Iron Chef

Our Iron Chef competition was so much fun! To see the details, click here.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

Buddies for life! Playing in the back yard. It was chilly but they didn't care.

First Bubble bath ever. Ammon was freaking out when I put them in. He was trying to take the bubbles off his hand and arms and kept getting more on. A few minutes after the picture they were both screaming!
Have you ever seen so many presents! I couldn't believe it! The room looked very magical with the lights turned off and the Christmas tree shinning.
Christmas Eve dinner was Hawaiian haystackes and sparkling cider. It was delicious!
Delicious pumpkin cookies. They stacked these up like a cake and served them to me for my birthday. Thank you everyone for making my birthday special! I got lots of kitchen items from mom (which I really needed), some homemade slippers from Tanya (which are so warm and comfy) and my grandmas funnel (wahoo! I have never had a funnel).

The Johnson family had an awesome Christmas this year. We spent it in Spokane Washington with my family in Tanya and Ryan's new home. It is a beautiful place and there was plenty of room for everyone. Chilly but beautiful! Our road trip up and back were gorgeous with clear roads the entire way and no snow storms. We were very blessed! We were showered with gifts and spoiled by Santa Claus! We played the Wii and had an Iron Chef competition, took pictures of screaming children in their Christmas attire and had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. We also got to take a special package to a family and got up at 4:30 a.m. to open presents so that Ryan could go to work at 5. The one thing we missed out on was doing the Nativity scene. It would have been so fun with the 4 kids! Unfortunately Krista and Jaylie bug had to leave early Christmas morning but we enjoyed seeing them. Skeeter and Buzz had a great time playing together and became real good buddies. They even played together in nursery on Sunday. Calvin learned to say Ammon and taught Ammon to say MoMa. We had a great time and feel so very blessed! Auntie Tessa was the biggest help with the kids and I was so grateful she was there to help! She took Alivia for me one evening and let me sleep until 6 a.m.! It was the best present I could have received. Although I love my babies and love holding them all night long, I also love to sleep!!!!
We are looking forward to the blessings of a New Year and can't wait to accomplish our goals. Thank you to all of our friends and family members for blessing our lives and for supporting us in all we do. We are so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us!

Cut My Chub

So, my work is starting a 'Cut My Chub' competition starting January 4th. I'm really excited to start eating better and planning more 'activity' in my life. It will have only been 6 weeks since I had Alivia when I start so I will have to start off slowly but it will be nice to have some motivation. My sister Tanya stalked me up with a bunch of Weight Watchers tips and a food scale that I'm excited about. I will post a 'before' picture on the 4th and then an 'after' picture on the last day, March 26th. Wish me luck! I will need all that I can get to win the competition!

Thankful for...

I know I'm a little late for a Thanksgiving post but it's never too late to give thanks. Grammy Goodall and Grandma Johnson were here for the birth of Alivia. It was so nice to have their help and to have Tessa here for anything we needed. Look at this gorgeous red hair!
Tessa stayed on Thanksgiving day and helped make dinner. We wouldn't have enjoyed such a wonderful dinner without her! We were so glad that she decided to stay with us and we enjoyed having her at our house. As you can see, we had a delicious dinner and definately didn't do without!

Ammon is so grateful for his new sister. He just kisses her all the time whenever he walks by. It is so cute!

Ammon loves walking around in anyone's shoes that aren't his. He walked the entire kitchen really fast in Grammy's shoes and giggled the entire way.

Grandpa Johnson drove down on Sunday just to see Alivia and to drive back through the canyon with Grandma. We were so grateful to see him for a few minutes. It was so fun to have Sandra here for a few days before the birth. We went on walks and had a good time together. Thanks for all the fun times!

Tessa has been so busy with school that we don't see her much but it has been so fun to see her more often now that we live in Logan with her. Alivia loves her Auntie Tessa and Ammon has learned to say Tessa. It's so cute!

What a proud daddy! He's so good with the kids and I'm so grateful to have him home to play with them and to help me out around the house. You couldn't ask for a better daddy! I was so grateful he was there for me during the birth. Couldn't have done it without him!

This was at our ward Christmas party. Darren had to work but mom came with me and the kids were so cute in their new little outfits. They got to sit on Santa's lap (Ammon didn't like it much) and we enjoyed a ventrilaquist for the program. Ammon really liked the puppets.

