The Crazy Awesome Johnson Family Blog

One Already???

2011-12-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

We love this cute Little Angel. It is hard to believe that she is over a year old now. She is so much fun. She brings smiles and laughter and more love into our home. We can't get enough of her. Happy Birthday!

Still not here

2011-02-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

We're here instead: http://picturethepossibilities.blogspot.com/

We just updated, and you do not want to miss it!

Update your links, people! :)

Our new post

2011-01-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

We know that we do not post super often, so we feel like we need to announce it to the world when we do post.

WE POSTED!!!!

Check it out here

We're moving

2010-12-19T20:37:00.000-08:00

Sort of. OK, not really. At all actually. But what we are doing is consolidating our blogs. We know what you're thinking: "But wait! I enjoy reading the frequent updates to your blogs; how on earth are you going to manage to squeeze all of that into one blog?" Well, we're superheroes. That's how.

So here is how it's going to work. We will now exclusively use our other blog, picturethepossibilities.blogspot.com. We will be combining our photography and family blogs. For safety purposes, we will not use our kids' names or post any comments with our kids' names in them. We'll figure out something to call them in our blog (probably something creative like "this kid"). And if you are only interested in our family updates and are not at all interested in the photography stuff we post, well, sorry. You can feel free to skip the photography parts.

So, that's it. We're not actually moving. So look forward to exciting posts to come at least as fast and furious as they have in the past, now on only one blog!

And here is a random picture, because all blog posts are better with pictures.

This Kid

Emma

2010-12-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

Well folks, we now have two and a half dozen people in our family! There are two parents and a half dozen kids.

Emma was born on December 1, 2010 at 12:19 pm. She weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs 6 oz, meaning she was our second smallest baby (our smallest was 8 lbs 4 oz). She was 20.5 inches long. That means Jay's mom and Brandi were right on with their guesses on the length, and David was only two minutes shy of the actual time of birth, so you three let us know what kind of candy bar you like!

Our kids had some pretty great guesses, but Matthew's was particularly great. He guessed Emma would weigh 3 lbs and only be 5 inches long. Jayden told him that Emma's head alone would be at least 5 inches long, so Matthew amended his guess to 7 inches. We're glad he was way off!

Emma is an angel! She has been perfect. We have been blessed to be six for six with easy going babies! Both she and Sherrie are doing very well.

And here are some pics:

Welcome to the Crazy Awesome Johnson Family, Emma! We love you!

Let the Guessing Begin!

2010-11-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

We go in to have a baby tomorrow! Sherrie's c-section is scheduled for 11:30 am. Feel free to post a comment with your guess for time of birth, weight, and length. You can guess the gender, too, but we won't be too impressed if you get that right since we already know we are having a girl. Of course, my brother and his wife thought they were having a girl until a little boy came out, so ultrasounds can be wrong!

Oh, and whoever guesses the closest in all three categories will get a prize. Maybe. At the very least, you'll feel really cool. We might even acknowledge your coolness on our blog. If we ever update it again (which is very iffy if you look at how often we post!).

For reference, our heaviest baby so far was 9 lbs 9 oz. Our lightest baby was 8 lbs 4 oz. They've all been between 19-21 inches long. And they've all been born between 12:00am and 11:59pm (all on different days and different years, though).

Good luck, and happy guessing!

The guessing will be officially over after 11:46am (which is right when the baby will be born). Nevermind, Sherrie says it will be closer to noon. She's wrong, and I'm right, but we'll see tomorrow.

OK, guessing officially ends AFTER the baby is born and we let people know the information. Because after that, you're not guessing, you're simply repeating. Nice try, though.

To My Best Friend

2010-10-08T21:11:00.001-07:00

Words could ever express how grateful I am for you. I don't think it can even be done in a song. Especially one by me, because I don't write songs. You make me want to strive harder to be the person that I never knew I could be, but you seem to think I already am. You make me laugh. A lot. I love that we can be together talking about nothing, or even actually saying nothing, and it is enjoyable. I love you for who you are and for who I am when I am with you.

I can't believe that it has already been 11 years since you became all mine. Forever. It has been the best adventure of my life. With my favorite person ever. I look forward to the many adventures that are waiting for us.

Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for always treating me like a queen. Thank you for being crazy awesome. Thank you for everything. I love you with everything in me.

Happy Anniversary!

And thanks for these. They are beautiful!

I LOVE YOU! SO MUCH!!!!

Broken bones

2010-09-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

We always expected to have our fair share of broken bones. We have four boys, and they come up with some crazy stuff. And we know that more than half of what they come up with we won’t hear about for over 20 years. So, it is not surprising for us to take a trip to the Emergency Room and find out that there is a broken bone. What is surprising is that in our family thus far we have had two broken bones; and both times it has been our daughter, trying to save the life of one of her brothers. Or something like that anyway.

This time she was riding her scooter down the sidewalk while one of her brothers was coming back up. She swerved to miss him, lost her balance, and fell and landed on her wrist. So on to the Emergency Room we go for our 3 hour extravaganza. (Which is actually not bad compared to the length of some of our Emergency Room visits.)

She indeed broke her wrist. They said it snapped back into place, but they wanted her to wait a week to see an orthopedic surgeon to make sure that any swelling went down before they cast it. Not even going to get into how fun it was trying to set up that appointment. That would be a blog post in and of itself, and this one is going to be lengthy enough as it is. We’ll just get to the part where we took her x-rays, not her, her x-rays, to the orthopedic surgeon on base who took one look at it, and said it needed to be reset. Oh, and he was also leaving within the hour to go on vacation for a week. Awesome. Needless to say, after some more fun on the phone that lasted way longer than it should, she had an appointment to see a different surgeon. That worked out great for us. After more x-rays (he didn’t like the angle of the other ones) he said that she did indeed need to have it reset.

They told us to come back at 2 for prep and then she would go in to surgery at 4. She did so great.

They were having trouble putting the IV in, but she was a trooper. She thought it was pretty awesome that her anesthesiologist was a Husker football player that had gone professional. She even asked him to be the first to sign her cast.

Once everything was all ready they took her back without us. They put her to sleep, or mostly, but she doesn’t remember anything.

Afterward , all the nurses raved about how great she did and what a sweetheart she is. She is pretty great. Now when her wrist heals she will be able to rotate it. Yea for specialists.

We love our amazing girl and hope her recovery goes well. So far she is doing great.

Cute kids

2010-09-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we kinda like them.

It's a...

2010-08-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

...Do you want to know? Are you curious about what we're having? Well, then scroll down and you'll find out that we are having a...

...BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!

Or a hot one. It wasn't too bad after the sun went down. We could actually stand being outside.

Oh, by the way...

Or at least it will be in December! There is someone in our house that didn't lock herself in her room and cry when she found out what we were having this time.

