It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . in the Johnson home!

I LOVE Christmas, the cold, the snow, the trees, the ornaments, the gift giving, the pies, the food, the red noses and rosy cheeks, the family Christmas portraits (which I have yet to get! some photographer I am!), decorating, the songs, etc. just everything about Christmas is wonderful! Yesterday we got a FREE, yes you read that right FREE Christmas tree - a Fraser Fur tree, $60, 7' tree! I asked the lady at the little tree stand if I could do it in exchange for a free photoshoot and she said yes! Then we came home, let the tree fall and after leftover Thanksgiving dinner we made Christmas sugar cookies and decorated the tree then we frosted the cookies, they wcrtzaeaAWere nasty by the way so we took them to church for the potluck today!, (I'm looking for the lofthouse sugar cookie recipe if you have it could you e-mail it to me, joshsrib@aol.com) As we were decorating we even got dad in on the action, he made a power T tree with orange and white! Then we watched a classic Christmas movie, Elf, ate leftover pie and Christmas shaped pretzels! Time with family is always well spent!

Isn't he sooooo cute? He was trying to sleep under the Christmas tree!

The blue lips are actually green . . . she thought the food coloring somehow tasted good . . . it didn't and her mouth s still a little colored today!

This was right after their impromptu albeit silly posing!

Being a photographer I'm always telling the kids to pose, this is their impromptu attempt at it!

This year's newest additions: I was going to get this one for Abby but she wanted the one I picked out for Andrew and surprisingly Andrew wanted the one I picked out for Abby . . . wait, maybe I shouldn't be surprised!

This is the homemade one, I got the idea from Hawaii, it's a starfish!

This one is mine, some of the ladies took me out for my b-day and this is one I got, it's made of tin.

This one is Joshua's so far it's my favorite on the tree!

Here it is, our free tree! Isn't God good? He cares so much about every part of us!

This is before the haircut I gave it . . .

This is after, I guess I WON'T be giving Martha Stewart or Katie Brown a run for their money this year!

Wow! That picture just keeps getting worse and worse . . . and to think I'm putting it on the world wide web for the whole world to see my handiwork or lack thereof!

Yum!

Andrew enjoyed eating the m and m's more than the cookies!

Notice our family picture that's supposed to be hanging on the tree? Instead we're hanging out at the manger!

Can you guess who put us there?

Happy Thanksgiving

So here is a few portraits of our wonderful Thanksgiving! God has been sooooo good to our family, we thank Him for everything he brought into our lives! Ephesians 5:20 says that Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; So often we thank God for the good things, the blessings, the victory after the trial, we often forget that it's the hard things that grow us spiritually, the difficult things, the sorrowful things that bring us closer to God and often some of the only things that make us more like God. So this Thanksgiving, I want to thank God for all the good things He's done, my salvation, my wonderful husband, my great children, my house, my photography, my physical and spiritual blessings but also for the hard things He brought into my life, the times when people left our church and it ripped my heart out, but made turn to God and God alone for my strength during that time. I would also like to thank Him for the most recent trial of a bill we didn't think we were going to be able to pay and we still haven't payed, but the peace that passes all understanding and knowing God is always faithful and being able to thank him the same day we received the bill for the bill knowing God was going to use this in my life to make me more like Him and excited to see that unfold. There were things that happened that weren't what we call good, but God uses all things for God to the praise of His glory and that if it made me a little bit more like Him that it was definitely a good thing! Don't get me wrong, I honestly feel there was more good than bad, more blessings that heartache. This year our theme at the church was Our God is Greater and truly that has been the case in my life! So that is all for now, but what would a blog be without a picture so here's one of the kids this thanksgiving, hanging out in their pj's and pilgrim hats!

Man Alive Monday

It has been a great day so far!!!!! Last night the Lord provided for a need we had . . . only 11 more times and the need will be totally met! It's neat to see when there is a problem how the Lord is going to take care of that! On a side note, church was great. Last night the best preacher in the world preached on "The Package is at the Door" and then Wednesday, shoe-wee, you should have heard it, he preached on Psalm 55, that was one of his best sermons yet!!!! Unfortunately we aren't able to yet record messages at our church, so you won't be able to hear it! But it was a good one, none-the-less!

My great Family

Aren't they great? Need I say more!

Soooooo.......

