. Scott's favorite ride was the pirate boat ride, where your boat has water guns on it, and you can shoot the bystanders. It also has water guns that the bystander's can shoot back at them. So when Scott and Matthew rode, I was trying to get Scott, but ended up getting Matthew all wet... he was kind of mad when he got off the ride... but I'm not sure he knew it was me who had gotten him all wet. Matthew's favorite rides were the horse, a different pirate boat ride then the one that gets you wet, and the beetle bounce (a ride that is a miniature version of the Tower of Terror, that drops you, pulls you up, and then drops you again). My favorite was probably the Pharaoh ride (similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride) and the Dragon roller coaster, it has some really cool Lego builds inside the castle before you go out and ride the coaster. We also saw some little 4-D short shows they had that were nice.

Johnson Family Vacation

2008-12-17T14:44:00.007-07:00

I know you've all been waiting for a post on our vacation. We got home from a couple of days ago, but I tend to put things off. So, I'm posting now so everyone can see how much fun we had. We all had a really great time. We went to California for about a week for some relaxation.... well I guess I wouldn't really call it relaxation... but it sure was fun. Maybe our next vacation we can do some relaxing.... this one was more about seeing how much we could do in the time we were there.
We left Sunday morning and made our first stop in Yuma. There is a really cool park there, (it's right off the freeway by the river) and figured we'd let the kids out of the car for a bit before we had to drive more. Macey seemed a little confused at all the time spent in the car over the course of the trip. Even now when I put her in the car seat she fusses.... seems she's concerned that she won't be getting out again anytime soon. Surprisingly, Matthew was our best passenger. He barely made a sound the whole way there and back... a nice change from our last trip with him.

After lunch in San Diego we headed over to the beach in Del Mar. Our kids haven't ever really gotten to play at the beach before, so it was really fun for them, and for me to watch them play. Macey was really intrigued by the sand, and the boys spent most of their time throwing rocks into the water, and running away from the waves. Matthew, however got caught by one. He was really mad at the water, and accused it of getting him. It was really funny... I mean sad that he was so cold, wet and angry.

It was pretty overcast at the beach as you can see... but the weather wasn't too cold. And Matthew didn't lose any toes or anything... even after he took a cold shower to get all the sand off of him. We really enjoyed the beach.... just wish it wasn't quite so messy ; ) Well on to the rest of our trip.

Macey Walks!!!

2008-11-04T15:26:00.004-07:00

After many many months of plodding and pleading, Macey has finally decided that she would finally grace the world with her walking abilities. For some time I have suspected that she could really walk. That she was just bidding her time until walking benefited her, and now we know the truth. Macey CAN walk! This is what I've been telling myself. She's been very coy about the whole process. I would stand her up, and try to get her to take some steps, and she would just smile at me, and then politely sit down. But now she's just walking everywhere. She really went from just taking a couple of steps, to all of a sudden walking everywhere around the house. She's very proud of her self now, and has been wearing her self out every night making laps around the house. Go Macey!!!