Let the Christmas Insanity Begin!

December 16, 2013 By

What a great weekend! On Friday, my friend Amie and I volunteered at our city’s Santa House which collects and distributes toys to low-income families. I helped unload and stock shelves but by far my favorite was being a “personal shopper” and helping those in need select toys for their kids.  I’ve donated plenty of toys to toy drives in the past but being behind-the-scenes and seeing the wonderful people who are struggling gave me a new resolve to do more in the coming years.

After school, Bode joined some of his classmates to perform several Christmas songs at a local retirement home  How to score hot second grade chicks: land the coveted role of Rudolph.

Old ladies will also dig your nose and reindeer games.

Jamie’s sister Lisa generously invited the kids for a sleepover on Friday so Jamie and I could have date night at the Denver LDS Temple, which is a pretty darn awesome way to celebrate the season.

Saturday was a frenzy. Boot camp, picked up the kids, cleaned the house and had Hadley’s final volleyball game of the season. I have been the assistant coach for her cute team and they’ve improved leaps and bounds. Most gratifying is she has finally found her sport and constantly  has a volleyball in hand around the house.

It’s only a matter of time until she breaks something.

After that, we raced over to see the highly-anticipated Hobbit and Bode is already counting down ’til when the third movie in the trilogy is released on his birthday this summer. Translation: they loved it.

Upon arriving home, baking insanity ensued. Whenever Christmas rolls around, I start baking. And then bake some more. I have so many great recipes that I want to make them all so that’s exactly what I did. But I’ve gotten smarter over the years and don’t kill myself by cramming it all in on one day and started baking weeks ago. That’s what freezers are for, right?

Saturday night was about compiling all our goodies. This year’s haul included caramel toffee squares, gingerbread men, white chocolate snowball cookies, cream cheese cutout cookies, whipped shortbread and almond rocha.What I did kill myself with was packaging everything for our friends and neighbors then the massive clean-up. But didn’t they turn out lovely?

Bribery is how we make and keep our friends.

The cute kiddos made and decorated gingerbread men for their Primary class at church.

If you need us, we’ll be the ones passed out in the corner in a sugar coma.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor

“Easy-Bake” Oven My Butt: A Cooking Guide to Every Mother’s Worst Nightmare

December 9, 2013 By

It is important for me to teach my daughter Hadley how to cook. My mom was a top-notch chef and ran a popular restaurant for many years. Growing up, I wasn’t what you would call a gourmand. Case in point: the infamous fiasco when I misread the gingerbread recipe and added 1 cup of ginger instead of 1 tablespoon.

A minor oversight.

My interest in cooking was not ignited until after college and now I love it. These days, my attempts to tap into my mother’s fountain of knowledge are met with frustration as she tries to recall her from-scratch recipes, none of which are written down nor have actual measurements.

Because evidently good cooks do not use measuring cups.

When I was at a store the other day, Christmas toys littered the entrance. Hot wheels. Dolls. And, much to my abhorrence, Easy-Bake-Ovens. A few years ago, I bought Hadley an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. She has always enjoyed cooking with me and I figured this would be one more notch on our mother-daughter bonding belt.

How wrong I was.

Click to read on

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

Johnson Family Newsletter 2013

December 4, 2013 By

In typical bipolar fashion, I decided to do a holiday newsletter, then opted out and then upon receiving newsy holiday  newsletters from friends,  decided it should be back on. After all, the world must know what the Johnsons did in 2013!

Overall, we had a great time full of family and friends, travel and minimal hospital visits (our gauge for a good year). We took plenty of fantastic ski vacations all over Colorado and a week at our favorite, Park City Mountain Resort in Utah. Last summer, the kids and I spent almost a month in Canada on a 3,000-mile trip that covered two countries and six states (Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah). Jamie was only able to join us for a week of our trip, citing  “someone has to work to support your playtime.” Wise man; I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s a quick glimpse at our happenings. Click on the links for more details!

Atop 14,265-foot Mount Evans

Hadley

Hadley (9 going on 19) is in fourth grade at her Waldorf charter school and continues to love their arts-based academic education. Our free-spirited, fun-loving girl has been on several camping trips with her class and keeps busy with piano and volleyball. She’s also a stellar skier and for my birthday, we had a girl’s weekend of mogul-busting, snowshoeing, lake-skating and sledding. Hadley is a huge fan of horses and was delighted to spend a week at overnight Camp Chief Ouray last summer. She loves Fat Kitty, swimming, hiking, crafting, gardening, cooking and she was the top-performing girl in her grade at her school’s Fun Run. I should know. I ran beside her the entire way until our fifth mile when she blazed past me and I walked with a limp for a week. Her love for Scooby Doo has been replaced by mind-numbing shows on the Disney Channel like “Jessie” and “Dog with a Blog.” It looks like we have a tween, folks.

