The Johns Life

Let The Summer Games Begin!

2011-06-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've got Kings of Leon playing and my french press coffee in hand, so it must be time to blog. Because I am such a Hipster. Wait, are we over Kings of Leon because they are too mainstream now?? Does this lower my Hipster status? Whatever, I am cool! I'm a cool 30 year old mother of 4 gosh darn it. You all think cool thoughts about me as you read this blog all about my jewel of a daughter Chloe Ava.

As most of you know by now, we are at baseball/t-ball games 4 days a week between Peyton and Chloe. Chloe has games Mondays and Wednesdays. She is my best friend, and she reminds me of this quite often. Look at her! Is this not the cutest little thing ever? This picture was taken at her first T-ball practice. I told her even if T-ball wasn't her thing, at least she looked amazing! All color coordinated in her pink and black.

Anyways, she loves T-ball as it were and it makes me laugh a little because I was certain sports would not be her thing. I mean we are best friends here, she is supposed to be all dancey-dancey like her Mama.

I would like to introduce you to team Star Wars. Chloe is standing there next to her bestie Taylor. They both wanted to be named the Mustangs but all the boys put a veto on that one. Thank you boys for being such meanies! The Star Wars played against the Fire Balls on Monday. It was an Epic battle of the Galaxies.

After Chloe got over the confusion of realizing she was right handed unlike her brother, she got the hang of hitting the ball. She had watched Peyton so much, that she kept trying to bat left handed and even told the photographer taking team photos that she was left handed. Thats what happens when you work constantly with one child and not the other. She hits most times off the coaches pitches and not the Tee. (which surprised the heck outta me!)

She gets plenty of coaching from her older brother Peyton. He loves cheering her on, a complete, lovely change from the constant fighting that goes on between them. Its actually brought them a lot closer. I'm hoping we only have 1 year of T-ball because going from Peyton's Jr Midgets to Chloe's T-ball makes me want to bang my head into a wall. Each team gets to go through the entire line up. Twice. Its like the never ending game.
Its worth it though to watch Chloe enjoy herself out there. How did she get 6 1/2 already? Ugh my beautiful baby, stop growing!!

The Vegetannual

2011-06-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

The what?? Ok, so it sounds weird but I found this very helpful in my Hippie Revolution. In Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, she had this diagram to illustrate when we should be eating what vegetables. (I would really love one for fruit as well, but I'm just going with this one for now) This I believe is a baby step I can follow along with easily until I have an amazing garden growing. I can easily go to the many Farmer's Markets in Washington County and be able to buy what is in season. The Farmer's Markets are great too because alot of them have vendors that don't use pesticides.

Now I was on thepioneerwoman.com website yesterday, as always, and I saw her post on making her own pumpkin puree and freezing it. The post was so helpful and inspiring. I love that she uses so many pictures because I am such a visual learner! Anyways, come October we are going to have a Pumpkin Puree Par-tay. And it will be fabulous.

Baby steps are going to be very important on this journey of mine. That and not judging myself too harshly! My first goal when my revolution started was to try and control the foods I put into my kids mouths as best as I could. The easiest thing I could do to start toward change, was cook as much food from scratch as I could. That wasn't hard, and I felt like things were heading in the right direction. To date, I've kept that up and I've found some really great new recipes along the way. As well as a great sense of accomplishment when I make something that I thought was way beyond my skill level! Its like playing Sims! I don't have the extra money right now to buy a whole grass fed cow, or buy my own pig. My backyard won't accommodate a chicken coop, and I think my neighbors would complain. Those are goals and they will happen, but for now I am taking pride in the small things that we are doing.

Rosie's Gone Farmgirl Hippie

2011-06-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that as of late I have become a little bit of a hippie. Don't worry, I still shave my legs...as often as possible. I've done some really great reading and watched some very eye opening documentaries. I recommend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and then watching the documentary Food, Inc. (Its on Netflix) They go hand in hand, and at first are overwhelming, but if you take things in baby steps it will be easy. This is what I have learned:

1. We don't work hard at ANYTHING! I'm lazy. More so than any of you. I know this to be fact. We were made to search and scavage for our food, work hard and plan ahead, prepare. The simple fact is, we don't. We can walk to the pantry and pull out any boxed pasta mix that doesn't ever expire and serve it to our growing babes. Weird.

2. Old School Christian thinking: If its in a documentary then its not true...only propaganda made by hippies. Why is it that as Christians many people dig their heels in at any thought process that strays from what we were taught? How could the FDA allow us to eat anything that would make us sick, cause cancer or early onset puberty?? They just wouldn't. Right. (I'm getting really preachy now...sorry!) Anyways, I sat down the other day and read Proverbs 31. Nooooo! Gets me every time! The Wife of Noble Character....you mean I really need to get up before the sunrises?? This stuff isn't new. God meant for us to be planning, preparing and working for our food and feeding our children. I don't think he meant boxed pasta when he said she provides food for her children. Just a thought.

3. Its so overwhelming I don't know where to start! And have I already ruined my children? (Peyton has signs of Early Onset Puberty) I have all this information now, what the heck am I going to do?? Well do more research I guess. Look at what fruits and Veggies grow naturally in Oregon and in what season. Learn the art of canning...a lost art really. Plant what I can in my small backyard. Find farm fresh eggs...easy to do in Banks.
Well while I was knee deep in this hippie revolution. I got invited to a Farmgirl Sisterhood meeting. Reading the flier I was stoked! 1st off I noticed that I had to wear an apron to the meeting. 2nd I could earn badges like a girl scout for things like sewing, being good neighbors, farming, ect. 3rd by earning the badges I could learn things I wanted to learn anyways. Things I want my daughters to know. I have to sew a Bakeover Takeover and fill it with homebake goodies and take it to a new neighbor. (Bre Vandecamp style) I love it though! Look it up if you want, the website is www.farmgirlsisterhood.org and it has all the info. It was started by a woman named MaryJane and she believes all woman should wear an apron at all times. We should all turn off the TV, get off the computer (I'm trying!), put down our cell phones and go outside and get our hands dirty.

This is right up my alley right now! I'm about to move out to the forest, and build a farm out of the trees. I'm sort of kidding. Anyways, I hope you all know I am NOT preaching here! This is more of an inspirational pep talk to myself, trying to remind myself of what I have learned and what I need to do. Baby steps.

This is my Mom, Chloe and Me at our first meeting

Another website that I love right now is www.thepioneerwoman.com , I know many of you frequent this site already, but I have just discovered it. I have made so many of her recipes in the last 3 weeks and I'm pretty sure Aaron loves her too. Although we have both gained about 5 pounds since the discovery of her site!

I am going to attempting my first badge this week in sewing. If anyone wants to join me, let me know. It will be in Stitching and Crafting and we have to sew half an apron for the beginner level and go from there! I will let you know how it goes...I am also letting Chloe make on because she can earn badges too. Although she is a Young Cultivator not a Farmgirl like her Mama! Happy Wednesday to you all!!

Mama of 4

2011-05-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

When Aaron and I first started dating, we always said we wanted 4 children. That number drastically dropped after were were wed and actually had a baby. One was sounding fantastic to me at that point. But as I got things down, I started getting that ache for a newborn. So we had another. For a while 2 was amazing, but maybe too easy.

So hey, why not go for a third. I push these things out in like 3.2 seconds, no biggie. The Lord bestowed upon us a lovely little creature named Stella Rose Johns. Whom I love. And I'm sure many people wonder why. She is so full of personality, its hard to contain in that little body. Stella knows what she wants, and boy is she going to get it. At whatever cost. Not many people get to see the funny side of Stella. She is a complete ham and makes us all laugh constantly. I just know I am in trouble. That's all I can say.

Luckily for us when Aaron so rudely got me pregnant for the 4th time, the Lord had mercy upon me and delivered little Harlow Evie girl. Otherwise known as the non-baby. She never make a sound. Ever. She just sits next to her Mama and takes the world in, with her toothy smile. Harlow basically sat on my hip all dance team season and helped me coach. She is just a joy. Pure and simple.

Helping me raise these two babes are my older two babes. (And one amazing Husband) Chloe has always been motherly, and pretty much my right hand since her birth. She helps me, grabs things when she knows I will need them, feeds Harlow, ect. I love her and everyone knows this to be true.

What gets me every time though, is my rough and tumble boy loving his baby sisters. He walks in my house after school all loud and unruly, telling me about his day and that there are about 50 boys outside that are going to play football for a while, so could I feed him a big snack so he can get out there already. Then seeing Harlow he kneels down next to her ever so carefully, grabs her little hand and puts his face to her and so quietly say, "How's my baby? Do you love your Bubba? Your Bubba loves you.". Or him giving into the demands of Stella and giving piggy back rides for a half hour until his little scrawny body is on the edge of exhaustion. We went to eat lunch with him at school the other day, and these girls that like him (whatever!), sat across from us. As they watched him interact with Stella and Harlow, one leans over to the other and says, "He's so good with his Sisters", like this is a marriageable quality or something!

