Sooo Pretty

Almost every day when Bracken sees me after I've finished my hair and makeup, he looks up at me, stops, and in a high squeaky voice he says, "Mommy, you look soooo, soooo, pretty!"

I love being a mom!

Christmas Newsletter

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This has been another full, busy year! Here are a few of our highlights.

Brian and I went to Cancun in January with the company Brian worked for the last two summers. We went zip lining, parasailing, toured Coba and Chichen Itza, swam with dolphins, went snorkeling with sting rays, built sandcastles, and ate lots of food at the buffets. It was so relaxing and fun to have time for just the two of us.

For the first summer since we were married, we didn’t move or sell alarms, and it was wonderful to have a summer “off” playing together. We went on several camping trips, hiked in Zion’s National Park, went to family reunions, went swimming in Cedar’s reservoir, and visited family in Phoenix, Richfield, Idaho Falls, and Island Park. Brian also managed the SUU Garden, where we planted our first garden. We were happily surprised with how well it turned out. By the end of the summer we had vegetables coming out our ears, especially tomatoes.

Brian—This last semester was insane for Brian! He took 18 credits as usual, but they were much harder classes than he’s had before. On top of that he volunteers weekly at our local hospital’s Emergency Room, was called to be in a singles ward bishopric, and started two new jobs on the Dixie and Iron County Ambulances. He’s been dreaming about working as an EMT for a while now, and has loved his new jobs. An added benefit is that he needs the patient exposure before medical school. With everything he had going on he never felt like he had enough time for all his studies or his family, but he pulled through the semester with very good grades. We are so proud of him and excited to have him to ourselves for a month before school starts back up.

Kira—Some of our most exciting news is that we’re expecting another baby, due in May! This last semester I pretty much took care of Bracken and tried to keep food down, but I’m 20 weeks along now, and have started feeling good again the last month or so. I’ve been working on increasing and using our food storage, cooking and eating healthily, and experimenting with my sewing machine. Sewing is one of my new favorite hobbies, and I’ve completed a bunch of fun projects this year.

Bracken—Keeps us laughing and on our toes. He is all boy, and loves wrestling, football games, sword fighting with balloons, puzzles, reading, coloring, and Signing Time movies. He adores his Dad and when Brian is around Bracken is his little shadow. He is very friendly and says “Hello!” and carries on a conversation with any friend or stranger he sees. He almost never stops talking and is pretty easy to understand. He tells me almost every morning, “Oh Mama, you look soo, so pretty!” which makes my day. He loves to look through coins with Brian and whenever he sees a penny he holds it up and says, “It’s a good one!” The other day he was jumping off of our couches onto the floor, and then he said “Well, I’m pretty crazy.” He loves to sing and often goes around the house singing his ABC’s, Away in a Manger, or some other little song.

We are so grateful for our family and friends, for the blessings we’ve had this year, and for our Savior. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,
Brian, Kira and Bracken

Cracking Eggs

Our home teachers came over last week and Bracken had a great time playing with them. After a while though he came up to me and asked for a "green shake" (aka a spinach smoothie), and I told him he'd have to wait until we were done talking. He started throwing a tantrum and ran out of the room. We just ignored him and he quickly found something else to occupy his attention. It got really quiet and we heard a "smack" sound. Brian went into the kitchen to investigate and I heard him say, "What are you doing?!" I came in the kitchen in time to hear Bracken say, "Look Dad, crack egg on the floor!" as he threw another egg on the kitchen floor. He'd opened the fridge and "cracked" about half a dozen eggs on the floor. He was so proud of himself. Thanks to our laughing hometeachers suggestion, we got a picture. Thanks to their being there, I laughed too instead of flipping out.

Bracken's Nativity

I bought Bracken a little playschool nativity to help him become familiar with the Christmas story. When I first opened the box and began handing him each figurine he started exclaiming, "Oh Mom, Look! A camel!" then "Oh, a donkey!" "Oh! A Sheep!" etc. When we were finished pulling the plastic off everything he picked up the stable and hugged it to his chest and said, "I love this!" several times. It made me happy that he was so excited for his gift. I totally felt like buying him more presents.

