Family Pictures, First Cheer, & A Snake Bite

We got up this morning and watched some cartoons, had some breakfast, and then got cleaned up to go to JC Penny and have our family pictures taken.  There was this cute family there waiting to see the pics they had taken, and this adorable little 2 1/2 year old boy took a liking to Autumn & wanted her to sit by him.  Anywhere she went, he followed her.  When she sat in this chair and draped her legs over the side, he made her scoot over so he could do the same!  It was so cute.

After the family pictures, Mom & Nate & Riannon & Lexie stayed to pick which ones we wanted to order.  I brought Nick home so he could get ready to go to work, & then Autumn & I went over to Mom & Dad’s house.  We had hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad, and watermelon.  Pam & Dave & their son & daughter-in-law & grandson were there to eat & swim w/ us, too.  It was a full house!  Autumn got dressed in her cheer uniform super fast after we ate & I took her over to her first cheer game.  It was a heat index of 107 degrees (actual temp 105), and we were all sweating like crazy.  The game before us went over, so we didn’t get started until 1:30.

It was so cute to see the little 1st Grade football boys run through the sign.  I’ve never seen helmets like the ones they were wearing before.  Even though it’s just flag football, they make them wear helmets.

I ADORE this picture of Andrew coming over to tell Autumn that the family had gotten there to watch her cheer.  They came about 15 minutes after we got there, and they brought chairs to sit in which was so nice.

Here are our cute girls sitting on their cheer buckets.  Those little pop up tents behind them are life savers!  I think Mom & Dad have one, and I’ll have to bring it next time.

SO STINKIN’ CUTE!!!

I was so pleasantly surprised when Karri & Kylie stopped by to say hi.  I had told them about it, but didn’t know if they would be able to come.  That is going way above & beyond the call of friendship to come on such a hot day.  Karri actually knows quite a few girls on the team from teaching them at school & she used to babysit Coach Rachel’s daughter when she was little.

Coach Rachel & Kara are AMAZING!  They had these white towels soaking in cold water in a cooler, and they went around and put them on the girls’ necks to keep them cooled off.  They also had spray bottles that they used to mist the girls.

During half time, the girls did this cheer where they say, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, my name’s Autumn & I say hi.  6, 7, 8, 9, 10, back it up & meet my friend.” They started w/ the little girl on the left hand side of the picture and went down the row.  It was precious!

She came over and said hi to her cheering section.  It meant SO MUCH to me that so many family & friends came to support Autumn.  It made her feel like the most important person in the world.

I loved this picture I got of the Dads all holding their big umbrellas around the perimeter of the tent to give the girls more shade!

After the game, we all gathered together and made a tunnel for the players to run through.

I have to admit that I didn’t really watch the game, especially since most of it took place at the far end of the field where we couldn’t see.  But, I guess we won b/c after the players ran through the tunnel the coach had them take a knee on the sideline and told them the cheerleaders and something special for them.  They did a cheer that goes, “Split the V, dot the i, rock the C-T-O-R-Y!”

One funny thing I have to mention is that Autumn told me the field was “boring.”  I asked her what she meant and she said that it didn’t have lots of lines on it or cool pictures (logos) like the ones on TV have!  LOL!  As soon as we were done, our family all loaded into our cars, cranked the A/C, and went to Sonic to get 1/2 price drinks.  I got a Route 44 Cranberry limeade w/ a splash of mint (a drink Liz introduced to me that I now love).  Autumn enjoyed her cherry slush, and changed into her swimsuit as soon as we got home.

I was so flushed and hot that I had a rip roaring headache.  I took some medicine, sat in the recliner, and promptly fell asleep.  Mom said I was so out of it that I was snoring!  When I woke up the kids really wanted to go swimming, so I took them out and it felt so good to be in the water and cool off even more.  Nate had to leave and hand out Air Force stuff at a football game at the city’s stadium for the recruiter he’s working with.  That way this time at home doesn’t count against his time off.  Why is it that men always look so handsome in uniform?  We’re so proud of him!

