Johnson Doodles: The Great Outdoors and the Great Indoors

Lots to catch up on. I will start out with this because last week Chris sent me a very proud email with these pictures and only one word, "Booyah!".

Chris is not always lucky when he goes out on the river, but he took an extra vacation day last Monday and it paid off. He caught these two big guys and had a great day with our neighbor, who also apparently thinks fishing takes priority over work some days :)

The fishing week continued with the Moores in our little neighborhood ponds. I love that we can literally walk across the street and fish, it is perfect for little kids.

Cute little Hudson was the only one who caught a fish.

Grady enjoyed watching the waterfall. I think it reminded him of his sound machine in his room and kind of put him in a trance, probably the first time I have seen this kid sit still in months. Too bad I don't have a waterfall in our living room.

And then he was on the move again!

3 of the 4 Whitfields made it over for some dinner and playtime outside (we missed you E!). Cam joined the boys club and I accepted that it was going to be near impossible to get a picture of all the kiddos so settled on the little boys. This one was hard enough to get.

Cam (11 months), Grady (8 months), Wyatt (7 months)

I have one adorable nephew!

Our room is reminding me a little of the "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" series of children's books. Because chances are if Bella rips a hole in your bedding, you are going to buy a new duvet and if you get a new duvet, mom is going to want to paint the walls, and if you paint the walls, you will realize you want new picture frames. . . . etc. Our room got a pretty big redo on a weeknight last week. We've been staring at the possible colors for about 3 weeks wondering if we were brave enough to really have a blue room and then one Thursday Chris just pulled the trigger. I came home to the mess below and went to bed staring at my new blue walls. I love it!

Grady has been keeping us busier than ever. About three weeks ago, he finally figured out how to crawl really awkwardly, but crawl nonetheless. Over the next five days he perfected his skills and is picking up crawling speed every day. He is a pro at stairs and can get pretty much wherever he wants to go, which means power cords, door stopper covers, and everything else totally "safe" in our house have become his new fascinations. While he is a good crawler now, his preference is still to stand and he can pull himself up on pretty much anything now and seems very pleased with himself when doing so. Last Friday we were at a restaurant and at the end of dinner I let restless Grady down so he could stand. He was holding on to his highchair and I looked away for a second and came back to find him hanging, feet off the ground from his highchair! I didn't know babies could even do that! I swear I am not a delinquent mother, I just have one busy, climbing, on-the-move, child!