Puppy Sitting

Not only did we have a couple of friends over today but we had a puppy over for playtime too. Chloe, the Golden Retriever, came to visit and play outside with the kids. We all had a great time with her. However, Noah now claims that he wants a puppy after Buddy goes to heaven. I'm hoping he'll settle for another fish!

Love You Dad!

This is Oliver, waiting at the front window for his daddy to get home. He will stand there and yell, "Daddy!" until he comes up the walk.

Brotherly Love

Oliver climbed up onto Noah's lap then proceeded to bounce up and down on stomach until big brother cried, "UNCLE!" Noah doesn't always stop to play with his little pest of brother but when he does Oliver just eats it up or, as in this instance, takes the opportunity to torture Noah as best as he can.

Noah's Green Thumb Strikes Again!

We've weeded and prepped the raised garden bed and have just planted or started the vegetable seeds. Noah is praying that he sees something sprouting by tomorrow morning but promises not to be too sad or upset if he doesn't see anything for a few days. This year Noah and I decided to plant little patches of lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, green beans and peas. Since the corn didn't grow too well in our little area last year we are hoping that Gammy will let us grow some at her house along with our pumpkins. Happy gardening! Love, Tiff & Noah

Blankets, Teepees and Winks

I went to Target this morning to get a few new t-shirts for Oliver. Ollie has his favorite blanket and brought it into the store with us. Somewhere along the way he had apparently thrown the blanket out of the cart because it was nowhere to be found. I asked him where his blanket ended up and we retraced our steps. Because I had mentioned the said blanket, he was now whining because he wanted it and couldn't find it. We looked everywhere and could not find it, I had no idea what could have happened to it. We checked in customer service/lost and found and it wasn't there, we checked on the shelves and racks that we had been around and it wasn't there. By now, Oliver was getting really upset and near tears looking for his blanket. So like a good but desperate mother I went over to the baby section and found another blanket like the one we had lost. As you can see in the picture he is enjoying his new blankie very much. However, as we were leaving Target I just happened to look over my shoulder and saw an associate walking towards customer service with a blue blanket! Ollie left with both the new and old blanket and didn't seem to mind at all!



















Noah was trying to scare us all by jumping out of the teepee and growling or yelling. Oliver was having a great time pretending to be scared and playing along.


Daddy has been tryng to teach Oliver to wink and I caught him this morning doing a pretty good job of it.

March 16, 2007 - Out for a Ride

We've gone on three rides today already and Oliver is loving it. I'm keeping the first few rides on the short side so we can build up to the longer rides. He also loves to kick the backs of your legs while you're transporting him around the neighborhood. He seems to really enjoy being on the bike with me and I can hear him giggling when brother races by us. I can't wait until we can load up the bikes and head to the beach. Fort Stevens State Park had some incredible bike paths and we want to try them out. Looking forward to quite a few rides this year! Come and join us sometime. Love, Tiff

March 16, 2007 - Bubbles

Noah was blowing bubbles for his little brother today. Big brother even tried teaching little brother how to blow his own bubbles but that didn't go too well - not yet anyway.

March 16, 2007 - At Least It's Not a Tattoo

The boys were helping me with the dishes again. Okay, I was just letting them play in the water so that I could finish making dinner with fewer interruptions just don't give away all my secrets please. Anyway, Noah turned it into an opportunity to style Ollie's hair (which is in need of a haircut) and this was one of his favorite "up-dos." Later, when I was bathing Oliver, I realized that Noah had used a bit of dish soap to help in the styling...I didn't need shampoo it foamed up all on it's own.

March 15, 2007 - New Helmet

Joel and I got our bikes tuned up and with the onset of spring Noah is ready to ride too. I went today and bought Oliver a seat for my bike and a new helmet. It isn't quite adjusted right in this picture but he just couldn't wait to try it on. I'll post some pictures of him on his first bike ride once we get the seat installed.

March 14, 2007 - Technique Workshop

My Aunt Cherie invited me to a stamping technique workshop this past Saturday. Wow! It was eight hours of intense work but got over 40 stamping ideas/techniques. I guess the coordinator only does one of these every few years because it is so much work to set up. I highly recommend going to one if you get invited. Some of the techniques were so simple (i.e. using crumpled up plastic wrap to dab ink onto your cardstock) but produced some incrdible results. This is also a warning to everyone that is thinking of stopping by because I'm probably going to make you look at them all. I made Joel ooh and ahh over my cards, lucky for him he was a great sport. Just kidding, he always takes the time to look at my creative outlets...he even mutes the TV!

