Merry Christmas!

My Three Angels! Rae and her giant bruise...she has a bad habit of jumping on her bed after I put her to bed. This accident gave her two back eyes as you can tell...and just the other night she was throwing a tantrum on her bed and bashed her cheek into her bed post again. It does not look very pretty. Hopefully she gets out of this head bonking stage, it is getting old.

Lights at Temple Square. Lots of fun!

Look at our cute little family. We are growing in numbers, it's crazy!

Our chubby boy! He gets chuckles from everyone. At his 4-month appt. he was 21 1/2 pounds and the nurse that was working with him has been a pediatric nurse for over 20 years and she said he is the biggest she has ever seen. He is huge but healthy. I just wish I could have had a little boy for a little bit longer, but he is truly a big bundle of love.

So the computer thinks it is smarter than me and it won't turn the picture. Sorry about that. The funny thing is, is the picture naturally sits the other way on the computer but the website thinks it needs to go the other way...wierd.

We had an awesome Christmas. We spent most of the time with Kevin's family and an occasional couple of hours with my family. Kev got a Ping Pong table that he is absolutely loving (I am too actually, I am getting better so he doesn't completely annihilate me every time...just most of the time.) The kids had a great time too. Hailee cried and whined the whole time I was taking down Christmas Decorations yesterday...she was not ready for Christmas to be over. We are however looking forward to another long weekend this weekend with the New Year. Hopefully we will do something fun!

Just the kids!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself Disco Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Family Fun!

So between Kyle's chubby cheeks, being bundled up and in the front carrier we thought that being an M&M would be a perfect costume for him. We were right, everywhere we went while we were at the Zoo people were constantly commenting on how adorable he was.

We went to "Boo at the Zoo" with some friends of ours, it was a blast.

The kids entered into the costume contest, we didn't win but if it were by popular vote Kyle would have won, everyone thought he was the cutest M&M ever, and I agree :o)

Doesn't it look like he fell asleep praying?

Another pretty sunset in our backyard, we do have a perfect view from our backyard.

He is already getting dressed up by his sisters, and it is so cute.

A rare moment when they actually get along...happy day!

Hailee and her silly pose, she loves to model for all pictures, it's hard to get her to just stand up straight and smile...but they are cute anyway.

Even princesses have bad hair days, right?

Aunt Betsy with cute "little" Kyle! He's helping hold her shoulder brace in place, what a big helper.

Kyle with his older cousin, Connor. All of his older cousins are so sweet with him, Connor held him and he went right to sleep. It's always extra special when you see a boy loving little babies.

Our nephew Preston has a little booster seat made out of old phone books taped together with his name taped on it...and apparently the name tag fell off. I just found it so funny that he had his name stuck to his bum, completely by accident.

Isn't it amazing how adorable your kids are when they are asleep? Why aren't they as sweet and cute when they are awake? "o)

I know this picture is a little revealing but I couldn't resist taking a picture of how Hailee happened to be sleeping, that is definitely one of her more unusual sleeping positions.

Ahh comfort! Don't worry, after I took the picture I put him in bed.

Our little thumb sucker. Yep, he sucks his thumb and hates binkies, last night he had both of his hands up by his face and I got a closer look just to find our that he had BOTH of his thumbs in his mouth. I tried to get a picture, but I got there too late.

Daddy-Son time. I think Kev is glad he finally has a boy, he just can't wait till he will be old enough to go shoot some hoops with him.

So, the girls do not like that Kev and I go on dates without them, so we have started to take them out on their own "dates" as well, and the first one we went on was to Arctic Circle where the toys are, and now whenever we talk about going on a date with them they want to got to Arctic Circle, I don't think they get that we can go to a different place each time...but we have lots of fun!

Our little climber! Kids, they grow up so quickly!