It really was a beautiful day, though.

An Invite

2010-07-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

He Made It!!!!

2010-05-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

YEA!!!

Poop, the ER, and a Lego (Long Post, Long Day)

2010-05-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

Did you ever have one of those days? You know the kind we're talking about. It's one of those days where you just say, "It's been one of those days!" Have you ever had one of those days? NO YOU HAVEN'T! OK, maybe you have had even worse, but yesterday was one of those days, and it involved (in this order) poop, an ambulance to the ER, and a Lego. It was one of those days.

Yesterday Jay came home for lunch (which is something he does not do nearly as often as he would like since we live a bit away from work). But yesterday, he came home for lunch and found Sherrie (incidentally, we do not actually refer to ourselves in third person on a regular basis. We actually use real pronouns like "I" on a very regular basis, but when we are blogging, it is from both of us; so, while Jay or Sherrie is actually typing this, he or she will refer to him- or herself in the third person. This may cause a minor dilemma for the reader, namely, whose voice do I imagine this all being spoken in? Easy! Kermit the Frog. Why? Who knows? Sherrie's sister, Janice, says she always imagines Kermit the Frog's voice when reading our blog, so it seems like a good idea. If you have any questions as to her choice of Muppets, talk to her about it...maybe in Miss Piggy's voice.) in the post-clean up stages of an adventure. She was not thrilled about it, and when she related what had happened to Jay, he started laughing. She informed him that laughter was definitely NOT the proper response, so as you read please keep that in mind. It is NOT funny. After all, since when is flinging poo funny? Never. And, no, Sherrie was not doing the flinging.

So, someone, and we're not sure who (but his name might rhyme with atthew) forgot to flush the toilet. Of course, this was a number two. And cute little innocent baby boy (who really isn't a baby anymore--they grow up too fast!) decided to investigate. He came to her smelling like poo, which isn't actually all that unusual, except the poo smell was coming from everywhere except his diaper. GROSS! Sherrie went to investigate and found poo flung all around the toilet and a plastic cup and toy fishing pole in the icky gross toilet (that kid is doing fishing completely wrong!). Needless to say, she was not terribly excited. Jay came home after the clean up, heard the story, inappropriately laughed his head off (which he certainly would not have done if he had been the one to go through the ordeal), and picked up the monkey (you know, monkeys like flinging poo). He also smelled a nasty poo smell, looked down, and saw some on Ben's shirt that Sherrie had missed (it was hiding under his overalls). That was an unpleasant surprise. He then was in for another unpleasant thought as he realized, "Hey, if that smell came from the poo that is on his clothes, then that means that the wetness on his sleeves that have been all over me is....EWW!" Fortunately for him the wetness was actually the aftermath of Sherrie washing Ben's hands and arms!

That was enough excitement for one day, but it was actually just beginning. Sherrie called Jay just as he was finishing work and informed him that she was on her way to the hospital with Ethan. Ethan had not been feeling well and was running a fever. Sherrie was holding him when she felt his temperature suddenly rise and he had a seizure and stopped breathing. She immediately called 911 and gave Ethan mouth-to-mouth (while on the phone with the 911 operator). Ethan's whole face was blue and the other kids were freaking out. Sherrie has no idea how long he wasn't breathing, but she thinks it was probably less than a minute before he began breathing again.

As terrifying as this was, it was not the first time we have experienced this with our kids, although it was the first time for Ethan. The same thing happened to Jayden on two separate occasions (once as an infant and again when he about Ethan's age). It's called a febrile seizure, and it is actually fairly common in children under the age of five. It's caused by a sudden, sharp rise in temperature which causes the body to seize. It's very scary to see, but not actually cause for too much alarm. Of course, that's easy to say when you are not standing there with your unbreathing, blue child who really looks like he is dying in your arms!

Of course, an ambulance came and brought Sherrie and Ethan to the ER where Jay met them. Uncle Ethan was awesome for coming over and watching the other kids (the paramedics were nice enough to wait for him to get there, and they even gave our other kids a tour of the ambulance! Obviously, little Ethan was not at a critical stage at this point. Most paramedics do not take a break from an emergency situation to show off their ambulance, or listen to the kids suggest that they install a swimming pool in there. "We've got to get this gunshot victim to the ER immediately!" "Yeah, OK, but I was wondering, do you suppose there's anyway we could fit a swimming pool in here?" "What are you talking about??? We've got to go NOW!!!" "OK! Fine! But can we maybe stop at a swimming pool on the way?" Nope, they don't do that, so there was obviously nothing to worry about for little Ethan at this point, they just wanted a doctor to check him out to rule out anything else. Plus, when you call 911 and they send an ambulance to you, it's just a waste of a trip if they don't bring someone to the ER, even if they did get to show off the ambulance to some kids).

Anyway, Ethan was fine. The worst he had to endure was sitting in the ER for about two hours and sipping on blue Gatorade (which is kind of gross, but he liked it). After they saw us playing volleyball with balloons we had made out of rubber gloves, they let us go. We're pretty sure that's actually a requirement for being discharged from the ER, which is why they have so many boxes of rubber gloves in there.

So, our day was pretty exciting. We made it to bed time with the kids all in their pajamas and having brushed their teeth. We read scriptures together and said our family prayer. That's when surprise number three came. Matthew said, in just about the most casual, nonchalant voice you can imagine, "Well actually, the Lego arm in my nose is kind of uncomfortable." WHAT??? It was the most random thing to hear, and he said it in the most off-handed way to one of his siblings, that we were stunned. We asked him to clarify, and he confessed that he had taken the hand from a little Lego figure and shoved it up his nose...THE DAY BEFORE!

It was a fun day.

The Circus. The Circus. We Love the Circus!

2010-04-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

Being the awesome parents that we are we didn't bring the camera. Pictures of our kids riding ponies, jumping in jumpy castles, riding elephants...who wants pics of their kids doing those awesome things anyways? Highly overrated. And all the other cool circus stuff we saw? Who wants pictures of that? The picture of cuteness baby's face when he won a bike...? Alright, so maybe it was everyone else's expression that would have been worth capturing when they read his name. His face pretty much looked like this.

We think it might have had a little more to do with the hot dogs, funnel cakes, and cotton candy that he was stuffing down his face.

Alright, alright. He is Always that happy. And cute. What can we say.

His sister is the benefactor of his good fortune. Poor kid. Each one of his siblings will probably ride his bike before he will. It is a good thing that he is so good natured.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful night at the circus.

Girls...Toilets...Whatever.

2010-04-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were at church, and Cuteness #3 needed to answer nature's call. As I walked with him into the restroom, he said one of the funniest things ever:

"It smells like girls in here [...pause...] I mean toilets."

Um, I wasn't aware that those were two things you could confuse!

The Only Way Out is UP!

