Johnson Family Christmas party

This year we had the Johnson Family Christmas party at Chucky Cheese. None of us had ever been before, and let's just say that Abbie was in heaven! She loved trying out all the little rides and games. Sadie had fun tagging along. Then it happened...Chucky Cheese himself came out! And Abbie screamed a blood-curdling scream that was heard throughout the land! Haha. Anyway, she was deathly scared of good ole' Chucky, but we managed to avoid him for the most part and continued to have fun. Her favorite was riding in all the little cars and playing Whac-a-mole. We also had fun climbing around on the playground stuff. I finally convinced her to go up by herself so I didn't have to stuff my adult-sized self into those little tubes. Anyway, it was a lot of fun getting to eat, play, and catch up with family.

Abbie and Sadie going on Safari

Abbie riding with a non-scary Chucky

Playing Whac-a-mole with Dad

Sadie's first horsey ride

Mommy and Abbie exploring the tunnels

Sadie had so much fun, she fell asleep in Grandma's arms

Decorating the Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Lance hauled all our decorations out and we got started making our house look like Christmas. Abbie was so excited to start putting ornaments on the tree. She was an expert! The one branch that she decorated had more ornaments than the rest of the tree put together! I would have left it that way, but unfortunately she decorated a branch that was within reach of the "ornament snatcher" (a.k.a. Sadie). The entire lower portion of our tree is now bare! At least all of our ornaments are shatter-proof! We had lots of fun though. We love Christmas time!

Abbie getting ready to put her ornament on the tree

Silly poses from the gang

Abbie and Sadie mesmerized by all the sparkle and shine

The ornament snatcher in action

Making sure no one saw her mischeivious ways

Abbie's Cardiology Appointment

We only have to take Abbie to cardiology appointments once a year now, so that's really nice. Because we don't go very often, Abbie gets a little nervous since she's not familiar with the people or the procedures. This time around, we tried to prep her with everything that would happen so she wouldn't be too scared. Usually she has to get an echocardiogram (like an unltrasound on your heart) and in the past, she's had to be sedated for those echos since nobody expects a baby or a little toddler to stay still for 45 minutes while some strange person pokes and prods at them. Anyway, this year our cardiologist decided against the echo because he didn't want to sedate Abbie. This was somewhat of a relief for us because Abbie has to get an IV to be sedated and that is just not fun for any of us. Dr. Puchalski thinks that by next year, Abbie will be old enough that she won't have to be sedated, so we'll resume the yearly echos next year. We did have to get an EKG, which was a new experience for us. They put a whole bunch of little sticker things all over your chest, and then they hook wires to each of those stickers. Abbie did SOOO good! This was by far the best she has ever been at the doctor. She shed a few little tears here and there, but she was so good at holding still and staying quiet while Dr. Puchalski listened to her heart. Nothing new to report about the condition of Abbie's heart. There was some leakage of one valve and some narrowing of another valve, but that's pretty much the same as before. Her pacemaker is still working great and has another 6 years of battery life left, so she won't have to get that replaced until she's 8 or 9. We feel so blessed that our little girl is healthy and active and we're so thankful for the great doctors and nurses at Primary Children's.

Being so still while getting hooked up to the EKG machine

Wow that's a lot of wires

Just a comparison of last year's appointment. What a difference a year makes!

November fun

I can't believe how fast November flew by! It was a busy month as usual, but full of a lot of fun stuff. First off, Lance and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! I got to plan it this year and sent him on a fun treasure hunt, and then surprised him with a two-night stay at the Anniversary Inn (big thanks to G & G Johnson for watching the girls!). Man was that a much needed break for us. We had lots of fun relaxing, eating, watching movies, shopping, and actually sleeping through the night for once. I also cut my hair that day without Lance knowing, and when he met me for dinner, he sure was surprised.

Hair before

I didn't ever get a pic specifically of the after, so this is the best you're gonna get.

One of our family nights in November was about being thankful, so of course we had to make thankful turkeys. Abbie is thankful for baby dolls. We had to do some persuading to get her to be thankful for anything else.

Abbie with the turkeys. Dad, Mom, Sadie, Abbie from left to right.

There were a few snowy days in November so Lance and Abbie got suited up and went out to do all the usual snow things. They built snowmen, threw snowballs, made snow angels, did a little sledding, and maybe ate a little bit of snow too.

All dressed up and ready to go

Mr. Snowman

Despite my determination to be better at taking more pictures, I only ended up with a few from Thanksgiving. I've decided that Thanksgiving is just not a picture taking holiday! Haha. Anyway, we started off the holiday weekend with Pie Night at G & G Moss' house. This has become a tradition in the last few years and it enable us to eat even more pie than normal! Then we double dipped for actual Thanksgiving. We started off at G & G Johnson's house in the morning and had an early Thanskgiving lunch. After sufficiently stuffing ourselves there, we proceeded to G & G Moss' house and stuffed ourselves there too. We had a great time eating, playing games, and visiting with family!

