Jumping Johnsons!

Santa brought Myles something called a Jump-o-Lene. I'm sure that Santa thought this would be a great way to have the kids get their energy out while being cooped up inside the house during the cold winter months. Great idea Santa - you are one smart cookie!

So this evening I set this little gem of a gift up and let the kids jump to their heart's content! They of course decided to get the beach balls and toss them at their Dad (who was all to happy to toss them back at them!).

Cross your fingers that this will be hours of fun every week and helps to tire them out!

Andrea

The video is a little dark, but still cute! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Billy!!!

Hey Billy,
Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday!!!!! How's it feel to be 21? Enjoy the celebration! Miss ya and hope you come visit us again soon!

Love,
Erik & Andrea

Christmas Princess

I just wanted to add one more pic from Christmas day. This is Holly in her new Fairy dress, Crown, and Earings. How adorable is that?

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I'm already looking forward to Christmas 2010! Maybe I should just leave up all the decorations and save myself the time!

AJ

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Well, this wonderful day has come and gone all to quickly. Now the next one is 365 days away! I better go shopping tomorrow morning! :) So, let me tell you about the day!

The alarm went off at 4 am, so that gifts could go under the tree. That was early. Then at 6 am, Santa rang his jingle bells by the kid's rooms. Nothing. So he rang the bells again. Nothing. After a third time Holly started to call out "Mama, where are you?". Santa rang the bells a total of 6 times before I finally got up and went into Myles's room. I told him that I heard Santa's bells and that he could get up. Myles said he heard them to. I asked why he didn't get up, and he said that he thought Holly was playing with the tree ornaments and didn't want to get up until it was time. How cute is that?

The kids were amazed by all the gifts under the tree and loved their stocking stuffers. They did a good job opening gifts one by one. Then played with them for the next couple hours, before I packed up the family to head over to my parents house.

Santa brought Myles a real snow board this year. He was thrilled, and so is Dad who is already talking about when he can take Myles snow boarding.

Holly enjoyed opening her Santa gifts. She ooo'd and ahhh'd and squealed with each one.

Do you notice a wardrobe change with Holly? The first gift she opened up was one that had a Little Mermaid dress in it. She insisted on wearing it for the next 2 hours. Cute!

Myles with his last gift at the Johnson house. Hope he liked them all!

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So after we were all set to go, we loaded up the kids into the car, turned on the Christmas music, and headed out into the newly fallen snow to make the 10 mile trek over to my parents to spend the day with them and my siblings & siblings-in-laws. While I was driving along, I hit a patch of ice and plowed the car right into the ditch along the freeway (and facing the wrong way I might add!). Oh joy! Just how every Christmas morning should go! Well, 2 very nice guys in 2 trucks pulled over to help us out. After about 10 minutes of effort, we got the car back onto the highway and facing the correct way! A heart felt THANK YOU to the guys who helped us! Erik then took over the driving and got us safely to my parents.

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We spent the entire day over there, opening gifts, eating yummy unhealthy food, and spending quality time with the family. It was a wonderful day, and the kids really were pretty good (minus a few little issues throughout the day!).

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Merry Christmas everyone! It's almost time for bed this evening, and I can't wait! Full night's sleep, here I come!

Love, Andrea

Christmas Eve 2009

Well, the kids are all in bed after a very successful Christmas evening! Let me tell you about it:

It all started with early nap time (yeah!). Then I woke Holly up a little after 2 pm and we bathed both of the kids so they would look their best. Holly was excited about her dress because I told her it was a princess dress. It was cute! All of Team Johnson got dressed up and headed out early to church. Thank goodness since it was PACKED! The kids did very well during the long church service - I'm so proud of them! We then came home and I snapped the picture below before we started our evening holiday routine.

My kids looked so cute tonight! I only got a couple pics by the tree and this one was the best. We then put in a holiday movie (Rudolf the red nosed reindeer) while Erik cooked dinner.

While watching the movie I noticed that the kids looked very tired, but cute. So I snapped a few pictures of them just relaxing with the movie.

Myles hanging out while watching the movie.

I hung out with the kids for a bit as Rudolf the red nosed reindeer is one of my favorites from childhood!

So dinner took a little longer to cook than anticipated, so after the movie we let the kids open up their Christmas gifts. It was fun to watch them! They were old enough this year to understand that you take turns opening them up.

Holly was slow to open her gifts, and a few times I had to help get it going. But she really enjoyed herself!

Myles got some good gifts this year. He is really excited about this Uno game - I promised him that we would play it tomorrow.

Myles was a little faster at opening up his gifts. He was very happy that we let him open them up finally, and actually was really enthusiastic when others opened their gifts. I was pleased to see that!

