Valentine's Day Treats

I signed up to bring cupcakes for Sadie's Preschool class. I may be crazy...or bored...or both. Yeah, I think I am going to go with crazy. But they are oh so delish!

Swirled white cake with strawberry cake

Extra strawberryie in the middle = extra deliciousness

1/2 with cream cheese frosting and red sprinkles

the other half with strawberry frosting and pink sprinkles

And still some with colorful heart sprinkles ... these are for preschool, after all

Happy Valentine's Day to all our lovies out there!

H-A-DOUBLE L- DOUBLE U- DOUBLE E-N

I am not sure how or why but the pumpkin carving got procrastinated to Halloween day so we were in crunch time to get them done. (I am not sure why I felt that pumpkins MUST be carved for Halloween, but I did) And, I thought Sadie would think it was so fun.
Basically the following pictures are a big fat lie! (is that an oxymoron?) I had the camera ready for Sadie's first foray into the pumpkin. It was also her last.  Exact  Quote: "Ewwww! It is too yucky! You do it mom. I am going to go watch the care bear movie, OK?"

So, while Sadie was care bearing I furiously carved. **Sigh** Perhaps next year it will be a fun family activity.

Near the end of September Sadie saw a fairy costume and totally wigged out because she wanted it. I stalled on the purchase, and good thing too because between then and now she also wanted to be a number of different princesses, a bumble bee, a pirate, a dinosaur, a kitty and a cowgirl. Lat week we finally settled on a witch ("The Good Kind, OK Mom?") thanks in large part to the witch lawn decorations in our neighborhood. This is my interpretation of a good witch. And of course, she needed a black cat so Alyssa filled the role.

I was on door duty while Ryan took Sadie out. We were prepared for about 100 trick-or-treaters. We got about 15. Ryan took ALOT of candy to work today to add to the communal candy bowl. However, the low number of kids in our neighborhood means Sadie totally scored some loot. Our neighborhood is full of Grandmas who handed out full size candy bars and capri suns, of course they were tied up in cute Halloween bags and tied with ribbon. I guess when you only get 15 kids at your door it is easy to do stuff like that. Is it surprising to anyone that she asked for candy for breakfast?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

I don't really get into holidays that much. I have "fall" decorations for my front porch which suffices from September to December. Then, of course we decorate for Christmas. But all of the other holidays of the year are neglected in the decorating department. I sometimes remember Easter baskets for Easter. Hopefully I will get better at that since Sadie is starting to get old enough to understand and remember. (I think it could be traumatizing for a child if the Easter bunny didn't show up...) I figure out what my Halloween costume will be about 15 mins before we need to be at the Halloween party, and that is if I even dress up at all. As far as patriotic holidays go, I think they are important, but I am just not going to wear red, white and blue.

So that is why I think it is so funny that I always really want to make green food and wear green clothes on St. Patrick's day. But here are some things to remember for future celebrations:

• Green sprinkles on your apple cinnamon muffins just looks like mold.
• Maybe the holiday that embraces the color "green" is NOT the holiday to celebrate with food. i.e. green milk, green muffins, green enchiladas... Green just isn't an appetizing color for any food besides salad.
• When Sadie discovers that green sprinkles exist, they will become a part of every food choice for the day



Sadie eating a banana covered in green sprinkles, while wearing the only green shirt she owns...which is a size too small :) (Sorry phone pics always come out blurry)

• If you wear green to the gym you will realize how super uncool you are when you are THE ONLY ONE wearing green.
• Or, perhaps I was the coolest one there. Who knows?
• Ryan will NOT remember to wear green pajamas, despite being raised by the mother he was, and will look at you very angrily when you pinch him.
• Don't laugh when Ryan looks at you angrily. It just makes him more angry.

Maybe it is time I pick a new holiday to embrace?

Happy President's Day

Apparently the entire population of Colorado had the exact same plans for celebrating President's Day as we did.
Our day's plan:                                        
Snooze for breakfast
Reality:

65-75 min wait at Snooze.

Plan B: Had breakfast at Corner Cafe

Plan: Be very cultural and vist the art museum         

Reality: Museum is closed on Mondays.

Plan B: Take Sadie to the children's museum 
Reality: Museum is so chuck full that there is not one free parking spot in the whole parking lot.
We decide that if we can't even find a parking spot, inside will be just way, way too crazy. We head home to give Sadie a nap.
Reality:
2 hours later Sadie has not slept a wink and is still playing/screaming in her crib.

Plan: We fore go trying for a nap and head to the bowling alley

Reality:
45-60 min wait for a lane. Oh, and that will be $60 for the 3 of you to bowl for an hour. No Thank You!

Plan B: We take Sadie to McDonald's and let her play on the playground.