2010-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

Team "Hike the Tower, Puke with Power" (Awesome. We know.)

Event "Trek Up the Tower"

This was our first official race, minus Janice. She's already been able to wear the little timing chip.

Running...walking up what we thought was going to be 47 flights of stairs was nothing we could prepare for. We did the stairs at the gym, but so many people told us that real stairs were different. I was prepared to die, or at least faint. Jay was't worried at all, but I could just picture myself being Chicken Little's dad, face planted in the stairs and struggling to move an inch. Only I wouldn't be saving the world, or showing my child that I listened to what was important to them. I was only going to be killing myself to say that I did it. Which is a way awesome reason, only not one of the choices to choose from when we signed up.

Anyway, all my hype was for nothing. It was awesome, although the air was definitely thinning as we went up. We thought it was 47 flight, so when we got to #39 I was thinking "8 flights to go, I can totally do this." Turns out there are only 40 flights so we were basically done. Although, we kinda felt ripped off because that wasn't really the top, but whatever. We did it, and we weren't even the slowest. Jay stayed by me as I was pacing myself (much slower than I needed to), but now I know what it is like and next year I think we can totally rock it. And by that I don't mean winning, I just mean meeting our own personal goals.

It was just fun. When we were done we got a medal and a towel with all the sponsors on it. Then we went downstairs where the party was going on. They fed us and gave us a bunch of free stuff. YAY for Free Stuff!!! ... that we got rid of a week later. Hmm, except the t-shirt. YAY for Free T-Shirts that we actually keep. Although, when you think of what we spent to enter the race, maybe the T-shirt doesn't sound so free after all, but totally worth it.

This is me puking over the edge of the parking garage...

...okay, so I wasn't puking. I was hacking up a lung because of my cold, but it looked enough like it that we needed to take a picture. Or, at least someone thought so. :)

Definitely going to do it again next year. (The race, not the hacking up a lung/fake puking.)

Who wants to join us?

We LOVED it

2010-02-25T11:29:00.000-08:00

Getting up in the early hours of the morning that no one is ever supposed to see. Walking (umm... running) in the bitter wind with sub-zero temperatures FOREVER.

Waiting... Delays... More waiting... Running... Running... More Running... Dying... Barely Making it...

For this:

Umm...SO. WORTH. IT.

We got to San Diego early afternoon on Monday and drove the hour and a half to my sister's house in Orange County. We spent the rest of the day in glorious 70 degree weather.

After dinner and family home evening we played "kick-the-can". The indoor version being "kick the paper towel roll". It was so much fun. I hadn't played it since I was a kid and I had completely forgotten all the rules, which I quickly learned as I broke them. They are an amazing family and I am so glad we were able to spend some time with them. They are one of those families that you just want to hang out with with the hope that some of their awesomeness will happen to rub off.

Our hotel was in La Jolla and it was a beautiful part of town. We were minutes from the San Diego Temple. Which is so beautiful, inside and out. We kept going back just to walk around the grounds... and to take lots of pictures. SO FUN!

Tuesday night we went to meet some friends at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown San Diego. It just so happened that that Tuesday was Mardi Gras. Who knew? Apparently... everybody else. Parking was crazy and we got to see a good portion of downtown, which we loved. After we ate we walked around their outdoor mall that was right there. It was huge, beautiful, amazing weather, and so much fun. Walking back to our car we got to watch drunk people riding on buses and shouting to everyone. It was a fun night! :)

So, the week was A-MAZING! I spent my days running, swimming, laying out, sleeping in, whatever I wanted. Evenings were spent with the two of us doing whatever we wanted while enjoying the fantastic weather. My sister, Elaine, and her girls came down one night and we went to Little Italy together. We walked around and ate a lot of gelato. Which reminded us how much we love the stuff and how much we need to go back to Italy.

It was a great week. Thank you to Jay's parents and my sister, Janice, for watching the cuteness kiddos and making it all possible. We appreciate it SO MUCH!!!

It is true. We LOVED it all and we want to go back soon. We think we could even live there. It was THAT fantabulous.

We know

2010-02-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day was over a week ago, but we just wanted to share the cute Valentine's the kids brought to school. My sister saw this on a blog and I was helping her with the photo of her daughter. I decided to do it with Cuteness #1 and #2, as well. Totally going to do it again next year.

Aren't they cute?

Long Overdue

2010-01-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

It has been almost two months and it is high time that we give a shout out to our many wonderful friends that we said good-bye to in Georgia.

YOU ARE ALL AWESOME AND WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Words could probably never express the depth of gratitude and love that we feel. Each time we move we are sure that there is no way that we will make friends nearly as amazing as the ones that we just left. And yet, there are always amazing people that actually allow us to invade their life and become great friends. We have been so blessed everywhere that we have lived. This just happens to be the first time we have had a blog to publicize our thanks. May all of our amazing friends across the globe know that we are so grateful for you and we love you all.

We would never be able to count the times that our prayers have been answered by seemingly small and simple acts (or outright HUGE ones) of those around us. We would never be able to count the times that our lives improved because of the service and example of our friends. It is always heart-wrenching to say good-bye to such friends, always hoping that something, sometime will bring us together again. Thanks for the good times, the good memories, and the good food. Georgia holds a place in our heart...thanks to all of you, our amazing friends.

And in other news. It is freezing here and we have snow up to our eyebrows. In our last post we mentioned this Winter Wonderland. Little did we know that it was just getting started. We had a blizzard on Christmas day. This last week we had about 6 inches added to the million that we already had, which makes it fun trying to find a place to put it all. Oh yeah, there isn't a place... because it is full of snow. The kids have not been to school at all this year because of the additional 3 snow days. Don't get us wrong: snow can totally be lots of fun and it is very beautiful. However, when it is -24F and a wind chill of we don't even want to know how cold, well, we spend a lot of time indoors with hot chocolate.

And Crazy Awesome Cuteness #4 turned 3 years old today. Really, where does the time go? And for real, he's really cute.

And we will end with a few more pics. We have the Craziest, Awesomest Family in the world.

Wonderland

2009-12-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

This would be the Summer Wonderland that we enjoyed only a month ago in Orlando, FL. We love you Summer Wonderland.

And this would be the Winter Wonderland where we now reside. It is beautiful. The snow is great for this Christmas time. How wonderful that we can be here to enjoy it. The kids had three snow days last week. Even Jay had two and a half days off from work. FUN FUN FUN!!! These were their first Snow Days ever. (Maybe we can't technically say the first. There was that day in Georgia when they got out of school because it was supposed to snow, or be really cold, or something. It ended up being 60 degrees, but everyone had a great day out of school regardless. So, no school, but no snow, either.) Anyway, they had a blast. We all did.

