We Had a Baby Girl!!!

Yes! We had a baby girl! We named her Kathryn Elizabeth Johnson. (Kathryn after my sweet sister, whom I love and adore, and Elizabeth after me...my middle name.) She was born on January 23rd, weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces. Her siblings have absolutely adored her since day 1. Here she is...so tiny and beautiful!!!


And then I blinked and this is what our beautiful girl looks like now. (Like Steve Martin says on "Cheaper by the Dozen," "Enough with the blinking!!" I failed to say we had her January 23, 2010. Yes, it has been that long since I last blogged. But I mean really...4 kids and way too many different schedules and here we are. But we really are still here in AZ, loving life as a family. Hopefully I will pick up blogging again; mainly because I love recording the craziness that is our wonderful life!!!

The Ultimate Insult!

My father-in-law always says the reason that kids fight is because they love to. I am totally convinced this is true with Chase & McKenna. They can fight about absolutely anything in their loudest voices. Yesterday while we were having lunch at home, they started at it. They began hurling whatever insults they could at one another. Finally, McKenna gave the ultimate, "Chase I not going to invite you to my birthday party." (Keep in mind the girl doesn't have a party coming up again until October 2010.) Chase responded with the same insult and then asked me if I could make sure McKenna was not invited to his birthday party. I could only laugh. Newsflash: Both McKenna and Chase will be attending each others' birthday parties in 2010. It's good to be the Mom!

My Precious Girl is 3! October 10, 2009

Well I am a little late in posting, but McKenna turned 3 on October 10, 2009. (The pictures show her each year of her life on her birthday) We had a great time celebrating her. It was the 1st time she was actually excited about her birthday. She for sure knew what was going on...kept asking for her presents. Her favorites were a princess bike and princess dress up clothes...she definitely gets that she is a girl. We celebrated her birthday the night before and then headed to Colorado the day of for a wonderful week at the cabin.

Dear McKenna,
Happy Birthday baby girl! I can not believe you are already 3. You are so delightful to have in our family. You love to play dress up and carry around baby dolls, but you also love to rough house and wrestle with the boys. You and Chase fight incessantly, but I suppose that is just the way it goes. You have decided that you are excited to have your baby sister come in January, but you are insistent that her name should be McKenna too. Your favorite new toy is your dog Coco (That is "Toto" to you.) You carry him around the house whenever possible, and you seem to actually believe he likes it! I love to watch you talk to your baby dolls and mimic me. It is precious. I feel so blessed to have you as my daughter. You constantly tell me, "we be best friends Mom." It is true. We be best friends McKenna and I hope you know that you can always count on me. I love you sweetie! Mom

It's a Girl!

So it is official! We will be having another little girl join our family in January. We are just thrilled. (Mostly) When we first got home and told McKenna, she said,"I don't want a baby sister. I want a baby brother." Fortunately, 5 minutes later she said, "Mom thank you so much getting me a baby sister." So she may be fickle but she seems to be more excited about the idea of a playmate. I wanted so much for her to have a sister to be friends with forever so I am very excited! The boys also are thrilled. They both felt like it should be a girl because then our family would be even. (You can't argue with that logic!) We even took Brinton with us for the ultrasound which was fun. He got his own picture (which he thought looked very little like a baby), and enjoyed asking the technician tons of questions. When the tech said she was 90% sure it would be a girl he said, "So tell us what is it for sure!) I guess he was looking for 100%. Anyway, Graham and I couldn't be more excited to have another precious baby join our family. We feel very blessed!!

My SuperGirl!

