Happy Birthday Allie

Jacie's little friend Allie turns one tomorrow. This morning we recorded her a little message. It was too cute not to share! :)

Christmas Time!

Every year Christmas time is pretty crazy at our house. We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful family members and we definitely make the rounds to try and see as many of them as possible. Stop one was in Manning to see all of the Mullens.

This is Jacie's Great Grandma Donna. Four generations!

The trip tired out Jace and Uncle Z so it was naptime on the way home!

The next stop was a visit to Old St. Nick...you can see below how well that went over!

She did tell him bye, bye! :) We celebrated Christmas Eve at our church...I had to work until about 8 p.m. and afterward we enjoyed our homade pizza and opened gifts.

Preston made this adorable little oven for Jacie for Christmas. It was very impressive and Jacie definitely agreed. I think this was for sure the hit of Christmas!

These photos jump around a bit...this was taken in Minneapolis while visiting my cousin Erin and her family. Uncle Bill and Aunt Cathy got Jacie these great boots...do you think they were a hit?

Jacie and Lucas enjoying the tub!

A little snuggle and some yummy popcorn...how cute is that. They were watching Sesame Street!

Above are the two in their matching Puma track suits and their Ugg boots...we can't resist dressing them alike.

Another stop was Pepin...Jacie LOVED playing piano with her auntie Rachel.

Preston also made two of these little work benches this year...he was a busy guy!

Nama Katie made Jacie this DARLING sweater for Christmas. It was beautiful!

Our little E!!!

Another big hit...the red wagon!

Cousins being silly!!!

Trying to get this group photo was a crack up...you can see in the pictures that we had to bribe them with some chocolates. So first...one would look, then the other....we were cracking up!

These are from Christmas morning.

Jacie with her completed Advent calendar.

Winter Fun

Things at the Johnson household have been busy. Between preparing for the holidays and getting in a few other fun things our calendar has been full. Here is a little preview!

We made a nice little gingerbread house this year. Jacie had fun decorating and it was hilarious because she kept sneaking the little candies into her mouth instead of on to the house! :)

We had a night out with our friends Ben and Laura. We took Jacie to her first CU game. She was such a trooper and made it through the whole game. Of course her favorite part was the popcorn!

This was Jacie's first night out for sushi...yummy! We love going to happy hour at Blue so we thought why not bring her along! She is trying the veggie roll here.

Happy Turkey Day!

You can tell she is feeling better right...that chocolate pie is delicious!!!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. The Johnson clan came to our house for the third year in a row. Papa Lynn, Nama Katie, and great-grandpa Barber came on Wednesday evening. We had a really nice dinner at my parents house on Thursday and then the Gens arrived on Friday afternoon. We had our big feast on Saturday. It was great to catch up with everyone.
Jacie and her cousin Emma at my great-aunt Noreens for the annual Thanksgiving bash.
Family photo!
My cousins Hanna, Jenna & McKenna
And their little brother Jack. Look at Katie...what a natural!!! :)
Jacie baking pies with Nama Katie...it was so cute!
Yum...love those cranberries.
Yummy!!!
The whole clan...minus our photographer Katie. Grandpa Barber, Preston and Lynn built us a beautiful windmill for our backyard over the weekend as well. It was a great time for them and a really neat project. I can't wait to put it out this spring.

One sick baby!

We had one sick baby on our hands for a full week. It all started on a Saturday morning when she woke up with a fever. We tried to be proactive and immediately took her to our pediatrician. Of course it was Saturday morning so we didn't get to see our doc, but saw another. She looked her over...clear ears, clear throat, must be a virus! She said make sure she continues to eat and drink and wait it out. About 36 hours later we were in the ER...she had a fever of 105.9. She was diagnosed with a bladder infection. This is her picture at 4 a.m. when we got home from the ER. She was just happy that she got a new puppy stuff animal at the hospital.
After the ER visit the saga continued. Apparently they put her on a type of medicine that is very often resistant to these types of infections in little girls. Brilliant right! So a day or so later we were back at the pediatrician to get a shot of antibiotics and change perscriptions. We thought we were on the mend until she woke up that night with a fever of 106. Preston and I were both just beside ourselves. We were so worried about our little peanut. We rushed her to Children's and they immediately started her on IV antibiotics. We got there at about 3 a.m. and were on our way home by 6 p.m. that following night. The IV drugs finally gave her what she needed to get over the hump and she was on the mend. It was an exhausting week for all and we are just grateful that we made it through. She had lots of people worried.

As a follow up she had to have a VCUG test this past week. Talk about terrible...they had to strap her to this little board, cath her, insert die and then x-ray her. It was traumatic for us all. She laid there and just kept doing the sign for "all done" with her little hands up. It was so sad. The good news is the test came back completely normal so hopefully this was a one-time event and we won't be going through anything like this again! Through it all she was such a trooper. Below are some pics of our hospital stay.

Of course she was spoiled...she got this giant pink hippo from auntie Katie and uncle T. Auntie Rosie sent her these two little "Hannah dogs" that Jacie still just loves to carry around. She was loving on them non-stop. They tried to put her IV in her left hand, but blew it so it ended up in her right hand. We didn't realize how much she favored that hand until she was trying to do everything with that little splint on.

Kisses for the puppy!

Oh and a little pat on the back...he has to burp you know!

You could see it in her eyes...she was just miserable. I am so glad she is doing better. You can see in the pic below she has her blankie by her side. Nama Katie made her that blanket and it experienced the whole long journey with us...from being thrown up on in the ER to coming along for our hospital stay. It was also really nice...Nama Katie and Papa Lynn made the trip to Omaha to check on Jacie the day we were in the hospital. Fortunately we were dismissed before they arrived...but we were able to spend a couple days with them and they got to love up on Jacie Claire! Phew...glad this whole experience is over with!