Santa's dollhouse (sorry I turned the camera)

A Little knitting fun

 The Johnson women tried their hand at knitting this past weekend.  Well it was Jill and I learning from a great teacher.  It is complicated know doubt but definitely addicting too.  Tanner wanted in on it too.

 Grammie was very generous in letting Tanner hold hers.  Maybe because it doesn't take her 30 minutes to do 3 rows.  More like 7 minutes.

A family breakfast filled with lots of memories for Jay.  He remembers being at this restaurant as a child sitting in this exact booth, and drinking hot chocolate in the same mugs.  

Gingerbread house

 One fun thing this christmas is our Advent calendar.  Tanner hoped every day it would say gingerbread house because she could see the box up on the shelf.  Finally day 6 arrived and it was gingerbread day.

As fun as it is to do this with Tanner I will have to say that it is still mommy doing it and tanner eatting it.  Maybe next year she will get into actually building it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 Well it is that time of year...  Hallmark movies, peppermint everything,  decorations and baking, baking baking.  Every year I get more and more into christmas and I have noticed that it has amplified even more with kids.  I love seeing it through their eyes.  To Jett's curiosity to Tanner rediscovering everything but this year she said "remember last year..."  The memory making has begun and I am so excited.  One thing that is Tanner's favorite this year is the Advent House, in which she gets to open a door everyday with a special message for her.  Most of the time it is an activity but it is fun to see her ask first thing when she wakes up in the morning. Here is Jett helping daddy with the christmas tree lights, do you see him pointing to them.   He points to everything right now at 15 months and is just stabilizing his walking.

Mommy wrapped him in some lights because that's what every boy should do right?  I just finished a movie called the Heart of Christmas that aired on GMC and had songs from Matthew West.  I cried through the WHOLE thing and it was such a good reminder of how blessed we are with healthy kids and to cherish EVERY moment with them because we aren't guaranteed tomorrow and that life here just makes us yearn for our eternal home in heaven where there is no sickness, pain, and heartache.  In the midst of a hard day or week for that matter with the kids I felt blessed that I get to have those hard teachable moments with my kids and that I can kiss their cheeks and laugh and play.  Thank you Lord for speaking to me even through a silly christmas movie.  

We love because God first loved us- 1 John 4:19  I really want to show GOd's love this season and through the next year.

 I love Tanner's expression right here.  Jay and I sit and are in awe about how much she is growing and understanding and really is so fun.  Her questions and comments are just perfect.

 Jett sits in awe as the tree is placed and decorated.  He loved the bulbs!!

 A fun tradition is having Jay's sister Jenny here helping us.  It just wouldn't seem like christmas without her.  She gets us started on the baking, decorating and holiday joy.  Thank you Jenny for coming up, it is such a blessing to all of us.

 You can just see him wanting to get into that box and help.  Amazingly enough he hasn't touched the tree since it has gone up.  I thought for sure I would end up with a gate up around it but so far so good.

 A finished tree picture.  Next year I know I can go at least two feet taller.

Here is Jett with the christmas tree bulbs, which he said ball and proceeded to roll them down the hallway.  I love it!!  we only broke one and it wasn't even his fault.  THere will be more posts soon as the festivities in the Johnson house have just begun.  Stay tuned...

First snow

 This weekend we got our first snow and so it was Jett's turn to get all bundled up in snow gear.  Whew, it is a lot of work getting two kids and myself all bundled up to go outside for 15 minutes.  I think I have my work cut out for me this winter.  But here is our cutie loving being outside.

 Mom and dad had to work out in our shed organizing and putting stuff in for winter.  The kids we all to happy to play, well at least for a few minutes.  Jett did not like when his hands got cold.

 Here's our sad face because his hands were getting cold.  Look at his cute boots, they are sooo little.  His outfit is the results of much help.  Got the bibs and hat from people to borrow this winter, boots from a free mail room drop off, coat bought last year in an after thanksgiving sell.  Not to bad if I do say so myself.

