7 Months

Turning seven months was a big deal for this guy.  In just one week he learned how to army crawl and sit up by himself.  Its so fun to see the little milestones.  Here we are outside watching the big boys play and I couldn't seem to keep him on the blanket.  He didn't seem to mind the grass though!

My little peanut sitting up and so proud of himself!

This month we started the process of figuring out what to do with his puking issues.  He has always spit up A TON, but I never thought it was a huge deal as he doesn't seem to be in any kind of pain.  But, with him becoming mobile now, it became very inconvenient.  He would through up and then mop it up with his hands or body!  It didn't matter if he was mostly nursing or drinking formula.  (Which I stopped nursing at about 6 months).  I mentioned it to the Dr. and because he was so low on the charts (currently not even on the charts at >0%) she felt like we needed to do something.  We tried switching formulas and it didn't help.  Finally, he was reffered to the GI specialist.  Poor baby showing off his bandaids after being tortured at the GI apt.  They decided to treat him with reflux and milk protein intolerance.  They put him on a veeeery expensive formula (about $50 per can that will last about 3 days!) They also ordered extra x rays and ultrasounds to rule out any other issue.  It was a couple months of experimenting, and all test coming back okay.  The formula didn't seem to be doing much and because insurance wasn't going to cover it, we went back to the sensitive formula.  Eventually at 9 months he just kind of grew out of it, and slowly started to put on a little bit of weight. (Thank goodness!!)

Jackson's first day of Kinder

This day was the first day of a new era for the Johnson clan.  We have an elementary school child!  Jackson started his first day of all-day kindergarten!  He missed the cut off by 7 days to go into first grade, and although he was more than ready to have already been in school, we decided in the long run it will be better that he will be one of the oldest in his grade.  

We were also very excited because his elementary school started a duel language program this year for kindergartners.  He will be learning Spanish as well as English.   He will be in this program his entire elementary days, and by the end of 5th grade they say he will be fluent in Spanish!  What an amazing opportunity!!   

School is early though!  (A little too early if you ask anyone in our house)  He has to be out the door by 7:20 as they start at 7:40.  He is done by 2:00pm.  His first day was a drag getting him out of bed.  Poor guy!

His school is literally around the corner from us and about a block down.  It makes it really nice that its just a short walk away.  Here is his with his buddy Giana, who is in his class!

Walkin' my baby... makes me tear up a bit that he is so grown up!!

Dropping him off at his classroom.  His teacher, Ms. Huvaere helping him take off his Jacket and saying her "hello's"

And these cute boys were so excited to pick big brother up from school!  After he got home he just layed on the couch for awhile.  His neighbor friend came over to play and he answered the door and said, "I don't want to play right now cause I had a really big day at school!"  Wore him out, but he loved it!

Bill's 60th Birthday Celebration

For several of months I collaborated with Donna on a surprise party and get together for Bill's 60th birthday.  He had asked for nothing big for his birthday and little did he know what was going to happen.  :)  The whole family made plans to come down for the weekend for a reunion and Donna and I put together a surprise party for neighbors/friends.  

Donna made up a scheme all about a little weekend "get away" for the two of them.  She researched places to go and put together a fake itinerary.  The first thing was to start at their family favorite restaurant "Stalkholm Inn" for a swedish breakfast.  And that is where we came in...  Everyone was waiting their when they arrived to surprise him!  He was so excited, and even shed some tears.

I think he thought, oh nice, we will have a family breakfast and then still go on our little "trip".  Nope, it was all a lie and now he just had a weekend home with his family! haha, not sure if that was more exciting or a disappointment for him.  

First stop was to Rock Hut State park for a picnic and canoes and paddle boats on the lake.  

Jamie and I discovered we had the same little outfits for our guys so they were dressed as twins that day! Corbin is only 2 months older.

The next day was the party.  We decided the boys would take him on a "guys activity" to get him out of the house while we girls set up for the party.  I planned all the decorations and Donna had some food catered from a local place.  

Here we all are hiding out waiting for his arrival and to shout out our suprises.  Again, he had no idea thinking that the family coming into town was the big surprise!  

I set up a little photo booth with props for a fun way to document who was there.  The family had a fun time with it...

The rest of the weekend was spent just hanging out and enjoying one anothers company.  

Greyson became an army crawler that weekend.  Here he is teaching Corbin how it's done.

And Corbin teaching him how sitting up is done.  :)

August Adventures

We said goodbye to our trusty corolla. After 8 years of being in our family, it was time to join the mini van club so it had to go.  Justin sold it on craigslist quite quickly for a pretty decent price.  And because we could only handle being a one car family for about a week we got on the hunt right away for a mini van.  The toyota seinna was our top choice and we ended up finding an AMAZING deal for our 2011 sienna in Chicago (fyi: every car we have purchased in our married life has come from Chicago)

We really, really, I mean really, love our new van!!

Took the boys to a their first build and grow at Lowes.  They had fun using their hammers and building their airplanes.  

We pass by this little mini golf course all the time and the kids had been asking to go over and over.  We finally made it over there one afternoon and had a fun time watching them play putt putt.

Justin's latest home project: blacktopping the driveway.  (He decided next time it would be worth the little bit of extra money to pay someone to do it)

Jackson started KINDERGARTEN (a post to come on that next).  Getting kindergarten shots broke this mama's heart.  I think it was harder for me to watch this one than it is for the baby shots.  I think the reason was because he knew it was coming and I could just see the fear in his eyes.  He tried to be so brave, but when he started crying I couldn't help tear up as well.  This trip to fro-yo was well worth it this time! (such goof balls!!)

Since Jackson was at school I took Jonah to the library story time for the first time.  It happened to be a farm animal theme and they had someone bring in some animals for the kids to touch.  Here is Jonah with the baby chicks. 

And yup, this happened.... thank goodness it was washable, cause I have to admit I was pretty impressed with the sideburns he had going on, and couldn't help snap a picture.  Bad parenting?!? Eh.