MightyJohnsons

Drew turned three yesterday. I decided I would take him to Build-a-bear so he could make his own bear. I think that the window of opportunity for boys to enjoy this is much smaller than girls so I thought it would be a good idea to get an early start.

He is a little young to understand all they do in the store, but it didn’t take too long for him to catch on. He picked a cute black bear, stuffed it, picked a heart, kissed it, and then they stitched up the bear. Next Drew spent a few minutes “bathing” and “combing” him. Lastly, he picked out a football uniform for him and gave him a name. After some prompting from Seth, Drew decided to called him Kenai. What would be more fitting for a black bear than a small town in Alaska (where we grew up nonetheless)?!

Drew helping stuff his little bear.

Drew bathing and combing him.

Drew with Kenai, ready to take home.

Later in the day we had cake, ice-cream and opened up presents from grandma and grandpa. Although my parents couldn’t be here, Seth skyped with them on his Iphone and they were both able to take part in the craziness of Drew’s birthday. Drew got a new spiderman bicycle (w/training wheels), a new spiderman helmet, and a tractor. Since the bike is new I’ve been allowing him to ride it in the house. He is having a ball! He just circles around the island in the kitchen and up and down the hall. His confidence is quickly building and his speed is increasing. I was almost plowed down today when I walked around the corner of the hall. I think I may soon need enforce some type of speed limit for him.

Time continues to fly in the Johnson household. Kids just keep growing up, ever so fast. Here come the tears. Drew is my little buddy. He is all boy and loves to fight, wrestle, and kill anything in his way, but at the end of the day he loves to come to his momma. He loves to snuggle by me in bed and lay right on my pillow. He won’t go to sleep unless I sing him some type of song about Buzz Lightyear and give him a big kiss on the lips. He is a picky eater and would probably prefer chocolate milk and gum for most meals, but we are working with him in that area. He’s a that age where he is independent and often a handful but definitely a handful I am willing to take on. I love you sweet boy!

We had another wonderful Christmas. The festivities began at G’ma Jan and G’pa Mike’s house on Christmas Eve. We had our traditional foods and games. We had the nativity performed by the kids and believe it or not, it went pretty flawlessly considering how young some of the kids were.

Later that night our family returned home for some of our own traditions. The kids opened their new pajamas, we sang Christmas carols (accompanied by Jacob on the guitar), we toasted with our Martinelli’s, and Seth read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and then we tucked the kiddos in bed.

Santa was busy at our house. He ate almost all of his cookies and milk and brought in some really great presents. The kids all seemed very happy with their gifts. Other than the fact that we didn’t have any snow on Christmas, it turned out perfect. We were able to enjoy lots of time together and have tons of fun. I will let my photos tell the rest. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

All the grand kids acting out the nativity.

Singing Christmas carols

The kids in their new PJ’s making silly faces

Seth reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the kids.

All of Santa’s hard work!

Santa ate well!

Ellie w/ her new toys.

Drew in his new BYU uniform

Claire and her pillow pet

KK and her new barbies she got from G’pa Gary and G’ma Kathy

Meg with her new roller blades from G’ma Ria

Jake was SO excited to get his air soft gun from Grandma Ria

Claire got these cute mask for Christmas and all the kids put them on. Kind of funny actually.

I know you’re not supposed to ask a woman her age (nor reveal it on the interwebs), but since she outed me on my birthday, I’m going to repay the favor here. At least I obfuscated it somewhat, right? Happy birthday, dearest Manina!

Seth and I celebrated our TWELVE year anniversary on Saturday.

The celebration was limited this year due to a hectic schedule, but I did get flowers delivered to my door by some handsome guy (yes, that was Seth) and we enjoyed dinner with our good friends Stew and Jen, who were married on this same day. Sticking with tradition, we went to Market Street Grill to enjoy some yummy seafood.

It is hard to believe we have been married so long. It amazes me how much more I love him every day. I sure picked a good one!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’ve had a busy month. To avoid many different holiday posts I decided to combine them into a few posts. It began with a visit to Temple Square in Salt Lake to view the beautiful temple and lights. Mom, dad, Abby, Matt, Porter and Tyler all joined us. We started at the Church History Museum where Grandma Jan volunteers and she put on “Mr. Kruger’s Christmas.” After the movie we then walked around Temple Square. It was a beautiful night with no snow on the ground (kind of weird actually). We brought hot chocolate and candy canes for treats afterward. It was really fun!

