Loooong time no blog

Well, I've successfully managed to let the blog go unattended for several months. It's not that there hasn't been anything going on to write about. In fact, we've been sooo busy that I cannot find time to write. But, today as Tim is out golfing and Luke is napping, I actually have some time to blog. Ok, here goes, the BIGGEST news from the Johnson household is that we are expanding! Hooray for another baby! I'm due in late May and so far the pregnancy is going smooth and the baby seems healthy. We did not find out the sex at our ultrasound so we will all be surprised come late May. We did found out with Luke and I wanted to be surprised for this baby. Tim went along, although at the end of the ultrasound, Tim asked the tech is she knew the sex and she said she did know. There was a split second of wanting to know, but I'm glad we stuck to our guns and didn't find out.

Luke is talking so much right now. It is so cute to hear him say new words and put simple phrases together. He is becoming such a big boy. While he does get a little "testy" at times (think terrible two's), he is still a sweet, laid back child. We are blessed! He is really into sports...loves football and basketball. He will even get a three point stance and wait for us to say, "down, set, hut" and will start running with a football. He loves going to Auburn basketball games. If only, all Auburn fans could be as excited about attending games as Luke. He loves going down to see Aubie. He's still a little bit afraid of him, but gets tickled at him from afar. Luke is loving Elmo and Handy Manny. Thank God for the portable DVD player that is in my car to keep him entertained to and from school in LaGrange!

Here are some updates from the end of 2009:
This is embarrasing, but going all the way back to October we had a great Halloween season! I was able to meet up with some of the moms from the area and we took our kiddos to a pumpkin patch and petting farm. Luke loved the animals. This year Luke dressed up as a dinosaur/dragon...still not sure exactly what his costume was! Luke had a parade of costumes at his school and then we went trick or treating in downtown Auburn. We also hit up a few houses door to door so he could experience "real" trick or treating! :)

November
Football and tailgate season was winding down, but we did have everyone in town for the Iron Bowl. Although Auburn lost in the last few minutes of the game, we had a fun time with friends and family. Since the Iron Bowl was the Friday after Thanksgiving, we had my family come to Auburn to celebrate turkey day. I actually did the majority of the cooking (with some help from Mom) which was really fun. Heck, I even did the bird! We made a quick trip to Clanton for Thanksgiving lunch with Tim's family. As always, it's hectic, but so great to spend time with family. Another large milestone for us in November was Luke's first haircut. If you know me, I put off getting Luke's haircut as long as I could. I wanted him to still look like a little one and not a little man. However, after putting a baseball cap on him and seeing that he had a mullet, I knew it was time for a trim. So I took him to a lady in LaGrange that cuts hair on children and she did a fabulous job and was so good with Luke.

Before

During / After - God Bless that sucker for keeping him happy

December
Tim and I celebrated our 5th (yes, time flies) wedding anniversary. We went to dinner at Warehouse Bistro and went to see The Blindside. This was the first movie we have seen at the theatre since before Luke was born. We had fun decorating our house for Christmas and madly bought gifts for everyone. The Sims clan spent the holiday with us here in Auburn. It was soo nice not to have to travel two separate places to see family! Luke's BIG gift was a cozy coupe car. However, the gift he has played with the most is an $8 over the door knob basketball goal. He is obsessed! If we only knew that would have kept him entertained so long!

Woo Hoo and a visit to see Aunt Madeline

I successfully defended my thesis and now have my Ed Specialist degree from Auburn! Yeah! It was very intense and nerve wracking, but I survived! No, I don't have any desire to go back for my PhD. I just want to enjoy time with my sweet family!

A week after I finished my school work, we took a trip to Jacksonville, FL to visit my sister, aka Aunt Madeline. We had a wonderful time! We drove through the night and arrived at about 1 am. We worried Luke would get restless in the car so we planned our drive at night, knowing he would sleep most of the way...which he did! We took a trip to the zoo and Luke loved the animals and the train ride. Fun times. We also went to the beach. This beach experience was much better than our previous attempts. We took Luke to the beach in April and he wasn't walking and hated the sand. This time around, he was all over the place and loved digging in the sand. He also loved splashing in the water with dad! I think we will have many more beach trips in our future.

This last picture was taken on the river front near downtown Jacksonville. Apparently, there was a Star Wars Exhibit and we ran into these paratroopers. Needless to say, Luke was scared to death of them!

Fun times at the 4th party

Oh, how I love the 4th of July! Even better, we have an annual party for friends to come watch the fireworks which shoot off at the park at the bottom of our subdivision. We can literally see the show from our front lawn! Fun times. Here are some photos of the festivities. Can't wait til next year's party!

