Monday, July 28, 2008

She's getting so brave

Madison's top right tooth has been lose for a while and last night she decided to let me pull it out. I was kind of shocked because the last two times she's been nervous about it. We were at Sherisse's house and everyone was over for dinner so I was worried she was going to start freaking out in front of everyone but she didn't even cry, well not at first. I pulled it and it didn't come out, it was kind of hanging there so she wanted to go and look at it. Then we all went into the bathroom and I pulled the rest out, (I have to do it because Steve won't). She did so well but then we said it looked funny so she looked and started to cry. The gum part that is inside the tooth was kind of hanging down so it freaked her out until Grandpa came and told her it was okay. Anyway I was so proud of her for doing so well. It does make her look a bit different though without one of her top teeth. She's getting so big, her new hair doo and now losing her tooth, it's crazy how fast time is going, she'll be 7 in Dec, that's CRAZY! Tonight she gets to put it under her pillow case because last night she stayed over at Sherisse's (Grandma's) and we told her the tooth fairy wouldn't be able to find her there.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Tebbin Johnson Family Reunion

This weekend was our Tebbin Johnson family reunion. We had been looking forward to this for a while but when it was finally here I got sick so I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. The kids had a GREAT time though so that's all that matters.

On Friday my mother in law Sherisse came to my house with lunch and then took the kids with her. She's always so helpful to me, I'm so lucky! After that she took the kids over to the reunion. They got to paint cars that they had made from boxes. They were using them for the drive in movie they had that night. Steve went over there after work and I just stayed home feeling sick, lots of fun!? I heard Spencer loved his car he made though and during the movie he was all curled up and asleep in his Lightening McQueen car he had made, (he's loves the CARS movie).

On Saturday Steve took the kids back over to his grandparents house and I stayed home once again. I was feeling a little better but still pretty bad but I didn't want to stay at home the whole time so Steve came to get me just before lunch. When I got there they were working on our family float. Each family had been given a bag full of things to use for their float. Then they had been given $10 to use at the dollar store and they had 10 minutes to shop for whatever else they would need to put their float together. I was sad to miss all that but I was glad I was there to watch them get ready.








Our design was Johnny Lingo and his 8 cow wife. Spencer was Johnny Lingo and Kaylie was his wife, it was so cute. Steve, Rod, Madison, Tre and Sydney were tiki people and the 2 boys carried the float. They had made these cute chairs to put on the float, it was so fun and the kids had a blast. Steph had drawn a tattoo on Spencer's arm too which everyone loved, they all looked so good.

Steve's sister Steph had a coconut bra her friend had given her so Steve wore that, what a nutter! Spencer and Maddie had to give it a try too which was cute. All in all it was a wonderful day. I was sad I couldn't do much, I just sat there the whole time but it was fun to see my family having fun. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family here. Thank you for looking after my kids this weekend and thank you for being such an amazing family, I love you all!











Monday, July 21, 2008

Hair cuts

Today the girls and I went to get our hair cut. One of the new girls in our ward, Jessica cuts hair so we all went round the corner to her house for our new hair doo's. Maddie has been really excited to get her hair cut but kept changing her mind on whether to keep it long or to cut it short. Last night before bed she had decided to keep it long but then this morning she said short again. I said she should try a medium length so that's what we went with and I think it looks so cute! I do love long hair but she needed a good cut. Syd just got a trim, she wants hair like Rapunzel so we're trying to grow it out. I just got my layers cut in again, I needed that bad as it's been a while since I got my hair cut. Anyway here's the before and after of Maddie. She had to keep her hair so she has it in a little baggie. Once Syd saw Maddie do that she had to do the same but she had hardly any hair so she decided to collect mine too, she's so funny.















Saturday, July 19, 2008

Swimming lessons

My kids have been looking forward to swimming lessons all year, especially Syd, she loves it. I wasn't sure whether I was going to have Spencer go this time because I wasn't too excited about getting in the pool with him while I looked like a HOUSE (he had to do the mommy and me class). I knew he wanted to swim really bad and then my sister in law Steph was so kind and said she would take him whenever she didn't have to work so I gave in and signed him up too. In the end I only had to take Spencer 3 times out of 10 so that was nice. Thank you Steph for taking him, he loved it and it was a great help to me.