We are really enjoying living so close to family. We can't say enough how wonderful it is. We absolutely love it. It isn't just a vacation where we feel like we need to cram a year's worth of fun into one short week (especially because we never would succeed.)

Many of you may be wondering how we are adapting with the weather here. Did you know that the Winter Wonderland, as beautiful as it is, is FREEZING!!! Like for real FREEZING! Just want to make sure that no one misunderstood. We thought it would take a lot longer to acclimate, though. When it is 22 degrees out and you hear yourself saying, "Wow, it's a nice day." It just makes you wonder how you got to that point in less than a month. Oh, that would be the sub-zero temperatures that we had yesterday. You know, where you get frost bite on your face because it was exposed for the 5 seconds that you are outside. Yep, it is amazing how quickly 22 degrees feels like a nice day.

How far away are our Spring and Summer Wonderlands?

Not Busy, Just a Wee Bit Active

2009-11-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

This is what we've been doing lately, which is why it's been a wee bit hard to find time to blog (that should totally give us a pass this time!):

And here's a picture that just makes us laugh!

Push-Up Party

2009-10-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

"What is that?" we hear you ask. It is kind of shocking that you don't know. But we will go ahead and explain it anyway.

All the credit goes to cuteness #2. "Can I have a push-up party?" Our response, which might have been similar to yours, was "what's a push-up party?"

A little disappointed that we didn't immediately get it he said, "You know, for doing 100 push-ups."

Later we heard him telling the other kids that he was doing 10 push-ups a day and he only had 30 push-ups left. Uh, back up. If there is going to be a party, those 100 push-ups all need to be done in one day. So, he did. He did 100 push-ups in one day and he had a party. He made up some invitations and he made the agenda (rules and activities) for the party. It was pretty cute. Except, the race to 100 push-ups at the party might not have been everyone's favorite part. I couldn't tell. But this was a big hit.

C'mon, it's pretty clever. What else is there to do do? (Besides the 100 push-up race, of course.) Cuteness Kid #2 was excited that he got to put "Eat push-ups" on his list of activities. He was pretty sure everyone was going to be confused.

All in all it was a big hit. Once we both get to be doing 100 push-ups in one day we are totally going to throw one for us. (One of us might already be doing 100 push-ups every day, and the other might not even be remotely close. Whatever.) But when it happens we are totally having a party and we can all do MORE push-ups and then eat the yummy push-up pops. But, per the rules, "No Birthday Presents, Please!"

5 months

2009-09-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go?

Ya gotta love it

2009-09-24T05:04:00.001-07:00

When you hear cuteness kid say "help me pwease" and you turn around and see this

Can you tell that his shirt is soaking? Well, it is. As is the rest of him. As you can see he is trying to take his shirt off and needs help. What you can't see is that he already successfully removed the rest of his clothing.

Perhaps I should give a little history. We put our kiddie pool up against the fence, you know, so it wouldn't get full of rain water. At some point it must have decided to not be up against the fence because it is a pool after all and should be full of water, especially when lots of rain is coming. So, yesterday, I have three boys come into the house, dripping water, saying they need a shower. They most certainly do. I promptly go to dump water out of said pool. Not so easy when it is FULL of heavy water.

No problem, there's a plug, I'll pull it out. It's stuck, no good. Lots of lifting and shifting to get even some of it to spill over and out to make it easier. Maybe got a gallon. Maybe not. Not working so much. Cuteness kid running around backyard without clothes on. Ushering back to shower, and making sure they stay there until they are good and clean and smelling nice. While the pool is still FULL of lots of water. Out of sight, out of mind. Still was today when the boys and their friend that I was watching went out back to play...

Am I a bad mom for posting these?

Thank you Matthew for keeping your clothes on.

Cuteness kid that doesn't belong in my numbering system.

Cuteness kid #3 making one of his faces. I always forget the intent behind them because they always change. But they always make me laugh.

So, I did what anyone would do. Swimsuits = I don't have to shower you right now just to shower you in 20 minutes when you do the same thing again 'cuz I'm to weak to dump out the swimming pool.

And just 'cuz I know you were wondering...

And the results are in

2009-09-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

We know you are all dying to know what happed. We were going to just post the video up, but the program we need seems to no longer be on our computer. The disc to put it on our computer seems to have disappeared. (Not totally convinced that cuteness #4 did not dispose of it. He went [is maybe still going through] a phase where he likes to just throw things away.)

We'll try not to deprive you to the best of our ability. So here is what happened.

***

I put the cookies in a dish on the counter and told them to come get one. Matthew is the first to grab one and start to walk away. He examines it and then goes to switch it for a different one.

Mikayla: "Okay, don't take a bite out of them and then...(she pauses here and it looks like she is starting to notice that maybe not all is right.) ...put them back, Matt."

At this point Ethan grabs a cookie and starts eating and watching Mikayla while she is talking.

Matthew: "No, these were already bite."

Mikayla: "Well, don't bite them again." (She starts shuffling through the cookies, finally picks one and just kind of holds it up to her mouth.)

Jayden starts searching through the cookies, picking them up one at a time to examine them, sets it down and reaches for another. Finally he says:

Jayden: "Umm, why are all of them bitten, mom?"

I am trying to hold back a laugh, but not all that successfully.

Jayden: Now with a smile on his face as sees me laughing. "Mom, why are all of them bitten?"

Me: "Ethan got into them last night."

Lots of laughing and giggling as Jayden justs grabs a cookie and they all start munching away.

Me: "Is that funny Ethan?"

Ethan: With a big smile on his face and a mouthful of cookie, "I bit!"

***

And to end with a picture

I'll give you one guess as to who I found gagging on a glob of dough literally minutes before I put the bread in the oven. Anyone, anyone???

What do you get...

2009-09-20T19:33:00.001-07:00

When you have yummy cookies...

And cuteness kid #4 who is supposed to be in bed, but obviously isn't?

THIS!!!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but there is at least one bite taken out of every single cookie that was left in our house. (This is not where yummy cookies were when cuteness kid went to bed.)

*Just to clarify, picture of cuteness kid not taken tonight. By the time I got the camera he actually WAS in bed.

So, one of three things will happen tomorrow.

a) Cuteness siblings will not want to eat cookies because "Ewwww, there's a bite in it!"

b) Cuteness siblings will eat cookies

c) Cuteness siblings will say "Ewwww," and then proceed to eat cookies anyway. (I mean, c'mon, they are yummy Andes Mint Cookies.)

Should we post a poll to see who knows our kids the best?

God, Family, and Country

2009-09-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

This last week I had to complete a survey at work about the factors that influence me to either stay in or get out of the Air Force. Most of the questions were the "to-what-extent-do-you-agree-or-disagree-with-the-following-statement" type of questions, but one of the questions asked me to fill in my own comments:

"Please provide any comments you may have pertaining to what influences your career decision."

