Albert

Here are some pictures of Albert.

In the hospital. Notice how he's almost too long for the hospital bassinet.

 Sleepy baby.

A full view of his ginormousness.

Getting ready to leave the hospital. This is our obligatory Swedish Covenant picture. Elias had one too. Tyler was born in this same hospital and this shirt was given to him then. 

 Happy baby (at home, yay!).

More happy baby.  We took him in to the pediatrician on Monday and he was already back above his birth weight.  As of Monday he weighed 11 lb, 8 oz.  Big, happy baby.

The kids

At Long Last

Early this morning Erin gave birth to our fourth child. Albert Arthur Johnson was born at 1:36AM, weighing a whopping 11lb 4oz and stretching 23 inches. Both Erin and Albert are doing well.

Fall picture post

Here are all the random photos we took throughout the fall.

Apparently Elias thought Addilyn looked lonely during naptime.  So cuddly.

Rambo boy.

Painting pumpkins (instead of carving this year).

Painted pumpkins.

More painting.  These kids really enjoy painting things.

A Before and After shot of Elias' latest haircut.

We used the clippers and it turned out a little short for our tastes.  This boy might just need a little longer hair (although almost all agree that the Before was too long).

The boys' "van."

Elias found Asher's markers unattended and got "artistic."

Thanksgiving table.  We celebrated this year with the Habluetzel's.  

I love Addilyn's expression in this picture.  Asher has just dipped his bread in his barbeque sauce.  My thoughts exactly.
That fills in the best of our random pictures from the fall. Now you're up to date.

Asher's Allergy Numbers

Asher has been making some progress in the allergy department lately.  Last month Tyler took him in for a wheat challenge.  That involves taking Asher in, giving him some wheat, and then waiting a couple of hours to see if he has a reaction.  He passed!  There was little to no response so we've officially added wheat to his diet.  That mostly means that he gets a wider variety of cereals to choose from in the morning and now when I make him special bread or baked goods I can use regular flour and only have to worry about avoiding the milk and eggs. Unfortunately, regular bread and pasta are still out but we'll take what we can get.

Last week Asher went back in and did his yearly allergy testing. We got the results back today.

Last year's numbers:
Peanut - 7.49
Milk - 11.8
Egg - 34.4
Wheat - 16.5

This year's numbers:
Peanut - 4.7
Milk - 6.19
Egg - 33.2
Wheat - N/A

His doctor was really encouraged to see that his numbers came down so much in the peanut and milk.  We even were able to schedule a baked milk challenge (scheduled on his birthday).  Apparently, some kids will respond differently to milk that has been baked (in cookies, cake, etc) than they will to regular milk.  It would add just a little variety to his diet and would give him even more exposure to milk so he would hopefully grow out of it sooner.  His egg numbers are pretty stagnant so I'm not sure that's looking as good as we would hope. There's your yearly update.

Halloween 2012

We had decided to skip out on Halloween this year.  The past month was pretty crazy around here and we just didn't have time to plan costumes.  Then on Halloween, Tyler came home and told me that some of the seminary community had been working hard to make sure they had Asher-friendly treats to give out.  So sweet!  So with an hour to the designated seminary trick-or-treating time, we started to throw some things together.  
Here's our Halloween roundup.

Addilyn was a crazy cat lady. Look at that blank stare.  She played into it so well...especially after she figured out that she wasn't supposed to be a cat.

Asher was a bass drummer in a marching band.  The drum didn't last more than the first 20 minutes because it was kind of heavy but he enjoyed banging on it while it lasted.

And Elias was...Baby Einstein.  The hair really was the best part of this costume.
So there you have it...three somewhat interesting costumes, one hour of prep, and $0 spent.  Last minute Halloween success!

Elias' Birthday

Just in case you didn't know, Elias had his second birthday a while back.  It was a pretty fun day.

It started with special cereal (Trix) and opening one gift.  He got his very first Lego set: Red from Cars.  He was pretty excited.

He then spent the morning in his usual way, playing with Asher and running around the house.  All of the early morning excitement must have worn him out because he decided to take a pre-lunch nap on the kitchen floor while I did dishes.

After lunch and a more complete nap, we invited some friends over to dinner to celebrate Elias' day.  He even had one friend sing him the Swedish birthday song!  

Birthday cupcakes!  If you're wondering they were Browned Butter Pumpkin with Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting.  Pretty tasty!

Smiling for a photo with his cupcake.

 Enjoying said cupcake (and smoozing for the camera).

Then it was time for gifts.  The first gift he opened was this stuffed raccoon.  If you read to it from special books, he'll interact with you.  Elias latched on to his new friend quickly and named him "Din Din" almost immediately.

 Oooo...a ball.

 Stacking blocks.

A tee ball set.  Does anyone else see where this is going?  He's certainly enjoyed trying to master hitting the ball off the tee, but he's also enjoyed golfing with it and then hitting just about anything (and anyone) else.

All in all, it was a fun day and a very successful second birthday!

Cubs game

A couple of Sundays ago we went to a Cubs game.  It was our first trip to Wrigley Field.

Since the Cubs aren't really doing so well this season, tickets are really cheap right now. Boo for the Cubs but yay for us!

This was our posse (partially hidden by Addilyn's hat).  Our friends Adam and Jessa joined us for the afternoon of fun.

I was amazed at the view from the stands.  I didn't realize that Wrigley was so close to the lake.  It was really fun to see all the sailboats enjoying the lovely weather out on Lake Michigan.

Wrigley Field is in the middle of a rather populated area.  The neighbors take advantage of their proximity by renting out seats on their roofs.  

Sleepy boy.

The game we attended (against the Pittsburgh Pirates) was really long and the stands around us started to clear out.  Elias enjoyed some solitude.

Happy girl!  We all enjoyed the game.  The experience of the ballgame was enough for the kids but the game was even a good one.  We got to see a Grand Slam to take the lead and the game ended with a very nice double play.  We even got to sing the "Go, Cubs, Go" song that they sing at the end of winning games.  What a treat!

Moving and the First Day of School

We moved. It was just over a month ago that we loaded up our truck and headed back to Chicago.  We had a very nice truck.  If you look really closely, you can see that Addilyn is pretty excited to be riding the first leg of the trip in the truck with Daddy.  As moves go, it was a fairly exciting trip.  We ended up with 3 out of the 5 of us coming down with the stomach flu on our two days of driving.  Apparently we have mastered the average move and now it was time to try for something a little more challenging.  Luckily we all made it to Chicago and were all feeling much better within the week (although it did go through all but one of us).

Goodbye house. We already miss your garage and designated playroom.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to Addilyn's very first day of school.  She was pretty excited (and oh, so cute!).

Here she's showing off her backpack and lunchbox (which is shaped like a hippopotamus head).  She's so proud of them.

We were trying to figure out the lining up system outside Addilyn's designated dropoff door.  There were so many parents and kids. Lots of excitement and quite a bit of chaos.

Here Addilyn is standing in her designated line.  Tyler was standing with her for a while but could feel that she was embarrassed by his presence.  That's when I realized that our baby girl was so ready and would be totally fine.
She seems to enjoy school quite a bit and loves to keep a tally of all her teachers (so far she's counted at least 6).  After a 7 day break for the Chicago teachers' strike, we all seem to be settling in to our new routine.