MOA 2011 with the kiddos!

We took the kids to the Mall of America yesterday to go on a ton of rides at the amusement park. It was a total blast! Here are some pictures from our fun day!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a wonderful year, and a peaceful Christmas with family and friends! We enjoyed our time very much, and the kids had a blast this year. Here are a few pictures from Christmas eve & day.

(Above) Kids in front of the Christmas tree after Church on Christmas Eve. They were really excited to open up gifts from us and each other! Myles was also excited to eat the crab that Erik was cooking!

Above is the Christmas tree after Santa quietly put his gifts under it at 4:00 am. Unfortunately he was really tired at that time and forgot to put one under there. It was discovered by Daddy later (after we opened everything), and then put under the tree. We tried to play it off like "wow, we forgot one!!". Not sure if it worked....

Holly opening a Santa gift. She got a new helmet and a barbie scooter with light up wheels. She was very excited about it!

Myles is about to open his first Santa gift. He knows what it is by the shape, and was thrilled to finally have his Beyblade stadium!

On Christmas morning we go over to my parents house in pj's to open gifts. Later in the day we finally get dressed before we eat. Holly is playing with her baby cousin, Annika, and singing to her. It is soooo cute!

To keep or not to keep...

So that is the question I pose today. Should I try to revive this blog and keep it, or let it pass quietly in the night and never post again? FB has taken over and how I share pictures with family & friends. But, it saddens me to think about the "death" of this lovely blog.

So - what do you think I should do? Please leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Thanks!
Andrea

Buffalo Ridge family gathering

Last weekend the extended Bietz family gathered in South Dakota for some fun! It was great to see all that could attend. The weather on Thursday ended up being wonderful!! Myles enjoyed fishing, both kids loved throwing rocks into the stream & lake, and in general they enjoyed being outside. I didn't take a ton of pictures, which I intend to learn from that and take a ton next year!


Andrea

Andrea & Erik - it was cold at first on Thursday, but then it warmed up later!

Holly with her 2nd cousin - they played most of the time together. So cute!

There was a little stream that the kid threw rocks in and walked around in. Here is Myles with Erica and Pete searching for the perfect rock for skipping in the water.

My cousin Cindy with her grandson - soooooo cute!!!

The kids were tired on Thursday evening - Holly even fell asleep at dinner! I was shocked!

Cutie Myles!

Myles standing on a rock.

What a good looking hubby!

Holly was obsessed with finding caterpillars - she's holding one on her finger in this picture. At one time she had 10 of them collected, and they were all named Sparkle. Funny little girl!

Look at my Wolf!

Last weekend Myles went to cub scout camp with Erik. He had a total blast! On Saturday night families could come for the graduation ceremony and dinner. Myles graduated from a Tiger cub to a Wolf cub. He seemed pretty proud of himself!

I love you Myles - you're my little Wolf!
Mommy

My little gymnist!

Holly had her gymnastic show last Sunday. It was super cute!!! She showed off her "skills" and was rewarded with a trophy (which she loves so much she slept with it on Sunday night!!!). We'll take the summer off from gymnastics, but I'm sure we'll be back at it this fall!

Thanks to my family for coming to the show and the lunch after! It was great to see you!
Andrea

Here she is proudly holding her trophy after the show. I used my iPhone app to make the black & white pic but added back the color into her leotard. Cute!

Small Spaces

This weekend Holly was taking a nice little nap, when I needed to wake her up so she didn't sleep to long. I went into her room and she was not in her bed.... but before the panic set in I figured I better search around a little bit. After a moment, I thought of checking between her bed and the wall - sure enough! There she was, sleeping like a little Angel in a very small space on the floor! It was so funny and cute that I dashed out to grab my camera to try to get a picture of her sleeping. She woke up, but I snapped a picture anyway. Holly told me that it was more comfortable to sleep there than in her new bed. Luckily she hasn't done it since this weekend, so hopefully it was just a crazy little idea that she had one time. :)

Happy Easter from Team Johnson!

Easter Sunday started EARLY at the Johnson house! Myles woke up at about 4:10 am, and never went back to sleep. He got up 2 other times within the next 60 minutes, which made it really really hard for the Easter bunny to hide the eggs. :) At 6:00 am Myles got up, woke his sister up, "woke" us up, and we all went out to see the Easter baskets and hidden eggs around the house. The kids had a good time looking through the goodies in their baskets, and raced around finding eggs. We had to keep slowing them down and reminding them that it wasn't a race or a competition. This was the first year that the bunny also hid eggs in the basement, so they were thrilled to discover that! There were tons of eggs all around.

Next was breakfast & then getting ready for church. Holly was upset about putting on her fancy dress, so I flat out bribed her with candy. It worked! Both kids got ready and looked so wonderful! They packed a bag of books & activities to keep them occupied in church. The service was really long, and we had to keep hushing the kids. They got bored. Someone in church fainted into the pew. But the music was lovely and the message was good.

Next we were off to my parent's house for a yummy Easter meal & hanging out. It was great to spend the day there with them. Myles played with the neighbor kids while Holly napped. In the evening we headed home to hang out and do not much of anything. Great way to end the Easter holiday!

Happy Easter everyone!
Andrea

Here are the baskets the bunny left for the kids. Myles wrote a note for the bunny that said "Easter bunny - please don't dilly dally!" So cute!

Here they are in the morning digging in the baskets!

Look at all the eggs that they found! This is the most that the bunny has ever hidden at our house!

Cute picture of the kids all dressed up - and more iPhone app editing! :)

Don't they look adorable???

Coloring Easter Eggs

Saturday evening Team Johnson dyed Easter eggs - super fun!! The kids had a blast coloring the eggs first with crayons, and then picking what dye color to make the eggs. I think we ended up coloring 22 eggs in total. It was a fun activity for the family, and got us excited for the Easter bunny to come in the night!

Myles making a special egg!

Cutie Holly with her egg - she didn't really make a design, but rather just "scribbled" all over the eggs before putting them in the dye.

Here is our finished product!

Date Night

On Friday afternoon, Erik and I took a half day off from work and headed down to Stillwater together for a fun date night. We ate a nice light lunch, napped, window shopped, ate a fantastic dinner at Luna Rosa (highly recommend this place to everyone!!!), and then listened to some live music at our hotel bar. It was a really nice date night!! In the morning, we got up for breakfast and then headed back home to the kiddos. What a perfect date in Stillwater! :)
Andrea

I was playing around with the iPhone app again and adjusted this picture. We are sitting at a small table here listening to the live music at the end of the evening.

Erik took this picture of me and I changed it with the iPhone app.

Here is the live music we were listening to. They were pretty good!