Journeys with the Johnsons

Friday, January 13, 2012

Abbey and Andy Visit

We enjoyed a visit from Abbey and Andy after Christmas. They spent 2 weeks in SC, splitting their time between the 4 older siblings, while Grammie and Grampa went on a cruise. Tyler and Bailey Beth absolutely love their Aunt Abbey and Uncle Andy and had a great time playing with them.

We had Pizza Hut with Aunt Lucinda and Uncle Trey after we picked Abbey and Andy up from the airport, went to see some Christmas lights, visited their old house on Catfish Cove, explored Clemson's campus, played a Twilight board game, watched the final Harry Potter dvd, made lots of snacks, and Andy helped Ben build a liner for his trailer and accompanied him on several trips to pick up mulch for our yard. We all hung out at Uncle Brian and Aunt Anna's house one Friday night and played the jelly bean game called "BeanBoozled". We mostly enjoyed spending time together and catching up on what's happening in their lives.
Here are some of the photos we took at Clemson:

in front of Sikes Hall

Tillman Hall

Amphitheater, reflection pond, and library

Reflection pond

Playtime with Aunt Abbey

Uncle Andy and Tyler helping with the mulch

Christmas 2011

We had an amazing Christmas!! I'll let the photos do all the talking.

Bailey Beth, Tyler, and cousin Britton

Uncle Bo, Aunt Erin, and Britton

Gee-Gee, Pop, and Bailey Beth

Gaines cousins - Tyler, Bailey Beth, Sam, Wren, and Chloe (we're only missing Kaleb)

Aunt Denise and Uncle Davis came down from PA this year.

Chloe and Tyler

All of us with Papa and Nana on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning.....playing with their gifts from Santa!

Santa brought a Cars 2 race track

taking Tyler's new Spider-man soap for a stroll in her baby stroller.....thanks Nana (oops I meant Santa)

McDonald's drive thru......the biggest hit!

playing with his new trucks from Grammie and Grampa

Bailey Beth - 18 Months

Our baby girl is already a year and a half old!! She turned 18 months on Christmas Eve. She has really blossomed in the last several months. She seems to "get it" a lot now, her speech and vocabulary is certainly picking up, and she is learning new things daily. She is quite the little singer - her favorite songs are "Baa Baa Black Sheep, "Mary had a Little Lamb", "The B-I-B-L-E", and "Twinkle Twinkle".

Her hair is finally filling out. I've been brushing and brushing it to get it to grow so people will stop calling her "such a cute little boy". She loves to listen to stories and will spend a long time looking at pictures in her books. She got some great books for Christmas and her current favorites are: Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Time for Bed, and Donkey's Christmas Song. We've read Hand Hand Fingers Thumb sooo many times that Tyler can read it to Bailey Beth now!!! Be on the lookout for a video of that very soon. I'm thrilled that they love it so much because it was my favorite book as a child.

Bailey Beth's favorite treats are goldfish, teddy grahams, french fries and of course chocolate. She is still pretty laid back, but has learned how to fake whine and cry in hopes of getting her way....yep, she's completely figured out manipulation now. She does have a very tender heart though and will sometimes break down and sob at a stern "no no". On the opposite side, she thinks she's in on the joke.....if any of us are laughing together she'll run over and just start dying laughing as if she knows exactly what we're talking about which makes us laugh more and it's pretty darn hilarious.

I think it's safe to say that we are churning out a real southern girl here. Our little cupcake (her most recent nickname) can go from loving and carrying her babies around to playing with Tyler's cars and saying "vroom vroom". She likes to wrestle on the floor with Dada and Diggy and then sit in her high chair and watch MaMa cook dinner. She's soft and sweet, but can hang with the boys too.....like I said, she's southern.

At her 18 month check-up she weighed 21 pounds exactly and was 32 inches long. This put her in the 10th percentile for weight and the 70th for height. It looks like she's trying to track her big brother!

Papa with Bailey Beth on Christmas Eve

my sweet cupcake!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Recent Photos of Bailey Beth

She looks just like Dada.....don't ya think!

Preschool Programs

Tyler's preschool had their Christmas Program on Tuesday night. The kids dressed up for a nativity scene and sang Christmas songs. Tyler was a shepherd. He loved performing and was all smiles.

Tyler is on the 1st row....2nd from the left

Yay! Celebrating after the finale

Here is a photo of Tyler after the Thanksgiving show. He wasn't thrilled with the indian facepaint.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Arizona Thanksgiving

We spent a week in Arizona visiting Grammie, Grampa, Abbey, and Andy for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed spending time with everyone and had a wonderful trip! Grammie made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and the kids immediately loved being around Aunt Abbey and Uncle Andy. Following tradition, there was a Thanksgiving football game in the back yard....Ben and Abbey against Grampa and Andy. There was a lot of soccer played too. Ben's still got it when it comes to soccer - he and Tyler swept the series against a strong team in Abbey and Andy.

Ben and I took 2 side trips while Grammie and Grampa babysat for us. First, we drove down to Tombstone and spent the night in Tucson. Later, we drove to Sedona.....a truly beautiful place. While in AZ we saw a coyote at Grammie's house, a javelina at our hotel in Tucson, and a couple roadrunners while driving. The kids did well on our flights.....Tyler loved looking out the window and using the "airplane potty". Bailey Beth got excited when she felt the speed of taking off and she enjoyed playing peek-a-boo through the seats with other passengers (luckily we were around kid friendly passengers). Here are some of our favorite photos from our fun trip: