holiday

celebration, changes, Christmas, Faith, Family, holidays, parenting, Rochelle

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

December 24, 2015December 24, 2015by Sheridan Johnson4 Comments

This past month/season has brought about so many new and different emotions this year. This is the first year that I have ever gotten involved in reading/doing the advent calendar/activities, and have read so much of the Bible, and truly appreciate and understand so much more than ever before.

This season also brought about ~~new~~ mixed feelings when it comes to Rochelle. It’s so crazy to think that just one simple year ago, we were in the hospital waiting, hoping, and praying for good news that we could go home and enjoy the new year at home, as a family of four. As I am growing in my relationship with the Lord, I am realizing that He gave us everything we had prayed for. He gave us healing, and comfort, and time. He gave us undying strength, love, and affection. He truly did give us everything we needed, at the exact time we needed it.

One of my favorite verses from the Advent series, that explains exactly how I feel, is when Elizabeth was speaking to Mary in Luke 1:39-45 and said

You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said.

Over this past year, our daily nighttime family prayers have become more deeper, and more meaningful than they ever were. We are reminded daily from Luke 1:12 that

God has heard your prayers.

We are forever thankful for the birth of Jesus, and of the angel that spoke to Mary, the virgin, and told her in Luke 1:35 that

the baby will be born Holy, and he will be called the Son of God.

I truly think that Brielle and I both benefited from exploring more into the birth of Jesus, and doing the daily coloring activities, which allowed us to explore deeper into an understanding of what I was reading. I loved the fun baking activities, and I think our most favorite one, was when we got to donate to Ronald McDonald, Toys for Tots, and the Salvation Army.

We must never forget that time spent with our loved ones making memories, praying, and serving others is what will last forever, and truly that is what this entire season/holiday is all about.

**To learn more about Advent, and which journey I decided to embark on this year, click here. I was so amazed by how much time/effort Kara-Kae put into making a printable, that us moms(families) could use with our kids and teach them every day more about Jesus.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Johnsons

decorating, dress up, halloween

Halloween fun!

November 3, 2015November 3, 2015by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

This Halloween definitely brought new adventures! This year was her first year that she was excited to dress up, and even though I bought her dress (Minnie Mouse) from the used clothing store, I knew I had to dress it up and make it look so cute with her hair.

I had prepared her to say “trick or treat” for candy, and that only worked for the first two houses she went to. Well, let’s just say that when she actually SAW the scary costumes (which I totally forgot that she is scared of people in masks), that she was over it and wanted to be held the rest of the night.

We had plans to walk the Yoakum “pumpkin patch” which is literally where all the shops/businesses in downtown Yoakum sit outside of their store and pass out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. That all changed when we decided to go visit our friends that live in the next town over and have some fun decorating cookies. Well, after the cookie fail, we decided to just stay with them and go to a few houses down a popular street in Gonzales (filled with Zombies) to gather some candy!

It was all good, like I said above, until about the second house where they scared the little kids by having a man dressed up as a gorilla, and JUMP out and say “rawwwr”.. let’s just say that a LOT of tears were had after that, and she was SO done and “ready to go home” after that. Needless to say, she didn’t collect that much candy and we only went to a few houses, but we had a fun day/night and hopefully next year she will be less scared of costumes/masks.

Here is some fun pictures from the night! 🙂

Family, shane

Father’s Day 2015!

July 2, 2015July 2, 2015by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

Father’s Day means so much more to me then many other people. Growing up I did not have a father that was involved in my life. I remember all of his promises to come get me and my brother at my house just to spend the day with us or even spend the night once in a blue moon. We waited for hours and hours looking through this small little window next to our door just waiting for his car to pull up to our drive way. Looking back, I should have known within the first few times to quit waiting for him to come, but as a child, you don’t know really know that your parents could lie to you or not speak the truth. Thank you to my mom, Step-Dad David, and Mike for being the father figures in my life when I needed one the most.

The moment I met Shane, I knew he was going to be a great father. The way he loves his nieces/cousins was adorable, and I know without a doubt that he would make an AMAZING dad! He would be the only one that would actually get on the ground and act like a kid with all the children, and just play with them(which is what most kids want to do all day anyways).

When we decided to have children, I couldn’t wait to see him be a Father. Shane is so sweet, and just has a sense of calmness about him that I knew would work so well with all of the late nights during parenthood. He immediately stepped up to the belt and helped me in any way he could throughout each pregnancy and with all of our babies. I always would hear about husbands not doing anything to help their wife out with the changing the diaper, feeding the baby, getting them dressed.. and with Shane, he just did it. It was a process and something he learned how to do but let me tell you to this day, he makes sure his babies bottoms are VERY clean and it may take him a little longer to do it then me, but I know there will no left over residue from dirty diaper changes, lol!

We spent Father’s Day this year going shopping for Shane to get a new fishing reel, and just some extra fishing lures that he was running out of. Brielle even picked out a special lure that he used last week and he caught a ton of fish on it and was one happy Daddy! Brielle and I also crafted some cute little things that were special to us and gave him that Sunday morning. I cannot believe how much Shane has grown from being in High School, to now being an adult and a father to our 3 precious babies!

Thank you Shane for actively being involved in raising your children, and loving them all the way they deserve to be loved! I love having someone to walk through this life with! 🙂

Oh and of course we couldn’t end our day without going fishing just for him, and we all caught fish and had a great family time.

just one of the fish Daddy caught on Brielle's lure she bought him! :) — just one of the fish Daddy caught on Brielle’s lure she bought him! 🙂

Family

Mother’s Day 2015

May 11, 2015May 11, 2015by Sheridan JohnsonLeave a Comment

This comes and goes every year since becoming a mother, and it is so bittersweet each time. I definitely knew I wanted to work this year, to take my mind off of being sad/thinking too much.

Work definitely kept me busy as I went in a little before 5am and left a little after 1pm. It was busy and just overflowed with all of the love from the families that were visiting, and it is always so nice to get to see my residents dress up nice and get to go out of the facility to spend time with their loved ones.

My brother and I knew we both wanted to do something special for my mom, since it’s so rare that we both get to visit anyways, and we decided that we would meet at her house around 4pm after Brielle was awake from her nap and it was SO fun!! I wanted to record her reaction, but we were too slow! It was priceless!! She was so happy that both my brother and I showed up with our families and let me tell you, it’s seriously SO rare that we actually ever can successfully pull off a surprise. SO many factors go into it since we live out of town.

The day was spent just as I would like but I just wanted to also that I truly did hope and wish that I could have just got to feel a a special feeling knowing Rochelle and Lamar are ok, but that didn’t happen. I know they are most likely happy and having the time of their lives, but I just wish that God would give me more signs just to know that they are safe, and ok.

It’s so hard to think last year I was so happy to be pregnant and couldn’t WAIT to have another baby, and this year it is still just Shane, Brielle, and myself at home. So surreal. God is healing my broken heart slowly, and I know it will take time, but just wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you who said Happy Mother’s Day to me (it truly meant the world).

Here are a few pictures from the day! I love my family.