The Johnston Jungle!

Blog slacker!

2009-11-10T19:18:00.000-08:00

So my sister gave me a serious tongue lashing about my slacking of blog posts. So I thought I would make her happy and give everyone a little update on the Johnston household. So our eldest just turned 5! I know, we are getting old. He is such a little stud and really loves kindergarten. We had our first parent teacher interviews and she was very happy with Aidan and how well he is doing. So that's good. He's all about trains so that's what I made for his cake and he loved it...especially the candy cargo it was carrying.

We managed to carve out a few pumpkins this year too. David was very impressed with himself and his carving abilities. So much that I wouldn't be surprised if we do double the pumpkins next year. Good job sweetie!
I know...Xander looks pretty freaky here! Getting ready for halloween I guess??

So here are pics of our little ones in their trick-o-treating gear.

Aidan wanted to be a bat...it's nice that he actually knows what he wants now...unless you have no sewings skills. So I got this idea online. I just took an old umbrella and cut it in half and pinned it to a black hoodie. And the ears I made out of felt and pinned them on too. Covered my nasty pin job with black duct tape and TADA you have a bat! I was pretty impressed with myself and Aidan loved it!

My cute little bear! Don't you just want to pinch those little cheeks!

My little fairy princess. She's definately a girl. And of course our little monkey. :) They had a great time and luckily it wasn't too cold so they enjoyed themselves.

Family Vacation

2009-08-13T12:22:00.001-07:00

WARNING!!!: Picture overload!! :)
So we are back from our family vaca to the good ole Okanagan! We set off on our adventure early Saturday morning for 5 nights of camping and then a few nights in my old stomping grounds and then home again. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of things to do to keep us busy.

Here are all the kids excited for our big camping trip! Yes I know, that's a lot of carseats :) This was taken just before entering Jasper.

Stopped for lunch at Mount Robson. It was so beautiful you could actually see the top of the mountain...which I guess is rare??

Our second day, a Sunday, we went to church in Vernon and a nice family had us over for lunch after churh to get out of the heat (35+ degree weather...which is HOT!!). After lunch we found this nice little splash park for all of us to run around in. The kids were more than willing to get a little wet.

The camping crew doing what they do best...getting dirty! Good thing we stayed where there were free showers.

On the monday we decided to be a bit lazy and hit the beach. We went to Kalamalka Lake by Vernon. It was beautiful!
A little hazy from the forest fires just west of here. By noon that open sand area was filled with people. It was pretty busy but still fun!

Tuesday we did a lot of stuff. These next bunch of pictures are from our adventures in the Enchanted Forest. I hadn't been there since I was a little girl and boy have things changed! A lot more to see and do and the kids loved every minute of it.

My cuties!

The tallest tree house in the world.

Kids and Captain hook.

Giddy up!

HELP!!

Love this pic :)

After the Enchanted Forest we headed to Revelstoke to see what they had to offer and found a train museum. Aidan and Xander were in their element!

Aidan driving a train...ok, not a real one but it was still cool.

Then we headed back towards Sicamous area, where we camped the 5 days, and saw this suspension bridge and just had to go. The Crazy Creek suspension bridge, and it rocked pretty good the more people were on it.

Our attempt at a family picture using the remote. Not bad.

After the suspension bridge we also went to the Crazy Creek Hot Springs. They were NICE!! That evening we headed to a drive in movie. We tried to keep all the kids awake to experience it but Hailee was OUT when we got there. So the boys and us enjoyed our first drive in movie experience. We saw Ice Age 3, SUPER funny!!!

On our way home we took the scenic route which meant we got to go on 2 fairies. Of course the kids had never been on one before and were all for that. How do you like the couple standing next to the kids? Pretty sweet eh!

After camping in BC we stayed a few nights at my parents house, to go to my 10yr highschool reunion and to experience the Heritage Day (or Cardston Days) festivities. And a visit to cardston wouldn't be complete without checking out the good ole Carriage House Museum.

And to finish it all of, a parade with LOTS of candy! We had a lot of fun, saw and did a lot of things and are now exhausted and glad to be home.

Happy Birthday....

2009-07-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

One year ago today my youngest and last baby was born....weighing in at 7lb 15 1/2 oz, 21 inches long. I can't believe it has already been a year!!!

Look at how big he is now! He is such a sweet heart and melts my heart every time he smiles with his super cute dimples and big BIG eyes. I love this kid so much. I can't help but smile when I look at him :)

Our family just wouldn't be the same without this little guy. Happy Birthday Kaleb!!!

}Friends

2009-06-25T14:48:00.001-07:00

Last week we decided to head to the park for some fun and a picnic with Hailee's bestest friend Elizabeth. While there the kids all gathered around by an old building, to get some shade, that use to be a swimming pool change building, but is now an artistic feat of graffiti (sp?). Graffiti wall + cute kids = fun pics!
This was the only one I got of Kaleb even looking up and he doesn't look too impressed. It's more of a "what do you want mom! Can't you see I'm busy watching an ant! GEESH!". Cute kid!

My other two studs! Good genes running through these kids I tell ya!

I love Xander in this pic..the kid cracks me up! No idea what he is laughing at.. maybe me??

Hailee and her bestest buddy!

Awww..

My sister is coming up in a few weeks to take some much needed, updated family pictures and I think we may have to stop by here to use this building as a backdrop. She will do WAY better utilizing it. So excited!! I'll brag more about my sista in my next blog entry. She's got skills and you've gotta see them!

Back from the Bahamas

2009-06-17T20:00:00.001-07:00

We are home safe and sound and had a FABULOUS time. It was everything and more than we expected. We stayed at a resort called the Wyndham and we had originally purchased your most basic room with an island view. We ended up flying over night and got into Nassau 3 hours before check in time, but they let us check in early. Then the lady found out we were parents of 4 small children she upgraded us to a SUITE and not only that, one with an ocean view...on the TOP Floor!!! We didn't realize what she had done for us until we got up there. These are the pictures of our views.

After changing quickly into our swim wear we ran down to the lobby, thanked that super nice lady and headed to the beach, snapped these next few pics and then back up to our room to sleep for 7 hours (I know...party poopers but we were exhausted!)

We ended up waking up at 9:30pm ish and going down for dinner, walking on the beach and then back to bed. The next day we spent most of the morning on the beach. I snorkled for the first time, we saw a Baracuda (freaked me OUT!) and found this starfish.

MMMMmmmm...look at my hot hubby! :)

After a wonderful morning we got ready for our dinner at Luciana's of Chicago downtown Nassau. We took a Jitney (what they call a bus) and that was an experience in itself. We got on and the bus was full and they pulled over to pick some more people up and we were thinking where are they going to sit? Well they pop down some seats and soon the isle is gone! It was pretty cool. Before dinner we stopped at the straw market (similar to our farmers markets) and got a few souvenirs for family. That was crazy! Tons of locals trying to sell their stuff in a very tight place with lots of other tourists too. Dinner was great, then we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. Did I mention that everyone drives on the left side of the road and they are CRAZY drivers too! Pretty fun stuff!

Wednesday we had a snorkel/lunch cruise booked on a catamaran. They took us on a short tour as we passed Paradise Island, they pointed out famous peoples homes like Oprah, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan to name a few. Then we got out to this reef in the middle of nowhere and snorkeled for about 45 minutes. It was amazing! I've never seen colors like that in my life, the coral was a beautiful aray of different tropical colors and the fish...there were TONS! Then they took us over to this private island and those who paid more $$ got to do some water sports while the rest of us swam and sun tanned. This is a pic of one of the 700 islands in the Bahamas that just so happened to be across from the beach we were on.

Beautiful white sandy beachs and clear turquoise waters...PARADISE!!!

On the catamaran on the way to the snorkeling destination...sorry pics are a little out of order here for some reason??

On the private beach after snorkeling...there is the catamaran behind my hottie husband :)

So that was pretty much our entire Wednesday. Thursday was a beach day. Just chilled, swam and chilled some more. We were told and heard about the famous "Fish Fry" on Awrak Cay (close to the harbour between Paradise Island and Nassau) so we went on down to try out the world famous Bahamian specialty...Conch (pronounced Conck). There were about a 7 or 8 little restaurants but our cab driver told us the best one was Goldies. So that was were we went. I don't eat seafood but I tried some of Davids cracked conch and it was really good, rubbery in texture but the taste was good. David thought it was awesome, so take his word because he's the seafood lover.

The cracked conch...we also tried the conch fritters a few days earlier, they look like deep fried chicken balls and they tasted good too.

On our way back we found a fruit stand and bought some fresh mangos and a local fruit called a Saprodilla (dilly for short), which look like an oversized kiwi but were suppose to taste like cotton candy. They were very mushy and they kind of tasted like cotton candy...interesting. The mango was delish!

That evening we ate at a restaurant at the hotel, Moso, which was an chinese restaurant and they gave us these ginormous serving utensils...here I'm just messing around with them. :)

Friday, our last full day, so we spent it on the beach. On our way down to the chairs we nearly stepped on this little guy.

Can you see him??

June is their rainy season, so everyday there was one really good hard rainfall for about 20-40 minutes and then it would clear up and be super hot and muggy again. This is a pic of the massive rain/lightning storm that came in that afternoon. Makes the water look REALLY blue!

After the storm we decided to go parasailing. The most awesome thing we did by far. So we got on the boat with 10 other people, two other couples and a family of 6. One couple went first and then the family of 6. So by then an hour had passed. So the boat driver took those people back in and then it was our turn. They had some troubles getting the shute out and untangled, so after another half hour the driver felt really bad for making us and this other couple wait so long so after apologizing to us David made the remark, "don't worry you can make it up to us" (being sarcastic of course) and "I like to get wet". Now our driver dips everyone in the water before bringing them in the boat but he managed to DUNK David 3 times, and he loved it of course.

Where did David go??

WOOOOOO HOOOOO!

Now it's my turn. We went up pretty high, a great view of the Islands.

Me way back there and that is our driver. He was a hoot!

When he would dip you he would call out "here sharky sharky".

Now after we were done he called a "water taxi" (aka a seadoo) to come get us. And no the boat did not stop...we jumped from our moving boat onto the moving seadoo. It was soo fun! I felt like I was in a James Bond movie or something. So we got a free seadoo ride out of it too.

Friday night we went on our last excursion, a dinner cruise on a triple deck catamaran. We cruised around the harbour, ate some amazing food and then had some entertainment. Here is a pic of the bridges from Paradise Island and Nassau.

Yah, we got some sun that day.

This is Atlantis, a huge hotel/resort on Paradise Island. If we ever go back we want to take our kids and stay here. They have a huge water park and an aquarium. Sweet!

Some of our enertainment. His name is Action and he IS the limbo king! This guy did things I didn't even know were possible!

Saturday morning we packed up, said goodbye to the Bahamas and flew home. We had a great time but were glad to come back and see our beautiful kiddos. Thanks again to David's parents and sisters for watching the boys and to Dash for watching my babies. We really appreciate it!

Going, going....almost ready to go!

2009-06-05T11:46:00.001-07:00

Only two more sleeps before we head out to the sunny beaches of the Bahamas!! We couldn't be more excited. So while packing I noticed that we had some pics on our memory card so I thought I'd upload them and share a few before we head out.
Here is proof that Hailee does have hair, quite a bit now, just really fair and thin. I even got it into a pony tail a few weeks ago for church. She's definately turning into quite the little girl.

While visiting the in-laws Auntie Laurie managed to rock a very tired Kaleb to sleep. Doesn't he look so comfortable! They sure are cute when they sleep.

A wonderful surprise to come home to! We spent the May long in Edmonton with David's family and when we got home it was starting to snow. Well, the next morning we woke up to this!! Crapy Canadian weather! It was all melted within a couple of days, but still annoying.

We took this after Kaleb had some spaghetti. I should have taken before pics. Man was he covered from head to toe. That's why we just threw him in the sink for a quick rinse down. He loved it!

Our kids have been sick the past week, get it all before we leave I guess, and Aidan ended up missing his last day of preschool. He was sooo sad! But we stopped by a few days later to say goodbye to his teachers and they had a few things for him, including this t-shirt that he got to decorate with fabric paints. He did such a good job drawing shapes, writing his name and writing the entire alphabet (only needing my help for G, K and S - which he just drew backwards). He's sooo smart and excited for Kindergarten in the fall.

Since the kids all saw Aidan decorating his shirt we had to have craft time. These next pics are of the kids letting their creative juices flow! (Love Hailee's pig tails in this pic!)

Yes, those are duck scissors....you know you want some too! We have shark ones too.

Kaleb enjoying watching the fun with mom...my assistant supervisor/drooler. So cute!!

Well, the next post will be of our wonderful trip to the Bahamas so please make sure to check in in a week or two!

Say What????

