Merry Christmas!!

We have been so very blessed this year, so very busy, but so very blessed! We're busy homeschooling, horseback riding, doing archery, learning the alphabet, learning the piano, learning the flute, teaching piano, directing the music for a musical, working a bunch of transcribing jobs, working a lot of overtime and serving in our very busy and demanding callings at church. We are loving life, and can't help but see all of the many blessings around us.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Love,

The Johnson Family!

Corn maze date night

We went to the world's largest corn maze in the dark for a super fun date night with our good friends, the Steers. We were so fast at the maze because of a bunch of lovely shortcuts that instead of finishing we turned around and went back to the beginning and did it all over again. Of course we had to sample some of the corn, and get dragged into the corn, we even took some time to take a little rest. It was such a blast, and a great double date!

More piano recital

Couldn't figure out how to have two piacasa collages on one post, so here is the fun part of the recital. I love to have just fun recitals. It gets the kids used to playing in front of people in a totally relaxed and fun environment. They still seem to get nervous though! We played a version of the spoon and egg game with spoons and little balls that had spiders in them. Then we did a gunny sack race, and ended it with a really fun game of red light green light in the dark with glowsticks. (Didn't get a picture of that because I was the light switch person!) As always we had lots of yummy treats to munch on as we chatted. What a fun recital!

Halloween Piano Recital 2010

Yes, I'm aware that it is almost Christmas and I'm just getting this up. Life's a lot of fun, but a lot of busy!
I had 14/22 piano students at this recital. We held it at our ward building this year because even though I have a nice open floor plan, it's a little crowded with students and family members! This was a lot better, and hope to continue to have it at the church!

Circle Skirts

My mom came across an idea for these circle skirts. You fold the fabric in quarters, cut along the fold and when you unfold it it is a complete circle skirt, no piecing anything together. So easy! So I had my dad cut me out a pattern for Katelyn and I got to work.

Pretty toile I added for fun. First I ruffled the toile by running a line done the whole length and I pulled the bobbin thread and ruffled it as evenly as I could. Then I sewed it on to the under part of her skirt. It was easy, and makes it so cute. However, the toile that I found that doesn't itch her (she is very, very picky about her fabric, shreds pretty easily, so I stopped adding it.)

I saw an idea on a blog that had a witch's hat appliqued onto a shirt and I just had to do it. I used some coordinating fabric and cut out a hat, sewed it on, so easy! I'm sure I should have used some sort of backing, but I like shortcuts!

The whole ensemble!

And of course a matching bow!

Since these pictures I have whipped out several skirts, probably at least 6. I haven't taken any pictures of them. Guess I should.

I just finished my last project for Katelyn and my cute niece Lily who is coming for Thanksgiving. I made them matching skirts, and matching applique turkey shirts, and of course matching bows. Stay tuned!

My 26th Birthday

Seeing as it was my birthday not many pictures were taken:) Just the way I like it! My husband took the day off of work and helped out around the house. My mom came for lunch and took all of us to Olive Garden. It was so delicious, and so fun! Then we went shopping and then headed home so I could teach some piano lessons. After piano my mom and dad came over for cake! Yummy yum! And then cake was followed by more shopping:) My husband actually succeeded in surprising me with a present, so hard to do, somehow I always find out! He got me a charging cord for my camera! Wahoo!

Katelyn's 11th Birthday!

See, no camera, but kind of a cool picture anyway.

Shaving cream and a razor! AAAAHhh!!

Twirly skirt from Grandma Clift.

Opening up her presents that she already knew what they all were. For her birthday week I took her out shopping with just us girls and we went to tons of stores, I gave her a budget and she went on a shopping spree. It was so much fun!

Ben's 3rd Birthday!

Ben with the cake he picked out. We got him a HUGE cake because they were having a special that was the same price as the smallest one, so being the gal I am that likes free stuff I got the bigger one!

We had so much cake that I decided last minute to invite our good friends over to help us eat it. It was a good cake!

I went to take Ben to ride the train for his birthday but it was closed! Luckily the Saturday before his birthday Grandma and Grandpa Clift came and took him to ride the train, so he wasn't too hurt. We rode on these little rides instead.

Ben is 3!!

Ben's presents! He got a new bike, Little People toys, trains, and of course clothes.
What a great birthday!!

Horseback Riding and Archery Lessons

Because my stinking blogger puts pictures on backwards and I don't feel like redoing it, we're going to start with the most recent pictures. Alex at archery, he hits bullseyes all the time, has good form, and just loves it.
He really wants to keep doing archery lessons until he can go to competitions. And bonus, if we ever are in a position where we have to hunt our food, Alex will be our guy! :)
Katelyn and her teacher. She is in love with her horse Sonny. She writes about him for school work, draws pictures of him for art. She even got some cute cowgirl boots just to ride him!
Katelyn's first day. Grooming the horse.

