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