Johnny: #9!

Johnny is 9!!! Sometimes it is really hard to believe he is 9 and other times I feel like he should be so much older than that. I'm really not sure how I ever lived a life without my little "old" man! 

Here's a little bit about Johnny:

• Second grade had a few more challenges than first grade for Johnny but he eventually got the hang of it and really excelled. 
• Johnny is a typical boy when it comes to academic things....he can read very well, he can write well, and he does a great job at math, but most of the time, he just doesn't want to do any of it. And he will rush through his work quickly just to be done. He struggles a bit with spelling but found out that actually studying the words and working on them helps so much. 
• Johnny really didn't complain too much last year about homework, but this year was a different story. He wanted to be doing anything other than homework. 
• He is still a "protector"...if anybody messes with his brother, they better watch out.....if someone is messing with his sister, he's gonna let them know.....if someone is giving his best buddy Simon a hard time, Johnny is all over it! 
• He has a long "fuse"....but when his fuse reaches the end, you are definitely going to know it. He can get pretty angry. 
• He still says he's not getting married when he's grown up. His plan is to have a dog and be a police officer. 
• He has an "old man soul" ....his elaborate, monotone stories are the best and he just fits right in with the retired crowd. He can tell a story like the best of them.....giving you all of the tiniest details.  
• His belly laugh will make anyone laugh and is one of the very best sounds EVER
• He can take just about anything apart and will! He loves figuring out how things work...which usually results in taking things apart.
• He is the absolute happiest when he is riding a tractor, 4 wheeler or lawn mower and loves them even more if he can drive by himself. He is really wanting a mini-bike, but we have said "no" on that at least for now. 
• He can hear a sound from any vehicle and 9 times out of 10 can identify what it is (motorcycle, truck, train, firetruck, bus, etc.)
• He does not like to disappoint adults and it crushes him if he thinks someone is upset with him. 
• Johnny and Winston have a special bond. If Johnny is happy, Winston is there. When Johnny is sad or sick, Winston is there and Johnny immediately feels better when Winston comes around. They also get each other super excited and rowdy! Johnny has been a huge help with Winston....helping feed him, take him outside, gather toys, etc. etc. 
• If he's not really good at something, he easily gets discouraged. If he gets mad about something, he shuts down and needs some time to regroup. 
• He will play with pretty much anyone, but playing with his best buddy Simon is his favorite.
• We have realized over the last year that Johnny is pretty introverted. He would rather be home by himself instead of with a crowd of people out and about somewhere. If he does go out and is around a bunch of people/in a group doing something fun, he is fine during the event but then wants to come home and retreats to his room to play with legos or transformers. 
• His favorite shows are: Bluey, The Floor is Lava and Star Wars
• His favorite movies: Transformers and Star Wars (He has REALLY gotten into star wars over the past year)
• Clothing sizes range from 8-10 and his feet are still at a 2
• Johnny loves to help out....it doesn't matter what it is, he will happily help you with it! He has continued helping me in the kitchen as often as possible (dishes are his favorite but he loves to help cook too) and really has enjoyed helping John in the barn with the garden, lawn mower, etc. 
• Johnny absolutely LOVES breakfast! He will eat a large breakfast then not eat much for lunch or dinner. We've kind of started forcing him to eat through the day though because he's not real good at recognizing that he is hungry until he is "hangry". 
• His favorite food for breakfast is frozen blueberry waffles (or the twice a year donut-blueberry or apple fritter), for lunch he likes peanut butter and jelly, pizza rolls, a ham sandwich or chic fil a nuggets and for dinner he will usually eat a variety of things wether its pasta, hot dogs, spaghetti, rice, tacos, or pancakes...For snacks he really likes cheez-it and one of his favorite meals at any time is Scrambled Egg Sandwich. He's also really starting to enjoy a few drinks of Pepsi here and there. He will almost always choose a fruity dessert/sugar cookie over chocolate. He will try ANYTHING!
• He sleeps really well...he is usually in bed around 8:00 and will sleep all night. If he doesn't sleep through the night, he comes into our room and snuggles--he is the best snuggler! His stuffed lovie "Douglas" is still a favorite and he loves to line up his legos on his nightstand just before getting into bed.  
• He is our early riser....he is usually the first one up. He likes to have two ZBars while he sits in the recliner and watches a show until it's time to eat his actual breakfast and get ready for the day. If for some reason he doesn't get this alone time, he can be pretty grumpy. 
• His favorite books are: Dog Man, Elephant & Piggie and Pigeon Books, Bad Guys and Investi-gator. Graphic novels are his favorite!
• When he wants to (as with all kids)....Johnny follows a set of instructions very well and is usually very compliant with what he's been asked to do
• One of his favorite times is when mama comes home from the grocery store with bags of food....he is really good at helping me get the bags out of the car and carry them inside 
• He still loves to wear a hat and he pretty much lives in Under Armour clothes. Sundays going to church is the only time I am able to get him into jeans or khaki pants/shorts and even then he really doesn't want to.
• He truly loves Mellany and Charlie and plays with them very well. He wants to do anything Mellany is doing and loves showing Charlie the "ropes". He has really enjoyed playing with Charlie recently (mostly nerf guns)
• He has really great manners and is very helpful to others-holding doors open, letting others go first, bringing things to people, etc.
• When Johnny does mess up and it requires punishment we typically only have to take away iPad time or send him to bed 10 minutes early and the behavior is corrected. He really dislikes being in trouble and disappointing adults. 
• His favorite song right now is just about anything by Imagine Dragons
• After several years of asking and crying when leaving rural king, we gave in and built a chicken coop for Johnny to have some chickens. We got 8 chicks and one has ended up being a rooster we are pretty sure. Johnny has done such an excellent job taking care of the chickens....he checks them each morning and then several times through the day. He has cleaned out their coop and house with John without complaint and will go out to the coop to just sit with them. When we traveled to TX on vacation, he traveled with a chicken feather in his backpack hahaha! 
• Playing the Nintendo switch, iPad and playstation are things he really loves!! And he is honestly pretty good at them (he almost always beats John and I). But, we do have to limit the amount of time he plays on them because when he plays, he is "all in" and it is hard to come back to "reality".
• When Johnny is zoned in on something, he literally hears nothing else....it can definitely be a good thing, but also can be very "trying"
• Legos are one of Johnny's favorite things to do (besides video games). He could sit and put together a lego set all day long if he wanted to 
• Johnny really enjoyed playing flag football and baseball this year and did really well! He also loves taking Ninja classes and is extremely good at it...his muscles are super strong....he can climb, etc with the best of them! 

