We ARE still living!

I'm getting really annoyed with my blog lately. I've been trying for weeks to do a new post with pictures and it isn't letting me load my pictures. So I guess you guys get a long boring post without pictures. SORRY! I just wanted to catch everyone up a bit on what's been happening with us the last few weeks.
CRUISE: Shawn and I went on a Cruise for our 5 year anniversary. It was a short 3 night cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. But we still had a blast! We were surprised how good the food was. And the entertainment was amazing. There was always something going on to keep you entertained which I loved. I got a little sea sick one night, but other than that we were both fine. I didn't know you would feel it rocking that much with a boat being that big. The second night was the worst! I felt like I was drunk. (not that I would know what it's like :)) It was rocking like crazy. The weather was really nice. I was so ready for warm weather. Ensenada was fun, and I didn't feel scared being in Mexico. Eveyone thought we were crazy going to Mexico with all the shootings and other things going on there. But I figured a Cruise ship wouldn't take you anywhere dangerous. We did a tour to the famous Blow Hole. It was pretty cool. Then we went shopping, had some tacos, Pina Coladas, and toured the Convention Center. I was sad for it to be over, but was really excited to see Brynlee. My mom came and got us from the airport and when I was coming down the escalator and saw Brynlee and started crying. HAHA I had never been away from her that long and I really missed her. She was really happy to see us too! :) Thanks again to the Grandmas for taking care of Brynlee for us. The next Cruise I want to go on is either an Alaskan or Bahamas. Yes I'm already thinking about another one. :)
RANDOM: We have already gone camping two times. We went the week before Memorial Day with our good friends and went this last weekend with Shawn's family. We went to Mackay Reservoir with the Drakes. The weather was really nice. We got lucky. The hubbys fished most of the day Saturday and us girls took care of the babies. It was a lot of fun. Brynlee and Carter are really close in age so that made it fun. Memorial weekend the weather wasn't so nice. We had one perfect day and then rain, wind, and it was freezing the rest of the time. I've been camping in alot worse, so it actually wasn't too bad. Brynlee was in heaven. She LOVES camping. I was ready to be home and finally be able to take a shower!!! This coming weekend is my mom's side family reunion in Park City, UT. We're excited for that as well. I haven't seen a lot of them since our last reunion 2 years ago. We are staying in a really nice condo. I'm really excited to do the zip line, alpine slide, and the alpine coaster! I'm sure we'll fit some shopping in also. :) Hopefully I will be able to put those pictures on here! Then i'm hoping we will get to stay home a couple weekends after that. I am training to run a 5K in September for my Nephews diabetes walk. You can either walk it or run it. This year I want to run it. This will be a huge accomplishment for me. I can't run longer than like 3 minutes right now. It's sad. But I'm determined to do it. I just keep telling myself it's only 3 miles. There is a thing on the internet called the couch to 5k running plan so i'm following that. Because that's literally what i'm doing! HaHa I exercise as often as I can, but I never run. So wish me luck, and I will let you know how I do.
BRYNLEE: She is doing great and getting so big. :( She says alot or words, signs alot, and knows alot of animal noises. She is at the stage of repeating what you say, so we have to watch what we say around her now. She loves dogs. She will see a dog and take off after it. She getting pretty good at the whole running thing too. She's pretty fast. She's obsessed with babies. That's the first thing she asks for when she wakes up. Which will be fun because we just found out she is going to be a big sister.....................JUST KIDDING!!!!! HAHA I figure all my other friends are either pregnant or just had babies so why not me? :) I'm selfish though, and i'm not ready yet. We are thinking of trying soon though, so I will let you know. Also, Brynlee is finally sleeping through the night. WAHOO! I never thought this day would come. She loves to read you books and tell stories. I just pretend I know what she's saying. She is hilarious and makes me laugh several times a day. I love this age and wish babies would pop out at this age. I love her so much and i'm so lucky to be her mom.
I think that's pretty much it with us. Hopefully I can figure out why it's not uploading my pictures and get some on here soon. Sorry it was so long!

