Got Milk?

Got Milk? Well...and a little Slobber?

I just love this kid, his smiling face and big brown eyes make me

indescribably happy!

Taite had a little photo shoot with Gus! I am glad she did!

Here is the "and slobber!"

Volleyball with Ellery

Ellery is super competitive! Any of you who know her know this is no mild statement. She can't STAND to loose. She isn't a sore looser. It is that you can just see her boiling under the skin that for her, she didn't do enough to win. She is extremely hard on herself. On one hand I don't want her to be so hard on herself, but on the other hand it excites me like no other because I know she will go so far!

She came to a volleyball game of mine the other day and as soon as we got home she went out and put a rope up between two trees all by herself so that we could play together. She is just awesome. I told her to shoot the ball like a basketball for this picture, look at that FORM! Nice follow-through already...its just wonderful!




Words can't describe how I love this girl. All my girls!

Off to the races!

Cyrus is on a MAJOR "Cars" kick right now, I have the whole movie memorized! He wanted to have his own races, so its off to the races in our front yard for HOURS every day! The girls are always up for a race and easily comply with his request. They even make me say"Gentlemen, start your engines!"

So Pretty!

It was a rainy day on and off the other day. So we had as much fun as we could inside. Nothing specialy really, some play dough fun. I just think my girlies are pretty! Even with Taite making a funny face!

Taite the Great

We are a SAD family!
We were singing "We are a Happy Family" in Taite's class on Sunday. She loved it, we have little puppets that the kids get to pick which people we sing about. They don't get tired of it. Well when we got home, Taite comes up to me and said, "Do you want to hear how I sing that song all by myself?"



If you couldn't hear it, she is a "sad family" because she can't live by Oma! It went on and on, but this is all I could record. She was too upset to continue~ Do you think this girl will ever recover from being dragged away from her most beloved Oma? Or have I scarred her for life?


She still is happy sometimes...here she is making her other favorite person laugh!

French Lick

You guys thought I was being gross...shame on you. Its French Lick Indiana. Honestly that is the name of it.



Awwww! What a cute couple! Well that cute couple in 9 years of marriage, 6 pregnancies and babies in those 9 years...but only 2 attempts at a vacation alone! You heard me right, attempts. When I was pregnant with Taite, so 4 years ago, we tried to get away to a cabin in Heber. That trip lasted a day and a half until we had to come home early. Bailey got a double ear infection and a really high fever.
Fast forward 4 years, a couple of weeks ago, we left my fabulous sister-in-law ALONE with our 5 kids plus her own kiddo! What a great lady huh? We were SO excited! Even though I was excited, I cried like a baby on our drive down....oh well, I am aware I am a total wuss.
Well, back on the homefront poor Becky had much more than emotions to deal with. Pretty much as soon as we left, the throwing up began. One after another our kids dropped like flies. At first Becky kept reassuring me that it was okay, but soon that all changed. Bec was such a trooper, I wanted to go home immediately and relieve her from....well....hell. Matt however was not throwing in the towel. It wasn't until the second night, the phone rang at about 2 am. Matt answered and I could hear a very tired "I am done."
What a champ for even putting up with it for 2 days. 4 of our 5 kids had the stomach flu- ewww! I headed home bright and early that morning. Game over, tapped out!
So strike 2 for vacations with the hubby. At the rate we have gone, it will be another 4 or 5 years before we give it another go. But hey, maybe we will make it to 3 days this next time!

Any Whoo!

French Lick Indiana!

my kind of town

That is right...French Lick! Home to the amazing Larry Bird. Matt's company had their annual sales conference at this awesome resort. It was awesome, really old and SO beautiful. We had a great time!


Even though my stay was short, we had fun. I finally got to meet everyone that Matt works with at Great Lakes Hybrids. Matt LOVES his job and now after meeting everyone, I can see why he is SO happy with what he is doing. Wonderful people and a very friendly, family oriented company. Everyone was very nice. It just makes me really happy that he got this job and loves it! I don't care what he does for a living, as long as he is happy. Boy is he happy! I was extremely impressed with Great Lakes, they are truly amazing. It was an fabulous time, I got to sleep in, no one woke me up in the night! That right there was GREAT!

