Elliot turns 11

Elliot the Great has turned 11! 

This is sadly the only picture we took at his birthday party. He took a group of friends to Main Event for laser tag, bowling, and pizza. I asked him just now (4 months after the party) about what he remembers. He response was "Uncle Blake was annoyingly good at laser tag. He would hide behind the obstacles and shoot you before you could do anything. I did win one round though. I beat YOU, Mom!" At that point he leaned in close with his trademark crazed wide-eyed look. 

Just a couple of weeks after his birthday, January rolled around and this guy moved up to the wild world of the Young Men's program at church! I have seen a huge development in him since then. He gave a lesson in Deacon's Quorum on Jacob & Esau, and a talk in Sacrament meeting. He did a great job of coming up with content, organizing it, and practicing for both. He's always been independent and capable, but his willingness to take on assignments like this has blown me away. 

He has some awesome youth leaders. The picture above was taken at a stake youth hike up Picacho Peak, which was the hardest, steepest hike he has ever done by a pretty wide margin. He has also been camping on an island that they accessed by boat, gone backpacking, built and launched rockets, did an iron chef competition, and has been on a temple trip- all in only 4 months as a Deacon! 

It was really cool taking him to the temple for the first time. 

He is still a creator. We find paper filled with symbols only he can decipher, and his school work has an abundance of doodles. Here he is making a robot that can draw at the Library Maker Fair. 

Elliot crossed over from Cub Scouts to the full Scout program. I think the program is a great fit for him, and he's pumped about going to Camp Geronimo with his troop this summer. 

Possibly my favorite side of Elliot comes out when he's playing with Felix. He'll read to him or try to get him to say funny things. It brings out his caring and responsible side and is so sweet to see. 

Elliot is a one of a kind kid! I love playing board games with him and chatting with him while driving to his increasing number of activates.  He keeps his homemade "Story Cards" in the van, and I love it when he is sitting back there with friends and they are busting a gut listening to him make up crazy stories. He loves giving cryptic comments and then refusing to explain them. He has a strong sense of justice, and is the only one who can reliably keep track of how much screen time Isaac lost on the previous day. He reads a TON, and we struggle to keep him stocked with reading material despite weekly trips to the library. 

Happy Birthday, Oat!

Christmas, with a Gender Reveal

The Johnson Family, gathered around for some Christmas Eve Fondue

We rounded out the night with a shadowbox play of the Nativity by Elliot and Mimi and some Christmas music with the guitar being passed back and forth. 

We opted to open presents on Christmas morning at our house with the early risers before heading over for pull-aparts and the rest of Christmas celebrations at Casa Johnson. Adorably, the present that Felix was the most excited about was an orange that we wrapped up for him. 

This is the present I was most excited for...

We opted to do the blood test with this pregnancy. Part of the appeal is that you can find out the gender early. We weren't sure if we would get the results before Christmas or if processing would be way delayed with the holiday. We got the results while at Reid park on the 23rd! We decided to make a little gender reveal box for the family to open on Christmas to surprise everyone. 

It's... a GIRL! 

We could not be more pumped about having this little girl coming our way! She really does feel like a gift. 

A wonderful part about Arizona is that you can have Christmas Day pool parties. I got my dad these inflatable battle logs for Christmas, knowing that he would take great joy in watching his posterity whack each other and fall off the wobbly logs. 

The party continued through the week to New Year's, with Max and Morgan able to join us after spending Christmas with Morgan's family. 

We watched movie, then played a YouTube video of a New Year's countdown before we put the kids to for a few hours. We let our newly minted 11 year old Elliot stay up until midnight with the grownups before we loaded everyone up in the car to sleep at our own house. 

So many streamers!

Felix was not so sure about the loud popping noise and streamers exploding into being. 

2025 was a great year for us Bloods!

All the Christmas Parties

Felix was a perfect model for his "baby in the Christmas lights" picture. I was worried he would be a terror pulling ornaments off the Christmas tree, but he did great with it. 