This year Myles got to go shopping at his school - they had something called Santa's Shop, and he bought gifts for each member of his family. Erik got a little tool set, I got a lovely necklace, and Holly got a stuffed animal (a pony). The total for all 3 gifts was $15. Not to bad! He was soooooooooo excited to see me open up my necklace! I think I'll have to wear it for days on end. :)

So dinner was finally cooked, and it was YUMMY! Erik made these tasty crab legs, along with pasta, and great green beans. Myles liked the crab legs, but Holly refused to try them. What was funny was that she covered her ears when Erik and I were cracking open the legs and said it was too loud. Funny little girl!

Holly was super happy to get this little puppy tree house with a mommy puppy & babies. She had a blast playing with them after dinner.

Erik got Myles a star wars video game thing, and had fun showing Myles how to play it. Holly enjoyed watching as well!

After the video games, Erik had to start to put together the lego set that Myles got. This totally reminded me of last year when he had to put together 2 big sets!

We got these cute reindeer antlers from our daycare lady, so I had the boys put them on for a quick picture before bedtime. Don't they look so cute?

Myles with his antlers on.

For some reason Holly didn't want to wear them the normal way. So she had them on over her eyes. Funny little girl!

After this it was bedtime. The kids actually went to bed pretty easy. They were so good today, and I can't wait to see them open up Santa gifts tomorrow morning! It will be so much fun!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas evening!

Love, Andrea

Christmas Snow

I'm at home today with the kids, and we decided to go outside and play in the freshly fallen snow! It was a ton of fun! I hope we get more snow tonight so that we can have mounds of snow to play in tomorrow on Christmas day!

Merry Christmas! I'll post some more pictures later today as we continue the Holiday fun!
Love, Andrea

Holly had trouble getting up when she fell - the snow was pretty deep in our back yard!

Myles spent the first 5 minutes dusting off all the snow around the edges of the deck.

Yoshi joined in the fun and ran around with us in the yard. I think she enjoyed herself!

Christmas Tree 2009

Here is a pic of our Christmas tree this year. As you can see, there are more orniments at the bottom! I think it is kinda cute, so I decided to leave them there.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Getting our Christmas Tree

After church, Team Johnson went to pick out our Christmas Tree from a local family business. We went there last year, and thought they were really nice. It was cold, so we didn't stay to long. We found what we thought was the best tree and had them load it up in Erik's truck. Next it was off to Maple Grove to pick up a few things from Costco, and have lunch at TGIFridays. It was a good morning together! This evening we plan on decorating the tree together. I'm sure I'll take some pictures of that too. It should be a ton of fun!

Mommy, Holly, and Myles by our chosen family Christmas tree!

Our tree getting a fresh cut.

Myles anticipating the sound of the chain saw cutting the tree!

Holly by "Santa"

Myles by "Santa"

Myles - so excited to be getting our tree!

Holly - thought this tree finding experience was fun!

Gopher's Basketball Game

Early Saturday afternoon we went to the MN Men's Gopher's Basketball game. None of us had ever been to a Gopher's b-ball game, so it was a fun experience together. The kids did fairly well, as long as they were eating! They had a sucker, granola bar, popcorn, 2 Oreo cookies, and apple juice. (I wonder why they didn't eat much supper...) The Gophers won the game by a ton, so it was fun watching them play!

View of the court from our seats.

The kids eating their Sucker while watching the game.

Myles - he was the only one with a Gopher's shirt on. Go team spirit!

Old Friends

On Saturday morning I got together with a group of gals who were doing a cookie exchange. Since I don't/can't bake, I just went for the good conversation! I didn't know everyone, but had a chance to re-connect with some friends from my past. Below are some of the friends I grew up with at Christ Lutheran Church. It was so much fun catching up and talking about the past!

Heidi, Marin, Sara, Andrea, and Keely

Holiday fun with the family

Team Johnson went to the Macy's holiday display again this year. They actually did the exact same one as last year. I think it is the first time they have ever done a repeat. Figures it would be when we start going! But the kids had a blast! They were really good as we went through the displays. The theme was "A day in the life of an Elf". Cute! Once we were done, we went through the line to see Santa. We have discovered that they have the BEST Santa set up! The line moves fast because behind the velvet doors, there are multiple Santa rooms. So an Elf controls the entry, and the kids don't even realize that there are multiple rooms/Santa's. Very slick! Myles asked Santa for a few specific things, and Holly said she wanted Toys. That's easy enough! We then ate in the Skyroom at Macy's. Very yummy!

