Teething, new glasses & flu shots and its only Tuesday!

Tripp has been a little crabby lately which is not like him. I am blaming it on the fact that he is getting some new teeth. He walks around with his fingers shoved way back into his mouth and is a drooling machine.

So, besides the Motrin and Tylenol, a little Cool Whip with food coloring does wonders! He was quiet and happy for over a half an hour. He was a total mess, but it was well worth the clean up!

Here is Cash Man, or Geo as he likes to be called now.

Its a little weird, but he really responds to it. He will do almost anything I ask him as long as I ask "Geo" to do it, not Cash.

Geo is a little boy from a new show they are into called Umi Zoomi.

Riley even calls him Geo.

Cracks us up.

Anyway...

everyone says "Geo" looks just like his dad...Little Miss Riley has had some eating issues lately. Really? I mean, isn't she a little young to be starting this obsession with food. Actually, there are a lot of foods she will not even allow to touch her plate. Unless you are a waffle, french toast stick, sausage, Pizza Hut or Jerry's pizza, or a smoothie...stay away! But, I did find a recipe from the Sneaky Chef that she loves!!!
Rainbow Pancakes...or Sprinkle Pancakes as Riley calls them.

They have cottage cheese, wheat germ and rolled oats in them. Well, and some sprinkles, but she loves them! All my kids love them. They ask for them often and I am so thankful that I can finally get something a little healthy into this little girl's diet. Thank you to the Sneaky Chef!

Today it was so nice out! I had a few errands to run so I thought it would be best to get them done in the morning while the kids were all in good moods. You know, cause who knows how they will be after (and IF I should say) they take a nap.

I was wrong.

Our first errand was to pick up Riley's new glasses. She cried and whined the entire way to the shop. Once we got there, she did not want her new glasses on. She kept telling the lady that they were too big. She was just a mess, but she got them fitted and we were off.

We were going to Costco and Riley cried the entire trip there too. I should have known, but I really needed wipes so we had to risk it. She wasn't too bad in Costco though.

So we were on our way home and again, crying.

Crying because she wanted her barrette back in that she had taken out for the 20th time, crying because she dropped her water, crying because her eyes were wet from crying and she wanted them wiped. Ugh.

We were almost home and I drove by the Health Department. I still needed to get the kids their 2nd H1N1 dose so I pulled in. Gutsy, I know, but I just keep saying I will do it later. So I just decided today was the day.

Bad, bad, bad idea.

And hello, nurse from the Health Deparment, my kids are only two. They don't know what "snuff your nose" means and it wouldn't kill you to show a little compassion. I mean, do you think that I WANTED to bring in 3 kids under 3 years old, by myself, to get shots?! I didn't bring them in to make your day worse. I did it because I had to and I know you were there because you had to be, but it wouldn't hurt to smile and try to help me out a little. Even if they weren't my own kids, I'd like to think I would still find them kinda cute anyway?! Maybe not, I don't know. I'm just saying.

At least Tripp was happy most of the day. Thank you Motrin. And he even got a shot, not that mist up his nose. The mist is way worse than the shot though, that is according to my kids anyway.

We finally got home, everyone took naps and then we decided to color our eggs for Easter.

This reminds me of this one time when my mom wasn't watching...

=)

After we finished the eggs, we played outside for awhile. It has been so nice out this week and it is supposed to be almost 80 degrees tomorrow!

Ahhh...she is happy! And here are her new glasses that her dad picked out. He did a good job I think.

We even grilled hot dogs and ate out on the deck!

So great!

We might try to visit the Easter Bunny tomorrow.

All depending on how brave I am feeling in the morning of course!

Cleaning tips...

My cleaning tips...

Comet is only $1.00 a can and is awesome for toilets and sinks...the white porcelain kind.

Always have a few Magic Erasers on hand.

Baby wipes can get out almost anything.

If you can't get a pan clean, put a little water in it and put it oven for awhile.

Don't get a dog...at least not an old chocolate lab that can't stand to be outside for more than 5 minutes. Love you Blue!

Don't buy new furniture, new carpet, paint your walls, nothing until your kids are potty trained and done with their need to eat anywhere besides the kitchen table!

It helps to marry someone who is a little bit of a neat, clean freak like I did. However, it can be annoying at times.

Don't be a pack rat. Throw it out!

Wood floors with rugs are much easier to clean or replace when needed than carpeting.

I still love the Arm and Hammer stuff that you put on your carpets and vaccum up even though they say that you never really get it all up.

Clean your makeup brushes at least once a week and replace your loofah every 3 weeks. I know, I saw it on Rachael Ray today don't blame me.

Vaccum your matress and wash your pillows. Again, Oprah...sometimes its just better to not know.

Don't assume that when Grandma sends paints in the mail, that you have safely hidden them away from your kids until you are ready to let them paint...on paper.

