4th of July Weekend

We had the best July 4th weekend! Chandra was blessed, we were surrounded by family, and we just had lots of fun together. Aren't these kids cute? Bracken loved playing with his cousins. They played at the park, built "birds nests" out of grass, watched the parade and shared their candy spoils, built sandcastles and splashed at the lake, and had a blast with the fireworks.

Bracken loves his Grandpa Rob and always seem to laugh like crazy when he's playing with Grandpa.
Happy Independence Day!
Bracken loved the sparklers and snaps. He kept saying, "When I was a baby, the fireworks scared me. But now I'm a big boy and I like the fireworks!" We also bought a bunch of fountains to light off. Bracken clapped after every one. A highlight of his night was getting to light a fountain with Brian and another one with his cousin Ethan. He still tells me "Mom, I did the dinosaur firework with Ethan, then we ran away fast!"

Chandra and Grandma Sue. Gotta love Chandra's pouty lip here.

I thought Chandra had a ton of hair, but look at her cousin Benjamin who is only 1 week older than her and already had a haircut! Chandra is 2 months + a week old here.

Thanks family for coming to visit us and making such a fun weekend! Bracken had so much fun with his cousins. When they left he kind of wandered around and really missed having constant exciting entertainment and interaction. I guess I'm just not quite as energetic or creative as Ethan, Adelle and Ella!

Chandra's Baby Blessing

Chandra Lia Johnson

Our family

We felt lucky and blessed to have so many family members come for Chandra's blessing. We had family here from Richfield, Vegas and Phoenix! Thanks everyone for making the effort to be with us!

Spring Walk

Great Grandpa Alvin, Bracken, and Great Grandma Yolanda (March 2011)

Kids say the darndest things...

The other day my friend Andrea and I made rhubarb blueberry jam together, and it turned out great! Bracken skipped his nap to hang out with us. When Andrea was getting ready to leave Bracken was playing with her tupperware containers. Trying to help him give them back to her happily I said, "Say thank you for letting me play with your tupperware." He dutifully repeated, "Thank you for letting me play with your underwear." What do you say to that? :)

1 Month Old

It's so fun to have a little girl! Chandra is beautiful. Her dark hair is so soft, I love to run my fingers over her head. She is awake and alert a little bit more all the time, and she's usually pretty happy until evening time. She's starting to make cooing sounds instead of just crying sounds, and I love them. It's funny though, even her crying is girly sounding. Much different than Bracken's "take care of me, NOW!" cry when he was a newborn.

Bracken often goes over and sits or snuggles by Chandra and then calls to me, "Mom, come look at your two cute kids. You have a boy and a girl!" When they're both happy I love to read stories to Bracken while each of them sits on one of my legs. Bracken says, "You have two laps, one for both of your kids." He always takes her dirty diapers to the garbage for me and this morning he wanted to help dress her. (Rephrase: he was extremely upset I put her onesie on without him. I ended up taking it back off so he could help me dress her.)

My little sister Breonna came to visit. She's always working so hard when we go to see my family that its been nice to just have her hanging out with us for a bit.

While Bracken played in the swimming pool with his friends, Chandra played on the grass with Brian. It seems like a lot of babies are really bothered by the grass poking their legs, but Chandra loved it.

Our (hopefully) last snowfall of the year. I took this picture a little too early. When they finished playing in the snow Bracken came in to tell me they'd made a whole family of snowmen. Mommy, Daddy, Bracken and Chandra. It was pretty cute. Bracken loves every minute he gets to spend with his Dad.

Going to Work

A couple of weeks ago Bracken took his little backpack and crammed in his blankets, water bottle, some crackers, books, and as many of his toy animals as he could fit. He brought his shoes to me and asked me to help him put them on. Then he unlocked and opened the front door, waved at me and said, "Bye Mom, I'm going to work." I just watched to see what he would do. He headed off down the side walk, past the mail box toward the stoplight. When I followed him to make sure he would be safe, he turned around, held his hand out for me to stop, and said, "No Mom, I'm going by myself." This has become a regular occurrence. On the day I took this picture he came back to the house after walking around for a minute and asked me for his motorcycle. So here's a picture of Bracken on his motorcycle going to work.