Johnson Family

Johnson Family

November 23, 2012

What am I thankful for today…

thankful for today

In the beginning of November we had a FHE on being grateful for the small everyday things in our lives and started to write one thing each day that we were grateful for… specific to that day.    Here are a few of the things we are grateful for this November.

Chris … spending time with my kids, sleeping in until 7:30, great soccer kids to coach, the Atonement of Jesus Christ

Lisa… Family movies nights, good friends, beautiful fall leaves, soccer games, date night with Christ, the Holy Ghost, Sunday afternoons, time to blog, FHE bowling, quiet Tuesday nights with a husband to take the kids to church, great soccer season, great coach/dad for my kids, date nights at the Mannheim theater, Disney everything!, uncontrollable laughter on the tower of terror, family time, that the church is everywhere in the world, Mickey Mouse, My kids good grades, chatting with Monae, friends and family to spoil me on my b-day, Relief Society 100 dresses meeting, Stake Temple Day, Chris’ amazing talks in church, FHE, the Young Women’s program and Katie’s first Young Women’s in Excellence, Katie’s hard work completing KNOWLEDGE, Luke, Visiting Teachers,  Thanksgiving with the Chuggs.

Ryan…  Once Upon a Time, Big Fish, my grades, my soccer coach, my friends, Monopoly, Mountain Dew code Red, soccer, my roof, Geotrax, ice cream, my Bishop, my Savior, bowling, Java Programming, PE, Zelda music, Batman, Sister Gillespie, parties, soccer medals, Pokémon games for long drives, Disneyland PARIS, Tower of Terror and RC Racer, that the church is everywhere – even though it is hard to find), Princesses and Mickey Mouse and the Disney store, no school, piano and food, my mother and her awesomeness, mickey mouse cups and Baptism, Zelda, the Temple, Church, Settlers, Friends, Parties.

Katie… Once Upon a Time (the TV series), my friends and emotions, pumpkins, garage band, my younger siblings, money, YW leaders, church, fasting, dinner, bowling, PE, a coat, fabric, soccer party, great coach, knowledge, Mickey Mouse, fun roller coasters,  gospel and primary songs, cotton candy, no school and mutual, wrapping paper, mom, my friends: Emily and Rebecca, Sister Tintel and Sister Gillespie, free days, Young Women in Excellence, Luke, the Chuggs, Thanksgiving.

Emily… a teacher with good ideas, my friends – the Gillespie's and the Astons, our house, a great babysitter, the Bishopric, the Sacrament, bowling, school, Hip-Hop, GE (gifted education for Language Arts), our car, Disneyland PARIS, good parents, music, cotton candy, no school, piano, mom, the commissary, watching ‘Once upon a Time’, pass along cards from church, our ward, parties.

Megan… Once Upon a Time, the Pumpkin Festival, making a play, going to church, my soccer party, Hip-Hop, the Bowling alley, going to Paris Disney, going on the Tower of Terror, being with my family, no school, my mom’s birthday, Annie’s baptism, food we get to eat, church, a free day from jobs.

November 21, 2012

A Star Wars Birthday for Luke

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Luke was seriously counting down the days til his birthday and must have told me a hundred different things he wanted for his birthday…. some of which were quite hilarious if I could remember them.  He’s been in a REAL Star Wars phase lately so he’s been saying he’d  love a Star Wars Birthday for awhile.  He indeed had a Star Wars birthday receiving all things Star Wars.   He got Star Wars figurines, a Star Wars space ship – he knew exactly what ship and which scene it was from – a Luke Skywalker costume, 2 light sabers, a Star Wars shirt, a Darth Vader costume and even a Star Wars lunch box and book from his Aunts.  Katie, Emily and Megan printed out Star Wars pictures, made a title page and stapled it together to be a coloring book – which was a big hit.   He LOVED everything. 

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All three boys excited about the Light Sabers…

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This kid is so happy to be five and hardly a day goes past without him telling us that he’s five.  Whenever he does something great he says “That’s why I’m five”.  He really means that he can do it BECAUSE he’s five… but I love it exactly how he says it.   Such a big kid!  Happy Birthday Vader.

November 20, 2012

I love this Kid

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Oh my gosh, I love this kid with his too short BYU pajama pants, his bedhead, his cute tight lipped smile and his grip on Wolfie, his stuffed animal.  What a sweetheart.  3 years old

Katie’s First Young Women in Excellence

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I thought I’d better snap a picture late at night back home after Katie’s first Young Women in Excellence.  It was a great night and one worth recording.  She set a goal to complete each of her 6 KNOWLEDGE value experiences and 1 (10 hour) KNOWLEDGE project by Young Women in Excellence… and she did.

