Gigi Goes to Disneyland!

We spent a wonderful day at the "Happiest Place on Earth" on Gigi's 5th Birthday! It's a whole new place when seen through the eyes of a child, especially on her first visit to this magical land!

Papa and Gigi just before entering the park.

Mommy made Gigi a Minnie Mouse shirt to wear with her Minnie ears 

which she also wore on Halloween!

David, Hallee, Gigi, Nicole and Brody

Unc A and Micah joined us.

First ride for us was the all new Star Tours.

  Dumbo and the Carousel were both hits for all the little ones.  We all enjoyed the Tea Cups, Jungle Cruise and Autopia, too!  The grown-ups loved Pirates and Big Thunder as well!

Midday, Gigi changed into her princess Belle dress and had her face painted.

We explored ToonTown and took a tour of Mickey's house and the rest of the ToonTown.

Gigi and a reluctant Brody had their picture taken with Minnie Mouse.

In the afternoon we visited the Disney Princess Fantasy Faire.

Gigi was getting a bit tired,

But, despite the almost hour wait to Meet the Princesses, when asked what her favorite thing about Disneyland was, Gigi still replies:  "Meeting the princesses, Cinderella and Tiana!"

Gigi and Cinderella, her favorite princess, shared a chat, a hug and an autograph;

Gigi getting Tiana's autograph!

 It was truly a fantastic day!! 

You can see more pictures on my flickr page.

Milestone: Gigi Turns 5 !!!

In 6 days our sweet, little granddaughter Gigi will be 5 years old!

It seems like it was only yesterday when she was barely 6 pounds.

She's a cutie, there's no denying it!! (you can call me prejudice and that's ok!) 

 Pictured above, 4 generations of "Johnsen women"from L to R:  

Yaya, mommy, Gigi (6 months old), GreatGrandma

It's hard to believe this little princess will be starting school!!!  

She has brought such JOY to our lives!!

Gigi is so loving and sweet, with the cutest smile and a dimple on her right cheek! She warms our hearts and we love being able to spend lots of time together!

She loves books and loves to be read to.  She loves camping. She loves being a big sister to her brother, Brody (2) and her baby sister, Hallee, almost 1. She loves to help in the kitchen. 

She loves to ride in Yaya's car and loves to go with Papa to get Yaya's car washed.  She loves to be tickled and she loves her back scratched (just like her mommy!).

 

She loves animals and loves going to the Wild Animal Park, 

oops, I mean the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park!

She loves to "make a plan" especially for spending the night at Yaya and Papa's house!

She loves to play dress up and loves princesses. 

Her favorite princess is Cinderella, so Yaya made her a Cinderella dress.  

I think we've watched Disney's "Cinderella" more than a hundred times; 

and it never gets old watching it with her!

And, guess where this special little princess is going tomorrow, in honor of her birthday, 

for the very first time!?!?!

(Shhhhh!  It's a surprise for our birthday girl!)  

So happy we get to experience the special day with her and her family!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIGI!!!
Yaya and Papa love you; we love you more--to the moon and back!!

Fun at Spring Training

Traveling to Arizona for Spring Training has become a family tradition!

A waterfall near the golf course

Nick enjoying a game of golf

David shot his best game ever!

Nicole with a happy Brody

Gigi helps mommy make lunch

Hallee having fun playing with the beanie babies in the basket!

On a hot Arizona day, Sydney "relaxes" in the shade

An Arizona sunset

Papa and Yaya with Brody and Gigi at a night game

A tired Brody

Padres' Baseball at Peoria Sports Complex

The Hoffman brothers together in the Padres' dugout--

Glenn on the left and Trevor on the right!

Angelina, Alex and Micah in front of Peoria Sports Complex, before a Padres' game.

Micah having fun running through the waterfalls at a local park in El Mirage, AZ.