As I thought about my response to that question, it really just hit me. This is my response:

"The single biggest drawback to my Air Force service is the time I have to spend away from my family. My priorities in life are (in this order) my God, my family, and my country. Being away from family for my country is a sacrifice and a burden. That being said, I understand the need, and I understand that someone has to do it. My family understands, too. Were it not for a supportive family, I would not stay in the Air Force. I feel, however, that those times when I am away from my family, I am serving not only my country, but I am also serving my family and my God. Because of that conviction, I choose to remain in the Air Force, despite having to leave my family from time to time. This period of my life will not last forever; I hope to be able make a difference while I can."

Last Fling of Summer

2009-08-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

We have had a crazy summer. We thought about blogging huge posts to try and catch up, but since that would be a huge undertaking (and we don't do so well with the blog when the undertakings are not so big) we decided rather than not blog at all because we are avoiding that post, we would just post about our end of summer trip and see if we shock anyone that we are posting at all.

We drove up to Gatlinburg for a few days. We decided to take the 12 minute longer route that took us through Smokey Mountain National Forest. The extra 12 minutes were definitely worth it. It was gorgeous.

We stayed at a hotel in Gatilinburg, and didn't do anything in the town itself other than drive through it. We had a blast just hanging out in our hotel and doing some major pool-hopping (there were three pools; the last one we went to was our favorite).

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures. If there are too many, then don't look at them. If there are not too many, then enjoy! :) (This is a mere fraction of the over 500 pictures that we took, so we narrowed it down a ton. This is why we don't post very often! Oh, and we're lazy.)

Blueberry Muffins

2009-07-14T13:37:00.001-07:00

Yummy Muffins

We decided to start a blog with all our favorite recipes on it. That way, when we are visiting family and friends and we want to make something, we will have access to the recipes. For anyone interested, Our Chocolate Yumminess Essence of Angel Cake is already out there, so feel free to check it out. Enjoy!

It is Official

2009-07-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

Our house is up for sale!

So.......Anyone interested?!? :)

Chocolate Yumminess

2009-06-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Where are the words to describe this cake?

Yumminess. Decadent. Divine.

Perfection!

We made this cake together. The center is homemade-from-scratch-no-kidding-honest-to-goodness-yumminess chocolate mousse. That we made ourselves. With no help. All by ourselves. (OK, so we watched a youtube clip showing us how, but we did it!) The frosting is the essence of perfection. It is the BEST chocolate frosting ever. And this is coming from people who don't like frosting, but this is no mere frosting. In fact, we should probably just call it "whipped essence of angels." In fact, that is what we will call it. So, our Whipped Essence of Angels Mousse cake is the greatest thing ever.

Too bad all of you only get to see a picture of it and didn't get to eat any!

He wasn't crying

2009-05-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I had the following conversation a couple of days ago.

Me: Matthew, why is Ethan crying?

Matthew: ..........

Me: Matthew, why is Ethan crying?

Matthew: .........................Well......................... I was standing on the counter...

.....and when I got off I slipped and fell...............and I was crying...............

Me: ???

Matthew:...............................So I punched him in the face.

Me: WHAT?!?!

Matthew: He wasn't crying!

Apparently Ethan wasn't showing enough sympathy, so Matthew decided to give him something to cry about.

Drum Roll, Please...

2009-05-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

We have an announcement...

(Are you ready for it?)

(Make sure you are sitting down)

(Don't pass out now)

(OK, here is our big news)

WE'RE UPDATING OUR BLOG!

(cool, huh?)

(oh, and we had a baby)

That's right, we now have five kids! Introducing Benjamin Jay Johnson, (or as Ethan calls him, "Ben-men"). The following is an actual conversation we have with almost everyone whenever we are out with just Benjamin:

Stranger: "Oh, how cute! Is this your first?"

Us: "Actually, he's our fifth."

Stranger (looking like they've just seen an alien): "Whoa!"

At that point they stop talking to us because they are obviously not used to talking to crazy people. So, they just kind of go away.

But we are so excited to have Benjamin in our family! We love him (and we even had him on purpose!). Sherrie is recovering nicely from her fifth C-section, and the older kids adore him.

Benjamin Jay Johnson
April 24th, 2009
9:59 am
8 lbs 7.5 oz
19 inches short

And he's way cute!

So you know how people are always asking, "Is that a boy or a girl?" Well, we came up with an innovative way of making sure everyone knew our baby was a boy. We dyed his entire body blue!

Actually, Benjamin was pretty jaundiced when he came home from the hospital. A week after he was born his bilirubin (which is a cool word) levels had gotten pretty high and he had lost about 13% of his birth weight, so the doctor insisted that we check him into the hospital. They took our then very yellow baby (which is one of those colors that could be for a boy or a girl) and put him under blue lights (very masculine) and he came out pink (which is not masculine at all!).

He does look awesome with those sunglasses velcroed to his face, though!

So there you have it! We updated our blog, and it even had some no-kidding news in it!

The 100th day of school

2009-01-22T07:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the 100th day of school, known to us only because Jayden came home with a paper crown on his head that read "Happy 100th Day of School."

We hope you enjoy the answers he gave to the questions that were given during the "100th Day Olympics!"

The Candy-Dispensing Toilet

2008-11-30T19:13:00.001-08:00

We have been potty training Ethan for the past couple of weeks. By that, of course, we mean we tried a couple of weeks ago, he did pretty good for a couple of days, and then suddenly decided he wanted nothing to do with the potty. In fact, the mere mention of the "p" word would be answered with a resounding, "NO WAAAAAANT!!!!" (Picture a mouth opened very wide while screaming inches from your face.) So, we decided to not push the issue at all. One thing we've learned with potty training, you cannot force it. It's on their time or not at all.

So recently we decided to give it another go. We decided the time was right. Well, actually, we totally ran out of pull-ups. That realization was a horrifying moment; we pictured our house flooded in urine, because that was how it had been for a couple of days during the "NO WAAAAAANT!!!!" period. Lots of pee. Lots of cleaning. Lots of soaked Transformers and Superheros (not even cool underwear was free of his urinating wrath).

When we realized that we were without pull-ups, we had no choice but to clad his loins in Superheros (hoping they would intervene with their super powers, of course). Four soaked-Superheros later Sherrie had the stroke of genius--inspiration really--to offer him candy simply to sit on the potty (not much, but enough to peak his interest). We normally would not condone giving candy without first producing, well, pee, but we were desperate. And Ethan loved it! He caught on very quickly that sitting on the potty equals candy-dispenser (eww!!! our toilet is a candy-dispenser!), which he loved.