I'm a Slacker!

I know I haven't posted something in forever! Sorry! But we haven't really done anything exciting to really post about. We are still doing the usual. This week is Spring break so I had the week off. It was kind of nice to just have it be Brynlee and I. All I can say is this has been the WORST Spring break ever. It has rained or snowed the whole week! I'm so sick of it. I'm ready for nice weather. Last Friday was the only nice day we had so we spent most of the day outside doing yardwork.

Shawn is still working on our basement but it's getting close to being done. yay! We are going to have a guy come texture it for us hopefully sometime next week and then we can start painting. I know we only have 3 in our family but it will be so nice to have the extra room. Brynlee will also have her own playroom so her toys won't be scattered all over my living room.....okay i'm sure some still will, but it will help! Shawn has worked so hard on it and i'm so thankful I have a husband that knows how to do that stuff. He seriously saved us like 10,000 dollars. So if anyone wants to come stay with us we will have room now! :)

Brynlee is doing great. She is so much fun and has the funniest personality. She seems to learn things quickly and i'm so happy about that. I like to think she's pretty smart. :) She makes me laugh everyday. She's at the age where she knows you're laughing at her so she keeps doing whatever is making you laugh. She loves to give you tickles. The other day she went up to a random lady in walmart and gave her tickles. I got a good laugh! She can finally somewhat tell me what she wants now instead of going to the fridge or pantry and just screaming. That drove me nuts! She signs eat if she's hungry, or water if she wants a drink. It makes things much more peaceful around here. I take her in on the 19th for a checkup. I'm anxious to see where she's at. So I will keep you posted. Shawn and I also leave the 29th on our cruise. We will be back on May 2nd. We decided to go for our 5 year anniversary. Shawn has never been on a cruise and I went when I was 3 so I can say I've never been on one either. We're both really excited, but i'm going to be sad to leave Brynlee that long. I'm a baby when it comes to leaving her. Which is why we're only going for 3 nights. I'm sure my mom and Shawn's mom will want us to be back anyway. :) That's pretty much it with us. I told you we haven't done much. We're pretty boring! Here are the most recent pictures i've taken.

YES! I finally got Brynlee's hair in little piggies. It was a happy day.

My happy baby girl

We took her to her Great Grandma Allred's to see the cows. She was a little scared of them being that close. She loves them far away. She points at them and says moo.

Walking with dad to the cows

Brynlee with her cousin Olivia. They're 4 months apart.

Playing fetch with Chloe. She LOVES our dogs! Any dog actually.

I took Brynlee and Dani to Blast Off one day. It's an indoor playing area. It has a ton of toys. And they're clean. They don't have smashed food, dirty diapers, or pop all over them. I'm kind of a germ freak. I refuse to let Brynlee play on the toys at Mcdonalds. They are SO nasty.

She loved playing on the slide. She went down a few times with Dani. She loved it.

Playing in the ball pit

Las Vegas!

Okay so I have been trying to do this post for days. For some reason it's not uploading my pictures. I'm so mad! So I guess I will just type what we did and then hopefully my pictures will upload soon. We went to Las Vegas for Shawn's cousins wedding, and a little vacation. We had a lot of fun. The wedding was great, and we're very happy for Jill and James! We walked the strip several times, went shopping, M&M world, Coca Cola store, New York New York roller coaster, Fremont Street, Zip Line, and my Mom in law surprised Shawn and I with Blue Man Group tickets. That was by far my favorite part. It was an amazing show! Thank you SO much Shelly!!! Fremont Street was cool. I had never been I don't think. Pretty much the whole street is under lights and they do light shows to music every hour. Shawn and his sister did the zip line there also. It went down the whole street. It looked really fun. I didn't do it because I did the New York New York roller coaster with Shawn's sister earlier that day. We also went to the Bodies exhibit one day. It was so awesome! That stuff interests me. Seeing how our body works, and all the organs, muscles, veins, etc. They had a baby room that was my favorite. It showed the development of a baby each month. It was amazing. The weather was SO nice. We went from freezing temperatures to high 50's - low 60's. One day it was almost 70! We didn't want to leave. Brynlee did fairly well on the plane. She did great on the way back. On the way there we sat on the plane for 45 minutes! They had to de-ice it I swear like 5 times. It was not helping my nerves. She lost it with about 10 minutes left. She loved taking off and landing. She would laugh hysterically. It was funny. It was nice to get away for a few days. I'm glad we got to go!

