Rebecah's Birthday

Last Friday, the 7th, Rebecah turned 1 year old. The last year has gone so quickly for us. Rebecah had a good birthday. She loved having us sing to her throughout the day. By dinner and party time she was a little grumpy so I was glad we hadn't invited friends over for a party.

Cita wasn't too interested in opening her presents so Kimball happily opened all of her presents. We kept telling Kimball over and over that the presents were for Cita even though he was the one opening them. Once the presents were open, Rebecah showed a lot more interest in the toys. The cars from the Grandparents on both sides were the big hit for both kids. Kimball frequently tells me they are his toys so until Rebecah starts to fight back, I have a feeling that all toys in our house will be more Kimball's than Rebecah's.

Present pictures:










Rebecah also got a walk 'n ride toy to encourage her in her walking. She has mastered crawling really well the past month and is quite fast on her little knees these days. At times she does the bear walk on her feet and hands and it's quite funny.

Rebecah LOVED her first experience with chocolate and dessert in general. I had given her a taste of a fruit pie at Christmas but other than that taste she had never had dessert before. She loved her cake and kept opening her mouth and she would start to cry if the bites didn't come fast enough. If she sees me pull the cake out of the fridge she starts to get very excited with a big smile and she'll cry if she isn't rewarded with some bites in a timely manner. I have a feeling we won't beable to substitute animal crackers for her dessert like we were able to do with Kimball.



Here she is eating her cake. I think she looks a lot like Kimball in these pictures when he was her age.


At this point she knew her cake was almost gone and she started to fuss because she wanted more.


Kimball and Rebecah have started playing really well together. When Kimball naps Rebecah will frequently try to sneak into his room if she is awake because she wants to be with him.

Rebecah went to the doctor today and I was surprised to see that she is still 17 lbs. She has only gained 6 oz in the last 3 months. I guess she is just taking after some of her cousins that are on the small side. She eats well if it is something she is interested in, like oranges or broccoli, so we have to keep her favorite foods out of sight until she is finished eating her other food. As newborn Cita wasn't very snuggly at all and I was a little saddened that she didn't like to snuggle. That has completely changed. She loves to be held and I love it when she lays her head on me and gives me a squeeze. She has even started falling asleep at church if I hold her which is a miracle because she usually only sleeps if she is in the carseat or in her bed.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. Joseph was off the 23rd and the 24th so we were able to fit in quite a few Christmas activities. On the 23rd we went to a live Nativity put on by one of the local Baptist churches. Kimball loved seeing the animals, shepherds, angels, Wise Men, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. The baby was a real baby and was so happy just laying in the hay. Rebecah got cold and grumpy so we didn't stay very long.

Christmas Eve we had a traditional Johnson family dinner and then we had a short Christmas program. It was fun to sing Christmas songs as we read the Christmas story from the Bible. We also watched part of White Christmas and just before bed we left out cookies for Santa and read The Night Before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Kimball loves the Grinch, we have read it so many times the past few weeks and it is cute to hear him quoting it.

Santa came as soon as Kimball was asleep so we could get a full night of sleep. We got up about 6:45 and the kids woke up shortly there after. We had a fun morning opening presents. We took a break during the present opening for breakfast...fruitcake and hot chocolate. Rebecah loved the fruitcake along with the rest of us. Now, no negative thoughts about fruitcake...it's quite tasty!

Some of the favorite gifts were a remote control car and a doll from a Grandma friend in Russellville in addition to laptop computer and doll house that Santa brought. Kimball likes Cita's toys in addition to his own so he is having a hard time realizing that not all fun toys belong to him. Cita is a good sport about Kimball taking her things. She is still at the age where she puts up with Kimball taking her toys...not for much longer I would imagine.

We had a nice relaxing day and enjoyed a nice quiet Christmas dinner. We were able to spread some Christmas cheer by singing to a man from church who was in the hospital.

Kimball's laptop is a Toy Story one and he told me that he is now more excited about the Toy Story movie than he is about the Cars movie so he is broadening his horizons.

With their presents from Santa



Sampling the paper before opening her present.


Cita with her new Care Bear


Kimball with his tool set.


Rebecah with her doll. She got SO excited when she saw it was a doll.


Pretty Blue Eyes


Working on their laptops together:



Kimball giving Rebecah a ride in his dump truck.

Counting the Days until Christmas

This year to help us count down to Christmas we did an activity out of the Friend magazine. We had a question each night that was answered by a reading scripture to help Kimball learn more about the Christmas story. He was so excited to glue our ornament on the tree each night.

Here is a picture of Kimball with our completed tree Christmas morning.

Decorating a Gingerbread House

One of the ladies that I visit teach gave us a gingerbread house kit for Christmas. It was my kind of thing since the house was already assembled. Kimball was SO excited to decorate the house but we wanted to wait until Joseph was home to decorate it with us.

Kimball enjoyed licking his fingers and sneaking candy when he thought I wasn't looking. Stale gum drops and hard ball candies aren't appetizing in my book, but more power to you, Kimball!

Here are some pictures from our decorating fun.
Just starting out.




In this picture, Kimball covered the entire window with candy so the people wouldn't be able to see out of the house.


Here are the 3 Wise Men with gifts in their hands.


Kimball's name in candy.

That sounds like Mater

We live in Arkansas and every now and then something will happen to remind us that Arkansas is part of the "upper" South and if you don't consider it the south it is rural with some country people. Thus said...I was driving in the van with the two kids and we had the radio on listening to Christmas songs. During one of the commercials Kimball all of a sudden said: "That sounds like Mater!" Sure enough, it was a local talking with a country-hick accent and he did sound like Mater from the Cars movie. I just had to laugh that Kimball could pick out the accent and relate it to something he knew.

Story time with Santa

Last Thursday evening we went to the library for a special story time with Santa Claus. Kimball was so excited about the special night that he talked about it all week. The previous week at story time we practiced playing and singing Jingle Bells with the handbells so Kimball was ready for Santa.

Kimball loved seeing Santa but when the time came to sit on his lap he was rather hesitant...not Cita though. She just kept staring at him and his beard. She actually left his lap with a fist full of beard she was trying to eat.

Kimball and Rebecah listening to Santa read a story.


Kimball ready to play Jingle Bells with his green handbell.


Picture with Santa

There were a lot of kids at the library that night. I'm glad our normal story time only has about 15 kids.

Found Some

So I thought we hadn't taken any pictures when we were visiting Joseph's family at Thanksgiving, but I found some from our time at the Mall.

Here are some pictures of Kimball sitting in various cars that we saw throughout the mall.



Here are some pictures of us on a car ride. The pictures are a little fuzzy because the cars whipped around the curve of the track so quickly. Kimball was a little alarmed to be thrown around each corner...I was too for that matter!