The second time we bribed him to the candy-dispensing toilet, a miracle happened: Ethan peed while on the candy-dispenser (er, toilet)! Of course, we made a big fuss and gave him a big piece of candy. He was so proud of himself! Since then he's had a couple of accidents (we're still working on the poop, which is so much grosser than cleaning pee, but doesn't leave his underwear and get all over the couch, floor, chairs, his bed, or everything else--thank goodness, by the way, for our Bissel Green Machine!), but he has been really good about using the candy-dispenser toilet to go pee.

Now, rather than us saying, "Ethan, do you want to go potty?" and being answered with the "NO WAAAAAANT!!!!" he tells us without any prompting, "Need potty!" Those might possibly be the two greatest words ever uttered! Of course, Jay was so happy to hear them approximately 312 times within 10 minutes, all for the sake of getting more candy from the candy-dispenser. But on the 313th time, GOLDEN (literally, you know, yellow pee and all).

So, we are very excited!

About a month late

2008-11-21T06:51:00.000-08:00

We carved pumpkins last month and our kids thought it was pretty great. They loved their pumpkins and we had a lot of fun. Although we learned that Ethan doesn't want to help anyone, he wants to do it all by himself like everyone else. We'll be better prepared next year.

The finished products. The artwork of Mikayla, Jayden and Matthew.

Jay and I worked on this one. FYI, not such an easy thing to be carving at the same time on the same pumpkin.

I know this is way late, but I am trying to get out of being tagged, and it was agreed upon that updating the blog would suffice, so here you go Brandi! :)

We will be blogging about our great trip to Texas, so you can get super excited about that one. Except those of you that have already heard about our trip, I suppose you can just look at the cool pics that we'll post with it. Too bad we didn't take more!

A Moment to Brag

2008-09-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, Jay took a couple of tests for some competition that I am not even going to pretend that I know anything about. All I know is that he took the tests. Apparently, all Airmen E-4 to E-6 in select career fields were supposed to be taking it. We thought that a handful would be chosen to go to San Antonio for the final test and didn't think much else about it.

Well, today, Jay was informed that he would be going to San Antonio for 4 days. He came in 2nd out of all E-4s through E-6s in his entire career field, so he will be receiving a silver medal. So, why does he need to be in San Antonio for four days? He talked to someone who had gone before and apparently it is a four day long award ceremony filled with wining and dining. It is quite the big deal. How awesome is he? I know, I know! He is the GREATEST!!!! Way to go, Jay!

I just wanted to take a moment to tell everyone how incredibly awesome my husband is. We haven't been to San Antonio since he graduated from basic. It is going to be so much fun! YEA!!!

Why I Serve

2008-09-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Exactly seven years ago today, as I was getting ready for work, I received a phone call from a friend: "Have you seen what is on the news?" I turned on the TV and was shocked at what I was seeing. How could that happen in our great nation? What would it mean for my family's future? What could I do to help ensure that the freedom I so highly cherished would endure for my children and their children?

I went to work that morning with a renewed resolve to do my very best at my chosen profession. September 11, 2001 marked almost one year to the day since I had first raised my arm and taken a solemn oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same." On that day when America changed forever, I resolved that I would do what I could to ensure that such a thing will never happen again, and that my children's future will be bright.

Serving in the military is not always easy. It has required great sacrifice of me. If those sacrifices only impacted me, I would hardly think of the cost, but my family has had to pay even higher sacrifices for my choice to defend this great nation. My children have spent many nights not knowing where I was, other than that "Daddy is in the desert, and God is protecting him." My wife has had to comfort their fears for my safety, all the while depending upon that God to bring me home safe. The joy of each reunion when I would return safely to my family has always been tempered by the knowledge that the next deployment was just around the corner. No, serving in the military has not been easy.

So why, then, do I serve? The word "serve" is the key. I do not do it for myself, but for others. Of highest concern to me is my own family. I serve so that my wife and my children will be free. But my concern extends far beyond my own immediate family. I serve to ensure that my fellow countrymen may enjoy their God-given rights to liberty. I serve that liberty might be brought to the oppressed in nations other than my own. I serve for others. I serve for liberty.

Military service is a sacrifice, but it is a sacrifice in its truest and purest sense: a holy offering. It requires giving up my own comforts and conveniences in order to preserve something of infinitely greater worth: freedom. There are those in this world who would take that freedom from us; it has been so from before the beginning of time. Despite the opposition, there are those who, like me, have answered the call to defend that supernal gift which God has granted us. Our service is given as an offering to our God.

I do not serve for the glory of the world. I do not serve in order to receive any thanks. There are many people who oppose what I do, yet I serve to preserve their freedom to hate me just as I serve to preserve another's freedom to be grateful. The only glory I seek through my service is the glory that can only truly be found in a free society: glory given to God without fear of reprisal from oppressive outside influences.

Thomas Jefferson said that it is a self-evident truth that God has endowed us with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God has endowed us with those freedoms, but there are those who are trying with all their might to deny us what God has given us. That threat has always existed, and will continue to exist. What would my life be without that freedom? And so, I have answered my nation's call, and I am proud to wear the uniform of the United States of America.

This is why I serve.

Where were you...?

2008-09-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

Has it really been seven years? I'll admit, it has been a pretty emotional morning for me. I've been listening to music that touches my heart to the core, looking at pictures that are still so familiar, and remembering. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were living in Monterey, California. I still feel the heartache from it as I did that day.

So many people killed, so many families' lives devastated. My heart poured out to them. I wanted to do something, anything, but what was there to do? I felt helpless. My heart ached, as it aches right now, as I remember.

I remember candles being lit across the nation. We were no exception. We gathered with neighbors to light candles, we sang heartfelt songs to God, we prayed with all the energy of our soul for our great nation, the people of it, and especially those whose lives were so directly impacted by this great tragedy. I remember the unity of our nation, the flags in every yard and on every car. Everyone doing what they could to help their neighbor, just because of the love we felt for each other. The pain that we all shared in, affected us in marvelous ways. We reached out to others more. We couldn't see anyone suffering without giving a helping hand in any way that we could.

Isn't this how God wants us to treat each other? Does it always take pain, heartache, and suffering for us to remember that we are all children of a loving God? A loving God that founded this great nation and has blessed and prospered it ever since. Our founding fathers were truly inspired by God. They knew that, and I know that. We have been so blessed because we are a nation under God. Seven years ago this great nation under God was attacked. In this, at least, or finally, political parties were united. We truly were a united nation. This would not ever happen again. Sacrifices were made. Men and women went to fight for us, for our families and our futures.

How grateful I am for these sacrifices that are still being made to keep my family and this great nation safe. Sacrifices that are not unfamiliar to me. Sacrifices that affected my family directly. My husband has gone to fight in this war, on multiple occasions. I know what it is like to try and struggle as a single mom, trying to make things work while he was gone. Trying to comfort children while you feel like your own heart is breaking. Not knowing how you are going to survive another day. The list could go on and on. I know that there are many who have it so much harder than I. I know that many have made the ultimate sacrifice. I just want to say how much I appreciate the men and women, and the families of the men and women, who serve, and sacrifice, to keep our country safe. Who serve to make sure that the future will be bright for our children, as so many have done before us.