A blonde moment

Yes, I've been a brunette all my life, but I had a major blonde moment the other day. I was cooking Luke some mac and cheese. I put the noodles in the bowl and placed it in the microwave. Meanwhile, I go and check on the laundry. After about a minute, I start smelling something burning and walk back into the kitchen. I see smoke coming out of the microwave and I'm thinking what have I done wrong. I open the microwave to find this.



Sure enough, I forgot to add the 2 cups of water to the noodles. Sorry Luke! The house stunk of smoke the rest of the day. Gotta love it!

Summer time fun

Yes, I've been bad about blogging lately, but it's only because I've had no time. As some of you know, I'm getting my EdS degree at Auburn. I have been traveling to LaGrange about 3 times a week to work on my paper. I just turned in my mini dissertation yesterday! Woo Hoo!!!! I will present/defend on July 11th and then I will officially graduate in August. I will be so glad to get back to a normal routine and spend time with my wonderful family.

Even though I"ve been busy working, we have had some fun this summer. I thought I would post some pictures of Luke and what we've been up to.

We went to the Touch a Truck event in Opelika. The city had over 40 trucks and cars out for kids to go explore and of course honk the horn. What a fun time! Here are some pictures.

Luke, that better be the only time we see you in the back of a Sheriff's car! :)

We've also been to some pool parties and had our own fun in the backyard.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable summer! I love this time of year!

Another reason why we love Auburn!

Ok, so my friend Meredith came into town to have lunch with us. After lunch we went shopping in downtown Auburn. As we were finishing up and making our way back to the car, this what I saw.....

Yes, I had definitely left my keys sitting on top of my car for about 2 hours while we shopped. Thank God Auburn is a safe place! Meredith, it was so great to see you! Thanks for coming in!

Baby Steps!!!

On Tuesday (April 28), Luke began taking some of his first steps!!! Yes, we thought this day would never come! He still feels more comfortable holding onto something, but he is taking some steps completely on his own! Woo Hoo! I'll try to post some video soon. It's so cute. He concentrates so hard on trying to maintain his balance.

Yardwork, birthday party, and a baptism

Tim and I have been working like crazy in the yard. Luke loves being outside so it's fun for the whole family. Here's a picture of the Impatients I planted in the back. Later this summer, I'll post a before and after picture to show how much they've grown.

We went to Clanton so Tim could help his dad work on a shed he is building in the backyard. We also went to celebrate Abi's (our neice) 6th birthday. We had a blast celebrating with everyone and we even got to try out a HUGE inflatable slide. Luke loved going down. He would start giggling just going up the stairs!

We also were able to witness Jeremiah's baptism at church. He did great! We enjoyed a delicious family lunch after the ceremony. Thanks Rachel!

Class Picture

Just wanted to share a very momentous day in Luke's life...his first class picture day at school! Can you believe they take class pictues in the creeper room?! I'm sure the photographers know us moms are suckers and are going to buy the photos. Luke was all dressed up and nowhere to go. Here's what he wore...

Easter!

Oh how I love Easter! I will still keep 4th of July as my favorite holiday, but Easter has so much spiritual meaning. The holiday kicked off with Luke's party at school. The parents signed up to bring different snacks and as you can see I think Luke enjoyed them all!

We had a great weekend! Brian and Joy came into town so the guys could go to a football scrimage and the girls could go shopping and eat! :) Saturday, Tim and I drove to the lake to spend the evening with my parents. Mom prepared a wonderful dinner and we took a boat ride on their new boat! The lake was beautiful...just a tad chilly. We went to the Easter Vigil mass and it was awesome! So beautiful and hopeful, now Christ is risen!

On Easter morning, Luke "found" his Easter basket. He was very excited about his new toys. He got his first wallet since he loves digging through mine and pulling out all of my money (which isn't much). We ate breakfast and enjoyed some down time with my family.

We left the lake at early afternoon and headed to Clanton to celebrate with Tim's family. We met them for lunch and had a great time. We went back to Paw Paw's house to have our annual egg hunt with all of the cousins. It always crazy, but fun! The competition for the prize eggs is fierce! Since Luke is still not walking on his own, we had to lead him to the eggs. I don't think he fully got into it this year, but I have a feeling next year he will be racing his older cousins for the eggs! And hey, it's major improvement from last year....he was only 2 months old and fell asleep hunting eggs! :)

Spring Break!

