Troublemaker!

Have you all met my troublmaker? He's just under 3 feet normally....but he somehow reaches things that are 4 feet high....and he has discovered how to open drawers without handles! Yes, I am talking about Rhett. He's latest delights are to open the drawer under the stove and pull out my pots and pans and lids. He was into throwing the lids until one landed on his toes yesterday - now it's much better to pull the pots out and line them up in front of the stove. Then, while mom is distracted putting those away he takes off to the living room and goes after the keyboard and mouse on the computer desk. Nevermind that mom has put them up on top of the desk - he has learned which cord to pull so they come tumbling down onto the floor.

He also fell asleep today eating his lunch...and of course I took pictures. You just gotta love them!

A little of this and That!

It's been a busy week for us Johnsons! We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and some of Friday in Edmonton for Cliff's Lasik eye surgery. All went well and he can now see much better and no longer needs his glasses! Yeah for him! We also got to do some fun things with the kids - we spent and afternoon in West Ed and Cliff and Zane did some mini-golf. We watched the sea lion show from inside the arena- lots of laughs! and of course did some swimming at the hotel. So lots of fun, and a few challenges (2 kids in one hotel room...you do the math)

We also moved Rhett into a big boy bed! We originally built a bunk on the bottom of Zane's loft bed, but after one night we discovered that it was much too short - he couldn't sit up without bonking his head. Not ideal. So, yesterday the boys and I went bed shopping and got a great deal at JYSK. We got it all set up last night and we're off and running with no more crib and hopefully better sleep to come!

I am also moving forward with my decorating plans for the kids room. I'm going with a beach theme (did I mention that I loved California!) I got new curtains made and love them. Im' going to take some of the surfing pics that we took and blow them up and frame them. I hope to get the dressers and book shelf painted too and then I'll be able to say that I actually decorated one room by planning it instead of with what I had in the house.

So, here's some pics of the old bed, new bed, and the curtains!

So much to tell!

We had a wonderful time in California! It was nice weather - not to hot and not too cold. A little smokey because of brush fires around but that kept me from getting too burnt! We did tons of touristy things - took over 200 pictures! We edited them down a bit...but still have lots to show our good memories! We also discovered that if I am going to fly I have to have anti-nausea medicine. I'll spare you the details (those of you I have told I know are still laughing!) And that I love baby palm trees. Also - never ever ever go anywhere without your temple recommend! I keep mine with my clothes and we ended up with the opportunity to go to the LA temple - something we didn't think we were going to be able to do - but since my recommend was in Red Deer we had to settle for walking around the grounds. Their visitor center was closed for renos. All in all it was a fabulous 2nd honeymoon and I would highly recommend a trip of that length to anyone who has been married 5+ years! (Thanks again mom and dad for wathing the boys!)

Oh - most favorite thing we did - was the Medival Times dinner and show! So cool! They do real jousting, sword fighting, ride horses, costumes, great food, wonderful horse ballet show! We can't say enough good things about it. There is one in Canada - Toronto - and the rest are in the states. If you are ever in an area to see one - do it! You won't regret it. (Thanks Leslie for the tip!)

We're kinda back to reality - we leave tomorrow morning for Edmonton - Cliff is getting a pre-op consult for Lasik eye surgery and if it goes well he will be getting done on Thursday. So, we're in Edmonton until Friday sometime - most likely!

This and That

I'm supposed to be packing right now....but I'm stressing and need to de-stress a little. Let me back up - we are leaving in 2 more sleeps - that means leaving my children and getting on an airplane and leaving - most of me is excited, some is sad to leave. The control freak in me is having a hard time right now because I was informed by my boss today that we have to get about 4 hours of yard work done tomorrow and that just does not fit well with my schedule. Grrr. Oh well...I will get done what I can get done.

Rhett had his 1 yr checkup yesterday....he is 25 lbs, 10.5 ounces and 32 inches tall! What a bruiser this kid is! I was curious to see how much bigger he is than Zane was and on Zane's birthday he was 25 lbs and 31 inches. So not as big of a difference as I thought. Maybe it's just because he's been mobile for a while now and Zane didn't start walking on his own until 13 months.

I had lots to say until I started to type....I know that we are going to have a fabulous vacation and I'm so glad my wonderful husband decided that we needed this!

Birthday #1!!

Rhett's birthday #1 has come and gone...and it was a lot of fun! Here are some of my favorite pictures....

Grandma & Grandpa J, Auntie Kristie, & Uncle Jamie were able to be her ethis weekend with us. (We'll do cake next weekend with my family). Rhett LOVED his cupcake - I wasn't surprised since he devoured the one at Zane's party. He was very enchanted by the fire and quite mystified when Zane blew it out for him. As for presents....he really could have cared less about the wrapping paper....until it was off the presents.... but was enthralled by the new trucks that he recieved. Zane had a tough time understanding that Rhett got to see, touch and play with first, but he did pretty good. All in all it was a fun weekend and we're looking forward to the next year!

Happy Birthday Rhett

Today is Rhett's 1st birthday - and yes, I am awed at how fast the year has gone by. One minute we had this tiny little baby who smelled good and stayed put, and then we blinked and he was replaced with a toddler who never stands still, loves to chase his brother and brings life and joy into our house. What did we ever do without him in our family?

Of course I have been remembering all week the details of last year on this day - and I am so thankful for modern medicine, talented and caring nurses and doctors, and technology. Without the list above neither Rhett nor I would have made it here. It's a very sobering thought - one that I have tried not dwell on. Moving on from the morbid: Although today is his actual "birthday" he doesn't seem changed from yesterday or the day before. I was thinking that we all change just a little in small ways every day and then when we look back we can see just how far we have come.

