my life

the arrival of Katelynn Ruth. . .

2011-10-11T18:46:00.007-06:00

Okay - so be prepared for a lot of pictures :) - oh and a lot of talking, but this is me we are talking about when is there never a lot of talking hahah
So we had another sweet miracle on Sept 3 - Katelynn was born!! It was very exciting and the most stressful thing ever- i guess that is the trade off - i didn't have to get big and pregnant for 9 months - i just got a lot of emotional stress! - but well worth it in the end! We are just feeling very blessed in our home - anyhow here is the story for those of you who do not already know it.

Back in June sometime we got a phone call from Tiffany - a lady that ben had worked with a few years ago and three years ago we was pregnant and we were going to adopt that little girl but tiffany ended up changing her mind when it started to get closer- anyhow so this time when she called and said she was pregnant again and couldn't keep this baby - i was not very optimistic - in fact i told ben to tell her to go away and leave me alone - it just hadn't been that easiest last year for me and i just didn't want to deal with anymore emotional turmoil! anyhow luckily ben didn't listen to me :) So i thought things had been dropped until a few weeks later ben is calling me telling me he found a lawyer and that the dad was going to sign over his rights- so we paid to have that done - and the expense was minimal so i wasn't too concerned- but as things started getting closer to her due date and tiffany still on board with adoption i started to get stressed because i just didn't want to get excited just to be disappointed but on the 3rd at about 4 in the morning we got a phone call from tiffany saying that her water broke and she was at the hospital- so ben being ben was super excited and went to the hospital right then - but then had to go to work around 8
Gracie and i went over around 11 - we had stopped in to drop off a present for tiffany and while we were there she started to complain about feeling the contractions so a nurse checked her and she was dilated to a 10 anyhow so i called mom who came and got gracie and called ben and told him to leave work and come now! anyhow the delivery went really well after 2 pushed Katelynn came out- and it was really neat i was crying my eyes out- and it was super sweet because tiffanys mom was there and kept pushing me right up front saying that this was my baby and i needed to be there to see her born- which was just super sweet of her because i was so worried about over stepping my place and making tiffany feel uncomfortable - anyhow and then at 11:48 katelynn came out weighing 5 lbs and 8 oz and 17.5 in - it was just beautiful!

Well we had planned on having tiffany signing over her rights the 24 hrs later at the hospital - but it was labor day weekend and we could not get a hold of our lawyer or our social worker - that part was slightly stressful because at first the hospital told us we couldn't take her until we had a lawyer-which they were right- but after a quick phone call to my roomie Jenny who had done this a few years earlier we found out that if tiffany handed her to us in the parking lot then we didn't need a lawyer around - so that is what we ended up doing.

Tiffany and Katelynn got discharged on Monday and i have to admit it was a lot more difficult then i thought - i figured i would be super excited to have Katelynn all to ourselves instead of sharing - which is how it felt in the hospital- but watching how hard it was for tiffany to give us Katelynn broke my heart - i just felt so sad for her and so grateful for her sacrifice all at the same time - anyhow but she brought the baby to us in the parking lot and then we took her home - which was wonderful - so on tuesday we finally got a hold of people and they got the paperwork all ready and ben went with tiffany on friday to sign over her rights- which was a sigh of relief!

anyhow we have felt very blessed and so grateful for Katelynn in our home- gracie is just the sweetest big sister and is so great at helping although she tells me all the time that she doesn't do diapers :)

If you look close at this picture you can see my red eyes- from all the crying :)
First day at the hospital
Tiffany right after the delivery
Katelynn Ruth Johnson
Me and my two girls- it is fun for me to use plurals - i never got to before :)
Katelynn getting ready to come home
Last picture at the hosptial

One of our first baths

One day i was in the shower and apparently Katelynn started crying so Gracie crawled up in the crib and started rocking her- it was darling
Gracie with her sister
Us girls- & i have to say i had just gotten done working out and don't look that bad

Me and my snuggler- i call her that because she will actually curl up on my shoulder which i love because gracie never did that all and always loved watching other babies do it - so now 5 years later i get one!

birthday diva

2011-08-17T16:09:00.005-06:00

Gracie had her birthday this last month and turned 5! She is just so grown up and such a diva! All she pretty much wanted for her birthday was clothes and not just any kind of clothes but 'rockstar' clothes- anything that is rockstar is cool to her and so i did my best and got her some rockstar clothes which of course she had to try on and demonstrate how she could be darling in them - i love all of her posing - it is just great!

getting a hug from the birthday girl!
For her birthday we took gracie and her best friend megan to chuck e cheese - they were super cute together - but i laughed because they had this ride that would take your picture on it and then some other booth that would take your picture and put it on a credit card type thing- anyhow gracie and megan both did those two things over and over and over again - i ended up with about 20 picture of each of them at the end- but oh well it was cute!

Later we went to moms and had dinner and a pinata! It was a lot of fun!

And of course a cake- which was greatly enjoyed - as demonstrated by the cake all over the face!

dance recital

2011-08-17T10:22:00.002-06:00

Gracie had her second dance recital back in june and she did so great compared to last year! This year she walked onto stage and did most of the singing and dancing! It was just so darling to see how much she has grown up in one year! She had two dances this year - which required a costume change and she was so fun about making sure we had everything all set up and then when we were changing she kept saying 'hurry mom' but even with her hurrying we had to stop and reapply her lipstick! She is just growing up so darn cute and i love that Heavenly Father sent her to our family and lets me get to be her momma!
also as a side note- when did my hair get so long! I've had short hair for so long that when i see myself in pictures i don't recognize myself!

Preschool graduation

2011-06-14T10:36:00.003-06:00

It is kind of funny that they do preschool graduation but being a proud mom i was still super excited and loved every minute! hahah
They all sang some songs they had learned the last little bit- and gracie actually sang and did the actions- which is just great that she is coming out of her shyness a little bit more each year!
Gracie with her teacher - Miss Julie- who she absolutely adored!
Gracie and daddy
Gracie with her best friend megan
The family
Gracie with alex & jaquel

kitchen stuff

2011-05-23T18:31:00.005-06:00

So i know to those of you who know me - this post will be very ironic because i do not like being in the kitchen that much - but today i ACTUALLY made a lasagna and it made me think about what i utensils i like in my kitchen and since the lasagna is cooking in the oven i have time to post them- so here they are
I love this mouse hand spoon catcher thing- i have no idea what you call it - but i love it because my kitchen stove gets so less dirty and its mickeys hand- totally the best
I love this set of mixing spoons from ikea- its hard to tell but they are small- almost like for a kids play set but it is the perfect size i think - and also the set of three is only $.99 at ikea- i have three sets i love them that much
Can you tell i love ikea- my kitchen wouldn't be complete without these plastic kid dishes from ikea- i originally got them for gracie but i think the small size makes it so much easier to eat the right portion size so i pretty much only eat from them as well- AND they are colorful - it doesn't get much better!

And my kitchen wouldn't be complete without my cute apron my sister made for me a couple of christmas ago - i love feeling cute when i make dinner and not a frumpy mom- although sadly it doesn't get that much use because i usually only pull it out when i actually bake or cook dinner - not just warm up who knows what in the microwave!

anyhow these are my favorite kitchen things - what are yours?

a break in the rain

2011-05-23T08:41:00.004-06:00

after so many rainy days gracie was desperate to go outside and play - and after staring out the window and asking me repetitively when the rain would stop - it finally stopped for about 10 minutes - and during that 10 minutes gracie ran outside with her blanket to have picnic with her friend gabe -
i loved it because if you notice the first picture she only has the blanket - and then the second picture there is quite a bit more toys - those two kids worked fast during their 10 minutes and got quite a bit of toys out and pretended to have a picnic - and then the clouds came back and the rain came down and they were frantically trying to drag all of there stuff inside! hahahah- silly kids i love them

what to do, what to do?

2011-05-18T14:10:00.007-06:00

So my child is like any other child, i am guessing, and does not like going to timeout or listening to her mother- however, every so often she has major meltdown problems and this last week led to one that allowed me to purchase a new windshield for my brother-in-laws car- so needless to say, after that experience i have decided something must be done!
So any help or advice is nice but in the mean time i have decided to try a button jar- where she can put buttons in for the many good things that she does in order to earn something fabulous - anyhow i haven't decided if i should have her take buttons out when she doesn't listen or if i should focus on the good - anyhow so we will see how it works because really i don't want to have to be replacing any other windshields!

San Diego

2011-05-13T11:08:00.028-06:00

Right after alex's wedding our family took off to San Diego for a visit- it was so nice and warm the first few days we were there and went to the zoo that first day- i forgot how cool that zoo is
First of all - i thought it was so funny how the giraffe drank the water - but also it was so cute i loved the baby giraffe right next to the momma - it was only 1 week old- it so little -sort of - it was 6 feet tall!
Gracie playing with her cousins- one of the best parts of going to San Diego was being able to play with the cousins!
Loved the panda!

The next morning we woke up early to go watch ben learn how to surf- gracie was all ready to go - even though i tried to warn her that the water was going to pretty cold - but she was already to go
She kept holding up her shorts so they wouldn't get wet
Ben surfing- he did so good since this was his first time!
Ahh - i love my little cutie!
A couple days later we went to Legoland- i thought it was going to be silly -but it so cool i loved it there
Everything was made from legos and gracie loved the kitty and wanted a picture with it

Our family with a few extra people - does anyone recognize the little boy and the man in the red shirt- no? well thats because they are lego people - i loved it!
They had this place where everyone could make there own race cars and then you have races with lego cars- this was my work of art
Gracies car- she was so proud of it- even though it didn't really go anywhere
The three of us at the finish line- i won - but then gracie came and plowed me over me!
I loved the bathroom signs!
Fun rides made out of big legos!
Hanging out with the old man
The last day we went to Sea World- and even though it was a little cloudy we still sat in the soak zone!
The scary shark zone!- it was cool you went through an underwater tube and the sharks swam all around us and over us- it was very cool - but since i am not that great at taking pictures none of them turned out
Another soak zone! picture
Gracie with her new whale! - and then a picture of the real killer whale!
We had such a fun trip- it was a lot of fun hanging out with the cousins and then seeing lots of fun sights! -

alex & jaquel wedding

2011-04-15T10:12:00.005-06:00

It was a very exciting day - it was so beautiful and the sun was shining- it was just perfect and jaquel looked beautiful and alex was soooo excited!
I love this picture - Jaquel is just beaming!

Mom with the two cute girls!
Our nice family!
All of us siblings- i love this picture- we just all look so great and so much more grown up from when we did this type of picture when i was getting married!
Mom with grandma and her sister
Chelsea and Chase
Jaquel with all the cute flower girls!
Mitch- my fabulous brother-in-law- showing off how the bride should have been holding the flowers!
Gracie with the bouquet!
A day just wouldn't be complete without her sulking in the corner!
At the reception they had a fun lake and bread for the kids to feed the ducks!- gracie and addy had a lot of fun running around
Gracie with her uncle tyler
And again our family!

