MightyJohnsons

Drew is already showing symptoms of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). He hates having anything sticky on his face, hands, feet or clothes. He won’t eat a cookie unless it is the whole cookie, not a half of a cookie. I remember not to long ago trying to give him half of a piece of my licorice and he kept refusing it. It took me forever to realize that he didn’t want half of my licorice, he only wanted a whole one. This same thing applies to bread, treats, and just about anything he eats. If his sandwich doesn’t fit together just perfectly he gets angry until I adjust it.

When he puts on his socks they have to be on perfectly straight so the heel of the sock fits exactly on his heel and his tennis shoes have to have the tongue pulled up before they are tightened! Although it can be a little frustrating at times, it is pretty cute too. I guess it could be worse, he could like having peanut butter and jelly smeared all over his face! 🙂

Today at nap time I put him to bed with his shoes on (He didn’t want me to take them off. He is doing everything on his own now and I am not allowed to help in the dressing process anymore). Anyway, when I went in to wake him up he was laying there asleep with his shoes setting perfectly straight by his head with each sock stuffed nicely in the coordinating shoe. I couldn’t help but laugh. I am not sure why he decided to take his shirt off either…guess he just did it because he could!

Dear Costco,

Why ever would you quit selling our favorite family treat? We LOVE edamame and feel somewhat lost without it. Please reconsider and bring it back to your store. We would be forever grateful.

Yours truly,
Seth Johnson Family

P.S. Does anyone else know who might sell these delicious treats in bulk like Costco did?

No, this post is not going to be about how wonderful my kids are, nor how wonderful of a mom I am. I am not going to talk about how my house is always clean and how my kids always obey. Indeed I have many overwhelming days. Yep, I have days where I go into the laundry room, see the huge pile of clothes and I want to run back to my bed and put my head under the covers. And yes, there are many days I call Seth at work and whine to him about how the kids won’t quit fighting, the house is a mess, and somehow I need to find time to get Jacob to baseball and Megan to piano, which just both happen to be on the same day at the same time.

It is true, most of my days are less than perfect and generally end with me falling quickly to the coach in exhaustion at the close of the day. However, every once-in-a-while I have a moment where I truly realize what a blessing it is to be a mother. It is moments like these that put everything into perspective.

It wasn’t anything special really. Last week I was sweeping up the kitchen floor which was covered with remnants of coloring pages, wrapping paper, crayons, snacks, etc. As I looked down at the mess, my first thought was “How many times in one day do I have to sweep this kitchen floor?” Then I looked up and caught a glimpse of the kids out of the corner of my eye. They were running around giggling and chasing each other through the house.

It was one of those rare moments when things seemed strangely perfect. Nobody was crying, nobody was screaming, everyone was having fun. I had the strangest feeling come over me that nearly brought tears to my eyes. It was just one of the tender moments where I realized how lucky I am to have six healthy, happy children. As I scooped up my pile of scraps from the floor I realized that this pile represented a lot of happiness – several cute pictures hung on the walls, birthday presents unwrapped, sticky smiley faces, and so much more.

As a very busy mom, I appreciate moments like these, even as brief as it was, to remind me how fortunate I am. I wouldn’t trade my job for anything in this world. Yes, it can be tiring, exhausting and some days are really, really hard, but nothing can provide the satisfaction that comes from being a mom. I wouldn’t trade one of Ellie’s big grins or one of Drew’s slobbery kisses. I wouldn’t trade bear hugs from Claire or back rubs from KK. I wouldn’t trade my late night conversations with Meg or shooting hoops with Jacob (even though he is getting better than me now). I just wouldn’t trade it for anything. I appreciate these subtle reminders that make me reflect on how much I love doing what I do.

Happy 4th of July! This holiday makes me so emotional…all the patriotic songs, men in uniform, family time, and sweet moments to ponder our freedoms and the great nation we live in.