Here's Grammy with the babies. I was so grateful for all that she did for me these past few weeks. I couldn't have survived without her doing the laundry, meals, dishes, cleaning toilets etc. Thanks so much for everything you did for us! My dad was also able to come for a few days for Thanksgiving. I was so glad that he took the time to drive down even though it was a short trip for him it was so nice to see him!

Baby Alivia is here!

Alivia came flying out Saturday the 21st at 9:21 pm. She is 8 lbs 12 oz and 21.25" long with fire red hair. We had her at home, which made Tyeanna really happy. Tyeanna didn't go into hard labor until about 7pm. and we had practically no warning that Alivia was coming. Chris our midwife barely made it to Tyeanna in order to catch it and I barely made it there to see. As Grandpa Stone always said "we don't do ugly!" There will be more pics posted shortly, of course.

Thank you for your prayers, we needed them, and they were answered!

Baby Contest

We're having everyone guess what the new baby will be. It has been so fun to see what everyone thinks. If you haven't participated in our fun 'new' baby contest (Natalie) and would like to, please leave a comment with the following information and maybe a prize will be waiting for you if you get anything right (prize has not yet been determined):

Your Name
Baby Gender
Date of birth
Time of birth
Weight
Length
Baby Name

Hurry, don't miss out on the fun! It's coming up fast!

Here is what I have so far:

*Grandpa Johnson---Girl 2:10 am 7 lb 12 oz 17" Bert
*Darren--- ?????? 11/21/09 10.20 am 8 lb 5 oz 19" no comment
*Grandma Johnson--- Girl 11:30 am 8 lb 3 oz 19"
*Coray--- Girl 4:32 am 7 lb 14 oz 18" Alice
*Kathrine--- Girl 3:24 am 5 lb 2 oz 20" Elmo
*Tyeanna--- Boy 11/19/09 7:00 am 8 lb 7 oz 20" Braydon
*Anna--- Boy 3:00 am 8 lb 6 oz 20" Nu
*Elizabeth--- Girl 2:00 pm 8 lb 2 oz 20" Bethy
*Tessa--- Boy 11/23/09 9:53 am 8.67 lbs 20.5" Braden
*Great Ma Goodall--- Boy 11/24/09 4:00 pm 8 lb 12 oz 21" Asa LaRain
*Madison--- Girl 3:42 pm 8 lb 4 oz 21" Alyssa
*Krista--- Girl 11/21/09 11:29 am 8 lb 4 oz 20" Alivia Tyeanna
*Josh--- Boy 11/23/09 7:00 am 13 lb 3.5 oz 19 7/8" Buck Owen
*Mima Goodall--- Boy 11/20/09 11:20 pm 8 lb 1oz 20 1/2" Walter Ross
*Papa Goodall--- Girl 11/22/09 8:14 am 7 1/4 lb 19 3/4" Jasmin/Mino
*Grady--- Girl 11/21/09 9:00 am 7 lb 17 " Lilly Mae
*Tanya--- Girl 11/20/09 2:30 am 7 lb 11 oz 21" Maybeline/Elmi
*Tucker--- Girl 11/26/09 3:30 pm 8 lb 2 oz 20 1/2" Allie
*Great Pa Goodall--- Girl 11/24/09 10:30 am 6 3/4 lb 20 1/4 " Judy
*Ryan--- Girl 11/19/09 4:22 am 6.5 oz 21" LaFawnda
*Calvin--- Boy Ayuckna
*Lance--- Girl 11/25/09 2:00 pm 9 lb 7 oz 21" Afridiete
*Great Ma Stinger--- Girl 11/18/09 2:00 am 7 lb 9 oz 20" Melissa
*Great Pa Stinger--- Boy 11/12/09 4:00 am 12 lb 17" David
*Megan---Girl 11/23/09 7:30 am 7 lb 8 oz 18" Sariah
*Chris Flavel --- Male 11/18/09 7:29 am 8 lb 15" Aaron Johnson
*Christy---Girl 11/22/09 6:15 am 7 lb 8.5 oz 19" Olivia T

Balancing Act, and More Halloween Fun

Ammon loves climbing on things. It doesn't matter if he is only 1/2 inch off the ground, if he can stand on it he will. He has now realized the potential of standing on things, he will move his little chairs and that bucket around to climb onto anything. This particular incident ended in a fat lip, that was soon followed by a black eye a few minutes later.

