Marty, Emily, Brynn, and Bryce

Chandler Train Museum

2012-02-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

We recently discovered the Chandler Train Museum. It was basically the thrill of the life time for our little ferroequinologist. It's funny how much two-year-old can pick up on. He was pointing out the caboose, freight car, coal car, boiler, engine, electric train...and a bunch of other things I can't remember off the top of my head. It was pretty adorable.

Rockin the mai thai. I have hardly used it this time around because Gabe is so ok with being put down when I need to get something done (as opposed to Bryce, who lived in this thing)/

These are a bunch of cars you can walk through on the Santa Fe train. The picture right below me is hard to even look at. It was this long, skinny hallway and I got about ten steps down the hall and starting having a panic attack. I seriously started shoving Marty and the kids backwards saying "I gotta get outta heeere!" Yep, claustrophobia. Don't worry, it only took me two more tries to take a deep breath and venture in. :)

"What'll it be, little lady?

Dead to the world. Which I am just fine with considering what a germophobe I've been having a newborn in the winter. I liked having him nestled safely inside without ever even having to touch him. :)

My angel. Have I ever mentioned how much I love having a little girl? One of my favorite movies is "White Christmas," an old Bing Crosby musical from the fifties. Well, during quiet time one day in December I popped some popcorn and we watched it together, thinking she'd get pretty bored. But she loved it! She asked me several times, "Hey, can we watch your favorite Christmas movie again today?" Which made me so happy. We would ooh and ahh over the pretty dresses and she wanted to sing "Sisters" together all the time. ANYWAY, she sat down, pointed at this picture, and said, "Hey! This is just like the "Snow" song from your favorite Christmas movie!" And it does look just like the club car on White Christmas. So we sat down and started singing it together. It was pretty fun. :)

Here he driving the train: "All a-BOARRRRD.........the Polar Eckpress!"

Marty caught me lovin' on Baby. Which isn't hard to do, I suppose, considering it's what I do with most of my time these days.

Up on the freight car: "Ok Dad, I'll be Rapunzel, and Bryce will be Flynn, and you'll be Mover Goffel and climb up my hair!"

This was a cooool train....

We actually got to ring the bell...

Let me explain this picture: The museum is only open from 12-4. You got it - right during nap time.

If you've ever seem Thomas's Misty Island Rescue, you'll understand why Bryce was so exited to see the jobi logs. He's usually using pencils or something as jobi wood and putting them down on his toy train tracks to block the tracks. Thank heavens for tractor, who always comes to the rescue!

A gooooood afternoon.

First Smile!!

2012-02-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

Six weeks

Reminds me of someone. Hmmmm....BRYCE!

Gabe at 7 weeks

2012-02-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

That is ONE scrumptious baby!!! HUGE thanks to my good friend Lucinda for this photo shoot! I just can't get over how much this little guy resembles my other two babies. The biggest difference is his lighter and thinner hair. So far it's looking to be about Marty's color. Which I love. He is as sweeeeet as can be and almost never cries. He has chunked up fast and I love to squish his chubby little legs. At his last check-up his weight was in the 75 % and his height was in the 85%. Love love love love love this scrumptious baby.

Alaskans

2012-02-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

In January, my brothers and sister in law came out to Arizona where they snuggled the baby,

played and crafted with the kids,

and soaked up the sun.

I'm so glad they've been able to come out to see all of my newborns!

Thanks so much for the fun few days, guys!!!

(the train ride at Schnepf Farms)

I can't believe she's five

2012-02-16T19:08:00.000-08:00

Well, the Brynnie-Pie turned 5. Lucky for everyone the day is long past, so no need for a weepy, sappy mom (which is what I was, considering I was still post-partum).

These are the new b-day jammies she got to wear to her polar express Christmas party at preschool. She is a BIG Hello Kitty fan right now. Funny, I don't even know what in the world Hello Kitty is. It's cute merchandise though, I suppose.

We went to see the zoo lights. Here she is posing like a cactus, and growling like a bear...

3 kids, 4 and under

2012-02-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

(obviously this is OLD because Brynn is now five)

Well, baby Gabe is two and half weeks old. And by the way, he is perfect. :) The recovery has been longer and harder than the other two. But at the same time, I feel like I've been able to manage things better this time, than when I went from one kid to two. Before I had baby #3, I went back on my blog to May 2009 to re-read what I had written about my first day with Brynn and new baby Bryce (after my help had left and Marty went back to work). I sounded totally overwhelmed. That had me a little worried. I guess since then I have altered my expectations for myself and learned how to manage a little more chaos. I also realized that not everything was going to be able to be "ideal," and that's ok.

My hospital stay was actually amazing and I was surprised by the fact that when it was time to go, I really didn't want to yet. I caught up on rest by sending Gabe to the nursery to sleep (who can sleep with a newborn grunting next to them?). My nurses and family were the best, I hardly changed any diapers the whole time I was there. Basically, I nursed the baby, loved on the baby (like CRAZY), handed the baby over and then slept or ordered room service. Not a bad way to spend a couple of days. :)

The first couple of days home were wonderful, too. Marty and my mom were there to take care of things, and once again I found myself in my own little world with my new buddy. I kept finding myself saying things like, "This is SO fun!" or "Let's have LOTS!" (Don't worry, I'm actually going to be pretty gun-shy after this pregnancy).

Then Mom left and Marty went back to work. So I found myself on Monday truly out-numbered with three kids and only two hands. I woke up feeling pretty good (Gabe was actually a pretty quiet sleeper those first few days), but also a little nervous! Confident too, though, and I'm not sure where that came from. I got my kids breakfast and ready for the day then sent Brynn off to preschool and Bryce off to a playdate. More loving on the baby, a little rest, a little housework. The kids got home and things got very busy, but still manageable. By the time Marty got home, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself! Dinner came to the door, thanks to a good friend, and I went to bed that night (or whatever "going to bed" is when you have a newborn with days and nights mixed up) feeling sore, tired, but pretty good about the day. But I can't have that, now can I? :) So Tuesday I got sick. I don't know how someone manages to get sick a week after giving birth considering the fact I hadn't BEEN anywhere, but of course I managed it. Plus Marty was super busy that week and I didn't see him a whole lot. Thus, the rest of that week was pretty rough. It was still manageable, but between no sleep at night and not having a lot of spare time during the day to just rest, it was pretty hard to take it easy enough to get better. Thank heavens for good friends offering meals and play dates for the kids. It was also nice to have a four year old around this time. When things got crazy at lunchtime, I could say, "Brynn, go make a meat and cheese sandwich for you and Bryce," and she could just go do it.

The second week has been better. I moved the baby out of my room already. I'm a light sleeper and Gabe has become the gruntiest baby ever and he was eating every two hours at night. My doctor said I was probably waking him up as much as he was waking me up. So I moved him out and now he eats about every 3 and a half to 4 hours at night. I'm feeling better and have more energy. I still get overwhelmed sometimes, but I keep going back to the word manageable. Nothing is perfect, and not much is ideal, but so far things are manageable.

The kids are completely in love. It's funny, when we brought Bryce home from the hospital, we didn't think we'd have to worry about Brynn around him, but we were WRONG. She totally didn't get it, she thought he was her toy and liked to do things like, oh, scratch his eyeballs just to get a reaction. Bryce is a rough and tumble boy, but has always had a very gentle side to him. I've never had to worry about him hitting or destroying things in the house. And he has stayed true to himself with this baby. He is as gentle as can be and never touches without asking. He'll be screaming and playing one minute, and then next minute he'll lay down next to the baby and start whispering soothing things in Gabe's ear. It's so precious, I melt every time. And neither of them have been acting out in jealousy. In fact, Bryce is a happy camper now that mommy can hold him again (it's been a couple of months). The only thing I've noticed is that the kids have been fighting a little more as they've gotten stir-crazy cooped up in the house (I'm paranoid taking the baby anywhere and it's actually been raining here in sunny AZ, can you believe it?).

Anyway, our newest little family member has just fit right in and it's just like he belongs here.

Gabe Martin is here!

2011-12-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well, Monday night was a big disappointment. I was scheduled to go in for the induction around 9:00 that night, but got a call around 7:30 to let us know they didn't have beds and were going to have to push back the induction. It was a big blow, first of all because I was having deja vu of my induction with Brynn being pushed back for almost two days. And I just felt like the time my mom was able to be here was really going to be ticking away if we had to wait that long. So Marty and I took a short date to Fry's to get a Redbox and some ice cream to try to take our antsy minds off of just waiting. I really did not feel like being at home. But then when we got out and about, I realized I really didn't want to be there, either. I only wanted to be at the hospital. So when we got home I just decided to go to bed early and try to get some sleep. Marty and I tossed and turned all night, not knowing if they were going to call at two in the morning that night or two days later on Wednesday. But we got the call Tuesday morning at 10:50.

We got to the hospital at about 11:30 and of course had all the checking in and everything to do. After I was finally admitted and ready we found out I was only at a 2. We started the pitocin at 1:00 and it seemed to be fairly slow going as at 5:00 I was still only at a 3. Although, considering the labor and delivery I had with Brynn, "slow going" is relative.

Leading up to the epidural I was having a lot of back pain, which I don't remember having my other two deliveries. It was a big relief to sit/bounce on the exercise ball. But pretty soon after that I had progressed enough on my own and decided I was ready for the epidural. This is the first pregnancy I've had where I've really considered trying it without one, but by the end of this pregnancy, I decided I had been through quite enough pain, thank you very much. After that, things went pretty smoothly. There were small things - like how the anesthesiologist forgot to turn on the pump for the epidural. So after the first dose of medicine wore off I asked my doctor (she came in to break my water at 7:00 pm) why nothing was really numb or anything anymore and she snooped around and said, "Hm, maybe because the machine is off and you're not getting any medicine." The other crazy thing was that anytime I tried to either sit up or lay on my back I'd get extremely light-headed and nauseous and my blood pressure would go way (way way way) down. I think they decided it was the way the baby was putting pressure on the veins or something. So I had to spend most of the delivery from that point on on my side, on ephedrine, and with the oxygen mask, which really bothered me. But I suppose there is a reason they call it labor, right? ;) As my three labors/deliveries have gone, I would place it somewhere in the middle. Brynn's was super traumatic, Bryce's was ridiculously easy. This one wasn't bad either. Funny though, as difficult as the experience is, the overwhelming feeling is one of a beautiful, sacred sacrifice. Anyway, by 11:00ish pm I knew it was time to push (and not a minute too soon). I pushed once and there was his head, pushed a second time and there was my sweet baby Gabe!! He was born on 11-29-11 at 11:07, weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20 1/2 inches. And was perfectly healthy and handsome!

Hehe, look at his old man hair! Bald on top, hair around the edges. Before I had this baby, I predicted him to be my first redhead, and he just might be. His hair is much lighter and less thick than my other two babies.

So, he does resemble my other two babies, but he has his own look, too. When I first saw Bryce it was the strangest feeling because it was like looking at an exact replica of Brynn. I was like, "Wait a minute, I already had this baby a couple years ago, where's my new one?" :) And to me, B & B still look SO much alike. What/who are you going to look like, baby Gabe? I think he's a Johnson....

My wonderful doctor, Barbara Newman, who has delivered all three of my babies. I absolutely love this woman. She is so easy to talk to, never makes me feel stupid for asking questions, lets me call the shots, and in general she just takes really good care of me. I remember when I was in labor with Brynn, Marty was hungry but kept putting off going to the cafeteria because he didn't want to leave me. It was just a few days before Christmas, but she said, "Go ahead and eat, I'll just hang out." So she just sat and chit-chatted with me about Christmas, what I was going to eat (morning sick the whole nine months - I couldn't WAIT to start eating again!), and other little topics. Then just before this last pregnancy they built a hospital which is literally just down the street from me, but she doesn't deliver there. So I tried another doctor - just once - and remembered how much I loved Dr. Newman enough to make the long drive out to her office and the other hospital. She wasn't going to be on call over the Thanksgiving holiday, but she gave me a special card to take with me to the hospital in case I went into labor that weekend. She said, "You drove all this way, and I am going to be the one to deliver this baby. You make sure they call me, even if it's on Thanksgiving day."

And Marty, of course, was amazing as always. He's gentle when he needs to be, backs off when he needs to, holds me when I need it, sticks up for me and my preferences, and is so intuitive about the whole thing. I love the feeling of being so "in this thing together." It's beautiful (I'll try to stop using that word, now).

I know it's hard, but just try not to be jealous of how great and non-icky I look in this picture (ugh). The first time the kids met their brother is definitely on my top 5 list of best parent moments ever.

They were both totally smitten.

THANK HEAVENS Grandma was around. I don't know what we would have done without her. The day after I had him she spent a good part of the day at the hospital with me and let Marty go home with the kids. She was so calm and has such a gentle quiet voice and mannerisms. She loved on my baby while I slept and got anything I needed before even telling her I needed it. That's such a mom thing. She also worked her tail off at my house which was a huge relief considering how anxious I felt about getting so behind on everything. Bryce was broken-hearted when she went back to Utah. He was weepy and pouty all afternoon after Marty took her to the airport and has said multiple times since she left:
Bryce: Mommy, where's Grandma?
Me: She's back in Utah with Grandpa."
Bryce: (pause).....I neeeeed her!"

What can I say? We are in baby heaven!!!

Last thoughts...

2011-11-28T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well, this is it. By tomorrow I should be holding the most heavenly thing I ever get to touch. I am so ready and excited to welcome the newest member of our eternal family. I wanted to write down a few last thoughts on the pregnancy, but now that I get here, all I can think about is how badly I just want my baby!

The kids have been so excited. I've been kind of surprised at how well Bryce seems to understand what's going on. He's been asking me most days if the baby was ready to come out. About a month ago I was laying on the back and all of a sudden felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I look down and Bryce is trying to shove a half eaten pretzel in my belly button. I asked him what in the WORLD he was doing and he said, "I giving the baby a nack (snack)." He kisses my belly all the time and I just think he's excited.

Brynn has been excited also, although the last few days she seems like she's been developing some serious anxiety over the whole thing. Last night we had a long talk about what it was going to be like when we went to the hospital and when we came home, etc. We told her we knew she was going to be such a good big sister and we were so proud of her and she started getting really emotional and trying not to cry. I couldn't figure out if it was because she was worried or really excited or what. I think maybe she just understands the depth of the situation and got a little overwhelmed emotionally, just like I have the last day or two. This is a big deal!

Marty is SOOOO baby hungry! He mentions being baby hungry multiple times a day and has started randomly stealing babies in church and from our friends. He is the cutest daddy. I can't wait to see him silly with a baby again.

As for me, I just need to be DONE with this pregnancy. It's been rough. Worth it, but rough. I know Brynn is ready to have her mom back. The other day she said she was going to have daddy cut off all my hair so that I would look like a boy so that I couldn't have a baby in my tummy again. That was kind of hard to listen to. She's been a total trooper, though. Very patient and helpful, but she's ready for the whole thing to be over with, too. This is the first time we will have left for the hospital not being sure about a name. We're close, I just need to see him first to be sure.

Our really random Fall

2011-11-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

Brynn right before a birthday party. This girl and her poses.

This picture is a funny story, and I can't believe it's almost all I have to show for Marty's amazing birthday. His brothers and family and Dad drove down from Utah on Labor day weekend (Marty's birthday) to SURPRISE him. I was in charge of keeping it secret and getting him out for a little while the day they came. Well, Marty was IMPOSSIBLE. Seriously, I had no idea how STUBBORN he could be. Long story short, we were gone much later that day than we should have been and his family had to break in through the back window and wait around for us. But the look on Marty's face when he saw them all in his house was so priceless. I honestly was worried he was going to pass out, he was so shocked. Anyway, we had a wonderful time and I am so grateful they were all able to come out for a few short days for Marty's big 30th.

Here are the kids with the cousins,

And games with the Johnson boys.

I told you this was random. This is our new temple wall. I made the frames with scrapbook paper and black paint. Marty and I visited a whole bunch of temples on our honeymoon and loved it so much that we decided that whenever we travel anywhere we'd make sure to see any temples that are around. So, finally six years later we got all of our pictures together and ta-dum! There are a few prints I'm missing, but if we find those, we'll be able to expand it even more!