I could blog all night about the different dynamics between my kids, and the joy it brings me. I won't...this is already long. I just had to share some thoughts on these little kids that I love. I can't wait to see how each one of their relationships grow!

New Traditions

2010-12-14T11:21:00.001-08:00

Ok, I haven't blogged in like 10 years, but I am going to try before motherly duties call me elsewhere. As you know I birthed my 4th and final child on July 8th this year. Our house is crazy and chaotic but I LOVE it! When it gets hard, I just think forward 15-20 years from now when my house will be full at thanksgiving of all my kids and grandkids. (In these dreams I'm still in my 20's somehow.)

Anyways this Thanksgiving, Aaron and I decided to stay at home and just enjoy our family. Normally we run all over Washington County trying to please all our families and it takes a toll on us and our kids. We are completely exhausted from hauling kids everywhere and trying to keep them from getting in trouble. We never just get to enjoy a holiday. We invited all our families to come to our house if they wanted to and Chloe and I started preparing our menu. I was so excited to make new traditions with our kids! Chloe had such a blast helping me cook, and she did such a great job. We made a turkey of course, mashed potatoes and our first attempt at real gravy (it was delicious, I found a great recipe), green beans with onions and bacon, sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie with real whipped cream. We did good. Hopefully next year Stella can help us out too. I love the thought of having these little partners in my kitchen for years to come.

Aaron and I thought long and hard about what we wanted our ideal Thanksgiving to look like. We knew we wanted to teach the kids that we have so much to be thankful for, we wanted it to be fun and we wanted to exercise after we ate. So before we ate, we all went around the table and shared what we were thankful for this year. It was so precious to hear their little thoughts! After dinner we went out to the new Banks trail head and walked for an hour, racing each other and looking for animals. It was really refreshing and we felt so much better about ourselves afterwards. Finally we went home and made turkeys our of lunch sacks. This was a project I did back in 2nd grade and loved. The kids did such a great job and were very creative. Peyton went above and beyond and made a beak and all sorts of extras.

The only visitors we had were my Gramma Peggy and her husband Jim. They brought presents for the kids and visited for a while. They were tired though from their long day of visiting family. It was nice to NOT be tired on a Thanksgiving evening!

Ok Jill, you asked for it!!

2009-08-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

You said I wasn't blogging, so I am going to blog about your favorite thing. Are you ready?? I'm going to blog about my dance team days. Oh yes, I can hear you sighing and rolling your eyes at me. Whatever. You must sit and read about me and all my glory!

It all takes place in a small town
called Banks, yes my beloved Banks. I moved there in the 8th grade, just like my Dad had back in the 70's. I was 13, you know all knees and elbows trying to appear cool, yet being soooo insecure!

I was flat as a pancake, luckily I had a very clear complextion and an amazing head of curly hair. (It was nice, even if I loathed it at times) As luck would have it, there weren't too many new girls that moved to Banks. And as it were, I wasn't covered in warts or have missing teeth, so I was deemed cool. I even got a boyfriend...his name was Dusty Kalhar. I was going to marry him after knowing him for 2 weeks. Anyway, that is a different blog. I quickly became best friends with a girl name Marissa Dunthorn. We were inseparable, which was nice going into my Freshman year walking through the halls with all the upper classmen! She brought me a flyer one day and handed it to me. "We're going to tryout for dance team next week.", she told me. I looked the flyer over and saw that it was going to cost $700 in the first year, and there was a place for my Mom to sign. At this time my parents were on staff at the church, and we were dirt poor. I was so nervous taking the paper to my Mom, but much to my surprise she didn't even bat an eyelash as she signed it. I will always love her for that. She never let me know how much it took out of them to keep me dancing.

Me with the other Captains my Senior year

Now, the day of tryouts I was all knees and elbows, and of course no boobs still. Somehow by the grace of God, my uncoordinated body was accepted onto the Banks Lady Braves dance team. (Of course I didn't take into account that only 14 girls tryout and they need more bodies!) Quickly after tryouts I learned that my best friend Marissa Dunthorn had ditched me and moved to Texas with her Mom. I cried for an entire dance practice, but got over it....and quiclkly found a new best friend.
This is not my new best friend, this is Laura, a friend of convience. Moving on, for those of you that don't know. Dance starts in July with dance camp, then we have daily doubles, then football season where we would dance at every half time. Then we go into competions about 2 a month, they last an entire Saturday. (If you ever get a chance to watch one, do they are fun.) Then we have basketball season we dance at halftimes, and finally we have state that ends in March. It pretty much consumes your life. Now my first year, we dance at State to the Beatles. It was pretty much my obsession at that time, I couldn't have been happier. The State Championships are held in the Memorial Coliseum. We perform our routine, which is 6 minutes long, on the first night. If the teams routine scores high enough, you get to return the second night and perform it again. The second night after all the scores are tabulated, the winners are announced. They announce the State Champion by playing the music of the team that won. Our music opened with Ed Sullivan announcing "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!", the famous clip with girls screaming in the back ground. Now imagine all 13 girls huddled together sitting on the Memorial Coliseum floor holding hands and our breath! And of course you know how it goes! WE hear that clip and all scream like little school girls! State Champions!! Woot Woot!

My Junior year after dancing at a Basketball game

Now we got to do that twice, because my Junior year we also were State Champions. I was spoiled and blessed! Dance Team was my life...well High School was. I loved every minute of it.
Me and the other captains accepting our 2nd place trophy...I'm in the red wig!

Now my Senior year, by some glitch we got second place. (Insert Wah-Wah here) We should have gotten first and some months later we actually had a judge call us and tell us they made a mistake and we should have...but really what difference does that make after the fact??
This picture is one of my faves out of the millions of pictures from dance! This is me and my friend Laura after we got second place. Clearly our faces are saying, "We are smiling for the picture, but we are SO not happy!". Second is the first loser! Besides my second place finish, dance has been one of the most important parts of my life. My friends on that team are still my close friends.

Now I have been given the chance to coach the same team that I once danced for. Thats right, I am coaching the Banks Lady Braves! I cannot even express the excitement I have. I have 14 girls so far and as of yesterday I have 2 more texting me that they want to join. Seriously, the only way to communicate to these girls is via text! My thumbs are about to fall off I have been texting so much! Our first endeavor was Dance Camp, this last July. Its the same dance camp I went to when I was on the team, except this time I get to go to the coaches meetings! I'm not going to lie, I sat and giggled through the entire first coaches meeting. I felt like the little high school that snuck in! Here are 10 of my girls at camp:There you have it Jill! My Dance Team Blog, just for you. I miss you too!

The Most Magical of Nights

2009-06-01T16:57:00.001-07:00

A long time ago in a land far far away, I had a blog. And it was forgotten about. Now I am back to this land that I love and must update all on one of the best memories that Chloe and I have made to date.

It all starts with me sitting at my friend Alisa's house casually watching the Waitress with some friends and stuffing my face full of SPK's, Swedish Fish & the most delicious brownies ever. I get a text message from my hubby asking me if I read an Email he just sent me. I had seen it, but I didn't read it since I was elbow deep in sugar. I looked at it again and saw the words "Taylor Swift" and freaked out! I knew what he had done. Chloe and I are both Taylor Swift fans. We have both her CD's in my CD changer in the car and Chloe will shamelessly yell out all her lyrics as we cruise down the road. I immediately called him and verified that he actually got them since it was the night before the concert and they sold out 3 minutes after they went on sale. He did indeed get two seats for me and Chloe in the 100 level. I was giddy, but for a quick moment panicked thinking he paid some scalper $500 for our tickets. He told me that he happened to be looking on Craigslist and saw a post that the Rose Garden had opened up the 120 section and the tickets were available for face value! I was shocked, excited and could NOT WAIT to tell Chloe.
The next day Chloe and I got all done up in our new skirt and dress and headed down Hwy 26 with Taylor Swift blaring out of the speakers.

We arrived at the Rose Garden with a hundred million teenage girls all in sun dresses and cowboy boots and long curly hair. There were Mom's with their little girls all done up in their boots and dresses too. Chloe wanted to wear her high heels because her favorite song is track 6 on the new CD, with the line, "She wears high heels, I wear sneakers...". So thats what we opted for. We were in Taylor Swift heaven! We got in our seats and anxiously awaited for the show to start.

Taylor came out and the first song she sang was track 6 from her new CD. I'm not going to lie, I got teary eyed watching the joy in Chloe's face. She was so cute! Half way through the second song, Chloe looked at me and said, "Is she real?". I just about died laughing! Chloe was the perfect concert partner, she danced and sang along...this is a picture of her on her seat dancing with Taylor in the back ground.