Out of hibernation

2011-02-06T10:25:00.002-07:00

Well hello world!

I feel like the last five months or so i have been in hibernation mode - things have been stressful for me and i felt like the girl in the hunger games books - anyhow in the last book to avoid life she goes into a closet and just pulls blankets and sheets on her to try to avoid life - which is how i've felt -

anyhow recently i've decided to come out and rejoin the world because life moves on and much as as i might want to avoid it its best i just give in and quit fighting it- anyhow so that is why there are about 50 posts after this because i have been doing things but haven't been motivated enough to do anything about it!

Also even though it is February i've decided to be like my cousin kyra and post my goals for the year and updates on whether or not i'm succeeding in following through with them - no more sitting around and being mopey - pretty much all of my goals include running because i want to be a runner this year and also if i'm running and working out then that means that i have to eat right and usually i feel pretty good about myself which helps in so many other areas!

So here they are:
1. Continue to read my scriptures every day- last year i read every day except for 1 so this year i want to do every day without missing once!

2. Forgive

3. Run a 5k
4. Run a 10k
5. Run a half marathon
6. Run a marathon
7. two relays, epic and red rock- i'd like to make it three and run the ragnar again - so i'm hoping when it gets closer someone will need another team member and i can do it

See i told you they were mostly running- i want to run the dam run half marathon - its up in rexburg in june so i have to cracking and run the other two short ones before then- and then i am running the epic relay in august and the red rock relay in sept and then ending with the top of utah marathon the last week in sept

So i have just have to keep with my goals and not give up or be lazy!
and looking over my goals i'm thinking that i am going to need another pair or running shoes because if i actually follow through then i am going to be putting a good amount of miles on my old ones!

future cheerleader

2011-02-06T10:13:00.003-07:00

Gracies little friend next signed up for the future cheerleader fundraiser and asked if gracie wanted to do it as well - well of course her answer was yes- so we've spent the last week practicing being a cheerleader and then friday was the big game!- the first night it was back to normal where gracie wouldn't dance or move or do anything- so that night when i was taking the two girls home i told gracie she had to dance at least two time the next time or she couldn't dance with megan, her friend, anyhow i wasn't really serious but at the same time if she danced that would be great! anyhow so the next night when we went she did it all- the warm ups and stretching and the dancing and the cheers- it was pretty dang cute! anyhow so then obviously the night of the basketball game we talked about how she might be a little scared but she could say a little prayer and still do it - anyhow and we picked a barbie out at the store that she could have if she danced- which drum roll please - she actually danced i wish i could figure out how to posts the video, its on facebook, but it was darling!

The first three pictures - i asked gracie to pose like a cheerleader and that is what i got- i love the second picture it is my favorite!

Posing with Grandma
The cheer- the little girl to the right of gracie was her friend megan
Still nervous
But she ended up doing the dance- so cute!

car show

2011-02-06T09:56:00.002-07:00

We love going to the car show every year- but this year gracie just thought it was the best- to her it was like a playground- she would climb into a car pretend to drive and then out of it and into the next car- it was hard to keep up with her- although occasionally she would stop so i could take her picture, especially in front of the pink car!
Gracie taking me on a trip to somewhere
Everyone in the jeep- it was definitely a group favorite

Gracie posing- one of her favorite activities
Ben being weird
This was so funny - gracie looked so small in this huge truck so ben kept trying to get her to smile for the camera and for once she didn't want to so she would turn her head so he would go to other side and try and she would turn it again - this went back and forth for a little bit and then alex took out his phone and all of a sudden she was smiles for him - so ben finally got a picture of alex taking a picture of gracie
My favorite car the Xterra- one day i want to have one again!

Island park cabin

2011-02-06T09:33:00.002-07:00

For Christmas this year my parents gave the whole family a week up at cabin in Island Park - it was sooo much fun - i've never really done the cabin thing before but it was so fun - i just laid around in my pjs all day and then we would go out and play in the show for a little bit - come back in play games or watch a movie and eat junk - mom did have good food up there but most of us went for the junk :)- anyhow it was a lot of fun
Gracie and i getting all bundled to go outside- in the cute hats melanie had made us for christmas- i love gracies shoulder pose!
Addy joining us
The two girls- gracie was surprising good in the deep snow- i thought after bundling her up like crazy she wouldn't like trying to walk around - but she loved it - she would climb up all the snowhills and down- she didn't really like the sleds or the snowmobiles- although one day we did get on a sled and tyler pulled us on the snowmobile which was a lot of fun- but gracie mostly loved just climbing around in the snow- and it was pretty cold while we were up there!

The snowmobiles were alot of fun the first time i took it out i drove for approx two minutes before i got so stuck in the snow- and of course i was away from everyone so i had to walk down the hill to mitch who was digging tyler out and then when they were done we had to walk back up the hill so i could show them were i was stuck and then they dug it out- and that was all i would ride it! But then that night we had three snowmobiles but we had to return two of them so melanie and mitch on one and me on the other and we had about a 50 minute ride to the rental place- anyhow we ended up getting slightly off track and at one point i had to drive the machine up a steep short hill to get back on the trail anyhow mel and mitch had done it kind of slow and so when they landed they got thrown off - so i decided to gun it- anyhow i shot up over the hill and my whole machine went about 4 feet in the air - but i landed it so that was good even though it scared me but we eventually made it back after getting stuck, lost and who knows what else- it took us about an 1 1/2 hours to get back and it was so cold it was around 5 degrees - but lots of fun
Tyler brought up the Wii dancing game - it was a lot of fun - the best part was that addy would get in front and try to do the dance moves as well
The girls took over my bed at night - but since they were so cute it was okay
Being lazy in the evening
Even the girls loved playing games!
Our beautiful view
Like i said it was pretty cold up there- if you can't see - it is 10:00 am and -3 degrees!

Christmas Day

2011-02-06T09:09:00.005-07:00

Gracie and Addy were up and happy pretty early for little kids and loved all the things that Santa and brought - Gracie was at the age that she really did believe Santa was coming and so the night before i had trouble putting her to bed because she wanted to pretend to sleep on the couch so that she could see Santa- finally i told her she could go to her room and keep her eyes open all night- which i knew would never happen- and then when she heard Santa she could tip toe out and see him- it was pretty cute
Ben sleeping through the morning festivities
After stocking we always have a yummy breakfast- this year Grandpa helped the girls by giving them shots of cool whip into their mouths- the sugar high was sure fun to watch later! :)
Gracies turn- if you notice there is a bowl of fruit- so we tried to get the girls to eat that as well - but they mostly kept opening their mouth and asking grandpa to "hit me" with the cool whip
Addy waiting for the grownups to finish cleaning up breakfast so they could get to the good part of opening presents
Gracie got a dress from Santa and so she had to change into it and have her picture taken about 15 times before we could open presents- here is one of the pictures!
Sitting on Grandpas lap singing a song-in our family its a tradition that to enter the living room to get your presents you have to sit on Dads lap and sing a christmas song, everyone young and old has to do it, its pretty fun! gracie sang "Santa Claus is coming to town" it was her favorite one- she never did pick up Jingle Bells but she would sing this one over and over again
Mom always sings I saw mommy kissing santa clause
The early morning is starting to kick in for Addy
Piles of presents!!
Ben and I
Alex and Jaquel in the hats that melanie made everyone- they were so cute i love mine!
Addy got this kitchen set for christmas - if you look hard you can see how excited her face is- it was so fun watching her open it
Gracie with one of her presents

Christmas Eve

2011-02-06T08:57:00.003-07:00

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun as always - we went up to the Johnsons and had a yummy dinner, put out luminaries around the house and then opened presents! Gracie loved every minute of it
I came into the room and the two girls were waiting very patiently for the presents to be passed out and opened- they had made themselves a special place on the couch

Gracie with her huge pile of presents- and that was only for Christmas Eve - it amazes me how much stuff she ends up with at the end of Christmas
A picture with the whole group and all the presents that are about to be ripped into in about 5 seconds- although usually everyone does just open their presents at the same time but this year we went around and families each opened a present together - it was fun because then you got to see what everyone got or gave - so i liked it even though it took longer
Bens christmas present to me- a while ago i lost my ring and have just been wearing a fake one - so it was a very fun surprise to get this present!
And ending with my super cute girl who was just so excited about Christmas!

two princesses

2011-01-03T20:45:00.004-07:00

The day before thanksgiving Alex and Jaquel came over to our house for dinner and then afterwards gracie helped jaquel be a princess - so they put on beautiful makeup and got in pretty dresses with crowns and gloves and all sorts of pretty princess things anyhow and then we took a few pictures and then after that alex had planned it so that gracie didn't want jaquel to change and so she left the house all dressed up and alex took her to his apartment which is up the street from our house and had his apartment all decorated and had the music playing anyhow then he proposed - and happily she said yes - anyhow it was a fun day and gracie loved that she got to help jaquel be a princess :)

I love gracies lipstick and the best part is that she thought she looked so fabulous
Alex and Jaquel playing around
The happy couple - and this was even before she got the ring! you should have seen her smile later! hahah

disney on ice

2011-01-03T20:40:00.002-07:00

My mom took some of us kids to disney on ice this year- Gracie was so excited and was changed into her princess dress and was ready to go about 4 hours before we actually had to leave- but it was cute her and addy dressed up as princesses
The whole group

Me and the kidlette
I love this picture because i was trying to get addys attention for the picture and so gracie used her hand and was pushing addys face towards the camera- anyhow it was a fun cute day!!

cousins playing in the leaves

2010-11-10T09:36:00.003-07:00

I went up to visit Mel last week and while we were there we raked up the leaves for the girls to play in! - they were so cute and had a ton of fun

Gracie loved throwing them up in the air and watching them fall on her and addy!
Both kids are playing and happy

Addy is mad

Gracie chucks a huge chunk of leaves at addy
Which made addy thrilled and totally happy
But gracie got mad that addy was so happy - so she went off to sulk - and was talking snotty to mom so that lead to timeout which then ended the fun- gotta love kids!

FHE

2010-11-10T09:31:00.002-07:00

For FHE a while ago we went to the neighbors and made caramel apples and carved pumpkins - the kids loved it and made huge messes!
This was gracies apple- caramel, chocolate, white chocolate, cinnamon & sugar- what a great combo!
The kids were sooo messy trying to eat their apples- it was so cute and fun though- i want to do it every year
Gracies pumpkin- it is kind of hard to tell but she gave it cheeks and hair as well- because even a scary pumpkin needs to look beautiful

4-wheeling

2010-11-10T09:25:00.002-07:00

We went 4-wheeling with Alex and Jaquel a while ago - it was so beautiful the leaves were gorgeous and the sun was out it was a way fun day- gracie loved that she got to wear a helmet and drive a "car" - it was pretty cute - although when we got to the top of the mountain she decided she was done and wanted to walk back down to the car-
Alex & Jaquel
Gracie driving :)
The family

picture time

2010-09-15T12:59:00.011-06:00

Well we had gracies birthday pictures taken this year by the same lady that did her pictures last year- Sheena- and i loved them just as much this year as i did last year- gracie has definetely become a little less shy around the camera and in fact half way through the photo shoot sheena told me gracie started posing herself and so they worked out a compromise - sheena picked one pose and then gracie got to pick one- the picture right above is actually one gracie picked!-anyhow gracie looked so darling in this orange dress that chelsea and my mom got gracie for her birthday- and fyi- my friend ashley did gracie and my hair- there is no way i can ever get it to look good hahah

Loved the picture above!