We spend nearly every fourth attending the Riverton Days parade with all the cousins. Aftewards we go back to G’ma and G’pa Jan’s house for dinner and family fireworks. Then the following morning we go to the pool. This year we were lucky enough to get Mom, Rachel, Spencer & their kids, Abby & Matt, and Joe, Kodie & their kids to join us. The wind made it colder than I would have liked, but we still had a great time. After a long nap we met up at the park in Riverton where we hung out for a few hours on blankets, listening to music and eating candy. Claire decided to make it exciting and ran off on her own. After a brief 10 minutes of panic and searching, Seth thankfully found her near the restrooms. Finally by 10 pm the fireworks came. They were beautiful as always.

I love the 4th of July and am so grateful we were able to enjoy this special time with such wonderful family. See below for lots of pics!

Katelyn, Jacob, and Meg watching the parade.

Drew was so excited to have people throwing candy at him!

Seth cruising around on Grandma Jan’s patriotic bike…how cute!

Ellie enjoying the pool.

G’ma Jan & Claire

Me and Ellie in the wading pool. Wow, I have a lot of freckles!

Playing with glow sticks and waiting for fireworks.

Meg’s eatin’ treats while we wait for the fireworks to begin.

Seth & Rach lookin’ up – I think they are about to begin.

Happy 4th of July!

Megan turns 8 today. It truly amazes me how quickly time passes by. I often find myself wishing I could slow time down a little and keep the kids young longer. Since that isn’t an option, I am trying my best to spend as much time with them as possible.

Megan’s birthday happens to fall on 4th of July weekend which never works really well for friend parties. This year she opted to do a day of shopping with me instead of a party. We actually went yesterday since today we are headed up to the in-laws from some 4th of July fun. Anyway, we headed out after lunched and bounced from store to store trying on outfits. She fell in love with everything in “Justice for Girls” and ended up scoring most of her things there. She is such a crack-up. She never stopped talking and she was always holding up the her fingers to say “peace”. Two of the t-shirts she got had peace symbols on them too. Apparently it is the ‘in’ thing now.

After shopping we went and picked up Claire and Katelyn and went and got our toe nails painted. A friend of mine told me about her sister who paints cute designs on toenails. It was only $5 for the girls and $10 for me and they turned out so darling (see pic)! She is just starting to do this but has a blog under http://www.toetats.blogspot.com/ with one sample but when we came by today she had a whole book of samples to choose from. I highly recommend it if you are looking for something fun to try. Meg got watermelons on her toes. I did popsicles and ice-cream cones. Katelyn did a pink and blue paisley design and Claire got strawberries. They are so cute for summer!

We finished off the day by riding our bikes over to the Hawaiian Ice stand for some shaved ice. She had a great time. Today will consist of a opening a few presents from grandparents and we’ll have an ice-cream cake but that’s about it. Maybe we’ll post some more pics after she opens her presents.

Happy birthday Megs! You are getting so big so fast. I am very proud of the beautiful girl you are becoming. I love you.

Meg’s wanted a Nano SO bad and she got it!

Summer time brings swim lessons. Both Katelyn and Claire took lessons from a friend in our old neighborhood. Claire’s favorite words were “Teacher, I can’t. I need help.” I finally told her she wasn’t allowed to say it anymore. By the last day of lessons they both were doing great. It wouldn’t hurt them to take another session but I think it will do for this summer.

Katelyn practicing her front crawl.

Claire waiting for Katelyn to finish so she can begin her lesson.

Claire practicing her kicks.

Poor Drew can’t keep himself away from the doctor. On Father’s day he fell on our fireplace and cut his forehead on the rocks. It left him with six stitches and a cute Shrek band-aid. Maybe if those nurses didn’t give him so many treats when he came in, he might try a little harder to avoid the place!

Before stitches…

After stitches

I returned last night from our annual family campout to Tanner’s Flat campground (up Little Cottonwood Canyon). We had a great time. We couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better day to go. We left Wednesday morning and the area we stayed was empty. It took away any extra worries about our kids getting hit by car or wandering into strangers in the bathrooms.

Getting ready to leave for camp.

G’ma Jan always does a great job setting up camp, leading the cooking, and planning activities. She made a great breakfast for everyone on Thursday morning…full course! And doesn’t breakfast taste that much better when you are camping?! She also did a scavenger hunt around camp for the kids and although it didn’t take them nearly as long as she would have liked, they had a ton of fun and got a yummy treat at the end too!

