Thanks ladies!

I was blessed last weekend by some friends from our bible study who threw me a surprise baby shower. It is honestly one of the few times I've been genuinely surprised. The funny thing is that I had been helping to plan a night for us to all get together and just chit-chat over food. Little did I know I was helping to plan my own shower! Thanks for a great evening ladies! I'll have to see if anyone took photos since I was camera-less at the restaurant. Hard to believe we have about 6 weeks before this baby is to arrive!

Beautiful flowers, balloons and even a quilt adorned the tabletop to add to the evenings festivities.

Fall brings change

I can feel fall coming here in sunny AZ. It's not quite here, otherwise I'd be snug in my cardigan or long-sleeve shirt and jeans, but it's coming. Fall is my favorite season and yet it comes and goes so quickly here. Our trees tend to lose their leaves overnight while we're all asleep and we definitely don't have the "changing of the closet" where I need to necessarily switch out my winter clothes with the summer ones. We're hoping to head to cooler weather sometime in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse and capture some pretty photos of the leaves changing.

I think for me, fall represents a season of change. Time to evaluate my life and what I could do to improve upon it. What would God desire for me to change? Lately, I've been feeling this tug at my heart more than ever. Change. I sense a lot of life-changing moments coming up this season and next year and I cannot tell you how excited I am for it! I must admit, most of the changes I have no idea what they will be, but for some reason I just feel like this is the year to take some prayerful action. Ya know?

Our little guy seems to be changing all of the time. I love how he makes me laugh. And I love how he knows how to make me laugh. How do they know?

We found this Black & Decker play tool set at a wholesale warehouse we shop at a couple of weeks ago. I debated for a little bit whether to keep it until his birthday or Christmas but I couldn't contain myself and gave in.

Lucas is a tad bit jealous saying that Noah has more tools than he does.

We've learned from Papa, safety first!

Good thing for those safety glasses.

Oh, and did I mention that many of the tools require batteries. Which means that they make annoying noises...All. Day. Long.

Occasionally I'll download photos from the camera and be surprised what Lucas has taken while I'm away. Apparently my little monkey found my socks. Socks are the fun new thing around here. I think those are clean???

Lucas is a definite daddy's boy. I love it. He wants to help Lucas do absolutely everything, and that sad little face when Lucas has to leave in the morning is enough to bring a tear to my eye. I always say, "Daddy has to go to work because he loves us." I'm so thankful that is true.

Life is good. And we are blessed.

Tidbits on a hot day

Well, I'm aware my blog has been lacking lately. Perhaps that shows the lack of motivation I've had to do much of anything. I think the 115 degree heat is getting to me, or maybe it's being in my third trimester, or maybe it's a crazy toddler boy who seems to have turned 2 before his actual birthday???

I don't have any wonderful photos to share. Maybe I can add that to my long to-do list! I do have stories and tidbits though.

:: Noah loves to imitate his daddy. While I was sitting on the couch the other morning, he quietly went over to the kitchen to grab the insulated lunch bag he often plays with, carried it over to me, leaned forward with lips puckered to give me a big kiss, waved good-bye and headed for the garage door.

:: The Veggie Tales video, God Made You Special, has become a lifesaver for me. Noah LOVES this particular video and I have to admit, I do too (except when I wake up in the middle of the night with the theme song running through my brain). He'd watch it on repeat if I let him.

:: When we were at Target a little while back we hit their toy clearance sale and snagged an electric keyboard for $3. It's pink. But Lucas said we could overlook that due to the price. Noah loves music and often will give me the keyboard while he bangs on something that resembles a drum (he broke his, remember). If I stop playing, he looks at me like I should know better. Don't stop the music.

