Christmas at Everland

Hope you don't get sick of Everland photos! Abby LOVES it there, so you're gonna see lots more before it's all over...we still have a year & a half in Korea. Every person that comes to see us WILL go to Everland. Mark my word. Abby's favorite roller coaster was not open the day we went. Not good. She actually handled it a bit better than I thought she would, maybe she won't get that gene from Mommy. Here are some pictures from our fun day! Next time, she wants to go ice skating. :)



Bloggy love,

Different Kind of Day...

Whew. I'll tell you something that was blatantly obvious this Thanksgiving, I am normally a spoiled, lazy bum. Sure, I might help my mom do a few things, but I definitely learned (the hard way...I never want to see stuffing & sweet potatoes again!) that I am a pampered princess on Turkey Day. It made me so thankful for all the special people who take such good care of us. Plus, I will be doing more than dishes the next holiday back home!

Thanksgiving is the holiday we typically spend in Illinois with the Waggoner's & Biehler's...I can't remember the last time I missed it. On Thanksgiving Day, we spend a fun day at my Gram Jane's house with my dad's side of the family. We eat lots, work on projects (Brad is usually supervising the building of a gingerbread house...he's not a bit of a micromanager!), take the dog on a long, cold walk, go on a horse drawn carriage ride, eat some more & then have a birthday party for my cousins Julia & Michele. I missed it all very much.

Then, on Black Friday, I go shopping with my mom, Aunt Sharm & my BFF, Sarah. I haven't even talked to my Aunt Sharm or BFF, so it's just weird. Anywho, they didn't leave at 4:30 a.m. this year...where's the dedication? This year, I went to the BX (Base Exchange)--it was my only choice! I really hadn't planned on it, but last minute, I skyped my friend Amanda & she was walking out the door (at 6:35 a.m.--it didn't even open until 7!)! Brad came too (YES, you read that right!); good thing he came, he was needed to carry the tv we bought! :) The best deal was my new printer...it usually sells for $99 & I got it for $29--WOOHOO! We were bummed that we forgot the camera--how can we blog without pictures?

Back in the states, Saturday is the day we head out to Grandma B's to do our lunch & BINGO! I hate missing BINGO. We do serious gifts & gag gifts--it's a hoot & we've been doing it FOREVER. FOREVER=when my cousin Amy & I talked my grandma into making everyone play it. Oh how far we've come...it is organized now (& very serious some years!); they will carry on without us. Had I remembered, I would have sent some gifts to have my mom play an extra card & win me some gifts--can you imagine the gag gifts I could've sent from here?? I'm sure I would get the gifts that suck...yes, I have not forgotten the year I got a NOTEPAD. C'mon people. It was in the good gift pile. Anyhow, I'm not bitter. AT ALL. :)

So, we are making the best out of the holiday weekend. We have put away the Fall decorations & have all the Christmas goodies piled up in the living room. The big news for the year...fake tree. We are not proud of it, but we have crossed over. One of our favorite things is going to get the tree & the smell, oh the smell. The Boy Scouts are selling them, but we don't have a tree stand. It'll be our Korea thing. We have already explained to Abby that we will have a real tree immediately upon arrival back to the states. Good thing my mom puts up about 10 fake ones (um, I'm not exaggerating), so Abby doesn't seem to notice!

And for a finale, because what is a blog post without a picture? The #1 reason that Daddy doesn't run the blog...

This is what makes him pick the camera up...nice. Poor Bekah. Her daddy takes the picture & then her mommy puts it on the blog. I may let Daddy do a post about me playing Wii Boxing, just to make up for it, or maybe not... :)

Bloggy love,

Adventure with Gibby

The weather cooperated, so we set out on an adventure to visit the Korean Folk Village. We had a great time...we'd been warned ahead of time to stay away from the anatomically correct puppet show, so no worries there.

Bekah enjoying the ride...

Bekah loving the show...she was just taking a break from all the Korean ladies passing her around & pinching her cheeks!
Here's part of our dinner. We ordered noodle soup, when we meant to order Handmade Soup with Noodle Flakes -- we ate the first soup & tried again! It's a good thing we didn't give up because the noodle 'flakes' were yummy! What else was on the menu? Potato pancakes, leek pancakes, kimchi & rice wine...

This was funny. Abby ate all the clams & lined up their little shells; she said, "I'm ready to take all these home!" Yippee. :)

Here is Gibby posing...I made her do the peace sign. It's the cool thing to do in Korea & I want her to be in the know. I am toying around with doing it in our Christmas picture this year. Not sure how to get Bekah & the dog to cooperate though...
It was a nice day--the shows were fun & we were able to see the Colonial Williamsburg of Korea. :)

Bloggy love,

Gibby is HERE!

This picture really says it all...

Bloggy love,

Two for Tuesday...

I am impossibly pathetic with Friday's Fab 5, so here's what I forgot to post yesterday...

1. We saw snow flurries when we took the dog out!
2. Bekah cut her first tooth!

Bloggy love,

I WON!

WOOHOO! I never win anything & I won a really cool scrapbooking workshop at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I'm so excited. The name of the class is A Life Well Crafted -- the premise is awesome. The class is 12 months & it is worth $170. So fun. I won it at one of my fav blogs...Stacy Julian's. She has been one of my favorite scrapbook celebrities from the time I started scrapbooking! Thank you, Stacy!

Bloggy love,

She's a Spitfire...

