Christmas Decor

Just a few pictures of our Christmas decor. Same ornaments but this year I added a few silver frames. New stockings and matching tree skirt. It's jus so fun to have the tree lights on every night... I'm going to miss it.

Christmas Adam

We acted out the nativity tonight. We got our costumes ready while Dad was gone Home Teaching. Megan loved her costume but she kept forgetting what she was. "Mom, um, what am I?" "Megan you are an Angel." "Oh ya, kids I'm an angel...um, Mom, is a angel a good guy or a bad guy?" "Megan, an angel is very very good." [a big smile] "Guys, I'm a... Mom, what am I?" "An angel" "Oh ya, Guys I'm an angel and I'm a good guy!!" The other kids got a little tired of hearing her repeat the same thing once every minute. I just smiled. We took a picture first and then acted it out... good thing because by the time we got to Emily's part she was down to a t-shirt and tights. Megan loved to say the angel lines and felt it very important to belt out 'twinkle twinkle' from her heavenly post. No picture, but Chris stuffed Katie's belly so full she looked like she was me just a few weeks ago. He then acted the donkey and now needs new hips and new knees. I don't think any of our navitities have been without a few chuckles. Fun fun! After our broadway show we squished on the couch to watch the church DVD 'Joy to the World' and read a few Christmas books. Happy Christmas Adam!

Joseph
Mary
A King, Wise Man, and Shepherd
An Angel... just for tonight
Baby Jesus

One Month Old

things i love about Lukey
- his little grunts and swallowing noises while he's eating
- holding him asleep on my chest
- his tiny white onsies
- watching him smile in his sleep
- when he tilts his head back and tries to eat my arm
- his cute stretches and yawns
- watching him sneeze
- cuddling him up in a towel after his baths
- his 'concerned' scrunched up forhead face
- that if he screams for 10 seconds he goes completely red in the face
- his little quivering chin if he's cold
- watching him try to keep his head up
- his cute little nose and lips
- when he tries to find his hands to suck on
- cute little boy clothes
- his big soft cheeks
- when he tries to eat my kisses
- watching him sleep with his arms above his head

Megan's 'Gingerman'

We made and decorated sugar cookies for family home evening last night while we watched Home Alone... one of Chris' favorite family movies. He laughs as much as the kids. Megan loved decorating her own 'gingerman'. It took her a lot of time to decorate it before she took a bite. Looks yummy Megan.

11 Christmas Questions

1. wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper. Green and bright red this year to match our ornaments and stockings. I love having presents that coordinate... surprise surprise. I love to make my tags too.

2. real tree or artificial?
both! This is the first year we've had an artificial tree!! It looks pretty and was SO easy to put up... but it just doesn't smell like a real Christmas tree. Next year we'll probably do one of each!

3. do you like eggnog?
Not at all. Chris and Ryan are the eggnog lovers in this house. For me and the girls it's hot chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stephens mint hot chocolate is the best.

4. favorite gift received as a child. Three favorite gifts stand out. First was the year I got my cabbage patch kid. --- It was 1983 and I was nine. Cabbage Patch Kids were in high demand and no one could find them. Two days before Christmas my mom heard from her visiting teacher that one store may have a couple in the back room and would give them away if the people didn't come for them by 4 o'clock. My mom got a babysitter for her five kids and was at the store by 4:00. When she asked about the dolls one old lady quietly went into the back room and came back with a doll already bagged up so no one could see. When m mom asked to see it she took her inthe backroom so she could take a peek. My mom started crying... blue eyes and brown hair... just like me. In the picture you can tell my eyes were red. I started crying the minute I saw her. I guess I've always been emotional. My favorite childhood Christmas.

The two others were my Barbie... here I am showing my Grandma Polley... and my dollhouse. My dad made it - it had all the same carpet and wall paper that our house had. I loved it.

5. white or colored lights? Definitely white. I love white lights. On the house and on the tree!

6. favorite christmas song. Gosh, I don't know where to start. We have quite the collection of Christmas CDs. Chris and I start our Christmas song listening quite early and he picks up a few new CD's every year. My favorite for this year is Josh Groban's Believe.

7. can you name all of santa's reindeer?
dasher and dancer and comet and cupid and donner and blitzen and vizen and rudolf. I think I'm missing one.

8. angel or star on top of your tree?
Silver glittery star. I just bought it this year... it's not even a real tree-topper but I put it up there and I think it looks cute.

