So we decided to do an outside family photo shoot this year.  My main reason was that I love the fall colors and trees in Thief River turn into such beautiful colors – usually.  I was thinking of last year when we had a beautiful fall but didn’t take too many pictures then and Kason was a baby so it was harder.  But of course, once we set up the date with the photographer, it was pretty obvious that there won’t be pretty colors or nice warm weather.  The trees almost skipped changing to beautiful colors because it got too cold too fast.  The day of the shoot was very cloudy and freezing cold and we kept thinking are we really going to do this to our kids?  But we didn’t want to cancel the shoot because we couldn’t reschedule it so we went ahead with it.  I really didn’t want to take pictures with us wearing big puffy jackets and hats though so we pretty much froze even with 3 or 4 layers of clothes.  Kason was very hard to keep in one spot or to even stay in the shot with us or other kids, which I kind of suspected.  And after a little while of being in the park Anika too got really cold and was not smiling at anything.  Kade had a blast and wanted to run and play even after we were all done but Ehren and I were glad to get into a warm car and get home to warm up.  So I left the photo shoot thinking man, if we get one good picture it will be great.  But Chelsie did a great job and considering the weather and how little Kason and Ani are, we couldn’t get more or better pictures.  We have a lot of good memory pictures that will look great printed so I’m very excited.  I just get tired of the same old pictures so these are very precious.  Chelsie is Ehren’s cousin’s daughter and at only 20 years old she’s starting out her photography career.  I’m sure she can be a great photographer one day, but it does take a lot of experience especially with kids and people and seeing if the poses are good before taking pictures.  Anyway, here are some previews of what she took.  We have a lot more pictures saved and I can’t wait to play around with them.

So this last weekend finally came when we took our kids to the North Shore, MN.  I always loved going there in the fall and couldn’t believe the last time we went there was when I was pregnant with Kade – our first child.  I think we’re going to try a lot harder to go there every fall we can from now on.  We had a very special time with our family.   It is never easy with little ones who need naps and can’t walk fast, but we made the best of it.  I was wishing a little bit that we could have gone on more trails and also felt a little bad for Kade who was so eager to try every trail he spotted but we couldn’t with Anika.  We borrowed a backpack kid carrier from our friends for Kason and that was a lifesaver.  He was so good in it and just watched everything around him.  When we were finally hiking I realized it would have been perfect to have 2 of them and have Ani on my back.  First, they weigh about the same with Kason so it wouldn’t feel any different and it would help us cover more trails.  But at the same time, we had fun just being outside and had such a wonderful weather that we couldn’t have asked for more.  I found a great deal for a hotel in Two Harbors so we stayed there overnight on Saturday.  That was an adventure of its own since our kids have never stayed in a hotel before (just Kade) and Kade and Anika were pretty wild in the hotel room.  They loved the swimming pool and the hot tub and it was fun to do that as a family.  On Sunday we went to one more trail and a few lookout places and that was great too.  The kids were just a little tired of taking pictures after that so we didn’t get too many good smiles out of them.   Overall, all the kids were pretty worn out by the end of the weekend but they had fun.  A huge bummer happened at the end when we were finishing off at the Gooseberry Falls, just going through some rocks and water to get a better view.  I had our camera in my pocket but it was too big to zip it and as I bended down to lift Anika, the camera fell right between 2 rocks, in the water.  The pictures were fine, but there is water built up inside the lens and Ehren doesn’t think our camera allows taking apart the lens to clean it.  He’s going to try to take it all apart, but we’re probably hosed there which is a huge bummer.  It is not a high end camera, but not cheap either.  So our 2nd digital camera we owned since we got married ended up in the water as well.  Ehren was responsible for the first one and now it was my turn.  I guess we’re even.

Our drive home wasn’t without drama either as the belt and something else almost broke in the middle of nowhere.  The belt started ripping in pieces but in order to get home we had to drive 15 miles to Grand Rapids and to the auto parts place that was closing in half hour.  So we drove slowly and prayed the whole way and with God’s amazing protection we got there safe.   And not only that but there was a guy who helped Ehren replace both things, one of which Ehren didn’t even know was bad.  We were so thankful after that because we could have been stuck with 3 kids so many times on our trip and before and it would not be easy to get home or get help in the middle of the weekend.  So it was a perfect ending to our little trip.