Now a Brynlee update: I haven't done one of these for awhile. I just took her to the doctor for her 1 year and she weighed 20 1/2 pounds and was 30 inches. She is still only 40% in weight and 85% in height. So pretty much she's tall and skinny like her dad. She is so much fun to be around and is getting such a fun personality. She loves to play hide and seek. She will go hide somewhere and when I walk by she runs out and screams. It's funny. She can say dada, mama, dog, ball, uh oh, hi, kitty, and baby. She can sign more and milk (we're working on others), she can say eye and points to it (still working on nose, mouth, and ear) she thinks her ear is nose. haha She also knows the sounds of a kitty, elephant, mouse, and bear. The elephant is my favorite. She uses her arm for the trunk and everything. :) She shakes her head for no and yes, so that's nice when you ask her questions she can answer most of them if she understands. I always wonder if she's behind or right where she needs to be with her age. I'm hoping she's not behind! I try and teach her new things everyday and she seems to catch on pretty fast. I have also noticed she watches me all the time because the other day she went and got one of her burp rags out of her room and started "dusting" the coffee table and end tables. I was laughing. She also loves to "help" load and unload the dishwasher. She also has to have to doors that are supposed to be closed, closed when she is done with them. For example, the pantry or closet doors. I'm thinking in my head oh crap my child is going to be a clean freak like her mother! But, I don't think that's such a bad thing. :) Anyway! That is pretty much it with us. I will hopefully be able to get my pictures on here soon. Sorry this was so long and boring! :)

Brynlee's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe our baby is one! It's crazy how fast the year went. We celebrated Brynlee's birthday on the 15th of January while my sister and girls were still in Idaho visiting. We decided to do it at my parents house since it's a mansion and can fit a lot of people. We only invited family but we had a ton of people. Brynlee got a ton of presents and loved eating the cupcake. She got spoiled for sure! We had her party at 5 so it didn't happen during naptime. We got some pizza's for everyone so we didn't just have cake and ice cream for dinner. :)

oops! I did the pictures backwards. Brynlee eating cake for the first time. As you can see she enjoyed it!
She liked the fire. I'm sad my hand was covering the cupcake. :(

Erin, Dani, and Kambria

Brynlee with her baby. I'm pretty sure that was her favorite present. Her face was priceless when she opened it. Oh and of course her cute tutu!

Hugging her baby. After she opened it she gave it hugs, kisses, and rocked it. It was so cute!

Sorry, I didn't realize I put this many baby pictures on here.

Tyler (Shawn's brother) and his wife got her elmo. When you shake him his mouth moves and he says a bunch of different things. It is the most ANNOYING toy on planet earth. They said they wanted to get something that was more annoying then the "popper". The toy they push around and the balls pop. So you hear pop pop pop pop pop all freakin day long. Well, they won the award for sure! I actually think Brynlee already "lost" it. :)

The set up. Her cake and cupcake tower.

Cupcake tower

Cake. After I made the cupcakes and this cake I was officially ready to slit my wrists! I do NOT have enough patience for that crap. I'm also kind of a perfectionist so that didn't help. I wasn't very happy with how it turned out, but I figured we're just going to eat it so it's not worth getting upset about. It's supposed to be a 1 if you can't tell.

