Well, Here We Are

Today, Logann and I sat down to read all of the stories that happened in her little life, up until she was 3. A ton of time has gone by since I last posted my "Logie Tales". During that time, lots has happened with our little family. Logie is now 5, almost 6, and she is a big kindergartener. Let me recap the past 3 years in a quick minute, and hopefully I won't leave out any important details. Maybe some of these activities will explain why this blog sat alone for such a long time. Starting at the very beginning, let's dive right in..shall we?

In the Fall of 2008, I started working on my Master's degree at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) in Weatherford, OK. I took night classes on Monday and Thursday nights working on my Master's in School Psychometry. I graduated in May, 2010, praise the Lord! And with straigt A's, I might add!!

During this chapter of my life, I took a part-time job working for an Optometrist in town. In his office, they offer eye therapy. I was hired to use my degree ("almost degree" for a bit of time) by assessing patients to see if they qualified for the therapy. I loved administering the tests and writing the reports. I know...I'm a nerd!

To top off all of this craziness...we learned that we were expecting a baby!! Our baby girl would come into our crazy lives at the end of July, 2010. Because I require a Cesarian and because our doctor was planning a vacation, Merritt Claire Johnson swooped into our family early on July 16, 2010 in Weatherford, OK at the Weatherford Regional Hospital.

She weighed a whopping 6 pounds, 6 ounces and was a quiet, sweet, little lady!!

Logann was and is still such a proud and helpful sister! She loves her baby so much, and it makes my heart so happy. I ALWAYS wanted a sister, and I am so glad that my two girls will have the opportunity to experience life with a sister by their sides.

Isn't she beautiful and tiny? Even a year and a half later, people still comment on how cute and tiny she is!! OK! Enough pictures of Merr-Merr's birthday day!!

We have adjusted to a bigger family, a school-girl mommy, a working mommy, a stay-at-home mommy, a school-girl Logie, and now a move. Recently, we have sold our house in Weatherford, and we moved to a new home in Oklahoma City. Jeremy accepted a job as junior high youth pastor at Southern Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE living in "the City", and Jeremy is sooooooooo, sooooooooo happy in his new position. Logann started school at Oak Ridge Elementary, and she is loving her new friends and teacher.

Here is my little fancy-pants on her first day of school in OKC (Moore).

Now that I have a normal routine and semi-normal children, I hope to update Logie Tales on a regular basis. The name may stay the same, but the tales will involve Logie and her best friend and sister, Merr-Merr! Lord help us all--the world now has Courtney and her 2 mini-me's!!!!

Snow Day

It is the beginning of Spring, and there is a blizzard. One day is 75, and the next day is 20. The blizzard blew through this past Friday. Logann couldn't have loved the snow more. On Friday night, we told her to get dressed in warm clothes so she could go play out in what snow had fallen so far. Here is what she chose:

So, we went in and chose clothes for her. We headed outside to play in the few patches of snow on our yard. Logann said she wanted to make snowflakes (not quite sure how to do that), snowballs, and snowmans.

Saturday brought us about 5 inches of snow, so Logann and Jeremy made a snowman and lots of snowballs and snowangels. Even though her little cheeks were red as strawberries and her hands were as cold as ice, Logann did not want to go inside. Even when the last bit of the snowman melted on Sunday afternoon, Logann searched and searched for the last drop of snow in which she could play (or stomp through). She said she can't wait for it to snow again.

Happy Birthday, Princess Logann

Logie Bear is now 3!  I can't believe it...just yesterday she was laying in her bouncy seat sleeping snuggly in her blankets.  Now, she is skating around in her Dora skates and shaking her booty for anyone who will laugh.  We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, February 14 with a princess dress up party.  Logann played with her friends Hannah, Benjamin, Lindy, Nathan, Miah, Karsen, Kaitlyn, and Joe in her Rose Petal Cottage and in her pop-up school bus.  We enjoyed her princess crown cake, in strawberry of course, princess punch, and lots of snacks.  As favors, the girls enjoyed their own tu-tu and purse filled with dress-up jewelry, bubbles, and princess snacks.  Boys were less fortunate in the favor department.  What do you give boys who come to a princess party?  They got gift boxes with bubbles and Spiderman snacks. Logann opened many great gifts, including clothes, coloring activities, books, a tent, Dora skates, and more.  We were so excited to spend the day celebrating with friends and Grammy, Nana, Miah, Sher-Bear, Amanda, and Granny Choke.

Now, we look forward to the adventures that go along with having a three year old.  I can do it!  I will survive!  Lord help me!

A Day at the Zoo

As the saying goes, "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, stick around (for a day or so) and it will change."  This was definitely the case when we went to the zoo.  Not many days in January are warm and in the 70's.  So, we took advantage of Saturday, January 3rd.  It was so warm and sunny, so we loaded up and headed to the zoo.  We stopped off an enjoyed some Sonic for lunch.  Logann "accidentally" poked her straw through her cup as she sat in her car seat, so she had a special "strut" as she walked around the zoo.  It was actually a blessing in disguise because she wanted to ride in the stroller instead of walk because her pants were wet. The giraffes were amazing, and we loved looking at the gorillas and talking to the ostriches.  The elephants were shipped off to Tulsa, but the rhinoceroses took their place nicely.  After looking at the fish, we stopped at the playground and then enjoyed a ride on the merry-go-round.

