lilja and the snow

Lilja seems a natural in the snow.. she loves to eat it and doesn't seemed to mind the cold..it was 16 degrees outside when we took this picture. And the next picture and the videos are with our new camera.so hopefully we will have more fun videos to share.

sledding!!

We bought Lilja her own little sled this year.. after this big storm that came through, we will use it a lot!

what do we do when...

there is lots of snow and we are snowed in?? dance!!!
the videos are about Lilja, but check out Aran's dance moves..

snow, snow, snow

we are under a big winter storm watch , but ofcourse ARan and Lilja wanted to go outside.. here is the before and after shot..
more photo's to come today as it is DUMPING and the snow is now higher than Lilja.. i can imagine the photo's already, but it needs to stop dumping first!!

extra ones

Aran's co-worker Danielle gave Lilja these Carhartts.. just her size and now just like her Daddy!!

another one just for kicks!!

santa came...

Santa came to the Johnson residence... Lilja was a little weary of all those presents under the little tiny tree..

Lots of fun presents, besides lots of books, Lilja got also a beautiful jacket from Italy..

A dancing scarf..

and a topper for our little tiny tree made by Tae(Lilja's cousin).. it is the perfect size for our little tiny tree.. How many times have I said "little tiny tree"?

and a picture of the family early in the morning.. it seems these photo's with the little candle is turning into my family's tradition.

My mom send one out to everyone a couple of years ago and we started sending photo's of our family with it.. here's ours for 2010!!

x-mas eve

what a smiley girl we have today.. she is just blossoming into this funny, silly, laughy little girl.. so fun!!

This year we just got a little tiny tree so we did not have to worry about Lilja pulling the tree down next to not touching the wood stove.. Next year she will understand "no touch" much better.. I took down the little tree down from my desk and yes, Lilja is completely infatuated with it.. Luckily it's just a little one.. as you can hear her language is getting pretty good..

Aan, (lights on) leaf, balls and hot are some of the things she is pointing out. Blowing on something hot she is learning from her oatmeal in the morning. Now. when something is hot.. even lights, she will blow on them ;)

p.s yes, it is "White Christmas " in the background on the TV.. My favorite movie of all times!!!

santa is coming!!

Almost every night Aran has been reading 'The night before X-mas" to Lilja.. she is starting the recognize this silly old man in some of the pictures..

roly poly

What do we do when outside the snow turned into rain and the snowy ground is just a muddy mess.. we play roly-polies.. Lilja rolls over, and over and over again..

Aran's baby hat

We just got a package in the mail from Aran's parents and in there were some clothes that Aran's grandma made for him when he was little.. This hat was one of them.. How cute does this look on Lilja??
Lilja's language is really good and she caught on "hat" right away..

x-mas story

Lilja loves this flap book about a baby trying to find a present under things.. the window, a pillow, under wrapping paper or the tree..Now we know where she is getting the " no, no, no " from. Lilja loves books. every night Aran will read her one or two and then I will read the good night book.. ( Good night Moon, or sleep baby sleep)
Here is some Daddy/ Lilja bonding time..
p.s we count the candy canes and ornaments, that's what she is doing when she is pointing..

sledding

It finally snowed enough to take the sled out.. now this one is a top of the line adult one we got from Aran's parents a couple of years ago. But, don't worry we'll get a Lilja version pretty soon.

she kept her balance pretty good, but did a couple of tumbles.. she didn't mind though.. and yes, little gloves are on their way.. Amazon.com is a little slow this year..

De Fabeltjeskrant

When we were little this was our show we watched.. Lilja and I watched this 10 times today.. wait for the wink!!!
i

the birds and playing dress up..

As some of you already know Lilja's first sign and word was bird... she LOVES birds, just like her daddy and birds seem to follow her.. Yesterday we even saw two golden eagles up close. But her favorite bird seems to be the Owl.. Hoot..hooot.. as she makes the sound. So this year we are going all out with our bird feeders. they are right in front of her little play area and we set up her chair there too, so she can stand on it and watch them.. I think we need to buy a little latter for her so she will have a front row seat for the bird spectaculair that will be coming up..
notice three bird feeders as of now.. we want to get some for the front window.. how fun would that be for Lilja.. and for daddy too ;)

Daddy put this head band around her head.." A new way to tame the curls"

OK the glasses really make the look

All dressed up

Don't we clean up nice??

Lilja's version of Row, row, row your... horse??

I promise.. mom and dad... that I do talk Dutch with Lilja.. but I think the majority of people watching these videos are english speaking.. however I will try and also make some Dutch versions with english translation on the borrom ;)
we are going to buy a new camera with video for x-mas (our present to eachother) so stay tuned for better versions of the videos and photos.. LOVE the option of these videos though and by hearing and reading the comments I think you do too..

bathtime!!

What to do with all that hair while washing it...Daddy has a solution..

