I promise, it is not my goal to see how long I can go without blogging. Between practicing my single mom skills for a few months, endlessly trying to keep up with house work, my new calling in church (which is Primary Secretary), and all the other duties life calls for, I haven't found much time to sit at the computer.

So I want to give an update on my little ones who have grown so much since I last posted.

Well, my Kiera really isn't so little anymore. She is two months away from turning four! I love it, but at the same time it makes me sad to see how fast she is growing up. It seems like she was just born yesterday.

She is my boost of energy every day. The things she says these days amazes me. She is a great story teller (in a good way), and the most amazing big sister! She is always concerned for Averi's well-being and usually has a good idea of what Averi needs or wants when I can't figure it out. She LOVES playing with her friends and wishes she could everyday, all day!

She makes me happy!

My little Averi is growing and changing every day. She is a tricky one because she is sooo quick! She gets into things so fast it amazes me. She has already broken a plate, eaten plenty of things I am sure were not good for her digestive system, and makes us laugh every day! She is nine months old now and weighs in at 16 pounds. Every time I see her little "two toothed" grin I feel a piece of my Heavenly Fathers love for me.

Her favorite things are Kiera, she loves to watch Kiera ALL the time and gets upset when Kiera leaves the room. She loves "talking" to daddy on the phone. I can't even describe how excited she gets to hear his voice. So now when she sees my phone she starts saying, "dad dad dad". And after talking to him today, for about an hour after, all she said was a mixture of dad, daddy, and dada. And she loves to be held. She would be perfectly content if I carried her around all day.

My two girls make me the happiest mom in the world. I love them with all of my heart.

Ryan had to travel to Scottsdale, AZ for his simulator refresher course. We decided that we would all go, especially since our great friends, the Watts, live about an hour from there.

We got to stay in this really nice hotel. It was unlike any hotel I have every been to before. Plus, it was warm there so we got to utilize the awesome swimming pools.

(The view from our room)

Averi is sitting up all by herself!(Kiera reading the Bible! She jumped up in the bed and got herself all situated just like this.)

(Getting ready to go swimming)

Daddy and Kiera's Snowman

All the way back to February 5th! Kiera and daddy built a snowman, I thought it looked more like a snow-woman with the beautiful weeds for "hair"! Kiera even rolled her own snowballs!

Clovis meet winter, winter meet Clovis!

On Wednesday it was 60 degrees outside, and wonderful. However, the talk was about all the snow we were going to wake up to on Thursday. In the past, every time we have heard these forecasts we hope for a real snow storm and nothing much happens. During Wednesday night into the whee hours on Thursday morning, every time I got up to feed Averi I looked outside and all I saw was rain. Ryan woke up sometime around seven to get ready for work and woke me up to tell me it had definitely snowed. Some time between 5:30am and 7:30am the freezing rain had finally turned into snow. Under all this lovely white fluff is a nice thick sheet of ice! So we did what we never thought we could and literally stuffed the truck in the garage. I seriously didn't think it could ever work, but Ryan did it! This is truly a tight squeeze. There are only inches around each vehicle and the truck is pulled all the way in touching the motorcycle and the garage door still touches the bumper on the truck. Ryan needed to get in the Camaro this morning and he had to climb through the hatch. To get from the truck into the house we have to use the front door. For some reason, I find this all too funny!

(One of our frozen trees)

If there is mail in there, we won't be getting it anytime soon!

The upside to all of this, Ryan gets a four day weekend with his family!

Highlights from Christmas

Christmas vacation came and went like cookies and milk! Here is a quick run down of our vacation:

Arrived in Utah on Saturday, December 19th after driving ALL night! Why we do that to ourselves, I really don't know! But the girls did great.

Monday and Tuesday, December 21 & 22 Ryan spent both days finishing up his A&P testing and I am proud to announce that he is now A&P licensed! This means that he can legally work on airplanes!

Tuesday night Brandon, Christy, and Duncan arrived in Utah. The Andreasen family was finally together again after four years!

On Saturday December 26th we had a Christmas party with my dad's family. By some divine power everyone was there! First time that has happened in a really long time. But I didn't have my camera. So if anyone in the Johnson family has those pictures, please email them to me!

The rest of our trip was spent running back and forth between Brigham City and Millville and then it was time to come home.

So here are some pictures to recapture the moments.

(Kiera sporting our Christmas tree)

We had our own little family Christmas party before we left for Utah.

(Kiera's new hat and scarf)

(Ryan, Kiera, and cousin Duncan)

(Uncle Adam and the girls on Christmas morning)

(Adam and, his so cute girlfriend, Whitney)

She melts my heart!

(Andreasen grandkids in their Christmas pajamas)

We did make time to catch a good game of go-cart racing. This was real racing style people!
(Kyle, Me, Brandon, and Christy. Ryan was taking the picture and Jessica blessed us with watching the kids.)

And finally after two weeks of Kiera driving us crazy asking when it was going to snow, it did!

Once again, the Andreasen brothers built their towering snowman. I forget the height (15 feet) but it beat last years record and that was all that mattered. Once again, I didn't get a picture of it, so for all you Andreasen's out there, please email them to me if you have any!

Our sweet little Kiera was not at all happy about this photo shoot. But hey, we're all together!

And there you have it. It has only taken me two weeks to complete this post. Phew, it's done!

First Family Flight

Finally, Ryan took us flying! He took me, along with Brandon and Christy, about three years ago, shortly after he got his private pilots license. He has been talking about taking Kiera for a long time and we got to go on November 3rd.

(Before take off)

The girls were super happy and Kiera was so excited!

And then we taxied to the run way...

That is when both girls decided they didn't like it. Kiera had a look of death and Averi was screaming! Ryan asked me if we should still go, I of course was really looking forward to it so we gave it a try. After a few minutes, both girls were sound asleep.

Our WONDERFUL pilot!!!

Averi's Blessing

Daddy Blessed Averi on November 1. We were so blessed to have my parents and brother fly out for this special day.

Happy Halloween

Kiera did not like carving pumpkins one bit. So she drew on hers and Averi's pumpkin instead.

Kiera was a beautiful "Tinker Bell" for Halloween.
And though the idea of getting her hands gooey in the pumpkins made her very unhappy she did like trick-or-treating. Especially because she had so many people to choose from to go up to the door with her. My parents and brother flew in for Averi's blessing and got to celebrate Halloween with us. At each house Kiera would choose who she wanted to go to the door with her. She could have gone all night.

"Kiera and Grandpa"
Our little Averi all bundled up for the ride!