Happy Holidays 2011

It is that time of year where I get behind and don't send out my Christmas Cards once again...fear not! The power of the Internet and the magic of email are here to save me! So, grab a cup of Cocoa, sit back and relax while you read all about the Johnson family happenings of 2011 (well, and late 2010). I just looked as as it turns out the last time I sent Christmas cards was in 2009 and last year I did not even send an email...so we've got some catching up to do!

Are you back with your cocoa yet? I hope so because here we go!

We had a BIG year at the Johnson house. We added a fantastic member to our little (can I call it little still with 5 kids?) clan, baptized our oldest child, took the kids to Disney World, and figured out what in the world we will be doing once Wes finishes residency in June 2012. Read on to find out more!

As mentioned above, Wes will be finishing up his Radiology Residency in June of 2012. Yeah! An end is in sight...BUT because we are gluttons for punishment, we decided to go ahead and tack another year on to the end of this already long road. So, Wes will be doing a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona beginning June 30, 2012 and ending in June 2013. It is a double fellowship in Mammography and MRI. Over the past year Wes also became eligible to moonlight (IE work a second job) and so he has been super busy providing for this family!

Of course he has also stayed busy at home as a WONDERFUL dad and husband. Our kids all adore him and wait excitedly for his to get home each day. He takes the kids for bike rides around the Lake near our house and makes time to take them on individual Daddy Dates as much as possible! He was also (still) the Elder's Quorum President in our Ward throughout the year until last month when he was released. He is currently calling-free at Church, but the bishopric keeps telling me they need to meet with him...

I (Beckee) was busy as usual! But I got a little break and got to spend my birthday in September at Disney World with the family! I also got to spend a day in Disneyland with my parents and siblings before my sister Melanie left for her mission. And Wes and I went to Chicago for a week (with only the baby) where Wes was attending a conference. Oh vacations are wonderful! What Fun!!

I was the PTO Co-President at the kids' elementary school during the 2010-2011 school year. It was fun and busy and stressful all at once! Made more exciting by the fact we found out shortly before my school year officially started that I was pregnant with our 5th child.  I continue to serve in the presidency of our Resident Family Support group-last year as Membership chair, and this year as the Playgroup co-director (again). I am still a primary teacher at church teaching the 6-7 year olds. Starting in January, I will be teaching Armour's class. They are a fun little crew with LOTS of energy.

I continue working hard on my deals blog which is gaining a nice following! You can check it out at beckeesdeals.blogspot.com. It will be PERFECT for all of you fine family and friends as it is "Ah...Deals...Beckee's Deals. Where the beautiful people come to score a deal!"

Solace was baptized on December 28, 2010. It was very special as we were able to baptize her in Utah with our families! It was so neat to see her choose to do that and to have so much family surrounding us! We rarely get that experience living so far from home which made it all the more special.

Solace is 9-years-old, in 3rd grade, and a super genius (a good friend of mine calls all my kids the "Baby Geniuses"). She is tall and seems all grown up. She and her friends are true "tweens" asking for things like makeup AND Barbies for Christmas. Solace tells me she loves reading, spelling, Volleyball (Which she played this year!), getting good grades, being with friends, snow (which we are lacking), family, swimming, The Nebraska Huskers and the Utah Utes. She says, "Happy Holidays!"

Ender is 7-years-old, in 2nd grade and unbelievably creative! He is recently obsessed with Pokemon and has made his own games and cards called "Endemon." They are pretty amazing! He also does quite well in school. He played football for the second year, and was (to quote his coach) "The emotional leader of the team." He is getting pretty great at football and will, I am sure, continue to improve! Ender tells me he loves Pokemon, football, drawing, reading, writing, homework, arts and crafts, decorating, and picking presents for people. He says he also likes making cupcakes.

My little blondie Armour is 5-years-old, in Kindergarten, and already does "mental math" faster than his mom (he's amazing!). He is reading like a pro these days! He played soccer this year and liked it a lot but really liked going to Ender's football games even more. He is pretty excited to play football next year and throws a mean spiral (for a 5-year-old). He is a funny guy and always keeps me on my toes! Armour tells me he likes Sonic Generation, anything Super Mario Brothers, Pokemon, playing dodge ball, going on bike rides with dad, running around, recess and playing Disc Golf.

Kindle is growing up so fast! She is 3-year-old now and is a peer model in a preschool through the school district here. She goes 4 days a week all morning long and loves it. Kindle says she is nice to her friends at school, loves her mom and dad, is nice to her brothers and sister and LOVES being Everest's big sister. She says she loves her baby dolls, decorating the tree, daddy dates, and even mommy dates, Everest, Caillou and most especially she LOVES the Nutcracker Ballet! She wishes there was snow so she could go out and play in it!

