Something's Missing... X2

 

Over the last couple of years a lot of Aiden's friends have been losing their teeth.  He has been patiently waiting for his to get loose and about a month ago he got his first "wiggly tooth."  Last week, as we were putting the kids to bed, Aiden asked if we could pull his tooth out.  I quickly deffered this job to Shae as it kind of grosses me out.  Shae said that he would do it but wanted to ask our good friend and dentist the best way to go about it. So the kids went to bed.  About an hour later we heard a very loud whisper coming from their room.  "Brooklyn mumble mumble (we couldn't tell what he was saying), Brooklyn mumble, mumble."  So Shae went in to investigate.  Brooklyn was fast asleep but low and behold Aiden had pulled his tooth out.  He was so excited and couldn't wait for the Tooth Fairy to come.  However, he really didn't want to give his first tooth up.  So the following is a letter he wrote to the tooth fairy asking to keep it.   Oh yeah and as soon as he was back in bed and all was done we got the info from our dentist on how to pull it out.  (ha ha always great timing).

 

Luckily the Tooth Fairy obliged and Aiden got to keep his tooth.  (Now what we are supposed to do with it I will never know).  Here is the response letter.
 

And wouldn't you know about a week later tooth #2 comes out.  Pretty soon we will have a toothless wonder and the Tooth Fairy will be out of business.  So excited for you Aiden, we love you!
 

We Love Mickey!!!

Our Florida adventure continued as we arrived at our final destination for the week, ORLANDO!  We were all so excited to visit Disney World.  Our first stop was Disney's Hollywood Studio's.
 

The Toy Story ride is a must.  Our kids (even Caitlin) loved it.  Also one of their favorites is the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. The kids become the size of bugs and everything around them is giant sized.
 

Hollywood Studios also brought some of our favorite characters.  Here we are with Mickey, the Incredibles, and our newest favorite Jake from Jake and the Never Land Pirates.

Disney celebrated Leap day by opening Magic Kingdom for 24hrs, for the first time ever.  We weren't sure we wanted to brave the crowds, but after some deliberation and consulting of our crowd calendars, we decided to give it a go.  We were so glad, the crowds weren't bad at all and we had a blast.  

Eagerly waiting at the park entrance.  We love how Mickey is everywhere, even in the plants.  

Our own little Minnie Mouse!

Family photo, although it was a bit bright for some of us.

We loved meeting the princesses and getting their autographs.  The characters were so fun and entertaining.  Rapunzel even wanted to know how Brooklyn got into her closet that morning.

Oh so happy, he must have just been kissed by a princess.

Taking a little break on the people mover.

While we waited for a show to start, the kids had fun dancing in the street.

More Disney fun...Carousel, Goofy, Souvenirs, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie was one of the highlights of the trip.  Brooklyn especially liked when Minnie twirled her dress.

Our Minnie stroller (which we purchased in Oregon) made me happy.  I thought we would see them all over but we only saw one the whole time we were there.  

At the castle waiting for the electric light parade to start.

This parade was a highlight for me.  I have very fond memories of seeing this parade when I was five.  I also had the music record (yes, I am that old).  I would dance around the living room to the music all the time.

Brooklyn thought they turned the castle pink just for her.  She was so excited.

As our Disney adventure came to an end, I have to say I wasn't ready to come home.  However, all good things must come to an end.  We look forward to more adventures with Mickey soon.  

Didn't want to come home...

I am just warning you this is a long post... So read at your own risk.  Plus there will be more to come in another post or two.  

We had an amazing trip to Florida at the end of February and I want to capture every moment.  It is not often at the end of an 8 day vacation, where we are in close quarters and have a packed schedule that I say I want to stay longer, but trust me I would go back in a heart beat.  WE HAD A GREAT TIME and I didn't want to come home!!!!  So here it goes...

This was at one of the many airports we stopped at on our way to Florida. Our kids are super travelers and it helped that they loved their new travel buddies (I loved them too.  Especially if we need to get somewhere fast and we could pull the kiddos along).

Our first stop was Jacksonville and really our main reason for going.  My cousin Laura was getting married and we just had to attend the event of the decade (well besides our own wedding of course).  Here is a group of us attempting to go to the beach.  Unfortunately we went on the wrong day.  It was 80 degrees the day before and 60 this day.  Oh and yes, that is a parka my sister is wearing at the beach in Florida. HAHA!