Our Nativity's Anomalies:

Our stable usually has a donkey on top instead of an angel. You see, the stable has a little spot on top for the angel to stand. But Bracken insists that it is a better spot for the camel, sheep or donkey. Whenever Bracken notices that Brian or I put the angel back on top, he quickly takes it off and puts an animal in it's place.

Bracken thought the stable was for the animals and always put baby Jesus and the people outside. When I explained to him that the animals wanted to let baby Jesus stay in their stable so he could be warm and they could see him, Bracken started putting baby Jesus inside the stable. But then he crowds every figure around as close as they can get while saying, "Cow look at baby Jesus, Camel look at baby Jesus" for each animal and wiseman.

We had a big laundry basket of blankets sitting in the living room after my brothers and sisters spent the night. Bracken looked at it and decided it was a manger. He crawled in, told me he was baby Jesus, and reached for the animals, "Cow see baby Jesus mom!" I handed him each figure one by one until all of them were in the laundry basket with Bracken. Then Bracken said, "Okay Mom, take a picture." (see below)

Through all the fun he is learning about the real nativity. His favorite book right now is about the first Christmas. We read it several times a day. We also act out the nativity with his figurines. Then, the other day I watched him with Mary and the angel as he said, "One day, an angel came. Said, "Don't be afraid Mary. You're going to have baby Jesus. Bye." That made my heart melt. Or having the innkeeper say, "Sorry Joseph, no room. But stable, warm and dry."

Thanksgiving Break

Brian was on call with the Ambulance most of Thanksgiving break, so we were very excited when his family decided to drive up and visit us for Thanksgiving this year. It was so fun to see Bracken around his "Grandpa RoB" (lots of emphasis on the "B"), "Gamma Sue," "Lissa," "Ricky" and "Kristi Sue." Bracken loved having such an attentive and adoring audience. He would dance, sing, and just go crazy for us every night before bedtime. He was so cute and fun that he usually got to stay up an extra hour or so while we laughed at and clapped for him. We also played in the snow a ton while everyone was here. Don't you love the little French snowman Kristi and Melissa made with Bracken?

After our delicious Thanksgiving dinner (complete with nine pies for seven people!) we ran outside to play in the snow. Bracken loved sledding and walking in the snow, as well as eating the snow.

Top Left: Kristi; Top Right: Melissa; Bottom Left: Brian and Rick pushing Bracken and I on the sled; Bottom Right: Kristi and Rob

I'm grateful for my family!

Ever since I joined the Johnson family I've heard about the "Newspaper game" but have never gotten a chance to play it. But on Thanksgiving we had some extra newspapers and our downstairs neighbors weren't home so we decided to play. That is one noisy, fun game! We were all jumping up and down, yelling out different animal names and getting smacked with a newspaper. Bracken wanted to play too, so we gave him his own rolled up newspaper. We were impressed that he knew which animal each of us was. We laughed a lot as he ran around yelling "Emu! Wombat! Buffalo!" and smacking us with the newspaper.

For Black Friday we looked around at CAL-Ranch (Rob's favorite store), played games while Bracken napped, and then went sledding. We all had a blast, and Bracken thought sledding was definitely a cool thing to do.

Left: Brian grooving down the hill; Right: Brian and Bracken racing Melissa

Left: Kristi and Melissa crashing at the bottom; Right: Family Tubing!

I love this picture of Melissa and Kristi right after they crashed. It just makes me smile! We all had so much fun over the whole break. I'm so glad our family was able (and willing) to make the long drive up here to be with us. We love you guys!

Our "Big" Boy

We love our little boy! He keeps us on our toes, learns constantly, and gives us hundreds of reasons to smile and laugh every day. He is talking more and more all the time (if that's possible) and using sentences now. Here are some funny things he's been saying and doing:

A few weeks ago Brian came home for dinner and Bracken had a hundred things to tell him. He literally would not stop talking. Finally I said, "Bracken, it's Mommy's turn." He was silent for about 20 seconds, then happily announced, "Bracken's Turn!" and continued to jabber at Brian.

Bracken was outside playing while we carried Costco groceries in the house. Brian was carrying a couple of boxes of rice milk in the house when Bracken looked up at him in amazement and said, "Ooo Daddy Strong!" That made Brian feel so proud.

A couple days ago Bracken and I were walking with my siblings when Bracken said, "I'm a boy." (while signing "boy") pause..."Mommy, I'm a BIG boy!"

