Giving Thanks!

                                                              Fall Leaf Cookies!

Our Thanksgiving Turkey I made out of newspaper and paint.

The past two Thanksgiving's my dear sweetheart Bryan has had to work, retail is not kind at the holiday's. Vacations and days off or not allowed and the job is stressful with very little to no praise for a job well done. Not to mention (okay I'm totally mentioning it) the small paychecks. So this is us getting by, and Bryan being gone for most of the kid's Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. He works 2 jobs and is going to school. He's truly a man that is on the go, all day long. I am telling this to show how very, VERY thankful I am for the time we DO get to spend with him. The kids get plenty of "mommy time" but "daddy time" is missed terribly around here. When he finishes school next Fall, we are hoping for more family and daddy time. His schooling takes up most of his extra time. 

We LOVE spending time together. Each outing, backyard play time, or just sitting and talking, is precious and we cherish it all. My family is my most precious "thing" the thing I spend the most time loving, prepping, teaching, cleaning and the list goes on. It brings me such joy that I feel full in life. Each of my children bring something different to the family and I don't know how the family would function with out them all. They think they need me, but I need them, they are my everything. 

My extended family is here (AZ) and in California, I live close to my in-laws, but far from my own sweet family. So I think of them often because they were the ones who helped mold and shape me to the person I am now. My parents are the (honest and true) best kind of people, the kind that always are supportive and loving, as well as easy to talk to and fun. My siblings are outstanding and I love talking with them any chance I get. I miss them so very much. Having 3 sisters and 2 brothers, in a coastal home with a backyard and a pool we set up each summer, a garden full of tomato's, peppers, beans, squash, grapes and loganberries, cats, and more cats, apple and pear trees. I can't tell you how much I love my childhood, my mind is flooded with so many wonderful things, and even with the thousands of memories, my siblings remember things (that we experienced together) that I don't recall. Another reason I love to talk with them, they extract memories that I had long forgotten but have frag-mental pieces of.  My baby sister (2 yrs younger) has always been my best friend. We went from 2nd grade to graduation from high school in the same grade, had a ton of the same friends and did almost everything together. We have so much fun together, and still enjoy many of the same things.

I guess what I'm saying is that I am thankful this season most for my family. I thank Heavenly Father for sending me here to a loving family to be raised in and brought up right. I am thankful for being brought up in the gospel of Jesus Christ and have that centered in my life and my families life. It anchor's us as a family and is the glue that holds us together. We are grateful for the knowledge of being a family forever. Our strength and resolution comes from our knowledge that the gospel brings to us. 

I can't help but thank Heavenly Father in each prayer for the many things he's given us. I am forever grateful for his love and care for me as an individual but also for us as a family. At times this hits me so hard that I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love for Him and the life he's given me. I am one of the fortunate ones.

Give thanks to the one who gives you everything.

Halloween Pictures Over the Years and random thoughts

                                                           Halloween 2007

                                                                                07'

                                                                         07'

                                                           Halloween 2008

                                                                             08'

                                                                          08'

                                                                             08'

                                                               Halloween 2010

                                                                    10'

                                                                   10'

                                                                         10'

                                                             Halloween 2011

                                                                               11'

                                                                             11'

                                                                              11'

                                                                           11'

                                                                           11'

                                                                Halloween 2012

                                                                                12'

                                                                             12'

                                                                           12'

                                                                              12'

                                                                               12'

SOoooooo, I missed putting up a Halloween blog post. :( So sad, so I thought oh what the heck I'll do it anyway! We LOVE Halloween and enjoy the anticipation of dressing up and getting oodles of candy! I think Bry and I enjoy that part too, just a little. :)  So through our years we dress up as obscure things (occasionally, ya, more like all the time)  Even though most don't know who we are, we love dressing as our favorite characters, or in Bryan's case, made up characters in his head.  We always have a great time and trick or treat as a family. This kids this year realized even though it's fun to dress as their favorite characters, it is NO fun to have to tell people a MILLION and one times who you are. So I think next year we'll be going for things more main stream, a little sad but still will be fun.

