Gotta love summer!

Summer is almost over for us (Emma starts school on August 11th). We've had a lot of fun with friends and family. Part of me is ready for cooler weather and a routine, the other part wants to keep going on vacations and play all day. I guess that's why we need to enjoy each moment we're in, it doesn't last. Hmmm, a little melancholy thought there....not sure where that came from. :)

We celebrated my birthday.


We went to Lagoon. My kids loved every ride and were so much fun, even though it was 100 degrees!


We went camping. The kids loved it up there! I'm not a big camper but I'm glad we have this family tradition.



And of course the 24th too...I didn't take pictures so I hope Karlene will post her's on here. She took some awesome pictures. Thanks Karlene for being the photographer/historian of the family!

Permit!

Yesterday I got my learners permit!!! I took the test 4 times, but I finally got it on the fourth try!! :) (and, I only missed 2) I'm so excited now because I can DRIVE!!! Finally!! I drove around yesterday with my mom and it's kind of scary but fun. I'm pretty decent at it. If any of you want me to drive you around while we're at grandma and grandpa's house, it would be my pleasure. :)

Crazy Summertime!

The past few weeks have been filled with Summer fun! We had the parade that the kids got to be a part of and throw candy, the loved it. Last week we celebrated my mom's Birthday at Maddox. It was so yummy! Made her this cake:


We went to the Logan fireworks. Casey invited a bunch of friends and some of our family came so it was a huge group of people. He loves this tradition and I'm glad we have so many people willing to fight the crowds and wait forever and drive home late at night. At the fireworks:


After the fireworks we drove to Bear Lake. Casey's family was up there and it was fun to hang with them. To see more pictures visit my blog...




Love summertime and can't wait for more fun!

I'm home!

Hey everyone!! I'm back from Heritage Tours! It was an 18-day church history tour. There were over 120 recent high school grads that went from LP and AF! We rode 2 big charter buses around that seriously became my home over time. We seriously went across the country, as far east as Boston and NY and stuff.. It was SO SO much fun!! We visited basically all of the important sites of the restoration within the trip. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime.. Strengthened my testimony more than I thought could ever happen in only 3 weeks! We had TONS of neat, spiritual experiences that I hope to NEVER forget because they mean so much to me and my testimony. I'll share a couple:

On Fast Sunday, June 6, we went to the sacred grove. What an amazing day! So we come out of a local sacrament meeting in Palmyra and it is POURING rain! Rain that I've never seen before.. It was unbelievable. So as we boarded the buses, our directors asked us to pray as a group and individually for the weather to clear up, and if not, it was necessary for what we needed to learn that day. We get to the sacred grove, it's still raining, but minutes after we go off alone in the grove, I heard the rain stop hitting the leaves. It stopped raining and the only "rain" I could feel was from the leaves. Such an amazing experience to know that God answers our prayers. I know He does.

Also, the day we spend in Nauvoo, June 14, it was supposed to be stormy all day, but it didn't rain at all. In fact, we were sweating from the intense sun! And on the Susquehanna River, we saw this amazing storm cloud above us, knowing that it would rain, the pathway back to the bus would be muddy, and we'd probably all be miserable. We prayed that the rain could be postponed till the end of our meeting, if it be God's will, and it totally did! The rain cloud literally flew over us and it didn't start raining till we were off and headed to the hotel. I had the most surreal experiences with God answering our prayers.

Also at the Susquehanna, the boys and girls were standing on opposite sides of the group for our meeting. The boys sang a song about the restoration of the priesthood and I, of course, was crying. I can't help it. And we had a testimony of the power of the priesthood and missionary work. Such a strong spirit there! At one point in the meeting, I looked at the boys, my friends, my friends who will one day all become missionaries. And I imagined thousands of people standing behind them, I saw the thousand of people who will be converted to the gospel throughout the generations because of the boys standing in front of me. Then I cried harder! I know that the power of missionaries and spreading the gospel is absolutely necessary in bringing God's plan to its fulness.