9. open presents christmas eve or christmas morning?
Sometimes we open our christmas pjs on chrismas eve. Lately the kids have opened them up on one of the first nights we have our tree up... that way we can be in Chrismas pjs the whole month. On Christmas eve the kids open our new Christmas book. Then everything else on Christmas morning.

10. 5 favorite christmas traditions.
- Reading our Christmas books every December night before bed... and then getting a new one on Christmas Eve.

- Shopping with our kids to help them pick out presents for each one of their siblings. Then helping them wrap. They get so excited about giving!

- Taking turns picking presents from under the tree... but you can't pick a present for yourself. The kids love picking a present for someone else -- especially the ones they bought for someone else. We open one present at a time too... makes it go slower!!!!! and if you know my husband... it's all about anticipation.

- Going to a movie on Christms Eve afternoon... a tradition we adopted from Chris' family. This year we're going to see Enchanted.

- Filling out my Mary Engelbreit Christmas Journal every year. It has space for five years worth of Christmas traditions and memories. I have the christmas card, picture and letter I sent every year, what we gave and got, special moments of the season and even a december calendar for each year. I love it. When I finished writing about the fifth christmas I almost cried. I quickly went on half.com and found two more of the exact christmas journal book... now I'm set for another ten years!!!!!

11. what do i love most about christmas?
christmas music. thinking about Christ's birth. hot chocolate. sugar cookie dough. wrapping presents. shopping at a busy christmasy mall. going to see Santa. making cards. taking lots of pictures. traditions. the smell of cinnamon. sitting in the family room with just the tree lights twinkling. lots of phone calls to my siblings about presents. yummy christmas eve dinner. christmas church outfits. getting cards and packages in the mail. reading the december ensign. writing letters to Santa. christmasy family home evenings. watching christmas movies like Miracle on 34th street, Home Alone and Elf. scrambled egg potato and sausage Christmas breakfast with grape juice. being spoiled by my husband. doing puzzles. spending time with extended family. playing games. taking a Christmas line-up picture on christmas morning. driving around looking at christmas lights. Spending time with my husband -- he's such a little boy when it's christmas time!

Happy Holidays!! Now tell me about your Christmas fun!

Hard to be a Mom

It must have been a rough morning.

I dragged myself out of bed at precisely 8 o'clock. I told Ryan to take his shorts off and put on pants, helped Katie with her hair, made hot chocolate for the kids lunch, made sure Ryan had his big project ready for school, kept telling emily that she couldn't eat breakfast till we got back home, changed luke, packed them all in the van, drove Ryan and Katie to school, battled arguments for which Christmas song everybody wanted, came home, made oatmeal, poured my milk and sat down to feed screaming baby while I ate my cereal. You know... just a typical morning.

That's when Emmy turned to me and asked, "Is it hard to be a Mom?" "Well, ya it is... but it's fun" I said with a half smile. "But it's hard?" she reaffirmed. "Well, it's just hard because everyone wants me to do something at the same time." Emily thought for a minute and then said, "What you need is four eyes and four arms that could stretch really far. -- Then you could do two kids at once."
...Always full of good ideas Emily. Thanks.

A visit with Santa

When Santa asked Megan what she wanted she said, 'A present'. "Well, yes" said Santa, "but what kind of present?" Megan looked to her left, saw a display of wrapped packages and turned back to Santa. "A green one." Emily asked for a nutcracker. A nutcracker, Emily? ...to crack nuts? No, a barbie that dances. Oh, the Barbie Nutcracker Princess. Ahhhh. Katie wants a silver Nintendo DS... and of course Ryan wants a Wii. Who doesn't? After Santa listened to all of their requests, he said "Well, there are going to be some surprises on Christmas morning and thats all I'm going to say about it."

8 more days... and we can hardly wait.

Grandma and Grandpa

Our 8 days with Grandma and Grandpa Walton were wonderful. We went out to eat, went shopping, went sight seeing, took naps, watched movies and stayed up way too late every night.

One thing I noticed... Grandma likes to hold babies. Grandma was the first one to go pick up Luke when he was fussy, change his pants, make sure he had a blanket or socks on, and just walk around the house with him. Thanks for the help, Mom. Luke misses being spoiled. Another thing I noticed... while Grandma was helping to calm Luke, Grandpa was causing a commotion with the other kids. He's always been one to initiate a good tickle fight -- and my kids just can't resist. Something about him lying and crawling on the floor is just invitation for a pile of kids. This trip Grandma taught Emily how to undo Grandpa's shoelace and take his shoe off. Emily was scared to death... and rightly so... Grandpa chased her and tickled her good all while she screamed with delight. For a Grandpa who doesn't like a lot of noise.. he sure made a lot. Thanks for the fun, Grandpa.




