Day with the 3 littlest Johnson cousins

Paul's sister Lisa and her husband Steve's anniversary falls after Christmas.  With 10 kids (8 at home, 2 in college), they don't get much alone time, so while visiting for Christmas they took advantage of family and went out to celebrate their anniversary.  This year we had just the three littles for the day.  I know I'm biased, but they are such great kids.  I had the luxury of having Claire in town to help out, too, so it was just a fun day.  We have had a very mild winter.  Temps were in the upper 50's or low 60's that morning.  They got here at 11am and we headed straight for the park until the kids were hungry for lunch.  After lunch I was able to get the Finn, Elliot and Luci down for naps at the same time.

After naptime it got chilly and cloudy with light spotty rain, so we stayed in, but the kids were great and had a lot of fun.  They all took baths and bedtime went really smooth, too.  Luci and Greta went to sleep on the air mattress in Noah's room and Finn slept in a pack and play in our room.  Steve and Lisa came and picked them up late that night.  I felt bad I was unable to keep my eyes open to wait up and chat with them when they came home.  I was exhausted.  But, a good exhausted.   

Here are a few pics taken on my phone.

Greta & Noah

Greta monkeying around

Finn loved the trucks

Greta

Luci

Noah

Elliot

Luci napped like a champ

Noah & Greta built this fort

art time

his body was his canvas

Elliot, Luci & Finn

Aren't they so cute?

Christmas

Christmas week was a gloriously hectic time this year, so it's taken us quite a while to get this blogged.  Both my sisters came to town, so we were blessed with 16 more people than usual.

Laurie and Rafe arrived from South Carolina late on Sunday, a week before Christmas.  We had the pleasure of hosting them for the week.  Noah was excited to see his cousin Amelia again, and we were all happy to see Olivia, and how much she's grown.  There are some definite benefits to having a chef in the family, and the following day I came home from work to Laurie making gourmet pizzas being made in the kitchen, and Rafe making the best salsa I think we've ever had as an appetizer.

Our intent was for Noah and Amelia to sleep in the attic again, freeing up some room for Rafe and Laurie in Noah's room, but Amelia decided not to this year.  He was really disappointed.  Elliot slept with him that first night, so it was a big adventure for both of them, but after that, he didn't want to sleep up there alone, and neither of us wanted to sleep up there with him.  So, we put Noah in our bed, and because I was sick and having coughing fits in the night, I slept on the couch downstairs.  The Stuckeys, God bless 'em, all had to sleep in Noah's room, wherever there was room.  I don't think many of us got good sleep that week.

The rest of the week went fast.  Mandy finished her Christmas shopping the following day, as Laurie and Rafe visited with family in Kearney.   The following day, Mandy took Amelia and Noah to gymnastics, where they got one-on-one attention from the coaches due to it being very slow from the holidays.  On Thursday, Mandy and Laurie took the kids to Monkey Business to play, then she and her friend Stacey hosted a Christmas party that night for the boys in Noah and Murray's class.  On Friday, they all went to Science City with the Johnsons and Todd and Dylan.

Noah with his school buddies after cookie decorating party

Christmas Eve finally arrived, and we were hosting.  We thought we had everything ready, but somehow it required three more trips to the grocery store before the fun even got started.  My mom came over to make steak soup, while we got the appetizers ready.  Before Mass, we stopped in at Crown Center to play in Crayola Land again and some of the kids saw Santa one last time, and then went to Mass at Redemptorist Catholic Church in midtown.  It's a beautiful church, but I spent most of mass trying to keep Elliot from disrupting the service.

Afterwards, we all headed back to our house for food and presents.  There were several great gifts, but one of the highlights was when Zeke got a nerf gun, and promptly opened fire on the Marine and some of the other kids.  It quickly turned into a full-scale battle, with Rafe creating a weapon from a toy stethoscope and rubber bands.

Christmas Day saw some fabulous weather - sunny and in the high 50's.  We opened toys and stockings with the kids, who had gotten up at the butt-crack of dawn as expected.  Once Noah and Elliot saw the Pez dispensers in their stockings, all other gift opening stopped until they were gone.  We went to brunch at Karen and Dorans, and given the weather, all the boys had a great time playing in the woods and around the creek.  Even Elliot was enjoying himself, until he fell in the creek.  We got them cleaned up, loaded them up in the van, and they were asleep before we got on the highway.  They needed the sleep desperately, so rather than risk waking them up by trying to put them to bed, Mandy and I sat in the van in the garage while the boys slept.