We also did a dutch oven cookout on Thursday night and everyone was in charge of a part of the meal. Mom made beef stroganoff. Joe and Kodie came along that night with a crockpot of ribs. Seth and I did our usual cheesy potatoes and Abby and Matt made some delicious cornbread. While the food cooked (and it takes quite a long time in dutch ovens), the kids all worked on rolling cans back and forth to make homemade ice-cream to go with the peach cobbler that Spencer and Rach made in their dutch oven. Everything was great!

Seth manning the dutch ovens.

The kids rolling the cans to make homemade ice-cream.

The favorite pastime this campout was four square. Yes, I did say four square. I am not sure who got it started, probably Jake since he plays it at school, but we had everyone, even the oldest brothers and mom and dad playing intense games of four square. It took a few rounds to get the hang of it and solidify the rules (which I have since found out weren’t correct) but everyone caught on quickly and had a ball (ha! a ball, get it?)

Here is one of the many four square matches we had.

If the kids weren’t playing four square they were busy trying to set traps to catch the chipmunks. Those little guys loved our camp and were scurrying about snatching food any chance they got. The kids spent several hours trying to catch them and although one was never officially caught, the kids did get a couple in their traps before they squirmed away. The kids also took turns taking rides with Grandpa Mike on his electric wheel chair. They love sitting on his lap cruising around camp!

Claire on a ride with Grandpa!

We took a couple walks to the amphitheater so the younger kids could perform. It was hilarious. Drew would stand up there for hours singing the same monotone sound the entire time. We had to pull him off the stage kicking and screaming. Katelyn, Claire and Lucy also took turns singing and dancing. Spencer and David told a some jokes and Grandpa performed with his harmonica. What talent! 🙂

Drew, Lucy & Claire singing at the amphitheater

Campouts are a lot of work. They take a ton of preparation. Kids get cranky, parents get tired, and we all get grimy and stinky, but we have SO much fun that we keep doing it. The kids didn’t want to come home. Claire is still asking to go back to camp. [*I came home Thursday night around 10:00 pm instead of coming home this morning and I brought the youngest three with me. They were so tired and I am catching a cold so Seth thought it would be better if got home to get some real rest.]

Overall we had a great time and can’t wait to do it again! Thanks to everyone who came, shared food, and had fun! We love being with our family!

The boys in the tent getting ready for bed.

Little Ellie was such trooper. She really didn’t fuss at all.

G’ma Jan holding Ellie Belle

We were fortunate enough to have my Mom come to visit us again this year. She stayed a full two weeks but it just flew by. It was a busy time for our family with baseball games, swim events, end of the school year stuff, etc. so it was really nice to have an extra hand with Ellie and Drew. Ellie quickly fell in love with Grandma. Grandma started her on solids while she was here and that baby knew that when Grandma was there, food would be there too. They were very cute together.

Oma with Claire and Ellie

When we weren’t running from one event to another we were able to fit in a little time to go shopping, picnicking in the canyon, an afternoon at Kangaroo Zoo, we taught G’ma to play the wii, played at the water park, and ate loads of great food. She brought a huge box of halibut with her so we ate fish a couple nights. I am totally stocked for the next year and I couldn’t be happier (halibut is my favorite!).

Oma left this morning for Alaska. The house is a little quieter and a lot messier! I guess that means no more relaxing for me. It is back to doing laundry and cleaning dishes. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate my mom for so much more than house work, but it was a nice break for me as well. Plus, she babysat a couple nights so Seth and I could sneak away for a quick dinner. Probably my favorite part was the many nights that we stayed up late, had smoothies, acted goofy together and watched movies or a dumb show (ie. Bachlorette). I already miss her. Thanks for a great visit Mom! I can’t wait to see you again next time.

Oma with all the kids!

Playin’ the Wii

Mom, me and Ellie in AF Canyon

I love this picture. Both Ellie and Seth fell asleep in the hammock while up in the canyon…so sweet.

Katelyn, Ellie and Oma Ria

Meg, Drew, Oma and Katelyn at the city water park.