You know it's SUMMER when...

These are things at our house that make us know it's summer.
1. We go the grocery store and buy more popsicles and ice cream then real food. (just about)
2. We have something planned every weeked except one in July and one in Aug.
3. Kids won't and don't go to bed/sleep until 10 or 10:30 (My kids were in bed one night at 9 or 9:30 and kept saying shut the lights off - the lights were off...it was still light outside and the light was coming in through the window. :) silly kids
4. All the good shows are over...American Idol, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, NCIS, & the Mentalist (thanks to DVR...it records and I watch all week long...especially on Laundry day)
5. I swear the lawn needs mowed every other day. It really does...who ever fertilizes...jeezz. :)
6. Kids outside all day long. I LOVE THIS.
7. YES, we eat popsicles all day long. Otter pops too.
8. Boating...MY Favorite

How do you know it's summer or what's your favorite thing about summer?

A weekend worth waiting for....

I think that we have been planning this weekend (Memorial Day weekend) for probably about 3 months. Since Mitch and Mike are such avid fisherman they needed a weekend of just fishing. Opening day at Henry's Lake is the Saturday before Memorial Day so why not make a weekend of it. That's just what we did. We took up Mitch's parents' "cruisin condo" - motorhome and went camping. We took our boat and had a great time crusin the lake, fishing, and eating. I think that Nat and Justin had the best luck fishing. I am sure that Mitch will have plenty of great days ahead. I still can't beleive how amazing the weather was, it was beautiful. Mitch kept saying, "opening day is never this nice." I think it was because I was there." I don't think I would have lasted in nasty weather. Here are a few fun pictures. They are a little out of order, but that's ok.

Tanner being cheesy. Yes, you'll notice his girly pj's. We left his bag at home and luckily I had a pack of diapers and wipes in the car until Tiffany brought us his bag on Sunday. Thanks Tiff. He wore the same clothes and Lexi's Pj's.

Justin and Tanner with the fish Justin caught.

Lexie and cousin Conner enjoying the wild boat ride.

Sleepy fisherman (Brett and Mitch). 5am fishing kicks in 9 hours later. I think we (everyone, I was off and on with the kids) were on the lake from 5 am - 9pm with a 2 hour break for dinner and rain.

Lexie fishing with her Barbie fishing pole.

Cousin Whitney and Tanner. Whitney was such a trooper; helping with the kids and going without the luxury of a shower for 3 days.

Tanner being silly with Whit's help.

I told Mitch if we went up for the whole weekend we were not taking the boat out on Sunday. We thought it would be fun to go to Yellowstone on Sunday. The rest of Mike and Brett's families came up and joined us for a great adventure. Mitch and Tanner on our hike near Old Faithful.

Mitch and me with Old Faithful erupting.

Our little family watching and waitng for Old Faithful.

All of us on the backside of Old Faithful doing a little hike. Mitch and family, Nat and Justin, Mike and family, & Brett and Family. We love having family so close to hang out with. Thanks for all the fun everyone. Thanks for coming to Idaho Nat. We love it when you come.

After our little hiking adventure we found a little spot for a quick picnic. Thanks for lunch Mike.

Yeah, it was a lot of work to get ready to go but well worth it. Camping is fun! Yipee! Thanks for the party Johnson's and Crumps! We love you all! Who else could fit 11 people into a car...only the Johnson's. Brett and Tiff''s van broke down on the way back from Yellowstone. We were ahead of them so Mike and Laurie picked them up in there Avalon. It was funny to watch them pile out. :)

It's about Time...(May Flashback)

Yes...it's about time that I updated this blog. I don't know which months is busier May or December.

It's about time...that we finally got to take the boat out again. Oh, how I love our boat. I think it's the best purchase we have ever made. Even though I tease Mitch sometimes, I really don't mind going fishing with him on it (well as long as we catch fish and the weather's not too bad.) I get a little crancky when we've been out for hours and NO FISH. Best of all...I love wakeboarding but that doesn't come 'til late June-Julyish.