It was a great family trip!!!
Andrea

Daddy & Myles waiting to go into the holiday display

Holly was pushing the stroller while in line.

Part of the holiday display

The scenes were really amazing! I would recommend going if you can.

Myles was totally blown away by all the letters that are sent to Santa.

The kids with Mrs. Claus

Myles & Holly with Santa

More with Santa

They were really cute on his lap!

Holly waiting to go eat

Here is what you look like if you say cheese with enthusiasm!

Daddy and Myles after we ate in the Skyroom. It was really yummy!

On the way back to our car, we made a pit stop at the Gap - the kids were done and ready to go.... how do I know? Laying on the floor at the store was a good indicator!

Thanksgiving week!

Sorry that it has been so long since I've posted on the blog! What can I say... I've been slacking! :) November was a busy month at work and home seemed to always have something going on. Myles attended his first school friend birthday party - it was cute!

This holiday week has been busy as well. Myles didn't have school on Wednesday, so I decided to have Mommy & Son day. We dropped Holly off at daycare, and then Myles and I spent the whole day together. First we ran to the grocery store, and he helped me get almost all the food we needed to host Thanksgiving at our house. We then headed home so that I could have breakfast and coffee (mmm... yum!). An hour later we took off to go to the Mall of America. Myles loves that place because he loves Lego Land! That is the first place we went when we got there. He brought his wallet, and with a few dollars from me, he was able to buy a little lego set. He was thrilled! We then spent the next several hours walking around the mall. I told Myles he could eat lunch anywhere he wanted. He picked Taco Bell - not what I would have picked!

Thursday morning was house cleaning and cardio time for Erik and I. We had to get ready for the 2 days of feasting! My parents came over in the afternoon, and we served up the traditional thanksgiving meal: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and wine. Yummy! We were stuffed. But did it all over again on Friday. Cardio in the morning, and then over to my Aunt & Uncles for thanksgiving #2! I have to say, the food was better on Friday! And there were added items of yams and nut pudding. I had 2nds of those! My cousin made pie, so I had that to! The kids were good and had fun playing with their 2nd cousins all evening.

Today is Saturday, and Erik took Myles to hang out again with his 2nd cousins. Tradition says the men get together at my cousin's Man Cave (aka: the garage). Holly and I are hanging out at home - to difficult to bring her to the mall with the ladies since she naps at 1:00 pm. Maybe next year!

Well, in any case, hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy the attached little video of Erik goofing around with the kids! I think they are loving every second of it!

Andrea

Trick or Treating 2009

Saturday was Halloween, and it was a blast! First thing in the morning Myles asks "When do we get to go trick or treating?". Well, it was 6:15 am, so he had a long wait till evening! But we kept them busy and soon it was time for friends to come over! We had dinner with our Neighbors Gwen & Justin & their 2 boys Mason & Preston. Next came Cory & Silvia with their daughter Isabella. Finally Aaron & Michelle came over with their 2 kids Olivia & Jonathan. We hit the trick or treating road around 6:15 pm. The kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement, so it was a relief to finally get their energy focused on what they wanted to do the entire day! A few houses down we were joined by neighbors Doug & Beth with their 2 kids Cordrey & Alexis. So we had quite the crew going around the block together! I think it took like 45 minutes to get everyone around the block. But we had a ton of fun! The only bummer thing that happened is that Holly got bit by some dog. Crazy, I know! I guess at one of the houses that the kids went to, there was this little dog. And let's just say that the dog was less than happy to see a group of kids invading his territory. So the dog zeroed in on Holly and bit her leg. Erik was up there and I was down at the end of the driveway with other parents. We kept going to the next house, but Erik was really concerned so he decided to ensure that the dog was up to date on its shots. I think the dog owner was thinking the same thing because when Erik went back they already had the shot records pulled out. Thank goodness that all is well. Holly didn't even complain about it the rest of the night.

Once we reached home, the neighbors left, but some of our friends stayed for a bit to hang out. It was so good to see everyone, and spend Halloween together! Hopefully we can do something like this again next year! (minus the dog biting incident...)

Holly - Pirate, Preston - Spiderman, Myles - Obi Wan, Mason - Clone Trooper

Here are the 2 Star Wars guys - Myles & Mason! They had such a good time trick or treating together!

Holly & Preston did a great job keeping up with the "big kids" as we went around the block.

Hmmm... Can you tell they were done with pictures and ready to get out!

Here are the two Pirates in the group - Holly & Jonathan. How cute are they!!!!

Myles and Preston pause for a picture.

Holly had fun walking around with Alexis - they looked really cute together and I had to laugh as I listened to them talking together.

Here is cutie pie Isabella all warm and cute as a Cow.