Johnson Family

November

2011-12-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

November was a crazy month for us- so instead of doing different posts for everything, I'm just gonna lump them all in together.
The first weekend of November we went to the cabin with two guys that Ryan works with on the Gilbert Temple, and their families to the cabin. We were lucky enough to be there for the first snow of the year! We had fun sledding down the hill, watching movies and playing Kinect. There was 11 kids, so you can imagine not only the noise, but the mess!

Sledding!

Good thing I bought Clark this coat the day we left!

Charly's first snow. She loves her daddy!

The day before we left for the cabin we got some bad news about our friend Dave Kastelar in Utah. When we lived in Utah Dave was Ryan's boss while we worked at City Creek. Dave was the first boss that Ryan has had that made him feel appreciated for the work that he did. Dave was more than a boss, he became Ryan's friend and mentor. A year ago October, Dave was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. It was pancreatic cancer that spread to his spine. He immediately started cancer and the doctors told him he had 2-5 years to live. We kept in contact with him about his treatments and when he was in town for Okland, we had him over for dinner. The news we got that Thursday before we left for the cabin was that his health had taken a turn for the worse and that he did not have much time left. A friend of ours in Utah, Leesha, told Ryan that Dave had told her "goodbye". Ryan and I decided that we needed to get up to Utah quickly to see him. My nephews wedding was the next Friday, and I thought we could wait a week till after the wedding, but Ryan was adamant that we go Monday. I luckily had some buddy passes, and the first flight we could get on was Tuesday morning at 6am. So we farmed the kids out to my mom and my sister Nancy and went to Utah for 2 days. When we got there Tuesday morning we really didn't have anything to do, so we drove up to Bountiful and Ryan took me to Grandma Johnson's old house.

Grandma Johnson's House

We then met up with our friend Leesha for lunch and got the latest info on Dave. He was admitted into the hospital Monday, still not exactly sure what happened that got him there, but complications with the cancer. It turns out that even on the chemo- he had developed tumors on the inside of his skull and was in a lot of pain. After lunch we drove back up to Salt Lake and waited for the ok to go to the hospital to see Dave. Here's a picture I took of Salt Lake as we drove around. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Sunny and cold, the leaves were all changing- just a perfect fall day.

We finally went up to Huntsman's Cancer Center at the U to see Dave. It was very hard to see this 6'5" 300 lb man laying in a hospital bed, down 100lbs, pale, talking with just a whisper, only having the strength to use his hands. We told him about the kids, showed him pictures and Ryan told him all about the Gilbert Temple. He told us after talking with one of his doctors that he had decided he was done with chemo- and done trying to fight the cancer. They were going to gather their 3 kids that weekend and tell them that he was done. We could see, from the way he was talking, was that he knew that the end was near and that he was ok with it. He said he was scared to leave his family, but knew that there was nothing else he could do. The doctors said he had 4-8 weeks left. We only got to chat for a few minutes when doctors and nurses started coming in, and we knew that it was time for us to go. I grabbed his hand and gave him a squeeze, but couldn't say anything, but to thank him for all that he had done for us. He looked me in the eye and gave me some very personal advice.
When Ryan and I left, we felt so emotionally and physically drained. We went back to our hotel and fell asleep. There is nothing like being with someone near death that makes your take a look at your life and realize all the wonderful blessings you have, and what really is important. It made me so grateful for Ryan and the time we get to spend together. It was so nice to have 2 whole days together. Wednesday we drove out to Roosevelt to visit Grandma and Grandpa Roberts, and lots of time in the car to just talk and be together. It seems like we are always so busy, and have so many distractions, that rarely do we have hours, just the two of us, to hang out. It really was a blessing. We flew home late Wednesday night, and back to life as usual.
That Friday Dave caught pneumonia in the hospital and went into a coma Saturday. From what I heard, he did come to a few times to say good-bye to his family, and Friday the 18th he passed away. I am so glad that Ryan was persistent that we go to Utah immediately. If we would have waited, we would not have been able to talk to him. His funeral was Monday the 21st, but we were not able to attend.
I still have days and times where I am overwhelmed with sadness at his passing, but I take comfort in the fact that he was at peace with his death. My heart goes to his wife and 3 kids. Cancer sucks.

Thursday night my nephew Zack had his wedding dinner. At the dinner, all the young cousins sang L-O-V-E. It was very cute, and Clark- of all kids- sang the loudest and stole the show!

Nikki, Haylee, Clark, Jake, Kate and Ella

It wouldn't be a 'Haynes' party without dancing, so of course we had to dance! I think this is the first time Ryan has danced since our wedding! (Not really, but pretty close)
Zack and Cara got married Friday, 11-11-11. Congrats!

Tuesday the 22nd Ryan's youngest brother Rick got sealed to his wife Amanda.

Wednesday the 23rd, I went with Kate and Clark on their preschool field trip. They went to the Park of the Canals to see the canal Native Americans had made when they lived in Mesa. Ms. Arlene had taught them all about the indians and pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, so they went to the Park of Canals to have a Thanksgiving Feast.

Ms. Arlene telling the kids all about the canal.

The kids spend most of the time playing on the playground- so it was a great field trip!

Clark and his friends Hayden and Cohen.

The kids getting ready for their feast

Aggie, Clark, Cohen and Baylee

Felicity, Jewels, and Kate

This is their feast- turkey, grapes, rasins, cheese and carrots

Last but not least was Thanksgiving! Ryan's sister was in town from Texas, so we went to the Johnson's for dinner. We also went to my parents house for dessert. It was a great day of nothing but food! I sure paid for it on Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

2011-10-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

I think Halloween gets longer and longer every year! This year they dressed up 3 times- I wouldn't mind, except for the fact that I had to wash their costumes after every they wore them! This year we wanted the kids to dress up in a 'Star Wars' theme, so when the Star Wars movies came out on blue-ray, we started watching them to get them to want to dress up like Luke and Leiah. For a while Clark wanted to be Darth Vader, but we kept telling him that that was Ryan's costume, so he was content with being Luke.
Our festivities started on Friday afternoon, they had a halloween birthday party, then Saturday my mom had her annual Halloween party and our ward Trunk or Treat. Today they wore their costumes all day. We went down to Ryan's jobsite to deliver Halloween cookies, they celebrated Halloween at preschool and then trick or treating around the neighborhood. Here's pics of them all dressed up!

My friend Ellen and I made up this "Jabba the Hut" costume. We really wanted to do the Star Wars theme because of Charly. She is so chubby we wanted to do Jabba for her.

Here's some of the cousins at my Mom's house. Clark, Kate, Charly, Daphne, Jovi, Jack and Nolan

Ryan and I wanted to something cute for Charly- not just Jabba the Hut, and since we both love squeezing her fat and teasing that we are gonna eat her up, we thought a candy corn was fitting!

Happy Halloween!

8 Months

2011-10-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

What a cute baby! Don't let her smile fool you, while she can be happy and super sweet, she has recently learned how to throw a fit! She's figured out that when she fusses I'll pick her up- so I guess that one is my fault. She is also a very moody eater. One day she'll love something and then next she won't have anything to do with it! I've know that from the time she was first born, she likes what she likes and wants what she wants when she wants it! But other than that- she is such a good baby. I really do love her so much. She loves the bathtub, but is still learning that it's not so fun when she dunks her face in the water. She loves to play with Kate and Clark, and loves her Daddy. If he is home, she watches him, and he loves to make her squeal. Happy 8 months Charly!

Kate and Clark are 5!

2011-10-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Kate and Clark! Saturday we celebrated Kate and Clark's 5th birthday. Last year I did a really big birthday party for them, so this year I wanted to do something more simple, but realize now that there really is no simple way to throw 2 parties at once. I wanted them to feel like they had their own party, so I let them pick the theme of their party and invite who they wanted to. Kate chose Rapunzel and Clark chose Cars. I didn't want to have to plan activities for the party- so we decided to get a bounce house and have that be the party!

My friend Cyndi is a cake decorator and helped me with the cakes. I borrowed her Lightening McQueen pan, and last week we got together as a practice run and she showed me how to pipe on all the frosting. It is quite the ordeal. So to get ready for the party Saturday, I was up until 1:30am putting the frosting on both cakes.

Here's the cake with Rapunzel in it.

Blowing out candles

Ryan dishing out the boys cake

Me giving out the girls cake

Paige, Kate , Ella and Felicity

Peyton, Kennedy, Cosette, Haylee and Sara

The girls' table

Cousin Sara

Levi, Cohen, Wrigley, Jake and Hayden

Clark and cousin Jake

Here's the bounce house. We got a great deal on the rental. My sister's neighbor rents them out and when I called to confirm our reservation, he had sold the small one we wanted, so he gave us this big one for the same price! Not too shabby! Thanks Nana for having a big backyard and letting me use it for the birthday party.

Paige

Their birthday was actually Sunday the 23rd, so we waited till Sunday to give them our presents. Grandpa Johnson came over to give them presents also. Clark got a remote control Jeep and Kate got a doll from Grandma and Grandpa.

Ryan and I went to Home Depot for Clarks present. We got him a real tool pouch and put all kinds of goodies in it. Flash light, head lamp, wrenches, tape measure, mini clamps and bungee cords! He loved it!

We got Kate a dog in a purse- her kinda toy!

7 Months

2011-10-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind, again, so I've got to get this up on the blog before Charly turns 8 months. Just this last week Charly really started moving. I wouldn't call it crawling- more like army crawling- but she definitely gets around. She also had her first tooth break through, no wonder she was drooling like a fountain. She is my little buddy. Kate and Clark went to the cabin with my parents for a few days and it was so nice to just have one baby! Poor Charly had to go run errands with me the whole time! Just last night my niece came over and when I tried to give Charly to her, she kept turning back to me and wouldn't go to Hannah. That was the first time she didn't want me to give her to someone else. That made me feel loved. She is just a happy baby- and so chubby. I get comments about how cute she is all the time- and it's funny how some people are hesitant to say they think she is cute because of how chubby she is; like they are going to offend me. I LOVE her chub. I squeeze it all the time. Here's some pics-

Visitor's Center

2011-09-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the school year I started watching my 'sister's daughter Paige. Misty is my Navajo sister- she lived with my family while she was in high school and at the beginning of the summer their family moved to east Mesa. Paige comes to our house before and after school and is pretty much a part of the family now! Her older brother Brandon encouraged their family to go to church when they moved, and he started taking lessons from the Missionaries. Two weeks ago Brandon met the missionaries at the Visitor's Center to watch a video about Joseph Smith. I took Brandon and Paige down there where they met up with their mom. But of course our trip wasn't complete with the kids getting a picture in front of the Christus statue. Although I thought it was kinda silly at the time and I only had my phone to take the picture with- I love the picture now. Of all the times I've been to the visitors center- I have never taken a picture of the Christus. I'm glad we have one now.

Catching Up- Charly 6 Months

2011-09-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

This is my chubby baby! I am just loving this age that she is at right now. She is becoming a little bit more independent- but she is not moving yet! I love that she still stays relatively in the same place when I put her down. She is starting to rock on her hand and knees, but isn't crawling just yet. She is such a happy baby. The only time she fusses is when she is hungry or tired.
When we went to Dr. Hayden for her 6 month check up, he walked in and said, "Well it doesn't look like we have failure to thrive here." HA! She now weighs 20lbs and is in the 97th percentile for weight and 90th for height. Although it looks like she eats everything- she is quite picky about what she eats. She loves carbs- breads, crackers ect- and is very picky about fruits and veggies. She is just totally different from Kate and Clark. They would eat just about everything and I went through baby food like water. I made baby food for Charly and she won't touch it. She wants what we are eating and won't eat pureed food. Figures. It is a good thing she is so dang cute. She loves to play with her Daddy and he loves to make her laugh and squeal.

Catching Up- Cabin Trip

2011-09-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

I know I have about a million posts about going to the cabin- but we just love it up there. This time we took our friends, the Neely's. It was a beautiful weekend out of the heat. It rained Saturday afternoon and I don't think the temperature got above 75 the whole time. Another bonus was that the kids just played ALL day together!

Clark, Wrigley and Kate

Feeding the fish worms with bare hands

Even the Dad's had to get into the action of feeding the fish worms.

Everyone loves the swing!

Catching Up- Car Accident

2011-09-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday August 14th while I was driving home from work, one of our neighbors ran into my Tahoe on his motorcycle. As I was driving down our street I saw him getting on his motorcycle, then as I was starting to turn into our driveway I heard this awful sound of metal crunching. I don't really remember feeling him hit the tahoe- but it was more the sound that scared me than anything. I stopped the car, got out, and saw him get up and walk out into the street. He was not wearing a helmet and hit his head on the Tahoe. He seemed to be ok, but had a huge bump on his head. After we exchanged all the info, he went to Urgent Care and was sent to the hospital to spend the night. Luckily- he was ok and was released the next day. I felt really bad for him. He hit me and he was the one who got hurt. The only "good" thing that came from it was that I got to drive a brand new 2011 Tahoe for 2 weeks while we got ours fixed.

This is where he ran into the Tahoe

It's hard to see the dent up on the side- but that is where his head hit the Tahoe.