Daddy!! what is that on top of my head??
That's much better!!

Rinse, rinse and repeat!!

There is clean Lilja in the mirror!! Peekaboo!!

Lilja's toybox

Lilja has her own little space in our kitchen.. today she was very busy redecorating..taking every toy out of her toybox and climbed in.. (with some help ofcourse)

to make her own space??

No, it's for "little seal'!!

too many videos taken??

do you think Lilja is trying to tell me I am video taping too much??

lilja and her house

Lilja is starting to really walk a lot.. she loves her little house and when we take it out she will go over all the animal names.. sign language and all.. she knows them by name to though..

the polar express

Lilja was not feeling so well during the visit of our friends Matt, Jacci and their two little ones, but he did get some cute photo's out of us..
check out his blog at www.thefourdares.blogspot.com for the whole story of the Polar express.. Lilja will definitely be there next year!!

Our little drummer girl

We met Matt, Jacci and their girls yesterday as they were going on the Polar Express.. They were supposed to have come on Saturday, but Lilja got the stomach bug and then I got it.. so as Matt and jacci are smart parents they wanted to stay away as long as possible.. They did however brought the best present ever.. a big drum with about 8 instruments in it.. When we got home, we were going to put Lilja to bed right away thinking Lilja would be really tired. Well, she ended up making an orchestra of music.. loving the present and suddenly seemed well again.. Thanks guys for that wonderful present!!, I was taking pictures, but the first one was still on video.. I LOVE that our camera seems to take OK videos so here is a second of Lilja drumming until i found out it was on video.. wished I kept videotaping.. but be assured.. we will make more..

Lilja is walking!!

Sinterklaas found our house all the way from Holland!!

In Holland we celebrate Sinterklaas day. It's hard to explain so here is a site to check out.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas but the just is that Sinterklaas on his white horse and Zwarte Piet (his helper)bring presents for the children that have been good that year.. You put out your shoe and even leave some carrots for the horse and then the next morning there will be a little gift in your shoe. In the evening Sinterklaas will walk on the rooftops and Zwarte piet will bang loudly on the door and leave a bag with presents. So this year I felt we should start the tradition of Sinterklaas. We invited my Dutch friend Inez, her husband and their two children and a Dutch gentleman, Oliver and his wife and their three children for dinner and maybe a surprise visit from Sinterklaas. We had asked our neighbor Ted to be the "knocker"

So after dinner Ted banged LOUDLY on the door and all the kids froze.. they looked outside and Sinterklaas' horse had eaten some of the carrots and there was a bag of presents in front of the door.. Their faces were priceless.

Lilja really likes her present.. you push on the top and the little balls will jump around.

We had a lot of fun. The kids all really played well together and we felt a little connection between all of us.. a Dutch connection. Eventhough we are so far away from our little country, we can instill a little tradition of Sinterklaas in our children. Thanks Sinterklaas for finding us..

her little house

My parents send this little tent for Lilja today.. It is sooo cute. I love that it has all these animals on it, plus a little door and a window.. Lilja right away played Peekaboo in it and played in there for a while.. Great present Oma and Opa!!

Uhmmm, yep that's the daddy.. I don't think I need to explain ;)

bison in our tummies and now under our feet

Aran had someone tan the bison skin and it arrived today.. He was worried what I thought of it, but I think it is beautiful..and Lilja agrees.
When we asked Lilja what she thought it was, she said "deer" and signed it.. close girlie girl but not really.(her sign is holding her hand on the side of her head.. The real sign is actually both hands on top of your head like antlers ) ..

snow, snow, snow!!

Finally a real snow storm.. hopefully these whopping two inches will stay around for a while..

that hat is nice and warm.. but her head still has to grow a cone ;)

Is it me or does Lilja look like a little girlie Michelin man??

Lilja's first icicle.. soooo cold.. but very intriguing .

How do I love thee, let me count the ways...

So it was time to update Lilja's "dressing room" after her playroom looked so cute.. So I facebooked around to see if someone was selling a nice dresser.. Ours became too little after I brought so many clothes back from Holland.. And YES!! My friend Amy was selling hers and guess what.. it was the dresser I had been looking at .. My favorite one!! and how cute does it look with the owl peeking through. Thanks Amy.. Yes, everything happens for a reason.

Thank you, Maggie..

Mama, Maggie is cleaning my feet..no wonder they are smelly ;)
Left foot..

This one too, Maggie

Yeah , all clean.. thank you Maggie!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends.. We wanted to give thanks to all of you who have been there for us throughout this year. You know who you are... Thank you for your love hugs, support and making us a little family.

row,row, row..the horse

Lilja loves the song "Row, row, row your boat" we sing a fun version at Tumbling Tots so now she will hold my hands and start rowing while she sings Row, row, .. but now everything that rocks, she thinks rows.. thus the horse.. :)