Our battered and bruised two-year-old. I guess it comes with the territory of being a toddler but Rae had a rough couple of weeks when it came to bumps and bruises. I think she had at least 2 band aids, 2 bruises, and 2 scabs at any given time during those few weeks. Poor thing.

Kids say the darndest things!

So, Kev and I enjoy making smoothies and of course the girls love them as well. I can't remember who couldn't pronounce it right, but they would call a smoothie a smoogie. It has since caught on and even Kev and I call them smoogies now. So, the other day Rae noticed we were getting ready to make some and she yelled in excitement, "SMOOGIES!" Then Hailee said, "Dad, when I was little I used to call them smoogies too." And Kev responded, "What do you call them now, Hailee?" And in a very grown up, sophisticated way she said. "I just call them smooge." We got quite the kick out of that one. Even still we laugh when we remember how grown up she was trying to be, while still calling them the wrong thing. Oh what fun and laughter kids bring into your home.

Kyle is going to dress up as a pirate for Halloween, but Kev and I have been thinking that maybe we should have him dress up as Alvin, the chipmunk, he has the perfect cheeks for it! :o)

Curlers and bicycles, quite the combination!

What a sweetheart!

Food Storage!

So, Kev and I have been trying to get our year's supply in order and I tell you what, it is pretty daunting and hard to reach that goal. We got all our canned goods a couple of months ago and this last weekend we went to the cannery, (which was a blast, by the way) and did as much as they had there. Unfortunately they didn't have very much on their shelves, so we will have to go again when they get another shipment. So we came home and organized all our food storage and set it up in our storage room and I thought, "Man, we are doing really good, we have to be so close." So, I calculated it out and we are only about half way there, I couldn't believe it. So, we still have lots more to do, but at least we are well on our way. I guess we just eat a lot and having a year's worth for a family of five is a lot, just more than I imagined. Fun stuff, we already feel a lot more at ease with how much we have, it will be great when we have the rest.

Summer Projects!

Now that summer is over we finally have some completed projects to account for. We got a whole bunch of canning done, lots of applesauce, apple juice, peaches, salsa, peach syrup, peach jam, and raspberry jam. It is so great to have such yummy homemade food stored up for the year, I am so excited.

And we finally got our yard all complete for the year. Top Soiled for new grass, sprinkler system in and grass planted. It took us a while, but we can say that we are finally all done. The grass just needs to grow, which it is, but just slowly. Hopefully by next summer we will have our soccor field, football field, volleyball, bad minton, croquet and anything else you can think of to play on a nice big, flat field of grass. It will be awesome! Wahoo! Thanks again to all those that helped us in this huge project, we couldn't have done it without you.

My messy kitchen as I spent the day making applesauce and juice. Thank you Kevin for all of your help. I am so excited for canned goods this coming year.

We ended up with 2 dozen quarts of apple juice and 4 dozen quarts of applesauce. It was a long day but well worth it.

Here is some of my peaches, peach syrup and applesauce in the pantry. The jams are in the freezer and today I am going to make salsa. I am pumped to have some, Kev's favorite snack is chips and salsa so he will love me forever. :o)
Here is a section of the backyard. You can see the healthy grass, and where it is healing from the sprinkler system, and then the dirt where we have planted new seed. The back corner with the cement curbing is going to be our garden, it will be fun to plant one next spring. And our shed that we love so much, it is so great to have a nice, big shed to hold all our yard equipment.

This is the front yard, it is also healing from the sprinkler system. I still get all giddy and excited whenever they turn on. I did NOT enjoy watering the lawn by hand. It was such a pain to be constantly worrying about it, or going on trips and knowing it was dying, or having the neighbors do it, which I am sure they hated as much as I did. And I am sure my neighbors are glad that now our water comes on in the early morning hours now instead of the middle of the day when I remember, so their kids won't be tempted to come and get wet in our yard. Sorry you had to deal with that neighbors, we should have a cul-de-sac party to celebrate our new sprinkler system. I love it!!!!

Conference Weekend!