Just a little update from us...

Well, it has been a trying last couple of days. We all have colds (bad snotty nose colds) and everyone is pretty miserable. Darin hasn't gotten it yet, but tonight started to complain that he isn't feeling very well. We are treading on dangerous waters now because when he gets sick, its all over. Where we get a cold that may last a week or so, his seems to stick around for about 3 months. Pray for me!

Riley had an eye appointment today. Darin took her and said she did really well. She was there almost 2 hours because they had to dilate her eyes. Her prescription has gotten a little worse so she has to get new lenses. Darin called me from the eye shop and told me that they said she would need new frames too. Frames and lenses for her runs around $350 which is nice, but with our vision plan we had to pay only $95! Woohoo!

Anyway, so since I wasn't there he asked me if I wanted him to pick out her new frames. I really wanted to pick them out, but he was there and I figured he wasn't going to get her anything crazy. When I got her first frames the lady that helped me was trying to get me to buy her neon green frames. She told me that bright colored frames were the in thing for all the little girls. Really, well she is like 18 months old (at that time) so I am not really sure she cares. She just wants to see. I told him to just pick out something similar to what she had, but maybe in a more neutral tone. So we will see. They are supposed to be in on Tuesday!

It was a great day today. It was around 62 degrees, but it felt warmer. We played out on the deck all day. We couldn't go into the yard because it was all wet and there was still snow on the ground which was weird. Snow on the ground, yet we are outside with bare feet and short sleeves!

Looking forward to Friday too! I really don't like to watch basketball and the whole March Madness thing is just plain annoying to me, but Darin loves it. He kind of feels like its a holiday or something which I find is the same way many of his friends feel. I mean they take afternoons off work to go watch the games!!! Anyway, Friday we have a sitter and we are going to go watch the UNI vs Michigan State game. I actually did watch KU play UNI and I can't believe they won. How awesome. Not awesome to be a Panther in a city crawling with ticked off KU fans though. Darin is somewhat a KU fan too so he wasn't real happy, but was excited for UNI. So we will see how the game goes on Friday...I may actually have to watch the whole thing and show some support for my Panthers!!! Probably won't be sporting the UNI gear though, don't want to get beat up or anything!

Whoa...

Spring is here!!! Well, its the first day of spring, but since we now have 4 inches of white stuff on the ground and its still snowing, it doesn't feel much like spring. And to think, just two days ago it was almost 70 degrees!!! Crazy. I love winter. I love the seasons, but enough already!!! We Johnsons need to play outside!

St. Patrick's Day was pretty uneventful around here. I wanted to take the kids to the parade, but it ended up being pretty cold and rainy so we stayed home. We made green Jello Jigglers instead which was just as good! We made sugar cookies with green sugar too. Not a good idea since I seem to be the only one around here who eats them. Those cookies tend to influence my Weight Watchers points in a negative way, but they are so good.



Cash loved the green "jellis".



Riley liked to play in it, but when I got her to try it she gagged. How can she not like Jello? And green Jello at that?! My favorite in college was green Jello with pears. She got that from her dad I guess...he's a Jello hater too!


This little one missed out in the Jello fun. Didn't feel like cleaning it out of his hair and ears so I gave him some green Vegetable Straws instead. He was okay with that.

On Thursday it got up to almost 70 degrees like I said earlier so we took a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. The kids I used to nanny for were on spring break so I took them along with me. I was laughing on my drive to the zoo because I felt like I was driving a school bus. They were all so excited and so LOUD! It was great though. Great to be outside and great to be together with a bunch of good kids!

Sam, Riley, Cash, Kami, Daniel and Tripp

Kami, Sam and Daniel were really a lot of help with my 3 little ones. Cash and Riley were able to walk almost the entire way through the zoo by themselves since I had help chasing after them. Usually they are confined to the stroller because I like to have them all strapped down! =) That is just easier for me, especially when there are so many people around like there were that day. Spring fever hit the KC Zoo for sure.

We saw a lot of animals too which isn't usually the case at the KC Zoo so we were lucky.

Kami cracked up because she thought my stroller was so funny, along with many other people we saw throughout the day. It is pretty crazy how many people take a second look, make a comment or ask me where I got my stroller.

One time one of our friends said he felt like he was walking around with a rockstar or something. That is how I felt the first time I saw a mom with her Valco stroller. I had to get to her to ask her where she got it and then I had to have one. I have the Valco Tri Mode Twin with the Toddler Seat. It is a little big, but it is awesome. Like I said, I like to have a place to strap them all down if needed. And, it was going to be needed on our zoo trip! I will explain in a bit...

I mentioned that my kids walked pretty much through the entire zoo. Well, they ran a lot too. It was getting close to 1 o'clock which is around their nap time. They had basically eaten snacks all day, not really a good lunch, but they seemed okay.

