Off To See The Wizard!

Now that we have Riker,
I can finally convince TJ to dress up with me for Halloween.
When we found a little lion costume for Riker,
I immediately knew what TJ and I would be.

A scarecrow, a cowardly lion, and Dorothy.
I would also like to point out that I made my dress.
By myself.
Without a pattern.
In just a couple hours.
I know, I impress even myself.

At our ward Halloween party,
we had a lion, a tiger, and a bear.
Oh my.

Halloween is more fun
when I have a baby and a husband to dress up too!
I’m already brainstorming ideas for next year!

Beggar’s Night

Holidays this year are extra special,
since they are Riker’s very first holiday.
This weekend is Riker’s very first Halloween.
And tonight was Riker’s very first Beggar’s Night.

Before moving to Columbus,
I had never heard of Beggar’s Night.
Now I think it’s kind of ingenious.
If Halloween falls on a weekday, kids do their trick-or-treating on Halloween.
If Halloween falls on a weekend, kids do their trick-or-treating the Thursday before Halloween.
There are even specific times set
(6pm-8pm)
so kids aren’t out all night long.
See…smart.

Because I live in such an awesome neighborhood,
there were a lot of little trick-or-treaters out and about tonight.

We went door to door to say trick-or-treat to all our friendly neighbors.
We decided against collecting candy,
since Riker doesn’t eat it
(and I shouldn’t eat it!)

    It was very cold, so we didn’t stay out long.
But tonight was just one of our fun Halloween activities.
*Boo at the Zoo
(which means you might be seeing yet another zoo post!)
*Ward Costume Party
(I’m quite proud of the costumes that I made for TJ and I!)
*Halloween Dinner
(nothing fancy…but Halloweenish none the less)

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Halloween is coming up.
In fact, tonight is Beggar’s Night.
Columbus “assigns” neighborhoods specific nights to go trick or treating…
something about being able to patrol neighborhoods better.
To get into the Halloween spirit,
we got together with some friends to carve pumpkins.

Aren’t we all such a talented bunch!
All the other couples carved just one pumpkin together.
TJ and I will probably never be able to do that.

TJ and I each carve our own pumpkins.
TJ likes creepy scary pumpkins.
Lisa likes cute happy pumpkins.

 

This is TJ’s pumpkin.
It’s a mean scary pumpkin eating a poor defenseless pumpkin.

  

This is Lisa’s pumpkin.
It’s an adorable hootie owl sitting in a tree.

Until TJ agrees that Lisa’s pumpkins are best
(or until Lisa gives TJ free reign to do what he will)
we will forever be a two pumpkin couple.

Kansas!

(sometimes, I can’t think of clever blog titles…so I just write something lame and add an exclamation point to make it cooler…)

Riker and I made a quick visit to Kansas.
My sister and her family are getting ready to move back to AZ
(lucky ducks!)
so I made sure I got to visit one more time.
And, as an added bonus, my mom was going to be there too!

My camera didn’t get pulled out as often as it should have,
but I did get a picture of Riker with his grandma.

And I made sure to get this awesome picture.
My mom and cousin Brody getting their slide on.
 
Cousin Keaton loved having Riker around.
He kept asking if Riker could have sleepovers.
And if Riker could play football with him.

Cousin Taylor was there too,
but I managed to not take a single picture of her.
I also didn’t get any pictures of Calli or Brendan.
They were there, I promise.

It was so fun to take a little vacation and spend time with family.
Now I just have to wait until Christmas to see them again!

Dino

Remember when I won all those super cool toys from Fisher Price?
I hid one in the basement.
It’s a walk and ride dino toy.
Since Riker can’t walk yet, I thought it would be perfect to save until Christmas.
But then I caved.

Riker can take little tiny steps
(when holding our hands or cuising along the couch)
but the dino rolls too fast for him to walk with.
 

But he LOVES when we push him around on it.
The feel of the wind in his hair makes him feel alive.
Or something like that.
The downside to the dino:
the voice that sings
(yes, it sings)
sounds just like Barney.
I am not a fan of Barney, so most of the time the sound is OFF.