My heart goes out to those families who are separated at this time. To those single moms and dads, many who are temporary, and many who are not, my heart pours out to you. May God watch over and protect you and your loved ones. May He pour blessings out upon you. May you know that these sacrifices are not made in vain. They are needed. They are appreciated. Thank you, all of you, for what you do!

God bless this great nation, America!!!

"The Wall"

2008-08-31T17:49:00.001-07:00

For those of you who haven't noticed, we have a "wall" on our blog. This is the place where we put the quotes from our family that crack us up. It's a good read!

Some of you out there are probably wondering, "Why is it called 'the wall?'" Well, back when Jay's sister Becky was living with us in California, we put a piece of poster board on the wall to write down all of the funny things that people said. "That's going on the wall!" was an oft heard comment in our home.

Since we've had kids we've discovered that they are a treasure trove of hilarious comments. Rather than put their wit on a poster board in our home, we've gone digital with our "wall." So, enjoy the crazy awesome funniness of our wall!

Surviving

2008-08-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Jay and I usually write these together, but as he is on top of Mt. Timpanogos right now ~~getting lost, taking "shortcuts" (down a landslide), almost getting himself killed, and..gasp...getting the camera dirty~~ hiking with some really good friends from high school, you are going to have to listen to my ramblings. And I can pretty much guarantee that it will be rambling because Jay is gone and it is just me and 4 kids. As adorable as they are, adult conversations are not the norm. This is nothing new for us, Jay being gone that is). It does help to know that it is only a matter of a few days before sanity will return. Well, at least as much sanity as we can ever to expect to have.

Actually, things aren't going that bad. Mikayla and Jayden started school on Monday, and they are absolutely loving it. That just leaves Matthew and Ethan at home all day, and that is pretty fun. If you don't count bedtime, things are going great. OK, since bedtime has been lasting about three hours the last couple of nights, perhaps you have to count it. I have to say that when they actually get in bed, and then actually stay in bed, and don't make any more noise because they are actually sleeping (passed out from exhaustion from the previous three hours), I get to take a breather and get psyched up for tomorrow. The wise thing would probably be to go to bed so that I get a good nights rest so that I won't be exhausted in the morning. Enjoying the peace and quiet to the fullest is a must, so I stay up ridiculously late!

I can't wait to enjoy the peace and quiet with Jay by my side making me laugh a gut-wrenching laugh like only he can do. (there goes the quiet) He really is the best-EVER!!! I am so grateful to be married to my very best friend in the world. He makes me so crazy happy. Sometimes I can't get over the fact that we get to be together FOREVER! Does it get any better than that?

I miss you, Jay! I'm glad that you are having fun, and that you were not successful at the whole almost-killing-yourself thing. I suppose the tedious cleaning of the camera is worth the "awesome pictures of Brent almost killing himself" (One of those will have to be posted when you get back). Thank you for being so wonderful. Thank you for everything. I love you with all my heart!

I LOVE YOU, JAY! SO MUCH!

Example of What We Hear at Church...

2008-07-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

"Why is Jesus up in a lollipop?"
-Matthew

All Are Invited

2008-07-15T09:10:00.001-07:00

Hope to see you there.

Johnson News -by Mikayla Johnson

2008-07-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

JOHNSON NEWS

announcements:
Jayden's b-day party ???

Mikayla's b-day ???
Mikayla's baptism 2 August (everyone's invited)
Johnson kids play group 8 July
Grandma and Grandpa, Grandpa and Grandma, Becky and Brett coming over ???

Picture me mom

On July 7, 2008, The Crazy Awesome Johnsons went to the Savannah River to take pictures for a surprise for somebody. It was a lot of fun, and the family looked awesome! Oh, need a good photographer? Call the Johnsons!

Crazy Awesome Kids

"Photographer Bus."

The parents of the Johnson kids are very talented photographers. If you ever want a good pic, call the Crazy Awesome Johnson family! (No, it doesn't say that in the phone book, but it should)

Mikayla wants to be a writer!

Mikayla (the person who's making this) loves to write, but she hasn't ever made a story which she thought was good enough. Her parents say it's really good, but you never know. Hmmm, you should try it! (writing, I mean) It's really fun to do, and it's easy! C'mon, try!

By: Mikayla Johnson

(Can you get better advertisement than that? How great is she? Love you Mikayla!)

We Love You, Charlie!

2008-07-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Our cute little bunny, Charlie, died tonight. It's been a pretty emotional night in our house. Charlie was only about 9 weeks old. We don't know why he died. He was acting normal until around bed time, when he suddenly started hopping around his cage very erratically--almost flopping-like. Then he started making little screaming noises. Sherrie took him out and held him close. He was paralyzed from the hips up; all he could move were his hind legs. He was breathing very rapidly and drooling. Then his eyes started to glaze over. Sherrie went to ask the neighbor across the street to watch the kids so we could take Charlie to the animal hospital, and he died in her arms.

We had a funeral for Charlie tonight and buried him in the back yard. The kids were very upset. Matthew and Ethan don't really understand, but Mikayla and Jayden took it very hard. We talked a lot about death and resurrection. By the end of the evening, the kids, while still missing Charlie, seemed to be doing pretty well.

Charlie was a really cute bunny, and we all loved him. He'll be missed around here. We're especially going to miss seeing Ethan playing and cuddling with his "Char-Char".

Ethan and "Char-Char"

We love you, Charlie!

"Every Time I See My Smiley Faces, It Makes Me Frown"

2008-06-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

School is out, yet we still have Jayden's smiley faces on our front door for everyone to see.

For those of you who may not know, this was a HUGE deal for Jayden. For the the first few months of school, the incentive for good behavior in the classroom was going to the treasure box. Sounds exciting, right? Well, Jayden was so excited to be able to go get a "treasure" (you know, such precious items as plastic whistles that spray copious amounts of spit when you blow in them and the like). The only catch was that you only got to go to the treasure box on Fridays, and then only if you had kept your star up all week.

That doesn't sound too tough, does it? Well, this was about the most difficult thing ever for Jayden. Sir Edmund Hillary may have climbed Mt. Everest, but did he keep his star the whole way up? Probably not! You see, it was pretty much a "one-strike-you're-out" kind of deal. When you acted up, down came the star, and thus the chance for the spit-whistle treasure. They had other "punishments" for continued bad behavior (which, by the way, Jayden has informed us "is never funny"), but once Jayden's star would come down, he just didn't care anymore. Who cares about not being able to go to the "centers" or a shorter recess if you're chances for the coveted noise-making-spit-rocket is gone?