In Sheron, VT, the birthplace of Joseph Smith, I got the confirmation that Joseph Smith sacrificed SO much for me to have the gospel. I sat in the middle of a hill that was facing this memorial for Joseph Smith when it was dark outside and I could see all of the stars. It was really the neatest experience.. The spirit has never been stronger at that point on the trip. I couldn't stop WEEPING! Ah I love the gospel and KNOW it's true.

And finally, at Adam-ondi-Ahman, we talked about the sacrament meeting that the Savior will someday conduct. We discussed as a group that if we are living righteously and worthily, or simply holding a current temply recommend, we can attend that meeting with all the great prophets of old and of this dispensation! All worthy members at that time will be invited to attend that meeting. Wow. I've never been more motivated to live more Christlike in my life!

This was probably a really, unnecessarily long post for all of you reading, but even writing it myself, I relived and reexperienced those things that I felt on this trip, and I had even more confirmation from the Spirit that this is the true church! Everything I sacrificed for this trip was 100% worth it! I want to go again! Ah. I KNOW this gospel is true. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This trip simply confirmed to me all of the principles and doctrines that I've grown up with are so true.. I'm glad to say that I'm going off to college now with a firm, unshaken testimony of this church.

Can't wait to see all of you at grandma's! I missed you all! Thanks for all your love and support! :)

Fun Stuff

I just learned how to do collages and I love it, so you may see more of them in the future!

Things are going great around the Johnson household. Emma finished Kindergarden. She was sad to leave her teacher but she's WAY excited for 1st grade. Hope she feels that way on the first day... She had a fun year, a great teacher, and some cute girls in her class (18 girls out of 24 kids!) Now she spends her days playing with friends, every single minute. Cole is getting so big and has finally mastered potty training, at home that is. We're still working on it when we're out of the house. He has a bit of a 3 year-old attitude lately but he's still a crack-up. He loves to play his Batman Lego game on the Wii but gets frustrated. Mom has to help him play a lot of times.

It was neat to visit the graves on Memorial Day. It was good to teach the kids about dying and honoring the dead. Can't wait for more summer fun and surprisingly I can't wait for camping! I'm not usually this excited...probably because the kids are bigger now and lots more fun camping now.

Whitney graduates!

:z

today is a kids fare well in church and of course i have to sing a trio in it!!!!!!! ahhhh i am so mad cuz aat first i was glad cuz no one will be there cause its SUMMER but now its a darn farewell!!!! ahh i am so scared! why did we plan it on farewell sunday... i will never know!

HAHA

Love, Brinley! :z

May

It's sooooo fun to see everyone blogging!!!!!! I love it!!!! We'll work on pictures soon! I have a bunch to share but I need more time so until then... This month has been busy with end of school stuff. As you know Ron & went to the island of Bonaire to scuba dive. (pictures soon) We realized May is NOT the month to travel. We missed some important stuff of the kids but luckily they're very forgiving and it was great to get away with Ron. We're all exited for school to get out! I'm having a hard time realizing Whitney is graduating! I'm also thinking that this is the time when having kids so close together is a bad thing. They're all going to be out of the house within 5 years or so.
I would love it if you all posted pictures too! But right now I'm just happy you're blogging!!! I love you all and look forward to the summer months together!! We have so many great traditions together!!
Now if mother nature would just give us some sunshine. Dang it's cold. Love ya!!

Hi to all of you, Just got back from Kambree's dance recital. It was very good. Kambree does very well. Well just a few more days and school is out. YAhoo!!!
Whitney and Hillaree graduating. Time is going too fast. Congratulations to both of you. And the rest of you who are in school, you will be in another grade. Camping trip is coming soon. I'm looking forward to that. It will be good to have Austin and Trevor there with us (I hope) We will miss Brennan again. But I'm sure he is very excited. Sounds like Aubrey is going to have a good summer. She will make a great nanny. Way to go Emma with your learning how to swim without support. I hope the summer will be good and warm so that all of you can go swimming a lot. Take care everyone stay healthy and wise. Love you all so very much!!!! Grandma Mann