Hadley’s first scary leap into the Rooster Tail at the lake house in Vernon, B.C.

Skating at Copper Mountain

Summer hiking group at Mount Falcon

Bode

Our resident geek, Bode (age 7) loves all things space, educational and ensuring everyone is following the rules all the time. He is moderately obsessed with being the best-behaved kid in his second grade class (yet somehow is also among the most well-liked), thrives in academics, is a great little soccer player, skier, hiker, cook, master pumpkin grower and lives for his bi-weekly WiiU and technology sessions. For the second year in a row, he and Hadley were my child models at the 9News Back-to-School fashion show and he put Zoolander to shame. He and his sister went to Avid4Advenventure’s Survival Camp last summer and I now feel confident they can survive exactly two hours solo in the great outdoors. He never shuts up on the piano loves to play the piano, enjoys to read Calvin and Hobbes, bike down to our neighborhood skate park and play with LEGOS. His current obsession is constructing dream mansions for us out of giant wooden blocks and creating intricate maps of his designs. We strongly encourage this as a future profession.

First solo flight to see Grandma in Utah!

A snowy hike in Evergreen=joy

First fish fly fishing at The Ranch at Emerald Valley

Jamie

The Pumpkin Man had a great year. He grew his biggest pumpkin ever, 1,220-pound Stanley, and we landed a picture of him in The Denver Post. A professional carver drove down every day from Fort Collins for a week to chisel a marvelously creepy face into the giant gourd. And then Stanley and Jamie went on tour visiting both of the kids’ schools and harvest festivals, thereby cementing his status as a local celebrity. In other news (though really, is there any other news?), Jamie’s web development business Pixo Web Design and Strategy continues to grow, he has a few employees and is always busy. We marked our 10-year wedding anniversary last February and he surprised me by recreating the magical night we got engaged that included a limo ride to the swanky Briarwood Inn. He was recently released from the Bishopric at church and not even five days later, he was called as a stake clerk over technology, a real stretch.

Atop McConkey’s lift for the first time as a family at Park City Mountain Resort

Stanley the Pumpkin

Stanley’s scary carving

Amber

I’ve had a busy year working for the newspaper and various freelance opps in the travel industry. Our favorite gig is writing for AAA Five Diamond The Broadmoor’s magazine because they pay their writers in trade, which amounts to an opulent, indulgent vacation like no other in Colorado Springs.  I love hiking every week, skiing, boot camp, volunteering at school and in the community. I received an award in recognition of journalistic excellence as a community blogger from Digital First Media, The Denver Post’s parent company. But my real prize was when I was at a media luncheon hosted by the Maui Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and my name was drawn as the winner of a trip to Maui (we’re going in February). At church, I was sad to be released from the Young Women (favorite calling ever) and now serve in the stake’s Public Affairs where I work with community leaders and media.  I’m also the volleyball coach and our ward’s Primary pianist and have mastered The Look from across the room, which quickly corrects the behavior of any misbehaving kids. We all have our talents.

Solo hike to Maxwell Falls in Evergreen, Colo.

9News fashion show

Girl’s only birthday ski trip

Fat Kitty

He’s still fat, snuggly, sleepy, sweet and lives for his backyard adventures of stalking mice and eating grass ’til he pukes. We often walk in on him licking himself in Cirque du Soleil-esque positions but it was this shot I took of him on my bed that convinced us all that he’ll be America’s Next Top Model. Look for him on a Kitty Litter advertisement coming your way soon.

America’s Top (Cat) Model

We feel infinitely blessed this holiday season for wonderful family, good friends and the gospel in our lives.

Merry Christmas!

XO

The Johnsons

Filed Under: Bode, Family, Family travel, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie, LDS, Marriage, outdoors, pumpkins, skiing, travel, Utah

My Husband: The Giver

December 1, 2013 By

It’s Jamie’s birthday next week so Hadley and I set out to find the perfect gift in downtown Denver yesterday. I discovered something about myself: though I usually don’t like shopping unless it’s at Target or Costco, I genuinely enjoy browsing unique boutiques and outdoor markets. Malls are pretty much my worst nightmare.