After the zoo, we stopped to do some shopping at the mall, and we stopped to get some birthday invitations at Hobby Lobby.  When we left the Hobby Lobby parking lot, the temperature was 68.  We drove straight to Yukon to eat at Chili's.  In the time that it took us to drive from Hobby Lobby to Chili's, the temperature had dropped to 42.  We enjoyed a nice dinner, then braved the wind and the cold to drive home.  

What a day!  We enjoyed the sunshine, the warmth, the animals, good food, family time, the wind, and the cold.  Only in Oklahoma!

Family Time

We have been busy, busy, busy!  During Thanksgiving, Logann had the opportunity to play with Owen for a few days.  Every night, she would cry because she didn't want to leave Owen.  When the weekend was over, Logann woke up every morning looking for Owen.  She can't wait until we go to visit him once baby Stella is born.  She will be excited about seeing the baby, but she will LOVE playing with Owie.

Christmas has come and gone quickly.  We got to spend some time with my cousin from LA.  Logann cozied right up to her and her husband, Matt.  There were many times when I would find her sitting right next to Matt playing his DS.  He controlled the left buttons and she controlled the right ones.  It was really cute.  When the DS wasn't around, Logann would sit with Lisa and play games on her iphone.  We drove with to up to my grandparents house for my grandpa's 90 birthday party.  Logann loved playing the organ in the party room and riding the scooter up and down the hallways.

After the party, we drove to Seminole to celebrate Christmas with Jeremy's mom.  We had a blast watching Logann dress up in her new dress up clothes.  She loved being a princess.  She was so excited to get the movie Wall-E.  She had already watched it before we even got back home.

Christmas was a lot of fun.  We opened presents at our house Christmas morning.  Once we finished presents, we went over to Nana & Poppa's house for our traditional star biscuits and gravy breakfast.  We had more Christmas with Nana & Poppa and Uncle Larry, Aunt Barbara, Cousin Lisa, and Cousin Matt.  Logann received a Rose Petal Cottage and a new baby doll.  The cottage is so big that I'm going to have to rearrange her bedroom or get rid of some furniture to make everything fit.  She loves it though.  She puts on her princess dress everyday, accessorizes with her high heeled, plastic shoes, and climbs into the cottage to play.  She is becoming such a big girl.  Almost a week later, she is asking me if she can open more presents.

Fall Adventures

It's been a little busy around here, and I am a little bit behind on posting recent events. This past weekend, we went with the 55 and up group from our church on a trip to Branson. We saw Noah, the Musical, and did lots of shopping and talking. Logann came home from the trip talking all about her dolls being GRANDbabies. She loved sitting with the ladies on the bus, and she, again, did not want to come home.

We went out to the pumpking patch on Monday and let Logann look at the petting zoo, the pumpkin patch and the corn maze. She loved hearing the pigs snort and seeing the tall stalks of corn. We brought home two pumpkins that Logann picked out. It took us awhile to find some good ones because Logann kept telling us, "That's not a good one." or "That one has bugs." We finally found two that she approved of, and brought them home to our front porch.

Tonight we went Trick-or-Treating. Logann dressed up as a gum ball machine. At each house, she walked right up to the doors and rang the bells, but when our friends would come to the door, she didn't wait for them to hand her the candy. She would walk right into the house and try to find the bucket herself. We had a great time visiting friends and, of course, eating the candy.

Tomorrow, we're off to a 5k and the SWOSU homecoming parade.

Camping Out

Needing to get out and about, we took Logann on a one night camping trip. I decided to take one for the team and make a huge sacrifice--we actually stayed in a tent. We drove down to some land, owned by one of Jeremy's friends on the outside of Altus, OK. We set up our tent, and we geared up for the night. Jeremy took Logann fishing with her new Princess pole.She did not catch anything, but the next morning she said that fishing was her favorite part. We roasted hotdogs and made smores. It took some convincing, but Logann finally decided to eat the whole smore and not just the marshmallows. Once it got dark, we headed to our tent to watch movies (we couldn't rough it totally!). The night went smoothly until a few cows found their way to our tent and started chewing on my shoes that were outside the tent "door." I woke up to hear Jeremy yelling, "GAW! GAW!" as he tried to get the cows to move on. Luckily, they dropped my shoes and took off. Logann slept through the whole thing!

The next morning, we made some pancakes on the griddle and enjoyed a nice family breakfast. As we were getting things set up, Logann played on the side of the "kitchen." As I cooked, I could hear her singing "Jesus Loves Me." It was the sweetest thing!

I am actually surprised that I survived, but what surprised me the most is that I would consider doing it all again. Memories!