Now our seats were amazing, we could see her so well. About 5 songs into the show, they played a video clip on the big screen about Taylor and boys. When the lights came on we could hear her singing, but we couldn't see her. As we all looked around trying to find her, we spotted her walking down our Aisle! I couldn't believe it!
She sang a song as she walked down and then finally stopped in front of our section and played Tim McGraw. Right there, like I couldn't believe it. Chloe had her embarrassed look on her face....I'm sure most of you have seen it. She then grabbed me and asked me to take her to Taylor. If it weren't for the mob of people surrounding her, I would've. However, I think we had an awesome view! After that she returned to the stage and sang love story all done on a castle type stage, with the drummer in one of the towers and Taylor all done up in princess clothes. She ended the show with her song, "You Should've Said No" and if any of you saw her on the country music awards where she sang in the rain....that's what she did. It was awesome. After purchasing 2 Taylor Swift T-shirts and a hat just to prove we were there, Chloe and I walked hand in hand out of the Rose Garden. It was an amazing night with my Chloe girl! One we will cherish and talk about for years to come...these are the things I have been looking forward to!
Please enjoy the clips of her singing if you would like....

Deja Vu

2009-03-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

Last night we had to take Stella to the hospital, because she had gotten our sickness and was wheezing. We have been through this routine so many time with our other kids, but the last time we did was when Chloe was admitted for 4 days because of RSV and pneumonia. We did the whole round of temperature, blood oxygen levels, listening to her lungs and watching her rib cage as she breathed. This picture is Stell giving herself a nebulizer treatment...we deal with this stuff so much we actually have one at home. It comes in handy even when I am sick! Clears you right up. She was surprisingly happy during the whole thing.
That is until they said they wanted to X-ray her lungs. I knew instantly what that meant. The bicycle seat of tourture and terror....like I said we've been through this before. If you haven't had to do this to your children, this is what it is. They set you tiny baby on this tiny bicycle like seat and hold their arms up as they encase them in a hard plastic shell that is straped tightly around their head....yes like I said the bicycle seat of tourture and terror! I only had my cell phone and like any scrapbooking/blogging mom I snapped this picture from behind my radiation shield. Now you can't see much, but you can see Stella's mouth wide open. For all of you that say she is the quietest thing in the world, this was definitaly not one quiet moments in her life!
You can see her legs dangling and her arms are above her head. The poor Xray tech felt so aweful! I told him he did a great job, because when Payton was 3 months old they took his Xrays in this and let him out. Only to realize that they didn't get the Xray they needed, so he had to be strapped back into it!

After all was said and done, she does have broncitis and pre-pnemeonia. So she is on antibiotics for the next 10 days! I think she has had more issues at this point than Payton. May we all pray that she does not get a broken arm at age 2....seriously please pray for her!

Micah Durham

2009-02-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce you to my brother Micah Durham. As most of you know, I adore him and we are very close. We frustrate our parents a lot because we rarely listen to anyone else except for each other. If my parents need something conveyed to him, they tell me to tell him and visa versa. However, we usually sensor said advise and put a twist on it, or laugh and say, "This is what Mom and Dad said! Ha ha!".

2 years ago my brother joined the Air force and signed up for 6 years. Yup, 6 years....I know really!! What was he thinking?? Anyways, he did extremely well in boot camp and was at the top of class, earning a spot in a prestigious fire fighting school. He passed the course with a 99% and got a job on the Air force fire station in Wyoming where he was stationed.

He was deployed to Iraq last year. He was loaded onto a commercial airliner and flown into Kuwait....I know I didn't know thats how we get our men there, but it is! Anyways, he then was flown in a bomber to the desert base straight after that where he hadn't ate or slept in over 24 hours. They were bustled in to the mess hall, and he went to scan his lunch card under the red flashing light and had a seizure. They flew him to a hospital in Kuwait to do test on him and his brain waves were off, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong, so they flew him to an Air force base in Germany. The German's still couldn't find out what was wrong, so they sent him back to Wyoming. For the last 9 months we have been waiting to hear what the fate of my brother was going to be. He was either going to be discharged or remain in the Air force unable to ever drive an Air force vehicle.

Micah with Payton Sept 13th 2002

Micah with Chloe Feb 2nd 2005

Well, we received news today that Micah was given a Medical discharge with a payment to $20,000 lump sum, $300 a month for the rest of his life and Medical insurance for the rest of his life. On top of that the Air force will pay for any college that Micah chooses to go to. While this is very happy news for us, Micah and his family have a lot of healing and rebuilding to do. Please keep them in your prayers! He has two little boys that need their Daddy and need stability in their young lives. I just thank God for the answered prayer!

Stella's First Ponytail

2009-02-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

I know, am I really blogging about my babies first ponytail?? Yes I am. It is a very momentous day for a Johns' girl! Stella beat her sister to a ponytail by almost 4 months. We are very proud of her and her hair growing ability. I must say that the invention of the Bumbo may have advanced her new milestone. Is that thing not amazing?? She sat perfectly still in it, so I could even tie a little bow in her hair! She looks very proud of herself and her new hair. She knows she is beautiful. It starts early doesn't it?? I can hardly believe that my baby girl is almost 6 months old! Yes next week she will officially be half a year old! How did this happen?? My sweet baby girl is almost a toddler. Ok, maybe a little exaggerated, but really how does time fly by so fast?

Just look at her! How could someone not want to kiss those cheeks! She is very attached to me, which I appreciate. My mom babysat her for me last week, so I could attend Payton's Valentines day party. I laid Stella down for a nap and left. When Stella woke up, she smiled at my Mom and then quickly looked around to find me. When she didn't see me, she began to scream and was inconsolable. My Mom tried bouncing her, rocking her, singing to her, ect. I opened the door as my Mom was instructing Chloe to get her shoes on so they could go get me. Stella was red faced, tear streaked and SCREAMING. I walked over to my Mom and took Stella. Stella proceeded to take a deep breath and was SILENT. My Mom just looked at me and her and said, "You need to get that baby on a bottle!". Stella, is a little dramatic I will give her that, but she loves her Mama!

A New Baby for the Johns' Family!

2009-02-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Ha ha to all you that rushed here to see if I am knocked up again, while thinking of who you will call the instant said news was verified! Our new baby is of the Canine variety. Oh yes, we got a puppy. A very lovable 8 week old Yellow Labrador Retriever. Her name is Bella, Bells for short....all you Twilight fans know what I mean. Aaron wants her to have puppies someday, so we may have to get a handsome companion for her and name him Edward so they can make beautiful babies together. Although, I was Team Jacob, so maybe not Edward. Anyways, that is a long time from now. And yes I know the name Bella rhymes with Stella. However after much discussion with my hubby, we decided we loved the name. Enough said.
Bella is so sweet! She absolutely loves Chloe, who has always been my animal lover. If Chloe goes into the bathroom, Bella sits outside the door and whines. Yes I am one of those people that drives through town with my dog on my lap. Only my dog isn't a lap dog...or at least she won't be for long. Hopefully you all will get to meet her soon!

Sweet Chloe Ava

2009-01-09T23:25:00.001-08:00

Where can I begin with you my sweet little one? I pushed for 9 whole minutes with you because you were facing up instead of down. We are pretty sure you would have stayed in my tummy forever if I hadn't been induced. You came out screaming. You screamed the whole time the nurses weighed you and bathed you. You didn't stop until you were finally able to nurse. Such a small victory for me that you latched on and never let go! We almost lost you after knowing you for 14 short days. I can't even imagine my life without you.

You wouldn't let anyone else hold you until you were almost 2. Daddy thought at first it was because you were breastfeeding, not like Payton. You and I new different didn't we? We knew there was a closeness with us that couldn't be broken. I love how you tell me that we are best
friends. You can't even begin to know how much I hope that is true after we weather the teen years! I loved it today when you told Payton and me that you didn't want to ever get married because you want to live at home with Mommy. We would love that too, because no guy will ever be good enough for you in our eyes! I love you sitting in my lap as we go through the list of what the "Ladies" (as Daddy calls us) like best. Starbucks, shopping, lipstick, cuddling, and horses. I love the way you boss the boys around and use the exact same phrases I would. Daddy just rolls his eyes at us! I love to cuddle with you and talk about all the things we are going to do when you get just a little bit bigger. Some relationships in life are hard, and others just come easily. Ours is one of those magical relationships that is easy. Its because you are so much like your Daddy, even though you try to be just like me. You nature is laid back and calm. I can peek into the future and imagine us baking Thanksgiving dinner together and then our conversations as we clean up afterwards. You are such a helper to me and a natural born server. You think to pick up things or do things before I ask them of you. You will never know how much a help that is to me. Now you are a week away from turning 4 and I cannot believe it! How much time has past and how much you have grown! I love you my little Chloe Ava.