Everest Spencer Johnson is our newest family member! We were so pleased to welcome him to our happy family on March 29, 2011. He is awesome! And Huge! At 8 months old he is already 22 pounds and off the charts tall (cannot remember exactly how tall...). I guess we can only blame ourselves for giving him a name like Everest. He is crawling now and trying to walk. And he got his very first hair cut last week.

I still feel a little traumatized from the haircut. He looks SOOO grown up now!

I am sure your cocoa is cold by now, so I will sign off by saying how very, VERY grateful we are for this time of year when we get to reconnect with family and friends. And where we get to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a wonderful feeling this time of year brings!

We hope this note finds you and yours well!

Lots of love,
Wes, Beckee, Solace, Ender, Armour, Kindle and Everest Johnson

White Christmas...

We had quite a White Christmas here in Omaha. I may have mentioned that Armour wants to be just like his dad. I may also have mentioned that Wes had surgery on his finger in December, so he was one handed shoveling (I did help and did not make him go out there and shovel all the time). But on Christmas morning, Wes went out to shovel the snow and Armour wanted to help (surprisingly the other kids disappeared until after the work was done). So here are some snowy pics for your enjoyment.

wind drift

Sol loves to play outside.

Christmas morning 09

Wow, So Christmas Morning...(Yep, I am that far behind, but here I am attempting to "catch-up". So, you get Christmas morning today)...

So, at our house the boys both wanted Light sabers, especially Armour, and Solace wanted only books and a book shelf, and Kindle just wanted to open stuff.

Upon entering the living room, Armour walked directly to the hidden-in-the-back present from Santa, picked it up and said "here it is, this is my lightsaber." We would not let him open it until the end as he would have refused to open anything else, so I took it back and said "Who knows what it is, it's from Santa. Let's open some of these closer presents first." As he opened each present he would say, "Thanks can I have my light saber to open now?" It was hilarious! You will see in the pictures how he was once he FINALLY got to open his lightsaber!

Here's our Christmas morning in photos (and comments):


Armour: "I think I can see my light saber! Hurry Solace!"Solace: "I'm coming, I'm coming!"  "OK mom, we're smiling, can we go in NOW?!"Mom: "Not yet, I need Armour to smile now."

Solace: "OK I am SO happy & excited"Armour: "Cheese"Ender: "Come on Mom, I cannot take this anymore!"Mom: "Ok, Ok, I give up, come on in."

Just behind the 3 musketeers, dad carried Kindle in. She just stared at the tree and all the presents for a good long time. It was like she was frozen in awe. This was her 2nd Christmas, but the first where she really knew something was going on.

After a good hard look, and much contemplation, she has decided it is all good. Now she is ready for the present opening.

"Wow, paper I CAN rip! Yeah...oh I am supposed to look at the colored pencils? Those are nice too..."

"Wow, feety pj's, thanks. Can I open my light saber now?"

Kindle: "Wow! Ender is ripping the paper too! Christmas is so funny"

Ender: "Hurry Solace!"

"YES! Now I just need to open that light saber to go with this ok mom?!"

Kindle opens her big Santa present...a Cabbage Patch baby.

"Finally! I KNEW this was a light saber!" (FYI-mom note here: After this he would not do ANYTHING but try to get the light saber out of the box-nothing...luckily he is persistant and nothing stops this kid once he gets an idea so it only took him about 5 minutes to rip that thing out of the box...it took me twice as long to get Ender's out of the box.)

"I thought this was a light saber...but I hoped it was a different color!"

Solace: "WOW Ender, this is a good one-it is Obi One's light saber!!"Ender: "Really? Awesome! I like him."

Solace opened a pack of paints and sponge designs with a note from Santa telling her that the supplies are for her to decorate her new bookshelf with! She can use her creative personal touch to make it her own! She was pretty excited as you can see (take note of Armour in the back still working on that box).

"Just what I wanted-my own bookshelf and books" (which she got A TON of).

Almost there!!

Merry Christmas (in March)! Love, The Johnsons!

Santa came to our ward...

Solace and Ender LOVED it! Armour, not so much! He was a bit afraid of Santa and wouldn't even go to him. I had to have Solace hold him to even get him to go close for the picture. Nice...

Christmas Programs

Two nights ago S and E had their preschool program. Solace said a line and they both sang all the songs. It was great (I forgot my camera of course). But Ender was a star and Solace was a shepherd in it.

