Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Johnson’s! We were not able to get a letter out last year and have a lot to catch you up on. In fact, we were not able to get a letter out in 2007. To summarize 2007 in 6 words: London, Paris, Normandy, Alps, PGA Championship. 2008 was a great year, but we’ll just hit the highlights:

• We had just finished our 2007 Christmas letter when we got great news in December: Amy was pregnant! We can’t believe that was over two years ago!
• Two days later, before we could send our letter, a huge ice storm hit Tulsa and we lost power for 10 long, cold days. Troy spent the month of January cleaning up limb debris from our yard.

• Amy went on a Caribbean cruise with her mother and sister and left Troy at home.
• Amy also enjoyed every minute of her pregnancy….well almost every minute. Other than being constantly tired and dealing with nightly leg cramps it was a truly wonderful experience. What a blessing!
• We had to rush to the hospital one night due to complications. Both Amy and the baby were fine, but after 3 weeks of bed rest in the hospital Amy had more complications and had to undergo an emergency caesarean. Luke Edward Johnson was born July 10^th, 2008—6 weeks early. Ready or not (more “not” than “ready”) we were parents. Luke spent the first 10 days of his life in the NICU and we were thrilled to finally bring him home on July 19.

• Home life after that revolved around Luke: feedings, diapers, spit-up, long nights, playtime and getting adjusted to being parents.

If you thought that our 2008 was full of change, 2009 would definitely top it—and we are not talking about “Obama change”.

• In March Troy was let go from his employer. It was a complete surprise. At this point we had lived in Tulsa for over 4 years—the longest we have ever lived in one place.
• In less than a month, our prayers were answered when Troy got an interview and then a job offer with Range Resources in Oklahoma City. That meant another move but it also meant work.
• Other than bi-weekly commutes, we lived apart for three months. Luckily Luke saved all of his “first” moments (first crawl, first words, etc.) for when Troy was home in Tulsa.
• We moved in to our new house in Edmond—a suburb of Oklahoma City at the beginning of July.

• We managed to get the house put together enough to have Luke’s first birthday celebration. We all enjoyed that until Luke’s body could not handle the sugar from the cake and he stayed awake all night long (yes, it was all night).

• To celebrate surviving the first half of the year and because we were both ready for some time away, we took a vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in August. Amy was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of swimming with the dolphins and we both enjoyed the relaxation. It was a wonderful trip and the grandparents enjoyed watching Luke.

• We also took several trips to Topeka, Kansas City, and Table Rock Lake, MO to visit family and friends.

We know it sounds like we have been through some tough times over the past year but we could not be happier. Luke lights up our life. He has been walking since just before Halloween and is quite a jabber mouth. Luke’s current favorite words are: Maggie, this (as a question), hi and bye although he is saying about 40 words now. He is a real big fan of Maggie and Daisy (our dog and cat), trains (which we can hear from our new house), and bath time (which he requests multiple times daily). Amy finds staying home with Luke very rewarding and would not trade it for anything. Troy also enjoys working as a Geologist at Range. We are all enjoying our new home but miss our friends and coworkers back in Tulsa.

May your holidays be merry and bright and may you receive many blessings in 2010!

MDO

That's Mother's Day Out for those of you who don't know. Today was Luke's third time at MDO. He absolutely loves going which is great! His teachers, Ms. Jeannette and Ms. Angela, are very nice and Luke is excited to see them every Wednesday morning. I think he really enjoys playing with the other kids and I know that it is good for him to have that interaction. PLUS, I get time to myself as well. Today I finished my Christmas shopping and the last 2 weeks Troy and I have gone out to lunch so it's good for all of us. I do miss Luke especially when I see other little kids out with their moms but that's good and healthy too. And when I pick him up, it is the best happy heart moment when Luke sees me at the door and comes running over to me. That alone to me is worth it!

The last two weeks Luke has refused to take a nap at MDO. That's actually okay with me because he can sleep longer when we get home (it's what he's doing right now). The first week was a little rough because he only slept for an hour and fifteen minutes while there which is no where near his usual 2 to 3 hours. The following day Luke took almost a 4 hour nap so I know the little guy was tired. Luke's teachers told me he likes to talk with the other kiddos rather than sleep. I guess he's working on his social butterfly abilities early :)

One final note about MDO. Today was the last day before Christmas break. I was secretly hoping that Luke would have a gift that he made for Mom and Dad today when I picked him up. He did!!! Of course his teachers did most of the work but it's our first piece of "art work" from Luke! I was thrilled! Below is a picture of the snowflake ornament that will have a very prominent place on our Christmas tree for years to come. Enjoy!

The Weekend

On Saturday we all went to a model train show. It is quickly becoming Troy's new hobby and he wanted to check out everything and buy a few things. You can hear a real train from our house so Luke is very familiar with hearing the whistle blow and he gets so excited when he hears it. He absolutely loved watching the trains go around the tracks and hearing all the whistles. Unfortunately his teeth were bothering him so he was a bit fussy and we didn't stay too long but it was fun while it lasted. (Yes, I even enjoyed it a bit.)

Yesterday afternoon I helped Luke put his ornaments on our Christmas tree. We decided in an effort to have as little contact between Luke and the tree as possible that Troy and I would do the rest of the decorating while Luke was asleep (the less he sees us touching the tree we figure the better). Luke didn't understand hanging the ornaments and he only touched the tree once because the needles poked him and he didn't like it much but I still wanted him to participate in the process this year. It is one of my favorite events all year- decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music. It always fills me with Christmas spirit.

Using a Spoon

Last Monday, I gave Luke a spoon to "play" with at lunch. He understood the concept I think but didn't quite have the execution down. He wanted to have his own spoon at every meal since and that has allowed him to become a little more adept. The video below is from Friday night. You'll notice he still has a long way to go but it is so much fun watching him learn!