December 2007

Written January 17, 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are excited to share the
highlights with you.

We were so lucky to have visitors. My sister Lindsey spent a week with
us and we had a blast touring Boston all lit up. The weather was beautiful
and the girls loved the huge Christmas trees.

After she headed home Kathleen
(Burke's Mom) came to spend Christmas with us. The girls had so much
fun playing with Grandma and I loved having her help cooking.
She made her famous orange rolls for a Christmas EVE Brunch that we
invited the missionaries and friends without family in MA to attend. The
guys took the kids sledding and the missionaries built some pretty
awesome "snow-Elders" and "snow-Sisters" Burke deep fried a turkey for
Christmas Eve dinner and the Elders stayed to help us eat it all. The
girls let us sleep in until 8:00 Christmas morning and Santa brought
them all their hearts desired. We ate lots of leftovers and talked to
family during the day.

Kathleen stayed until New Years Eve and we also went and saw the sights
in Boston. While we had a babysitter Burke and I went up to New
Hampshire and spent the day campaigning for Mitt Romney. We had a great time and made over 300 phone calls. It was exciting to be a part of history. We only wish he had won the New Hampshire primary. Well we did our best....

Our biggest Christmas surprise was the news that we are expecting baby
number three!!! I am due on the 9th of August and am almost through
that yucky first trimester. We feel so blessed to welcome another special
spirit into our home. We had a wonderful and very memorable
Christmas. We hope you all had a great Christmas too.

All our love,

The Johnson Family

Fun with Aunt Lindsey

They could have stood on that heater vent all day.....

Is this really for me?

Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Christmas Eve Pajamas

Enough with the pictures...I want presents!!!

Boston with Grandma Johnson

Call number 300 and still smiling

Written December 22, 2007

Another Christmas is here and we are excited for Santa to come down the Chimney. It has been a joy to share all our special moments with you through the year. We are truly grateful for the blessing of family and friends. We have felt the blessings of the Lord in our life and are grateful for the gift of his son Jesus Christ. We hope you feel his love and ours this Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

November 2007

First Snow Fall of the Season

I made this "smile box" to send to Grandma and Papa and it turns out I can post it on my Blog. Cool! Enjoy

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Written December 3, 2007

Merry Christmas everyone! Well I can't believe that December has arrived and Christmas is on its way. It is such a fun time of year. Jennah is so excited for Santa Claus to come and bring her presents.However, she hasn't forgotten that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. She has a wonderful plush nativity that her grandma great gave her that she loves to play with. She knows all the characters Mary, Joseph and the wise men... She is learning the song "Away in A Manger" at church and we sing it almost as often as we sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". She has caught the spirit of giving and loves to give Mommy and Daddy "presents" Burke's latest present was a naked Barbie doll, a half eaten graham cracker, a piece of tinsel, and my cell phone all wrapped up in her blanket. She gets so excited when you open it that we have to try hard not to bust up laughing so we don't hurt her feelings. She recently participated in the children's program at church.
We were so proud of her when she stood at the microphone and recited her little part with just a little help. She was very nervous but she did it anyway. She has grown up so much.

A special treat for Jennah, and for a ll of us, was a visit from several family members in November.
Great Grandma and Grandpa Craven spent a day with us when they came to Boston on their New England Cruise. They got a tour of our house and we took them to the Old North Bridge in Concord. It was a wonderful day. Later that month my Mom and Dad came and spent some time with us. Jennah was so happy to have Grandma and Papa here to play all her games with her. We explored the western part of the state and had a wonderful time. We ate the most heavenly fudge in a little town called Shelburne Falls. It was postcard perfect, complete with a waterfall, bridges, and a quaint main street.

Just in time for their visit Susanna surprised us all by taking off down the aisle in Home Depot walking all by herself!! Overnight she has gone from my baby to a very active little girl. She has mastered climbing up and down the stairs and getting in and out of chairs in the last weeks. Now she can play very independently. It is so wonderful to see her little personality blossom under her new freedom. She wants to be a big girl and copies almost everything Jennah does. She is super vocal and when she wants something we hear about it. Lately she has come up to me and said "coat..go... please!!!" She is still taking a good long nap in the afternoon and I am grateful for the break.