When we first got this Tahoe, I thought,"This is nice, but I still like my
Tahoe better." Well let's just say after driving it for 2 weeks I did not want to give
it back. My most favorite parts- 1) Remote start. It is awesome. Being able to
start the car when you are walking in the parking lot and have it cooling down
before you even get it in is divine. 2) Bose speakers. For those of you who know my love for
dance music will understand my love for a nice stereo system in a car. 3) It was a very smooth ride.
Now that I'm back in our tahoe- I realize how smooth the new one is.
Too bad it is going to be many years before I get to drive a new car again!

Catching Up- Kate and Clark's First Day of Preschool

2011-09-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

Kate and Clark started preschool with Ms. Arlene on August 11th. Not only do they absolutely love going to preschool, but I love Ms. Arlene and her curriculum. Everything she teaches is religious based and she takes her lessons from the Bible and Book of Mormon. There are so many things I could say about what she teaches- but I will just say she is AWESOME! And I will admit that I am loving my break 3 days a week. :)

Catching Up- Charly 5 Months

2011-09-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Since so much time has passed since Charly was 5 months- I'm just gonna post the picture and her stats. She weighed 17lbs and was 24 inches long.

A Time And A Season

2011-07-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true- there is a time and a season for everything in life, and unfortunately for me, that means my days of swimming on Mesa Aquatics Masters are coming to a close. I have been swimming masters since we moved home from Utah, about a year and half ago and I absolutely love it. I swim 3 days a week, right smack in the middle of the day- so not only do I get a little bit of 'me time' but I get to work out and get a tan all at the same time. It has been increasing more difficult with the three kids to work it into our schedule and find babysitters. Both my mom and Ryan's mom have been watching them once a week, but to make it worth the monthly dues, I really need to go at least 3 days a week. So really, babysitting is the only issue. So I looked into going back to the gym, and for the same amount of money I pay to swim every month, I can get a gym membership with unlimited daycare. So it just makes more sense to go back to the gym.
I really liked working out at the gym when I went before, but I'm kinda nervous to go back. Swimming was not only a workout, but a time for me to socialize and have friends. I think I will miss that just as much as being in the water. So if you work out at Mountainside Fitness- let me know- I need a friend! I'm hoping that when Kate and Clark are in school full time, maybe I can go back to swimming.
Why is it so hard to close chapters of our lives and move on to new ones?

Kate Lost a Tooth

2011-07-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Kate lost her first tooth. The kids were eating their breakfast and I was washing bottles when I noticed Kate's teeth on the bottom looked a little off. There was a gap in her teeth where there shouldn't be. I looked in her mouth to see if she had cracked a tooth or something and then she skipped off to the bathroom to inspect for herself. Then she comes skipping back with her tooth in hand! First I cannot believe that she didn't cry, because she takes after her mother and is kinda a wuss. Second- what 4 year olds start loosing teeth? I thought that didn't happen till 6 or so. You can see from Clark's grumpy face in the background, he was pretty upset he didn't loose a tooth. We put the tooth under her pillow that night and the Tooth Fairy brought her one whole dollar!

Charly Goes Swimming

2011-07-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

I bought her a swim suit at Target when she was first born,
but now it is way too small. Luckily her cousin Daphne had
one to spare- so now she has this one.

Swimming with Daddy.

She is really starting to love the water. It took her a little while
to warm up to it, but she's getting the hang of it!

2011-07-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! We had a fun filled 4th of July weekend. We went up to the cabin on Friday night and Ryan worked on re-roofing the trailer all day Saturday. The kids had a great time playing with cousins and we even had a rainstorm while we were there. Because of the excessive heat, the town of Heber didn't do the fireworks show, which we were bummed about.
Monday the 4th our ward had a big pancake breakfast and 'raingutter regatta'. Basically it's like the pinewood derby with homemade sail boats. Ryan procrastinated making Kate and Clarks boats until Monday, so he drove down to the job site at 5 am to get some foam to make the boats. They were actually some of the best boats there!

Clarks boat (on the left) takes the lead!

Kate's boat is the winner!

Kate and Clarks boat raced. I can't remember which won.

In the afternoon we went to Ryan's parent's house to go swimming and Ryan and I sneaked away and saw Transformers. That night we did fireworks with our neighbors across the street. God Bless America!

New Hair Do

2011-07-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

When Charly turned 3 months old I started loosing my hair- BAD. It's still coming out in gobs. So when it came time to get my hair done, I needed to do something different. It was either chop it all off or cut bangs. One night while watching the Bachelorette, I was looking at Ashley's bangs and decided I should give it a try. So after not having bangs since the 7th grade, my friend Jessica, who I went to beauty school with, did the honors. I am liking my new "do", especially the part about not blowdrying it and just curling it!

Father's Day

2011-07-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Here's Ryan's gifts and his Father's Day card. (Thank you Family Fun Magazine)

Heres the inside of the card

Traditional Haynes breakfast- blintzes. They are like crepes, but you put a cheese filling
in the middle and strawberries on top.

Opening presents

New tie and 2 new hats

The hat was a big hit. Ryan is SUPER picky about hats.

And some new sandals. Believe it or not, Ryan had been wearing my black Reef
sandals. Yes my feet are big, but not that big, they were very small on him.

So although our Father's Day wasn't super extravagant, it is not a reflection on how
awesome a Daddy Ryan is. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and awesome Father
to our kids. Love you Rye!

"Look at Those Chubby Legs"

2011-07-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

That's what I hear any time someone sees Charly. It doesn't bother me one bit. I love having a chubby baby, although I don't love having to buy her new clothes all the time. She is 4 months old wearing 9 month clothing. When Kate was wearing 9 month clothing she was army crawling everywhere and her clothes got destroyed, so the only hand-me-downs I have are a few dresses. When Charly went to her 4 month check up, Dr. Hayden asked me," Is she rolling over yet?" I said no, and he replied, "Well, she is kinda chubby!" It takes a lot of energy to roll over when you are only 4 months old and weigh 17lbs! I do love my little Charly and she loves her Daddy. Most nights if she gets fussy, Ryan can take her away from me and she calms right down. I tell him he should just take over during the day time too! She is a happy baby, loves Kate and Clark and is working on sleeping through the night. At 17 lbs, it's not like she needs food in the middle of the night! So I started giving her water when she wakes up, and now she is going from 7-8pm till 5am without eating (she will still wake up, but I can get her right back to sleep). Here's some pics of our chunky baby- and if you want to squeeze her thighs, I'm gonna start charging money. I could make some serious cash.

Ummm....

2011-07-18T15:26:00.001-07:00

I just sat down to update the blog- I have at least 10 posts to catch up on- and what do you know, Charly is waking up from her nap. UGH. Story of my life. I guess the blog will have to wait. I promise to update soon.

Kate's Dance Recital

2011-06-05T18:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Kate's year end dance recital. The story of the recital was "Thumbelina" , Kate and her class were ladybugs. Although she could do the whole dance at home without missing a step- doing it on stage was a different story! It was just very cute to see 7-4 year olds do ballet. Thanks to Miss Wendy for an awesome year!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Swim Lessons

2011-05-24T22:08:00.001-07:00

Kate and Clark have been taking swim lessons from my sister Heather for the month of May. I am so happy with how much they have progressed and how they are ready for the summer! Now I get to just have fun and play with them in the water and practice what they've learned. Thanks Heather!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Three Months Old Today

2011-05-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Every day we sing a little song to Charly (that I stole from my sister Bridgett) that goes like this;
"Hello Charly, how are you?
Hello Charly, what you gonna do?
Hello Charly, I love you,
You are three months old today."
And of course we change the last line as she gets older and older.
Three months is the phase where you finally feel like, ' I can do this'. You get more sleep at night, you're starting to figure out a schedule and best of all your baby can see you and smiles when she sees your face. I must say I am able to just sit and enjoy Charly so much more than I was able to with Kate and Clark. With them it was purely survival. It truly is amazing the love you feel for your child- it's something that you can not express in words.
Charly is our chubby girl. Every where we go people comment on her cute chubbiness and how they just want to squeeze it! (and I do!) Most of all are her cheeks. They are so heavy they just hang off her face! She has a very sweet personality and doesn't like it when Kate or Clark cry or when I yell at them. (Which is more frequent than I'd like to admit) She loves to lay on her play mat and just in the passed few days will fuss when I'm holding her and will stop as soon as I lay her on the mat. She hates the car seat and cries as soon as I put her in it. Unfortunately with swim lessons, she's been in the car a lot! She loves her Daddy and wants him to take care of her when he is home.

Love you Charly!

Catching Up

2011-05-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Blogging has been on the back of my mind for weeks now, and as more time passes, it gets harder and harder to sit down and catch up on all the things I've missed. Sometimes I feel like it's this daunting task that gets bigger and bigger the longer I put it off. And to make matters worse, our internet has been very temper-mental for 2 weeks and sometimes its up and when I want to get on and use it- it's down. So here's my attempt to catch up for the things I've missed.

Matching skirts Grandma Johnson made

First was Easter. Sadly I didn't take pictures. I've been really bad about that lately. I take it with me, but I end up holding a baby the whole time and don't get a chance to take pictures. We went to my parents house for dinner and an egg hunt. The kids made out like bandits. Easter morning we did something a little different this year. I had the kids decorate their own egg carton with paper, stickers ect. and Ryan and I filled 12 eggs with candy and put them in their carton. It has worked out really well, the candy just emptied into carton and I can just close the lid and put it up somewhere, instead of having a basket out for weeks on end. We really didn't talk much about the easter bunny, as it really bothers me. I just feel that it is ridiculous for kids to think Easter is about a bunny and not about Christ. I mean Christ's Atonement and Resurrection is the MOST important thing that has happened on earth and we mask celebrating it with a bunny? Really? I know, I'm a kill joy, but I feel it is against my knowledge and testimony to teach my kids that Easter is about candy and a bunny. So I'll have to find that delicate balance, so that I don't ruin Santa and all that too.

Second was Charly's two month. She had her 2 month check up with Dr. Hayden and unfortunately had to get shots. (Yes, we believe in vaccines) She weighed 12lbs 13oz and was 21 inches long. She is starting to get fun. Now that she is a little chub, it's fun to hold her because you can squeeze a little bit. She is also smiling and cooing. I have tried numerous times to get a picture of her smiling, but whenever I get the camera out- she looks at the camera and not me, and gets a very serious face. Hopefully soon. She is doing pretty good at night too. She usually takes one 6 hour, eats and then goes another 4. Sometimes she goes 8 hours and Sunday night she went 9 and 1/2 hours! She is her own person and has her own schedule. She is usually awake most of the day and only cat naps- but if that means she'll sleep at night- I'll take it!

Even my heart rate monitor wished me happy birthday!
I had a little picture of a birthday cake all day.

Third is my 30th Birthday! Yes, last Friday the 29th I turned 30. It really was a great day. Charly slept 8 hours the night before- so I felt rested. Ryan got the Tahoe detailed for me, something that has needed to be done for along time. I usually wash it twice a month myself, but since Charly was born, I haven't done anything. After a trip to Fathers and Sons, and 2 months of crumbs, it was pretty nasty! I also started my first day of 'Insanity' that Ryan got me for my birthday. (if you don't know what insanity is, just look for the infomercial late at night. It's a workout video program.) I've really been trying hard to loose the last few lbs from having a baby, and wanted some new workout videos to help me out. Which by the way, they are really hard and kick my butt.

Before

Ryan also took me out to dinner to the Keg and then gave me money to go shopping with. So for the remainder of our date, I got to buy myself some new clothes. So thanks to Auntie Jenny for babysitting all three kids for us!

After

Fourth and finally we got our roof re-done. It has been needing it for at least 2 years, and we finally decided we needed to just bite the bullet and get it done. It has truly been a blessing that we haven't had any leaks, but we didn't want to push our luck through another monsoon season.

So there you have it. All my catching up. Now if I can just stay on top of it........

Charly's Blessing

2011-04-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

Josh and Ellen Haws, our third family

Sunday was Charly's baby blessing, and my first day back at church after a six week sabbatical. I tell you what, it's a good thing that church is at 1pm, because it took me all morning to get me and 3 kids ready! (Ryan leaves for meetings by about 10am, so he's no help!)
I won't give details of Charly's blessing here, but I will say that it was a beautiful blessing and I am grateful for a wonderful husband who gave the blessing.

The Haynes Family

The Johnson Family

Charly's One Month

2011-03-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

This post is a few days late- but everything seems to be that way right now! I can't believe it's been a month since Charly was born, but it gives me hope that we already have one month under our belt. Ryan and I have done a lot of talking to figure out what we can do to make life more manageable, and he has so graciously volunteered to help out with feeding at night. He will take Friday and Saturday night, so I can at least rest up on the weekends. I have decided to let go of breastfeeding and am "weaning" myself right now. Hopefully more sleep will ease some of the anxiety and I can go back to feeling "normal".

Here's Charly at one month

This is Kate's one month- I think Charly looks
almost exactly like Kate

Here's Clark at one month- doesn't even look like him!

