Christmas 2012

We had an awesome Christmas this year. Poor Cole got stuck at work until Christmas Eve, but we were really excited that he made it home for the big day. 

The Sunday before Christmas we had the annual Johnson family party with a cousin gift exchange. 

And of course we made more gingerbread houses. Based on the success of this house Tukk will never be an architect. In all fairness to him, though, he learned his Uncle Kory's trick: if you leave the roof off you can fill the inside with candy. Tukk took it to the next level by overloading the walls with icing so they caved in on the candy stash, effectively hiding it from any would-be candy thieves. Because really, who's going to dig through rubble like that to find some treats?

 Kolby and Jess were able to come down for Christmas this year, so we got lots of cousin time in.

We took some pics of the cousins who were here (and really missed the ones who weren't). This one is my favorite. The sun was Caulder's nemesis... he could NOT keep his eyes open. The pirate facing was epic. And Klive, who is always the happiest, most easy going kid on the planet, was not having any of this picture taking crap.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Bott side of the family. We've outgrown Grandma Donna's house, so we partied at a church instead this year. It wasn't quite the same, but at least no one had a claustrophobia attack from being crammed in such close quarters together.

Twist was excited to wreak mayhem with his Ironman blaster.

That night we left bacon wrapped little smokies, magic bars, and Cheetohs out for Santa. And of course we didn't want to forget about the reindeer, so we grabbed a couple of old carrots out of the bottom of the produce drawer and left them out, too. Next year I should probably be more reindeer prepared.

This was the first Christmas we haven't had to wake our kids up to go see if Santa came. Just before 8 I could hear them in their room whispering to each other: "Do you think Santa came?" "Should we go see?" "Do you think he brought us any presents?" It was so stinking cute. Then I heard the patter of little footsteps heading down the hall toward the living room, so I had to go intercept them to make sure we had the camera ready. Tukk barely had his eyes open, but he kept trying to use his massive girth to barrel past me and go see if Santa came. He was like a juggernaut. A tiny, 27 pound, I-can-pick-you-up-and-throw-you-over-my-shoulder-with-two-fingers juggernaut.

This is what happened when we finally stopped torturing them and let them sprint into the living room. I would do pretty much anything to see their faces light up like this.

 Tukk couldn't believe Santa brought him a present that was bigger than he was.

Twist was excited about the Iron Man fan and To-Do List notebooks in his stocking. Santa must have known how much he loves fans and lists. He was also super stoked about the fancy journal we got him. He spent hours snuggled in the new sleeping bag my parents bought him and writing in his journal. This kid cracks me up.

And below is the proof that Santa's Christmas magic is real, because Caulder decided about two weeks ago that he really wanted a pair of sunglasses with a "fancy case." Do you know how hard it is to find sunglasses with a fancy case in December in Utah? Luckily we put the big guy on that one and Santa came through for us.

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Farrel came up halfway through the present opening to watch the kiddos open their gifts. They brought these sweet shark blankets that my boys love. They're super soft and snuggly, but they're still boy-approved because they have teeth. And a fin. Genius.

And even Muggzy got a present from Santa. I was sure she'd be on the naughty list, but I guess Santa has a soft spot for rotten, oaf-ish puppies.

The Christmas aftermath...

We went to my mom and dad's for our traditional Christmas breakfast. The kids (especially the big ones) were pretty wiped out.

But the highlight of Christmas? Watching this kid open the 4 pounds of bacon that Santa brought him. He could not believe Santa would actually bring him bacon. It was the best thing under the tree. 

Such a good Christmas. We're so blessed.

Merry Christmas!

Hope Santa found you!

A Letter to Santa

Dear St. Nicholaus/Santa,

Thank you for last year's gifts. They were great. This year I would like that new Batman lego and that toy gun with the binoculars. Oh, one more thing. I hope you bring gifts to everyone, especially Tukker. I made lists and Tukker is extremely nice.

Love, Caulder

I'm pretty sure Santa is bringing him an extra gift for being the world's best big brother. Love this boy.

Christmas Countdown

We're so excited for Christmas at our house. These boys cannot WAIT for the big man to make his appearance. 

We did a quick photo shoot to get some Christmas card pics, and you can see our photographer had her work cut out for her. 

I'm not sure what this face is all about. But I love it.

 Tukk was saying "Ho ho ho!" through half the shoot.

 Awww....

We decorated our tree, and we didn't even end up with any paper plates or aprons this year. But we do have Tukk's "ropes" (little bits of yarn) thrown all over it now. I guess he was lassoing the tree?

