Happy birthday grandma(s)

Happy birthday to the grandmas today!! 

Auntie Jay!

So last night a group of our friends decided to get out and celebrate our friend Erin's birthday. The dinner was at 7 which is nearly past Deven's bed time so we decided to make it a "date night" and have my sister come up to watch our little fella.
Right before we were set to go Jaymie was playing with Deven and set him up with his "walker," a little toy that he can push around (thank you Grammy Johnston). Nick and I have not felt like Deven could handle pushing it alone for fear of a face plant of sorts. Jay not know this, let that kid just take off!
It was amazing (to us any way). Deven just trucked all around the living room and kitchen, all by him self!! You could tell he was so excited and proud of himself (at least that's how I'm interpreting it).
So we just wanted to give Jaymie a shout out and say thanks for watching Deven; he was so excited to have someone come up and tell mom and dad to chill out and let him get his walk on!!
I will of course be taking picture of this activity this weekend and get them up!! ; )

Happy Easter

Although we don't really celebrate the Resurrection in the way it was intended I know that getting together with family is on the right path! We had an early start this Sunday to make sure we got in as much family time as possible. Every Easter we high-tail it to Port Orchard for the Bodle Family yard party. We caught the ferry from Fauntleroy to Southworth, it was Deven's first ferry ride. He practiced walking all around the ship and broke hearts every where we went.

I have actually managed to not do any yard work for many years and thanks to Deven I was able to avoid it for one more year. Nick on the other hand (being the responsible member of the family he is) lent a hand. Between weed-whacking, law mowing and cutting down rough trees there was quite a bit to do. Deven got so tired with all the work he was watching and all the hugs and kisses he was receiving that he took a nap and I got to catch up with my Bodle side. We don't get to see them too often so it was just great to hang out. We said goodbye just as Jeannie was rolling out the kielbasa (something I have never had and must try soon) and caught the ferry back to Seattle. Did you know that it is less expensive to get back to Fauntleroy than it is to get to Southworth?...I am trying to figure out the economics here...

Anyway we continued down the I-5 to finish up the evening with the Johnston's. Karen's famous scalloped potatoes and ham dinner was a welcome aroma when we walked in after our long drive. Deven was greeted with several new toys, a book and is first Easter basket. No candy for Deven this year though...I figure he needs at least 8 teeth before he can start rotting them out! ; ) After some piano time with Grandma Johnston, dinner and some good crawling and walking time it was bed time for Deven so we strapped him into the car seat for our trek back up North. Pretty long day but we were happy we got to see so many people. Happy First Easter Deven!

Deven's first Christmas

So I am a little out of order but I wanted to be sure to document our little guy's first Johnston/Bodle xmas extravaganza x's four.

1. We packed up the trusty Kia, told Sam to be good and we drove down I-5 to Lakewood for the Johnston xmas eve homemade sausage fest. Deven sported his first xmas jammies (see xmas morning pics below) and was a hit. He was even able to stay up passed his bed time because he got in an extra nap on the drive down. We had such good time catching up with Nick's extended family and I am bummed we didn't get any pictures. After celebrating via food: homemade sausage, potato salad, m&ms, cookies, and various other fabulous snacks we headed back up to our lake with an extra passenger. My brother Aaron came along for the ride so he could spend xmas eve and xmas morning with his nephew!

2. Christmas morning was so fun, Deven was obviously a good boy this year and Santa made a special trip to our house:

3. Next we were off to Nana and Bubba's house for Christmas breakfast. Deven had on a new outfit for the occasion and had tons of fun with his cousins:

4. Finally we all landed at Nick's parents house where we all played with Deven's new toys and ate dinner from the new Johnston kitchen. It was delicious and someday Deven will be able to eat some too.

Last minute shopping

Deven skipped school and I took a day off from work so we could sleep in and do some last minute errands before our first Christmas together. We ran to the YMCA, became members and signed up for swim lessons to start in January. Then we went to visit Nick at his work (no hooky for dad). We finally made it to the mall where we roamed around for a while trying to figure out what to get all the special people in our lives. Thankfully Nick got off work early, came to our rescue and we picked up some fun stuff. Here are a couple of fun picks of Deven's first Xmas eve day...unfortunately spent at a mall but he didn't seem to mind! More picks to follow as we head to T town for the Johnston Family festivities!!

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Big Boy Johnston

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Welcome Baby Deven

To avoid posting to the blog, I told Ange I wouldn't do it until I had something interesting to say....I don't think I can put it off any longer. Today at 8:36am we welcomed Deven Porter Johnston into the world. He came in at a whopping 10lbs 11oz. and was 21" long. Needless to say, the planned C-section was the right way to go. Angela and Deven are doing great. Both are happy, healthy, and currently napping. Ah, the calm before the storm...

New York 2008

This is Nick and me on our way from Staten Island to Manhattan via ferry. Nick was training for work and I was taking one last free flight before moving on from Alaska Airlines. Our travels I hope are far from over but this is the last one before we had a little something else on our minds. This trip was in early August 2008 and about three months later we found out the Little Johnston (LJ) was on his/her way...