Fritz's

What was really cute that I didn't get in the video was when Riley said "tank you train for da food", but I shut it off too soon. It was really cute though so I had to mention it.

The Good Stuff...

Well, we have been busy here in the Johnson home! We have been putting up the Christmas tree, opening presents already, making Thanksgiving dinner, traveling to Iowa and squeezing in a nap or two in between...well, the kids have anyway! They are so cute and peaceful when they are sleeping, aren't they? Just wait... We put up our little Christmas tree right before Thanksgiving this year because Grandma and Grandpa Nosbisch were coming for the weekend and we were going to have our Christmas with them on Thanksgiving day. They like to see the kids enjoy their presents rather than just sending them in the mail so it worked out great.

Here is Riley helping decorate the tree. She liked to put all her ornaments in a little group. She was very paitent and took her time with her decorating. She loved her "balls" that she picked out for the tree and her Dora ornament.

Cash like it too. He liked his Cars ornament and his Thomas ornament this year. He was a little concerned that we didn't have a star for the top of our tree. We still have to get out and get one. I am thinking I may even let him pick it out. We will see on that one!

Grandma and Grandpa put out the presents while the kids were taking a nap. When they got up and came downstairs, they saw these easels first. Very cute. They are tabletop easels so Tripp can't bother them while they paint, draw with chalk or markers or whatever. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Cash opening his Thomas bridge.

Cash "helping" Tripp open his new truck.

Riley got this cool new Dora Dollhouse which she absolutely loved! She didn't even want to bother with opening anything else once she saw this. She loves it!

On Friday after Thanksgiving we began our road trip to Iowa for the Nosbisch Family Christmas. Cash and Riley rode with Grandpa and Grandma Nosbisch. Here are Tripp and Grandpa Johnson taking a little snooze during the 6 hour trip!

We arrived on Saturday around noon. Here is one little boy that was glad to be out of the car!

Here is Tripp helping his Great Grandma Nosbisch hand out some gifts!

We used to attempt family photos every year, but lately I guess photo time is reserved for the little ones now. Here we are trying to get a photo of Great Grandma and all of her 15 great grandkids. On the other side of the camera are the parents of those 15 children taking pictures. Wish someone would have gotten a picture of that!

We have Libby, Becca, Grady, Bailey, Cash, Great Grandma, Anya, Jack, Jayden, Brooke, Dylan, Ellie, Andrew, Tripp, Riley and Evelyn.

Riley with her dad and cousin Scott who she roped into a little game of Trouble.

The boys playing with, what else, but Thomas the Train.

Grandpa Mike with his new best buddy, Tripp. Tripp LOVED Grandpa and even chose him over his own mother!!! Here they are playing with all the uncles...Lynn, Tim, Don, Granpa with Tripp, Tim and Wayne.

We had a great time and it was good to see everyone, but we had to head back to KC. And oh, what a little apple will do on the road for a screaming one year old! He chewed on that thing for about an hour.

We took Monday to regroup and get some stuff done around the house. On Tuesday, we went to a new place called Little Monkey Bizness. It is the same place we went for Tripp's birthday, but this location is specifically geared towards children under 6 years old. It just opened the day after Thanksgiving. The kids really had a lot of fun. Afterwards we took them to Fritz's. Its a burger and fry joint where you get your food delivered by a train!!! They love Fritz's! It is the one place that I don't have to occupy my children with food while we wait for their meals because they love watching the trains zip around on the track above them. I am going to try to upload a video I took there on another post. I think this post is pretty full already!

Cash got into it and even wore his hat for a little while.

Do I look tired or what? Well, I am and we haven't even got to the good stuff yet!

Tripp loved the trains too!

Sharing an Oreo sundae after lunch.

Now, on to the "good" stuff...

Here is what two little children left alone for a few minutes

and a box of this stuff can do to a room in really less than 5 minutes.

As Riley would say, "mess".

Pretty, huh?!

One Year Old!

Tripp is now one year old!!! We had a party at Monkey Bizness. We had an entire playroom to ourselves and all the kids had so much fun. We had Chik Fil A for lunch and followed up with some cupcakes. Tripp wasn't so sure about the cake at first, but then he got into it.

We wanted to thank Grandpa Johnson, Grandma and Grandpa Nosbisch and Aunt Sarah who all came in from out of town for the weekend. We also had many friends that came to the party. It was awesome and we all had a great time. We also wanted to thank everyone for their gifts. Instead of bringing gifts for Tripp, we had everyone bring something to donate to the Ronald McDonald House in Topeka. We got quite a bit of goodies to drop off...now to find a time to get to Topeka! =) Don't feel too bad for Tripp though, he still got some presents cause we all know the Grandparents and his Aunt Sarah can't help but get him something special!

My pictures seem to be to large to upload or something so I posted this video until I can figure the photos out!