We went to Utah valley for Halloween weekend, we went to Tye's work to go cubicle trick or treating. Then we went to Grandma Stinger's ward for chili and trunk or treating. Later that night we met up with my sisters and their kids to go door to door down my parents road. It was a fun filled weekend! I carried Ammon on my shoulders going door to door, when I would put him down to run up to the door with the other kids he would start running while still in the air because he was sooo excited. Then once on the ground, he would giggle all the way up to the door and then try to go into the houses when people would open the doors. He did that at every house.

Halloween Fun

We had a great time carving pumpkins this year. Tessa brought us some from Mom and Dad's pumpkin patch when she went there for a weekend. We never got any pictures of them lite but we enjoyed the family fun. Ammon has enjoyed sitting on his and rolling it around the house.

For Darren's Creative Arts class he had to dress up for Halloween in a costume that represented him in some way. You can't see it very well in this picture but his hat says 'Milk Man' and he looked awesome! I was of course the pregnant house wife and Ammon was our milk bottle. I couldn't find my apron that I was going to wear and I searched for it for an entire day. Guess what I found the next day... my apron in the exact drawer I had search a dozen times.

Ammon was so cute in this costume when he waddled around. The bottom part was a lamp shade that we covered with material and cut 3 holes in (two for the arms, one for the face) and then glued a plastic lid to the top of the material. He didn't particularly like us putting it on but once it was on he had fun running around for a minute.

We went to class that morning with Darren and all three of us had to walk across stage in front of 700 students. Ammon did a great job and loved the attention. They had a competition at the end and Darren made it in the top 8.

Later that day we went to CMC to go trick or treating at my work. We didn't make Ammon wear this all day. Instead he was the cutest little dinosaur. As soon as I get those pictures uploaded I'll post some of them.

First Boo Boo

Ammon loves to climb on anything and everything that is or might be dangerous. If he falls, he gets back up and tries again. If he gets hurt it doesn't slow him down as you can see below.

Ammon loves my old teddy. He'll snuggle up with him when he's tired. He loves his teddy from Mima to snuggle and carry around better though because he's not so big.

Ammon got his first big Booboo the other day. Darren was out side in the back sanding the new crib and Ammon and I went to go see him. Ammon was standing right next to me on the stair ledge and decided to just walk right off. He's never done that before but I guess because I was right there he thought he'd be safe. He hit his head on the concrete as I reached for him but I was too late. It scabbed over pretty good and he's still recovering. Funny thing is, he didn't even cry very much. The other day he had about 5 falls in one day. The poor thing looked like he'd been beaten. He had this scab, a black eye on the left side (from running into a metal garbage can), a fat lip (from falling off a bucket and hitting his toy bin) and another scrape on the left eye from something that I've already forgotten about. Hopefully he will make it to his 2nd birthday!

Update

I know I need to update with pictures of Ammon and Halloween pictures but I've been crazy busy. I promise I will get to it some day. We went to the Johnson home and visited all the Great Grandma and Grandpa's for Halloween. It was really fun. Today Darren and I were cleaning like mad to get ready for our midwife to do a home visit tomorrow. Darren dusted everything from floor to celing. It is so nice to know that my house is clean and I won't have to worry about it here in a few weeks. I'm glad that my midwife Chris has a dead line to have everything prepared. I had a whole list of things I had to have ready by the 37th week which was October 30th. I still don't have everything organized but atleast it's all in my house somewhere. I'll post some pictures soon or maybe I'll have Darren do it.

35 days!!!

I can't believe I only have 35 days left until we have another 'tiny' running around. Of course it could be sooner or later than that. I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off because I have to get the house spotless and in order in less than 15 days. We've decided to have this baby at home and I am suppose to have everything prepared by the 37th week. That is on October 30th! It is going by way too fast. I'm excited and so relieved with our decision to have this baby at home. My midwife Chris is awesome and her assistant Robin has also been wonderful! They treat us so well, know us by name and have really helped in educating us in our decisions.

