Happy New Year!

2012 flew by for us, and 2013 promises to be an exciting year for our family! We had a fun night with friends tonight...

6:30 pm - Let's get this party started... by taking a nap!

With his best buddy "Mamie" (Amy)

Being Silly

New word for the night - "snake!" He liked it as long as it was in the cage (he takes after mommy on that!)

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Day

Christmas day was as busy as Christmas Eve - we had our traditional breakfast with friends, then we had family dinner. E opened his presents in shifts because he wouldn't stop playing with things to open the next present.

First look at the tree:

The flashlight was the favorite - we barely got past it! 

Workbench - a joint effort by Papa, Daddy, and Mommy!  :)

He had to try out the race track!

 New jammies, new slippers, and new backpack! He had a great time playing with friends at breakfast!

He loves Aunt Toni's soft carpet! A cool cell phone from Maw Maw.

Playing with his new "choo choo"

Christmas Eve

We always seem to pack in lots of things on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm so grateful to have family and adopted family to spend time together and make memories. We had a busy day today, starting with spoiling - I mean breakfast and presents - at Gigi's house. After that, we drove to Raleigh to pull a J&J. They both have to work today and tomorrow so we surprised them at the hospital with goodies. E loved the play area on their children's floor. And he loved seeing his aunts! Tonight, he opened his jammies and we're all ready for the big day tomorrow! As I looked at him laying there, I realized how blessed we are to have such a sweet, loving boy. We're also blessed to have so many people who love our family.

Friends

The last few weeks I have been so grateful for my wonderful friends who have helped out while we have taken turns being sick with one thing or another. On Friday, J&J surprised me by being in my driveway when I got home from work. My bah humbug mood immediately lifted and E was a perfect angel for his "aunts." I was able to get some important errands done, and we had a great time too. One of the highlights was E walking around in Jenn's shoes. It was hilarious!

Christmas

We finally got the tree up and Emmett is fascinated with it. He loves when we turn on the lights and he loves the ornaments with photos. But what makes me happiest is how much he loves playing with his toy nativity set and the magnet set from Grammy. We're trying to have a simple, Christ-centered Christmas this year, without all the hoopla. It feels so much happier and much less stressful!

Video - Hammock

I love these videos, so I had to add them too!

Mega Road Trip - Late Thanksgiving and the Road Home

We had to postpone going home a day, but that made it so we could have turkey and everything on Friday. We packed up and headed back to NC on Saturday, and rolled into our driveway around 6pm Sunday. We didn't take as many stops, because we were pretty pushed for time. My favorite moments in the car were E getting creative with how to block out the sun.

Mega Road Trip - The Day We Want to Forget

Wednesday night, after family pictures we went out for Mexican food. That night, we got hit with food poisoning. Seven out of eleven of us got sick, including all three of the Johnson clan. That meant no Thanksgiving dinner. Poor Papa had to take care of everyone!

Mega Road Trip - Mon., Tues., Wed.

All Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we all just spent time together. We played in the backyard, went out to eat, had a fire in the backyard, took family pictures (to come later) and had a marshmallow gun fight. Lots of fun memories!

Couch bums!

E and M hit it off! They loved playing together!

Willie's has a huge sandbox. The kids loved it!

Busy.

Thank goodness Papa has a swing!

I absolutely love this picture. They were SO happy.

Craft time with Grammy - oreo turkeys!

Told you they hit it off!

Roasting marshmallows

G was telling us a ghost story. I love how E is snuggling with Papa!

We were laughing SOOOOO hard.

So much fun!

Mom says they're still finding marshmallows!

E mastered the stairs really quickly. But we still didn't let him go up and down alone. His favorite thing to do was go halfway up and sit and wait to get caught. Then he'd giggle and get that mischievous grin.

Mega Road Trip Day 3

We made a stop at the beach this morning to walk around before getting back on the road. We also had to stop in Louisiana at a really neat visitor center (Atchafalaya Basin) and an authentic Cajun restaurant since Cam had never been to Louisiana. After what seemed like forever, we FINALLY got to Grammy and Papa's house!

Daddy's little shadow

E thought the raccoon was a "diddy" (kitty)

Yummy food!

Notice that Grammy couldn't wait to get to a certain little boy!

Mega Road Trip Day 1 and 2

We started out on our road trip after work on Friday, and made it to Atlanta before midnight. The next morning we got up and decided to head to World of Coke. It was pretty neat (way overpriced though) and it helped wear E out for the next leg of our journey. We made it to Gulfport, Mississippi with some time to spare and had time to go out to eat, swim a little bit, and get a good nights sleep. E was a real champ in the car!

E's favorite part was the conveyer belt that moved the bottles of coke around.

He also liked the "tuck"

"Where are we, E?"

He is much more comfy in the water than over the summer.