Pictures of us lately

Happy December!

Wow so much has been going on these past few months!

Katey started to talk to us. Communicating has been awesome! I cannot believe how big she is getting. She also learned how to whistle! I know right? Not even two and she can whistle! That has been fun! I will post pictures from my phone once on my next post. We just love having her in our family. Even when she can be a little stinker. She makes our lives full of joy!

Ben is applying to different schools trying to make a good decision on where to go to finish his education. We have everything set up for SUU, but lately we are missing our families so much we kinda want to be closer to them. So he has also applied to UVU, USU, and has plans to look into other schools around friends and family. So what the future holds for us we have no idea! He also found a really good job down here. He his working at Findlay auto working on cars. Changing oil, and tires and such. He doesn't mind it. the best part is they work around school which is really hard to find around here!

I'm doing alright. School is almost out for the semester. Yay! And I wont be going back until my kids grow a little bit. I kind of think I will miss it though. I loved having something for me to do that didn't have anything to do with me being a wife or a mommy. The pregnancy is going alright. I'm pretty much over the nausea. But I am still tired and worn out. I am getting aches and pains, even when i exercise. My eyes are having issues too. I have blury moments. I think it is time to go to the eye doctor! But on the bright side I love bonding with this sweet baby. I love feeling her move and kick. She is just as busy as Katey is. It is so fun to be able to experience pregnancy again.

The baby is doing good. For those of you who don't know, IT"S A GIRL! YAY! Another little girl. We are all so excited. As far as names, we haven't picked one and we don't plan to until we see her. We learned our lesson with Katey! But we do have a list of like 30 or so names that we both agree on.

.Today I got most of my Christmas shopping done. I can't believe it is that time again! So Merry Christmas to you all! =)

Surprise!

Well for most of you who have checked my facebook or instagram, you know we are expecting baby #2. Yay!!! We are so excited! I thought i would blog a little to let you all know how this pregnancy came to be(Don't worry, it doesn't include that kind of information;)), How this pregnancy has been compared to my last, and some fun pictures of how we told everyone our big news.

Well... Ben has actually been trying to talk me into having another baby for months now. I was really against it, because I had other plans... Go to school, Get at least an associates degree, spend time with my Katey bug, and travel more...... As we all know.. Our plan isn't always the right plan.... One day I decided to take a nap. As I was taking that nap, I had a dream of a little baby. The minute I woke up, I realized that this was Heavenly Father's way of telling me it is time to bring another child into this world. Ben came home and I started crying, and instantly he knew what I was about to say. We got me off of birth control, waited another month to start trying and we got pregnant the first month we were trying. You may think that is weird, but to me that is another way of the Lord reassuring me that it is time. And sure enough since we were trying, I started taking test's as soon as i could we started to see faint lines at 3 1/2 weeks.

This pregnancy has been easier in some ways, and harder in other ways compared to my last pregnancy. I haven't been throwing up as much as I did with Katey. Thank goodness! And there are some times of the day where I feel almost normal. That is a major blessing to me, because I felt like I had a disease with my first pregnancy. On the down side, I am still throwing up. This pregnancy liquids and meats trigger my nausea. So I have to get ice to put in my drinks, and drink whatever sounds good as much as possible, especially during those few hours I'm feeling ok. Evenings are the hardest. That is another blessing, because Ben gets home a few hours after it starts, so he can help take care of Katey. Because I can't keep liquids down we went in at 7 weeks to get everything checked out and to get a prescription for Zofran to help with the nausea. That still only helps so much. But we got to do a mini- ultrasound and saw the heartbeat of our sweet baby. We decided to bring Katey to this appointment so she could see the baby too.(Even though I don't think she really understands quite yet.)

Flowers from my honey

After this Appt.Ben got me these pretty flowers to show me how excited he is. He is such a sweetie. Then we loaded up our little car and headed up north for a mini-vacation with our families. My mom was staying with my grandma, so we stayed there to spend some time with them and my brother. It was so nice. I got pampered by them. They were so sweet to help me with my dehydration, and other pregnancy issues. This was the weekend we told some of our closest friends and Ben's family the big news. Sadly I don't have pictures of how we told Ben's family our news. But, I will do my best to explain it. We made party favors for each one of them and put candy and a picture of the ultrasound picture in there. Some of the kid's didn't know what the picture was. Some of their comments were priceless. One said, " Is this a birds nest?"

We used this shirt to tell our close friends we were having another baby

 

 After a couple more weeks we had another appointment with my midwife. And everything looks good, so we decided to share our news with all of you!

Another pair of shoes for our growing family! We are due April 2, 2013. We can't wait!