Laura and her hubby Chris.  Congrats to  both of you.  For some reason we took a ton of action pictures but didn't manage to get our own of Laura and Chris at the Wedding so I had to pilfer this one from Facebook.

After the ceremony Aiden got a hold of the camera.  Here are some of his shots.  

We were lucky to have the whole family there for the wedding.  It has been 7 years since all the extended family has been together.  Here are the west coasters.

Gotta love this family!!!

Some snapshots at the reception.  Oh I forgot to mention for all the golfers that it was at the players club on the 18th hole at Sawgrass.  Let me tell you it was so beautiful, fun and the food was spectacular.

Ahhhh...Those in wedded bliss!

Our awesome Grandma.  Yep that's right, she will be 90 in August and she was out there cutting a rug.  I heard she didn't even get home until after midnight.  We love you Grandma.

Parents of the bride.  I know looks more like sister of the bride.  You look great (both of you)!  The wedding was so wonderful and we loved every minute.  

Let the dancing begin.  First dance as husband and wife.

And we partied it up.  You should have seen the dance floor.  It helped that the DJ was awesome and could sing anything.  Aiden was a kick and crazy on the dance floor.  I guess we were too busy dancing and didn't get any video.

Daddy/Daughter dance

Daddy/Daughter, Grandma/Grandson, Grandma/Great-grandson dance

So apparently we missed a few pictures, but the next day there was a wonderful family brunch and lots more memories.  Congratulations again Laura and Chris!

Luckily this trip we did have time to get over to Grandma's and see the trains.  Her community has an amazing electric train room that they love to show of.  The kids loved it.  

Our next stop was Melbourne.  We headed there with Nonnie and Aunt Mer.  We were excited to see Nana, Aunt Cherry and Uncle Larry.  We had a very nice visit there as well.  It was so good to see family we don't get to see very often.

Caitlin was a big fan of the chocolate pudding. YUM!

So was Aiden!

Picture of the whole gang before we headed to Orlando!

Stay tuned,

Next Stop Disney World...

2011 Christmas Galore

Christmas this year brought lots of fun, exhaustion, and smiles to the Johnson household. We were grateful to have Grandpa B. and Nonnie join us for the holiday and a good time was had by all. For some reason I missed a bunch of photo opportunities so here are a few glimpses of the big day.

Brooklyn is in her new Christmas jammies and ready to go to bed so Santa can come.

Before the kiddo's went off to bed, they each watched a special video message sent directly from the North Pole. Santa had a special machine that he could input each child's photo into and it will tell him if they have been naughty or nice. (If anyone needs this for next year go here.)

This is what Christmas looked like after Santa had come but before the kid made their morning appearance.

Christmas morning, or I should say day, came in stages. It began at 4 am with the first appearance from Aiden. He had come running into our room so excited to see if Santa had come. Luckily, he wasn't to disappointed when we sent him back to bed for a few hours, however, there was no more containing at 7am. Since his sisters and the grandparents were still sound asleep and we didn't have the heart wake them, we let him come out and see what Santa had brought him. The Lego's definitely kept him busy for a while. Brooklyn was next to arise, followed by grandpa and nonnie. Of all the days, Caitlin chose Christmas to sleep in (wish she would do that more often) so we let her. We all had a wonderful time watching the magic unwrap.

After a leisurely morning and delicious breakfast, we were of to church.

After Church we came home, opened our stockings and enjoyed a delicious dinner. Unfortunately this is where I forgot to take some pictures. We made our first prime rib for dinner and thanks to Costco it was super easy. It was also probably the best prime rib we have all had.

Here is Brooklyn trying out her new make-up.  I had to laugh because I had purposely chose a lipstick pack of make-up, but she decided it was for her eyes too.  

Everyone, including me had to get in on playing with the new toys.  It has been so long since I played with dolls.  I still love it.  

A white Christmas was not in the forecast at all, but that Santa is a smart fella and the kids found some canned snow in their stockings.  The had a great time making and playing with the minimal amount of fake snow. 

Well that was Christmas in a few glimpses, we hope yours was just as wonderful.