Plan B, Part 2: We try another bowling alley with no wait and it is only $30 to bowl.
Reality: Sadie throws the ball twice and is ready to head home.

I think we will stay in for the rest of the night and avoid the crowds. Besides, there is a new episode of House on tonight...and what could be better than that?

Oh, and I propose a 3 day holiday split. 3 days for each holiday and the workforce will be split in thirds for which day they get off. Then everybody can visit the children's museum AND avoid chaos and catastrophe. I'm just sayin'. I don't really dig the crowds a holiday produces. Who is with me?

Jingle All the Way

Ryan is quite a music aficionado. I don't know if this is why he is so anti Christmas music or if it is just some strange fluke, but Ryan really hates Christmas music. In fact, to even get him to listen to Christmas music it has to be some cool indie rock guy singing it, like Sufjan Stevens. Anyway, I love Christmas music. Not the cheesy stuff, but I like the really pretty classical stuff like Handel's Messiah and I like the really festive classics like Let it Snow or The Christmas Song. I am glad to see that maybe Sadie is taking after me in the Christmas music department. Here is a little Holiday cheer. Merry Christmas!

We Are Christmasing

With 60 degree weather and no snow it just doesn't seem like Christmas time here in Denver. It took going to Seattle, where they do have snow, and looking at the Christmas Village at Seattle Center to convince me it really is Christmas time.

So now we are officially in full swing Christmas mode. We have Christmas treed, we have Christmas cookied and I am in the middle of Christmas carding. So fun!

At the tree lot, picking out the perfect tree



Got it! We are ready to go




Sadie got to help decorate this year




Making us some cookies




Decor



Tomorrow I am off to the library to get some books about Christmas so we can try to teach Sadie what this special and crazy holiday is all about. Cheers!  

We Grew a Thanks Tree

My blog buddy Abbie posted this on her site and because I think that she and it are totally fabulous I copied her.

For FHE this week we planted a tree. A tree of thankfulness. Sadie and I gathered the leaves. I got my craft on. Ryan got doused in glue (what a good sport for putting up with my crazy ideas, because who ever thinks it is a good idea to give your 2 year old a bottle of glue and a paint brush?) Here is the finished product:

We glued the leaves to the paper, wrote our names next to the leaf and then on the back made a list of things we are thankful for.

This is what Sadie is thankful for:
Binkies
Juice & Milk
Toys
Tinkerbell on the TV
Slides
Bubbles
By the way, she is not thankful for the park or the dog. She made that very clear while we were giving her ideas

I am thankful for:
Babysitters (I am dying without one right now!)
Good friends
comfortable beds
a warm house
good hugs

Ryan is thankful for:
Families
computers
work
play time
Fun movies

I displayed our finished product on our kitchen table so that every time we see it we can remember how much we have to be thankful for. We are truly blessed.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Daddy Day

Sadie and her daddy on Father's day.

Sadie started her day out with her daddy giving her a bubble bath. Squeals of laughter in the bathroom could be heard from any room in the house.

Then it was off to church. Sadie was sitting in my lap during sacrament meeting and we had her back to daddy. She looked up at me and said, "Where did daddy go?" She turned and looked and said, "ah!" and she crawled over to him and said, "daddy, daddy" and gave him a great big hug and cuddled on his shoulder.

After nursery, Sadie ran straight out into the hall, down the hall and into the chapel in the middle of the next ward's sacrament meeting yelling, "DADDY, DADDY DADDY!" She was half way down the aisle before I caught her.

After church Sadie and dad relaxed on the couch. Nothing like World Cup Soccer and a sandwich on a Sunday afternoon.

After a fabulous 3 1/2 hour nap, Sadie and dad went for a little walk, jumped on the tramp and blew some bubbles. Dad made an ingenious pull strap for her bike out of bungee cord. Sadie wasn't impressed. Sadie helped dad water the garden, and ended watering herself more than the plants. Dad wasn't impressed.

We went to visit papa and got to call Grandpa Johnson on the phone.

Sadie ended her day with a great big kiss for dad.

Sadie has an awesome daddy!!! And, she sure does love him.

Mother Nature's Cruel April Fool's Joke

I woke up this morning trying to think of a really awesome April Fool's joke to play on someone today. But, Mother Nature beat me to the punch.

Being pranked myself left me not so much in the mood for any pranks!

But, I am in the mood to hear if anybody else did anything good. Did you do a good prank? Or, did anybody get you good??

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We spent Christmas and New Years up in Seattle with Ryan's family. It was really great being up there and visiting with everybody. We had a lot of fun. It was really fun for Sadie to be there with her cousins. Here are the pics:

Christmas Morning

Opening Presents

Christmas Dress

Matchy, Matchy a.k.a. The Triplets

Happy New Year!! Poppers (at 8pm before bed)

2009 Johnson Family Christmas Card

I wanted to send this to all of you via snail mail, but... if you didn't get it you can know that you need to email me your address. Until you get around to doing that you can read it here. Merry Cristmas.