2009-05-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

So you wanna hear some exciting news??? David and I are going to the Bahamas in June!! YIPPIE!!! So I guess it's more exciting to us. We were originally planning on going to Portland this June so that David could attend a seminar at WSCC to get his continuing ed credits and to visit some of our awesome friends that we are missing a TON! Well, David found out that he didn't need to attend the seminar, that he had sufficient enough credits for the year...which was code for we don't need to go to Portland. Well needless to say I was pretty upset. We had been planning and saving for this trip for the past few months and I needed a break from the daily grind. I haven't had a day off from my amazing job of full-time mommy since I became a mommy (5 years now)! I don't know if it was because I was having a bad day or week but I just broke down. David, being the amazing husband he is, realized that if we weren't going to Portland we still needed to go somewhere so I could have some much needed vacation time, just the two of us! So we looked into Puerto Vallarta because his parents had a time share there and basically that was what we could afford (what we had saved up for our Portland trip). We were supper excited and started looking into flights and what not. Well it so happened that that evening on the news was the good ole H1N1 flu outbreak (swine flu). Oh goodie!!! Being the positive person that I am (note the sarcasm) I began to give up on the idea that David and I would ever be able to get away. Well, David and I began looking at other possiblities. We just randomly searched different affordable possibilities and that's when the bahamas popped up! We just booked our trip this last Monday! We are so excited. This will be our first time to go on a trip together....well ever! And our first time away from the kids without one of us to be there to watch them. I'm a little nervous about that but my excitment is doing a good job covering my nervousness.

Another thing that happened, yesterday, Aidan was jumping around on the couch and mis-calculated his landing, bounced backwards and cracked his head on the base corn piece of our couch. He has fallen a lot and I didn't think it was that bad until he stood up crying and holding his head with some healthy red oozing fluid flowing through his fingers. Yep, he was REALLY hurt. He cut open the back of his head, about an inch long gash. Luckily my in-laws were here, so I ran Aidan to the ER and proceeded to wait two hours to see a doctor! He ended up getting it glued together instead of stitches. Only our second trip to the ER. Not bad for having a bunch of high-energy boys!

And of course it wouldn't be a blog entry worth stopping by and checking out without pics of our adorable amazing kiddos!! I love these kids soo much!

Thanks for stopping by and sorry again to all of our Portland friends (especially the Youngs) that we won't be able to see you next month! We miss you all very much!

True Happiness comes in small packages

2009-04-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

My ode to Kaleb! I love this little man soo much. After having our daughter I thought we were done having kids, maybe because I had been pregnant or nursing for the 3 years previously! When I mentioned my thoughts to my husband, he calmly replied "no I think there is one more waiting to join us." My first reaction was not pleasant and it actually took some persuasion on David's behalf to finally convince me otherwise...and I'm sooo glad he did. I don't know what I would do without this little guy in my life! Everyone of my kids makes my life better in some why or another, this little guy just makes me smile! He is soo happy and carefree. I've never heard another baby giggle as much as he does. I am so blessed to have such amazing kids, a wonderful wise husband and many many more blessings than I can count. So take a gander at my adorable baby boy and you too will see why he makes me smile everyday!

Oh, and he is pulling himself to standing now....ya I'm busy!

TRUE LOVE!!!!

Happy Birthday Hailee!

2009-04-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

Here she is....our adorable 2 year old! Today is her actual birthday but because David's day off is Wednesday we celebrated with a little party for Hailee yesterday and fun was had by all!

I asked Hailee what kind of party she wanted, her options were Dora, Butterfly or Princess. Guess which theme she chose...Princess! And that is what she is, our little princess!

Some of her cousins were here for the party and she invited her two best friends. When everyone was here we had them each make their own crowns with adhesive "jewels". They loved it...yes even the boys! From left to right: Miya, Elizabeth, Hailee, Aidan, Isaac, Zoe and Xander.

Princess Hailee!

King Xander and King Aidan

Mommy and her little princess and of course her cool shades she got for her birthday. She was quite spoiled and got some fun new toys to play with. Thank you to Hailee's friends and cousins for the wonderful gifts!

And my pride and joy....Hailee's princess cake! I was so excited when I found this idea on youtube that I just had to try it. I was quite nervous about it but I think it turned out pretty awesome! I think I took as many pictures of the cake as I did of Hailee! :)

Here is Hailee blowing out her candles. She loved the cake....and so did everyone else.

After all was said and done the kids all had a blast, I know because everyone of them told me and almost all of them had naps afterwards...we wore them out with all of the party fun! We love you Hailee and are so proud of the beautiful little girl you are growing up to be! And good job on doing so well with your potty training!

Little update ~

2009-03-03T15:35:00.000-08:00

Just a picture of one the cutest babies ALIVE!!! Mr. Dimples can now sit and almost crawl on his own!

All the grandkids on the Johnston side...what a good looking bunch of kids!Father and son cuddle time.

David's idea of having fun with the new truck!

SO this last month seemed to go on forever. Not a whole lot has happened that sticks out in my mind. The only new things have been that Kaleb is sitting on his own and is quite the mover! He doesn't really crawl, but if he wants to get somewhere he gets there. Usually by rolling or worm crawling or something.

The second new thing is that we bought a second vehicle. David finally got his truck. It's a cute little 4x4 s10 (I think a Chevy...I'm a woman and don't pay attention to those little details) and the fun part is that it's a stick! I love driving a manual....even though I rarely get to touch the thing let alone drive it. It's his baby. Well, we have gotten a lot of snow lately and my dear hubby got the bright idea to drive his truck into the snow bank beside our driveway. Well you obviously see the results of that. We had to call a friend to help tow him out. We did get a video of it and I"ll try to upload it. The fun things we do when we're bored...or the REAL reason...when "I'm tired of shoveling the snow and having to throw it up over this huge snow bank, so I'm going to knock it down with my truck." (quote by david). It actually did work, the snow bank is no more, easing my husbands hard work and labor problems. Good job sweetie! Anyhoo, thanks for stopping by!

} My awesome, cute kids!!

2009-02-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging but that's how it goes in the life of a mom right?? Maybe just this moms' life anyways. So I have a lot of cute pictures and stories to share so please bare with me and enjoy the ride...

First off is my CAARRAAAZZY gal Bean! This girl cracks me up daily! We had spaghetti this particular night, as you can tell from the pasted on beard of tomato sauce, and she was hilarious!

She ate, and I'm not exagerating, 4 helpings, full helpings, of the stuff! And she couldn't get the fork to work fast enough for her so she opted to use her paws and SHOVELED the noodles in like they were going out of style! What made it even more hilarious was the "mmmmm" sound and the giggles she was making the entire time! Did I mention I love this girl! hee hee

Next is my handsome little helper, mister A! No these are not photoshoped pictures, these are actual pictures of my little man helping me vacuum! He actually ended up vacuuming the entire living room all by himself and did an EXCELLENT job. When I say excellent I mean I didn't go over it afterwards (because I'm kind of anal and usually do follow up with a spot clean). It was spotless. I love this little guy...or should I say big now! He's growing up way to fast.

On to Xandee Man (as he calls himself because he can't seem to get the "r" sound working). What can I say, this guy is just all around a sweetheart. He's my mister sensitive, always full of love but also very stubborn and knows what he wants and when and how he wants it. I guess picky would be the word for that unnecessarily long sentence.

Here are just a few pics of the boys modeling their new ties. They loved them and wore them around all day when they first got them. Aidan just wanted to wear the tie...literally as you can see. LOL.

And these last few were actually taken tonight. Kaleb, aka mister dimples, has been working on his crawling and sitting on his own skills. So for bathtime tonight we dug out the bath chair so he could actually "enjoy" and play in the bath. He LOVED it! They were all pretty squished but they all loved that Kaleb could join in the fun.

Isn't he the most adorable thing ever!!! I love this little guy soo much.

It's so rewarding being a mom. Yes it can be hard at times but moments like these make it all worth it!

School, Birthday's and more

2009-01-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow bloggers! It has already been a fairly busy new year. Here are just a few things that have been going on in the Johnston residence. First off our baby is growing too fast. He has learned how to get up on his hands and knees and lunges for things that he really wants. He is such a cutie pie and has the most adorable dimple when he smiles!

Hailee is still the mischeif queen, although I must say things are getting better. She is talking up a storm now, surprising me with new words and sentences every day.... I don't know if I should be happy about that or not? She has already sassed me a few times.

Xander just turned 3 on the 11th. He is growing up fast too. He also always seems to have a dirty face in any picture that I've taken of him. Hmmm, maybe I should wash my kids' faces more often. Geesh! He had a great birthday weekend. We (David and I) took him out for dinner while the other kids stayed home with a sitter. This is something we've been meaning to start for a while now. But since the kids are old enough now we thought this would be the perfect year to start. He had a great time and finished his entire meal plus a dessert! It was fun spending one on one time with him. The next night we invited a family from our branch over for cake, Ice cream and to play a few games. Xander loved having 8 other kids running around (yep the family has 8 wonderful kids!). Then on Sunday, his actual birthday we just chilled and let him open his present from us (which he will actually be getting come spring time...a bike!). He loved the picture of the bike and the idea that he will be getting one and understands why he didn't get it now. He's so smart! Love ya buddy!

Aidan started playschool. We bought him a backpack for school and for the first week he wore it everywhere....even to church! He was so excited to go. I was a little worried when the day finally came, that he wouldn't want to go. When we got there he was shown where his cubby was, got to put on his name tag and when we went into the classroom so that the teacher could show us around he was gone! I looked around and found him playing with a couple other boys with some trucks. Even when I went over to say goodbye and tell him I was leaving he didn't even bat an eyelash "see ya later mom" was all he said. He still loves it! So I'm pretty happy about that.

Aidan fell asleep with his backpack on the couch. We decided to let Kaleb wake him up....he wouldn't get mad at Kaleb, he loves him too much.

There you have it, a little update on just a few things that have been going on here. Oh, David and the other chiro's he works for will be moving into their new clinic this weekend. I got a pre-tour of it and it is awesome! I'm so excited for David to finally be able to make his own hours and to be able to see even more patients! I'm so proud of you David! Thanks for stopping by and make sure to keep in touch!

Here's to a great 2008 and an even better 2009!

2008-12-31T12:53:00.000-08:00

Hailee in her Christmas outfit from G. & G. Albiston.

Kaleb's first Christmas!

What cuties!

My mover and groover!

The Christmas stockings... G. Johnston made these for everyone, it's tradition that everyone gets a homemade stocking from Grandma....David has had his since he was a pee wee! ;)

" Who's got me? Is that Santa over there? Where am I?" A usual look for Kaleb.

Aidan with Santa. He was pretty excited to see Santa walk into the gym!

Xander was so excited he was the first to jump onto Santa's lap.

We signed up to make mashed potato's for our branch Christmas party and the potato's were donated by a member and they were HUGE!! As big as Kaleb's head as you can see!

Had to throw in some bathtime pics! My little angel!

Xandee man! (he can't say his "r" sound so everything that has "r" in it sounds like "e" or "w")

My little helper. He does this everytime Kaleb gets a bath, he holds and I wash.

Little stud (mini David).

Here's just a quick update. We had Christmas at home and enjoyed it. The kids were happy to see all the gifts under the tree, especially the ones from santa. We got to spend some time with David's family for a few days and we also just celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary, and what a wonderful 6 years it has been! I was spoiled on our anniversary. My husband surprised me with a Wii and Wii Fit. I was impressed that he was even able to find one let alone keep it a surprise from me. The kids are all healthy and happy and are enjoying the ample amount of snow we have, especially Aidan. They definately didn't get that from me...I don't enjoy the cold much. Aidan got a Leap frog game system and a Thomas game and has just figured out how to use it so now I hardly see him during the day. He's growing up way too fast. He also starts playschool on Jan. 6 and is pretty excited about it. Xander is quite the little artist and loves to draw perfect circles (which are also faces, trees and anything else really). Hailee is finally enjoying having GIRL toys in the house. She got a stroller from Aunty Dallas and loves to push it (along with her 4 dolls) all around the house. Kaleb is a rolling machine. I turn around and he is already done a full 180! I'm sure he'll be crawling in no time, especially since he is already pulling his knees up underneath himself. He also LOVES solid food, our best eater yet and that's saying a lot considering he has Miss Hailee to out do!

We have had a great year and a wonderful Christmas and hope that the New Year will bring us a lot more exciting and fun moments together as a family! Thanks to all of you that sent us Christmas wishes, we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well and an even better New Year.

Tis getting close to the season....

2008-11-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

Aidan just loves Kaleb....and Kaleb loves him too!

Kaleb enjoying playtime....he is this smiley most of the time.

Mug shot! hee hee LOVE it!

