A picture of me???

It doesn't happen often, but I actually like this picture of my beautiful nieces, my darling nephew and myself!


And yet, more proof that he is obsessed with toes!
Yes, he does have diaper on :)

Just for us...

We went for a consultation at the orthodontist the other day and the kids got a real kick out of the parking spot reserved just for us!

This...

This is Sam, ready to head to a week of Scout camp. Wish I had a picture with this big orange back pack... he looked like the kid on "UP." Lot's of talks this morning about safety, and "remember who you are and what you stand for." I know, I know, it's Scout Camp, I would rather not think about that part.


This is who Elisabeth found to replace her brother at the Pioneer Day parade, Hayden. They are such great friends to each other, total goof balls.


This is Elisabeth getting Hayden to pull her on the wagon to the car. Have I mentioned how she can get boys to do anything, scary!


This is float I thought was super cute...


This is what we did this afternoon, swimming with the Rigby boys and Adrian.

This is Adrian attacking Elisabeth's "piggies," that boy loves piggies.


This is Sam and Elisabeth, being buds, it's gonna be a long week without him.

Pioneer Day...

I've been gathering stuff for weeks, mainly baby food jars, for this weeks sharing time. It was all about pioneer children. I made the girls bonnets (paper and fabric) and the boys kerchiefs. We sat around a "fire" and made butter. I told them about the lives of pioneer children, read a story and played the game "In my basket." And the when the butter was all shook, it was easier for the big kids, we had yummy butter on crackers. It was such fun morning, the kids seemed to really enjoy it, making my work totally worth it. It also served as a reminder of what a sacrifice the early Saints made to settle this beautiful valley, their strength and faith is awe inspiring.

I wish I had more pictures, but its hard to take pictures and be in charge :)

LA..goon!

Another photo collage by Smilebox

1 month!

My awesome, handsome, fabulous, smart, great missionary nephew comes home in one month!
Yahoo!!!

Proof...

That Sam is a stud muffin... this is Sam with his cutie friend... she's going to be a sophmore! Sam has spent time with friends this summer from 8-17 years old, tonight the older kids stopped by to say hi. I told Sam to put his arm around Kylie, to his credit he did, even though it was totally awkward!

Cousins... continued...

Arica and Taylor

Chad and Jessica

Hudson and Adrian

Ali and Jordan, "Please, give me a back rub."

Cousins...

We have been having fun spending time with Adrian this summer, he is so fun, cute and smart. Everything right now is big... big puppy, big sky, big bike, so this is him on Sam's "big bike."

He does get a bit crazy when he gets sleepy though! So then we have a book, a bottle and a blanky on the couch.


Also, this summer has included a visit from my cousins from Washington, Iowa and Idaho. It has been so fun to see all of them and their kids, we have spent hours at my aunt Becky's visiting while the kiddos played. Elisabeth loves all these "little" cousin and has enjoyed getting to the ring leader. On this night they were playing games, like Red Rover and Telephone, it was a little unpredictable with this bunch.

Proof that I do have another child...

Recently, I looked at the pictures I have posted this summer and realized it looks like Elisabeth is an only child! Really we haven't sent Sam away to the prep academy, as we threaten him sometimes, he is alive and well. Most of his day consist of sleeping in until 9ish, doing a few choirs, spending a few hours in his pajamas playing Little Big Planet, then he calls a friend or two, they hang around the Johnson house all day (eating me out of house and home), then it's dinner time and off to Scouts, Young Men's or to hang out with the boys from his Young Men's group. This summer we have moved to late nights and sleeping in and mostly being on his own for Slurpee runs and meeting up with buddies. I guess we have a teenager!

"No Elisabeth You Cannot Have A Puppy!"

"But they are free."
"No Elisabeth you cannot have a puppy."

Buddies...

The Pin Collection...

If you know the Johnson's you know that we have visited Disneyland MANY times, and we love it. But many years ago we came up with solution for buying souvenirs. If we pay for the trip the kids are on their own to buy themselves "stuff," we even did this when they were pretty little by letting them trade in the coin jar for our room to take with them. So anyways, when we went on the Disney Cruise they found Disney Pin Trading. Most of the time when you stay at a hotel near the resort they give you lanyard and a pin to get started, we give them ours too. What happens is you can walk up to any Disney employee with pins, and they have to trade with you, you pick what pin for what pin, as long as they don't end up with 2 of the same pin. My kids trade and trade until they get the ones they want to keep, Elisabeth has 2 coveted Disney Paris pins, and they have bought many also. Well, this last trip Elisabeth had 3 full lanyards and Sam had 2, and they are really heavy. We have trekked through Disneyland many times with them, they get a lot of attention and the kids love it. But this time they decided on the second day to only wear one in the Parks, with their newest/favorite pins and the ones they wanted to trade. When we got home Elisabeth decided she really wanted to display her pins, she decided that was the best way to enjoy them. So she came up with this craft project... Sam was even a champ and let her display his pins on it.

