Monday, December 14, 2009

Three Years!

**I had to add a picture of the beautiful roses he had delivered to me at work today!!**

I would just like to write a quick note to say that today is mine and Gene's three year anniversary!! We didn't have a wedding, but we had a sweet little 83 year old man (that looks JUST like Colonel Sanders) marry us in his living room in his precious Fayetteville home!! (He was a Justice of the Peace in the county we live in!)

It was just Gene and I, and truth be told, I wish we had the boys and more family there, but it was also kind of nice to just be us because it was very intimate. I love my husband very much and with each day I love him a little bit more. I am very blessed that God chose him to be my husband and the father of our children!!

I love you babe and happy anniversary!!!!!

Christmas Tour of Homes 2009

Christmas Tour of Homes with The Nester

Hello all!! I would like to first thank you for stopping by my page on The Nester Christmas Tour of Homes 2009!!! I hope you enjoy your visit!!

Welcome to the Johnson household!!! My mom bought me the little Santa and Snowman from Kirkland's this year because she knew I had been eyeballing them since we first spotted them!!

Our "J" flag is outside by the steps to our porch! I eventually want to have more outside decorations and lights on the house, it just didn't happen this year.

My little snowman cookie jar I bought at Kirkland's a couple of years ago!

Snowman towels that hang on our oven handle.

Snowman spoon rest that says "Snow" on it that I bought this year. Granny has a matching one!! I gues I've made my kitchen snowman themed!!

Mom and I both bought this "N-O-E-L" candle holder from Arty Crafty after Christmas last year. It looks plain sitting up there by itself and I still haven't bought any candles to go on it yet either! That's a goal for the after Christmas sales this year.

Our piano with the lighted Frosty and Santa. Eventually wanting more stuff on it also, and a pretty Christmas picture to hang over it!

Table in our dining room. It has several new things on it, and I'm sure one of these days I'll get pictures in both frames!

The fireplace and the blanket Mom bought me! Our stocking holders spell out "S-A-N-T-A" but they're silver and hard to see. I may need to think about painting them either red or gold! Our stockings have little gingerbread faces on them and say "Merry Christmas." I found them on sale the year before last, once again after Christmas! And they just so happened to have 5 left! I also put gold and red bows on the lighted garland. I told Gene that I need a big pretty wreath to hang above the fireplace!

Our little family of 5!!

And, last but not least, our pretty Christmas tree!!! We only have one and this picture does not do it justice but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my tree! I got it on sale after Thanksgiving last year and it stands 9 ft tall and is the perfect width for our living room! It doesn't have any sort of theme, it's just various different ornaments, candy canes, white lights (because they're my favorite) and red and gold bows!! You can't see the tree skirt in this picture but it's red with green trim and has a cute little snowman on it!!
I've already done one post with some of our Christmas decorations and if you read that then this was a little redundant, but thanks anyways for enduring it again!!! Now you need to check out The Nester's page and visit all the other homes on tour!!!!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

I thought weekends were for rest & relaxation...

Whew! I'm exhausted. This weekend has got to be the busiest one I've had in a while, and it was even a 3-day weekend. As I've talked about before, I'm on the Springdale Police Department Benevolent Fund Committee and we do fundraisers to raise money for the police department and it helps officers' families in time of need and it also pays for our annual Christmas party and our annual Awards Banquet. We've been having weekly meetings and fundraisers since September preparing for tonight, which was the Christmas Party.

So, Thursday I went with the other girls on the committee to run errands and get stuff together and then went to Colt's band concert that night. Yesterday I went shopping with Teresa to get jewelry and shoes, got my hair cut (which is super cute by the way :)), ate lunch with 3 of my best girls, got a flat tire (my wonderful brother came to mine and Grace's rescue because Gene and Dad were both working and out of pocket), made 2 different trips to the mall, grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and then home! I told you....whew!

Corey's birthday is the 15th so we told him we would celebrate with him last night. He decided he wanted us to go out to eat then go "real bowling!" You see, we bowl alot here at home on the Wii and, truth be told, I always either win or come in second and we give Corey a hard time because he doesn't ever do very good! So, he said he wanted to go "real bowling" so he could put us to shame!!

However, Gene worked construction this week on his days off from the PD and they had to finish the job they were working on this week before they could leave last night. They ended up not finishing and leaving north Bentonville until 6:30. It's an hour drive home from there and Gene was way past exhausted, so we decided that we would just stay in instead of going out. The boys and I ran in to Blockbuster and Tim's Pizza to get movies and dinner before Gene got home!After my flat tire incident Tanner took Grace with him to Mom at school because she is spending the weekend with her Nana and Papa at Granny's house!
So, we ate yummy pizza and let Corey open his birthday presents. We rented the movie Duplicity and put it in first. We all fell asleep. I'm going to try and give it another chance, but it was pretty slow and really confusing, which was disappointing, because the previews looked cute.

We also had some delicious birthday cookie cake!! Great American Cookies has the BEST cookies in the world!! Gene felt horrible for getting home so late and not being able to take Corey out, but we told him that we'd make it up to him next weekend.