Speaking of temples, we've been taking the kids to the new Gilbert temple periodically and taking pictures to document the growth of the temple and the kids.

Oh, HEY! Remember how this was the hottest August on record for Arizona? And I was lucky enough to be pregnant for it? And I thought the summer was NEVER going to END? And now it's November and FINALLY beginning to cool off? Just wanted to make sure you know how triumphant this picture is of us finally outside and enjoying the weather.

Oh, this is cute. Brynn picked up the idea of a field journal from a movie and decided she HAD to have a field journal to record her observations in. Then we called Uncle Corey who has real life experience with field journals and she's been even more determined. Brynn can stick with something for so long and work at it so determinedly. (new word?) Her last picture was labeled "I see mi cran box." I love trying to interpret four year old chicken scratch.

Two playful kids I can't get enough of. True story: this is the infamous Buzz Lightyear suction cup that my very strong two year old used to pull the entire TV off the entertainment center. Have to keep an eye on this one.

Constantly dancing.

Brynnie-Pie's first piano recital! It was just a simple five finger pattern I let her do before my other students performed. But I think she was pretty cute.

And I'll leave you with this hideous belly picture courtesy of Brynn.

Remember Halloween?

2011-11-20T13:05:00.000-08:00

Little Red Riding Hood

This was before the trunk-or-treat. And yes, we went trick-or-treating also. And yes. We ate all the candy. Now let us never speak of being 7 and a half months pregnant at Halloween again.

The cutest little skeleton you've ever seen.

And by the way, give me a moment to sing praises to good friends for free costumes. :)

And here is Jimmer Freddette and his basketball. Sigh. It's humiliating. As if I weren't enough of a spectacle already. Now let us never speak of being 7 and a half months pregnant at Halloween again.

It was fun to have a Marty with dark hair for the evening. Although, I have to admit, I was slightly worried about not getting the all the black out of his hair before going to work and having him get in big trouble! Of course I didn't tell him that until after I sprayed it dark....

We did other fun Halloween things. Of course carving a pumpkin. We are big, huge fans of Halloween at our house. I don't remember being all that into it, and then I had Brynn and she looooves Halloween.

Another fun thing we did on Halloween was to read our favorite Halloween book, "Big Pumpkin!" about a witch who uses her home-grown pumpkin to make pumpkin pie for her Halloween guests. Then we made our own real pumpkin pie. I always thought pumpkin pie was gross until my sister-in-law convinced me to try it with a real pumpkin. And then I loved it!

And here is a new favorite smile from the Brycer-Boo. Fun fact: Bryce has started calling himself Brycer-Boo.

Shake it off, Johnson

2011-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

Not gonna lie. This has not been a good week. It's been an emotional and physically intense week. I realize I'm starting to annoy myself, and if I'm this bad of company for myself then I must be even worse company for my family! :) I've been watching everyone post their "thankful thoughts" on blogs and Facebook, and I know that thankful people are happy people. And then I started looking through pictures on my camera and remembering how blessed I am and how much I have to be thankful for. So here is my therapeutic plan to snap out of it. I'm going to go ahead and post about my week, and then spend the day posting the wonderful things I've had in my life recently but haven't yet recorded.

Where to start? I'm being induced in a week! Monday the 28th we will welcome the newest edition to our eternal family! I've been glad it worked out for that day, because my parents were planning to come up for Thanksgiving anyway. And after we got the induction scheduled, we figured my mom would already be here, she could just stay a few extra days while I had the baby. So I'd get her a few days before the baby to help me prepare and a few days after. Which would be especially nice, because I don't carry my babies well and I've been in a LOT OF PAIN.

Anyway, on Tuesday I started feeling sick. I don't want to be sick two weeks before my due date. I do NOT want to go into labor sick. I'm feeling kind of bummed when my mom called Tuesday night to let me know that my Grandpa Oldham passed away. That's why I've been emotional. I'm really glad we were able to see him last month when we went up to Utah. No way did I think it would be the last time I'd see him. The really emotional part is not being able to be there. I wish I could be there for my Grandma Oldham, and of course for my Dad. I wish I could be there at the funeral tomorrow. If I wasn't only a week away from the big day, I'd even just send Marty up there for the day to represent our family. But I can't imagine going into labor without him. I miss my grandpa. I miss my family. Even my brothers and SIL in Alaska are flying out. And I'm here. And it's Sunday, and I'm still miserably sick, at home missing my little girl's primary program. I should be running around cleaning everything, making freezer meals, getting ON TOP of things the last week before baby comes, but instead my house has fallen to pieces and I'm about as behind as I get.

See how good I am at feeling sorry for myself? Ok, now that's out of my system. Let's start over:

I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to know and love my Grandpa O for 27 years. I'm grateful that my family is together for this. I'm grateful that as one family member leaves the earth, another is coming in just one short week (maybe they'll get to high-five each other on the way in and out!). I'm grateful that although my parents won't be here for Thanksgiving now, my mom will still be able to fly out and help when the baby is born. I'm thankful that my husband is a saint. He's GOT to be getting sick of this pregnancy. It hasn't been an easy one and this week I've just been at the end of my rope, but he never complains. As soon as he walks in the door he knows he's on duty and I can ask him for anything and he treats me like gold.

And now a short tribute to Grandpa:
(Can you tell from the picture how much FUN my grandpa was? Always joking, teasing...I love this picture)

Robert Jay Oldham

"Humor Even in Adversity"

Robert "Bob" Jay Oldham slipped peacefully from this life Tuesday evening, November 15, 2011. He was surrounded by his dear wife, children and grandchildren.

Robert was born April 27, 1929 in McGill, Nevada, the first child born to Verlin Henry Oldham and Ruth Lucille Madsen. He grew up on horseback in Mt. Pleasant, Utah and spent most of his youth working on the family farm. One of his fondest memories was his time spent working as a cow puncher on a ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

He was a sergeant in the Army during the Korean conflict. After returning home he married Gloria Ann Sperry in the Salt Lake City Temple, his sweetheart and best friend of 58 years. He worked primarily for Hill Air Force Base on the F16 fighter jets. He received various awards for his work there.

He loved fishing, hunting, and motorcycles. He was a hard worker and always willing to help others. Although he spent most of his life dealing with pain he never complained or let it stop him or slow him down. He will be greatly missed by his family members for his example and love.

He is survived by his wife, Gloria; son, Allan (Debra); daughter Barbara Davies (Edwin); sister, Beth (Melvin) Jones; brother, Jerald (Mary Ann) Oldham; brother in-law, Jay Sperry; sister in-law, Elma Sperry; grandchildren: Corey, Justin (Helen), Emily (Marty), Christy (Eric), Brent (Melinda) and Eric; great grandchildren: Anthony, Kathryn, Molly, Brynn, Bryce, and another great grandson expected any day. He is preceded in death by his parents and sister, Phyllis Sperry.

Funeral services will be held Monday, November 21, 2011, 11:00 a.m. at McDougal Funeral Home, 4330 South Redwood Road where a viewing will be held Monday, 10-10:45. Interment, Mona City Cemetery.

Published in Deseret News on November 19, 2011

And here are a few memories I e-mailed to my cousin. I didn't think at the time that I'd be posting them publicly or I would have written them out better. But here they are:

There are a few things I always looked forward to when visiting Grandpa. First of all, I loved playing with his smooth, shiny rocks. I loved getting new rocks from him and still have several bags of rocks from Grandpa. I also remember a couple times when he gave us a geode and let us pick some figurines to glue in. Another thing I couldn't wait for was to hear him call Grandma "Button." I don't know why I loved that so much. But the main thing I absolutely couldn't wait for when I went to see Grandpa, was to be teased by him. I loved being teased by him, and he knew it. I felt special, he made me laugh. It was kind of like our love language. One time that sticks out in my memory was when he started taking the food off of my plate, taking bites, and putting it back. I couldn't believe he would do that! But again, I absolutely loved that. I also loved that he called me "Emmy" for most of my life. Even as a "too-cool-for-that" teenager I loved it. I was either Emmy or Em, I don't remember him ever calling me Emily and that was something else that just made me feel special and loved by him.

Another random memory was when he and Grandma were (sweetly) bickering over whose spoon was in the sink and who should wash it. I think Grandma thought she had won, but we came in a few minutes later and found the dreaded spoon, hanging from a noose over the sink. He had to have been entertaining to live with!

And now I'm so grateful that my kids had a chance to get to know and love him. Especially Bryce. He is only two and might not remember Grandpa as he gets older, but we will make absolutely sure to talk to Bryce about him throughout his life, because they truly had a special connection. Bryce had acid reflux and was a really fussy baby, so when he melted into Grandpa to drink his bottle I was kind of surprised, but of course thought it was really sweet. Then after that, it always stayed that way. After Bryce learned to crawl, he would crawl to Grandpa. He was content on Grandpa's lap. This last summer, there was a bulldozer out by grandma and grandpa's street. Bryce loves those, and he was so excited. He ran back to Grandpa, grabbed his hand and practically dragged him over to see it, saying "C'MON, Grandpa!". It was this nail-biting moment of "He's going to pull Grandpa to the ground!" As Grandpa has said, "I took a step, skipped a step, took a step, skipped a step." For how little they were able to see each other, they just seemed drawn to each other. As Bryce's personality has developed, I think those two have some definite similarities.

Ok. So there is the heavy stuff. Onto the lighter moments of the last couple of months that are missing from my blog!

"I went right on biggering..."

2011-09-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Name that book!!! (I'll give you a hint: It sounds like Dr. Seuss because it is.) Anyway, I think that's a pretty accurate statement of how I feel right now. Here are a couple new mommy pics. It looks like I'm torturing Brynn, but I'm just braiding her hair to keep it out of the ice cream. :)

This one was taken yesterday after church.

And Marty thinks this very clever picture he took is soooo funny (eye roll).

The kids have gone right on biggering, too. Sorry about this picture quality, I'm in a big hurry right now, though, so....

Bryce got a much needed haircut....

(this is the before, by the way)

Everyone in our family is biggering except this guy, who has become a health food nut and exercise junkie and has lost about a bazillion pounds since we got back from Utah.

(Brynn caught his concentration face. He is no doubt in the midst of a serious football game and is calculating the effect on his fantasy football leagues. I know Marty's faces.)

Maybe someday I should take relieve Brynn of camera duty and actually take a decent picture of him. But you get the idea.

Letter to Arizona #3

2011-09-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Arizona,

You are victorious. You have crushed my resolve. I withstood the heat to the best of my abilities during June and July, but August has offically kicked my trash. I'm inclined to blame the pregnancy. But, no matter. I have a secret weapon - he is my knight in shining armor. He got me out of the valley and took me on an over-nighter in nice, cool, Snowflake, AZ, where we took walks in the cool night air and ate breakfast on the patio in the morning and I almost (almost) got a little chilly. So....in your FACE, AZ summer.

Sincerely,

Emily

I can't talk about it

2011-08-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

A week later...

2011-08-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

Well, Bryce has only had one wet accident since day 2 of potty training. But he wets in his sleep and still hasn't gotten the hang of number 2. And that is getting old. I had a really frustrating realization last night. I checked on Bryce before I went to sleep and he was wet, so I had to get him up and change him and change his sheets and do that load of laundry. Then I checked on Brynn, and SHE had wet the bed (which she NEVER does - I guess Bryce is rubbing off on her). So I went through the whole thing again with her. That day had been extremely strenuous for me (more on that later) and although I had been doing serious hard labor in the house all day, my work still was not done. And the conclusion I came to was this:

"It is SO UNFAIR that my kids can can create that much work for me IN THEIR SLEEP." Seriously unfair. *Exasperated sigh*

About my day yesterday: Scorpion sighting number 3 occurred. If I was so compelled to start obsessively cleaning like a meth addict after finding the first two in the garage, you should have seen me after finding one IN THE HOUSE. So, no more scorpions in the house while I'm pregnant. My poor body can't take another couple days like this. Anyway, as always, Brynn was my cheerleader and kept an eye on the scorpion while I got my trusty frying pan. I didn't get this one hard enough, because it fell down on the stairs and kept moving. So I literally cut in up with a knife and threw it away. Later, Brynn told me she was not proud of me because I didn't say a prayer when I was scared. That was embarrassing. So I told her we could say a prayer of thanks that we were protected. She was ok with that and was proud of me later. But it was the sweetest thing. She insisted on staying next to me the whole rest of the afternoon because she said Heavenly Father had sent her to protect me. :) Someday that story is really going to embarrass her. :) So she sat 3 feet from me where ever I was cleaning and filled up an entire notebook of drawings (mostly rainbows and Grandma and Grandpa).

So here I am on a Friday night at 9:30 and I am struggling to stay awake and typing is the only thing I feel fit for. But despite some small frustrations, I still love my life (*non-exasperated sigh*). Because look at what else I got to be part of today:

Life's simple entertainment in the Johnson house

Bryce informs me that today he wants Brynn to help him with his clothes. Brynn, feeling very honored, takes her duty seriously.

She is patient and diligent when he proceeds to run away into the closet.

"Oh Bryce, you look so cute!"

Bryce thinks this whole ordeal he has gotten himself into is over.

But, no. He needs socks now, so he can go downstairs and dance with Brynn.

He will have none of that. And off he goes.

Running and rolling from his poor, frustrated sister (I hear ya, Brynn - that rolling drives me nuts).

But now she has to switch his pants, because she put on a size too large for him and they keep falling down. At least if she wants to do the job, she's going to do it right.

Of course, not if Bryce has anything to say about it.

Obviously, we are nearing a melt-down here. (That's Bryce hiding behind the chair).

This is where Mommy steps in. But he is finally dressed and he, in Brynn's mind, "goes willingly" out to the dance floor.

Bryce gives in and Brynn is satisfied. And Mommy is thoroughly entertained and happy that her camera was on hand.

I know, I know. Such small entertainment, but those are the moments I love and don't want to forget. There is nothing like hearing your kids laugh or play, but it's just that much more when they are laughing or playing (or even getting frustrated) together.

Woooooooow

2011-08-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

*This loooong post is for my personal journaling purposes. No hard feelings if no one reads it. :) I just have so many thoughts I want to remember, so....

For so many different reasons, wow. What a weekend. Where do I begin? How about a short letter to Bryce?

Dear Bryce, I am so sorry for all the times that I cursed your stubborn-ness, strong will, and independence. Sometimes I forget that those qualities can be used for something other than making demands or saying "no" to Mom. Those qualities are going to be a blessing in your life. You are a kid who knows what you want to do, and how to accomplish it. Keep on Brycing.

Love, Mommy

I just spent three days potty-training Bryce. That means full and constant supervision. And by that, I mean I never took my eyes off of him. Ever. Ever. We lived in the loft for three days. I didn't bring a single project, or a book. We just played together, read books, watched movies, and snuggled. And DRANK LOTS AND LOTS while we did all that. No pull-ups, just big boy undies. We threw away all the diapers. No turning back. It didn't take very long before I got my first chance to run him to the potty and show him what to do. He didn't much like that and then we went through about three hours of ear-piercing screaming while he tried his absolute darndest to hold it in. Then he was completely tuckered out and while he was half asleep we got another chance to run him to the potty. This time he was too exhausted and just gave in and went on the potty. After he woke up he had a couple more accidents, but then the rest of that first day he either said, "Mom, I need to go potty," or he'd say yes or no if I asked him and that was that. The second day, lots and lots more drinks and he kept the same clean undies from 9:00 in the morning until the next morning (when he woke up wet). The third day, the only undies change came from waking up wet. Other than that, no accidents the third day. So here we are on day four, not encouraging constant liquids, just leaving him to his own devices and reminding him every once in a while to tell me if he needs to go potty and he's doing amazing!

SO, that said, we are still not there. I guess I could consider us a third of the way there, but we are still working on number two (he's holding it, just like Brynn - but I think we are close) and waking up dry. I'm not sure how to help him with the overnight stuff because that's the one thing Brynn never had a problem with, she just never woke up wet.

