What's Going on

Elias has been reading The 39 Clues series of books and is really into them. He read the first one for a book report a few weeks ago and is hooked. He had his friend Luke over a few weeks ago to spend the night. They went to see The Phantom Menace movie in 3-D and slept in sleeping bags in the basement.

He had his final basketball game today. Christian Academy has started intramural sports and the season lasted about 7 weeks. He enjoys playing and especially likes running down the court and stealing the ball. Not so much shooting. He's also doing running club on Wednesdays and getting his energy out. (Well, he still has plenty actually.)

Elias also is continuing with piano lessons which he started last year in third grade. He has improved a lot and enjoys it. He really likes playing the recorder as well.

He has decided to start a reading track in the NIV Bible. He's doing Two weeks in the life and teachings of Jesus. He read Luke 1 today - preparing for Jesus' arrival. He and Mommy have also been taking turns reading Bible stories in the E-100 track at church where we read 100 of the most important Bible stories.

He and Daddy are still going strong reading Star Wars books before bed. And for his most recent birthday, Elias got a fish tank. He recently bought a cool-looking castle for the fish. Right now he has 7 fish, but hopes to add to his fish family soon.

PS. This post was done by Mommy

February Happenings

Yesterday was the Pinewood Derby. My car came in 3rd in the den. There were lots of cool cars.

I've been sick with the flu but am feeling better now. Went outside today and played with the neighbors some since it is warmer here.

Last weekend was my birthday sleepover. We played with our mini-light sabers and I got some fun presents. We roasted hot dogs and had s'mores for dessert. We ran around a lot. I had six friends over for my sleepover. We put our sleeping bags downstairs in the basement. We didn't stay up too late - about 11:00 and got up about 7:00 the next morning.

We have started announcing to people that I am going to be a big brother. Mommy is going to have a baby in July and I am excited to be a big brother. I want to find out what it will be, but Mommy and Daddy are going to let it be a surprise probably. I have told a few of my friends about the baby - like Noah and Jacob, Josh and Jesse, and my whole class at school.

Elias's Birthday

This week was my 9th birthday. I'm having my sleepover party later, but Mommy and Daddy got me a cake with a football on top and I got to open presents. I got Dino-opoly, 3 Cars movie puzzles, and 7 Star Wars books and a LEGO jet. I also got some money from family.

Pinewood Derby is coming up again soon. We got my block of wood and it's been cut out, but that's about all right now. I hope I win this year. Daddy is going to try to make mine fast so I will.

It has snowed a little this week, but not enough to miss any school. It's also been really cold - like in the teens.

Austin came over this week and I taught him to play Plants vs. Zombies. He liked it a lot.

I want the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl. I like watching football with Daddy. I like using my new mini-football helmets to set up who's playing the games. The Baltimore Ravens, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Green Bay Packers, the Seattle Seahawks, the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Stealers, Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears and the New York Jets are still in it.

Christmas Vacation

Elias has been off of school since December 15 because of snow days and Christmas vacation. We didn't do a whole lot; we had a lot of lazy days.

Our computer's hard drive was broken, so we had to get it fixed. While Mr. Graham fixed the computer, Elias got to play with Josh and Jesse from school.

On Christmas Eve, I opened one present; it was a stuffed animal collie. We also went to church on Christmas Eve before I opened my present. They did a play at church about the story of Jesus and the preacher told a really funny joke about the top 10 things to do to Santa Claus. Elias laughed really hard. One of them was to yell "Happy Easter." We got to talk to most of the Wrights on the phone that night at their get-together.

On Christmas Day, we had a really big breakfast of sausage, eggs and pancakes. Mommy and I could not even finish all of our food. Then we opened presents. Some of my presents were Plants vs. Zombies (computer game), LEGO X-Wing, The Battle of Hoth (LEGO), 2 LEGO Creators, Star Wars books - Outbound Flight and Survivors Quest, the book Hatchet, Mastermind (game), K'Nex roller coaster, snuggie, a homemade drum from Jamaica from Grandmother, a Dinomummy book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and mini football helmets representing every team in the NFL. Plus more...Mommy got a snuggie as well. Elias got a car from Josh called Screamin Hauler.