Some other presents she got besides Elmo, and her baby is clothes, Mrs. potato head, signing time dvd, texture blocks, crayola color me a song, popper, book, phone, and my mom gave me money to help pay for her one year pictures at Pink Paisley. I'm so excited to get her pictures taken. I will post them when I get them!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a lot of fun having Brynlee. Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas day with Shawn's. My family does a big Christmas Eve dinner with my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins on my dad's side. We've been getting together since I was born! Then we get up early Christmas morning open presents with my family, eat breakfast, and then drive to Shawn's parents for the rest of the day. We also go to his Grandma Allred's for Christmas dinner and open presents with his extended family.

Shawn took Brynlee and my niece Kambria sledding up by my parents house. Brynlee didn't really give much of an expression, so who know's if she liked it.

Brynlee opening her PJ's from Grandpa and Grandma Johnson

She would push every single one of her presents around the house! It took her an eternity to open them. She would laugh hysterically as she pushed them everywhere.


Three of the six grandkids. Jami's family spent Christmas Eve with Justin's family this year. We missed them! Kambria was reading Brynlee and Maeli a story.


Maeli and Brynlee in their matching PJ's. You would never know Maeli is younger than Brynlee, she is a GIANT!

Brynlee is obsessed with walking on her knees. She discovered Christmas Eve that if she put her hands on Maeli's back as she crawled it was like a ride. Brynlee would laugh really hard. Kambria decided to join in and put her hands on Brynlee and make the "choo-choo" sound. HaHa My sister and I got a good laugh!

This is the doll we gave Brynlee. You can choose the skin, hair, and eye color to make them look like your kid. I thought they were adorable! Brynlee loves her and sleeps with her every night. My sister got her girls one too.

You can't see in this picture very well, but on my forehead close to my hair I have three pretty big scrapes. Shawn ran me into a tree Christmas day on the 4 wheeler. It hurt so bad. It almost pushed me off the 4 wheeler. Shawn told me to duck but I didn't hear him in time and it nailed me! Shawn told my niece Isabelle he ran me into a tree because I was talking back to him, so that's what she tells everyone. HaHa It's funny! But NOT true!

Brynlee's ball popper. She pushes a button and air pushes the balls up and they go down a track thingy.

Turtle ball pit from Grandpa and Grandma Allred. She loves it!

I gave Shawn a smoker and he got me a new camera that takes pictures faster. I was so happy about that! I also recently had my 25th birthday. Yikes I feel old! I got giftcards, money, tennis shoes, curlformers and reeses peanut butter cup Stephens hot chocolate. It is AMAZING! Thanks everyone for making it a special day. Brynlee is going to be one on the 19th. It's crazy! I can't believe how fast that year went. I've been having fun planning her party and making her birthday cards. On the 21-24 we are going to Las Vegas for Shawn's cousins wedding. I'm so excited! I'm hoping it's fairly warm while we're there. It's been freezing here, so i'm ready for warmer weather. Brynlee and I are also going to Arizona to visit my Aunts and Uncles with my mom, dad, Krista and her girls the first part of February. They have really cheap flights out of Idaho Falls so we're taking advantage! I will be sure to take pictures of our vacations and post when we get back. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Update!