(Don't ask me where Halloween from 2009 went because I have no idea. :( )

Well now it's on to Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'm happy to say, I've just received my turkey from a dear friend, thank you Kathleen for surprising me with a beautiful turkey, now where to put it till next week? Yikes.
I've been working out 3-4 days a week trying to get my young 25 year old body back, ya I know, not going to happen but I'm working it out anyway. I need to get rid of my baby weight so I can feel more myself. It kind of feels like an out of body experience right now and I don't care for it. I've been in the single digit size clothing most my life, and now that I'm wearing 10, and squeezing into it at that, not a fan. I look in the mirror and am critical of the double chin, chubby dimples in my cheeks and the lack of definition in my arms, legs, well pretty much every where. Maybe this is very vain talk but if you think about the place you were only a year ago and add 30+ pounds on to that in that short of time, it does a number on you mentally and physically, emotionally and spiritually. Any way I'm working on it, that is my point, yahoo! I've never been one to go work out regularly, so this is very new and uncomfortable, but I'm going to get back in those size 4's I swear it will be done.  : D

Halloween, it's here already???

Okay so now I'm really on a kick and want to blog every day!! Crazy but I'm enjoying this. I love drawing and creating, and have found a few blogs out there that are fun and educational. Proko is a really funny guy who know's his stuff. He is an excellent artist and has video's he makes and shares about drawing the nose, eyes, ears etc. He's really awesome check him out at www.proko.com his newest video about drawing the ear is too funny.

Halloween costumes for the family are almost complete and I'll post pictures next week after we've tried them out at the annual Johnson Halloween Party!! We love Halloween and go all out for our costumes! I spend almost 20 hours of work each year sewing up costumes. The kids love to choose obscure characters to be for Halloween so, of course there are no patterns to buy of these in any store, but I love to make them so I create my own patterns and run with it. I think this has something to do with those 20 hours. Making it up as I go is fun but also a little stressful, I feel like I'm on "Project Runway" and I'm in a time crunch and I've got to satisfy my judges (the kids and Bryan) so they are happy Halloweeners....um ya.
It truly is a "make it work" moment. :) Love that Tim Gunn.  This years run down of everyone's costumes.

Bryan - Scary creature (kinda looks like the creature from  "The Village") Obscure
Me - Medusa
Gwen - Princess Mononoka (A Miyazaki film from studio Ghibli, if you've not seen it I recommend it) told you obscure!
Vivian - Nausicaa (another Miyazaki film from studio Ghibli, also recommended if you've not seen)
*Kael - drum roll, Red Power Ranger! I know you didn't see that coming. Dang Netflix totally got him hooked! :)
*Fiona - Cinderella, she is so in love with Cinderella. I don't mind, she's a great roll model!
*Lydia - a sweet little lady bug!

*I did not make (sadly and with a little but of shame) Kael's, Fiona's or Lydia's. Kael's Power Ranger has muscles and I know I couldn't do that justice. :) Fiona's I did make some adjustments to but it was all ready for her, and Lydia's came from Target, I saw it for 9 bucks and couldn't pass it up. :)

4 out of 7 is failing in any other grading so I guess I'm a failure. Just kidding I'll totally sleep fine tonight knowing I didn't make everyone's costume. I'm no seamstress (can't believe I spelled it right without spell check) but I love doing it. Bryan so lovingly pointed out (after I was lamenting my botched sewing job on my own costume) that I only sew pretty much once a year and a few "fix it's" every now and again, so I did awesome. This is him making me feel better.
Well the partying starts tomorrow so I better finish up.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Trip to SLO!