After swimming, Mom & Lexie & Riannon & I made party ham rollups for dinner w/ grilled garlic broccoli.  After dinner, we all sat down to watch football.  Jackson especially loves football and will sit and watch it w/ Papa for a long time.  I’m sad the BYU game got delayed due to lightning, b/c they switched it over to EPSN3, which we don’t get, so we couldn’t watch it.  Nate gave Jackson one of the little Air Force footballs he was handing out, and Jackson was cracking us up.  He kept hopping around the living room and saying his version of “down, set, hut.”  Then he’d bend over and actually hike the ball!  It was so funny.

Autumn asked Papa if he could make smoothies, since he hasn’t done that in a while.  Nate wanted to get in on the action of getting a taste of the smoothie from Papa (he usually just gives this to the kids) before putting it in cups and handing it out to everyone.

Autumn & I finally got ready to leave at 8:30 so we could come home and I could get her to bed since she had such a big day.  I was driving past the neighbor’s driveway & saw a stick in the road.  But then I noticed the stick was moving & sure enough, it was a snake!  I hurried and got out my cell phone & called the house and told them to come out and look at it.  Nate & Dad came out & looked at it & determined it was a garden snake & not poisonous.  They got it to crawl on a broom so they could move it to the bushes near the backyard, but Nate decided he wanted to hold it.  Notice how he has his shirt pulled over his hand to protect it.

You can’t really tell in this picture, but the snake is sinking it’s fangs into Nate’s hand right here!!!  It bit him twice before he was able to scoot his hand up closer to it’s head so it couldn’t bite him.  His shirt was so thin that it didn’t make any difference.  Also notice that he came out to catch a snake barefoot!!!

He brought it up on the porch where we had better light, and so people (that wanted to) could come out of the house and look at it.  Jackson didn’t want to touch it at all, he wanted to keep a safe distance.  He had a death grip on Lexie’s shirt and was not about to let go.

I put my hand out and let it wrap its tail around my wrist.  I’ve never touched a snake like that before, so it was a cool experience.  What a crazy way to end such a fun & busy day!!!

Labor Day Laboring In The Temple

Today it got super busy at work for a few hours, which helped the day to go by faster.  After work, I headed straight to the temple b/c we were going to go as a visiting teaching group.  One of the ladies couldn’t come, one was out of town, and one locked her keys in the car at home and couldn’t make it.  I got there early, so I did initiatory before the 7:00 session.  It was great to be there w/ Maureen & her Mom & my cousin Tyler & his wife Emily came walking in!  How neat!  This is what it looked like when I walked in.

This is what it looked like when I walked out.  I figured what better way to start Labor Day weekend than to labor in the temple?  I’m always so thankful for any time I can spend serving in the temple.

These really tall plant/flowers were outside the temple and looked so tropical and caught my eye.  The visiting teaching girls were going to go out to dinner, but it was already 9:00 and I needed to get to Mom & Dad’s so I could get Autumn home and into bed for our big day tomorrow.  Mom & Dad had a FULL HOUSE tonight b/c Pam & Dave & their 3 dogs came up from San Antonio, Lexie & Jon & the kids were here, and Nate & Riannon.  It’s like the olden days where it’s Hotel Johnson again.  We love it!!!

Sunset & Project Runway

Tonight we had Vietnamese for dinner, which was so good.  After we ate, Autumn & I came home and I got her to bed and then I watched Project Runway.  This was the pretty sunset we got to see on the drive home.  I’m so looking forward to this long weekend, even though we’ll have A LOT going on!

Service & Organizing The Scary Office

Today after work/school we went over to Mom & Dad’s house and had Papa John’s pizza for dinner.  Since school has started, Autumn’s cheer coach moved practice from 7:15 up to 6:45.  I had her go get ready so I could drop her off before going to Young Women’s, and she had a MAJOR MELTDOWN!  She was freaking out b/c she didn’t like how her shorts fit.  In all fairness to her, she is extremely picky about how her clothes feel & fit.

But, she did not need to have a tantrum like she did.  She even was a sassy pants to Mimi, which is where I drew the line.  I told her she had 3 choices…she could wear her shorts, wear the pants she had worn to school, or call Coach Rachel & tell her she wasn’t coming.  She didn’t want any of those options so Mimi told her to go lay down b/c she was being ridiculous.

