it is time.

it's time to get this thing going again. why now? well, i need a place to track all the funny stories about our kids and i don't want to start forgetting them. so, if anyone out there is still checking this blog- can't imagine anyone is, but you never know- you are in luck. today i'm sharing one of my new favorite kid stories.

we were in chicago for 10 days over thanksgiving. a wonderful time was had by all. lots of time with family, and mainly a lot of cousin time for the kids. it was a great time with everyone. we always feel very thankful for how much we enjoy being with our families, and this trip was no exception.

on to the story....

greta & maja were playing one day, and all of a sudden the conversation turned to...

maja- "greta, only baby boys have penises"
greta- "maja, no. big boys have penises too"
maja- "no, greta. only baby boys have penises"
greta- "no, maja. it's not just baby boys, grown up boys have penises too"
maja- "no, greta. just baby boys have penises"
they proceed to run upstairs, where greta runs to find mike.
greta- "dad. you need to come to the bathroom with me & maja right now so you can PROVE to maja that big boys have penises too."
mike- "that is not happening."

yes, folks. there you have it. an amazing anatomy lesson from one 7 year old to another.

praying for our bodies...

yes, it's another blog entry about praying, but this is too good to not share.

tonight mike was praying with the girls while he put them to bed and calla starting praying for their bodies.

thank you, Jesus for my body.
thank you for mom's body.
thank you for greta's body.
thank you for daddy's body.
thank you for dad's long tail.

i don't think you need me to explain what the "tail" is.

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while i'm sharing callaisms, i don't want to forget these two:
1) you bird-ed (her version of "you burped")
2) while singing "grand ole flag" (yes, we are very patriotic around here these days), instead of singing "it's a high flying flag" she sings, "it's a highhhh-ing flag".

i know these pale in comparison to praying for a "tail" but i don't want to forget them.

and then there were five!

i can't imagine there is anyone who reads this blog who doesn't know the big news yet...BUT...just in case...we've had ourselves a BOY!

Samuel Michael Johnson was born April 18, 2010 at 4:09pm. 6 lbs, 6 oz, 20 inches long and every single part of him is perfect! we are loving having a boy. i'm not going to lie, it's been a bit of a hard transition (think lots of high fevers, sickies, jaundice, emotions flying all over the place, etc), yet with all the chaos going on we are trying to soak up every minute of our new baby boy. and he could not be more perfect. we are so thankful to have a healthy, happy (we are getting lots of those newborn baby "smiles") baby- it's going to be fun watching him grow up with his two older sisters. it definitely feels like our family is complete with Samuel.

but MoM!

a few days ago greta came to me wimpering about a scratch on her face. i looked at her check and saw a line that was welting up and blood was showing. i asked greta what happened and she said, "calla scratched me." when i asked calla about it, she responded with, "but mom- i didn't scratch greta, i was just trying to pull her hair!" once again, at least they're honest!

fierce determination

greta is a girl who sets her mind to something and doesn't stop until she accomplishes her goal. case in point- about a week ago she decided she wanted to learn to snap her fingers. she started with "snapping" her thumb and pointer finger. we showed her the right way to do it and she practiced...and practiced, and practiced, and practiced...and after a week of practicing she did it! seeing the satisfaction on her face was priceless, she was so proud of herself. after reaching this goal we were driving to school while she practiced her new-found skill of snapping, making sure she had it just right to show her friends. now we have the - "it's fun to share these things with your friends, but be sure you're not bragging..." talk. i have a sneaking suspicion that while at school there might have been some bragging going on!

yellow tooth

the girls have developed this habit of waking up together and climbing in bed with us in the morning. it's their "wake up" call to mom & dad (usually by 7am every morning). a few days ago we were in this morning routine and greta suddenly said, "mom- you have a yellow tooth. dad, look, mom has a yellow tooth!" she proceeded to point to my canine and said, "see, it's yellow." looks like all my coffee drinking is catching up with me. time to break out the crest white strips. nothing like a 5 year old to tell it how it is!

moving, the willamette, and mary

we have had a whirlwind several months, which all culminated this past weekend with our move from corvallis to portland. mike got a job in portland and we are staying with my folks until we figure out a house. we spent the past weekend moving all of our things to a storage unit & then cleaning up our cute little bungalow- oh, how we loved that little house on 7th street. even though we were busy moving & cleaning, we had a wonderful time with friends- we are SO thankful for our corvallis community & will MISS it (we're glad it's driving distance!!!). so that is the story of moving (a brief version- there were lots of tears shed, frustrating moments of "what the frick are we doing!?!?!", and of course the task of packing- i so hope our next move is into a house which we will live for a long, long time!)...now come the funny stories.

as we were pulling out of corvallis last night greta started yelling, "GOOD BYE CORVALLIS!" "we will miss you corvallis!" "we will come visit soon corvallis!" then as we were crossing the bridge over the river she said, "Good bye Willamette River" then quickly, "wait a minute, i don't need to say good bye to the willamette river, it travels all the way to portland!" hello smarty pants!

today's story is one of my all-time favorites though. calla and i were at tj maxx buying some gifts and as we were checking out in line calla says (keep in mind, she has no indoor voice), "mom, look, it's mary." i look back in line and there is a woman with a blue head covering, her whole face showing, who did look just like a 3 year old version of mary from the bible. the woman clearly could hear us so i said, "yes calla- she is beautiful." and calla responded, "mom, she looks like mary. she looks beautiful." i was pleased to look back, smile at the lady and see that she had a huge grin on her face- no offense taken. whew. much better than last week when calla saw a woman with rather long, big, puffy gray hair walking down our street and said (again, loudly), "mom- look- she has CRAZY hair." and then she proceeded to laugh hysterically. that- not so sweet, today- very sweet, both totally innocent. i am daily reminded how much i love this age, both the good & the "bad."