Valentine overload

Happy Valentine's Day! I love holidays and we love celebrating. Therefore, a day when we can love all over our kiddos more than normal is right up our alley! We started the day with wheat pancakes with Valentine M&Ms dipped in homemade yogurt. I feel I sort of negated the candy, by making them whole wheat with Mommy made yogurt...possibly? Then the sharing on cards, candies, stickers,bubbles, bikes, etc began. The boys do not know what a present is, just what a "surprise" is. So we opened and shared many surprises today! As you can see friends and family from near and far spoiled the boys plum rotten! At this point they might not understand this was not Christmas all over again, because it started to seem that way. Then, as they typical Johnson gang must....we had speech and OT therapy..not really holiday fun, but necessary. Then off to a little get together with other Christian Mommas to have the kids decorate Valentine bags, exchange Valentine surprises and share lunch. A great day for the kiddos, followed by a fabulous snow storm. The boys and I played in snow and for the first time I heard them shout the word "snow". The day wrapped up with friends, gifts for Mommy, Skyping daddy, a great dinner, a bubble bath dyed pink and snuggling over several books. Now I can sit in peace and sip wine in our new wine glasses with our monogram etched into them, a love gift for Mommy and Daddy!I love my little Valentines! Super hard to spend yet another holiday with out a husband and Dady, but longing for his return more than ever.

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching

A bunch of our fellow church Mamas wanted to get our toddlers together for a Valentine making get together and lunch and I volunteeried to host. We ended up with many families and ht at a dozen toddlers at our home. So yhe craft part kind of becamse pure cahos but the play time and lunch went off with plenty of joy! I couldnt help but share video jumoing with his little Valente Eleanor,a nd of course sharing some Valentine hugs and love! However, since we didn't accomplish any cards of value at the party, we spent time together making some the following day. Of course they didnt want to use the heart style supplies I bought, so I compromised and they are now "trucks" valentines. We are participatig in another Valentine party with a different group of friends and are exchanging cards there. So the boys will have cute ones to trade with pride. Lastly, for now at least, the boys and I made Valentine cookies. Well I made the cookies and the boys were in charge of smearing the icing and putting on sprinkles. I would put a dab of ciicng in the center for them to smear around. Well, to no surprise that meant Taft licking the icing in order to smear it around. Zeke, on the other hand was devouring sprinkles left and right. So the cookies are not excatly hygenic, but they turned out preciuous and we had a blast makign them! I love seasonal fun with 2 adorable toddlers!

Letter recognition

I admit the videography is quite pathetic..I keep bumping the table and I can't the letters out of the box fast enough and then get all mixed up on which ones I have shown him and which ones I have not...BUT with that being said.....I present to you Zeke, master of all letters, both Upper and lowercase!!!!

Birthday Videos

We had so many family and friends who were not able to attend the boys birthday so I had to share a few videos so you can be part of the joy of their special time.

Birthday Party

Our precious little men celebrated 2 with a giant birthday party at the Children's museum. They enjoyed exploring and adventure with what many would consider way too many guests, but hey there is 2 of them, so they need twice the buddies, right? I have attached pictures that Francine/Jessica provided, because go figure..Mommy remembered everything except new batteries for the camera. Great food, great friends, great venue...nothing beats that when you are 2!

Part of their birthday weekend included our first ever slumber party. Our first ever Ethiopian adoptive family friends traveled to our town for the weekend to celebrate with us and stayed at our home for the weekend. The 4 toddlers loved playing together and we had a real blast all together. Between staying up chatting over several bottles of wine, potty training with 4 tots, many meals(oops I forgot Gabe was Gluten-free, so that was a challenge), Ethiopian restaurant and many good laughs, we really had an adventure!

"Twins"

You know your kiddos were destined to be "twins" when on the exact same day they fall, at 2 different time, and get the EXACT SAME SCAB!!!! They both popped the area between your nose and lip and it formed a little scab. how bizarre is that?

If I had a dollar for the amount of times people comment on the fact that it looks like Taft has eyeliner on, I could buy everyone in my family a Starbucks. I assume all these strangers do not really believe he has eyeliner on, but it sure does look like it. Gorgeous eyes my babe has!

Last week we had the EMG/NCV done on Taft. The results were a blessing and a curse....He does not have Muscular Dystrophy or Multiple Sclerosis Praise God! The commented that his muscle bulk and strength for very defined and strong for his age! That's right, my little linebacker already! However, they believe maybe there is a part in his brain not cooperating with his muscles. His cognitive evaluations are always right on track, just his gross motor is still a bit behind. Therefore, we are now scheduled for an MRI/brain scan, blood work, and liver function test, along with a follow-up with his regular Neurologist. Hoping this will be our last major hospital visit, before we have a Daddy back in town. I have gotten way too familiar with each hospital in the Tucson area and used and abused friends who are willing to care for Zeke while I focus on Taft.

