Baseball and Best Buds

We are in the midst of Little League season and we have a game going on all the time. I haven't posted any pictures of Lund playing ball, so I thought it was about time. He is in the Majors this year and he is really getting the hang of it. He is the youngest on the team, but he keeps up with them. My quote for the year is...."When he was in minors, it was a minor disruption into our life and now that he is in Majors, it is a major disruption in our life." Actually, I wouldn't exactly call it a "disruption", it just takes a lot of time with the games twice a week and then practices as well. I am having flashbacks to my softball days!!! Last night after his game he crashed hard in bed, in full uniform including his cleats..... (I used to do that after a long hard game)
Yea, I am that skinny too!!! he he Doesn't he look so professional???!!

Here are some of his adoring fans!! (Notice they are all girls!!!) Here we have Cassidy, Josie, Behthanie, and Tori.

Here he is getting ready to bat.

And then there is the other side of the coin.... Will and Colter!!! I have already written about Will's Tball attitude. This week, his best little buddy is here from Pima and we dressed him in Sarah's uniform and let him play instead of her. She decided to stay at home and play with friends on the trampoline.

I love this picture because after the game I tried to take a picture of them together but Colter was WAY more interested in the cartoon on the t.v. Gotta love his smile!!!

yea! We finally finished the game and earned our Otter Pop!

One of the bigger kids on the team kept picking up Colter for fun, like he was a doll or something. It cracked me up!!

Will is #2 and they are giving five to the other team.

Will found another boy who was just as distracted during baseball as he is.. needless to say, he never got up and ran to second and the other boy ended up picking up a handful of dirt and throwing it in Will's face. O' the woes of Tball!

Here comes Colter after batting...

Colter started getting the hang of it after a bit..

This was Will's favorite place to hang out.. next to the bubble gum bucket!!! We brought it to share with the other kids on his team and they really liked that.

What's going on in Your house???

We are having A LOT of fun at the Johnson household this week. Our really close friends that moved to Pima last year are here to vist and so we have been "playing" all week. For the mommies that means sitting around and talking and making hair bows and sharing memories. For the kids, it means seeing friends they love and having "free play" all day long!!!! It's truly a win-win situation. And another win-win situation happened today when I went to the store today and bought all the ingredients for a dinner and a great dessert (chocolate mint cheesecake). When I got back from the store and returned to talking with my girlfriends, I got a wave of sleepiness, so they let me go lay down. I turned off all the lights in my room, locked the door and conked out for an hour and a half. Then I woke up and ran over to my dentist appointment without any kids. And to top it off, when I got home from that, Destiny was just finishing up making dinner and had already finished making the cheesecake!!! Seriously, aren't close friends wonderful????!!! You know what? I said it was a "win-win" situation, but it was really just a "win" situation for me!!! he he I told her it almost made me want to have another round of chemo just so she could come up and help out here at the house.... Almost!!! Bek and Lydia were here today as well helping out, and even good 'ole Ashley that moved to Prescott stopped by to hang out tonight and partake of the cheesecake!!! Love you guys!!!
So, back to the topic at hand.. At one point tonight I took a picture of what was going on at our house in a five minute period of time. We had sent the boys (Colter and Will) to have their evening bath and all the older kids were jumping on the trampoline with the neighbor kids.... I took my camera around and you can see what was really going on......
Ooops! Caught in the Act!! The kids had poured a whole bottle or maybe two of shampoo into the water and had created a HUGE bubble bath!! Here we see the guilty Colter..he he

And, they let Brooklyn in as well and she was having a heyday in the bubbles!!

Here is the other instigator!!!

And here is all three, if you can find them under all the bubbles!!

So then I decided to see what was going on out front.....

Morgan had pushed the trampoline underneath the huge swingset and the kids were jumping off the top of it onto the tramp. I told him that he would have to pay all the ER bills!!!

It was a long way down!!

They liked to stand up straight on the top and just fall backwards!!! I would never be able to do that.... I am much too chicken!!!

See Morgan in the corner..... You silly daddy you!!!! But, I tell you what! They had the time of their lives!!!! Hopefully their parents aren't reading this blog!!! he he

So, that is what is going on in the Johnson house... stay tuned for more!!

Welcome to my garage/skaterink!

Lately our garage has become part skaterink for the kids. They love to strap on the rollerblades or jump on their skateboards and boogey!! Will put on his helmet and sunglasses and told me.."Look mom.. I am a Professional Boy!!!!"
Will's version of "skating" is pushing around his Tonka truck and crashing a lot!

Lund is really big into skateboarding right now and he was having lots of fun.

And Sarah is getting the knack for rollerblading. She is contantly saying, "Mom, come outside and watch me skate."

