The Johnson Family

Me: "Owen don't hurt the baby!"

Owen: "Baby heart...do do."

Christmas Eve was such a late night, that we all slept in Christmas morning. I guess we should enjoy these mornings while they last. I imagine in the next few years Owen and Ben will be up just after Santa's sleigh leaves to see what he left for them. I remember lying in bed with such great anticipation, barely able to sleep and getting up as soon as I thought Santa had been there.

When we finally all (Owen slept the latest) got out of bed, we brought Owen downstairs and he couldn't have been more excited to see all the "presents" Santa had left for him and Ben.

Ben seemed to really like his too, but poor little guy will get nothing first hand seeing as though Owen had taken to playing with ALL Ben's new things as well.

Here is Ben enjoying his Sound Stage, ABC blocks, Lamaze bug, Learning Table, two new books, clothes and of course Santa has to bring new socks!
This little guy was spoiled as well. Santa brought him an easel and lots of accessories, a Radio Flyer turtle, a Mr. Potato Head, Go Go Coloring Pages, See and Spell Puzzle, bath letters and numbers, a new Percy train, a few books and of course Santa had to bring him new socks as well.

I just love how each family has their own holiday traditions. There are several that I would love to take on as my own (in due time) like going to a tree farm to pick out the perfect tree, reading a different Christmas book each night before Christmas, putting your shoes out for Santa to leave gifts in, etc.... my parents (well, my mom) always gave me a new set of pajamas to open on Christmas eve and Santa always left a new ornament in my stocking and Danny's Dad always read Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. And Although we did get the boys matching winter jammies for Christmas Eve and Danny read Twas the Night Before Christmas, Santa's little helper, Gramma Karen, still brought new ornaments for each of us.

Owen was just a little too excited to sit still for Danny's reading, but Ben managed to make it through the entire story (w/o falling asleep like Owen did on his first Christmas.)



We managed to get one or two pictures of the three of them by the tree. We have to ask Owen to give the baby a kiss in order to get him where we need him for a picture with Ben.

We took Owen and Ben to the mall today to see Santa and to get Ben's first Christmas ornament. The line for Santa wasn't too bad and Owen seemed really excited to go see him. We have been watching Christmas shows on TV and singing Christmas songs all month and I think he's finally figured out who this big guy is and what he is all about.

When it was finally Owen's turn to see Santa, he was WAY more interested in a toy train set they had on display. He kept screaming "TRAIN! TRAIN!" I told him he would get a candy cane if he went to see Santa, and that was the only way I could get him over to him. Once we tried to get Owen to sit on his lap, he took off running towards the train set...Boy, oh boy! We figured we'd at least try to get a picture of Ben first and then we'd wrangle Owen for one of the two of them. The one of Ben came out really cute and then we put Owen on Santa's other knee and ended up with a picture of him half naked squirming out of Santa's arms. We then asked him to go give Ben a kiss and FINALLY, the lady got a semi decent picture of the two of them. Now, if we had only fixed Owen's hair... Hopefully he asked Santa for a hair cut!!!

Oh, and this Santa wasn't giving out candy canes, instead he had paper hats like the ones you used to get at Burger King. Owen was not happy with the hat and kept saying "candy cane, candy cane." Next year I'll bring my own...

I think Ben asked Santa for the ability to grab his feet and to roll over from back-to-front, because he did both today!!!! Yay for Ben!!!

I keep asking Owen what he wants from Santa and each time he says " A-B-C." Whatever that means...

on making cookies, but that doesn't mean he didn't get his picture taken!

With the weather being warm I have had the hardest time getting in the Christmas spirit, so this morning I got up, went to the grocery store, came home, turned on some Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and started making cookies.

I wanted to make a dozen and half for us to decorate and a half dozen to share with Maggie, so Miles could decorate a few for Santa. Well, I made the first batch with all fresh ingredients that I bought at the store except for the nutmeg I already had in the pantry. After I mixed the dough and got it ready to go in the fridge, I noticed the dough smelled a bit lemony and it should have smelled like nutmeg and cinnamon. I didn't realize nutmeg went bad.... You're probably wondering what rock I have been sleeping under...

So I ended up making the dough w/o nutmeg and just used cinnamon. Not the same, but oh well. After the dough had a chance to sit for a little while we started cutting out the cookies....

Here's Owen helping me cut out the first few... (please ignore the mess behind us)

Our snowman came out just perfect. Good job Owen!

This past Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We had a great lunch with some of my favorites and then we let Owen and Ben open their gifts.

Owen LOVED everything he got!!! He is such a lucky little boy!
Here is my Grandma.... She just turned 75 a few weeks ago.

Last Saturday we celebrated Christmas in Kernersville with Danny's family. His Dad and Step mom, Natalie, prepared a wonderful lunch for everyone and later we did a small gift exchange. We decided to draw names this year, which was nice. The adults each got one nice gift and the kids, well, were spoiled rotten (as they should be, right?!).

Here are Natalie and Ben. Ben is playing with his new toy from Wendy. It was a hit!!!!



Danny with Owen and our nephew, Colin.

At Ben's 4 month, the doctor suggested I start Ben on rice cereal. I immediately got a little teary and told him I wasn't ready. He said that was fine and that they just recommend starting cereal sometime between 4-6 months. So I waited until his 5 month birthday and tried it that night...

I pumped enough milk to make the cereal, which took like 20 minutes not including time to wash all the parts of the pump and the storage container...

Made the cereal...

Put on his bib...

Managed to take pictures while serving up the yummy goods...

My sweet little Ben is 5 months old today. It's a gloomy day, so I'll have to try and get some better pictures another day, but I still wanted a few to mark his actual monthly birthday.