Ammon is doing wonderful. He has 4 teeth now (two top and two bottom) and is just as happy as can be. He's been sleeping in later in the morning and so he doesn't want to go to bed at night but atleast he's sleeping 9 hours at night time. We just love him so much and I'm excited for him to have a new little playmate. He's climbing on anything imaginable. He loves to stand on top of Dads toolbox, the stool, his walker (he stands on top of the tray and then puts one leg in the walker with the other hanging out the top and pushes himself around with one leg. I think he likes to do it this way because then he can still climb out).

Ammon is feeding himself most of the time. He likes to use the spoon and will even fork things occassionally. He still needs mom and dads help but he is doing so great. I hope that he will do the transition with the new baby well. I think he'll probably adjust better than I do!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 4th Anniversary Darren! It's been a great 4 years. Like I said earlier, it seems like a lot more than 4 years when you consider how many times we've moved but it's been fun and we've learned a lot. I'm excited for our plans for the future! Love you lots!

Correction

I had my parents look at the 'house' pictures I posted. They said that the trailer was not where we lived (good thing...it's pretty much a junk yard now). There were a few new houses in the other lots that must have been where we lived and so I guess it's just gone. No wonder I couldn't find it.

Hey guys, if you want to see pics of what I did in Texas and what I've done the last couple weeks around home checkout my page at eyeforwildlife.blogspot.com

My First Few Homes

I'm finally getting around to posting about my trip to Lyman with some pictures of the homes we lived in. It was definately a drive down memory lane. Ok, so you drive in from Fort Bridger to the 'blinking' light. The Napa Auto Parts is totally gone. I use to take the change out of the ash tray of my parents car and ride my bike to Napa Auto Parts to get a sodie. The lot is just empty now and so it makes that intersection look really funny. At the blinking light you turn to the left and see the church out in the distance.

My first home:
You drive past the church and the entire 2 blocks of homes and down the big hill. This use to seem like a really long ride to me but it wasn't even two minutes away from the light in a car.

So I think this is where we first lived. I had a hard time determining if this was the right trailer because it's pretty much a junk yard now. There were two new homes to the left of this that didn't look familiar to me so the trailer could have been removed all together but I'm pretty sure this looks like the right trailer (the one on the left). I can imagine that it would be in pretty bad shape being that it was used when my parents bought it (I think).

Here is another view of the neighbors to the left. I don't recall that brown house being there when we lived there. The Frottens home still looked the same at the end of the road.

My second home:

I remember moving to this home. It had a jetted 'heart' shaped tub in the master bedroom. It also had a play room and a laundry shoot that we enjoyed sliding down. I also remember sleep walking through these halls a few times. I'm sure I fell off of my bunk bed several times as well. The neighbors to the right had horses when we were growing up. One of their horses stepped on my big toe. Their house still looks exactly the same. I also recall being in their bathroom one day and standing on the toilet to see out the window. I don't know why that is a memory but that is the only thing I remember about the inside or their home. The neighbors across the street had a nintendo. This was the first time I had seen a nintendo. I played 'Mario Brothers' for the first time at their house.

I also got the scar on my right knee at this home. I was riding my bike on this drive way and ran into dads truck and tipped over onto a very sharp rock and it cut my knee open.

My Third Home:

This was the first 'house' that my parents bought I believe. It was a repo and they had to redo everything inside. The people that lived there before took the lights, the fixtures, the sink and anything else you could think of. This use to be red, green and brown when we lived in it. It also had a wooden fence around it that was also green, red and brown and it started out short in the front and got really tall in the back. It was wide enough at the top that we could stand on the top and walk around the entire yard on the top of the fence. The neighbors to the left had a huge dog that was called Max. We use to call him Maxi Pad and mom didn't particularly like that. I use to slide down the banister here. I also learned to roller skate in the basement on the orange floor. Tessa burned her hands on the fireplace in the basement here. I remember getting spanked in the kitchen for being too loud while dad was sleeping and he made us go outside and play. We didn't feel too bad that we got out of doing our chores. Dad built us a teeter totter with tractor seats in the back yard and we also had our trampoline.

Annie, Trapper and Jack use to have their dog pens in the back right corner. We had to walk all the way back to this corner to feed and water them. Carrying a big bucket of water from the house to the dog pens was always a huge chore for me. By the time I got to the dogs half of the water was on me and the bucket was practically empty. Trapper got out of his pen and I got ahold of his collar and he drug me all over the back yard and into the front yard until I let go. I experienced the death of an animal for the first time in this home. Jack died and dad told us it was because we never watered him. I thought the dog was just sleeping.

