My milkshake brings all the boyz to the yard. . . .

This is such a fun stage with Miss Pretty! She's very curious and quite the dare devil. She also has the funnest personality, makes me just wanna squeeze her sometimes. (Not to inflict harm, just to try to absorb all of her cuteness!)

She loves to go outside! The other day we put her stocking cap on because it was pretty chilly and she thought she was so cool! So she found it in her diaper bag the other morning and wanted it on because she thought that meant she'd be going outside. She wouldn't take it off for a while and looked so stinkin' cute! Notice her skin tight jammies! She's getting so tall!

Grandma Johnson bought her a baby stroller to tote her baby around. Well she thought she'd test it out.

She's mad because she couldn't get herself out.

She finally figured out how to ride her lil' car. She just gets high centered on the handle bars periodically, but other than that, she has lots o' fun on it!

And last but not least, many of you know how productive I was this harvest season! I'm still pretty shocked myself! We got all of our grapes juiced and got 6 jars of yummy grape juice!!

Here are the grapes being prepped for juicing!

Miss Pretty was such a good helper! She just snacked on them the whole time or squeezed them and said "EEEWWWW!!"

She goes in for her 18 month Dr. checkup with Dreamy soon! She's actually 19 months already! Some of the fun things that she's doing are:

*She no longer calls her blankie "ng ng ng". It's "beety". Which makes mommy sad because I loved it when she called it "ng ng!"

*She's so sassy! When we called her sassy the other day, she said "SASSY!" It was cute! (I know I won't be saying that in 13 years, but for now I'll enjoy the moment!)

*When I open the fridge or the pantry, she sits there and goes "hmmmm. . . " as if pondering what she should ask for!

*She can go down the stairs on her own now.

*She still tries to make friends with Gracie the cat! I think Grace is just too old and doesn't want to call it truce because she still boxes with her every chance she gets! Luckily she doesn't have any claws!

*She's quite the dancer! Just like her momma! Anytime she hears music, she tries to snap her lil' fingers and shakes her lil' booty! It's too funny!

Old MacDonald Had a Farm. . . eee. . . iiiii. . . . eee. . . .iiiii. . . oooooooo

3 months ago, we were spending sleepless days up at the U of U hospital praying that our dad would pull through and that we would get to spend many more fun times with him! Last night, I saw what the power of the Atonement can do for a family! We got to go out to the Ranch and visit my dad for the first time since we took him there 2 months ago. He looks amazing! What an awsome experience it has been to be a witness to a miracle! We took pies and hung out in the barn. The kids had a blast and had us hootin' and a hollerin' the whole time. My dad is doing so good and will be released into the wild in a few weeks. I took a bunch of pics of all the kids playing and got a cute one of Papa and Miss Pretty. The whole way to the Ranch, she kept saying "Bye bye. . . Papa.. . . byebye. . .papa".

Top 10 of our night at the Ranch:

10. Hanging out in the barn "loft" above the horse stalls. Imagine the aroma and the flies if you will.

9. Miss Pretty face planting it multiple times on the dirty floor and being covered in filth.

8. Lil' B man givin' his cuz "Baby Sis" a smoochy and the look on her face afterword was priceless.

7. The two llamas out by the barn "Dumb & Dumber"

6. Marie Calendar for making us her famous pies. . . .m m m m. . .

Ben's famous hand-in-front-of-the-camera trick.

5. J-Lo thinking the bird feces on the couch was paint.

4. Spidey takin' out Miss Pretty with the punching bag. . . she didn't even see it coming.

3. Spidey killing flies with his bare hands.

2. Seeing my dad! He looks great!

1. Lil' B man turning out the lights and being in complete darkness!! Bennie said "Don't move bud! So when he turned on the light on his phone to find B man, he was frozen with his hand in mid air by the light switch! "Hey who turned out the lights!"

Lil' B man cheezin' it up.

"I'm gonna knock you out. . . momma said knock you out. . . hoooo" Spidey playing with the punching bag.

Bad boys bad boys. . whatchya gonna do. . .

Just wanted to brag about my lil bro. He was hired on with West Valley Police Department who will put him through Police Academy to become a police officer! Good thing, i'll be callin' him up to come check on my ghetto neighbors!

Bad boys bad boys. . .whatchya gonna do. . .whatchya gonna do when they come for you.

I will be posting pics later and an update.

You Say Tomato. . .I Say Tomoto. . .

It's harvest season ya'll!! And i've turned into a true blue suzy home maker for sure!! My sweet mother in law taught me how to can after Doug and I got hitched. It definately gives me a sense of accomplishment to look at all my hard work and then to enjoy it a few months later! I've canned various things before, like apple pie filling, jams & salsa. Well this year, Grammy Geri hooked a girl up with some serious maters! This is a pic of 1/3 of them! I had to get them done this week because they were ripe and ready!

This is what I started with:
After coring them, blanching them and peeling them, they look like this:

Then I shove them all into these jars. . . & I give them a nice hot 45 minute bath. . .
Then walaah. . . my masterpiece. . . I was able to do 33 jars by the time I was all done! It's definately time consuming and a lot harder with a toddler. We will be making concord grape juice pretty soon. So yummy!

While we were out watering the other night, I looked above D's head and saw something large and black. I'd like to introduce "Big Mamma", she's our lovely large Cat Face Spider that lives in the pine tree out front. As you can see, she's quite large and very creepy. I looked online and she's harmless and likes to live in the trees so I don't have to worry about her making a home visit!

