June 2014

We spent the month of June enjoying the sunshine! The kids loved going swimming and going to the park, so that's what we did almost everyday.

 Lydia loved her pink pool at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Dallin was even nice enough to come out and play.

There is a fun park/splash pad about 10 minutes from our house. Lydia would go there everyday if she could! Jacob wasn't a huge fan of the splash pad, but he loved the park.

Fun at the park 

We moved across the street from an elementary school, so during the summer we loved going to the playground almost daily. It's so nice to walk across the street and have somewhere fun for the kids to play.

My sweet helper. Lydia loves to help me in the kitchen, especially if I am making something yummy. She also loves "doing" the dishes (meaning she gets all the bowls and cups and pours water back and forth)

Playtime!

May 2014

Neal's work (Academy Mortgage) had a Cinco De Mayo party down at the new Museum of Natural Curiosity (at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi). They had amazing food as well as TONS of activities for the kids! Seriously, this place has everything for kids.Because the Museum wasn't open to the public yet, it was just Academy employees and their families, so not too crowded. :) I wish I had taken more pictures, but I just had my phone with me and we were too busy exploring.  There are 5 main exhibit areas, all with so many interactive and hands on activities: Rainforest, Waterworks, Kidopolis (a town with everything built just for kids), Discovery Garden, and a Science area.

 How cool is this water table for the babies? Jacob LOVED splashing and playing with the toys here so much that he got SOAKED! Unfortunately we didn't bring extra clothes, so we had to go home with him in a diaper an his warm blanket.

 Jacob also had fun in the garden (pictured with a giant carrot) while Lydia had fun on the sloth hang (top right) and playing in Water Works. We really could have stayed there all day with so many things to do!

Jacob is always making a mess somewhere. Our closet is one of his favorite places to pull everything out.

 The renovations never seem to end in our duplex (more on buying our first place to come) and we always seem to be at Lowes. The kids love to ride in the big car carts there.

April 2014

I've let myself get so behind on blogging, I can hardly remember what has happened. :) Luckily I have pictures categorized by months, so these next few posts will mostly be pictures.

Neal and I were with Jacob in the living room while Lydia was finishing up her dinner. A few minutes later we came back in.... to this! Lydia had decided that the spaghetti needed some more parmesan cheese. As you can tell from the pictures, she was very proud of doing it herself. Good thing the container was mostly empty to start with.

The annual Johnson family easter egg hunt at Neal's parents house.

Jacob loved playing with all the eggs.

March 2014

Here are some snapshots of March. 

Jacob continues to grow much to quickly and wants to do whatever Lydia is doing. He is scooting himself and can get into many more things now. One of his favorite things to play with is the princess castle Lydia got for Christmas. He loves to play/chew on the dolls and spin the flowers so it plays music. He likes to be  outside and pretty much anything that other people are doing, he hates to be left by himself.

Lydia is still loving being a big sister and always wants to help out/hold/ and play with Jacob. She was so excited to take him on his first slide!

She also loves to play and is always asking, "Mom, can we do a fun activity today" She loved this "game" putting shaving cream on a tray and scooping it/playing with it. She is still my little reader and loves to read stories, especially Curious George.

We also started Jacob on solids this month, and he is doing well with that. His first food was pureed squash, which he loved. He likes almost anything we have given him so far, except plums (top left picture). I think they were a bit too tart for his liking. :) 

These next pictures are for Neal, as he tells me the blog has turned into just about the kids. :) Random fact about me. I love smores. Mostly just the toasted marshmallow part, but all of it together: the crunchy cracker, the melt y goodness of chocolate, and the gooey marshmallow. To make the perfect smore though, you have to add fruit of some kind: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries... take your pick! It really just adds the perfect touch! Anyway, one Sunday I REALLY wanted some smores. We had the marshmallows, the chocolate, the strawberries, but no crackers. Plus, I had recently discovered that if you put the marshmallows in the broiler for a minute or so, it makes the perfect toasted marshmallow... and no campfire required. Because it was Sunday and I couldn't buy crackers, I decided to make my own. A hour later, I was happily eating my smores... and they tasted amazing! Neal just shook his head, pulled out the camera, and told me I had to put it on the blog. :) Happy wife, happy family, right?

The "big" event of March was Stephanie (Neal's sister) and Josh's' wedding. They were married March 29th in the Bountiful, UT temple. The ceremony was wonderful and she was a beautiful bride. The were both smiles all day and we couldn't be happier for them! It was quite windy at the temple, so all the temple pictures have us with windblown hair/clothes. :)

The wedding luncheon and the reception were both held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake. Everything was elegant and we were all happy to be out of the wind!

The Luncheon

Dancing at the reception. Of course Lydia had to jump in and get a dance with the bride and the groom!

Our cute kids and our happy family! Stephanie was nice enough to let me make the little girl's dresses (it was just Lydia and Josh had one niece the same age) and I think they turned out pretty well.

 Stephanie with all of her sisters in law

The Johnson family. This picture turned out much better than the wind blown ones from outside. :)

February 2014

Lydia loves to sing and dance. Here is a video of her singing "The Speckled Frog" song. Sorry that I had the camera the wrong way. :(

We also went to Hogle Zoo with our friends, Heather and Caleb. Lydia and Caleb are only a couple of weeks apart in age and are always up for an adventure together. They loved all the animals and climbing on the statues. Jacob didn't really seem to care one way or the other, but he did enjoy being outside.