Godspeed Little Man

2009-01-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

You were born on Friday the 13th. We all know how the story goes, one very short first labor and one push and out you came. You were quiet after your initial first scream. You were almost pensive and if you could have your mouth hanging open in true Payton thinking form, I know you would've. I was young and entering motherhood not knowing a thing about it. I regarded you in an almost panic, thinking what have I done? I am now responsible for this little baby. You were so quiet and sweet. As we cuddled in my hospital bed all my fears and anxiety left me, and I knew I could do it. The nurses propped pillows up around us so we could take a nap together. You were my biggest learning experience, and I'm still learning. I had to grow up in that moment and realize how selfish of a person I was / am. Your every cry would send me into a panic. I didn't want anything to happen to you. We had many ER visits that first year and you had many 'issues'. From Eczema to colds, we had it all.
Yet, we made it through and as you grew into toddlerhood, you amazed us with your quick mind. Nothing got past you. You were always more active than the other kids. They would sit on the little plastic picnic table and you would climb it, stand on it and jump off with all the gusto and theatrics a toddler could possibly have. I was given looks from other moms that at first glance said, 'My he's active', but really underneath said, 'My child would never do that'. But you know what, I would much rather have a rough and tumble boy than a sissy. And the Lord couldn't have given me more of a BOY than I have. Active in every sense of the word. Always out to prove me and Daddy wrong. Like when you argued with Daddy that you could ride a bike without training wheels at 4 1/2. Daddy said fine and took them off for you. He tried to hold onto your bike and you yelled, "Let go Daddy! I can do it!". So daddy did and you took off! Not falling at all. Or you bringing your reading homework home and telling me you could read it. I didn't believe you and argued with you until you opened it up and started reading it to me. I love that in you.
Now you are 6 and in school. Causing drama between the 1st grade girls, all in love with a Kindergartener. Yet your oblivious! Your giggle, your sense of humor, the way you love your sisters, even how you can frustrate me, makes my heart sing with joy. I'm sorry for all the mistakes I've made along the way. I know these days are quickly fleeting, and I am going to open my eyes one day and you will have your own life. As I dropped you off at school today and watched you walk in by yourself without looking back at me. I realized how much you've grown and it makes me sad to know that I will never get those days back. Yet we have so much to look forward to. I love you Pay Pay.

Our Night of Debauchery!

2009-01-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas. Don't get me wrong I do from the bottom of my heart. I break out my Christmas music mid November and decorate the day after Thanksgiving. However, I was so done with it this year. The snow really ruined our Christmas because we couldn't make it to any of our relatives houses. We were literally snowed in at my parent's house. Nothing like exchanging gifts with my In-laws on the side of Hwy 26 Christmas day. Now thats a Christmas.

Thankfully, as some therapeutic relief, Aaron's work has their "Christmas Party" after New Years. So no worrying about getting the date to fit into our busy Christmas schedule or worrying about dressing up to impress the other wives. Pihl Excavation holds their annual "Big Burnout" at the company office. (Or I should say outside of it) Everyone is invited to bring their Christmas trees up to be burnt up. Its very efficient really. There is a drop off place where you pull up and the hired help takes your tree and throws it onto a pile of about 100 trees...not exaggerating! Then you drive around to the parking and walk back to the party. Its not just Pihl employees there, most of the Banks community is there. Hey nothing brings out the Banks rednecks like an Open Bar and free Bar B Que!

It was an amazing display of pyrotechnics. Everytime a tree was added to the fire of its demise, it would create a flame that shot a good 30 to 40 feet into the air. Much hooping and drunken hollering would insue. I sipped on my hot chocolate w/ whipped creme and enjoyed all the sight and sounds of a good old fashion tree burnin' party!

Now this sign to my left was on the barn that was home to the food and I walked past it about 10 times before I actually read it. I don't need to say anything else. This about sums up the party
This is why you should water your tree. Most people stopped watering their tree about a week ago in preperation for the Burn Out. Whenever a well watered tree was put on the fire, there was a collective groan from expectant party goers. It only steamed and slowly burnt. Quickly, oh so quickly, another much drier tree would be heaved on the burn pile much to the party goers glee! The party was back on! So now I pity the wives that must attend stuffy Christmas parties. I am very happy to bundle myself up in muddy boots and a heavy jacket. Maybe I am still a country girl at heart.

Chloe Ava & Stella Rose 4 months

2009-01-01T21:36:00.000-08:00

Ok here are two pictures of my baby girls at 4 months of age. I still think they look like twins separated by 3 1/2 years. What do you think?

Stella is on the top and Chloe is on the bottom.

Christmas Traditions and Things

2008-12-15T10:06:00.001-08:00

I LOVE this time of year! I love the craziness of shopping, the smell of my tree, the decorations and of course the Starbucks Christmas cups. Chloe Ava loves the Starbucks cups too. Every time we pull up to a drive through she sits in her car seat saying, "Please still have them, Please still have them". I love it! Now usually we get our tree the day after Thanksgiving, after our morning of shopping. This year however we waited because we need our tree to last until after New Years. I will surely be blogging about this too I'm sure. Aaron's work doesn't have a traditional "Christmas Party" per say. They have whats called the Big Burnout the first week of January, where everyone brings up their trees and well you guessed it. Like a bunch of Banks folk that we are, we pile them up and lite those puppies! Its catered and cold, but a blast!

Anyways, this past Saturday we decided to go get our tree. I love Grand Fir trees because of their smell and look. Nobles are not bushy enough for me and Douglas Firs are...well they are like the White Trash of trees....sorry if this is your tree of choice....remember I was just talking about our classy Christmas party....so no judgment here!

Anyway! We saw a sign for Grand Firs $15 on this back country road and we decided to check it out. We pull up to this little shop and the man comes out and says we can chose anyone we want in this field for $15. They are trying to clear it out for plowing next year. The trees were like 6' and above! So I picked out one close to 9' and bushy. Thats my kind of tree! The guy then proceeds to cut it down with a chainsaw and put it into a trailer attached to a fourwheeler and take it up to our car. They then stick it on a shaker, where they proceed to shake it to get all the bugs out and then they bound it up and help Aaron get it on our car. It was completely full service for $15! Amazing! We then have to get home and search for our tree stand which is MIA, so we had to drive out to Banks and borrow one from Aaron's parent. At 8pm, we finally start to decorate as we are watching the news about the snow. We are all getting excited about it and I couldn't feel anymore fullfilled in my Christmas heart! So we put the kids to bed and I cuddle up on my couch with my fleece blanket and watch Its A Wonderful Life next to my illuminated Christmas tree. Really, does it get any better than that?

I know this is getting long, but I'm almost done! Stella woke up at 3am and 6:30am that morning to nurse and both times I ripped the curtains open to see if it was snowing. It was not! I was so angry at the weather man! So at 8:30 Payton came down and yelled, "Its snowing!". I looked out at the pitiful snowfall and wanted to cry. However, by 12:00 it was good enough to play in and that is just what my kids did! Stella didn't know what to think of the snow. But how precious are delicate snow flakes on baby eyelashes?? It was so sweet. Please enjoy my slide show below if you are still reading this!

The After Thanksgiving Sales!

2008-11-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

Ok kids, this is how its going to go down! For those of you that don't know how to get up at 4:15Am the day after Thanksgiving for a crazed morning of shopping, let me tell you how.....

The first step is what President Bush and I like to call Strategery. You have to find the Thanksgiving day paper stuffed full of all the delicious ads! They may make you add 23 or so more items to your Christmas shopping list, but all of them well worth the extra dough! You only have 6 hours at most stores. So you have to figure out what stores open first and then what do your really want more of?? 20% off all Wii accessories and Games at Freddie's or 50% off of Old Navy fleeces for all your nephews and neices. Since they both open at 5am! Good thing Target and Game Crazy open at 6am or we would really have some decisions to make!! Now lets get going!

An added bonus, our car was not frozen solid this morning! Perfectly mild weather for a morning of shopping!

Ok, Starbucks? Check!

One adorably cute smiling baby? Check!

One heavily bearded shopping partner? Check! Ok, that is just me, but you may take one too if you like.

We pick Freddies first of course because we need 1/2 off socks and 20% off Wii stuff! (We will hit Old Navy later and hope all the sizes we need are there!) Now for the craziness of masses of people trying to politely push their way through aisle and aisle of socks. You must be prepared forcuts and bruises from rouge shopping carts, or insane old ladies that just don't care if they hit anyone. When everyone has 2 packs of socks each we head for electronics and stand in a herd of people gathered around the Wii locked window. A helpful Fred Meyer worker is taking orders and handing them out. "I need a Wii Mario Karts Please!", I yell with my hand reach out to her. "Me too!", yell about 4 people around me. I keep my hand up with everyone else and much to my great luck, I get one!!!! I just won the freakin' lottery of Black Friday sales!!! Can you all feel my excitement?!?! I know you do.

