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Sunday, December 30, 2012

12.30.12 - Our Christmas and a New Years Blessing

At our annual Christmas Party {hosted by wonderful friends!} Don't you love our Christmas outfits! Ha!
Thank you for everyone who posted with well wishes and congratulations for our new little Johnson!  We are beyond excited and feeling so very blessed for Liam to soon have a little brother or sister!  I am about 12 weeks along now, and for the most part feeling very good =)  Now, on to our Christmas festivities!

We had a wonderful Christmas - actually about 3 of them! LOL.  First, we spent Christmas Eve at my parents house for a relaxing day of eating and hanging out.  Liam did get to open a few special gifts that day, one of them being a cool remote-control robot from his Gigi that we all had a blast with!  It shoots little foam "washers" out of it's mouth, dances, and walks - Liam loved it!
Opening his first gift!

Robot!  Trying to figure this guy out - I wish I had more pictures, but I started videoing it instead
 We came home Christmas Eve after a fabulous dinner (that I cannot take any credit for, thank you Aunt Connie and Mom and Dad!), and put out some milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  This is the first year Liam actually understands who Santa is but also the real reason we celebrate, Jesus' birth.  It was so fun to do traditions with him and they really be for his enjoyment and memories!

Munching on some cereal - waiting for mom to take pictures!  And, Roxy is hungry too =)

"Cheeese" face!
Liam was up the next morning at his usual time, and I made him come and sit in our bed while I went and turned all the lights on, plugged the tree in and got the video recorder (a.k.a my phone) ready to record the morning.  And now I realize I don't have any pictures of Liam opening his Santa gift!  Only video =(  Oh well.  It's always been a tradition in my family that the parents get up and go "downstairs" to put on the coffee, turn the tree lights on and get ready for the kids to come down, while the kids stay upstairs until they are told to come down.  As a child, this just added to the excitement for us (and was very hard to wait!), so I hope to continue that.

We chose to just do two gifts this year, Santa brought his and we gave Liam one present from us (and then his stocking of course, but that doesn't count, right??).  Liam received his "Octonaut Play Set" from Santa and we got him a "Gup-A" to match.  Octonauts is a show they play on DisneyJr and is actually a British cartoon...SO, let's just say Santa had to order his gifts from overseas this year and have them shipped! LOL.  But it was well worth the smiles and fun he has had playing with his favorite Octonauts!


Octonauts Gup-A and holding the coveted Octonaut Alert button!

Daddy putting together the Octonaut Play Set

Cool Star Wars figurines from cousin Lukas!

   
Enjoying his presents!





Christmas day we packed up mid-morning and headed up north (well, 30 minutes north! ha!) to visit Dustin's sister and her family.  Liam just loves playing with his cousins and the adults enjoyed playing with some of the toys and enjoying yummy food all day!  We were anticipating some snow that day and I'm glad I packed a spare bag, because it ended up snowing about 4 inches and the drive home was pretty much ruled out by late afternoon.  It was so much fun to see all that snow here in Texas, a white Christmas doesn't happen very often here!

Cousins!
 

Opening his Color Wonder set and Hot Wheels Mega Loop Mayhem!

Putting together the "Mayhem" ha!  It was very cool! 

Starting to snow!

A couple hours later!

Snowball fight! We decided it'd be best to go out in the back driveway so the wind wasn't so bad.  It was VERY windy still, and still snowing wet, thick snow.  We were all soaked in the 10 minutes we were out!

COLD!

Love this picture - too cute!

Mommy snuck out of the garage to take a quick pic!  Too cold for me out there =)

And finally yesterday, we had our 3rd Christmas back at my parents house with my brother and his family from Florida.  It was so much fun with my nephews and Liam - they always have so much fun together!  And Liam received a lot of great gifts, (SO very blessed this Christmas, is all I can say!).  He loved all of them, and his nephew's gifts too lol!

 
Great stocking gift - sippy cup with his name on it!  Such a great idea!

Another "cheese" face!  And apologies for the blurry iPhone pics!


This was one of Liam's favorite gifts {and a sweet memory for us too!}  When we visited them back in November, my sister in law read this book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to the boys and Liam just loved it.  So she got him his own copy - too sweet!

Aunt Heather reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to Liam per his request - Liam's face is precious - He just loved it!

Hess Helicopter - very cool gift! 

And a big thank you to my brother an sister in law for coordinating the amazing personalized gifts this year for my parents and Gigi.  When I went to visit, she set up a photo session for the boys so we could give my parents a good picture of all three of them together and ordered Gigi a blanket with the picture.  Very thoughtful!

Mimi and Bawbaw opening their gift from us - a sweet picture of all 3 grandsons together!


