Happy Birthday Dad!

From the Johnson family band, eat your heart out Von Trapp family!

I'm Back!

I've gone a whole 18 days without the Internet. It has been easy for me to go this year without a TV, but less than 3 weeks without the Internet and I felt quite deprived. I guess I need to work on my addiction.
We've had an eventful couple of weeks here in Albuquerque. Clark took his second board exam, and went to Dallas last week to interview for residency programs. Interviews went well and we are proud of all of the hard work he has put in this year. We were sure happy to have him home on Sunday.

The boys were ready for naps but didn't want to leave their Daddy's side.

The boys and I have had the normal day to day adventures. Like today, when I took the boys outside for a walk I was surprised to see members of the SWAT team standing on the roof of the apartment next to us, and even more surprised to see police officers holding a man on the ground, and a police helicopter circling above our apartment over and over again. I hesitated, not sure if I should run back inside, or get out of there. I threw the boys in the stroller and ran, hoping I didn't look like the suspect the helicopter was looking for. We came back about an hour later after a nice walk and it was quiet. Ethan said, "well I guess the cops left our neighborhood." "Yep, I guess so," I replied...just another beautiful day in the neighborhood!

The Worm

Ethan makes us laugh. A lot. I love hearing how he interprets the world around him. The other night while we were driving in the car he told me that he was hungry. He said, "I know I'm hungry because my belly feels like it has a worm in it." It made me laugh, I didn't think anything of it until later that night when he was getting in his pajamas I looked over and he was making his belly move like a worm.

Pretty impressive worm action, don't you think?

Christmas Day

I was so excited for Christmas this year, the whole month was filled with fun activities. I loved hearing Caden yell, "Nanta," everytime he saw a Santa Claus, and I loved all of Ethan's questions about traditions. On Christmas morning my we had to leave for church at 8:30, so Clark and I got dressed and then went in to wake up the boys and quickly get them ready for church. Caden was excited to be awake, he kept yelling "Nanta, Nanta." Ethan on the other hand stayed up so late the night before he was not happy to be woken up. I said, "Ethan, don't you want to go upstairs and see if Santa came?" He replied, "no, I want to sleep." Well his tune changed as soon as we brought the boys upstairs.

The boys had a few minutes to look at the toys Santa brought before we left for church. On our way home from church Ethan said, "I must have been the goodest boy in the whole world, because Santa brought me the coolest present in the world!"

When we came home we unwrapped presents, I loved watching the boys get excited over everything. Ethan was so excited to give Caden a new truck that he helped me wrap.

Santa knew just what we needed: more bouncing off the walls at our house! Caden got a bouncy horse, and Ethan and I got hoppity hop balls! We haven't stopped bouncing since! Too bad we live on a second level apartment this rotation!

In November I had a lot of fun making my boys homemade Christmas gifts. I made Ethan a picture book called Two Tales of Ethan. One story is about our Mutton Bustin' Boy, and the other is about Brown Dog. He loves his new book.

My little Caden loves horses right now, so I made him a stuffed horse. I didn't really have a pattern that was the right size, so his proportions are a little funny. But Caden loves his Clip-Clop.

It was a wonderful day. We had a great time being with Clark's parents and being together as a family.

Christmas Eve

We had the best Christmas Break...a whole week in Durango! Christmas Eve was a great night. We had a wonderful dinner with family.

While we were putting the final touches on dinner, Caden lined up all of Grandma's Christmas bears and I found him just sitting here by them waiting for the festivities to start.

Grandpa lit 50 luminarias on Christmas Eve. On our way back from looking at Christmas lights the whole drive way was glowing.

After dinner we sang Christmas carols.

Our nephews Seth, Sam and Henry put on a fabulous 3 act play (with real machetes).

Then the kids got to break the annual pinata!

After the fun we opened our annual Christmas jammies. My favorite was when Clark opened the Boise State PJ's (he claims he isn't a fan, mua ha ha!)

Stockings hung to the fireplace with care, and two cute little boys in their new jammies (or their cowboy costumes as Ethan calls them).

After we set out cookies and milk for Santa we tucked the boys in bed. Ethan was too excited to fall asleep, and kept sneaking out to see if Santa had come yet.

Holiday Party at IT'Z

The program here has been so nice to invite us to their holiday parties. Today the whole family got to go for a pizza buffet and lots of video games at IT'Z...pretty good company party (especially considering we don't really work for the company).

We all had so much fun, but the reason I'm blogging about it is so I can remember my personal highlight of the night...winning this little angry bird!

Before I married Clark I thought these claw games were a big set-up. I thought it was impossible for anyone to win. Well, Clark showed me the light. He has some uncanny talent for the claw and can win pretty much everytime. We have an assortment of large and small stuffed animals he has won over the years. Well tonight it was momma's turn to bring home the animal!!! It only took me two tries!

Ethan's highlight was the spinoli.

Caden's highlight was this free merry-go-round, and he rode it A LOT! He LOVES horses!

Clark's highlight was seeing me about get whip-lashed right out of my bumper car, a 10 year old boy chased me around the whole time...relentless:

And this last video is just one of my favorite things that Caden has been doing lately. When he gets excited he tucks his arms in, scrunches up his nose, and makes a funny little laugh.

Nothing says Christmas like pizza and an arcade!

River of Lights

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a trip to Albuquerque's River of Lights. It was amazing! We saw everything from zoo animals, to an under sea world, to a giant pumpkin we could go inside. Then my camera battery died, but it was such a chill (literally), cool (literally again), and fun activity!

Wow...lights!