Well I guess that we did have something to blog about this week. Kevin found out this week that he gets to go to the community policing division starting May 25th. This just means that he will have Mondays off instead of Fridays. Kevin won't have to go from call to call, he just gets to be in charge of his own time more. He will get to ride a bike in the summer and schmooze the business people more that don't already love him. Everyone in the family is excited for him except Mallory, she thinks that she won't see him as much.
Love Stacy

Deckers

Hi everyone,
Don't faint but I am blogging. Life around the Decker house has been busy. We have baseball everyday of the week. But it is fun for the boys. Aubrey is going to be working as a nanny. It is a family in West Haven. They have 3 little boys. She will be like their other mom. She is excited about that. Brennen is getting ready to go to Chile and teach english. Jake just had his 25th birthday. Yea!! Happy Birthday Jake. Bryce has started college classes for the summer. He isn't to happy about that but it will be good for him. Cameron just got transfered to a new mission. That's right, he is now in the Villahamerosa, Mexico mission. They took missionaries from 2 missions and made a new one. He is excited. We can't wait to hear from him Monday to see how things are going. Garren is still working hard at his new business. All is well.
Love you all, The Deckers

Johnson's

No picture this month, sorry. I don't know why I haven't taken many pictures this month, oh yeah I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me. We went to St. George a few weeks ago with some friends. It was a lot of fun and the kids were great. They loved swimming and we swam a lot. Emma swam by herself without floaties and no lessons! We've been staying busy with the basement and the yard. We just started painting the basement. We're moving along, but not quite fast enough for me...I wish we could be done already. It's a pain to do it yourself, especially when we have to have a lot of help since we don't know what we're doing. Good thing we have awesome friends and neighbors! Emma has one more week of school and then she's off. She's sad because she'll miss her teacher a lot. Hopefully we can keep her busy so she doesn't drive me bananas.

It was fun to talk to Cam on Mother's Day! He sounds so good. And we're glad to see Trevor and Aubrey make it home safe and sound. We have an awesome family!! Love you guys!

Ashlee

Love, Grandma

Dear Family,
Every time I try to get into the newsletter, it wou't accept my password, so I'm going to send this to Karlene and maybe she can transfer it. I am so excited for Spring. I even bought some flowers to plant and then I hear on the news last night that it is supposed to storm again this week (April l8th) maybe a little snow too. Do you believe that? I am getting excited for Aubrey and Trevor to be home soon. Then Brennen tells us that he is going to be gone for a few months. But I am happy for him. This is going to be a good thing that he is doing. The grandchildren are growing to fast I am happy that Whitney and Hillaree are going to be close to home going to school. Just want all of you to know that we are soooo very proud of our family. Grandma Mann

Spanish Fair!!

Today I went to a spanish fair at BYU with 20 people from my school. We did a skit with everyone and got superior!! Then we all had individual presentations and mine was show and tell. My friend and I got excellent! I was so excited and I had SO much fun!! We also got free t-shirts and it was so fun to walk around campus and act like we were in college. :) Overall, our school got 1st place! I loved it!! (I don't have any pictures to show...)

I hope that you're sitting down

That's right I finally remembered my password to get on this darn thing. I remember now that I don't have anything to say. Cort had 2 teeth pulled on Monday and Mall is doing a volley ball camp this month. We are looking foward to making a big scene at the airport and embarassing ourselves when Trevor gets home. I have been out to recess today having a hopscotch competition with some 2nd graders and I kicked their butts.
YEAH SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Stacy

OUCH!

So today Trek and his buddy went up for some Spring snowboarding. This is the result of one of his jumps. I'm relieved it was only his wrist. I've been expecting a call saying he broke his neck. Crazy boys!

Johnson Fam

Wow Karrie! You totally motivated me to blog. Thanks for joining in the blogging fun!

We're getting a bit sick of the crazy Spring weather here at the Johnson's. We really need it to warm up for the sake of my sanity. The kids are driving me nuts inside the house. Plus I need sunshine to get me out of these blah's I'm stuck in.

Easter was fun! We went to Bear Lake with Casey's family. The kids got a ton of candy!! Emma was excited the Easter bunny made it through all the snow. At Target the other day, Emma saw the shoes that Libby got from the Easter bunny and said, "This is wear the Easter bunny got her shoes!" ...pretty funny.