Fun Fall Day

We had fun playing in the "leabs" as Riley would say. Riley loved to make big piles, run and then jump into them. Cash loved just being able to run around outside. Tripp was more interested in eating the "leabs". It was a little windy and cold, but we had a lot of fun!!!

zzzzzzzzzzzz...

Every night before Darin and I go to bed, we go in and check on all the kids.

Most every night they are asleep when we go in. We usually have to cover them back up because they have kicked off their covers.

Occasionally, one of them might still be awake. I love it when they are half asleep and try to talk to us.

Even when they are completely asleep, they will still talk to us. If you tell Riley you love her, even though she is sound asleep, she will say "too". That cracks us up every time.

When we first put Cash and Riley into their big beds, we would find them on the floor every night. Wherever they were in the room, whether it be in between their two beds, by the window or blocking the door...they were always sleeping together. I think they have wised up to the fact that their beds are more comfy than the floor because we don't often find them there anymore.

Occasionally, we would find them in the same bed which was really cute, but they haven't done that in a long time.

Until last night...

Riley climbed into Cash's bed.

It's so cute. They have just been so close lately. Always holding hands, crying when the other one gets into trouble, springing their other half out of time out before its time and they have been playing together a lot more often too. They have even been putting on little "talent shows" lately, using our fireplace as their stage. I am trying to get some video of that up...its hilarious!

And then there is this little guy...

Can't wait to see what fun surprises he has in store for us once we move him to a big bed!!!

bailed out by his big sis...

Cash has been a little whiny lately and really testing his limits. The other morning I took him up to his room for a time out. When I took him up, Riley followed me crying and telling me "no, no Cash, no!". I told her Cash had to have a time out and when he was done they could play.

I came back downstairs, sat on the floor with Tripp and watched as Riley walked back up the stairs, opened the door to their room where Cash was and heard her say "there you go Cash.". Cash thanked her, came downstairs and said "Riley let me out!".

It was so cute. I just let it go.

We love Halloween!!!

We began our Halloween festivities off with H1N1 flu shots and some cookie decorating. You can see Tripp here in the picture wishing he was just a little bigger and could show off his mad cookie decorating skills. Next year buddy!

He did get to participate in getting a flu shot, lucky him. There was finally a clinic that we were able to make it to and I got them all their first of two vaccines. I was so happy to get those done. It was stressing me out a little that I was unable to get my hands on those vaccines. I know that they may still get sick, but at least this will make me feel a little better about it anyway!Riley was very neat and took her time while she decorated.
Cash was a bit more of a mess and was more interested in eating than the decorating.


The weather was really nice on Saturday so we were able to burn off some energy in the backyard before we got all dressed up. We decided to go with a farm theme this year. I got Tripp this cute chicken outfit from Old Navy. I really wanted to make him a pig, but the chicken was cute too! Don't mind the one red eye. I live for the day that they make a red eye button on a camera, but one that doesn't have to blink a half dozen times before it takes the picture. Kinda makes capturing those impromptu, touching moments hard when the kids are distracted by the flash in their faces!

And here are my ear of corn and farmer...tractor and all! I think she looked like a pretty good ear of corn considering she is REALLY hard to get to wear costumes. This was about as much as I could get on her. A nice corn hat and some kind of bottom to her costume would have made it a little better, but I knew that was pointless.

I love this~We trick or treated with my friend from college, Tricia, and her little boy Merak. Cash and Merak are good buds. I love Riley looking into her bucket to make sure her candy is safe inside. They LOVED Trick or Treat!

And this is the last picture of the tractors debut...

It was just slowing Cash down too much so it rode on the stroller with Tripp. I spent a little too much time on that thing to just leave it back at the house.

We made it to about 6 houses and then the kids were done. They loved it and kept saying "more candy?" Some of the houses around here were pretty done up for the night with ghosts and scary monsters. One house kind of creeped me out so I could see why they kids were so scared. They really didn't like anyone with a mask on, especially those creepy Scream masks. If they saw someone coming at them with one of those masks on, they would stop dead in their tracks and turn the other way saying "no, no, no!" We made it though without seeing too many scary costumes and we let them each pick out one piece of candy to eat before bed. They both picked out the same thing, what else...a sucker!

Me and Tricia with Riley, Tripp, Cash and Merak.

Here they are with Darin trying to find the moon. They are fascinated with the fact that the sun goes "nite, nite" and then the moon comes up.

Tripp on his last of his FIRST holidays...the little guy will be one in just two weeks!

After we trick or treated, we let the kids help pass out candy. They loved that just as much as getting the candy themselves. Cash would get all excited and say "I give lots of them!"

At least they liked the tractor and were able to play with it!

Hope everyone had as much fun as we did! Happy Halloween...now onto Thanksgiving!