So we got to take a trip to California last week and I have to say it is THE BEST to go home where I grew up and spend time with my family!!! I miss them so much and am giddy like a little kid when I'm there. I want to play and romp around. I do love sitting and talking with my siblings and parents, they are the best people! I also got to visit the ward I grew up in and love seeing so many familiar faces and give/get hugs from them all! So I've gained some weight since having Lydia (my 5th) and have had a hard time getting rid of it, well many people in my old home ward did not recognize me, maybe because they haven't seen me in a while or maybe because I've gained this extra weight, in either case it was hilarious seeing their faces with such surprise at seeing me and not recognizing me at first.
Visiting Morro Bay is one of our family favorites and we love looking at the shops smelling the ocean breeze and seeing the sea life right up close.
Such a fun filled visit. Thank you Dad and Mom for putting us up and letting us enjoy home once again. :)

                                                       My mom is the absolute best!

                                                    All the sweet kids!! Nephews and Nieces,
                                                             Such a bunch of cuties!!

                                  Liz and I just being silly! (Liz didn't really know this was a silly picture:)

                                          Dad and Gwen, Vivian and Kael after a fun filled day.

                                           The seals talking to each other! Aren't they cute?

                                               Long time friends, Alison and Annie

                                        Gotta have a pictures with Grandpa and Grandma!

                            Lois, our neighbor since long before I was born. She is like a grandma to me.

                         Doug, Liz, Fiona, Lydia, Me, Tanner, and Andrea. Love these sweet people!

Arts and Crafts!

Summer is pretty much over and I'm feeling the hype for Fall and Winter crafting, it hits me pretty hard and I want to do a million and one projects. Oh but time is short and even at the end of Sept I'm telling myself, "Limit it, don't start a bunch of stuff you won't finish." So I started AND finished a cute little 'spooky tree', made from an oatmeal can. So fun!

I just love getting my hands dirty. I am proud of the pencil/ink marks on my fingers from sketching, and paint or plaster stuck in the beds of my nails from hours of fun.
The kids will some times join in for, maybe 10 minutes but they get board burnt out and move on to playing outside or watching tv. I know right, crafting is such hard work, gotta take brakes? Not this gal. Kael and Fiona are the big lovers of mommy's craft, sketch, paint time. Here is a work of true art by my 4 year old Kael! Isn't it just beautiful. He sat and painted this with water color for 35 minutes. He was so methodical about his brush strokes and where he wanted to put them. I was blown away at his delicate hand. I've seen many a 4 yr old's paintings and this is beyond me! I am so proud of him.

To live and learn!

I have 4 kiddos, one on the way in a few weeks. Life is hectic but I enjoy so many of the little things in life, so the hectic stuff, is not sweated over, too much. I feel that if I get feel overwhelmed it's because of outside influence and not my own feelings, so I guess I kind of put myself in a bubble, so to speak. Some may say this is foolishness, and they MAY be right, but for, in most cases, ignorance is bliss.

I know there is so much junk, and I mean JUNK out there, that I don't want to bother my all ready busy schedule thinking about it. I try my best to keep things simple at home with family time being a big priority and getting things done along with fun. Now my kids aren't involved in the many many wonderful activities there are to do like soccer, dance, martial arts, piano, softball, etc etc etc. I just think that would be to much, much too much. I have my oldest in a children's choir and with homework on her (8 almost 9 year old) heals each day I just think anything more would be stressful for her. Homework takes a good long time for her and she does it so patiently, she impresses me with the time she spends on it and the mellow attitude she usually has about it.

Money is tight, but we get by and we enjoy coming up with creative ways to have fun as a family, which is a big big priority in our family. We just love to have fun together. So we make paper mache Christmas trees at Christmas time for cheap decorations, and I get to brag about how my kids helped make it, or making cookies together almost weekly which is a huge hit with us. These things help keep us enjoying life and not constantly thinking about how tight finances are. Crafts and time together, going to a park and walking around, enjoying the beauty of Spring and teaching the kids about ducks, fish and all that as we go, what fun. Simple fun!