I texted Autumn’s coach to let her know we weren’t coming and that I was so sorry.  She texted back and said it wasn’t a big deal b/c she’s a teacher and knows how draining the first few days of school can be.  By the time I finished texting (about 2 minutes) Autumn was fast asleep!  Her schedule didn’t really change that much since school started, b/c we were getting up at the same time for me to take her to daycare.  But, I guess the structured schedule and stress of school was taking its toll her on.  Poor little bug!

Anyways, I left her there to sleep and went to Young Women’s.  We were combined w/ all the girls and we each brought something little to put into 2 different baskets.  We separated them into separate baskets to door bell ditch 2 ladies in our ward who are having some health issues.  I love it when we do stealth type service b/c it’s so fun.

I came home and was so excited to watch the new episode of Duck Dynasty.  Right in the middle of it I heard Nick come home and he had a friend w/ him.  Autumn woke up & wanted to come home and sleep in her own bed.  But, she was wired from having a nap and she just wanted to talk and talk and talk.  So, I didn’t get to watch the rest of the show, but that’s totally ok b/c she’s way more important than a show.  I gave her a shower b/c she was a stink bug Johnson & then she was ready for bed after that.

I went in the scary office where we have our holiday decorations and papers and stuff we don’t have a place for to find a church book.  Well, it wasn’t where I thought it was so I started to file some papers and organize.  Next thing I know, it was 12:30 am!!!  I should have taken a before & after picture, but I didn’t plan on organizing it when I first went in.  I didn’t completely finish organizing the scary office, but it definitely looks a whole lot better than it did before!

Project Life Tuesday ~ Week 32 & A Mini Album

Monday ~ The sunset tonight was so pretty!  There is such a weird & random phenomenon that occurs at one of the intersections near Hwy 75.  There are THOUSANDS of birds that congregate on the electrical wires.  This pic doesn’t even show a tiny portion of them.  It’s like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” movie.  CREEPY!

Tuesday ~ Autumn is SOOOOOOOOO into trying to learn how to do a handstand b/c some of the girls on her cheerleading team know how.  So, she asked me to help her do one against the wall.  I basically have to lift her all the way off the ground & set her up against the wall.  She was THRILLED that she stayed up long enough for me to snap this picture.

Wednesday ~ I asked Sis. Lee if she would mind if I skipped Young Women’s tonight so I could go to the temple.  It’s been a LONG time since I’ve been & I really wanted to go.  I got to see the new temple video & I loved some parts of it, but didn’t like other parts at all.  It was a LOVELY evening at the temple!

Thursday ~ Yesterday at cheer practice, Autumn’s coaches surprised all the girls w/ their cheer buckets.  They turned out SO CUTE & will be so nice for the girls to carry all their cheer stuff to the games & to have a place to sit between cheering times.  Inside the bucket was her uniform, pom poms, hair bow, & bell!
I slipped the tag from her uniform into the pocket w/ the journaling card.

Friday ~ After dinner tonight, Autumn & I drove up to Michael’s to see if they had the 5th & Frolic core kit.  I’m sad to report they didn’t.  Since it’s 1/2 price shakes at Sonic & it was a Friday night, we stopped and treated ourselves to one.
I slipped the receipt from Sonic into the pocket w/ the journaling card.

Saturday ~ Autumn & I babysat Jacob this morning so Liz & Liberty could go to the temple.  Then in the afternoon the Johnson crew came over to swim.  We were laughing SO HARD at Peyton’s jump where he would try to do a cannon ball, but instead would always hold his right leg straight out.
I did a Picasa collage to fit 4 pictures in this one 4x6 spot.

Sunday ~ I got to teach in Laurel’s (16-18 year old girls) about, “Why is temple marriage important?”  Then tonight I went to a Single Adult fireside w/ a panel discussion about the Holy Ghost.  The Snyder’s, Jenson’s, & Hamblin’s did a FABULOUS job!

