MIA

I know that I never blog anymore. Never ever. I am too busy. I also have my 2 assistants that like to "help" on the computer. So, my computer time is pretty much limited to nap times and bedtimes. Maybe an occasional few moments here and there when everyone is preoccupied :) So, when the time does allow for me to go online, I have found a new passion... Craft Blogs...and...Remodeling Blogs. I could spend hours searching these blogs (the first one I saw, which led me to sooo many more is All Things Thrifty, where they like to refinish yard sale furniture... love at first post! Because I always tell Kirk when I buy something from a yard sale that we can always paint it, which I never really do because I am not always super sure on how to do it, but now I am! I had no idea I was missing out on so much GREAT information out there! We just went to Ikea this weekend, and found lots of things we would love to buy, but some are a little out of our price range (actually at this time EVERYTHING is out of our price range :) But (kirk, don't read this:) I found an awesome blog that tells you how to build everything, mostly pottery barn inspired things. I would start out with their queen sized bed with drawers underneath it, so much storage from such unused space. So exciting!

So, that's where I have been, not at the Johnson Crowd, but out searching and loving craft blogs!

And, if Kirk does read all of this, I am pretty sure he is going to cancel our Internet before I have him "helping" me with fun projects! Love you Kirk!

I need Ideas

I have a geat new Idea. Well, I think it is a great idea. But I can use some help from other moms. I want to start putting together and selling dress-up kits/trunks. I made Tessa dress up box for her birthday, and she loves it. So, I thought it would be a good idea to sell them. It is really hard to find quality dress-up stuff that doesn't cost an arm and leg. Even walmart sells a kit, but it's like $30 for hardly anything and the reviews have said that it's all really cheap things.

So, with this thought, I need some ideas of what you would like as dress-ups, or what your little kids would like as dress-ups. It's really boy stuff that I have a hard time thinking of, guess maybe cause I only have girls! These are the ideas that I have:
*fairy stuff- wings, tutu's, fairy headpiece
*Wedding- white wedding dress, veil, probably a pair or fancy gloves
*cheerleader- skirt, pompoms
*cooking- apron, oven mitt, perhaps a chefs hat (that may be too involved:)
*animals hoods and tails combos- cat, dog, rabbit, pig, maybe horse
*cowboys- bandana, hat, vest, chaps
*capes- superhero capes, maybe facemasks too

and then I have accessories to chose from:
*hats, scarves, gloves, purses, tiaras (homemade), wands, crowns (like king and queen), boas, glasses, shoes, etc.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Do you think it's a good idea? :) Thanks!

Chocolate

With the thought about chocoate from the other post, I have decided that this would be a good time to give up chocoate again. Yes, I say again because in Nov I went about 2 or so weeks without a single thing chocolate or chocolate-y. So, having not eaten now for almost 2 days because of stomach flu, I guess I already have my head start on giving up chocolate.

So, with the new year in mind and of course, as everyone does, wanting to lose weight, I am deciding to give up chocolate. I might even add a chocolate ticker on this blog! Here's to hoping my willpower is great! :)

Girl after my own heart

Last night, I had Tessa help me make some chocolate pudding. I told her if she ate all of her dinner, spaghetti, that she could have some dessert. We never do an actual dessert, like a totally planned out item. So, in an effort to have Tessa eat better I have decided to add dessert to the daily menu. Probably just something small, like chocolate pudding, because I don't need any leftovers of chocolate lying around! :)

So, we made pudding, but forgot to give it out, for a couple reasons. I was still feeling sick from my round of the stomach flu, so I went to bed a little early and forgot to offer the pudding, and reason two is that the girls and Daddy came downstairs as soon as dinner was over to watch some more great dance scenes from Snow White. (It is a DVD with only dance scenes on it, just little 3 minute clips, and yes, we watch the same on OVER AND OVER, but they love it, it also came with a princess book)

Back to the pudding, so today I gave the girls their pudding after eating ALL their lunch. Well, Tessa ate hers and put her bowl in the sink (good girl) and Ashley pretty much worked on her pudding for about 20 mins. Finally she came walking over towards the sink with bowl and spoon and chocolate everywhere. So I grabbed the bowl and spoon and started to work on cleaning up all the chocolate. Well, she promptly tried to run away so I wouldn't take her bowl, then threw herself onto the floor for a full blown tantrum. Pretty much her first real kicking screaming tantrum that I have seen! And all over a little chocolate :)

Spell Check

I noticed the other night that our "Merry Christmas" greeting on our blog has been mispelled this entire holiday season. How many of you noticed this? Either you are all very polite or we just don't really attract that many visitors to our blog. Or maybe those visitors to our blog can't spell like us....lol.

Just another day...

