You better not pout, you better not cry . . .

Klive was obviously new to the Santa scene this year. He assumed that the more he cried, the more Santa would take pity on him and bring him the good stuff.

June and Winnie, on the other hand, are seasoned pros. Their Santa letters were promptly written and sent out in mid-November so that the big guy would have time to order it all from Amazon and load it on his sleigh.

Imagine their surprise when they were greeted with an e-mail message from ol' St. Nick at the beginning of December. If they had any doubts about his realness at all, they were immediately put to rest. Santa knew everything! He knew about their birthday parties, their Halloween costumes, he knew that they got a new baby brother in August. And yes, he even knew exactly what they asked for for Christmas!

To mom's delight, he also gave them a big reminder that if they wanted him to make his visit with toys and treats, they had better be helpful to their parents and be kind to each other.

And so the kissing-up began.

About a week later, we were enjoying a Christmas cookie party at the Marler's house when all magic broke loose.

The kids were in mid-frost when we heard an unexpected knock on the door . . .

Look who showed up!

Santa dropped by with some amazing tree ornaments for all of the flabbergasted kids! He took each one on his knee, spoke to them by name, talked about the great things they had done this past year and made sure that his list of their present requests was accurate.

He read "The Night Before Christmas" and shared the story of the baby Jesus and the first Christmas with us. He even let the grown-ups climb up on his lap and be part of the fun.

These kids had smiles from ear to ear. What a special night! What a guy - excellent!

And we heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Giving Some Thanks

A Thanksgiving post in January you say? Well, that pretty much sums up my life right now - about a month behind with everything I need to get done. You're lucky it's being documented at all! We had a great Thanksgiving (last year). It was so nice to have my parents in Oklahoma and celebrate with them. God really blessed us this year by sending them to Oklahoma. They have really helped our little family through some rough spots this past year and it is so nice knowing they are just down the street! Unfortunately, I only took pictures of the kids that day, so you'll have to imagine the rest of us.

June was quite the little chef this year. She whipped up this awesome relish tray with froggy avocado dip. I think she's in charge of relish trays from here on out!

Here's Klive celebrating his first day of thanks. He totally loved the Macy's Parade. I think it had something to do with the enormous posters of the Victoria's Secret models plastered all over the buildings in the background. He really gave thanks a few days later when he started eating solid foods for the first time. Sweet potatoes are now the true love of his life!

And this year we had the special treat of visiting June's first grade class for her first dramatic performance. They put on a wonderful play and shared with us all that they were thankful for. June danced like a turkey, sang and even stepped up to deliver the longest speaking part. That's great for a girl who has become painfully shy at school.

We were so proud!

I really felt that I had so much to be thankful for this year. We were blessed with a beautiful new baby boy, and after several months of struggling to regain my health after the delivery, I feel so blessed to just feel well and enjoy my days as a mom and wife. Plus, we can finally see a light at the end of the med-school tunnel and I am so thankful for a hard-working husband who is a super-man of a dad and always the love of my life. So thankful!

A sad good-bye

It seems like just yesterday that our dear friends, the other Johnsons, were on their way to Oklahoma to be our neighbors. And now they are all grown up - graduated from orthodontics and off to Colorado. I know it was truly an answer to my prayers that brought this great family to us for a little while. Who else could have brought two best high-school buddies back together.

We had a scrumptious girls' night out at the Melting Pot to send Steph off right. I definitely filled the cracks of my broken heart with bread smothered in cheddar cheese.

And these cute girls had one last play date. A night at the ballet just seemed right.

It has been a total blessing to watch our girls grow up together. Sofie is more like a sister to June and Winnie, and we are going to miss that sweet girl like crazy. In fact, Winnie has since named all of her dolls "Sofie" in her honor. We will miss you Steph, Spencer, Sofie and Luke!

Klive's Blessing Day

We finally got around to blessing Klive this month. It's a good thing Kolby was home this fast-Sunday, because I'm pretty sure chunky here would have outgrown his blessing sweater by December.

This sweater and booties are very special to me. They were made by my great grandmother, Nana Louise. She made some precious stuff, including several more sweaters, booties, hats and even Winnie's coveted owl blanket. I love seeing the kids use these family heirlooms. It takes me right back to Nana's little apartment where we played concentration, ate fruit-filled cookies and drank mini-glasses of Pepsi.