:: Lucas is still being one generous husband working on projects around the house with the little spare time he has. Not only are we (meaning he) painting all 3 upstairs bedrooms, but we're ripping out the wire closet shelving and putting in wooden closet systems. They look nice and he's doing a great job. We can see the end of the road now, I think, and I cannot wait until the house is put back together and we can just enjoy a calm weekend together as a family once again, sans projects. And if anyone needs cans of paint samples, I have plenty to share as we put 6 of them on the master bedroom walls. Yep, I have a great husband!

:: Baby girl Johnson is doing fabulously, although at my last appointment they were unable to measure me due to her being completely horizontal. I've known she's been that way since I get the elbow jabs to the front, the head in my right rib and the kicking to my left. Gosh, I love her so much already. Our appointments are growing closer together now, which means she's coming sooner than I can imagine! Our scheduled date is Nov. 6th...and my mom just purchased her plane tickets! Yippee!

:: Passed my glucose test but was told my iron is low. I wasn't surprised as the same thing happened when I was pregnant with Noah. I had tried to get them to test my iron way in the beginning with little luck. I'm hoping the supplements will help me to get some energy back. I'm going to need it soon enough!

:: I've gained weight. No, I'm not going to share how much. Still under how much I gained with Noah, but I know it's coming. I still have several weeks to go! I figure if the doctor doesn't mention it, I won't either!

Now, off to go do some laundry and make my little mister some lunch. Anyone wanna join us?

For the love of all things tools

Can you tell how much this kiddo likes tools? I think with Lucas working on projects around the house it has increased his special love for hammers. He does have 3 of them.

Lucas demanded he take a photo of the icky gecko that came into our home the other evening. "You can blog about it," he said.

Okay, so when looking at the 3" baby thing it wasn't so icky...but I definitely did not want it in my home. And I definitely did not want to touch it. I spotted it a few feet away from me. You would have thought it was a poisonous snake the way I reacted. Back up, slow and steady. Hope Noah doesn't run this direction and cause it to scurry under the furniture.

I grabbed for the first thing I could think of to capture it...our popcorn bowl. Pretty smart if you ask me. Plus, it was see-through so I could make sure the little bugger stayed where I captured it until Lucas came home to rescue us! So dramatic, I know. Lucas wanted to keep it as a pet. I said no.

Mr. Fit-It

Looks like we have a little Mr. Fix-it in the house. I've been meaning to get to that high chair tray someday but Noah beat me to it. I'm already making my to-do list for him to start on for the rest of the house.

We like to challenge people around here to use things other than their hands. Looks like the mouth is perfect for picking up spinning tops!

Oh, and in case you're wondering about our Little Drummer Boy, after months of use and abuse he broke the drum the next day. Guess my warnings about using it as a step stool weren't good enough.

In other Johnson news, things are going well with our baby girl. I'm in my 26th week and showing it! I don't really crave anything this time around, but boy do I want to eat EVERYTHING. Lucas likes this side of me. =)

And a HUGE congratulations to my brother and his family on the birth of their little girl, Paige. We seriously cannot wait to cuddle that little one and see the rest of the family.

Our little drummer boy

Noah loves music. And this just cracks us up. I tried to capture on video (not very well I might add) but the faster Lucas would drum, the faster Noah would dance, or drum. Who needs to pay for entertainment?

(Sorry about the lighting, I wasn't thinking about needing to turn on extra lights)

Projects

Life has been, well, busy. Don't you just get sick of saying that...or hearing that? I so wish I wasn't a project girl. I think life would be much simpler. But, I am. So off it has been finishing up Noah's "big boy" room and finishing those darn baseboards that have been over a year in the making. I must say though, they look mighty good with the freshly painted walls upstairs.

Noah's gotten used to daddy working around the house, I think.

Safety first!

And when you need entertainment....blow up a balloon!

Really, that's as much excitement as you'll get around here lately. Although I will say we're utterly grateful for a dear friend who watched our son so Lucas and I could have a date night! Woohoo! It was late, we were a bit bleary-eyed but let me tell you we ordered appetizers, entrees and dessert just so we could stay longer and eat like grown ups!