Ben loves this one with penny!--half way through ben came and brought penny and so she got to be in some of the pictures

Love these pictures- and i love the bright green shirt!

Sheena offered to take some pictures of ben and I - and i told her she was really making her editing job a lot harder with me in the pictures - and she did a great job- because i actually look pretty decent :)

I love them family photos- now i wish we had a wall big enough so i can frame all of them because i couldn't decide which i liked better

Gracie was making me laugh so hard during the family shots because i use to have a bag of mini marshmellows and everytime gracie would smile and listen i would give her one- well out of habit i through the bag of marshmellows in my purse- well sheena didn't really need them for the first half of the photo shoot- but i laugh because after ever picture with ben and i -gracie would run and get a marshmellow and bring it to us! - apparently she thought we were doing a good job :)

Ben of course loved this family photo because i let penny be in it- it actually looks pretty good as well

Miss Pennys beauty shot hahaha

and the reward for being so great- a huge sucker at the end!

preschool

2010-08-31T13:05:00.003-06:00

Last night when gracie was begging to stay up late Ben turned to her and said - no it's a school night- we both looked at each other and kind of freaked out a little bit- yes gracie started preschool today and it a weird feeling to be a mom with a kid who is old enough to go to school-

Gracie of course loved school and couldn't wait to go- which means she is growing up and that is nice- but it is also sad that my baby doesn't need me 24/7 anymore- anyhow she looked darling and i love that she is growing up!

We bought just a normal bookbag for school but then gracie decorated it- it turned out super cute and i love that she did it! - although i did write her name for her

birthday girl

2010-08-26T13:14:00.002-06:00

Well my baby turned 4 last month and it was a fun day for her- she started out with daddy making her breakfast in the shape of whatever creative thing she could think of - and then the reason that she had dad make her breakfast and not mom- was becasue ben covered the pancakes with sprinkles and syrup and all other sorts of sugary items- anyhow so we started the day with her bouncing off the wall!

Later gracie had a birthday party at grandmas house with all sorts of friends and family- seriously there was a ton of people - who knew that at 4 she was this loved! hahah anyhow at the party the kids got to decorate cookies- which ended up with mostly knives going from from frosting to mouth and totally missing the cookie altogether! anyhow it was a lot of fun

Then we did presents - which she obviously loved - gracie loves clothes and so alot of what she got was pretty dresses and dress ups!

This little house is what ben and i got her and below is her saying thank you to her dad!

and then we had birthday cake- and because apparently to be a good mother you need not only make a birthday cake but a fabulous birthday cake- chelsea and i attempted to make a castle- i love this picture because i am telling her to blow out the candles and she is looking at me like i don't think so- anyhow luckily her friends were there to help her finally blow the candles out- but i laugh because i don't know how much time chelsea and i spent making that cake and then probably a sixth of it got eaten and the rest was thrown away! - oh well at least we have pictures :)

Wasatch Back

2010-06-22T14:21:00.002-06:00

Well this weekend i ran in the ragnar relay race- which is 188 miles with 12 teammates and you run three different times- it was the hardest thing i have even done (including labor- i am debating about which one was harder-seriously) but the coolest thing i have ever done- it took us about 32 hours to finish- we started at 1:00 on friday afternoon and i was runner #5

My first run started around 6 and it was about 8 miles - and it was all uphill!! it was running Avon pass and so it was a dirt trail which made it hard to find a good rhythm - anyhow the one fun thing about it was that because it was a hiking trail- there was a stream nearby and it was really beautiful scenery -

anyhow then my second ran came at about 3 in the morning- and it was about 5 miles of rolling hills- it was incredibly cool because there were no street lights and all i had for light was my head lamp- anyhow for a while i was worried i wasn't on the trail because no one was around me - but eventually a van drove by so i felt better- but it was so cool running at night like that because i couldn't see anything except for the circle of light directly in front of me- anyhow it was weird because you couldn't tell if you were running uphill or downhill- it was cool

after that run we did manage to get about an hour and half of sleep before we started our third leg- which i ran at about noon and that was about 3.5 miles and my map showed that it was flat except for a little bump in the middle- well when i turned the corner the little bump was a mile straight up the mountain- which at that point i was so tired i really wanted to burst into tears and give up - but i made it- really i don't know how - except for the million prayers i was saying in my head! anyhow but i finished and so did our team - and now i can't wait to do it again next year- it was the best experience ever!!

Me with part of my team driving up to Logan to start

My first run- look how happy i look- i obviously did not have a clue about what was ahead! hahah

This is me dieing after my first run :)

I loved this sign because it summed up the whole run!

Us women on the team! My awesome van teammates - they were the best!

Starting my last leg!

The triumphant finish with all 12 of us 32 hours later!!

craft day

2010-06-22T13:28:00.002-06:00

Gracie and i have different days of the week and monday are craft days - well last week we painted rocks and made a rock garden and this week we painted a bird house- both of which she was very proud of

Her friend Gabe helped with the rock garden

little dancer

2010-06-22T12:51:00.005-06:00

Well gracie finally had her dance recital a week or so ago- and she was so darling in it- as you can see from the video of the dress rehersal she did not really move a muscle the whole time!- it made me laugh so hard because she has the whole thing memorized but she gets on stage and freezes; however, the actual performance she did bend down to the ground with the rest of the girls and then one other time i think her leg twitched! but still it was great and i was a proud mom who loved the whole thing

i loved the costume- and so did gracie -at first she was nervous about wearing it but then she decided she was super cute and wanted hundreds of pictures in her dress

She was so cute - she kept telling me that if i put makeup on her then she would wipe it off- well after seeing the dress reherseal and all the other girls wearing makeup - she allowed me to put some on her the next night- funny kid
The day of the recital all day long she would go find where her dress was hanging and have to fluff it- made me laughOn stage
Proud parentsIt was so cute- uncle alex brought her a flower

gracies walk

2010-06-09T15:36:00.004-06:00

Well this morning gracie got herself dressed in her favorite color- can you guess -pink! - oh and the cute hat she made at grandma johnsons house- i love it! anyhow she was so excited and kept telling me how cute she was - so she decided that because she looked so cute she wanted me to take her picture by the bunnies- anyhow and this is the walk that we took from the top of the stairs to the bottom and to the garage

Every time we would pass something she would say "take my picture like this" and then i would take it and she would come look and so 'how cute' and then want another picture- so all of these pictures are gracie directing herself and telling me when to snap a shot!
We made a stop by the bike

she wanted to do several poses

now she is using the railing

posing by the car
and finally to the garage with the bunnies- our final destination- it only took how many photo stops to get here? - but i love her anyway- it was super cute

fairy party

2010-05-23T15:16:00.004-06:00

Clear back in march or in april mom through the little cousins a fairy party- it was so cute they all came dressed up like fairies and had a little tea party and then had a scavenger hunt around the yard-it was so darling!!

gracie and addy eating
mom had gotten little play dishes and silverware for the girls to use and then they had fairy food-which was just pink lemonade - although the cups were so small that the girls drank like 10 cups!- and then small little cut up chunks of fruit and marshmellows - it was so darling
the table was decorated so fun as well- although i laugh because addy loves food and long after everyone else was done she was still up eating!
gracie and her cousin addy - we call her big addy so gracie doesn't get confused
all the little fairies running around in there dressed getting stuff from the scavenger hunt

broken leg

2010-05-23T15:06:00.001-06:00

Gracie broke her leg a couple weeks ago anyhow the sad part is i didn't believe her when she said her leg hurt so i made her try to walk around on it for a few days before i took her in to see the doctor- anyhow after a few days she came home with a beautiful hot pink cast!- which she loved was pink but the first few days she would sob every night asking me to take it off - it was so sad but kind of cute as well!

girls

2010-05-23T15:01:00.002-06:00

while we were rock climbing - gracie and addy were entertaining themselves- gracie was so cute because we found this tree and she kept posing for me asking me to take her picture- she is so funny!
Gracie and addy playing in the jeep
Addy was so funny and kept putting handful after handful of dirt on herself- and because she was covered head to toe in sunscreen the sand would stick to her- she was so dirty!
More of gracie posing- doesn't she just look so cute with her hot pink cast!

rock climbing

2010-05-23T14:45:00.004-06:00

We went to moab a couple of weeks ago and while we were there we took a couple of hours and went rock climbing- it was a lot of fun- although i was pretty scared and did a lot of screaming - even though i was on the easiest climb!
Ben and i climbed at the same time and i only made it halfway up- ben did the harder climb up and back before i even got to half way- he is super good!
me at about half way- which is as far as i made it- next time i will make it farther

Ben and his friend dave- making sure we didn't die at the bottom
Moms turn
Alex
Mitch- he did the harder climb first and kept getting stuck - but he made it up to the top in the end!
Tyler went first and did the harder climb- he climbed it so fast he made it look so easy - which is partly why i decided to try it -but it was a lot harder than tyler made it look! he was so fast is looked like he just ran up the rocks- it was a lot of fun

mothers day

2010-05-11T13:55:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago when deseret book sent out their ad that had things in it for mothers day i saw this picture and laughingly told ben that is what i wanted for mothers day- but mostly it was a joke because it was expensive and we have a tight budget- anyhow for mothers day this year gracie and ben surprised me with this beautiful picture- it was such a surprise i cried- i love this picture and the words 'for this child i prayed' anyhow it has special meaning to me and i just loved that my husband saved his pennies and got it for me - thanks ben

surprise party

2010-04-06T17:05:00.004-06:00

Well Mom turned 50 this year and so we decided to have a surprise party for her- a week late- that really made it a surprise because her birthday had already come and gone before we did it!