Treading Water

2011-03-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

My life the last few weeks has felt a bit like treading water with a 10 pound brick - at first it doesn't seem so bad, but as time goes by you get more and more tired and feel like you are drowning instead of treading water. There have been many moments over the last few weeks where I feel like I am on that delicate line between treading water and drowning. If it wasn't for my wonderful husband and good friends and family, I couldn't make it.
I'm going to take this post to vent about all the things I feel like I'm barely 'treading water' with, so feel free to skip to the end to see some updated pictures.
I didn't think that adding one more child to life would be that difficult, but it has totally turned my world upside down. For those of you who know me, you know that I like to live in a box. Everything has it's place and is organized and every day has routine. Of course with a new baby, there can be no box and no routine, and that has left me feeling insecure. There is no comfort zone. Although I love my little Charly, she has become more and more difficult as time goes by. She has become colicky, and when she is not eating, she wants to be held all the time. If I try to put her in the bouncy chair or swing, it's about 60 seconds before she starts screaming bloody murder. As soon as I pick her up- she's fine. She does take naps, but usually one is while I carry her in a baby bjorn backpack, one is in the car while we run errands and the other is on my bed. While she sleeps just fine at night in her crib, she doesn't like it so much during the day. So while most of my daytime hours are devoted to her- not much else gets done. My house is picked up, but not clean. ( Although Ryan spent all day Saturday cleaning the kitchen floors, the table and chairs and deep cleaning our bathroom. Thanks honey.) I know you are thinking- you just had a baby, who cares if you're house is dirty. But in reality it would drive you nuts too if your kitchen counter never got wiped down, there was toothpaste on the floor in the kids bathroom and your piles of mail, bills and laundry just kept getting bigger and bigger.
I think what is really hard for me, is with the first kid, it's totally normal for you to be a hermit for at least 6 weeks, never shower or do your hair and not run any errands. That's how it was with Kate and Clark. I lived in a cave for at least 3 months. I didn't even leave the house with them until they were 4 months old. The only time I ran errands was when some one came to my house to give me a break. This time around I got 2 weeks to be a hermit- that's it. Now I have to get back to all my regular duties, plus take care of a baby and all that without sleeping more than 2 consecutive hours at night. Plus I have 2 other kids who are starved for attention and act out in every way possible just to get some recognition. They totally have cabin fever, so thanks to Nana, Grandma and Bethany Minor for taking my kids for a few hours to get them out of the house.
Another issue is breast feeding. I was doing really well the first 2 weeks and then Charly was wanting to eat every 2 hours. Eating for an hour and sleeping for an hour all night long just does not work for me. I am a 8-9 hour sleeper and it's killing me to get about 5 1/2. So when she did that, and I only got 4 hours of sleep- something had to change. I started pumping to see how much milk i was making- to see how much she was really getting, and came to find out that I was totally inconsistent in my milk supply. So no wonder she was eating all the time. Once I started pumping, it was much easier to feed her with a bottle and much quicker too. So I thought I'd feed her with a bottle at night, because she would fall asleep on the boob, not get a full feeding and want to eat all night long, then I would nurse her during the day. Well that lasted about 2 days. She didn't want me anymore! After about 20 minutes, I'd switch sides and she would freak out. The milk would be spilling out into her mouth and she's scream. As soon as I put a bottle in her mouth- she was fine. UGH. So now I am just pumping and supplementing with formula ( because I'm still not making enough). So I want to just quit the breastmilk all together. I do not want to be tied to the pump like I was with Kate and Clark. However, now I have guilt associated with not pumping. One is the money issue- it's just one more thing we have to buy and two, I know that breastmilk is better for babies and I want to give the best to my baby.
All of these little issues just pile up to one big heap of anxiety. For those of you who know me, I have struggled with anxiety and depression in my life, but have learned to control it because I know what my triggers are. Well can you guess what my triggers are? Lack of sleep and lack of exercise which lead to bad body image. So since I cannot exercise and I'm not getting any sleep, the fact that I still have to wear pregnancy clothes creates lots of anxiety. And guess what I do when I'm anxious? I eat. That does nothing to help my situation, in fact it just makes it worse! So instead of loosing those last 10 lbs, I'm just adding more to it. I know it will eventually work itself out. In a few weeks I'll be able to exercise again, Charly will hopefully sleep more at night and I'll eventually be able to fit in my clothes again. Too bad I can't just be a hermit until that time!
So there you have it. If you actually took the time to read that whole thing- wow. You are a better person than I am. And for those who didn't- here's some updated pictures as promised.

For the first 2 weeks we slept Charly in our room in the pack n'play. We keep it cold in our room, so we had to bundle her all up like this.

Daddy's little girl

Bath time!

It's kinda hard to see, but she fell asleep with the pacifier and then spit it out. It flipped around and she is holding on to it with her hand

She is already a thumb sucker!

This was today- all dressed up to go to WalMart.

Happy Birthday Charly!

2011-02-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning started really early for Ryan and I. Kate and Clark spent the night at my mom's house Wednesday night, so that we could get to the hospital by 5:30am. That may seem a bit early for a scheduled C-section, but there are advantages to showing up at the hospital when there is no one else in triage and they already know you are coming. We spent about 2 hours getting ready for surgery. They monitored the baby, put in my IV, and basically made me sign my life away.

One last shot of my belly before the baby came out

Here we are waiting in the triage room

After 9 months of waiting, Charlotte Jane Johnson was born at 7:47am, February 24th.

The surgery went really well, and I didn't even throw up this time! Ryan was brave enough to watch, and said it wasn't as "gooey" as he thought. It was a good thing that we did a C- section because they had a heck of a time getting her out. She was breech, but not a normal breech. Her butt came out first, then Dr Beck had to grab her hips and pull her butt out enough to pull out her legs one at a time, then wiggle out the rest of her body. Thank goodness for modern medicine and good doctors. I cannot imagine having to have a baby like that vaginally.

I don't remember "feeling" as much with Kate and Clark as I did this time. I don't know if they used a different drug in the spinal. but i felt alot more of the tugging and pushing that I did last time. All in all it went really well and I was in the recovery room about 25 minutes after she was born.

This is the first time I got to see Charly. I was still on the operating table. It was a really neat experience for me. Both Ryan and I had tears in our eyes the first time we heard her cry.

This is in the recovery room when they were cleaning her all up.

Kate and Clark came to visit us Friday. I was on drugs and out of it most of Thursday, so we decided it was better that the kids come Friday. They were so good in the hospital, you could tell Ryan had lectured them the whole car ride there! They sat reverently, whispered and were very gentle with Charly. It was really cute to see their reaction to her and how excited they were to have a baby sister.
In the same breath, it was an eye opener to me too. For almost 2 days it had just been Ryan, Charly and I, and all of my energy was focused on the baby. When Kate and Clark came to the hospital I had the "duh" moment where I realized I have 2 other kids and they needed as much love and attention as Charly. Not to say they minded that I was at the hospital, they got to spend the night at Nana's house for 3 nights, go to the zoo, eat out lunch with Daddy and play at Uncle Andy and Auntie Lisa's house. They did not miss me at all! In fact, when we pulled in the the garage yesterday Clark said, "Why are we going home? Aren't we going to someone's house?"

Here's Clark and Kate holding hands with Charly. They absolutely loved this.

That just about sums up the last few days. I'm so glad that she made it here safe and sound and that we are all home together now. More pictures to come!

Charlie, Charlee or Charley?

2011-02-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

I can not decide how to spell Charlotte's name. I've been spelling it "Charlie" but I kinda want to do something a little different. If I spell it differently is that too weird? Will people think it's pronounced differently? What's your vote?

Here's some pictures of her room. It's nothing spectacular, but it's a start. I do have pink curtains for the windows, so that helps balance out the brown.

I got the "C" from Hobby Lobby and that is a cork board on the other wall,
it's pink with white polka dots.

Here's a closer look at the bumper pads. I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

Here's the quilt. It took forever, but I love it now that it's done. Yes,
I made each of the squares individually and put them together.

Just a few more days and she will be here!

Baby Update

2011-02-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at my Dr. appointment we did an ultra sound and confirmed that Charlie is still breech. She was like that a few weeks ago at my last appt, but we were hoping she'd turn. Because I am measuring bigger than my 'planned' due date, we scheduled a C- section for next Thursday, February 24th. I am some what relieved, just because of the risks involved with doing a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian). I really wanted to try to do a VBAC, but the closer it got, the more I realized that more than anything I wanted Dr. Beck to be there and have a complication free delivery. I was just so scared and worried that I would go into labor when Dr. Beck wasn't on call, or not available and another Dr would end up giving me a C section. Since most Dr's don't like doing VBAC 's ( because they are risky and the Dr has to be there the whole time you are in labor) I was afraid that another Dr wouldn't even let me try. So I"m kinda glad that Charlie has made the decision easy, and another C-section it is. Now at least I know when this baby is going to be here and that Dr. Beck will be the one performing the surgery.
I have been working hard to get her room and everything ready, and I'll put pics up as soon as it is all done. I finished making her bumper pads and quilt, Ryan painted her room, I got a few things to decorate and now we are just waiting for some crib parts to come in the mail so I can put it all together.
So this week I am trying to get everyone in for haircuts and then next week I'll be trying to get my house clean and ready for this baby!

Science Center

2011-02-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday I took Kate and Clark to the Science Center in downtown Phoenix. My sister Nancy and son Jack, and my Mom and Dad went too. Although it was very interesting, I would not say it was the most 'kid friendly' place to go. There were a few interactive things, but most of it just went over their heads. So, good experience for the kids, but not worth the money at this age. I think the best thing was the planetarium. Basically it was a theater and the ceiling was a screen with all the stars. They also got to watch a cow eye get dissected, and even got to hold it!

Kate holding the cow eye

Watching the dissection

Clark holding the cow eye

Crayon Roll-Up

2011-01-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Last week at church Kate found this cute little crayon roll-up someone had left under our bench. Because we were at church I did the right thing and turned into the lost and found, but not after I had looked it over and tried to figure out how to make one. That night I got online and found a tutorial on how to make one. It looked super easy, and I have been dying to get out my new sewing machine- so I bought some fabric and went to town. The first one took me about an hour and half, but after I figured it all out, it only took me about half an hour to do the second.

Kate and Clark were so excited the next morning, they got our their coloring books and went to town.

This one is Kates

The excitement did wear off after a few days, and now they
are content with just using them at church.

Clarks crayon roll-up

Getting Ready for Baby

2011-01-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

About a week ago I had the "Oh my gosh, I'm having a baby!" realization. Which sounds stupid, I know. How do you not notice your belly getting bigger, your hips hurting and the constant trips to the bathroom? But I guess I just hadn't had the mental capacity to wrap around all the little things that needed to happen for me to be ready for this baby. It just hit me that maybe I should buy a package of diapers, or maybe buy some pacifiers or even wash some blankets and clothes for the poor child. I guess it has just been so long since I've had a little baby that I forgot all the little things that babies require.
With the baby about a month away, Ryan and I decided it was time for Kate and Clark to bunk their beds and share the same room. In addition to putting their beds together, I had to find a new dresser for the 2 of them to share. Kate has been using the changing table dresser and Clark had a small one a friend gave us. So that started the search on Craigslist. I found one that I liked, that was big enough for them to share and luckily when we went to look at it, it was in good shape. Dresser. Check.

Ryan assembling the beds

Kate helping Ryan( new dresser in back)

Ta da!

Once we got them in the same room, and moved the changing table dresser to the other room, I realized I didn't have a changing table pad anymore. There's one more thing to add to the list. It's a good thing I still have about 5 weeks before this baby gets here- because I have a lot to do between now and then! I still have to get blankets, clothes, bouncy chair, car seat, bumbo and other random things out of the attic. I also realized that I don't have a swing anymore, I never bought a boppy nursing pillow because I had to have a special one for twins, I don't have a diaper bag, and maybe I should invest in a nursing bra! I may not be ready with these essentials, but I did manage to make the time to find fabric and make new bumper pads for the crib! It's so much funner to do bumper pads and make a quilt than make sure my baby has clothes to wear!

Here's Charlie's bumper pads. I will post a better picture when I get
the crib assembled!

Happy New Year

2011-01-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

We have quite a bit of fireworks leftover from when we lived in Utah, and decided that New Years Eve was a good time to get them out. It was a little chilly that night, but Kate and Clark had a good time with the sparklers and such. We basically just lit all we had, so now we just have a few sparklers and pops left.

After we did fireworks with the kids, we dropped them off with my niece Hannah and went to Nancy's house for her new years party. I had a good time hanging out with my sisters and Ryan had fun playing darts with the boys in the garage.

We knew that it had been snowing all that week up at the cabin and had debated all week whether or not to go up there. We were pretty upset that we were there just a week before and got NO snow. So on the way home from Nancy's party, at midnight, we decided,"What the heck! Lets just go!". We invited family first, and Ryan's brother Rick and his wife Amanda said they'd go with us. Because of all the snow that was on the highway- they weren't letting anyone with out 4 wheel drive or chains up there. Luckily we have both. (It is this very reason that we will ALWAYS own a vehicle with 4 wheel drive) So Saturday morning we loaded up the tahoe and took a day trip to the cabin.

This is just a small snapshot of what it looked like when we got there. It was
absolutely beautiful. I haven't seen that much snow in Payson or up at the cabin
in a long time.

We had to rummage through all the snow gear up there to find stuff for everyone
to wear. Ryan found these bibs and had to tie them around his neck to get them
to stay on. I just died laughing when I saw that.