They saw the snow and wanted to get their warm clothes on right away....here they are trying on their toques (beanies for you yankees) to make sure they fit. What a cute bunch of kids!!

So the weather is starting to turn a bit down here. It will snow a bit and then melt, so it's more like a threat/warning that winter is definately almost here. My kids love the snow! So of course the first day it snows they want to get on their snow clothes and play outside. That resulted in them coming in soaking wet cause there really wasn't enough snow to stay on the ground and play in, it was more like playing in the water. :) That's good that they like the snow though...we do live in Canada! Geesh! I'm not sure if I enjoy it yet. I'm still use to Portland winters and all the rain.

Also I love that this year the boys are totally aware what Chirstmas is! The Christmas flyers have started to come in the mail and I have caught Aidan looking through them frequently and the whole time saying "look mom...CHRISTMAS!!". It's soo cute. They've even been asking when we will be putting our tree up. I'm not quite ready to put that up yet. But the only movies they've been wanting to watch are Christmas ones. They are definately Johnston's! The Johnston's LOVE Christmas...their favorite time of the year!

I really just wanted to post some updated pictures as requested by my mom...so here you go mom. I hope everyone is doing well and thanks for stopping by. :)

Happy Halloween and Birthday fun!

2008-11-01T18:41:00.001-07:00

ROAR!!! The birthday boy in his lion costume ready to get some candy!

What can I say, the cutest frog in the world!

My adorable little zebra! hee hee

My cute nieces, aka the cat and the monkey.

The birthday gang!

This Halloween was a fun one. Aidan turned 4 on the 29th, which happened to be a Wednesday, so we opted on waiting to have his party on the weekend, which also happened to be Halloween. So we threw Aidan a Halloween themed party. It was fun! We played Halloween Bingo and the kids each got a spider candy bracelet when they got a black-out. Then we had a Caramel apple walk (instead of a cake-walk) and then the food. Instead of a birthday cake (since we had one on his actual birthday) I made cupcakes that looked like worms in dirt. The kids loved them. Then after all the eating and present opening we got the kids dressed up and went trick-or-treating! It was a fun time had by all. Happy Birthday to my sweet little man and Happy belated Halloween to all of you!

Autumn time!

2008-10-09T09:39:00.001-07:00

Aunty Dallas taking the kids for a trike ride
The three helmet heads:) So cute!
Kaleb smiling and laughing at daddy
What a little stud! My mister dimples! Yep I officially have the cutest kids alive!

Hailee getting buried in the leaves

Kaleb joining in on the FHE autumn fun!

The three amigos in the gigantic pile David raked up!

WEEEEEE! Love this pic!

My other little stud!

...and my other little stud. Geesh I've got a lot of cute kids!

I know this is picture overload but I can't help but share...that and it's been a while since I've posted something on here. So we've been busy the last little while...what's new right! This last weekend David headed to Calgary to a A.R.T. seminar for 4 days and I had made arrangements to go and stay with my awesome sista! So the kids and I hung out at her place while David was at his course and we had a great time! I'm glad that I made those arrangements with her, especially since the murder that just recently happened here in our "safe" little town of Edson. For those of you who don't know a 14 year old girl was attacked and beaten to death on the hiking trail here in Edson a few weeks ago, and the suspect has still not been caught. So things were a little tense around here for a while. I still won't let my kids out of my sight when we are out and about. And I definatley won't be going on that trail again!

When we got home we had a fun FHE activity, playing in the leaves. The kids loved it! Kaleb is also now smiling and laughing and talking up a storm. It's soo cute. Since he's a tummy baby, loves being on his stomach, he is lifting his head up and the other day he accidently roled over and he keeps doing it any time I put him on his tummy. The kids think it's pretty fun and giggle whenever he does it. Hailee is turning into quite the little mommy. She is always wanting to take care of Kaleb and loves to help me with any chores! It's so bad that when there is nothing to do she'll make a mess just to clean up! What a crazy kid!...or she'll just make a mess. hee hee. Gotta love kids!

busy busy busy

2008-09-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow bloggers. Wow it has been a busy busy month! We have moved to our new place (David's parents old house) and have been busy busy painting. We have finished painting the livingroom, Hailee's room and Kaleb's room. It's a lot of work but we love it! We also painted an old dresser that use to be my mother-in-laws for Hailee and it looks brand new and super cute! We still have quite a bit more we want to do but will have to do it in spurts (as we get them time). We love it here though, a lot more space and finally Kaleb is sleeping in his own room which means we get more sleep. Last night he only woke up once to eat. We got him to bed by 10pm and he didn't wake up until 5am! What a good baby! I haven't taken pics of any of our "renos" yet. I want to wait until everything is decorated nicely and then I'll share, which probably won't be for a while. One thing at a time. For now I wanted to share some pics that my OOOHH so TALENTED sister took of Kaleb and one really cute pic of Hailee and her cousin Gage. I have stinkin cute kids!! :)

So there you have it folks! A quick little update. We are all doing great and staying busy. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to drop us a line to say hi. We miss you all!!!

A little update

2008-08-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all. Sorry about the lack of posts the last month but we've been BUSY (that's an understatement). David has been busy working pretty much full-time (including saturdays) and seeing tons of patients (tons meaning more than we expected for the first month!), so that's exciting! On top of him working and doing great we have been moving to a new home. Our lease ends the end of this month and we decided to move into David's parents old home to rent it for a while and then go from there. So the last few weeks we've been moving all of our stuff over in spurts. Today is the last day we'll be moving the rest of our stuff and then the fun part of Cleaning! And what have we done with the kids the whole time we've been doing this....they have been running around our feet causing more chaos! It's been fun that's all I have to say about that. I'm just glad I've been able to help this time. It seemed like every time we moved I was pregnant! hee hee ANyhoo, we are settling in and as soon as we get things more organized we'll post some more pics. Thanks for stopping by!

A pretty good week!

2008-08-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Much needed nap time with daddy...or should we say Dr. Johnston!
Love you baby Kaleb!
Hailee being my little helper...she's wiping off some spit-up. What a little mama!
Mister dimples! LOVE IT!!!
Dressed in his sunday best!My little angel!

So this last week has been an eventful one for sure. To start off David is now a licenced DC!! Yep folks, he's practicing now. He had his first full day as a Chiropractor this last Friday (August 1st) and saw a whopping 17 patients!! Lets just say he came home tired and with a permagrin a mile long! I'm soo proud of him.

This was also Kaleb's first week at home and he is doing great! The first few nights were not so fun, days and nights mixed up. But he is doing great now, sleeping 3 to 4 hours at a time! The kids are loving having a new baby brother. Every morning they come running into our room looking for "baby Kaleb". Aidan is constantly asking to hold him and Xander and Hailee are always giving him kisses. He's already back to his birth weight and then some. So he loves to eat! I even had my first day all by myself with all four kids and it actually wasn't too bad. I prepared for the worst and got the best! The kids were really good. I hope they continue on this good streak.

As for me, I got a new look. After having a baby I like to go out and get a hair cut to make me feel rejuvinated and pretty. So I got it cut short! And I love it. I also decided I needed a change with the color and bought a dark dark color....well lets just say it's dark now! Actually pretty much BLACK!! OOPS!! It was pretty weird at first but I'm getting use to it. You can kinda see it in the pic with me and Kaleb....I'll be sure to get some and post them sometime in the near future. Anyhoo, we are all alive and kicking and loving our new baby boy! Thanks for stopping by!

Introducing Kaleb Alvin Johnston

2008-07-26T11:53:00.001-07:00

Look at that cute, chubby, round face! hee hee
Proud big brothers!
Hailee not to sure about Kaleb??
The cute outfit my sista bought for Kaleb...the hat is a bit big hee hee! And look at that Dimple!! LOVE IT!!
Ready to go home after a quick stay at the hospital (we took him home before he was even a day old!) :)

Well here he is.... the newest member of the Johnston family, Kaleb Alvin Johnston. Stats: Born July 24th at 6:25pm, Weight: 7lbs 15.5 oz, Height: just under 20". It was a hard delivery (came out looking to the side...OUCH!!) but every second was worth it! Now we have a healthy baby boy. The kids absolutely love him! He's constantly bombarded with kisses. Aidan is such an amazing big brother, always wanting to hold him. He's actually holding him now as I type this. He gets mad when we take him away. So CUTE!! Kaleb is happiest when he can hear the kids. His first night, last night, was a hard one because he's use to soo much noise and it was just too quiet for him, so he was up pretty much all night. We'll fix that soon enough! We are loving having him here and just wanted you all to meet him! Thanks for stopping by!

WELCOME BABY #4!!!

2008-07-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, it's David here and Chrystal told me I had to post something about baby #4. So we went to the hospital last night to get Chrystal induced. She was able to sleep until about 2 am when she started having contractions that steadily got stronger and closer together. Around 7:30am though the "waffer" that was used to induce labor fell out!! So that slowed things down, but she was still having contractions just not as strong or regular. Finally around 1 pm her doctor broke her water and starter her on the drip to get things going. She got an epidural and was comfortable but really tired. At about 5:30 pm her contractions started getting significantly stronger and I told her she'd have the baby at 6:25 (she guessed 6:15). However the baby's head was face up, which was starting to be very painful for Chrystal. For the first time in 4 deliveries I heard my wife screaming in pain, which alerted the nurse and doctor to come in right away. She started pushing despite the pain and as she did the baby turned 90 degrees and was now facing me (I was holding her left leg, prime position!). This, according to the doctor, would be more painful but Chrystal didn't care, she wanted that baby OUT!! So amidst the screaming and pushing soon the a little head popped out with his hand right by his face pointing at me (the doctor said "look dad, baby's waiving at you"). With another push the baby was out and instantly Chrystal and I both looked down below to see it was a BOY!! Chrystal let out the biggest sigh of relief and the rest is history. Both Chrystal and baby are doing great and should be home by tomorrow, so I'll post something later.
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Oh, by the way, did you want other details???? Okay, so he was 7 lbs and 15 oz (our biggest yet), was just under 20 inches long. I got to name him and when he was born the doctor asked me what the name was and I had 3 different names in mind so I told her that I had to look at him first. As I held him for the first time, he started opening his eyes and was soon staring at me. It was so cute. So I decided to name him . . . . . KALEB ALVIN (after my dad) JOHNSTON.

So there you go, we're super excited to welcome our 4th, and LAST, child into the world!!

My Talented Sister.....

2008-07-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

....is amazing! My sister is here helping me around the house and to watch the kids (if this baby ever decides to come out!) when the baby comes. I've been trying to convince her for a while now to start her own photography business and she agreed to take some maternity pics for me and these are just a few of them. So AWESOME!!! She made a blog now for her photography stuff until she gets things figured out but I'm sure I've got her convinced now to do it and I couldn't be happier. Hopefully this baby will arrive while she is here so she can do some newborn pics too. If you wanna check out her photography blog here is her link

So go give her some encouragement for me! :) Thanks!

Trip to Jasper

2008-07-11T12:49:00.001-07:00

Here we are at the top of the Tramway in Jasper. It was FREEZING and blowing but a beautiful view of all of Jasper.All of us squeezed into the good old Odyssey. Elder Black is by Hailee and Elder Capsin is between the boys.Athabasca Falls

The Alberta Rose... our provincial flower. Pretty EH!!

Mount Edith Cavell. We ate our lunch at the base of this mountain, not a bad view eh! hee hee

The boys eating some yummy sandwiches and chips...mmmm. A chipmunk and a few birds kept trying to steal our lunch.Hailee munching away...what's new.Eating lunch and having some fun enjoying the scenary.
The kiddos at the start of the hike at the base of Mt. Edith Cavell.

The view on the otherside of the ridge, a nice cold lake with a beautiful glacier.
The boys taking a much needed rest and snack. What great little hikers!

So this last Wednesday we took a road trip to Jasper. One of our Missionaries (Elder Black) is going home next week (that's right, done the mission!) so he and his companion got permission to go to Jasper for their P-day. So we were happy to oblige! We first went on the Tramway up to a top of a mountain so that they could get a really good view of all of Jasper. Then we headed to Athabasca falls. Then we headed up to the base of Mt. Edith Cavell where we had some lunch and then the boys (the missionaries, David, Aidan and Xander) went on a little hike over a ridge to go so the beautiful glaciers and a little lake. The boys hiked the whole way! (45 mins there and back) Hailee and I just bummed around the parking lot and looked for rocks (since we were locked out of the van and couldn't take a nap :( ). Then we took the Elders to the town sight where they did some shopping and of course we all got some treats. On our way home we stopped in Hinton for some supper at BP's. YUM!! It was a great day and the weather turned out a lot nicer than was forecasted so we were all happy about that.

