Annual Santa visit at Crown Center

We took our annual trip to Crown Center to see Santa and play in Crayola Land this weekend. The boys had fun as usual. Paul saved our spot in line while we looked at the Gingerbread land with trains and houses. Then the boys got to play while we waited in the Santa line once inside. Both kids did great for Santa and we were able to get another ornament for the tree, as we do every year. And, as always, capped it off with some candy from the candy shop. (To compare past years visits click on the Santa tag)

Daddy & Elliot in line - almost our turn!

Killing time while Dad's in line looking at the vintage Santa "Ho Ho Ho"ing.

We are finally in!

And finally they got to meet the big guy, the REAL Santa!

Noah was letting him know that he wanted Criss Cross Crash Cars

Yummy!

Giving

I was just talking to Paul yesterday about being worried about Noah wanting EVERYTHING and feeling entitled and not grateful for all he has. I know, he's only four, but I really want him to understand how lucky he is. Well all the work we've been putting trying to teach him to give and about the less fortunate is working. Last night he filled this box up with several toys. All toys that are currently played with. One of the tractors, just hours before packing it. I just cleaned things out this past month and donated a lot already, including any toys that didn't get much action anymore. Amongst the toys was a Buzz Lightyear toy that I got him this summer for our trip to Colorado. He has played with that a LOT. It was a favorite for a long time and educational. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to give it away. He insisted he wanted to give all these toys to poor kids.

This morning he was getting tired of waiting and insisted we go to give them to the "poor kids" before he even had his playdate. So we drove and I, again, double checked he was really ok with giving away his buzz toy. He wanted to carry the box out himself.

On the way home he said "Mommy I will miss them, but only for a little bit. Some poor kid will love playing missing letters and Spanish Buzz" I'm so proud of him! He still "wants" a lot of things, but he is a kid after all. And at least I know he does understand giving is important, too.

Healthy habits

We don't always role model everything as well as we should for our kids, but one thing they are getting used to is us exercising regularly, which is a good habit to get into.

Noah routinely asks Mandy if she "won her race" when she gets back from jogging in the morning, and he also accompanies me downstairs once in a while during my workouts. He likes to show me how strong he is by lifting both the 5lb dumbells over his head. Even when he was just a little older than Elliot is now, he would join me whenever I'd do a few pushups.

When Elliot was still too little to crawl (but still waking up before dawn), I would occasionally take him downstairs with me to work out while he was in his little portable seat and he would just sit there and watch me for awhile. The other morning, at Elliot's typical early-bird hour, I was doing some pushups in the playroom while he was playing with his toys and he decided to get in on the action. He watched me for a few seconds, then scooted right up next to me and did it just as long as I was doing it.

Mandy caught it on camera a little later - he hasn't quite perfected the form, but he'll get there:

Santa & I are e-mail buddies

I email him regularly updates on Noah's behavior. At the risk of over-sharing, I'm posting this so I don't forget it.

"Mom, email Santa that I didn't want to get my poop out when I was constipated and it was hard and I was nervous and then I got it out just in time. Email Santa that."

Noah's first unofficial day of Preschool

Noah has been getting excited about starting preschool in January and has made it clear he doesn't want to wait and that he is ready NOW! I finally just called and talked to his teacher. She said he could visit the next 2 Mondays. Well the first day was last Monday. He had a blast. He was so excited. The night before as I was putting him to bed it's all he could talk about. He tossed and turned for about 5 minutes, got up and let me know he was ready for preschool haha! We put him to bed early as he had to wake up early, too. It was nice he woke up early on his own so I didn't have to wake him up. He got ready quickly, ate breakfast and proceeded to ask if we could go yet for the next 30 minutes or so when it was time to leave. No tears, no nerves that I could see, just an excited Noah. He didn't tell me much about his first day, but it was a success. He was quiet, but had a good day according to both his teacher and Noah. He's been so anxious to go back. Unfortunately he was too sick to go today. Hopefully she'll let him go one more time before Christmas break!

We didn't get great pictures. Noah was just ready to leave! He was proud of his outfit he picked out. Under his hooded sweatshirt was a snazzy little argyle sweater ;D

Little getaway

I went to Branson on Saturday to celebrate my little sister, Sam's birthday. Paul was kind enough to take care of our sick kids and let me go alone. We had a great time. We did a little bit of shopping, had a great dinner, and took in a show. We saw the Haygoods, and they were really great! We all had a great time and are so thankful to my sister's boyfriend for hooking us up with great dinner reservations and free tickets to the show. His mom gives harp lessons to the lone girl in the Haywood family.