Well, the really scary thing is that I could be talking about either one of my daughters. They are so funny and so sassy. How is it possible that my little 7-month-old has such a personality already? Most people who have had the privilege(?) to watch her, can tell you that she is definitely a Mommy's Girl & very loud about it. Which means that people usually have to hold her the entire time & I have to run away quickly! No surprise there. She's a high maintenance little mama. :) Bekah already thinks she's old enough to feed herself, so here are some pictures of her with her new 2 spoons. This is the ONLY way I can feed her...it doesn't always work! Another fun thing about Beks is that she has WILD hair -- love it!

Hand me the bowl of food Mommy...

Closeup shot of funky hair...

The picture doesn't really do it justice! When I got her up from her nap, it was standing straight up -- everywhere!

Don't ever say we lead a boring life at our house. Abby got one of her little chairs & put the weasel in the kitchen to watch it. I thought it seemed like a fun thing for Bekah to do with her! Funny thing is that a friend came over & she saw both girls in chairs watching the weasel. Party on. This is so totally a grandparent gift! Thank you Cracker Barrel. At least it doesn't sing a song...

Bloggy love,

I've Been Tagged...

I've been tagged by my friend Amanda to do the following:

1) Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer
2) Choose the 4th picture
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 other people

This picture is from last December. We had just finished an impromptu photo shoot for our Christmas picture. It is never fun. I hate that; I wish it could be. Maybe if we had someone outside the family take it, it might work better. Between the dog & the daughter, it has always made me want to spike my eggnog. At 8a.m. Anyway, this year should be even better...we now have 2 girlies & the aforementioned dog, who is still not out of the "puppy stage!" The fun thing about this picture...Abby still loves to play with laundry baskets!

Okay, here are my 4...tag, you're it!
1) Heather J
2) Dawn B
3) Sarah P
4) Laura G

Bloggy love,

No picture post...

Tuesday, Daddy had the day off. We went to Everland on Monday (will post those pics later), so on Tuesday, we had some jobs to take care of...mainly, grooming the dog. Indy does not enjoy it, so you can imagine how fun it is to have a really hairy dog that hates being groomed. Anyway, when it was time for his bath, Abby wanted a snack. I put some cheese on crackers for her & set it on the table. I headed into the bathroom to perform my Vanna White dog grooming assistant role (actually, her gig is MUCH better...I suppose I could wear heels & an evening gown???); I hear Abby at the door. She is standing there with the entire block of cheese, just eating off of it. What?!?! I was laughing so hard, I could barely ask her what she was doing. She said she didn't hear me tell her that I had set the crackers & cheese on the table, so she decided to help herself! Fast forward 15 minutes. We finished Indy Dog's bath & dried him off. While we were cleaning up the bathroom & trying to keep him from rubbing up against all our furniture, it hit me. Where had Abby put the cheese??!! No more than I go running to the kitchen, Indy is turning the corner with the entire block of cheese in his mouth...and a large pool of drool forming under him. Amazingly enough, he dropped it right away. I think he was in shock. Fun times here at the Johnson house... :)


Bloggy love,

Too Many Kids...

We have new development at our house...Abby has too many kids. It's not that we don't think it's cute -- it's just that we don't have enough time in the day. As with many 3 year olds, Abby marches to her own drummer...especially when it comes to timeliness. (Note: Mommy has NO idea where she gets this!) Anyhow, she now has to put all of them at the dinner table and to bed. This is VERY time consuming. Tonight, she was breastfeeding a pig. How does she have enough milk for all these kids?? I need her secret. So, I decided to have a conversation with her about getting rid of some of them or sending some on vacation. She responded by saying, "No, Mommy. They are all my kids. God gave them to ME."


p.s. Daddy noticed that all the kids aren't even pictured -- maybe they're in the backpack???

Bloggy love,

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Fun weekend project alert...Daddy & Abby made a super cute sock monkey. Last year, Abby got this for Christmas and we're just now getting around to putting it together. Probably a good thing--she has gotten very crafty with age. As you can see below, Abby was very helpful!

Daddy instructing Abby on the fine art of stuffing the monkey

Abby called the stuffing "fur"The finished product. We used buttons (blue to match Abby's) & we skipped the creepy nostrils & eyebrows. Super cute finished product, if you ask us! Abby has named it Clara. :)

Bloggy love,

Cause for Celebration

Here's our special bottle of Franciscan Cabernet Sauvignon that we bought to celebrate the closing on our house in Illinois -- that was back in August. I felt like drinking it (and about 3 more!) when our offer fell through the day before closing, but Brad made me save it!

Well, we now have MANY reasons to be happy...and celebrate. I got a phone call last Thursday morning & was surprised to hear our Realtor tell me that we had an offer on our house. We were so excited. Then, we got ANOTHER offer. At this point, we were in shock. In shock. What else could happen, you might ask? We got someone who qualified to rent our house too. It was incredible & we are so thankful. So, we are under contract.

We opened the wine & thoroughly enjoyed every drop. We decided that would be our "we're under contract" wine & to celebrate the closing, we're going out on the town! Celebrate Korean style...

Thank you for all your thoughts & prayers! Praise GOD!

Psalm 66: 1-5
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
Sing the glory of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
Say to God, How awesome are your works!
Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You.
All the earth will worship You,
And will sing praises to You;
They will sing praises to Your name.

Bloggy love,

Random Cuteness...

***Edited to include picture of our CMOF (canine member of family)*** Seems that my fan base (my mom & Sarah!) were horribly disappointed that I neglected to post a picture of Indy dog. SO, here you go...

I am going to bed now!

Bloggy love,