...and who can resist dancing with Grandpa!

Letters to Luke

A couple days before Luke was born we wrote welcome letters to him...

Dear Luke,
I can’t wait till you are born. I can’t wait till I can teach you about Pokemon and how to draw Pokemon, and Zelda and link. We have a play set ready for you. It is really fun. Our family motto is ‘No Empty Chairs’. Don’t eat the food that we eat yet. Eat baby food right now. I will teach you songs, how to play Gamecube and make crafts and food and songs and books. Megan might not share her toys with you. I want to see you, hug you and hold you. Please love Pokemon and Zelda. They are awesome. I am giving you Pokemon cards. I can’t wait to watch High School Musical 2 with you. I hope you like the church and learn about it and the temple. I love you sooooooooooooooo much. PS: I will hold you more than everybody… maybe not as much as mom though.
Love Ryan

Dear Luke,
When Mom is going to have you, I will be so excited. Our family motto is ‘No Empty Chairs’! We say that because we want everybody to be in the Celestial Kingdom together. I want to help you learn how to do stuff, like pumping on the swing. I am so excited to hold you and baby-sit you. I think you will love sports and you will like spaghetti and fruit salad. I think you will have black hair and blue eyes and I think I will hold you the most. I love you so much.
Love Katie

Dear Luke,
Megan has toys for you. I am excited for you to come out. I want to help you. I want to play with you. I will kiss you and hug you. You will be as big as a box. When you come out, you will crawl right away and walk. You will go on the baby swing. The slide might be too big for you but someone can catch you. You will eat baby food like applesauce. Mom will feed you milk from ‘those stuff’ (pointing to her chest). I think you will have yellow hair like Sloan and brown eyes and skinny cheeks. I will teach you to walk. You will be so cute in our family.
Love Emily

Megan’s answers…
-Is there a baby in Mommy’s tummy? ...Yes
-Is it a boy or a girl? ...A boy
-What is his name? ... a boy... ummm, Luke
-What is the baby going to do? …Play with my toys and sleep.
...uh oh, sorry mom, I drew on my finger. The baby don’t draw on his finger.
-What is the baby going to eat? ...Nothing, not fishy crackers.
-What should we do with the baby? ...sing songs
-Are you going to share your toys with Luke? ...NO, it’s not a girl. It’s a BOY, like Daddy!!!
-What do boys do? Play video. Not do ‘dancerella'. That’s for all the girls.
-Where is the baby right now? ... in your tummy. When he comes out I will be a big sister. The baby will be big. The baby will say “Please hold me Momma” like that.
I love you. Love Megan

Two Baby Boys

Ryan Johnson... almost a week old. June 1998


Luke Johnson... almost a week old. November 2007


Ryan has more hair, Luke has more weight... both have on the same outfit and each has his own special blanket. ...Grandma Johnson gave us the little Gymboree outfit. It's one of the few that I kept from Ryan. They both wore it home from the hospital... almost a decade apart. Ryan's yellow silky blanket behind him was made by Great Grandma Walton. She made it yellow since we didn't know what we were having. After three pink silky blankets, Great Grandma Walton finally got to make a light blue blanket for Luke.

Go Cougars!

When I woke up this morning Chris was donning his Fully Invested t-shirt and sitting on the couch ready for the game... 5 hours early. To help us 'prepare' for the game, we watched the BYU/Utah game from last year over breakfast. When Megan woke up and asked for dress up clothes we told her it was game day and helped her find her cheerleader outfit. She bounced up and down all day showing us how to do cheers with one arm up in the air. Pretty soon the whole family was in blue. If you look carefully, you can tell Luke is yelling 'Go cougs!' Naturally, it was a good day. What a great game. It was amazing Luke could sleep at all with all of Chris' yelling. Chris hasn't stopped talking about it all night - either on the phone with his buddies or with Luke, when he was the only one available to listen. Go cougars!

A New Little Johnson

We are happy to announce the arrival of our new little boy...