Something else I learned: Hadley is really picky with everything–from clothes to food.  I already knew that. But the epiphany I had was that, though it’s nearly impossible and frustrating to find anything she likes, having a tween who is picky with clothes is not a bad thing. I offered to buy her something yesterday but she couldn’t find even one thing she liked. Savings success!

She takes after her father who is tough to buy for but unlike her, he  only likes big-ticket items. This is a problem when you do not have a big-ticket budget. Hadley and I were wandering around T.J. Maxx looking for his gift when I found these shoes I HAD to buy.

My justification? He’d have wanted me to have them for his birthday because he’s a giver like that.

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, Jamie

Thanksgiving 2013: Turkey Trotting and Bursting with Flavor!

November 29, 2013 By

It’s been a busy few weeks and this blog of mine has suffered. I literally have a month’s worth of updates and with the holidays upon us, it’s likely I won’t ever get caught up. I have some career changes I’m trying to navigate that, right now, are causing an uproar but in the end I’m hoping they’ll be good things. When a door closes a window always opens, right? At this point, I’m hoping for a skylight with a heavenly messenger telling me what the heck I’m supposed to be doing.

We’ve had a great Thanksgiving week. We skied Copper Mountain (details forthcoming), played a lot and ate even more. Jamie’s wonderful mom Linda is in town to help his sister after back surgery so we’ve been busy juggling everything.

I’ve stated before that Thanksgiving is probably my least favorite holiday because of all the gluttony and football but it’s  growing on me. We started out with our 7th Annual Turkey Trot Hike. It was a gorgeous day and I can’t believe how much my kids have grown since the first year we did it.

Please disregard the finger of the dude who took our picture in the top corner. He didn’t appreciate being asked to do it so I’m hoping it wasn’t his middle one.

The hike was as steep as always but these kids of mine are becoming intrepid hikers.

Plus, I gave the pitch as an excuse for Bode to hold my hand to give me balance on the way down. Gotta soak up these moments while you can!

Even in late-November, the views at the top were gorgeous.

We couldn’t fit our fat heads in this selfie but we had to try

Hadley has to free climb every rock wall or boulder she sees

Hiking Turkey Trot is always a great lead-in to our meal. We each had food assignments. Jamie’s brother Chris smoked the turkey (thankfully he gave in to my pleading NOT to do a deep-fried one), we did the sides (garlic-mashed potatoes, jalapeno sausage stuffing, pomegranate-pear salad, green bean casserole and cranberry salsa), while Linda made her famous rolls and was in charge of desserts.

Complication: The day before Thanksgiving she called to say poor Lisa was in the ER in pain so could we please pick-up the cheesecakes from Cheesecake Therapy and run to Costco for some apple pie? The cheesecakes weren’t a problem and Jamie grabbed egg nog, gingerbread, pumpkin and white chocolate raspberry from this darling bake shop.

The apple pie was a problem. I hate crowds and finish most of my shopping before Thanksgiving in an effort to avoid them (and yep, I don’t like shopping, either). So come hell or high water, there was NO WAY I was going to go to Costco the day before Thanksgiving and stand in line for an hour for just one item. Another complication: Jamie loves Costco’s apple pie but I came up with a solution to bake our own. I just added it to our list of items I was already making that also included several dozen cream cheese cutout cookies. Basically, my kitchen looked like a bomb went off. But Hadley was an excellent helper.

Jamie was incredulous. “So, you’d rather spend all this time making a pie just to avoid going to Costco?” Yup.

I retorted. “So you’re actually whining that your wife is making you a homemade apple pie instead of a store-bought one?” Touché, my friends.

In the end, everyone was happy. We had an amazing spread of food, Linda’s rolls were better than ever and Chris smoked some unbelievably delicious gouda cheese in the smoker.

Rolls, pomegranate pear salad and our appetizer spread

Chris smoked his best turkey ever: moist and bursting with flavor

The kids did a wonderful job setting the table with my mom’s china and grandmother’s beautiful utensils. My heart was full of love for this wonderful family of mine, the life we’ve created and the miracles that surround us.

I’m sure Jamie feels the same way regardless of the fact that every picture I took of him that night he looked like was going to burst.