Belly Art

2008-07-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! So we have a tradition that every time I'm prego we color my tummy sometime in the last trimester (aka belly art). So we decided that for FHE we would let the kids go nuts. They thought it was pretty cool being able to color on mommy. They were a little obsessed with the belly button. David even got in on the action and drew the maple leaf....our little canadian baby! Not to much longer before we meet our newest addition...hopefully he comes sooner than later.

A few updates: Cousins and backyard fun!

2008-07-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

My biker dudes!
Cousin Isaac
Cousin Conner...what a cutie!
Cousin Zoe

Watermelon babe....she's in the middle of saying "Waaah" which means water and apparently watermelon too!

Aidan doing his "Cheese" smile...and looking a little beefy in this pic??
Can't forget Xander Man!

So the last few days we've had some fun company. Amy, Trev and the kids came up for a visit from Utah and came to stay at our place for a few nights. The weather has been really warm here so to cool off we hung out in the backyard and had some yummy messy watermelon! A great summer time snack. The kids all played really well together and we had a great time catching up. They also told us some really exciting news...I'm not sure if I'm suppose to share it or not but I'm too excited so I will anyways....they are moving back up to Edmonton!! YIPPIE! We were totally excited when they told us. Now we will be close to all of our family and cousins! Thanks for coming the Original Johnston Jungle family! ;)

}Camping fun!

2008-07-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

The novice campers (now experts! :D ).
Playing on the beach at Gull Lake.
Beach babe!
Beach studs!The kids with the cousins in their mini camp chairs.

Every year we try to make it out camping so that our kids get accustomed to it...since that's what David and I love to do. So we decided we better go soon...before baby #4 comes along. So we went just before the long weekend. This was Hailee's first time camping and she did awesome. All the kids slept well, it was nice and warm and we all had a blast. We went to Aspen beach (Gull Lake), specifically Brewers campground. It was suggested by my sista (thanks Dash, we had a great time!) and the kids loved it! There were playgrounds, a nice beach and a nice fairly warm lake to splash around in. The kids would have lived at the beach if the could of. I thought the kids would play shy with the water but the first visit to the beach Aidan jumped right in...he didn't even have his swim trunks on yet! Dash, Darren and the girls even came up for Friday to spend the day with us. It was a great camping trip and we can't wait to get out again....maybe not this year though. :)

Here fishy fishy...

2008-07-02T08:28:00.001-07:00

Ok, so for those of you who know David and I you know that we both LOVE the outdoors. So David and I decided it was time we taught the boys how to fish. So we went out and bought them their own little rods and tried to teach them the fundamentals of fishing. They still don't know how to cast but they are really good at reeling the line in. :) It was so cute watching my Boys fishing together. The boys loved every minute of it....even though Xander didn't even have an actual hook or bait on, he still thought he was really fishing. I love being able to teach our kids everything that our parents taught us and then the fact that they actually enjoy the same things as us is always satisfying too.

Two down....

2008-06-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, Xander is POTTY TRAINED!!! YEAH!!!! I actually achieved my goal this time of not having to change 3 diapers, since little one is due in about a month. This last weekend David was home and so I said "lets do it!" and we did....the third time around. We tried a very different method, a Xander method and it worked. So just like Aidan, he was potty trained within 3 days. 1st day about 5 or 6 accidents, 2nd 3 accidents and the third NO accidents and still no accidents my friends! And who said boys were hard to potty train??? He still wears a diaper to bed but we plan to remedy that in a few weeks hopefully. David was especially proud that he was the primary trainer this time. Good job dear! Just thought I'd spread the good news and cheer for all of you other moms and dads out there that are going through the "potty training" right now. Keep it up...it will work eventually!

Summer cuts and Ode to Hailee!

2008-06-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about that time of year again....SUMMER time! The weather has been getting warmer around here, between the rain storms that is, and the boys have been waking up with sweaty heads. So yesterday morning before church David and I decided it was time for the good old buzz cuts! Here are the before and after pics of the boys :)

Now on to Hailee. What can I say about this girl! She is the cutest thing alive but man can she sure get into things. Ever since she started walking she has been into everything, bugging everyone and on the destruction path! She sure keeps me on my toes 24/7...even though I can't even see my own toes anymore. Geesh! She is starting to really grow up fast. She can say a few words and follows simple commands. Even though she's quick to make a mess she will help clean it up to. She can still out eat the boys and loves to bug them constantly. She definately is the spice in this family, our little ball of energy!

Fun weekend....crappy colds!

2008-06-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hailee modeling a life jacket and cool shades. Soo cute!
The boys enjoying the beautiful day and party festivities.
The kids all sitting on the papa (L to R Aidan, Xander, Madison, the birthday girl Phoebe and Hailee)

We had a great weekend at my sistas. It was my nieces birthday and we made sure to be there to celebrate! Unfortunately myself, the boys and David were fighting a nasty cold bug. At least we didn't pass it to anyone....yet? It seemed to just recirculate between our little family. So the boys weren't their happy selves but at least they still had a lot of fun. The birthday turned out great with great food, great fun and great weather. To good in fact, the majority of us adults got a good sunburn. Thanks again Dash, Darren and girls for a great weekend!

Coversation of the day....

2008-05-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Setting; in the kitchen, me making lunch and Aidan sitting at the counter watching me.

Aidan: "mom, you getting big!"

Me: "what?"

Aidan: "mommy big"

Me: "I'm big?"

Aidan: "yep, mommy big. Big tummy, big eyes, big mouth...hee hee"

Me: laughing

Need I say more! :)

Just some cute pics

2008-05-28T14:25:00.001-07:00

My biker babes! hee hee
Cute little Hailee Bean!
Handsome dude!
Whoa...look out for the whale! Who took this picture and more importantly why am I posting it??

David with his new baby. You can kind see his swollen foot (it's the right one).
Xander the cutie pie with the fuzzy hair.

So yesterday and today have been so nice that all the kids wanna do is spend time outside in our backyard. So I just brought the camera out and started snapping away. I love having a backyard, all we need now is for it to be fenced in!

Now for a quick update on the kiddos!

Aidan - is loving soccer, is starting to talk back (loving it!) but is also sooo smart! He's using words more frequently now and will actually tell us what he wants instead of using his made up baby mumble jumble. So that is a relief! He knows all of his letters (almost all of the lowercase too now), counts to ten all the time, shapes and colors and he gets dressed all by himself now. I'm loving this independent stuff!

Xander - aka Mr. Sensitive has been just that! Especially lately. I'm sure he senses a change is coming with new baby and all. He's more interested in being potty trained than I am....no energy. But it will be done before this baby arrives (done the 3 diaper thing before and never again!). He has recently learned how to climb to the top bunk and is quite proud of that. And he follows Aidan around everywhere. He is the best helper when it comes to any house work and is always up for a good cuddle!

Hailee - aka the Bean. Is a little mischeif maker! Into everything!! Definately keeps me on my toes. Can walk and run everywhere, loves to wrestle and annoy the boys, loves climbing on everything and has recently discovered how to open doors! Yes my friends she is a quick learner. She loves LOVES to dance and has great rythym. She finally has some teeth, but we are still watching out for that nice thick crop of hair to come....any day now?? And of course has me wrapped around her little finger. Oh, did I mention this girl can eat! Like mother like daughter. That's my girl! hee hee

Fetus - (no Mandy that is not what we are going to name it :D ) still growing, making me nice and plump and kicks constantly! I'm prediciting this one is going to come early...hopefully around my sista's birthday (by the way Dash that will be your birthday gift...hee hee ;) ) Loves poutine (for you yankees, poutine is fries with cheese and gravy on top YUM!) and chocolate and making me tired!

There you have it folks. Thanks for stopping by!

My little soccer player

2008-05-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yes the shirt is a SUPER SIZE TO BIG!! Still stinkin cute!
LOVE IT! hee hee
The light blue team....aka the AWESOME team! hee hee
"can i play?"
Xander showing Aidan some skills with the ball.

So we decided that Aidan was old enough this year to join some sort of organized sports team...and soccer is the name of the game! I was unable to be there for his first game (due to a doctor appointment out of town) but was told that he did not to bad....kept running away but not bad considering a lot of other kids were just standing there bawling their little heads off or picking the ball up and running away with it. Since his first game I've been able to attend 2 more and it is hilarious! Worth the $60 just for the laughs you get! Aidan sure does love running though and prefers just to chase the ball around and when he finally catches up to it he'll usually stop and look around like "what do I do now?". Yesterday he had another game and he actually kicked the ball! YEAH!!! Xander really likes going to the games to and quite often is asked to join in the fun. It's so cute how much he looks up to his older brother. I guess it's official now....I'm a soccer mom! hee hee

Can you say blog neglect!

2008-05-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well, what a slacker I've been! Yes we are still alive and kick'n. I've been doing not to good in the picture taking department. In fact we just dug the camera out last night and I actually had to blow dust off of it! YIKES!! So I'll make sure to take some pictures over the next few days to put on here because the kids sure have grown...especially Hailee.

So a little update to what has been going on in the Johnston residence. David is trucking along working at the clinic. His final Canadian board exam is in June, so only a few more weeks to go! Then we just have to wait for the results and to be certified here in Alberta and then he's good to go cracking!

Also, a few weeks ago David decided to go and play some basketball. So I decided to try and do some much needed scrapbooking. Well, I just got everything out and organized and here comes David walking back through the door. I'm all "that was a quick game!" and I look and he's limping. What did he do you say? Well he landed on someone elses foot and rolled his ankle. It was the size of a grapefruit! The next day we took him to the hospital to get xrays. He had a grade 3 sprain and small evulsion (excuse the spelling) fracture. Stinker! So we got him some crutches and some good drugs. Poor guy! So here he is with crutches limping around and to make things even better, just this last weekend he got the good old "snip" surgery done too. Yep folks...no more kids are coming out of us! So to ease his pain I got him an early father's day gift, a new charcoal/smoker bbq! It seemed to cheer him up.

So this last weekend wasn't to fun for me either. With David being out of commision (since he couldn't carry anything over 30lbs plus having a bad foot), a couple of the kids decide to get sick too. Aidan had some sort of flu and Hailee had a cold and was breaking another tooth! Lovely! So now I'm running around, big and prego I might add, taking care of my three sick and hurt loved ones. Plus I made the DUMB decision to try and potty train Xander this weekend to. He was doing awesome too but after doing 20+ trips up the two flights of stairs to the bathroom I had to call it quits. Now that this weekend is over and everyone else is feeling better I woke up with a sore throat, aching ears and could barely move! Urgh! I'm just glad everyone else is feeling better.

So there you have it folks. A little update of what's been going on here. I'll be sure to post some pics soon and be better at taking pictures, now that all the drama is over with for now...hopefully. That is until this baby pops out (only a few more months to go!).

One Year Older and Wiser too!

2008-04-07T19:44:00.001-07:00

Here is the birthday girl on her actual birthday! What a big girl!

Cute photo op! The kids were all just chillin on the floor. What cuties!

Hailee the day of her birthday party, waiting for the yummy pizza and cake.

Aidan making his pizza, with grandma's help.

Chef Madde!

Chef Phoebe (my cute niece's!)

Xander slept through the pizza making part, but made sure to be there for the cupcake decorating. Smart kid!

Yummy cake....

....getting messier....

....hee hee. Love it!

Time to make some stuffables!

Hailee stuffing her kitty.

Xander stuffing moo moo the cow, with aunty Lauries help.

Madde and Phoebe stuffing their horse and pig.

Aidan with his monkey, grandma helping.

The finished product. Everyone full, happy and loving their new friends!

So Hailee turned the big numero UNO on April 2. I can't believe it's already been a year. My sister, her husband, their two girls and my mom came for the weekend so we decided to throw Hailee's birthday party when they were here. It was a "do it yourself" theme party. Everyone made their own pizza's, then we all decorated our own cupcakes and to top it off the kids got to stuff and name their own stuffed animal friend. The kids seemed to have a great time! David's parents and sister were there too to share in the festivities. Thank you all for coming and celebrating with us. We love ya!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

The happy egg decorators! Yep, we had them strip down to there unmentionables...can't mess around when dealing with permanent dyes.
Hailee enjoying observing the fun.
Coloring eggs. That's David's mom. His parents and sister Laurie were over for easter dinner and coloring fun.
Aidan the artist!
Xander the artist!
The Finished product.

So we had a great Easter weekend. We potty trained Xander...although he has seriously regressed to the point that he refuses to use the potty...so we may have to give it a break for a week or so and try again. That's another story though. ARGH!!! We cleaned out our unfinished basement, threw some rugs down there and hauled all the toys down there, so now the kids have a play room. I'm loving it! We had our Easter dinner on Sunday and the easter bunny came Monday morning. So overall a great weekend. Hope you all had a great easter too!