Seemed, being the key word.

We decided to stick around for the Sea Lion show at 1:30 and then we would go home.

We got our spot and everyone was good. All of a sudden Riley started crying because she wanted to ride the carousel. Well, the carousel was $2 and I had no cash. She was in major meltdown mode.

So I told the older 3 that they could stay and watch the show while I took the little 3 to go to the Shazam to get cash. One the way there I was trying to explain to Riley that we had to go get money if she wanted to ride, but she just saw us walking away from everything.

Walking away from the sea lions, walking away from the carousel, walking away from her sanity. She went nuts.

Screaming, throwing her body about and twisting around in the stroller so much that she was getting tangled up in the straps. They were up around her neck and she was literally strangling herself. I was trying my best to get her out of that mess without looking like I was torturing her right there in front of all the other zoo patrons...on the busiest day I have ever seen at the KC Zoo.

When the kids came back from the show, we took off to the car.

I got Riley all strapped into her car seat which was not easy, but she was slowly losing steam.

I got everyone else all buckled in, got the wheels off the stroller, got it loaded up and we headed home.

Then it started again.

Riley wanted her sweatshirt on.

She was screaming and telling me to "top da car".

Kami quietly told me that she thought I should just stop and put her shirt on.

It was a 30 minute drive home.

So I stopped.

I cautiously began to unbuckle her, ready to grab her if she tried to escape, but she calmed down even more as I set her free. I got her sweatshirt on and she even thanked me when I was done. She asked me to wipe the tears from her eyes which is her new thing. When it gets wet under the nose piece of her glasses it really bugs her.

So I wiped off her little face.

And once again we were headed home.

She was asleep in less than 5 minutes after being in the car, fighting it all the way.

But it was finally quiet.

And there was peace.

Amen.

See, I do bathe my children sometimes! =)

I was giving Tripp a bath tonight while Cash and Riley read some books and did puzzles in their room. Again, reaffirming my decision that it is easiest to just give them all a bath at the same time because they just cannot stand to see another in the tub having all the fun and not be in that tub themselves. Mess.

Anyway, Darin was on his way home from work and I told Cash that he should try to get his Thomas puzzle put together for his dad to see when he got home. Cash said okay, ran into his room and told Riley they had to get to work.

After one of their many trips between the bathroom and their bedroom,

Cash came back into the bathroom and told me that he had a "big problem" because his dad would be home in "six sevends" and he needed help. So, tired of trying to keep them out of the bathroom, I got Tripp out of the tub and helped them with their puzzle.

Darin got home before we finished and helped us with the pieces we had left. Cash was so proud and was so excited that we were all sitting around doing the puzzle together. He didn't even get mad when Tripp walked right over and began to destroy the puzzle that we had all just finished. (Riley did though...she had some major issues with her brothers total disregard for her hard work).

That small moment helped remind me that Darin and I can take our kids to all those fun play places, take them to see Elmo Live, go on fun vacations, go out to eat, etc, etc, but all they really want are those little moments where we take the time to really sit down and play with them, be patient with them and just have fun with them.

I guess I just need those reminders sometimes.

All too soon, I will be the one begging them to take a few minutes out of their day to sit down and do that puzzle with me...or something like that! =)

Tripp's First Year 2008-2009 at OneTrueMedia.com

I finally have it done, all 20 minutes of it...I think anyway! You'll have to go down to the bottom of my blog page and mute the playlist to hear the songs I put on the video. Mom & Dad, let me know if you want one!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Look how far we've come...

Well, 4 years ago today we were married! Seems like forever ago, but then again I can't believe we have been married for 4 years. Crazy, I know.

We just started a small group with our pastor (Pastor Dave) a couple weeks ago. Pastor Dave is awesome and is someone I am sure you all would love. He told our small group the other day that our wedding was the best wedding with the best vibe, the best group of people and the best time he's had at a wedding ever! And his daughter was married after us in the same place with many of the same details! What a compliment. Not a "toot my own horn" type of post, but a tribute to all the people we have in our lives that helped make our day so special and memorable in not only our minds, but the minds of others that were there to share in our special day.

