Abstract Art

My kids love crafts.  We decided to paint pumpkins.  Here are the results:

Elijah enjoyed mixing the colors.  He ended up with a blue-gray color.

I should have taken a before and after picture.  This is the beginning of painting time when Elijah was all clean.

David just liked making his pumpkin colorful.

Once again David is giving me his silly faces for the camera.

Lexie did try.  This is supposed to be a vampire.

If you know Lexie this is a typical face she pulls when having fun.

Anna took a lot of time on her vampire.  Good job Anna.

Here is the first picture with the teen's true feelings about having me take her picture.

This is her pleasing me and giving me a smile.

It's Autumn Time!

I absolutely love the fall. The colors, the scents of the season, the cool crisp air. Today we went outside and raked leaves upon David's request. He wanted a big pile to jump in. I couldn't help but think of Charlie Brown as I made a giant pile for the boys to run and jump in to.

Here is David, Elijah and their cousin Lizzie enjoying the fresh raked pile of leaves.

 

I had to post this picture because of David's silly face.  He now makes these silly faces when I tell him to smile for a picture.

I love, love, love seeing my little ones have such fun.

Mr. Fearless himself.  We live in a cul-de-sac and Elijah and David would get a running start from the other side of the circle so they could get full momentum before they jumped in.

Finally a real smile!  What a cutie.  Note the outfit.  His costume came in the mail today and he was so excited.  Needless to say there will be no surprise as to what his costume looks like this year.

Preschool Fieldtrip

Our first preschool fieldtrip was to Discovery Gateway.  It was a perfect day to go.  There was hardly anyone there so the children had a great time playing.

My boys are all-boy.  Most of the time was spent in the construction zone.

Johanson Family Reunion

The highlight of my summer was my family reunion with my siblings and parents in St. George.   I love spending time with all my family.  My children love their cousins.   They spend from sun up to sun down playing together.

Thanks to my brother Joseph we got to go boating.  My favorite place to boat is Sand Hollow.  The water is warm and we spent the entire day there.  Note to self:  Have boys wear old swimming suits.  I can't get the red dirt out of their suits.

Seminary Graduation...Way to Go Emily!

Wow.  I never knew how stressful it would be to get Emily to the finish line of school.  On Sunday was Seminary graduation.  We were all holding our breath as she pushed to make up her tardies so she could graduate from Seminary.  I am so proud of Emily for graduating.

She not only graduated from seminary, but in order to fit Seminary into her schedule she had to take early morning seminary.  I remember trying to do that my senior year and dropping out and taking it during the day because it was just SO hard to get up that early.  I noticed some of her friends were missing from the ceremony. Which means they didn't have the stamina to push through the four years so they could graduate from seminary. Which is just another witness of what to me of how much dedication it took for her to finish seminary.

I was a bit teary-eyed as they handed her, her certificate.  I am so blessed to have the privilege to be her mother.  I know by paper she is my stepdaughter but there is no way she is a step.  She in every way is my daughter.  Steve and I married when she was only 5 and she has lived with us most of her life.  So she in every way is my daughter.  

While I was sitting there during the program my mind flashed to a picture I remember of Emily when she was about 8.  This small little girl was standing with her hand on her hip and she had a look of determination in her eye.  Although her body was small and skinny, it in no way does describes her spirit.  She is strong and immovable.

My mind also reflected on a time when she helped Sadie.  It was when Sadie was in 3rd grade there was a boy that walked the same way they did on the way home.  Often he  would say cruel and crude things to her on the way home.  One day Emily was walking with Sadie.  This boy made crude and cruel comments to Sadie.  Emily (her being in 6th grade) stood up to that bully for her sister.  She let him know he could not talk to her sister that way.  And if he didn't stop he would have her to deal with.  

This small girl had great courage.  The boy probably could have beat her up but her determination saved her sister and after that Sadie was not bothered again by the boy.   She had more strength and courage than someone three times her size.

That is the young woman I see as Emily is growing up.  She is growing up to be a beautiful woman.  Emily's mom is completely inactive and lives a life opposite to our standards.  Yet Emily has made the gospel her number one priority.  She has found friends to pick her up so she can go to church on her mom's weekends.  When we have counseled her she has tried to live our standards at her mom's too.  Often if we counsel with Emily, she will follow our counsel.  She has had many opportunity to choose a life opposite to the gospel but she has found her testimony and stays true to it.  I am so, so proud of her.