Our princess Anika turned 3 yesterday and it was a special day for her.  We haven’t gotten together with the family for a while so we had everyone over for dinner and cake.  Mark and Audrey, Kjell and Jess, and Judith all came and Ani was so excited about her birthday party.  She knew a lot more about birthdays because Kade just had his a month ago so she was way into it this year.  Anika loves butterflies so I made her a butterfly birthday cake.  Not exactly professional looking but it was alright and she really liked it.  Instead of party hats we had princess crowns for the kids and even Kade was all game wearing it and being a part of the princess kind of a birthday.  Ani was also super excited to get presents and every time she started to open one she would say “Whatever can it be?” which is a line from one of her books where a little girl opens a present.  She got some cute clothes, a cross necklace from Judith, a really great winter jacket from nanna and papa, wooden food that you can cut, a tea pot set and a nail polish set from Ehren.  I think it will take a while for her to share the new toys with Emily and other friends without a fight.  It was just a fun time for us to watch her get all excited about her day.  She is growing up so quick and I can’t believe how much more mature she’s getting.

Ani is all girl and loves girly plays, girly clothes, purses and she loves to paint/color and do art projects.  It is fun for me because I was such an opposite of her.  I was a big tom boy growing up, wearing my brothers’ clothes and I hated when mom would make me wear a dress.  I hated coloring and crafts and just wanted to play sports stuff with my brothers.  Now in my “old age” I’m more appreciative of this girliness Ani brings me and it makes me remember to do different things with her than the boys.  It can be a little frustrating for me to watch Ani in physical play because she is such a girl.   When I was little I used to be offended if someone thought I couldn’t play soccer, ice skate, bike or run as fast as boys and I’d be proving them wrong the next minute.  So it is a little funny that Anika is that girl.  She runs like a girl, throws like a girl, and is just really weak.  I don’t mean it in a bad way and I love her just as she is, but I have to keep reminding myself that some things are a lot harder for her than our boys.  To be fair, a lot of it comes from Ani’s delayed motor skills which we worked and worked on this last year with a physical therapist and now she improved enough that she doesn’t need it anymore.  I think she had to get over some of the fear of balancing and stuff and now she’s doing great.  She still has a lot of fun running around with the kids and even if she would not pick playing catch she will eagerly do it because that’s what the other kids want to do.   Ani is very social and loves being with other kids, especially other girls.  Her and Emily (her cousin) have become such good playmates since I started watching her during the day and now if Emily is not here Anika misses her.  They are a bit of opposites from each other but somehow they get along great and love doing things together.  Growing up I spent a lot of time with my cousin Saci who’s the same age as me and we became inseparable.  It is such a special relationship when you don’t have a sister.  I miss her a lot and wish we could hang out like the old times.

Anyway, this last year Anika has changed so much.  It’s probably because of the interaction with other kids but she is expressing herself so much better now.  It is so nice to be able to have little conversations with her and a deepening relationship.  It feels like the older she gets the closer we are and I love that.  She also loves her daddy time and I know it’s special to Ehren and he really cherishes his little girl.  Of course, we do get reminded from time to time of all that estrogen in her because of her screaming and little outbursts and they make me think it’s just preparation for the teenage hormones that are coming.   All in all, I feel very blessed to have a daughter to share our life with and am looking forward to what God has in store for her as she grows.

I’m just realizing that I have barely written anything about how our Kason’s doing so I better write a few words about him.  He seems to be growing up so fast in front of our eyes, maybe it’s because he’s #3.  He still doesn’t say much, just a few words but he understands a lot and there are some things I can’t say in front of him like the “froggy movie” or else he has a fit that he’s not getting what he heard.  The froggie movie, as we call it is his new favorite and he can sit and watch the whole 25 minutes of it.  It is a leapfrog movie about letters, letter sounds and putting some simple words together.  Both Kade and Anika learned the whole alphabet and all the letter sounds from it before they were 2 and I’m sure it helped Kade with his reading too.  I just can’t believe how much Kason loves these shows and he even repeats some letter sounds from it.   We usually put it on in the evening when I’m trying to cook dinner because that is his fussy time when he just wants me to hold him.