Dr. David Johnston

2008-03-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

This is the old David, unemployed and a poor student....
This is the new and improved David (Dr. David)....still poor but at least he's employed right??
Aidan celebrating daddy's Graduation with cake and icecream.
Hailee waiting for the yummy cake! Also celebrating (can't you tell by how excited she is!)
Xander also celebrating! Yeah for Daddy!

So David's offical last day as a student was this last Friday. He is now a real Dr. of Chiropractic. All he needs now is his licence...which won't be until summer time. But he happens to be employed by two very nice Chiro's who have offered him a job as a receptionist for the meantime. Yep, he answers phones...SWEET!! Congrats David, we are very proud of you!

The new pad

2008-03-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Well here it is....our home sweet home! Warning though, the upstairs is not finished being decorated and some of the downstairs too for that matter, so this is not the ultimate finished product, but at least you'll get the idea of what it's like...

So here is the outside in front. Ours is the one with 4016 on the garage and the garage door is shut. Our front entrance is to the right of the garage.

This the in front entry view from the living room. The door on the left is the main entrance and the door on the right is the garage entrance. Did I mention I love having a garage!! There is also a closet by the garage door.

Our lovely living room. (view from front entry). Love the gas fireplace and hardwood floors! Oh and the TV above the fireplace came with the condo. SWEET!!

A view of our office/computer corner. Just got the desk and bookcase at IKEA and love it! Just have to decorate it and make it pretty. (view from kitchen doorway)

Here is a view looking through the living room into the kitchen from the front entry.

Here is what you see when you first come into the kitchen. We will have blinds soon. The back door is off the the right of the buffet. We also have a basement and the door to the basement is directly to the right of this pic (right of doorway to kitchen). It's unfinished but David and I have big plans for it. We plan on putting a family/toy room, bathroom and extra bedroom down there. Our laundry room is also in the basement.

Here is what you see when you first come into the kitchen and turn to the left. Love my kitchen! Stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.

View of kitchen from back door. So much room!!!!

Here is our backyard. Yep we have a backyard, they just have to finish fencing it in...that'll be done this summer I'm assuming. There is a patio too, you just can't seen it too well under the snow.
You can see the church from our place too. This is a view from the back door.

View from the front door looking up the stairs.

The kids bedroom doors. Sorry no pics of the kids rooms, but you've seen one bedroom you've seen them all right? The one with the sign on it is the boys room and the one without is Hailee's (and fetus's :) )

View of the hall heading to the master bedroom from the top of the stairs. The door to the right is the main bath, then the linen closet and then our room.

View into our room from the doorway. Lots of space and best of all...no kids!! First time we've had our own room without a kid sleeping with us in 11 months!

View of our room from the window. That's my (Chrystal) closet. That's right, built-ins baby!

David's closet also with built-in's....yep, we have our own closets and we love it!

And last but not least, the master bath. It's small, but the shower is huge and it serves it's purpose....besides we've never had our own master bathroom and we are loving it!

So there you have it, our new home! We love it and can't wait for people to come visit us now!

The BIG update!

2008-03-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

So I guess I'll start at the beginning...we moved just before Christmas and made it safe and sound in Edson. We spent Christmas eve and day with David's parents and family. This is a pic of us Christmas morning before opening the gifts.

Then we headed down south to Cardston to have our second Christmas with my parents. The boys of course spent a lot of time on the quad with Papa A.

We also were at my parents for new years. We didn't do anything big, in fact David and I actually went to bed early New years eve. What party poopers we are. But we celebrated with the kids mid afternoon. They loved wearing the party hats and blowing the noise makers.

Pretty soon it was Xanders birthday. Xander turned 2 January 11th. We didn't have anything big for him, just his family, some cake and presents. He seemed pretty happy with that.

Yummy....Birthday cake. Aidan even helped Xander blow out the candles.

He got a bunch of balls and cars and stuff and of course since we are now back in Canada David thought it was appropriate to get him a hockey stick and puck (soft of course).

David tired after all of the birthday festivities. hee hee

David's parents have this stool that is a bear and the kids loved to play with it and pretend to ride it. Here is Hailee taking her turn. It was hilarious and she loved it!

Mullet man! hee hee. This is David's dad's winter hat but when we put it on Xander it looked like he had a mullet. LOVE IT!!!

Snowman #1. It's Aidan if you couldn't tell.

Snowman #2...aka Xander.

The boys playing outside in the snow. This was after a buttload of snow fell sometime mid January. The boys weren't to happy about being cold at first but they sure love playing out in the snow now. Especially since I bundle them up to the point they almost can't move!

For valentines the boys helped me make cookies...and of course enjoyed eating them too!

This was soo cute...Aidan and Hailee were being quite so I came downstairs to check on them and here they were reading books. What cuties!

Aidan getting ready for a snowmobile ride. The helmet was so heavy he could barely hold his head up.

The boys well....being boys. They have done this a few times, emptied the kleenex box. I guess it could have been worse right??

Hailee having fun in "the box". She is such a busy body that sometimes she just kept getting into trouble. So we had a big box with toys we'd put her in and she'd play in it and have a great time.

Little spike! hee hee

My sister Dallas and I spent a weekend at a crop at pigeon lake. We had a great time staying up late scrapbooking and creating some fun stuff.

We had a great time and look forward to next years retreat! Thanks Dash!

Bathing beauty. Such a pretty girl!
The Kids playing on the stairs before church.
Aidan kissing the baby belly...yep I'm sure showing now!
And last but not least the BELLY!!

So there you have it. We are now moved into our new place too. I am still unpacking some stuff and as soon as our place is all set up and looks presentable I'll take some pics to post on here. I should be all done unpacking by next week so make sure to keep stopping in to see pics of our new place. We love it here! But we sure do miss all of you down south. Thanks for stopping by!

GUESS WHAT??

2008-03-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

So the votes are in and most my family and friends guessed wrong. We found out via ultrasound last Friday (February 29th) that we are expecting another baby boy and he will be due on or around July 31st. So there you have it people! We are super excited and can't wait to meet the little guy.

Also, sorry about the lack of photos on our blog, but we are still living with David's parents and can't upload pics onto their computer. We should be in our new place next week and we have scheduled our internet to be set up next Wednesday (March 12), so after that be expecting a butt load of pics, because our camera is loaded with tons since December!!! Thanks again for all of you who have been keeping in touch with us. We miss you all!

A couple of Tags!

2008-02-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

What A Mighty Fine Man!

My friend Heather tagged everyone on her blog to answer these questions and I thought it was only fitting for Valentines Day afterall. And I challenge everyone who reads this to do it too!

All about my man...
What is his name? David W. Johnston
How long have you been married? Just over 5 years
How long did you date? Counting his mission...3 years
How old is he? 27
Who eats more? Right now we can probably eat the same...but normally he does.
Who is taller? he is by almost a foot
Who sings better? No comparison...he does!
Who is smarter? He is!
Whose temper is worse? Mine...although he has his moments too.
Who does the laundry? Me...he's suppose to put it away but I still do that to.
Who does the dishes? We both do
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Looking at the bed I'm on the right
Who pays the bills? I use to until I was late on a bill and then he wanted the responsibility! YIPPIE!!
Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn to mow...but I'm sure he'd be the one to do it.
Who cooks dinner? Me...but he's a great cook to. And he does ALL of the baking.
Who drives when you are together? 99% of the time he does...especially in the winter!
Who is more stubborn? We both are, but I'm probably more stubborn then him.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Usually David..he hates tension and will do anything to resolve it...even if it was my fault in the first place. What a guy!
Whose parents do you see the most? Definately his! We're living with them right now for crying out loud! They usually would come to visit us the most too anyways!
Who proposed? I threatened to, but he pulled it off before I did.
Who has more friends? Probably me
Who has more siblings? It's even, we both have 3
Who wears the pants? I'd like to think I do and I'm sure he likes to think he does to, but I think in reality we share the pants.

Happy Valentines day Sweetheart!! I love you very much and am so grateful to have you as my husband, best friend, father of my children and eternal companion!!

LOVE YOU DAVID!!!!

Momma Tag

2008-02-14T14:10:00.001-08:00

So I thought this was soo stinkin cute that even though I wasn't tagged I wanted to do this. My friend Jessica did this, what a proud mom she is. What better thing to talk about or answer questions about than being a mom! I tag everyone that reads this and is a mom to do this! Have fun!

Typical time of wake-up: between 7 and 8am...lately it's been 8 since my hubby is such a doll and gets up with the boys until he goes to work! Love you David!!
How long you have been a momma: Over 3 years
How many times have you been a new mom: 3 going on 4 times.... every kid is a new and wonderful challenge and a great learning experience!
How old were you when you became a mom: almost 23
Favorite Kids show: hmmm I find them all annoying but the boys favorite right now is Thomas (the train)
Least Favorite Kids show: All of them...the boys least favorite is Handy Manny...they freak out if I don't change the channel when it comes on! :)
Favorite chore: I actually like vacuuming and doing laundry
Least favorite chore: cleaning the tub and toilet!
Meal you cook most often: I cook something different every night for a whole month...so nothing comes to mind.
Kids favorite meal: Aidan is hot dogs (yum :P) and Xander is Peanut butter and Jam Sandwiches...Hailee eats anything you put in front of her!
5 things that make you smile when you are being a mom: 1. Hearing my kids laugh.
2. Seeing my kids smile. 3. When Aidan sticks up for Xander when Xander is in trouble! 4. When my kids tell me they love me! 5. When my kids give me hugs, kisses and snuggle!
Favorite thing your husband does with your kids: Plays and wrestles with them...he gets them laughing so hard all the time!
Last time you went out with no kids: Last night, I'm acheivement days leader and I had an activity.
If you could take your kids anywhere where would it be: Out camping....when it's warmer of course. They love being outside and so do David and I!
Favorite pastime/activity with kids: Anything outside.
1 thing you said you would never do when you were a mom: Never tell my child that I hate them or disown them, and never miss out on any special occasion in their life!
If you had an afternoon to yourself what would you do? Can you say SPA!!!!
1 thing you do that your mom did & now you do: Pin and tickle them to death...make bows for Hailee.
Favorite quality of your own mom: Held the best parties for us. Smoothered us with kisses.
Favorite kids book: Goodnight Moon
Best advice for a new mom: Talk to other new moms, don't be afraid to ask questions.
Scariest or most heartbreaking moment as a mom: Every time a kid fell down the stairs...yep every one of them fell! Probably the most scariest moment was when Aidan got really ill and we thought he had apendicitis and we spent most of the day and night in the ER with him...It SUCKS when you have a sick kid and can't fix them or take away their pain!
Most joyful moment as a mom: Every time I gave birth to my three beautiful babies! And I look forward to doing that one last time!
Last time your child told you they love you: A few hours ago! They say it a lot!
Last time you said I love you to your kid(s): A few hours ago. I say it a lot too!

Baby it's Cold Outside!!! BRRRR!!!

2008-01-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

This one is for all of you people out there that are at a warmer climate than us. This morning we woke up to -42 Degree Celsius weather. That's right my friends, you spit and it freezes before it hits the ground weather! But do you think that would shut down anything....no way! We're Canadain's afterall, skin made of leather...and now I know why! We listened to the radio to see what was closed and pretty much everything was still open, only the playschool was closed for today and the buses weren't running (they probably couldn't start!). But kids were expected to still get to school and people are still expected to go to work. I can't even believe that our van actually started this morning for David! Yep, he even went to work. CRAZY!! I even heard them say on the radio, "if you do plan on going out today, make sure all exposed skin is covered. If you start to feel numbness or see white starting to form on skin those are signs of frostbite and please seek immediate medical attention." YIKES!!! Our front door was even frozen shut! Only in Canada baby. I'll be enjoying my warm pj's all day thankyou very much!

Just thought you all should know....

2008-01-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

So I'm sure a lot of you know this already, and if you don't well SURPRISE!! We are pregnant with baby #4. That's right folks, we are almost done! The news seemed to be spreading quick and I've been getting a lot of email asking whether or not we were expecting, so I thought I'd just get it all out in the open now. So now you all know! We found out actually before moving up here to Canada, american Thanksgiving weekend. I still haven't been to a doctor yet (waiting to get under Alberta Health Care) and I'm not entirely sure when I got pregnant so I'm not entirely sure when the due date is. My guess would be end of July?? So I'll have to update you all when i know for sure. There you have it...our big news. Have a nice day! :)

Finally an update!!

