I have to admit that I am only blogging right now out of sheer boredom. Today was declared pajama day in the Johnson residence and I am still sporting my very flattering grey polka-dot maternity sleepwear along with my ultra-comfy new house slippers. Most of the afternoon I have spent sewing bathrobes for the kids to open on Christmas Eve; it won’t be a surprise for them because I kept having Syd and Isaac try them on. When choosing the sizes of bathrobe patterns to sew for them I totally skipped the step of measuring my children – these bathrobes are going to fit them for about five years each! I ended up taking up the hem about four inches on each one, explaining to the kids that it could be let out as they get taller (getting taller is not something that happens much in this family). Isaac let me know that the correct phrase for the extra hem length was an adjustable hem. Thank you Isaac. I love it when the kids use power words.

Last week I pulled out a scarf I began knitting while still in Florida. After a few minutes of some practice I realized that knitting and purling were still in my fingers. I am trying to finish a red, white and blue scarf for Isaac’s Christmas stocking; I have found that while I sit and help Isaac practice the piano is a great time to pull out the knitting – that way I am multi-tasking! Now I just have to learn how to end a project or “knit off.” Thankfully there are some excellent web sites with demos AND we have some fabulous knitters in our ward. I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out with some help.

The next two weeks we are taking a break from school and I have a quilt to finish. Sydney helped pick out the material (hot pink and brown – it’s for her bed) and she also sewed all of the strips together and then I sewed them into blocks and finished the quilt front. Now I need to add the borders and then put the fleece backing on it and machine quilt it together and bind it. I need to convince the dog to not lay on the floor for a few hours while I am laying it out to pin it together…

Right now I am just over 26 weeks pregnant – almost ready to enter the *twilight zone* of the third trimester. My hip flexor at the top of my left leg was bothering me for a few weeks but thankfully it has eased off a little but I’m sure that the third trimester will bring all that “fun” back in no time. It was a minor problem during Sydney’s pregnancy but quite a bit more painful when I was pregnant with Isaac.

Yesterday I spent my first REAL cold day traveling to Fairbanks. The thermostat on my mini-van ranged between -19 and -36 degrees during late-morning into the afternoon. We packed extra food, blankets, snow pants, etc to make our trip. Our day included a trip to the library, going out to lunch, picking up a prescription and taking the kids to their Taekwon-Do lesson. And after was all said and done it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be; not as easy as a winter day in Florida but very do-able. There are some interesting things that happen in -30 degree weather: after your first breath outside the contents of your nostrils freeze to the hairs; if you wear a scarf or neck warmer and cover up your nose then the warm air you breath works its way up to your eyelashes, forming little ice crystals on them – you have to blink carefully when entering a building to thaw them out; you can SMELL the cold air; you end up driving 35-50 mph all the way into town on a sheet of ice that is covering the freeway. I don’t know if we can call ourselves real Alaskans now, but at least we’ve had a good start!

Peter is enjoying his work schedule since the busy summer time is over. He is able to make it home most days by 5:00-5:30 and has been spending more time with the kids than he has ever been able to. Isaac, Sydney and Peter have all signed up for Taekwon-Do lessons and are sometimes able to make it to a family class together. Peter says he has had to suck up his adult pride a little bit while learning a new skill but he has enjoyed it so far.

Sydney has been reading so many books I can’t keep up with her. She is currently reading the Fablehaven and Artemis Fowl series; fantasy books with plenty of fairies, dragons and elves always tickle her fancy. Last Sunday she was able to play an arrangement of The First Noel in sacrament meeting; she has this amazing quality of not experiencing stage fright – WHATSOEVER. Even if she skips a measure or trips up she just moves on and doesn’t let it phase her. Her mom wishes for that same talent.

Isaac moved on from a pre-level piano book to level one. He goes around letting people know he is in the RED book now. Then mom has to explain what that means. Isaac is doing an excellent job reading and is making his way through the first few Magic Tree House books.

Sydney has been making a list of boy names for us to choose from – she has even taken name ideas from kids and teachers in primary. She seemed a little disappointed when we told her the name we are most likely going to use is not on her list (we’re not spilling the beans on the name until the little bambino is born).