Pumpkin Carving Party

Last night was the annual Pumpkin Carving Party! It was a great night!

all lit up - volvo, cinderella, starry night, witchy woman, and grimm reaper

they look pretty awesome in the dark!

gabe's grimm reaper

my witchy woman

chelsea's starry night - this was awesome because the stars went all the way around the pumpkin!

katie's cinderella - i was jealous... told her i was going to take credit for it!



seth's volvo pumpkin - completely freehand!



thanks to everyone who came! hope you had fun!

only bad thing, these pumpkins are going to rot before halloween.. so you know gabe and i will have to do this again next weekend! :)

mickey's halloween party

last year, we discovered Mickey's Halloween Party. it was such an awesome night, we decided we wanted to do it every year. Tuesday was our trip to the mouse house for Mickey's Halloween Party.

gabe and i were in whimsical moods, so we decided to dress up. we chose simple costumes, to ease ourselves into the halloween festivities... i haven't dressed up since i went to "the howl" at USU in 2004.

below is our whole group - jmj is taking the picture.

gabe went as a detective (his mustache didn't stay on long though...), i was a sailor, lanny was a witch, emily went as a cowgirl and allyson was a little witch. (others went as themselves.)  

 here's detective gabe - minus his mustache.

 ahoy!

ally liked wandering around the lines.

janica and ally. 

mike and emily - she didn't want a picture...  

 coppin' a squat to eat some candy.

tea-cups

another great year with at Mickey's Halloween Party! while we were there, it dawned at me that next year we'll have our own little girl to take with us to Mickey's Halloween Party...

halloween craft time

last saturday, we had Emily over for a craft date. we got these cute kids from Michael's for making a haunted candy house and a graveyard scene. it was a great craft and she had fun putting it together. with the spider stickers she'd say, "i just don't like real spiders. i like these little sticker spiders." i agree!

I didn't get a good picture of her final haunted house, but here is the final graveyard...

after we finished the main craft, we did some stamping and watched Lion King. it was a lovely time with our sweet niece!

kickin' it - sailor style

hey now - check that pregnant belly out!

as of tomorrow I will be 20 weeks pregnant. (1/2 way) now that we know it's a girl, I feel like it's more real. and I'm excited to get the nursery ready. I keep telling Gabe that I'm in a "nesting mood." he laughs and says I'm not a bird gathering twigs!

(EAK talked me into buying this shirt. I'm glad she did... I rocked the pregnant sailor look on sunday!)

the other night, as we were going to bed, I felt a distinct *kick* from our little girl. All my books say that when you first feel the baby move that it feels like gas. Maybe I mised that part... because this didn't feel like gas, this felt like a *kick* from inside my belly! I've felt a few more since then, but she doesn't do it on command. (that would be quite the trick!)

we've also done a lot of browsing and shopping lately for baby stuff. we've been to Babies-R-Us, Bergstrom's, Target, a local furniture store, Pottery Barn Kids, and back to Bergstrom's. We've found the nursery set we want to get. The crib, armoire, and dresser from the collection below. it's a scan of a photocopy, so it's not the best picture.

now we need to decide on colors... I don't want it to be a cliche explosion of pink, but i do like a few pink and green combos I've seen. perhaps some purple? decisions, decisions! we better hop-to! as of tomorrow, we are 1/2 way there!

estas una nina

we're having a girl!!

we went on wednesday to my doctor appointment on we were excited by the idea that the doctor could tell us what sex the baby is. unfortunately, the doctor was not particularly interested in telling us the sex of the baby. she barely even tried. i was so upset, but it was early enough of the day that we could implement a plan B.

the ladies at work had told me about this place in costa mesa/newport beach area that does nothing but ultrasounds. two of my coworkers had used this place while they were pregnant and they swore by it. $25 for an ultrasound + pictures. you could get a DVD, 3d, 4d, or other extras. we were just interested in the ultrasound.

we called and they had an opening that night for 7 pm. we were so glad we had a second try. well, baby wouldn't cooperate. baby was being shy. the ultrasound tech had me try all sorts of things to move the baby. i jumped up and down, i rolled side to side, i jiggled my hips, nothing. baby would only move a little bit, and baby kept crossing it's legs. i was so sad. luckily, they'll do a retry at a discounted price...

so, we went back this morning and gave it a second shot. this time the ultrasound tech was able to get a look at HER and tell us it's a GIRL!

we're so excited for our little girl!

come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.

Johnson Family Cruise - 2011

(warning... picture overload!!)

We have returned from an adventure on the high seas! We left Long Beach on Sunday, August 7th, and set out to Mexico. The Carnival Splendor was splendid!

Matthew's 4th birthday was Monday, August 8th. Lucky boy, not many 4 year olds get to be on a cruise for their 4th birthday!



Star Wars, Cars, and Legos... Matthew's favorite!























































Beautiful ocean sunset.






























Brian didn't want to look up for the picture.

Our first day in Cabo started out cloudy. We walked around, had lunch, and then returned to the boat.

holding a huge iguana!

Gabe chillin' on deck.

the elephant was our favorite towel animal!

Second day in Cabo was AMAZING. Beautiful, warm, crystal clear water.

when on land, Matthew would say, "I see our truise!!"

(and Brian would say, "It's a cruise, Matthew, not a truise...")









tourists.












sebastian crabs.













Beautiful Cabo.













Puerto Vallarta

Jungle Mountains.

Sailing home.

Baby Natalie.

Emily loved wearing my floppy hat!

Gramma brought a craft activity for the kids... Emily liked making her Sesame Street puppets.

there was a huge family of people wearing shirts and hats that said, "I'm With Freddy." Freddy was their grandfather and they were having a huge family reunion. My dad said if we found Freddy, he'd give us $5. i found Freddy on our last day!

Karaoke!

Even the boys sang!

Emily was sad that she didn't get a chance to sing Pokerface.

it was an AMAZING trip! we had so much fun with everyone!! thank you mom & dad!!!