My Tween!

And of course, there is a whole lot of falling going on!!!!

My lovely skating girls!

After skating, the kids went inside to watch "America's Funniest Home Videos" as a family and Will didn't want to remove his helmet or glasses. he said that "Professional Boys" don't take them off to watch TV. Good to know!!

Stress-cation!!!

You have all heard of a vacation and maybe you have even been privledged enough to hear of a stay-cation... but today I will introduce you to a new kind of -cation. That would be stresscation 2010!!! And why was it so stresstastic!!??? Because we are looking for a house and it has got to be the most emotionally draining, frustrating thing I have ever done. We went down to the Valley on Thursday night and got back on Saturday. We planned on getting back on Friday afternoon, so we all ran out of clean clothes and stuff.... you know how it goes. And being that this is our first home purchase.... we were trying to get it done before next Friday, which is the last day of April, so that we could get a fat 8,000.00 incentive back from the good ole' gov'ment! But wouldn't you know?? Everyone else in the world had the same idea!!!! I am serious!! When we go to see a house and we like it, there are already 5 other offers on that house. So we try not to fall in love with anything, but that is hard when you find a good one. Easy to do when you walk through a horribly trashed one. We need to be in the house relatively soon, so we aren't messing with short sales. If I had hair, I would be pulling it out right now!!! But enough of the stressy part. The impromptu stress-cation also had it's up's as well. We stayed in the Dobson Ranch and the kids got to do a lot of swimming. We even invited my sister over one day with her son and they joined us in the pool. The kids also got really good at making waffles in the lovely hotel waffle iron. (you all know which one I am talking about... the one you turn over the whole thing and wait for the beep and then crank it back over and get out your finished waffle). Well, they seemed to always be in the mood to "make" a waffle, but not exactly in the mood to "eat" the waffle. Thank you staff at Dobson Ranch for being so patient with us!!

Another high point was on the way back to Bagdad on Saturday. We were headed home and the Hulse family from Bagdad was headed to the Valley to go to a baptism, so we met them at the good 'ole Pizza Mart and had a great time. (sidenote: Mike Hulse used to work there in high school. He told us that after football practice, he could down a whole large pizza all by himself! Luckily he shared with all of us this time. Thanks Mike! )

Here we all are gathered in front of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game. (yes, it is still there). We couldn't pull Lund and Carolyn away from the game for the picture.

I love this picture becuase Carolyn and Megan Hulse are being so pretty and smiley and Daniel is making his new "crazy face". I guess instead of smiling, he does that.

Cassidy and Emily playing games. They are the best of pals!!!

Cousin Brody and Will hanging out at the pool. It was a bit cool this week, so they liked to bundle up and eat snacks instead of swimming the whole time.

My sister and her son Brody in the "hot water" (the hot tub)

Cassidy and Lund did a lot of swimming and diving together. I am glad that they get along most of the time.

My goofy boy with his goggles and Zebra. This is his form of "floaties". he has so much more swimming confidence with his Zebra. Love the tongue!

One of the Dobson Ranch fountains.

Will again with his best pal.

I love this picture because this is what loved to do over and over again. I also love that he has on TWO flotations devices. And again with the tongue.

Preparing to jump!

My crazy son Lund, the goon!

I put Will and his Zebra and his watergun in Time Out and when I told him he could get out, he decided to give his mother a lecture. Here you can see him lecturing me...

Here's a little glimpse into last weekend....

Here's our cheer leading squad for all the Little League games...
Here is Papa Lund, Gramma Karen, and Aunt Judy hanging out at Yodipity (my favorite yogurt stop off in Mesa, Arizona)

Ellie and I. She took a liking to me and I sure love her. she is simply adorable!!! She is cousin Lindsi Court's little girl!!!

Will really dug in.... or face planted rather!

The kids loved drawing pictures to hang up on the wall at Yodipity..

Will figured that if he shot at his sister with bubbles, he wouldn't get in trouble.

Aren't bubbles fun???

Uncle Buck, Lindsi and little Chase hanging around and enjoying family.

Cousins hanging out... Sarah, Cassidy, Raychelle, Guilio, and Lund and an unnamed turtle.

Alicia, Morgan and the mother of ten children (unbelievable I know, she doesn't look like she even gave birth to one, let alone ten!)

Family Bobamily!!! Left to right (top row) : little Chase, Lindsi Court, Guilio Garino, Buck Shumway, Judi Shumway, Warren Johnson. Bottom Row: Alicia Garino, Bishop Johnson, Gramma Karen and Papa Lund. A handsome group!!

p.s. thanks Judi for feeding the whole gang a wonderful Sunday meal!!