Kason is 16 months old this month but is as big as many 2 year olds and most of his clothes he wears are 2T.  For fall/winter jackets he’s going to wear 3T and they’re not even that big which is a little scary.  He just got his 15th month shots last week and he is still in 100th percentile for height, 90th for weight and about 75th for how big his head is.  He looks really long but he’s built strong like Ehren, nothing like my brothers who are all tall but skinny.  So now he’s officially the same weight if not bigger than Ani’s.  She is just a skinny peanut, but she’s still quite a bit taller than him.  Kason is also a really good eater.  There are very few things he doesn’t eat and if he sees anyone eat in the kitchen he has to eat too.  I don’t know if it’s good or bad that he likes food so much, but I’m really glad he’s like this in comparison to being a finicky eater.

The biggest joy Kason brings me right now is how much he loves books and puzzle toys like shapes, legos and stuff.  I was a little worried when he was an infant because he had no interest in sitting and looking at the picture books, he was always on the go.  Now he can sit in my lap and read books one after another for a long time.  He also keeps bringing me books or if I’m sitting down he’ll grab my hand and place the book in it because he wants to make sure I read it to him.

He also loves cuddling with me or Ehren on the couch and suck his thumb while rubbing his ear.  He really is like a big snugly teddy bear.  He is very strong and can be a tough guy but really he is so gentle and soft inside.   Probably a little bit of being the baby of the family.  Kason also follows the older kids around and wants to have everything they are playing with.  But he doesn’t cry about wanting something, just comes right in and takes stuff away or ruins something the kids have been working on, and it’s usually Anika who ends up screaming.  His fascination is still with Ehren’s laptop or my computer, but he can’t ruin the keyboard I have.  Poor laptop is not looking so good with all the missing keys he broke off, but Ehren will soon need a new one so it’s not the end of the world.

Kason also loves loves going outside, but I on the other hand don’t like taking him outside much unless it’s really dry.  If there is one tiny puddle in our yard he will find it and is sitting in it before I know it.  So I pretty much have to chase him around because he’s so fast that I turn around and he’s gone.  He also wants to take off for any road he sees so that is really the scary part.  At least there are a couple playgrounds in town where I can watch him from a distance and he can’t run away easily.  I’m just hoping he’ll grow out of this stage soon and will listen to me when I yell his name or when I tell him to stop.  Most of the times, if I see him running for the road and I yell at him or tell him to stop he just starts running faster, not even looking back at me.  I used to smile when I would see kids doing that to their parents, well now when I’m the parent it’s just not that funny.

So, that about summs up what Kason’s been up to.  It really feels like he completes our little family because when it’s just Kade and Anika it is so quiet and peaceful (well, most of the times) and like something is missing.

Our last little trip for the summer was this last weekend when we went to see Brent and Ingrid in Omaha.  I almost thought I shouldn’t post anything because it’s pathetic how few pictures we took but we had such a good time there.  Well, maybe minus the drive there and back, which took 9 hours both times because of road construction.  When we were leaving Kade said he wanted to stay there because it’s so much more fun than at home.  There is just so much more to do in a bigger city.  We went to a cool dinosaur park with all the kids and it was great to just be outside on the nature trails.  We were smart to go early because as we were leaving the parking lot was full of cars.  In the afternoon Brent took Kade and Sage to the zoo which they loved but it was good we didn’t all go because on a Labor day weekend it got pretty crowded.  Ehren and I both did some shopping and I am really happy about the deals I found on clothes for the kids.  And for Ehren, of course, because he now needs a whole new wardrobe.   On Saturday evening we went out with Brent and Ingrid to a really great restaurant called Espana.  It had some really unique Spanish food and it all tasted delicious.  It’s always fun to try a new place with them.  Their babysitter watched all 5 kids for us and put them all to bed so it was an extra special treat.  On Sunday we played outside with the kids a lot and they had so much fun playing baseball and running around.  I just couldn’t get over how nice it was to sit outside, day and evening without one single mosquito around.  It was so nice to have a barbecue dinner on the deck too, which was really delicious.  We always get spoiled with food when we see Brent and Ingrid.  Brent is a great cook and Ingrid too makes fun new dishes all the time.  We also played some badminton and I forgot how much I liked playing it.  The weather was perfect for it too with hardly any wind to blow the “shuttlecocks” away. (It took me a while to find that word online and I’m still not sure if that’s right)