So I realize I haven't updated for awhile. We have pretty much been doing the same old. We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We spent it with my family. We ate way to much food as usual. I also love my family traditions on Thanksgiving. As we are eating we go around the table and each person says things that they are thankful for. Then after we eat and clean it all up we go to a movie. This year we skipped out on going to the theater and just watched a movie in my parents theater room. I was fine with that since it was free! :) Then that night we played some games. A couple days before Thanksgiving we hung out with Shawns family because his aunt, uncle, and cousins were visiting from Washington. It was fun to see them. We ate, played games, went on 4-wheeler rides, and watched football games. We got dumped with snow the whole week of Thanksgiving. I hadn't seen that much snow in a long time. It was crazy! It's mostly melted now and i'm okay with that. I was a party pooper this year and didn't go Black Friday shopping this year. I didn't really see anything that was worth waiting in line for. Plus, it brings out the worst in me. People are crazy, and I almost punched a lady last year. Ya, you don't mess with me when I'm pregnant! Anyway! We took some family pictures this year for our christmas card. I made our cards on my digital scrapbooking program so i'm pretty proud of myself. My sister helped me quite a bit too. Thanks Krista! So those of you who want one leave your address because i'm not sure I have everyone's. We are really excited for Christmas this year. It's always more fun with a kid. Even though Brynlee won't have a clue what's going on, I will pretend she does. :) Brynlee is doing great. She will be 11 months old on the 19th. It's crazy she is almost one. It flew by. We can't wait to get a face foward car seat. She is so heavy, and I think she will be much happier when she can see outside. She says a few words like uh oh, dada, ba ba, and hi. Still not mama. :( I have a snowman that she crawls up to at least 5 times a day and get's right up by the face and says hi. It's so cute. She can stand on her own for awhile and has taken a few steps by herself. Shawn thinks she will be walking by Christmas. I guess we'll see. She has the cutest personality but can be a turd also. She has a horrible attitude problem that needs fixed quick. She also refuses to share any of her things with other people. We still love her and couldn't imagine a life without her. That's it with us. Recent pictures below!

Brynlee and cousin Olivia. You have no idea how long it took to get this freakin picture. I almost gave up. They both look so excited don't they? :)

We had to open one of her Christmas presents early. She is almost walking and this is a walker that turns into a thing they sit on and ride. But we wanted her to use it to help her learn to walk better. She LOVED it! If you can't tell from her expression. She cruises all over the house. The only thing is she runs into the walls a million times a day and screams if she can't get going on her own. Let's just say it doesn't help with my sanity. But it keeps her entertained so I guess that's a good thing.

Eating Mac & Cheese, her new favorite

After her bath

Bathtime and a good picture of her bottom two teeth

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. We did stuff with my family. I took Brynlee over to my parents church for their trunk or treat on Tuesday night. Then our church did our trunk or treat on Saturday night, then after that we went over to my parents old neighborhood to show off our cute kids at their trunk or treat. For those of you who have never heard of Trunk or Treat, people bring there cars and decorate them and hand out candy. It's so nice when you have young kids. You get a ton of candy in about 5 minutes! I love it. My sister and her family came up from Utah to spend it with us. It was fun! We all hung out at my parents house. We watched movies in the theater room, and ordered pizza one night. I love being with my family. I have the best family ever! But, I'm kind of bias. :) Pictures below of Halloween weekend.....

Isn't she the cutest cow you've ever seen? I thought she was pretty dang cute! My mom and dad thought the tail was hilarious. I haven't seen my dad laugh that hard in a long time. It was funny.
The front. I love how it's puffy at the hips. HaHa

Brynlee and Maeli. This was at the end of the night and they had both had it by then. Brynlee looks ready to roll, but don't let her eyes fool you! She was tired.

The whole gang of Johnson cousins. A knight, devil, two witches, a cow, and a ladybug.

Me and Brynlee at our trunk or treat. The weather was actually really nice this Halloween! We also dressed up Kobe (our dog). He was a rooster. He was a huge hit! The kids loved him.

Our carved pumpkin, and clean baby. I did these pictures backwards...sorry!

Brynlee gagging. She liked the insides of the pumpkin at first, but towards the end she was officially grossed out. She was throwing seeds everywhere. They were landing on her head, the counter, kitchen floor, EVERYWHERE! But she had fun, that's all that matters. Shawn and I got a good laugh out of it.

Seeing how the pumpkin tastes. Yummy!

Cutest girl EVER! Love her to pieces.

I went with some friends to the pumpkin patch. It was fun. The kids enjoyed it. It's fun going to things like that when you have kids. Seeing them happy makes you happy!