Thanks to my older sister Aimee who bought this snow suit for her son Wyatt probably 15 years ago. It was great for Clark. It kept him warm and dry all day.

Here's Rick trying to make and throw snow balls. The snow was so powdery that it
wasn't stickin together very well.

Here's Kate with her favorite Auntie Amanda.

Here's Ryan and I relaxing in the snow. It was so soft you literally just had to fall into it. My snowboarding clothes came to good use- although I was not able to zip the pants! Needless to say my pants on the butt were a little wet by the end of the day!

Kate and Clark trying to walk in the snow. It was at least 3 feet deep,
and your feet would just go right through the snow.

After sledding down the hill for awhile, we decided to try it behind the tahoe.
My dad wanted Ryan to drive up and down the driveway to make it easier for
whoever came up after us, so he took that very seriously! We must have gone up and down the
driveway at least a dozen times.

It was really fun being pulled behind the tahoe. My arms were so sore the next day, because I had to use my arms to hold myself on, as my abs are of no use these days!

It was a great ending to a long 2 weeks with Ryan at home. Too bad all good things come to an end, and Ryan went back to work, bills had to be paid, the budget needed reviewing, and new year goals had to be set. Even though real life eventually takes over, we look forward to this new year and all the fun things that will happen!

Christmas

2011-01-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the highlights from our Christmas this year:

Every Christmas Eve is spent with my family. It has always been a tradition for my family to reenact the Nativity story and then exchange gifts between siblings. The tradition has changed some over the years with our increase of numbers, but all of us being together on Christmas eve stays the same. We still do a Nativity reenactment, but it's mostly the kids that do the acting, and now we watch a little video presentation of pictures from Christ's life with music. After all that we have a gift exchange. It used to be between my siblings, but as more and more in-laws joined the family, it started to become expensive. So it evolved to the kids having a cereal box exchange ( what kid doesn't want their own box of cereal) and the adults do a white elephant gift exchange. We used to do a $10 gift, but with the down turn in the economy- we decided to do just something funny you had at your house. Now it has evolved to who can find the funniest, most random object either in their own home, or at Goodwill. I must say, as every year goes by, it gets funnier and funnier. Although I didn't take any pictures of the adult gift exchange, there were some pretty hilarious gifts this year. So if in the years to come, you are looking for something to do on Christmas Eve- stop on by- you won't be disappointed!

Here are the kids doing the cereal box exchange.

Here's Clark with his box of Trix. We brought this box, and he was bound and determined to win it back.

Kate ended up with Cocoa krispies. She had one bowl, and that was about it. I think Clark has
eaten the rest of it.

Ryan and I were up till midnight wrapping presents and getting everything
ready for Christmas morning. Here's what it looked like when we went to bed.

I scored this brand new easel at a garage sale for $8- they sell at Walmart for $60. I bought
the aprons from Michaels and added the names and pockets.

Clark got this cars 'garage'

Opening their stockings

Kate with her Jessie doll

Ryan had to buy this for Clark, but really it was for him. It is a bit big for Clark, but he is figuring out how to work it himself.

Ryan opening his presents

I also scored this tinkerbell costume and a few other dress up dresses
at a garage sale- all for about $12. Ryan bought her the tiara from Charming Charlie's. It is a 'real'
tiara- and she takes very good care of it!

My parents bought Clark a power tool set, complete with safety glasses. I thought that he might
not want tools anymore- but boy was I wrong! It's a good thing Nana and Paco are on the ball. He still
wears the safety glasses all the time.

Kate had to give the safety glasses a try.

Funniest of all is Ryan with the safety glasses and Clarks power drill.
I guess you never get too old for some things!

Christmas morning after we opened all our presents, my parents and my sister Nancy came over for blintzes. (Traditional breakfast in my family- kinda like crapes) After we ate and played for a bit, we got dressed and went over to the Johnson's for presents and Christmas dinner.

All in all it was a great Christmas. Our kids were very spoiled this year, and will probably not get as much stuff in years to come! Ryan bought me a new sewing machine- which I am very excited to get out and use. I asked for a very basic machine, but of course Ryan cannot buy basic tools and got the 'quilting' sewing machine that has about 90 different stitches. I don't know if I will ever use all 90 stitches- but I will certainly try. I have already picked out fabric to start making the bumper pads for the baby's crib!

Cabin Trip

2011-01-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

After my nephew Preston's wedding and luncheon, we drove up to the cabin with our friends, the Whipples. This marked the start of Ryan's vacation, and he did not want to waste any time! We drove up Saturday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday morning. We had a great time relaxing at the cabin, but wished that it was about 10 degrees cooler. It rained the whole time we were there, and had it been a little bit colder, we would have seen a ton of snow. The kids had a great time playing together, Bret and Ryan had fun playing Xbox and reading books and Jess and I enjoyed standing around the kitchen munching and talking! Here's a few highlights from our trip.

Although the kids played on the swing endlessly, Ryan did take his turn.

After going into Payson to watch "Tangled" at the theater, we decided to have a weenie roast
for dinner.

It was a great idea, although it was a little cold. It's one of those things we
should do in the summer- not the winter!
The kids loved cooking their hot dogs in the fire, and believe it or not, we went through 24 hot dogs. Colton ate 4 all by himself!

Way to go Ryan and Bret for the most memorable part of our trip!

Other than the movies and hot dogs, we had fun doing crafts with the kids and playing cards at night. Thanks Bret and Jess for coming with us! We need to make sure to get up there together more than once every 4 years!

Preston's Wedding

2011-01-10T20:02:00.001-08:00

My oldest nephew Preston got married December 18th, and aftter the sealing had a luncheon. At the luncheon all the younger cousins sang a song for Preston and his bride Hilary.
The picture is not very good, but it's still pretty cute!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lacking Motivation

2011-01-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, as you can tell, I have been lacking in motivation to blog- or do much of anything these days! Ryan had 2 weeks off work for Christmas and New Years, and it has taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things. Not to mention that so much happened during that time, that I feel overwhelmed by the amount of posts I need to catch up on. So admittance is the first step to recovery, right? So this is my attempt to motivate myself to blog.

Christmas Tradition #2

2010-12-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight for Family Home Evening we decorated our gingerbread house. This tradition started when I was a kid. Each year my brothers and sisters and I would put togeher and decorate our own gingerbread house made out of graham crackers. For the first few years we were married, I made Ryan carry on this tradition with me, and he and I would make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. Last year I decided to do a big gingerbread house made out of real gingerbread, instead of the small ones, and now that is becoming our family tradition.
Making the gingerbread and cutting out all the pieces is alot more time consuming and labor intensive than the graham cracker ones, but I kinda like all of us decorating the house together. Plus I like the challenge of doing it homemade, and not a store bought kit. Maybe in a few years, as the kids get older, I'll go back to the graham.
I started the whole process about 2:30pm this afternoon, and the last pieces of house came out of the oven about 5:30 pm! When Ryan got home from work I put him in charge of putting the house together while I made dinner (waffles). After dinner we started the process of decorating. Ryan was a good sport and lasted about 45 minutes with the kids. After they were sufficiently sugared up, we put them to bed, and I finished decorating it myself. (I secretly love decorating the house, I just couldn't leave it when the kids went to bed, I had to add more to it!)

Putting the house together

Ryan is the construction major, that's why he puts the house
together. I'm too impatient and don't let the icing dry, and the
walls cave in.

Adding the candy!

Ta Dah!

Ryan got a little bored at the end and gave our snowmen red hot eyes
and samurai swords. Apparently our house needs protection
from invaders.

The finished product after I did my last minute additions.

Last T-Ball Game

2010-12-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

All the boys waiting to bat

Saturday was Clark's last t-ball game. I think it was the only game where we had every boy on the team there! In a way I'm glad it's over- now we have our Saturday's back, but I know it was really good for Clark. He keeps asking me what he's gonna do next- I'm not sure I'm ready for whats next!

Clark taking a swing

After the game we had a little awards ceremony where all the boys received their
trophies from the coach. And what awards ceremony is complete without treats
and pizza?!

Clark and his trophy. He was so proud he carried it around all day.

Poor Kate

2010-12-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning Kate woke up with a little bit of a rash on her forehead and when we changed her clothes I noticed that she had some little bumps on her tummy and back. I didn't think too much of it, thought she maybe had an allergic reaction to something and it would go away. As the day progressed it didn't go away, and in the afternoon the dots just exploded. They turned bright red and started spreading all over her tummy, back, arms and starting on her legs. I called my trusty sister Bridgett, who is a doctor, and she came over to look at her. She didn't recognize it at all and started calling doctor friends to get opinions. At this point I'm starting to freak out a little bit. Kate has been immunized for chicken pox, so I didn't think that could be it, but when Bridgett was stumped as to what it was, I started to get nervous. So then I started the debate of, 'should I take her to the ER tonight, or can it wait till the morning?'. About this time Ryan was waking up (yes, he's on nights again) and I asked him to give Kate a blessing. After the blessing we decided to just watch her through the night to make sure her mouth or throat didn't swell up and take her to the Pediatrician first thing in the morning.

These were taken last night. Her poor face is all red and swollen!

You think this is bad, it was twice that bad the next morning.

Ouch! It just looks like it hurts.

Since I was by myself last night, I set my alarm every 2 hours and got up to check on her. She was fine, but by this morning it had spread all over her face, in her ears and just looked horrible. I just wanted to cry for her. I got her an appointment first thing with our Pediatrician, Dr. Hayden, and my mom came and took Clark so I didn't have to take him to the doctors too.

Turns out that it is hives. I didn't think it could be an allergic reaction because nothing has changed. She hasn't had any different foods, medications, nothing. So what Dr. Hayden says is that she probably got some kind of virus and instead of her body fighting it, it treated it like an allergy and had a massive allergic reaction. I had been giving her some allergy medicine that wasn't helping- come to find out I needed to give her 3 times what I was giving her! He also prescribed another type of allergy medicine and a steroid to help her body fight whatever it is. After the appointment we filled all the prescriptions, got some good anti-itch cream and I loaded her up with the drugs. Within an hour the bumps had gone from screaming red to soft pink and the swelling in her face had gone WAY down.
Dr. Hayden says that it will probably take about a week for it to go away, but she is not contagious in any way- it just looks horrible! By this afternoon she was starting to act herself again and get some energy back. It's still super itchy, so I think we'll go through a few tubes of anti- itch medicine by the time we're done.
It is just awful to watch your child suffer, and see things happen to their body and you have no way of stopping it or making it better. I know this is a very small thing, and it makes my heart go out to those parents who have, or have had, truly sick kids. What a painful experience. It also makes me grateful for modern medicine and good doctors. It only took an hour at the doctors office and a few minutes to get a prescription filled to make her feel better. I can't even imagine what people went through watching their kids suffer and having no medicine to give them. I am blessed!

Christmas Tradition #1

2010-12-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

One thing I love about Christmas is all the traditional things we do. I've been looking at our calendar and trying to determine when we will fit them all in! Tonight we bought and decorated our Christmas tree. Yes, we are real tree people. They are messy and sometimes they die sooner than you'd like, but again, it's tradition. When I was growing up we used to go up to the mountains the day after Thanksgiving and cut down a Christmas tree. Ryan and I wanted to do that this year, but didn't think about getting a permit until it was too late. So we went to our favorite tree lot at Red Mountain High School. (their trees are awesome- they keep them in water all the time, and it benefits the band)
Here's a look at our Family Home Evening activity tonight:

We got a smokin deal on this tree. It has quite the bare spot on the back,
but it's at the bottom and we knew it would be hidden. Ryan had to trim a few
branches at the bottom, but not too shabby.

After Ryan and I got the lights and ribbon on, Kate and Clark went to town with the ornaments.

Ta Da! There are a bit more ornaments around the bottom than the top- but hey, that's what
you get when kids decorate!

London's Swim

2010-11-30T19:29:00.000-08:00

My sister Heather (London's Mom) and I

Saturday November 20th was the first ever London's Swim. My family has been doing London's Run for 5 years now, and just this year we realized; we are a family of swimmers- not runners! So Nancy headed up this swim-a-thon to raise more money for our cause. A swim-a-thon is basically a set day and time where you to try to swim 200 laps in 2 hours. You ask for pledges from friends or family to donate money for each lap you swim or a set amount for all 200 laps. I was not very ambitious this year and just paid the minimum donation myself to go and swim! Clark had a t-ball game that morning- so I got to the pool about an hour late. I still managed to swim 140 laps in an hour. For being 6 months pregnant, I thought that wasn't too bad, but I paid for it later! I was so exhausted that night and felt sick the next day- but all for a good cause!

My oldest sister Aimee and Kate

Brother-in-law Warren (London's Dad) counted laps for us

Kate came to London's Swim with me while Clark and Ryan
stayed at home and changed the oil in the Tahoe

My Mom and nephew Caleb

My sister Nancy in the middle

My brother Dave was the DJ for the underwater music system

Heather and I. Warren couldn't tell us apart when we both had
our goggles on!

Niece Nikki

Niece Hannah

Halloween

2010-11-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

Jessie and Woody

( This is # 4 post of catching up)We had quite the festive Halloween this year- it lasted a whole week long! My mom does a Halloween Family Home Evening, and has since I was a kid. It has evolved as our family has grown from 10 people to almost 40- but the basic concept is the same. All the kids dress up- and any of the adults who are still cool enough to dress up. We have dinner, play games and have a pinata.