Bracken loves horses. The other night when I was singing to him before putting him to bed he insisted that I sing a horse song. I couldn't think of any at the time so I just sang BINGO, but sang "There was a farmer had a horse" instead of a dog, and clucked my tongue instead of clapping for the letters. He loved it. As I laid him in his crib he quietly sang "Horse...Cluck, Cluck, N-G-O!" A few times.

Speaking of singing, Bracken sings bits of songs all the time. "Twinkle, twinkle little star," "The Colors of the Rainbow," "Holy Ghost Song," "ABC's" etc. If he finds a Hymn book or another book with music notes in it he opens it up and sings, "Song, song, La-la-la." I love to hear him sing, and he actually carries the right tune half the time.

Bracken repeats everything. I've really got to watch what I say. He kept saying, "crap!" one day over and over and I was feeling like a loser until I realized he was actually saying "crib." Boy was I relieved! Another night at a friends house he decided to say "Oh Man!" every time he dropped a toy or tripped or turned around. I know I say that sometimes, but he was saying it like a swear word every other second. Thankfully he's forgotten how much fun that is to say.

Bracken's favorite things to say:
"Mommy, look at this!"
"I see it!"
"No thank you." (At least it's not flat out "NO!")
"I love _____(fill in the blank)."
"Hello!" (to complete strangers.)
"I hear a dog!" (or a motorcycle.)
"Daddy fix it." (when he breaks something or gets hurt.)

We love our little man!

First Snow

Shortly after we woke up this morning the snow started coming down. There were groans from the oldest three in the house and the rest of the kids started celebrating and pulling out their snow gear. Bracken wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow, but he liked trying to catch it on his tongue and throwing the little snowballs we made him. Here we are with our cowboy snowman.

Down the Dirt Roads

Bracken and I are in Richfield with my brothers and sisters while my parents enjoy ten days in Hawaii! My parents are having an amazing time, and we're having lots of fun here. We've been going on daily walks down the dirt roads around our house. There are rocks to throw, old cattails to smash, and lots of animals to see: cows, horses, ducks, chickens, a goat and kittens. These three kittens live at one of the sheds we walk past and they usually follow us for our entire walk. (Above: Dallin, Tyson, Bracken, Sarah)

Bracken loves the kittens. He says, "Come here, little kitties, little kitties." and is always so happy when they let him pick them up.

At a chicken coop along the way...

Bracken loves horses. Breonna is always willing to take him to see and feed her horses. Here they are taking a quick ride on Nebo. Whenever Bracken sees Breonna he says, "Hi Breonna, horses?"

Alphabet Puzzle

Since it's turned so cold outside I bought a warm winter hat for Bracken. He hasn't wanted to take it off his head since. I had to take a picture of him with three of his favorite things: his hat, his blue blanket, and his ABC puzzle. He'd been sitting in the living room putting this puzzle together and dumping it out over and over again for 45 minutes when I finally took these pictures. He knows most of the names of the letters and when he finishes putting the puzzle together we sing the ABC song by switching off between Bracken and I about every other letter. Then he says "dump it out!" and starts all over. I can't believe how fast he learns. What a fun little man!

Pumpkin Festival

Bracken and I went to the Pumpkin Festival this morning with our friends Melissa and Jairus. The boys had so much fun! They painted pumpkins, went pumpkin bowling, decorated pumpkin cookies, tried to eat donuts from a string, spit pumpkin seeds (Bracken thought this was great. He was like, "Really mom, it's okay to spit right now? You're always telling me not to.), jumped in a bouncy house and had to be pulled out when their turn was over because they were having so much fun, got little kits to make a wooden helicopter and boat and more! It was totally worth $5.

Bracken and Jairus are so lucky to have each other for friends. They love to get out of the house and run, play throw rocks, chase balls, and jump in mud puddles together. It works out great for me too, because I get to hang out with Melissa at the same time.

On the left: It didn't take Bracken long to just grab his donut. The lady the string off for him and he carried it around for 45 minutes just licking the sugar off. When he finally figured out he could actually eat his donut, it quickly disappeared.

Visit to Vegas

My little sister Sarah, Bracken and I went to visit Linsy in their new home in Vegas. Sarah was such a big help and it was fun to have her along. Kylie crawls all over the place and even took her first steps while we were there. She and Bracken had a great time together.