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I want to share something I’ve been working on for the past month, that finally came together last night.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Project Life, but as I’ve been looking ahead to the future I’ve realized 2 things:

1. I don’t have time to make Autumn (or any future children I will have) their own individual full sized albums.  I keep our family one updated and will continue to, but trying to keep the family one & Autumn’s own separate one feels very overwhelming, which is the opposite of what Project Life is all about.
2. Even if I did make her her own album, there is no way that when she grows up and goes off to college that she would want to take a bunch of big 12x12 binders w/ her.

So, I came up w/ a solution that works for me.  I chose ONE (just one) picture for each month of her life and put those into a mini album.  I have to admit that it was hard to choose just one picture for each month, b/c I literally take hundreds of pictures each month.  But, I made myself do it & I am THRILLED w/ how it turned out.

She was born in January 2007 & this first album will be full when I pick the picture for THIS month (August 2013).  Next month I’ll just start a new mini album & keep picking 1 picture per month.  This way, when she goes off to college she can take 2 – 3 mini albums that represent her childhood instead of trying to take huge a bunch of heavy & bulky 12x12 albums.

I haven’t done any of the journaling yet, but I just slipped in cards from various kits (mostly Blush & the Dear Lizzy mini kit) to see what it will look like.

Side note: I have to apologize that my pictures are so blurry.  They look super crisp on my screen in Windows Live Writer, but when I publish this to my blog they get all fuzzy???  SORRY!

I temporarily used little green strips to mark the beginning of each year.  Once I get the journaling done, I’ll take those out.  January 2007 is a picture of the day she was born.  February is a picture of her in her blessing dress.

March is a picture of her w/ her 3 oldest half siblings.  I know this isn’t a great picture, b/c she’s at the bottom of it & is partially cut off, but that doesn’t bother me at all.  It was important for me to include pics of her Kemble side of the family since her Dad & I got divorced when she was just 6 months old.

April is an Easter picture.

May is a picture of when her Dad graduated w/ his Masters degree & it also includes her Grandma Michele.

June is a picture of her first haircut & this “stink face” I captured.  She still makes this exact same brooding face when she’s mad.  LOL!

July is when my brother was watching her for me while I went to a job interview and she fell asleep holding a football in her exersaucer.  It also shows off her crazy long eyelashes.

August is a picture of how much she’s changed and grown and how her car seat is starting to look so small w/ her in it.

September is one of my favorite pictures of her ever.  It shows her crib bedding, her favorite pink blanket, some cute new jammies she got, her new teeth, and it was just such a fun age.

October is her first Halloween costume & she was dressed up like Minnie Mouse.

November is her trying to walk and pulling herself up into a standing position and always wanting to “help” w/ the dishes.

December is her inside a fun tunnel thing she got on Christmas morning. 

I have to insert here that as I went through EVERY.SINGLE.PICTURE for each month, I created a folder where I copied and pasted those pics, so I had a few from each month to choose from.  Once I had about 10 of my favorite pics for each month, I had Autumn help me choose which ones she wanted to include in HER album.

January 2008 is her 1st birthday.

February is her hairstyle w/ a pony tail right on top of her head w/ her hair sticking straight up.  We called it her “weed”.

Anyways, you get the idea…  I’m not going to show you every single page but here’s one that starts in March 2010 that shows big events (like her 1/2 sister coming to visit for the first time), but also small events like Papa bringing her doughnuts for breakfast every Friday after he finished teaching seminary.  I tried to include a good mix of small & big events & lots of different people & locations.

I also tried to include things like taking pictures in the bluebonnets every Spring.  I think that will be neat to compare those pics to each other to see how much she’s changed over the years.  I included some firsts, like her first stitches & how Papa took them out at the kitchen table.  Or when she graduated from Pre-K.  Or every day things like her out of control collection of Barbie dolls.

There wasn’t any real rhyme or reason as to why I picked certain pics over others.  Sometimes I included pics that went w/ the holiday for that month.  Like in November 2012 where Mimi came to her daycare dressed like a pioneer.  Or in December a pic of her in her Christmas dress w/ Santa Claus.  Every January I included a pic from her birthday, but I didn’t do a Valentine pic for February.