Andy and Nick enjoy a green beer on St Patrick's Day

An afternoon in Old Town, Scottsdale

Recent Quilting

Most quilters don't just work on one quilt or project at a time. In fact, none of my quilting friends start a quilt and complete it before starting another one. Usually quilters work on many projects, or rather, we have many projects started from which we can chose to sew on at any given time.

My husband can not understand this; it pretty much really bugs him that I have so many projects started! or that I might start a new project when I haven't finished another! I've tried to explain that we always have more than one project going for the times when we get stuck, or bored, or frustrated, or just need a change of pace. He just doesn't get it. He also thinks I have too much fabric.

I was a bit surprised (yes, just a bit surprised) when I started reorganizing my fabric and projects a few months back, and I discovered I had more WISP's and UFO's than I thought I did. So I decided, this year, I'm going to reduce the number of WISP's and UFO's I have.(For those non-quilters who may read my blog, a WISP is a Work In Slow Process and an UFO is an Un-Finished-Object, although,I think a better acronym would be an UFP or an Un-Finished-Project!

Anyway, I did finish a few UFO's recently so I thought I'd share them.

I named this quilt "Strings for Spring."

About half of the blocks were made for me in 2010, by members of an online group called Live Piecefully. I made the rest of the string blocks in February to complete this quilt.I love the strings made of spring colors of yellows, pinks, greens and teals.(The picture doesn't really show how springy the colors really are!) It is so soft and cuddly because I backed the quilt with yummy, yellow minkie.

This lap quilt is a McKenna Ryan Design called "Moose Junction."

My bff and quilting buddy, Lynn and I bought the kit in Alaska when we were on an Alaskan Cruise in 2008! I didn't start this quilt until the fall of 2009 at a quilt retreat. It is machine appliqued, and I added an extra border so we can use it in our motorhome!

This Moose table runner is also a McKenna Ryan Design called "No Trespassing!"

For this one I picked my own fabrics as I had only bought the pattern, also while in Alaska. It, too, is machine appliqued. I love McKenna Ryan's designs, despite the fact that they are a lot of work--cutting out all the detailed pieces, ironing on the fusible, attaching to the background and stitching all the pieces. The end results are worth it! I have a few more of McKenna Ryan's patterns to start one of these days.

Happy Birthday, Nicole!

Today is our beautiful, talented, creative, loving, sweet daughter, Nicole's birthday, pictured here with baby #3, Hallee, now 8 months!

Nicole is such a special blessing to us and an inspiration to me!

She means the world to us and best of all she is also my "best" friend!

Happy Birthday, Nicole!

May this day be a wonderful memory for you!

With huggies and kisses to our once "babycakes"

Love you, mom and dad

Anniversary Trip

Cancun, Mexico

For the past 6 years, we have taken a trip with our Cruising/Camping Buddies (Nances, Lauries, and Merandis--last 2 years) to celebrate our anniversaries. We've been going on cruises, but this year we decided to go to an All-Inclusive Resort.

Our friends, Lynn and Rick Nance own an N-hance Wood Renewal business. Each year they go to their company's convention, and this year it was in Cancun. So the rest of us decided we'd tag along and make a great vacation out of it together!! We stayed at the Gran Melia Resort-Cancuna beautiful resort located on the Caribbean Sea.

We had such a great time just relaxing by the poolside, under palappas, sipping all the margaritas, Miami Vices, and beer we wanted! Reading and dozing were the activities of the day, for most of the week! The weather was perfect, in the mid-70's-80's, with balmy breezes, light clouds floating above, and some humidity (just enough for my curly hair and skin to love it!!)

We also took walks on the white, sandy beach, and the Caribbean was warmer than the pool water! One day while Nick, Rick and Bill went fly fishing, the girls

(Sue, Karen, Robin and Lynn)

took a tour to the Tulum Ancient Mayan Ruins, a very beautiful place.

The best part of the vacation was spending time with great friends once again!

You can enjoy the pictures from our great trip here.