Cake walk with all the cousins

Clark eating his apple from the 'bobbing for apples'
game

Kate and Ella spent most of the night on the teeter totter.

My brother Dave helping Clark with the Pinata

Kate's turn!

Next that week was the Johnson pumpkin carving contest. We always get together a few days before Halloween to eat pigs in a blanket and carve pumpkins. Some of the spouses carve their own pumpkin- but I just get the guts out and Ryan carves it. I's a big competition to see who has the most creative pumpkin. The boys go all out. It takes them hours to complete it.

Auntie Jenny and Uncle Jeffy

Grandma gave the grandkids little pumpkins to paint.

Clark, Trevor and Kate with their painted pumpkins

Ellie

In addition to our Monday and Thursday night parties, Ryan's work has a Halloween office party every year. It's basically just for the kids to come and trick or treat around to all the offices and cubbies. They serve lunch and give us a chance to show off our cute kids.

All the kids and parents at the Okland party

Last but not least was the ward Trunk or Treat. This was quite the headache for me- as I was still the activities committee chairman. There was drama about the date, and we ended up combining with another ward on Saturday night. There was tons of food, games and of course candy. Kate and Clark got so much candy that night we didn't bother taking them out on Halloween. I also got this great idea from my friend Heather, called the Pumpkin Fairy. The kids put their basket of candy outside their door at night, and the Pumpkin Fairy comes and exchanges their candy for some type of prize. We let Kate and Clark enjoy their candy for a few days, and then the 'Pumpkin Fairy' took their candy and left them each a new movie.
Halloween night we had some friends over for a 'Halloween' dinner. We had dinner in a pumpkin, witches fingers (sugar cookies shaped like fingers) , bones (stick pretzels with mini marshmallows on each end dipped in white chocolate), dirt cups and punch with frozen juice hands. To top off the night we watched 'Nightmare before Christmas'- because to me- that is a Halloween movie, not a Christmas movie!

Kate & Clark's 4th Birthday

2010-11-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

( Yes, still catching up)

Kate has always been about 3 inches smaller than
Clark, but not this birthday. She is only 1/2 and
inch behind him!

Kate and Clark turned 4 on October 23rd! How is it possible that my babies are 4 years old? As I look back over the last 4 years, I am glad to be where I am today, but do miss my cute little babies. I guess that's why I'm having another one!

Since their birthday fell on Saturday this year, I decided to throw them a real birthday party. It's hard to know what to do for opposite sex twins, as you can't do anything gender specific. Luckily for me I have a party planning sister, and Nancy came up with the idea for their party. We did a carnival with all sorts of little games. We also did relay races, cake and ice cream, presents and even a pinata.

Here's some of the set up of the games. We Auntie Lorette did the ring toss, my niece Hannah did face painting and Ryan at the go fish.

Here's the duck pond game, Auntie Lisa, Ellie, Auntie Amanda and Jack

Here's the awesome bean bag toss Ryan made the morning of their birthday. Just one more reason I love that man.

Here's all the kids patiently waiting for the birthday cake. I made 2 ice cream rolls (tradition in the Johnson family) and let Kate and Clark pick out the ice cream. I'm glad I made my own instead of paying an arm and a leg for a cake- since none of the kids ate it anyways! ( Check out the unicorn pinata- that was the only one Kate and Clark could both agree on. Sorry- no pics of busting the pinata- I was trying to hard to keep the kids safe with the baseball bat!)

Opening presents!

They both had a great day. We were planning on taking them where ever they wanted for dinner- and with a little persuasion from Mom and Dad- we got Barros take out and watched "How to Train Your Dragon". Thanks to everyone who helped me throw it together and all our friends who came. Especially thank you to Nana for letting us use her house!

First T-Ball Game

2010-11-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

(This is old, his first game was October 16th. He will be done with his season in another 2 weeks)
Today was Clark's first T-Ball game, or should I say orgainized chaos on a baseball field! It actually wasn't too bad, although there were as many Dads on the field as there were kids.
Clark was up at 6am, jersey in hand. He's been dying to wear it since he got it Thursday at practice. He played pretty well- he was all excited the first 2 innings- running after every ball, then towards the end he just got tired and stood there. I can't blame him, it was so hot in the sun, I got tired just sitting in my chair!

After the game I asked Clark what his favorite part was, and no surprise, he said," the treats!" He thought that getting a treat just for playing t-ball was pretty awesome.

Gilbert Temple Groundbreaking

2010-11-29T21:03:00.000-08:00

This is totally out of order, but I figure I need to start catching up on my blogging- so here it goes. This was November 13th.

We were not planning on going to the Gilbert temple groundbreaking, since Ryan is there everyday, and I usually drop by there once a week. And technically it wasn't the first time the ground had been worked on, they have been doing underground work since July. Plus I thought that Ryan would go crazy having so many people on his job site- he's kinda territorial when it comes to his job sites. The night before, he ended up being there really late and was back again Saturday morning about 5am. He met us at Clarks t-ball game at 8am, then decided to go home to change into church clothes to go back for the ground breaking. He invited me to come, and I was hesitant because I really didn't feel like getting dressed up to go fight through a crowd of 10,000 people. Needless to say, I realized that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and my kids, so we got dressed and headed down to the site. There are definitely perks to having a husband who is building the temple, I got to park in the front row handicap parking, and Okland had reserved seats in the 4th row. It was cool that we actually got to see the speakers and see it when they did the actually groundbreaking with the golden shovels. I think the best part for Ryan and I was hearing the dedicatory prayer. It made this job turn into something more than just another building project. We both walked away realizing that even though he is getting paid to build the temple- it is the Lord's building and Ryan is really working for the Lord on this one. Going to work everyday has all new meaning. There are still long days and long nights, and problems and disagreements, but for Ryan, he has a bigger picture mentality. Here's some pics for those of you who weren't able to attend.

Here is a picture of what the completed temple will look like.

Carlos RM Costa of the Presidency of the Seventy offered the dedicatory prayer.

Elder Costa and other stake presidents, temple presidents ect who did the original ground breaking.

Here is a view from the stage of how many people were there.

Another advantage to having a husband who is building the temple, you get access to cool pictures like this one. They hired a helicopter to come and take arial photos of the ground breaking.

New Computer

2010-11-13T21:33:00.001-08:00

Our computer died about 2 weeks ago, hence the lack of blogging, or keeping in touch with anyone. It was quite sad, but I must have got a virus or something, and everything we tried didn't fix it. When we realized there was no hope of fixing it, we started the process of figuring out what computer we wanted next. I have wanted to try Mac for along time, but there was no need to get a new computer when we had a perfectly fine Dell. So when the computer died, I voiced my opinion again to try Mac. Ryan was not keen on the idea, as he is a die-hard PC user. (It's like the whole Chevy - Ford argument.) Anyways after a week of debating and shopping, he broke down and bought me a Mac. My brother Rob works for Apple and helped us pick out the right one for us. Of course Ryan had to have the upgraded everything so that he could play his video games, and much to my dismay we spent a whole heap of money on a computer instead of the sleep number bed I've been coveting for months. We ordered it online, and finally received it yesterday. I am still trying to learn the in's and out's of the Mac, and I'm sure I'll be frustrated with it until I can figure it all out. That being said, we have to take our external hard drive and new computer down to the Apple store and have them transfer all of our files. Hopefully we can do that this week and I'll have all my pictures and can start catching up on all the blogging I've procrastinated. So if anyone wants to give me a tutoring session on Mac- I'd appreciate it!

Frustration

2010-10-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

I am having issues with blogger at the moment. I've written up posts, but as soon as I try to add pictures, blogger makes me 'sign in' again and then says that my username is wrong. So if any of you have suggestions as to how to fix this- let me know. I have some posts I'd like to get up, but just can't do it! Help!

Bye-Bye Nap Time

2010-10-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in tears as I write this sad post. Just kidding, although no mother wants to say good-bye to her blissful alone time while children are napping. I guess all good things come to an end, and since Kate and Clark are approaching 4 years old, I've had a good little run with nap time. They have been weaning themselves for about a month now, and I could usually get them to nap about every other day. Now it's about once or twice a week, and I do my best to keep one of those days Sunday, so Ryan and I can nap together. It's not as bad as I thought it'd be- at least they are old enough where they just play all afternoon, and they really don't cause too much trouble. Another bonus is we can put them to bed a little bit earlier. The only downfall is that now that I'm pregnant- I could really use an afternoon nap. Oh well, maybe when the baby is born and Kate and Clark are in preschool- I can take a morning nap with the baby!

It's a..........

2010-09-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!
I really had no expectations as to what this baby was going to be- so yes, I'm happy it is a girl. After the appointment I went to my sisters to pick up the kids and when I told them, Kate was thrilled and Clark was pretty upset. When I loaded them in the car, he kept making "humph" sounds. I asked him what was wrong he said, "Mom, I don't want a baby sister, I want a brother. I don't like sisters, I only like brothers."
I kinda felt bad for him, and had to explain that we don't get to choose what kind of baby we get. This morning he seems to have accepted it- eventhough it's not what he wanted!
I'm starting to feel excited for this baby. I don't know if it's because it's not the first, so it's not all new and exciting this time around, but I haven't really been 'into' this pregnancy. The last time I was reading books and magazines and trying to learn all I could about being pregnant and having a baby. This time I feel like 'whatever'. Plus it's still so far away- alot is going to happen between now and March. I also think I have so much going on in life right now, I don't have the mental capacity to think about or start preparing for this baby.
Anyways- its starting to sound like I'm complaining about being pregnant- I'm not, I am really excited to have another baby in our home. I guess I'm comparing this one to the last one, and they are totally different. At least this time, all things will be pink!

Childrens Museum of Phoenix

2010-09-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

My sister Nancy organized a little play group to go and do fun things around the valley every third Thursday of the month. Today was our first play date, and we went to the Childrens Museum of Phoenix. It was actually really cool. I think what was really fun for me, is now Kate and Clark are the age where they can do everything. Most of the stuff was created around imaginative play, like a grocery store and a restuarant ect, and they just played! It seems like last summer when we did a bunch of stuff, it was fun, but alot of it was me trying to explain to them what to do and what all the toys were for. This time they figured it all out on their own and had a blast. (That, and I just got to sit back and watch!)
The museum has 3 floors with all kinds of things to do. A big jungle gym, a craft room where you can paint a play castle, a room to make your own fort, a grocery store, a restarant, a play house and lots of other cool stuff. Here's some pics of Kate and Clark doing their thing.

At this station they had bikes you could ride through a tunnel and then through a play car wash.

Here they had a dune buggy and dirt bike to play on, complete with gas pump and pinewood derby style car races.

Kate eating an ice cream cone from the play icecream shop.

Here's the restaurant with ovens, stoves, pots and pans, plates, cups, bowls and even a brick fire oven to bake pizza. Clark really loved the restaurant.

Here's the grocery store where you check out all your food.

Here's all the kids; Jack, Kate, Clark and Nolan.

If you want to join us on our next play date- let me know! The more the merrier!

Pregnant

2010-09-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true - I am pregnant with number 3. Yes, just one baby this time! Here's all the answers to the questions everyone asks: I am 14 weeks, and my due date is March 4th. I waited to tell everyone because I wanted to hear from the Dr that there really is a baby in there and that he/she is healthy. Also the pregnancy seems to go alot faster if you wait longer to tell people (at least I'm hoping!) We have been trying since we got home from Utah in February, but it didn't happen until June. I have been feeling ok, definitely better than with the twins. When I was pregnant with them I threw up everyday and was sick pretty much the whole pregnancy. This time I really only get sick at night and I haven't thrown up once. Although the sickness is starting to lessen the farther along I get.
Yes, I am starting to show. I kept it in for about 12 weeks, but now I don't even try. The great thing is that I just wear basketball shorts and t-shirts everyday. So no dressing up this time around.
I think that's about it. We go back the end of this month to find out the sex of the baby, and yes we are going to find out. I can't handle the suspense. Kate and Clark don't really get it yet, they know there is a baby in my tummy, but that's about it. My sister Bridgett is due next week, and I'm hoping that they'll understand a little bit when they see her baby.
Ryan and I are really excited for this ONE. I think we'll be able to enjoy it more this time around, and we've already done two at a time, so this will be a piece of cake!

Treehouse

2010-09-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

I recently had to switch up my swimming schedule, and instead of swimming 3 times a week in the morning, I now swim 3 times a week from noon to 1pm. Because of the change I've had solicit more babysitters for Kate and Clark. One day my Mom watches, one day Ryan's Mom and then one day my sister-in-law Tiffany. Since my brother Rob and wife Tiffany live with my parents right now, Kate and Clark get to play with their cousins at Nanas at least 2 days a week. So what do they do while I swim?........

Thanks Tiffany for the awesome pictures!

Redemption

2010-08-25T20:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I tried to redeem myself from being a horrible Mother this summer. I've used my excuse" It's too hot" to get myself out of doing fun things with the kids. I guess I feel guilty since we did so much when we were in Utah last summer. So My sister Nancy and I took the kids to Tempe Beach Park at Tempe Town Lake and then to Arizona Mills Mall for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Tempe Beach park has an awesome splash pad with tons of water toys for the kids to run around and play in. I feel bad that we hadn't gone earlier in the summer, as it won't be open passed Labor Day.

