Snow?? Snow in Texas?? What is that all about??

Sad I know. Very sad that it takes returning home from a trip to Delaware and being in Houston, TX of ALL places to see... SNOW!!!

Now all you northern friends of mine... don't laugh. This little sprinkle of snow entertained my children for 2 hours!! Just take a look at that sad little snowball Anna and her friend Shelby were able to round up. :)

It has been so long since I have been here and I am so sorry for that. I really thought that after that last post, Anna was going to keep up with my blog for me. LOL She does have another post started, but she's as bad as I am about distractions. This time of year there are so many!!

Let me tell you a little of what I have been doing:

1. Organizing a Christmas party and gifts for 8 boys in the cottage my Sunday school sponsors.

2. Purchasing all the gifts for another cottage of 8 boys. (I was the personal shopper for their sponsor)

3. Lots and lots of photo shoots.

4. Laundry.

5. Trip to DE with the ENTIRE family... on a PLANE... on only 24 HOURS notice!!! (my grandfather passed away)

6. Black Friday shopping with my expecting SIL in Delaware!! (crazy, I know!)

7. Lots and lots of paperwork for our foster/adoption journey.

8. A couple of work Christmas parties with Rodney.

9. Facebook.

10. Both of my girls birthday parties!!

11. Oh yeah... and taking care of the 3 kids we have now. :)

How I want my Summer Vacation to be (maybe in school too)

   Do you want to know how I spent my summer vacation?Well, I really want to walk dogs for 1.00 each,there I said it! Now are you happy?Dogs are my favorite animals, besides my cat. The cat that I have now is,well my first cat that I've ever had (I think so). Back to dogs, Bailey my first dog, was my favorite dog. He was so fun and so cute!!! But we had to give him away!!! I was crying for hours!!! I want another dog but my parents won't let me. So thats why I want to walk dogs in the summer, maybe while I'm in school too. Now you know what I want to do in the summer (maybe all year and I want to save up to buy a dog and beg and beg and tell my parents that I'll pay for one myself). Bye! Bye! (see don't you love my story?! I'm only a kid! Well, I'm getting bored. Gotta go eat dinner!) AWESOME PLAN ISN'T IT!!!

(written by Anna, my 9 year old)

I wasn't kidding...

... I really wasn't. :)

I said it was going to be very busy and I meant it. Whew! We have gotten so much done! The fire inspection passed, yeah!! The paperwork is all filled out. MY LIFE BOOK IS COMPLETE!!! (Can you tell which was the hardest for me?)  CPR/First Aid got postponed until Monday. 

I had ablation surgery. 

Yep, you heard me. I feel fine. I feel 100%. I know it's because of all the prayers from friends and family, and because of our God who is a great healer! I mean, He knows it's the holidays and I can't be down for more than a day. :) Right??

Speaking of holidays, I want to tell you about our church's Ladies Holiday Dinner I attended on Friday night. It was AMAZING!! Besides the decor, the food, and the company, the speaker was WONDERFUL!! To put it simply, she challenged everyone to invite Jesus to Christmas this year. (at least I took it as a challenge) 

I mean isn't it hard sometimes to forget? It is for me. I try so hard every year, but even then they busyness of the season distracts me. I have a new challenge this year and I am going to do my best. I plan to invite Jesus to my house for Christmas. 

Guess what else...

I don't have any pictures to post right now. I have lots to catch up with, but I have to get back to work editing my sessions. I will be back soon my friends!

Gearing up for a busy few weeks.

OK, I was going to end with pictures, but I just can't figure out my computer right now. The ONLY time I have trouble cut/pasting is when I am blogging!! It is so frustrating! I guess you get to see the pictures first, then read my post. I actually wrote a little more than usual! 

You must be shocked! :)

It has been so long since I have just talked about what's going on in the Johnson household! I feel so behind.

 I can't believe that It's almost Christmas and I have barely even thought about it twice. The only reason I even remembered it was coming, was when I had to run into Hobby Lobby and decorations were everywhere!!

Guess what?? We should be licensed to foster/adopt by Christmas!! Yes, I remember it was a mere few months ago that I mentioned this on the blog, but God has put us in high gear! :)

I am so excited for what he has in store for our family! Don't get me wrong, I know that there will be tough roads ahead and good ones. I have an AMAZING support system! "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13" Not to mention the MANY wonderful Christian women who surround me!!

I promise to be better at keeping you updated in the future! For right now, we have the plumber coming to check the gas lines tomorrow. Then next week, we have the fire marshal coming on Monday and CPR/First Aid class on Tues. After that it is on to the home study!

Onto another completely separate subject, I have about 10 photo sessions I need to get scheduled this month! I am REALLY looking forward to them! I am about to get Lightroom 2 and I am excited to use the new editing software with my Mac!!

It's getting cold outside...Brrr.....

But I still cannot convince my children to put their shoes on! Hee... hee...

I absolutely LOVE my girls in hats!! Yeah for cold weather!!

Sneak Peak for the "A" Family

Every now and then there is a sweet boy out there who can tug my heart strings like my own Joshua does. This little boy was one of those boys!! "N" took a little while to warm up, but as you can see... once he did, he was all smiles!!! 

Mom and Dad thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to photograph your family! I look forward to watching these sweet babies grow up. Baby "E" is gorgeous!!

I will be in touch with you soon!

Two sisters and their beautiful families.

I had the opportunity to spend some time with the "N" family in our session, and I just want to say that this family "oozes" love! I have known them for a few years and they are as beautiful inside as they are on the outside.

Thank you so much "N" family for giving me the opportunity to capture this moment in time for your family! I will be calling you soon to show you the rest of the pictures from our session.

Distracted by Facebook...

I cannot believe that it has been 11 days since I blogged! My free time I used for blogging before has been taken over by Facebook. :)

You guys know that I am not one for many words, but I am ALWAYS one for many pictures. This post will be no different. I have MOPS convention, SYTYCD tour show, and kids to share with you. LOTS of pictures!

Twitch and Kherington

Katee and Joshua (my favorite couple!)

The Finale

Will and Jessica (Will was my favorite dancer of all!)

Gev and Courtney

Twitch

Mark and Chelsie

Twitch and Katee

Joshua and Chelsie

Mark and Chelsie

Will- AMAZING DANCER!!

Best Friends

My sweet Grace...she is getting soooo big.

Go Fish performed at the MOPS Convention in Dallas, TX

Plumb...if you haven't heard her music, go to iTunes NOW!! "Me" is my favorite song!

New paint, new furniture, same old toy mess. :)

Remember long before Hurricane Ike....

I told you I was painting my house....

Well I finally have some pictures for you.

And because we had all that time to spend sitting in the house together, we decided to get some new furniture. Here are some to start with, but remember it takes me a LONG time to decorate!! :)

Here is the breakfast room, it used to be a baby blue. That is some new artwork on the wall. We will get to that later. 

Here is the view of the living room, with the new furniture. 

(and the new  TV)

Here are some really cool shutter doors that are going on the wall somewhere. 

My pretty rustic red dining room. The downstairs bathroom is the same color. (This color is my favorite!!!)

Here is that metal art from the kitchen. I think I am going to get two more, because that space needs something larger.

Here is another view of the living room. That chair to the left of the fireplace is my new "sitting" chair. I LOVE it!!

Here is the kids playroom, right side. 

That is our new train set, courtesy of the Boys and Girls Country garage sale last weekend. And who is that rugrat over there on the table?? Can you see him??

Anna's new paint color in her room.

The other side of the kids playroom. That furniture is the old stuff from downstairs.