His first time independently standing up was by Mimi's Christmas tree. He loved saying "hi" to his favorite ornaments that she put down low for him. 

He also loved our Christmas coloring wall! He always found the one Santa head in the picture to point out. Mimi has a big collection of Santa's that she displays in her kitchen, and we didn't realize the impact it was having on him. He still demands that we draw "Santa, ho ho ho, Merry Christmas" for him months later. 

A major highlight of the holiday season for Isaac was this puzzle advent calendar that Mimi got him. He would wake up early and add the day's box of pieces to the puzzle first thing every morning. 

We had the great fortune of being at the clubhouse for Elder's Quorum pickleball on the day that happened to the the Rancho holiday party. 

Felix was truly astonished that he got to ride on a train. It was adorable. 

He's actually the cutest little guy in the whole wide world.

Candy cane mini golf! 

Felix is famous for saying "No tickles!" followed by "More tickles!" after a 5 second pause. 

Our ward Christmas party was excellent this year! It was a potluck followed by a talent show. One of my favorite acts was a series of shapes ranging from Christmas Tree to stable to santa's sleigh assembled by a few families working together, human pyramid style. 

I was talked into a dance number where we wore tan sweatshirts in a most undignified manner to do a turkey dance. There were open-mic dad jokes, dance performances, and so much more!

Mimi was involved in decorating for the Creche festival again this year, and I played some Viola duets with Hannah Gardner as background music. We had a great time in the photo booth and doing all the crafts.

Our angel and sheep 

Breezy was attempting to teach them star fingers

We always enjoy wandering through the town hall lights, strategically not on the Winterfest night. 

A scenic spot for some handstands! This girl lives her life upside down these days.

Annie's primary activities leader organized a time for the girls and their families to sing Christmas songs at a retirement home before Church on the Sunday before Christmas. They surprised the residents by turning around to reveal Rudolf noses from the balcony for the first number. 

Christmastime Bloods

Thanksgiving

Some friends organized a Friendsgiving at the church this year! We packed the place pretty well with a large gaggle of our collective kids and had quite the feast. 

 

Felix was more interested in rolling around a basketball than eating food.

Isaac and Annie both had pie parties that Felix and I attended. Isaac's featured a stirring enactment of "Turkey Trouble" (he was turkey dressed as a cow) with pizza and pie for desert. Annie's was straight pie- each got 6 slices with unlimited whipped cream to sample and rank. 

Our Thanksgiving Feast was delicious this year! We had all the classics and got to enjoy the perfect weather outside. 

Poor Isaac had the flu and was running a temperature, so we made him a puzzle table on the patio. Claudia brought over some of their 100 piece puzzles for him. He did 3 of them! He's a puzzle fiend these days. He had no appetite and ate only a piece of pie all day. 

The rest of us had a Thanksgiving pool party! We had a fierce game of PIG that Stephen won. 

The day ended with a magnificent sunset as we ate pie around the fireplace. 

We have so much to be grateful for this year! We are truly blessed to have such close relationships with our family here, and to have great friends and things to be a part of as well. I've seen growth in all of the kids this year. It's a wonderful life we lead!

Felix's First Steps

Felix gets another post because he has been wowing us all with his skills, and because he's just a little guy.

Felix is obsessed with cars. Parking lots are places of immense joy for him. After each meal, I tell him, "All done!" and he responds, "Car!" because he knows he will get to look for cars out the window while I wash him up. 

The sweetest of all car-loving little heads

Some of my best Relief Society work is done on walks around the lake. Felix is always up for it!

Somehow all of my children have independently decided that they love climbing into this particular drawer. 

He discovered toilets. We now have strict rules about keeping bathroom doors closed, or he WILL go for a splash. 

Now for some videos!

Felix's fan club from the ward potluck helped form a basketball percussion group. 

He loves books, and has lots of favorites. Annie is the only one who has been able to get him to showcase the fact that he has all of "Peek A Who" memorized. Aaron and I went back to our videos of all the other kids and determined that he's our earliest talking baby.