Thats done, so we head to toys to get buy one, get one free board games and wrap up Freddie's with the new Guess Who for our kids and a free one for some lucky other kids somewhere....hey it was free! I will give it to someone I'm sure.

We now rush to Old Navy and quickly score all 7 sizes of 50% off fleeces that I needed. The line is pretty long, but only takes about 15 minutes. Its now 6:40am and we head to Game Crazy to get Wii Lego Indiana Jones for $15 off. This is a gift for Payton from Aaron's mom, but we told her we would get it for her if she would watch our kids after Thanksgiving. Its sort of a tradition with us!

Its closer to dawn and we decide to try Target. Note the word "try", we had to wait 10 minutes in line to get a shopping cart! Ok, that should have been a sign! All the good sale items were gone and the line wrapped completely 360 degrees around the store. Right. I like me some good deals, but not worth the line! So we packed up our gifts and headed home!

Are these few bags worth all the effort and craziness?? You bet! I live for it! I'm glad I'm married to a man that gets just as into it as I do! You have to be some kind of special to do this every year! I hope all your families had a great Thanksgiving!

Autumn Leaves are Falling!!!

2008-11-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

Well at least they were last week! I took the kids out to the forest and took some pictures of them with the leaves. It was an event to be remember. The scenery was beautiful, it was the subjects themselves that gave me difficulty!

Please enjoy the following photos....

Stella was yelling at me in this picture! I was holding her up with my hand, thats why its so close to her! I think she was yelling, "Mom! Please help me!".

I love this one! Stella was looking at me and smiled because, well I have the boobs.

Her are my babies! All cute and ma

Daylight Savings Time

2008-11-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the days in high school and early adulthood when DST was the most amazing thing in the world?! You could snuggle in your bed for a whole extra hour, all snug listening to the rain. What happened to those days?? Now I get woke up by two kids thinking its a respectible time to get up and its only "6:30". I will have to work the next 2 weeks to get them back on a schedule, and essentially lose all the amazing possiblities that the extra hour of sleep offers!

Payton The Wonderful

2008-10-21T19:24:00.001-07:00

I was having one of those days where I thought I was Mom of the year. I hiked me and my 3 lovely children through Forest Grove down to the Dutch Brothers cart to get us coffee and chocolate milks. The air was crisp and cool, with a little bit of a burnt smell from all the chimney smoke. I was truly enjoying the walk with my kids. I couldn't have been more proud to be a mom of 3! We were picking up different colored leaves and the kids were pretending they were birds, using the leaves as wings. About half way to Dutch Brothers something in Payton flipped a switch and I was suddenly walking with ADD boy. He was hugging trees and jumping around flailing his arms and really just raising a whole lot of a ruckus. I didn't mind that, but it was just him almost falling into oncoming traffic a few dozen times that I really started getting irritated. I had yelled 'Payton Johns!' about 20 times in course of 5 minutes and it really wasn't helping. I said it one more time, and he looked at me and said:

"I wish I had a different name"

"Like What? Payton the boy who doesn't listen to his Mother?", I replied.

"No, like Payton the Wonderful.", he answered.

So I hearby proclaim from this day forward my son Payton Michael Johns will now be called Payton the Wonderful.

Banks BBQ

2008-10-14T13:36:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe its October and I never even blogged about the Banks BBQ that happened in August! Of course it was on the day my baby girls was supposed to be born, so I was a little distracted! Anyways the above picture is my son throwing the ball to knock the poor dance team girl into the water. He got her twice, and I must say I was gloating while all the people around him exclaimed how great he was. (Bragging, I know!)
Now here is the frog jumping contest. There was much build up in the Johns' family household as we awaited the big day! Payton's frog 'Snoopy Froggy Frog' and Chloe's frog 'Frogalicious', were caught at Daddy's work for just the occasion. We fed them Crickets, which brought a little ambiance to my home every night. They filled our home with gentle chirping....although at 3 in the morning it can really wear on a person. Not that I was really sleeping anyway because I was as big as a whale. The above picture is Payton's frog that only jumped 64 inches. Each kid has to make their frog jump 3 times and that is measured. The frog that jumps the furthest wins.
Here is Chloe and Daddy setting out her frog, which she was very scared of. She jumped back everytime the thing moved, or she thought it was thinking about moving. Her frog faired better and jumped 72 inches! That held the top spot until the family that has won every stinkin' year for the past 10 years brought in their ringers! They I would classify as Toads, not frogs and they were huge! Jumping over 100 inches each. Seriously next year I am going to demand they test these things for HGH.
My poor children were devastated that they weren't getting a trophy! I was so heartbroken for them, I almost thought about buying them a trophy! However, its building character. Lucky for Snoop Froggy Frog and Frogalicous that I don't eat frog legs, because part of me was tempted! Daddy took them back to the land of their birth the next day, so they could be safe from the wrath of a angry Mama!! My kids got over their sadness soon enough because it was time for the Combine Demolition Derby!! Thats where local farmers take perfectly good combine tractors, decorate them and then smash them into each other until only one is left in one piece. Its awesome! Some of these farmers work year round on these things.
Here they are all lined up and ready to go at it! The yellow one was the winner. It was my favorite, the Crash Test Dummies, as it were. He has won 5 out of the 7 years they have done this. The kids loved it and thankfully made up for the sad defeat in the rigged frog jumping contest!

Sisters

2008-10-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

I dare you to guess which one is Chloe Ava and which one is Stella Rose. (The pictures aren't their best) You can probably tell by the clothes their wearing, but the similarities are pretty amazing. I've put a picture of Payton below. As you can see, he looks nothing like the ladies. BTW, Stella is the first baby and Chloe is the second baby.

My Little Sunshine

2008-10-01T21:21:00.001-07:00

Just a little update on my sweet baby girl! She is growing so much! I am already feeling sad that the newborn phase is fading. She is filling out in her cheeks and her thighs, like a good girl should. She doesn't fit in any of her newborn clothes anymore. She is smiling and cooing now and is constantly looking for my face. Stella is already very attached to me, she knows where the goods are!! She sleeps 5 to 6 straight hours at night, nurses, and then sleeps another 4 hours, nurses and sleeps another 2 hours. So I could be getting a ton of sleep if Chloe Ava didn't wake up at 6:45 every morning. (This is a new thing...she used to sleep in until 9.) Anyways our little Stelli Bean is doing great and has kept her quiet sweet demeanor. I am grateful everyday for such an easy going 3rd born!

That Big Jerry Kid

2008-09-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school I hated babysitting kids. In fact I only babysat a couple of times through Jr high and into my Freshman year. I needed big bucks if I was going to put myself off the social scene on a perfectly good Friday night. My Mom made me watch these kids that I didn't know for the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year. Every Monday and Tuesday I had to wake myself up at 6:00am and go and babysit for this family. It wasn't fun, but I got down all the talk shows that I loved to watch and helped myself to all their Schwans frozen food. One day the pesky little brats asked to walk up the road to the old man's house with a swimming pool. They wanted to go for a swim. I avoided the subject for a good hour, but they finally cornered me and I had to take them up the road. It was straight uphill and I was hot! We finally got there and there was this really pretty tan blond lady in a bikini with a little boy swimming. (Little boy is exhibit A to the left) She said hi and told me her name was Sheri and this was her son Jared and he was 5. She was super cool and didn't seem like a mom at all. We sat and talked while we watched the kids swim. Sheri then asked me if I would like to babysit for her. I was all over it, the only time I was super excited to babysit for anyone! She then dropped the bombshell and told me that she had 3 other kids and Jared was her oldest!!! Shea her next son was 2 1/2 and she had twin Jace and Aubrey that were 9 months old. Wow! She also let me know that this was her dad's house and they had a brand new house in the woods. Looking back now we both laugh, what possible made her think that all 96 pounds of me could take on 4 kids! But I did and I fell in love with them. Not to mention, they paid $40 for 4 hours! I was in the money! They became my second family. I even had my own Christmas stocking at their house with my name stitched on it. And the greatest of all things great in Rosieland, they took me to Disneyland. (Nevermind that Pirates was closed...I'm over it...but I have a great picture of me pouting by the closed
sign!) After I graduated, I stopped having them pay me and I just did it for free. All 4 of them were in our wedding and all 4 of them have been invested in my kids' lives.

Last summer I needed babysitters and well lets say I had 4 very qualified babysitters that love my kids to pieces. (Jared was 16, Shea 13, Jace and Aubrey 11.) Payton was scared of Jared becasue, well he's 6'3 and quiet. He kept telling Sheri,"I don't like that big Jerry kid". LOL! Jared will be forever known now as 'That big Jerry kid'!

