Six Months and Sick :(

Please keep Samuel in your prayers. Justin took him to the Dr. this morning and he has an ear infection and a bad cold. I am learning how hard it is to see your baby sick. Not fun!

Samuel was 6 months old on Monday. I cannot believe he is growing so fast! He now weighs 17.5 pounds and is 28.2 inches long. It feels like only a couple of weeks ago when he was placed in my arms. He is no longer the tiny baby that I held 24/7 for so long. I feel torn between different emotions. On one hand, I am so happy that he is a growing, healthy and happy little boy but on the other, I want him to be my baby forever. With every new milestone I feel really excited and also a little sad. I know that even when he is 18 he will ALWAYS be my baby. :)

"I didn't give you the gift of life,

But in my heart I know.

The love I feel is deep and real,

As if it had been so.

For us to have each other

Is like a dream come true!

No, I didn't give you

The gift of life,

Life gave me the gift of you."

Author- Anonymous

I will try to add pictures to this post tonight. Also, please keep Justin and I in your prayers we have some decisions to make in the coming months and we want God's will to be done. Have a great day!

Last weekend our family went to Lbg to celebrate Finley's 1st birthday. I cannot believe it has been one year since she came into our life. Time is passing so quickly! She is such a sweet little girl. We are very blessed! I had not been home since Christmas so I was very excited to pull into the drive and see my parents coming to meet us :)

Unfortunately, I forgot the SD card for our camera. Justin went to get a new one but then we forgot to format the card. When I started trying to post pictures last night I realized that there was no way to get them on the computer :( Leslie posted these for me.

(Erin- this is why I do not have the picture of us with our babies. We will have to get together again soon! I enjoyed catching up :)

Here is the birthday girl loving her new bear.
Celebrating over dinner. Robin decorated and everything was pink and beautiful!

Creighton and Samuel

Finley getting ready to give Samuel a kiss. Mom and Dad said that when we are not there she hugs and kisses a picture of Samuel. They say "love Baby Samuel" and she grabs the picture. Too sweet!

Leslie and I went on a walk Saturday. We were going to see my Uncle John and Aunt Brenda but they were not home. We did enjoy our walk but I am really ready for warmer weather. Hope you are having a great week!

Lazy Weekend

We had a wonderful, lazy weekend. My parents came Friday night but I forgot to take pictures :( The weather was wonderful all weekend. Justin is ready for warm weather but I could handle one more big snow. (To stay home with Samuel :)

Here is our little "digger" man. Jennifer and Nelson gave him this outfit and Mary Jo gave him the shoes. Ben asked him if he was ready to go to work. Ha! Hopefully he will think construction equipment is cool like Creighton does.
Enjoying the sunny day!
Justin has starting putting Samuel on his shoulders. Samuel loves it! You cannot see him smiling but he is. :)

Recipes: Yesterday I made the crock-pot lasagna but instead of using ground beef I layered spinach, mushrooms and spicy tomato and basil pasta sauce. We both thought it was REALLY good.

Recipes

I am not a cook! However, when Samuel came home Justin and I decided that our "out to eat days" were over and I started trying some new recipes. I have really had a good time trying new things. One of my favorites is this crock-pot lasagna. Very easy and good! I told Leslie I would give it to her so I decided to post this on the blog.

Violette's Lasagna (Violette Harris Denney)

8 lasagna noodles, uncooked

1lb. ground beef

1tsp. Italian seasoning

28-oz. jar spaghetti sauce

1/3 cup water

15 oz. ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Break noodles. Place half in bottom of greased slow cooker.

2. Brown ground beef in saucepan. Drain. Stir in Italian seasoning. Spread half over noodles in slow cooker.

3. Layer half of sauce and water, half of ricotta cheese, and half of mozzarella cheese over beef. Repeat layers.

4. Cover. Cook on Love 5 hours.

(I added the sauce to the meat before making the layers. I also added Parmesan cheese )

Robin wanted the sugar cookie icing recipe. This is really sweet and more like cake icing but still good. Get ready for a sugar overload :)

Sugar Cookie Frosting (allrecipes.com) by Kathy Brandt

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup shortening

5 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

food coloring

1. In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the mild and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

Last night we had spinach and chicken enchiladas and they were so good! I tried to remember what Katy said she used so I will post that recipe when I get the exact measurements. Katy made beef enchiladas on Friday night but I used the same sauce just changed the meat.

If you have any good, easy recipes please send them to my email- beth.johnson@pcs.k12.va.us

Fun Weekend

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours!

We have had a wonderful weekend. Last night Justin and I went to Outback and Frances kept Samuel for us. Today we went to church, ate with Justin's family, played with Samuel and tonight Justin made me heart pancakes :)

Samuel with all of his cousins on the Johnson side. (Good thing a little boy is coming in June :) )

Our cookies

Samuel and Mommy.

On Friday night our sweet friends Kendall and Katy had us over for dinner. She cooked Mexican and everything was wonderful. I am going to try to make what she made for us this week. We had a great time eating and hanging out with everyone. Thanks Kendall and Katy!

This is Samuel with Kendall and Katy's baby, Alyssa and Marcus and Olivia's baby, Landon. They were all born within a couple of months of each other. How cute! I love the big bows on little girls.

Samuel and Megan. Seth was entertaining them.

Kara Peach was with us Friday night and she gave Samuel this hat and the shoes to match. She made these!!!!! I could not believe it. Where is my talent???

Katy made me this diaper bag with a matching changing pad and wipe carrier. These girls amaze me. I am trying to get them to start a blog so they could sell their stuff. I hope they have a blog soon!

5 Months and Random Pictures

Samuel was 5 months old on Monday. I cannot believe he is growing so fast. We are trying to not blink and enjoy every second. Justin decided to try to feed him some peas and of course I had to get pictures since this was his first time with baby food. We had a great time watching him roll the peas around in his mouth and then spit them back out :) I don't think he is ready for baby food. We will try again in a couple of weeks.

We have had the most snow, sleet and cold weather over the past two weeks. I was out of work all last week and two days this week. Justin was at home a couple of days last week because it was so wet. We had many special times....

Justin and Samuel catching up on sleep :)

Another pea picture-

Samuel and his dog Georgie. Samuel loves him :)

I decided to try Robin's sugar cookies during the snow.

Frances gave Samuel this shirt and I love it! I want to take another picture with this shirt and my dad's cowboy hat on him.

"Thank you Lord for your blessings on me!!!"

A Welcome Party for Samuel

We had another exciting weekend. Justin's family had a welcome Samuel party on Friday night. We had a great time with family and friends. The party was supposed to be a brunch on Sat. morning but because they were calling for so much snow they changed the party to Friday night. We still had brunch food and everything was delicious!!! Breakfast casserole, fruit, ham biscuits, my favorite punch, muffins, doughnuts...... the list continues :) Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make Friday night such a special evening. I think Frances said there were 83 people there. The house was packed!

This was the cake Robin made for Samuel.

His doughnut cake...yummm!

Samuel sleeping through his party.

Us with Frances, Mary Jo, and Lauren

With Justin's cousin, Stephanie. She helped give the party. Thank you!!!

Rebekah, Lisa, me and Sandra

Some of the guys (Justin, Dewayne, Josh, Johnny, Jeremy, Marcus and baby Landon)

Holly and Katherine

I could not get everyone who came in this post but thank you so much for coming. We had a wonderful time!

It began snowing during the party Friday night. By the time Justin and I left to come home (around 11) the roads were already covered. Saturday it snowed all day and night. I think in the end we got around 12 inches. I have been out of work all week which is great and I think they are calling for more on Friday. Samuel and I are spending special times :)