A New Year

  Here we are 2012.  So happy to be here.  I love New Years.  I love the idea of a second chance, a new beginning, and reminiscing back to the year gone by.  For the past three years I have picked One Little Word, as Ali Edwards suggest to focus on for the new year instead of making lots of resolutions.  What I have found in doing this is that by focusing on the one little word things related to it do come to you.  The One Little Word has the potential to make an impact on your life.  Sounds strange, call it what you may, but it works for me so I will continue to pick a word to start each new year.

  In 2009 my One Little Word was "Celebrate".  Hence the name of my blog.  It was the year immediately following Kyle's heart transplant. 

  Although the first few months were still touch and go with his condition we tried to forget the stress and heartache of the past year and focus on celebrating life and celebrating the everyday moments, taking them all in and cherishing them.  Kyle began to get better and life began to resume a routine again.  We were all changed from that experience and we began to rejoice and cherish the everyday normal activities in our lives. 

    In 2010 my One Little Word was "Nurture".

  I chose this word because this was the year Kaleb was entering our lives.  I knew I would need to focus on nurturing him and are family as our lives would be drastically changed as we added the newest member to our family.  I so wanted this little baby but knew it would change our lives in that I would need to give up time to myself, hobbies I enjoyed and freedoms I had been used to for a little while after the little guy was born.  I reminded myself to be content and to "nurture", especially  when I had to go to work after night with very little sleep due to being up with the Kaleb.  "Nurture" was a good word for that year.

 
  In 2011 I chose "Happiness" as my One Little Word".  Here I was 43 years old and like many people my age looking at where I was in life and looking back at where I had planned I would be at this time.

  I was not unhappy with my life, only unsettled.  I still struggle at times with wanting to find a way to be at home more with little Kaleb and being able to have more time to care for our home and family.   Inside I struggled a little about where I was in life and what I expected my life should be.  I started reading both books and online about Happiness and really working at deciding what makes me the happiest.  Then in October I began reading about gratitude and in November I started my Gratitude journal.  I began to realize how happy I really was, even if life wasn't what I had planned it should be.  I learned a very important lesson, that God has a plan for us too, one that is greater and better than ours could have ever been.  We just need to listen to his cues and be patient.  Today I can say that I am happy and much more content with my life and excited for our future.  "Happiness" was a fun word for 2011. 

  So here we are 2012 and the One Little Word I have picked is "Story".  Now that Kaleb is a little older I have a little more time to spend documenting our lives both in pictures, journals, blogging and scrapbooking.  I am excited to document our everyday moments as we go along.  I have chose to use Project Life.  My free time is still limited but I think this will be simplified enough that I will be able to do it.

  I encourage you if you are not the resolution making type to maybe consider choosing One Little Word.   Here is another great reflection on One Little Word. If you do chose one I would love to hear about it in the comments sections.  I wish all of you a wonderful New Year.  May it be full of blessings!

  On a side note yesterday I did get some pictures taken of Jess and Kyle.  I think they were actually happy how they turned out.  They will be part of my first page of Project Life.  I am also working on finishing up my December Daily album. 

Got the photos taken and little notes written here and there.  Just need to get it all put together.  Made the album itself back in November.  I will post more on my Project Life in the next day or two.

Highlights From The Christmas Season

I am finally back to blogging with pictures from the Christmas season.  Despite my plans to be more prepared this year as usual things got extremely busy and I fell behind in shopping, cleaning, picture taking and blogging.  A lot of my pictures from Christmas morning turned out bad, don't suppose it had anything to do with chasing a busy toddler.  I told Jess and Kyle we couldn't take down decorations until I got a few more of them.  Hoping to get them this weekend.  Here are the highlights.  Kaleb has been a joy and made our Christmas so much fun.

The annual Johnson Christmas Card:

 Visiting Santa.  Kaleb didn't even cry.  Mommy and Daddy were so proud of him.

Kaleb's favorite Christmas gift.(mine too even though it wasn't for me) was a table and chairs set that Daddy handmade for him.  Mommy found the plans and came to Daddy with the idea a couple of weeks before the big day to ask if he could do it.  I know it was kind of last minute and Kenton ended up working on it down to the wire but it will always be remembered as such a special gift.

Did get a few special photos.  My angel baby.  I love experimenting with the Christmas lights in photos.  I hope to get some similar to this of Jess before she goes back to college.

We had such beautiful weather this holiday season.  If I had truly known it was going to be so nice we would have decorated one of our 34 evergreen trees in our yard for real.  Kaleb and I were just playing outdoors the other day when I took this.  Might be an idea for Christmas card next year if the awesome weather could repeat itself.

Reading The Night Before Christmas.

  And finally this picture probably holds the memory we will share the most for Christmas 2011.  On Thanksgiving night Jess and Kyle braved the Black Friday sales with their friend Shelby and waited to get this wonderful creature for a mere $20.  Surprisingly, Jess told me that they did not have to fight any crowds to get him and her and Shelby were the only ones waiting by  the blow up snowman to get one. 

Kaleb has loved this snowman. He can not say "snowman" and it comes out "hemi". Daily we hear him holler out "Hemi " as he wants to check to make sure "Hemi" is blown up out in our yard. Despite some pretty windy days and one incident involving cat urine, our snowman, "Hemi" has survived.  We are not really sure when we will be able to take him down.  We are pretty sure tears would flow if he disappeared. Kaleb is all about snowman this year. We have to listen to "Frosty the Snowman" in the van, I have to play it for him on the piano and we also have drawn and colored a few snowmen. 
So if you come by our house in the future and "Hemi" is still up please understand.
Some people have pink flamingos, we have "Hemi"!