Jared is now a senior in high school and wide reciever on the Banks football team. He towers over me, but is the sweetest kid! I'm telling you all this because he shares his birthday with a very special lady....my Stella Rose. Jared was thrilled when he found out he was an Uncle....affectionately Uncle Jerry. After every football game he comes off the field, past the girls asking him for a ride to Taco Bell and he picks up my baby girl and holds her. Then he takes his time with Payton and then Chloe, much to the dismay of the hot and bothered teenage girls that can wait to go to Taco Bell, OR better yet get their own darn car and leave my Jared alone!! In my eyes he will always be that 5 year old boy swimming at his Grandpa's pool.

Our Stella Bella Baby Girl

2008-09-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I had a baby almost 3 weeks ago. However, since we moved we have not got around to getting internet as of yet. I have been driving around town like a crazy lady trying to find free Wi-fi, but haven't found a good spot yet. I'm pretty sure I'm known by the local Forest Grove teenagers as the "Crazy Lady in the Red Expedition". They must think I have OCD because I move from parking spot to parking spot trying to locate the free Wi-fi! Anyways, Now a little about my precious baby girl that was born!!

Stella finally was induced 5 days after my due date! I was beyond ready! I was sent over to Tuality at 8:30am so that I could begin pitocin. As soon as I walked into the room, the nurse looked at my bed and proclaimed,"That is not a birthing bed! It doesn't even look like one, how did this get in here?!?". I was immediately drawn to the door and debating weather or not I should run. I got over it when I remembered that I was so over this whole pregnancy thing! After I got the correct bed brought in, I was hooked up to the IV and started on pitocin. However, the pump on the IV was broken, so I had to wait for a new IV pump to arrive. Finally at 10:07 I was hooked up to pitocin and started my induction! I was fine until about 2:00pm when my contractions got super bad. Tuality wasn't going to give me an epidural until I was 3 centimeters dilated. What they don't know is, I go from 3 to 10

centimeters in 30 minutes, so I was freaked out that I wasn't going to get my epidural! At 3:00pm she checked me and I was 3 centimeters, so I was allowed to get my epidural! The epidural was horrible, it was literally pounded into my back! Shortly after he was finished...around 3:45....I felt my water break. Then around 4:15 I kept feeling the need to push. I didn't say anything at first, but I finally decided to tell Aaron and he got the nurse. She came and checked me and said,"Don't push or move! Your baby is right there!". My doctor was rushed in and it went something like this...."little push, little push, little push....and there she is!" In true Rosie form, my baby came rushing out into the world! She was so beautiful! She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.

She is the sweetest baby. Now that she is almost 3 weeks old, I can say she has kept that sweet demeanor. Stella wakes up to eat 2 times a night and she falls back to sleep right away.

Stella Rose if very loved by her big brother and sister. She gets a bottle from them everyday. We call her Stelli Bean and her daddy calls her Milky Minutes....if any of you have seen the AT&T commercial you will know what that means! I am doing just fine adjusting to 3, I am actually ready for a 4th. We will see what daddy thinks of that, but I'm giving him a few months to think about it!!!

Ode to the Man I Love!

2008-08-02T19:47:00.001-07:00

On Monday Aaron and I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary. We've been together for over 11 1/2 years. I can truly say I am more in love with him today than I have ever been in my life. To many my husband is a mystery, so today I would like to take you through a lesson of Aaron. I think Emily is the closest to knowing Aaron as the town of Banks knows him. Most people think he is quiet and shy. Shy he maybe for a little minute, but its just not Aaron. To you left is my husband jumping through a fire out on a farm in Banks. This is how we have fun where we come from. He
Might have burnt some leg hair here, but it made us laugh and like any boy thats the goal.

We were fortunate enough to grow up in a small town. The boys around the fire here all graduated with Aaron and I am so happy to say that they are all still very close. They were on the baseball team together and most of them were in our wedding. They still get together and play poker as often as they can and they play softball with Hillsboro City League.

This picture is Tim, Aaron, Jake and Mike. Jake was our best man in our wedding and Mike is now in the middle of Iraq. We think of him often, as he is in one of the most dangerous parts. Before he was deployed their drill Sargent told them to look to their left and right, because half of them weren't coming back. I think that really hit Aaron to realize that one of his best friends is in such a dangerous situation.

This is the boys all spruced up for a wedding in the Summer of '01. My husband is the blond....oh yes I said blond....he goes through his weird spurts! Its Mike, Jimmy, Jake, Brian, Tim, Aaron and Doug. (Doug is the one that street luged down Wier Rd hill by our house...he is insane)

A little about my husband, he like the Oakland A's and Raiders. (You can bring that up in casual conversation if you want to get to know him better!) Aaron has a total of 3 tattoos. A tribal band (token male college tattoo!), Payton's name and My initials. My initials are on his inner bicep, so he flexes his arm and points to it every time he wants to make me laugh! He is way behind on getting Chloe's name and now Stella's. He has 3 ear piercings as well, although he loses his earrings all the time and now only has 2 in.

Aaron is very funny and makes me laugh all the time. I've put in all the manly things about him, so I can tell you what makes me love him the most now! I love how sensitive he is to me and my feelings. A man isn't supposed to be that intuitive, but he is. He encourages me to hang out with my girlfriends, but he feels real guilt when he leave me and the kids to something with his buddies. He may act tough, but his is my softy husband that I love with all my heart. A lot of
people didn't understand the pair of us so long ago. Aaron was the bad boy and I was the innocent Christian girl. However, no knew how much Aaron respected me and my beliefs and how if it weren't for him I would not have gone back to church ever. God put him in my life for a reason and I am just beginning to understand how Aaron fully completes me in all the places of my heart that are wanting for something. All my hurts and insecurities are fixed by the gentle hands of my husband. I can't believe that 7 years have past already since our wedding, but I also can't wait to see what the future holds for us and our family! I love you Aaron Johns!

The Johns Family Road Trip of '08

2008-07-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

Since this last weekend was so hot, Aaron and I decided to get a hotel room at the beach and take the kids away! We haven't had any vacations this year and don't have any planned, so this was considered our vacation of the year. A little pathetic considering that we could only find a cheap little hotel in Pacific City, OR to stay in! Hey, I'm not complaining though, we had fun. The ironic thing is, there was an airport.....or more a landing strip right behind our hotel. So I spent the entire night thinking, "Now that one is going down for sure, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner". Anyways, our journey started off on Hwy 6. We past the landmark of "Papaw & Nana's house" and felt like we were on our way when I hear the little voice of my daughter say, "Have to poop Mommy". Great! So I call my Dad to make sure they were home and let Chloe do her thing and we are back on the road! Woohoo! I took the above picture just outside of Tillamook on Hwy 101, yes this is a highway. You can only see this in Tillamook. There were about 200 cows, we had to wait for about 10 minutes while they stopped and looked at us and then slowly meandered their way to the other side.
Aaron then wanted to show me where his Grandpa's land was on the beach, so we took a 5 minute detour. Now when I say 5 minutes, that is more like 30 minutes to the rest of us. Aaron was just a little off! We finally made it to our hotel after 2 1/2 hours in the car. Good Old Pacific City! We unloaded our car in the 65 degree weather and headed to the beach. It was windy! We sat there and froze for about 5 minutes and let the kids run and around and then went back to the car and drove 20 minutes to Lincoln City for dinner at Mo's.

My son's favorite dinner is clam chowder, or anything seafood. So he was very excited to get his cup of clam chowder and so was I. Mainly I was excited to get out of the car, because I was about to pull my hair out from all the arguing.

The beach outside of Mo's was not windy at all and there were 5 seals swimming in the water. The kids got a kick out of it. After we were worn out we headed back to our hotel and took showers and went to bed.

The next morning we headed out around 11 and headed up Hwy 101. We didn't want to go home until late, so Aaron had scoped out several
spots we could stop at along the beach. Our first stop was a lookout thing, that turned out to be a view of some houses and bushes. Really, we could make out the ocean if we looked really hard. We continued up Hwy 101 where we kept running through little towns that made me say, "Oh, this is where Happy Valley is" or "This is where Nestucca is".

Our next stop on the Johns family road trip of '08 was Munson Creek Falls. Its just a mile walk up a path and you are supposed to see this amazing waterfall. We hiked up the trail, only to have it caution taped off because of the fallen trees. Note to Oregon State Parks.....a sign at the beginning of a rocky trail would be appreciated!!

Luckily for Aaron and his hopes of broadening our children's view of Oregon, our next stop was a guaranteed success. The Tillamook Cheese Factory! We ate lunch, checked out the cows and headed up the stairs to the viewing area to watch all the cheese be made. Oh, but wait, it was a Sunday! And who wants to work on a Sunday?? No one apparently! We just got a view of the vacant work floor and the non-moving conveyor belt. Payton was like, "Wow...can we get some ice cream now?". Of course we got ice cream and I just have to say, it is so much better from there than in the store!

