Only 50% of my posts can be about free food so...

I am posting something else. This is Marty by the way. I love my wife. She surprised me today with the movie "The Best Two Years." Great movie and all but has extra special meaning to us because today is the six year anniversary of our first date to that movie. (Of course I already knew that without the surprise present...)

It has been so fun to reflect on our first date though and how much has changed. I actually took her to that movie because I knew she was planning on a mission. I think we were both excited for the date but certainly didn't think of the implications of it at the time.

And even though we didn't date seriously til ten months later and the biggest yes came in the temple, eight months after that, I still can't help thinking about the magnitude of the decision that she made to say yes to a goofy guy asking her on a date. (Especially since she said no the first time. Haha teasing Em) And I am so grateful that she took the chance. All of the real happiness that has come to me over the past 6 years stems from the chance you took Em and I am so thankful that you did. I love you.

Watcha doin for lunch today?

Marty and I have this thing about posting free food. Marty has only posted three times on this blog. Two of them were to announce free food and one of them was to announce the birth of our son, so I guess that tells you how we feel about free food. SO, if you go to Jack in the Box today, February 23rd, and order a drink, they will give you one of their new grilled sandwiches for free. I know a seminary teacher my kids and I will be visiting for lunch today.....

The evolution of Cinderella...

....is finally complete. *sniff*

Brynn has loved Cinderella since before she could really talk. The different ways she has said Cinderella have all been so cute and I've been dreading the day she could finally say it correctly. But, sadly the day has come. So to pay tribute (and to put it down so that I won't forget it), here is the evolution of Cinderella.

1. "Weh-wuh"

2. "Ci-weh-wuh"

3. "Ci-weh-yuh"

4. "See-wee-weh-yuh"

5. "Cin-duh-leh-luh"

6. "Cin-der-luh-luh"

7. "Cinderella!"

Congrats, kid. It's been a long road, but you've finally made it. :)

A few new Brycer discoveries, and Valentine's Day

Here is Bryce, looking sweeter than triple chocolate cake. Also looking VERY SHAGGY.


As you can see, his hair is beginning to curl a little around the ears.
But I don't know how to cut boy hair! About a year ago, I finally gave in to Marty's begging and pleading and learned how to cut my husband's hair. I hate doing it, it is so stressful! What if I do a terrible job one night, then send him into the lion's den the next morning - his seminary students....teenagers can be ruthless, you know. Anyway, I've been trying to trim Bryce's hair around his ears and his bangs, but that just wasn't going to cut it this time. So I took the easy way out and just BUZZED IT!

So here are my discoveries:

1. Bryce is even blonder than I thought.

2. Bryce is even CUTER than I thought (ya, I didn't know it was possible either)!

3. Bryce looks EVEN MORE LIKE HIS DADDY than I thought (and that one I definitely didn't think was possible)!!!

And here we are on Valentine's day making the traditional heart shaped pizzas.

Our tradition of heart shaped pizzas on Valentine's Day goes way back. The year we were dating, Marty sent a heart shaped pizza to my student government office and gave my friend an assignment to keep me there until the pizza was delivered. Which was hard since she was such a quiet girl and I was "in a hurry," and "no, I didn't order a pizza, that's for the other Emily, see ya!" Anyway, I finally caught on and thought it was the cutest thing ever. The next year he sent it to my office at the equity center (that was 6 months after we were married). The next year my baby girl was two months old, and you'd think I'd be expecting it. Luckily, Marty knows how forgetful I am and called to tell me that "Jeff said that Jana said she needs to come over and borrow something around lunch time, so don't go anywhere." Which was fine, because basically all I did for the first few months of Brynn's life was lounge around and snuggle with her. Surprise! Another heart shaped pizza! The next year I finally expected it, and got it. Last year Valentine's Day was on a Saturday and my mom was visiting, so we all went and got one together. Which brings us to this year and....

This beauty! I must say, there are not a lot of meals that I have perfected in my short few years playing housewife....but I am a really good pizza maker! This year I went all out and bought a nice bottle of artichokes. Marty wouldn't touch them because they are pickled, and he doesn't eat anything pickled or the slightest bit vinegar-y. :(

And Brycer enjoyed his first real treat that night!
Really, I just thought I hadn't quite posted enough shirtless Bryce pictures yet.

What we've been up to

A couple weeks ago my mom came out for a few days. Ever since then our guest bedroom has been this hallowed place, and everything in it is, "Grandma's bed" and "Grandma's window," etc. These two miss each other.




Our garden has grown almost as much as the kids have. Here is one of our broccoli plants.