The drive both ways was pretty slow because of the construction on the road but the kids did great for being in the van for 9 hours.  They watched some dvds, but not as much as I thought they would.  I was really hoping Kason and Ani would sleep some since it was their usual nap time, but all of our kids must have inherited Ehren’s ways in the car.   That is – inability to sleep.  Kason was sooo tired both ways but when he would finally fall asleep, he was up in 10 minutes.  I just don’t understand it because me and my brothers always slept in the car on long trips, almost the whole time.  That’s all I remember, how we slept all over each other (no car seats back then, of course).  But, I was really glad that neither of them were crabby for being so tired.  They really did great for such a long trip.  I was telling Ehren that it is like driving to the sea side in Croatia from Slovakia which always seemed like a huge trip.

So here is a glympse of what we did.  I am bumming I didn’t even get any cute pictures of all the cousins playing together.  But like I told Ingrid, it seems like when we’re really enjoying ourselves that’s when we take the least amount of pictures because we forget all about it.

So the day finally came when Kade was taken from me by the school bus.   We just got home from Omaha the night before and it was a long drive so I knew Kade would be tired, not sleeping in the van at all.  He went to bed a little late for his school night, but he must have been really nervous/excited because he was up at 6:30am.  I think the lunch box was the biggest excitement for him, that is until he realized that I’m putting a juice “pack” in instead of a juice box because he has a hard time putting the straws into those without spilling.  I know, I guess I’m a mean mom but those had quite a bit of less sugar in it and were cheaper.   I told him there should be teachers and other adults to help him with it so then he was ok.  Then I put Kason in the high chair with some cheerios while Anika was working on her bowl of cereal and Kade and I headed out to the bus.  Last year it was coming from the South side but its route must be different this year because it came from the North.  I made them assign Kade a seat for going to school, right by the bus driver, because last year there were some really mean kids on the bus.  I am very glad that Kade will be coming home with his friend Laadyn who is also a 1st grader and I just started watching him after school with the other kids.  This way they can sit together and not be bothered by some mean bullys.

I haven’t had too much time to get all emotional and get lost in my thoughts yet today, but it is still a little sad for me to let him go.  It’s like he’s growing up way too fast and doesn’t need me for much any more.  And now he’ll be gone all day every day which really feels strange after the whole summer of having him home.  The bus comes around 7:30am and Kade gets off the bus around 3:30pm so it’s not a short day for him.  I know he is so ready to be with his peers and especially get a structured learning time but there are always so many worries that come with that.  I have some friends who home school their kids and I like seeing their side of the story.  I’m sure there will be lots of days when I’ll be wishing I could have my protective wings over Kade, Ani and Kason and teach them on my own.  I know it would only take about a couple hours a day to get the same or better academic lecture/study time and most importantly I could teach them everything from the Christian prospective.  Yet, like one of my friends said, if all of us Christians took our kids from the public schools what would that do to the rest of the kids and our society?  So I am going to let our kids go and be who God made them to be, a part of this world.  I know my job is not easy at all to make sure that I am the teacher I need to be here at home during the time I have with them and teaching them the truth we know.  It is sad how many parents think teachers are there to teach their kids and if they’re not excelling it must be the teacher’s fault.  So I am going to really try hard to be the parent God wants me to be and to be here for my children and teach them what I know.  I’m already failing BAD at teaching them my mother language – Slovak.  I thought it would be easier with having more kids so we can all talk in Slovak together, but somehow it got harder and harder after each child   I know having another Slovak speaking adult would be so helpful, like when my mom is here for a visit, but it’s just me.  I thought about it the other day too and I think the big part of it is that with my personality I hate excluding people around me and when I would speak to my children in Slovak in front of Ehren or other family/friends it seemed like I was excluding them and translating everything just doesn’t work.  So I’m really hoping somehow there is still hope for them to speak it.   Well, that about does it for my daily shrink time.  Writing stuff out like this is can feel so good.