Anyhow it was a lot of fun everyone drove down for it - and i took mom out shopping while everyone else decorated the house- ben and alex borrowed the neighbors air compressor and filled up about 200 balloons and then ben found this net and had them all tied up to the ceiling so that when mom walked in the kitchen he pulled the net and the balloons fell down on her- it was a lot of fun- anyhow after that we went to chuck e cheese- yes us grownups did- and we had pizza and games - we had three contests- one was who could win the most tickets with one token, melanie won - another we had a skee ball tournament which dad won and then we also had a basketball shootout and alex one that - anyhow we had medals for the winners to wear- it was lot of fun and we ended up being their for about three hours

then we came home and chelsea had made this delicious cake - as seen above- anyhow it was lot of fun

my princess

2010-04-06T17:02:00.002-06:00

Gracie loves dress up and everytime we go to grandma andersons house she pulls out our old dance costumes and puts them on!! - i just loved these pictures

animal crackers

2010-04-04T19:02:00.002-06:00

Gracie is in dance class this year and the song that they are dancing/singing to is animal crackers- she loves this song!! everywhere we go she sings it so here is a preview of her singing

also i am sorry i could not figure out how to flip the video -so it is crooked- but we were mostly going for sound so that is ok

valentines day

2010-03-16T14:18:00.002-06:00

Gracie loves our neighbor Gabe- and vise versa- they always talk about getting married and all sorts of things that probably will never happen but are cute anyway! - anyhow after i explained to gracie that we give valentines to people we love - she was very insistant that gabe got one- so we went to the store and she picked pink barbie valentines for gabe- thinking of him i am sure- anyhow then we came home and because we are practicing writing her letters she had to write to gabe and from gracie- without any help!

well it is really hard to see but gracie wrote this valentine to gabe all by herself- the letters are all there- anyhow i did laugh though because gabe looked at it for less then a second before tearing into and eating the candy! but at least i got a picture of gracies half an hour of hard work for her special friend gabe

goofing around

2010-03-12T09:27:00.001-07:00

One afternoon gracie was bored and so her and ben were taking funny pictures with the computer- it made me laugh- gracie just loved them

writing letters

2010-03-04T13:22:00.002-07:00

Well i have been trying to help gracie write her letters and her attention spand is about 5 minutes- so mom had this good idea to try and have her practice in pudding - anyhow so i spread out some wax paper and plopped some pudding on the table - needless to say -it was a great success - gracie loved being able to write a letter and then lick her figure clean- although after about 25 minutes it had regressed down to just doodling and licking fingers - but still it was a lot of fun!

grandkids

2010-02-10T07:57:00.002-07:00

Naomi for christmas will get the grandkids matching outfits and then my sister-in-law will always help us get together to get there pictures taken! This was this years christmas picture i think it actually turned out pretty good - considering we also tried to have the dogs in the picture as well! - my favorite is the one with just gracie and sydney - well and the dog- but they all turned out pretty good

hiking

2010-01-17T14:26:00.003-07:00

These are old pictures - if you can't tell - before gracie got her hair cut- anyhow in the fall we went with my parent hiking in the Uintahs - anyhow it was a lot of fun - and i think gracies first hike!

Ben made gracie a walking stick like him - it was pretty funny
The walking didn't last too long- and so gracie spent most of the time on bens shoulders!
Eating lunch- there was this funny squirrel that kept taking our food and then hiding it in the trees and then would come back and take more and then hide it in a different spot- anyhow the squirrel did that for about 20 trips - basically until we had run out of food- food storage i guess!
i love this one with the tiny trees!
Man i had forgotten how long gracies hair had been getting before we chopped it off!

Penny

2010-01-03T18:26:00.002-07:00

This is penny - the new addition to our family- on Monday we were having my family over for FHE and some fun time - so i was getting the lesson ready and at the last second wanted copies of something and we have a kinkos just up the street from us so ben and gracie decided to ride their bikes up -well eddie (our dog) followed them to the end of the street but wouldn't cross it - so they kept going and made the copies and then on the way back ben noticed that there were cars stopped in the middle of the road so he went over and apparently eddie had been hit by a car- very sad news - anyhow we tried to take him to the vet but he died - so it was a sad night at our house- although it was good because my family was their so we were able to have a good time and laugh

anyhow so we got this new puppy because gracie was having a hard time- wondering when eddie was going to wake up and stuff- but she is adorable and so tiny!! Her head is like the size of gracies hands- and her hands are so small! but now everyone we see gracie has to tell them "my dog got hit by a car and died- but i got a NEW dog!!" anyhow it is good for her- ben and i are still a little bumbed- ben because eddie was his best friend- and me because not only did eddie clean my floors but also now i have to potty train a puppy- but she is so darling i don't mind!

pretty pictures

2010-01-01T13:41:00.003-07:00

Mom got these cute dresses for addy and gracie to wear when tyler spoke - after coming home from his mission- anyhow the girls never could both look good - anyhow but i still love them - addy looks so darling in her red dress and gracie loved her because it had sparkles- which for a three year old makes everything better!

Mom then continued on and took pictures of each of us kids - here is chelsea looking fabulous
Alex - looking . . . well i don't know how to describe it
Melanie- i love her hair
and me
Tyler and addy-

cinnamon rolls

2010-01-01T13:32:00.002-07:00

A while ago mom had gotten gracie a little baking set but the other day we pulled them out so that gracie could help make some cinnamon rolls-she rolled them out and then cut them and baked them- they even tasted good!

I love this picture she is so proud that she baked it and made them by herself -well with a little help from grandma!

christmas time

2009-12-27T17:53:00.006-07:00

on christmas day we all got matchbox cars and had races in the kitchen- we did a double elimination bracket and melanie ended up winning- we think it is because of all the knitting her fingers are nimble

i loved this face of addy

lots of presents!
these are the salt and pepper shakers that gracie painted for her grandma all by herself

Disneyworld

2009-12-13T15:55:00.010-07:00

Well it is so cold outside and snowing so much that i wanted to go back to disneyworld - anyhow so i finally posted the pictures of our trip forever ago! anyhow i love it and want to go back- also i haven't posted anything for two months so i am hoping that by posting this many pictures in one post that i am covered for a while!
addys feet poking out of the stroller-
us being bugs!

forgot to put the pictures the right way! oops

i love this picture
ben and i in timeout
this was our first day and i love gracies expression- this was so overwhelming for her!
Me showing that i could be as grumpy as gracie! hahah

when it would get hot gracie would switch and want to ride under the stroller because of the shade-

i love these pictures of the castle

chelsea lost- in case you were wondering

yummy

you can't tell from the look on her face - but gracie loved the small world ride- we rode it over and over and over again - she just loved it and would get so upset when the ride was over and we would have to get off

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-27T12:49:00.004-06:00

Every year the sunday before halloween grandma gets all the johhnsons together to carve pumpkins! It is always crazy with pumpkins everywhere but tons of fun

There is grandma with her spread of food! it was so yummy

Breanna and Russ

Bobbisue & Layne

Grandpa and Amare Everyone focusing and working hard
Gracies finished project - it is hard to tell - but it is a kitty - and she was so excited about it she wanted to sit by it, get her picture by it, but she wouldn't stop swaying back and forth- so that is why she looks retarded in the picture- but oh well she loves it - it even sat next to her in the car on the way home!My finished pumpkin- a scary MONSTER!

Bens finished pumpkin - the grill on a jeep!- those circles are suppose to be headlights!

10K

2009-10-23T14:18:00.002-06:00

That is me running my first race ever! a 10K - i got it in my head that i needed to participate this year in peach days and so i signed up! I have been saying i want to do it for the past few years and i was happy i finally did it! i decided six weeks before the race so i started with a mile and then would add one every week - and i did a walk/run thing because i don't think i could have ran the whole thing straight! but i did it in an 1:08 - which i think is good for my first run- next year i will have to do better- because it wasn't as hard as i thought it would be - the only embarressing part is the last mile you run with the parade and so i could feel everyones eyes on me! but that is the great thing about an ipod- i just turned the music up! but it was cute ben brought gracie out to the road and so when i ran past i gave her a kiss and then i kept going but apparently she started bawling and crying for her mom- so her aunt breanna picked her up and ran with her for a while to try and catch up! it was cute but it was fun to accomplish a goal!

pretty princesses

2009-10-21T13:37:00.002-06:00

This is gracie and her friend Haylee- they just had to put on pretty princess dresses and dance around the house! so sweet Gracie loves being a princess! sometimes when we are leaving the house and i tell her to go get ready she will put this crown on and insist that it is what she needs to be ready! i love it!

Mom got her the pretty purple dress for her birthday and she loves it and i made(attempted) to make the cinderella dress for a princess birthday party gracie went to! they both just look so great

super september

2009-09-29T12:59:00.003-06:00

oh wait you say - who are those people - well they are no one really just a picture i had saved on the computer from a project in school many moons ago - anyhow i like because i feel like my last few posts are on grumpy things instead of happy things - which i don't like so this is a happy post because most of the time i am happy but just don't post about the regular mundane things that all add up to be happy moments! so here is the month summed up!

1. gracie started dance lessons - and has had two - one she cried and sobbed at with ben and one(today) that she went to class and listened without a parent (me) in the room -although her teacher did say she wouldn't stand up to do anything she would just sit on the floor and try to do it! anyhow but she is progressing so ya!

2. someone sent me flowers! beautiful roses which are still making my kitchen smell beautiful

3. as of saturday night i just got a much shorter title as far as church callings go - which is good because i never could remember the order and name of everything - family, personal, .. . .something

4. i got a cool new office space at work so now i just need to fill it up with pictures and funny comics - which is what i think you are suppose to do! it is nice because usually at work i just work at whatever place is open but now i have my own office! yeah

5. ben got straight A's at school again - and the best part is - i NEVER have to nag at him to do his homework

6. another side effect from the shot is crazy emotions - which is good and bad but lately it makes me laugh so hard over the silliest things - so i think my stomach is getting stronger and will soon be flat!

7. went to peach days and actually ran a 10K for the first time! yeah for me - i never thought i could do it but i did it! so then the whole rest of the day i didn't feel guilty about eating all the crappy fair food because i had already burned it off!

8. Got to see mel & mitch and of course addy, grandma and grandpa o'dair, my aunt and crazy uncle - who informed me that the reason he is skinny is because being good looking burns more calories than ugly! :) also some cousins i hadn't seen for a while plus tons of stuff with bens family - and since i love being around family it was a pretty great month!

9. but one of the best things this month is BEN - ben is hardly ever patient with me when i am grumpy - which i don't blame him because being around a grump is no fun at all - but this last month since i have been on my "crazy pills" as i affectionately call them -i have a huge range of emotions - similar to pregant emotions + PMS multiplied by 10! anyhow ben has been so patient and understanding - as i told my mom the other night - the prayers that are being said to help keep my calm - are not really working but they are helping ben and gracie be able to cope and live a crazy person! anyhow so that is one of the best things this month! now i think i will post another weird picture that has nothing to do with anything but i like it!

grrr

2009-09-22T13:08:00.002-06:00

sometimes i HATE not being able to have kids!! i know that i should be grateful for the wonderful child i do have because many people don't even have that - and lots of people don't even have the opportunity to get married - which i do - so i know that i should be grateful for the things i do have and most of the time that is what i focus on - and i know that everyone has their own trials and hardships and mine is not the end of the world - HOWEVER sometimes i just get angry and want to throw a chair through the window because i am angry and bitter!!!! GRRR- and that is what i feel like right now - and in five minutes i will make myself go back to being grateful but for the next five minutes i think i might be a little bitter and sad! blah

Gracies birthday pictures

2009-09-15T13:55:00.014-06:00

Well i finally got around to posting gracies birthday pictures! I think they turned out great and she even smiled for some of them- which for gracie is pretty good! - anyhow it was funny though - the photographer would have me leave because gracie smiled much better when i wasn't around- too much pressure i guess! hahah anyhow i love them

Our first family picture since gracie was born! yipee

there is me and gracie with a marshmellow bag- yes i brib my child!- any picture she smiles for i give her a marshmellow! anyhow she was not happy that i was going to be in the next picture( the family shot) apparently she likes to be the star by herself!