I watched Daddy play Plants Vs. Zombies for hours on Christmas Day. I never even got out of my pajamas because we were very lazy. The sunflowers help you get sun to help you buy things. You can earn pea shooters and you try to protect your house from the zombies because they want to eat your brain. When the zombies get you, your character screams, "NO!!!" and it says "The Zombies Ate Your Brain". There is a football zombie who wears football gear. Elias has done 19 levels and Daddy has done 87 levels. Mommy has not played it yet. She still likes playing Webkinz games like Pizza Palace and Goober's Lab.

On the day after Christmas Elias got to go over to Josh and Jesse's house to play again. He got to watch them play LEGO Star Wars - The Complete Saga. He also watched Josh play a car game on the computer. Josh got to choose a car and he had to face an opponent. He tricked his opponent by getting near the lava, the opponent went really fast and went into the lava. And Josh won. Elias got to see Jesse play Quest for R2-D2 and he only got to do the first level. That night we all went out to eat pizza at a restaurant. Elias got ham and cheese because he is not a fan of pizza. There's a train that goes around and brings your drinks to your table. But our waiter brought ours. On some tables you could play video games, but we didn't have that on ours. We had a tv on ours.



Daddy and Elias put together the K'Nex roller coaster and it's really cool. The cars actually run on the track. It's 3 1/2 feet tall. You can see what it looks like in the picture. The green one is faster than the yellow one because it's more hilly.

On Wednesday after Christmas Austin called because he wanted to play. So Elias went to his house and Mrs. Brandi made us go downstairs because the baby was sleeping. Austin played Mario on the Wii and Elias watched. Then he changed it to Mario Cart. Then he decided to stop. Then we played in his tunnel. Then he played with his DS. He was also taking pictures with his DS.

On Wednesday night we went to Pastor Allen's house for an open house. They don't live far from us. We had some good snacks and Elias watched Ice Age - the Meltdown.

On New Year's Eve, we all went to the movies. It was packed. We saw Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was a very good movie. We all liked it. Only Mommy stayed up to see the new year in. Elias and Daddy were fast asleep.

Happy New Year!

These are some pictures I made myself with my new digital camera. Juneau is my favorite subject!

Amaryllis plant

Here's a picture of our amaryllis plant. (Mommy finally figured out how to spell it.) It has 2 blooms right now. Daddy cut some off because they were dying. It's very pretty.

My Snow Week

Last weekend we went to visit Baby Anderson, my new cousin in Nashville, TN. We went to visit Aunt Jill and Uncle Jonathan too. Anderson was very cute. I wish I could play with him. In the picture above, I am reading to him. He slept a lot. I helped Aunt Jill make banana bread. And Mommy & I went with Uncle Jonathan to a cool science museum. My favorite part was the tower. You could go inside a human heart, and there was a water thing that I liked. Another cool thing was a map of the world that you could move around.

On Tuesday I played with Noah and Jacob. Noah was being really annoying and calling me baby. Finally he decided to go home and Jacob and I played nicely for a couple of hours.

I also had 2 snow days this week and already had Friday off, so only had 2 days of school this past week. And it's supposed to snow tonight and has already started flurrying.

Daddy & I have been working on the Pinewood Derby car some more. Now it has silver on it and lightning bolts and looks really cool. We'll be putting the wheels on it soon. The race is next Saturday, Feb. 20.

On Wednesday I played with Austin. At first he sat in the corner. But we ended up playing ping pong and having fun for awhile. Then he got annoying and left.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

New Baby Cousin

Last weekend we went to a ladies' Louisville Cardinals basketball game. We can't remember the team they played, but whoever it was beat them. Near the end I was screaming, "Boo!" to them because I wanted the Cards to win.

Daddy & I did some painting on my Pinewood derby car. It's blue right now and we're going to put some silver on it and some more coats of blue paint. You can see a picture of our progress above.

The amarillus plant that Grandma gave us is growing like crazy. I like to touch it, but Mommy keeps telling me not to.

Grandmother Wright came to visit on her way to see Uncle Jonathan & Aunt Jill's new baby. He was born on Wednesday, Jan. 27. The new baby's name is Anderson Sydney Wright. He's Grandmother's 2nd grandchild. He is my first first cousin on Mommy's side and my 3rd first cousin altogether. I can't wait to go see him. We may go visit very soon.

I had a lot of fun with Grandmother while she was here. We played ping pong. Yesterday I was winning 249 - 239.

On Tuesday we had another snow day. Austin came over and we played Star Wars Monopoly. We weren't fighting that day which made Mommy happy. He really liked Monopoly. We got some more snow last night, but it is melting today because the sun came out. We only got about 2 or 3 inches here, but other places like NC got a lot more.