Carol of the Johnsons

Hark! We’re doing well,
not much new to tell.
While we lived day to day,
’09 quickly slipped away.

Ryan does persevere,
As he works in his career,
All his projects, they have rolled,
Won’t stay in Utah long, we are told.

Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong

We’ve been married 5 years long,
still pretty sure we didn’t pick wrong,
we celebrated with a fling,
to San Diego last spring.

Lisa’s enjoying the domestic sphere,
Cooking, cleaning, wiping a rear.
Not a moment to spare,
Her full time job is Sadie’s care.


A Puerto Rican location,
Our yearly family vacation,
The waves they did pound,
We relaxed and unwound.

I think we are finally getting the swing
Of this whole parenting thing,
It has brought us great cheer,
But we’ll let you know…the terrible two’s are drawing near.
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas,
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas.


Hark! Hear the yells
Sweet Sadie squeals,
All seem to say,
It’s time to play.

She’s walking here,
Then running there,
Growing so old,
Our hearts she does hold.

Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong

Her vocab is strong
New words all day long,
She’s a social little thing,
Except when to mom she does cling.

August brought a year
Since she came here,
Her cake she did wear,
At her birthday affair.

She needs to gain a pound
The dr. does sound,
She eats without fail,
But never tips the scale.

She likes to dance and sing
She keeps us smiling.
Oh what a year,
Filled with gladness and cheer.

Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas,
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas.
Our love we do send, On without end,
To every home, And all we’ve known.
Ding, Dong, Ding…Dong!

Love, Ryan Lisa & Sadie (16 months)

Happy Halloween

When searching for inspiration for this year's Halloween costumes I couldn't help but notice how often I have posted on this blog about what a monkey Sadie is (see here, here, here and here) and I realized I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to make her a real monkey costume.

Ryan and I, of course, are the zoo keepers. I specialize in primate training while Ryan handles waste management (yeah, I have an awesome husband).

Happy Halloween!

The Johnson Independence Day Weekend Celebration

This 4th of July weekend we got the chance to go on a Brewster Family Stay-cation!

We started our weekend early, on Thursday, so as to get as much adrenaline pumping through our veins as possible. We took our 4th of July party to the next level with a little H20 action at the good ole Jordenelle Reservoir. Ryan was looking to nail some knarley air with his sick wake boarding skills. And I, queen of the towable tube, was looking for some hardcore wake.

Sadly, the rain chased us off the lake before I got the chance to demonstrate my wicked talent. Bummer! And Sadie didn't get a chance to go on her very first boat ride, sad. Next time I guess.

We hid from the rain at my parents' cabin. We had lots of good food and fun games.

We packed Friday full of adventure. We caught an early matinee movie. Ryan took his good buddy, Cole, to see Transformers and I went with Deena and Kayden to see Up. I thought the movie was pretty cute but Ryan was disappointed with Transformers. (Shock! Ryan not liking an action movie...what is wrong in the world? Or, maybe he is finally realizing that a movie with only special effects and no plot isn't really that great.) :)

Next we became Olympic bobsledders, or as close as we could possibly get to being Olympic bobsledders. We rocketed down the Alpine Slide, racing on a fixed track of banked turns and exciting straight-aways. Dude, it was Awe.some. Ryan totally beat me.

Sadie paraded around Park City in a really cute patriotic outfit that her grandma Johnson sent her.

Saturday we celebrated the 4th of July at the Oakley Rodeo. It's a Brewster family tradition! The rodeo was a great chance to enjoy a little family togetherness. And togetherness it was! Crammed together on the bleachers we even got close to people who weren't our family. Kennedy's diaper malfunction didn't smell half as bad as the guy's armpits in front of me did. Despite the "country" smell, I thought it was really fun. If you really want to feel the blood pumping in your veins then I would suggest becoming a bare back bronc rider. Cowboy up! One of the riders got pinned between the fence and his bucking horse. However, that wasn't as crazy as the bull riders. One of them got kicked in the chest by his bull. Ouch!

Sadie's favorite part was the Rodeo queens. (Secretly, I think that was my brothers' favorite part too) :) Sadie watched intently as they rode by and waved back at them with both hands. She also really liked to clap along with everybody else when they clapped.

And, of course, it just wouldn't be a family vacation without a few board games.

We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing phase 10 and settlers. And, of course, it just wouldn't be a family vacation unless Kayden and Doug cried every time they lost a game. Ha Ha!

Happy 4th of July. We had lots of fun with the Brewsters, the Johnsons and the Van Ausdals. Hope you all had a good one!