Winter in Minnesota is usually long and cold, definitely the season that hangs around the longest. This past winter was unusually mild, in fact we didn't even get out some of our cold weather gear because we didn't need it. The few days that it did snow we had to take advantage of it. Here Mckenna is all dressed up ready to go play in the snow with daddy - she was so excited!
Later that day we picked up Matt and Calla and headed to the pet store where we got a beta fish named Ditka (Matt picked the fish's name, I bet you couldn't guess that.) Unfortunately, Ditka died last week - Mckenna was crushed... she actually laid on the floor sobbing about it, I felt so bad. So a few days ago we went back to the pet store and picked out another Ditka. McKenna and Calla love our pets!
Our swedish flicka... cute, cute, cute, cute! :0)
For the past few years we have headed to the Mall of America to see the best santa in town. First the girls sat in santa's chair, then got down on the floor to take some pictures. It's fun to look back on past years pictures with the same santa and see the girls growing up, so cute and smiley in their holiday dresses. I'm already looking forward to this year's santa visit - it is really fun for Matt and I to watch them together having so much fun. Love these sisters!
We had our family Christmas gathering at my brother Brad's house. Here are all the Person cousins - 6 boys and 4 girls. A few weeks later my cousin Ben and his wife Stacey had sons # 2 and 3 - twins! From left to right: Levi, Thomas, Calla, Beckett, Mckenna, Ayla, Sarah, Joel, Jacob, and Casey.
On to the Christmas Eve service at our church. It will always be a fun memory for us that both of our girls played baby Jesus in the live (indoor) nativity at this service when they were just 9 weeks old, with mom and dad playing Mary and Joseph. :)
On Christmas morning, Mckenna and Calla woke up to find this pretty princess vanity (Mckenna calls it a "salon") delivered by santa for the sisters. This is the first picture taken of her when she saw it for the first time... I think the look on her face says it all...
My friend Beth from Maryland that I went to school with in Germany sent this cute and soft knit hat for Calla - so sweet of her to think of the girls. Unfortunately Calla developed a nasty case of croup over our 2011 Christmas break. This picture makes me think of her being sick because I remember thinking it was ironic how cute Calla looked in this little outfit that Aunt Kristi gave her with the knit hat on that Beth gave her, but yet she felt so yucky. For the rest of our break after Christmas we had to give her nebulizer treatments to help her breath and it wasn't fun to watch her go through that... not to mention the several weeks of bad sleep we all got with her waking up throughout the night coughing and upset. Poor girl!
Grandpa Craig and Grandma Karen sent Calla this ball popper for Christmas. She loved it when she opened it up, and she still loves it almost a year later. Mckenna likes to play with it too - it's very entertaining to watch in action! And I love the top baby head shot - cute. :)
Sweet Nemo... we love our dog!
For the first time, all of the Johnson clan met up at the cabin in Barnes, WI for our family Christmas gathering. It was so fun to see the cousins together. Mckenna had been talking about seeing Gwen, Sonja, and Naomi for weeks before this... you can tell she's so happy!
We bundled up and went out for a "hike" on the frozen Middle Eau Claire lake...
Cuties, cuties, cuties, cuties...! Matt and Cam have such a special bond with their cousins, I hope these girls can form the same kind of friendship as they get older.
For her Christmas present, we got tickets for Matt, Mckenna, and I to attend Cinderella at the Ordway in downtown St. Paul. They had a matinee show on New Year's Eve and then with the purchase of the ticket for that day's performance, you could attend a special New Year's Eve ball drop party (kid friendly - sponsored by Radio Disney, of course) with Cinderella and Prince Charming. Because Mckenna had told us that she wanted to dress up as Cinderella for Halloween (and we gave her the dress for her 3rd birthday), we knew that this would be a fun and memorable event for Mckenna.
In the lobby they had a large castle you could take pictures with - she felt so special! After these pictures we went into the show. There were many little girls there dressed up as Cinderella, but I would say that Mckenna was among the younger girls at the performance. She was enthralled with every moment of the performance - many adults sitting all around us commented on how they were so impressed at how still and attentive she was throughout the show, and how into it all she was.
After the show we stood in a short line so Mckenna could meet and take a picture with Cinderella and Prince Charming. She was absolutely star struck... it was very cute.
Doing some fun crafts, this one was making a little wand. She was smiling like this the entire day!
Then came the dance... Mckenna stuck to Cinderella's side like they were BFFs - she was enthralled and we could tell she was just taking it all in being there.
Still right next to her!
It's just sparkling apple juice, promise! :) The last event before everyone went home was a "ball drop" (which actually happened around 6:00 pm or so) - everyone got a little plastic flute of sparkling apple juice and we all counted together... 10, 9, 8, 7... 3, 2, 1 - Happy New Year! It was a fun day that the three of us will remember for a long time as something special that we did together, the 3 of us.
Walking back out to the car - a very happy and very tired girl. She was asleep in the car before we got out of the downtown area. :)
On the Sunday of the Vikings vs. Bears game at the Metrodome (now called Mall of America field, for anyone that cares) my parents came over to our house for lunch and to watch the game. Matt got a call not long before the game started from a friend of ours, Colin, that had two extra tickets to the game and wondered if we wanted to go. Um, YES! What an unexpected surprise! So luckily my parents were already at our house and we had built in babysitters, and we hurried to downtown Minneapolis to the dome. Decked out in our Bears gear in a sea of crazy Vikes fans, we had a blast at the game. Thanks so much, Colin!
During the cold months when it's sometimes hard to be outside for more than a few minutes at the time, we like to head to Sea Life Aquarium at the Mall of America. By the way, do you know that they give teachers free memberships to the aquarium? They do, so any Twin Cities teachers reading this, check it out - just go and show your teacher ID and they'll give you a year-long pass. After you walk through the aquarium, of course they have it set up where you have to walk through the gift shop to get to the exit. I like to joke with Matt that this "I'm a Little Crabby" t-shirt was made for him. ;)
Aren't we all a little crabby sometimes? :)
Every January we head to Covenant Pines for our church retreat - always a weekend we look forward to. This year Matt was ice fishing with his cousins, so it was just the girls and I. My sister was able to come with too, so it was a huge help to have her there and the girls really love her. The girls always love to be pulled around camp on the sled - cuties!
My dad was in Duluth for business, so they stopped at camp on their way back to the Twin Cities to say hi to the girls and hang out for a bit.
Random picture, but we thought it was funny - Calla went through a few weeks of sleeping with her feet sticking out of the crib like this. She doesn't do this anymore, but it was funny and cute to look at while it lasted.
Mckenna joined a community ed dance class in January 2012 called Once Upon a Ballet. This session the theme was the Nutcracker, so they danced to songs related to that theme. Right now she's in the class again and the theme is Beauty and the Beast. She really loves the class and does well with the dancing. The last class of the session the parents are invited in to observe what they've learned... too, too cute! And really cute when she comes home and dances around the house using ballet terms... "look at my pique!" "Look at my sautee!" :)
We went through several days of Calla being sick... and needing to be thoroughly scrubbed several times during the day. So I decided that it was easier for me to clean her up in the kitchen sink and scrub and disinfect the sink than to do the same with the larger bathtub. She seemed to actually think this was rather fun, and (surprise!) she still was very cute in the process, despite not feeling well.
One last random, funny, and cute picture of the sisters playing around. As Calla gets older and more able to hold her own with Mckenna, they have really started playing together more and more. My feeling is that they will be friends growing up... I hope that continues!
More pics to come from 2012... slowly but surely! We'll see how far I get by the time 2013 rolls around. :)
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