Each week Jayden would commit to making it to Friday with his star still shining brightly on the wall, and each week it would come down before Friday. In fact, it would usually come down on Monday. In the morning. We think Jayden would walk into the classroom and his mere presence would cause his star to become Haley's comet and hurtle to the floor.

What, you may be wondering, were Jayden's heinous crimes? Well, you know, stuff like standing on his chair, being a snake under the desks as the teacher is giving a lesson, putting his nap time mat on the bathroom floor (GROSS!!!! these are five-year old boys we're talking about...you know how well they aim!), and of course, the biggest and most oft repeated infraction, refusing to lay perfectly still in a comatose state for the one hour mandatory nap time (don't even get us started on the absurdity of a one hour nap time in kindergarten!).

Jayden's teacher, Mrs. Copeland, has been teaching kindergarten for a very long time, so she's certainly dealt with boys like Jayden before, right? Imagine our "joy" at receiving a personal phone call from Jayden's teacher and being told that she was very seriously considering quitting the teaching profession, and our son was a major factor! Yep, those are the phone calls you aren't so excited to get.

Mrs. Copeland decided not to quit, and implemented a new incentive policy: smiley faces! Every day the students would have a behavior report indicated by a smiley face, a straight face, or a frowny face, and you only lost your star if you got a frowny face. At first, Jayden kept losing his star pretty much right away (sometimes he made it all the way to Wednesday!). Around February he started coming home with more smiley faces and straight faces than frowny ones. On April 1st, he saw his smiley face on his monthly behavior chart and told us that he wanted to fill the whole thing up with smiley faces. He prayed every night that he would be good the next day and be able to get a smiley face.

AND HE DID IT!!!!

Way to go Jayden! He even got to get as many spit-launchers as he could stand, because he visited the treasure box every week. Mrs. Copeland told us on the last day of school that she was so proud of Jayden. She said this is why she teaches, to see that kind of change in the children. Mrs Deas, the teacher's assistant, even started crying when Jayden went to tell her good-bye.

So now, school is out, and we still have the smiley faces on our door for everyone to see. Jayden said "Every time I see my smiley faces, it makes me frown." Well, of course it does, Jayden! We all frown at smiley faces! Actually, we were pretty confused. Maybe he realized that the spit-whistle wasn't all it was cracked up to be, or maybe he noticed that they mysteriously disappeared whenever mom or dad found them around the house, but apparently, the smiley faces were making him sad. When we asked him why, he said that the chart full of smiley faces makes him miss Mrs. Copeland and Mrs. Deas. You would have thought that we would have taken it down, but we're so proud of him that we force him to endure the pain of loss and separation, just so we can gloat and smile in the face of his misery. OK, maybe we should just file it away! If he ever gets too chipper we can always bring out the smiley face chart and mellow him out a bit!

Jayden on one of his last days of school, before he realized the torture induced by smiles

Come One, Come All!

2008-06-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

We are celebrating Jay turning the big 3-0 this Saturday at 4:00. Everyone's invited. No presents, just bring food for the potluck dinner. Contact us for more details!

We'll see you there!

"Crazy Awesome" vs. "Awesome Crazy"

2008-06-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

Most of you probably haven't noticed, but we have changed the title of our blog. So we decided to point it out so you that you will notice! Although we are undoubtedly the Awesome Crazy Johnsons, we have decided that we are more the Crazy Awesome Johnsons. The difference, of course (as defined by us), is that "awesome crazy" means it is absolutely fantastic how mental we are. True. But, "crazy awesome" means it is absolutely mental how fantastic we are. Obviously, the latter applies much more than the former!

Awesome Crazy:

We definitely need to remodel our bathroom here in Georgia!

Crazy Awesome:
Ethan using the Force to rescue our canoe's paddle

"Paper Bags Don't Have Tongues!"

2008-05-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

That was a direct quote from Jay. So of course you're thinking, "Hmm...What on earth would cause Jay to make such an exclamation?" Well, it's really quite simple. We were practicing what to do in case of hyperventilation, you know, breathe into a paper bag. "Hold on," you say. "What on earth possessed you to practice that? That's not something that really needs practicing. You're either hyperventilating, so you breathe into a paper bag, or you're not and you don't." OK, so that's true, but it was late and it sounded like a really good idea. Well, no it didn't, but we did it anyway. So Jay says to Sherrie, "Hey, do you think if you were hyperventilating and you didn't have a paper bag handy that you could just get the same effect from breathing into my mouth?" You know, kind of like CPR, only really weird. Sherrie was of course intrigued by the idea. No, she wasn't at all, but remember, it was really late (you all know what happens when you get all slap-happy late at night and even the word "peanut butter" makes you bust up laughing). So anyway, we decided to give it a try. Jay sealed his lips against Sherrie's (don't worry, this is definitely "G" rated stuff), exhaled, and then inhaled. Did you ever hold the vacuum hose up to your mouth as a kid? Of course you did. Well, same thing. And thus the exclamation, "Paper bags don't have tongues!"

The Awesome Crazy Johnson Family Joins the Blog-osphere

2008-05-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. We've finally joined the blog-osphere. Actually, we've been around for a while via our photography blog (check it out, by the way, at picturethepossibilities.blogspot.com), but we've gotten a lot of comments that go along the lines of "Hey, I love you're pictures...of other people; what's going on in your family, though?" So, we've decided to start this blog so people will realize that we actually still exist with our family, and that we are definitely still awesome and still crazy. In case any of you ever doubted. Which you shouldn't have. Because we are. And always will be. In the best sense of the words of course. Not that there's a bad sense to "awesome". Anyway...

So, in case those of you who have been dazzled over the last year by our awesome pictures have forgotten the makeup of our family, here's a little refresher. The Awesome Crazy Johnson family consists of 6 people and 1 bird. Actually, as our good friend Davey pointed out in his blog, our family only consists of 6 people. The bird is a pet which we own. Apparently in some circles that puts us right in the same class as ruthless barbarians to consider ourselves the owners of another form of life, but hey, our bird lives in a cage. I think that definitely qualifies as owning. Caging family members is pretty much illegal. We do let her out of her cage a whole lot and let her fly around. We don't let our kids fly, so maybe we're crueler to them. So, we own a bird and have 6 family members.

Anyway, TA-DA!!! We're here! Hopefully we'll update fairly often. Those of you familiar with our photography blog, though, will know that we're not the most diligent bloggers, so don't set your expectations too high. That way you won't be disappointed! If you're ever wondering, though, yes, we are still awesome and crazy, even if we haven't posted anything for a while to prove it.

Oh, and the bird who lives in captivity in a cage in our home is named Polly. She's a cockatiel.

(Polly rising up against Ethan, the smallest of her owners.)