The Adventures of the Johnson Clan: Big Events like Thanksgiving, A Piano Fiasco, and Travis's 34th birthday

I realize that I've been M.I.A for awhile now when it comes to updating this ol' blog, and it has been due to a combination of of reasons. Mainly, I have seemed to have ZERO extra time lately ( we mistakenly thought that life would slow down after residency ended; however, it's only seemed to zip by even faster since Travis's schedule is now stable and we've developed some lasting daily routines. And secondly, I've been physically incapable of updating the blog, but i'll explain that more fully below.

I have so many pictures and events that I could write pages of that have taken place these past several weeks, and thankfully I have them in my journal, so instead I'll just hit the highlights leading up to Christmas and save Christmas for the next post!

Wrestling

One day Aaron asked me "How do you spell our address?" "How do you spell your phone number?" I walked over and found him filling out a permission slip to sign up for wrestling... wrestling?? Seeing as that was never mine or Travis's sport we sort of brushed it off; however, Aaron was insistent to the very last minute that it was something he wanted to try.

We showed up to the first day of wrestling a little unsure what we'd think of it. They host it at the high school and it's even put on by the high school coaches and players; it's very cool. Aaron got out on the mat and it was as if it's where he'd always been meant to be. He. Is. A. Natural!!

And I've never said that about my children and any sport before ha ha!

But he's great. He LOVES it! And it's a sport that is all his.

Illnesses

It seemed for awhile there that we would never all be healthy at once ever again! Between Aaron and the girls someone was sick every day from the beginning of October and into the first week of November. Then I finally broke down and then Maddix even had a day here and there (but he was AWESOME at staying healthy).

The worst of it though came in the middle of our sick bouts when we were starting to feel better so we went a friends for dinner and movie. While there Aaron was zipping up and down their stairs and ended up tripping on their baby gate and smashed his face into their tile landing. He was bleeding everywhere, killed his front tooth, briefly passed out in my arms, and bit through his lip. Then he began getting severe head aches... well as you can guess, he had a WICKED concussion. He was instructed to lay in dimmed rooms. No tv. No reading. No running around. Nothing that could strain the brain.

And then he contracted a WICKED virus that lasted 8 days and made him miserably sick; we're talking full blown ear infection and high fevers.... and he wasn't supposed to do ANYTHING that could stress out his brain! How do you tell your child, who is miserably sick, that there isn't much he can do to take his mind off being sick?!?!

Needless to say there were many art projects, bath times, and naps had durning those days.

We were sort of falling apart over here to the point where my siblings were offering to fly out and help!

But obviously we survived... even though there was still some pain to go through; bleh.

Mountain Biking

2019 was the year Travis found his love for Mountain biking. And as his love for biking has grown, he's wanted to share it with me, so this novice biker has been tagging along on dates with him to pretend I also know how to mountain bike!

I will say this though, biking has been the most expensive date we've ever had! His bike has custom high end parts and 2 out of 4 dates, I've broken those expensive parts. 2 of the 4 times, he's broken the cheep parts on my bike! 4 of the 4 times a bike has broken, lol. And it's not from crashing. They are just weird occurrences... sigh...

Thanksgiving Break

The break started with family snuggles, FaceTiming family in Utah, and some outdoor play in the fresh snow. We had an epic snowball fight and then I worried Maddix had frost bite on his cheeks!

I may have volunteered Travis to make 40 orange rolls, which are time intensive and DELICIOUS; I was in charge of mashed potatoes/gravy! And I didn't even do that. I ended up taking some medicine on an empty stomach and out of nowhere I had to run for the bathroom and ended up so sick for an hour... the hour that I was supposed to do the potatoes... So Travis did those as well.

Have I mentioned what an amazing man I married?

Then we had an all day dinner at the church.

The next day we went to see Frozen 2, and it's officially my new favorite animated movie, ever!

Addie was HOOKED, but had to sit on my lap because the emotions were just too much for her little two year old self to process alone; she's so smart. And I thought I was going to have to apologize to the theater for Avery's happy screams, "sorry everyone for my always very happy baby!"

Then that night it started to lightly rain/flurry and Aaron kept begging to "build a snowman" and despite it being late and cold, I felt like we should go for it. And our Frosty was pretty awesome.

Maddix''s snowball request... check.

Aaron's snowman.... check.

Piano Fiasco

Saturday after Thanksgiving Travis set to work dismantling a piano that was left behind in our house and I had ordered must be gone by Thanksgiving so we could set up our Christmas tree. And believe me, we tried EVERY option to have this thing removed from the house, and the best option came down to dismantling. Hours into the process the 200 lb metal piece in the middle began to shift, causing the front leg of the piano to crack. We thought we could take this moment to tilt it up onto our dolly before the leg broke; however, the dolly slipped out and as Travis began to lose his grip we ended up lowering the piano onto my fingers and pinning them between piano pieces. Unfortunately my first instinct was to yank... never do that! Travis saw my face and saw my hand and leapt over and with all his amazing might he barely freed my fingers. He asked if I was okay and with only the smallest glance at my black and bleeding hand I knew I wasn't.

