If I were a "My Little Pony"

Over the Christmas Break, the girls and I decided to become ponies - "My Little Ponies" to be exact. I loved these ponies when I was young. Rainbow Dash was my favorite. Recently, I discovered the new "My Little Pony" on the Hub channel on our new Direct TV. The girls love the show, and I actually will sit down and watch it with them. These ponies can be pretty funny.

Anyways, we decided one day to make up our own pony names and "cutie" mark to describe our talent.

Me - "Harmony Breeze"
I am my favorite color - green and have rainbow colored hair like Rainbow Dash. I also wanted to have orange eyes because I love orange. My cutie mark is a sun because I light up every room - just kidding. I decided to do the sun because I love doing yoga and running in the sun. My name "Harmony" is symbolic of music, harmony through yoga and life, and the "Breeze" is from running. Pretty silly I know - but these are all things I aspire to do. I think it is a pretty cool name "Harmony Breeze." Maybe I should go by that all the time?

Kaylee - "Gracie Note"
Kaylee loves the color purple and desperately wants curly hair. Kaylee's cutie mark is a pair of ballet slippers and musical notes. Kaylee is always writing songs on the piano, singing to random songs, and constantly dancing. She also loves music, and loves dancing. When she was 3 years old in her first ballet class, her teacher told me that Kaylee was so graceful and I should definitely pursue dancing. Here we are 6 years later, and Kaylee is still dancing her little heart out.

Nicole - "Splash Dash"


Nicole loves the colors green and blue. She always has her hair in 2 braids and is constantly on the run. Nicole goes through life running and never slowing down, except to take the occasional power nap. Nicole is one of those people who goes through life with a ton of energy. Her absolute favorite thing in life is playing in water, so her cutie mark is a fish. When Nicole was a baby, she would spend forever in the bathtub laughing and giggling. She was the kid at the pool that you had to watch like a hawk because if you didn't, she would jump right into the pool. Infact when she was 4 years old, she jumped into the pool when I wasn't looking. Luckily, I turned around at the perfect time to see her sitting at the bottom of the pool with wide eyes. I jumped in and pulled her out. She was fine, but from that moment on Nicole put her life jacket on in the parking lot. This girl could spend every moment in the water splashing, swimming, jumping, etc.

Taylor - Color Shine
Taylor's favorite color is orange. She also love the pony Apple Jack, so she wanted to look like her. Taylor also wanted wings so she could fly. Taylor's cutie mark in a bunch of colored pencils. Taylor is my artist. She loves to draw...on paper, walls, books, receipts, magazines, etc. This girl always need a pencil and some paper. When she was 3 years old, I would bring her with me to my church meetings. She would drive me nuts because she would grab whatever I was writing on and would scribble all over it. It was not good enough for her to have her own, she wanted mine. The other day I was going through some of our books, and I found a stash of paper and pencils. I also found little scribbles all over the pages in the book. We also liked the name "Shine" because Taylor has to accessorize everything with some serious bling.

Seriously, this activity took a couple of hours and the girls had a wonderful time. I think we should all have some alter ego pony name.

Swim Team

Nicole started swim team this fall and she loves it. It is actually an introduction to the real swim team. She goes once a week and the "Dynamites" work on their strokes and endurance. Nicole loves it!!

This girl is a fish and could spend everyday in the water. She is getting pretty good at the back stroke. She still has a difficult time coordinating her arms and legs in butterfly and breast stroke - but honestly, who doesn't? I still can't do butterfly. I actually look pretty pathetic trying to do butterfly. Warren is a happy, proud Daddy watching his girl swim while the bigger kids are practicing. It brings back a lot of memories for him - ahhh, the smell of chlorine.

Blake's 2nd Month

Blake's 2nd month was full of growing up. The theme for this month is "He finally woke up!!" Blake seriously one day decided to be like a "normal" newborn babe. Not surprisingly-it was around his actual due date.

Taylor loved watching Blake make his funny arm movements. This was a favorite because he looked like a ballerina.

Nicole so desperately wants Blake to fall asleep on her like he does on Daddy. But, Nicole can not sit still. She is constantly wiggling...and Blake can't settle down.

Blake's new Favorites:
snuggling, bright colors, light coming through the windows, shadows, black and white tiny square pictures, feet uncovered (he sometimes kicks, and kicks until his feet are uncovered - and once they are, he will settle into sleep), he loves his hands by his face when he is sleeping and eating

Blake grunts and grunts and moves all over the place to get comfortable. Sometimes he lets out a loud cry before he falls asleep. Sometimes he lets out a HUGE burp before he falls asleep.

Blake's eyes are starting to become so alert. His eyes get so BIG when he looks at something.

When he was 7 weeks old, he slept through the night!! Crazy..you slept from 10:30pm -5:30am. It was probably because of the synagis RSV prevention shot. It was a fluke thing, but I greatly appreciated a good night sleep.