Sarah insisted we needed to go swimming. It was cold! We didn't last in the pool very long and just played on the stone animals nearby.

Kylie Brynn and Linsy

Bracken loves watching Signing Time. He commandeered Kylie's baby rocker as his easy chair whenever we let him watch signing time.

Not the greatest picture but we had a memorable moment here. We drove into Vegas to see the Bellagio gardens and water show. While we were waiting for the water show to start, Bracken was watching the ducks. He got a little too excited and threw his water bottle in the water. As soon as it was out of his hands he wanted it back and was really upset upset that we couldn't get it back. He wouldn't stop crying until we told him that he was nice to share his water bottle with the ducks. This became his favorite story to tell for the next month or so. "Water bottle all gone, quackies, water show! Water, Wow!" Repeated over and over to anyone who'd listen. We're just hoping he doesn't decide to share whatever he's holding the next time he sees ducks...unless it's bread.
Linsy, Kylie, Bracken and Kira with a 900 pound pumpkin in the background.

Thanks for letting us come visit Linsy and Caleb! We had a great time playing, fixing and eating yummy food, and just spending time with you. Come see us soon.

Shaylee Dawn's 1/2 Marathon

My little sister Shaylee ran in Cedar City's 1/2 Marathon in September. Bracken and I went to watch her cross the finish line. Bracken had fun clapping for everyone as they ran the last little bit.

When we saw Shaylee we both started cheering really loud and calling her name. She looked around for a second until she saw us, then she took off sprinting like a maniac, passing people left and right. She finished in just over 2 hours. Way to go Shaylee! We're so proud of you!

Below: Bracken was happy that Shaylee shared her end of the race snacks with him.

Fun in Richfield

My parents went to Lake Powell this week, so I went to Richfield to watch and play with my little brothers and sisters. Bracken has been going through "Lucy withdrawals" since his best friend moved, so it was nice to have lots of friends constantly available to play with. Bracken loves his aunts and uncles and they are so good with him. We had lots of fun together: we went on 4-Wheeler rides, played with the endless amount of toys in the toy chest, read books, went to the library, went to Dallin's soccer game and part of Ryan's football game, made caramel popcorn and watched 101 Dalmatians 2, picked and bottled green beans, and played outside a ton.

Bracken loved wearing the boys' hats. They were way too big for him, so we had to turn it sideways or backwards so he could see, but he had a hat on almost constantly.

Bracken playing with Uncle Seth. We spent a lot of time on the back driveway. The boys would ride their bikes and ripstik around while Bracken rode one of the little bikes or played with the toy kitchen. He thinks it's so fun to take a toy and move it from the cupboard to the microwave to the fridge over and over again. I loved that they stayed entertained for so long while I just sat and watched them and cheered for all of their "tricks."

One of Bracken's favorite things about Richfield is being able to see the horses. He asks for Bre and the horses from the moment he wakes up until I'm putting him to sleep at night. "Horses, Randy, Nebo, Walka, Neigh!!" is one of the most common phrases he said while we were there. He is so happy whenever anyone will take him out to see the horses and when he can feed them some grass.

Tonight when I was helping Bracken say his prayers, he reminded me (more like insisted) that I thank Heavenly Father for each one of his aunts and uncles that he played with this week. We had a great time and look forward to playing with them again soon.

Bracken Funnies

Bracken is 18 months old now. Here are some of the funny things he does:

∙ When we read together I always give Bracken a choice between two books. He used to just point to the book he wanted me to read. But lately he's been playing his own version of eenie meenie miney moe. If I hold up the books If you give a Pig a Pancake, and Are you my Mother? he'll point back and forth from one to the other saying, "Pancake, Mother, Pancake, Mother... Pancake!" He gets all excited when he says his final choice, kicks his legs a little and hits the book harder. He repeats this each time I give him another choice of books.

∙ When Bracken sees a piece of paper with words on it he pretends to read it. Or if we walk past a sign on ground level like a "Permit Parking Only" sign he stands in front of it, bends over, and gabbers for a minute while he "reads" it. Today we were playing on-campus and he disappeared behind a flower garden. After a minute I went over to find him and found him bent over a small sign reading it. Silly kid.