Just chalk it up to an overabundance of culinary blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed Under: Bode, Family, Foodie, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie

Getting resurrected (or would that be crucified?) in the Primary program

November 20, 2013 By

Every year, the Primary children (kids ages 3-12) in our congregation perform a program for Sacrament meeting. Each child is assigned a short  scripture or talk and it is interspersed with lots of music. Putting on a production like this takes a fair bit of planning–from writing the script to rehearsing to performing. In years past, the kids have received their parts several weeks in advance with plenty of time to practice. A couple of overachieving Primary presidencies have even burned a CD with all the Primary songs for the kids to learn.

This year, the kids received their parts only one week prior, leaving very little time to prep. I was admittedly a bit irked about this but then realized I was forgetting what I love most about the Primary program: when kids mess up. Now, I’m not talking about anything demoralizing that would land the kids in therapy session but rather, those funny little unpolished moments where kids are just kids (like the one time toddler Hadley very obviously lip synced when she forgot the words).

Every year, I have helped my kids memorize their lines but that didn’t quite happen this year due to three reasons.

1) Lack of time. Remember that?

2) Complexity of what was required of them. This is specifically referring to Bode, who was given a humdinger of a scripture in the book of Abraham that even I couldn’t keep straight…something proving them herewith to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them. Huh?

3) Messing up on key terms in a major way.  And yes, there is a story behind this.

Bode had memorized his introduction, “My name is Bode and I am a child of God” and he had practiced reading his scripture several times so he could recite it smoothly. But here’s the thing: he was over it before it even began. Before church started, he complained, “When this is done, I can’t WAIT to throw away this piece of paper with my lines.”

Because the 10 minutes I required them to practice was just so demanding.

Standing up at the pulpit in front of 300 grown-ups is terrifying for anyone but all was going smoothly until Bode got near the end. We had practiced smiling as he wrapped everything up and I was prepping myself for his million-watt toothless grin…until…until…until while he was saying his final few words, he turned around and went back to his seat, still reciting it as he walked.

At first I was mortified until the congregation united in a collective chuckle. It could have been a lot worse and that worse couldn’t been Hadley.

You see, her part was a bit longer but a lot easier so she had memorized her lines. Part I involved her going up with a darling Sunbeam (3-year-old) and asking him, “Owen, what is your favorite story of Jesus?” Owen, being an unrehearsed 3-year-old, gave her a deer-in-headlights stare and shrugged his shoulders. More laughter.

But then I braced myself for Part II. You see, when Hadley had been practicing, she made a very critical error along the lines of “Because Jesus was crucified, we can be crucified, too.” I reeled in horror and then laughter when I told her the word she should have used was resurrected.

After Owen sat down, Hadley continued with her lines, which she decided to read. Normally I would have been disappointed because she had already memorized them but decided to look on the bright side:

Not preaching false doctrine from the pulpit? I’ll count that one was a win.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, LDS

The “Mary” Takedown at Church

November 11, 2013 By

Growing up, I always wanted to be Mary in our LDS church congregation’s annual reenactment of the Nativity. But your chances are slim-to-none when you have blonde, frizzy hair and don’t exactly ooze with meekness or sweetness.

Even being repeatedly cast as an angel was a stretch (though the ringlets my mom made from those pesky overnight pink rollers were pretty angelic).

So, I could totally relate to the disagreement I heard  at church yesterday as Hadley and her bestie Alex were jockying for the coveted role of Mary at our ward’s Christmas party in a few weeks.

Hadley: “You can’t do it. Mary didn’t have short hair.”

Alex: “Oh yeah? Well, I’ll bet she didn’t have BANGS!”

For the record, I hope neither of them gets the part. :-)

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, LDS

Halloween 2013: A wig-fighting, sugar-coma-inducing great time

November 4, 2013 By

Confession: I often look enviously at families who dress up to a theme at Halloween because that likely ain’t ever going to happen. I mean, just look at my friend Lisa’s clan as the Adams Family.

Her husband is a plastic surgeon. I can only imagine the transformations they’ll undergo in the future. :-)

Jamie isn’t the dress-up type (besides his lame pumpkin hat) and my kids prefer mainstream (read: boring) costumes.  But I guess I’ll take what I can get with Luigi and Harry Potter’s Bellatrix Lestrange, right?
I won’t mention the “creative differences” Hadley and I had regarding her wig she begged me to buy but then later deemed “too big.”
Girl wouldn’t last even one day with my ‘fro.

With the kids in two different schools, I’m normally racing around to their different schedules but Halloween worked to my advantage. Bode’s party was in the morning.

While Hadley’s was in the afternoon.Note the lack of wig. You win some, you lose some.