Our wood pile use to be to the right, up against the fence. I remember hauling wood here as well. I would climb to the top of the wood pile and throw the wood down and Tanya would put it in the wheel barrel.

Josh found the 'biggest spider' in the whole word under the back porch here. It came running to tell dad that he found a huge spider under the snow mobile. Dad went to check it out and it was a porcupine. Dad killed it with a bat.

We use to have some tires on the right side of the house. Grandpa Stinger was over one time and he found a cockroach in the tire. He threw it on me and I have forever been afraid of cockroaches.

We had bunnies for a little while until they got thrown over the fence when the dogs got out. I guess dad thought it would be better for them to run free than to get eaten by the dogs.

I think they have done a great job with the landscaping. This house looks totally different to me!! Tanya and I slept in the basement here. Mom had a sewing room right next to our bedroom and she would sew late at night. There was a hole in the wall and we use to try and peek at what she was doing for presents on Christmas Eve. We use to also go to bed and then sneak out of bed and play with our toys. I use to talk to myself all the time in bed on the top bunk and Tanya would get so frustrated because I wouldn't be quiet and so then I would whisper and somehow she could still hear me. We use to play hangman on the bottom of the top bunk. I remember falling off the bunk bed here a few times. Mom put wall paper in Josh's room upstairs. I remember her putting up the bear boarder. I had my first slumber party here when I was 8. All 10 of us girls jumped off the bunk bed like super man with my blankets.

My Fourth Home:

We put the above home up for sale thinking that we wouldn't sell it very fast. From what I remember it only took a few weeks and someone had purchased it and so we had to get out fast. We moved into Lyman and stayed in this 2 bedroom apartment for awhile. All four of us kids slept in one room and mom and dad were in the other. I remember watching 'Home Alone' in mom and dads room and Grandma Stinger was there. I had never seen her laugh so hard in my life. I also remember playing hide and seek a lot here. There were some fun big closets upstairs to hide in. Dad also poured red coolaid on mom in the shower for April Fools day. I think we got her with several tricks that year.

We bought mom a mothers day plant across the street at one of the shops when we lived here. We were so excited about that because we picked it out all by ourselves. Mom had that plant for a long time and it got so big. I know she had it in Utah but not sure if she got rid of it when they moved back to Washington. We lived in the second one from the right. The people that lived on the right were newly weds. Remember what we hung on their door that one time...

Somebody got their first bike here. I think it was Josh. I remember them trying to ride it in this tiny apartment. I remember dad throwing Tessa up on the couch. Dad would say, 'Last Time' and so he would throw her up and she would say 'One more time' and he would throw her again and she would say 'One more time'.

This was the City Hall across from the apartments. We use to ride our bikes over there on the fun side walk. This was a big deal when this was built because it is the biggest and nicest building in all of Lyman.

My Fifth Home:

Apparently my parents couldn't stand living in a two bedroom apartment with four kids for long and so we moved back over by the church. You had to take a dirt road to get to this house. Now it is paved. Josh use to call moms car her 'race car' and we could see mom coming home from the window. You could see the dirt flying whenever mom was coming home. I was so impressed with all the huge trees here. I remember a tiny tree in the front yard and that is it. I remember mowing the lawn for the first time here. I wasn't very good at mowing straight and I would always miss little patches of grass. There is a fence around the back now but it wasn't there when we lived there. It was just open and mostly dirt. We had our trampoline back there as well as the dogs. The neighbors threatened to shoot our dogs several times because they always barked.

Annie had puppies here. This is were Loo Loo (or LuLu) was born. I remember wanting to keep all of the puppies but I'm pretty sure we got rid of all of them. There use to be a race track where we would ride our four wheeler to the right of this house. It is gone now. There are two new houses there. We had tons of fun on that race track. Andrea Michealson and Amy Bradshaw lived near me. We had lots of fun playing night games and jumping on the trampoline. This neighborhood looks exactly the same. I even talked to the lady that lives here. She was over at the Worthams house and she said that they still live there.