So my computer died, STUPID THING! Then my loving parents sent me my old one for my birthday! Thanks Mom and Dad you are the best parents I've ever had! I had a great birthday and everything was great but that was a month ago and on to new business, with the crash of my computer I lost the rest of my Hawaii pictures . . . for now, they are on the oh great and might mac at the church and I have to go get them off that computer and onto this computer so I can sit for hours and wait for pictures to upload . . . you see the trouble! So . . . it might be April of next year before I get them online! Sorry, on a side note, you can check out my website: http://photosbydivinedesign.wordpress.com/ and see some of my work and if you are someone who loves me you will find my children on there. They make some of the cutest models ever! Seriously, God has blessed me with some great kids! And their father is pretty swell too! WOW! Did I just use the word "swell". I should probably stop now, but what is a blog without a picture? Here is one:

We went to Oak Openings again this year, the colors were not nearly as pretty, one of my clients told me it was because the weather did not get cold enough or that it got cold then hot then cold then hot and so on and so forth therefore the trees didn't know what to do and they didn't get as colorful. This is the same spot we took Andrew's picture in last year when he was so little. Both my kids are growing up. I don't have babies any more! I have preschoolers! Wow! And just think, the time of diapers is closer than it was just a little while ago! THAT will be a blessing!

Hawaii Trip 002

Four Generation Picture - my Mom, Abby, Me and my Grandma

After the Grand Canyon we went to my Grandpa and Grandma's house! By the way - the steak was DELICIOUS! The spice was Butt Rub and it was good! I just put that on there because I like being able to say that word w/o my mother yelling at me! My very serious little boy with his uncle David!

My grandma, she is so sweet.

Cooking with my Grandpa.

This is part of my family and my Uncle David, my mom's brother and his wife Barb

In this pose they are supposed to look at each other and it is supposed to invoke feelings of goodness, but they just look mad don't they?

These are my family's dogs. This one is Kaiser. (as in Jerry Kaiser! No, the Kaiser of Germany or something like that!)

This one is Minchi - roughly translated from Japanese it means emergency food supply. You have to watch this one, she will just about lick your ankles off!

Hawaii Trip 001 . . . "Heaven Help ME"

Mom is that our plane? Yes . . . don't get too excited though for 12 days of travel you are going to be on 8 of those things!!!! Honestly though, they did GREAT! No fits, not screaming because ears hurt, no being rowdy, at times I wondered if I had brought the right children!

Yes all that snow was in Arizona - while we in the North were having rain and heat they were having cold and snow - no joke!!!! I was surprised - there was still snow at the Grand Canyon - I was cold!

These are the SanFransico Peaks the girls are standing in front of!

These little stops were all the way up to the Grand Canyon. One really neat thing is that it costs $25 to go see something that man had nothing doing in helping create - yeah $25 to look at God's creation call the Grand Canyon (that's no the neat part) - but it was national park week so we got in for free!

Some more Indian made stuff. So at this stop I was told by one of the locals that taking pictures was frowned upon because it is their art work and someone might try to copy it so if you are looking at these pictures and you are particularly artsy would you do me a favor and not copy this particular work! Then my conscience can be clear!

A really pretty authentically Indian made pot - for 65 bucks!

Our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon!

This is Ben, my youngest brother - you will see a lot him, he liked getting his picture taken!

I love this picture of him!

I love this picture of my parents!

This is a museum of things found at this site. This is where some Indians lived and some of the stuff they found there!

Isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

David is very camera shy - it is hard to get such a good shot of him!

I took this so I could remember the name of the mountains I had taken a picture of the girls in. It's up at the top of this post.

I don't think its working . . .

This is the rocks from one of their original houses. This whole area in the Grand Canyon is a Indian Ruins. It really was quite fascinating.

Here is Lizzie . . . need I say more?

Matthew my middle brother!

I don't know why but I thought the tree needed to have its picture taken and then I thought it should be displayed on the world wide web for everyone to . . . enjoy?

A sneak peek at the Grand View - it was just that a grand view!

Honestly no picture in the world could ever do the Grand Canyon justice and for all those heathens out there that think it is just a hole in the ground - you must not realize how great our God is . . . I just stood in awe of his greatness as I looked at it!

I love this picture of me! High angles are the greatest!

I say Heaven help me because I just went through all the pictures hoping there were some for my website but there are so many . . . I'm not going to crop and all that for the blog - sorry it's not that I don't love you whoever you are that read this, it's that I'm crazy to even begin this - Bible Club all next week, my house, my kids, there are a LOT of pictures - I'm going to do them one event at a time so check back often to see what happened from day to day!