Today, I went in to get Ashley and found her surrounded by vomit. Yucky. Thankfully, it wasn't anywhere but on her bed, so that is pretty easy to clean up. But it just made me a bit depressed because thats a never a good sign. I was hoping to go up to IKEA today to window shop, but that didn't happen. She only yakked one other time, and thankfully, that was in the kitchen, sitting on my lap facing away from me. So, another realatively easy cleanup. I hope I am not jinxing myself for posting this.
I hope no one else gets anything, I dont' especially care for cleaning up puke :(

Ramblings from the husband

When we bought our house here in Cedar Hills we decided to cut back on a lot of unnecessary bills. This meant getting rid of cellphones and cable TV. Luckily our contracts were up for both of those so we didn't have to pay any expensive cancellation fees. Laura got herself a pay as you go Cricket cellphone which has worked out nicely. She now pays roughly around a month instead of $60 something with our old plan. I like her having a phone with her in case she needs help with car problems and such.
We have Internet since I often VPN into my office computer and work a little from home when needed. So last night I'm sitting in front of the computer with ESPN gamecast on so I can watch the updates for the Fiesta Bowl with Boise State and TCU playing while doing some work. I'm thinking something is wrong with this set up.
I bought a little 7 inch portable TV so I could walk around the house and find the best location to erect my 500 ft digital antennae. I have since found out that we get 3 stations. 2 Spanish stations and some sort of Christian station which is even cheesier than the 700 Club with Pat Robertson. Sorry if I offended any 700 Club fans. So I either need to learn Spanish and start enjoying Spanish soap operas or I can watch TV evangelists preaching fire and brimstone one minute and crying repentance the next. Haven't decided on which one I prefer yet. I may become desperate enough to sit on my camping chair on the hill behind our house tomorrow night to see if the reception is better there.
So I realized something this past week. We didn't have cable in our first house either until after Tessa was born. Laura finally decided if she was going to be up in the middle of the night nursing then she deserved to be able to watch TV without the rabbit ears. I was of course in full agreement. So along came dish network and the glorious DVR.
So I'm thinking it's time we have another child. I know what you're thinking......that's pretty expensive way to get cable TV but in this economy I may not get a raise for awhile so this might very well be my only choice. So keep checking in on the posts to see if there is any news but I'm predicting no cable TV at the Johnson home for a few years but hey I can try right?
I enjoy our home and love that Laura and the kids think it's a great place. I am beginning to understand about the sacrifices my parents made for me and my siblings.
Truth be known I think I'm more productive without TV. There is a high likelihood I wouldn't be typing this if I had cable TV. Oh and by the way does anybody have extra space on their couch Thurs. night for the Texas vs. Alabama game?

Ramblings from the husband

After passing a strenuous back ground check I have been granted clearance to our award winning family blog. Laura warned me that she may revoke this privilege at anytime so I better behave myself while posting.
Tessa has been on this "Little Mermaid" kick for awhile now. Recently Laura purchased one of those Disney sequels that went straight to DVD. I believe it is titled something to the effect of "Little Mermaid 2". Basically it is about Ariel's daughter Melody. So now Tessa goes around the house pretending to be Melody and calling me "Grandfather" in reference to King Tritan. Tonight I decided to participate even more in this game than I usually do. I sat in my recliner (King Tritan's throne) with our yellow broom from the dollar store (King Tritan's Trident). I ordered her to finish her dinner. We played this game for a little while until Tessa noticed Ashley playing with Tessa's toys. Later in the evening we rocked out to a "Doodle Bops" (some crazy acid tripping Canadia Sesame Street show) DVD. I don't think I could have predicted this night when I was single and watching "The Simpson's" at my apartment with Blake my roomate. It's funny how life changes and priorities get shifted around. I love my little girls Tessa and Ashley, my beautiful wife Laura, and possibly our dog Rosco that peed on the snowman I made. Stay tuned for the next installment of the "Rambling Husband" by Kirk.

Happy Late Halloween!

This is at the ward party. I think it was supposed to be for bean bag toss,

but we found a better use!

Cinderella, a little Piggy, and their Daddy.

Right before heading out to trick-or-treat. Our super cute
little Piggy, she even had a curly tail on her bottom!
(And she is a fancy piglet with her necklaces on)




Cinderella was having a fit about putting on her dress back on,
so we went to the dress up box and got out
her wedding dress instead, then we just called
her a princess.





Cute girls!
Notice the glass slippers:)

The loot, which we forgot to put away before we went to bed.

We woke up the next morning to Tessa with chocolate all over her face

saying "I found chocolate!"

Halloween Day at a small festival down the road,
hanging out with Kirk's sisters kids.

They had games to play so you could win candy.

Ashley is playing the mummy game, courtesy of the cousins!

She is the most beautiful mummy I have ever seen!



Ashley and Tessa, just hanging out watching the other kids. Ashley was too little

to play most games, and Tessa was too shy, so this is how we spent most of the time.

We had a really fun halloween, I know that it's almost Christmas, but I wanted to get some pictures up of the girls. So check in around Valentines Day for our Christmas post!! haha.

I made a decision

I made my advent calander decision. I only have a day or so to get it together. But I love it. Check it out.

Pizza Night!

I have bunco tonight, I haven't been in a few months because of scheduling conflicts, so tonight is Kirk and the girls doing dinner on their own. And what a great day for this, because

Tuesdays and Thursdays are

$2.99 pizza night at 5 Buck pizza!!!

Thinking Ahead

I just spent a few minutes searching KSL.com for Christmas trees (I am totally ok with a gently used tree)! And all the Christmas decorations made me think of how excited I am for Christmas, I just want it to hurry up and be time to put up Christmas decorations, maybe we will have to start the week OF thanksgiving instead of the weekend after! Anyways, all this looking made me realize that I want to make an advent calendar for the kids. I found this one online, but want to keep looking for other ideas, I still have a few weeks to get it all figured out I guess. Now, I need to start working on some of the homemade gifts we are doing this year, which I can't post because some people that may read this may be on the gift list! I will post them in January :)

I love Christmas!!!!