Half way through gracie decided she was done- too bad for her - i wasn't done yet

Gracie loves having her nails painted and wanted a picture of it - also these are her cinderella slippers we got at disneyworld - i was nervous about spending so much money on a present that i didn't think she would like once we left disneyworld- but we were lucky they are her favorite shoes ever!

Half-time- i changed her hair!

I absolutely love this picture!

Although this could be my favorite one! i love her weird face!

Showing off her nails- AGAIN

This is when i was still out with her - and before i gave in and went and got the marshmellows! She did not want to get her picture taken and was being so shy - it was almost funny - except that i was stressing that i had a photographer come out to the house and then would have all pictures of gracie growling at the camera- luckily the marshmellows worked and i could calm down! Oh and yes - doesn't moms yard look amazing- that is where we took all these pictures!

side effects

2009-09-03T12:58:00.002-06:00

so i started my new medicine yesterday - one injection into the leg given to me by my nice neighbor across the street - anyhow when you go to the pharmacy they give you this whole big kit including a warning and side effects pamphlet that is like 10 pages long - well knowing myself i told myself not to touch the pamplet but all day long i could just see it sitting on the kitchen table beckoning for me to come and take a peek - and i resisted for a while but eventually, after ben had gone to school, i gave in and picked it up to read it - well i knew it was a bad idea but i couldn't resist! anyhow the list of side effects is like forever long and i start reading them - headaches- and sure enough my head starts hurting, acne- and i can feel zits on my face just starting to come up, nausa- yep i feel like i am going to throw up, bone density decreases- and sure enough i can just feel my bones getting eaten away and getting small and smaller, hot flashes- yep i am hot(although it could have been because it is still warm outside, but probably not, breast reduction- and sure enough i can feel my chest getting smaller by the minute, anyhow and the list goes on and on and on - and i am checking off every single one on the list because i have that side effect! well when ben came home i started in on all the things that my body is doing - and what does he do -LAUGHS- like it is no big deal and then he hides the pamplet! And this is an example of why you should never read the side effects label

Lagoon Day

2009-08-07T14:50:00.004-06:00

Stake lagoon day was super fun this year - ben and i were lazy and didn't want to go on any of the rides so it was fun being the picture person and everyone was so great and would take gracie -and she loved it! Going down the river! Naomi took gracie and amare to go on the boat ride -which the line looks short but it is the slowest! moving line ever- anyhow i look over and apparently to entertain herself gracie started licking the bars! it was disgusting to watch but at the same time i still had to snap a picture

Bobbiesue, Naomi, Ben, and gracie on the tilt a whirl- gracie didn't know what to think about this ride

Ben and Brian went on the sky coaster ( i don't know if that is what its called) anyhow ben has really been wanting to do it for forever so this was part of his birthday present! i loved my lucky shot as they were swinging over the top of us

Gracies cousin, Amare, was so cute and would help gracie on all the rides and then show she when to wave and smile for the camera - it made for much better pictures this year! Ben got a little tired halfway through the day and took a napGracie was so good about waiting in line and was just so pleasant all day long - even without a nap - it was so nice - although i am paying for it today because man is she being a pill!And of course the merry-go-round - you can't go to lagoon without going on it - and in gracies case you have to go on it over and over and over again! even my nephew kyan went on it - although some of the time he didn't know whether to laugh or cry! anyhow it was a pretty great day - thanks bob!

Our vacation

2009-07-30T12:42:00.002-06:00

As mentioned earlier in my blog - we went with the johnson clan to jackson, tetons, and yellowstone - we kind of hit it all - it was a ton of fun - and the best part was bob got us tent cabins so they had bunk beds with matresses and then down the way they had flushing toliets, and showers - aahhh- so as far as camping goes it was good - we still had to cook and be out in nature but we could do it clean and on a comfy bed! -it was the best

This is me, gracie, amare(my niece), and layne(brother-in-law) out in the canoe on the lake - i was freaking out at any little movement because i thought it might tip- that is why you can't see our faces in the picture -because all of the closeups -my face looks retarded! but gracie loved the canoe- anyone that would take her out she would go with - it was cute

Gracie at yellowstone

picture of the tetons- can you believe some of us climbed up and over that thing! it is amazing

gracie fishing - of course i couldn't help because the idea of fishing is a little too much for me - but luckily gracie has uncles that are willing to take over that job!

There was plenty more fun but this is just a glimpse of it!

Gracie is three!

2009-07-23T12:59:00.005-06:00

Gracie had her birthday yesterday and we had a lot of fun - we went to the zoo- it was alot of fun - although towards the middle of the afternoon when temperatures reached 100 we left because the heat was a lot for gracie to handle! anyhow but it is cute she tells everyone that she is big now and when you try to explain that she is going to keep getting bigger - she doesn't want to hear about it because in her mind she is big and there is no way she could get any bigger! Ben with his turkey vulture arms!

Bens sister, Bobbisue, and brother, Brian

Gracie and grandma

Gracie getting her cake Trying to blow out the candles - it seriously took her ten times to blow out that last candle - which was good for me- the camera person - because i missed it the first few times! hahah

Gracie also got to go swimming with the boys- which was a lot of fun - but man was it hard to keep an eye on multiple kids when you are only used to one!

I took gracie down the slides a few times but the last time she got dunked and was DONE!

answered prayers

2009-07-18T10:41:00.003-06:00

We took this fabulous vacation with the johnson so the tetons and yellowstone - which i will eventually post pictures about - but one of the days we took an extremely difficult long hike up the tetons starting in idaho and over the tetons ending in wyoming! - it was a long very fun hike-after it was over - anyhow part of hike did not have a trail we were leaving one trail and trying to connect with another trail - well it was snowy and steep and i was freaking out that we were going to be the idiot hikers that would be on the news the next day because we had died because we had left the trail- at one point we came to a ridge that dropped off - so we hiked over to another ridge - and as we were walking over to the other ridge i said a prayer just asking that please let us be able to go down safely and could i please just have a miracle- because i did not want to freeze on the mountain or die trying to go down something that wasn't safe - anyhow so i say my prayer and i look up and my brother in law is at the edge and it looks like he is waving at someone -

Well i come over to the edge and there is this old man coming up what we are trying to go down - anyhow i couldn't believe that my prayers were answered! and not just that we could go down but that someone had been sent to help us- tim - that was the mans name- had come from jennys lake - which is where we were trying to go - anyhow he told us he had been hiking this way for 20 years and had never seen anyone come this way before and that he must have be inspired to come today - which i totally agreed with

anyhow it may seem silly that i prayed for a miracle because really the shape or steepness of the trail wasn't going to change but i still just can't believe that Heavenly Father knew i would say that prayer and so he inspired someone to get out of bed, pack a backpack, and then go on a hike - just so that my prayers could be answered! it reminded me that we are all important and the smallest prayers -if they are important to us - can be answered

We have been trying to have a second child and it just doesn't look like it is in the stars for us and so sometimes it seems that my prayers are just hitting the ceiling - but i couldn't believe the love that i felt from above - that told me my prayers are being answered when they can - i loved our vacation and will always have good memories but this will always be something i remember and the best part of my trip - knowing that my simple prayer was answered in such a big way

it was quiet too long. . .

2009-07-16T13:24:00.001-06:00

Yes - gracie tried to turn herself purple - luckily it was washable! - and yes when i gave her a bath it turned the water purple- funny kid

alphabet art

2009-06-18T14:59:00.004-06:00

Thanks to my neighbor kim who found this cute book called alphabet art - gracie and i started doing it to try and help with learning her letters - anyhow it is super fun and she loves playing with paint and glue and all sorts of fun things - and hopefully in the end it will help her learn her letters! this picture above wasn't a letter but they were brazil carnival masks which we made in honor of alex living in brazil for two years! This was the letter E and it looks more like a butterfly than an elephant but that is what it is suppose to be - it was also fun because we crushed up egg shells and glued them to our letter E - which gracie loved being destructive and ben couldn't figure out why there were egg shells all over the house that day!

D as in duck - this one kind of turned out - gracie is actually pretty good and does most of the cutting herself!

This is a cat for the letter C and gracie was so funny - she named it suzy and would make it do tricks and make me pet it and give it food - to her suzy was a real pet!

This was suppose to be a butterfly - and i never got a picture of the end result because i couldn't believe it but gracie called me in later and anyhow she had drawn a picture of mom- as featured below - it was so cute - and i didn't know she was old enough to draw people! i love it! i think this will be one of my favorite pictures ever - her first picture of mom :)

you can tell we do this in the morning - because gracie is always in her pajamas and her hair is crazy - maybe i should start getting ready first and then doing the crafts so that we get some better looking pictures hahahah

scissors & markers

2009-06-09T13:58:00.002-06:00

Gracie loves scissors- what kid doesn't - anyhow her favorite thing to do is cut paper into teeny tiny bits and then scatter them all over the house - it is great fun trying to pick it up - i was nervous at first about letting her use scissors but i threatened her life and gave her examples of all the horrible things that would fall upon her if she should ever cut anything other than the paper i gave her - luckily she has listened quite well - so that is nice -

Markers - another item that moms are afraid of and kids can't get enough of! anyhow i just loved that i came into the kitchen and gracie is laying on the table with her legs on the window just hanging out

Firepit

2009-06-01T13:42:00.003-06:00

We love going to the Johnsons and playing around the firepit- there is always stuff to make smores, hotdogs and this time layne made everyone banana boat things - which looked good! anyhow we love it - ben gets to play with fire, gracie gets sugar, and i get to smell like campfire smoke - which are all fun things! anyhow so thank you Johnsons!

This is as close as i let gracie get to the fire to roast her marshmellows - if you notice you can't even see the fire - i always laugh because so far she hasn't really picked up on the fact that everyone else has hot marshmellows and she doesn't

Father & Sons

2009-05-28T12:53:00.002-06:00

Well yes Ben took gracie to father and sons - because really if he had to wait until he a son to go - it would be a really long wait - anyhow gracie loved it - it helps that all of her friends are boys so it was so cute watching friday afternoon as all the boys are out running around like crazy so excited and the dads are making trip after trip to the car and the moms just have this look of joy on their face because finally they will get a break! it made me laugh! but i was productive- while they were gone i stayed up all night and painted the kitchen yellow and then slept in- it was pure joy- anyhow ben said gracie just loved every second of it - they slept in cabins so she got to sleep on the top bunk next to her friend gabe - which was very exciting - in fact i don't really know if her and gabe did anything by themselves - when i was going through the pictures it was hard to find ones with just gracie in it!