Matt won a gift card and came up to the hotel room insisting that I take it and go shopping. I was not allowed to spend the money on the kids or him. What a great guy! But we all know how much I hate shopping, so I talked him into going bowling with me! I was SO excited to go golfing too, but I had to leave before we could make that happen. Matt went without me...no fair!

I love this man! Being alone even for a little bit was awesome. We could talk forever I think. I love him more now than I ever thought possible.

I love him, however, he is up in the night some times. This is turning into a novel of a post, but back me up here my Rocky Mountain friends. Matt knows how much I MISS my mountians! Well as we are driving down to French Lick he says how I should be excited because there are Indiana mountains in the region we were heading to......um NO.

Mountains?

I don't think so.
I guess since there is limestone it counts as a mountain region?

I still don't think so. Insulting actually.

Life is just GrEaT! I hope everyone I know and love is as happy as I am with life!

Hey Mrs. Johnson

So here are the girls at our little Preschool/summer school! I started teaching Taitem Preschool not long ago and the older two girls got jealous once summer hit. Imagine that...kids who MISS school during the summer!

Anyway, I started teaching Taite at home because, as some of you know, I taught Preschool at Learning Dynamics Preschool in Utah for 2 years! I LOVED it! Once you go to a school like Learning Dynamics, there is no going back...it is THAT good. So obviously there is nothing out here that compares in my very biased opinion. That is when I decided to teach Taite myself. She is doing awesome with the Learning Dynamics program and she loves it just like the other two girls did. For the older girls' "summer school" I just bought some workbooks through their elementary and give them lessons from that.

So they decided that they want to call me Mrs. Johnson, I thought it was hilarious. Taite is very into her school and never calls me Mom during "class" She said to me the other day,
"Hey, Mrs. Johnson!"
"Yes Taite"

"You look JUST like my Mom!" What a funny girl!

For those of my friends living in Utah, if you are looking for a preschool for your little one check out Leaning Dynamics! You will not be disappointed and it is worth every cent. I appreciate their academic approach instead of a playgroup atmosphere. Both years that I taught with my classes of 12 students, there was not one student that wasn't reading by the end of the year, most were 4 years old. Several of my students were reading well beyond kindergarten level. I think reading is SO important and you can't start that too early. Ellery and Bailey were both reading at 1st-2nd grade levels entering Kindergarten. It is just awesome, can you tell I love it?

It is all thanks to my Mom. She insisted that she would help me send Ellery there when she was 3. My Mom's dear friend is the owner and creator and I believe, honestly, that it is an inspired reading program. I just love it! My Mom and Cheryl Lant served on the Primary General Board together and Sister Lant is now the Primary General President, she is just an awesome lady and I loved working in her schools, I miss it.

I sound like a commercial for Learning Dynamics....hum, where is my check? Ha ha!

Go Learning Dynamics!

No Worries!

Well I cancelled the therapist because OvErNiGhT this kid has become a jabberbox! I am not kidding, we went to the doctor on Friday and on Monday this kiddo has started to talk. Coincidence right?

It is funny, instead of the normal "dada" "mama" or "baba" that were all of our other kids' first sounds, Gus says "gugu"! Ellery said to me- well yeah, he is just trying to say his name!

After just a few more days he says all those sounds...and ALL the time! So just an update, all is well. I should have gone with my first instinct at the doctor's office. He has 4 older siblings...who needs to talk? It is funny though, that he has gone from nothing to this right after the Dr's visit!

His favorite past time is attacking his older brother and sisters! Taite was the lucky one here.

Bailey's Family Party

Bailey and her cousin Lily share the same birthday, so we decided to have a family birthday party for them. Lily turned 4 and Bay of course is 6. It was a blast. We all got together at Uncle Eddie's house for a cook out and pond party. They have the coolest pond that is SO much fun to play in. It has a floating trampoline, diving board, sandy beach area for the kids, totally clean water...just awesome! That is now on my dream list of things I want to have some day- a party pond!

