Christmas

Christmas gets more and more exciting as the kids get older and more interested in it all.  From Katelyn's version of "Away in a Manger" to insisting that we hold hands around the Christmas tree at least once a day singing Ahoo Doray (that song the Who's sing in The Grinch)...it was all so fun!

Katelyn and Luke ready to go see Santa! Katelyn was excited to tell Santa that she wanted "presents" for Christmas...

...it didn't quite go as planned.

Watching Christmas movies together (in the laundry basket, of course)

Luke, Katelyn, and Sydney ready to go on a wagon ride around Grammie's neighborhood to see all the Christmas lights.

Enjoying some hot chocolate on the ride.

Christmas Eve Service

Making cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve

Everyone got new PJs

Grammie too! When trying to get a group shot, the camera kept taking pictures, so we started being silly.

Katelyn loves to put Tucker to bed...she makes sure he is very warm.

Christmas morning: pure excitement!!

Testing out the new scooter!

 Snowman pancakes!! The "snow" was the best part.

 The day after Christmas we headed out to Henderson to see Nana, Papa, Kiki, Emily, and Charlie.  We had a great time and the kids loved being together.

The girls in their Christmas PJs

The gang

Three generations of Johnson boys!

We spent New Years at a friend's house and thought we would have to come home around 9ish due to melt-downs, but we were totally shocked, the kids held out strong all the way until midnight! They played, ate, and at midnight Katelyn had her first taste of cotton candy and sparkling cider (Luke too, he hated it!)

And our New Year's Day tradition: donuts and the Rose Parade! 

Happy New Year everyone!!

The Past Few Weeks...

My cousin Corrin made all the cousin kiddos these adorable pjs for Christmas and gave them to us at Thanksgiving.  Even the dolls had matching pjs!

Katelyn, Baylah, Asher, Luke, Jacob, Zoe, Logan

Steve and I headed up to San Francisco for his long anticipated marathon.  It was also his birthday weekend, so we were excited to get away for a few days and celebrate.  The kids were also excited to spend time with Papa and Nana.  

It was raining most of the time and at one point we thought the marathon might get cancelled.  But it didn't and all those poor runners sloshed through 26 miles of mud and water puddles!  I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay the whole time as there was hardly any shelter at the spectating points, but I was lucky to find a super nice group of people who had claimed one of the few tents that were up and pretty much sat there the whole time with them!  I got to cheer him on at 4 miles, 12 miles, 20 miles, then the finish.

This is at 8am that morning, waiting for the race to start.  The only places to escape the rain were the outhouses and a few school busses that drove people in.

Here he is at 20 miles!  Still smiling, what a trooper!

FINISHED!!  I'm so proud of him...he was very dedicated to training and preparing for the race, and despite the not-so-perfect weather conditions, he did an amazing job!

Both of us have thrown away the shoes we wore that day.  They were thrashed!

Paul and Brooke were there for the finish!  We also got to hang out in SanFran for the rest of the weekend with them.  Such a blast!

We sure did miss our sweet little ones, though.  When we got back we took them out to pick a Christmas tree.  They were pretty excited.

After Luke went to sleep, Katelyn had so much fun sorting through all the ornaments and hanging them on the tree.  Then after she went to bed, I had to move them all up to the top so Luke couldn't reach them when he woke up.  

We've also been having fun with all the recent rain.  They love getting all waterproofed and playing around in it.  Luke doesn't even mind that he's running around in a trash bag.  

And Luke's new favorite task (other than feeding Tucker) is "brushing his teeth".  He will stand there for 15 minutes straight just wetting his toothbrush and sucking the water off.  

Katelyn's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe my little girl is 3 already!  The time is going by way too fast.  She is sweet, spunky, and quite the crack-up these days!  I love her so much and despite some testy 3-year-old attitude moments, just wish the time would stop right here and she would not get a single day older!

To celebrate her birthday we had a Halloween/Costume party.  She had a blast!

She was going to be Jessie from Toy Story and decided the night before her party that she did not like the costume (she said the collar was itchy and the boots were tight)...that's what I get for attempting to actually make her costume this year!  She has been very into Cinderella lately so luckily we had a Cinderella dress she uses for dress-up.

The cute pumpkin cake!

Yummy treats!

The Preece fam came down for the weekend, we had so much fun with them!

Grammie got Katelyn a "castle" for her birthday.  She loves it, especially the telescope look-out on the top.  The first night we got it, it was dark by the time we finished assembling it and she had so much fun looking at the moon! (Luke loves it too...score!)

Having fun with the sand table.  Luke was still Woody since he has not yet developed that 3-year-old opinionated-ness yet! I better enjoy it while it lasts :)

Enjoying pizza

Luke looooves pizza!

Cousin Matthew giving wagon rides!

We decorated pumpkins with stickers, pom-poms, and other fun stuff.  I forgot to get a picture of everyone's finished product but they were super funny!

The kiddos in their costumes (and Luke still hangin on to that pizza)!

College Girls Weekend!!

This past weekend was a CalPoly girls getaway to Avila Beach!  I am so blessed to have these lifelong friends.  We had a fun weekend catching up, laughing, and remembering old times together.  

My trip started off great with a beautiful drive and great music!

Tri-tip sandwiches at Firestones!!!

Bali's...a trip to SLO just isn't complete without it.

We watched a beautiful sunset from the pier.

Cheers to girls night out!!

I love these girls!!!