With their bellies full, we loaded them up and headed to Cannon Beach. They fell asleep somewhere in between, and Aaron and I enjoyed some uninterrupted talking time! Very Nice! When the kids woke up we bought some wood and walked to the beach. It was a beautiful day. We started a fire and roasted hot dogs and marsh mellows. Payton and I walked up and down the beach and collected enough firewood to last us until 8:30pm. That's when we decided we should drive back and deal with the heat! We arrived back at our house at 10:30 and it was still 83 degrees! It was so hot! I was grateful that we were able to get away from it while we could. Its not Disneyland, but it will have to do!

2008-07-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy 4th of July! Normally we head down to the beach for the day/night, but we decided to stay in town this year as the weather wasn't supposed to be great. We first went to the 4th of July parade in Hillsboro. Here you will see my two timid children watching the parade. It took them about 30 minutes of the parade going by before they would chase down candy. They were lucky though, every time someone caught Chloe's big puppy dog eyes, they would hurl a handful of candy at them! She knows how to work it!

After we got more than enough candy, we loaded up in our car and headed for McDonalds with our $1 happy meal coupons in hand! The toys were Transformers and Littlest Petshop. I can't begin to tell you the joy that gave both my children! Oh, the little things in life!

After we were sufficiently stuffed, we drove to the movie theater and decided to watch Kung Fu Panda...with my free movie ticket vouchers. I was on a role with my thriftiness!! The movie was ok, Payton loved it. Chloe was doing tricks on the handicap poles in front of us, she was not into it.

Now by the time we got home it was 4:00pm and we were exhausted. So we decided to take a family nap until 6:00! It was soooo nice! We woke up starving though, and I still needed to go to the store! My neighbor and I decided to go together and get a BBQ started. We BBQ'd some hotdogs and hamburgers and waited for it to get dark. We were so excited to light our $30 worth of fireworks. As soon as it was dark enough we lit the first one! Hurray! Both my kids immediately ran into our neighbors house and hid until all the loud ones were done. As you can see Payton did his own sparkler at the end of the night. Chloe however wouldn't even touch hers.....yes, if you are wondering the sparkler is silent.....but she still felt the need to plug her ears! We all fell into bed at 11:30, exhausted and happy. The best part of the 4th....my kids both slept in until well past 10:00 the next morning!!!

Girls Beach Weekend!

2008-07-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

After plotting and planning, we finally had our girls beach weekend! We started planning almost 4 months ago, and we couldn't have picked a better weekend to do it. While it was sweltering hot in town, the beach was around 80 both days. It was one of those rare weekends at the beach that you could actually wear a bikini and layout. The brave ones of us did this, but I was forbidden to take any pictures! Almost all of us left with some sort of a sunburn. Some burns were worst than others....Jill hows that going?? Anyways, Friday night we went down to the beach and built our own fire....we felt very good about ourselves. We made some smores and just hung out. It was so nice! This picture above is all of us with my self timer camera. Its Jill, Mimi, Me, Donia, Dara (on fire) and Liz. I really wish the fire hadn't got in the way. It is a super cute picture. We could pretend that Alisa is behind it, because we all know how she feels about not being in pictures!

This here is Donia moving the log that some of us sat on because the smoke kept getting in peoples eyes. She was pretty much doing it by herself! Notice Liz really thinking about helping her here!

Nothing too extraordinary happened this time. Just the weather and of course our amazing food! Donia made us the most delicious tacos! She is so great at that! We had Emily's Shrimp Friday night with baked potatoes and Jill's Beer Bread! Oh my goodness, it was so good! One thing we do know how to do on these weekends is eat and eat good! I will now feel full filled for the next year while I lose my freedom to a newborn! I look forward to my coming out weekend sometime next August!!

She's Crafty!

2008-06-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

The title is from an old Beastie Boys song, but I don't think they were referring the 'craftiness' that I will be discussing in this post. Anyways, I was truly inspired by my friend Jill when I read her post about Stawberry Jam, so to Jill I give you all the glory and accolades. I know you will appreciate that! BTW I want your recipe for the Beer Batter Bread, it was devine....You hear that Emily?? I said devine!

Anyways, after reading Jill's post, I wanted to make some strawberry jam in a bad way. I hadn't done it since I was young and I really got a hankerin'. So coincidentally my Mom mentioned to me about 2 days later that she wanted to make some freezer jam and wanted to know if I was interested in doing it with her. I love how these things always work out. So yesterday was the designated day for out fun filled jam making extravaganza.

I loaded Chloe up in our new Expedition...yes I am still excited about our car...and we went to Nana's house. Chloe didn't quite know what was going on, but as soon as we got her apron on, she was excited. She helped us stir the sugar and pectin together and smash the strawberries. She felt very much like a big girl!

This is Chloe holding up our first completed jar of strawberry freezer jam. She was very proud of her self, and I don't think I need to say how stinkin' cute she is in this picture. She is actually saying 'Strawberries' instead of the always faithful 'cheeeese'.

We made 3 batches, but it only took us an hour. It was quite a team effort and I was very pleased with how it went!

Now that I felt all crafty with my crate of Strawberry jam, I went home with another hankerin'. I decided to finish making the quilt I had started for Chloe 2 years ago. So, when I got home I started up the old sewing machine and went to work. I am proud to say that I finished it last night a 9pm! You will see below...however not too closely because I am by no means a perfectionist and it looks better from afar! Now you may notice some strings hanging off the bottom of it. This is not a design errror on my part. If any of you know my daughter well enough, you will know that she has carried around her bumper from her crib since she was about 2 years old. It is long and annoying, but she loves to run the strings through her fingers. So being the loving mother that I am, I cute 4 sets of the strings off and sewed them to the top. I brought it in to her at 9pm as she was almost asleep. Her eyes got huge and she said in a very Anne of Green Gables way, "Oh, thank you Mama!". I could get used to being crafty!

This is my brother Daryl, and my other brother Daryl.

2008-06-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would share a little tidbit about my children. We've been talking about baby names with them for a long time. We thought it was good to get their input and make them feel like their were part of the decision. Chloe at first said she wanted the baby to be named Bella. Then she quickly decided that she wanted to marry the neighbor boy Marshall, and when they sleep in the same bed she was going to have a baby and name HER baby Bella. This freaked us out a bit! Then she decided we should name the baby Alice.....all I could imagine was a housekeeper in a blue dress. Payton's only request was that if we have a boy that we name him Shark. I was glad when we found out we were having a girl, so I didn't have to get into a debate with Payton about why we could not call our baby Shark. (He's great at arguing, and actually comes up with valid points....which is frustrating being out debated by a 5 year old!)

Anyways, we finally told them we were going to name her Stella Rose. At which point Payton told us he like the name Ella and thought we should name her Stella Ella.....right. He told us that was what he was going to call her. Chloe then started crying and said we needed to name her Chloe. I told her that that was her name, but she insisted that we have 2 Chloe's. All I could think of was Payton saying...."This is my sister Chloe and my other sister Chloe". Then we could officially say we have Banks blood running through our veins!

Goodbye my dear old friend!

2008-06-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

I finally had to say goodbye to my '97 Ford Expedition this weekend! It has been a faithful companion for me since Chloe was 5 months old. However, our history goes back further than that. This fine vehicle was bought with my college money, when I decided that I did not want to attend college for lack of a direction. I was in Mexico on my amazing vacation that my Aunt Diane took me on after graduation. I decided to call my Dad and see how things were going without me. Apparently they were going well because he said they had just bought an Expedition. He told me they used the loan that was going to be for my college on the car. Since then, we as a family have taken this amazing beast of a vehicle on 3 road trips to Disneyland, and racked up 179,000 miles on it. Sadly, the last year has been very hard on it. As it would not pass DEQ after several attempts. We replaced the spark plugs and then the wires and dropped over $500 on the two repairs. However, it still did not fix the sputtering and stalling. Aaron took it in again and they said it was the transmission, which is a $3,000 to $5,000 fix. Now, as much as I love this car, it was not even close to worth that much! The mechanic told us it would be better off to scrap it or trade it in before she completely died....tear!

This is not completely a sad story however! We have purchased a new very fuel efficient Ford Expedition....ha ha! When we went into the dealership, they asked us why we really wanted to buy an Expedition right now. Not that they weren't completely thrilled to get one off their lot! They even took our old Expedition in on trade, although they will be scrapping her!

Anyways, this is our 2003 Ford Expedition. It has tan leather interior, which I am most excited about because my kids! It also has a 6 disc CD changer, which our former Expo did not have. I had a nifty little tape deck in it....very useful!

Its such a cool car, that I can park on the sidewalk now....actually Aaron told me I'm not allowed to drive it into the garage. Whatever! I bumped our other expo 2 times pulling it into the garage and I will forever have a bad wrap!

Never mind the Beavers license plate....it was there when we bought it. Aaron is thrilled, but I am fearful for my life sometimes. My dad hasn't seen it yet!