Look at how nice the drive way is. I believe it use to be gravel. We called this the Porters house because that is who lived there before we did. From this house you can look out the front window and see the elementary school down below (this house is on the hill). We had tons of fun at that elementary school. I remember stuffing our shirts full of rocks and pretending like we were pregnant.

In this house we had some fun times. Mom had a sewing room and the window was broken. We use to say that she broke it while singing because you could always hear her singing no matter where she was. Josh found a cat sleeping with him in his room one morning because Tanya left the back door open while sleep walking. I was afraid of the bathroom in the basement because there was always spiders. This had a huge family room in the basement. Mom and dad got their first treadmill in this house and I remember watching them run on it while watching T.V. We also did some run skits in the basement as kids for our parents. Josh's first goldfish also died in this home. He got a fish from school and I was watching it for him while he went to get the fish bowl. It jumped out of the baggy and onto the floor. Josh walked into the bathroom and stepped right on it. I felt so bad.

I remember eating Costco chocolate muffins for the first time while living here. Me and my friend Amy use to ride the bus to school together and I would share my muffin with here while we did cross word puzzles. That bus ride seemed sooooo long to me!!!!

I remember having weekly chores to do here. Mom would make me revacuum the floor if I didn't move the plants in the front room. My favorite job was organizing the books from shortest to tallest in the bookshelves downstairs.

The fireplace was downstairs. I remember mom going out to get wood through the garage and out back and she would come back in with frozen nose hairs. It was so cold and windy there. I don't really remember it being that bad but mom talks about it a lot. We did have lots of snow and the wind was horrible!

Tessa got caught jumping on the tramploline with no clothes on in the back yard here. She was only 1 or 2 years old.

I could go on an on and on about different memories from each home but I better stop now. It's funny the things that we remember. If you are my family and have other memories from these homes, please leave a comment and I'd like to hear what you remember. A few things that have changed that I noticed while driving around:

The middle school is totally gone. The bars and swings are there but no school. The old place where we use to get ice cream and soda pop out by the high school was condemned. The Taco Time is now a Tanning Salon. Everything else looks the same. There's no new buildings that I could see. I saw the old hardware store where we bought our first Mountain Bikes. The grocery store is still there in town. I wish I would have had more time but I enjoyed driving around. I think I was able to see everything in like 1/2 hour. I couldn't believe how tiny it was!

Update

I finally got around to posting pictures of Ammon's Birthday. Sorry it took me over a month. I've been very busy working. We had so much fun at his party. Thank you to everyone that traveled so far to get here and celebrate. We loved having everyone here and missed all those that couldn't make it! It was a beautiful day in the park. Megan and mom helped with the cake and Tessa, Darren and Lance helped get everything together and to the park. I'm so thankful for their help! I couldn't have gotten everything done on my own.
We're so grateful to have Darren home finally. We sure missed him while he was gone. Ammon was walking when he came back. At his party he walked around like frankenstein with his arms straight out. It was so fun to watch him. Now he's climbing on everything and practically running around. Today he was standing on the stairs and figured out how to unlock the front door and then decided to walk right off the steps. It freaks me out every time but he does pretty good on his own making it down 80% of the time without falling. It's the other 20% I have to worry about.

Ammon's 1st Bday

Trip to Fort Bridger

Over labor day Tyeanna decided to suprise me with a trip to the mountain man rendezvous in Fort Brider Wyoming. We invited Lance because we figured he'd love to check it out too, and he did.

The top picture is a push wagon in their museum. Ammon enjoyed himself, of course he was the happiest when he had a stick to hit things with. This was while we were watching people throw knives and tomahawks.

The rendezvous is also a big flee-market. This was the coolest thing we found, I'm pretty sure it is a grey fox. It was really soft and warm. I still wonder how much it costs because it didn't have a price.

Tyeanna grew up in Lyman, which is only 5 min away from the rendezvous. She was having a blast from the past.

Big Smiles

I just can't help myself from smiling when this kid comes walking towards me. He gets so excited to walk on his own. He's getting more and more independent every day!

I can't wait for everyone to see him at his birthday party. We'll definatley miss everyone that can't come! I can't believe my baby will be 1 tomorrow!!!! We're celebrating a week late so that Darren can be here. 6 more days until daddy will be home!!! Ammon and I are so excited.