I had my mom take a quick picture of our fam at church (not sure why Kolby decided to squat down for it). Kolby gave Klive a sweet blessing with the help of Papa Lee, Uncle Curt and "Uncle" Spencer. A nice gal in our ward even transcribed it for me, so I can share some of it with our family back home and save it for posterity:

We would like to bless you that you will continue to grow and develop normally. We bless you to be a great joy to your family.

We bless you to surround yourself with good friends and that your testimony will grow and develop as you grow older; that when the time is right you will go to the temple and serve an honorable mission.

We bless you to always be a force for good in the world.

Halloween in Wonderland . . .

I may be biased, but I think my kids' costumes put all others to shame this year. We've had some good ones in the past - who could forget Winn and June as the courageous duo of Sloth and Chunk from the Goonies. And our Scooby Doo crew last year was pretty sweet. But our adventure in Wonderland this year was by far our best work.

June made a lovely Alice, complete with ultra-goldy locks. She even wore black light-up heals to keep us trick-or-treaters safe from the crazy Halloween motorists on sugar-highs.

Winn was on the top of her game, strutting her stuff as the ultra-villainous Red Queen. She rocked that giant red hair poof better than Snooki.

Here she is ready to do some head chopping.

Klive definitely won for the precious factor in his White Rabbit sleep-sack. Ironically, sewing those ears on almost made us late for the very important date!

Mom went as the Cheshire cat, but her costume failed in comparison to the kiddos. I think I just ended up looking like I was suffering from a cold and tried to remedy it with powdered donuts. Also, I forgot about the fluffy tail I was wearing and gave myself a heart-attack when I reached back to tuck in my shirt. There's nothing like being attacked from behind by a furry creature on Halloween. It was definitely a trick, not a treat.

The kids had a ball at Aunt Becky's, as usual. She is the best! Her house is a Halloween masterpiece, she feeds us like kings, and she lets us trick-or-treat in her ritzy neighborhood. Definitely better candy out there!

And the icing on the cake after the long neighborhood raid was Ella's baby goats. The kids were in heaven giving loves to these little guys.

Too bad it wasn't a pig. You know the Red Queen loves a warm pig belly for her aching feet. Happy Halloween 2010!

Winn's Hippo Party

Winn, ever the patient child, waited for two whole months to celebrate her birthday at the zoo. Things got a little crazy after I had Klive. I got staph and then hospitalized, Kolby moved to Tulsa for a month, June went back to school, Klive demanded all of the parental attention, and this little girl's dream of having a hippo party sort-of fell through the cracks.

Winnie is such a kind-hearted girl. She never whined, complained or bugged me about the party favors gathering dust in my closet. She knew one day Mom would get her act together and we'd celebrate her 4th birthday in style.

So last week we slapped on our animal masks . . .

And headed out on an animal scavenger hunt to find the birthday treasure.

You couldn't fool these smarty-pant kids, they knew everything about the animals and found their way to the loot with ease.

Winn had a great day with all of her best buddies.

And the pink hippo cupcakes in navy blue-frosted ponds really hit the spot.

It was a great day . . .

. . . for a really great girl!

Our Little Man

I'm using this blog as my excuse for not making a baby book for Klive. I didn't do a very good job keeping the girls' books current anyway, so I have promised myself that I would write down the big baby milestones on the blog instead and share them with everyone.

Today Klive laughed for the first time. And he laughed at his best friend - Winnie. We were in the midst of our morning ritual - watching Ellen and having a bottle. Winn was being her usual goofy self and doing a little bum shaking with Ellen and it must have struck Klive funny because he did a burst of laughter. Winn was so excited. She prides herself on being the best big sister.

Here's a couple more shots of our little dude. He's just shy of three months, and I am so ready to start him on cereal. He demands feeding every hour, and lately he's been drinking 6 to 8 ozs. at a time. What a little porker.

He's very alert and wants us to pack him around all day, just so he can look at everything. He whips his head from side to side and his eyes are as wide as an owl, just trying to take it all in. He hates to nap in the day because there is just too much to look at. I think he's a lot like June in that respect. She didn't want to miss a thing either.