All the crew

Sweet little Ellie

Claire and Meg enjoying their hot chocolate.

A few days later we went to Thanksgiving Point and looked at the holiday decorations and lights. Every year grandma and grandpa load up all the grandkids and we drive through. With the rapid growth of the all the kiddos we had to upgrade to a trailer this year. Everyone loaded in the trailer and grandma pulled us through all the lights. We attempted to sing Christmas carols and jingle our bells as we went.

Next, came Jacob’s guitar recital. We intended to post video of it as well as Claire’s Christmas program but I am not sure when Seth will get around to it since it is on his Iphone. We also we fortunate enough (thanks to my Mom) to get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert with David Archuleta. We took Jake and Meg and they had a blast. It was really good!

Jacob at his Christmas recital

Claire’s preschool Christmas program (she was a shepherd)

Santa came to visit her class too!

Our seats weren’t up front by any means but we still had a great time! David Archuleta was super good.

Jake and Meg waiting for the concert to start.

I so love this time of year! I cherish the time we get to spend together with our family enjoying the special spirit of Christmas.

The whole month of December is booked full of traditions, class programs, and other fun holiday activities. Here are just a few of the things we have been up to lately.

We decorated our first gingerbread house. Yes, I did say first. The kids do it in school all the time so I never felt the need, but this time they begged so I picked up a kit from Costco. They loved it! Well, not Megan, because she is such a perfectionist and she couldn’t deal with all the kids pitching in and making a mess of things. I told her that is what it is supposed to look like – a mess! Of course that didn’t make her feel any better so I gave her the backside of the house to do all by herself. That seemed to help.

Then on Wednesday Katelyn performed in a Gingerbread play with her class. It was super cute! The class worked really hard memorizing their parts and it turned out perfect. Surprisingly Katelyn got really nervous, but ended up doing great anyway. What a cute gingerbread girl!

Katelyn and her “cousin” Kate both got to perform in the play together!

Lastly, we did our annual Christmas cookie decorating yesterday. The kids look forward to it almost as much as Christmas itself! They had a great time and are still on a sugar high nearly a day later.

In the short time before Christmas we will be visiting the lights at temple square, a live nativity, class parties, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert (with David Archuleta), Seth and my 12 year anniversary, my 34th birthday and then Christmas. Holy moly, we will be busy. Hopefully I will get time to post about some of the events before Christmas arrives!

Our sweet baby girl turned one this week. It is truly amazing how fast time creeps up on me. She has brought such a tender joy to our family. She is reserved, sweet, cute, and truly a fantastic baby.

We had made it a goal to have her walking by her 1st birthday but it didn’t quite happen. She is getting close but isn’t quite there yet. She has a mouthful of teeth and loves being mobile and finding her way into off-limits territory. She is a big-time “daddy’s girl” and squeals with delight anytime he comes into the room. She is well loved in this household with six siblings and two parents that adore her. Happy birthday baby girl!

The kids wanted to have a party for her (mostly for them of course) so we spent a few hours eating dinner and playing at Pirate’s Island. It was surprisingly fun and the kids are already begging to go back. Later that evening we came back home for cupcakes. Usually my kiddos make a hug mess of themselves eating their first cake, but Ellie has lived up to her reputation and ate her cupcake quite daintily. When she was all done I barely had to wipe her face!

Ellie’s new purse

Ellie on her new ride-on

Manina could be taking this blogging thing far too seriously. I swore I would never pay for personalized license plates, but apparently she doesn’t have the same reservations. Has she gone too far this time?

Holidays are good— paid days off, time spent with family, barbecues, parades, gifts, fireworks — what’s not to love?

However, November holidays are my favorites because they are the last remaining holdouts from the onslaught of commercialization. They remain a little deeper than the others. Unfortunately, even Christmas and Easter, the holiest of holidays, are too easily commercialized and their true meanings forgotten. But, that mindset hasn’t reached November yet.

Today is Veterans Day, a day to celebrate peace by thanking those who served our country. In our family, that is special. Grandpa Mike and Grandpa Gary both served in Vietnam, and are full-on, certified heroes, probably because they’d be the first ones to decline such praise. Uncle Matt fought in Iraq, completing several tours of duty. Uncle Joe also served in the military. Thank you all for your service.

Thanksgiving Day is coming up in two weeks. Another great holiday for us to remember the blessings we have been given and offer our thanks. November holidays are great.