I'm boycotting Kanye West!!!

Corky the slacker, back again with my monthly Johnson update! I will be posting pics a little later with our fun Labor day festivities. Dad is doing great. He's been on family restriction though, so we haven't actually seen him since we dropped him off at the ol' rancherooney. But from what we've heard, he is doing really good! We have found some good support groups to join. The church has been amazing to help pay for the rehab.

Our little family is doing great! Finally caught up on the housework! I'm pretty sure that DCFS could have come in there and classified it as a disaster area! But rest assured, it is clean now. Well except for the gazillion tomatoes that I'm going to can this week! Miss Pretty is growing like you wouldn't believe! She makes me laugh every single day! We've been over at my sistas a lot and the cuzzins have been so hilarious!! My lil' nephew "Spidey" is really having a hard time sharing with everyone. If you haven't read my sista's blog, check it out, it's under "Superhero family".

Many of you may be wondering about my post title. Last night was the MTV Music Awards. I DVR'd it, but heard this morning about the Kanye West controversy. I actually really like Kanye West's older music, but love Taylor Swift more. I will now be deleting all of Kanye West from my IPOD and throwing my cd's away. Total and utter disrespect!!

Friday, marked the 8 year anniversary of 9/11. As I drove to work that morning, I thought about that day and went over the events in my mind. It's funny how we remember so many details about that day, like what I was wearing and what I was doing when I heard the sad news. I was getting ready for work and heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the towers. They were thinking it was a joke or an accident, and I turned on the news right when the 2nd plane hit. When the 3rd and 4th planes crashed, I remember thinking "Why can't they stop them? We're in America!" I'll never forget the images displayed throughout the media and the reactions of the news reporters who aren't supposed to show raw emotion like that. At work on Friday, our ROTC class had a flag raising ceremony in the front of the school. I lost it, once the flag was raised and then dropped back to half staff. My heart goes out to those amazing family members that lost fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas and friends that day!!

DIVAS!

This blog is an ode to my two DIVAS!! First is my sweet princess Miss Pretty! She has been such a trooper through this whole journey with my dad. D has been such a great daddy to stay home with her when I need him to and Gramma Johnson has come down a lot to play and help out to! Thanks so much!
Miss Pretty is growing like crazy and getting so big! Last night I broke down and cut off some of her hair. It was getting so straggly in the back and I wanted it even, so here's a pic of her with her new hair.
After all of our exhausting trips to the hospital. . . She didn't even have the energy to take out the sippy!

Gramma Lloyd bought her a water table and she thought that was the coolest thing!

Her first beater. I made whipped cream and she got to lick off the beater. Yummmm. . . . . The Johnson playland, otherwise known as our family room! We charge a $2 admission to go into Miss Pretty's college fund! :)
She is saying lots of new words and crackin' me right up! She says: car, juice, shoes, dadda, momma, cracker. She's also started drinking out of a straw and thinks she's so cool now! It's fun to see her getting so big, but I wish it lasted longer!

On to my other DIVA. . . Miss Pretty's cuz, my niece, Baby Sis. We celebrated her 1st birthday last week. She wasn't too interested in her cake, but she tasted it. She got lots of cute things for the celebration. Miss Pretty got her her first baby doll and Baby Sis chewed on the baby doll's head all night! Happy Birthday!

A D D I C T I O N

2 1/2 weeks ago I got the phone call that I have been dreading my whole life. Something had happened to my dad and we needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Since that day, we've been through a whole range of emotions: sadness, anger, heartbreak, anger, humility, love, friendship. . . .
Yesterday, my dad was moved out of ICU and into a recovery room. I can't begin to explain how greatful I am to my Heavenly Father for keeping him here on this earth. It's only through His mercy that my dad is still here. It's taken all the faith that I could muster to trust that He would do what's right for our family. 3 times, we almost lost him and last Sunday, I really thought it was it. Dad went into cardiac arrest. I know now, that the comfort I felt on the way up there, was not that of loss, but of hope. Throughout this experience we have grown so much closer as siblings! Life tends to get busy and pulls away from the things that truly matter in life: FAMILY! So I am very greatful that through all of the sadness and heartache, I had my family to pull me through. We've also seen the amazing compassion of others, friends, family, who have come up to visit "our" waiting room and brought us delicious meals, snacks, comfort and friendship. I am so overcome with gratitude for them!

We have crossed a huge bridge to get where we are now. But now, the hardest part of all begins. . . healing. With my dad awake, he's started to talk a little bit about what happened. I think part of me was expecting him to wake up and be miraculously healed from his addiction. But that is so not the case. It's hard to see him struggle physically, for the drugs. And it's even harder to see him try to wheel and deal with the nurses, dr's and my grandma for them. We are at a crossroads with his addiction. He can either get the help that we truly know he needs. Or he can continue to let this addiction ruin his life and eventually kill him. I guess my biggest fear is that he'll choose the latter and after all that we've been through these past couple of weeks, I'm not sure that I could handle that. Addiction is such a powerful thing that Satan has put on this earth. It's taken someone that I love soooo much and turned him into someone that despise at times. We will hope for the best and be supportive.

Here are some pics of our shinnanigans on the 4th floor of the U of U hospital. We've met some amazing people there that will never fully know how much they've impacted our lives! Aaron, Tiffany, Kate, Whitney, Stephen, Dave, Tara, Dr. Coles, Dr. Steenbeck, the cute janitor that was so good to clean up after us, and many many more!! Thanks!