Shh...Don't tell Daddy!

The boys love to play "Mee-Mup", aka Make-Up Time with brushes and pretending to dip them in colors for their face. One time Taft even got it went accidentally and then smeared it on his face. Powder + Water= Paste. He had to wear a hat to church that morning to cover up the white stripe I couldn't get off his forehead!

Every boy's dream!

Thank you Daddy and Pepaw for our indoor swing. There isn't many things in lie more creative an enjoyable!

A tast of our food life

Howdy Gang! You all know we have major feeding issues and I couldn't help but to film some of our chaos. The other day I offered 17different fresh and prepared foods and neither kid would take a single bite...seriously??? But then Zeke impressed me with his creative balancing act skills, and Taft went broccoli nuts the following day! A few days after this video Zeke successfully ate a large quantity...of what you ask: 2 dishes of his request that he actually FINISHED!
1. Homemade Greek yogurt with chunks of peaches in it, cover in, and I mean full blown SMOTHERING of Parmesan cheese, funky tasting goat milk cheese at that!
2. A bowl of peas drowned in Agave nectar syrup.
Seriously Zeke...I wish they still had that show Double Dare, he would totally win!

Our recent life in photos!

A few noteworthy photos:
The boys in their matching shirts with Daddy.
The new "library" in the boys room.
Great Zoo trip included feeding the giraffes.
Mom riding in the trunk of the car.
WE FINALLY had our silhouettes cut and framed! Tyler and I have wanted that done since high school and were able to have them done recently. The artist took less than 30 seconds for each silhouette to be hand cut, that is true ART!
Zeke has a little girlfriend.
Mommy rocked the Thanksgiving day cross country, and post race can still press a 28 pound kiddo over and over...woohoo. First real race with water jumps, mud, etc!
Taft is rocking his styling little leg braces...could they be any cuter?

The Johnsons have gone crafty!

Recently we have done a couple of things I am LOVING!!!!

Jesse Advent Tree:
A group of women at church all selected one symbol from creation to the birth of Christ to make as ornaments. There is a book that goes along with the series, and I selected to make 25 scrolls and 25 sets of the 10 commandments to trade with 25 other women so I now have 2 complete sets of 25 ornaments. Today was the first day and we read and talked about the story of how God created the world, and the boys each hung the globe ornament someone at church designed. I am thrilled to be able to share Bible stories leading up to celebrating our Christ with the boys! I will post a photo of the scroll and commandments I made. After 25 of each, I am pretty proud of those little guys.

Toddler Games:
A MOPS group decided to each make a little game type activity that fits into a gallon sized Ziploc and can be taken on the road. We each made 10 and then traded so we ended up with 10 different games. Once again I have 2 boys, so I chose to make 2 activities so I can then have double to trade and bring home. I made the past sorting by color, size and texture as well as the identifying shades of one color activity. We can home with 8 other fabulous activities, for moments like sitting in a doctor's office for an hour with nothing to do. Now I will be the prepared Mommy with educational down time activities!

Cake Pops:
We have tried to make these little boogers too many times. Alli and Randa will vouch for the fact that one set of our looked and tasted like melted Reindeer poop, not the adorable pops in the photo.Therefore, one of my crafty friends invited a couple ladies over for a little "how to" while the kiddos played. I was still the worst decorator of the group, but I think my little turkey was pretty cute. I need to stick to flavor and not appearance. My baked goodies are always killer in taste, but don't ever win prizes for being picture worthy!

We are still alive!

My goodness gracious what long time since I have been able to post. Life just hit fast forward for 2 weeks and then I was so far behind I didn't want to post anything because there was just way too much to say. So I am going to hit on the highlights of what has been going on, of course all the typical therapies, dates, groups, lessons, etc, but in addition the following craziness:
1. Daddy came home for 17 days and we were in HEAVEN, literally. The boys recognized and only a day or so in were back to their typical daddy-loving selves!
2. We went to Disney and had a blast!(well all but Zeke who was afraid of it all)
3. We have been to several fabulous birthday parties.
4. The bathroom is COMPLETED!!! Custom cabinet in, water running, paint, dry...loving not sharing with the boys!
5. Taft had a Neurology appt...they found nothing wrong, and think he is just dev behind from orphanage life. Considering testing for trisomies if there isn't a giant jump in next 4-6 months.
6. Taft has been super sick, and several docs believe it to be allergies, so we are giving allergy meds a try.
7. Zeke got an ear infection that was so bad his fever almost hit 105 and the doc made us stay at the clinic until we could get it down, over 6 hours.
8. Both boys had blood work and chest x-rays because they just were not getting better.
9. Taft got his little orthotics in and is a miracle. They told us he would have to learn how to walk all over again, we strapped them on and he took off running..can we say determination?
10. We attended a picnic in PHX for adoptive families.
11. On the way to Phoenix we got a nail in the tire and had to purchase 2 new tires, but had to drive cautiously to 3 different stores looking for the Right tires in the middle of Tour de Tucson(aka thousands of cyclist all over town).
12. We went to a Thanksgiving for Ethiopian adoptive families in Phoenix.
13. I left my tithing check in my Operation Christmas Child box and had to go sort through boxes to find the blank check before it was wisked away to a 3rd world country!
14. Taft is now receiving speech therapy, Zeke placed out!
15. We ran as a family, My dad, My sister and me! in the Thanksgiving Cross country race here in Tucson.
16. My immediate family came to stay and play for the week of Thanksgiving.
17. We had a family date to the zoo.
18. Pepaw babysat all day, while my mother, sister and I went nuts on black Friday, as usual!
19. In place of getting a rental car, my mom volunteered to ride in the trunk of my car around town. Yes my little SUV had 4 adults and 2 baby seats!

