3rd Annual Johnson Picnic

We returned to WI for the 3rd annual Johnson picnic. It was hot and it seemed like there were a ton of flies, but what can you expect from a farm? The Lord blessed us with no rain. It came before & after, but stayed away through the entire afternoon. Here are a few pictures from a fun day.

we celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday

my mom and her 11 siblings

here are just SOME of the grandchildren,

great-grandchildren & 1 great-great grandson

(there are NO spouses in this picture)

Gator rides are always a favorite activity

Shelby on the slip-n-slide

Morgan spent almost the entire picnic in a small pool. I don't know why I never stopped by to get a picture of her.

My aunt Suzy was kind enough to work on her vacation and give the girls a haircut to get them ready for the new school year.

Shelby

Morgan

As you would expect, Morgan had a hard time standing still. So my cousin Desiree held her head still, otherwise she may have ended up with no hair!
Games are always a big part of the picnic. Here is a video of Shelby participating in a Popcorn Relay.


This year they brought in a dunk tank and it quickly became a favorite. Shelby had a lot of fun with this and was successful hitting the target several times. Here is a video capturing one of her turns.

Morgan took a few turns too. Watch and see the benefits of being little. :)

15 Years!

It's hard to believe that today is our 15 year anniversary! It was hot at our 5:00 pm wedding in Platteville, WI in a church with no AC, but thank God it was not as bad as the weather today! Not sure where the 15 years have gone. The 8 years without kids went just as fast as the 7 years with them.

Below is a little picture comparison. Our current picture was taken by amateur photographers and it was so hot the camera kept fogging over. So not the greatest picture, but you have to work with what you have! Can only imagine what the next 15 year journey brings! Time is flying!

A Trip Back in Time

I've mentioned several times that I decided to use this Blog mainly as a means of recording the lives of Shelby & Morgan with a little sprinkling of Nate and myself mixed in. At this point, I don't see myself successfully completing scrapbooks for them. When I found out I can print a Blog into a book, I decided this was a more realistic goal. With that said, I am going to go back and try to catch up the blog starting with my pregnancy with Shelby. This is a heads up for those of you who read the Blog but do not receive updates in your email. I will try to back date the posts as accurately as possible. So these posts will not show up as the most current. You will have to go to the history and click on the month. My first historical post will be dated in 1996 and then will most likely jump to 2003. I hope you enjoy visiting this little bit of history as much as I think I will!

Passing On Love For Baby Dolls

As I was digging through my box of old photos, I came across several of me with my baby dolls. I guess Morgan may have innocently inherited a love of dolls from her momma. I remember having 2 dolls that I played with a lot. I still have them stashed away in my trunk. They were Hush-A-Bye & Jeanette. Hush-A-Bye ran on batteries and she cried while her legs kicked and her head rolled back and forth. The poor thing was played with so much we eventually had to tape her legs onto her body. Unfortunately these days she is missing 1 leg! Jeanette had soft hair and was my first doll with eyes that opened and closed. I took them every Sunday to my Great Grandparents' house. Even when I was too old to play with dolls, my grandma would ask me each week how Hush-A-Bye was doing? I scanned a few pictures of me & my babes. I have seen Morgan many times holding her babies in just the same way.

Hush-A-Bye

New Ride for the Baby

Jeanette

Dancing Queens

This summer is our first experience with dance and both girls like it. Shelby was mad when she didn't learn a complete dance the first day and is having a hard time understanding you have to learn some basic dance steps first. They both used their birthday money from Uncle Luke to buy sparkly duffel bags to carry their dance shoes in. Thanks Luke! These pictures where taken before our first night 3 weeks ago. Morgan got a hole in her tights on the way and we took them off in the bathroom before the class even started. I had a feeling when I bought those it would probably be a waste. We have a few more weeks of this summer session. I think they both will want to take more classes.

Summer Stuff

Shelby is doing a lot of reading on her own this summer. On her own I mean, picking up a book without being told. She's been reading since Kindergarten, but probably had to be told to get a book out and read. This summer I have been trying to teach her that she needs to carry a book with her to occupy herself when there is some "waiting time". Restaurants, doctor appointments, driving across town, etc. I keep telling her reading is a better alternative to the DS, which also serves well for all these things. I snapped a picture of her today reading in the chair. I find her sitting like this a lot.
She was finishing up a book she got last week at the library. It's this Mallory series and she really likes it. This is the 2nd book about Mallory that she has read. They have around 15 or 16 chapters in them. The first book I picked up for her on a Monday and she finished reading it the next day. Relaxing in the chair reading a book inside was perfect on such a hot day as today.

While Shelby was reading, I found Morgan resting. This summer has messed up her sleeping just a little. She's taken a few naps, but then she doesn't want to go to bed at night. Tonight would be one of those nights! I like to call her "Snoozy Suzie". Here she is.

Celebrating the 4th

Nate was home on the 4th & the girls and I stayed in town this year so we celebrated as a family for the second year in a row! We had a quiet morning at home. Morgan & I hit the grocery store to purchase the goods for what we were taking to share at the afternoon picnic. After an afternoon of working in the backyard (for me), we got cleaned up to head over to the neighbor's for a picnic. The girls went in matching Hello Kitty outfits. No complaints, not even from Shelby!

After the picnic, we walked with our friends up the street to the corner where they all watch the fireworks. We however, kept on walking to our friends the Bertas. They invite us to crash their party and watch the fireworks from their driveway. We have fun dropping in there because their guests are pretty much all parents of boys who played baseball for Nate in Jr. High & High School. I was pregnant with Shelby in the days most of them were playing so it is fun for them to see how the girls have grown. We usually only see the majority of them on the 4th of July. Unfortunately, the fireworks were not so good as a result of technical difficulties and a lengthy delay. Before we knew it, the time was 10:45 and we still had to walk home! We saw some nice fireworks going off in the neighborhood on our way back. Luckily, Tuesday is the only day we don't have anything scheduled for the morning. Nate did have to get up but the girls and I slept in until about 9.

There are so many cute things out there (especially for girls) to dress for the occasion. I had the Hello Kitty shirts for a month or so, but did come across a couple more inexpensive shirts for each of the girls that described them to a T, so I picked them up and they wore them on Sunday.

Shelby's shirt has fireworks going off over the top of the head of a girl wearing silver glitter star sunglasses. Under her face in case you can't read it says, "I'm a Star". The headband is full of silver glitter. Even after a few hair washings, she still has glitter stuck to her scalp!

Morgan's shirt is a monkey doing a dance with a couple of sparklers. Need I say more??

In previous years, I've had the girls at my parents and we'd see a small town parade and ride some rides. No parade or rides for us here, but a lazy summer day hanging out with friends!

Their Garbage, Our Treasure

Nate had been thinking we needed to get Shelby an adjustable basketball hoop. The one we have is a little high for her and it does not adjust. Although she is capable of making baskets in the high hoop. Anyway, on Thursday the girls and I turned the corner at the end of the street heading to softball practice. There was a bunch of "stuff" sitting on the curb a few houses down. My eye caught what looked to be an adjustable hoop. I gave Nate a call and told him he should go by and look it over before he joined us at practice. He did and got himself a workout rolling it home! The backboard has a small crack in it but otherwise it will do it's job for what we need right now. And you just can't beat free!