That night, Laurie and Rafe joined us as we went to Anita and Rick's for dinner and more presents, and lots more chaos.  Noah and Elliot didn't want the day to end, and we couldn't blame them with all those presents.  Elliot got lots and lots of trucks and cars, Noah got lots of Legos and Hot Wheels, a pogo ball and Zoobs to put together.

Even with the busy week before, there was no down day on the day after Christmas.  We ended up with a house full of kids again as the older Thomas/Johnson families played laser tag.  We took the younger kids to Monkey Business to play while they did that.  In what has to be a record, Laurie lost her keys for the first and only time during the trip at MB.  Even better, it was Mandy who was responsible, grabbing them and putting them in her purse at some point (both drive Honda Odessey's so the keys look the same).

On the following day, most everyone went to Shatto Dairy for a tour, but our kids stayed home.  We did meet up at Lisa's in-laws that night for another food fest.

Laurie and Rafe left for the drive back to South Carolina on the 28th, and Mandy and I got to get out without kids for a while.  We took advantage of the gift certificates that Elliot won at the Prostate Cancer Walk earlier in the year, and went to Capital Grille.

It was only a mini-break, as the next day was Steve and Lisa's anniversary.  I went back to work, and Mandy watched Finn, Greta and Luci along with our two.  Steve and Lisa took full advantage of the day, and came back around 11:00 to wake up the kids and take them home.

We took way to many pictures to post.  As always, we had a great time seeing lots of family, and had a great Christmas in 2011.

Fun with the 'phews

On Sunday we celebrated Asa's belated 13th birthday and Dylan's 10th birthday with some fun at Power Play.  It was a great place for 2 year olds on up to teenagers.  Elliot and Noah both enjoyed the kids area.  But, Noah also enjoyed laser tag with the big kids and the tilt a whirl with Dylan.  All the 4 older boys were able to do go karts and lots of games.  We had a lot of fun.  Asa is known for always winning go kart races.  Well I soon figured out his strategy.  Blatantly IGNORE the rule to brake at turns, even as the worker guy is repeating it to Asa over the intercom.  He did tell me I was the first person that day to at least give him a fight.  haha!

Dylan had to be home earlier as he had plans with his parents that night, so he didn't get to come home with us for cake and presents.  He was missed.  The boys taught me a few card games and were nice enough to let the little boys in on some of the action.

Speed was fun, but I only won once, and it wasn't exactly fair since Eli was slowing Braden down with physical force.  But, I plan on conquering it practicing with Paul so I can beat them fair and square next time.  We had a great time.  I love my nephews.  And I love just having a few of the kids over at a time so I can really spend quality time with them.  Last year we had the 3 youngest ones.  Next time is Vivi & Bella's turn.  Lisa & Steve have done a great job raising all their kids.  You would think they'd just be too tired to do that good of a job with 10 kids but, nope :)

That lovesick grin?  Yeah, he was texting his girlfriend and I was giving him crap about it.

Awe he shared his wish and let Elliot help

Noah & Asa

 Three of our nephews came for a Spring Break visit from Texas this week.  We got to spend the weekend with Eli, Braden & Asa.  We had so much fun with them and it really makes me wish they lived in Kansas City.  We went to a Snake Saturday parade Saturday and then they came over.  Eli & Braden crashed for a few hours (as they were going on very little sleep), while Asa stayed up.  He was sweet to chase Noah on his bike and basically run to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream, and let Noah play with his new Ipod Touch with him that he got for his birthday. 

I thought these pictures of the two of them together were really sweet. 

Little old man

"The best, most exquisite automobile is a walking stick; and one of the finest things in life is going on a journey with it" - Robert Coates Holliday

I'm not sure where I was when the discussion of what Noah wanted for Christmas came up, so I have no idea of the origin or the purpose, but one of his requests was for a walking stick.  We drew names, and this year Noah's gifter was his cousin Zeke, who is currently serving a stint at University of Oklahoma learning either how to become a Russian, or how to spy on one, I never remember which.

Now, Zeke is the oldest of ten kids in his immediate family.  He's seen his share of loaded gifts, destruction and the beatings of siblings.  So I know he knows the implications of giving a 4-year old a stick, even more so one who has a little brother.  Which is why I'm not surprised he went out and got it anyway because, well frankly, he's evil.

While this stick is not technically a shillelah, a wooden walking stick with a little weighted handle that was historically used for settling disputes in Ireland, it has been used as such a few times on his little brother.  And if he's not more careful around his little brother, it may be used as such again. 

It's also pretty effective in knocking chunks out of the drywall corners in our house, and for tripping intruders who are prowling around in the dark, trying to change a diaper without waking anyone up.

Zeke, I'm sure you've been studying long enough to know what возмездие means, da?

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.