I Love to Leap

This girl cracks me up! As I look back over these pictures, they just bring me back to that moment when I sat on the stairs and watched her run back and forth for about 1 hour. It just puts a big smile on my face.

As I sat and watched her she said, "I love to leap because it makes me feel like I am flying."

She preceded to leap and run back and forth giggling the entire time. Seriously, oh how I wish I could have the energy of a 5 year old little girl. She seriously ran for about an hour - laughing, talking, smiling, etc.

Here are a couple more silly comments from this goofy girl -

- When I asked Taylor who the President of the United States was, she said Jesus Christ.

- As we were driving in the car, Taylor asked me how she could make a lot of money. I told her to save her money, and go to college to learn how to do something.
She than said "Do doctors make a lot of money?" My answer was "Yep. You need to go to lots of school and study hard."
She than said, "Do scientist make a lot of money? " Once again, I said "Sure. But you need to go to school and study hard."
She started to get frustrated and than said "I know. What about working at the grocery store? They make a lot of money. Do they have to go to school?" I said "Well, I guess they don't have to go to a lot of school, but they don't make a lot of money."
She preceded to say, "Yes they do Mommy. They take all of our money and put it in that little box. All of the money in the box is safe and is their money."
I just died laughing and had to explain to her that the money in the "box" doesn't belong to them.

She decided to become a "shot doctor" or guitar player.

- Mom, "What does it mean to have move like Jagger?" - looks like someone is paying more attention to the words of music than I thought.

Kaylee is 10!!

This girl is absolutely wonderful and I love her tons. She is the best big sister. She cares about her family, friends, strangers, etc. She loves to TALK and tell stories. Last week, I was skiing (yes that is right - I went skiing) through a path surrounded by beautiful trees. During this time, I thought about Kaylee. Her imagination would be going nuts skiing through the woods. I am sure she would come up with some story that involved a princess, magical kingdom, and silly little friends.
I can not believe my "first born" is a double digit. Here are my wishes for my pre-teen daughter:
- I hope she continues to love life
- I hope she continues to have a humble, yet powerful presence around her friends
- I hope she continues to make good friends
- I hope she continues to make good choices
- I hope she continues in her growth and understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ
- I hope she grows in her talents and learns from her trials
- I hope she appreciates all Heavenly Father has given her

Here is a little quick thing from Kaylee that she had to write for school:
"All About Me"
My name is Kaylee. I am unique in my looks and hobbies and there are many interesting things about me. After reading this, you should know me better.
The first interesting things are my looks. I have short, straight, caramel colored hair. I also have hazel eyes. I am average for me height. I am 10 years old.
Another interesting and distinguishing thing is my hobbies. I love to dance. I do ballet. I also love to water and snow ski. I like to play with my little sisters. I also love to organize ad clean anything.
Another interesting thing about me is facts. I have 2 sisters and 1 brother. I love to design anything. I like to draw things like houses. I compose music on the piano.
I am unique in my looks and hobbies. I also have many interesting things in my life. Do you feel like you know me better now?

Winter Fun

We are one of those families that counts down the days until snow and ski resorts open. The girls love to ski and I am slowly becoming more and more confident on the slopes. This year, Nicole and Taylor took 4 ski lessons. It was so nice for Warren, Kaylee, and me. Warren would take the girls for an entire Saturday (4 Saturdays in a row!!), while I would hang out with Blake. The girls learned a ton during these lessons. They especially became more confident. Nicole can now get herself up when she falls and she can get off and on the ski lift!! Taylor no longer needs the edgy wedgy to help keep her skis together, and she can go down blues. Kaylee went down numerous blacks and double blacks with her Daddy.

We have got the best snow hill in our front yard. The girls love sledding down this hill. It takes so long to get them dressed in their winter gear, but they are getting older - so I don't have to do everything and they actually want to stay outside for more than 5 minutes.



Nicole would rather play in the snow and get snow all over her body than go sledding down the hill. There were numerous times I would find her sliding down the hill on her stomach. Crazy girl - that is cold!!


Taylor was so proud of herself because she finally figured out how to sled down the hill by herself.

Sledding was never one of my favorite things to do, probably because I grew up in the south and it didn't really work out too well. Since moving to Colorado, I have tried it again and it is a ton better. But, no matter where you live - the gear is the biggest pain of sledding. I hate putting it all on, taking it all off, drying it all off, and putting it away. I seriously dread it!!

The excitement on my girls faces does seem to make it all worth it despite the mud all over the floor when they come running inside.

What a mess...but it was fun

Over Christmas break, we made gingerbread houses with leftover cookie dough. It wasn't the best recipe for gingerbread houses, but it worked. The girls had a blast, especially Taylor - our candy girl.

This silly girl went crazy!! She went all out while decorating her house. No part of her house was left untouched, including the inside.

Nicole would much rather lick the icing and eat the cookies than decorate them. She doesn't like candy, but loves cookies.

Kaylee took this very seriously. She wanted to plan everything out and make sure it looked as real as possible.

Here is Taylor's lovely, beautiful mess!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL CANDY MESS. Nothing was missing.

Nicole's was made from icing, cookies, and sprinkles.

Kaylee's house had a twix path, life saver window, oreo chimney, and marshmellow siding.

She also made a bench from hershey bars and marshmellows.

Even though it was a random activity the girls had so much fun. Next year we will try the real thing.

A Weird Treat

This girl is so funny!! She is determined to do things for herself. In fact, last week she made her own lunch - a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with cheese crackers, a yogurt drink, and an orange.

The other day she made herself the strangest treat and would not take any advice or help. It consisted of a piece of toast with cinnamon sugar, peanut butter, jelly, and a couple pieces of chocolate covered pomegranates. She loved it!!

I say "GROSS!!!"

Welcome to our new Aunt and Sister-in-law

Welcome to our newest family member Alana. Alana and Warren's brother Steve were married in December. Warren, Kaylee, and Nicole flew out to LA to go to the wedding. They had a great time. It was a short trip (just a weekend), but the girls had a wonderful time.

The colors looked absolutely beautiful in the pictures. I wish I could have gone, but I had a good excuse - sweet little Blake. But, I hate missing a party (especially family ones), and this was a big one.

Here are all the beautiful Johnson Grandchildren, all except Taylor and Blake. Kaylee was in heaven holding Nate. She loves him!!

Sweet Alana, welcome to our crazy family. The girls are so excited to have a new Aunt.

While Warren and the girls were in California they went to Disneyland. They had a wonderful time. Kaylee's favorite was the Indiana Jones ride and Nicole loved Space Mountain - although it scared her to death. Nicole is so funny because she really likes to be scared. She will get so nervous before a ride, and than will want to go on the ride over and over again.

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.