It is so hard to believe that my oldest has traveled in to the double digits today.    I know you always here how time flies and they’ll be gone before you know it and I now officially believe them.  Cole is a wonderful kid and I’m so glad that he is  1/2 mine.  For those of you who know Cole he has a heart of gold, a contagious laugh, and is an animal whisper.  I don’t think he has ever met an animal that doesn’t warm up to him.  He is wicked smart (sometimes too much for his own good) and so very creative.  He is the kid that doesn’t mind being by himself.  In fact, it usually turns out great.  Is creative mind cracks me up because he loves to build and create things.  I can’t tell if I have an artist or engineer in the making orboth if we are lucky a very creative, artistic engineer.  Or we may just have the next screenwriter or writer of all times if you have ever read or heard one of his stories.  I always joke” It is to bad our kid lacks a personality, NOT”.

Below are some of the creations he has made lately from the school mission project, to his duct tape hat, and the ever impressive bow and arrow that actually works.  The kid made it out of bamboo, a stick, Christmas string, and duck feathers that a good friend gave him for the purpose of his arrows.   He is amazing and I am so happy to be his Momma!  He makes me proud.

Oh yeah and his new love, Flag football which he had for his 10th birthday party. I loved it and couldn’t of picked a better theme.  Coming from Michigan the Big Ten is huge.  But he wouldn’t let me get the shirts in Blue and Gold and White and Green.  He never lets me do anything :).  Love you Cole.

San Jose, CA Febrruary 09, 2010 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Jill Johnson Photography has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Wedding Photography.

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Jill Johnson Photography is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Jill Johnson is among the very best Wedding Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

I’m sitting inside the Kirkwood lodge at the bottom of chair 5,  ironically the name of the lift is “solitude”.  Solitude is far from what the outside is like.  The wind is making us hear its voice as it howls across the resort, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf and twirling the snow in every direction it can manage.  We are on day 3 of being snowed in here and this is the worst day of weather yet but we are still having fun.  Growing up in Michigan snowstorms are nothing, but to be honest I haven’t been in a storm like this since I was young and it can’t help but bring memories of my youth.  Just yesterday my kids dug themselves out a tunnel in one of the snowbanks.  My best friend Sherry and I use to do that all the time along with our stylish moon boots.  The boots were so huge that we use to make footprints in the snow and play “hunt for big foot”.  Thank goodness we made a tunnel because when we heard the big “bumble” we had a place to hide. Plus, it made a great place to throw snowballs from to hit the other kids.  Every kid should have at least one chance to build a snow tunnel in their lifetime.

 Even though we have woke up every morning here to either duck hunters guns or the sounds of avalanche booms it has been a wonderful get away.  The fun part for my husband and I is that our kids are getting “snow days”.  For both of us this was one of the best memories of both of our childhoods. Today was the first day the slopes didn’t open due to high winds but the kids are playing outside, throwing snowballs, and jumping off picnic tables in to huge drifts.  No matter how stressful it was earlier today with us needing to get back home nothing was worth killing ourselves.  We attempted to leave earlier today and got a mile down the road and had to stop because you couldn’t make out the ground out from the sky,   a little scarey.  You know it was bad when your husband turns the car around and you didn’t even need to nag or beg to stop and stay.  But we are determined to make the best of it.  Enjoying the beauty of the fresh powder, the warmth of the fire, the comraderie of fellow stranded guest, and the laughter of our kids will make for a great family memory. 

For those of you who ski or board the last couple of days have been amazing.  So much better then the rain we’ve been hearing everyone in San Jose is getting.  In fact, yesterday only 2 lifts were open and one of them was the one we use the most.  It was a great day.  At times it was like we owned the mountain being the only ones on it.  I loved it!  It was so peaceful and surreal and we were exhausted because of how many runs we made.  You can see how empty it was from the photo below of my boys and me at the picnic table.  Last we were so bundled up it was kind of a pain to go inside to eat so we had a snack picnic outside.  One of my favorite things is how they made snowcones out of the fresh snow and Dr. Pepper.  The kids loved it.   As fun as it has been we hope  to make it back down the mountain tomorrow.  I know Eric will have a hard time giving up his corner office but its time to get back to real life. 

This past summer my youngest son told me that he was going to go to the Olympics one day.  I told him you have to work hard and give up a lot.  Well, this past weekend I have to say I feel like I need to brag.  My little guy did his second gymnastic competition and he won first place.  We were all shocked when his name was announced.  We were so excited and stunned I almost forgot to get a picture.    I can’t believe how strong he is for a 7 year old.  He blows us away daily.