Where we will be in the next year.

Well folks, It looks like St. George will only be our home for a little longer. A lot of changes will be happening for our family over the next year. Some of those I will blog about later. But this blog post is to be focused on my amazing husband. He works so hard for us and I am so proud of him. He has worked really hard over the last year and will continue to do so for the next 3 years. We will be here until next summer and then we will be moving our little family to Cedar City. Yes that is right. It's going to be a really big move huh? SUU is where Ben will finish his education in English Education. He put a lot of thought into this, and decided he would love to be a teacher when he graduates. So more then likely we will end up out of state once he does graduate. Utah doesn't pay very well for teachers.

Hairspray, The 4th of July, our adventurous weekend, and our 3rd anniversary.

Some good friends of ours gave us tickets to go see hairspray at Tuachan. We had so much fun. We had ben's sweet cousin come babysit Kate. She had so much fun with her!
I can't say I really enjoyed the movie Hairspray, but the actors here did a really great job.

The 4th
The Holmes family asked us if we wanted to hang out with them on the 4th. We all had a blast! We went to the carnival with them. I got a few pictures I will post of that...( I am using my phone to write this post, so my pictures may not be in order.)

After the carnival we came home and got ready for a bbq. We had way too much food. Including these fun flag cookies katie and I made. While we were eating we heard sirens coming from everywhere. I asked Ben if we should go check it out. He said he thought it was a few blocks away. After a half an hour sitting there hearing the sirens, we finally went outside and saw a fire right across the street from us. We all ran over to see what was going on. Some kids were messing around with fireworks and started the empty lot between us and the freeway on fire. Thank goodness it wasn't someone's house. It was way too close though.

Later we went to Ben's aunts house to watch the fireworks. She lives right across the street from the park they were setting them off at. This fireworks show was the best show I have ever seen. They set fireworks off from 3 other places at the same time surrounding the main one at the park. They had music playing, and the fireworks would go off to the music. It was pretty cool.

To avoid the traffic, we went into the backyard and had homemade ice cream with Ben's extended family. It has been so nice getting to know all of them. They are such sweet people. They loved having our friends there as well. ( I think this might have to do with the cute little newborn baby they have. She is a doll. Her brothers are pretty cute too!)

Our crazy spontaneous adventure
Ben's boss found out it was our anniversary last weekend so he gave him Saturday off and told him to go home early on Friday. We spontaneously decided to drive back home for the weekend. It was a very quick trip and very rushed, but so fun! Kate played with her cousins and aunts and uncles, We saw my brother and grandma, we saw our good friends bret, Bekah, and sky, and Justin, Emily and their cute boys and Jen and chad. Chad was celebrating his 23rd birthday. We are so glad we were able to tell him happy birthday in person. And to get some delicious cake. We also made a trip to the Bountiful Temple for an endowment session. We had such a great time with Ben'S parents and sister Char there. Ben's other sister Angela took Kate for us, so we could go. We are so blessed to have such a great family who loves and supports us.

Our Anniversary
We got to visit with more family and had a wonderful time visiting with them. We missed the rest of you who didn't make it over to see us. Hopefully we can see you next time!
We spent most of the evening in the car..... It was an extremely long car ride! We made way too many stops because we had a cranky teething baby. We finally made it home and got unpacked and Ben and I both had homework to do. We were up until 2, so it wasn't the perfect day, but we have had a lot of really great days that I think makes up for it.

What's going on at the Johnson home

I know it has been FOREVER since i posted something! We have been really busy. No pictures will be uploaded on this post, so I am sorry, but if you are my Facebook friend you have more than likely seen it. I think my last post was on Katelynn's 1st birthday? Well we can start with then.

Kate has grown up! She is mommy's minnie me as Ben likes to put it. She loves to clean and carry her purse around and put shoes on. Such a girly girl. The cleaning thing is really cute. Whenever I'm cleaning she has to help or else she grabs onto my legs and won't let go, while screaming MOMMOM to try to get my attention. She started walking at 14 months and I wish i took more videos and pictures.( I need a new camera!) Right now she says Mom, Dad, Juice, Fishes, Woof woof, Makes all kinds of animal sounds, Katey, Shoes, Banana, and her speech improves more and more everyday. I am such a proud Mom. I am so lucky that I got such a cute girl to be my daughter. She reached the 20 lb mark, so Ben and I got her a brand new car seat. She loves it because she can watch movies while we drive places. She is so tall her feet had to be scrunched in her infant car seat, so i really don't blame her for being excited about her new one. Our daily routine consists of walking, eating, napping, and playing with dolls.