We celebrated Cole's birthday in March. We went to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids had a blast...so did we. It's a pretty fun place.



Can't believe he's three! Cole is such a fun kid and we're so happy to have him in our family. He makes us laugh all the time with the things he says.

Emma started soccer and scored a goal in her first game (only game so far!) Let's hope she keeps it up. As for me and Casey, we stay busy with the basement and finding a new car. If you hear a good deal on a nice minivan let us know!

I was thinking about family today I thought I'd better come blog....Not much has been happening at the Miller's. We had a nice Easter it was fun to be with family. The kids have been keeping in busy in school and doing really well. Grace has been doing tumbling for a couple of weeks and now has her back handspring. Grace and Granger just got signed up for softball so that should be fun. I couldn't get Griffin to do it. Griffin has started a new pre school though and is having so much fun. He loves his teachers. We are definitely ready for SPRING. I keep thinking its coming but then it snows. NOT GOOD! Well that's about it. We love you all so much and are so thankful for each of you!

A few weeks ago we played Pictionary for FHE. See if you can figure out the picture:





Baylee: kidneys (thought for sure it was appendix)
Brinley: Sunrise
Whitney: Around
Trek: Jumper cables
Karlene: Mosaic (look close)No one got it :(

Well it's time to write again. I just can't seem to remember to do it at the end of the month. Not much happened last month. I am looking forward to Spring and Easter. I love Easter because you get all of the bright colors and the kids get excited to do the coloring of eggs. I was looking at some stuff in the store in regard to coloring eggs, it is amazing what they have. It makes me want to color some eggs. Maybe I will and then give them to you guys. I hope the weather is good so that we can have an egg hunt. When the home teachers came the other day, one of them was Don Harmon and he mentioned about when Bishop Stewart had the ward party on Antelope Island at Easter time. Gosh that brought back a lot of fun memories. Do you remember? Well bye for now. Love you all so much. Grandma Mann

Johnson Fam: February

Most who know me, know I'm not a fan of winter. I like snow in December then I'm ready for Spring. So I feel like celebrating the end of February, Spring is in site!! You wouldn't know it today though. Gotta love snow in March. But they say it should melt fast and get warm again soon so I'm not too worried. Nothing too exciting happened last month. We had Valentine's Day which is fun now that Emma's in school. She had fun getting all the candy and was pretty nice to share with Cole...and mom too. Me and Casey ate a Maddox on the Saturday before V-day. We got there at 4:00 thinking that would be plenty early. It was packed! We only waited 40 minutes though. Then we went to a dance that Casey's mom was in charge of. It was fun to dance! Reminded me of being a teenager and going to dances.

Here's a picture of Superbowl Sunday at Grandma's house...

Everyone was split on who they were cheering for.

I put these on my blog but they are the only pictures I took this month so you get to see them again...those of you who read my blog. :)

The brethren at BYU game

The other day at the BYU game, Pres. Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar were there. I had to zoom with my little camera so the quality is bad, but I thought it was fun! Next to Uchtdorf is Pres.of BYU and he usually has at least one of the well knowns there, but it was fun to see 2 of my favorite people!!

Hey everyone this is Brinley and it's my first time I have ever wrote on the blog so hello!!!!!!!!!!!! This is fun and I am so bored at home cuz i am sick today!

Hi Baylee!!

Just thought I'd say Hi to our devoted reader of the blog! Thanks for your support!!

BTW, love the pictures of those with Birthday's this month. Cute idea!!

Oh and Aubrey updated her blog. It will be a fun way to see how's she's doing in Ecuador so hopefully she'll keep it up!

Johnson Fam: January

What can you say about the dreariest (sp?) month of the year? YAY, it's almost over!! I do not like January. It is such a bummer month. It is so boring and my kids want to play outside but it's just too darn cold! I'm glad it's been warmer lately and they've been able to go out. They love driving their police car around. Cole is really good at it. He's also really good at MarioKart on the Wii. What a funny kid! Emma is glad to be back in school. She was off track and didn't go back until January 19th. She couldn't wait to get back in school. She loves it! Her first day back she had to miss because she was sick and really sore from tumbling the day before. She couldn't stand up because her stomach muscles were sore in the morning. She was fine later on. Emma is so good at tumbling. I'm totally amazed at the things she does. Definitely a natural!

