The Little Gym

The soccer thing fell through, Rockwall Soccer Tots has been unable to find a suitable location for summer session, so we enrolled Rachel in Little Gym for the summer. It is a fun filled gymnastics class for 3-4 year olds. We took her Monday evening to a trial session that is 60 minutes. For the 1st 7 minutes she walked slowly as other kids ran and danced, she kept staring at us through the window, I could tell she was embarrassed. But then, she just sprang into action and let her embarrassment go. She ran, danced, jumped, did "baby" cartwheels, played with balls and bubbles. Then she got to complete some beginner gymnastic moves. She liked doing cartwheels on the mats, playing on the spring board for jumping, and when it came time for the balance board she was a little tense, but walked across it with her teachers help. However, when it came time to the uneven high bars the story changed....she grabbed on the low bar and hung there swinging back and forth. The teacher always kept her hands loosely around her waist and showed Rachel how to slide her hands from one side to another, and how to turn around on the bar, Rachel was very tense, but a trooper. Then came the flip, the teacher took Rachel's feet and slowly and gently rolled her over the bar. So basically Rachel's tummy rolled around the bar and her feet went over her head and then back down again, the teacher never lets go. Now this is a sound proof room and adults watch from a glassed in foyer. We could hear Rachel scream through the heavy plexi-glass. As she came off the bar her face was red and stressed. We started laughing, she looked at us and we smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She gave the teacher a high 5 and ran off. She looked at the bars all evening in curiosity. She then decided to try it one more time, but just to hang and swing. Flips will have to wait. He session begins in June so pictures will have to come later. She had a lot of fun and is already asking to go back. Yeah! Rachel also got to have fun at Anna's Cinderella birthday party, she just loves her cousins, it is always hard when it is time to go home. We are looking forward to seeing them again in May for Andrew's birthday.

Camping at Lake Tawakoni

We took Rachel on her first overnight camping trip. She had a lot of fun. Turns out she has a knack for it like her daddy. We spent sometime fishing at the lake, Rachel's bobber got action a lot and as we began reeling in her first catch....it was a turtle. I have never seen anyone catch a turtle before. She really enjoyed her pink fishing pole and we will have to go again soon. We chased bubbles, and played with water guns and we also roasted marshmallows which she thought was fun until she put one in her mouth and freaked out. It was not hot because mommy tested it first, so either the gooey part or the warm part in mouth made her scream out. Roasting fun....eating, not so much.

But Easter's Over.....

Is it summer yet? The weather is getting warmer, the rain is getting harder, and the allergies are in full bloom. Spring is tormenting the Johnson house. Easter was great! The Weaver Fam came out for an overnight stay so the kids got to play hard, hunt eggs, get dressed up and get their pictures taken. We had a good time. Rachel had an Easter party at preschool, I think all the candy has put her in a coma of disobedience though. For 2 days straight she got in trouble for not being obedient to her teachers. We also learned she growled at one of them. I could not help but laugh at that one. But today we are back on routine and she had a great day at school. Rachel will be "star student" next week so we will have some fun putting together an "all about me" board for her classroom. At school each kid was given a palm branch and learned about the true meaning of Easter. As the kids walked out of their classes each were waiving their palm branch and saying "Praise God" when Rachel came out she was quiet. I asked her "what is that?" she replied "a pom" and I said..."what do you do with it?" She thought for a minute and replied "you swat bee's with it!" We laughed at that one too.

Massive Project

Rachels Pappa (Andrea's dad) bought all his grandkids a gym set. So Matthew being the skilled craftsman that he is decided he could put it up all on his own. I must say...I am very impressed. He started at 1:30 on Saturday and worked for 4 hours. Then after church on Sunday he completed it in 5 hours. So all in all it took him 9 hours...not too bad considering on the box it advised it would take 8-10 hours for 2 people to assemble. Below is a photo story of how it went. Rachel absolutely loves it and won't come inside.

Preparing for Easter

Rachel and I went shopping this week to find her Easter dress. I let her pick it out all by herself and she did great! She also picked out a stylish pink sequin purse, it does not match the dress, but hey...she is a girl I could not say no.