I made oodles of tasty pumpkin treats all week including pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pancakes with caramel apple cream cheese syrup. Papa John’s was advertising their pumpkin-shaped pizzas and I admittedly have become a pizza snob, refusing to buy the disgusting sodium-drenched frozen ones and only occasionally indulging in greasy restaurant pies for our family’s traditional Friday Pizza & Movie Nights. Our homemade ones are so much tastier with our backcountry honey pizza crusts.

Basically, my goal was for us not to eat anything healthy on Halloween. Mission accomplished!

Our neighborhood is about as family-friendly as it gets and Halloween is a non-stop party! We met at the fire station a stone’s throw away from my house for treats, drinks, pictures and friends.

Fun at the fire station

Then set out on a parade that was led by one of the fire trucks.
Two different kids, same Minecraft costume. Can someone please explain to me how that was one of the most popular costumes this year? “Look how cute Timmie looks. Oh wait. His head is a block.”

Jamie and I usually swap off taking the kids trick-or-treating and staying home to hand out candy. But this year, my feet were killing me so Jamie was on Operation Get Candy duty.  They came back after only 20 minutes with half-full buckets. Good mom that I am, I sent ‘em back out ’til this babies were full. Mama has an Almond Joy sweet tooth to fill.

Judging from their sugar coma, I’d say Halloween ’13 was a success.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie Tagged With:

The Ward Halloween Party: A Doughnut-eating, Jell-O Dunking Great Time!

October 31, 2013 By

Every year, our LDS church congregation puts on a gangbusters Halloween party with carnival games, trick-or-treating and lots of tasty food.  This was the year of Harry Potter–we read the books and watched the movies so Hadley’s costume de choix? None other than the evil Bellatrix Lestrange. Bode begged to be Mario for the third year in the row but I put a kibosh on that. Kind of.

Bellatrix Lestrange versus Luigi

In keeping with tradition, I present the pumpkin and his widow.
Is there any wonder why I’m crazy about this guy?

The young women in our ward manned the booths and I attempted to assist the poor, stressed-out gal reattaching the doughnuts on a string. Until I realized she was replacing the entire string for every person. When I told her that wasn’t necessary, she primly cited hygienic concerns.

Bellatrix needed her wand for this one.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her about the slobber-fest-that-is-bobbing-for-apples of my youth.

Monitoring the Jell-O eating contest was more my speed and I was proud when Luigi won not one, not two, but three in a row.

The pie-eating contest a few weeks ago must have served as a great training ground.

Of course, the party wouldn’t be nearly as fun without our besties. I got a bit teary-eyed at church last week as I looked at the many fabulous friends my children have and what stellar, righteous, fun and hard-working families they have. All of them are tremendous examples to us.

Bellatrix and Cinderella; Luigi and the boys; Bellatrix vs.Hermione showdown

Really, the only fail that night was my refreshment. I’ve been pinning oodles of creative treat ideas on Pinterest but when push came to shove, I only had 15 minutes to pull something together and so this is what we concocted.
Many friends complimented me on my puking pumpkin but I brushed them off. Obviously they do not know the grandeur that is Pinterest. Better luck next party!

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor, LDS Tagged With:

A Frightfully Fun Hotel Stay at Nightmare on Curtis Street

October 30, 2013 By

After a while, Halloween memories start to blur together. Dress up, trick-or-treat, gorge on candy. Lather, rinse, repeat. But last weekend, my family experienced a Halloween event we will never forget. We attended the Nightmare on Curtis Street at the Curtis – A DoubleTree by Hilton. Each year during the month of October, the Curtis Hotel in downtown Denver, Colorado transforms its 13th floor into a haunted house for a most memorable Halloween.

The Curtis – A Doubletree Hotel

This family-friendly, pop-culture hotel is dedicated to all things quirky. Case in point: last summer’s pop-up, inflatable room that rose 22 feet in the air.

The hallway of each of the 16 floors boasts a different theme, like One-hit Wonders, Big Hair, and Dance. The playful lobby hosts impromptu hula hoop contests and offers board games for check-out as well as a small book-filled library.

The 13th floor’s theme is Horror. I’m not the ghost-hunting type and at ages 7 and 9, neither are my kids. I’d think twice about staying somewhere that claimed to be legitimately haunted but I took a gamble that my family would love Nightmare on Curtis Street.

Click to keep reading our fun experiences and why my children may have clown issues after this.

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado, Family, Family travel, Hadley, holidays, Humor Tagged With: ,
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