Birthday Boy

I decided it’s only fair that, even as busy as I’ve been, Elias should show his happy, 1-year-old face to the world.

Elias finds his birthday balloons (they didn’t have birthday ones at the grocery store last night)

Elias find his birthday toys (Gabe found them shortly thereafter)

Elias loves his birthday breakfast.. berries and bunny cereal!

The whole family eats a birthday breakfast of cereal and fruit

Elias’ new birthday gafas! (that’s ’shades’ in español)

The boys both get a new measurement on the growth wall.. Elias has put on 2 1/4″ and Gabe almost 2″ since September.

I have about a zillion pics to share, but not many are ready to even upload so I’ll have to catch up yet. Thanks for your patience!

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downsized_0208091743.jpg, originally uploaded by julialjohnson3.

des

halloween

courtesy of the ever-faithful picture taking sister-in-laws, some halloween pics:

our first stop was the girl cousins, an angel and a bumblebee, together with a big cowboy and a little cowboy.

the cowboy outlaws… and elias in his cowboy sleeper.

sweetest cowboys ever

mamaZita & elias

crazy blue halloween eyes mid-supper

the other johnson 4!

this was soon after the hurricane when nobody but matt & cathy had power… so we celebrated evelyn & gabe’s birthdays at their house. gabe was totally thrilled with the idea of cake for his birthday!

some new photos

this little outfit was worn by my brother once… when I put it on him sunday morning, Ben said “he’s not going to church like that! get some real clothes on him!”

“ahh, help me before I topple over due to the weight of my head!!”

these boys love purple cauliflower!

there’s a scary halloween costume for you

elias got a mohawk (style, not cut)…

and gabe got rid of his!

last, but most wonderfully, gabe has been defying all odds and putting his bowels where they belong… so for the last two days he’s gotten a bowl full of ice cream as a mid-morning snack. then he gets to go outside and play with his “special police car treat” which is one of those flintstone-style cars… he has about died and gone to heaven. just two days without soiled undies and I feel like I have too!

little boys

elias is standing a lot and pulling up on things, and gabe is asking lots of questions: “what’s this?  what’s that?  papa, what’s those?”

the first pull-up

     
gabe loves cheese, cars, and cheese & cars
these photos were taken about 1 second apart.

elias soup, mmm!

it’s so cute when they can sit

 
and eat all by themselves

sweet brothers!

found it

turns out the trailer was in the dishwasher. ran through the whole cycle, broken but fixable. maybe I should have unloaded the dishwasher earlier and I wouldn’t have been in such a pickle.

sick days

it has been busy these last few days… cashing in on our dell warranty before it runs out kept us up late a few nights. plus gabe has been running a fever the last couple nights. no other symptoms really, just wants to be held all the time. ben’s mom calls it the “fever disease” because her kids used to do the same thing when they were little. just when you think it’s gone in the morning, it comes back in the afternoon. then yesterday morning gabe had to have his knocked tooth drilled and syphoned… he was not a huge fan of machines in his mouth. all the noise and air and water made him throw a fit, but when they switched to just poking around he calmed down. so he’s had a rough few days. and to top it all off we can’t find the trailer that goes with the tractor he got yesterday for being a big boy at the dentist. so while both kids are taking an early nap, I should be looking for that trailer.
elias, on the other hand, is the happiest, easy-going baby on the block (there are no other babies on our block, but still). he has been very flexible while I’ve had to deal with gabe. he is doing such cute things… sitting, crawling, trying new foods, racing around in the walker… he loves exploring gabe’s room. I feel like a bad mom cause I’m not capturing any of it, but this last month has been such a mess that I haven’t even been able to get the camera out. I am enjoying him thoroughly, so I will apply the Benjoyment Theory I’ve mentioned before: trying to capture every moment on camera can distract from fully enjoying life. elias is very enjoyable these days.

Lila Elise

We have been waiting for this young lady for a long time!!

Our beautiful niece arrived yesterday morning and is actually even cuter in real life.. Matt & Cathy are proud parents!

ike pics

my sister-in-law sent us this link.. you can see how devastating ike was for some.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

we have internet!

we got power back monday and now, friday, we have our internet. everyone is safe and sound, the only damage we incurred was to our downstairs bedroom which flooded in the thunderstorm the day after the hurricane came through. all our family has been pitching in, watching kids, doing laundry. our awesome neighbors lent us a generator a couple days after the hurricane so we didn’t lose anything from the fridge or freezer. I think, besides the flooding, we kinda thought it was a fun little camping trip in the comfort of our own home. we had our gas oven and stove working so we had some good meals despite the power outage. and now we’re on freezer and pantry clean-out, trying to get a handle on what we have in there, and what needs to be thrown out. so we’re almost back to normal, except our room which is still a mess. we’re so grateful for all the help we’ve had. more on the california trip later.