Gracie was helping to collect wood for the fire

MUD

2009-05-19T11:58:00.003-06:00

Mud- it was a day of mud - it started out as a no dirt day- there is a place that the grass doesn't grow and so all the neighborhood kids dig and play in the dirt day - well the moms decided to have a no dirt day after many days of dirt being brought into the house - and so we got out the water- well dirt and water make mud - and once those kids realized that there was not a lot anyone could do about it - so it because a mud day and boy did these kids get dirty! Gracie loves the boys - uriah and gabe- gabe is the one hugging her and he always tells everyone he is going to marry gracie - and some days gracie agrees and some days she doesn't - it is pretty funny - but i do love that she has friends - it relieves some of the guilt i feel about not having a sibling for her to play with

It just made me laugh to see them dig a hole and then fill it up with water and they kept saying they were having a mud bath- which was basically correct - it was a mud bath- gracie was so dirty - before we went in the house i stripped her down and hosed her off - which lent itself to alot of hollering and running around the yard and me trying to chase with the hose and spray occassionally - and this was just a few days after my surgery so i wasn't very quick and so the boys dad came over and had to help me catch her and hold her down! well then i drug a naked sort of clean princess across the yard and up the stairs and she is sobbing for gabe and dumped her into the tub- luckily ben came home then because her hair was so caked with mud that it was going to take a lot of scrubbing and i couldn't bend over very long without hurting my incision and so ben got the fun job of scrubbing her down - which made for a lot more screaming - but since i wasn't involved really anymore i was laughing like crazy in the living room - trying to make myself stop because everytime i laughed it hurt me - anyhow it was a fun afternoon

my clothing jinx

2009-04-23T12:31:00.003-06:00

I have really only made three pieces of clothing in my life - 1st was a pair of shorts that i spent hours on in sewing class and at home to wear to disneyland with my friends - the first day i wore them i moved too quickly and rip - i ripped the fabric so they were a goner - 2nd i made a beautiful blessing dress in high school for my kids and i spend hours sewing and hand stitching the fabric - and it made a lovely dress that gracie got to wear -but since it is looking more like gracie will be an only child -bam- the dress only got worn once - and 3rd this easter dress- i finished it late saturday night - the saturday after easter-
anyhow and when i finished it i turned to ben and said she had better not get this dirty because i don't know how well it will hold up in the wash -anyhow so sunday morning we get up i get gracie in the bath and do her hair and put her in her easter dress - well we still had a couple of hours until church started and that was where i went wrong - because about an hour before church starts ben brings me gracie and a soaken wet dress - oh yes gracie had peed in her dress while sitting in a chair and so the fabric was so kind and absorbed all the moisture - and so the dress had to be washed! at least my other clothing got to be worn out of the house this one didn't even make it to church!
anyhow we washed it later and suprisingly it held together so my one time only clothing wear jinx did not work this time! yahh - and maybe this sunday she can finally wear her easter dress hahah

my lucky day

2009-04-15T13:30:00.002-06:00

Last week i was at my parents house when ben hands me his phone and tells me it is his sister breanna - anyhow so i answer and she asks me what i have planned for the next day, thursday, - and thinking she wants to do something i am vague in my answer and say just work but it is pretty flexible and then she drops the news - would i like to see Wicked tomorrow - and as my hearts starts racing i say of course - anyhow she proceeds to explain how her boss has this one ticket they aren't using because they are going out of town so would i like it- OF COURSE i want it- i was so excited because i had debated about waiting in the long lines to try and get a ticket but since ben had already taken me to see it in chicago i while back i thought i could survive without going this time - anyhow so i tell breanna of course i want to go and then i told her to tell her boss that i was very happy that they had hired her so that i could get this ticket! because of course that was why she got that job so i could go hahaha - anyhow so i got to go see wicked - and just for the record i felt guilt for about five seconds and thought about giving the ticket to someone else who hadn't seen it but then i realized they wouldn't really know what they were missing and i would so i had better use the ticket - i know i am horrible :) so that was my lucky day i got to go see wicked the second day it opened and i loved every second of it and if anyone else wants to give me a free ticket i will gladly use it for them as well - i know i am selfless like that what can i say hahaha

disneyworld

2009-04-07T12:38:00.002-06:00

i changed the design of my blog in honor of the month that we get to leave for disneyworld yah - i can't wait!

my love-hate relationship

2009-03-30T12:22:00.005-06:00

i really enjoy going to the gym and it makes me happy that i have accomplished something - and also it makes me not feel quilty about eating my chocolate :) - anyhow but there are two machines i really hate but also love at the gym the first is this stupid stair stepper called the gauntlet - and let me tell you it is pure misery - i sweat so much on the machine that when i am done i can literally wring my hair out because it is so wet that it is dripping sweat onto the top of the machine - below is a picture of the cursed machine - however - after i get off i feel so good about myself and happy that i made it to the end so i can't decide if i love it or hate it but on saturday i decided i really didn't like it because i sweated so much on my ipod that it doesn't work anymore - it got too much water damage -

The other machine that i really have mixed feelings about is this machine below called the butt buster - and it really is that - you are on your hands and knees pushing weight up - anyhow the entire time i am on this machine i am thinking about how great it will be to be done - but it is the same thing once i am done i am happy that my rear end is tightening up - so that is why i do it even though i hate it so much

gracies room

2009-03-17T12:51:00.003-06:00

well it is nothing spectacular- however, it is done which in its self makes me very happy - ben still is not such what he thinks about the pink - but gracie loves it and tells everyone that her room is pink - so i guess it is worth it :)

horrible mother :)

2009-03-16T15:10:00.002-06:00

so have you ever had those moments when you realize that you are a horrible mother :) - well that was me this morning - last night gracie was freaking out about going to bed so i just left her in her room to have a hissy fit at the door and i could hear her eventually fall asleep bawling at the door with her fingers under the door just reaching out - anyhow so i went to bed and around three i heard her crying in her room - well i figured she had just woken up because it was uncomfortable sleeping on the floor - so i just let her cry herself to sleep again - it was only for about 15 minutes - so in the morning i go to get her out of her room and she is just sitting on the floor playing with her toys like nothing happened - so i come in to play with her and i notice her hair looks funny - which she gets really bad bed hair so that wasn't out of the ordinary - anyhow upon further inspection i realize that there are chunks of food in her hair - yes her is the climax - gracie had thrown up last night and spent the night sleeping in her vomit!!! -- aahhh - i felt so horrible - however i think i served my punishment - trying to wash that stuff out of her hair almost made me sick- however i think for the next few months - when gracie crys during the night - i am at least going to check on her - poor child - hahahah

pathetic, i know

2009-03-10T11:33:00.002-06:00

So i had been slowly painting the house and when i was doing the living room the tv had to come off the wall and ben put it on the couch - well one morning i came into the living room and this is what i saw - pathetic, i know - first because gracie is crouched up on the couch and is just inches away from the tv and second because this made me think that our tv is way too big - hahahah

Potty training

2009-01-22T11:59:00.002-07:00

well so exactly a week ago gracie woke up and i asked her if she needed to go potty and she said yes and so i put her on the potty and she actually went - so i thought today is as good of a day as any to start potty training - so we took the diaper off -threw it away and out came the underwear - the funny thing is though - thursdays i work and so it was daddy's time to take over - anyhow the day was miserable -peeing left and right everywhere - we finally bought training pants and so they started to absorb most of the pee - but it was ridiculous putting her on the toilet every half hour just to have her get off and go ten minutes later - anyhow finally the last pee of the night she made it on the potty - anyhow so i really thought that this was going to take forever and that when people said kids got potty trained in a weekend they were lying hahahh - anyhow but the next day went better and better until - today a week later and gracie hasn't had any accidents lately and she is actually telling us when she needs to go - yipee - so i am sure there will still be accidents along the way - but yeah for gracie she is growing up :)

2009-01-20T12:41:00.002-07:00

So we went with my family down to the auto expo on saturday - which was a lot of fun - but because i was also potty training gracie we made many many many trips to the bathroom :)- anyhow it was a lot of fun - ben and i both found cars we would pick if they gave them away for free :) - ben found this subaru that he really liked and gracie loved pretending to drive it - and i found a pretty lexus suv thing that i would pick - that is the benfit of having a smaller family - i don't have to look at mini vans of suburbans anymore hahah - i can look at any car that holds three :)

see my pretty car i would pick :)

the big leap and the big mouth

2009-01-15T11:24:00.004-07:00

well we finally did it - i took gracies binky away from her on monday - we had a little lesson on sharing and how it makes Heavenly Father happy and gracie happy and everyone else and then i asked if she would share her binky with addy - so we went around the house collecting them and then i hid them and pretended i have given them to addy - and so far so good - although she does still ask for it alot and later that same night she told me she was done sharing with addy and wanted her binky back and i laughed - and now she will come up to me and tell me addy was sad so gracie shared and now she is happy again - and i always say oh good - funny kids

And now we are potty training - so yah for mom the two things she was dreading i just jumped in and did - and she was doing pretty good with me but i left her with ben to go to work today and he just called me and sure enough she had an accident - so i don't know if that was actually gracies bad or dad just not paying attention hahah - who knows :)

and oh yes the big mouth - well two pieces of information are needed to clarify the big mouth story - first - we have been working on who loves us and i will ask gracie who loves her and we will list people and then i will ask who gracie loves etc. . . - second- our neighbor gave us this cool windshield scraper thing that is shaped kind of like a funnel with a ice scraper on top - anyhow gracie thought it looked like a hat so we were wearing it and dancing around to the music and having fun - well it fell off my head and the ice scraper part hit her right between her lip and nose and so it was bleeding like crazy and she was screaming and i looked like someone had stabbed her with a fork repetitvely right there - anyhow on to the story

well so we go to my moms after church on sunday and alex and my mom are talking to her and in middle of nowhere gracie pops out with "mommy hurt me - she no luf me" - yes my child is telling others that i don't love her and i hurt her lol - i just really am crossing my fingers that she didn't tell anyone in nursery - i guess if i get a call from the bishop i will know hahahha- sneaky little devil this probably pay back for making me wait so long to open her christmas presents!

randomness

2009-01-13T12:13:00.005-07:00

christmas eve at the johnsons - amare and gracie where very excited to open up presents :)

I love the hot to cold - it always reminds of the twilight movie - when she tells edward that his mood swings are giving her whiplash - because it is so the same with gracie hahah

Christmas morning at the andersons yaahh- look at all the loot santa just brought the three of us -it almost makes me disgusted hahah

Gracie christmas morning - she had a late night and then a early morning and didn't quite know what to do about it - but look at that frog - didn't i do such a good job making it - i suprised myself hahahWe called tyler at 8 and talked for about two hours so waiting until 10 to open presents was a little harder on gracie then i thought it would be - she was ready to get started :)
Whiplash again - and we are back to happy- playing with our presents :)
Yesterday gracie was in a good mood singing and dancing with her toys - i loved it - she sings very softly but you can hear it is the first part of the abc's -the only part she knows by herself - i love it :)

the end and the beginning

2009-01-06T12:03:00.002-07:00

well here are 8 things about 2008 to sum up our year and then 9 things about 2009 that we are looking forward to