Being a school teacher has a few perks, one being, still getting a spring break! Woo Hoo! Tim took the week off as well and we went down to Navarre Beach, FL with my family. Luke was getting over another ear infection and I was taking an antiobiotic for a sinus infection, but we were on the road to recovery. The first night at the beach, we all cooked a BIG dinner and ate fresh fish! It was delicious. Monday, it was very windy and somewhat chilly but we decided to brave the weather. I sat on the balcony for about an hour or an hour and half. And no, sadly I didn't wear any sunscreen. Tim and I went and laid on the beach later on and this time I lathered up on the gunky stuff! I came in that night and was badly sunburned, but thought it would get better. It continued to get worse and Tuesday I could barely walk. It was painful. We drove back to Auburn on Wednesday and my ankles began to swell. I went to the doctor to make sure the antiobiotic didn't make me more sensitive to the sun. He put me on steriods and gave me pain medicine After several days, the swelling went down and I finally started feeling like myself again.

Tim says I could be the poster child for the importance of wearing sunscreen. My mom had melanoma so I need to be extra careful and from now I WILL wear sunscreen, even if I"'m only going to be out for an hour!
We also had a great dinner at the Back Porch in Destin with my cousin who I haven't seen since we were students at Auburn. Sooo good to catch up with her.

Robbie's baby shower

The ATL girls went to Atlanta to spend the day celebrating the upcoming arrival of baby Stroud! Robbie is due in May and we know it's a boy! We had a great day and it's always fun to see old friends!

Catching up

Whew, time has slipped by me yet again! So, here I blog about things that happened to us months ago. Oh well! A fun surprise happened on March 1st...SNOW in Alabama! It was beautiful and was the most snow I had seen in Auburn. Tim and I woke up early and went to mass with Luke. We usually eat breakfast after church. I told Tim to drive by Samford Hall so we could see it covered with snow. You wouldn't believe how many families and univeristy students were out there enjoying the white stuff. Look who else we ran into!



Aubie! If only, Luke was looking at the camera, this could have been our Christmas card! We took some great video of Dansby and Luke enjoying the snow. We didn't keep Luke out too long for fear that he would get sick. School was even cancelled in Troup County on Monday! Fun times!

Some firsts

Luke had his 1 year old check up in mid January. I was starting to get a tad anxious because he wasn't crawling, creeping, or walking. The doctor reassured me that he was progressing just fine and not to worry. Well, about a week later Luke started crawling. For awhile he had this gimp crawl going on where he'd keep one leg under him to scoot on. It was quite comical. And you can imagine that by now he is all over the place. Pulling up on everything and getting into anything he's not supposed to. He loves getting into the refrigerator and pull out all of the condiments. Go figure! He is also now pointing at things which is a very funny when we're out eating and he decides to point at someone!

He had a little Valentine's party at school. However, he had been feeling a little under the weather and running fever so I checked him out of school early and took him to the doctor. The doctor did find some fluid in his ear and prescribed some medicine. His congestion started getting a little better, but his eyes started looking really bad. Whenever he would take a nap or wake up in the morning, he had so much mucus in his eyes he could barely open them. Poor little buddy. So we called the doctor's office again and they felt it was conjunctivitis (pink eye). They prescribed some eye drops. He is doing so much better, but we still didn't feel comfortable having them go back to school. So, thus I'm here at home today updating the blog, while little Luke naps! :)

Hopefully, I will get better about updating this blog.

Lots of milestones

Whew...it's been a while since I've posted. Let me get you caught up to speed!


Christmas season

Luke had a fabulous first Christmas. Tim and I did a photo shoot around campus to make our Christmas card.





We attended Tim's office party in Montgomery and we were able to sneak in some time with Santa. Luke was scared of Santa at first, but warmed up and we got some great pictures!






Luke had a Christmas program at First Baptist in LaGrange. He was presented to the crowd. So cute!!! Tim, Luke and I and the grandparents all went to Callaway Garden's Fantasy in Lights. Luke was mesmerized by all the lights. It is so fun to experience Christmas through a child's eyes. We all went to Christmas eve Mass and then left Santa some cookies. Notice they almost got eaten by Dansby! :)








We woke up and had Christmas morning here in Auburn. Luke got so many presents including a rocking horse and his Tonka truck that he loves!






We then went to Clanton to celebrate with Tim's family and came back to Auburn to celebrate with my side of the family. What a busy, but fun time!


First Birthday!!!

Just three weeks later, Luke celebrated his first birthday!!! Wow, I cannot believe it's been a year since we were blessed with this little angel. We had a fun party at our house. Check out the beautiful and delicious cakes Tim's sister, Jacque made. She's so talented.

At first, Luke didn't know what to do with the cake. It was almost like he thought he was going to get in trouble for eating it. Then, he got the hang of things and realized how good it tasted!







Luke received lots of presents and needed some help opening them. Thank goodness for friends and cousins!


We then went to the Auburn Alabama basketball game and enjoyed the Auburn victory. We even got to meet former AU football player and current Seattle Seahawk player, Will Herring!