The Saturday before Mother's Day was gorgeous and Mitch's brother Mike called and asked if I had something planned for Mitch...I said, "No, DO YOU?" Yep, we need to go fishing. Mitch asked if it was okay and I knew that I would either have to go or stay home and do Saturday chores by myself, so of course I decided to go. We went to Palisades Reservoir and had a great time. It's so beautiful and we did catch some fish.

This is the first fish we caught. It's not to big..but somethings better than nothing and it tasted good at our fish fry.

Here are the kids. Poor Tanner got to wear a pink life jacket cause the one he normally wears is snug with a sweatshirt under it and has one of those head bobber things on the back. We were just trolling around so it worked.

It's about that time of year for dance recitals.

Kallie and Lexie Johnson. These 2 little girls are so cute; they are best friends and cousins too. This whole year after dance they would take turns at each others house playing and would just have a blast. I can't believe how fast they are growing up. They did so good at their recital. Mitch said, "Lex does really good, she's a count ahead of the teacher" (who is down in front of the stage kind of doing the dance so the little girls don't forget what to do). I noticed that too. We were so proud of her. Great Job Lexi and Kallie!

Well this isn't the greatest film job it was actually done on my camera not on a video camera. But my camera will record digital and our video camera is a little out of date. I hope we get a new one in the sometime future. In case you noticed the arm leaning on the stage and the people talking it's because we take pictures and film at the reherseal instead of the actual recital, which makes it nice cause the recital gets very hectic with all the people.

It's about time we had nice weather. Go figure in the middle of May we had a very cold week and the next week it was in the high 80's. Every morning Lexi askes if it's summer yet and if we could get the sprinkler out. YEAH! We finally could. It was really HOT. It's not that hot now, just in the 70's. That's okay.

It's about, time....that we share the great news, that our third baby is on the way. Yep that's right we'll have three little monkey's running around. My due date is December 6. I am just over 12 weeks. Lexi and Tanner are so excited. Every day Lex asks, "How big's the baby?" Tanner says, " Baby in your bummy (tummy)?" Tanner wants a baby boy and Lex wants a baby girl. I guess we'll see:)

Easter Fun

Of course we can't have spring without one winter storm. Last Frinday Morning we woke to about 3 inches of new snow and it just kept on falling. It was mostly mellted by late after noon but c'mon. I am ready for SPRING.

I don't know if you can really see it that well but this is lex writing her alphabet on the sidewalk.

Cari likes to find any excuse to have a party, so she decided dinner club and easter would be a good reason. We invited a few family members and friends over, and these are all the kids getting ready for the Easter egg hunt. (Don't worry Dad the house is still all in one piece.) Thanks for coming everyone. It always makes a party more fun!!!

The hunt was on. We had the little kids go in the front yard the big kids go in the back yard. This worked out well because little kids seem to be in no hurry. They pick up and egg...shake...open it....and if it's not an egg they just walk on by. (If there are "prizes" or wrapped cookies; they have no interest. It's so funny)

Lexi and her best friend/cousin Kallie. Lex sure loves her cousins and friends. We were asked time and time again, "How much longer till my friends come here to play?"

Tanner and cousin Brekka on the hunt. Tanner and Bryce taking time out for a picture. They would have picked up a lot more eggs if they would stop posing.
Tanner in his Easter outfit.
Lex showing off her new Easter dress, and hair bows made by aunt Wendy and mom.

I had to post this one just because of the cheesers. We had 3 pictures just like this.

A little overdue...better late than NEVER!!!

My sister Wendy and I thought we would get together for a little St. Patricks day party and then watch American Idol together. We decided to forgo the corned-beef and cabbage and just eat all green food. If it wasn't geen then we made it green. Our Menu consisted of: "green mashed potatoes, green hamburger gravy, green beans, green jello, green apple juice, and home-made oreos with green filling. The kids thought it was so fun. It was fun!!!