This morning I was up early again and in Springdale by 9 to get things set up for the party. We ended up only having to work on it till about 11:30, at which time I headed to Target to try and find some earrings to match my necklace and I wanted to get my nails done! I accomplished both, but the earrings ended up coming from JCPenney's instead of Target. I LOVE getting my nails done and it had been a while since I'd been able to!! I then headed home and watched the movie The Orphan with the boys before time to shower and get ready. That movie was C-R-E-E-P-Y!! Pretty good, but creepy. I loved getting dressed up in a pretty dress, heels and jewelry and posing with my honey!!! The party was a success and all went smoothly! I do have to go back to work tomorrow but I am sleeping in!!! I don't really plan on getting up until I have to get in the shower and get ready!!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Best Giveaway I've Seen!!!!!

Ok ladies, and maybe some gentlemen :), I have some huge news! Even though, I'm sure all of you already read Kelly's blog, you have got to go check it out right now because she is doing the absolute biggest giveaway I've ever seen!! It's amazing!!

Ok, what are you waiting for?! Go here now!!!

***Okie dokie, it just got sweeter!! There are a total of 5 fabulous blog ladies that are each giving away this fantastic item so go visit BooMama, NieNie, MckMama and Stephanie!!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Show Us Your Life - Christmas Trees!

I decided I would participate in Kelly's Show Us Your Life blog carnival today because she is doing Christmas trees and I haven't posted my decorations yet so I'll just do it all in one!!

I bought this tree on sale last year right before Thanksgiving at Lowe's and I'm in love with it! It's 9 ft tall and is the perfect size for our living room. I only use white lights because I'm personally just not a fan of multi-colored ones! This picture isn't that great, but it was the best I could get and I wanted to post one without using the flash.

You can see my tree skirt really good in this one, but the tree looks kinda funny. It really is alot prettier in person! We had been using the same gold tree skirt for the last 3 years and Gene and the boys had been using it before me, and last year I looked and looked for one that I really loved to replace it but never had any luck. The first time I looked at Wal-Mart's Christmas decor this year I saw this one and fell in love with it! And it was only $20!! I have never done a "themed" tree and growing up we never did either. It was always just a bunch of different kinds of ornaments. I love all kinds. Big, small, bright, unique, traditional, you name it and I'm probably going to like it! I also never really realized how many people put up more than one tree in their house. That's just weird to me! I don't really have the room for more than one and I just like the idea of only having one.

The piano is decorated the same as last year and am looking to get some more stuff to add to it. I also want to get a big pretty Christmas picture to hang on the wall!

Our little table is a little different this year because I have some new things! Mom bought me the snowman thing on the bottom, the little thing that says "snow" and the red and black frame that says "Christmas 2008", I just don't have a picture in it yet!

I got the little snowman cookie jar from Kirkland's the year before last and I just love him! Except I don't keep cookies in it because they don't stay fresh very long in it! So, right now I'm using it as the centerpiece on our dining room table because I need to find a pretty Christmas one.
I took some pictures of my favorite ornaments too to share! This one, obviously, is one of Grace's very first ornaments!! I can't believe this is already her 3rd Christmas.

Mom bought me this one this year and I think it's just perfect! After all, His birth IS the reason for the season!!

I bought this one last year from a kiosk in the mall and I love the personalized ones!! So fun!

This one was from the same kiosk and I just think it's adorable!

I got all 3 of the kids personalized ones to go in their stockings last year and since Corey plays basketball I thought this one was fitting! I'm going to buy them each a new one every year that somehow symbolizes something that happened during the year and when they move out on their own I'm going to send them all with them so they have a start on their own tree!!Grace's from last year isn't entirely accurate because she wasn't a ballerina, but she LOVES to dance and it was cute so I picked it!

Of course, Colt's was a piano!! It was perfect and exactly what I was looking for! That kid loves loves loves playing the piano, and I'm not complaining because he has insane talent and I enjoy listening to him play!

On Thanksgiving when we were at Granny's house putting her tree up I was going through all of her old ornaments that she doesn't put up anymore and I came across a bunch of cross stitched ones like this that my mom made many many years ago!! Granny said I could have any of them I wanted so I brought several of them home to put on my tree! I love having them and not only does it remind me of Mom, but also of Granny because I can remember putting them on her tree as a little girl!

I also have a whole nativity set that were some of my first ornaments and they go up every year!

This picture didn't turn out very good either, but our stocking holders spell out Santa and our stockings have little gingerbread men on them and say Merry Christmas. I got them on sale half off after Christmas the year before last and lucked out finding 5 matching! I put the lighted garland up and then tie some red and gold bows on it. The blanket hanging on the wall Mom bought me last year and it's cute as can be and we just hung it up today because I finally decided I liked it there!
Ok, that's all my Christmas decorations. Well, no, actually I lied. That's not all of them, but the others I just didn't get pictures of! I'll do that sometime and add them on. Now I'm off to help Grace work a Christmas puzzle and watch the series finale of Monk!
Tomorrow morning Mom, Stephanie, Grace and I are headed to Branson for the weekend! We're going to Silver Dollar City tomorrow to see all the Christmas lights and of course will be doing some shopping and eating!!! I'll be sure to get pictures to share!!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Funny Girl

Grace Elaine Johnson has quite the imagination and quite the vocabulary! She is so funny sometimes and I wonder where she comes up with some of the stuff she says. I decided I would share with you some of her most recent funnies.


