A Night Out!

A few weeks ago we had a rare chance to have a night out with our dear friends Bryan and Kim. We are so blessed to have them in our life. I have known Bryan since jr. high and then Clay met him in college. Clay and Bryan were friends before Clay and I started dating and shortly before we got married Bryan met Kim. It is so fun to have friends who have known you for so long and know all kinds of funny things about you. We love you Bryan and Kim and had a great time on our night out.

Fun with Friends

Last weekend we were able to spend a few hours with our Georgia friends. It was a sweet time and we really wish for more of it. Jennifer and the girls flew in Saturday morning and we got to meet them at the mall for fun play times and then go to church together that night. Nathan was so excited to get to take a "visitor" to class. We sure do miss our friends, but are happy they are happy in Georgia.

Nathan and Charlotte wrestling at the mall.

Those are some really serious thoughts for Miss Abby.



Abby loves to play with Ansley. They don't play near as rough as Charlotte and Nathan.

My Return to Blogging

I have taken quite a hiatus from actually blogging on my own blog the last few weeks. This whole working bit has really cut into my spare time. Hopefully this weekend I will get a chance to catch up on some of my blogging. We've been very busy so I do have alot of stuff to write about.

Yesterday Nathan's class had their first field trip. Since school is only Tues, Wed, and Thurs. they have one Friday a month for field trips. We went to an apple orchard in Roanoke yesterday and the kids had a great day. It was quite hot, but it didn't seem to slow them down at all. After the orchard we went to a park for lunch. Nathan had his friend Sydney ride with him to the park and then got to have his friend Mikey come over all afternoon for a play date. They had so much fun!

One of the nice things about our sweet school is that they let you take siblings on the field trips. So Abby got to enjoy the fun as well. I had a chance to get some sweet pics of her during the sitting and talking part for the kindergartners. She has become quite independent lately and has changed so much since her birthday. She had to get a new toddler-sized back pack so she could carry it herself. She chose purple over pink or flowers.

Junk from the Drawer

Last Saturday Clay spent the entire morning cleaning out our garage. It was a huge task that even though it was SO hot that morning had to be done. There was no more putting it off. Well while he was cleaning he found some really fun stuff. One of the funniest things he found was a box labeled "Junk from Drawer". This was a box that got packed when we were preparing to move out of our house in Houston in Jan of 2001. If I'm not mistaken the stuff came out of our kitchen drawer at the desk area and was most of seems to be from 1999 and 2000. I was about 7 mos pregnant with Nathan and was not much of a packer at all and apparently didn't care what was packed where. So my mom did the majority of the packing, but I did the labeling. There were some great pictures of some dear friends in this box. I first of all have to apologize to those of you who were in a box labeled "Junk from Drawer" and second of all have to apologize for putting your "dated" pictures on my blog, but they were just too fun not to share. Here goes with all the fun things I found in this box!

Bryan and Kim with their first baby Hannah.

Me from '77 or '78. Looks so much like what Abby looks like right now.

I hope there are some more 1 year olds from 1976 whose parents wanted to have them pose in the Betsy Ross costume to celebrate the Bicentennial of our country. Why?

Kim and Derek's engagement photo from 1999. Y'all sure have changed ALOT!

Kara and Mat with their Wyatt for his first Christmas. They now have 2 more kids in their family. I also found Wyatt's sweet birth announcement.

The year Marcia went to Harding I went to visit her and we spent one of the days driving to Memphis to visit Graceland. It was so fun!

Brady and Vicki with Riley and Hallie. They now have 3 more kids to add to their family. Yep that's 5 kids!!! You guys are such a sweet family and we are so blessed to call you our friends.

Meredith's wedding from Dec. 2000.

Me, Meredith, and Trinette

Mere getting ready for her big day!

Before kids!

Abby's First Day at Preschool!

Abby started going to her class in the Orange Room this week at Discovery School. She did a great job! Every morning I drop her off in childcare for the teacher's kids at 8:30 and she gets to play for 30 minutes before they take her to her class at 9:00. I was able to stick my head out my door one morning and see her walking in the line to her class. She looked like such a big girl. The best thing about her classroom is that there is a window that you can observe the kids through without them seeing you. So I did get to see her in action a few times when I was taking my own class out to the playground. They were all sitting together eating their snacks and seemed to be having a great time. Her teachers think she's very serious. I told them to just give her a few weeks and they'll see how funny she really is. Ms. Dana told me that Abby will be playing and playing, but every once in a while she'll come back over and just kind of grab on to Dana for just a second and then she'll go back and play. It's like she just needs to check in for a second. This week was only half days, so no napping at school. We'll see how that goes next week!

This is the Abby they will come to know. She's a really funny girl!

Abby with Ms. Dana and Ms. Angie

Abby's Wounds

The last 2 weeks while I have been getting my room ready for school and having meet the teacher conferences, Abby has been in childcare there at the school for teacher's kids. This is great, but it's been a rough two weeks for Abbers. The first week she had no naps there for 3 days! That was really fun when we got home. Then last week she must have had, "Come and Get Me!" written across her forehead. This is how she came home on Thursday afternoon:

Apparently on Wed. she tripped and fell on a Lego which is what is on her nose. Then she scratched herself over her eye with her fingernail during this fall. She was not happy about this at all and had to get alot of love from Mrs. Jenny after this crash. Then on Thursday when I went to pick her up she had the huge scratch down the middle of her forehead. Mrs. Jenny had no idea where this came from. Abby didn't cry or anything after this happened. The older girls just suddenly realized that Abby had the huge scratch! Needless to say I had to call as soon as we got home to cancel the picture appointment that I had made for Friday morning. I guess we'll have to wait a week or so to get some 2 year old pictures made. We'll always remember 2-the year Abby looked like she'd been in a fight!

Abby is 2!!!

Well, not only did we send one child to kindergarten today, but Abby turned 2. It has been a big day at the Johnson house. Here are some fun things about our Abby and some pictures from our day. We're having her party on Saturday!

• She loves her food. Hence the donut (or no-no's as she calls them) breakfast today.
• She loves to get slushes at Sonic and QT.
• She loves to run everywhere.
• She loves to get in her bed with her pacis.
• She also loves to snuggle with her daddy.
• She is into mimi's right now. That is what she calls blankets. Don't know where that came from, but she is dead set on blankets being mimi's.
• She likes to wrap her baby dolls up in her mimi's. It's so precious.
• She loves shoes.
• She loves to play with her brother.
• She is quite opinionated about what she wants and doesn't want. She won't hesitate to say, "No!"
• She likes to do the motions to "Wheels on the Bus!" and "Happy and You Know It."
• She does not like creepy crawly things.
• She does not like things to be on her feet. Like grass and such.
• She likes to eat breakfast VERY soon after she wakes up. Usually she asks for Daddy and Nathan and then it's, "I eat!"
• She enjoys splashing in the bath tub and the swimming pool. She will jump off the side of the pool to Clay or I.
• She loves to push her strollers around and her shopping cart.
• She also likes purses and bags. She puts them up on her shoulder and tells us all, "Bye!" as she walks into the other room.

You are such a precious girl and such an awesome blessing to our family. God has been so gracious to share you with us. We love you Abby Leigh!!