March 11, 2006
Honeymoon in Mexico.
May 2006
Then we had our twins and how our lives changed. It was crazy when we found out that we were having two instead of just one. We would have never thought that that was even a possibility. We went in for an ultrasound and when the doctor started to tell us the news I told him "no, we don't want to know the sex.". He told us that it was too early for that anyway and what he wanted to tell us was that we were having two babies instead of one! We were absolutely shocked, along with everyone else we told.
Family of four.
Cash and Riley
April 19, 2007
Riley 6 lbs 11 oz 19 in
Cash 8 lbs 14 oz 21 in
Cash and Riley's Baptism with Pastor Dave.
June 2007
We knew we wanted to have another baby at some point, maybe just not quite as soon as we did, but we were blessed to get pregnant again right around our 2 year anniversary! We were a little nervous that we would have twins again since it happened naturally the first time.
We looked up our chances of having twins twice and something popped up on line about your chances increasing by 75% or something like that and Darin almost died! Hey, I am the one that has to carry them which, in my book, was the worst part about the whole deal. I am not a good pregnant person. No problems or anything like that, just too huge and uncomfortable, but that is the price you pay and of course I would do it again in a heartbeat!
July 2008
About 5 months pregnant with Tripp.
And then he came...all 11 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches of him! I knew he would be big since I had twins that were almost 7 and 9 pounds. And I knew he would be a boy. We didn't find out the sex of any of our babies. I always knew Cash and Riley would be a boy and a girl and I KNEW Tripp would be a boy. We thought of names for all the other possible outcomes, but with Tripp I didn't even think I needed to, but I did anyway. Tripp is already a pretty different name. A girl named Tripp would be a little more than most people could handle I think.
Tripp Michael
November 14, 2008
11 lbs 11 oz 21 in
So that brings us to today as a family of five. We are very happy and very busy. We try to remember everyday how far we have come in such a short time and how lucky we are to have such great family and friends. We may not get great family pictures anymore, but we know its there!!!!!!!! We are very blessed!
Clearwater Beach
February 2010

Fun Stuff...

This weekend we took the kids to a carnival. The carnival was at Lakewood Elementary which is where the Pankratz kids go to school. I used to nanny for the Pankratz family who I met when I had their daughter, Kami in my preschool classroom when she was 2 turning 3. I guess that was around 2001. I started as their nanny when they had their 3rd child, Sam in 2004.

Sam loves to be around my kids and its crazy to me to see him with them and think I had him AND his sister when they were the same age as my kids are now! Anyway, he held their hands and showed them all around the carnival which they loved. Here Sam is trying to help Cash into the jumper.
Now over the wall. Riley never made it in. She had a little change of heart. She is not the go getter she makes herself out to be!

She did like the fishing though and kept trying to pull her line over the wall before they could get her "treat" hooked onto her line. Of course it was some crazy hard, chewy candy that she couldn't eat so that was fun for me to get away from her.

Riley did get a little present sent to her from her Grandpa Mel. When we were in Clearwater in February we went to the aquarium where she fell in love with a pink stuffed dolphin named Winter, but her dad would not hear of buying another $15 stuffed animal. So her Grandpa went back to the aquarium and sent her a special surprise. She was very excited and even after over a month, knew exactly what it was before she even opened it all the way. Cash was a little bummed and kept asking where his dolphin was. I told him that Grandpa wanted him to share the pink one with Riley, but he said no, he was going to get a blue one. How do they know that stuff? I mean you usually associate blue with boys and girls with pink, but they are not even 3?! Crazy. I did run downstairs and put some "new" toys that they had not played with in a while in the box so it seemed as if he got a new present too. He is not deprived by any means. He is usually the one that gets all the new hot wheels in the mail so, the fact that just Riley got a package from Grandpa was pretty cute.

And here is the Cash man...still sleeping, fully clothed, with his shoes and his hat on. His dad is afraid he will go bald at an early age if he keeps wearing his hat like this all the time, but Cash won't take it off. I finally found out why he likes to wear it backwards. One of the shows he likes to watch is Imagination Movers. His favorite on that show is Dave. Dave wears his hat backwards. Go figure. So here he is...fast asleep with his hat on. His dad, a HUGE Michigan fan, isn't happy.

But far away, his Grandpa Mikey is!!!

Kids say the darnedest things...

Cash was begging all morning for me to turn on the tv. When I finally gave in he said "Yay! I'm proud of you mom!". Pretty cute.

Riley wanted some chocolate covered raisins (for breakfast) and when I said no she crossed her arms and told me "I not talking anymore, mama.". That was cute too.

When I get the kids ready for bed at night I usually put Aquaphor on Tripp and Riley and sometimes I will put some on Cash's lips. He was sitting on his bed rubbing in the Aquaphor, looked at me and said "I am getting a makeover mom.". Made me laugh. I don't know where he got that.

Tripp...he just shakes his head and tells me "NO!"...to everything! =)

He look just like...

Darin and I have been trying to figure out who this little guy looks like. Most people say that he looks like me or Riley. When he was born he looked just like Riley, but then he started to look more like Cash. Now, we can't decide!

Here are some pictures of them all around the same age (16 months).

Tripp

Cash

Riley

I found this picture of their 2nd Halloween when they were Pebbles and Bam Bam. I had to put it up. Its crazy to see how little they were, but it doesn't seem like that long ago. Time does fly like they say!!!