2008-01-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Pictures are courtesy of Laurie....we couldn't figure out how to download our pics onto David's parents computer....hey at least you get to see something right! :)

The loot!
The kids opening gifts (that includes the big kid in the middle :) )

At grama and papa's new house

Hello all family and friends. I know it has been a while since most of you have heard from us but we have obviously been busy with the move, then Christmas, going to visit G&G Albiston and then coming back to Edson. Needless to say we are all a little sick of the van. So we are safe and sound here in Edson at G&G Johnston's home. Thank you again Claudia and Alvin for letting us over take your house for a while. :)

We arrived in Edson late December 22nd. The next day was sunday and to my surprise I neglected to leave out some sunday clothes, so our first sunday here I was branded as the rebel wearing my good old jeans! David was a sweetheart and wore his jeans too, just so I wouldn't feel too out of place. At least our kids were in their cute sunday attire! :) Then we had to unload our stuff into the storage unit, go through some boxes to get the things we may need for the next month or so and then I had to dig out the presents to wrap. Christmas has never crept up on us as quick as it did this year! It was a great Christmas and we were happy to celebrate it with family. The kids were spoiled, of course, and are loving all of their new toys.

The 28th David and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in style....on the road AGAIN. This time we were driving down to see my parents and have yet another wonderful Christmas with them. I think the kids really liked having two Christmas's...can ya blame them. We were certainly spoiled this year. We had a great visit with my parents and were even able to see Ken and Jessica and I got a surprise visit from one of my bestest friends Beth! We celebrated the new year in style too. We watched a movie with my parents and at 10pm called it a night and had our own little horra a little early. I know....big party poopers! We needed the sleep though, with all of the changes going on our kids have been lacking in the sleep department. Oh and Hailee has been teething so even our best little sleeper has been keeping us up every night!

On January 1st we headed back up north to Edmonton, had a wonderful dinner with David's parents and his sister Laurie and stayed the night there so we could check out David's parents new house that they are building (hence the last few pics). It's a pretty sweet house....lots of room for the grandkids to run around in.

Now we are back in Edson and trying to get life organized....lots of boring paperwork that I'll spare details about. We are loving it here so far and have already met a really nice couple that David went to school with and we will be having supper with them in the next week or so. David starts his internship tomorrow morning and is really excited about it. We may have also found a place to live too. So things are looking up for us. We are really grateful though that David's parents were sweet enough to let us live with them and we will be forever grateful for that! The kids love waking up and seeing papa and grama J. It's really cute!

Over all we are loving it here. It's pretty fun getting use to the Canadian way again. The cold weather is one thing (even though it's actually a pretty mild winter), we all got a nasty cold and are just getting over it. That and the fact that it doesn't get light out until 8am in the morning! That can screw a persons schedule up thats for sure!

So there it is...the update. We miss all of you back in the states and hope all is well with you. I will try to keep you all updated on things but I apologize in advance if the updates are not as frequent as they use to be. Once we REALLY get settled down in our own place I will be more diligent with the blog. Thanks for stopping by and if you want to stay in contact with us we check our email more frequently then we do this blog. Love ya all and miss ya all!

Congrats Chiropractic Graduate!!!

2007-12-16T16:21:00.001-08:00

Look what I've got!

This is David taking the Chiropractic oath....he the hot one behind the bearded man! lol

Future Chiro Graduate!

YEAH!!! HE DID IT!!! David Graduated yesterday, December 15th! I'm soooo proud of him. His parents were able to be here too, we are very grateful they could be here and I know they would never miss this momentous occasion. Thank you for coming Alvin and Claudia! He graduated with honors too (cum laude), soo we realllly proud of him! He has been so dedicated to his school, kids and me that I'm so impressed with all that he has accomplished. I opted to leave the kids home with a sitter so I could take a ton of pics and our camera ended up dying on me anyways! Thanks Jason for taking a butt load of pics for me. YOu are a life saver! It was a great program. I'm sure we will never forget this day! Congrats Dr. David! I love you very much!!

Our little architects

2007-12-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Building away.....and of course testing the materials periodically :)
Hailee supervising the construction

The Happy Builders
The Finished product. Not bad for a couple of toddlers and a messy mom!!

Tonight for our FHE activity we built a gingerbread house and the boys did an amazing job I must say. They literally did all of the decorating, they did have a few hints here and there from us but everything else was done by them. There was a ton of candy and most of it was consumed during the process of putting this little get away together. The boys had a blast, so this will definately have to go on the tradition list for every year.

} Ladies Night!

2007-11-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

Ladies Group (minus a few that couldn't make it....we missed you gals!)
Love the silly faces...still looking beautiful.

Last night was our monthly Ladies night, hosted by Emali M., and it was a blast! Thanks Emali! Since this was my last Ladies Night I'd be able to attend before moving I wanted to bring my camera to take pics of all of you wonderful ladies! You are all amazing beautiful women and wonderful friends and I will miss you all! Thank you for all the great memories and laughs. :)

{Ode to Phoebe}

2007-11-23T17:10:00.001-08:00

Dash, I thought you'd appreciate these the most! I think the "wipe sucking" gene comes from our side! hee hee! :D

Giddy up!

2007-11-12T08:39:00.001-08:00

Whenever David comes home from school the boys get soo excited because they know it's "daddy time". Usually that involves a lot of tickling, wrestling and horsey rides. They love to treat their parents as pets. Hmmmm....I wonder who really runs our home???

}Not yet pleasssse....

2007-11-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

This little girl is ALL OVER THE PLACE!! Literally! Nothing seems to be stopping her lately. 5 days ago she learned how to pull her self to standing, so now the things I use to place on chairs and our couchs to get out of her reach are no longer safe anymore. She has learned to climb the one step up from our livingroom to our kitchen....so I can't even hide in the kitchen anymore! It's free range for Hailee. I even caught her climbing the stairs the other day!! I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that. Now I'll have to try and find that darn gate to put up. I guess I was just hoping Hailee would stay my baby forever.....nope, that ain't gonna happen! She loves her brothers and wants to keep up with them and bug them....and she does a good job of that. I'll just have to wake up and realize that my baby girl is growing up. :(

Hello to Papa and Grandma Albiston/Johnston!!

2007-11-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hello Papa and Grandma Albiston and Johnston! The kids just wanted to say hi! We miss ya, love ya and are getting excited to see you soon! Love, Aidan, Xander and Hailee

*{ What the.....

2007-11-08T12:47:00.000-08:00

....how did you get there!?!? So this morning I when Xander finally woke up I sent Aidan up to get him. When he didn't come down with Aidan and didn't stop crying I decided to investigate and this is how I found him. He some how climbed up on top of the toy shelf and got stuck in between the bars! :D Kids do the weirdest things! I sure had a good laugh....but as you can see Xander didn't think it was that funny! :D

2007-11-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

}Family Photos are in!

2007-11-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

We just got our photos back from Heather today. We had our family photo shoot last Saturday and the results are amazing! Thanks Heather for doing an amazing job! Sorry there are a lot posted but they are all too cute to just choose a few!

Where do I live? ~ Journal Jar Challenge #1 Scrapbook page!

2007-11-06T23:11:00.000-08:00

So here it is, the first of hopefully many scrapbook pages from Tiffany's Journal Jar Challenges. Thanks Tiff for sparking the scrapbooking flame again for me, I needed this kick in the butt! ;D

Journal Jar Challenge #1

2007-11-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

So I decided to take the plunge and accept Tiffany's journal jar challenge. I need some serious practice with my journaling, so what a better way to practice than this wonderful challenge. "Where do I live?". What a great question. Hmmmm.... well currently our address is in Portland in the great state we call Oregon. This has been our residence for the past 3 years and we have loved every second of it. We are almost to the point of an extreme change in our lives.....David's graduation. The end of student life as we know it. The next step of life....a Career! A scary step meaning another transtion...a new place to "live". Canada. We are actually originally from Canada (not kidding eh!) but we have grown accustomed to the American ways and love it here. A few of the many things I love and will miss are shopping (specifically Target....love that store!), the 'suicide' lane (don't have those either....weird that I'll miss that to), authentic mexican food, 4 star hospitals, the ocean, ample camping and of course the people! So many things to list....these are just a few. I'm so glad I was able to get to know so many amazing people, that in my mind, are family. So for now I will take it all in while I can, enjoy every minute of living here in Portland and prepare to start the new phase of our lives.....living in the great white north, Edson, AB Canada.

Baby Blue Eyes!

2007-11-02T08:36:00.001-07:00

Just had to post these. Hailee has to be the cutest baby girl ever! I have no idea where she got the blue eyes from, but I sure hope they stay!

WWF Johnston Style!

2007-11-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Hailee has the first pin! Xander seems to be struggling under the stress of Hailee's super strong grip hold!
Oh....Xander goes for the "finger sucker" cheap shot!
Hailee still has him pinned.
Now Xander is sneaking up from behind...
OH...And he gets her! It's the "giddy up horsey" move! Folks it looks like this match is over! And it's a DRAW!!!

So my kids love to wrestle and recently Hailee has been getting in on the action and it's hilarious! The boys actually let her think she's got a chance and lay there and let her slobber all over them and giggle. Of course they retaliate after and she loves that too! Just another day in the Johnston home! :D

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hailee Our little bear! What a cutie!

Aidan the monkey!

Xander the frog

Chrystal the Princess
David the Pirate!

Halloween was so much fun! A friend of ours here at Tuxedo Park Apartments organized a Halloween party, a progressive party and it was a lot of fun! We started with a cake walk and pictures, then on to mumifiying the parents with toilet paper, painting pumpkins (that's what we did at our house), fishing for treats and eating doughnuts on a string and then finally scary stories! Lots of fun stuff to do. There was a pretty big turn out to! All the kids looked cute in their costumes, and even a lot of adults dressed up to! (Thanks Amy for the costume idea). Hailee was suppose to be a pumpkin but she grew in the last month and didn't fit into it....luckily we had the bear costume formerly worn by her brothers. Our kids had a blast. They definately got the whole trick-or-treating thing down...taking full advantage of each bowl of candy that was in arms reach! We didn't even have to leave our apartment complex to go trick-or-treating. There were lots of people handing out candy here and we ended up with a full bucket of candy for each kid by the end of the night. Just enough sweets to last us until next year!

Happy Birthday Aidan!

2007-10-29T20:15:00.001-07:00

Today we celebrated Aidan's 3rd Birthday! I still can't believe my little boy is 3 already. We had his party at the "pump it up" party place with a bunch of Aidan's friends. It was a blast!! I think the adults had just as much fun if not more than the kids. So thanks to all of you that came...we hope you all had fun!

Carving maniacs

2007-10-29T20:04:00.001-07:00

The carving crew.
Our niece Zoe...what a great helper!

Xander enjoying eating the pumpkin seeds and junk....yuck! Crazy kid!
Isaac, our nephew. What a cutie!
Aidan helping clean out his pumpkin

Sunday night we all carved pumpkins as a family activity with David's brother Trevor and his family. The kids had a blast....always a fun tradition!

What do you get when you toss a baby around just after eating...

2007-10-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

...puked on!! hee hee :D Take that uncle Trevor! ;)

Pick'n Pumpkin

2007-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

So we went out to Canby yesterday to pick some pumpkins. We rode on the train, played around, saw the animals and of course picked some pumpkins! David's brother Trevor and his family (Amy, Zoe, Isaac and Conner) came down to visit us for 5 days and we thought we'd go out and have some fun. Good times were had by all! I love this time of year!!

Guess who's 27??

2007-10-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Awwwww! Still just as cute today as the day you were born! Happy Birthday David!!

My Handsome Boys!

2007-10-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the boys. We had fun today posing and taking pics...and I had fun with photoshop too! Love that program! What cute kids we have!!

Hello Pretty Girl!

2007-10-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos I took of Hailee today...just for fun! I also played with photoshop with a few of them! And yes, her eyes are really that blue! LOVE IT!!

Update...sorry no pics :(

2007-10-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

So lots has been happening in the Johnston household. First of all Hailee is finally sitting on her own and crawling! Her crawling is hilarious though! She doesn't do the standard "hands and knees" crawl....no way! She is full out "commando crawler". She moves fast too. She's loving her new found freedom and pesters the boys by chasing them around the room. Anything and anyone on the floor is free game now. She is such a doll, is always smiling and giggling! She also said her first word the other day. It was "mama"! We were all sitting down for dinner and she just said it out of nowhere, clear as day too. I'm sure she had no clue what she just said, but she said it and that's all that matters! It made me feel really good, considering the boys' first words were both "dada". I guess she's a mama's girl! hee hee

Aidan is such a little stud! He's such a great helper lately. He watches out for Xander. We were out the other night going to Target and I got the boys out of the van and was going to get my diaper bag and Xander went running for the road, but Aidan grabbed his hand and pulled him back and told him "no Xander!". It was sooo cute! My little helper! He also loves to help clean up, do dishes and put stuff in the garbage. He's really into the Christmas movies lately....and it's not even November! His Grandma J would be soo proud.