So here are a few reflections. That little boy, that little boy. He is amazing. I'll admit I was very apprehensive before the weekend started. First of all, Bryce has a mind of his own, and I was fully expecting him to fight me tooth and nail. I wasn't expecting him to WANT to succeed at it so badly. He was determined to figure that potty out. Second of all, the kids were up until 10:30 Friday night, unexpectedly. We took the kids to the indoor play place at the mall where some kid yanked on Bryce's arm and put it out of socket. It took us a while to realize that's what was wrong, though. We still attempted to take him to Walmart to help us pick out drinks and undies and stuff, but by the time we got back to Queen Creek he was still crying and would let out a blood curdling scream any time we breathed on his arm. By this time it was probably 8:45 or so. I finally did what I should have just done in the first place - called my mom. :) She told me about what it was like when my arm used to pop out of socket and might as well have been describing Bryce. She also advised us not to wait until morning, so we left the parking lot and went BACK to Mesa to twilight pediatrics (I love our doctors!) and she popped it back in and showed us how to pop it back in for future reference (which was good to know because that has happened one other time already). She wanted us to stick around a little while to make sure he would start using it again, which he did. So by the time we got BACK to the store to grab all that stuff, it had been a long night. (Why does it take me so long to tell stories?)

SO, I was apprehensive about Bryce having a cranky day Saturday. And to be honest, I was also a little bit worried about spending three days with no breaks (like, not even walking into a different room without him) because as I've said, he can be a little intense. Well, I guess I didn't actually have much to worry about. He did have a rough Saturday morning, but he got a good nap and was fine. And my little crier - I can't believe I'm saying this - did not cry for two and a half days. Not a single tear. No whining, no complaints, no "MOOOM!!" Just a pleasant, 100% good-natured, snugly sweetheart. I wish beyond anything that it was realistic to be able to hold him on my lap constantly. I wish all the housework and life's other nuisances would just go away and the Bryce and I would live in bliss!! I guess that's all he really wants when he starts to turn back into Bryce 1.0 - just my undivided constant attention (which includes holding him - it's not enough just to talk, he wants to be held). By last night he soooo had me wrapped around his finger. I put him to bed, and he came out a few minutes later and said, "Mom, I sad! I want you sleep with me." And I realized that I was already missing him and couldn't wait to hold him again! So I let him lay down with me in my bed until he got tired. I realized I was also missing Brynn. Marty had her most of those three days, and we had some good friends take her off my hands quite a bit also. I think she actually really like that, but was a little suspicious about being passed around that way.

Anyway, I am so proud of my little buddy. What a sport. I think back on the last few days, and wonder, "Did that SERIOUSLY just happen? Did Bryce learn how to pee in the potty in a day and we spent an entire three days together as happy as can be without a single incident between us?"

Today was back to reality. Obviously, with a mom living in the loft the rest of the house had kind of gone to pot and I had some work cut out for me. He was NOT happy. He still wants to be held 24/7. I'm trying to be patient and ease him back into the old swing of things. I don't think cold turkey is a good idea. :)

But oh, Bryce, Bryce, Bryce. I love you, Buddy.

Guess what I'll be doing this weekend?

2011-08-13T21:42:00.001-07:00

Wish us luck!!!

Six Years

2011-08-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

In honor of our anniversary yesterday, I'm just posting a few wedding pics. Raise your hand if it took you, like, 5 years to order your prints (long story) and therefore you've never posted any wedding pics on your blog...anyone?

Normally I would write something really gushy about Marty or our marriage, but first of all I've been sick the last couple of days and my head is fuzzy. And second of all, these pictures are PLENTY gushy, cheesy, all that. But I love them. And I love you, Marty. Happy six years!!

Awe.....

A take on a favorite children's song:

2011-07-29T14:41:00.000-07:00

"Oh, what do you do in the Summertime,
When it's 110+ degrees (even in the evening)?

Do you swim in a pool
To keep yourself cool?"

The end.
That is all.
This song could also be called "Cabin Fever."

Here is the kid's swim teacher, Miss Jennifer. I hope she doesn't mind if I post pics of her. We went through quite a lot together, trying to get Brynn to the point where she'd leap in (rather than just try to step in while hanging on to her teacher).

Bryce didn't mind the jumping in so much....

It was trying to find his way onto his back, and then getting back to the side of the pool that he wasn't a fan of.

He just needed some more time. Like I said, it was survival swimming. Bryce is pretty young and only had a few lessons. I'd rather not think about what would happen if he fell in a pool. I wish I would have put him in lessons earlier. Brynn would survive. It probably wouldn't be pretty, but I really think she could swim back to the edge and climb out, even if she was pretty far in.

Other really random and weird summer things:

Bryce came down with strep throat. I wanted to put him in a cool bath to get his fever down, but have you ever tried to run a COOL bath in Arizona in the summer? Thus we stumbled on a new fun thing to do:

Ice cube baths! See all the ice? Ahhh, feels so good....

Something that I loved doing with my toddler girl was crafts. Then along comes Bryce and everything I make seems too girly for him. So Marty is helping me with my boy activities. Here is a milk jug mask and shield he made with Bryce.

Another day Daddy came home for lunch because he forgot to bring his. Bryce was asleep, but Brynnie and I got pretty giddy for this because it has like never happens. She decided to make a nice restaurant meal for him. She put on the apron, helped me cook the food, made a menu, decorated, etc. When I asked her what the restaurant was called she said it was Chef LouAY's. No idea where she got that.

Anyway, as soon as Marty walked in she said, "HELLO! Welcome to Chef LouAY's. Would you like to see a menu? You can sit right here."

I know I shouldn't encourage this, but I just love her curly letters. I guess once she goes to preschool I'm going to have to start making her write them the right way. :(

We also put on a little concert for Daddy. We said at the beginning of the year we wanted her to know the 13 Articles of Faith, and so far she is right on track and knows them through number 8! I'm a little worried about the next ones though, they are a lot longer and more complicated.

Bryce got to sing "Sunbeam" and some other things and was a great announcer.

Combing brother's hair. A lazy day.

And lastly, I should hate this picture, but I don't. It's not flattering of any of us, nor is the big mess very flattering. Brynn took it yesterday.

I guess that I like that it captures our afternoons. Daddy comes home a little drained (if you've ever seen him teach teenagers, you understand). He usually finds me a little drained on the floor (if you've ever met Brycer, you understand). Looks like this day we had been playing trains and Bryce decided to give me the snuggle of a lifetime. And Marty and I are talking. After-school talking time is sacred to me. I think the kids understand this. Every day is the same. The kids hear the garage door open and they drop whatever they are doing and go hide somewhere. Daddy comes in, follows the giggles, gives the kids a big hug, and then Mommy and Daddy get to talk about their day. It's one of my favorite parts of the day.

And that brings me to the cabin fever. After these types of things (not that they are anything big), I'm feeling tapped out. A few days ago I felt like every 15 minutes I had to find some big new thing to entertain the kids to keep them from fighting over toys and things. That was in addition to going to the store, to the library. We even went to the park at 6:30 a.m. and pregnant mommy only lasted a half hour there. At the end of that day I couldn't believe how exhausting it had been to have to entertain the kids like that every second. It's not usually like that. I think they just needed to get out. So the next day we got to spend most of the day in Mesa at the Miller's house which felt sooo good. I love being with someone who knows more of our family's history, as we've been friends with them since not too long after Marty and I were married. Most days Brynn asks, "So who are we going to play with today?" Play dates are a life saver in the summer. It's making me start to feel more ok with sending Brynn to preschool in a couple of weeks. She's absolutely going to love it, and it should cut into the summer boredom a little.

It's ANOTHER....

2011-07-29T06:51:00.001-07:00

Baby boy!!! Brynn sure had a lot of fun calling our family members to say: "I was right, it was a boy!" I am so proud of myself for having the self-control to not go buy baby boy things and baby girl things as soon as I found out I was pregnant, but to wait it out. But the very morning after we found out what it was, I took Bryce on a date with me and let him pick out a present for the baby (he picked the softest, cutest lovee!) and a tiny blue newborn sweater. I know, they only wear newborn things for like a month, but it was so TINY and CUTE, I HAD to!!

I am getting so so excited to give Brycer a little brother. My brothers have always been so cute together, and they are a similar distance apart as these two will be. And I'm not really worried about leaving Brynn in the dust, because she's already so bff-y with Bryce. I forgot, have I mentioned how excited I am?

Rambling baby details, as promised

2011-07-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm 20 weeks and 4 days. Early in the pregnancy I had a couple of ultra-sounds because of hemorrhages (which is all totally fine now), and one showed my due date at December 5th, the other showed it at November 28th, but we stuck with the December date because it was the first ultra-sound. However at my appointment yesterday my OB said I was measuring a little big, so who knows. I wouldn't be surprised if I was a little farther along right now because of how quickly I felt morning sick. You see, rambling? But basically, so far, so good on all counts.

I can't believe I'm already half way through! This pregnancy is the first time I've been able to say that, meaning this has for sure been the easiest first half I've had. Not that it's been much fun, but I'll TAKE it! Through the first trimester, I felt sick 100% of the time, but I just took my Zofran and had much less puking. Then the nausea has slowly declined to what it is right now. Now and again I feel like I'm going to throw up, but never do. The fatigue has been milder than the other two pregnancies, too. It actually wasn't every day that I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. However, I do still crash at 8:30 at night. Literally, that's when I like to be in bed. :) I get endless teasing from my night-owl husband about that one.

What else?

Well, I have my 20 week ultra-sound TODAY!!! This afternoon! When people ask what I hope the baby is...I don't know, I hope for both (NOT meaning twins). It would be really convenient to have a girl since Brynn was a December baby and Bryce was a summer baby, so the clothes would work out way better. But that's obviously minor when I'm considering the perspective of another eternal family member coming into our home. :) I also hope for a boy though, because Bryce needs that. Brynn is girl enough for 10 girls. There is quite enough estrogen in this house. I would love to see Bryce get rough-and-tumble with a brother. But apparently, we don't need the ultra-sound. Brynn is totally and completely convinced it's a boy. We keep asking her things like, "Don't you think it would be fun to play dolls with a sister, or dress up with a sister?" And she says, "Yeah, but it's NOT a sister though, it's a brother." And then if we push too hard she gets mad. To be honest, I just keep thinking of this baby as a boy because, let's face it, my four year old is more spiritual than I am. :) I think more than anything, I just want to know if Brynn's right!!

I'm not sure how much Bryce understands. He points to my belly and says "Baby in Mommy's tummy!" He has started diapering all the baby dolls in the house, so who knows. Maybe he comprehends more than I think. He's already the same age Brynn was when he was born. We were actually trying to close the age gap, not widen it, but the Lord has his timing and we have ours, and I can't complain. I have learned to not only trust, but love His time table, even if I become impatient at times. I'm remembering how much I loved having a baby at Christmas time. Even though they'll probably resent me for a Christmas time birthday later. Speaking of which, with TWO December birthdays now (plus Christmases for everyone), that month is going to be pretty hard on our pocketbook, but I just heard the best idea. A friend of mine has this system that they use for Christmas presents: A want, a need, a wear, a read. And that's that. Simple. I love it, but we'll see if my will-power holds out as I do love to spoil my kids. Send me some good, "You can do it!" vibes.

Hmmm....yep, that's enough rambling for now.

Letter to Arizona #2:

2011-07-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Arizona:

Don't be hating. I promise I still love you. I'm planted here for as long as you'll have me. I am so over your heat. Even being pregnant in July, I'm over it. You gave us a beautiful Spring, after all. You have the BEST people in the world residing here. I am a happy camper and excited to raise my kids here. But Arizona, I have a quickly growing beef with you, and it is this: please stop being so ugly (not you, Grand Canyon). If you have any complaints with this, take it up with Durango. I spent 4 beautiful days there in the pine, and around the (REAL) mountains, lakes, and rivers. I took nature walks in the GREEN, which is everywhere. It even smelled pretty.

You may also take my complaints up with Utah. In your attacks, you may specifically target the soft grass, Spanish Fork's nature trails, the Wasatch Mountains, Arches National Park, and Goblin Valley. And...everywhere else in the state.

I mean it Arizona, if you can't find a nice, quiet, pretty place for me to take a walk with my family I'm out. Just to prove I'm serious, Marty and I looked up real estate in St. George, and THAT city is my new paradise. I know, it could never happen any time soon. But I hope you feel sufficiently threatened.

I'll tell you one thing - you beat Farmington and Ship Rock, NM.

Still yours lovingly,

Emily

Changes, changes

2011-07-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Amazing how people (well, kids mostly) can change so much in one summer. Here's what we're all up to....

Bryce:

Bryce still loves trains (he asks to watch Polar Express about every day, which is so painful in July), but he has found a huge love for lots of other big machines that move, namely tractors ("trackers"). He points them out everywhere, similar to how Brynn used to point out the tiniest princess she found in, say, the soup aisle at the grocery store. It's cute and boy-ish.

He likes to pretend he's a little dare devil. One day I came up to the loft and he had filled up a cup of water and put it on the floor. He said, "Wah DIS, Mom!" (watch this) and tried over and over to jump over the top of the cup without spilling it. Random. Entertaining. So boy.

Bryce is...assertive...intense...decisive...lots of things I'm not. Add to it the fact that he is two, and he is a total and complete roller coaster of a child. Hot or cold. I'm either on the verge of tears because I can either answer to all of his (billions of) demands, or I can not. Either way it is NOT pretty. I'm trying so hard to either ignore the demanding orders he gives me, or insist he ask me nicely for what he needs. Either way he says it, I refuse to take him down the stairs 50 times a day (for NOTHING, I've found out once I get down there), and other such nonsense which results in tears. So we are back to Bryce 1.o. On the other hand, his payouts are the BEST. His belly laugh, his tight squeezes and kisses all over your face, his fun games he comes up with, his adorable high, squeaky voice, and the million of times a day he makes me laugh. That's the intense relationship we've always had together, but lately the ups and downs seem more pronounced. Oh well, he won't be two forever. Sometimes that statement makes me breath a sigh of relief, and at the same time makes me want to cry. You see, intense!

Brynn:

She's been changing probably more than anyone. She took a session of swim lessons at the beginning of the summer. It was survival swimming, so she was completely traumatized the first few times she went. But she started catching on and stopped crying, and I think started believing in herself a little bit. Then she made huge strides the very last day and I didn't want her progress to end there so I signed her and Bryce up for a second session. I am soooo proud of how far she came. She became this confident, brave girl and it was the most exciting thing in the world to celebrate her victories together.

A funny thing happened on the way home from Utah. In "Brynn world," she has quite a few imaginary friends, but that has been really dying off for some time. Well, when we were in the car she randomly started talking to herself saying, "Ok, Goodbye Moses, goodbye Joshua. It's time for me to go be with my real friends now. I'm not going to be able to see you guys again, ok? You have to go be with your friends, too." Marty and I just looked at each other shocked, but didn't want to say anything and get in the way of her...closure, I guess. Well, we haven't had any birthday parties for or weddings to any of them since then, so I think maybe it's done for good. We'll have to see....

Brynn is such a beautiful child inside and out. She has been feeling guilt so strongly. In Durango, Marty went outside to get Brynn and she ran away from him crying. When he finally caught her she said something like "I don't like the bad feeling, I don't want you to know about the bad feeling." I guess she had first put rocks in the car and then blamed it on her cousin and was totally beside herself. Then yesterday she lied about waking up a little girl we were watching. She told me she didn't feel good. I asked her what she felt like and she said she felt like there were icky things inside her feelings. Then she started to cry and told me that when she got in trouble it broke her heart. At that part I was tempted to laugh, but that wouldn't have been a good idea. She has always tried so hard to be good.

Her interests still lie with princessesses or anything else girly, but she has moved from puzzles to paper dolls.