The girls crack up at his silly sounds. Their favorites are when he buzzes his lips and sounds like a horse, and when he is to sneeze but doesn't . It is so cute because he sighs after his "almost" sneeze.

Blake's Least Favorite Things
He hates having his feet rubbed or touched and hates being cold. When you put him in the bath, he starts to almost hyperventilate because he gets so cold. He also grabs his hair a lot and cries because he can't figure out how to let it go.
This month he was diagnosed with acid reflux, and this makes him really sad. You could actually hear the gurgling of acid in his throat. Poor little guy, would grunt and grunt - he just seemed so uncomfortable. He hates taking his medicine and whenever he lays on his back, watch out because it is messy!! It is so sad because he cries and cries when the really acidic stuff comes out. In fact, there were numerous nights that Warren had to sleep with him because his stomach hurt so bad. After a few bad nights, I finally decided to stop giving him one supplemental bottle of formula and guess what - he was so much better. The combination of acid reflux meds and no more formula helped out a ton!!

Blake's most alert time is between 2-6am because he is so uncomfortable. But during the day, he still sleeps a ton and pretty comfortably. When he is awake - he is grunting, being held, kicking, being bounced, swinging, having his tummy rubbed, and occasionally I see a little twinkle in his eyes like he wants to smile.

Seriously, these bright eyes just melt my heart!! Love him!!

I know it was a month ago, BUT

MERRY LATE CHRISTMAS!!

We had a great Christmas. It was a big day because it was Blake's first day at church making his grand appearance. The girls woke up at 6:30, and hung out with Warren and I in our bedroom. We talked to them about how excited they were and Warren teased them telling them things like, "I think I am going to take a quick shower before we go downstairs," or "We should go make our beds and clean our rooms before we make a bigger mess." The girls were cracking up and very patient with him. Needless to say, we eventually made it downstairs and the girls had such a great morning.

First of all - on Christmas Eve we did our little nativity. This year we had a perfect baby Jesus. Kaylee as usual was our angel, and Taylor finally got to be Mary. Nicole was a Very Wise Woman.

Here are the yummy cookies for Santa!!

Warren had to tease them one last time by making them pose for a picture at the top of the stairs.

Kaylee was so excited when she got this book on "How to Draw Buildings." She really wants to be an architect and she was thrilled. But, her 2 absolute favorite gifts were "Calamity Jane" and "A Night with the King" -2 excellent movies!!

Taylor desperately wanted an orange kitty from Santa. She loves her "Kitty" and all of her "My Little Ponies."

Nicole finally got her silly hat and "Apple Jack." Nicole is one of the most grateful kiddos I know. Whenever she would open a present, she would get so excited, run over to the giftgiver, and say "OHHHHH. Thank you so much!!" She is so animated!!

Blake's first Christmas was a HIT. He was awake for this picture and than fell right back to sleep.

I love the mess after Christmas. Warren was busy taking apart the TV because we got an XBOX kinnect and the girls were ready to Dance, Dance, Dance.


Taylor wanted to wear this outfit to church, but we talked her out of it. She loved her beautiful new sweater with ruffles, her new ballet outfit, and necklace. Of course, kitty was a part of the entire day.

Surprisingly, this was one of the biggest hits - a huge container of Polly Pocket dolls. Inside there was a total of 6 polly pockets with all sorts of outfits. The girls spent a couple of hours deciding which doll and which outfit they wanted. They love putting on fashion shows with their polly pockets.


Here is my gifts from the girls - Taylor gave me a plate with a picture of her and I under a beautiful rainbow, Kaylee gave me a cutting board with one of masterpieces, and Nicole gave me 2 hot pads with one of her masterpieces.

Here I am with me kiddos - right after church!

Here is the entire Johnson Clan - including Lamb. (If you look really closely, Taylor is wearing her swimsuit under her church dress. Looks like I let that one slip by me...oh well)

Big Sister+Oldest Child+Little Brother=Best Buds

Kaylee loves this little guy. They are almost 10 years apart and Kaylee is the biggest helper. She loves to tell him her silly stories, teach him new words, snuggle with him, sing to him, dance with him, etc, etc. Yesterday she told me her favorite thing is to put her face right next to his cheek because it is so soft and warm.

Before he was born, Kaylee told me she was so excited to have a little brother because she could tease him, they could be best buds, and she will be able to drive when he is 6. She also said she would take him every where with her and take him to his activities because she will be able to drive. I hope she remembers this?!

Anyways, there is something so rewarding when I watch her with Blake. Everything seems right and feels right.

A picture describes everything...

Seriously, Blake is adorable. Nicole chose this little outfit for Blake before he was born. She loved it and thought it would keep Blake warm. I hung on to it waiting for the first snow. It snowed in early December, so I put Blake in this outfit. I thought he looked so warm and cozy.
But, as I previously mentioned in an earlier post...Warren is sort of particular on what his little boy wears.

I think this picture says everything!

Trying to focus...

"I am really trying to see you"