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!