Ben is working at Grease Monkey, And going to summer school. He is almost never home. We miss him, but we are so lucky to have him. He is such a hard worker and really good to his girls.

I am going to school as well, Part time. I'm taking a nutrition class, and a computer class ONLINE. Yes they do give me a TON of homework. Thankfully Kate still takes LONG naps so i can get all of my work done. My house wife duties have slacked due to this, but luckily it is summer so we can do a lot of salads and easy things for dinner and my good husband is not a complainer as long as his little girl gets taken care of, and he has clean underwear when he needs it. 

We as a family were sealed for time and all eternity in the St. George Temple on March 3, 2012. It was such a neat experience being there surrounded by our loved ones. The spirit was so strong. Being in the Temple was such a testimony builder. I honestly am still speechless about the whole experience. I would go into more details, but words can not even come into mind about how amazing this was for us.

We also moved to another apartment. Once i get it all decorated the way I want to, and when i find time, I will give you all a tour. Our new address for those of you who want it is 1178 E 300 S Apt G112 St. George UT 84790. 

We still are loving life in St. George(Even with the heat). Life is good.

Little update on us...=)

Wow, We have had a great time over the past month or so.

First of all. Katelynn turned 1! I cannot believe my little baby is 1 already! She has gotten so big. The most common question i get is... Is she walking yet? Well she isn't walking by herself. She still likes to crawl when she has to be independent. She loves to walk when we hold her hand. Most of this walking is her pulling us all around to where she wants to go. She is a busy body. I seriously thought she was a busy girl months ago, but i had no idea what i was really in for. She wears me out! Kate's birthday was a great day! My brother Jared and my Grandmother were able to come and stay with us for a few days over her birthday. We had a blast! We went to the park and played on the slides and the swings. She got to do a little skateboarding with her daddy. Her new friend Eloise from down stairs gave her a puzzle, that she absolutely LOVES! Thanks Black family.
She was also spoiled by her Grandparents! She got so many fun toys and clothes. My Grandma Stanger took us to Olive Garden for dinner, and then came home for some cake. It was such a wonderful day. We had a blast!

The next few days we enjoyed seeing the sites around here with Jared and Grandma. Snow Canyon, Mesquite, and some of our favorite spots. Grandma volunteered to babysit, so Ben, Jared, and I could go bowling. It was fun to spend some time with out our little stinker.

Over the past few weeks we have just been living the good life. We haven't found work yet, but we are still hopeful. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Over all things are going good here. We still are loving our new ward. We're trying to get to know more people around here, find more things to do, and Ben is doing really well in school.

We have some pretty exciting things going on in the next few weeks. Most importantly, we get to see some, or most of our family for a couple of days. It will be great getting to see and spend some good quality time with them. We have missed all of them lots!

Well that is it for now. I do have pictures, but most of you have probably seen them on Facebook, so i don't want to add the same ones to this.

Our fun adventures before school

The week before school started Ben and I decided to do some day trips and take advantage of all the wonderful things we are surrounded by. We went to snow canyon, and to zions. How amazing it was to be surrounded by such majestic rocks. Ben and I felt so little.
While we were doing this Ben brought up a good point, faith can move mountains. There are some huge mountains. Especially around here. That would be a lot of faith.
Kate loved it too. We saw some deer right out our car window at zions canyon and she kept pointing over to them.
Zions canyon has a big tunnel about a mile long you drive through. That was a pretty awesome experience.
I have loved spending all of this time with my beautiful family.
Ben started school last week, and he is doing pretty well. He tries to get all of it done so we can spend the weekend together. Ben and I are both currently looking for jobs. Hopefully one of us will find one soon. We think Ben might have a lead for a call center. We are hopeful for that anyway. This way I can continue being a stay at home mom. And I might try to take a few classes over the summer.
Kate will be 1 next week. I can't believe how quick this last year has gone by. I'm still trying to organize her birthday as far as a party and gifts, but I will post pictures and blog about it here soon.
Here are some pictures of our fun day trips.

Driving on our trip. You can see Kate in the mirror. 

I believe this was right out o the tunnel at Zions

At Zions. Very Majestic. And HUGE!

The opening of the Tunnel at Zions

The Deer Kate kept pointing at. 

I made Ben get out of the car so i could take a picture. This is at Zions Canyon. The sign says BIG BEND so he' covering the D lol. 

This is a rock at Snow Canyon that we all climbed. I got pretty nervous with my baby being up so high on this rock. I'm glad we did it, but wow that was a big rock! 

Ben and Kate halfway to the top.

Ben likes to climb. Snow Canyon

Another view of that big rock i guess,