 Tanner could not wait to build snowmen.  So here we are.  The best was watching Jett and daddy in the window watching us girls do the hard, cold labor.  It was fun though.  We built mommy, daddy and Tanner but where's Jett.

 Oh here's baby Jett.  The nice thing was the snow just rolled right into balls like in the movies.  It was fabulous.

 Finally Jett was not happy inside and wanted out to be apart of the action.

 This is Tanner's first tea party of her own with all her guests and I had to take a picture.  She is working on telling them to stick out their pinky.  Yes we have Yoda, Cabbage patch and Hugo the Little Suzie Zoo bear.   We accept all animals, aliens and humans alike in this family.

Here's that pinky, she is doing a great job and it was soooo  cute to watch her.  We had shape cookies, cups, table cloths and silverware.  Now as soon as Jett was released from the bath the set up didn't last long but it sure was cute.

Halloween 2011

 Here's our little "YODA".  We never got a great picture of him or one with Tanner but he was very happy in his costume and loved crawling around the dining hall.  No candy for him this year but I don't think he minds.  He just loved playing with all the candy in the wrappers.

 May the force be with you!

 These two were great.  Now Tanner is "belle" but next to Pete she looks like a saloon girl.  Pete was all smiles this year and happy to take picture after picture.

 Uncle Cliff telling the kiddos to kiss.  Pete was happy to comply.   These two are either going to find it cute when they are older or hate us for these.

 Bam-bam getting advice from Yoda.

The cape was really big but the head piece was perfect.

 Here is the Hume clan.  Check out Pete with his arm around Tanner in the center.  You will also see Titus in the pumpkin.  Yoda was not having picture time.  He just wanted to crawl

 Truly daddy's princess.  The dress was a little big and she stumbled over it most of the night but she was super cute.

This was our neighbor boy Hudson who LOVES tractors.  And the person that drives the tractor around our house the most is Bob Phillips so Hudson wanted to be his hero Bob Phillips.  I would say that Amy did a pretty good job.

We had fun this year and hopefully next year we will remember to take a family picture.

First Day of Preschool

Found this picture of Jett and remembered I had one similar of Tanner and everyone loves a good rice picture so we had to put it up.

 Here's our little preschooler.  Tanner was sooo excited and so were mommy and daddy.

 Daddy and his little girl.

 Trying out a few poses but at least you can see her outfit.

 Mommy pose with me.

It's hard to believe she is already in preschool.  Our little girl is growing up sooo fast and she is doing fantastic in preschool.  

A few new videos

Jett finding anything and everything to help him walk.

COUNTRY FAIR

 This year we were really excited for the country fair.  Tanner couldn't stop talking about it since she saw them setting up the tents the day before.  I was excited because this year I wasn't having a baby.   I realized that this was the first year Tanner would really understand and like it because we missed it last year due to Jett being born.  Now we just throw a fair on his birthday, what a lucky boy.  We got up really early and got dressed so that we could be there by 8:00am for the pancake breakfast and fresh cinnamon rolls.   Here is us all bundled up ready to walk down.

 This year was extra fun because the whole Johnson clan was up for it.  Here we all eating our fabulous cinnamon rolls.

 Jett was so excited for the party.

 Here is Jenny and Lucy.  She had the most fabulous flowers for her hat.

 Tanner playing her first carnival game.  She fished for some keychains and fake vampire teeth.

 Tanner and Micah ran from booth to booth just waiting for the next adventure.  It was really cool.

 The kids also decided they wanted to get their face painted.  I did not think Tanner would go for it but she picked out this really big butterfly design that covered her whole face.  Luckily I talked her down to half a face.  She sat SOOOO still too which was amazing.

 Stephanie (the painter) and Tanner showing off their butterflies.  We even made it threw nap time with it so she could where it in the evening.

 Fire truck ride with Grammie and Grandpa.

Old buddies Preston and Jay.  This day was really fun and I would say that the day belonged to Tanner she partied hard all day and into the evening concert.  She talked about it for the next day and I think it is safe to say she will look forward to next year too.