I Started Basketball This Week

We finally had a full week of school last week. But we have today and tomorrow off for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and a workday for teachers.

On Thursday I had Noah and Jacob and Austin over to play. I was waiting with Jacob and Austin until Noah got home from school. When Noah got home, I called to him. I played with Austin for about an hour and with Noah and Jacob for 1 1/2 hours. We had some trouble getting along - having that many boys together. It drove Mommy a little crazy.

I have a Pinewood Derby car which Daddy & I are going to paint. We took a block of wood to a workshop and they shaped it into a car shape. Tonight Daddy and I are going to try to paint it. We picked out a blue color because that's my favorite.

This past weekend I started basketball. We had a mini-camp and it was fun. I got my own basketball and jersey. We had races with bouncing the ball.

Yesterday I went to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese for Andrew who is eight. It was fun. I liked watching people play shooting games. They were trying to shoot spiders and a huge plant and mosquitoes and wasps. And there was a butterfly too. My favorite game to play was the one where you throw balls and get points. I got a blue lizard and a sucker with the 24 tickets I won. The next time I go to Chuck E Cheese I really want to play that shooting game.

I built a whole car myself today out of K'nex. I'm going to pretend that it can take you back to the time of the Dinosaurs - kind of like on Prehistoric Park where they go back in time to the dinosaur age. The Megabuild I was building yesterday crashed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex and broke.

One day at school we made a cross and put pictures on the back to show what Jesus did. On another day we went to recess for a long time. We don't always get to go outside if it's too cold. We haven't been on the playground for a very long time.

All of the snow has finally melted. It hung around for awhile. About a week or more. Now it's just dreary outside. But at least it's warmer - in the 30's and 40's now instead of below 20 all the time. It is 34 degrees out right now. That's two degrees above freezing.

A few weeks ago I learned how to borrow. I learned how to add with four-digit numbers. Not too long ago I got my report card and did really well. My lowest grade of B+ was in reading, which is ridiculous because I'm a very good reader. But that's okay. At noon today Mommy & I watched Hotel for Dogs. It is a very cute movie which we saw for the first time during the summer free movies at the movie theatre.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to everyone!

I'm Reading the Left Behind Series

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came to visit us last week. We played some UNO, Scrabble Scram, and a game of STARE and Clue Jr. Grandma won the Clue Jr. game. We also went to the Louisville Science Center to see the Titanic Exhibit. It wasn't that great, even though I like stuff about the Titanic. But the movie they showed was really good. I would like to have it on DVD. We saw a mummy that was in its case. I got to see what a mummy's skull looks like, both female and male skulls. They look different from each other.

On Thursday night, which was New Year's Eve, we went out with Grandma and Grandpa to dinner at Senor Iguanas. The food was very very good, and they liked it too. I got a hamburger, but I tasted Mommy's meal and want to get that next time. She got a dish with shrimp and rice and vegetables and Mommy thought that it was really really really good.

On Sunday I opened my birthday presents. I got a Nerf gun, digital camera and a case, a Dinosaur to put together and a dinosaur pop up book and some other dinosaur things. Grandma & Grandpa had also gotten me a new Webkinz for Christmas. It's an Oriole and I named it Eddie for Eddie Murray - daddy's favorite baseball player.

I went back to school on Monday, but it snowed so we didn't have school today. The snow is really pretty and I got to play in it for a little while with some other kids in the neighborhood - Noah, Jacob, Kayley, Taylor, Zack, and Austin.

Today Mommy and I have been working on a United States puzzle. It's really cool. We've got 8 states done so far - Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah.

I read The Vanishings this week. I read it in two days. It's part of the Left Behind series for kids. The seventh chapter is my favorite because all the Christians disappeared except for their clothes. Vicki's mother & father's bed was made, but they were gone. Vicki's mother died in a car accident because of the vanishings. And Vicki's father died in a plane crash. Vicki is 14 in the book. She isn't real. I'm excited to read the 2nd one. I kind of wanted to go to school today so that I could get the next Left Behind book from the library. It's #2. There's 40 Left Behind books in the library. I've taken AR tests on most of the Magic Treehouse books. I still have 6 tests to take. I have 27.3 points now, still in 6th place in my class. Ian is still trying to catch me.

I turned 8 this week. We had cupcakes and Grandma and Grandpa were here to celebrate with me. It was a blast.