Clark using the big water gun.

Trying to sit on the water fountain

Kate in the waterfall

I love this picture of Clark in the waterfall. For once I had perfect timing with the camera!

The kids LOVED the Rainforest Cafe. It was funny, when I told Clark we were going to the Rainforest Cafe, he said "proud sponsor of PBS kids." Yes, we watch Sesame Street every morning.

We got to sit right next the elephants and near the monkeys. We must have walked around the restaurant at least 3 times looking at everything. It is very cool, but also pricey. But worth the experience.

Hopefully I can continue to do some fun things with the kids, as I keep telling myself, it'll cool down soon! Luckily there are alot of indoor museums we haven't been to yet!

Too Damn Hot

2010-08-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'm having a really hard time being back in Arizona this summer, after having a beautiful, cool, green summer in Utah last year. I ask Ryan everyday if we can move-I just cannot handle the heat anymore. The 110 plus temperatures are just too much. It's hard with the kids too, since they can't do a whole lot besides play inside or watch tv. I hate that we have to run our errands before 10am, or the Tahoe heats up to 150 degrees in the parking lot. I'd take the cold and snow of the winter over the heat of the summer. Oh well, I'll just have to suffer - because until we win the lottery or Ryan miraculously finds a better paying job somewhere else, there is no escape from the inferno we call Arizona!

Like Father, Like Son

2010-08-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Clark has always been a 'mini-me' version of Ryan. For those of you who know Ryan, you know that he is a worker. He works at least 12 hours a day (usually closer to 16) and then comes home and finds something else to work on. Lately he has been taking the engine out of his blazer to replace it with another one. So Clark has been following suit. The last week or so he has been dressing up with all his gear to go out and work. I took this picture yesterday when he was heading out to the garage to help Ryan, Uncle Jeffy and Grandpa with the blazer. So dang cute. I love it! I especially love the Okland hard hat and his boots. ( Ryan wears boots and since Clark only has snow boots- I guess that works!)

San Diego

2010-07-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

Our trip to San Diego was a great trip. Not only did we have lots of fun together, but it was very much a learning experience for Ryan and I. This was the first 'real' vacation we've ever been on as a family. We take trips to the cabin all the time, and Ryan and I have gone places together, but this was the first time we loaded up the Tahoe and took the kids somewhere. Here's a few things I learned. 1. Never book a hotel through Hotels.com , what a nightmare. When I booked us a hotel way back in April, I called hotels.com to see if I could get a better rate over the phone than online. I had picked out the 'Days' hotel in hotel circle (right in the middle of San Diego) and when I called, I got a pretty smokin deal- $70 a night. It's not the greatest hotel, but it looked nice online, and we've stayed in economy hotels before and it was fine. Well come to find out after I had payed the money in advance, that they actually booked me in the 'Days Inn' hotel in south San Diego. At the time I was pissed, but on the map it didn't look too far away, and I thought it couldn't be that big of a difference.

When we got to San Diego last Wednesday I was appalled at this hotel. Not only was it in the 'hood' of south San Diego, but it was right off the freeway and it was disgusting. The walls and the roof had water stains, the tile in bathroom had separated from the walls and it was just dirty. I apologized profusely to Ryan for booking us in such a dump. We just did not feel safe there and wanted out. So we hooked Ryan's laptop up to the Wi-Fi and started looking for other hotels. It just happened to be this HUGE comic convention in San Diego that weekend, so all the Embassy Suites and such were sold out. We got on priceline.com and decided to try their "name your price" deal. We asked for a 4 star hotel, and picked a few areas of town we were more comfortable with and gave them an offer of $175 a night. You might think that's expensive, but for San Diego, the economy hotels go for more than that a night. Anyways, much to our surprise, they accepted our offer and we ended up staying at the Paradise Point Golf Resort on Mission Bay. What a difference. It was a really nice resort, and it was right across the street from Sea World! So lesson learned, use priceline.com, not hotels.com.

Lesson 2. While the resort was an awesome place to stay, there was no continental breakfast. For just Ryan and I, it would've been fine, but when you have hungry mouths at 7am, the last thing you want to do is drive around to find somewhere to eat besides McDonald's. So next time, we will be staying somewhere that serves breakfast for free. Paying $30 for breakfast everyday adds up fast.

Lesson 3. You always spend more than you think you will. Since we had to add on breakfast everyday, plus a $25 parking fee every night, the bill added up much faster than we anticipated. (Not to mention having to pay for a crappy hotel and then a nice one too) Then just little things here and there, food at Sea World, one night Ryan and I ordered a movie to our room ($15) and of course the souvenirs at Sea World.

Lesson 4. You should 'google' places to eat, near your hotel, before you leave. We wasted a lot of time trying to find restaurants and such. I'd also look up where the closest Wal-Mart and Target are, just in case you forget something.

So lessons learned. I'll just have to remember all these things when we go on vacation again, which Ryan informed me won't be for at least 5 more years! We actually did have a great time. Ryan was against the whole thing from the beginning, saying we don't need to take 3 yr olds on vacation. I grew up in a family where we did some kind of family vacation every year and I loved it. Some of my favorite memories are from our family vacations, so I have a different perspective than he does. He went on one family vacation as a teenager and that's it. So we are learning to compromise. Ryan did admit that it was better than he thought it'd be and the kids weren't as bad as he thought. The only hard thing for him was at night. We had to come home and put the kids to bed, pretend we were asleep for 15 minutes, just so we could turn the TV back on! It is definitely not a vacation for the parents!

Anyways- here's some pictures from our trip!

Yes, we paid the $6 a person to feed the dolphins at Sea World. And yes, it was worth every penny. I think Ryan and I loved it just as much if not more than the kids.

Here's just one picture I took from the many shows we went to. I don't know what it is about seeing dolphins and whales jump out of the water that just makes me happy. If I were an animal, it would definitely be a dolphin.

Here's Kate and Clark with their 3D glasses for the Elmo 3D movie. It was really cute to see them reach their hands out in the movie to try to touch stuff!

I have such well trained kids- this was a photo -op place where they had Sea World photographers taking pictures of the kids with Elmo and Grover, and my kids looked at me for the picture and not the photographer!

Friday we spent the day at Ocean Beach. It was not the best beach day for me, but Ryan loved it. It was cloudy and cold the whole day. We got to the beach about 10am and stayed until almost 4. I was hoping the sun would break through the clouds by about 1pm, but nope- it was 5pm before you could see the sun. So much for getting a nice tan on the beach. I had my hoodie on all day. It was probably better that Ryan had a good day at the beach- maybe he'll be more likely to go back!

Even though the it was about 65 degrees outside and the water was about 61 degrees, the kids still got in and played. They didn't like the taste of the water so much, but stayed in the water for about 15 minutes at a time. Ryan was the good parent who got in the water with them- I just stood knee deep and took pictures!

Kate and Clark had a great time playing in the sand. They were even more excited that we got to take the new toys home and put them in our sand box!

Pumpkin Pie in July

2010-07-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, these pumpkins are from my garden and no, I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all! The last time I had pumpkin in my garden, I planted them a little late so that the pumpkins would be ready for Halloween, although it didn't work as planned. It was too hot for the plant to flower until September, and then only one actually turned into the pumpkin. So we didn't have a pumpkin until November. So this year I decided to plant 2 pumpkin plants and start them a little earlier. So that's why I have 8 pumpkins! If you would like to have one to cook up and save the pumpkin for later- let me know! I'd be happy to share!

4th of July

2010-07-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

We hadn't planned on doing much of anything over the 4th of July weekend because Ryan was going to have to work on Saturday. But much to my surprise on Friday morning he called me and told me he didn't have to work Saturday, so we could go to the cabin. So Friday I frantically ran all my errands, so we could get out the door at a reasonable time. We got up to the cabin Friday late afternoon and enjoyed our weekend out of the heat! Ryan and I love to sleep downstairs, with the window open and freeze ourselves out. It was in the 50's at night and we LOVED it. Haven't slept that good in months! Saturday my brother Dave brought his family up and Kate and Clark loved having all those cousins around, but mostly just Jacob and Ella. Here's what we did all day Saturday.

Ryan went into town and got worms so the kids could really fish in the pond. Here's Clark catching a fish from the pond.

I get the Mom/ Aunt of the weekend award for all of the 4th of July crafts I did for the kids. Kate and Clark helped me make sugar cookies and then all the kids got to frost and decorate them.

Then I found this really cute idea off the Better Homes and Gardens website. I bought these chinese take-out boxes from Michaels, then use stickers, ribbon and such for the kids to decorate them with. Then I made some carmel popcorn to put inside. We took them to the fireworks show and the kids ate their popcorn while we waited for the fireworks.

Saturday evening we drove up to Heber for the best fireworks show in Arizona. I hesitate to tell people about it, because I want it to stay the best kept secret! They do the fireworks show at the high school, and there are alot of people that go, but you don't fight crowds like you do in the valley. This year we camped out on the softball field. It was perfect. The kids had a place to run and play while we waited, but we were still close enough that the fireworks are right over you.

Here's Jacob trying to teach Clark how to play football. Poor Clark. We are not sports people- so his cousins and uncles have to pick up the slack.

Here's Kate and Ella. They were buddies all weekend. Kate mostly just bossed Ella around and made her play the baby while she was the mommy. This picture reminds me of a picture of my sister Bridgett and I when we were about their age. (I'll have to find that)

My oldest sister Aimee, Ryan and my Dad

Jacob and Ella eating their popcorn.

After our great weekend at the cabin, we actually came home early to go to our ward. (we haven't been to our ward much the passed month, and Ryan and I needed to fulfill our callings!)

I had a really neat experience at church Sunday. Of course it was 4th of July so alot of the comments were about the founding of our country. For the closing hymn we sang 'The Star Spangled Banner' and I was so overcome that I couldn't sing the last verse. If you haven't, you need to read all 3 verses of that song. It is powerful. I am just so grateful to live in this great country. I'm grateful for the freedoms that I enjoy and for those who have, and continue to sacrifice their lives for our liberty. I am proud to be an American! God Bless America!

Swimming

2010-07-01T17:32:00.001-07:00

Thanks Nancy! You did an awesome job!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Swim Lessons

2010-07-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

This summer was the first time Kate and Clark did swim lessons with someone other than me! They were getting to the point where they just wanted to play with me and not listen to what I was instructing them to do- so this year they did lessons with my sister Nancy. It worked out really well, since I taught lessons at Nancy's house too. Kate and Clark were in Nancy's last class of the morning and then I started right after their lesson. The best part was that they were in a class with their friends Ide and Jackson and I got to sit on the pool deck and talk to my friends Erin and Keisha! Kate and Ide

Jackson, Ide and Clark

SCUBA

2010-07-01T16:44:00.001-07:00

A year after Ryan and I got married I bought Ryan scuba lessons for his birthday. He has always wanted to get scuba certified and I thought buying him lessons would do the trick. Well not too long after we bought the lessons, I got pregnant with the twins and that was put on hold. We tried to do the certification after the twins were born, before our cruise, but it just didn't work out. So 4 years later we finally finished!
We had to do 2 nights of classroom and then a whole day at the pool practicing our techniques. Then this passed Saturday and Sunday we went to Lake Pleasant to do our 4 open water dives to complete the certification. Even though it was a nasty, dirty lake, we still enjoyed it. Being able to breathe underwater is just cool. We did see a few fish and Ryan even found a golf ball. We're just excited that we found something that we both enjoy that we can do together. We're kinda polar opposites in that regard. He likes to work on cars , watch movies and play video games and I like to swim in the pool, sit on the beach, go shopping and get pedicures! I think I got the better end of the deal because now Ryan will willingly go to the beach! It's just too bad that we picked the most expensive sport around!
So do we have a scuba trip planned? No, not yet. But we are saving our pennies so we can!

Father's Day

2010-07-01T16:23:00.001-07:00

I know this post is late, but I have not had the brain power to do anything with swim lessons- and now that swim lessons are done, I can get back to life!

Even though Ryan had to work this Father's Day, I still did my best to make it special for him. He went to work about 5am to open up the job site, then came back home about 8am. While he was gone we wrapped his presents and made him Blintzes for breakfast.

Here's Ryan's presents. We made the little tape measure that has a little paper you pull out that says" We love you this much!" He also got a new mag lite and I put together a picture collage poster, all pictures of him with Kate and Clark.

I was really surprised how much he liked the picture collage. I thought he'd say "thanks for the centimental, non useful gift" but he looked at it all day long and even took it to work to put up in his office.

I made a special dinner with all the things that Ryan loves, lasagna and homemade rolls. For dessert I made this raspberry trifle that turned out awesome. I combined a few different recipies to make this one.

Despite Ryan's face, the trifle was very tasty! Happy Fathers Day!

Kids Are Like Talking Parrots

2010-06-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had one of those moments where I realized that my kids listen to EVERYTHING you say, good and bad. Mostly the bad stuff you don't want them to hear. Here's what happened. We were getting ready to go feed the chickens and Kate was standing by the sliding back door. It has a lock on the handle and a safety lock on top. She was waiting for me to open the top lock when she said;
Kate: Mom, open this stupid damn door.
Me: What did you say?
Clark: Kate said open the stupid damn door.
Me: Hey! We do not talk like that.
Kate: Ok Mom. I won't say stupid damn door anymore.