Family

The three of us joined Gran and Granddad (Johnson) for part of their annual Texas Tour. We met them in Abilene and were able to visit with Grandmama Adams and then headed to Lubbock to visit Great Granddad and Grandmother Johnson. We also were able to visit with the aunts and uncles - James, Lesa, Tim and Darla. It was a great time because we do not see them much being so far away. Rachel quickly bonded with Great Granddad and grandmother and held hands and walked with them. As you can see from the picture she went on a mini stroll with Great Granddad out the front door while waiting for the "bus" to take us all to dinner.

Fun in the Sun

They weather has been beautiful in Rockwall so we have been working a lot on the yard. Pulling weeds, re-mulching the landscaping and adding a few plants. Rachel spent the time riding her tricycle up and down the sidewalk. Then as daddy sprayed the yard down she wanted to be "squished" as she calls it. It was great fun.

Sports

We have said many times that Rachel has a great balance of being a girly girl and a tomboy, only time will tell which will dominate in her future. Her preschool will come to a close at the end of May, so we have been researching what summer programs we can enroll her in. We have narrowed it down to a dance class or a soccer class. She loves to dress up and dance around the house, but she also loves to be outside kicking the ball and running around. We decided to let her choose. We asked -"Rachel, do you want to dance with your friends or play soccer with your friends?" She thought about for a little bit and said "I want to kick the soccer ball with my friends." So that is it. We will enroll her in the Soccer Tots program this summer. We took a trip to the dollar store today, and told Rachel she could pick out a toy. She chose a plastic yellow baseball bat and ball. She was so excited and ran to the backyard as soon as we got home.


She is a natural! She can not only hit the ball, but does pretty good at pitching, and of course she loves to pose for the camera.

Daddy's Girl

Rachel is a total daddy's girl. She shadow's him everywhere presses her face against the glass when he goes out to get the mail. She smothers him with kisses, hugs and love each and every day. She is a mamma's girl also, but daddy holds the key to her heart for sure.

Outdoor Fun

The weather is getting nicer and Rachel is wanting to spend some time outside, which is great! So last night the three of us spent a few hours cleaning off our back patio to create some room for her chalk projects. We moved off all the extra bricks from our house being built, we moved our smoker/grill, we moved our hose, we cleaned out all the leaves, dead grass, and such. We moved our lawnmower and some other yard thing into the garage. Rachel was a big helper. But by the time we finished we were all 3 filthy and it was getting late so Rachel could not stay out but had to go straight to the tub. So this morning the first thing she wanted to do was go outside with her chalk. Not even 5 minutes later I found her covered in pink chalk...so of course....it was right back to the tub.

A true Johnson....

Rachel has now proven herself to be a true Johnson to the very core....she is now addicted to playing games on the computer. She takes a computer lab at her preschool and has learned to maneuver the mouse, pointing, clicking and so forth. She plays color and shape games at school. So we let her play some "I spy" games on the Disney website for preschoolers. In this video Rachel has to find hidden animals in Belle's forest. It gives her a list of animals and then she has to find them in the picture and click on them. She loves it!

Misc....Rachel Things

Rachel spent one morning "decorating" her hair for church...I had a hard time explaining why she could not wear the clips that day.




Rachel has been enjoying running around the house with a pillow case covering her whole body...notice the barefeet...too cute.


Rachel's preschool had a patriotic day that included a parade around the church. She looked so cute in her red,white and blue.

Putt Putt

We took Rachel on her first Putt-Putt experience today. She got tired quickly but had fun hitting and chasing the ball. It was everything we could do to keep her out of the water.

Weekend in Georgetown

We spent a couple of days in Georgetown, we were able to visit Mimi and Boppa. Matthew was able to attend the Georgetown swap fest and won many prizes. Rachel had fun feeding the fish, playing at the park, but my favorite is that she got her hair cut and it is really cute!!!

Such A Sweet Girl

Rachel loves to have her back tickled as mommy sings Jesus Loves Me, so I asked her to sing it to me. It is Rachel's feel good song. When she is tired or sick she asks for it. As Matthew has been spending time resting this week, she has sung it to him as well.

The Chair....

