Halloween

 Our Halloween festivities began with Lily coming home for lunch on Friday 

to get into her costume for the afternoon parade and class party.

 While Hannah Grace wasn't in her costume she wanted to be a part of the photo shoot...

and brought her prop cell phone.

 School parade!

 After school the girls spent the afternoon playing the with little girls from down the street.

 As I was taking their pictures, I realized Lily was leading a "fighting" school. 

I couldn't figure out if the sticks were swords or light sabers.

 Teaching them all her fierce moves.

 

I realize it looks like the Johnson girls were beating down on the neighbor girls, but every so often Lily would shout, "It's night time" and all four girls would fall to the ground and pretend to sleep.  Then Lily would walk around and wake them each up.

 

 That night I tried to get a nice picture of all three together.

 As you can see I was taking a little too long and soon lost everyone's attention to the TV that was on behind me.

 Halloween day was sunny and bright and not too cold!

 We met up with some of Lily's friends from first grade and did a little trick-or-treating with them.

Then went over to Grandpa's to trick-or-treat with him on is street.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, no winter coats needed like last year.

And, it was so nice that none of the homes we visited had any type of horror

decorations as so many homes seem to have.

  A couple of skeletons, but nothing that made these little girls feel scared or uncomfortable.

{Although, Hannah Grace looks a little doubtful of the pumpkin man she's standing next too!}

Needless to say everyone had a really fun day and everyone is very tired.

Right now I have both Oskar and Hannah Grace taking naps right now.  I put them to bed at 10:30 this morning!

Spellcheck

Recently, someone 

who shall remain anonymous

{but is in this picture}

 asked me if I used spellcheck on the blog.

I admit, I was slightly offended.

While not an English major,

I pride myself on my use of spellcheck

and grammatically correct sentences.

{although, my college English professor told me I had some issues with my use of the comma}

{I either insert it throughout my writing at all of the wrong times}

{or, ignore it completely}

So, I went back to the last post and read through what I had written.

In the email it was implied there was something amiss

with my spelling of the word sweating.

I didn't remember talking about anyone sweating.

After reading through the post I still didn't know 

what the email writer was referring too.

And then it hit me.

Bless her little heart

Not only do I use dalmation material to make her cowgirl chaps...

but, I tell everyone I call her Sweat Pea.

For the record, she is not a sweaty child.

She is precious and sweet...

and her nickname is Sweet Pea!

and I will pay more attention to spellcheck's recommendations.

Bubbalicious

Things have been busy at the Johnsons the last few weeks

This SweatPea 

had a great season playing soccer.

As in all things, she plays hard and plays too win!

 And when she gets tripped up she always gets right back up and into the game.

There is nothing better...

 then running...

 as fast as you can....

 just because you can!

And the cheerleaders.

 This SugarPlum

 has also been busy.

One sunny morning I found her outside dressed like this...

heading for her sidewalk chalk in the driveway.

She turned "free"

 At times she hangs out with her baby brother

 and other times moves onto something else.

Lastly, we have this little guy...

 who is just...

 busy being...

 precious.

 We've had a hard time coming up with a nickname for him.

Lily's is SweatPea and Hannah Grace is SugarPlum.
If I call Lily "SugarPlum" she'll say to me-
"Momma, I'm not SugarPlum, I'm SweatPea."

If I call Hannah Grace "SweatPea"
She'll tell me
"Momma, I'm not SweatPea, I'm SugarPlum."
They take these things seriously.

Lily keeps asking what Oskar's nickname is going to be
I had been calling him Bubba...

But, Greg did not like that

He said you only called someone Bubba
when they were really your brother
or
If you weren't being nice to them.

I've tried to stop calling him Bubba..

but, I've had a hard time with it...

because he's just so Bubbalicious!

 I have been busy trying to get Halloween costumes together,
which includes creating a Cowgirl costume for Lily.

 Here is how I spent my afternoon...
attaching "chaps" to an old pair of jeans...

I was thinking about two different things when I took these pictures...

1) While I was busy measuring, cutting, and gluing these we had three plumbers downstairs working on the plumbing for our basement.  When I decided to take a picture or two of what I was doing for the blog, I tried to do it discreetly so that the plumbers wouldn't know what I was doing.   I don't know, but I don't think plumbers take pictures of themselves plumbing.  Anyways, I was caught three different times, camera in hand taking a picture of the unfinished pants.  Each time the plumber was very nice and just smiled at me as he walked by and I quickly tried to put the camera down.
2) The other thing is I didn't realize until I got home from JoAnne Fabrics that I had mistakenly bought a yard of dalmatian print fabric instead of the cow print fabric...
I'm betting Lily won't notice!


Well, that's our update for right now.

The plumbers have also left for the day and have completed all their work.

Tomorrow the workmen come to start putting up the drywall.

I am going to try to get down there tonight to take some pictures of how things are shaping up
and I'll try to post them soon so you can see the basement come together!

Day to Day

I thought I'd just post a couple new pictures of the Johnson 3.

I can't say the Johnson girls anymore when referring
to all of our children-although at times I still do!

The girls got to watch the Tinkerbell movie after school today...
Oskar was not that into it.

Can we just take a look at the size of this 10 week old infant?
Greg calls him 98 since he's in the 98th percentile on all of his growth charts...
the boys a tank!

This one here has discovered the school nurse.

I got my first call from her today.  Lily had complained of a sore throat, upset tummy, and had "used a lot of Kleenexes".  The nurse told me she had no temperature and that Lily began feeling better when she realized if she was sick she would miss her first day at Daisies!


This one has her good days
(even with peanut butter and jelly smeared on her face)

and her not so good days

It's not easy being an almost three-year-old,
who. just. wants. to. be. in. charge.

(again with the peanut butter and jelly smeared on her face...on the same cheek as well, different day!)

And, number three is just happy to pose for pictures!

he looks a little too crazy happy in this picture!

that's a little better!

but, he's just too cute!

Lily is, of course thriving and enjoying all of her soccer games
even the ones in the rain.

She is also so excited to be turning 7 this Saturday!

And, I'm excited that I was able to extend my maternity leave and now I won't have to go back to school until November 17th instead of October 6th!

And, Greg's new student orientation at Northern Seminary is this Saturday!

And, Mor Mor and Papa Ocean arrive in Chicago next Tuesday for a fun-filled 10 days!

So, many fun things to look forward too and enjoy these next few weeks.

Stormy

Right now, Hannah Grace is quietly playing with her My Little Ponies.  Oskar is taking a nap, so she is whispering to them as she brushes their hair and puts them into the My Little Pony car.  As she's talking to them, I overheard her say, "Come on girls, we're going to Target"...go figure!

For some reason I keep thinking today is Monday-even though it's Thursday!  But, I thought I'd post some pictures from our Labor Day trip to Stormy!

It was a little colder up there in the North Woods!

Lily caught two trout...you'll get to see one of them next summer if you make it up for a visit!

This little one is never without her accessories, even on the ski boat!

And, we can't forget this little guys second Stormy trip!

And, then I wanted to add this picture for Lauren--it's my new dresser!

The mirror needs to be hung, curtains hemmed and hung properly, and all of my jewelry put away, get a rug, do something with the trim etc. etc., but I do really like the dresser--the drawers are extra big!

I'm off to change out my laundry and make lunch for this little one

And, wait to see how long this little one 

takes a nap!