Disney in Pictures

Handy Manny

The boys officially know 2 Disney Characters...Handy Manny and Mickey Mouse(Which they call Toodles because he always says O'Toodles during the show). Disneyland has a little stage performance of Disney Junior where they could dance and sing with Manny and Toodles. We went 3 times to the show..yes 3 times, but look how excited they were.

Character Breakfast

While at Disneyland we decided to make reservations for a character breakfast. Everyone had talked the character meals up and we figured it was a great way to meet several characters with out waiting in a line in the park itself. My boys could not have reacted differently. Taft was dancing to the music and high fiving characters while Zeke screamed bloody murder and cried at even the sight of a character. Tyler taught him to say "no, no, Bye-Bye" when he didn't want the character to come and visit. Later the next day Ty was watching football at the hotel and Zeke ran up to the TV yelling "No, No, Bye Bye". I realized there was a rum commercial that had a pirate on the bottle. Captain Hook was by far the scariest character for Zeke, so he was even mad at the commercial and the character silhouette on the bottle.

Pumpkin Eating/Carving

God's gifts

When we first felt called to change our dossier from one baby boy, to 2 baby boys we were hesitant and anxious. We knew this was God's will and we were faithful. Looking back...God is amazing and all knowing obviously, but I reassured of that daily in the interactions of my boys. God designed our family, and for the two of them to be brothers for life, from sharing a wood box "crib" in Ethiopia to now. Today alone I was shown this during these moments:

1. I am pulling the wagon home from visiting the Payne family and I have my back to the boys, but hear "tickle-tickle" over and over again from both kiddo. I turn around and witness that they are taking turns tickling each others feet and saying "tickle-tickle".

2. At the gym the teacher gave Zeke a little bag of goldfish to-go for the car and he took them and signed thank you. He took one step away and turned back and reach up saying "tut-tut" and signing please. He wanted a baggie for Taft too, who he calls "tut-tut".

3. In the stroller Zeke must have finished his drink and wanted more because he threw his cup down and started saying more. Therefore, the kind hearted Taft grabs his cup from the pocket and hands it to Zeke.

4. In the bath this evening I have a director for each boys washing moments. When I am washing Taft, Zeke stands over and directs me saying "bubbles" and pointing to the places that I have missed to make sure Taft is cleaned well. Then they switch roles.

5. Finally, after reading stories I asked them to give Mommy a kiss, and instead of kissing me they kept kissing each other over and over again and giggling.

I could never imagine their little lives with out the other.

God is so great and mighty to have designed our family!

Does Taft have a twin?

Totally bizarre, but I saw this commercial and it shockingly reminds me of Taft! Well my goodness gracious I hope not the end segment of Cee Lo, but the Baby and Kiddo are seriously Taft's twin!

First Race for Mommy pushing the double jogger

We completed our first race with Mommy and the double stroller. I was 1 of 2 crazy enough to attempt the race with the extra 125 pounds. The other double just so happened to be good friends of ours! I started thinking how much easier the run would have been if we didn't live in the mountains of Tucson with way too many hills to maneuver up with what seemed like a ton of bricks in the stroller. We finished in my goal time of 8-9 minutes per mile! I only tripped twice over items the boys threw over board and then Mommy ran right over. The boys loved the post race food, bands and roaming around old down town! Their favorite was a lollipop a vendor gave them, second one ever. After the slobbering mess and screaming fit when I took it away, it just might be their last for a while. I look forward to many more active events with my little guys! Go Team Johnson!

Lesson learned: Do not be the very last person to start the race! I thought I was being considerate of all the runners to get my huge BOB out of the way, but then quickly realized I then had to run past all the "walkers" who were at the end of the crowd. Weaving in and out of large crowds walking while you try and pass running on narrow down town city streets is a bad idea. Live and learn!

Here we come fall!

Our To-Do List is our Done list

1. Halloween costumes(took 5 stores to get the right sizes)
2. Pumpkin patch
3. House decorated
4. Scarecrows up
5. First trick or treating experience with MOPS
6. First snow cone at the church picnic
7. Halloween cards made and sent
8. Halloween shirts that glow in the dark
9. Skeleton glow in the dark jammies
10. Halloween presents from Memaw and Pepaw opened and loved

Handy Manny

In prep for our Disney Trip the boys watch 15 minutes of Disney here and there, and Taft has a serious fascination with the Handy Manny song! He doesn't just enjoy it he literally goes nuts!

Best gift idea I ever had!

The boys and I made the best gift ever for Tyler! A pillow case that has the following embroidered in the center, with the boys hand and foot prints on either side of the wording:

Daddy lays his heads here, when we are apart he can feel us near!

Experiment

I have let the boys watch 10 minutes of Disney shows a few days each week for a week or so in preparation for our Disney trip. I am trying to teach them a few of the characters, simply so they are not afraid and have some sort of connection going into it. Until 2 weeks ago I was the ANTI-TV mommy, but for just a few weeks before Disney I am easing up a TINY bit. I tested T-bone..would you rather watch Handy Manny or would you rather have a snack? Go figure..I know that boy too well, of course the winner was....drum roll please....

Zeke asleep?

Just when I thought after an hour of quiet Zeke was fast asleep.....Nope!

Air Force Academy

Tyler and two other AFA grads, his buddy from Gardez and a visiting General, celebrate the Air Force Academy win over the Naval Academy!

Dove Newsletter

We got a newsletter from Dove today and I just now realized for months there has been something all too familiar about the agency letterhead. Do you see what I see?