9 Year Wellness Exam

 Weight: 58 pounds

Height: 4' 5"

Johnny's exam went really great! He answered every question Dr. Fahler had for him from eating to friends to school to sports and general interests. We were in and out of the office in no time at all! So thankful for Johnny's health and that he is happy and active. 

We had some extra time before his appointment so we stopped in Starbucks for a little breakfast date. I'm so glad we did, because getting to spend some one on one time with Johnny just makes me so happy. 

The fish was super intrigued with Johnny's hat and Johnny was laughing hysterically

He really disliked being in the gown they made him put on this year

Birthday Celebration

Johnny had two requests for his birthday this year....Golden Corral for lunch and Malibu Jacks all with his buddy Simon. So, those are the two things we did after church on his actual birthday. It was so much fun to see him so happy at these two places! The boy loves a buffet and some video games. 

After being out and about, we came back to the house for cake and presents. 

Happy 9th Birthday Johnny boy!!! 

Texas Vacation

For several years, John and I have been talking about taking a trip to Southern Texas to visit my grandpa where he lives. He turns 85 this year and drives up to see us every summer, so we thought this year needed to be the year! Mom decided to join us and so we booked the trip! We planned for June thinking the weather would likely still be pretty mild and gosh we couldn't have been more wrong! We eventually also decided that we would spend at least a week in Texas traveling from Edinburg where grandpa lives all the way to Dallas, stopping in San Antonio and Waco and exploring some significant tourist spots.....to make the most out of the trip.

Instead of spending 3 days driving, we figured it would be best to fly and the kids were pumped! They love everything about flying....the planes, the airport, the snacks....all of it! They've all flown once before so this time (as older kids) they were pros! 

While John and Mellany parked our car in long term parking, the boys and I explored a bit. We found this Indy sign and a racecar....

Made it to our gate ON TIME! 

Ready to fly!!

Just like his mama....reads all the details! :)

We had about a 3 hour layover in Austin (which we did not enjoy the airport) so we grabbed lunch and then waited. Mellany thought her photo app was quite hilarious.....and she was right lol...