On the last day of swim lessons the kids got to jump in off the diving board. My kids have never been too scared of that. Last year Spencer about ran off the diving board. This year he wanted to do it again but there wasn't time so I let him jump of the side of the pool while we waited for the girls to jump in. They all did great and just went for it. Sherisse and Steve came to watch, I still need to get the pictures from Sherisse but here's the video's of all them.

Spencer was a great little swimmer, he doesn't really like floating on his back though but he started to do better. He'll be loving it next year when he can start to go by himself. Syd was as crazy as ever. I think she thought it was more about playing than learning though. She got benched one of the first days of class because she wouldn't stay by the wall. After that she did good but she was still all over the place, doing these back kind of dive things, she's so funny. Maddie did great, she's getting so good at swimming. If she could get her breathing down she would be really good. She gets to move up a class next time so she thought that was amazing. I'm glad my kids are learning to swim, my Dad taught all of us but I don't think I would have the patience to teach my kids.

Well that's all our organised summer activities over and done with. It was so fun to do t-ball and swimming and I'm glad it made those 7 weeks go by so fast but I'm glad it's over with. It'll be nice to have this week to do whatever we want, especially as Trish, Tre and Kaylie are coming home, we're so excited! Maddie keeps telling me how many days it is until they get here and until she gets to see them. Not long now, and not long now until the baby comes too, YIPEE! It's about 6 1/2 weeks until my due date but I'm hoping for 4 weeks, we'll have to see!!!

Friday, July 11, 2008

My Hero Spencer

Well today was a little, well a lot crazy! So here's the wonderful story. I woke up early this morning so I could be ready by the time the sheet rock guys came. Spencer thought it was great watching them working and after they left we decided to go take a look at the sheet rock, that was a BIG mistake!

I started looking at a couple of sheets and all of a sudden a domino affect started and the sheet rock all fell on me (about 20 or so sheets). Luckily I was in the hall way and the sheet rock got caught on some of the framing but it kind of hit me a bit on my stomach and squashed me against the framing. It really scared me and poor Spencer who was right there when it happened. He kept saying, "Mommy, get it off you". There was no way I could so I told him to run and get the phone so I could call for help. I called my neighbour Shera and she ran straight over and started to help me push the sheet rock off me. Thank you Shera for saving me!

Just to let you know, the girls weren't home, they had spent the night at Steve's Mom's house. Thankfully Spencer didn't even though he wanted to, he was trying to get his back pack and go too. I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't there, I probably would have been stuck there for quite a while. He was so great, he's my little hero today.

Anyway I was a little worried afterwards so I thought maybe I should go to the doctors so I dropped Spencer off at Shera's thinking I would only be gone for about half an hour but it was much longer than that. When I got to the doctors I realised they were closed on Fridays so I went to another office across the street to use their phone to call my doctor. He was at the hospital and told me to come there and get monitored. I then called Sherisse to let her know and I started crying so I'm sure I freaked her out. Really I was just freaking myself out. This whole pregnancy I've been so worried about everything, especially after having a miscarriage last time.
So I went over to the hospital and they got me all hooked up. As soon as I heard the heart beat I felt relieved and I thought I'd be able to go home pretty quick but that didn't happen. I guess when you have something like that happen you need to be monitored for about 4 hours and have an ultrasound to make sure everything is okay so that's what I did. I had to call Steve to let him know I would be there for a while. He had to go home and get some clothes for the kids because I hadn't sent them with anything because they had swim lessons and I thought I'd be there then so I could take them clothes then.

Well everything turned out okay, I knew it would but if I hadn't gone in I would have been freaking myself out all day so I was just glad to know everything was good. It was nice to get an ultrasound and see the baby. I made sure they didn't let me see any boy or girl parts though because I've already held out this long. They had to check that the placenta was okay and a few other things and everything was wonderful, the baby scored 8/8 so it was perfect.

So that was my exciting and scary day! My father in law wasn't very happy about it all so he called the sheet rock guys, I don't know what he said. It was bad that it got me the way it did but it could have been so much worse for me or for the kids if that had happened to them. I'm so grateful everything is okay, I just can't wait to have this baby. It'll be nice to have the baby here and just know everything is okay, not too long now though! For now I'm just glad I was blessed today because there are so many could haves and I'm glad none of those happened.