I love this picture. This pretty much sums up what it is like to have 2 older brothers. Don't get me wrong, McKenna enjoys dressing up in girl stuff too, but when it comes to playing with the boys she opts for the "muscley" spider man costume. Very feminine wouldn't you agree?! (And as a sidenote, the picture with Kenna & Brinton they are throwing webs at the camera.) But I am sure you already knew that.
So the reason McKenna is my supergirl is because she decided last week she was ready to grow up and be a big girl. I have been dreading potty training her, but she made it so easy. She loved having a sticker chart and talking about how big she really is. We started potty training on Sunday and by Tuesday she was telling me "I'm going potty now Mom." Honestly she has made it such a breeze! So after conquering that, she decided she was ready to sleep in a big girl bed. (Another thing I was avoiding...pure laziness on my part.) She started asking if she could sleep in the big girl bed in our guest room and voila now she sleeps in there like a champ. Recently Graham was out of town so my friend Lisa kindly stayed over (I'm a SuperWimp!) I went to get McKenna from the guest room bed to have her sleep the night with me (so Lisa would have the guest room) and she threw the biggest fit. "Mommy your bed is not a big girl bed!" So after trying to persuade her that my big girl bed is quite lovely, she asked me to take her to her crib instead.
Anyway, I just love this girl! She makes our home so much more fun. She talks all the time (She gets that from Graham I'm sure!) and loves playing with her brothers. So McKenna, thanks for becoming a big girl and dragging me along for the ride!

Meet Coco!

Well we finally have added a puppy to our family. Our children could not be more thrilled. I know some of you that know me are thinking how...but it just happened. I was talking to my mom about 6 weeks ago and mentioned to her that at some point in the future we would get a dog for our kids. She was surprised and mentioned that her good friend Patty just had a litter of schnoodles (schnauzer/poodle mix) So I talked to Graham and we decided to go for it. Grandmommy told the kids about the puppy when we were vacationing in Florida together in early August. She said that she would keep the dog until Graham flew out to Texas at the end of August. Graham went out for a guys trip with my family this past weekend and had a great time deep sea fishing. (He caught some big ones too!) But I digressed, as far as my children were concerned his mission was to return with their new puppy Coco. (Chase came up with the name himself.) Graham got home yesterday evening with the puppy. Needless to say, it was difficult to get the boys to go to school today. I told them both we would meet them at their bus stops after school with Coco. (This helped some.) So we are enjoying having this little guy around. He is so sweet and precious as you can see. Lucky for me, my mom did a great job "potty training" him for the weeks she had him. (We are working on continuing her efforts.) Unlucky for my mom, she completely fell in love with Coco. She actually thought about getting the kids a different dog, but felt like they were already bonded to Coco through pictures and videos. It was a loving sacrifice on her part (Believe Me!) and we are so happy to have him. Thanks Mom!!! And a special thanks to Kristin for being willing to keep Coco at her house all the days mom had to work. Sorry about your carpet, but you really are an awesome Aunt!! To let you know how excited the kids are, yesterday morning Brinton came up to Chase and said, "Chase we are getting our puppy today. This day is going to change the rest of our lives!" So with that, our lives have been forever changed.:)

Our family is Growing!

It's about time for me to make the announcement that we are expecting! (Many of you know, but I need to make it official.) We are super excited to welcome another baby at the end of January. We should find out pink or blue in the next few weeks so stay tuned for the news. This has actually been a harder pregnancy for me than usual. I don't normally get sick, and the first trimester was filled with nausea this time. Our children (who found out at 6 weeks, but managed to keep the secret for almost 2 months) are thrilled. Brinton loves the idea of having another baby in our home. He coined our favorite phrase early on in the pregnancy when he said, "It's all for the cause Mom." He walked into the family room one day to give me some crackers and asked if I was feeling sick from the baby. When I told him I was, he thought about it for a moment and said, "Well Mom, it is all for the cause. I mean let's face it: you feel sick for a little while, but we end up getting a baby out of it. That seems like a pretty good deal to me." He has reminded me a few times since that this is all for the cause. I fortunately told Graham before we even got pregnant that I planned on being a Diva this pregnancy. I usually don't complain, or ask him to get me food I am craving, but this time things have changed. I mean, I am getting older, and it is kind of fun to have him make me grilled cheese sandwiches late at night. Thanks for being a good sport Honey!! Afterall, it is all for the cause!