We pulled it up and ate it a couple nights ago. It was way better the broccoli from the grocery store! Amazing that we are excited for the next bunch! It's also been really fun to just go outside and pick a salad for dinner. We had 4 different types of lettuce growing. But one of them we didn't use because it tasted like Wasabi.











Marty is lovin' life at Queen Creek Seminary. And so is Brynn! We love going to the different school events that are now so close. This particular clip was taken at a girl's basketball game:


"GO QUEEN CREEK, GO QUEEN CREEK!"




There may still be a chance of bringing out a "rough and tumble" side of her. On the one hand, she's got a little brother who will literally wrestle her to the ground for a bite of her apple and a sports-loving Daddy who will play with her all day long and take her to as many games as she wants. On the other hand, she is terrified of the Bulldog mascot at those games, and I don't know if you noticed this, but in the previous picture she's outside gardening in her Cinderella dress. Oh, also on the other hand...





...I'm her Mom!!!



Thursday night we were BOTH bored to tears. Thursday is a long night for me sometimes because Marty doesn't get home until 10:00 or so. But I actually usually have a lot of fun. I try to take care of all major cleaning or other things on Wednesday, so that on Thursday it's easier to just have fun with the kids and to make sure I don't think of them as an obstacle (that word sounds a lot worse written out then it does in my head). Brynn eventually asked for a tea party, which is inevitable when she is bored. And I thought to myself, "Ugh, another tea party?" Which made me sad, because that's always been our favorite thing to do together. So to refresh our little tea party tradition, I upped the stakes and brought out....



My very Official "Fancy Schmancy" box! She's never seen any of my old dress stuff before and had some pretty awesome reactions. She picked both of our princess dresses, got out the glass slippers (truly), the gaudy jewelry, the wraps, the works!

*Bling Bling*

We made sure Bryce got some yummy treats at the tea party too,

And I tried to make sure he didn't get too bored. This night was Brynn's first attempt at using a camera. I think she did pretty good!

The last thing we usually do on Thursday is check out a movie from the Library and have a movie night. Usually movie night Thursday is a good chance for me to clean up the destruction left from our "fun" day. But last Thursday these kids were just so enjoyable I couldn't pull myself away from them!

Not Friday, though! On Friday we were ALL ready for some space. By the time Friday afternoon rolls around, the kids start to get sick of me and realize that they haven't seen their Dad in a couple days and they MISS HIM! Since last Friday they seemed to be especially whiny for him, so we took a trip out to downtown Mesa. I had some music to pick up and I miss Mesa. We had tons of fun looking at all the sculptures, which Brynn loved but was generally afraid of. It took me about four different tries to get a picture of her sitting this close to the polar bear.

We strolled around the Mesa Arts Center,
And of course we split a 5 Layer Brownie. I love that little guy popping up to say hello!
Bryce got this toy for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa. He FINALLY figured out that what makes it fun is to push something around in it. Like, pushing Sister into a wall.

And that's what the Johnson's have been up to!

Preschool!

Brynnie went to her first day of preschool on Monday!!! Her eyes are all red in the picture because she had been crying. Not from having to leave me of course, but from having to come back home. We got there and I was all prepared to give her a pep-talk about not worrying because I'd be back soon, but I didn't get the chance. She let go of my hand and ran past me into the house with the other kids, muttering under her breath "good riddance," or something like that.

I took another picture today on her second day to try and get one without her crying. I told her that as soon as I picked her up without any tears we'd go get a princess backpack to put all of her school stuff in. Unfortunately, she didn't earn it today. Maybe next time.

She is doing Joy School and I love it! All of the moms take turns having school at their house. I'll only have to do it every six weeks, but I am actually really excited for my turn!

Bryce 2.0

This is Bryce 1.0

I love Bryce 1.0 more than I ever knew was possible before I became a mom. Bryce 1.0 has also been a trial for me. Bryce 1.0 cries. A lot. A LOT lot. Whenever I walk away. Or walk back. Or hold him, or don't hold him, or rock him or stand with him or sit with him. He got a TON better after his acid reflux healed. But he's still been just a crier. And clingy. I can take the crying because he has the CUTEST and HAPPIEST times in between! But I probably wouldn't complain if there were more of the happy moments....

Enter Bryce 2.0.

Bryce 2.0 is happy. He grins at me when I walk away and he can find things to entertain himself. He smiles whether he is sitting or standing or laying down. And 2 days ago for the FIRST TIME EVER he woke up from a nap cooing instead of screaming. Bryce started being Bryce 2.0 a couple weeks ago. Marty and I aren't really sure what happened or why he hasn't been crying so much. We are just crossing our fingers that he is entering a new (and permanent!) phase of life. The last couple of weeks have been SO MUCH FUN at the Johnson house!!!!