The Little Princess

Bridget always wants a skirt or dress on that's pretty.  Then she will play with all the castles and princesses most of the time.  She loves her Barbie, Sofia, and all the Princesses and many times she would rather play with them than go outside.  Even her Little Pony animals get dressed up in crowns and capes.  On the table behind her is a whole princess set up.

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

I've read Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom to them several times on the car ride to here.  This morning Tor picked up the book and wouldn't give it to me.  Instead, he turned every page and said, "Chicka, Boom, Boom!', the Boom, Boom very loud.  All boy and funny too.

Mommy's Birthday

It was Mommy's birthday today, so she took the day off from work and relaxed at home. In the evening, we went to Guadalajara Cantina and had a nice dinner party with Papa Ken & Bev, Greta and Adam, Cindy & Scott, and Dany. Of course, the wait staff put a sombrero on Mommy and sang to her. Tor saw it and wanted to wear the hat himself.

No Training Wheels

Bridget has been working on riding a bike without training wheels. She was able to do it at the beach last weekend, but only with Daddy running alongside. Today, we went to the RAL parking lot with her little bike. We gave her a little push and she was off and riding all by herself!!! Bridget can keep the bike up for a long time, going pretty slow but knowing how to correct the steering when needed. She's a pretty cautious rider (compared to Jillian who just wanted to go fast all the time.) When we were going to teach her how to brake, she showed us that she already knew how, pushing on the pedal and stopping whenever she needed to! Wow!

The Apartment

 There is a small storage area under the stairs.  Last summer the girls played in it quite a bit and called it their apartment.  Ever since then, when Bridget takes a nap, she wants to sleep in the apartment.  Normally, she is not always the bravest girl, but it doesn't bother her at all to be downstairs alone under the stairs.  When she wakes up she comes upstairs all smiles.

It's pretty rustic inside but she has a doll bed, her lighted pillow, and some Barbies beside her.  She is "as snug as a bug in a rug".

Pet Shop Player

The Pet Shop hasn't been out for several months so I got it out after Christmas.  It's been great!  Tor goes right to it to play and it amazes me by what he does.  He carefully sets the animals in the big house until he has the house all occupied, and the best part is that it takes him a long time to accomplish that, since he is being very careful to stand them all up.  He doesn't even knock them down when he's done.  We're seeing a lot of playing growth from Tor.

Wiped Out

Jillian, Bridget and Tor wore themselves out swimming for almost 2 hours at the Astoria Pool this afternoon. This is a picture of them in the car on the way home.

Climbing Lessons

 I came upon Jillian teaching Bridget how to walk on the outside of the banister.  Bridget isn't the bravest girl in some situations, but here she went all the way to the end after trying it a few times.

Then Tor saw what they were doing so joined right in-"him of no fear".Thankfully, he is too short to do anything but hang on the railing.  I put these on the blog to give Daddy a few more gray hairs.

Little Builder

I tried to get Tor to stand by his tower but he kept sitting down.  While he was building I sat with him to reinforce something when needed and he kept building until all the blocks were gone.  It kept him busy for quite awhile and then he left it standing to show Daddy when he came.  As soon as Daddy saw it, Tor knocked the whole thing down.  Typical.

Jillian Basketball Game

Jillian had her first basketball game today, in fact they had two games back to back.  Thanks to her lessons from Brock and Ty, she knew what she was doing most of the time and scored several baskets.  She was aggressive on rebounds and free balls.  Knowing offense and defense was confusing as from this picture of the rest of her team playing defense when they were on offense-maybe waiting for a pass?  All in all, it was a great start to her basketball season.

Tor and Legos

 Tor has been having to watch the girls build with their little Lego Friends everyday and he wasn't ready to take that on yet, or even the next size up, until yesterday when he carried this next size Lego into the kitchen to proudly show me what he had done.  He was pretty proud

Bridget builds a house everyday for Dora from these bigger Legos.  She is very creative with her designs.

Little Animal

We had the radio on when we were taking Tor and Bridget home.  The song "Animals" came on where the animals howl in the song.  Tor immediately started howling with the song and then with his musical sense he would howl in the appropriate places in the song.  It cracked us up. I just wish I was fast enough to get a picture of an actual howl.

Daddy's Birthday

 First, I apologize for the pictures as my good camera is broken, and this one does not take good flash pictures.
After dinner the girls organized a parade in honor of Daddy's birthday.  Tor was blowing the harmonica, Bridget had a flashlight (they turned off the lights), and Jillian was the drum major with the drums beating in the background.  The parade didn't last long as Tor went off on his own parade somewhere else.

Here Tor is mesmerized by all the candles.  It was a fun party with all the Johnsons, plus Cale and girl friend Erika, Dan and Robin, Tierney, Lynne and Peter,

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Here's our official family holiday photo. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We certainly did. It was non-stop fun and excitement.

Breakfast and Spaceships

 Tor is eating like crazy lately since he finally has a full mouthful of teeth.  He had just finished a big breakfast of sausage and waffles before Tierney came.  When he saw her eating, he promptly jumped on her lap to eat half of her breakfast too.

Earlier in the day the girls had been playing in the bin of Ty and Brock's old Lego sets.  When Daddy got here he jumped in and they were all making Star War space ships, getting ready for a big battle.  It was quite the wild scene.  Here is a picture of Bridget with her space ship on her head.  I guess she is flying with it.