Merry Christmas!

Here are a random group of pictures from our family Christmas Eve program and Christmas morning. I think I ran the movie camera more than I took pics, but here's a sampling:

The Palmer girls looking cute and sassy in their matching sweaters...oh my how much fun were these girls!
Our little angels

Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem via the Sienna-donkey. (thanks Scott for letting us have your old halloween costume!)

Sienna read a wonderful story during our program

Miya did a beautiful dance

Lila looks like she's a bit tipsy, but actually just woke up and is our cutest little elf

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with chimes, singing around the piano, the Christmas story from Luke, our little pageant and shared talents all around. Christmas morning was relaxed and fun with plenty of games and food and laughter and sweet prayers. We missed our family who were away this year and they were continuously in our thoughts. We love our family and our Savior whose birth we celebrate this wonderful season. Hope all was happy and bright for all of you!!

Thanksgiving and Gingerbread

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time for us to be together and show our love and appreciation to family... and our children...

and our grandchildren...

who are the most precious angels on earth. What a joyous, happy time it was for us to share this time together.

There was the usual food, and football and fun. Even on a cold day for SC, we managed to get our girls out on the swings, throw the football and work on riding bikes w/out training wheels.

And of course, in the Johnson household, Thanksgiving also means the begining of Gingerbread season! The little elves had a ball decorating their own house. It was beautiful!

Thanks to our family for gathering together and giving Larry and I the best gift we could ever have; our family-all together-sharing the joy and love we have as an eternal family unit.

Baby Lila Day Two

Day two for baby Lila and the Palmer family. I think they are soooo excited to have three precious girls. Lila is a precious angel. These pictures were taken when she was 24 hours old~just one day...amazing!

Baby Lila is Here!!

Baby Lila was born today, Saturday, November 21 and is she amazing! She is beautiful and perfect, she and Alisha was both doing well when we left them, with Lila being about 3 hours old. Alisha is looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight, Matthew will not fare so well on the recliner he has in the room there. We took the girls up and spent a while visiting, holding, cooing and loving. They love her and want to hold her and kiss her and that's just the way it ought to be!

What a beautiful family! We'll get more pics tomorrow when we go after church. What a happy day for us all!!

Come on Baby!

We are patiently waiting for baby Lila to come. Miya loves to kiss and hug her baby sister, we hope that will continue after she is born! At least there is an end in sight. The induction will be next Tuesday morning. Yea!
In the mean time, we are getting a bit of fall, even though it's 72 outside today, and the girls have enjoyed sliding into the pile of leaves.

So baby Lila, come on and join in on the fun!

Birthdays, Halloween and Beach

As usual, I ended up putting these pictures in reverse order of when they happened, but hey, do you want perfection this early in my blogging career?!
Birthday treasure hunts are a tradition in our family and they are especially fun with Sienna and Miya's help. Alisha gets lots of help from the girls in reading and finding her clues and opening her gifts.

Larry and I took a much needed three day total R&R trip to the beach the first week of November. It was fabulous! The weather was warm, the sun-warmer, the salty breeze-cool and the hot tub-hot! It was a great three days and we are ready to go again.

Trunk or Treat was a big two ward deal with dinner, parade and lots of trunk or treating. The Palmers were a family of classy witches, who had turned Matthew into a newt! So cute, lots of fun but I'm glad I don't have to plan another one of these for two more years!!

Grandma's birthday brought a new feature...a treasure hunt written by Sienna, it was awesome! And I even found my gifts. Two of my three favorite treasures are right here with me:

Fun times, fun family, and now a true time of gratitue is on it's way as the whole family gathers together for the Thanksgiving Holiday... I can't wait!!!

Go Figure!

I looked out my window and what did I see??
Flowers blooming underneath my fall tree!!
Yup! Right underneath the tree with gorgeous red, yellow and orange leaves is my gerber daisy that just bloomed, along with the azaleas, impatiens and lantana who have all bloomed in our recent warm temps. So is it Spring, or Fall??? It's anyone's guess here in SC, go figure!

State Fair and Applesauce

You know it's fall when it's time for the State Fair and making applesauce. So I've had fun recently doing just that, while Larry continues to have fun flying back and forth from the left coast to the right coast. Unfortunately, we were so busy canning our 51 quarts of applesauce that we didn't even get a picture of the process, but we had some fun after the work was finished. Kinsey is a doll and was so much fun to play with. She is almost crawling, trying very hard, but just not quite getting on the move.
An updated family photo of Scott, Alisa and Kinsey, three cutie pies!! (I love my kids can you tell?)

Kinsey giggles as Alisa flies her on her belly.

Kinsey on her throne, looking, oh so precious!

Now off to the State Fair with the Palmers. There was the cotton candy, the ice cream the corn dogs and gyros, the Fisk Fries, the fried candy bars...and a few fun rides for the girls. Sienna and I have a blast on bumper cars, look out world, here we come!

If the pig races were not funny enough, Sienna and Miya sport their pig noses and got lots of attention and laughs throughout the fair.

The big slide race, was a close one but grandma won by a toenail! Check out Miya's face. She was that way the whole ride down, then broke out with a big grin once it was over.

Back to the bumper cars with Dad. This is what the fair is all about, seeing sheer joy on a child's face.

(And just in case you were wondering...14 1/2 lbs and counting, in spite of the fair food!!!)

More Soccer fun

Sienna and Miya pose at Sienna's soccer game last week. It was raining for the first part. Sienna was more concerned about the drops on her glasses than she was kicking the ball, and Miya was having more fun with the umbrella than watching a bunch of kids run around a wet field. Ahhhhh, kids soccer, don't you love it!? It's a blast for us to be there and watch Sienna have so much fun and get better each week.

OOPS

Boy do I need help figuring this thing out... Alisa, we should have worked on this while you were here! The last post did not turn out the way I planned it and somehow I missed the main statement that Scott, Alisa and Kinsey came up for the weekend to go to the USC game and celebrate his birthday with the family. We had a great time together as always.
So my format on this thing stinks and the rest of it is pretty bad too. Hmmm is anybody surprised? Someday I'll get a lesson on how to do this thing right then I'll knock your socks off with awesomeness. In the mean time, you get the gist of our fun and excitement. Stay tuned!!

Scott's Birthday Weekend

Scott enjoys his birthday gifts, including some fun movies, money to go golfing and this USC Gamecock Jacket.

My three precious girls. Although I think Kinsey is trying to say, "get me out of here!!"

We had fun cheering Sienna on in her soccer game. This is where she actually did some running!