During nap time I get chance to catch up on my study for seminary and shop for Christmas presents. I love finding the perfect gift for just about anyone. I experienced my first "Black Friday"(day after thanksgiving sale) this year. My friend Mary and I took Walmart by storm at 5 AM. It was great fun and I might even do it again next year.

Speaking of Thanksgiving we had a wonderful time sharing it with several of our close friends. Burke cooked the turkey this year. He managed to deep fry it to perfection without blowing anything up.

Burke is heading into finals for his MBA. It will be nice when he is done with class so we can enjoy the Christmas holiday here in MA with his Mom.

We hope all of you enjoy this special time of year. Don't forget to wish everyone Merry Christmas!! For Jesus is the reason for the season.

All our Love,

October 2007

October 31 HALLOWEEN

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Written October 22, 2007

I wanted to share some pictures of Jennah's 4th birthday with you. We had a wonderful time celebrating with a few of her little friends. Jennah helped me make her birthday cake. She especially loved getting packages in the mail from family far away. We can hardly believe she is so big. We love her so much. I hope you like the pics.

Love ya!

September 2007

Written October 8, 2007

We are so excited to have fall here in New England.
It is so beautiful! The colors are spectacular and the
weather is warm, sunny and dry. It has been a fun
time of the year for our family too.

Susanna is starting physical therapy this month. We
really like her therapist and she comes to our home
once a week to help Susanna gain strength and balance.
She will be walking on her own in no time. She is
continuing to learn more new words and expresses her
self amazingly well for an 18 month old. Lately she
has been putting words together like "hi daddy", "more
milk", "where d'it go" and "look doggy". She and
Jennah love to play hide and seek and give each other
hugs and kisses.

Jennah loves her pre-school class and we have found
some little friends to share the fun with us. Last
week was E for Elephant and they had a great time.
While Susanna naps Jennah and I take walks in our
"magic forest". She loves to be a princess complete
with daisy crown and twiggy wand. She is excited for
her birthday on the 17th and tells everyone that she
is getting a purple bedroom for her birthday. I guess
Burke and I are going to have to get out the paint
brushes.

Burke is doing well in school. It keeps him busy but
he still manages to watch the Packers and the Patriots
whenever they play. Packers are 4-1 the Patriots 5-0.

Early morning Seminary has been going very well. I am
a little tired but the Lord is blessing me with more
energy than I dreamed I could have on under 8 hours of
sleep. For those of you who are not familiar with
seminary it is a religion class that I teach to the
14-18 year old youth in our congregation. They come at
6am every morning Monday through Friday for one hour
to study the Old Testament, memorize scriptures and
develop friendships. My students are dedicated and
eager to learn. Adam was baptized 8 months ago so it
is a lot of fun teaching him and watching his
knowledge and love for the Lord grow. I have
experienced a lot of growth myself. I am so grateful
for the opportunity to serve these youth.

We hope you are enjoying the fall colors and would
love to hear what you have been up to...

August 2007

Written September 4, 2007

Well I can't believe the summer is coming to a close.
I realized I missed my July update so here is what we
have been doing over the last two months.

In July we spent a week in Southern Utah. The
chiseled red rocks at Bryce Canyon and the sheer rock
cliffs at Zion National Park were spectacular. We had
a lot of fun hiking and hanging out with the whole
Craven clan.

On the home front Susanna is keeping us in
suspense.... no walking yet. However her latest
fascination with shoes has us giggling. Daddy's are
her favorite. She loves to play dress up with Jennah
and make big messes.

Jennah has had lots of fun playing make-believe and
helping us with home improvement projects. She is
excited to start home pre-school this fall. And looks
forward to our play groups with the local
Stay-at-home-mom club.

We said goodbye to the summer over labor day weekend
at our friends camp in New Hampshire. Burke got to go
fishing. Jennah got to go swimming. Susanna made
friends with the "doggie" and I got to see some
mountains. Our friends were great hosts and we are
excited to go back.

We have lots of fun plans for fall so I will give you
the full report next month. We hope all of you had a
great summer and we send all our love.