18 Months Old!?!?

Really is Luke that old already?!? I've said it many times before but time goes so fast. I can not believe that Luke is a year and a half old as of yesterday.

So, what's Luke like at 18 months old, you might ask? Well, here is a summary. I could never put into words what a joy he is every single day and how much more Troy and I get out of life because Luke is our son. What a wonderful blessing from above!

*Luke still loves bath time and will rush into our bathroom to turn on the water himself if we mention the word bath. I've noticed though that he does it like it much if water gets in his eyes.

*His current favorite toys: Legos (or any blocks really), guitar, puzzles and a set of 12 tiny books. He also loves to sit at the picnic table he got for Christmas and draw on his magnetic drawing board.

*Luke's newest words include: apple, nana (banana), see ya (one of our favorites), up (as a request), cracker (I hear this one probably 30 or more times a day), okie (cookie), be bop (as in the song), b-ball (basketball), diaper, spoon and many more I'm not thinking of right now.

*Luke is currently going through an incredibly picky eating stage. The reason I hear cracker so much is because that is his favorite food group right now and yes crackers are a food group just ask Luke. There have been a few days were he has eaten little else except for goldfish crackers. We are still have a very hard time with veggies- he'll eat the baby food kind occasionally and as for the real thing, next to impossible. Thankfully he loves milk and has 2-3 sippy cups a day.

*He has been trying to open doors for a while now but it's becoming more frequent. If Maggie is outside, Luke's hand is on the doorknob.

*He will let us know when his diaper needs to be changed. He will even lay down on the floor for us before we ask.

*Luke's current favorite book: "Pat the Bunny" He will go through all the actions including rubbing your face to feel the scratchy beard (he gets better results on this one if Dad is reading it).

*He loves going to MDO and playing with the other kiddos.

*Luke has been singing a bunch lately- nothing we know or understand although sometimes it sounds like the ABC's.

*Luke loves to help us. Closing drawers, cabinets, the refrigerator or even picking up his toys will always get a smile. One of the cutest things he's doing is saying uh-oh every time he sees something open or out of place. He also says uh-oh if he sees something he's not supposed to touch like the tv remote or a cell phone.

*Finally, Luke is still a very happy go lucky, smiley little boy that makes us smile every day.

I can't forget to show you what an adorable little boy he is now can I. Here are some pictures from over the weekend. I picked up the bouncy ball at Target on Saturday and Luke loves it!

Christmas with Family

December 29th the 3 of us drove to Topeka so that we could see all of Troy's extended family. We celebrated with them on the 30th and then after Luke's nap we drove to Kansas City for the rest of the week and weekend. We celebrated there with both my mom's and my dad's side of the family. Unfortunately I forgot my camera when we went to spend New Year's Eve with my Dad so there aren't any pictures from that celebration. We had a great visit with everyone and Luke got way too many gifts! We were glad to make it home yesterday after Kansas City got another 3" of snow on Saturday night. The roads were a little rough in a couple of places but we made it.

Luke got a Nutcracker piggy bank from Grandma and Grandpa. It was pretty funny because we passed it around for everyone to see and it came back filled with all kinds of coins and even a dollar bill.

Trying to put more coins in the piggy bank.

What goodies can I find?

Playing with one of the goodies- Luke loves this little basketball hoop

The girls plus Luke

Luke got Legos from Grammy and PawPaw- Mom and Dad were just as excited as he was about it.

Helping Mom open a new puzzle.

The Snow

These pictures don't show really how bad it was. There was a record snowfall of 14" on Christmas Eve. The entire city was pretty much shut down and travel was highly discouraged. As I mentioned below almost every church service was canceled for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We were all very grateful to be warm and have plenty to eat. There was one being who enjoyed it though. Maggie absolutely loves the snow! Troy played with her outside for a while the day after Christmas and she was one happy dog!

Christmas at Home

So these are just a few (of the huge quantity) of the pictures from our Christmas celebration at home. Troy's parents and my sister were here from December 23 until the 27th. Thankfully they made it before the huge snow storm hit on Christmas Eve. We were unable to go to church because the roads were so bad and almost all services were canceled. We ended up watching a service on-line from Kansas City on Christmas Eve. We all decided it's much more meaningful to actually be in the church.

This is actually a week before Christmas when Luke finally decided the Santa hat was pretty cool.

Luke had a terrible cold the entire week of Christmas. This was taken on Christmas Eve and I believe shows exactly how he's feeling- poor guy!

We let Luke open 2 gifts on Christmas Eve.

Reading "The Night Before Christmas"

Santa duty for Dad and Grandpa

Luke was pretty overwhelmed Christmas morning. It took him a while to get in the groove of ripping open his gifts.

Luke loves Thomas the Train and Dad HAD to buy on Oil Derrick for Luke's train set.

Opening a gift with Aunt Sarah.

Grandma reading a new book to Luke.

This is the picnic table that Troy and I got Luke. He loves it!

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.