Ready to get to Grandpas! Mom had already landed and made it to his place by this point. 

Getting our luggage and rental car was a breeze! Can I just say how much easier it is flying was with older kids?! It was amazing that they could actually help with luggage and wait patiently when needed. 

We made it to grandpas and everyone was hungry...so off to dinner we went.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Grandpa's usual restaurant. 

Then later that day replaced his A/C because it was 91 DEGREES in his place! 

The kids really loved the tree outside

And the pool at our airbnb was extra nice because the weather was ridiculously hot...

Just so I could remember it...I took these screenshots....it was already 81 (feels like 89) at 7:44am! By 5:30 that night it was 107 (feels like 116)!!!!!! It was horrible!! Like, it was even hot swimming in the pool!

These two found my phone and snapped a selfie...

We needed to replenish a few grocery items and the boys were loving their VIP service.

Remember that photo app that Mellany loved in the airport.....she loved it at breakfast one morning with Grandpa too. hahaha! 

One last picture before we left! 

After a few days with Grandpa, we loaded up and headed to San Antonio! The kids thought the border patrol checkpoint was cool...

Our first full day in San Antonio and our first stop was at the Alamo of course! We had been told that it wasn't really much to look at or go through, but we all found it fascinating! We walked through the church, ventured through the grounds and even watched a weapons show that was so cool! 

We even found the Lego Alamo exhibit!

Of course, by 11:00, the heat was too much and we needed food! There was a Dave & Buster's within walking distance so we spent several hours having lunch and playing games. It's not what we would have really planned to do in a city we've never been to, but the heat was just too much and extremely limiting on what we could do. Either way, we still had fun! 

Once we finished up at Dave & Buster's, we went back to our AirBnB. Mom decided she wanted to stay in with the kids and send John and I out on a date. We ordered her and the kids some pizza delivery and headed out to Morton's steakhouse (it was so good!) in San Antonio and then walked the River Walk after to see if it was something we would want to do with the whole crew. We decided: no! It was busy, there was no railing (we were sure one of our boys would end up in the water) and we just didn't feel like our kids would enjoy it. 

What we did decide though, was that my mom and I would go to the River Walk in the morning before it got busy so she could at least check it out. Johnny said that he wanted to go too, so the three of us headed that way. 

Johnny found a squirrel friend who was not shy at all!

Gammy and Johnny on one of the bridges above the River Walk.

He really loved the Five and Dime

And of course I needed a picture with my boy too!

After the three of us took an Uber back to the house, we loaded up and made our way north to Waco! I was totally shocked after seeing that the speed limit was 85!!!

Mellany had been dying to share in the Buc-ee's experience with the boys and we finally made it to one!! The boys loved it just as much as we did! We even found Buc-ee himself!

We landed in Waco and immediately found the Magnolia Silos!!! It was so great! It was still EXTREMELY hot but I still loved it. The boys went through the shops very quickly and eventually made their way to the car to get cooled down. Honestly, us girls weren't too far behind them. Though we did battle the heat to wait in line at the bakery for some goodies! 

We had dinner then crashed in our hotel. Waco was only a one night stay so we packed back up the next morning and headed out, making our way to Irving, TX. 

One stop that John had been most excited about was the gas station with the delicious Kolaches! And my goodness they were good! Totally worth it. 

While in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we decided to visit the Ft. Worth Stockyards. It was so much fun! We stopped in at the petting zoo, rode the bull, rode the train and watched the longhorn cattle drive! We went into a few shops and had lunch as well, but then we headed out because, again, it was hotter than the sun! 

On the way back to our house, I took this picture in the car of the outside temp! Then when I looked it up on my phone, it said it felt like 115....and I would say, ACCURATE! It was way too hot for me. 

While staying in Irving, we got to visit with my cousin who lives about 25 minutes away! The first night we met up with them, we ate at one of their favorite places and had so much fun catching up! 

We had so much fun the first night, that we decided to meet up again and had them come over for pizza and swimming at our airbnb! 

Mom snapped this pic of us one of the nights in Irving and I love it so much! 

After a full week of adventure, we were headed home! 

And that's that!!! 9 days of traveling and we were ready to get back home (mostly because we missed our animals and cooler weather!). We had so much fun on our Texas adventure and it was extra special that Gammy went with us.....we are so thankful anytime she can join in on the fun with us. 

See ya next time Texas!!