Rachel's Papa (Andrea's dad) gave her a nice paisly recliner chair, and she loves it. It sits in her play room, she sits it in it kicks her feet up and watches cartoons in the morning. However on this day she fell asleep in the chair...it was in a matter of seconds. She was laughing at cartoons so I took her picture, then went to show her daddy and email it to her Papa, and when I went back in she was asleep. Talk about comfort!!!

Matthew's surgery went really well, with having an abdominal hernia repaired he can not lift anything over 5 lbs for 2 months. Pray for me!! So we had to warn and prepare Rachel. Mommy told her that "daddy had an ouchie on his tummy but the dr. would make it all better. daddy will be sore for a while so you can not jump or tackle daddy, we have to be very gentle around him." Surely this would suffice, but Matthew took it a step further and said "the dr will cut daddy's tummy to make it better." She did not react, but I looked at Matthew and said "why would you tell her that?" She never really said anything, but the day of the surgery Rachel and I took him to the surgery center, dropped him off and then I took Rachel to school. I went back to the surgery center to be with Matthew, after taking him home I went to the school to pick up Rachel. Her teacher told me that Rachel spent all day telling people that "my daddy is going to cut up my stomach, but it is okay because it hurts." I could not belive it, and then I had to explain what happened.

But the best part of this experience was getting Matthew out of the house for the first time....we went to Walmart...he rode on the motorized scooter with the basket. I had to walk away from him several times while hiding my laughter, especially when he had to back it up and the cart loudly went " beep, beep, beep." I wish I had a picture.

Playing with the cousins...

The Weaver family came to Rockwall for a weekend of fun! The kids had a great time and played hard while the adults visited and watched movies. Rachel loves playing with other kids and gets very emotional when her cousins have to leave. We will need to get together with them more often. She was totally exhausted from playing hard with no naps. We tried to get her down, but she wanted to play to much. She had fun playing dress up with Anna and playing rough chasing Andrew. It reminds me of playing with my cousins as a kid. Andrew and Rachel spent the night in her playroom sleeping in their sleeping bags, who knows how late they stayed up talking, I know I could hear them well into the night.

This and That....

Not much going on lately, but we are heading to a busy week next week. On Tuesday Matthew will be having minor surgery which will require much at home care by me...and everyone knows a nurse I am not. The rough part is that the surgery is Tuesday, Rachel will be at school which is good but then on Wednesday I have a meeting with the Texas Workforce at 9am so Rachel will be home with daddy alone. Pray that she is calm and low maintenance that morning.

We have been spending the past few days cleaning out our attic, pulling down old boxes, going through old toys, pictures etc....and getting rid of some stuff while preparing other things for ebay or an upcoming garage sale. In the attic above our garage we pulled out 10-15 boxes and were able to combine them into 2! Wow that is some serious downsizing. We enjoyed looking at old photos, we each found our old drivers license from when we were 16...and old photos of when were dating...good times.

School....

Today is "crazy hat, socks, and tie" day at school. So Rachel is sporting her dad's Mickey Mouse tie, and her pretty bright Hello Kitty socks from Mimi. Check out the sweater....they just opened a new kids consignment store called "Kid to Kid" they have great stuff. I got this sweater for only $2 plus two more sweaters and a brand new jump rope all for under $10... Rachel liked the store because they have a pretty pink door that is just for kids to enter in exit from...she thought that was so cool. She is very proud of her Princess lunchbox and backpack as well. Today they go to computer lab....she will love that.

Windy Day...

The weather has been great this month. I can not believe how many warm days in the '70's we have had so far this January. We took Rachel to the park today, she had fun. We did not get to stay too long becuase the wind was so strong, I was afraid it would bother her ears. We enrolled her in our church's preschool program. She goes a couple of days a week. She seems to like it. They get to go to music class, computer lab, discovery lab and chapel. She goes to the library and gets to check out books to bring home for a few days. We feel really good about her being there. She is growing up so fast, she is no longer a baby, but a little girl. A little girl who talks constantly. We moved around some furniture in house and turned a spare room into her play room. She loves it! It has a lot of direct sunlight and all her big toys go in there, she spends a lot of time in there.