A few weeks back we decided to once agian head to Utah to see Mitch's parents, Natalie and Justin, and go to a Jazz game. We told Tanner we were going to the game and he kept thinking that we were going to the church to watch Mitch play church ball (Mitch plays church ball every Wednesday night). So when we were packing our bags to head to Utah he came out with Mitch's basketball shoes and ball. We just laughed...it gets better. When we were in Utah and said are your ready for the game... he said, "go to church." (That's where we go to watch Mitch play basketball) We finally got to the game and I wish we had a picture that did him justice. I think he was in utter shock of all the people and the noise. He had huge bug eyes, wide open mouth like WOW, and wouldn't talk! Finally by the second half he was having fun. He loved seeing the bear (mascot of the Jazz). He is still saying "do Dazz" (Go Jazz). If he sees a game going on TV he still says "daddy's dame (game)." We sure had Fun.

Natalie and Lexie. We love our aunt Natalie. She takes such good care of us.

Tanner does look a little shocked in this picture.

Cutie Pies!

What can I say....I know I am partial...but I have the cutest kids.

Grandpa Ramsey

My Grandpa Ramsey passed away early this morning. He was such a wonderful, kind, giving and happy person. A few of my favorite memories of Granpa are...One that sticks out so much, and I think Lacy and Mike will remember this too...One day Mike, Lacy and I (I think we were between the ages 7 and 10) were all at Grandma and Grandpa's, just playing. We had come in for lunch and of course were we being silly and laughing. Grandpa asked one of us to say the prayer and of course couldn't because we were laughing to hard...then he asked the next one and of couse couldn't because of laughing...then asked the next one of us and of course couldn't becuase of laughing...that's right none of us could because we were trying so hard to keep our giggles in. Grandpa finally said, "I guess I'll say it" with a giant smile on his face. He proceeded to say the prayer and then said the following..."Father please bless these silly kids" - that did it we all just bust out and could not hold it in any more. Even Grandpa started laughing. I don't think we even finished the prayer because we were all laughing to hard. Grandpa could always make us laugh. He was such a happy person with a good joke.
I will always rember the support my Grandpa showed for me and going to all my sporting events. Especailly my softball games. My dad was one of my softball coaches so Grandpa would travel with my dad to all the games. When we went to state in Coeur d' Alene my dad asked coach Jackman if it was alright if Grandpa (our #1 fan) could ride the bus with us - he did. I remember him saying as we were all getting on the bus, "Don't worry about me, I'll just be sitting up here in the front." I don't know why I think that's so funny but I can hear him saying it. Grandpa had a funny way of pointing out the obvious - if you know what I mean.
He would say or do the darndest things and Grandma would say "Good hell, BOB." We would all just laugh right along with him. He is such a wonderful person. I will truly miss him.

His funeral will be at 2:00pm on Feb 14th (Saturday) at the Burley Stake Center. All our welcome.

This is a video that my cousin Mike posted of my Grandpa. It's truly a treasured moment.
http://www.mikeandhill.blogspot.com/

All Bundled Up

We finally had the sun-shine last week so we took advantage of the nice day and walked around the corner to "boys town" to do some sledding.

Lex & her Diva glasses.

Tanner & his adorable smile.

Cari even took a trip down the hill with them. You can't really see the tree they about took out on the way.

How come when dad rides the snow sinks in 3 extra inches. Overall it was a fun time to get a change from everyday things of life and enjoy time as a family.

It's TIME!!!

Well the Lord sure works in mysterious ways. Some of you may know this but we have been trying to sell our house for the past I think 8 or 9 months. The market here isn't terrible but they have just overbuilt townhomes bad here. Anyway with that being said....there had been some discussion in past months of us moving to Mitch's parent house to take care of it while they are gone on a mission, but there never was a set plan and we orginally just wanted to sell our house and then if it worked out we would move there. I honestly don't know what started the conversation but it was just a few days before fast Sunday and we decided that we needed to fast about renting out our house and moving to his parents house. Well that was a Sunday. Tuesday we started talking about it again and we knew what we needed to do. I posted our house on the school bulletin board for rent on a Friday and Sunday morning I got a call. I didn't think much of it because they were going to "call back" and come see it that night and we would see if they actually called back. Sure enough, they did and wanted it. So we had two weeks to move out. When things are in the Lords hands they just work out.