We had a fun New Years Eve!




The kids at midnight.


Here's to a great new year with many exciting moments to come! Love you guys!!

Our month in pictures..

Whitney asked Nick to Preference..
Trek got asked by Katelyn. They all had a great time.
Fun family night. I recommend Cranium! Really fun!
Baylee had a root canal. Ouch!
Needs no explanation..

Love, Grandma

Yes, I am very guilty of not BLOGGING!! I could give you excuses but I won't I promise to be much better about it. December was a good month to get over. I love Christmas but it seems to get harder to get ready for each year. I've just got to cut down on doing so much. However, I was in a better mood last year to put the village up. Lot of work but after I really do enjoy it. I sometimes would sit in the frontroom at night ,in the dark. light up the village and think about how it would be to live in a little village like that. It would bring back some memories of my childhood days at Christmas time. The shopping the snow(and we always had much more then) playing in the snow, sledding and my old house. The coal stoves in the front room and the kitchen. It seemed like hard times then and I have such good
memories. We would fight (me, Evelyn, Gladys) to see who would get up to build the fires on Christmas morning so that it would be warm for the rest of us. I really didn't have to do it much because I was younger. But we had some wonderful days(and bad)in that house. We really do need to keep up traditions in our family. So if I promise to do better, so can the rest of all of us. We have a GREAT FAMILY and I don't want to lose contact. Thanks,Karlene for getting tough with us. We need it
quite often. Love you all so very much. Grandma Mann

Hey look at me BLOGGING! So we have been busy with birthdays this month at the Miller's. Grace just turned 9 and Granger turned 7 and Todd will be the BIG 40 on the 28th. Can you believe it! We're getting old. Grace had a party at a hotel with her friends and they went swimming and stayed up all night it was really fun! Granger wanted to go to Toad's with his friends and play Laser tag they had a great time. I'm not sure what we are going to do for Todd's yet, but it's bound to be fun. Anyway, I'm very sick of the snow and ready for SPRING! That's right Jake SPRING! Bring on the capri's and flip flops!! I need some sunshine! Well just want everyone to know we LOVE you all so much XOXO!!

Hey Y'All!

I totally blog ALL THE TIME! No one can ever say I've never posted anything. Anyway, perhaps we should spend our time doing family history work instead. I'm just saying is all. Heh heh. But anyway, it's good to be a part of the blog and my life is very uninteresting, but I just want to show up at the end, in front of the great and terrible bar of God, stand next to Karlene, and be guilt-free because I BLOGGED!

Christmas Pictures

We had lots of fun at grandma's house on the 23rd. The white elephant game was hilarious! The kids loved their presents. We have such a awesome grandma and grandpa. They definitely spoil us!










I'm sad the Christmas is over. The kids were so much fun this year. I still have my decorations up. Usually I'm ready to clean it all up, but this year I just want it to last a tiny bit longer. Here's to a fun New Year!! It should be exciting.

Yesterday Whitney, Baylee and I got to take care of Ron's cousins triplets for a few hours while their mommy slept!! It was soooo fun! They are just precious!! In this first picture Baylee is holding Ruby, I've got Bennett and Whitney has Alex. (I think haha) We had so much fun. They live in Maryland but all their family is here. We wish they lived closer.
Christmas post still to come. I want to hear about everyone's Christmas! Post now!

Looking back

I always look forward to seeing the old pictures Karlene puts on the blog. It's so fun to see how much we've all changed and grown. Here are a few I just found.

Christmas 2005









Emma had candy all over her face, why didn't I clean it off you ask? Because I didn't want to annoy her/make her mad. It was a holiday and I was trying to let it go...now I wish I had cleaned it off...oh well.

Can't wait for Christmas at Grandma Mann's! Don't forget the white elephants.