The idea is that as she gets older & older that SHE will be the one to decide which pics she wants to put in her album for each month & that she’ll take over doing the journaling.  That way the first album will be MY memories & thoughts on her childhood & then eventually it will truly be HER album b/c it will be HER memories & thoughts.  As you can see on this page, I used a few cards from the Mayfield Childhood mini kit & had her write something so she can see what her handwriting used to look like & I had her draw a self portrait.

One of the (many) things I LOVE about Project Life is that it is completely customizable.  For example:  when Autumn’s 12 years old and can’t possibly narrow it down to just 1 picture a month, she can include however many she wants…there are no “rules” to how Project Life works.

Also, let’s say for example that she wants to use a different picture for May 2012 b/c she doesn’t really care for  the picture I picked out for that month.  All we would have to do is print a different picture and switch it out.  “EASY PEASY, LEMON SQUEEZY!” (she says that all the time lately).

I think this will be such a neat gift to wrap up her 3 mini albums & give them to her on the day she graduates.  They’re small enough that she can take them w/ her and they will fit in a tiny dorm room, but she’ll have those memories to look back on.

I am linked up over at The Mom Creative.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY Y’ALL!!!

Autumn’s First Day Of First Grade

Time is such an odd thing!  It feels like forever ago that Autumn started Kindergarten, and yet at the same time it feels like it was just last month and there’s no way a whole year could have passed already.  But it has, and today was her 1st day of 1st grade.  It’s fun to compare the pics of her 1st day of Kindergarten to these, b/c she’s grown up & changed so much in just one year.

She wasn’t nervous at all this morning, she was just excited.  I think it’s mostly b/c I let her wear these hot pink sequin wedge tennis shoes that are about 2 sizes too big.  But, she’s been begging to wear them to daycare all summer and I kept telling her no, and that she needed to save them for the 1st day of 1st grade.  Last night as we were laying out her clothes, she was practically giddy w/ excitement to set out her shoes knowing that she could wear them today.

On the way to school we reviewed her lunch code one more time just to make sure she remembered it.  I asked her if she wanted me to just drop her off since she already knew her way around the school, but she said she wanted me to walk her in.  I was so happy to do that, since it will be all too soon that she’ll be too cool for her old Mama.  I got her situated at her desk, her teacher came over and said hi, and then I left her.  I didn’t even get teary eyed or shed a tear.  I was just excited and happy for her.

When I picked her up today at daycare, I couldn’t wait to hear how it all went.  She said that she made some connections w/ 2 girls in her class b/c they had long hair, too.  She talked and talked and talked about how great her day was, and it made my Mama heart soar to hear that she had a good day.

We went to Mom & Dad’s for dinner and she told everyone about her day.  Mom made tilapia & grilled veggies for dinner & it was SO GOOD & completely hit the spot.  I do NOT like fish, but this didn’t taste fishy at all.  Autumn & I came home around 7:30 so she could relax and decompress from the day and play for 30 minutes before bedtime.

Once I got her in bed, I worked on putting the 79 pictures I had printed off (one for each month of her life) into a mini Project Life album.  I’ll post pics of it on my blog tomorrow.  Then when Nick got home at 9:30 I stopped by Sonic to pick up some 1/2 price shakes and went over to Christine’s.  Even though the new season of the Bachelor hasn’t started yet, we miss getting together to talk and see each other, so we made it happen.  We finally called it a night at 12:20 am!!!  I’m so thankful to have such great friends, even if I do a lot of listening and very little talking.  It’s a good thing that my life is so average & boring that I don’t have much to share.

Preparing For School To Start Tomorrow

I got to teach in Laurel’s today & the lesson was on “How can I prepare now to become a righteous wife and mother?”  I had so many things prepared, but ended up having the girls each pick a scripture or something from the Young Women’s theme or FTSOY booklet and pick an attribute they read about that would help them become a better woman.  Then they had to come and write it on the board and we would discuss it as a class.  Well, they must have been stressed w/ thinking about school starting tomorrow b/c I felt like the lesson just bombed.  I was trying to help them be more active & involved in the lessons instead of me just talking, but they were so quiet.  I refused to talk a few times and thought I could hear crickets chirping in the background.  Oh, well.  I guess not every lesson can be stellar.