Daddy:

Daddy starts school next week. He loves to play Plants V. Zombies. He is a total and complete saint every time I am pregnant, and this has been no exception. Something ironic happened in my life - a ridiculously big mistake I made turned out to be a marriage boost. I was buzzing his hair with a number 5 (which is pretty long), I took it off the clip to clean it out, and buzzed two big strokes on his head before I realized I hadn't put it back on and he was now bald on that side. First I screamed, then I cried, then I said, "What do I DO?" a thousand times while jumping up and down, then I told him I was never cutting his hair again. This is why Marty is a SAINT. He had a smile on his face the WHOLE TIME. He NEVER ONCE got mad at me, or even seemed frustrated. He stayed positive the whole time was just kind of like, "Alright, let's finish the job!" While I was a total raving mess buzzing off the rest of his (beautiful) hair, he kept cracking adorable jokes like, "Hey, better you do it to me, than me to you, right?" Ok, so I don't know what I ever did right to deserve a guy like that, but...sigh. It turns out, Marty has a very symmetrical head, and looks a little hard as a big bald guy. Like I could almost see him riding a motorcycle or something. Which is...comical. Every time Marty walked through the door at the end of the day my thought process was something like:

1. Oh yeah, remember that one time a couple days ago when I accidentally robbed my husband of his beautiful strawberry-blond locks? I am such a....(insert a myriad of insults here)

2. Awe, look at that big, beaming, loving smile on his face, a man with no guile...

3. I am so madly in love....

Sadly, we only have a cell-phone pic of bald Marty, I'll try to get it on there. But before I end this story I just have to say............ok, he was totally asking for it because he was SHAMELESSLY flirting with me the entire time and it's all his fault I got distracted!!!! The end. :)

Mommy:

I need to hurry and end this post so I won't go into too much detail on the pregnancy just yet. I have a Dr. app on Thursday and then I'll give a proper update on the whole thing. But I am half way through, feeling great, and giddy every time I feel the baby move.

I've recently become gluttonously addicted to Nutella. But there are worse addictions in the world, right?

I have a strong desire to decorate my house, which never happens to me. Decorating is one of my defective girl genes. Maybe it's a pregnancy thing?

We went on vacation, were gone for three Sundays, and I came back to find out that not only are we in a different stake now, but I was released AND already called to something else by the time I got back. That's what I get. I already miss my young women like craaaaazy, I got so attached to them all. Brynn drew a picture of me "to give to your young women, Mom!" and I thought I was going to cry! But I've been in for years, it's been complicated to have Marty in Young Mens also, and I got called to teach Brynn's primary class, which I am sooooo excited for!!!!

(abrupt ending)

What does all this mean?

2011-06-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

1. My house has gone to pot. (So did my blog for a month or so). I feel like I can only keep up with one floor at a time. Yesterday the laundry was out of control and I couldn't walk around the loft without stepping on a toy. Ever notice how pointy kid's toys are? Anyway, I told Brynn the night before that we could have a royal ball at the end of the day if she was really good and helped me clean and do laundry. All. Day. Of course Brynnie went all out and picked out the perfect ragged outfit in which to play Cinderella. It worked fine for me, though. She is as distracted as can be, but I am telling you. Yesterday EVERY time I said, "CIN-derella! You must...!!" She'd put her head down and say, "Yes, Step-muver." And then DO IT. Which is a big deal for her. I also had the pack and play set up for something else, but every time a batch of laundry came out of the dryer I'd banish her into it and throw all the shirts in there to hang up. It was awesome. Laundry has never been so easy. Please don't call CPS. I think it built character? Well, I was so proud of her that we did have our ball that night and sweet Daddy (I mean, Prince Charming) brought home ring pops for everyone that seemed so special they might as well have been encrusted with diamonds. So that's the story of how the upstairs fell to pieces and began to be put together again.

2. Afternoon naps. And a few more movies. And lights out at 8:30.

3. I've boycotted doing my hair and make-up.

4. I'm a total hermit. All at once I'll wonder why my kids are acting fussy and suddenly realize, "Wait a second...I haven't been out of the house in like...THREE days!!!"

5. More meals on wheels. For example:

This is a picture of us eating breakfast upstairs because I didn't get around to doing the dishes the night before. Gross. So I ran downstairs, grabbed bowls, silverware, milk, and cereal, and ran back upstairs to eat it. Also, we now have to move. Because I wanted to crock-pot something, but didn't want to smell it all day. So I put the crock-pot in my closet and shut that door, plugged it up, and shut our bedroom door, and plugged that up, too. Worked fine that day. But one week and two bottles of Febreeze later, I still have a hard time walking into our closet. Be nice. As Bryce's shirt says: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Also...I have to stop talking about this.

And yet....

I walk around the house giddy. Singing. Saying unusually mushy things to my husband. I can't stop smiling. And then I tell myself, "Stop smiling weirdo, someone around you is going to notice that nobody told a joke." (Not that that helps.) Our whole family is united in prayer regarding the exciting (as well as sacred) adventure that we are about to undertake. Brynn and Bryce have both been practicing their diapering techniques on the baby dolls.

I feel so close to my husband sharing this secret. It's been the first time I've felt able to do so, and it was a special experience. In fact, I'm reluctant to let that go. But as it's gone from just a few who needed to know, to a few more who have come out and asked (I'm looking pretty obvious these days), I suppose it's time. So because I love you all, too....

I'll share....

shhhh...................

Baby #3 is on the way!!!!!!!!

(I know, "You had me from 'house gone to pot' and 'naps.'")

Frying pans! Who knew, right?

2011-05-31T16:23:00.000-07:00

Name that movie!

So, I just killed our second (HUGE) scorpion in the garage with a frying pan. It was quite an ordeal. It was pretty high up, so I had to go get a chair to stand on in order to get to it. I was so afraid of it falling on top of me and stinging me that I kept chickening out. Brynn was my cheer-leader and kept offering brave words to me. I finally decided that since it was the garage, I was I would hit it hard enough to put a hole in the wall if I had to. Well, scorpion's dead, no hole, creeped out now, the end.

P.S. It's Flynn, from Rapunzel.

Everything else from this spring...

2011-05-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

Caught in the act!
One day Brynn brought the camera to me and said, "Look, Mom! I took some pictures of Bryce!" I looked and thought, "what is he doing?"

That kind of looks like my....

Wait, I think it is....

My credit card, you little thief!!! Thanks Brynn. Moment of disaster avoided in the grocery store check-out line!

Construction has begun on the Gilbert, AZ Temple!

We thought it might be fun to come to the site from time to time to take pictures with the kids as it progresses. This will be MUCH closer to our house!

Yep, another four-going-on-clueless-preteen pose.

It's been a gorgeous May!

We spent a lot of time outside. This is definitely the most beautiful and cool May we have had since we've moved here. Usually it is depressingly already stifling in May, but this year there weren't many days that were to hot to spend outside. So here we are at Freestone Park.

This is so random, but this is how Bryce sits in his carseat and how he sleeps. I just love how he looks with those little arms behind his head like he is so cool.

Father/son camp-out, Girl's Day - Fablious!
That's what Brynn calls our girl's days (she means fabulous). I am not ashamed to admit that I have been looking forward to this since last year (it's ok, Marty knows I love him and miss him when he's gone). We spent a lot of time at the library because lately it's just impossible to take Bryce there and it used to be our absolute favorite place. We also went to Kohl's and picked out an Easter dress and present for Bryce. But I was feeling a little under the weather that night so we just stopped at a grocery store and I let her pick out a Kid Cuisine and I picked out a yummy steamy veggie dinner. The next morning we snuggled/read like crazy and just enjoyed each other's company.

Daddy and Bryce had lots of fun, too! Sorry I don't have many details about it. Marty informed me, "Well, I'm a guy! I think it's great that I even came back with two pictures!"

Hair.
Yes, a topic only a mommy cares about, but hey, it's my blog. Brynn's been doing her own hair lately, and I'm been amazed at how often we can walk out the door the way she does it. It's definitely losing some of it's curl. It's at the point now where I have to scrunch it with gel because the ringlets are pretty much gone.
Yesterday she found some sponge curlers and asked me what they were. I told her they were for curling hair and every since then she has been dying to try them. So today after I washed her hair I put them in. Wasn't a big deal, didn't take long. But when she saw them, she was TICKED. Apparently she didn't realize we couldn't curl it and take them right out. She said, "Mommy, I wanted princess hair, not silly hair!" As you can see, she is NOT happy about this picture ("I do NOT want a SILLY picture!").

Finally it was dry and time to take them out. But first! She must put on her ballerina costume! And the results? Still not happy. "NO, mommy! It's still silly! It's like grandma hair!" Well, we put some of it up and she danced around all day and it loosened up and looked beautiful, actually.

I don't see us ever using them again now that the novelty has worn off and there is really no other reason to. That's a relief. I'm surprised a four year old even cares what her hair looks like, actually. But I'm told by my friends that's normal.
This is another angelic picture I got today. Lately Brynn has been really into "putting Bryce down." She wraps him up, holds him on the chair (even though he weighs almost as much as she does) and sings to him. What a beautiful thing to come back in the room to see Bryce sound asleep on Sister's lap while she is still softly singing to him. Sigh.

The end of this post is called:

He is going to KILL me for this later.

Our bishop issued a challenge on Sunday. He descibed a scenario where a natural disaster had occured in Queen Creek and told us we couldn't get to the stores and had to survive off of our food storage this week. I was totally up for it and getting excited (our food storage can definitely hold out a week), then I realized we were almost completely out of diapers. We were planning to go to the store the night before but decided we should go rescue our baby-sitter and just hold out until Monday. Now I see that was a mistake. The bishop encouraged us to live the law of consecration and barter with your neighbors. So I started asking around and have already gotten a donation and several offers. But before that happened, THIS was what we resorted to:

Brynn's old pull-ups I dug out of the guest room closet. Don't tell Marty, but Bryce was actually excited to wear them. You don't grow up with Brynn as a sister and not know who Cinderella is. Now that it's gotten hot I've been letting him just run around in his diaper, but after so many times of "Look...Mom! Cillella...Mom!" I decided I'd better hurry and get some shorts on him and put a stop to that. So we'll see how this food storage week goes. I don't like rationing my fresh fruit....

Ahhhhhhh. Spring 2011 is officially blogged.

GnG Johnson in May

2011-05-23T08:33:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned, Marty's Dad and Step-Mom came out for his graduation and I am so glad they did. It was only a couple of days, but we used it well!

We went to Schnepf Farms and picked peaches (which we GOBBLED all day long and then made peach ice cream that night), then went on the train ride.

And had a fun tea party.

And for the first time we went to the children's museum in Mesa. They have ALL kinds of art projects there (Brynn's dream world). Here she is drawing on the walls.

And the finished product:

Bryce and Daddy enjoyed the baseball exhibit.

A cool technological music demo...thingy. You put your hands through the red lasers and as you do each puts out a different sound like drums, guitar, voice, strings. So the more people you get, the more cool stuff you can add to your synthetic band. Easy enough for even a toddler.

We spent the most time at the Fairy Tale exhibit. It was SO CUTE!!! You went from one station to the next trying on fairy tale costumes on that specific story's background. So here is Alice in Wonderland:

A cool black light room

Little Red Riding Hood.

This one was hilarious. Here I am minding my own business admiring my cute four year old when she starts FREAKING OUT. She runs at me screaming, "Nooooo!!!" Then she proceeds to climb me before I've even had a chance to react. She shimmies up my legs (pulling my pants down in the process, I might add) and latches on to me so tightly all the while still screaming "no." So I look behind me and there is Marty in a wolf costume. I keep telling people that Brynn thinks all these characters and totally real. If you had been there, you would have gotten it.

Here she is, still not really having warmed up to the idea of her Daddy in a wolf mask. Even after we explained all about it, she is still seeking shelter in Grandma.

The princess corner. Actually not her favorite. It was the one part of the museum I think she felt, "Been there, done that." But Bryce had fun as a king.

The three little pigs. And that mean old wolf again.

Fairy land

It really was geared more to little girls, but Bryce had lots of fun riding horsies with Grandma!

Puppet shows

Yes, that's much easier to reach.

They advertise this place as a grandparent's dream. I think that's accurate. :)

Happy Festivation, Marty!

2011-05-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah! Marty is DONE with school! FOREVER!!!! His parents came out for his graduation and we had a blast! It's really easy to be in a partying mood when something so huge is out of the way. Oh, and we've been calling it his "festivation" because when he came home from work on his graduation day, I told Brynn to run out to his car to tell him "congratulations on graduating." I guess it was just too many syllables for the poor girl because it sounded more like, "Congratulations on...festivating, Daddy....(whispered) wait, what is it?"

Brynnie and I decorated. And by the way, the photo below is not the last you will see of Brynn's new pose. That's a sad post in and of itself.

Graduation night:

Our thoughts: "We did it!!!!!!!" (OH yes, I get to say we. I made some sacrifices too, and Marty gets to say we had a baby. Just...let me have that).

Just pretend you can see a really sharp-looking rock star giving his little graduation speech. They let all the graduates do that. There weren't many since it was the distance ed ceremony. He was the last one and thanked all his 14 brothers and sisters individually. Just kidding.

I am so stinking proud of my husband. He graduated with his Masters degree in under two years with honors. He's unassuming, but freak-show smart and I had to hate him just a little for how easy he made everything look. Truly, it wasn't that bad. I'd be fine with him going back for a PhD (after I forget this last horrible semester), but he will have none of that. He started just a few weeks after Bryce was born, so to be a single mom to that sweet-but-acid-reflux-high-maintenance-constantly-screaming-baby stands out in my mind. This last semester he just had too many classes. But other than that, I didn't mind it. I don't think he did, either.

Marty also has this amazing ability to visualize a goal, figure out and decide exactly the precise steps to be taken to reach that goal, and then just hurry and get it done. He was the same way with his under-grad. Got it in just three years because he knew where he was going and had almost no extra credits and just DID it. Love that guy. Proud of that guy. Hands off, he's mine.

The Brycer-Boo turns the terrible TWO

2011-05-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

(Ok, but because mommy guilt is so strong - of course it's not terrible! Two is actually tons of fun! Tantrums and all...)

Let's see, as soon as we could hear he was awake, we went into his room singing the birthday song (a small tradition). Apparently he wasn't awake enough yet because he just glared at us from his crib the whole time. I've never felt so self-conscious trying to do something cute for my kids! :)

Then we came downstairs and opened presents before Marty had to go to work.

A new train,

airplane,

and sticker book.

While Brynn was at preschool I took him on a date to Burger King. He was soooooooo adorable there. Saying hi and thank you to everyone, so excited, and as we were going to pick a table, he said, "No, wash hands first." And headed off to find the restroom. That was a good mommy moment.

He also carried a car in one hand and his new Thomas' Birthday book (from G&G) in the other. He'd barely let go of either one to take a bite. I had a realization there that I maybe shouldn't record, but here we go. Lately I've been saying a lot of, "Oh, I just can't take Bryce anywhere," or "I want to go do fun things with the kids, but chasing Bryce around the whole time takes the fun out of it," but I'm sure the worst is, "I don't remember Brynn being like this when she was two, I took her everywhere." Bad mom award, I know. Anyway, I need to have more dates with this kid. He was totally enjoyable the whole time. He wasn't difficult, or if he was at all, I could just give him my full attention and fix whatever it was. He's the same age now as Brynn was when I was pregnant with him and started taking her out for Friday treat days. His birthday really reminded me of those times, that's what it felt like. Me and my sweetheart just having an enjoyable day out. So I think the problem is with me and just getting more stressed out with two than with one, and just expecting him to be perfect by saying something really unhelpful like, "Stop that," etc. I know, I'm long-winded. What is this post even about, anyway? Oh yeah - the fun birthday!!!.....

We also went to the park to practice with the new t-ball set. It was a little rough at first...

But he got better....and better!

Brynn was pretty good, too!

That afternoon we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's!!! (I know, Burger King and Chuck-E-Cheese all in one day, gross). But it was so much fun. I think I just wanted to celebrate the heck out of my little buddy.This was his favorite ride....

This one terrified them both, they couldn't wait to get out....

Probably his favorite thing was getting to put the coins in the machine.

Marty won a bazillion tickets out of the game where you have to hit it when the certain light lights up...ya know? He has lightning-fast reflexes.

Happy birthday, Buddy! I love you!!!!!!!

GnG Oldham in April 2011

2011-05-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

My parents came out to visit in April and we had so much fun! We spent a LOT of time outside because of the horrible weather they've been having all Spring in Utah. They were glad to feel the warm sunshine! That's what most of these pictures are.

The prettiest flowers, I just couldn't resist.

Loooooove

so proud

"See ya......Mom!"