The kids had an absolute blast. No one wanted to go home.

Here is Bay jumping off the diving board.
So much fun! Cy in his studly goggles. Girls are going to totally go for those son!

I had to wait until Gus woke up from his nap to go in.
He is always worth the wait!

Here is the trampoline. No one actually jumped on it, they all just

tried to get warm laying there in the sun!

"Please don't make me get out!"

What a great day!

Lily did not enjoy people singing to her, but
Bailey on the other hand does not mind the attention!


She got so many wonderful gifts, but the highlight for her was

that Grandpa gave her a new bike! She took off before I

could even get a picture! Thanks Grandpa!

Cyrus always cracks me up at birthday parties, anyone's party.
He gets so excited he can barely handle himself!

9 month Stats!

Gus had his well baby visit today, I can't believe that he is already 9 months old!! What did I tell him....stop growing remember?!?! Here he is, left alone for a minute with a breakfast bar.


He is still my tall and skinny bean pole! He was in the 97% for height at a whopping 30.5 inches! Wahoo! I see him as my tall ripped power forward. Where Cy is a Karl Malone or a Charles Barkley (in his prime, not the lovable fatty he has become) Gus will be a David Robinson, a lean machine, only a forward. He was only in the 50% for weight...only Taite has ever dipped that low! It makes me laugh at how different he and Cy are, its kind of fun. Gus was 21 lbs today and Cy weighed that at 4 1/2 months! I love my Goose, he is just trying to spare his poor Mama's back!

He is very coordinated and very mobile, into everything! But, it wasn't all good news today, he is going to see a speech therapist because he really isn't up to speed on his speech, not much progress at all. He makes very few noises and they are mostly all growling. I am not worried, but I think it will be good to visit with the therapist. Okay, I am a little nervous.

He love him so much and are so glad that little Gus Gus is in our family! He fits right in.

We love you Goose!

My Bailey is 6!!!

Today is a day of catching up on the blog, we'll start with my Bailey girl!

This girl of mine is just Amazing! She is so kindhearted and so sweet. She is inquisitive and smart. She likes to push boundaries...I think it is a good thing, she just wants to know about everything. She wants to be a good girl, but she likes to know exactly why we do, or don't do things! I am so proud of her. She is diligent and yet a free spirit at the same time. Beautiful and funny! Matt and I always say that who ever ends up with this girl is going to be one lucky man! She is a fireball and such a wonderful part of our family!

We Love you BOO!

Happy Birthday!

So Bailey had her whole party planned. She had all the games thought out, even the order that she wanted to play them in. We had it all set up, prizes ready, balloons filled and then..... RAIN!

But the kids just played in the rain a little, until it started really pouring. Then we just played inside what we could and they had a blast decorating their own cupcakes! That was Bay's idea and it turned out SO fun!

The one thing we braved the cold outside for was the Pinata. But we hit another snag....the dang thing would NOT break! Each kid had I think 3 or 4 turns and we took their blind folds off after the first 2, but still no one could break it open. They were getting some solid hits on it too, but to no avail. I finally took a crack at it with little success, so finally the kids were so anxious for the treats that they wanted Matt to have at it! Of course it didn't take but 2 swings for him and it began raining candy!

*******HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!*******


Ellie, Ellie, Ellie! On a last little side note, I have to tell a funny about Ellery. When we sat down to plan this little party, she got out some paper and was taking very detailed notes and making a very detailed list. Every single day pretty much, she would rehearse with me what we still had left to do to prepare for the party. As we accomplished something or purchased something she would check it off her list. Then the day of the party, she asked me for a clipboard. I said okay and she told me that she wanted to check each name off the list when the guest arrived. Then as we played each game she could check it off as well. Talk about OCD in the planning area, can't imagine where she gets it from! He he he! That a girl!