Christmas Week

I was off of school this week. On Tuesday, Mommy and I went to the mall. After that we went to the Outdoor World which is a really big, cool place. I got my hair cut and then we went to a bookstore. Then we went to Jay-C's (a grocery store). On Wednesday, I played with Austin.

Of course the big event this week was Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to a service at Northside, and I saw Noah and Jacob, my friends that live across the street there. When we got home, we got on the webcam so we could talk to the Wrights at Grandmother's house. I got to talk to Weston, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Kim, Aunt Sarah, Grandmother, Aunt Gina, Uncle Perry, Uncle Dwayne, Aunt Marilynn, Aunt Jill, Uncle Jonathan, and Granddaddy on the webcam.

On Christmas Eve night, I opened one present. It was dinosaur pajamas.
On Christmas morning, I got a Triceratops dinoworks and a T-rex dinoworks. I got Stare (a game), a LEGO car, Hotel for Dogs (the movie), binoculars from Grandmother, the Dangerous Book for Boys, a laser game, Mega T-rex, a subscription to the magazine ASK, the USA puzzle book, Night at the Museum II, and more. I also got some stocking stuffers, and my favorite is a dog that barks, walks and wags his tail.
We went to the neighbors' house for breakfast on Christmas morning. It was good, and I got to play with friends like Noah, Jacob, and Zack. I ran around like crazy. And after awhile I got tired. After we got home, I got sick on Christmas Day. So Christmas afternoon I didn't feel very well. We watched two movies - Hotel for Dogs and Up- that day.

Now we are getting ready for Grandma and Grandpa Johnson to come visit tomorrow from NC. One day we are planning to go to the Louisville Science Center to see the Titanic exhibit with them. Another day we might go to Mammoth Cave.

I get MORE dinosaurs!

Last weekend we had company over for dinner and played some UNO. I played ping pong and Hot Hoops and shot the Nerf gun with Mike Jr. Then on Sunday we went to Daddy's work Christmas party and I got some more dinosaurs! Yay!

I got to go to the Christmas shop at school and buy presents for Grandma, Grandpa and Mommy and Daddy.

On Friday, our last day of school, we had a Christmas party. We played games and ate cookies and got goodybags which were full of more chocolate.

Books I read this week: Winter of the Ice Wizard (a Magic treehouse book)

For my AR, I have 26.4 points now. AR stands for Accelerated Reading and my school librarian gives us points for books that we read and answer quizzes for. I'm still in 6th place in my class. A few weeks ago, I was second to last in my class, so I started reading more AR books and taking quizzes and moved up to 6th place pretty fast. But now I'm clinging to 6th. I like to try to stay ahead of my friend Ian. He's in 7th place right now. Julia in my class has about 100 points! Emily (who is the other Elias's sister) has about 400 and some points! She's in 4th grade.

I'm excited about Christmas! It's five days away. On Christmas morning I will open all my presents. Sometimes on Christmas we eat pumpkin pancakes.

Last night I helped Mommy bake pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies for the neighbors like Noah and Jacob and Caylee and Austin and Ireland and Landon and Zach and Taylor and all their moms and dads. We would have made some for John Thomas and Tucker, but they moved back to Louisiana over Thanksgiving. I miss them. They were my friends.

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson are going to come visit for Christmas. They are very nice. They used to have a dog named Jaxie, but he died. He was my buddy. He slept in my room and even in my bed when I used to go visit Grandma and Grandpa. His real name was Ajax. They still have 2 dogs named Crispy and Choco. They are 5 years old and are friendly dogs.

The End

Merry Christmas!

My life this week

I had Cub Scouts on Monday. I went to PE on Monday, and on Tuesday I went to music and the library. We are having our book fair this week, and there are lots of neat books that I want. We've already bought 3 or 4 books. On Wednesday I went to chapel. On Thursday I had PE and music again. On Thursday night I had my Christmas program with the 1st and 2nd graders at my school. Mommy and Daddy came to see it, and it was very very cold outside that night. Friday I had computer and art. After school I went to see my friend Austin for a little while. This morning I watched Dinosaur Train and it was a rerun again!

Books I read this week: Mummies in the Morning and Dragon at Dawn

Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree. It was pretty. This year is Daddy's year to have white lights. Mommy and I have had colored lights for a few years now, so it was Daddy's turn to have white lights.

My favorite subject at school is math.
Last night we watched the Incredibles. We hadn't watched that in awhile.

Juneau has been sleeping a lot and reports that everything under the 2-foot level in the house is working okay.