Yard Work

Yesterday  we worked on the yard.  My boys love to help.  So I bought a shovel just their size.  David had to complete the outfit with his hat and my gloves.  He is such a cute guy.

Through Elijah's Eyes

Out of my six children Elijah is the first who ALWAYS wants to come with me when I leave.  It can be a bit frustrating because he takes his own sweet time and often I am in a hurry.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  It was rainy and I had a couple quick errands I needed to get done.  It was a simple stop to the post office and pick up a couple things at the grocery store.

I tried to sneak out the door but Elijah caught me.  So we were off to do my errands.  It had been raining all day.  As I pulled into the parking lot of the post office I knew what Elijah's first thought would be when we got out of the van.  It would be to try and jump in any puddle he could find as we entered the post office.  So I told Elijah we would not be jumping in puddles today.  We had to stay dry. 

Elijah did the best he could, but he just couldn't resist the puddle as we got back to the van.  He got in one good splash with both feet.  Frustrated with his damp pants I put him in the van and headed to the store.  In that moment I had a thought that altered my attitude.  For a moment I thought about what the world around was in Elijah's eyes.  How he perceived this moment.  It wasn't a list of errands to do.  It was an adventure to be had.  

There were puddles to be jumped in.  Cars and people to see.  Things to explore everywhere.  So what if we only had two items to pick up at the store.  You should always use the big, cool car shopping cart.  Size didn't matter.  Just make the most of every moment.

I am glad I had that change of heart.  Rather than being frustrated as I tried to maneuver that huge cart,  I was able to take Elijah on a drive around the store.  He loved being able to pretend he was the one driving.  He loved looking at all the different things to discover at the store. I had these few moments to spend with my little boy who loved me and thought the world of me.  I, not him had the privilege of having him with me.  I will have to try and make more of the small moments I get with my children every day.

FHE Song Time

You can't see them very well.  But those are bluebird wings.

Last week I was songs for FHE.  I decided to make props for the song "In the Leafy Treetops".  My boys loved it.  I definitely need to laminate them though before they are destroyed.

Stop and Pick the Daisylions

Today the sun was out!  I made a goal with my sisters to increase my exercise to 5 days a week.  I decided to take the boys on a walk.  So it was early afternoon, we ate lunch and headed out.  I searched and searched but I couldn't find my double stroller.  Where did it go?  Then I remembered my sister took the boys to Wheeler Farm last week.  So she must have it in her trunk.  Darn it.  I had a goal to keep and I did not want this to stop me.

Then I remembered our old rickety red wagon.  I loaded the boys and we were on our way.  Pulling is definitely harder than pushing.  But it would give me a better workout.

The wagon is lower to the ground than the stroller.  So David could see all the dandelions growing and he would have me stop so he could pick "flowers" for me several times along the way.  I told him several times they were dandelions but he would forget their name and call them daisylions.  I decided that word was too cute to keep correcting so we called them daisylions.  It would be far too soon that he would remember they were really dandelions and his cute word miss-pronunciation would be gone. 

It's a little scary walking in the afternoon.  There are lots of dogs and they like to bark at us.  We only encountered one dog that was loose.  It was a tiny little black dog but it was keeping it's territory safe.  We had our trusty sticks in case the man-eating-dog got too close. After our walk we took my beautiful bouquet of flowers home and put them in water.  Too bad they are obnoxious weeds.  Dandelions are very bright and cheerful.

Body Art

So I am trying make a real effort to focus more on my children.  I find my days filled with cleaning, running kids here and there and the many other demands of the day. Yesterday was cold and rainy and we had to stay inside.  I decided I would pull out the finger paints.

With so many things to do I thought I could try and start the kids playing and I  would get something done.  But I came back to find Elijah covered in finger paints.  He found his body was a much better canvas to work on.  What will he think of next.

I think he enjoyed clean up more than the painting itself.  He was so covered in finger paints I didn't want to put him in the tub.  Then I would have a big mess in the tub to clean up so I let him sit in the sink and get all clean.  He loved that.

David What Are You Doing?