Xander has just finished teething....again! He popped out 4 new teeth. So he's doing much better in the annoying whinning department. Although he is now into the "curious" stage...where he wants to get into everything! Loving it! We are currently working on getting rid of the thumb sucking, and he seems to be doing good with it. I told him that sucking the thumb is only for bedtime so he actually does make a concious effort to not do it....it's really hard for him and I have to remind him quite frequently but I know he'll get it soon. I'm going to be attempting the potty training with him after Halloween...I just can't handle his poopies anymore!

Also, we have officially decided where we are going to end up after David's grad. David got a job offer in Edson, Alberta Canada so we are heading back to the great white north eh! It's a great deal. We are pretty excited to be near family again but are very sad to be leaving the states and all of our amazing friends down here! We will be moving December 18th, right after David's grad....that is assuming everything goes as planned.

So there you have it, the Johnston update! Sorry there are no photos...blogspot is not letting me upload pics for some reason? As soon as it's fixed though I'll put some on, I promise! Thanks for stopping by and make sure to drop us a line!

Chrystal Needs....

2007-10-10T23:21:00.001-07:00

So I took on the Challenge that Tiff and Amy did and these are a few of the things that popped up (by the way Google didn't recognize "Chrystal" so I actually had to put in "Crystal"...just to clarify). What you do is go to google and type in your name and then needs (example "Crystal needs"). Pretty funny stuff.

1.Crystal needs a LOT of love. She just isn't getting it at home and it is unlikely she ever will. (By the way....not true! Getting plenty of love...if you couldn't tell by the 3 kids we've had in the past 2 1/2 years!! )

2.Crystal needs concrete directions, often repeatedly. (WHATEVER....ok, maybe sometimes)

3.Crystal needs some sunshine. (sounds good to me! How about Hawaii!)

4.Crystal needs a job. (That's why we are here in Portland....so I don't have to get Another job....already employed full-time by Aidan, Xander and Hailee....and might I ad they are the cutest employers I've ever worked for!)

5.Crystal needs to sit in a super-saturated solution to continue growing - hmmm would my hot tub qualify? and which way would I be growing? (Don't quite understand this one but whatever!)

6.Crystal needs your donations! (YES I DO! I like this one!)

7.Crystal needs improvement. (Not according to David...hee hee!)

Well there you have it. You better all do this too. Just for fun.

} My new hobby

2007-10-01T15:15:00.001-07:00

My first big bow I made...not my favorite but still cute!

This one is my FAVORITE!!! Just plain white but goes with everything!
Close up of my favorite white bow!
The very first bow I made....a little pink one.

This one I actually made to match an outfit when Hailee is 12 months old...so it's suppose to be super big!

I actually made this one Saturday night to match her Sunday outfit! See....OBSESSED!

Pretty purple.....another one of my favs!
Ok...this one's pretty big! Just experimenting I guess.
Another one of my favs!
This one I also made to specifically match a Sunday outfit. Love it!!!

Ok, so I just recently started making bows for my pretty Hailee, thanks to Emali Mollenhauer! Thanks for teaching me Emali! Now I'm completely obsessed with bows and making a bow to match every outfit in Hailee's closet! Can you blame me....she looks adorable! So I thought I'd share the bows I've made so far and of course Hailee was my model.

multanomah falls

2007-10-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

Xander, Grace, Taylor, Aidan and Rilee
What a little stud!
Stud #2!

Here comes the train! Emali, Grace, Aidan, Taylor, Rilee and Jason
GraceTaylor....contemplating life.
Hailee my beautiful doll!
Xander, Aidan and Rilee.

These were taken a week from last sunday...yes I'm slow! A bunch of us from Tuxedo Park decided to go to the falls for a nice Sunday afternoon activity.....to enjoy the beauty of nature! The kids all had a blast and even wanted to hike up to the bridge. Fun was had by all!

Old McDonald had a Farm...

2007-09-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Xander feeding the cute baby goats!
Aidan feeding the goats
Our new friend Grace....what a doll!
Grace and her dad Lance feeding the goats.
Watch out big momma! This one looked like she was about to pop!

hee hee!
Hailee and her adorable smile!
CHEESE!
The nut house
The nuts!

Look at those three silly kids!
Nice dress Aidan :)
Mmmmmm....ice cream!

So our friends the Mollenhauers and us went to this farm by Canby (Fir Point Farm I think is what it was called??). They had a bunch of little baby goats, momma goats, chickens and rabbits there to feed. It looked as if they had a bunch of other fun activities to do too but they didn't have them open yet...not until October anyways....preparing for the Halloween festivities! But the kids had a blast anyways. And they also had a cute little market there with fresh produce and yes...ICE CREAM. So we finished our fun afternoon off with some yummy ice cream cones. You can tell Xander really enjoyed his :).

~ Our little Scare ~

2007-09-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, first of all I'd like to say that my prayers go out to those parents out there that have to deal with sick/hospitalized children on a daily basis. With that, here is what we went through yesterday. So our morning started out normal...kids woke up early, ate breakfast and began their daily routine of playing, whinning etc. Then Aidan came up to me whimpering that his tummy hurt. I figured that he hadn't gone poop yet and that he just needed to go to the bathroom. He did, but only a little bit. Then he didn't bother me for a bit. Next thing I know he's crying and complaining his tummy hurts. I tried to console him but nothing seemed to settle him down. After about an hour of this I figured he still needed to go the bathroom and was maybe a little constipated (which is unlike him in the first place). So I sat him down but nothing came and the pain got worse and the next thing I know he's throwing up! Then his eyes start rolling back like he's going to pass out (all of this happening while he's sitting on the toilet). Instantly my red flag popped up and something told me "something is really wrong" so I called David (for the fourth time by now) and told him to get home NOW!! This time he didn't argue with me and tell me that I was just over-reacting (which I usually do...yes I'll admit it I'm one of those moms). So while I was trying to keep Aidan awake Jason popped by to take a look at him. Pretty soon David got home and we were off to the doctors. After the doctor examined him she told us "to me it looks like either a bowl obstruction or appendicitis...so I'm going to call an ambulance and get him transported to the ER for further evaluation." Get this, her next line was "now I don't mean to alarm or scare you..." ummmm, a little to late for THAT!! Anytime you hear "appendicitis" and "ambulance" in the same sentence it's not very reassuring that your kid is going to be ok! So they did some more lab work, Aidan threw up two more times and I happened to catch it (why do mom's instinctively catch pewk!?) and pretty soon we were riding in an ambulance to the Dorenbecher (sorry for all the spelling mistakes by the way) childrens hospital ER. When we got there he threw up again and I caught it yet again and then the doctors there started poking and evaluating him. I lost count how many times they drew blood or checked his annal cavity. I'm sure I broke down a few times during the day. Who wants to see their child in this much pain!? No one. Finally one of the four doctors taking care of Aidan came in and told us his diagnosis...something similar to bowel obstruction, and I'm not even going to try and spell what it was he said so I'll just describe what it was. Basically part of your intestine relapses inside itself like a telescope and gets stuck and is very painful and causes a bit of an obstruction, causing abdominal pain, vomiting etc etc. He said he wanted to do some more tests to see if it was really that and then they would think about tests for appendicitis...so yep that still wasn't out of the picture. So they put and IV in him to give him some much need fluids (that wasn't fun to watch) then they sent him for an X-ray. When we got back from that it dawned on me that we hadn't given him a blessing yet. So I asked David to give Aidan a blessing and he quietly leaned over and offered a priesthood blessing. Right after giving the blessing David told me Aidan was going to be just fine. Soon we were headed to the ultrasound lab to see if was this intestine telescope thing and to see if they could see his appendix. Anyhoo, when we got back to his room after this it was like nothing had even happened to Aidan! He did a total 180! He started walking around, being his little inquisitive self, looking at all the things with wheels in the rooms, pointing out colors and being sassy! Then the doc came in to examine him with kind of a weird look on his face. He said the ultrasound didn't show anything, but he said he knew he felt the bulge when he did his initial exam and now the bulge was gone. David and i just looked at eachother and we knew that Heavenly Father answered our prayers and healed our son (or else he would have had to have a air enema and a possible CAT scan to rule out appendicitis). The doc was even confused at his sudden recovery! He said that this sort of condition will on a rare occasion cure itself but usually they have to fix it. He said Aidan was a lucky kid, but we knew luck had nothing to do with it....it was all Heavenly Father!

The moral of the story, give a blessing sooner! I am sooo grateful to be a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and to be married to an amazing husband who is worthy to hold and us the priesthood blessings as we see fit to use them. I have a stronger testimony now for priesthood and the power of prayer. And I'm still thanking my heavenly father for helping heal our little Aidan! To the Young's, Thank you soo much for taking Xander and Hailee at the last minute and watching them all day and for cooking our meal for the Goodmans (sorry about that Marykaye and Chad). And to the Mollenhauers, Thank You for helping watch our kids too. You guys are amazing friends and we can't thank you enough. We really do appreciate it. We are so grateful to be surrounded by such amazing friends who we really see as Family! Thank you all so much!

}Double Date

2007-09-19T11:28:00.001-07:00

David watched the Young's girls, Taylor and Rilee, one night and happened to take these cute pics of the four of them watching a movie together. It totally looks like they are on a double date! To cute!

Video of Hailee sitting! For you Relatives far away! :)

2007-09-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of Hailee sitting by herself and of her new earings! TO CUTE!!

Sitting Pretty :)

2007-09-18T14:19:00.001-07:00

So Hailee has been sitting pretty much on her own for the past week or so and I finally took some pics ...what a slacker mom I am. She's even been trying to crawl...not yet please!! I already have a hard enough time chasing after my hyper boys not another one! hee hee

Also, you'll probably notice from the above pics that we finally got Hailee's ears pierced! Today actually! YIPPIE!! She did pretty good, only cried for about a minute. But she sure does look stinkin CUTE with that bling on her lobes!!! Oh the things we do to look pretty. heehee

Our Jolly Jumper!

2007-09-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of Hailee going nuts in the jolly jumper. She loves this thing! The last two pics I was fooling around with Photoshop...I love that program!

} Ebay cons take that!

2007-09-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

This one is for all of you that have at one point in your life been scammed by a fellow ebayer!Some of you may already know this story, but oh well. My blog, I get to vent! (or in this case CHEER!!) About a month ago I purchased a rather expensive item on ebay and was way excited about it since I was actually saving about $100! So I buy it and all is good....then a week goes by and no stamps (that's what I bought by the way)....then almost two weeks. So I decided to email this "seller" to see what was up! It turned out my package was "damaged" and "lost" in transist. Were you going to tell me that? I think not! So I kindly asked for my money back and the reply was "I'm not liable for products once shipped." Oh NO YOU DIDN"T! First of all the buyer is always right, especially if you recieved the money asap! Second, if you don't offer extra insurance for shipping you ARE liable. THIRD, you obviously did a crap job of packaging something so expensive that it was damaged in transit! And of course FOURTH, You don't mess with ME (especially when I don't have that money to spend in the first place!)!! So then began an exchange of emails for yet another week and an investigation on my part. Anyhoo, I ended up filing a claim with Ebay and Paypal and what do you know.....We WON!! SUCKER!!! Not only did paypal give us our money back but they took it from her account instead of from our protection insurance (I guess everyone has it that is with paypal). SWEET VICTORY!!! I'm sure she learned her lesson and so did I! One for the Johnston's.... zero for the "seller". Thanks for listening and now I do my victory dance! hee hee :)

Yep, one more post...it was a LONG weekend afterall!

2007-09-03T20:57:00.001-07:00

Rub-a-dub-dub 3 Kiddo's in the TUB!

This is probably the first time the three of them have been in the tub together and they were having a blast, giggling, splashing and making silly faces! I love bath time!

Hailee's first taste of food!

2007-09-03T20:51:00.001-07:00

So Hailee turned 5 months old this weekend, so we decided to let her try her first solid food. We usually do rice cereal first, so that's what she got. Poor kid! I think the stuff is disgusting...and it looks as though she does too. She's been a good sport though and at least eats 1Tbsp every morning. Maybe we'll move onto something more yummy like the FRUITS!!

Enchanted Forest

2007-09-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

This Long weekend has been a blast! Probably because it's the first weekend David has been home for quite a while so we got to do some stuff as a family. We decided to talk the kids to Enchanted Forest near Salem and they had a blast. The boys were actually able to go on a few rides and loved going through the storybook lane, reading all the nursery rhymes and just running around exploring! Good times were had by all!

Splash time fun with the Tuxedo Kids!

2007-08-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

All the kiddos from Tuxedo (minus Kaylee and her new baby sister McKenna...Congrats by the way!) Left to Right: Aidan, Xander, Taylor, Rilee Bottom: Abigail and Jackson

WEEEEEE!!!
"A eaaaf!"
Taylor giving Hailee some love'n
Aidan, Xander, Taylor and Rilee.....Watch out for this bunch!