I had to admit this was an unusual year for the Johnsons.  I feel like Halloween snuck up on us this year and went right by.  For me I was sad because between everyone’s schedules this year we didn’t make it to the pumpkin patch which I love.  These are usually some of my favorite pictures of my kids all year long.  But for those of you who have been asking here are some picks  to our very quick Halloween season this year.  I had a nerd and football player.  Enjoy!

Someone mentioned to me that they missed hearing about some of my crazy adventures in my personal life.  With the introduction to facebook I have to admit I’ve been doing more personal stuff on that and keeping the blog a little more business.  More out of convenience then anything.  So by request I thought I would make an attempt to start adding a little of the behind the scenes life of Jill Johnson.  Here are some photos from our trip this summer to Minnesota.  Our first visit to the land of the Vikings as we visited some of our best friends.  We had the oppurtunity to spend some relaxing days at their cottage.  I loved it because my kids were getting a similiar experience to how I grew up in Michigan. Here is the gang from the cottage.  Quite a crew!

The next couple of shots is the boys with a Schultz character which is all over the twin cities, the dino from the science museum, and the yellow brick road in Grand Rapids where Judy Garland is from.

The next couple the view from the cottage after a rain, a walk in the woods with a sprinkle, and the boat ride on the jungle cruise in Disneyland. (not really but it felt like a hippo was gonna come out of the water)

The Tubing, the water slide, my initiation in to the cabin life, fishing with daddy in the rain, and dancing in the river by door.  It rained like 4 inches in 2 hours it was amazing.  We had a great time, relaxing before the big rush of fall.

I am so pleased to be part of the Una Bella Serra again this year and more excited to invite you.  All past, present, and future couple are invited to participate in a wonderful experience created by Amaze Special Events and Nicole Ha Floral design.  A World of Glamour will definatly knock your socks off as you see what these two talented and  creative professionals can do with their magical skills. This event will be held on Sunday, April 5, 2009 at the infamous and historical Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchant Exchange Building in San Francisco.

You will be inspired as you view the latest trends, tabletops, and floral designs for your wedding or event.  Come out for a night of inspiration, fun, entertainment and food.  We know you won’t be disappointed and I personally would love to see you there.  There is a limited amount of spaces available for this event so please register yourself at www.unabellaserra.com.  Also, check out the list of other vendors that will be there under The Great List.

Here are a couple of shots from last years event.

Here we are Kristy Behrs, Tanja Lippert, Me (jilljohnson) and Karen Rusten the Fab 4 photographers of Tanja Lippert Photographers. The best group of gals around. I wish the entire team would of been there at the same time because we have a fabulous crew (and we need a picture of all of us). But it was a spectacular night.

We officially had the Grand Opening of Artique and Tanja Lippert Photographers this past Friday in Los Gatos. It was a great night and festive as the city of Los Gatos started the evening out with the lighting of the Christmas tree. I just wanted to thank everyone who made it out to wish us the best in our new endeavor. Many of you were missed but I so enjoyed the e-mails you sent with Congratulations. We couldn’t of done it with out the help of the following people. Nicole DeAmbra wedding consultant extrodanaire who helped plan the evening, Kelly Kodak Clifford of Precious and Blooming who supplied the flowers, Dan and Cassie of Los Gatos DJ’s who created a very festive playlist for eveyones listening pleasure, Sara of Tululabay catering for the yummy food, ( what about those cinnamon roll cookies :), and to Ceil of A Memorable Event for staffing. They were the best. We stayed to clean up afterwords (around 1a.m) and they had already done it all. It was just better then expected. But of course to Ryan and Tanja Lippert and the staff at Artique for helping pull this thing together.

I wish I would of taken more pictures of everyone there but I was just having such a great time I just wanted to talk with them all. In fact, many of the pictures are courtesy of David Ethridge of A Video Reflection and Stacie Tamaki of a Flirty Guide. It has been fun to see what photos people are sending us. As you can see Flamingo had a great time. He came prepared with mistle toe tied on him so that he could get kisses from all the girls. It worked out great for me too if you can tell from the photos. If you had a chance to attend tell me what you thought. I hope you had a great time. If you didn’t get a chance to stop by please do. We’re open Tuesday-Saturday 10-6pm. We’re looking forward to seeing you.