Walking the horse out. I rarely get to see Katelyn ride her horse because her lessons start at 9:30 and Alex's archery lessons are at 10:00, so we drop her off watch her for 10 minutes and then drive to Alex's lessons. I feel comfortable leaving Katelyn, but I don't feel comfortable leaving Alex in the middle of nowhere shooting arrows. At least with Katelyn there are a lot of other people around.

Alex's first day with the teacher helping him.

Good form Alex!

Carson City

My parents were driving up to Carson City, NV to visit an old friend and like I tend to do my kids and I tagged along for the ride. (My husband was working)

We saw a cute little train museum and had to stop because Benjamin just adores trains. It was small, but Ben really enjoyed it. The bigger kids really wished we had gone to the Children's museum instead, and so did I.

We got to ride on a hand car, it went a lot faster than I was expecting, and the kids had a blast! (Pretty much the big kids' only highlight.)

On the way there we stopped because we were talking about the pretty river and Ben couldn't see it and really wanted to get out to see it, so we did. He's pretty much spoiled like that. I love this picture though, classic Grandpa Clift and Ben. Ben tags along with his grandpa wherever he goes, whatever he does. Two peas in a pod.

Cub Scouts

When Alex turned 8 in June he joined the Cub Scouts, but they take off the summer months from their meetings, so this is of his first Pack meeting where all the different age groups meet together and they hand out awards, do ceremonies, and have a dessert.

Alex got a ton of awards he earned from Cub Scout day camp, and he also earned his Bobcat award and he graduated into the Wolf pack. He got to go up on stage for a ceremony and mom and dad got to paint his face the different symbols. He loves going every week to his activities. So proud of our Cub Scout!

Braces!

As you can see Katelyn needed braces, pretty badly.

So we got her braces.

And now they're off! All the pain, and all the money was a small price to pay for that beautiful smile! :) She loves her teeth so much now, and she loves that no one makes fun of her anymore. (Aren't kids rude!)

We celebrated by going out to her favorite restaurant. They gave her a balloon with a package of all the goodies she couldn't eat with her braces on. She could possibly need braces a little later when all of her adult teeth come in, but she's wearing her retainer nightly, and she has a permanent retainer on her bottom teeth holding them in place. So our wallet is crossing its fingers we don't need them again!

Fall!

I love Fall! Yes I know the first day of Fall was 2 months ago, but we've had a really busy and fun Fall so I haven't really blogged about it. I'm going to attempt to try and catch up a little bit.


First off I have been without a camera because my darling Benjamin thought it would be hillarious to cut the charging cord. I could have easily gone to Radio Shack and gotten another one, but it was just one of those things you never remember to get around to. So I used my phone's camera, which is actually not that bad during the day. Katelyn wearing her new fall skirt decorating stairs. It took me one day before I tore those down I couldn't stand all those little pumpkins being picked off and all over the stairs all of the time!

My new mirror, it was free from a friend.

Pumpkins from our garden! The fabric pumpkins I made, found the idea on a blog I follow, don't remember which one. Sorry.

Alex.

I made the 2 pillow cases in the back all by myself!

Happy Fall!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Benjamin is 3! He is into anything trains. He is a happy boy. He loves to help, and likes to act like a big boy. If I ever slip and call him my cute little baby, he says, "I not baby! I big boy!" He loves to ride his bike, and he tries really hard to keep up with whatever his big brother and sister are doing! He is a little smarty, he knows his ABC's and knows most of the sounds of all the letters in the alphabet. He loves to sing and is spot on with his pitch! Benjamin keeps us all laughing. We are so happy he is a part of our family! We love you Ben!!

Happy Birthday Katelyn!!

Our little Katelyn turned 11 today! 11! She got a lot of new clothes and shoes for her birthday(thank you very much growth spurt!) and she also got....shaving cream and a razor! Gasp!! When did she grow up, we tell her all the time she's not allowed to!

Katelyn is a super sweet, loving, and caring young lady. She is great at noticing all of the small things. She can tell when I am having a bad day and then will get me a drink, give me a little rub. And oh her rubs are so great! She is so helpful around the house. She is great at doing her chores, and she's learning to cook meals.

Katelyn loves art, and loves fashion. She is a wonderful musician and plays the piano so beautifully! We are so lucky and blessed to have Katelyn in our family! We love you!!!!