One of Taft's therapist really brought it back home the other day when we were discussing medical conditions, test, diagnosis, etc. She said "What if this is how God made him", "Look at the faith growth in your family because of these struggles"! Yes, yes you are right! Our God is great, powerful and the Almighty Healer. I witness my little man praying daily, getting excited over bible stories, and dancing and singing at kid's church warms my heart. If my kiddo never runs up and down flights of stairs, but commits his life to Christ and service I will be the most BLESSED Mommy on Earth!

Christmas and New Years

...and no Zeke did not really ahve a sip of that margarita!

Christmas Gifts

I couldn't help but share with our friends and family a few videos of the boys opening gifts and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas! They didn't get the concept of gifts this year unfortunately. Therefore, they periodically opened a gift here and there instead of sitting down and going crazy all at once. At one point when the entire family was opening gifts we found Taft in the hallway with an old dump truck of Memaw's! He just wanted to play, regardless of how old the toys are!

****Take note of Zeke gasping as he opens each gift. He noticed the adults doing that and picked up on it too!

Avery

While in Texas the boys adored Avery, my parent's lab. After playing with her, and then hearing stories of therapy dogs helping kiddos with issues similar to Taft's I think we might be slightly conidering a dog come summer. After you see this video you will be voting "yes" to a dog for these two. They LOVE Avery!

Jump House

While in TX we went to the Emerald Rainbow inflatable jump house on 3 different occasions. My parents are fabulous hosts providing 2 cribs, 2 high chairs, 2 car seats, and about one million toys, BUT the rest of their home isn't exactly child proofed. So early every morning the boys would go nuts "playing" with breakable Christmas decor or running out of the bathroom with a spray bottle of 409, so we decided to escape on early mornings and let the kids burn mass quantities of energy bouncing. One trip it was the 4 kiddos and me, the next the boys with Ashley and I, and lastly Ryan, Ashley, and the boys(to help while I was booted due to the fractured foot). Each time was a true adventure, but we all had a blast. Te boys even crashed one time before we made it out of the parking lot, they were so exhausted!

Advent Calendar

Taft was obsessed, and I mean obsessed with this chocolate calendar I got at Trader Joe's. We had a couple of daily activities for the month of December each day leading up until Christmas, so I thought it would be fun to end our traditions each evening with a shared candy from the calendar. Boy was I wrong! I found Taft hiding under the Christmas tree on several occasions desperate to get into the calendar, found him stuffing his mouth, and then found his hysterical because he wanted candy! I had no idea he would get so worked up over the candy. That was just supposed to be the little reward after our daily time learning about Jesus! Maybe next year there will be more Jesus and less candy when you see his bizarro behavior!

23 & me

BEST GIFT EVER! Tyler gave our family 23&me gene testing for Christmas. Mine has been sent off to a lab for analysis. Now I must wait the 6-8 time period for results to be returned. I am dying to find out more about my history, health, family, body, make-up, etc! What a real gift of life!

2nd best gift ever.....Half spa day at the new JW Marriot Gold Resort in Texas. He arranged for Memaw to watch the kids while I was pampered beyond belief in spas, aromatherapy rooms, stone massage, facial, mud wrap, etc! I read how that hotel is one of the 50 best in the World as well as their Spa is in the top 50 too! I definitely felt like #1 in the world! Never been pampered in luxury of that quality and what a neat surprise, totally out of the blue from adoring Tyler! 1.5 years ago..Kelly and I were paying $4 for a couple's massage in a little hut in Ethiopia! Totally different atmosphere, but I wouldn't call the hut "Luxury"!

Kiddie Park

Memaw and I took the boys to the Kiddie Park of San Antonio. Yes, the same old nasty park that even my grandparents went to as children, its over 80 years old! The boys had a blast! All the rides are for tots, literally no parents can ride with the kids, except the spinning orbits. Little awkward to toss my kid on a ride and say "Bye", but they loved the independence. We all had a blast, minus the orbits that made mom and I sick, the spinning was way too quick! The boys realized they could sit on the same side of the boats and tip it, dragging their hand in disgusting water, surprise surprise! The Ferris wheel goes super high, with no adult in the cage! But, Zeke screamed the entire 10 revolutions or so...why? The ride director made him share a seat with Taft! Poor thing, who could ever expect you to share a set with your "twin brother"! Next time we are in SA, we are heading there again! What a blast from the past, and a real barrel of monkeys!