I'm hoping Santa brings this guy something that will add 5 pounds of fat to his scrawny frame. Ooh! Maybe he could take it off me and give it to Tukk. A Christmas miracle!

We've also been playing in the snow.

Sledding at the park.

And partying at Grandma Kathy's.

Caulder was soooo excited for the first grade Christmas concert. The morning before he said, "This is what you're going to hear to today Mom. La la la la la la!" The dude loves to sing.

 And Tukk had a Polar Express day at school. Here he is getting his ticket punched on the bus. The driver even wore a conductor's cap. People who work with special ed kids are AMAZING. His teacher, speech therapist, class helpers, bus driver... they're all so awesome. I love that he has such good people to help him.

 And here he is before the big day (they wore pajamas, of course, and Tukk knew everyone was going to think he really turned into the hulk "because I have such big mussews!").

Only four more days!

The Tukker Miracle, as Told by Caulder

Tukk: How come I was so sick when I was a baby?

Caulder: Because you were like, "Hey, I'm gonna die. I'm so sick. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!" And then you saw me and you were like, "Wait, I don't wanna die. I wanna hang out with that guy. Please don't kill me. DON'T KILL ME!!!" And then you got better.

Tukk: What if I didn't get better and I died?

Me: Then you'd be hanging out in heaven, and Dad and Caulder and I would be sad and cry every day.

Caulder: Yeah, AND we'd punch Jesus.

It's so much more moving when he tells it. Please bless Jesus has a sense of humor.

Thanksgiving

We camped at the Henry Mountains again for Thanksgiving year. It was a redneck dream come true.

This is how Tukk kept himself busy on the drive down. And since we don't have much of a bathtub in the trailer he looked like this for the next 4 days.

We had a turkey shoot on Thanksgiving day. Cole was pretty upset because I outshot him. I think I hit 2 out of about 40 clay pigeons. He was shooting backup and I don't think he missed any. That just makes him the bigger redneck.

I wasn't ready for this, but The Babe and Cole overrode me and let Caulder shoot a .22 for the first time. Under heavy supervision, of course, and after multiple talks about gun safety, followed by more talks about gun safety, and then a few more talks about gun safety. The first time he only shot once and then he was done, but the next day he wanted to shoot it again and he emptied the clip. Luckily, he's a very cautious, careful boy, and he was very responsible. Tukker won't be allowed near a gun until he's 34. At least. 

The Babe and Cole added to their redneck status when they fixed my dad's broken sink by plugging it off with a bullet. I know we're not really in a cutthroat redneck competition... but if we were we would totally win. That's something to be proud of right? RIGHT??? 

The weather was beautiful the whole time, so we were able to go on a giant 4-wheeling/hiking adventure led, of course, by The Babe.

Is that Momma in the back with the dog? You're damn right it is.

Caulder's favorite part of the hike was finding mini arches and holes in the rocks. And watching Grandpa Babe "ski" down dirt hills, roll rocks and generally behave like a mad man.

Cole and Caulder proudly posing on top of the cliff they rock climbed up. Muggzy took the back way up, like a sissy with no opposable thumbs.  

Tukk found the perfect spot for a nap.

We found some strange, ancient writing on the wall. I'm such a sucker for crap like this. It's almost like I'm romantic... almost.

We had to keep a very close eye on these two. Cole and I stopped to take one picture for approximately 30 seconds, and when we turned around they were both gone. We found Caulder 20 feet above us on a cliff, and Tukk was hurrying to follow him. Caulder's typically cautious nature does not extend to scaling cliffs like a mountain goat. Cole climbed to the rescue to make sure he got down safely. I was too busy having a heart attack for any rescue attempt.

And Muggzy decided this was her throne. She laid here for about 3 hours one night. She'd been chasing after us on the wheeler and hiking with us all day, so I think she was just too tired to move.

While we were on our hike Cole found a priceless treasure... his "special" rock. Caulder wanted to check it out, so Cole handed it over. CJ examined it closely and very innocently (I thought) for a minute, and then said, "Mom, I don't know why Dad likes this rock so much, and I don't know why I like this rock so much, but I do." I'm sure you do, son. I'm sure you do. 

We ended up bringing it home with us. Seriously. Boys...

I felt like we really had a lot of time to get back to nature and just enjoy the more primitive, technology-free aspects of life...

The boys LOVED it. Caulder said we should just live at the Henries forever, and there was dirt everywhere so Tukk was in his element.

I'm very thankful I have this guy to take us on adventures like this. It's true redneck love. Maybe I should get him a belt with my name stamped into the leather for Christmas. Awwwww....