We also celebrated Bryce's birthday a little early.
"Tay-too, Bumpa!" (Thank you, Grandma)

By the way, I had a birthday last month, too. The big 27! I'm pretty sure it was one of my favorites, as it included a big surprise party, organized by my wonderful husband (as if he wasn't busy enough this semester), hosted by my good friend, and attended by my awesome friends and mom! Thanks so much, everyone!!!

MASPT org

2011-05-23T07:27:00.001-07:00

I made taco soup a couple weeks ago, but didn't eat with the family because I was teaching piano. After I was done, I came out to the kitchen to discover this nasty napkin with tomatoes on it and a note that read:

"This is an act by the MASTPT org. (Marty's Against Stewy Pooey Tomatoes) Let's return to the roots of 5 happy years of marriage. Make the switch, Em!"

Basically, when we first got married we agreed that in our house, no onions, no stewed tomatoes. Well, maybe my taste buds have changed a little, because I've slowly been adding those things to our meals. Just green onions! Or just little canned tomatoes! But I bought the wrong kind of tomatoes at the store and they were pretty big and chunky.

Well, I found Marty and had a good laugh about it, but he said sadly, "That's why your taco soup was different!" Well, when he uses those great big puppy dog eyes on me, what else am I supposed to do? I literally fell to my knees and said, "I'm sorry, husband! It will never ever ever happen again!" And then we embraced and I was forgiven.

The end.

Easter 2011 (old, I know)

2011-05-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am attempting to post all of Spring today. Starting with Easter, which happened so long ago, I can't even think of any good details to go with the pictures. Which is why I need to journal and blog more.

It was a nice day, though. Leading up to it, we sang a lot of Easter songs, did our spiritual Easter egg FHE (see last March), talked a lot about the Resurrection and Grandma Georgia, who will get a new body (we tried to keep that simple) and had some really sweet moments with the kids where I think Brynn really got it. No pictures for that stuff, I guess.

On the Easter bunny side of things, we also had a fun neighborhood Easter Egg hunt, where I trained Brynn in advance because she was so left in the dust last year chasing butterflies in between picking up an egg or two. Bryce didn't need any training. He's already plenty competitive, likes to keep up, and LIVES for candy. A winning combination at an Easter egg hunt.

Of course it was TONS of fun to see the kids follow the trail of Easter eggs to their baskets Easter morning. But I was a little disappointed with some of our Easter Sunday. The kids were going crazy on their sugar highs, I was trying to finish preparing my lesson and get everybody ready and looking pretty and Easter-y (why is that necessary?) and I didn't really get to feel the nice spirit of that special day. So I think next year we will write the Easter Bunny a letter to see if he'd be willing to visit our house on Saturday instead.

Anyway....

Along with their eggs, the Bryce got sunglasses, Brynn got new panties,

and they got Mickey and Minnie flip-flops that they were pretty excited about.

Ready for church! That's Bryce's first time wearing a tie, by the way. There was something special for me about putting on a little tie for the first time as a mommy. It won't be the last!!

That night we ate a fancy Easter dinner with some friends. It was a great night!

Anyone have a day like this?

2011-04-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

"I'm sure you had a hard day, but I don't think there is such a thing as a chocolate I.V." "Well, there should be." I've had a couple of those days lately. Right now Marty is taking four classes, so he is full-time in his Master's program and full time at the seminary, too. Who knew there were enough hours in the day for that? I am so proud of him, and he is SO close! But, of course that means I'm pretty much on my own all day every day. I really don't mind it so much. I love being with my angels. I don't mind not having breaks from them exactly. I do, however, notice that when 9:00 rolls around I'm BEAT. I flop down on the bed, and that's where Marty finds me - just where he left me at 5:30 that morning! I truly am not complaining. It gives me a sense of empowerment as a mom to know I can do this! I just need to find ways to keep filling my "patience bucket" quicker than I empty it. I also need to keep my resolve strong with my Brycer. He is still as fun and playful as ever, but he's also been pushing every button, testing every rule, and pushing every limit. I'm worried about getting just plain tired and going soft! I have definitely lost my temper and felt horrible about it, but I am also going to act like my four year old for a minute and admit there have been times I've felt proud of myself, too! :) I'm so cheesy! Mmm, cheese.... With all that Marty has on his plate, he still manages to stay so thoughtful. He gave me these flowers on Wednesday so that I could look at them all day Thursday (his busiest school day - usually I don't see him). Every time I think about Marty or my kids I realize how blessed I am and how much I love life. I have decided that I LOVE white flowers. How boring is that? Like, the whole point of flowers is to bring more color to the earth! Bla bla bla, I'm going to bed. But not without some chocolate.

***Sorry about the no-paragraph thing. I don't know why it condenses them sometimes.

Cause I'm over the top like that

2011-03-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

brynn mom dad bryce

Brynn and I were BIG fans of the movie "Tangled." So obviously, we planned a little party with her friend for the day it came out on video. We braided and put flowers in her hair, wore purple, made lanterns, and watched it with plenty of treats and popcorn. FUN way to spend a morning! (By the way, the random words everywhere are Brynn's handy-work. She's been sitting next to me as I've blogged this and wanted a turn to type. And yes, I spelled out "Rapunzel" for her.)

brynn mom dad rapunzel

This last picture is a little blurry, but you can see the lanterns glowing better.

Unplugged at Apache Lake

2011-03-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Three days of camping instead of our usual two and it was heaven! The kids did great. We kept waiting for a I'm-either-going-to-pull-my-hair-out-or-pack-up-and-go-home-right-now moment, and never really had one. We left the TV, laptop, Leapster, etc. at home, no movies in the car, just our family and nature and it was beautiful! Reading Walden in a hammock in the mountains...ahhhhh.

We saw so many beautiful Cardinals right by our tent. Every time Brynn saw one, she would shoosh everyone so we could hear it sing.

Bryce holding on to his Percy flashlight in the dark tent. A. dorable.

Last year we decided to put the two kids in one bedroom and I am SOOO glad we did. Before then when we would travel, the kids would scream all night long and really struggle sleeping. Now that they are used to sleeping with each other, they can sleep just about anywhere as long as they have each other. The second night we were camping, we thought they had both fallen asleep in the tent and we turned off the lantern right outside the tent. I guess Bryce noticed, and started whimpering about the light, then in this really sad whiny voice he started saying, "Brynn? Brynn?" When we got back in the tent later to go to sleep we couldn't find Bryce anywhere in his bed. We looked over at Brynn and they had fallen asleep together holding hands. Moments like that make the constant refereeing of fights totally worth it.

Here we are roasting marshmallows. My faaaaavorite thing in the world. In this picture, it looks like we brought our whole house with us. Maybe we did over pack a little, but one problem in the past has been Bryce getting bored and whiny, so we brought what we thought would be good camping toys instead of relying totally on rocks and dirt. We were glad we brought the dump truck!

We lost Bryce a lot. :) Well, not LOST him, lost him. One of the times we found him on the far side of the tent gorging himself on cookies from the cooler. Sneaky little thing. Brilliant, really. What was not brilliant was when we went to the lake one day and left our food out. It reminded me of my first year at girl's camp when I won the "squirrel's best friend" award. We really contemplated staying a fourth day, but having to throw out some of our food and needing to be back for Jimmer Saturday evening clinched it.

Here's the lake! Another reason this trip was more successful than some. We really just had a lot more to do. Here we are skipping rocks. Brynn was really helpful and kept handing Marty these baseball-like rocks to skip. Thanks, Brynn. Remember how I'm such a great mom and forgot to bring swimsuits to the lake? Just makin' sure I remember that error for next time.

My parents gave us little raft we used when I was a kid.

It doesn't look like it in this picture, but this lake was actually really clear. This camping spot was had it's own unique beauty. When we pulled in I just about cried for missing the pine. But once I just accepted the fact that this is what we chose and to love it, I realized it really was beautiful. I usually think cacti are ugly and depressing, but in this landscape they really were pretty.

So we kind of decided that last year was the year of amazing travel opportunities (with our free airplane tickets and family living in really, like super-duper cool places). This year is the year of our National Parks Pass. We paid 80 bucks for it the day we went to Casa Grande National Monument and we want to see how much we can see and how cheap we can do it this year. So we drove out to Tonto National Monument and hiked up to see the caves.

They are well-preserved cliff dwellings which were occupied by the Salado Culture during the 13th, 14th, and early 15th centuries. The people farmed in the Salt River Valley and supplemented their diet by hunting and gathering native wildlife and plants. This was interesting to me because these caves housed a melting pot of cultures. Not just the Salado, but the Anasazi from the North (I grew up going to the Anasazi museum most summers in Boulder) and the Hohokam (who we just learned about last month).

The Roosevelt Dam. We were a little nervous driving through this area because I had NEVER seen so many police officers in my whole life. Evey turn out was roped off with caution tape and patroled, and there were policeman in boats every so often. We thought maybe the dam was about go or something! Turns out we just happened to visit during the one day Centennial celebration and they were flying in the governor.

Camping is a LOT of work, but sooooo worth it. I can't wait to go again! Someday I hope to have a surplus of camping supplies and just keep them all totally ready to go, so that Marty could come home from work Friday and we could just head out with less preparation. But that would require an investment and that defeats the purpose of our year of camping and close National Parks. :) Good spring break.

the first day of our new routine

2011-03-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Today was mostly out of needing something to do on a Friday. In the "spring" (in quotation marks because April and May feel more like summer than spring), we visit Schnepf Farms once or twice a week. We get there really early in the morning and enjoy quiet park and cool breeze.

We see the peacocks,

and the other animals. Here's Brynn with the "cuuuuuuute baby goat!!!!"

We didn't get around to picking peaches this time. Next time, though. I'm craving a peach smoothie.

Then this afternoon it wasn't super hot, but we were really bored. That's why, when I was trying to wait until as LATE as I could in the season, I gave in and we ran through the sprinklers. I made it until March 11th. Lame. Now that they remember playing in the water is an option: Hellooooo 3 a day baths, 3 a week bathtub scrubs, mud and grass all over the kitchen floor, muddy clothes all over the back porch, etc. For the UT friends and fam, it's akin to the mess that's left every day from kids playing out in the snow. Not that it's like you don't run through the sprinklers, maybe just not for 6 months strait. I grow weary of it quickly. What is WRONG with me today, Grumpy?

Swinging in the sprinklers
Hm. Guess he doesn't quite fit into the 2T swim trunks.

Ugh...

Better!!!

I suppose in celebration of our warm day I should make some chicken salad sandwiches....

It all started with a phone call...

2011-03-11T12:26:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time, Princess Brynn's Daddy called her Mommy and said, "Get down to the library, quickly! There is a free show courtesy of the BYU Theater Ballet Company, and they are featuring princesses and inviting the little girls to wear princess dresses!"

Princess Brynn was given the royal treatment and was almost first in line. She met Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora...

Who was kind enough to point out Cinderella up on the stage.

Princess Brynn forgot her lessons in poise, screamed "CINDERELLA!!" at the top of her lungs, and clamored up on stage before her royal parents could even ask if it was ok (amidst a few good laughs from the ballerinas and participants).

Princess Brynn showed Cinderella some of her moves...

And Cinderella did the same.

While waiting for the show to start, Princess Brynn played "Duck, Duck, Goose" with her new BFFs.

Then it was show-time.

Brynn got some King-Princess bonding time...

and even the little Prince was enjoying himself.

Then it was time to wrap up with a few questions from the audience (like, "Are you a real ballerina?")...

and a few last hugs.

Thanks to the ballet company and to Marty's students for tipping us off, it was an afternoon to remember!!!

Getting trunky

2011-03-09T07:16:00.000-08:00

Spring break starts next week - can't wait! We aren't traveling anywhere this year, but Marty is still going to take a few days off. Often we spend his time off in UT, so I'm excited to have a few days just for our little family this time. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do:

I know we'll go camping at some point
Go to a drive-in movie theater (if we can find a movie we actually want to see)
Spend a lot of time at the temple
Host a couple of dinner parties (Hm, lovely weather, one should be a BBQ)
Maybe go to the zoo
Maybe the children's museum
Go on a lunch date
Use our National Parks Pass somewhere close (Saguaro?)
Pick a night to stay up late with my hubbie. When we first got married, whenever we had a break from classes we'd stay up all night long and play games and watch movies and sometimes eat some indulgent treat or late-night snack. Now we both get up SUPER early, and therefore go to bed SUPER early. It's not a big deal for me because I'm a born morning person (THANKS a lot, Dad), but I know Marty misses being a night owl.
Get a few projects done around the house (hang some pictures, clean out the "junk room," decorate our bedroom a little more - I have stuff, I just have to figure out what to do with it)
READ. Read whatever I want, read with the kids, reading lessons with Brynn, get caught up on my Book of Mormon reading (my beehives and I are trying to finish before girl's camp and I have been passed by a couple of girls! I need to hurry up!).

Well, that's certainly the to-do list of a yellow personality, isn't it? I know we can't (afford to) do all of them, but I want to do at least a few. What are you doing over Spring break?

Always growing, always changing

2011-03-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Yep, another kid post. If kid posts take over my blog, it's probably because my kids have pretty much taken over my life. :) And I wouldn't have it any other way, of course.

Brynn:

Brynn turned four at the end of December, and she has grown up so much in the last couple of months. We've been reading together a lot. I still can't hand her a book and let her go at it, but this is something she read yesterday completely on her own!

"A man sat in the sand. A little ant can see the man. The ant is mad."

Oh, actually she needed help with the word "little." But you get the idea. She's also been trying to write words out, which sort of surprised me. She said she wrote me a letter yesterday, and I assumed she had rolled a paper into a scroll, which is what that usually means, but I was shocked when she handed me a paper with "mom" written all over it. There is nothing in the world like seeing a concept "click" for your child, and being there to see that satisfied face and celebrate with them.

For a kid, I think Brynn has a pretty amazing attention span. She'll stick with something all morning or afternoon, and lately it has been puzzles. If I need to get something done, I can hand her the bag of puzzles and come back to this:

Yesterday, we spent the day in Chandler where my students were able to get judged (as part of the National Federation of Music Clubs Festival). It was a wonderful day and a really good experience, but I think we are all glad to have it behind us! Brynn competed as well, and sang two songs for the judge. She remembered all of her lyrics, her louds and softs, and even remembered to bow! We let her wear her poofiest dress, and told her it was her special "festival gown." The entire day it was like she was walking on a cloud. She got a superior! And afterward we took her to go get ice cream. It was a surreal experience for me. It seems like only a year or two ago my parents were taking me out for ice cream after being judged (it's the same system I did for years in Utah). And here I was, already taking my daughter out for the same thing! How did that happen so fast???

Brynn has also matured a lot in the last few months. She pesters her brother less, and has been trying to help me out more. Bryce gets really offended when I won't carry him down the stairs, so often I just let him sit at the top step a whine a little bit until he finally decides to come down on his own. Brynn says that makes her sad, and she has started going up the stairs and then holding his hand all the way down. She'll lead him to me and say, "Here you go, Mommy, I got Brycer-Boo for you." I am constantly counting my blessings that this girl was allowed to come to our family. We get along so well.

One other way she's gotten really good at being 4: "Why?" As soon as the "why" questions started pouring in, it was like I was back baby-sitting and trying as hard as I could to be patient for my LEAST favorite "game" in the world. "Why are doing the dishes?" "Well, WHY are they dirty?" "Well, WHY did we put our dinner on them? "Well, WHY were we hungry?" I really don't know why this is so grating on my nerves, maybe it's just about how CONSTANT it is...I don't know. Just a fun new phase.

She has also finally realized she won't get eaten by the monsters under her bed if she leaves her room in the middle of the night. That means we've been getting 2:00 a.m. visits from her for the following reasons:

1. (while crying) "Dad" (sniff, sniff) "I just wish I could be a mermaid!"

2. "I can speak whale! MMMMWHAAAAA!"

3. (with her arms outstretched in front of her) "Look guys, I'm playing the sleep walking game!"