It seems a little  strange that our Kade turned 6 this last Thursday.  Where did those years go?  I can still remember the night he was born, how we almost didn’t make it to the hospital in time.  Now it’s 6 years later and Kade has a brother and a sister to share his life with.  He is a pretty good oldest brother and Kason and Anika really look up to him.

For some reason Kade’s birthday this year turned into a whole weekend of fun birthday stuff for him.  We had a big birthday party planned for today so I didn’t want to make another party on his real birthday.  We just had cupcakes with the day care kids after lunch and then after dinner nanna and papa came to spend a little time with Kade and to give him his gift that was from both of us.  It was a basketball hoop and most of the kids enjoy it a lot.  Anika and Emily can’t reach very well even at the lowest setting and are not that great at throwing the ball up so high so they are not too thrilled with it.  Kade really enjoys playing basketball or any other ball sport and he wants to keep the hoop at the highest setting so I have to remind him that if he wants the other kids to play with him we have to keep it lower.

After his birthday on Thursday, Ehren took Kade to a speedway race track in Grand Forks.  It was not part of Kade’s birthday gift, but somehow it fell into that because Ehren has been trying to take him there for the past month and every Friday there was rain or something else that they couldn’t go.  Kade really enjoyed it and they got home at 11:30pm which is way too late for him but he did great.

And today the big D day finally came that Kade has been waiting for for months – his birthday party.  We planned to have sports fun games outside at Mark and Audrey’s.  After last year when I couldn’t find anyone that would be home the weekend of Kade’s birthday, this year everyone we asked came.  It was great but it really added to my stress level because I had no idea how I would pull off playing games with 15+ kids.  Kade is so much into anything with running so I wanted to do a lot of active games, but really with 15 kids or so ages about 4-7 it was not going to be easy.  I was kind of suspecting that the last couple of days before the party and was just stressing over it in my head.  I knew it was going to be nice outside so at least I thought they could all run around and do whatever if they didn’t want to follow my games.  To my great relief two couples from church whose kids came to the party were so great with helping me and the dads just took over the games.  I was just telling them what games to play and kept scores so we knew who the winner was.  So it turned out great and most of the kids participated in all the sports games we did.  They ran and ran in the yard just having a blast.  A few moms were there too so I was able to catch a few conversations in between running around.  Ehren came close to the end because Kason and Ani both slept until after 4 and our party started at 3pm.  He joined the kids in some running games but Kason as suspected was all over the place, getting hurt everywhere.  For food we just had appetizers like veggies and dip, crackers, turkey sandwiches, jello shapes and cup cakes.  There weren’t too many carrots and celery sticks gone at the end but pretty much everything else got eaten so I’m glad.

Overall, it was a great afternoon and I really enjoyed watching all the kids having fun out there.  Kade said it was his bestest birthday ever, but I really don’t think we’re going to try to trump it next yeat.   A few close friends over seems a lot more doable.  Kade also got a lot of great presents from his friends and he couldn’t wait to play with them.

One more week and Kade will be taking the bus to the first grade.  Seems strange that he’ll be gone almost the whole day but I know he’s ready.  He’s been getting so wild with the kids at home so I know some structured classroom time will be good for him.