Lydia discovered that she could take Jacob for rides on her little red car. As you can see in the pictures, they both had a blast and were all smiles! She also loves taking him for shoulder rides, though he needs help to stay safe with that one. :)

January 2014

Whew! I've let myself get SO behind on blogging again! It has been a busy 6 months and I haven't made the time for it. Part of that  is our computer died in Jan. and I lost pictures, as well as not having anything to blog on! Here goes our January in a nutshell (and tons of pictures!).

Lydia loves being outside and didn't let the cold and snow stop her at all. She loved playing, helping keep the walks shoveled, building snowmen (I built some small ones with her, and she and Neal built some big ones), and even swinging.

She is also loving being a big sister and for the most part, is very helpful and nice to Jacob. She loves to play with him, and was always very excited when I would let her give him a bottle. I hope that these two can continue being nice and playing well together.

Mid January, we headed to California with Neal's family. We were so excited and ready for the warm weather and sunshine. Lydia LOVES painting her toenails so that was a must do before we left.

Waiting in the airport... Lydia was not happy to sit with us so we could take a picture.

We arrived in California Thursday evening, so that night was basically checking into our hotel and spending the night. Friday morning we all got up and headed to Disneyland and California Adventure for a full day. All of Neal's family was there (minus Bradley, who is on his mission) as well as Neal's cousin Grant, his wife Kate (and their two kids). It was my first time at Disneyland, so everything was new to me, as well as Lydia and Jacob's first time. We spent  most of the morning in California Adventure where we stayed with the rest of the family. They were so nice to watch the kids for us so Neal and I could go on some of the rides together. It was also nice to have Dallin with us (he has downs syndrome) because we could get fast passes on all the rides he wanted to go on. There weren't a ton of rides for Lydia, so around lunchtime we went to Disneyland. Right after lunch, Jacob had a MAJOR blowout! We're talking about all over himself and covering Neal's shirt as well. Luckily we had a change of clothes for him and Neal had a long sleeve shirt in our back pack (in case it was a bit cold in the evening). Not the most fun part of the day, but we got cleaned up and back at it. After getting everyone cleaned up, Neal and I took the kids and split off from the group (we didn't want the others to feel like they needed to watch the kids, and we wanted  to go one more of the little kid rides with Lydia). We stayed until evening, and the kids were so tired, that they fell asleep on the walk back to the hotel. It was a fun day, but honestly I am not a huge fan of amusement parks, so it isn't high on my list of things to do again. I do always enjoy trips with family though, and the weather was fantastic! We didn't take a lot of pictures, so here are the few that we got.

Disneyland!

Our first ride, the carousal in California Adventure. We even got Brent, Annie, and Stephanie to ride with us.

Fun in Disneyland!

Kevin and Neal's mom took the kids to Bug land while the rest of us went on Soaring Over California. Bottom right picture is from "Its a Small World"

After a full day of Disneyland, we packed up again and drove down to Newport Beach, where we stayed at the beautiful Marriott Coast Villa. The rooms were huge and really nice, the grounds/amenities were amazing, and it was just a few minutes away from the beach. We spent most of Saturday enjoying the pools/ outdoor activities they had. Lydia loved all the attention from her uncles(mostly Kevin) and spent a lot of time with them in the water. 

The guys spend their time swimming, doing flips/tricks, and playing frisbee

The girls spent more time relaxing in the sun

Lydia thought it was so funny to pretend everyone in the water were dolphins. She loved to "feed the dolphins" a cracker when we would swim up and "beg" for one.

Playing pool with Dallin and Grandma. Bottom right: having lunch with Allison (Kate and Grant's little girl)

Neal and Lydia finding starfish at the beach.

Just hanging out at the beach. Lydia liked it... as long as she didn't have to get too close to the water. She thought that the waves were too loud and scary.

Sunday morning happened to be Regional Conference for the area, so we were able to attend that. The closest chapel was across from the Newport Beach Temple, and we loved seeing the temple and walking around it as well. After church, we drove to Neal's cousin's home (Ricky and Alanna) where we enjoyed a great dinner, visit, and walk to  the nearby park.

Monday morning we had enough time to pack up and make a quick stop at the beach before heading back to the airport. It was a fun weekend trip and we were sad to leave!

Lydia was so tired from our fun weekend, she fell asleep on the drive back to the airport. She didn't even finish her sandwich first.

After our warm and sunny vacation, it was back to reality with the cold and snow! Since we didn't make it for the holidays, I took the kids up to Rexburg for a  quick visit  (Neal had to stay home to work). Lydia always loves to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and she even convinced them to take her sledding. It ended up being too cold for Jacob, even in his warm bear suit, so my mom took him back to the house and my dad and I pulled Lydia around in the sled and went down the hill a few times.

Family Pictures

After doing an 8 weeks fitness/health challenge (feel great in 8) and winning some prize money, I thought it was time to get some professional pictures done of our little family. I've heard a lot of good things about the FotoFly studio down in Draper and it wasn't terribly expensive for what you get. They did a great job and I'm really happy with how they turned out. The photographer was really nice and was also great with the kids! I also love the fact that they give us a cd with the copyrights and all the pictures. I won't post all the pictures on here, but there are so many cute ones, it will still be a picture overload. :)

Our cute kids!

Little miss attitude. :) 

Beautiful girl!

Jacob wasn't so sure about everything at first, but we did get a big smile! 

So cute!

The start of it all.. my handsome husband and I!