Anyways, I am very happy with our new car, and it only cost $90 to fill up. UGH!

Stella Rose

2008-05-31T10:15:00.001-07:00

So we finally decided on a name!!! Hurray for us! I know everyone has been waiting and asking and asking and asking! Thank you for all the suggestions, it really helped me process through some winners and some losers. After talking to Aaron and getting the approval of several friends last night we have decided on the name Stella Rose. Can I just say I feel so liberated knowing what I am going to name her!!

An update on the progress of the little human life I am growing....she supposedly weights 2 3/4 pounds, but she is probably a little less than that because she was so small during my ultrasounds. She is 15 inches long from head to toe. She has been moving around so much at night! If I wake up at any point during the night, I can feel her moving. I remember Chloe doing that too. Her movements are getting a little more rough! Its not the little fluttering anymore, it is full on kicking and pushing and rolling! I love it. Chloe felt her move for the first time on Tuesday afternoon. Chloe was laying on my lap and had her little arm around my belly, and Stella started kicking right under her hand. Chloe looked up with huge eyes and asked what that was! It was such a sweet moment. Payton was glad that she finally felt her, because he had been trying to get his 2 sisters to cooperate for weeks now!

I am so excited for this little baby to come out. I officially have 10 weeks and 5 days until my due date. I'm predicting 9 weeks and 6 days, but we will see soon enough. Please feel free to guess the weight. I think Mimi was really close to Chloe's. I'm thinking little Stella Rose will be 6 pounds 8 ounces. Payton was 6 pounds 12 ounces and Chloe was 6 pounds 5 ounces. I will buy the winner a Starbucks, unless I am the winner and then I will just have to treat myself!!

Our Little Left Handed Baseball Player

2008-05-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

As many of you know Payton started T-ball this year. The last game is tonight, and I am very sad. It has been so much fun to watch him play. He loves it so much, which brings smiles to our faces! For those of you that know us, you know how long we have waited for this day. Aaron was a pitcher in high school, his team got 3rd in state Aaron's Junior & Senior year. They were heartbreaking losses....tear. Luckily for Aaron, I was there to console him his senior year after their loss :)! It was truly sad to watch him and his closest friends lose a game they should have won. They didn't come out of their dugout for almost an hour after the game. The friendships he had with those boys still goes strong. They get together for poker nights and still play softball and used to play Portland City league baseball until a couple years ago. They relived their glory days when they won the Portland City league 9 days after Payton was born....I have to say here that they beat a team with former SF Giants on it. I am a proud bragging wife I know!!

Now, when I say Aaron was a pitcher, I have to specify that he is a left handed pitcher....that is a big difference. They are more valuable, so I have a more valuable husband, just in case I want to sell him one day. Anyways, when I found out I was pregnant with Payton my dear husband who had just received Jesus said his first prayer. It went something like this, 'Dear Jesus, Please let us have a boy and let him be left handed'. This prayer continued all through out my pregnancy. After he came out everything he reached for was scrutinized. Aaron would say, 'Did you see that!!! He reach for me with his left hand!!'. Even though he was 2 weeks old and happened to flail his left hand. When Payton began eating he truly favored his left hand. I read that they are still ambidextrous at this young age, so I cautioned Aaron not to get too excited, even though I was certain we were staring at a future hall of famer stuffing green beans in his mouth. We sound like lunatics, I know. I have to say, people would tell us, 'You know he's going to hate Baseball'. What is that?! To all of you that said that, I say Ha Ha! He falls asleep watching major league games and wakes up at 6:30am on the days of his game. He loves it just as much as Aaron.

Payton has been hitting a ball that we pitch to him since we was 2. My dad once grabbed a hard ball and just tossed it to Payton in the backyard, not thinking Payton had a chance at hitting it. Payton hit the ball and nearly knocked my dad out. My dad has not pitched to him since!

Payton's first practice was very rainy, but all the kids wanted to keep playing. So they did a little hitting under the covered playground. I will admit that we were slightly disappointed that there was a kid better than Payton on the team. His name was Jack, and if he wasn't so cute I might want to trip him. Granted he is a first grader, so we let it pass!

This is Payton about to hit the ball. I have to give you a visual here. He waits for his pitch, hits it and proceeds to run to 1st base with a gigantic smile on his face. When he gets there he puts his hands on his hips and looks for me to tell him good hit. He will then find the nearest grown up and tell them how great of a hit that was, and then continue to smile and converse with the stranger until its time to run to the next base....smiling the whole way. Now, running down the 3rd base line he will look for Chloe and wave to her. One game she walked up to him on 3rd base and kissed him. I know!! Could they be any cuter?!
Ok, I am going to continue to brag, because I can....I mean really what are these blogs for anyways! Payton plays pitcher and 1st base, because being a lefty thats probably what he will play when he gets older. Here he is fielding a ball at pitcher.....

Here he threw it in for the out. The last 4 games he has gotten at least 2 people out a game. Is that bad of me to be excited that he got a poor T-ball player out?? He will pick up the ball at pitcher and tag the runner going into home. Who does that in T-ball?!?! The parents at the last game kept coming up to us and saying, how does he know where to go with it? I just say its divine intervention.

This is the last game he played. He had just hit the ball.

Aaron is usually 1st base coach. This is the two of them discussing the game. Look how intently Payton listens.....he never listens like this unless he is on the baseball field!!!

He got to play catcher last game too. He was so excited. Now, most kids stand behind the plate, but Payton crouched down. Aaron asked his coach if he told him to do that. He coach said no, he thought Aaron told him to. Payton said he just saw the guys on the TV do that, so he did to. He is just so stinkin' cute!

They got their trophies after the game. Payton went up to his coach and asked him,' So Coach, when do we get paid for this.'!! Maybe someday Payton, and don't forget you're Mama when you're making millions! Ha ha!

Oh yeah, we have a blog.

2008-04-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

Am I supposed to write one of these things like once a week or something? I have a Myspace, Facebook and now one of these. Its all so overwhelming! Anyone at any moment could look me up and know everything about me. Its scary and cool all at the same time. I'm down with it though, as long as I look cool.

Ok, so since April 1st nothing too major has happened. I went with a group of friends up to Camp Crestview (Yes I said Camp Crestview) for Evergreen's Women's Retreat. It was very emotional. I could blame it on pregnancy horomones, but I know it was the Lord doing amazing things in my life, as well as the lives of my friends. Check-in was at 4pm on Friday, but we couldn't start a girls weekend that late now could we!?! So we left more like 10am and headed into Portland. Emily Hughes had a hair appointment, so she had her little groupies watching her. After that was done we headed to NW 23rd, for some shopping. We decided to eat lunch at Papa Hyden's.

This is us outside of Papa Hyden's. Preggo Me, Mimi, D-ho and Alisa. She will have a nickname soon! (Dara) Probably something to do with a Disney Princess, since she talks like one.

This is D-Ho and Me in Papa Hyden's. Notice the very grown up Shirley Temple I am drinking. I am a very sophisticated women.

This is us on our hellish walk my friends made me go on! It was all down hill at first, then on the way back it was like a 14% uphill grade! I was pretty sure they were going to deliver my baby on that trail. The view was pretty though.

Now, if you will devert your attention to the subject on the left, you will notice Emily is slipping. Despite all the arm flailing, she still fell. Poor Mimi....what am I saying. It was hilarious. Too bad we can't get a close up on her face, its classic. Whats that....we can get a close up?! Fantastic!!

And there it is Ladies and Gentlemen! Classic!

All joking aside, I had a great time up there. It is a truly anointed place. I had fun getting to know my friends better and of course watching the token crazy church ladies in full effect. I made Mimi promise me that I will not be one of those ladies when I pass the age of 40.

First Post

2008-04-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Our first blog! Hurray! We've done this once before, however we messed it up somehow. Leave it to us! A little about the Johns' family....

Aaron & Emily were high school sweethearts. We started dating when Emily was a sophomore and Aaron was a senior. We dated for 4 years before we got married. Since we dated so long, we wanted to have kids right away. We got pregnant 4 months after our wedding. 9 months later we were blessed with a busy baby boy, Payton Michael Johns! He is full of energy and very sharp. He doesn't let anything get past him! He just started playing T-ball last week. He loves his practices! His first game is going to be this Saturday. He is counting down the days.

When Payton was almost 2, we decided we wanted another baby. So we got preggers again with our little Chloe Ava Johns. She has always been quiet and shy....totally opposite of her brother. She is much more like Aaron. She has been enrolled in hip hop classes and she starts ballet tomorrow. We had to get her the smallest ballet slippers the store had, and they are still too big for her!

As most of you know, we are expecting our 3rd and probably last child. We are due on August 16th. Its a girl! We are very excited about having 2 girls. We hope they are really close. Chloe is so maternal, we think she is going to be a great sister. Payton is already very protective of Chloe, we know he is going to be a great big brother.