∙ Throughout the day, Bracken randomly decides its time to say a prayer. He'll be in the middle of playing in the dirt and all of a sudden he'll fold his arms, bow his head, and start praying, "Daddy, Mommy, Bampa Rob, Mamma, Susu, Shay, Jairus, Trees, Food, Jesus, Amen." and then throw up his hands and continue playing as if nothing happened. He melts my heart.

∙ Whenever we ask Bracken, "Who loves Daddy?!" (or mommy, or grandpa, or doggies, or food) he raises his hand and says in a high voice, "I do!" When Brian is being silly and asks him who loves spankings, Bracken never raises his hand.

∙ Bracken has been getting even more adventurous lately. Jumping off the curb is his new daring trick. He gets up on the curb, balances on the edge, bounces his legs, and begins to count: "two, two, two, jump!" then he just steps off. While I laugh, he claps and cheers for himself as if he has just performed the most daunting feat.

∙ If anyone mentions the word bath, Bracken starts saying and signing "Bath" like a maniac and practically drags me to the bathroom so he can get in the water. If it's in the middle of the day it takes some major distracting to keep him from climbing in the tub and throwing a fit because I don't turn the water on.

∙ Bracken went to nursery for the first time last week. He lasted for thirty minutes, then I heard his screams in the hallway. The teacher said he'd been fine until they tried to put away the toys. I went back to nursery with him so he'd realize it wasn't so bad. During the lesson he ran away and somehow got into the locked toy cupboard. During snack time he tried to eat his little neighbor's treats. I think he's going to love nursery.

∙ In trying to help Bracken become more familiar with what goes on in nursery, we've been singing some common nursery songs. I've discovered he doesn't like the song "When you're happy and you know it clap your hands." Every time I sing it he says, "No Mom, Grumpy." while signing "grumpy" (the sign for grumpy is so funny, he scrunches up his face while scrunching his hand over his nose and mouth). He wants to sing, "When you're grumpy and you know it stomp your feet" instead.

Bountiful Garden

At the beginning of the summer our garden was a lot of work. Brian set up the drip line system for the entire SUU garden with all their old equipment. After we planted, there was major weeding to do for several weeks. It's like somebody scattered grass and weed seed over the whole garden. We'd go to the garden in the morning as a family, then Brian and I took turns working on the garden and taking care of Bracken. Bracken loved the cows and would spend the whole time feeding them grass and weeds from over the fence. But holy cow they smelled bad! He also loved playing in the dirt. If we didn't watch him closely enough, he'd eat it too. There was one day he had a really weird diaper and I finally realized it was because he'd eaten a meal of dirt. Yuck!


On the way home from the garden: Bracken always plays hard at the garden. This time he was so dirty we had to strip him down to his undershirt. He fell asleep before we'd been in the car for one minute. Gardening can be exhausting!

I was getting a little discouraged for the first month and a half of gardening. It seemed like the weeds were the only thing that were thriving. But all of a sudden at the beginning of July, things started to grow! This picture is from the second week of August. We were just starting to harvest our veggies, and we got to share them with Brian's family while they were here. You can see how tall the weeds around the garden are. Brian keeps the pathways weeded, but they are like a forest around the perimeter of the garden. Bracken thinks it's so funny to go hide behind the weeds. He'll stand there quietly while we say "where's Bracken?" and then laugh like crazy when we come and say, "We found you!"

Hooray! One of our first harvests. (Don't mind the swim attire, we'd just come from the lake.) We've definitely learned some things by trial and error with our garden. Most of all, next year we'll plant our tomatoes much further apart, and we'll use stronger tomato cages. We have a tomato plant jungle right now.

Today's harvest: beets, eggplants, zucchini, green beans, onions, grape and early girl tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, purple and green peppers, and fennel. This is as good as a bountiful basket any day...except no fruit.

I'm not sure what his expression is about, but Bracken kept coming into the kitchen and taking green beans to snack on. Speaking of snacking, some of our favorite meals and snacks using our garden produce lately have been: Eggplant Parmesan, Zucchini Fettuccine, Salads, Green Beans with toasted almonds, Eggplant Towers, Fennel Soup, Tomato/Mozzarella/Basil Quesadillas, and of course, fresh Garden Salsa. Harvesting, sharing, and eating our produce has definitely been the best part of having a garden!