1. i got to become an aunt twice - mel and mitch had addy in sept and then brian and ely had kyan in december - i love being an aunt and playing with babies and then not having to be responsible - it is great :)

2. i finally graduated yah for us- i bet gracie was the second most excited after me - because now she has her mom to play with all the time - which i love :)

3. reunions - i had the fun chance of getting together with most of my roomates and playing with them and there kids and then also my friend megan got married to her husband - finally :)- they had know each other ten years - which also spurred on hanging out with high school friends that i love and never get to see - and also due to those reunions i now have a blog which allows for me to feel like i keep in contact with others- even though i never talk to them - so i am not sure if it should count as keeping in contact or stalking hahaha

4. babies - this one is kind of sad - after numerous infertility treatments my body just said no to having more kids - which was a sad so we tried to adopt and that fell through at the last moment - which also was sad - however with all the sadness came some very personal moments with my Savior and my Heavenly Father who lifted and carried and comforted our family through some very difficult times - and because of those moments i wouldn't trade our sad experience for anything - which i guess in the end makes this one not so sad after all :)

5. Scriptures - this year the scriptures- and mostly the book of mormon- became very dear to me and almost a lifeline for me to my Heavenly Father - i have had lots of moments this year where i have felt my Savior speaking to me through their words and i have come to love and rely on the scriptures - so now it is hard for me to go a day without needing the comfort and the strenght they give - which i love - i am happy that they have become more than just a book this year

6. Twilight - it is silly but it was a part of my year - ask my husband it came out over our anniversary and the book came first - i think though the reason it was so much this year and not other years - is not only because of the movie - but also because so many other people finally started to read it and love it like i did when the first one came out - so now i have people to talk about it with :)

7. gracie- she has grown up so much this year she started nursery in jan turned two in july and then finally started talking the last few months-i seriously was being to wonder about that department and if she ever would - and now it is just like everyone told me it would be - she talks fine and a bit too much hahahah - although luckily she usually sides with me instead of her dad- so she is always telling him to slow down in the car and i love it because he listens to her :)

8. - last one - i should make it important - so i am going to have to think for a second - hmmmmm. . . . . well bens grandpa died - and that was sad because he was the first person i really remember dieing and the funeral was very awkward for being and i did not like looking in the casket - maybe the next funeral i go to will be better - i guess i just need practice at them or something

2009:

1. gracie is going to turn three - and leave the terrible twos behind her and become my darling little sweethart who never talks back again hahahha - i know it isn't really going to happen but i can wish can't i hahaha - and she gets to start talking dance lessons in the fall - from the same lady i did - weird - is all i can say

2. disneyworld - thank you mel and mitch and dad - i am very excited to talk gracie in may i think she is going to love it - and i intend to occassionally ditch her with grandma and grandpa and go on some large rollercoasters yahh

3. ben is going to school this year and it will be a new experience for our family and him :) - we will see how that goes hahah

4. tyler will be coming home from in mission in spain in december - so not for a while - but next year none the less

5. exercise - i intend to be skinny for disneyworld and tan - so i will need to hit the gym :)

6. potty training - i have been putting it off and putting it off - i mean i can tell gracie we need to change her diaper and she will go take her pants off and her diaper and get a wipe and wipe herself and then bring me the diaper to put on her -- - so i am thinking that my child is ready to be potty trained and that mommy is just to freaked out to try - so i think i better stop being a wuss and just do it - at least in the next year - i may just wait till next month hahah -

7. friends - i look forward to having fun with my friends - i am finally making some :) and so it will be fun to just laugh and have fun with them

8. family - my family is the best mine, extended, and in-laws - i really do have a great family support system who help me laugh and do crazy things and have band practice - i really like rock band :) - and occassionally beat me up - thank you alex - so i look forward to all the games of 3 to 14, the movies, the dinners, the talking back to each other , the bowling tournaments, the hikes and everything else that family includes

9. and last but not least - i look forward to seeing if our honda will make it one more year - it has been on its death bed for quite some time but it just keeps going so really if it makes it another year i think that will be the biggest suprise ever :)

family night

2008-12-20T18:12:00.003-07:00

Well - for family night we went over to my mom and dads and for the activity we decorated houses- and in the spirit of unity we had a contest between ben, chelsea and tanner- they had to just use graham crackers and then me, alex, mom, and then later shae and dad, - gracie just sat and ate whatever candy she could get her hands on - anyhow we had the creater kit and it was a gingerbread train kit - but it was a lot of fun I couldn't belive how creative chels and tanner and ben where - they made a hunting lodge - if you can't tell - it was in alaska -because that is where tanner is going on his mission - anyhow it is so good i still can't belive it they had a little fish pond with fish and everything - i love it - i think they should have won because they just did it from scratch - sort of - :)

Here alex is trying to get gracie to open her mouth so he can throw candy into it - she never got it - hahah This is what my team produced - not quite as cool - however - alex did try to make it interesting - if you look carefully our train has hit one of the animals we were carrying and it has become a bloody mess - that was alexs doing just so you know- and also i think shae egged him on :) hahah

Below is a better picture of our poor animal cracker - split in half and bleeding

Afterwards we decorated moms tree This was what gracie had done while the rest of us were trying to make the tree look beautiful :) See if you can count how many ended up in that little area - there were at least six alone on the one branch - hahaha - good work gracie

flossing again

2008-12-18T12:51:00.003-07:00

A while ago i posted that gracie really likes to floss - well she still does :) - we were in a hurry to get ready for something and so gracie had gotten a bath and she loves to sit in the sink and get her hair blow dried to warm her up and so i did it - even though we needed to get going and so we brushed our teeth and i started to get her down - well she threw the biggest fit and i couldn't figure it out - well apparently she wanted to floss - and i realize that that is a good habbit and i should keep her in it- but like i said we were running late so i said that we could do it later - anyhow as you can see from the picture below - that did not go over well - and so after laughing at how funny i thought the whole situation was turning out to be - i got the camera out and snapped a before and after picture - apparently she is serious about her flossing hahahah

christmas lights

2008-12-12T12:01:00.003-07:00

well its official gracie loves christmas lights - everywhere we go it is 'lights this and lights that' it makes me laugh and now she has figured out how to plug our christmas tree lights in by herself and so she is always playing with the outlets - which i asked ben if that was a bad thing to let your child do because i know they sell those outlet cover things as child safety - anyhow but he said it wasn't too bad all she would get was a little shock or something and then hopefully stop playing with them -so i let her- which once again i haven't decided is a bad parent thing or not -anyhow but she was so happy about the lights that when we were putting the outside lights up she stole one of my strands and it is now hanging in her room -thanks to daddys help - anyhow it is cute though because she won't go to sleep without her christmas lights on and so then i have to go and sneak in and unplug them when we go to bed so that they aren't on all night -but it is cute watching her get excited about christmas and the baby Jesus - that is all she talks about - anyhow she makes me laugh and it is fun to enjoy christmas through the eyes of a child
Can you tell she was being stubborn and refused to smile for me -silly girl :)

Arizona

2008-12-02T12:57:00.008-07:00

Well Arizona was a ton of fun -if i kind of ignore and forget how bad my rear end hurt after driving down and back - It was a lot of fun playing with the whole family - minus ben who of course i love dearly and still missed greatly :)- anyhow hear is bits and pieces - i will leave out the part where alex nearly killed me by taking me down and how in order to be rescued mel and chelsea and finally mitch had to jump in - hahahBut thursday morning after helping grandma get a few things ready chelsea and alex started working on a project that when i asked if i could help was told to go away - anyhow so i did - i went on a walk with the rest of the family and when we came back home we were handed these invitations:It was a bowling tournament on the wii - which apparently alex had brought up - anyhow it was a ton of fun the first round was me grandma and grandpa and mom -and to my suprise me and grandma made it to the second round - well dad and mitch and alex and chelsea played next and surprise surprise alex and chelsea won-obviously they had been practicing since they knew there was going to be tournament - anyhow so then it was the four of us to play for the winner -except that gracie was throwing a fit so mel stepped in for me -anyhow - chelsea was winning big time because she kept getting strikes - but grandma came in from behind and rolled strikes in round 8 and 9 and then 10 in ten -four strikes in a row -so grandma came out triumphant -yah -anyhow it was great fun :)Just look at chelsea and grandmas faces closely and you can tell who did not do as well as they would have liked and lost :( hahahah

Then there was thanksgiving dinner -which was so yummy and enjoyable - because me being the kind of selfish mom that i am i let gracie nap right through dinner so that i could enjoy it and then woke her up after i was done - i know sad - but i got to sit through dinner and enjoy it so it was worth it in the end - anyhow here is gracie eating her thanksgiving dinner all by herself - but enjoying it none the less

After dinner gracie was playing and her new favorite thing right now is to do hair -well my hair is not as fun to do because it wasn't as long as chelseas -anyhow chels was so patient she sat there for at least a half an hour as gracie combed her hair and would try to pull it into a pony tail - it was so cute and funny The other fun thing about this week was watching gracie and addy play together - it was so cute -in fact it became not so cute -when gracie screamed her brains out for a half an hour because addy left to go home - still i love this second picture it just looks like a mom feeding a baby bird - but really it was gracie getting the biggest kick out of getting addy to smileMy other FAVORITE thing about going to arizona besides seeing grandma and grandpa is going to sedona and going hiking :) although it was so sad because i was looking so forward to going but gracie -who was definetly sleep deprived - went into major temper tantrum mode- it was so sad and funny at the same time because when we got out of the car she wanted me and only me to carry her-well i informed the child that she was old enough to walk herself and so she through herself at me and screamed and screamed and screamed -well everybody but mom and dad started up the hike -anyhow it was almost embarressing because here we are in beautiful and serene nature and then gracie screaming like a banshee for about 20 minutres all the while trying to rock climb up my legs -anyhow after 20 minutes i finally gave up and so we walked half dragged gracie back to the car and put her in the carseat where she proceeded to scream her brains out again for the next 15 minutes finally she calmed down enough and she wanted out of the car badly enough that walking didn't seem like such a bad idea after all - anyhow it was quite the parently experience ahahah-but after she had calmed down we tried to catch up with everyone and gracie hiked for about a mile all by herself -well grandpa helped keep her happy - but it was a lot of fun in the end