Luke Delmar Johnson
Born November 21st, 2007 at 3:32pm.
9 pounds 1 ounce - 21 1/4 inches long

Little Buddies

I showed these pictures to Emily this morning and she said, "Ya, I like my own time with Megan." These two are perfect little buddies. At first I was sad Emmy wasn't heading to Kindergarten this year... Now I'm so glad she's at home. She and Megan have such a great time together. Playing dress up, coloring, watching shows, playing on the computer, playing outside, helping me cook... Sometimes they go upstairs and I don't see them for an hour. I love that they are little buddies and do everything together. Today, like a lot of days, they wanted to 'be matching with even our hair'. I Love it.

6 Things You Might Not Know About Me

I've been tagged. Twice, actually. The problem is, it's hard to think of things that no one knows about me. My life is an open book... so lets see if anybody learns anything new.

1. I have an odd marshmellow addiction. Yes, you probably know I love marshmellows, but here's the odd part. Every time I go grocery shopping I buy marshmellows... the big ones -- don't bother me with those little ones. As I'm pulling in my groceries from the van I quickly locate the bag with the marshmellows and open them. I eat marshmellows the entire time I put my groceries away. Every time. When my groceries are all put away I put the half eaten bag of marshmellows away. PS- favorite marshmellows... the colored Christmas and Easter ones. Love those.

2. My fingers are always typing. I don't know where this came from. I've actually always liked to type so I guess it's not surprising, but my fingers sometimes have a mind of their own. Without really knowing I'm doing it, I see phrases on billboards and my fingers start typing. I listen to music and my fingers type the lyrics. Sometimes I type whatever I am thinking. During some church talks I find myself typing what they are saying. Strange, I know. Sometimes when Chris is holding my hand he'll turn to me and say, "Lis, what are you typing?" What's funny is that Chris does the same thing -- only his fingers play the pinao... and I ask, "What are you playing, hon?'

3. I love a hot bath. Again, not surprising, especially if you know my mom. I guess it's just something I picked up from her. Most nights end with me filling my bathtub to the top with burning hot water. If you can just get in and sit down... probably not hot enough. Definitely too hot for Chris. Along with my nightly bath is my bathroom cleaning ritual. While my bathwater is running I clean my bathroom. I clean off the counter, put everything away, spray the mirrors, sinks and sometimes the toilet. I guess it's like a timer... I have exactly 6 minutes to speed-clean the entire bathroom before I turn off the bathwater and get in. It's just the rules.

4. If I could pick a new career... it would be to go into other people's houses and help them declutter, reorganize and throw stuff away. No, my closets aren't always the way I dream them to be... but I thoroughly enjoy taking boxes of stuff to Goodwill, labeling file folders, going through the kids clothes and taking out everything that's too small, buying matching containers and putting labels on everything... just thinking about it makes me want to tackle my hall closet. I can't wait.

5. I am always writing in my journal... in my head. I've always been a 'journaler'... even a 'communicator' says my Dad. I just have a passion for recording events, thoughts, memories, and pictures. When I see something interesting I think of how I would write about it in my journal. When the kids say something funny I began to re-tell the story in my mind. Unfortunately not everything I think about journaling makes it to my actual journal... but hopefully it'll stay recorded... even if just in my head.

6. It's impossible for me to pass an Auntie Ann's Pretzel shop in the mall without getting a pretzel and honey mustard sauce. Well, actually TWO pretzels. One for Megan and Emily to share and one for me... I'm not sharing! More weaknesses... grape or cherry slurpees - when I'm driving somewhere with Chris, anything with avocados when ordering yummy sandwiches or hamburgers at a restaurant, and York peppermint patties when standing at the checkout of the grocery store. Creature of habbit, I guess.

Now... I tag all of my brothers, sister and sister-in-laws!!! Have fun writing.

Just Because

When I pick up my camera, she smiles and I can't resisit.
So here it is, just because.

Finally, an office.

I took a couple pictures of Chris at work last time we visited. After nine years, he finally has an office of his own. No, it's not a 'window view' penthouse office for this doctor. This profession prefers a dark little cave... still he's quite proud of it. I turned the light on for the first one so you could get a better view. Check out his fridge and ample supply of snacks and drinks. The girls love to go visit Dad and help themselves to whatever he's got. What could be better. He spends most of his time at the back table. This is where he reads his films and dictates. I love it when I pop in and catch him in action. What language are you speaking and how did you learn it?? Oh ya, the nine years. Love ya, babe.