So today Elijah and David were jumping out on the tramp while I was fixing my hair.  Anna was in the kitchen and would look out the back door every so often to make sure they were okay.  After a few minutes I heard Anna yell out the door to David that he needed to put his pants back on.  I was quite surprised to hear her say that since David was fully dressed when he went out plus the wind was blowing in a storm so it was chilly outside.

I waited a minute to hear what was going on and again I heard Anna tell David to put his pants on.  I came out of the bathroom to find out more about the situation. "Anna, what is going on?" I asked.  "I don't know I just looked out there and David is jumping without his pants or underwear on."  Anna replied.

Anna then went out to help David re-dress himself.  When she came back in I asked what happened.  Anna said she asked David why he had taken his pants and underwear off.   David replied to her question by saying "I had to go to potty.  Oh I mean they just fell off." 

David has learned at such a young age to try to lie when he thinks he will get in trouble.  David has tried before to pee outside and I have told him how animals go to the bathroom outside but people go potty inside.  So hence he tried to cover his tracks for the pants issue because he knew I would be unhappy.  We live right next to the school.  Our backyard fence shares the same fence as the school plus it is chain link.  So I am lucky that the school children were not at recess when this happened.

April Fool's Day...

(I'm not this mean)

I don't know where my fun on April Fool's Day began.  Perhaps a few years ago when I decided to pull a great joke on my mom.  I have a younger brother who is now 16 but at the time was in 5th or 6th grade.

I called my mom and told her the principal had been trying to get a hold of her.  Because Josh had pulled a girls pants down in school and he was suspended.  If you know my mother she is quite dramatic.  Her reaction was priceless. She was very upset but I told her it was April Fool's after just a minute.  I'm not that mean.

In my house I have been known to put salt or vinegar in the milk.  Once I made oatmeal for my kids and put WAY too much salt in it.  Then when my  kids went to take a drink of milk to get rid of the taste they found I had salted their milk too.  And we can't forget Oreos with toothpaste in the middle.  What a mean mom I am.  Needless to say I steered away from food this year.

This year I was very sick the day before April Fool's and thought I would forget it all together.  But believe it or not my kids are disappointed if  I don't do something to them.

Now this post is going to get a little long winded because I have some pre-April Fool's Day info I need to ad.  A week or two before April Fool's I was at my mom's house with Sadie.  I thought of a great gag to pull on Sadie for April Fool's.  I told her I had a wicked idea.  She asked me what it was and I was about to tell her because I thought I was being too mean but she said to do it anyway and not tell her.   Remember she gave me permission otherwise I wouldn't have done it.

I am only going to list my top two pranks I did that day.  I had several others but they are just simple things such as salt in the toothbrushes (Don't try garlic powder.  Tried that last year and you can't get the taste out.)  Or glue in the toothpaste tube.

And by the way a fake pile of poop looks fake so don't waste your money on it.  I am not saying use real but I wasted the .77 on it and put on the floor of one of the bedrooms.  I was hoping Lexie would come across it while doing her job and be grossed out.  But  it didn't fool her.  I hate it when my joke is a flop.  If you want to go for the real look you bake brownies and mush them into a pile.  It looks much more realistic and I will be trying it next year.

 My Favorite April Fool's Day Gag this year:

Okay if any of you know me and my family you know Sadie's top item of humiliation is our big white van.  She has reassured me her popularity rank would be much higher if we drove a $30,000 car.


But I told her it was my life long dream to drive a big out-dated van with squeaky brakes.  I had always hoped I could drive a vehicle that could be mistaken for a UTA bus.  Seriously though my van is far from my dream car.  But it works, we all fit and it's paid for.  And it has air-conditioning.

So I bought a big yellow poster and wrote in huge letters SADIE'S TAXI and taped it on the side of my van.  I then parked in front of the school and waited for the dismissal bell to ring.   Oh by the way I had my radio set to start playing the Barney theme song once she came out.  After the bell rang I didn't see her.  I waited as the children poured out of the door but no Sadie.  My phone rang, it was Sadie.  This is how the conversation went:

Me:  Sadie?
Sadie: Mom?
Me: Yes?
Sadie:  Mom what is on the side of our van?
Me:  What are you talking about?
Sadie: Mom I can see our van.  What is on the side of our van?
Me:  Oh nothing really.
Sadie:  Mom I can see it
Me:  Where are you?
Sadie:  I'm just inside the door.  I can see our van and I am not coming out.  I will walk home.
Me:  Oh Sadie.  You said I could pull my April Fool's joke on you and this was it.
Sadie:  But mom I had no idea THIS was your joke.  I would have never had you do that.  I am not coming out.  I think I'm going to start crying.
Me:  Oh Sadie.  I will take the sign down.  Just come get in the van.
Sadie:  Even if you take the sign down I am walking home.
Me:  Fine.  Bye
Sadie:  Bye

Is this then end of my story?  Oh no.  So I went home and waited ten minutes or so and then I reattached the sign and went to find Sadie.  Now I am not completely heartless.  I wanted to catch her when she was by herself so she wouldn't have to suffer complete humiliation.

When I found her she was walking home with two boys.  So I stopped and took the down the sign before I picked her up.  However I did have Barney blasting away.  She didn't hate me for the Barney song.  So all was good.  And by the way the boy who was walking home with her told her that she had a very funny mom.  But she reassured me he wouldn't feel that way if it was his mom that did that to him.  All in all I still had fun pulling that off.

April Fool's Day Joke #2:

My sister Caroline and her husband Jacob currently live with us.  Long story about that but this post is long enough so I will just stick to the story at hand.   I had Anna and Lexie get a few empty soda cans and tie them together.  Then I had them tie them to a string and attach it to their car underneath where it couldn't be seen.  Later I asked Caroline if they noticed our joke and I had a good laugh when she told what happened.

They backed out of the driveway and heard a noise.  Then they heard it again.  They pulled over and Jacob got out and checked the car.  He even kicked all of the tires to see if something was loose.  No obvious problems so he got back in.  They started to drive and once again they heard the rattling.  What the heck?  Then almost simultaneously they looked at each other and said AMY!

All in all it was a good day.  But next year I will be better prepared.  Most of my jokes were very lame because  I was so ill.

Discovery Gateway...A Great Investment!

Lexie got to bring her friend Kyla.  They must have had a good time because I never saw them until the end.  They were off in big-kid land having fun.

This year I split a 6 month pass with my brother in law and it has been awesome!  My sister and I headed there on Friday.  I knew it would be a very busy day but we always have so much fun.  I will definitely need to buy another pass next fall.  I realize these pictures were taken at home but I forgot my camera and I couldn't blog without a picture so I took them later that day at home.

It's Like Riding a Bike

So as of this week I now have a bike to ride.  It is totally old fashioned and comfy.  I never quite understood the saying... it's like riding a bike until now.  I haven't ridden a bike for years and the whole peddling thing came right back.  But oh my gosh, biking is hard.  It wasn't until yesterday I found out that if you travel East to West to my house it is a steady incline the entire time.

And I could barely make it home after my first ride.  But I am excited to start riding.  I developed plantar fasciitis after having Elijah.  If you do not know that term it is simply means I damaged the tendons on the bottom of my feet and it can be very painful to do any activity that requires a lot of time on my feet.  So for exercising that narrows the choices.  I already swim and now I can bike too.  I am sure I will have biking adventures to blog about as I tackle this new feat.

Random Silliness

So I had to add these pictures I took of the boys the other day just being silly.  And as you can see I have a nose picking-booger eating problem with Elijah.  It is really bad and I can't get him to stop.  I tell him to stop it every time I catch him doing it but it just makes the problem worse.  He tell me it's yummy and does it more.  I have thought maybe if I ignore it, it will go away.  Any suggestions?

Room Makeover

We decided to buy new bunk beds for Anna and Lexie and use their old bunk beds for Elijah and David.  The bunk bed arrived on Saturday and Anna put them together all by herself.  She is becoming quite the handyman (handy-woman) that is.  She has been a big help to Steve with all our home improvements we have done this month. 

The girls also got new bed sets.  Cute, aren't they. 

To complete their room I made a matching valance (hope I spelled that right) out of the extra bed skirt in their bed sets.  Then I used the top sheets of their bed sets to make the curtains.  I am revealing a family secret as I make this post.  And that is I have always hated top sheets and therefore we hardly use them.  Most of the time the sheets were pushed to the bottom of the bed and I would have to pull all the blankets off in order to make the bed.  Therefore the top sheet was eliminated.

Had to add this darling pic.