December 2011

Christmas Celebrations with the Pavones

We went to the Kids' Christmas Party at the fire department, mid-December, and the kids had a blast! The fireplace was decorated with fire boots for Santa and his elf's arrival, down the fire pole; the movie Polar Express was playing; children ran around laughing; there was pizza, vegies and cookies for the large crowd of over one hundred!

Our little he boys enjoyed sitting in the fire engine, and playing with their new wooden trains, and Hallee seemed to enjoy her first time sitting on Santa's lap! The boys, on the other hand, both screamed when their dads got them within close proximity of Santa and his elf! Even Gigi was more reluctant this year.

Christmas Eve.... we enjoyed a delicious Chicken Piccata dinner prepared by Nicole, accompanied by the wonderful sounds of the holiday season

from our newly set up (by Nicole) Pandora station on our TV.

After dinner.....

David and Nick assembled a few items. Top left, David assembling Brody's new train table; top right, David and Nick assembling Micah's tricycle.

Bottom left, all the family stockings were filled to their tops, and overflowing, each one having a "traditional orange" in the bottom. Bottom right, Our beautiful Christmas Tree!

Once the little ones were tucked away in their beds and fast asleep, we watched Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, one of our traditions!!

While we waited for Alex and family to arrive from Costa Mesa, we called Great-grandma (my mom) and sang her Happy 84th Birthday as Christmas is her birthday, too.

Christmas morning was filled with joy, laughter, wonder and amazement in the eyes of children, mixed with a bit of chaos and more sounds of Christmas!

Top left, Nicole with Hallee and Gigi; top right, Hallee on her new quilt beautifully paper pieced by Granny. Bottom left, Micah on his new tricycle and Brody on his scooter; bottom right, Alex with the boys, Micah and Brody.

And, Gigi riding on her new Razor Scooter, boy could she go fast down the slight hill of our driveway!!

At the request of our son, Alex, we "dressed-up" for Christmas dinner,

and we all looked fabulous, of course!

Getting all the kids to look at the camera at the same moment isn't always the easiest!

Top left, Alex, Angelina and Micah; top right, Karen (yaya) holding Hallee, Gigi, Brody and Micah in the middle, and Nick (papa)! Bottom left, David Brody Nicole Hallee and Gigi in front; Jeri (granny) and Dan (granpa)Bennett

A very Merry Christmas was had by all!!

More pictures on my flickr page.

Christmas Stockings and more!

The first year we were married I made my hubby and I stockings from Vogue Pattern 1312, which is no longer in print. I embroidered our names on the stockings' cuffs, from the iron-on letters which came in the pattern. At the time I didn't consider that these stockings are extra large and would need to be filled with lots of goodies. We still fill each other's stocking every Christmas, and sometimes those stocking stuffers have been quite interesting, including, socks, toothpaste, candy, cd's, dvd's, shaving cream, or you name it!!

When our kids were born my mom made stockings for them, but we decided to make them smaller than the original pattern size with embellishments of applique, lace and ricrac, and of course, their names embroidered on the cuffs! Fast forward 25 years, the tradition continues: I made stockings for our Nicole and David, to hang at their home.

A few years later, I made a stocking for our daughter-in-law, Angelina. Amazingly, the letter iron-ons still imprint more than 30 years later! Our kids' original stockings and their spouses' stockings hang along with ours from our mantel.

In 2010 I then made a set of stockings for Alex, Angelina, and my grandson, Micah.

I varied the pattern by making their family stockings out of red minkee and flannel.

Back in 2007, I made a stocking for our first granddaughter, Gigi, with an appliques angel, similar to the one her mom's grandma made for her. Last year, I also made a stocking for my grandson, Brody, embellished with baseball bats and a ball!

This year I made a stocking for our newest granddaughter, Hallee. The Bennett family's stockings are all made from Christmas Batiks!