4. Etc.

Brycer:

This little guy steals a little bit more of my heart every day. Yesterday Daddy and Brynn went outside to pull weeds. I stayed inside with Bryce so we wouldn't be chasing him out of the street every five seconds. The front yard really is not a fun place to be with him. Anyway, I had the best afternoon with him. We played with toys in the loft, and he is just as enjoyable as can be. He rotates between playing on his own, teasing me, running away (you know, his way of saying "chase me") and snuggling (in his words, "nuggle....mooooom!"). Then we went outside and I planted myself in a soft patch of grass with a good book and pushed him in the swing. Right now, I think that's about the best place in the world to be. Before long, it will be too hot. :(

He attempts to say anything and everything. I think I get more comments from people about his voice than anything. He'll definitely take after Daddy as a tenor! One of my favorite things, while cruel, is to watch Bryce outrun his older sister. I know I'm a horrible parent, but there are few things as entertaining as this process:

1. Bryce gets a devious grin on his face

2. Bryce swipes a toy out of Brynn's hands

3. Bryce takes a few steps, then turns around to make sure Brynn is upset and will chase him

4. Brynn runs after him, yelling and screaming the whole way

5. Bryce runs as fast as his little legs will take him, down the hall, in our bedroom, all the way to the back of the closet

6. Brynn, after not being able to catch up with him, falls completely to pieces and cries her eyes out on the floor

7. Bryce gives the toy back and leaves Brynn a crumpled, crying mess on the floor, and toddles back into the loft with the most satisfied smile I've ever seen.

I don't know, maybe I suppose she's...earned that after all we went through when Bryce was a baby and Brynn used to steamroll over the top of him and scratch his eyeballs and what-not. We warned her that soon he'd be bigger and stronger than her. I guess we just didn't how how soon.

Well, there you have it, the update on my kids. I've written this blog on a good day. Our days aren't perfect. A lot of them are filled frustration and with tears from both of the kids as well as myself. Sometimes I think I was born to be a mom, other times I think I'm the worst mom in the world. One of my favorite places to be is on a roller coaster, so at least I'm used to ups and downs! Today I've recorded the ups. Stay tuned some disastrous day for the downs... :)

I never thought I'd say it, but...

2011-02-17T11:58:00.001-08:00

I'm totally ready to start couponing. Like, the kind of couponing where you get 3 batches of the Sunday paper and organize a million coupons and spend forever figuring things out...but then get lots of stuff for free or really cheap.

I have been resisting it for a long time on the grounds that I thought I'd be couponing for a lot of stuff that I wouldn't have been buying or eating otherwise. Also that I was worried that I would spend money subscribing to newspapers and couponing websites and then not following through, so that I'd be wasting money instead of saving it. And third, I'm passive. I'm a people-pleasing, I'd-rather-die-than-put-anyone-out-or-get-dirty-looks-from-anyone type of girl. Marty, on the other hand, will go through manager after manager if he knows he's right (which he usually is) and he always gets his way! I just know that if I showed up in a grocery line, and followed all the instructions for getting 10 boxes of cereal for a dollar, and the clerk said I couldn't do it, I'd say, "Whoops, sorry." Even if I knew I had done it right. I know, how old am I?

Wanting to start this small lifestyle change comes at a weird time for me because I've been reading "Walden" and have been really into eliminating stuff and avoiding accumulating more stuff and thinking about how to live more simply with less stuff. But lately I've been feeling this tugging of the need to get more stuff, and that is in our food storage and emergency kits. I know our food storage just isn't good enough. Buying items here and there when things are on sale isn't cutting it. I keep raiding the food storage almost as fast as I can supply it. I know you aren't supposed to go in debt to get your food storage, so of course I'm not going to do that. But I want to just hurry and build it up a lot and then keep up with it, and I've heard from friends that couponing is how they were able to do that.

So that's why I'm ready. Any tips for me? Besides bringing Marty with me on my shopping sprees until I can learn to stick up for myself.... :)

More simple fun

2011-02-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

My kids are always reminding me how easy it actually is to have fun with them. Like I've lost some of my yellow personality or something. Ok, my only mushy line for the post: What am I going to DO when I don't have little ones to play with all day long? Ok, I'm done.

Anyway, we rented a carpet cleaning machine from Fry's and cleaned all the carpet in our house except for our bedroom. We did most of it that night while the kids were sleeping, and when they woke up it was still pretty wet. That meant anytime we were going to spend inside had to be done in our room. I wondered how that was going to work, but I went out to the playroom, grabbed a basket of toys, dumped it out on my bed, and they played with those toys all morning long. These were toys that had been sitting around in the loft not getting played with all that much a couple days before, but maybe all they needed was a change of scenery! We all had so much fun up on that bed playing together. But eventually I had to get ready for the day, and eventually they did start to want to venture out of my room. So I went and got a box.

This box seriously bought me an hour. A box.

And by the way, we thought getting the machine from Fry's was the way to go. It was way cheaper, and it was nice to be able to go over some areas multiple times and just have more control over the whole process.

The day after that, I had to put the house back together, and I made six batches of sugar cookies for our camp fundraiser (I threw away the batches that weren't good enough - I didn't know sugar cookies were an art form). And to distract my kids that day, I dragged Brynn's mattress out to the loft and they played on the mattress all day long. A mattress.

Marty's a kid at heart. He had a lot of fun with the mattress, too. Perhaps too much fun. And as you can see, I hadn't gotten to putting the loft back together yet.

Brynn world. She was singing and her lyrics were really dramatic (can't remember what they were about now).

Then last weekend we set up the tent in our back yard as sort of a camping "rehearsal." We were trying to figure out if we could still fit our whole family in the tent, and whether or not the kids would sleep. SO MUCH FUN!!!!

The kids did great. It was pretty cold that night so Brynn sneaked up onto our bed, which was pretty crowded. So in the middle of the night, I did get up to go sleep in the house. But I could have toughed it out, I swear! That morning was going to be basically my only chance to sleep in in the month of February, so I saw the chance and took it. :)

We also blew up this little two man raft that was my family's when we were young. It had been sitting in my parents garage and we weren't sure if there were no holes or 100 holes, but it's in really good shape!

We also had a BBQ where we made s'mores (obviously). So we are all ready to go camping! We just need to find the time and place. :)

Enough is enough

2011-02-15T08:23:00.000-08:00

Wow, we ate a lot of candy yesterday. A lot. It was blissful. Except the heartburn. I didn't feel that guilty about it, because it was Valentine's Day, and that's what you do on Valentine's Day. We got cute Valentine's Day packages for our cute family members sent from all over the country. We loved and appreciated it, and there was some GOOD STUFF in there. Can you tell I have quite the sweet tooth?

So then after Family Home Evening I told Brynn, "What do you want for your FHE treat? We have LOTS of treats still here for you to choose from!" She thought about it and said, "Hm, I want some carrots."

Marty's and my jaw dropped. I said, "Ok, then go get some carrots." So she went to the fridge, opened the veggie drawer and started passing out carrots to everybody.

Although I didn't expect that from her, I agreed. Enough was enough, it was time to scale back the candy. In fact, it felt so good to hear her say that, that this morning I went through every cupboard and pantry and put everything sweet in garbage bags. That's what the above picture is. I threw away candy, marshmallows, even some hot chocolate (although I put a bunch of hot chocolate in food storage - I won't be that tempted anymore since our "winter" is pretty much over anyway). Even chocolate chips (I have been known to sneak them). Who knows how long this will last, but at least we don't have any candy-licious holidays coming up to tempt us.

Speaking of holidays, I'm going to try to start doing this from now on. Going ahead and having fun eating treats that day, and throwing any left-overs out the next day. There are dentists around us that trade in candy for money the day after Halloween. My mom always stuffed our Christmas stockings with nuts and exotic fruits, I think I'll start doing that. And I was thinking I'd start making having yummy berries a tradition for Valentine's Day. This year I got the kids the EVER requested "Mickey Cheese." Still working on Easter.

Just more thoughts... :)

P.S. J&H, that s'mores sucker was the best. thing. ever.

It came!

2011-02-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

Every year on Valentine's Day Marty has a heart shaped pizza delivered to my house for lunch. Then I get to be really selfish for an hour or two while the kids nap and I get to watch a chick-flick and gorge myself on my favorite food!
I love you, Marty :)

Oh no she DIDN'T

2011-02-08T10:50:00.001-08:00

A little help, please. Here's the story:

This morning I woke up in a good mood. I made cranberry smoothies that Marty and I drank out of goblets. We studied our scriptures. Amazingly, the kids weren't up yet so I put their smoothies in the freezer and took a nice, hot bath. I'm thinking, "Could this morning get any better?" Then the kids woke up so I got their smoothies out and we all sat at the table together with our fun string of Valentine's day lights on. As I'm having a nice little chat with Brynn, I'm congratulating myself on the morning, and then Brynn responds to something I've said with:

"You're right, stupid."

She looks at me sweetly and innocently, like maybe she didn't realize she was insulting her mom. I came down on her like a hammer and demanded to know where she heard that, and she panicked for a minute and told me that HAMAN had said that to Esther! And I realized that all of those times I blamed my brothers for things like getting into my mom's make up, I SHOULD have been blaming a DEAD EVIL VILLAIN from the scriptures!

I never did get to the bottom of it, so maybe she really wasn't repeating something, maybe she really did put that sentence together on her own and called her own mother stupid. I don't know. Brynn is not a perfect girl by any means, but saying something like that is SO not like her. So now I'm having a change of heart and trying to figure out a plan for limiting TV time. I say I need a plan because if I just say I'll try to do less, who knows if it will really happen. In the afternoon, I often put on a movie for her in a dark room with a pillow and blanket for quiet time. What do your kids do for quiet time? I wonder if she'd go for just giving her a big stack of books? I also put on PBS in the morning sometimes when I'm getting ready for the day. I think I've started getting too relaxed on letting the kids pick out DVDs at the library. If I've never seen them, I almost always watch them with the kids, but I must admit that there are at least 2 or 3 movies Brynn could be getting "fun phrases" from and I wouldn't know it because I just didn't want to sit through them. Hmm. How do you limit your kids' TV time? And how picky are you about movies? Do your kids repeat phrases from those movies?

Just thoughts....

THIS is why I don't try to teach piano while Marty is at work

2011-02-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

I put them in front of a movie with a cute little bowl of popcorn and I come back to THIS.

DANCING on the popcorn. One of the munchkins found it, and to be honest I don't even suspect the four year old, so OBVIOUSLY they DUMPED it OUT, and started DANCING on it!!!!!!!

Why are kids SO...

...Why do they always....

Just...WHY? WHY!? WHY?!?!?!?!?!?

Hogle Zoo trip from forever ago :)

2011-01-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

Bryce was obsessed with the monkeys. Ahhhh, I have it recorded now. How good that feels. :)

Casa Grande

2011-01-29T13:48:00.003-08:00

Have I mentioned how beautiful it's been here lately? Marty and I have driven 25 or so minutes to Coolidge more than once and not stopped at the Casa Grande National Monument. So this Saturday, we decided it was one of those days we really needed to get out of the house and that's what we did! It was SO fun! SO perfect for the kids!

By the way, the Casa Grande is a bunch of ancient Hohokam ruins (from around AD 1200) and was the nations first archaeological preserve in 1892 and the site was declared a National Monument in 1918.

Complete with a picnic!

All in a day's fun

2011-01-29T13:48:00.001-08:00

I want to remember how much FUN it is to be a mom. Especially a mom of little ones. I've been lucky enough to be able to stay home and enjoy this phase of life to its fullest. I know this phase is so short and in just a little while I'll hit the soccer mom phase and I will never be able to go back to having just a couple toddlers to care for and play with all day long. To be honest, I have panic attacks anywhere from 2 to 100 times a week when I think about how quickly Brynn will be off to school and how terribly I'll miss her!

ANYWAY, I just wanted to document some of the very simple fun we've been having lately. First of all, the laundry basket. Who knew? I brought stupid laundry basket outside to use as a goal for a game of soccer (we went to a QCHS soccer game and Brynn LOVED it). They played with this thing all day long. The laundry basket became:

a goal:

a stage: (Brynn belts out every song she knows as loud as she can the second she steps outside, it's the weirdest thing)

A Disneyland boat: (I think she must have seen a Disney Cruise advertisement or something)

A pirate boat:

A scary cave:

And a picnic table:
I love this girl's imagination. She could play on her own all day and be perfectly content. Bryce needs constant love and attention to keep him content. But that's how Brynn was a couple years ago and she grew out of it, so I guess we'll just wait and see. All the time I walk past a "display" she has set up, and as much as dirty shoes on the kitchen counter gross me out, I had to laugh when I saw this.

Marty's sister gave us this marble runner game and I thought we'd save it for the summer when we barricade ourselves inside all day. But I couldn't wait, we busted it out this week and it was so much fun.

Brynn and I made Beignets while Bryce napped. I don't know why I feel the need to give disclaimers, but here ya go. We took Brynn to go see "The Princess and the Frog" in the theater and thought that Tiana was a good princess but we were totally APPALLED at all the black magic and scary "spirits from the other side" and what-not. Well, we've got it on netflix and Brynn saw it as we were browsing through and begged to see it again. I told her we didn't want the scary man on in our house, which she was fine with, so we just show here the half-hour version of Tiana (working for her restaurant, at the ball, getting married at the end) and we're all happy with that.

Anyway, we saw "Tiana's Cookbook" at the library and that's where we got the recipes for the Beignets it shows in the movie. I told Brynn that a couple of years ago Grandma and Grandpa Oldham went to New Orleans and had Beignets right by where Tiana made them. Brynn was in total awe, so we called Grandma while we were making them and had a fun little chat and Tiana party after Bryce woke up.

The kids have been working more, too. I remember about a year and a half ago I came to this startling conclusion that Brynn was old enough to start learning how to help around the house. I just barely have come to the same conclusion yet again, "Wait a second, Bryce isn't a baby! He can put away silverware and pick up toys and put his clothes in the laundry basket!" Of course this means that any job I give the kids will take 10 times as long as it would take me to just do it myself, so it's not usually much help to me. But besides the fact that I feel like it's never to young to learn work and money management, the kids have been keeping me company more while I work! Last week on laundry day (one of my least favorite days) the kids helped me load the washer and switch the loads most of the day and amazingly we all had a lot of fun together.

Yep, I just posted that.

All of these things are really little. But I guess I recently recorded a rough couple of weeks, and now I want to record a couple of fun ones!

***I love being a mom.***

My friend gave us their old swing set! More fun!

Yes, well, the camera ran out of memory, but you get the general idea. We did stuff all four in here.

Guess who has a FOUR year old?

2011-01-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

My sweet sweet Brynnie-Pie turned four on December 22. Before we went up to Utah we threw our first birthday party for her. It was kind of crazy and was right in the middle of all my foot trouble, but I have great friends and had help, and I think the kids loved it, which is the important part.

We had a princess and knight party. The girls were all so cute in their princess dresses and I made little crowns and shields for the boys.

We played "pin the tail on the unicorn," went on a treasure hunt, had a cake walk, and played in the dragon (well, really it's a dinosaur, but no one seemed to mind).
I think she was more excited about her cake than any of her presents. Crown cupcakes! And Cinderella lights up! Remember the part about how I didn't spend hours and love on my own cake creation and just went and bought one at Walmart this year? Yeah. Cortisone shots just a couple days earlier and a 2 week trip to Utah the day after. It was WELL worth it. :)

Her actual birthday was while we were in Utah. So she woke up at Kelly and Christy's and played with her cousins, then we wanted to have a little time with just our family, so we went and got lunch at one of the most posh play places I've ever seen. Then we took her to Ross and let her pick out an outfit (she loves to shop - no lie). Then we went to G&G Oldhams, spent some time there and the went to PIRATE PIZZA! For a girlie girl like Brynn, it always strikes me as funny that she is SO interested in pirates. It was perfect!

Who's having more fun here, honestly?
Love when these two love each other.

There was something so cute about the way she so carefully folded and then stuffed all the tickets into her pockets.

Awwwwe, her first shooting lesson

We discovered a talent Brynn has. She was actually pretty good at shooting hoops. We couldn't believe how many shots she made.

The pirates sang to her and brought her ice cream.

She opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa....

who happened to have the best idea for a present for Bryncess I've ever heard. They gave her a wad of cash, took her to the Disney store at the mall and let her run wild and pick out whatever she wanted! After eliminating Aladdin and Jasmine dolls, a sparkly Belle suitcase, and a few other things, she finally decided on an Alice in Wonderland figurine set (figurines are her absolute favorite toys - she prefers them over baby dolls, barbies, everything) and a Rapunzel doll with looooong sparkly hair. Nice work, G&G and Brynn!

What a FUN birthday!!!!!!!!!

And by the way, if you are wondering about the sores on Brynn's mouth featured in the last 5 posts, we still are not sure what they are. I thought they were horrible cold sores that were getting infected, so the dr. gave us some medicine for them. But for 2 months they still just never went away, so then they recommended hydro cortisone lotion, and for now they have gone down again. I'm still skeptical, since they've done this multiple times and then come back, but we'll just wait and see.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

Highlights of Christmas in Utah (in no particular order...)

Baking Christmas sugar cookies with Grandma Oldham

We spent half of the trip and Christmas morning at the Johnsons, and the rest of Christmas and the other half of the trip at the Oldhams. Here is Christmas at the Oldhams. The kids are opening their new bikes from G&G!

A Rapunzel bike,

and a "Cars" bikeand they look so cute in their helmets!

And of course plenty of snow play

Grandpa got a workout, and to thank him for pulling her around in the sled all day, Brynn used Grandpa as target practice for her newly acquired snowball-throwing skills.

And here is the "Shepherd Party" that G&G Johnson gave the kids.

Here they are, "shearing the sheep."And listening to Grandpa talk about shepherds...

and loving every minute of it!
Pinning the bell on the sheep

and a few other shepherd games.
But of course, the evening wouldn't be complete without Shepherd's Pie and...riding around the house like total MANIACS on the bumblebees and ladybugs!

They babies of the families. I hope they will be as close as their older cousins.

Here was the traditional Christmas Eve Nativity reenactment. Definitely our least reverent year. :) Kids are hilarious, you can never expect what they are going to do next. So if you give them a costume and ask them to act, they get creative and come up with acting choices the adults might not have thought of.
For instance, Brynn not only loves princesses, she actually believes she is one. So here is Brynn taking her part very seriously, and possibly believing that she is Mary.

Daddy as the donkey (and yes, I refrained - no donkey jokes).The rest of the cast. And don't judge us too harshly for having Buzz in the manger - we were with a whole house full of boys and not a single baby doll to be found!

The wise man had some problems with his costume

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!

Brynn's two much much much MUCH requested items, the "Woody Couch"

and the Leapster.

And Santa heard about Bryce's new absolute ADORATION of trains.

Kelly and Christy were hospitable as always and invited us to share Christmas morning with them. I was so glad we did! The only excitement that beats "a kid on Christmas morning" is "a kid with her cousins on Christmas morning." Chaotic as it was, it was so. much. fun. Thanks for letting us crash your Christmas, Johnsons!

5 kids (ages 4 and under) + Christmas morning = 1 FULL living room!

We finally went to see the lights at temple square. Every year I say I'm going to, and every year we don't want to brave the blizzard and drive up to Salt Lake. But one night the weather was perfect. I was a little worried about being a wimp outside all night, now that I have acclimated to Arizona and get to see the AZ temple lights with temps in the 60s. Every year the first time we stop for gas in Utah, I step out of the car and shiver so hard I look like I am convulsing. But after a day or two in Utah, I remember that you just put on your coats and gloves and go out anyway, and it's JUST FINE.

I get homesick for the following things:

1. My family

2. Temple Square

So this was a wonderful night.

Kelly and Christy and fam.

Brynn is SOUND asleep in the back of the stroller. We tried everything to wake her up, but after a few days of sleeping in the same room as her cousins, I guess the sleep deprivation was getting to her.

On the walk from the conference center to the temple we were saying, "Brynn, look at the temple, look at the lights!" And we couldn't ever get her to look up. Finally, right as we were getting to the temple we saw a horse & buggy, and the words "royal horse and princess carriage" did the trick and she popped right up.

Stroller patrol!

Unfortunately, my amateur camera and photography skills weren't able to capture the beauty of the night. At the end of the night it started to snow gently, and I forgot how much I love to be out in the snow on peaceful nights. But on the drive home, the snow started getting worse, reminding me of how much I hate hate hate driving on the snow. Maybe that was a good thing. :)

And here's where life is really good...

2011-01-15T07:51:00.003-08:00

I'm whiny. All moms have those weeks. Anyway, Marty had the day off the next Monday so we went to see Despicable Me (which I think is actually pretty funny), even though we had already seen it at Marty's brothers HOUSE at Christmas. We just wanted to get OUT of the house and do something laid back. We went to the Superstition Springs dollar theater and after the movie the kids ran around for a while by the fountains. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! It felt so good to all of us to be running around happy and healthy and out in the Arizona sun. I like to soak up as much the sun as I can before I start to loooooooathe it during the summer.

Watching her shadow dance (of course).

My sweet reasons for doing what I do:

The perfect day to wash the taste of the last two weeks out of my mouth. :)

The details of Bryce's new look...

2011-01-15T07:51:00.001-08:00

I've had friends go through this crazy, pass-the-illness-back-and-forth thing in the winter and always thanked my lucky stars our family hadn't had to do that. So, I guess it was just our turn.

Alright, let's see....

-Two weeks ago I got sick on the weekend, but was feeling pretty good by Monday, no big deal.

-Then a couple days later Bryce cried all through the night. I went and got him a couple of times and thought he was probably just acting spoiled from our long trip in Utah and was wanting some love. But the last time I got him that morning he had puked all over his crib. So we just tried to take care of him until he got over it. I don't think he actually had a stomach flu because that was the only time he threw up. I think he'd just been crying too hard or something.

-The next couple of nights he continued to cry through the night and I again thought he just needed some love since he was sick, but after a few nights like that I was kind of tired and wondered if I should make a doctor appointment for him. That day he was pretty cute all morning, so I figured he was fine. I put him down for his nap and put on a movie for Brynn and was so relieved for a chance to take a nap. I was almost asleep when he started screaming again. I was super frustrated and thought maybe he'd sleep in our bed. So I brought him in there and he went right back to sleep, but then about a minute later he started to whimper in his sleep, which turned to crying, and finally he started pulling on his ears. OOOOH!! An ear infection! This is when everyone has the opportunity to say, "DUH!!! Took you long enough!" But my kids really don't get ear infections, so I'm not quick at seeing the signs. So I got a doctor appointment for him that day (that was Thursday - a week and a half ago). The only time they had was in a half hour at their farther-away office in Mesa, which takes 35 minutes to get there, but I ran Bryce to Marty at work, who ran him to the doctor, leaving me just enough time to pick up Brynn from preschool and get home to teach piano. Marty brought Bryce home with a prescription for his DOUBLE ear infection (I felt like such a bad mom!). I thought, "Hm, busy day. Well, that's that."

-So that was Thursday, and by Saturday I was feeling pretty sick again. But Marty was out running errands all morning, so I was "on duty" a lot of the day. I was still feeling pretty sick Sunday, but I'd gone for so long not teaching my Beehives, I just really felt like I needed to go to church, so I just tried to ignore being sick all day. Meanwhile, Bryce had still been up crying almost every hour or two for basically a week at this point and had started developing a hacking cough.

-So on Monday, I was starting to feel better for the second time, but not much improvement for Bryce. I had talked to a friend at church who got her little girl an antibiotic for an ear infection the same day we did and was pretty much fine at that point. So I made a second appointment for him Monday to see what was going on. His ears were starting to look somewhat better but his lungs weren't sounding good. The doctor tried his best to listen to his lungs, but Bryce was screaming and trying to get out of there, and he is STRONG! He said Bryce sounded like he might be just starting to get pneumonia. He said the safest thing would be to write him a prescription for a much stronger antibiotic, but it's harsher and would probably upset his stomach. So I took it home and stewed over whether or not I should fill it, or just keep going on the first one, as he was acting pretty cute and happy most of the day. Also on Monday, Marty came home after school feeling sick, flopped down on the bed, and slept the rest of the day. Great.

-Tuesday, Marty got a sub, which he NEVER does. It's a little tricky finding a sub for seminary. For some strange reason, people aren't just lining up, waiting around all day to VOLUNTEER to take on 150 teenagers. :) He couldn't find a sub in time for his first class, so he had to go in, and when he got home he spent the whole rest of the morning trying to find a sub for his last hour. Finally, his wonderful secretary offered to find him one, so he went to sleep and slept the rest of the afternoon. I had never seen him so sick our whole marriage! Bryce had had YET ANOTHER horrible night but good day. Finally Tuesday evening I was sick of mulling over the stronger prescription and decided to fill it (especially after going to mutual that night and talking to a bunch of other moms about respiratory problems!). When I got home for YW that night at about 9:15, Bryce was still up crying and I thought I'd made a good decision and gave him the first dose of that.

-On Wednesday my poor husband was doing horribly, but was able to find a sub pretty easily so that was nice. Our family doctor was full that day, so we decided to go ahead and take him to urgent care. The kids had had their fill of doctor offices, and as usual, they asked us to bring him in right away, which was at lunch time, and of course the kids hadn't had lunch, so we dropped Daddy off and had lunch at Taco Bell. We picked up Marty to find out he had a pretty awesome case of bronchitis and took him home. So I spent another afternoon at the Walmart pharmacy. Who else has to spend over an hour waiting for their prescriptions to be done? I know Walmart is cheap, but I think I'm done there. At this point it's been over a week since Bryce has slept well, so I sadly kissed another chance for a nap good-bye, but at least had a really fun date there with Brynnie-Pie. I came home just as Bryce was waking up and started to cry! Because as HAAAARD as I was trying to ignore it, I was sick again. Or maybe I never actually got over what I'd had Sunday. But it didn't matter, because I'm the mom and was learning that I couldn't really call a sub! Wednesday we got through the day. Marty slept from 3:00 that afternoon until the next morning. I can't imagine how sick he must have been! And Bryce and I had our TENTH night of crying together! He just wasn't getting better. So...

-Thursday, I was already planning to take Bryce back to the doctor for a third time, but when he woke up with a horrible rash all over his body, and what I was pretty sure was labored breathing, I made the appointment as soon as they opened. The first bit of bad news came after I explained that he had not had a fever for a few days and we had no other choice but to assume that Bryce was most likely allergic to penicillin. Which will be, let's be honest, a big pain in the butt the rest of his life. And secondly, he had bronchulitis(?) (which is the virus that can turn into RSV), and he was just too wheezy for comfort. Which is the story of this sad machine we use every few hours. So, like an absolute walking zombie, I took Brynn back to Walmart for our fourth round of prescriptions. I took her to the toy section and sat there on the dirty, disgusting floor and tried not to cry again. I was so sick! But she was an angel as always, and she's so stinkin' delightful to spend time with. We got home, once again, right as Bryce was waking up, and so I missed my 11th chance for a nap after my 11th night sick with no sleep. So I was pretty much at my wits end on Thursday. I canceled all my students and started looking up plane tickets to see just how out-of-our-price -range it would be to fly my mom out for the weekend. Although I wasn't real serious about it, because as luck would have it she was under the weather, herself. So I admitted defeat with my kids crying all around me. And then four or five people called in about a 15 minute period just to say hi, and how are we doing? and do we need any help? And so I got a lot of good advice, a WONDERFUL meal, and lots of offers I figured I'd make good on. That night Marty started coming back to life right in time. I put the kids in the bath with a very indulgent amount a bubbles, grabbed my pillow and blanket and laid down on the floor by them. I didn't make it back to my bed until after Marty had gotten them washed and down to bed for the night, and he helped me up. I figured if I could get a SINGLE NIGHT of sleep I might finally get over this thing. So, yes, I did take a bunch or Tylenol PM, and the next thing I know Marty's waking me up because Bryce is crying, but HALLELUJAH! He can't get Bryce because it is morning and he's headed of to work! I finally got some sleep!

-SO, Friday was much better now that I could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel! And Bryce was doing better at keeping the mask on after he realized as long as he kept it on he got to watch Thomas and get a mini-Popsicle at the end. In fact, those incentives might have been TOO good after he started going to the machine on his own and asking for Thomas. (That's actually a little tip I got from Melissa years ago after seeing her boy willing to wear the mask as long as he got to watch a movie - thanks, Melissa!) I got a little crazy and actually did my dishes that morning! We'd had just about enough of eating cereal from tupperware with measuring spoons. :) But after doing the dishes I felt like I had just run a marathon and decided I would finally LISTEN to my body and take it easy. I don't think a single person in the world could have convinced me to load up my kids and go anywhere, so thank heavens no doctor appointments. We got to just take it easy in our messy house, which is what we are doing today also, Saturday. At least Marty doesn't have a small fireside planned at our house tomorrow. OH, WAIT!!!! :) We'll get to the house later. :) They'll forgive us!

So what did I learn these last TWO WEEKS? (So that I don't have to do this again anytime soon)

Hm, to listen to my body and not "run faster than is needful." And how do I do that when my whole family is sick? By asking for help, dummy! The time things finally turned around for us is when we got help. Which brings me to my next realization, even if we lived next door to my mom, she can't fix everything because she gets sick sometimes, too. So I am not allowed to get discouraged over not living close to family. I've found a real sense of empowerment and independence I haven't had as much in my life until we moved out here, but enough is enough! Being independent doesn't mean doing everything without at least a little help from the ward family. And my standards can't be quite the same when I'm sick. I should have spent less time worrying about my house-cleaning on Monday and Tuesday when I wasn't quite as sick, and more time trying to get better. Also, having a healthy family doesn't make me a good mom, and having a sick family doesn't make me a bad one. I feel like I've tried even harder than usual to keep my family germ-free and this still happened, so there ya go. These things just happen. And I should probably stop waiting around for our family to be perfect. I was frustrated because we just had another substantial health set-back last month, but I guess with four people, someone will often be ailing somehow. Plus, Bryce and I sure have had a lot of bonding time together the last couple of weeks. Last night he kept telling me thank you (at totally random times) and showering me with kisses. I went ahead and took it as a tender mercy that a 20 month old was able to show appreciation to his mom like that. :) Plus a few other lessons, but those ones are personal. :) Deep breath..... And time for more Thomas! Thanks kids, for allowing me a chunk of time to get his out of my system!

And here are some sweet pics of the best big sister ever. The other thing that helps Bryce to sit still is when Brynn sits with him. And she is always more than happy to!

Finishing popscicles and snugglin.'

By the way, Brynn never really did get sick. She got a cough, but no fevers and she never complained about being sick or acted sick. Which surprises me when I see these pictures. :)

The end!

Third time's a charm

2011-01-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

Three (unprecedented) sick days for Daddy...

Three rounds of the same illness for Mommy...

Three trips to the doctor in one week for Bryce...

And three (at least) movies a day for our one healthy family member who no longer bothers to ask for our attention.

Details to come, but forgive us for falling off the radar....

Arizona Christmas

2010-12-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

As usual, the weather was beautiful for the Queen Creek Christmas parade. I love Queen Creek. I love the size of the city. I love that wherever I go, I drive past fields, farms, and horses, but if I want a good shopping center, there is one 10 minutes away. And if I want a really good shopping center, there is one 20 or 3o minutes away. We now have a hospital just down the street. The airport is close to an hour away, but I'm used to that (being from Spanish Fork). Maybe that's why I love Queen Creek so much. It's similar to my hometown without actually having to BE my hometown. Who wants to live in the same city where they attended high school?

But here I am off-topic as usual. The main reason I love Queen Creek is for THIS!!!

Santa Clause sporting his sunglasses in the parade! After the parade, we found a nice soft patch of grass to eat our snow cones and watch some of the Christmas performances at the library.
Brynn got bored and ended up with a pen and a notebook, which is typical for her.

After church today, we made treats to eat while we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.
And here's another part of Christmas in Arizona. Brynn has gotten stubborn about talking on the phone, which drives me crazy because I want her to keep in touch with her out-of-state relatives. But no matter her mood, she almost always lets Grandpa Johnson sing her to sleep at night. For days she's been wanting Grandpa to sing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," and she got to hear it tonight! So here she is, listening intently (it's hard to see the phone in her hand).

