MightyJohnsons

A St. George Thanksgiving

We traveled down to St. George to have Thanksgiving with Gary and Kathy this year. We missed out on the semi-annual Cryer Thanksgiving extravaganza and Jake was bummed to miss out on our neighborhood turkey bowl, but we had a great trip.

We split up the food preparation. Gary took the turkey, I did the mashed potatoes, Kathy did the green beans and jello salad and veggie tray, and Manina made yams. All of the food turned out to be fantastic, but the star of the show was definitely the turkey.

Gary has deep-fried turkeys for years and it is quite a ritual to behold. Jake was allowed to be his assistant, but since the weather was fantastic most of us sat outside and watched the whole process. If you search YouTube for deep-fried turkey you’ll be sure to see a bunch of videos of people burning their houses down, third-degree burns, and utter mayhem. The tarp under Gary’s deep fryer barely came into contact with any oil, and the turkey came out fully cooked and totally delicious.

Ellie is 4!

Yep, my baby turned four this month. She is growing up so quickly! I don’t necessarily want time to stop, but I do wish there was more time in the day to enjoy her. She is adorable. She makes me laugh, smile, and cry all at the same time. Talking is something she loves to do (I wonder where she got that?). Seth and I often listen in amazement as she goes on and on about her favorite topics.

She still loves baby dolls, make-up and pretending to be a mommy. She begs to go shopping every day and loves to read stories with me or one of her siblings every night. One thing especially unique about her is that she can bring a smile to anyone’s face. It doesn’t matter how hard our day was, how awful we are feeling, we walk in and see Ellie and can’t help but smile and hug her. She has a very contagious smile and is well loved by our family!

This year she wanted to invite over some of her closest friends and have a little party. They played games, batted at the pinata, and had cake and presents. Everyone seemed to have a great time celebrating Ellie’s special day. Happy birthday girly, girl!

Happy 10th Birthday Katelyn Paige!

Sure enough, it is that time of year again that sweet Katelyn turns another year older. Didn’t that JUST happen not too long ago?! She is growing up far too fast. This was her year for a “friend” party and she wanted to have an art theme so we hired her art teacher to come over and teach the girls how to paints with stamps. They each decorated a tote bag. It turned out great and the girls seemed to really enjoy doing it.

Afterward we played some relay games and the girls had fun playing out in the surprisingly nice weather. We finished up with cupcakes and presents. It was a simple party, but I could tell Katelyn really enjoyed herself. Anything that involves creativity brings out her happiest self.

We celebrated later in the week on her real birthday by going to Cafe Rio (her choice) for dinner and home for ice-cream and presents. We followed tradition and per her in the “hot seat” while each of us took turns saying things we love about her. It never surprises me what the kids say. It is unanimous. She is one of the sweetest, most tender and loving people we know. She is thoughtful and caring and especially creative and artistic. Not to mention, she has a beautiful voice. I am so grateful to have been blessed with her as my daughter. XOXOXO

The whole gang of friends!

Katelyn doing the relay! Look at that smile!

Halloween 2013

Another Halloween has come and gone. I feel like this year has been a bit of a whirlwind and Halloween crept upon us before we even realized it. Each of the kids, with the exception of Katelyn, created some type of costume from the items we had laying around here (or chose to use costumes from the past). Katelyn decided to purchase her own so she should be one of the minions from “Despicable Me.”

Festivities were limited, but we did manage to squeeze in a little carving of pumpkins one afternoon. Then on Halloween we had our annual neighborhood “Trunk-or-Treat” earlier in the evening and then later in the night the older kids made their way through all of the nearby neighborhoods collecting more candy than any one person should. Unfortunately, a few of the kids had a nasty cough so we called it an early night for Drew and Ellie.

Overall, it was another successful Halloween with loads of and loads of candy!

pumpkin carving

The kids dressed up to go to Grandma Jan’s house for a pre-halloween party. Meg decided to wait to Halloween to get into her official costume.

Megan as Albert Einstein (Yes, that is her real hair ratted up!)

Our little soccer firecracker!

After Ellie’s last season of soccer I had decided we would wait at least a year before giving it another try. She mostly cried and preferred to roll around with her friends on the field rather than actually play anything that resembled soccer. However, after some coercing from a friend of mine, I succumbed and signed her up for the tot (low pressure and super affordable) soccer.

Wow, did she surprise me! I am not sure what got into her from one season to the next but she was a totally different player on the field this season. It is a coed team consisting of eight players. She was easily one of the top players (after another little boy). She averaged three goals a game, sometimes more. I have to say, it was the most fun I have had watching soccer in a long time. I even caught myself jumping up and screaming when she would knock down the boys and take off with the ball (my other kids were a little embarrassed at my behavior).