I should have just sent her to her room, but I was trying so hard not to laugh! So don't judge me because I'm a horrible parent and my kids hear me swear!

Clark

2010-06-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know Clark- he can be quite the little spit-fire when he wants to. He can also be very stubborn.

Today after swim lessons I let Kate and Clark get in the pool to swim with me. I have been trying to get Clark to roll on his back to take a breath and he will NOT do it. So today he was swimming from the play step to the rocks, jumping off and swimming back. I was trying to get him to take a breath in the middle and he did not want to. One time he got to the rocks, climbed up and was ready to jump when I told him to swim to me, take a breath and then swim the rest of the way. He just said," Mom, I am an expert. I can swim all the way across by myself."

I was flabergasted! When did he know what an 'expert' is? Although; he did jump off and swim all the way across with no breath!

Floaties are the Devil

2010-06-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

I finished my first week of swim lessons and again I have decided that floaties are the Devil and whoever created them should be severely punished.
Case in point. I have at least 3 kids that know how to swim, but because they have been using floaties, freak out in the water. It is so frustrating as a teacher to try and reverse the effects of floaties. For those of you who think floaties are great, let me educate you as to why I hate them. First they create a false sense of security for a child in the water. They develop their self awareness in the water with floaties and as soon as you take them off, they have no idea how to function in the water. And what's gonna happen when (in Arizona you might as well plan on it) they accidentally fall in the pool? Instantly freak out. Second a child becomes mentally attached to them. They think they cannot ( or even worse, parents tell them they cannot) swim with out them. Third, they teach kids to swim vertically instead of horizontally. Who do you know that successfully swims vertically for long periods of time, besides synchronized swimmers who can tread water indefinitely?
So this is my plea to you- DO NOT EVER PUT YOUR KIDS IN FLOATIES! Or a life jacket or any type of floatation device. Be a loving and responsible enough parent to get in the water with your child. And put your child in swim lessons. There are more than enough resources out there for you.
Ok. I'll get off my soap box now.

Last Week

2010-06-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

So much has happened in the last week- it's just easier to lump it all into one post. To start, for our anniversary Ryan bought me a new camera. Yeah! Our other camera was just dying. The screen wasn't working anymore- so it was nearly impossible to take pictures. Ryan wanted to buy me an adapter kit for my iPod, so I could listen to my tunes while I swim, but I'm just too practical and opted for the camera instead. That being said, that's why it's taken me so long to post anything- I had to download new software for the new camera. (Not that it's a difficult process, I'm just tired and lazy!)
So last Thursday (our anniversary) we were supposed to go up to my parents cabin for the weekend. We were at Target picking out my new camera, car loaded and ready to go when Ryan got a call from Bill Okland (boss) asking about some issues on his job site. Needless to say, Ryan felt it unwise to go to the cabin. So we left the Tahoe packed up, just took out the food and stayed home Thursday night. I left first thing Friday morning with the kids and Ryan went to work, then joined us later Friday afternoon.
We had a great weekend at the cabin. My sister Nancy, brother Rob, their families and my parents were all up there. Ryan and I slept better there in the cold basement than we have in along time! The kids had a great time going fishing, riding the tractor, watching movies and playing with cousins.

These first few pictures need some explaination. Ryan and his great imagination got the kids playing "pirates" on the back porch. They would look through their monoculars to find pirates and guard their treasure in the cooler. Very cute. (You can tell the first few pictures were taken by Tiffany and her great camera!)

Found a lizard by the camp fire.

Kate playing her guitar.

Sunday was Auntie Ellen's birthday, so we had a little party for her with cake, lemon bars (she loves lemon goodies) and stayed up until 1am playing Beatles Rock Band!

Monday afternoon we hung out with our friends Brett and Jess and their kids Peyton and Colton. Here's the kids in the play pool.

Last of all today we picked our first zuchinni from the garden. It is quite large, due to the fact that my pumpin vines and weeds covered it up so I couldn't see it. It's amazing what you find when you weed the garden!

6 Years

2010-05-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today Ryan and I celebrate our 6th Anniversary. I know it sounds cheesy, but these six years have been the best of my life. Ryan is my best friend and I couldn't have asked for a better husband. We feel lucky that we have eachother and wish that every marriage could be as happy as ours.
Thanks Rye for 6 great years. I love you.

Homecoming/Farewell

2010-05-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon my oldest nephew Preston, returned home from serving a mission for the LDS church. He served in Mexico City, Mexico for 2 years. It was so fun to be at the airport and see him walk toward this big group of family and not recognize anyone! I guess things change in 2 years! After the airport, per Preston's request- we went to Filbertos for lunch. You'd think after living in Mexico you wouldn't want Mexican food, but apparently what we know as Mexican food , is not what is served in Mexico City.

Sunday he gave his report in church, along with his brother Brighton, who gave his farewell address! Brighton will be leaving in about a week and half to serve a mission in London, England.

It was a good experience to hear both of them speak and bear their testimonies about what they know to be true. It reminded me so much of my mission, and the Spirit I had and felt while I served. It was very much a spiritual nudge, to remind me of the peace and knowledge that comes from doing the things daily that invite the Spirit into your life.

Welcome Home Preston!

Good Luck Brighton!

Swimming!

2010-05-17T14:38:00.001-07:00

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday my sister Nancy and I trade babysitting so we can both swim. She watches Kate and Clark in the morning while I swim and I watch Jack at noon while she swims. About 3 weeks ago she got a bubble tarp for her pool, and it has warmed up quite nice- about 85 degrees. So needless to say, I usually watch Jack at her house and we go swimming! Last Friday I finally took some pictures.

Here's the three amigos in our Tahoe driving to Nancy's

Kate - doing what she does best- making crazy faces

Clark's cheesy smile

As you can see I only take the cover off the play step- cuz thats the only place my kids want to swim anyways!

Thanks Nancy for having an awesome pool and letting us use it!

K & C Annual Pictures

2010-05-08T09:05:00.001-07:00

Every spring I have my sister- in-law Tiffany take pictures of Kate and Clark. I should do it on their birthday- but I'm just 6 months behind! Check out all of her great work at www.tiffanyhaynesphotography.blogspot.com

Thanks Tiffany!

Last Day of Dance

2010-05-04T15:47:00.001-07:00

Today was Kate's last day of dance class. This is a video of the dance they learned. They usually practiced in a dance room, but today for some reason it was in this class room- so that's why it looks a bit odd. Way to go Kate!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Irrigation

2010-04-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Monday we went over to my Mom's house to play, it had seemed like ages since the kids had played at Nana and Paco's house. It's a good thing we tote our swimsuits everywhere we go, because they had irrigation in their back yard. The kids had a great time running around in the water, and I enjoyed sitting on the porch soakin up the sun. (got to work on my tan)

Here's Kate and cousin Jack splashing in the water

Kate and Clark doing what they do best...

Of course Little Miss Sassy Pants had to get a picture all by herself!

Ryan's New Toy

2010-04-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last week Ryan decided it was time for him to buy a new toy. I guess the insane work hours and stress has made him decide he needed something fun to do in his life besides work and take care of kids. He has wanted to get a "toy" car for along time and his brothers have all tried to convince him to get a camaro, like they all have. Ryan decided he wanted a 4X4 and started looking for 2 door Blazers. So last Tuesday he found this one in Idaho and started making plans to drive up and go get it. Friday afternoon about 2pm Ryan and his brother Jeff started the journey to Utah and then Idaho. They stopped in Utah for the night, looked at a few Blazers in Utah Saturday morning, then drove the rest of the way to Idaho where they found this one. It was love at first sight, and now we have a new addition to our family! He didn't make it home until 2:30am Sunday, slept a few hours, then went to all his Sunday meetings!

Here's Ryan Sunday morning showing the kids his new toy.

Kate and Clark LOVE the blazer. I think because it's Ryan's and it's new. The nice thing is that we can all fit in it, so even though it's Ryan's toy, it doubles as a second car. You probably won't see Ryan in his Okland truck anymore!

Toilets

2010-04-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

I never really understood why people with kids always complained about the bathrooms being dirty. I guess I've just been around adults for so long, cleaning the toilet really hasn't been a big deal. Plus I have a husband who does a great job of keeping the toilet clean:).
So I have been appalled by how bad our kids bathroom gets. Seriously, Clark, can at least watch where you are going and try to get it in the toilet?! And Kate, do you have to get off the toilet to get the toilet paper to wipe your bum?! You'd think after they hear my rantings at least 5 times a day, it would sink in a little bit.
So I guess I am learning the ways of motherhood. My heart goes out to the moms who have multiple boys in the family. Oh goodness! At least I know I will start training them young about how to clean the toilets!

Swim Meet

2010-04-12T16:39:00.001-07:00

When we moved back from Utah I decided not to renew my gym membership, but instead to start swimming on a Masters swim team. I have really enjoyed being back in the water, since I haven't consistantly swam since high school. My sister Nancy and I both swim and thought it'd be fun to take our husbands down to Tucson for a weekend and compete in the Masters State Meet. We drove down Friday afternoon, and Nancy and I both swam the 1000 yard freestyle. (That's 40 lengths of the pool). Then Saturday I swam 4 individual events and one relay. This video is the 50 yard butterfly. Not too shabby for an old lady who hasn't competed in 12 years!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Easter

2010-04-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I had a hard time with Easter this year. The more and more we thought about it, the less and less we wanted to do 'The Easter Bunny'. Life is too short for kids to think that Easter is about a Bunny and not about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I really want my kids to know and understand that Easter is the most glorious day we can celebrate because of what Christ's Resurrection means to all of us. SO, we still did the Easter Bunny and gave the kids baskets, but it was not that big of a deal. We talked more about Jesus getting a 'new body' than we did anything else. It worked out great that my Mom had a big Easter egg hunt so the kids got tons of candy, got to play with their cousins, and experience the candy part of Easter on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Here's Kate getting her eggs. I do have to do a little explanation about her outfit. She doesn't always look this homely. Earlier that day her Grandma(Ryan's Mom) gave her the skirt, which she had made for Kate for Easter. She had a plain white shirt on when we got to my Moms, but within 15 minutes had spilled strawberry soda on it. So she had to borrow one of her cousin Nolan's t- shirts.

Clark had a great time finding the eggs. Even with the huge strawberry soda mustache.

Opening their eggs

I hope you all had a great Easter filled with candy, family, and a love of the Savior for the precious gift He has given us.

Ballerinas and Baseball

2010-03-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've been a slacker lately (thanks for reminding me Leesha!) , so I've decided to combine 2 posts into one.
The Red Mountain Multi-generational Center has lots of little classes for kids and I signed Kate up for a "Princess Dance" class. Every week they highlight a different Disney princess and learn basic ballet by dancing to Disney music. Last Tuesday was Kate's first day. Clark and I dropped her off, went to the library and when we went back to pick her up all the girls did a little dance to show the parents. It was really cute. I think Kate likes wearing the leotard and ballet shoes just as much as she does the class!

Last Saturday I went to the dollar store to get a few things and of course the kids had to pick something out for themselves. Clark picked this baseball bat and ball. He didn't have much success with it until Ryan came to the rescue. Last night while I was making dinner Ryan put together a make-shift "T" so the kids could actually hit the ball! Way to go Daddy!

Spring Break

2010-03-22T15:24:00.001-07:00

Beware. This is going to be a long post. So save yourself some time and just make up your own story about our spring break by looking at the pictures! For my journaling purposes, I'm going to tell all the stories- and if you want to read them, grab a snack!
We had a fun and very eventful spring break this year. Not that we planned it that way- it just all ended up that way. Friday afternoon we left Mesa with our dynamic-duo friends, Ellen and Josh and drove up to my parents cabin. The cabin had been hit with A TON of snow over the last month so for the first hour we were there Josh and Ryan took turns getting their vehicle stuck in the snow and having the other pull them out. I guess that's why we have a 4 wheel drive Tahoe. Saturday we spent most of the day outside in the snow. It was awesome. The sun was out, it was warm enough to stay out in it for a few hours and tons of snow on the sledding hill. Here's some pics of Saturday:

This is Ellen just about to hit the " Bum Buster" jump. I was a little early with the camera, so you don't get to see her catch some wicked air.

Here's Josh getting a little crazy on the sled. I think he fell off in fear more times that he made it over the jump.

This is what Kate did the whole time we were sledding. She lasted about 5 minutes and then sat on the porch the rest of the time.

Clark had the time of his life. He was making snow balls, snow angels and had fun watching the adults make fools of themselves.

Ok- this needs some explaining. Ellen is having a Peeps contest on her blog- so we each bought a bunch of peeps to do random things with and take pictures to enter her contest. If you want to check it out, go to her blog at wizardofhaws.blogspot.com

This is the pile of all the peeps we had before we did our funny things with them. I'm not going to tell you what- you'll have to check out her blog to see my entry.

On to the next part of our spring break- Thursday we went to the Phoenix Zoo with my sister Nancy and her son Jack and my friend Erin with her kids Ide and Grady. Here's Clark, Kate, Ide and Grady in the back climbing the fence trying to get to the giraffes.