March 14, 2007 - Biker Brother

I was going through my pictures and found this cute one from January. I let Noah bring in a little bike that I inherited from my friend Katie. Noah can really get going and do some cool spin-out stuff on the laminate flooring with this particular bike. He finally got tired of Oliver chasing him and getting in the way so he put him on the back and told him to hang on. As you can see, neither child is enjoying it very much. This is also another example of why breakable items are not allowed in my house.

I bought a new memo board to hang up by our computer and this was the first message that was written on it. Noah has always called me "mommom" and I love that he spelled it that way. I also love my curly hair and that the two of us are holding hands. Okay so I love the entire picture/note! I love you too Noah Wayne!


Found Oliver in a climbing mode again, this time it was in big brothers room. I think he was trying to figure out how to fly the airplane.









Oliver was running around in his little cowboy boots so Noah went and grabbed Joel's. He then put on a show for us and did a little tap two-step. I also got video of it for blackmail purposes during the teenage years. Needless to say, I was laughing hard. I was desperately trying not to, however, because I didn't want him to stop.


We've had a good week. Even though Noah would be the first to tell you that I screwed up and forced him to skip school on Wednesday. It was originally scheduled as a no school day but was re-instated to make up for the snow days that we had. I never ammended my calendar so what's on the calendar is what happens. You should have seen the look that Noah gave me when the bus pulled up to drop him off and he realized what had happened.

Oliver is turning out to be quite the tricky little guy. Noah had a soda from lunch with some friends. When we got home he put his rootbeer on the dining room table and then turned his attention to some new game he found. I was busy cleaning my bedroom and just peaking in on the boys as needed. Oliver, without Noah or I seeing it, climbed up grabbed Noah's soda and ran into my bedroom. There is a corner that he likes to go play in and he ran straight to it. I was in a different part of the room so I didn't notice that he was carrying the rootbeer. He sat quietly in the corner - yes, I know that this should have been my first clue that something was up - and proceeded to drink the soda. Not so tricky yet but here's where it gets good...had I not seen him running back out of the room with the cup I would have never known what he had done. I followed him as he ran back out to the kitchen, climbed back up and placed the now empty cup right back where he had found it. Noah never knew and to be honest, I never told him. Noah just thought that he had drank it all.

Gotta run, I'm off to work! Love and blessings to you all! Love, Tiff

Well Received!

So far the blog has been well received by friends and family and I thank you for that! Many have asked how often I plan on updating the blog and I am going to try and post at least once a week. If there is something fun, exciting or hilarious that I just can't wait to share than I will post that day. A few of you have also asked about starting up your own blog. If you do, let me know so I can check it out. Spring is in the air folks so we are headed outside! Love, Tiff

To Blog or Not to Blog

My sister sent us a link to her new blog that will chronicle the building of their new house in Lake Stevens WA. This prompted my husband to do a little research and now we have a blog. I've been instructed to try out this blogging thing to see if I like it. I figure as long as it is easy for me to use and our friends and family can access it then I'm game. Let me know what you think via email or post a comment to our "Johnson Family Blog - The Couv" which, by the way, was named by Joel - as if you couldn't figure that one out. For more of Joel's witty writing check out the first post to our blog.

Anyway, I've got a couple of pictures from February to share with you so let's test this blog stuff out. Here we go:

Noah and Oliver playing in the bathtub. Noah doesn't join Oliver much anymore so when he does Ollie takes advantage of it and plays until the prune finger police show up.

Another picture of Oliver in his oversized cowboy boots. He also has one of his favorite toys, the phone. Any phone will do as long as he can talk to all of his pretend friends and his daddy!

Oliver has decided that he is going to climb and climb and climb! He climbed into our little shelf area next to the fireplace (see picture), the middle cubby of my big rolling cublicle thing and today he climbed Noah's ladder and onto the top bunk. The bunk incident really made us realize how serious he is about this climbing stuff. Noah doesn't have a regular ladder. Joel built him one that is attached to the bed and has rungs that are spaced very wide apart. It's difficult for me to climb, let alone an almost 16 month old. We are in trouble.

Well folks, it wasn't too bad for me. Like I said, let me know what you think about this blog. Love to you all! Love, Tiff

The Dawn of a New Era

Ok, so it's not exactly the "dawn of a new era", but I like the drama. Really it's just another way to force this family's exploits into your (collective) conscience. Or, as is more likely, you can now choose to passively ignore us rather than hassle with deleting our emails manually (yes, I know that some of you have set up an Outlook rule so that you don't even have to delete our emails manually, but you get the point).

And so without further ado, I give you "the Johnson Family Blog - Vancouver"; I dare you to try it.