As you can see gracie had to bring her purse with her - and she was so funny she would walk for a little bit and then have to stop and open it up and look and make sure all of her stuff was still inside and then she would zip it back and keep going -anyhow she did this over and over again it was so funny Gracie also really liked playing with uncle alex towards then end they were running and jumping down to the bottom of the hill and gracie would have to mimic everything alex tried - it was a lot of fun

thanks

2008-11-18T13:30:00.002-07:00

Thank you everybody that made my birthday so much fun this year - i felt like it lasted for a week at least :) yah - anyhow so thank you -especially ben who was SUPER nice to me and let me do what i like for my birthday week - love you all

thanks again

oh ya - i picked these pictures because the balloons just make it feel like you should be having a birthday celebration for whoever :) -plus i like the picture so why not post it hahaha

into the woods

2008-11-06T12:00:00.003-07:00

Ben took me to see "into the woods" at the hale centre theatre on satuday and it was so good - i have always loved this musical but seeing it on stage was so much fun - especially because it is a round theater and so the cast members were up and down the stairs in and out of holes in the stage - anyhow i loved it and now i am tring to convince him that i need season tickets-we will see how that goes :) i love you hubby -thanks

playing in the leaves

2008-11-04T12:48:00.009-07:00

The other day gracie and i were bored so we went to go on a walk but the leaves looked like too much fun so we-hahah mostly me- raked a big pile of them to play in and of course take pictures in as well -anyhow i am really glad that we did now that it is basically snowing today-anyhow i love these pictures-and i was really glad when ben came home and took over the camera because if you can't tell -there were definetly two different people taking these pictures-the normal pictures- me - and the very good ones-ben -i love my hubby -yah

halloween party

2008-10-30T12:48:00.002-06:00

i love the halloween party we have every year -and this year the johnsons side came to which made it even more fun because i had both sides of my family around for the fun-

well every year we do it and we always dress up- and give out prizes- and have dinner, donuts on a string-check out the slide show the pictures are so funny-i love the one of my cousin michael just eating the string- and then we play bunko for prizes -it is a lot of fun

this year we had three categories for prizes- the scariest, funniest, and best

my mom had the scariest, tom was the funniest, and then madelyn and olivia won the best overall-but everyone dressed up great this year

I will see if i can get everyone starting on the top left -uncle jim as dilbert - aunt jean as wendy, as in the fast food- tanner as the eighties kid, you have to love the pants with the fanny pack - chelsea as the hawaiian babe - tom as mose, from the office, he looked just like him, it was weird - melissa as darby- and she is holding olivia who is obviously Pooh - Alex as some sort of log person i think - ben was the headless man - i was a princess - holding gracie who was a dragon - layne a football player, his wife bobbisue a cheerleader - ely as a pretty good looking pregnant batman - naomi as a football player - bob as the referee -

next row - brooklyn as a witch - mom as some freaky looking spider lady, she had this huge spider crawling over her back - kaylee as super kaylee - madelyn as tigger - breanna as a cheerleader - amare as a witch - and then the two lying on the grass - rachel as a baby and jacob as spider man -

then in the slides you can see mel and mitch who came a little late- mel was an elephant, addy as a tiger and mitch as a zoo keeper, which i didn't think was much of a costume for him because he kind of runs a type of zoo at home - hahaha

and then the two not pictured because they were taking the pictures - michael as peter parker :) and then my dad as himself - which probably could have won the scariest costume if it were allowed -just kidding dad - i love you

i like to move it move it

2008-10-16T12:57:00.005-06:00

anyhow here is an update on my exercise program-well i am on week 4 and i am up to 36 minutes of cardio for five days a week and then one day a week double that -which was a hour and 12 minutes-which i thought i might die towards the end; however, i did prevail yahh :) -plus the three days a week of weight lifting and stomach exercises everyday -anyhow so far so good i have been keeping up and doing it pretty consistently-i did slack off a little on the stomach workout last week but i am trying to be better this week- all i have to say is the end result had better be worth it hahahah-because i am putting some sweat into this :)

-sorry this song was stuck in my head and seemed appropriate for the title of my post-so now i will pass this song along to you in hopes that it will go from my head to yours hahaha

all dressed up

2008-10-14T11:19:00.006-06:00

I asked gracie to go take off her pajamas and get dressed one morning and so she disappeared for a while but the boys were over, i watch my friend kims two boys some mornings when she is in school, anyhow the boys were over and so even though it had been a while since i had heard from her-which usually means something disasterous is going on-i was distracted and so i didn't notice anyhow a while later this is how she came out dressed- underware, one glove, a hat and a necklace-gotta love it -anyhow i couldn't help but laugh at her choice of clothing and take a picture

anyhow because i took a picture of gracie uriah and gabe wanted there picture taken as well so i lined them all up -anyhow this picture makes me laugh-at least their mom can handle getting them dressed-for all concerned grandparents- i did however, add some more clothing articles to gracies body before we went outside or shopping hahaha

Gracie loves having the boys over to play with her in the morning anyhow lately their new thing to do is throw all of the couch coushions on the floor and then make flying leaps from the couch onto the floor -it makes me laugh especially when they are not careful and collide with each other and then just get up and do it again-no tears or anything hahah

i just loved this picture of uriah it was so stinkin cute

scrapbook stuff

2008-10-02T12:11:00.010-06:00

As my sister requested -for the broadcast our stake had us bring a talent and these are some pictures of what i brought- i got this idea from her because she had done some for addys room and i thought they were so cute i decided to try doing it for gracies room

And then i just brought one of my scrapbooks-here are a few pages from them -hope you like them :)-you might recognize the pictures because they are my favorites-ribbions have been my favorite accessory lately if you can't already tell

relief society broadcast

2008-09-30T11:54:00.002-06:00

i am sure everyone did -but i loved saturday nights broadcast-i loved it from beginning to end and i can't remember if it was in the prayer or one of the speakers that said they hoped that the Holy Ghost would add to what they were saying to be what we needed to hear and i know that that happened -anyhow i loved sister becks talk about relief society and how even though we are doing good we need to do better-i am just going off memory and feelings so hopefully i am not too off from what she said-anyhow it made me think of how that happens to me all of the time i feel like i am reading my scriptures, saying my prayers, having FHE, going to the temple, being friendly with the neighbors, doing my visit teaching-which is all good but i can do it better- anyhow i also loved the three things she said relief society should do-help with personal growth, with family and with others- so i figured that even in my regular life when i am doing something i should look at those reasons and make sure that it falls into one of those categories- i don't know she said so much great things that after it was over i was sad i did not bring a notebook to take it all in- i also loved Elder uchtdorfs (??) talk i loved that he told us to come out of ourselfs when we feel sorrow and hardship and to help others i know that for me it is too easy to wallow in self pitty and just plain sorrow when things are hard and are emotionally upseting but i loved that he told us that they way to find happiness is to find God's happiness and that by showing compasion to others that happens -anyhow i know it was all things that i have heard before but i love how the Holy Ghost works and speaks to us exactly and specifically the things that our spirit needs to hear-it is wonderful -anyhow i told ben though-now when i want to scrapbook he should let me because really it is helping with my spiritual growth- hahaha -let me know what you loved

-i know it was silly to talk about what i liked but i thought if i wrote it down it would help me remember it better -so that is what i did -hopefully it helps hahhaa

the kitty

2008-09-26T12:30:00.006-06:00

Well lately i have been bugging ben to get a dog-luckily he keeps saying no because really i don't need another little creature to have to potty train- anyhow so we decided to compromise and get a free kitten for a week -well we got one and of course gracie LOVES it- she takes 'the kitty'-that is the kittys name i didn't want to name it and get too attached so we call it 'the kitty' -and puts him in the baby swing, in the bathtub, at the dinner table, in her blanket. . . she carries 'the kitty' everywhere-these pictures don't show it but if you could see her arms you would see that that sometimes 'the kitty' doesn't appreciate being drug from place to place-

i have to watch gracie closely though because she already is showing signs of having a temper because when the kitty doesn't do what she says she picks the kitty up and yells at him to stop with a delayed please -because we are trying to learn that if we say stop then we need to say stop please- and then chucks him across the room-which i promise is not how i parent hahaha - but at other times watching them play together is the cutest thing and melts my heart -

it was really funny -after getting scratched so much she found this old basket in the garage and so she would put 'the kitty' in it and carry him to avoid being scratched and then the funniest part is she puts him in the basket on bens skateboard and then gets on herself and pushes the two of them around the driveway-it is very ingenious on her part -

my exercise program

2008-09-23T12:20:00.003-06:00

Well when we were at peach days we went to the book buy at the library where you can fit as many books as you want into a grocery bag for 2 dollars -anyhow one of the books i saw was 'bob greens 12 week body makeover" anyhow and since it was so cheap i threw it in the bag-and on monday i started the 12 weeks -along with both Naomi, mother in law, and Breanne, sister in law, -anyhow i am excited-it is kind of hard work and quite often-but it will be okay as long as there are results-i am willing to try anything once

I decided to post that i was doing this in a way to motivate myself to keep going and finish it -that is also why i tried to get Naomi and Breanna to do it with me because the more the merrier and more likely i will keep going -so i guess if you see me in the next few months you will have to tell me i look better-just so i think that this program is actually working hahahah

Here is my best 'before' picture i could find-i never get my picture taken- hahaha

my feelings exactly

2008-09-18T11:17:00.007-06:00

-isn't this how you feel sometimes- hahaha

i read Tenilles post and decided to do my job with some of the things i am grateful for:

1. Jenny-her and her miracle just made me so happy that i can't help but smile

2. Ben & Gracie-although that is an obvious answer so here is a specific reason for each

-Ben - because he keeps saying no to a puppy-which deep down i know is not a smart idea but they are just so cute that i keep begging-so i am grateful he keeps saying no or else i would be cleaning up puppy messes right now

-Gracie - because she loves to dance and so whenever we are just sitting and being lazy she turns on the music and we dance-which is a good form of excersize so i am grateful that she gets me up and moving

3. Kim-it is rare to find a true friend -and she is-Heavenly Father knew i would need a friend like her now and so he sent us to the home that we are in now so that i could meet her-i am very grateful for friendship - very

4. Eddie-because as annoying as he is sometime-hes our dog- he always cleans the kitchen floor and i am thrilled about that-sometimes he even gets the food before it touchs the ground hahah

5. Scriptures - i know it sounds kind of cheesy - but lately i crave-which is unusual for me because usually that description is for chocolate only- but i crave the peace and knowledge that comes from them - it is weird it will be in the middle of the day and i will get excited to read that night to see what new thing Heavenly Father is trying to tell me

6. - i will have to fill this one in later- i am still thinking

my pretty special husband

2008-09-16T10:44:00.007-06:00

I am pretty lucky to have such a great husband-although i am sure most people think the same about there own husbands-anyhow lately i have been a little down and out and so yesterday ben came home from work and asked if he could give me a blessing-which i think i was in desperate need of but too prideful to ask for-silly me- i am just lucky that i have a husband who does what he does so that he can be in touch with the spirit to give me that extra support that i need- and also that he honors his priesthood and can use that to help support our family and me- i love him to death-even if occasionally i get mad at him for not picking up his shoes -hahaha- and although it seems a bit silly to post this- i think it's important that he can read this and know that i mean it when i say i am lucky

how sad though-i can hardly find any pictures of the two of us together in them-so this is the best that i could get