Drinkin’ beer and shoootin’ shiiit

In England we celebrate the day after Christmas with a peaceful day call ‘Boxing Day’ (which I now find out from a quick google is due to St. Steven being stoned to death in 34 A.D. ‘citation needed’) In America we now have 'Redneck Day' where I get to go out in the middle of nowhere with shotguns and find out if my father in-law really wanted me to marry his daughter. This year we got to test Stella’s hunting ability and she coped surprisingly well with gun shots. Unfortunately, she did not do so well with with the retrieving, but then it is hard for a dog to bring back a broken beer bottle.

Redneck Matt
Redneck me

Redneck Greg

This used to be a river bed

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from California!

Sure he will be more excited next year

Dylans new boppy

Happy holidays!

Just some random stuff as we had not posted for a while. I had to share the photo of our 95lbs dog trapped in a bedroom by a 4lbs cat.

David and Goliath ... we know how that turned out

Dylan got dressed up for his Christmas pictures, which I'm sure wont be the last. Some great photos to show his girlfriends in years to come.

An early development of fashion sense?

Alright, I'll smile if you don't make me wear them

He also got invited to his first Christmas party for which he got to wear his 'little man' shirt. He was a real hit with the ladies ... well, his Grandma and mum.

Looking dapper with Grandma

We attended my company Christmas party last week and as you can see from the photo, Kristy was glad to release a years worth of pent up partying! We had a great evening and very thankful for the taxi service that took us home.

Get down!

Kristy asked Santa for a House for Christmas and we have had an offer accepted so we hope everything will go smoothly. Not sure how I am going to wrap it up though.

We also want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and happy 2009! Thanks to everyone who sent us a card and sorry we did not get around to sending any out ..... we will make more of an effort next year!

Come on you yellows!

Just a few pictures of Dylan and Stella. The highlight of the week was that Dylan and I got up at 5am (not that he really goes to bed to allow him to 'get up') to watch the Pride of Anglia beat the scum 2-0. Although we could only watch it on the Internet and Dylan was napping during the last goal, I think we bonded. That all makes up for the crappy season we are having and thanks to Paul and Sharon for his first green and yellow shirt.

We start our house hunting on Saturday so watch this space!

Dylan and his new play mat ... ah wait

Dylan happy with his pacifier .... ah nope

Having a whale of a time

Come on you yellows!

5am to watch the footy, are you kidding me?

Judging by the number of complaints we have received for not updating the blog then someone must be reading it! Not that we really need to offer an excuse seeing as it is our blog and we should be allowed to update it when and if we want but things have been pretty hectic of late.

Dylan news: The poor little fella has had the second cold of his 5 week life so we are guessing that he thinks that not being able to breath through his nose is normal. The good news is that he is getting better. Our theory is that we are not going to worry until he loses his appetite and at 12lbs 6oz and 24 inches on his 1 month check up that’s unlikely. He continues to change daily and has started chatting away to the dog and even amazed Kristy by rolling himself over (probably looking for food). As most of you know, my job entails looking for sources of oil and natural gas miles below the earths surface but we have discovered our own little source of natural gas living with us. If we could only find a way to harness his expulsions then he should easily be able to cover his own carbon footprint and maybe the rest of the street.

My parents have been over from England which has been great. They enjoyed their first Thanksgiving, a holiday when Americans thank the British for coming over in the first place … right? I got to go ‘fishin with ma pa’ back up in the Kern river and although he was the only one to catch a fish the scenery more than made up for it. For the record, he only caught the fish whilst trying to read the alcohol content on the back of his beer can … we will make a redneck out of him yet.
Enjoy the photos of Dylan and we promise to post more often.

The Johnsons

Out and about

English Grandma and English Granddad

Anyone up for Vegas?

Dancin' with the dog

Gone fishin'

At least we caught one between 3 of us

Lake Isabella

One week down

It was Dylan's one week birthday on Thursday, but it felt more like a year to Kristy and I. All in all he is a good baby but we have learned that one of his British parts is his body clock and it is unfortunately still set on British time. Kristy had the fun job of checking his rectal temperature which, to my concern, he did not seem to mind. We are also learning how not to get peed on and as you can see from the picture, how to avoid projectile vomit to the face. Even with all his bodily functions, we still love him. Thank you to those who sent e-mails, cards and flowers.

Me and my Nana

Perfect little angel

'Papa T' and me

Getting dressed up for the doc

The importance of sharing

Own personal protection

Day 3!

Kristy and Dylan are sleeping. All is well in the world .... for now!

Proud dad

If I'm not poopin', I'm sleepin'

Thankfully he likes to swing

Made in the USA with British parts

Dylan Arthur Johnson, 9 lbs 3 oz was born a 8:05pm (pacific time) Thursday 23rd of October, 2008.

I am so proud of Kristy and her attitude was great throughout, I knew I had chosen the right woman when she cracked a few jokes during labor. I have turned into mad camera dad overnight and find it hard to prise my finger from the shoot button …. wait until I get my video camera!

Dylan is doing great and obviously Kristy and I have a lot to learn. Considering he is less than two days old he is adjusting well to his new surroundings. ‘The pack’ (Stella, Maggie and Gracie) are still deciding what rank to give the new addition but I think they have all accepted him with a good sniff of his butt.

I am also going to put Norwich’s late winner today against Doncaster down to the extra fan they acquired.

Seeing as our social lives are on hold for the next few months, we will be sure to be updating the blog.

Mum and me

Still enough love to go around
Dylan Arthur Johnson

Ah, thats a dike

When my manager asked me if I wanted to go and study some dykes, I wondered what relevance a gay pride march had on my professional responsibilities. As it turned out, he meant dikes in a geological sense and so I got to spend two days on the Pacific coast looking at rocks. It was a breath of fresh air to get out of the office and (although Kristy still makes fun of me) we did see some interesting rocks. For my old mentor Chuck, I will post some pictures showing some fine examples of sandstone injectites and dolotomized extrudites, or for the rest of you, some cliffs.
I have often wondered why we bought a four wheel drive SUV in Texas, where the terrain is as flat as my homeland of Norfolk. However, the field trip gave me a good opportunity to test it on the hills of California. After convincing Kristy to let me take ‘her’ car in case I needed to rush back, I thought the baby was going to arrive early when she saw the state I brought it back in.

Dumber than a bunch of rocks?

Pacific Coast

Rainbow on the beach

Spot the dike

Baby news: As you can see from the picture, Kristy has been practicing with Gracie the dog. She is little bigger and hairier than the real thing (we hope) but not a bad substitute. Taking a leaf out our friends book (see linked blog) who put their cat in a car seat, Gracie also volunteered to test out our BabyBjorn. Yesterday marks one week to due date so we are enjoying our sleep ….. and adding blog entries while we have time.

Baby Gracie

Doggy Bjorn

Gone Fishin'

In preparation for my impending fatherhood, I have been researching ways to get out of the house ..... or should I say learning skills that I can pass along to my child. This week was fishing in Kernville with our friend Bruce. I had forgotten how nice it is in the mountains, not too far from Bakersfield. Unfortunately I did not know we had to stand in the river to catch the fish and hence the tourist turned up in his best jeans. Alright, the only fish I caught was a bottom feeder but I think I can get used to this fishing lark.

The only trout of the day

It's not the size that matters

The river Kern