Last night we went to the ward Christmas party where we had dinner, the kids nativity program, and a visit from Santa. In this program, Solace had a scripture to say: Luke 2:1 "And it came to pass in those days, there came a decree from Ceaser Augustus that all the world should be taxed." She had a hard time remembering the words "Decree" and "Ceaser Augustus", but memorized it weeks ago and has been practicing non stop. Here is a video of the performance last night.

Christmas Traditions

Well, I saw this on my friend Anne's blog and had to steal it. As I may have mentioned before, I LOVE these things. I think I might actually steal an answer or 2. Thanks Anne! BTW, feel free to steal this for your own blogs if you happen to be a junkie for these things like myself!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper preferably as nothing is funner than watching your kids rip into it, but often we end up with gift bags as well as mom (me) gets lazy and tired of wrapping.
2. Real tree or artificial? We always had a real one growing up, though my parents now have a fake one. Wes and I have always had a fake one, but I am psyched to have my own house next Christmas so I can totally get a real one and not worry about any apartment rules!
3. Do you like eggnog? Totally, it is awesome!
4. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, 2 or 3 of them.
5. Hardest person to buy for? Spence and Mel are hands down the hardest. So is Wes, and for some reason Solace has been hard this year.
6. Easiest person to buy for? Myself ; ) No really, probably like my mom.
7. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Seriously cannot think of one, but I do remember getting a rice patty baby from China for a birthday once that I did not really appreciate at the time-let's just say I was a bit of a brat, but I have repented of that, and still own that doll, even with her eye ripped out! (So, I'm saying it was the gift I was least grateful for, but not really the worst gift ever. I cannot think of an answer for that, so I am just avoiding the question very stealthily...)
8. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? I love sending out Christmas cards (and I love getting them) though I don't know if they are going to happen this year...
9. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf is awesome, and I like a few of the old stand-bys (White Christmas, and Miracle on 34th Street-the old school one with Natalie Wood as a child)
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I basically do all my shopping the day after Thanksgiving every year, though the sales were disappointing this year so I did not get much and still have a lot of shopping to do.
11. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I can think of.
12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? There are so many foods I associate with this time of year, and that I wait all year to eat. To name a few: pomegranates, peppermint ice cream (the only kind of ice cream I ever really like), Christmas pudding, Hickory Farms cheese balls and beef stick, Honey Baked Ham's turkey... I also always like having fresh grapefruit cut and ready to eat on Christmas morning.
13. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I love colored, but Wes is a white lights guy, and his opinion is much stronger on this one so we generally end up with white.
14. Favorite Christmas song? I LOVE Christmas music in general! But there are quite a few newer versions of old classics that drive me CRAZY! I just love listening to FM 100 forever leading up to Christmas, and am SO happy to have found the all Christmas music station here in Spokane this year! I love riding in my car now (wish I had a radio in the house)!
15 Travel at Christmas or stay home? We always end up traveling to Utah for Christmas with our families. Even the one year we stayed in Omaha, on Christmas morning after all presents were opened, Wes, who was stir crazy from a few days home from school on his break wanted to get in the car and drive to Utah. So, we did.
16. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I have to sing it..."You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner, and Blitzen, but do you recall...the most famous reindeer of all...Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer..."
17. Angel on the tree top or a star? I think an angel, but don't really care either way.
18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One present on Christmas Eve with my family that is always pajamas, and as I recall, Wes's family opens the sibling presents on Christmas eve too (Stef-am I remembering this right?). The rest are on Christmas
19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic, and the busy, busy stores! Also, I hate the people that make it their business to be scrooges the whole season long.
20. Favorite Christmas tradition? I love the Christmas eve Evans family play thing (though it can get long at times), and I love visiting with both families and just being together with family. I appreciate this much much more now that we have lived away so long! It is really the only time our kids get to see the whole family all year long.
21. Up early or sleeping in? Up EARLY!!! I cannot sleep on Christmas Eve, even now as an adult. I hate waiting to go in and see the presents. Usually I am the one waking everyone up at like 6 am (I don't feel I can start waking anyone up earlier than that.)
22. Who hands out the gifts? Always my dad at my parents house.
23. Does Santa wrap your gifts? Yes, unless it was a huge gift, then it was often just hidden behind the tree or under the pianos to be pulled out at the last second.
24. Do you tell the Christmas story? Always on Christmas eve! In a play format (I think my mom wrote it up and we use the same script each year) that is often quite hilarious and often long, but I love it!! It is filled with music, scriptures and fun! It drives most everyone crazy, but like I said, I love it!