Our little family on Thanksgiving

All ready to eat!

Halloween 2011

I know, I know...I'm a month behind. But hey, I'm trying. Anyhoo, here are so pics from our ward Trunk-or-treat and a few from Halloween. I can't believe I never got a good picture of Abbie all decked out with hair and make-up done, dress on, and sparkling with all her jewels. You'll just have to imagine how she actually looked. Not that it lasted that long, but for a few minutes, she was such a darling little Cinderella. We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat the Friday before Halloween and it was great. Abbie wasn't so sure she liked it though when she spotted several kids wearing scary masks. She screamed and cried for the first fifteen minutes and wouldn't even let me put her down. After a little while, she calmed down and we walked around collecting candy, but any time she saw anyone in a mask, it started all over. Oh well, there's always next year.

This is Abbie with hair, make-up, and jewelry. Not a very good shot of the make-up but man those eyelashes are LONG!

Lance and the girls handing out candy in the back of the truck.

The whole fam dressed up

Mommy and her girls

As soon as we got home, Abbie dumped out her stash and both girls dug right in. Sadie got the privelege of eating the suckers that Abbie discarded after a few licks.

By the time Halloween finally rolled around, we were kind of Halloweened out. It was my turn to take Abbie trick-or-treating so we headed out. After ONE house, she asked me to carry her. I turned right around and went to get the stroller. We lasted about 20 minutes and then we decided to head to G & G Johnson's house for some donuts and some more trick-or-treating.

My cute little giraffe on Halloween.

I got lazy on Halloween and didn't do Abbie's hair or makeup, so she looks a little disheveled. They're still cute though.

Pumpkin Carving

No Halloween would be complete without pumpkin carving, so here are some pics.

Abbie really got into it this year and her pumpkin was a combination of pen drawings and little stab marks. Mommy helped her with the face part.

Lance was a real trooper and scooped out the pumpkin guts for all four pumpkins

Sadie was trying to duplicate the face carved into her pumpkin

Sadie also LOVED playing in the pumpkin guts. She loved squishing them between her fingers.

The finished pumpkins from left to right

Lance, Kellie, Abbie, and Sadie

Hogle Zoo

The week after Cornbelly's, we decided to go to Hogle Zoo since the weather was still so nice. Abbie was in a strange mood and was really out of it, but she still enjoyed seeing the animals. Sadie did what she always does, chilled in her stroller and enjoyed the ride.

This wolf was so close to us and he kept growling at some construction workers that were right next to the fence

Giraffes are some of Abbie's favorite animals, but they sure were boring.

Abbie didn't quite get the concept that the animals were in cages and couldn't get out. She was really scared to get close to anything, especially Mr. Crocodile.

Had to put in at least one picture of Sadie to prove she was there, she wasn't cooperating for pictures very well.

Mommy and Abbie waiting in line for the carousel. We couldn't get a good picture while we actually riding it, but of all the animals, Abbie chose to ride on the praying mantis. Silly girl.

We loved watching the elephants. They were eating and drinking and moving all around. The baby elephant was even playing with some of his toys. This was probably Abbie's favorite thing to watch.

She played at the park for a little bit, but there were just too many kids, plus it was naptime. We did get her to pose for a few pictures though.

The classic pose in front of the Lion drinking fountain

We didn't get to see too many monkeys, but a trip to the zoo isn't complete without a pic in front of the Gorillas.

Cornbelly's

This year we got some coupons to go to Cornbelly’s corn maze down at Thanksgiving Point. We thought it would be a fun outing for the girls and the weather was so nice. We had never been before so we weren't quite sure what to expect, but it was so much fun! They had so much stuff for Abbie to do, she was in heaven! We stayed there for 3 hours with no whining, and for a Abbie, that's a LONG time.

Sadie chilled in the stroller for some of the time, but mostly she made us hold her or walk her around.

Abbie loved swinging on these cool tire swings. She especially loved the shark one.

After several times going down the slide with me, she finally went all by herself and she LOVED it!!

We also got to go on a bumpy hay ride that was a lot of fun.

They had all sorts of trains, trucks, and busses that the kids could play on. The one time that Abbie cried was when we made her give another little boy a turn to drive the truck.

Don't let the face fool you! She loved riding the cow train. Just picture me and Abbie stuffed in that little cow with Lance and Sadie stuffed in the one ahead of us. These were not meant for adults!

We even went through the kids corn maze and let Abbie lead for most of the way. We had to "help" her at the end to actually get out of the maze, but she liked being the leader. We had a lot of fun and if we can get coupons, we'll hopefully get to go again next year!