This is a good shot of his little voice, laughs, and the antics of his daddy and siblings

And now for the big milestone- Felix took his first steps at 16 months old! He has been VERY opposed to the idea of taking steps or standing by himself for a long time, although he would walk a little bit with someone holding his hands. Now he will stand or take a few steps and clap for himself, or walk all over the place holding someone's hand. He really likes it when we cheer for him. 

Life is much more entertaining with baby Felix around!

Fall Happenings

Isaac's Kindergarten class had the cutest Teddy Bear Picnic! They used their Tongs to put their Treats in their Teddy bear bag, then we went outside for a picnic on the grass. It was so cute watching Isaac interacting with his classmates. 

The kids got to put all their teddies on a parachute. Classic elementary school. 

Isaac's school picture is worth documenting. It's up for debate if this facial expression is a grimace of pain or a soulless stare into the abyss. 

The cub scout pack went to Apple Annie's. It was our first time going.

Elliot and James did a great job navigating us through the beginner and intermediate mazes. Apple Annie's was not messing around- the mazes were LONG! It was nice the boys were locked in, and we could blissfully meander after them. 

We took the hayride to the pumpkin patch, were we frolicked and looked for the lumpiest pumpkin while the kids asked when it was going to be pie time. 

The apple orchard was a short drive away. We picked Asian pears and a couple of varieties of apples, Then rounded off the day with apple cider donuts and pie. 

In case we didn't have enough produce, we went in on a borderlands rescue produce box and ended up with mangos that were literally the size of Isaac's head. They were so good, too!

The Library gave out free tickets to the Children's museum, so we spent a lovely morning hanging out there.

The jump screen

Felix enjoyed climbing in the tinker toy bins probably better than any other activity there

Another dad was seeing how many blocks he could jump in the courtyard. Aaron whispered to me that he could clear 7. Naturally, I forced him to back up his claim. He could indeed jump over 7 to the amazement of all the people of the courtyard!

A series of jump related challenges ensued. 

Grumpa and Mimi dispatched two rattlesnakes by their pool, leading to the creation of our "Snake Rules."

Aunt Trisha came to town! She wanted to go to a Monster Truck Rally in Phoenix. My family spent the night before with Mary, and Annie and I went to see Rebekah in "Legally Blond: The Musical." We met up with Trisha, Breezy, and her friend Maja at the rally. It was more fun than I thought it would be! The Classroom Crusher pictured above was my favorite. He smashed himself to pieces then jumped into what remained of the pool at the end. We were delighted to find that they had the most Annie coded truck of all time- a unicorn truck named Sparkle Smash driven by Kayla Blood (we will claim her as a distant cousin), a beautiful woman that ripped off her helmet, let down her long blonde hair, and did a roundoff after each of her runs. 

The kids crashed hard on the long drive home from the rally. 

We started having the Wickley family over for weekly dinners while their Dad is deployed. They are vegetarian, and we are attempting to be more vegetarian, so it works out great! Cruz loves the quail. 

Cub scouts had a rocket launch day! Felix cried for the first several launches- too noisy. Annie's was lost in a tree. The wow factor of rockets launched hundreds of feet in the air wore off, and many of the kids found more immediate joy in tossing their rockets into the mud. 

Blake had a birthday! We celebrated at Texas Roadhouse. 

Grumpa and I made some little cutting boards out of the mesquite wood from the front yard tree! They are perfect for cutting up the morning bananas and slicing apples. I use them as plates when I'm feeling rustic. 

Isaac's Kindergarten teacher is a saint! Notes like this crack us all up. Apparently he had a 'no shoes' coupon and forgot to put his shoes back on before going to lunch, which is actually a bit of a hike to the cafeteria that is shared by SPS, SIS, and SMS. Somehow the solution to the no-shoes problem was that he ate his lunch in the office with the principal? I'm still confused, but Isaac thinks it was a great adventure. Mrs. Chittum emailed me to say that Isaac would be taking a break from 'no shoes' coupons for a while.