The two weeks leading up to our move were CRAZY. I didn't want to live in mess for Christmas so I didn't pack much. I had tenants moving in and out of the apartments and it was snowing like crazy, which meant Mitch was plowing snow like 14+ hours a day. Then Christmas came with two trips one to Burley and then one to Utah. We came home and then moved. Thankfully it wasn't snowing so Mitch was great help.

Then when we got here (Mitch's parents house). We had a few "fun adventures".

1. Leaking toilet in upstairs bathroom cause dripping in downstairs bathroom - Mitch fixed, good job babe.

2. We noticed that the toilet and tub in the bathroom downstairs were having problem draining. I was so nervous that one of the kids had flushed a toy or something. We called the Rooter man. Luckily it wasn't our own kids toys. It was a tree root from the large willow in the backyard. This root was in the main sewer line going out to the city. Yes, that's a picture of it. CRAZY!!! 3. One night I go to start a load of laundry and notice the water wont work. (it had been really cold) I told Mitch and he said the pipes in that room are frozen. (this has happened before - so not to worry). We start trying to thaw the pipes and keep the heater on it overnight. The next day he moves the washer out from the wall so he can put a bucket under the pipe and turn it on so when it's starts to thaw it can break through. Several hours later Mitch turns the main water off the whole house so change some valves. Then he goes to turn the water back on and asks me to stay in the back bathroom to watch the valves and makes sure they are off so when he turns the water on it doesn't go every where. The valves were off and everything was great...oh wait...not so fast. Mitch comes in the house and hears gushing...Lexie says "Dad there's water all over." I was in the back of the house and couldn't hear that when Mitch turned the main water back on the laundry room pipe had thawed and was coming out full force. Now we had an about 2 inches of water in the laundry room. All cleaned and no problems now.

These three things all happened with in the 1st week of when we moved in. I guess all things come in threes and hopefully that's it. I am not complaining - I just started to wonder - what are we doing here? We are supposed to be here. Yes! and everything is great now.

*(NOTE: No TV for a week and no internet for 2.5 weeks makes for a cranky Cari. Very long story about the internet getting setup. If you really want to know-I'll tell you someday)
WE are here and HAPPY! Thanks Mom and Dad Johnson for letting us stay at your house while you're gone. We love you!

Late Christmas!

We had a wonderful & very white Christmas. We are so thankful that we had such a white Christmas. Really the two weeks prior to Christmas it would not stop snowing, which was a good thing for the area but when you're one of the ones trying to "clean-up" the snow it's hard to keep up with it. Poor Mitch would plow and not have much of a break. Thankfully it stopped snowing long enough for us to take a short break and go to my parents house for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day and then head to Utah. Then the day we got back from Utah we started packing our house so that we could move. That will be another post, so back to Christmas. We did have a wonderful Christmas. All Tanner wanted for Christmas was a "tanney-tane" (candy cane). Everytime we would ask him what Santa was going to bring him, he would say "tanney tane". I would even give him optoins, cars...trucks... he would just say "tanney tane". I think because Santa gave him a candy cane when we saw him...it was just so cute. Of course out of all the thing Santa brought him the 9 inch candy cane was the first thing he noticed and picked out. One day at church she was asking Mitch how to spell all these things. Mitch just kept helping her spell them and then when he was done she said, "Here's what I want for Christmas and the things down here are what Tanner wants." She had written a "letter" to Santa. It was so cute.

One of Lexie's favorite things was the suprise we had on Christmas Eve. We were all gathered around signing Christmas Carols and reading the Christmas Story when the doorbell rang. We went to the door and Santa's elves had left a great big package with pj's for everyone it. Yes, even Nana, Papa, Mom and Dad and of course the cute jammies you see the kids in above.

Tanner got this camera for Christmas and he would just walk around saying cheese and taking pictures.

Lex got this adorable hat and socks in her stocking and wore them most of the morning.

Lexie was passing out all the gifts to open and was trying to be very helpful...this picture doesn't do her justice or the kick we all got watching her try to carry all three great big bags. I guess you had to be there. LOL

These are pictures from Alexa's Christmas dance performance. They did a little dance to some Nutcracker music (it brought back many memories) and then they had a special visitor. Doesn't she look graceful? :)