I will admit that I am pretty excited about her playing again in the spring. I love a little girl who can play tough with the boys and she has no trouble at all. Can’t wait to see what she does next season.

Not too many people came to the last game, so this is as close to a team pic as I got.

Out with the Old

Our refrigerator died. I tried to revive it, but my handyman skills have been well documented on this blog.

Manina now understands my ineptitude and called an appliance repairman. But, when the seasoned professional arrived, he gave us the same diagnosis: this fridge is dying, get a new one.

Yay! Shopping for appliances is so much fun. Blech.

We spent an hour or two looking at Costco, Lowes, and Home Depot. We settled on one but decided we should go home and measure one more time just to triple check our measurements. It was a good thing we did.

What started out as a pretty simple (although expensive) home project now turned into something more like the projects we are used to seeing: a nightmare. You see, our space was the correct width and depth, but nearly a full inch and a half too short. Somehow our cabinets were made just wrong enough that none of huge models we were considering would fit. So, time for more shopping.

We learned that we could get a model that fit our height requirements, but it wouldn’t be nearly as efficient, it would be a lesser brand and model, and it would cost us $600 more than the previous model we’d decided on. At this point, we discussed altering our cabinetry, but that lead to even darker places, so we quickly squashed that idea. We bit the bullet and purchased the fridge meeting our height requirements.

Claire – Soccer 2013

It had to think strategically this soccer season. Six kids, five of which want to play soccer and only two parents. Hmmm, how were we going to make this work? Well, I signed Claire of with AF rec center as most of their games are on Wednesday. I put Ellie in Cedar Hills tot soccer and they play Tuesdays. Then Jake, Meg and Drew play on Saturdays. Thank goodness for car pools! We have made it work so far.

Claire was the first season to start and so her season ended last week. More soccer posts to come I am sure. Claire was easily the toughest and strongest player on the field. She scored a few goals and seemed to have a great time doing it!

Cascade Springs

When the weather man reported a high of 75 degrees, we figured we better jump at the chance to head up the canyon and see the fall colors. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite as good as had been predicted, but the colors were above and beyond expectation.

Our good friends, the Denney’s joined us and we made our way to Cascade Springs. Apparently we weren’t the only ones with this brilliant idea as we were one of many families touring around enjoying the scenery and photo opportunities along the way. I am reminded of why I love Fall so, so much!

Johnson Family

Denney Family

Walking along the trail.

KK & Drew

Ellie & Owen “reading” the descriptions of the plants along the trail.

Climbing trees

Picking leaves

And having a whole lot of fun!

Bad Ankles

Sometimes genetics smiles upon you and gives you the best traits from your mom and dad. But sometimes, you get chromosomes that would be better off remaining at the bottom of the gene pool.

Jacob got his old man’s ankles. Too bad for him.

He went down hard in his soccer game on Saturday. Neither Manina nor I were there at the game (we have way too many soccer games this season), so I got a phone call from another parent saying that Jake was pretty badly hurt and that we should come and get him.

I picked up Jake and it was obvious that he was in pain. I got the full story and made an immediate diagnosis: sprained ankle.

So, we went home instead of going to the hospital. Jake elevated and iced his ankle, which was already pretty badly swollen. Jake has always been a bit of a hypochondriac, so his mom didn’t even let him get out of doing his chores. After his chores were done, we made him go out and continue to paint house numbers on curbs — a little side business he has been trying to develop. It was a pretty normal Saturday.

On Sunday, his ankle was still pretty swollen, but the more concerning part was a red spot on the outside of his foot that was very tender to the touch. We went up to visit my parents in Riverton and then decided to take Jake in to get diagnosed by a real doctor. When we were taking the x-rays, I immediately saw the fracture. The doctor confirmed that Jake had broken his fifth metatarsal.

Jake will be out for about six weeks, but is able to wear a walking boot and keep at least some of his mobility. His ankle still looks pretty for a bad sprain, but we’re sure he will make a full and complete recovery.

Sorry, Jake! At least you inherited your mom’s good looks.

Ellie joins Bear Hollow Preschool

Tuesday was Ellie’s first day in preschool. For some reason, she has gone from my baby to a mini-teenager in what seems like a few short weeks. She is cute, sweet and fun, but at the same time sassy and spunky. I really love the heck out of her and it will be very difficult to watch her grow up and head off to full-time school in the next couple years. I am grateful this school year will only be two times each week.

I knew I always wanted to end with a girl. I love being able to pal around with her. For most of her years, she has had to follow me around while I took care of everyone else. Now, with Drew in kindergarten, I have her to myself. Each day when we wakes up she asks, “What are we doing today?” I can tell she loves it too!

What a cutie pie!