Que the Holy Ghost. I felt calm. Pained... but calm. Travis was amazing and wrapped my hand before I'd even been able to bleed on my clothes. I then laid on the bathroom floor and calmly asked my kids different questions in between consciousness and calling neighbors to watch my kids. "Maddix, can you make Avery a bottle, hun?" "Aaron, can you get your shoes one, please?" I'm never that calm. And I certainly wasn't that calm on my own. But I needed to be. My children had all been in the room when it happened. All four were crying. "The last thing in the world i want is for my mommy to be hurting!" Maddix cried to me has he bounced a crying Avery in his arms.

Four phone calls and then I finally reached someone, Susan, who said to bring the kids over. And then we were off to the E.R.

Once we were alone in the waiting room I began thinking about all the awful possibilities that could have happened if the piano had tipped while any of the children had been playing near it. Travis kept saying how it should've been him and not me... but what if it had?? I could NOT have lifted it off his hand! We were so blessed. And the tears began to flow.

Then they made me stick my hand in water.

Then they kept sticking my fingers with large needles and that hurt a million times more than the piano; I remember saying it felt like a swarm of bees biting and stinging me all at once. And when they finished with the first finger I thought I'd survived, until I realized they had to do it again to the next finger... and I almost died. In that moment I wanted them to cut the finger off instead, ha ha. But again, I was so blessed. Nothing was broken. Had it pinned my fingers even a little higher I could have crushed my knuckles. Had it landed a little harder, it could have damaged the tendons. Neither of those things happened. In the end they used what skin I had left (remember how I yanked? Oops) to put in 7 stitches and I was sent home.

Well obviously I couldn't take care of girls myself, so on Monday Maddix ended up staying home from school to be a "bommy" as he called himself: a brother-mommy. :D He helped me get Aaron ready for school and then a friend drove him for me. As soon as the door closed Maddix headed down to the t.v., "ugh, Maddix? Where are you going? I didn't keep you home to watch tv; you're supposed to help me."

"Well we got Aaron off to school, what else is there to do?"

Hahahahahahahahahahhaaaaa....... boy did he learn what else there was to do. And he did a great job.

Travis's 34th Birthday

Travis woke up to a perfectly clean and decorated home. A gorgeous mountain biking themed cake, breakfast in bed, and wasn't asked to lift a finger all day. And for dinner we had his favorite meal.

Just kidding!!!!

That is what was supposed to happen, but instead I was in bed with my bandaged hand and he had to do EVERYTHING for EVERYONE.... including wrap his own gifts!

Yes I cried over it.

And then his big surprise gift that I had been so so so excited about for weeks leading up to the big day was also sort of ruined. I had purchased a plane ticket for his brother to come out the coming weekend and stay for a whole week. He was bringing his x-box and the whole week was supposed to be Travis's "do nothing" week where he could just hang with his brother after work each day....

... but again, I couldn't do anything with my hand, so the plan had to change slightly.

Family In Town

My sister had felt prompted to come visit, and as we realized Id need the help, it worked out to have Maddix stay home that Monday, a sweet friend took the kids Tuesday, and my sister arrived that night! It was so nice having her in town and I already want her to come back!

She and Travis's brother overlapped my a night, so while the boys drove to Des Moines to pick up Uncle Garett, us girls stayed home for one final night together!

Garett was also a big help the week he was here, and you could see Travis relax a little extra while he was here. It was like watching his brush off some of the stresses of adulthood fade away as he reverted to a bit of who he was growing up; it was special to see.

This Weather

This winter has been excellence! It has been so sunny. It has been freezing for a day here and there, so we stay in and snuggle or read Christmas books, or bake Holiday treats. We have had so many gorgeous warm days that weve been able to constantly get outside. And weve had snow while its warm enough to play in it (i'm talking 13 and no wind!)!

No complaints so far!

Thank you to the high heavens that we didn't have a repeat of last winter!

Now I move to the next blog post with all things Christmas!!

This is hours after starting the process, pausing
for an E.R. trip, and then the purchase of many tools
to cause it to die a horrible death!

The very next day Travis did my hair for church.
I slept in it for five days before asking him to do
my hair again; he did a great job.

I love their relationship

She was feeding her baby

Thanksgiving Break snowball fight

When he hit his head and got a concussion

Endlessly sick; his husky, Shasta kept him constant company

I managed to make Travis a little something
for his birthday

waiting at one of our many Dr.'s appointments

Driving Tayla back to the airport

Hanging out at Susan's

It was FREEZING outside, but she insisted we lay on the swing
during Avery's nap

She finally got cold enough to come in and warm up by the fire
and watch some Curious Geourge

Nala came and snuggled Aaron without any prompting

Tuesday reading night with Gpa Vaughn

At our friends house Addie LOVES to go around
with the big girls. This night she kept following them around
saying, "No way; no way!"

I just LOVE this sweetheart.
She's also just cut her her front bottom two teeth

I died my hair auburn, but depending on the light it
drastically changed colors until I got it redone!

Girls night ornament making

Got into my makeup

Aunt Tayla

Maddix participated in an impromptu dance performance
(top right)

On of his many art projects while he was sick

Our last trip to Costco was epically bad! We are officially
a two cart family, and 3 of our 4 kids majorly struggled this trip.
At the end, as we were walking out Addie chucked a fruit smoothie
and it splattered all over like 10 people and in front of the entire exit!!
I had to pee, but NOPE... I was NOT going back in!