The Young Women’s secretary gave out these ADORABLE handouts about “7*UP-lifting ways to start your 1st week of school” tied to a little bottle of 7-Up for each of the Young Women.  She had a few extras and said I could take one home to give it to Autumn.  That was so thoughtful of her!

After church we went over to Mom & Dad’s for lunch.  They had just gotten back from the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred and had eaten sandwiches for lunch.  I made a chicken taco salad for Autumn & I and then we watched the 1st & 2nd Sherlock Holmes movies.  I had to sneak this cute picture of Nate & Riannon both conked out & snuggled up together in the recliner.

Autumn wanted to write out everyone’s names in the family and would ask me how to spell names.  I love it that she even included Emma (the dog).  I had to leave and go visiting teaching at 6:00.  It was a good visit and I shared some of the “heavenly chocolate mint cookies” I made last night w/ the ladies we visit teach.  We even made plans to go to the temple together sometime this coming week.

When I got back to Mom & Dad’s house, I had Dad give Autumn a Father’s Blessing, which is something he always did for us kids at the start of a new school year.  I’ve been talking to Autumn about it for a few weeks and she kept saying she didn’t want one.  But when it came down to it, she actually did.  It was a beautiful blessing and after he was done she said, “I’m not scared to start 1st grade anymore.”

I’m so thankful that we have access to the power of the priesthood for blessings of comfort & peace.  Look how little she was last year when she got a blessing.  I know she’ll do great this coming year. 

Awesome Afternoon At The Aquarium

A few days ago Deb sent me a text message asking if Autumn & I wanted to do something w/ them to celebrate the last day of summer before the kids have to go back to school.  We’re always up for spending time w/ them!  They came & picked us up at 10:00 and we headed down to downtown Dallas.  Deb is so awesome b/c she let Autumn pick the movie that the kids watched on the way down there & she even brought me a cold diet Coke!!!

The aquarium is pretty small, but it was perfect for us b/c the kids were able to see all of the animals and enjoy looking at them.

The highlight was the sting ray tank where we could touch the sting rays.

At first the kids were apprehensive, but after they saw me touching them, they got more brave and eventually tried it.  They loved it, and laughed when the sting rays all saw by them and splashed them and got them wet.

After we spent about 30 minutes w/ the sting rays, we went to check out the rest of the aquarium.  We had to get a picture at this obvious photo op.

All the kids enjoyed touching these simulated octopus tentacles and had to pretend to be attacked by them.

You can’t see them in this pic, but Autumn really liked the eels.  Especially the one that looked like it had giraffe print skin.  She’d get one exhibit ahead of me & yell for me to come look at the newest animal she discovered.

Autumn & Ben kept going back to the octopus to see if he had moved.  This pic of them just chillaxin’ in the alcove where the octopus was makes me laugh.

I really liked this bright & colorful fish.

At 12:00 we went back over to the sting rays so the kids could feed them.  They had to hold a sardine between their fingers and the sting ray would swim over the top of it and suck up the sardine.  Autumn held the sardine, but chickened out when it came to actually feeding the sting rays and she gave it to Ben to do it.

By this time we had seen everything and the kids were ready to go b/c they were hungry.  It was an awesome afternoon at the aquarium.

On the way out of Fair Park we saw this Indian symbol & Autumn had to get a pic by it.  We got back up to our part of the metroplex and stopped for lunch at Chick Fil A so the kids could play.  The place was PACKED!!!  After they played for a while, the Dakins dropped us off at home.

We were hot & tired, so I laid down on the couch & took a little snooze while Autumn played w/ her Barbies & watched Disney Jr.  Then we went over to Mom & Dad’s to let Emma out, eat some dinner, and clean up the kitchen before Mom & Dad get back tomorrow.  Dad & Nate & Uncle Robert & Aunt Sandy all rode in the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred.  I’m glad they finished it safely, b/c people die every year.  It was a great day.