The boys having car races down the hall!  Crashing into each other and giggling the evening away!  This is their favorite activity at Mimi and Bawbaw's house!

And the annual Christmas PJ's picture!  Cutie pies!

After the whirlwind of Christmases is finally to an end, I look back and just am in awe at how truly blessed we are...I know I keep saying it, but it's never been more true.  The Lord had just been 100% faithful, in His provision, direction, guidance and love for our family.  2012 was a great year for us, filled with changes, but we were always given a peace and purpose for the path we traveled.  As 2013 holds more unknowns and new paths to travel, we are confident in this:

"The LORD is our shepherd, we shall not be in want. 
He makes us lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside quiet waters, 
he restores our souls. He guides us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 
Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
We will fear no evil, for you are with us; 
your rod and your staff, they comfort us. 
You prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. 
You anoint our head with oil; our cup overflows
Surely goodness and love will follow us all the days of our life
and we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."
Psalm 23

May goodness and love follow you for your 2013 and beyond - and may your cup runneth over!!  Blessings to all our sweet friends and family for a wonderful New Year!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!!...with a surprise!



Merry Christmas!!  We are BLESSED!!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Better late than never...

{To preface, I actually wrote this blog back on Dec. 6!...just haven't had time to upload the pictures, but I figure I need to get it up before Christmas! Better late than never....haha}
First cold day here in December...took a walk in the park up to the tower!

Liam's first Christmas "play"! He's the 5th one from the right =)

Walkin back to class after a great performance!

Making Christmas cookies! {tonight! - they were YUMMY!}
 We have some exciting things going on around here lately, preparing for Christmas, birthdays, Christmas parties and family coming in town.  I thought I'd share some of our Christmas decorations, since I've taken to the less-is-more approach for decking our "much-smaller-than-last-years" space!  I've just had to be a bit more creative so that it doesn't look cluttered, but still festive (I hope!)  And, since we won't be having to many holiday guests at our place this year, someone needs to see my creativity, right?? Haha

We pulled out the larger tree from our porch tree set to use as our actual Christmas tree, for one, I was all about not having to decorate a 7 footer this year.  I just added a few of our regular ornaments on it, and I think it turned out simple, yet Christmasy still =)



I also have a nice area on our bar counter that has made for a nice spot to put seasonal decorations.  I did a gathering of pumpkins and squash here for fall, and decided to display my white feather tree while also using it to hold Christmas cards.  It is probably one of my most favorite things about Christmas.  And the JOY sign is a re-mix from last year and fit perfectly on our kitchen cabinets!


Also in our kitchen, is a project I finally completed (held over from last year!) for an advent-like calendar.  I used mini gift bags and put numbers on them for each day in December.  Inside each bag, I have a small piece of candy and a bible verse.  Some of the bags also have either a small toy, cookie cutter for making cookies day or a family questionnaire as a fun activity to do that day.  This has been really fun for Liam - and helps him to know when Christmas is, because, well he is in the QUESTION stage right now =) ("When the bags are all gone, is it Christmas??"....Ah, yes!)  Plus, it also gets us in the bible each day, which is the best part if you ask me (I'm considering doing a 365 day bag project just for this sole purpose for myself! Ha!).  Each morning we open the bag.  I made a budget of $10 to spend on "treats" for the bags, as I didn't want it to turn into a gift-a-day type of thing.  When Liam gets older, I would like to incorporate some giving activities for us to do.



And my most favorite Christmas printable from this shop is on display on our end table.   I just love the message and it being central to our home, daily visible for all to see.



I am still loving our new space (I guess not too new anymore!).  Although I do really, really miss our old house at times, I know God had better things for us here.  We have been truly blessed by letting him guide our decision on our home.  Home really is where your heart is...if you'll let it be =)

** There is a chance of a white Christmas here in Texas this year!!  This only happens once in a blue moon, so I am praying it happens this year - I can't wait for Liam to get a chance to play in it!**

Thursday, December 6, 2012

12.6.12 - Our Thanksgiving

Ok, ok I know I am REALLY behind on blogging...I thought I'd better post our Thanksgiving holiday before Christmas time arrives!!

We went down to San Antonio to see Dustin's family for Thanksgiving and like always, we had a wonderful time, eating a ton and spending lots of family time together!  Scrapbook post - pictures of our family! 

Great Grandkids

Great grandkids, with the great grandma!
Grandkids!

Our little family

Liam with his Papa Johnson and Big Ma

3 generations of Johnsons

Liam and his Papa

Playing some baseball...
He actually made some hits!

Playing some songs for us!

Momma and Liam

That smile cracks me up!

Dustin, Big Ma and Liam

Other great grandma, Nanny S and us

Nanny S and the boys