Another fun day outside on the Tuxedo Park patch of grass. Every once in a while when it's soo hot that we can't stand to stay in our little townhomes we all gather on the patch of grass and let the kids splash around in Mandy's plastic pool. It's always a fun time and I'm sure we won't have too many of these days left pretty soon, so we'll enjoy them while they last.

Fun at the ZOO!

2007-08-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hailee just hanging out as usual, not knowing what's going on!
Hee hee! There you go Mandy, I couldn't help myself! I had to post this pic of Rilee. Cutie!

A sheep says "BAAAAA".
Looking at the hippo!

Look mom, a zebra! Neigh!
My little poser!

Today we went to the zoo with Mandy and her kids, Tiffany and her kids and Heather and her kids. I'm always a little intimedated to go out on my own with three kids, but man were they good today! Only one scare (Aidan bolted on me once and it took me a few minutes to find him....little turd scared me half to death!) Fun times were had by all and of course the kids and I and Tiff and her kids all rode the train to finish things off. It isn't a trip to the zoo unless you ride the train, at least that's what Aidan thinks!

Big Boy Toys!

2007-08-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

Of course Hailee was there, and she's so cute I had to throw in a pic of her too!
Aidan in the big rig!
Aidan (way in the back corner), Xander, Rilee, Taylor, Becka and Christopher.

Aidan driving the big digger!
Aidan driving the big digger and honking the horn!

Yesterday the kids and I went to this big trucks thing that Fairview had going on (thanks Tiffany for telling us about it!). The boys loved it! They had every big truck you could think about there. And the best part is they let you climb all over in them, which the boys absolutely loved! They also came home with a bag full of goodies (pencils, stickers....stuff like that) and a firemans hat (you can tell Aidan likes his!). Oh boys and their toys!

"I did it!"

2007-08-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

YAHH! We put underpants on Aidan last night to sleep in for the first time and he woke up dry! YIPPIE!! Thanks for the tip Amy about making him go pee before we go to bed. I'm so proud of you Aidan. No more diapers anymore! "I'm a big boy now!"

Kiddo Update...Look what we can do now!

2007-08-22T12:50:00.001-07:00

A little update on the kiddo's for all of you family and friends we don't see often.

Aidan, is such a smart kid! He knows his alphabet, numbers 1 to 10 (sometimes I even hear him count to 15), all of his shapes and colors and body parts. He's potty trained (which I'm totally loving!) and he is such a good little helper. Whenever we go anywhere he knows to hold onto Xander's hand for me. He is really into the wrestling thing, and thank heavens Xander doesn't mind. He's also totally obsessed with trains and watching the "talking words factory" by leap frog! I wouldn't be surprised if he starts spelling words since he's watched it oh I don't know..... A MILLION times!

Xander is not a happy camper lately. He's teething and he is such a grouch when he doesn't feel good, and can ya blame him. He's into this "I'm gonna scream until I get my own way" phase....aka the terrible twos! So he's been a bit of a handful lately. He is, however, already catching onto the potty thing and pees on the toilet every night and has even gone #2 a few times on the toilet too! So I'm sure he'll be trained when is two. He's even talking alot too and tries to count. He is my little cuddler though, and is always willing to give me lots of hugs. He loves to dance and sing and is obsessed with "little einsteins" (freaks out like a teenage girl when it comes on in the mornings) and anything that Aidan is playing with. I guess it's a good thing that he looks up to his big brother right?

And Hailee, my little angel! I'm serious...she should win the "Most perfect baby" award, if it existed! Most of the time I forget she's even there! She is always smiling and happy. She only cries when she's hurt/in pain, hungry or really messy (diaper). She is a rolling machine lately, and I've even seen her trying to pull her knees up under her. She's also been drooling a lot, so I imagine some teeth are moving in. She's growing up WAY to fast. She loves playing with toys now and will spend hours in her exersaucer or jolly jumper, I guess anything that holds her vertical. I'm totally in love with her piercing blue eyes and I just hope they actually stay that color.

So I think that about does it. David and I are doing great too! David is getting lots of visits in the clinic and a few offers for jobs already...just gotta decide what is best for our family. We'll let you all know when we know for sure (maybe by the end of next month???)!

Oh my boys....

2007-08-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Classic Xander pose, thumb in mouth, finger up nose and hanging onto his ear!
My biggest baby! hee hee

Can I say I have the cutest/funniest kids ever! They have such funny quirks. The other day Aidan asked me to wrap him up like "baby ailee" (and that wasn't a type-o, he really does call her that because he can't pronounce the "H"). I wrapped him so tight he couldn't move. We all got a good little giggle out of it. Also, Davids sister Shauna, her husband Duane, their two kids Emily and Christopher and David's mom Claudia were all visiting us last week. They got a kick out of Xander and his "double plug" (one up the nose and the other in the mouth). They even got to see the quad plug. Oh yes, double thumbs and double the picking baby! hee hee. We still have yet to catch that on film. We were lucky enough to get the above pic! It was fun to have them here, but it's nice to have my home back to myself too. Having 5 extra people in our little townhome can't get pretty tight. Sorry about the blog neglect. I've been slacking on a lot of things, including taking pictures of my kids. I will leave the camera out so I can snap more shots to share with you all.

One down....two to go!

2007-07-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Yippie! Aidan is finally potty trained! We, well actually I, decided it was time and this last weekend we took the plunge to the unknown world of potty training and won! It was a tough weekend but we all came out alive. The first day he had a whopping 8 accidents (saturday), the second day (sunday) he had 2, yesterday he had 1 and today none so far and he woke up this morning with a dry diaper (yep he's still in a diaper at night, for now anyways....we aren't THAT brave!). He still has a bit of an issue with pooping on the toilet but he did do it once, yesterday. It's soo nice to have only 2 diapers to change now. I know some of you are thinking "TWO, that's still awful!" but believe me it's better than THREE! And the great thing about all of this is that Xander is really interested in the toilet now and wants to sit on it everytime Aidan does. Monkey see monkey do right! So he's next....not for a bit though. I need to recover and get more energy to do this all over again. But I just wanted everyone to know how proud I am of my little man in his big boy underpants! And if any of you are interested in the book I purchased online to utilize the same methods just let me know because it worked for me! Good luck to anyone who is about to embark on this similar adventure....it's hard work but worth it in the end!

A cool treat!

2007-07-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

We recently introduced the boys to otter-pops (aka freezies for us Canadian folk) and now it's their favorite treat! Which is nice because they are great for hot days, not to mention cheap!

Hailee...you're getting so big!

2007-07-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I decided to pull out the exersaucer yesterday, to see if Hailee could handle it already and yep she could. She loved it! and so did the boys. I can't believe she is already supporting herself so well, rolling and jumping in the jolly jumper! She just wants to grow up so fast and I want her to slow down.

Summer Hair cuts!

2007-07-23T10:42:00.001-07:00

Here are the boys modeling their new summer do's! We decided to buzz their heads last night because they have been having sweaty heads every night....yes they actually had enough hair before to cause them to have sweaty heads. Now they look bald again, so it really does look like I have three babies! ;)

More pics of our Trip

2007-07-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

Look at those muscles. hee hee. All of us cooling off at the creek.
Just cooling off at the creek. It was 100 degrees that day!

It looks like we have another thumb sucker! GREAT!
Xander that's for shooting not drinking!
The boys at the Legislative building pools in Edmonton.
Xander and cousin Christopher.

Aidan splashing around.

AWWWWW! Papa Johnston getting some cuddles in with Hailee.
Quading fun! The boys loved to ride papa's quads.
The whole family at Athabasca Falls in Jasper.
AWWWWW!
Grandma Johnston, Papa Johnston, Xander and Aidan at Athabasca Falls

All the cousins, Dwayne, me, Julie, Dallas and Kenny
The four cousins, me, julie, dallas and jannel
The happy bride and groom, Jessica and Kenny
Four generations. Me, Hailee, Grandma J and my mom.

Proud daddy with the offspring!

Love this pic of Aidan! What a stud!
Cutie! Phoebe
My new sister-in-law Jessica and Madison!
Gage and Hailee! Cute kids!

Dad, Ken (the groom to be) and Mom

David and Aidan riding a horse. YEEE HAW!
Cousin Julie, her son Gage and Hailee
Papa Albiston and Xander
Papa Albiston and Xander sharing thumbs!

Phoebe and Aidan

Here are some more pictures of our Trip to Canada....and they are in no particular order. Enjoy!

We're Back!

2007-07-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hello All! Sorry about the serious Blog neglect, but we've been busy traveling and getting our lives back into order since we've been home. For those of you that didn't know this, we went up to Canada for 2 1/2 weeks for David's break. We did a ton of fun things and saw almost everyone. We first stopped at Leisy's (thanks again Abby and Ryan for letting us stay with ya twice), that's what the pics above are from. Stinking cute kids EH! (that one is for you guys ;) ). We had a blast and the boys played soo good together. We miss you guys down here in little Tuxedo park. Then we went to my parents and stayed for 5 days. My little bro Kenny got married June 23 and that was fun! Congrats again you guys. So I now have a beautiful sister-in-law which I'm totally excited about. Welcome to the family Jessica! We also had a little family reunion at my parents house and were able to see a lot of long lost relatives hee hee! It was good to see you all. Then it was up to the great north to visit David's family for a week. That was great. The boys followed PaPa J. around and we were able to have fun and get a lot of work done on my inlaws house. It's looking good! We were able to play around on the quads quite a bit too, the boys LOVED that. Then it was off to the Schades residence. It was great to catch up with everyone, do some swimming and just to hang out. On our way down we stayed with my parents again (tubbed down the river and got a good sunburn!) and again with the Leisys. Thank you again and again to everyone for letting us bunk at your homes and visit with ya. We loved seeing all of you and miss you all very much already. I'll post more pics later of our great adventure. So keep looking and I'll try to do better with posting blogs. Thanks again and Love you all! Oh, and David is now in the Clinic! YIPPIE!!! He already got one visit (thanks Mandy!!) The rest of you better come in to see him!! hee hee

Can't just have one!

2007-06-12T13:09:00.001-07:00

These were taken Sunday, after church (hence why we are all in pj's). I was just rocking and cuddling Hailee, then Aidan wanted to be held. So I pulled him up on my lap and then of course Xander wanted to be held. So I pulled him up to. By this time Hailee wasn't enjoying sharing me, but I loved it! I love all of my babies and any time they want to be rocked, even if it is at the same time, I'll always have enough room on my lap!

Bonneville Fish Hatchery "Free Fishing Day"

2007-06-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty rainy day but that didn't stop us from getting out. We, along with John, Jada and Owen McFarlene (I hope that's how it's spelled) went to the Bonneville fish hatchery for Free Fishing Day for the kids. It was pretty cool. We had to register when we first got there and then the kids each got their own passport and had to walk around to all these informational booths to earn stamps on their passport to go fishing. They learned about not littering, water safety, animals, wildlife and different species of fish. As you can see they even had some stuffed wildlife there for the kids to touch. They even had some games and then of course they had free fishing. The boys each got to catch two fish. Since they were in the 4 and under category, they fished from tanks that were holding a bunch of rainbow trout. They loved it!! Unfortunately they had to be accompanied by an adult at all times so we were unable to take an actual picture of them fishing, which is to bad because they sure were cute with their little fishing poles. Hence the after shots with me holding the fish with Aidan. We were drenched by the time we got home but it sure was fun....and did I mention FREE! We even got to keep the fish, all four of them. It's a good thing I like to eat fish (wink wink). Fun times!

Pool fun!

2007-06-09T13:56:00.001-07:00

So we bought the boys a mini blow up pool to entertain them on those hot days...and we finally had a nice warm day yesterday. They were so excited to play in it. They must have stayed in it for 45 minutes! Until they were nice and pruney. Hailee even enjoyed watching them play around and got a bit wet herself.

2007-06-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just had to post these pics of our kids because well.....They are just so stinking CUTE!!! I especially love the hairdo Xander is sporting, totally shows his personality...CRAZY! hee hee

Time Sure Flies By!

2007-06-01T11:18:00.001-07:00

First of all...no laughing! I was looking through some old pics and realized that A LOT has changed since I was little. DUH! Obviously. I found the pic of the day that my family and I were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Idaho Falls temple. In the photo is my family (my sista Dallas, my mom and dad, my bro Ken, myself, my Grandma A) and the two missionaries who helped through our conversion into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Lynn Porter and Rob Oaks. We have all sure changed since then. Even Lynn and Rob have changed. How do you like the photo Lynn? Also, the little boy in the pic is my little bro Ken and guess what....He's getting married the end of June! If that doesn't make me feel old I don't know what will. Hmmmm....maybe having three kids already and realizing in just over 4 years I'll be 30! YIKES! Can I also say that I love the hairstyle my mom is sporting! Mom if you are reading this, that was some hot hair.