sisters

these girls truly are the best of friends.......

december 2007

whew......this month flew by! i'm sorry it has taken so long to post pictures from the so many events of the month- as you'll be able to see for yourself, we've been quite busy! let's start on november 29th, when miss maya rae turned 4 years old. what a day we had- opening presents, going to the mall (her favorite thing to do), getting manicures together (our first of many- sorry, daddy!) and even making pizzas at rudino's! a few days later, we had her birthday party with 12 of her 'closest' friends at a place called "jumpin' beans"- it's a large room with a deluxe inflatable bounce house. the kids jumped the day away...which leads me into december. we started out the month with catie's 4th birthday and party at a great museum in downtown raleigh. the kids met lots of fun creatures and made some crafts about them. the following week was my birthday which always proves to be an unforgettable day. somewhere around this time, we had a visit from santa at the park and the temperature dropped so we actually had to come home early because it was so cold (yes, our blood has surely thinned from those brutal chicago winters). towards the end of the month, we marked auntie shannon entering her 9th month of pregnancy with our newest cousin- baby emily! we are anxiously awaiting her arrival in january! on december 22nd, we celebrated nanny's birthday with the most special gift of all being the arrival of uncle brian. it was so nice to have him here especially for nanny's big day. december 23rd was another special day for us in that our cousin ian turned 1! he's been running around for quite some time now, but he has now officially entered toddlerhood. we wish we could have been there to help him celebrate, but we were definately thinking (and singing) about him all day! soon after his birthday, christmas was upon us. the girls had a WONDERFUL experience this year and thank you to all who made the day so special. happy holidays to all and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!

belly laughs

this face

will get her anything she wants.......................... :)

thanksgiving weekend

what a weekend! we joined the graham family down at nanny and pop-pop's for a weekend full of family fun. when we arrived on wednesday, it was over 80 degrees... so we headed to the beach! the girls had a great time playing in the sand (although were disappointed they couldn't swim). on thanksgiving day, we enjoyed watching the thanksgiving parade and looking for our friends who braved NYC. the weather held up for us, so we all enjoyed some time outside and then some delicious food. later that night, my mom, 8 month pregnant sister and i headed out for some midnight madness at the outlets!

we came home on saturday to fulfill the johnson family tradition of getting our tree and decorating the house for christmas. the girls had a blast running through the tree farm before we found our perfect tree. even little ava was able to help with hanging ornaments this year!

it was a fabulous weekend..... take a look!

portraits

ava, 18 months

maya, 4 years old

halloween 2007

Happy Halloween! The girls were dressed as fairies this year. They had a great time at our neighborhood halloween party and trick-or-treating. This holiday is more fun with each year they grow older...even little Ava kept up with the girls!

some october photos

here are some pictures from this month. the girls are doing great with their activities and each other. in the past few weeks, maya and ava have really started to play together. sometimes i think that we don't even need to keep any toys downstairs because most of the time the are making up games out of common household objects. this month, ava decided she is too big for the high chair and refused to sit in it anymore----- so we moved her to the booster seat at the table and she loves it. at dinner, she often reminds us to say a blessing by reaching out for our hands and saying "gace" (grace). maya continues to amaze us with the things she says. she missed school 2 days thins week for various reasons and she reminded us that she needs to hurry up and get back to school so she can get "more spanish in her mouth". enjoy!