We haven't had the party yet - Cliff's family is coming in sometime tomorrow and we will do the cupcakes and presents then. We did let him open the gift from Zane - and Zane had a hard time with the fact that it was Rhett's and that Rhett should get to check it out first. Sigh, the trials of being the first child. I did take some pics today (which will follow shortly) and had the idea that I would be able to to post a picture from last year in the SCN and follow it with one from today. However, my computer is having issues today and not wanting to read the pics that I burned onto my CD from last year. (I had over 1000 pics so they could not all sit on my harddrive!) I can see the images with their numbers but not open for some reason. Beyond frustration right now but my list of things to do is still quite long so I will worry about it another day. Instead, I will post some pics from today!

He was such a happy little boy today, even though he got short-shifted on his naps! We went for lunch and ran a ton of errands in the yucky, sleety rain, and he smiled the whole time. What a trooper!

We love our little boy Rhett and hope that all of his birthdays will be marked with so many smiles and so many changes in the year before!

Conversations

I am constantly amazed at the conversation topics Zane comes up with. The following is a conversation we had in the van on the way to the toy store. I had noticed that he was just staring out the window and was looking very serious:
me: Zane, what's wrong?
Zane: Nothing - I'm just thinking
me: What are you thinking about
Zane: i'm thinking about what I want to be when I grow up
me: Oh, well that's good. What do you think you want to be?
Zane: A doctor
me: Well a doctor is a good thing. Why do you want to be a doctor
Zane: Because they help people.
me: Yes, they do help people. We have a good doctor who helps us. You could be like him.
Zane: Yeah, or maybe a fire man.
me: Yes fire men help people too
Zane: Yeah, and they get to shoot water! (much enthusiasm at this part)
me: (trying not to giggle now) Yes, they do get to shoot water too
Zane: But I don't know how to shoot water - sigh
me: That's ok - they teach you how to shoot water in Fireman school. You could go after your mission.
Zane: Yeah, after my mission I can learn how to shoot the water.
This was the end of his profound speech but I have been floored by it all day. Who knew that my 4 year old was thinking about different professions in the world and wondering which ones he would like already. Sigh - he's growing up way too fast.

Once we got to the toy store the mission was to buy a present for Rhett and one for our friend Kobee - both from Zane. So we started through the toys looking for Rhett and Zane would gravitate towards everything that HE wanted - any time I pointed out something that I thought Rhett would like he would say no. Finally we agreed on a toy and found something for Kobee. As an aside - shopping for little girls when you only have boys - even though I am a girl myself - is a hard undertaking! We went with princess dress up stuff so hopefully that will be a hit.

Rhett still hasn't cut his 8th tooth yet - sigh. I'm really hoping that he does it before we get to Grandma's.

I think that's the most profound I can be tonight!

Motrin - my new best friend!

Today was a day that I needed Leslie here! (Don't get me wrong - I am thrilled for you to be in Toronto and hope that you are having the time of your life!)
It's just that last night was Hell. We stayed up until midnight with the missionaires watching the documentary on PBS all about Mormons. (they got special permission from their Area leader). I was really disappointed because they basically made us seem like kooks. But I won't get started on that because my mom and I already hashed about it for about an hour and it just makes me frustrated and sad. We hadn't even made it to bed yet when Rhett woke up. I went to get him some pain meds - he finally cut the right bottom tooth he's been working on but now is on to the left - and realized that we were out of Motrin. Not good. So I gave him some Tylenol Cold (he was pretty stuffy) and that just didn't even touch it! I tried everything that I could think of to get him to doze off again. Bottles, rocking, humming, no humming, little chair, big chair, couch. You name it and I tried it. He would get drowsy and his breathing would go all deep and even and I'd think - finally - and look down to see these gorgeous blue eyes just looking up at me in misery - and me being the horrible mom that I can be sometimes - actually had the audacity to yell at him a few times when he was screaming like a banshee. He has develped a new scream and I think it is about 50x worse than his old loudest scream. Finally around 2 I put him down and he started wondering around the house. He'd pick up a toy and bring it to me and I would tell him that I wasn't playing and that I wanted to sleep. He'd just look at me like - why would you want to sleep now mom? He even went to the window and pulled the curtain back so he could look outside - it was really cute but I was not in the mood to laugh at him. He finally conked out around 3:30 and I stumbled to bed praying that he would sleep until 8:00. (I know, I know, but I can dream right!) Yeah, 5:30 rolls around and he's up screaming again. Thankfully he took a bottle and was asleep by 6:00 so off to bed I went again. Both boys were up at 7:00 and Cliff got up with them but I was up 10 mintues later because Rhett was crying and screaming and beating at my door. I got him some breakfast and headed back to bed but he just screamed and cried. Definitely didn't want me out of his sight. Even with a full belly when I headed off to the shower he stood in the hall and cried and screamed the entire time. Poor Cliff. Rhett wants nothing to do with him when he gets into this mood. I had given him more tylenol at some point but obviously it wasn't working. We took Cliff to work and drove straight to WalMart where I bought more Motrin and some of those teething soothers which apparently he doesn't like. Sigh. We got home and I finally got him to sleep around 10 - he only slept for 45 mins so I only got a half hour nap. Can we say Zombie!!!! I was determined that he get some sleep so I worked for another 45 mins and finally got him back to sleep for an hour and a half - and he stayed up for the rest of the day. Ahhhhhh!!!!! He was fairly decent though once he woke up - I just have to keep him drugged for the next couple of days until this silly tooth finally cuts.

Whew - I feel better. When I tell you these things I know that you know exactly how I feel and will just let me vent without thinking that I am such a whiner. At least, that's what I tell myself and if you think differently I don't want to know! Hee Hee Hee.

I hope that you guys are having a fabulous time (if you are reading this in Toronto) and if you are already home I missed you tons!