And here comes Bryce. Is this normal? It's not usual neutral for these two. Either they are pestering and tormenting each other, or they are loving on each other in the sweetest, most affectionate ways. Here, Bryce is gently stroking her hair.

And puckering up to give her a kiss.

And after a while, the two of them in the same bed start to get wound up and hyper, so we move Bryce back to his crib. But not before Bryce gives Grandpa (through the phone) a goodnight kiss.

Oh, and by the way, our Christmas tree was tipped over already. I'm sure that's the first of an unfortunate amount of times. :) Here's Bryce trying to put back all the ornaments. I've just had to remind myself that this is not the time period in my life to stress over having a beautiful tree. For right now, I'm perfectly content with just making Christmas fun with the little ones. I know all too soon Marty and I will be decorating the tree by our self and reminiscing about our kid-friendly tree back when we had babies.

Libraries: Pure evil or great blessing? Discuss...

2010-12-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

I've had a temporary loss of self-control and have given myself up to books. I think it's relatively undisputed that reading is good, but when words on a page become my new reality, that's when I've crossed the line and it's time to ban books for a while. Maybe someday I'll learn some balance with books (my mom is a librarian, and she's figured that out), but for now I'm accepting defeat and pledging to stop reading until Christmas break. Then, when 3:00 a.m. shows up on my clock and I'm still telling myself, "I'll stop reading at 3:15, no, 3:30, no...," I can nap or sleep in and I'll have enough family around to justify the kid's getting attention elsewhere. :)
And if you want to connect on Goodreads, I'd love to get suggestions for new books (to read in the FUTURE of course!). I'm not great at navigating the site, but I have been updating my books lately.
Hopefully this link takes you to my books...?????
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/825599

What else have the Johnson's been up to?

Brynn had a stomach flu this week, which was noteworthy to me for a couple of reasons. First of all, none of the rest of us got it! I NEVER thought I'd see the day that someone in my house got sick and I didn't. Especially since that morning Brynn woke up crying and painfully early, so I laid down with her for a minute to calm her, and the next thing I know I'm waking up with our cheeks still pressed together. She threw up not more than a couple hours later and I was bracing myself. Preparing, too. Only eating things I new I wouldn't mind coming up later. Gross, I know, but when you have a pregnancy like my first, some foods take on a whole new meaning and I find myself often thinking about the negative association I have from that food four years ago.
The other noteworthy part is that this is only the second time she's ever had a stomach flu. The first time was three years ago before her first birthday, so I think that's pretty good! We've been immensely blessed with health, even during cold and flu season, and I am so grateful for that.

I guess Autumn is the time for adventures. At least, their adventures according to me. This year was a girl road trip. My friend from high school (in Utah) moved out here to Queen Creek. Her husband was going out of the state for a business and she didn't want to be alone with the kids, so the two of us packed up our five kids (ages 4, 3, 2, 18 months, and 6 months) and drove with every seat filled to Utah for a week. We couldn't believe how well our kids did and how surprisingly painless it was! She's ready to go again, but I feel so guilty leaving my husband alone for a week. Luckily, it was an extraordinarily busy week for him and I doubt I would have seem him at all anyway. So one of us was bound to be lonesome for the other. And I froze lots of meals for him, I think he eats better when I'm gone than when I'm home. I can hear myself desperately trying to rationalize the whole thing, even though he was totally supportive about it! Although I will say that when I got back, he scooped me up in the tightest hug and said, "Never again!!!" We like each other. :)

The day I got back from Utah I was sick, and the next day, and the day after that Greg came!!!!!! For a whole week!!! Greg is Marty's brother (he's my age) and he absolutely just feels like another brother to me. He is a sass, teases me, we all love to play games together and laugh together, and talk about stupid stuff and serious stuff. He spoils my kids rotten and loves them to bits, and even managed to keep his patience last year through Bryce's screaming, and this year through Brynn's new emotional instability (Helloooo 4!). But this time when he came to visit, he came in a cast. He had just had ankle surgery two days before he flew out. I know the flight must have been horrible, but I am so glad he came. Partly so that we could spend time together, but mostly so that we could take care of him. I had to go through a bunch of surgeries in college and during one of them, I had too much going on to kick back at my parent's house, so I had to take care of myself at my apartment and it was no fun at all. I'm really glad he came. It was a very laid-back visit, but I think that was nice for all of us.

Our house is officially decorated for Christmas! I can't help thinking about our Christmas last year and how much the kids have changed. Particularly Bryce. It was after we got home from our Christmas vacation that Bryce 2.0 started to emerge. I've heard that crawling has the biggest positive effect on acid-reflux-y babies, and I think that must have been the case for him, because that's about when he started crawling. Anyway, for a long time Bryce has been about as delightful as babies/toddlers come. He is so playful, and such a tease. He's been pretty good about leaving the Christmas tree alone, except for one train ornament that he literally just can't force himself to keep his hand off of. So I tried to help him understand that he can play with just that one and he's been catching on really well. Bryce is turning out to be persistent, yet obedient. For example, he'll ask and ask and ask, but usually if I tell him "no" he listens. The problem with that is, he has figured out that if he patiently asks me for something enough times, eventually I'll cave. So right now Bryce's discipline comes down to my resolve. Scary. I'm a softie.

Speaking of Bryce and changes, we are breaking him of Bubby!!! Bubby is his Binky, by the way, he came up with that name. I guess that's an easy word to say, because that was also my brother's name for his blanket or something. Anyway, yeah. It's been a little rough this week. Traumatic for him. We dreaded this so much with Brynn and then it turned out to be no big deal at all. One day she was a bink-aholic, the next she forgot she'd ever had a Binky. Not quite the case with Bryce, but he's getting there. We snipped the Binky rather than just taking it away, so it's hard to get suction and stay in his mouth. But he still wants to go to bed with it in his hand. At first, I thought "sure, hang on to it, it's at least an improvement over sucking on it." But I can't let him just hang on to it forever, or I've got the same problem of constantly searching the house for Bubby. This weekend is it, though. While there are two of us parents to keep each other sane, we're going to start saying "No Bubby" when Bryce asks and wash our hands of it.

Well, I didn't expect to write a novel today, but it feels good to be journaling again. I don't expect anyone to make it through the post, but I feel like there is a weight off of my shoulders having recorded the events of the past month. Nothing earth-shattering, but the little things are what I'm the most afraid of forgetting. Next time, I'll include pictures. But today, I'd better just hurry and post before Bryce wakes up, Brynn comes home from preschool, piano students start showing up, and life gets crazy again!

Can we live at Disneyland?

2010-10-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

Brynn's Highlight:

This Cinderella had us all convinced she was the real one.

Bryce's Highlight:

Hugging,

smooching,

patting,

and snuggling Winnie the Pooh until we finally had to break Bryce away. We couldn't get him to turn around to smile for the camera, but this is probably better. I wasn't sure he even knew who Winnie the Pooh was, but this is the only character he ever really cared about at Disneyland. Guess 18 months of listening to Mommy sing "The House at Pooh Corner" leaves an impression.

More Highlights:

Parades:

Main Street Evening Parade

The Pixar Play Parade

We did this the first day we were there, and I guess getting up at 4:00 in the morning has an effect on kids. We tried so hard to wake her up, but she slept through quite a bit of it.

We came back with Grandma and Grandpa. It was way better than we were expecting. See on the upper right hand corner, there were Woody and Jesse doing gymnastics on the bars.

Rides:

Brynn and Grandpa are in the pink Dumbo on the left.

Everyone loved the tea cups...

...but I think especially Brynnie and I did.

Huh. And Marty got pretty into it, too. He can really get those tea cups going.

Flik's Fliers.

Hiemlich's Chew Chew Train

More tea cups.The very first ride we went on was Small World. It was a GREAT first ride, because I think Brynn was a little worried they'd be scary.

Characters:

Minnie...

the Witch. Brynn was a witch for Halloween, and whenever anyone said anything about her being a witch, she'd say, "No, I'm MINNIE the witch. Ok, give me a hug...now look at the camera...smile! Ok, you're done."

Brynn gave Eeyore a red balloon to help make him happy (it's a story from the House at Pooh Corner).

Smiles:

Grandma and Grandpa time:

The kid's anticipation as we were getting closer to the park on that first day was THE BEST!!!

Lesser Highlights: :)

Getting there, although the kids were SO good. Bryce slept and my oh my, Brynn can entertain herself well (those close to her refer to it as "Brynn World"). And really it isn't a long drive from Queen Creek. Especially compared to the UT dirve. And we polished off an entire bag of wafer cookies (I don't want to hear it, wafer-haters). So...maybe it wasn't a lowlight?

Going home. Grandma tried to pack Bryce, but I caught her and made her fork him over.Lines.

Here is my #1 piece of Disneyland advice for anyone going anytime soon!!!

One word: "Ridemax." It's a program you pay 15 bucks for online, but it is totally worth it. You list everything you want to ride on that day, and it will schedule your day for you to minimize wait time. I know not everyone likes to vacation on a schedule, but it's a Marty&Em style vacation - cram cram cram the fun fun fun. It was a very busy weekend (UEA - don't go during UEA if you can avoid it) and the longest we ever waited for a ride was a half hour, and that hardly happened. We were especially grateful for Ridemax when we saw people waiting in 90 minute lines for rides that we had walked right on to. One more thing about it...

It's hard to see in this picture, but what I was trying to photograph was the line WALL of people right behind us. Ridemax taught us how to be the first people to enter the park, walk on three of the most popular rides, and come out of the ride to see a half hour line had already formed. By the way, to be the first in the park: When they let you into Main Street, but no farther, go through the stores - they are all connected. Go to the very last store, it's the Kodak Store. They open those doors the same time they open the wall of people, and voila. You are ahead of the crowd and any ride is your choice (pick Peter Pan). See how much I love you? I just wrote more on my tip than I did about the trip - I'll probably have to go back and write more about everything else now. :)

Food and Shopping:

mmmmm, chuuuuurros....

Playing:

Just hangin' out.

More "Brynn World" with her new souvenier princesses from G&G.

Soaking up Autumn at Big Thunder Mountain Ranch.

My mom and I loooove Autumn.

Here's Brynn singing, "I'm Wishing" at Snow White's wishing well.

Sigh. I miss that castle...

...and that pumpkin.

The Beach

Exciting and unfortunate all in one. We got there way later than we were expecting so we had to play in the dark. Plus it took half of our time to get our little worrier to come near the water and have fun (Brynn), PLUS a dislocated shoulder from Bryce.

Six Flags!!! FINALLY!!!!!

If there is one thing Marty and I love, it is being parents. But if there's ANOTHER thing we love it is ROLLER COASTERS!!! The BIGGER, FASTER, and CRAZIER, the better! Five years ago on our honeymoon we were planning to go to Six Flags, but that day I woke up with strep throat, darn it. Ever since, we've been trying to get back there, because have you SEEN Goliath? Awesomest drop in the universe! Although it was Heimlich's Chew Chew Train compared to X2. I quite sure I never stopped screaming for the entire 2 minutes. You never have a clue if you are backwards, or forwards, bla bla bla. ANYWAY, it was a great day spent with Marty's brother Greg and some of his friends (my parents took the kids to Disneyland that day). I had a very sad "first" that day, too. At the end of the night I had to opt out of the three best coasters in the park for motion sickness. Sad, sad, sad day. But I had already ridden them many, many times just fine, so I'm not getting THAT old.

The Redlands Temple

Wherever Marty and I travel, we try to find the closest temple we haven't been to before and visit it and take a picture. Last night we were trying to count them up, and we figure we probably have 20 or so together. It's a fun tradition/goal.

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-10-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Which one is your kid...

2010-10-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

...in the primary program? Mine was the sunbeam (probably the youngest sunbeam - Dec 22), front and center, who got a line or two of singing in between her different dance routines. Twirling mostly, as it was very crowded up there on the stand. Mine was also the one leading the music, jumping up way before the music leader gave the signal to stand (and then jumping up again really dramatically when she did see the signal), waving like crazy at Mom and Dad, and then a complete deer-in-the-headlights look, when she was trying to figure out what it was we were down there trying to silently communicate to her NOT TO DO. Well, thank goodness no nose-picking. OH WAIT! Except that MINUTE-LONG pick during the very last song, accompanied by yet another confused look (what are you trying to tell me, Mom?) while picking.

Even still, our very first primary program was such a sweet experience. She has the best primary teachers and leaders, thanks to all of you who teach her. Now we know to work on the whole DON'T dance during primary thing.

And speaking of Brynn in church, I think I had one of my proudest moments as a mom last month. My little Brynnie-Pie bore her testimony all by herself! She's been asking us for months and months when it can be her turn to bear her testimony. We wanted her to wait until she could go up by herself, but didn't think she was ready, so we kept telling her "no." And I felt AWFUL telling her no and denying her the experience! Especially since I know she can do it. We bear our testimonies to each other faithfully every Sunday and Monday, and she comes up with the most sincere and simple things to testify of. But she is only 3, so sometimes it ends up something like this: And I know that I can get married in the temple, and I can marry Daniel. And Moses. No, Joshua - I'll marry Joshua." So we told her to pick three things she wanted to bear her testimony about, and this is what SHE said: "I know that President Monson is a prophet, and I know that Jesus loves me, and I know that when I'm sick, I can get a blessing." It was so sweet!!!! So we drew a picture of each of those things on a note card and let her look at it the week before so she wouldn't get too sidetracked.

She did so great and I was so proud! She was a little confused about where exactly to go once she got up to the stand because there was a line, but she found Brother Stanley (a counselor in our Bishopric who she LOVES) and sat with him until it was her turn. Once she got to the microphone, all you could see was the very top of her head, but she said every word as clear as day, and wasn't shy or silly at all. And I'm pretty sure I might have teared up a little. :)

I love every phase my kids have been in, and I love watching Brynn grow and mature. I also love the funny and entertaining moments (like the twirling on the stand) - even if they are slightly embarrassing!

Pioneer Trails Workshop, Day 6

2010-10-23T07:46:00.004-07:00

The Parting of the Ways. To Oregon or Zion?

We did some awesome off-roading, changed a few tires, used chains to get out of mud bogs, you know - the usual.

This hill was particularly exciting to drive down. The Saints called it gravel hill, and William Clayton wrote this in his journal: "The descent from this hill is the steepest and most difficult we have ever met with, being long and almost perpendicular."

Brigham's rock.

Almost no pics from these days -- how sad!!! For memories, here is a list of things we saw this day:

-Camp Scott

-High Ridge and Philo Dibble Jr. site

-Aspen Ridge

-Sulphur Creek Camp/Bear River Crossing

-Echo Canyon: You can still see piles of rocks where Lot Smith had men staked out to fire on Johnston's Army.

-Cache Cave

-Castle Rock

-Hogsback Summit, aka Heartbreak Ridge: the pioneers would get over Heartbreak Ridge, thinking they were almost there, and see a MOUNTAIN range in their path.

-Big Mountain: the first view of the Valley. By the way, the days lined up just great. We were able to enter the Valley on the 24th of July - same as the first pioneer company of 1847. Again, a really neat moment to get that first view of the valley while reading Jean's journal about her feelings as she looked out at the valley.

-Little Mountain

-Donner Hill

-This is the Place State Park

Whew! Now I want to do a big long post of reflections on this incredible week of my life, and once in a career opportunity....but...I'm really burned out. :) So hopefully, that will come soon!

Pioneer Trails Workshop, Day 5

2010-10-23T07:46:00.003-07:00

Day 5 and 6 we didn't take many pictures because our camera was running out of both batteries and memory, and it had been quite a while since we been around much civilization to recharge it.

This day we saw Charlotte Dansie's grave. Another place we know a pioneer was buried. She died in childbirth and her husband buried her with a necklace of blue beads. Much later, some family went back to the area to try to find that spot and pay their respects. They asked the land owner there if he knew anything about the grave, and he pulled out of his pocket a blue bead. Ants had formed an ant hill and those beads had surfaced around the base of it. The land owner had taken good care of the grave site ever since.

Fort Bridger

Piedmont

There is a tradition at Green River to try to throw rocks all the way across.

I was just excited about Green River because Jean liked it. Here I am with her beat up journal, inspecting the banks to see if it was just the way she had described it in 1852. It's not.