Christmast 2013-Cabin Trip

We spent Christmas morning at my mom's house, as usual, and had our traditional breakfast quiche and baked French toast.  It was Adelyn's first Christmas!  David got me a tandem bike and bike trailer.  He hid them in the garage and wrapper multi-colored Christmas lights around them-so cool looking and definitely not a present I was expecting!  We took the kids for a spin in it but decided to take the tandem bike back because it was really difficult trying to maneuver the thing without crashing! 



The day after Christmas, the Johnson family loaded up and headed to Heber for four days where we rented a cabin from Cheryl Brown, a lady I found on a facebook group.  The Cabin was super spacious and had  four giant rooms.  Unfortunately there was no snow in the Heber area, as we had been hoping, so we had to drive a little over an hour to get to Sunrise.  Neither Adelyn nor Easton were up for the cold and were so miserable from the ice flakes and wind blowing in their face that we only did a few brief rounds of sledding before heading back to our van.  Cousin Kiara discovered a little mouse running around in the snow at the bottom of the big hill we were sledding down. So funny!  We sang songs together as a family around the piano, the girls enjoyed giving each other massages, and the kids absolutely loved going up and down the stairs.  We also took turns shooting bb guns off of the porch, watching movies that Chris downloaded and playing wii games.  Cheryl also had a little "mini" girls hideaway house that she had decked out with cute girly décor.  So fun!

 We didn't have any "girl" winter clothes so Adelyn was stuck wearing Easton's baby jackets/winter gear.  Sorry girlie!

 Baby Adelyn

 Adorably shabby chic girl cabin.  Wish we had taken pictures of the inside!

 Making pancakes and peaches with mom

 The gang!

 Some cousin lovin'

 Brrrr!  It was too cold for us girls to play outside!

 

Heather and Andrew came down from Utah to Celebrate Christmas with us.  The also came with us to the cabin.  The two love birds were SUPER mushy-ick...young newlywed love!

 

December 2013

We decided to bless Adelyn the first Sunday in December-which was a month later than we originally planned as Chris and Jessica decided to bless their baby the first week in November.  Adelyn was 4 months old. On the plus side, this allowed me to decorate for our family lunch using Christmas decorations.  For lunch we had delicious breakfast burritos!

 Our little princess

 Such awesome family support we had

 I also finished my third stocking-a present I made for my little brother

 We decided to use our POGO pass and take the family to the Sea Life Aquarium at Arizona Mills Mall-for free!

 Later in the month, we went to Bass Pro shop and got our family picture taken with Santa.  We also rode the carosel and David and Easton took a picture in front of the cozy fireplace.

 Easton saying "How do ya do" to the snowman....something I taught him :)

 Eating a tasty meal at Garcia's

 I bought a bag full of super clothes from a lady and this was one of the adorable Gymboree outfits that came with it!  Love my sweet baby Adelyn!

 We took the kids to see Zoolights at the Phoenix Zoo

 

 And our kids enjoyed being crazy!

 Helping with the dishes

Merry Christmas!

November 2013

November was another month of uncertainty for us.  David had his last Physician Assistant school interview with Pacific University in Oregon.  He was super excited since he got to stay with his cousin Leslie and her family whom he hadn't seen since his early teenage years.  He said Oregon was super rainy the whole time he was there.  We were excited at the possibility of moving to Oregon and searched the internet for some possibly rental homes in the area (just to look at prices for the area).  We both had good feelings about the school as well as the interview and were so disappointed when the letter came that David was number 80+ on the waitlist.  David took the news especially hard and that is when I diligently began thinking of other career possibilities for us.  The thought to do nursing school came and immediately David jumped on plans to start looking into a few private schools that would allow him jump into a program quickly (without having to wait the normal few years).  It was hard knowing that David tried three years to get into PA school with no positive results....but looking back, I believe the Lord wanted us to go a different direction in the medical field.  The experiences with trying to get into PA school and getting a job as a CNA would come in handy later.

Our sweet little Adelyn turned 9.5 weeks old during the first week of November.  Having two kids was exhausting and such hard work.  I felt like I was aging quickly and in fact I was....I discovered my first gray hair on November 16! :) 

 

Because of Adelyn, we scored a 10$ gift card to Toys' R' Us.  The clothes were so expensive but I did find some adorable tights that were just perfect and well needed with the cool Fall weather coming in.  As usual, we set up our Christmas tree early on in the month of November.

 Adelyn so cute and tiny!

 Sister in Law Jessica and her kids (in the stroller) running the Turkey Trot

 Our family also got to run the turkey trot together for the first time in a few years.  Usually David is working that day.