The girls rarely go a day without wearing their princess outfits. It is starting to drive me crazy, but they sure have fun pretending with each other all the time. And they love their brother so so much, almost too much at times!

Kyle smiling, it isn't one of his best, but you know how it goes...whenever you try to get in on camera it never works. But he is still pretty cute.

Kyle cuddling Aunt Betsy during conference. Just two days earlier she had surgery on her shoulder so we had to rig up a way for her to hold Kyle with her one arm. It seems like we got it figured out nicely.

Grandpa Johnson with his two youngest grandchildren. Kyle with his OLDER, yet SMALLER cousin Jordan! Too cute.

Kyle didn't think getting all dressed up was anything to be happy about. But we couldn't resist putting him in a pumpkin suit, since he is all rollie and cute anyway!

The ultra nose!

So Hailee must take after her Aunt Jamie, because she smells everything and makes the funniest comments about it. We have had a new funny story to recount everyday for the past week. On Sunday she leaned over to Kevin in Sacrament Meeting and said, "Daddy, what that smell? It smells like cashews!" And to test if she truly knew what cashews were, we covered her eyes and held out some cashews for her to smell and she guessed it right instantly.

Then the next day was her birthday and our neighbor, Joy brought her a birthday cake and Hailee looked at it and then smelled in and said, "Mom, this smells like roast beef!" I started to laugh and then she said, just as seriously, "What's roast beef?"

A couple of days later she came in the room while Kevin was changing Kyle's diaper and she said, " It smells like fishies, Dad!" She is so random it cracks us up!

Then as Kevin and her Uncle Brad were playing a game together she walked up and said, "It smells like stinky feet." And her Uncle Brad said, "Sorry, It's probably me."

I have many more stories, but I'll spare you, it just cracks me up how she always has a comment to make about smells, she reminds me so much of my sister, Jamie when she does that. I love you Jamie! :o)

Hailee's 4th Birthday!

Paige, Hailee, Corrine and Raelyn! Three out of four birthday girls! Hailee turned 4 on September 23rd, Corrine turned 5 on the 24th, and Paige turned 3 on the 25th! Rae is just too cute to not let be in the picture.

Silly birthday girls!

Kyle likes Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's bean bag chairs! Isn't he just the cutest?

Happy to be here, at least Hailee was! :o)

Hailee had a little princess party with her friends and everyone got to come dressed up as a princess. Hailee is Sleeping Beauty and Rae is Cinderella. Perfect Princesses! And Rae bonked her head earlier that day, she ran into the corner of a door, and after the party she was running outside on the grass and fell, but her head landed on the cement and she hit her goose egg again. So, it became even bigger and brighter than it is in this picture. Poor thing.

Here are all of our princesses!

Doesn't Kev look so cute surrounded by all the little girls? He was so great, he ran the whole party with me being the backstage manager. He was so good with all the girls and all of the girly games. What a great Daddy!

I take ZERO credit for this cake! For enrichment we had a service auction and I bid and won on a birthday cake for someone in my family. So my next door neighbor, Joy made Hailee this incredible birthday cake! Isn't it beautiful?

Birthday girl! I can't believe I have a 4 year old! Crazy!

Kyle in his blessing outfit! He even has a little bit of a smile on his face! What a handsome big boy. He had his 2 month doctors appointment and he is now 24 inches and 16 pounds. He is huge! He came in at 90% for height, 95% for his head and 105% for his weight! What can I say, we like to make and grow chubby babies, and they are so cute!

The girls helping Daddy with dinner and snitching some cheese.

I can't believe I have a 4 year old and I also can't believe that I have three children, it is scary how fast time flies. In a couple of months we will have been in Idaho Falls for two years, craziness!

My sweet little Rae!

Hailee put this hat on Kyle while we were driving somewhere and when I went to get him out he was asleep like this! Isn't that cute? Check out those cheeks and that double chin! :o)