For her value experiences she…

  • read scriptures about knowledge and wrote in her journal what she learned
  • learned a new skill that will help her in her future family and home (she chose photo editing)
  • memorized the 12th article of faith and used it to evaluate a performance she saw
  • prepared a five minute talk on charity and shared it with her family
  • memorized two hymns and conducted them in FHE
  • looked up quotes and scriptures about knowledge and made a poster to show what she had learned
  • and made sure that everything was up to date online

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For her Knowledge Value Experience she learned how to sew a quilt.  All of the young women started the project before Katie turned 12 and invited her to participate so that they could all take their quilts to girls camp and have them for Young Women’s in Excellence.   Each girl chose a fabric that they felt represented them in some way and they all cut their squares and gave one to each other girl in YW’s.  Then they met on several activity nights and on Saturdays to cut, sew and bind their quilts – each one similar but unique.  It was a fun project and she learned a lot and did a great job.

The start of the quilts… {pictures taken back in March}

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Katie’s fabric is the Eiffel Tower material since she loves PARIS so much…

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Katie and Amanda sewing away…

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Katie picked a black fabric to border her front piece and then a green fabric for the back.  It turned out really cute.

At the Young Women in Excellence they had all the girls quilts displayed in the RS room and in the halls.  Fun to see all of them finished up.   The theme was ‘Righteous Traditions’.  Emily N and Sister Allred spoke about personal progress and did a great job.  Then Chris spoke about righteous traditions and did a wonderful job too.   The girls all sang “I walk by Faith” and each stood up to share what project they had worked on.  The spirit was strong.   Katie really enjoyed Dad’s talk and just loved the whole night.  So fun to have a daughter old enough for YW in Excellence!  We love you Katie.

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November 13, 2012

November 12, 2012

Disney Paris Vacation–Monday

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Monday was our coldest day.  Don’t be fooled by Megan’s sleeves being pushed up  -- she’s just a crazy seven year old who happens to LOVE pushing her sleeves up, even in the cold… of course she would say that is wasn’t cold… but it was.  We were at the park at 8:00am again having packed up the night before and checked out before our entrance into the park.  As soon as we entered the big kids took off for Space Mountain and the rest of us walked right up to Minnie with absolutely no line and arms opened wide.  What a fun way to start the day. 

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Main street was foggy… you could barely see the castle.  And just like every other day, it had rained at night but didn’t rain on us, which was so nice.

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One of my favorite things was to walk upstairs into the main Disney Castle.  Cool stain glass windows told the Sleeping Beauty story. 

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After riding the Peter Pan Ride, the Dumbo ride, the It’s a Small World, the Snow White Ride and others we left Disneyland Park and headed back over to Walt Disney Studios Park.  We got to the park shortly after it opened (it opened later the Disneyland) and ran to the Finding Nemo ride which was already at a 30 minute wait.  Chris took all the kids on it except Matthew who was just a bit short.  He and I spent some time hanging out at the Monsters Inc. area with one eyed-Mike.  Matthew was particularly amused with the scream Monitors which measured how much energy comes from your scream.  Matt thought it was awesome.  I think he enjoyed having some time to himself to wander around and do whatever he wanted. 

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He and I also got to meet Donald Duck, which he was thrilled about but didn’t want to have his picture taken with.

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And we rode the Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride.  Fun times.

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After I did the Finding Nemo ride via parent swap… we headed back over to Toy Story Land to ride the RC ride… one of our favorites… pretty thrilling – not as much as Tower of Terror – but so fun.

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One of the things that Megan was SO excited about meeting the Princesses.  We decided to wait in the 45 minute line and ate our snacks/lunch while we waited.  After the wait, we realized that we would only be meeting ONE princess and wouldn’t even get to pick.  Luckily we got Cinderella and Megan was thrilled.

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And so was Ryan.

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Then we went to go see Mickey.   It was a fun family trip.  By about 3:00 we felt like we had seen everything and done all the rides enough times.  Plus with how cold it was, we decided we were finished.  We had planned to stay longer but were glad to drive the 4 hours home before it got too late.  Great trip…. now let’s not go anywhere for awhile!!!!!

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