The tissue pattern pieces are well worth and getting thin, and a few of the letters don't imprint as dark as they used to, but that hasn't stopped me from using it over and over. It's a shame this pattern isn't available anymore because it has so many cute Christmas projects I have made through the years (pictured above): ornaments, wreaths, our Advent Calendar and I still decorate with these projects every year.

Glory to God

Our Christmas Letter

2011 was a busy first year of retirement for Nick! He doesn’t know how he ever found time to work he is so busy everyday! We’ve done quite a bit of traveling, too. So much, that my job at the quilt shop was getting in the way of more travel, so I “retired” in May.

We went on two cruises: in January, we cruised the Panama Canal (which was a spectacular sight to see), and spent a few days in Florida, driving down to the Keys with friends; and in September, we took a New England/Canada cruise with friends, my sister and my mom, after which we took a train from Newark, NJ, to spend a couple of days in Philly. In March, we visited many American Historic sites in Washington DC and spent time in Virginia with friends. We have discovered we really like the East, seeing all the history that is there, and we hope to go back in the near future.

We hit Spring Training again with Nicole, David and family as well as David’s parents, staying at a really nice Resort in Surprise, Arizona. Alex also joined us for a couple of days, which was nice. In April, we met our friends, the Nances, for an Abalone Dive Trip in Fort Bragg, CA. In October, we headed north again to spend a few days with our friends (the Nances) in Redding, then continued north to Bend, Oregon, for a week. What a gorgeous area! We saw the vivid fall colors we had missed in New England, having been there too early in the fall! On our return trip home, we stopped in Yreka to spend a wonderful evening with Nick’s sister, Sibbie and her family.

We rounded out the year with a couple of weekends RVing at Newport Dunes, a couple of RV trips to Flying Flags RV Resort in Buellton for Quilt Retreats for me, and, of course, our annual beach camping trip for Thanksgiving week at San Elijo St Beach, Cardiff; it poured rain the first night, and then we had a beautiful week with family and friends.

While we love RVing, traveling and cruising, the highlight of the year was the birth of our youngest granddaughter, Hallee Hope Bennett, born on June 7 !!!

It’s hard to believe she is already 6 months old. Needless to say, Nicole and David’s house is never silent with Gigi, 4.5 yrs, Brody, 20 months, and now little Hallee, and often things are a bit chaotic!

Alex and Angelina are constantly running after Micah, 19 months. Micah didn’t just start walking one day, he ran, and he hasn’t stopped. We love seeing all the kids together as they interact more and more.

Our lives are rich with the love of family and friends. We’ve learned we can’t take life for granted and we are so thankful. We are blessed to have 4 adorable grandchildren to hug and squeeze and spoil with love. We enjoy every minute we are with them, even though we are sometimes exhausted after spending hours with them. The best sound in the world is when one of them yells, “Yaya!” or “Papa!” as they enter the house or RV; it

warms our hearts every single time!

May your holidays be filled with special memories as we celebrate

the true reason for this day, the birth of Christ.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year!

With love,

Karen and Nick

On Being Thankful !

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd share my whimsical,wall hanging for Thanksgiving.

On a more serious note, as I reflect on Thanksgivings past, I am reminded of all the good times we have had as a family and our life long tradition of "camping" for the holiday. Family and friends join us in this tradition. We used to camp from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday morning. But over the years we have added a day or two to the time we spend camping, at the beach (South Carlsbad State Beach or San Elijo State Beach, with a couple of years spent at the San Mateo Campground in San Clemente, part of the San Onofre State Beach). The last few years we have camped for the entire week of Thanksgiving, rain or shine! I say "rain or shine" because we've had a few years with downpours of rain, but it never dampened our holiday spirit.

This is a time to be thankful, and I have much to be thankful for: my health, my family, my grandchildren, my life, my God. I was inspired by a "pin" on Pinterest, which linked me with the blog, simplyvintagegirl, so I made my own Thankful Tree.

With a grateful heart and joyous praise I give thanks to God who blesses us all!