THANK YOU SPENCER, THANK YOU SHERA and THANK YOU SHERISSE for looking after the kids all day, you're all life savers!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Keepin' It Real!

OH MY GOODNESS! I can't actually believe I took all these pictures this morning but I felt bad because both Arin and Heidi tagged me for the same thing so I thought I better just get it done while I have a few minutes and those few minutes were bright and early this morning.

1.Laundry room - Well right now it's a total disaster because we're trying to finish our bedrooms and office in the basement so everything is either in the laundry room or the downstairs living room. So sorry for the HUGE mess but this is my life right now! I can't get to my food storage very well and when I need to actually do laundry I have to kind of make do with the small space in front of the washing machine.



2. Favourite room - I really have a few rooms I like, one being Spencer's room because it's where the computer is and I love being able to come on here and blog and keep in contact with my friends and family. I'm looking forward to getting the office finished downstairs though so I can have my very own room, it'll be GREAT! I have to say the living room is my most favourite room though because it's where we spend a lot of time as a family, watching movies, having FHE, playing games or falling asleep together after a long day. My upstairs living room was actually pretty clean but downstairs looks like a bomb hit it! I normally like to keep some of the kids toys in the unfinished part of the basement but seen as though we're finishing it everything had to come out. of course the first thing the kids did was dump the 3 tubs that had been full of toys all over the floor, very lovely!










3. Favourite shoes - Well I'm a big flip flop fan so when it's winter it drives me nuts because I have to put real shoes on. Spencer just actually started wearing his little flip flops too and it's so cute and way easier for me! Anyway these are the pair I wear most often, they're a little dirty right now because I was walking in our family garden the other day so they got nice and dusty.
4. Toilet - Well just to let you know, I HATE cleaning the bathroom. I really leave that job up to Steve most of the time but obviously keep it up okay until he does a nice big clean. Anyway sorry for any streaks, I'm really not the best bathroom cleaner so if any of you have some suggestions for good cleaning products let me know, especially for the toilet.

5. Kitchen sink - This picture isn't too bad really. The only reason there are dishes in there is because I had just turned the dishwasher on and I was still finishing making food for our RS recipe swap last night and I had to leave straight away. Then I didn't get home until really late. I try hard to keep the kitchen clean, especially the sink. I think the dishwasher is one of the greatest inventions ever so I take full advantage of mine, especially because I didn't have one growing up, well I guess we did, it was us kids!
6. Fridge - It's not the cleanest but at least I have some healthy food in there.
7. What the kids are doing - Well as always Sydney was still in bed asleep, she would sleep all morning if you let her. Spencer was watching Shrek 3 in my bedroom, he loves watching movies on my bed. Madison was eating breakfast, she's always the first awake and the first to eat. I had to take about 6-7 pictures of Maddie because she kept closing her eyes, she's so goofy.





















8. Self portrait - This is not the most flattering picture but oh well, the joys of being pregnant and deciding to do this tag this morning. I could also have added this picture to what my kids are doing because this is what our lovely number 4 child is doing right now, making me HUGE! Well I guess I'm doing that to myself but it's always nicer when you can blame it on someone or something else.
9. Closet - Well we have a really BIG closet that I love. When I designed our house I made our bedroom smaller so we could have a bigger bathroom and closet because as you can see I have LOTS of clothes. Plus my father in law built us the best shelves etc so it's a SUPER closet. The main reason behind the lots of clothes is because I have clothes in there that I used to wear when I was 16 and there is about 4-5 different sizes of clothes too for all the many wonderful stages of life. Poor Steve only has a small space but I'm a girl, need I say more!














10. Dream vacation - I have a few. I would love to go to the east coast and visit all the church history sites but mainly I would love to go to Egypt and Jerusalem, I think that would be amazing. Also I would love to go to Disney World with all my extended family some day, I think that would be so much fun to all be there together.

I'm not good at the whole tagging thing but I guess I'll tag Kristy, Heidi Dressel, Kluane, Jessica and whoever else wants to do this because even though I thought taking all these pictures would be a nightmare it was actually lots of fun.

Monday, July 7, 2008

I LOVE YOU ZOE!!!