I was going to post this earlier but I was too busy and then I forgot and then was too busy again.   Sage and Clare (Brent and Ingrid’s little girls) were spending a few days with us a month ago while Brent and Ingrid went on a fishing trip.  Mark and Audrey had the girls over night so I was their “daycare” place.  It was very nice to have those days with them because it is hard to get to know them on our short trips or else when the whole family is together and it’s just chaotic with all the kids.  I loved our little Clare because she just wanted to cuddle with me and play, read books together.  She’s also such a peanut and you can carry her around like a 4 month old.  But as little as she is, she is that much smarter and can say so much for just being one and we were amazed at how advanced she is with everything.  Sage had fun with Kade and is almost as tall as him even though she’s 2 years younger.  Kade really enjoyed having someone closer to his age at our house too.  It was pretty busy those days with the extra children, but at least it gave me a feel of what the real daycares are like.  The last morning before Brent and Ingrid came back was probably the most chaotic for me because I had 9 kids under 5 until lunch and after that day I was pretty wiped out.  It just made me realize I’m probably not cut out to be a real full-time daycare person and made me appreciate my part-time kids because it is a lot nicer having that break from the kids.  I had to laugh at myself because as soon as I had 2-3 kids under control, the other 3 were making mischief and they would not all sit at the same time for story time or anything because 4 of them were 1 and younger.  I just kept thinking how do those women do this every day and stay sane and are able to give the kids the attention and time they really need.  Then when we were in the middle of our lunch I realized that I probably should have done it in 2 sessions because I ended up sitting on the floor with Kason while feeding him because we ran out of chairs.   I also forgot to take more pictures of the cousins in the midst of the running around so I didn’t get the best poses.   Overall, it was a fun time for the cousins to get to know each other a little better and at least the older ones are really starting to know their cousins.  Maybe once they’re all out of diapers and in school we can do cousin exchange weeks in the summer, I’m sure they’d have a blast.

So I decided to give Ani a bedroom makeover which I had in mind for a long time but finally decided to just take a weekend and do it.  It was fun and something I really love doing, I just wished the kids weren’t around because it took a long time to finish.  I was hand painting the circles on one part of the wall and really that part took way longer than I expected because the orange peel on our wall made it super hard to do sharp lines.  So I had to keep repainting the circles until I was ok with them and then I got to the point when I was thinking: man, this is too many circles, maybe I should cover some up.   But a few friends who saw it discouraged me from covering some up so I’m holding off on that.  I first started with painting the whole room green and just that was a huge change because her walls were very light lavender before.  I just was not happy with that color from the beginning and it seemed like too many shades of blue in our house so green was a great choice to add something different.  At first I was scared because it seemed like a really bold green since the color before that was so light, but now I just love that green and it goes so well with her white furniture, door, windows and stuff.  All the colors came together so nicely, like I envisioned them in my head so I am very pleased with it.   I don’t think our almost 3 year old honestly cares what her room looks like but overall all the kids love the circles and a more cheery room.  I think what made me want to do it now is that we are spending a lot more time in there with the kids I watch during the day and I wanted a more fun room for them to be in.  I also have plans for Kade’s and Kason’s room, but that will have to wait a while.  I’m not changing their wall color, just adding some horizontal stripes but that should look nice.

Another annual Johnson (Ehren’s mom’s side) family reunion this past weekend.  It was great to see everyone, especially Brent and Ingrid who came for a day.  We haven’t seen Brent since he came home from Afghanistan and it was so nice to see their family all together again.  We left a little earlier today because I was getting too tired out from chasing after the kids, especially our Kason who runs away from us constantly.  He’s also starting to run away faster if he sees we’re trying to catch him and giggles while he’s running.  Me yelling his name doesn’t mean much to him, he doesn’t even turn around to look back at me.  So I’m really hoping he’ll grow out of it and not get worse as he hits the terrible twos.  Anyway, we had a lot of good food all weekend and tried to visit/relax as much as we could, if that’s possible with all those little ones around.  Kade was so upset about us having to leave earlier today that Ehren’s parents kept him with them an extra night and that made his day.  He was at a hard age this year because he didn’t want to play with the little kids any more, but the other kids were a few years older than him and even if he really wanted to play with some boys it was too hard for him to keep up.  Maybe next year we’ll bring a friend for him so he has a buddy there.  But despite all that, he was still happy as a clam to just fish with his new fishing rod off the dock.