Sick of the sickies

Poor Noah has the worst cold of all time. It won't go away. And he has this rash on his face that gets awful by end of day when I goop him up with ointments and creams to heal somewhat overnight. Elliot has croup, but after some steroids last night he is doing MUCH better and was able to get a good night of sleep. Wish there was a magic pill for colds, too! Paul & I agree GI viruses are so much better. Sure they are awful, but they are generally short lived.

Date Night

We had a great date night last night. The kids were excited, as always, because Claire was coming over. But, as a bonus Hudson was going to be here for part of the time. We first went to a hilarious Festivus party put on by our friends. They went all out with the aluminum pole, airing of grievances (on our nametags) and festivus miracles. So funny! I resisted the yummy food because we also had dinner reservations on the plaza. Our date nights are usually early and we come home and put the kids to bed. It is always a special treat when we keep Claire "late". We got to come home after a fun night out to a quiet house with both boys asleep and as a bonus Claire cleaned up downstairs. Perfect night!

Turkey Bowl

One of the constants when we get together with the Johnson side of the family is that sooner or later, a football will be produced, some smack will be talked and eventually a game will be played.  Doesn't matter if it's in the scorching Texas sun, so hot that even the fire ants don't come out, or in two feet of snow, like last New Year's Eve - we play. 

The rules are a little bit like Calvinball, constantly changing on the fly to benefit whoever has just been disadvantaged for whatever reason.   It's a physical game, even when my brother Todd and I, who is usually on my team, claim to be old, fat and out of shape and no longer capable of taking hits to our knees, or falls to the hard ground.

I have very fond memories of pickup football games as a kid, and there were many fall and winter days, especially on the holidays, when my brother and me would square off, just the two of us, and have a game of full-contact football until we were ready to collapse. We usually stopped after someone got hurt.  We were just like these kids, always wanting to play and looking for someone to play with.


Todd wasn't around for this game, but like all get togethers with these boys, you can't play too much football, and they eventually talked us into a round two that lasted into the dark cold (which I'm going to claim we won).  It was a very cold day, and the ground, which we hit many times, was frozen.   Since Todd couldn't be there, Noah got his first taste of family football, although he liked tackling people more than he liked running with the ball.  Asa was on my team as well, and we played against Eli and Braden.  As is typical, they had no shame in exploiting a little 4-year old if it meant putting points on the board.

Two of our cheerleaders - Elliot and Finn.  Poor Finn - Elliot didn't seem to be in the sharing mood with his mittens.  E so much wanted to play too.

Eli takes the snap.

One of the rare times I get schooled...

Elliot cheering us on

Asa and Noah discussing plans? Noah rode his bike to the game, but I thought it would be a good idea to make it a football helmet.

Leading Noah back to the line of scrimmage

Discussing our plans in the huddle

Tyring to coax Noah to go after the QB (Eli)

Eli doing a flip after a touchdown

Father and son - Noah is definitely built for football.  I hope he will play it someday.

Noah was having a ball

Discussing our offensive strategy with Noah

Cousin Braden trying to intimidate the 4-year old.

Didn't work

Fumble!

Asa completing a pass

Noah encouraging E to get off the playing field.

Look at that intensity.  Noah could have scored, but Eli had to tackle him.

Elliot enjoying the game - he belly laughed a few times, thinking it was funny when we threw the ball and everyone went running after it.

I especially like how Noah tackles Eli, who's nowhere near the ball.

Elliot looks like he's getting ready to block/tackle Noah. After the play.  Sounds like one of the Johnson kids.

Shatto Dairy Farm Tour

We buy our milk from a locally operated dairy called Shatto. They have great milk that is very fresh and served in milk bottles. They literally say the milk is in the cows in the morning, bottled in the afternoon and on our grocery shelves the next morning. They only deliver in a 100 mile radius. They have all kinds of yummy flavors we occasionally indulge in, too.

The tour was so fun. We got to see how they milk the cows, bottle the milk and learned all about the process. We also got to pet one of the cows, milk one and pet the little calves. The best part was the samples. They let everyone sample: root beer milk, orange cream milk, strawberry milk, chocolate milk, egg nog, pumpkin spice egg nog and banana milk. All made with whole milk. Yum! We learned a lot from Leroy Shatto about dairy farms in general. I always loved the milk and now I really do love the dairy farmer, too. They are great hard working people!

Lisa & Finn looking so cute in E's winter gear from last year

Vivi petting Cinnamon

Elliot watching the cows get milked by the machines

Charlie & his favorite calf, Cow Patty, bonded

Noah reluctantly milked one of the cows

And I did so, not reluctant at all :D

A certain toddler may or may not have thrown an all out tantrum, falling on his knees when the milk samples ran out..... it's safe to say he liked LOVED all the flavors