She took a plain Ikea cork board and mod podged the edges with little bits of magazines added a ribbon and there you go!

Who Knew O-Town Could Be So Fun?

Elisabeth and I rode with Jeremiah to Ogden today, and while he went to his appointment we went on a ride.

We had a delicious cupcake at Vintage Cupcakes.

And then we visited the farmer's market,

where Elisabeth got some new bling and

we got matching henna tattoos.

(To go with our matching toenails, we got last week!)

Just a Thought...

5 raccoons, 1 dog, 4 men and a pellet gun!

Warning this post is not animal activist approved...

So after a late night of fireworks, food and water fights the Johnson house finally called it a night at about 11:30. Our poor dog Koda was so hot that he stayed in the house sitting in front of the air vent. Spent the the night stewing about all the things that needed to happen the early am. At about 3am Koda finally went out, and I got a little sleep. 5:15am the alarm goes off and I crawl out of bed, and hear Koda BARKING. Koda does NOT bark, it is not in husky DNA or something, he really has to force out a bark and it only happens when something is really bothering him. Mostly the dog would sleep through anything! So I went outside to discover that he had, what I assumed was a raccoon because we have had them before, pinned along side the garage. I got the hose and tried to get him away. Koda got in his pool (I know he is spoiled) completely exhausted but about the time I would get inside he would be back at it, just freaking out. Miah got up and we got flashlights, we discovered he had killed a smaller one and that big one was hurt and that was what he going nutso over. We spraying it with the hose and it the hurt one went over the fence finally, which made Koda stop. Poor dog was exhausted. Now the problem was how to get the hurt one? Jeremiah owns three guns, a bb gun at the cabin, a 22 rifle locked up at his mom's house and we have a 30 aut 6 in the basement. Well the 30 aut 6 hasn't been shot in years and besides we have no ammo, and besides it would wake up the world. It's still only like 5:45am, ummm the whole neighborhood is asleep. Animal control is closed. We thought of seeing a police officer could come shoot it, so Koda would shush, the non emergency line wasn't open yet. So finally we decide the neighbor were also going to the parade early, we would have to leave it and tell them as soon as we all got home later in the morning. Sidenote: we had just told the new neighbor, last night, about our 3 other run ins with raccoons. Meanwhile, our neighbor had heard Koda a 4am and knew something was wrong because, like I said, Koda does not bark. He checked his yard and saw one of the raccoons, but he too had didn't know what to do. So when we all got home this afternoon, he says "hey, you jinxed me by telling me about those raccoons." I said, oh let me get Miah. And they soon discovered 3 more young raccoons in the rafters of their garage! You could just see their tails hanging down. Now what do we do? Sam's Scout leader, Steve, came over to help, he wanted to kill them with a shovel, but we decided to call another friend Brent, to bring over a pellet gun. So I now have 4 men vs. 3 raccoons. The testosterone was definitely flowing. Elisabeth wanted to watch but not watch at the same time, and Sam was now where to be found, he still isn't to fond of blood. Well several pellets later and some bashing with a shovel and they were all dead. And in my trash can. Except for then I see the 4 of them surrounding the open garbage. I asked, "are you having a prayer or funeral or something?" "No, it's still breathing, we're watching it!" Boys are gross! Sam, of course wanted to make 'coon skin caps out of them... GROSS so our neighbor Brian went in a found dress up one, and we got Sam to believe for minute it was from the dead raccoons. So now Koda has been bathed and is still resting, but the poor puppy has a bad cut on the back of his ear, extra TLC for puppy this week.

I Was Born In The USA...

This year we broke tradition and stayed in Murray for the parade, well since I was riding in it we kinda had too! What a fun parade, tons of Murray High kids, candy, tons of kids watching and today we were lucky because their was an overcast and the weather was nice and cool. My favorite part, as usual, was the jets flying over the parade route, makes me cry every time. We saw so many cute little faces and it was so fun as we got to my area of the district I saw so many Parkside and Hillcrest friends. I decided today that the other board members know adults, but I know kids... I think of that as a good thing. The Rigby kids, including Adrian, came into watch the parade two so afterward we went for shakes and lunch and then they came over to hang out for a while. We expected to spend the afternoon just recovering from our early morning adventures (next post) but the adventure continued! (next post!)

We All Need A Parachute...

Once again a Church leader as caught Sam's attention...

Sam: "Mom, look I got a firework in Young Men's!"
Me: "Why?"
Sam: "Larry used it in his lesson. Isn't that awesome?"
Me: "Ummm, yup?"

Then I go in the hall and every 12, 13, 14 and 15 year old boy has a giddy look as they each hold their firework. This lesson had something to do with a man in World War II and having a parachute and being prepared in life. Yup, Larry just made friends for life.

Which Prophet Am I?

As usual Keri (Barrett) did the cutest sharingtime for Primary Sunday. She had the little boys dress up like Prophets and we learned about the Temples each one built. The little boys were so cute we did it again with the older boys, and they enjoyed themselves too. I'm not one to take pictures at Church, but I couldn't miss this one.