*This picture is an example of one! One day last week Gene was making breakfast and I was working on stuff around the house when he yelled at me to grab the camera because Grace wanted a picture of her and the snowman together. I was in the bedroom at the time and couldn't figure out what snowman he was referring to. When I came around the corner I saw her sitting up on the kitchen island with her arm around our snowman cookie jar! She just kept saying "Take our pitcher!" So, I obliged! (Please excuse the tub of butter sitting out!)

*Our conversation this morning while I was making myself some oatmeal for breakfast:

Grace: "Mama, what you makin'?"

Me: "I'm making me some oatmeal for breakfast."

Grace: "Can I eat your oatmeal wif you?"

Me: "Why do you want to eat my breakfast when you didn't even eat your cereal Daddy fixed you?"

Grace: "Cause I do."

Me: "Ooook, well, do you want me to fix you some oatmeal?"

Grace: "Yea, shuw!"

Me: "Ok, do you want peaches & cream, bananas & cream, blueberries & cream or strawberries & cream?"

Grace: "Bluuuuebewies!"

Me: "You are definitely your Nana's girl, aren't you?"

Grace: "Yea, I shuw am!! I am my Nana's girl! Naaaaana, Naaaana, Maaaama, Maaama!!"

Oh, the kid cracks me up!

*While I was eating my oatmeal in the recliner Grace was sitting in her little beach chair on the living room floor holding her sippy cup of milk. Her cup slipped in her hand and some of it dripped out of the lid. Our conversation:

Grace: "Uh oh, Mama, I spilled my milk aaaaalllll over da place."

Me: "It's ok, it's just a few drops, here is a rag to clean it up."

Grace: "Thanks!" (Wipes up the few drops.)

Me: "Now go put the rag in the laundry room because it's dirty."

Grace: (While wiping the rag on her shirt) "No, I wipe it off. It clean now."

Me: "No, it's still dirty, you need to go put it in the laundry room please."

Grace: "Not right now." (Throws the rag on the floor.)

Me: "Grace Elaine, go pick the rag up and put it in the laundry room right now."

Grace: "But I can't get up." (Trying to pull herself up and pretending she isn't strong enough.)

Me: "Yes you can, stand up."

Grace: "Mama, I can't get up."

Me: (Extending my hand to help her up.) "Here, ok, up ya go. Alright, now you're up, go do what I told you to do."

Grace: (While patting me on the shoulder.) "Thank you, Mama!!! You are a goooooood Mama!" (Still patting my shoulder until she bends over and picks up the rag.)

Me: "Oh, I know I am!! Now go!!!"

Grace: Giggles and runs to the laundry room.

*Yesterday Grace and I must have both been worn out because we both slept in until 10 am and that very rarely happens with her. Since that never happens and she got so much sleep she was consequently not tired last night when it came time for bed. When I got home from work at almost 10:30 she was still up, which is an hour and a half past her bedtime. Gene was only about half awake because he started back to work yesterday after being off for 3 weeks so he was not used to being up at 5:30 and working all day. So, my fault, she slep too late and was therefore staying up too late. So sue me!! ha!

I changed into my pjs and washed my face and then got Grace's teeth brushed and headed upstairs with her. First of all, she was H-Y-P-E-R!! I mean, she was running around like crazy squealing and laughing and being silly and I was worried it might take a while to get her wound down and asleep. I was right! When we got upstairs she was being goofy and kept trying to arrange all of her stuffed animals that sleep with her. Finally, she settled in and we read a Christmas book before turning the light off. The book we read is a new one I bought her Saturday and she was already saying most pages right along with me, and was even beating me to some parts! It amazes me how much her little mind absorbs!

Once the light was off she kept squirming....and squirming.....and squirming.....and squirming some more! Finally I was very stern with her and told her she had to be still and quiet and go to sleep. I knew she was very sleepy but trying her hardest not to stay still because she knew she would fall asleep. We have a night time ritual that consists of a regular kiss, an eskimo kiss, a butterfly kiss and also an ear kiss (a kiss totally made up by Grace herself where you rub ears together...silly I know, but she loves it!) before she goes to sleep. She and I had already done all four, but after a few minutes of the squirming she picked up her stuffed Santa and gave him a regular kiss, an eskimo kiss, a butterfly kiss and then an ear kiss! It was the cutest thing, because she didn't know I was watching her. She did it one more time and then laid him down beside her! She's so sweet when she wants to be!!

As hard as it is being the mother of a toddler, it is also very rewarding and I had no idea what love truly was until I had children!!! They really are a blessing from God and I'm so blessed to have three wonderful kids!!!