Three Years Ago Today

  Three years ago today Kyle received his new heart.  Three years ago today we sat in Children's Hospital in St. Louis praying that he would make it through the surgery and recovery.  Three years ago today Kyle was a little 78 lb., 13 year old boy fighting for his life.  Thanks to the decision that a mother and father made in a time of grief, Kyle is here with us today.  Amazing.  That is the only word I can use to sum it all up.  We will be forever grateful for their gift.
  Here we are three years later and Kyle is doing wonderful.  He just had a check up only a few days ago and got a great report.  He has grown so much in the past three years.  He is six foot tall now and weighs 128 lbs.  He has actually grown four inches in the past year.  He is so much more healthy.  He is still very witty and fun loving.  He is doing great in school.  He continues to love sports.  He is looked up to by his little brother.  We are so blessed.
  Tonight I will sit and write another letter to his donor's family.  It is so tough to do.  It was a time of such mixed emotions, so many memories of what Kyle, and we went through, both good and bad.  No words will ever explain our gratitude to Kyle's donor family and no words will ever ease their pain of losing their love one.  But I will write to them because I want them to know that we will never forget Ashley or their family.  A short time after Kyle's transplant I bought a t-shirt that said, "The greatest hero I never knew was my son's organ donor."  And so on this day of such mixed emotions for me, I can only encourage everyone to sign up as an organ donor.  See what the gift of life has done for Kyle and us.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

On November 1st I made a decision to try and  list daily at least one thing I was thankful for. I am sure my facebook friends got tired of my "Today I am thankful for" posts but my by listing them daily on facebook it held me accountable to continue my gratitude journal.  Twenty-four days later I can tell you it was one of the best things that I have ever done.

What I learned was that by focusing on what I was thankful for, I realized how much that I had.  I realized how blessed that I am.  Some days I was tired and frustrated.  On those days I didn't feel like being thankful for anything but I would try and it would change by entire outlook for the day.  Now today on Thanksgiving I have printed off my list of blessings and put them in a jar that sits on the cabinet in our dining room.  Doing this project made this Thanksgiving even more special! Focusing on counting my gifts gave me a sense of peace.  When you focus on all of your blessings and you are aware of all the moments that you are given, you feel God's glory.  It is a practice I plan to try and continue in a journal.  My inspiration for this project came from Ann Voskamp and her book, One Thousand Gifts.  You can read more about it at  www.onethousandgifts.com
 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

He

He is 17 months old.
He weighs 28 lbs.
He wears size 18-24 months clothing and size 6 shoe.
He is a good eater, his favorites right now or still anything with cheese, peaches, peas and carrots, and he recently started liking dried cranberries and golden raisins.

He says "no" and "yeah" or "yes" pretty well now.

He still loves to run and climb and can get drawers opened now.  He especially loves to open the drawers in the fridge.

He loves to climb up on Kyle's bed and lay next to him when Kyle is doing homework.
He still loves his sticker books.
He likes to watch the Wiggles and dance to them.

He is starting to get his own little opinion about things.  I think we have officially entered the toddler years.
We are looking forward to the upcoming Holiday season with this little guy.  Should be lots of fun!

Halloween

This year we celebrated Halloween at the Lake of Three Fires the weekend prior to Halloween.  They had a special night for trick or treating at the campground.  We had a great time and took the camper out for the last time this year.  We hope to go back again next year.    Only next year we hope to have things better planned.  It was a lot to do to get camp set up, watch Kaleb, fix supper, trick or treat and get both video and pictures of it all.  Hopefully better planning on our part will happen next year.  Saturday afternoon we took Kaleb down the haunted trail.  They toned it down for the little kids.  I am not one for haunted houses or trails but I thought it was amazing and a lot of hard work had obviously went into it.

Then it was time for trick or treating.  Kaleb was excited to get dressed in his cow costume and walk around to see everyone at the campground.  It rained some but we didn't let it dampen our fun.  Gramma and Aunt Krystal came out to trick or treat with us.  Lots of the campers got into the spirit by dressing up in costume also.  It was quite a celebration.  Kaleb figured out what we were doing and by the time we got back to our camp he was wanting to help hand out treats to the other kids.

Preparations were lacking on my part, which is not unusual.  I have told everyone that I want us to dress up with Kaleb so he doesn't feel as if he is trick or treating on his own.  The most I did this year was a witch's hat and a Halloween t-shirt.  Kyle and Kenton were not as enthusiastic to participate this year.  Maybe next year.

Both Friday and Saturday night there were hayrides on wagons pulled by horses.  Friday night Kaleb and I

went on the open wagon.  It was so peaceful and beautiful, yet spooky.  Kaleb chattered the entire ride.

I had no idea what he was saying.    

Kaleb and I didn't sleep at the lake with the boys either night.  Our camper is not that big and we doubted that anyone would get any sleep if we stayed.

   

A few night before the actual Halloween Kenton carved a pumpkin for Kaleb.  We grew our own again in the garden this year.  Kaleb was very interested in what was inside the pumpkin.

 He especially liked it when we put the candle inside.

It ended up being a beautiful Halloween for us.  And yes, Kyle was around, he just doesn't enjoy getting his picture taken as much as he used to.  I think it has to do with those teenage years.

Happy Halloween From the Johnson House

Hoping everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.  We celebrated Halloween last weekend at the lake.  We had a wonderful time.  I will post more about it later this week.