Also, in completely unrelated news:
we had more visitors this weekend.
Andy and Lisa came from Illinois to visit.
Only one picture was taken during their stay.
 

That’s us.
At the zoo.
Yes, we went to the zoo again.
And it was awesome.
Thanks for visiting Johnsons!

Three-Fourths

Today, Riker is 9 months old.
That’s 3/4 of a year.
Just 3 short months away from turning one.
How did this happen? 

Here he is today.
Well, not today.
I took this picture on Sunday.
But he still looks pretty much exactly like this.

       

Fun facts about Riker:
*he has 8 teeth
*he sleeps at least 13 hours a night
*he’s a social eater…regardless of when he last ate, he wants to eat when he sees others eating
*he still army crawls, but occasionally gets up on his knees
*he’s still the king of drool
*he smiles and laughs almost always
*he is most happy when he is outside…which makes me really worried about what we will do when its cold and snowy
*he’ll almost always stop crying is I start singing
*he has a newfound fascination with opening and closing doors
*sometimes when he plays with his toys, I think he’s channeling Godzilla…he’s quite destructive.

This is by far the best baby age ever.
Riker is ridiculously fun and we love to play with him.
If he could stay like this for a while, I’d be happy.
Thinking about him growing up
(and inevitably leaving me)
makes me sad.
If he gets much bigger, I’ll need another baby.

Quattro Cuatro Quatre

Or, in other words…
10/10/10

Riker rocked his first mohawk today.

 

Which made him even cuter.
Who knew that was even possible!?

Add some sunglasses,
and a whole new level of adorable is reached.

Happiness isn't happiness without a violin playing goat

I promised not to do another post about our zoo trips.

I fully intend to keep that promise.

This is NOT a post about the zoo.

This is just a post about Riker meeting a goat.

Yes, it took place at the zoo.

But this isn't about the zoo...

it's about a goat.

Riker stared at the goat,

completely amazed.

The sign that stated

"Caution: Animals may bite"

had me quite concerned.

What if one of these goats decided to nibble on my baby?

I may look calm and composed in this picture,

but seconds after it was taken the goat lunged toward me

and I screamed.

Okay...maybe he simply moved a little bit.

And maybe I overreacted.

Still, I've decided I am not a fan of goats.

But it seems Riker is.

And don't worry...

his hands were thoroughly sanitized after this!

Guess Who!?

A visitor!
We love visitors!
This weekend, TJ’s old friend Patrick came to visit.

This is how Riker looked the entire time Pat was here.
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to like him or not.

We hit up Schmit’s Sausage Haus for some yummy bratwurts
{and delicious cream puffs!}



Riker feels the need to bite the spoon when I feed him now.
Every. Time.
Sometimes he will bite the spoon, then blow bubbles
causing the food to spit out at me.

After lunch, we took full advantage of the fantastic fall weather
by heading to the river front park to see the Santa Maria.
While we were there, I realized we were here last October too!
Here’s the picture from 2009:

And here’s 2010:

What a difference a year can make!
Instead of being pregnant, I have an adorable baby!

And…unfortunately, Patrick’s eyes were closed in every picture I took.

Hm. Kind of open in this one.
Such cute boys!

Every time TJ throws Riker in the air,
my heart stops a little bit.

But seeing a picture of Riker riding on a magical unicorn can make my heart stop too.

  

Being a mom is hard on the heart.

Thanks for coming Pat!
It was great to see you!

The Zoo!

Did you know that the Columbus Zoo is the best ever?
Well, it totally is.
It’s also Jack Hanna’s headquarters…
so that’s pretty cool.
I finally bought a zoo pass so we can go more often.
This last week, Riker and I went with a bunch of our friends.

8 adults
7 babies
1 fetus

 
Riker loved spending the day outside
even though he didn’t really care too much about the animals.

We saw lots of animals.
I took one picture of one animal:
the polar bear.
I kept hoping he would jump in.
He never did.

There are many more zoo trips in our future…
but I promise not to blog about each excursion.
(Oh, and I can get a guest in to the zoo for free with my pass…
so come visit me and we will go to the zoo!)