I should start by saying that this is Steve. I managed to break into Zoe's account. While I was in here, I thought I would put a quick post on here and let everyone know how much I love Zoe. I truly am grateful that I am married to her. I feel like I am becoming a better person everyday because of her love and support for me. I know I am not the easiest person to have to be stuck with for the rest of eternity, but I appreciate her putting up with me. Before I got married, I knew one of the things I wanted most in my future wife was someone that would help me get to the celestial kingdom. Even if they had to drag me there kicking and screaming. I know that Zoe is that person. She will never let me fail.

Zoe, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Thank you for being my wife.

P.S. Below are some of my favorite pictures of Zoe. I think she looks smokin' HOT in them.





Saturday, July 5, 2008

4th of July


Like always our 4th of July holiday started off by marking off our spots for the parade and the fire works. Sherisse's Uncle used to always do this but for the past 4-5 years we've been doing it. The 2 days before the 4th we go and mark off where we're going to sit. We had to make sure and get to the parade early this year though because last year we got there way too late and someone had already taken our spot. We ended up sitting in the sun so we were all dying. This year Steve got a great spot in the shade which was especially good for me while I'm pregnant. The kids loved the parade and collected tons of candy. Spencer loves his Aunt Stephy, he sat with her most of the time during the parade, he's so cute!

After we went to the parade we went home and got ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house for our annual BBQ. Grandpa has started buying really nice streaks for this BBQ so we had a lovely meal. It's always so nice to be with family, we just relaxed and the kids played. We also checked out the progress of our family garden and planted our little pepper plant we've had growing in our window. I'm not sure how well it will do but everything else is looking great. It's so exciting to see the garden growing. Sherisse even helped the kids find a radish that was ready so they picked it and we all had a little bite. We'll have to take some more pictures of the garden soon.

























We were all pretty tired after the BBQ so we went home to have a rest before the long night ahead of us. We all watched a movie on our bed, the boys fell asleep but we just rested. We went to pick Sherisse up at about 6:30pm and then we were off to the fireworks. We picked up some McDonald's on the way and we were set. There was already tons of people there but our spot didn't really fill up until it got later. The kids had a great time playing with our friends who were sitting in front of us, it was especially nice for me because then I didn't have to chase the kids all over the place. Spencer found lots of things to distract himself, he was trying to be a cowboy at one point by using the rope we had marked of our spot with.













The fireworks didn't start until about 10pm so it was pretty late but the kids were all still awake. I sat on the floor and the kids were all over me most of the time but it was cute. Sydney ended up falling asleep before the fireworks got over. Normally she's our night owl but she had to get up pretty early that morning and she normally sleeps in too so I wasn't too surprised when I found her asleep. The kids had a wonderful time, it's so nice to do these things with them as a family. This morning we all slept in really well, especially Syd and me, we didn't get up until about 10:30am. I actually had a great nights sleep for once, well apart from the fact that I threw up during the night, I think it was from a combination of too much food and too much sun.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Madison and Sydney's t-ball



I can't believe t-ball is already over, it went by so fast (I'm not complaining about that though). I was glad that I didn't coach this year, it was just nice to sit and watch in the shade! The girls had so much fun playing with their friends, Spencer wishes he could have played too though.

Madison played really well, she's pretty fast running the bases and is getting better at hitting. It was funny to watch her games and then go and watch Syd's team, what a difference! Sydney was hilarious to watch. I didn't think she wanted to play this year but she said she did so we got her on a team. She did way better than last year but still wasn't too excited when she had to play out field. She was a really good distraction player though. When she was on a base she would talk to the kids that would get to her base and distract them while their team mate hit the ball. I think her team got a few kids out with that great tactic.

All in all it was great, we loved watching both teams, especially Syd's team because they just made us all laugh. Maddie's team was 6-7 year olds and Syd's was 4-5 year olds but they had five 3 year olds on their team so it made it even funnier, they were GREAT! Thanks to the girls coaches, they loved it and I was glad I didn't have to be out there in the heat. Now we're getting ready for our next summer sport, swimming! I was going to only have the girls swim but Spencer really wants to aswell so I gave in and I'm going to do the mommy and me class with him. Everyone will get to see me in all my hugeness, how lovely for them. My sister in law Steph did say she would take him when she's not working so I'm hoping that will be most of the time. He'll love it though and I'd rather be in the pool with him than chasing him around as he tries to get into the pool. Swimming here we come!!!