Kate and Clark petting a goat in the petting zoo.

Ide and Kate were best of buds by the end of the day.

The kids had a great time together, although they didn't get to see all the animals, as Erin, Nancy and I talk too much and didn't walk very fast! So I guess we will have to make another trip soon to see the other half of the zoo!

Friday my Mom took some of her grand kids bowling. Here is Kate with my niece Hannah.

Clark and his favorite cousin, Jacob.

Bowling now a days is awesome for kids! They had these ramps the kids just line up and let the ball roll down. That with the bumper rails- my kids scored higher than I ever do!

Here's the whole clan from left to right on the top: Caleb, Nana, Conner, Hannah and Ella. Bottom: Jacob, Eden, Nicki, Clark, Kate, Haylee and Leah.

Thanks Nana!

During the week of spring break the City of Mesa has their WSI (Water Safety Instructor) classes. Basically it's teenagers getting certified to teach swim lessons. So on Wednesday through Friday they have free lessons for the people in the class to practice teaching lessons. You usually have to sign up, but when your sister is the head of the aquatics program- you get hooked up! Although I have taught Kate and Clark how to swim, it is always good for them to get in the water and swim!

The first day was awful. I didn't prepare Kate and Clark and when we got there and they realized that I was not getting in, they freaked. So after lots of talks about how we act at swim lessons and a little bribery, they did great Thursday and Friday.

Here's Kate doing a back float- kind of.

Here's Clark doing freestyle or what we call 'big arms'.

Saturday was Jack's first birthday! Here he is with his daddy Rusty.

Jack came over to our house Saturday morning so Nancy and Rusty could clean out their garage. I took him and my kids back to Nancy's about noon for Jack's 'party'. We just came over to eat the cake and ice cream!

Kate is like me and only ate the ice cream.

Here's all the kids helping Jack open his presents.

PHEW! I made it through. That was our spring break!

Home Improvement

2010-03-09T13:45:00.000-08:00

Friday night I hosted book club at my house, which is just a good excuse to get all the little projects done around the house. I have to have my house looking good before I can host a party, right? So of course Ryan got volunteered to finish my to-do list before Friday. So this is what we did last week:

I bought the 'Family' sign when I was in Utah and have been really excited about putting it up on the wall. I had all the pictures on the wall before we left, but did some re-arranging of furniture and decided that the pictures would go on this wall. I was acutally pretty proud of myself. I put these all up by myself. However I did not measure all of the pictures exactly- so don't look too close.

Since the flat screen was a new addition when we were in Utah, when we got home I decided that it needed to go over the fireplace. Ryan was not in love with the idea and tried to talk me out of it for a month. However, I won, and the TV stays over the fireplace. So last week we had to move an outlet up under the TV- so you can't see all the cords. Which means, drywall patch and painting. I also got Ryan to hang up the shelf for the XBox and the DVD player.

So TA- DA. Here are the latest home improvements for the Johnson family. I guess I just need to host a party any time I want something done!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's........

2010-03-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Superman and Supergirl!!

Ever since I got my sewing machine for Christmas, I have been itching to get it out and use it. Last week I was surfing the internet and found a blog that had a pattern and instructions to make these cute capes. Clark had been making me tie his blanket around his neck, so I figured it was time to make him a real cape. We went to WalMart and got all we needed and Friday afternoon I started making them. I finished Clark's in about 2 hours. Kate didn't take as long, since I had quite the learning curve on Clark's! (So don't look too close- the sewing on Kate's is a lot better)

As you can see, one side has Superman on Clarks and a Princess on Kates.

The other side is Batman and Supergirl.

If you are interested in the pattern, the website is http://pukingpastilles.com

Good Stuff, Good Work, Goodwill.

2010-02-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

Since we got home I have been on a quest for summer clothes for my kids. Yes it is VERY warm here already. So I've been to the usual, Kohls, Target and Once Upon a Child to find clothes for my kids. I have to be thrifty buying for 2 kids at the same time- so I'm always looking for a good deal. Today my sister Nancy needed to go to Goodwill and had a coupon- so I decided to tag along. I found some cute stuff but best of all was the 2 swimsuits we found.

Kate and Clark had to put them on as soon as we got home. Clark was running around and flexing saying "Super Clark to the rescue!"
I also bought these watering cans at Big Lots yesterday and they had a great time watering all our plants and of course the back patio!
Not bad for $4 total!

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-17T14:46:00.001-08:00

I know this post is late, but I still haven't been able to get my rhythm since we moved home. However- I did unpack the last box today. It has been in the front room for 2 weeks now.
We had a good Valentines this year. I made sugar cookies Saturday and the kids decorated them and then made valentines for their grandparents.

They didn't do very well with the frosting- so I ended up doing the frosting and they just did the sprinkles.

Ta-Dah

Sunday morning I made Blintzes (a Haynes family tradition). Ryan ate them as he got ready to leave for meetings (he is ward clerk now). The kids and I enjoyed the rest after he left. We only went to the first hour of church because Kate and Clark had a cold last week.

In the afternoon we delivered cookies and valentines to my parents and then started on dinner. I made lasagna, rolls, fruit salad and pazooki's for dessert. (if you don't know what pazooki's are- it's a HUGE hot out of the oven, soft-baked chocolate chip cookie with ice-cream on top. Needless to say after all that food and goodies- my stomach was not happy with me!

Catch up: 1 of 3

2010-02-05T16:24:00.001-08:00

Every Thursday in the month of February there is a free concert at the city of Mesa Arts Center in downtown Mesa. Yesterday was the first one, I took Kate and Clark and we met up with my parents, my sister Nancy and her son Jack, and my sis-in-law Tiffany and her son Nolan. The music was good, but I think it was more fun to see the kids dancing and playing around!
Paco, Kate, Nana and Jack

Here's Clark getting jiggy with it

Clark and his best buddy

Kate dancing with Paco

If you are interested in going, the concert is from 12:30pm to 1:30pm every Thursday through the end of the month. Next week is Dixieland and Big Band. Hope to see you there!

Catch up: 2 of 3

2010-02-05T16:15:00.001-08:00

Since we've been home from Utah, we've had problems with Clark sneaking out of bed. Ryan forgot to take the doorbell off his door in Utah, so Clark has had no problems sneaking out without us knowing. It started with him getting up in the early morning about 4am- he'd try to crawl into bed with us. I'd get up and put him back in bed. One night after we had put them to bed, we were talking on the couch and he got out of his room and all the way down the hall before we noticed.
A few nights ago Ryan had to stay up late to do some work on his computer, so I just went to bed. I guess about 11:30pm Clark got out of his bed and this is as far as he got before he fell back asleep!

The door behind him is the door to his room, so he made it about 2 feet! Time to go back to Home Depot and get another doorbell!

Catch Up: 3 of 3

2010-02-05T16:00:00.001-08:00

For Kate and Clark's first real Halloween I decided to dress them up as a BYU cheerleader and football player. I knew that Grandpa George was a big BYU fan, I just wasn't aware of how BIG of a fan he is. That night when I showed up with them dressed up I was deemed the favorite daughter in law. Since that time I have zealously tried to keep my status.

The last week we were in Utah I decided that I couldn't come home to Mesa without any BYU attire for the kids. I had to make sure I redeemed my status as favorite, since I lost alot of points for taking Grandpa's favorite toys to Utah. I went to Walgreens and found a plethera of BYU attire. Our first Sunday back we showed up for dinner in our BYU blue.

Kate and Clark with Grandpa George

OH YEAH. Look who has favorite status again!

London's Run

2010-01-30T15:53:00.000-08:00

Today was the 5th annual London's Run. Where do I even start? For the passed 3 years I have been in charge of all the food for the runners at the event. This year I kept my foot in the door even though I was in Utah for all of the planning. I helped via phone and email, and then a little this passed week and then today at the event. But instead of working the food station all day, I entrusted the responsibility to some lovely ladies and decided to run the 10k this year. This is the first year I have actually run in London's Run. I've always been too busy to participate. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to run. It was a beautiful day, not too cold (although there were some people dressed like it was snowing outside- I guess Utah toughened me up a bit) and the race course was just beautiful. Running through the farm land in Queen Creek was such a different feel than running the streets of Mesa for the Turkey Trot. It made me reflect on London and the times she probably spent running in those fields. I did get emotional a few times during the run, but then was snapped out of it by my burning legs and feet. I am proud to say that there was a mix up in the race course and I actually ran closer to 7 miles instead of 6! I didn't know I could run that far!

Here is the runners food station I was in charge of
Here's Jenny and Ellen, who I couldn't have done it without. Yesterday Jenny traveled all around the valley with me picking stuff up and then driving it out to Schnepf Farms. She even let me tell her to go the wrong way and got her truck stuck in the mud. I have to give a special shout out to Ellen for all of her help today. She drove out with me this morning at 5:45am, helped me get everything set up and was my "pack mule" for the day. She even ran the food tables while I was running.
This is Erin Strickland, a long time friend who faithfully gives up her Saturday every year to spend it under the State Farm canopy handing out bananas and oranges and providing the comic relief.

I have to give a special thank you to Ryan for all his support every year. He went to Sprouts first thing this morning, kids in tow, to get 4 more boxes of bananas for me. He was a trooper and took care of the kids all day and then wound up all the flags from the parking area. Love you Rye.

Every year it is a tradition that after it's all said and done, and we're all cleaned up- our family and some other faithfuls stay and we release the balloons from the finish line. My sister Heather ( London's Mom) always says a few words about London, thanks everyone for their help and then we all cry! At London's funeral we all wrote little messages to her tied to balloons and then let them go- so every year we do the same. This time Kate and Clark got to hold the balloon arch and let it go.

Here's what it looked like on the ground.

Here's what it looked like when we let it go.

I love to participate in London's Run for many reasons. 1) I get to feel London's Spirit and feel close to her again 2) it is a great cause that raises money for families just like ours that has a child with cancer and 3) it just feels good to be a part of something big that helps people in our communities regardless of age, race or religion. It's neat to see so many people come together, work so hard and as a result touch people's lives. Thank you London for you life and your example of doing hard things cheerfully. Thank you for helping us remember every year the importance of family and the reality of life after death. Thank you for not only touching lives while you were here on earth- but continuing to do so even after you are gone. Love you Londee!

Home

2010-01-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late- but YES we are home! We got home Saturday afternoon without any problems, we went around the storm- not through it.
I have been busy unpacking, swimming, hanging out at my parents house and getting back into the swing of things.
Kate and Clark have LOVED being back in Mesa. When we got home, they were jumping and saying "We're in Mesa"! Then Sunday morning Clark kept telling me, "Mom, I'm so glad to be in Mesa". They play outside all day long and love it. They check on our chickens, play in the sandbox and are glad they don't have to wear coats! We bought them new beds before we left and then set them up for them, so that may be another reason they are so happy to be home.
I will do my best to keep blogging as often as I did when I was in Utah, but for some reason I don't feel the need to as much. I guess it's because most people who read this blog I see regularly anyways, and I feel like our life here is pretty boring, and not worth writting about!

Kate's Names

2010-01-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

This post has been a long time coming. I actually forgot about it and then Ryan reminded me of it last night- so I decided I better put this up before too much time goes by.

Sometime this passed summer Kate started naming her poop. Yes. You heard me right. She would do her business on the toilet, then take a look at it, decide what she thought it looked like and then tell me.

I have to put a disclaimer that I have NEVER done this, nor ever encouraged her to do so. She came up with this all on her own. It is a joke in my family that we can't all be together for more that 10 minutes without the subject of poop coming up- so maybe it is my fault. All I know is that her Uncle Jeffy should be proud.

So here's the list of her poops from the last few months: (yes I wrote them down in my journal so I wouldn't forget)

Dolphin

Christmas Tree

Sea Horse

Grapes

Pogo Stick

Teddy Bear

Caterpillar

Snowman

Kangaroo

Hat

Fishy

Turtle

Seal

It still makes me laugh everytime I read this list and think about it!

One Week.

2010-01-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

One more week until we move back to Arizona! I haven't been very excited about it, only because that means I have to pack everything up- but now that we're only a week away, I'm getting really excited. I started packing last week, and have quite a bit packed up already. (considering I only brought half of what we own up here!)
I will miss the mountains and the snow. I've realized that I'd much rather have the cold winters of Utah than battle the scorching heat of Arizona summers. As I drive around town, I'm trying to take it all in and enjoy it before we go.
Other than the weather, and the mountains, there's not a whole lot I'll miss about Utah. I won't miss the slower than slow drivers and the ONE freeway that services all of northern Utah. I won't miss the crappy radio stations or our tiny rental house. I won't miss our ward, since no one reached out to us and I only have a few friends anyways!
For those of you who care to know- my parents will be coming up Tuesday to help us drive back. We plan on leaving here Friday mid-day, spending the night in Kanab and then driving the rest of the way Saturday. So we should be back in Mesa by about 2pm Saturday afternoon.
For those of you are anxiously awaiting my return so that you can get your hair done again- THANKS! I'm looking forward to getting back into the business, 6 months was a long enough break. I'll start doing hair again the first week of February- so if you need to get your hair done- give me a call and we'll set up a time.
I can't wait to be HOME - see you soon!