BBQ of the Century...

Well it's official, I have turned 30 years old. I had always planned on having a big party...just not for me. Jake also turns 30 but not until October 5th. That's right, we're only 12 days apart. As most of you know, Jake loves to be the center of attention so I thought it would be perfect to throw a huge surprise party for his 30th b-day. But why should I get jipped? So I then thought hey, why not have a combined 30th b-day party and have a big bbq outside on our new deck! Here's the happy couple!!!
On Friday night we had 107 of our friends, family, and neighbors over for the bbq of the century! We invited about 150 people so we thought the turnout was great! It was a bit overwhelming hosting but so much fun to see all of the people we love all together in our backyard! Note to self: for our 40th, have someone else besides Jake and I in charge of everything. Being the host is too much work. I didn't have time to really enjoy everyone's company. Some people I just said hi too and hated that I couldn't have a full conversation. So in 10 years I'll be sure and hire someone to do the pictures, bbq, etc...so I can enjoy myself a bit more!
I did some research about 1979 and made posters of the most interesting facts.
I also hung a bunch of family pictures from the year 1979, made a timeline of mine and Jake's life and how we grew together to form our cute, little life together. Then I chose about 20 of my favorite songs from the top 100 songs of 1979 and made a cd for the guests to enjoy. They actually had some fun songs from that year (YMCA, I Willl Survive, My Sherona, MJ songs, etc...). Needless to say, I had a lot of fun planning this party.

The party and its guests...

The cake!!!

Jake and I being sung to...

Blowing out the candles...

My Aunt Susan is one of the craftiest people I know and of course she didn't disappoint. She got us these really cute witches shoes and filled them with homemade chocolate dipped pretzels. If you know the Johnsen's, you know that we LOVE Halloween and love to decorate so we always welcome cute decorations as gifts for our b-days :) It was a great party and I SOOOO appreciate all that each of you did to help. It really meant a lot. Thank you so much!!

On Saturday morning I ran a 5k with Melynda and Lynette. It was a RS stake thing and the turnout was pretty good. I haven't run for months and I still have PT in both knees and a pinched nerve in my L hamstring so needless to say, my time sucked (31 min 20 sec, my worst time yet). But us girls' made a packed to stick together so we finished as a team. It was lots of fun. Oh, how I love to run. Here we are at the end of the race.

Saturday afternoon we headed to the Utah game against L'ville. I'm not much of a sports fan but I do try and make it to at least one game a year. I enjoy the atmosphere and hanging out with all of Jake's siblings (most of them have season tix and they all sit together...lots of fun).

Lydia LOVES going. She's intimidated at first because of all the noise but she always warms up and ends up cheering and dancing on the stairs the last half of the game. It was adorable watching her.

It was a fun weekend...can't wait for the next one :)

Tutu's and Larry's 2nd Surgery...

I have a new love...making tutu's. I love it and it is SOOO easy. It's the no sew tutu and since I don't have a sewing machine, it works out great. I am not crafty whatsoever and that's why I'm shocked at how much I'm enjoying this.
This is one of my fav's. A purple tutu with ribbon. I got ideas off of the Internet and then just made up my own thing according to my taste. I think this one turned out cute. I like the skinny purple ribbon wrapped around the tulle.
Lydia loves spinning around and watching the tutu fan out around her.

She's getting quite the personality. Its really become unique in the past month or so. She's so silly, as you can see in the picture below. She wouldn't look into the camera but she wanted to make sure I was still paying her attention. So cute.

This is just a plain pink/white tutu with a little bling added on. I used a hot glue gun so hopefully the jewels will stick. If anyone has a better idea, please let me know.

This is my favorite thus far, the ladybug tutu. I saw it online but had no idea how they made it (with the ribbon) so I just made up my own thing. I can't wait to see Lyd's in this one!!!!

Well, Larry made it through another surgery. He had his second knee surgery yesterday and he's only 4 years old. He has pateller luxation which is where his knee cap falls out of the groove which causes him to limp and if not fixed eventually all of the cartilage in his knee would rub away to nothing. This is common in Boston Terriers and of course the pup we choose has to live up to the breeds reputation!! So 24 hours and another grand later, we've got our boy back at home.

Here's Lydia glad to see Larry home.

Dr. Gubler said the surgery went really well except for the fact that he threw up a lot after surgery because of the three different types of anesthesia. Poor guy! The doctor also said that this knee was a lot worse than the first one so he'll probably get arthritis in that knee a few years earlier than a normal dog....well, if you know Larry, nothing about him is normal :) Because his knee was so bad, they had to do a few extra procedures during surgery to fix the problem. Poor guy! We love you Lar and are glad to have you home.

Look at that scar...now it matches his other knee!

Larry's not allowed to jump on anything or go upstairs AT ALL for 6 weeks. Yikes!!!!! So I have to carry him everywhere since we have stairs everywhere. I keep telling Jake that Larry was meant to be with us in our little family because a lot of people may not be able to handle all of his problems and costs but me being the greatest dog/animal lover there is, our family would pay any price or go to any length for that crazy boy of ours. He's our family and we love the crap out of him :)

Also, for the next 6 weeks Larry will have to live without his favorite place, his couch where he basks in the sunlight and watches the neighbors outside!

Lydia was so concerned about the surgery that yesterday we decided to go to Costco and get Larry a huge box of treats and some chew toys for his recovery. Then Lydia decided to share her Pablo with him to make him feel better. So sweet, Lydia just loves her big brother.

Seriously, is he not the most gorgeous boy you've ever seen? Seriously, he's stunning. And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mama. He's such a cutie and we love him so much.

Good luck Lar Dog on your recovery! You spoiled boy!!!!

Side note: we had a little scare within the first three hours of his homecoming. Lydia was walking and somehow stepped her 30 pound frame exactly on Larry's scar...OF COURSE!!!! He got up and ran away so I went to go check on him and his surgery site is just gushing blood. So I took him back to the vet and the nurse said they may need to put some staples in to close the wound. Seriously? Hasn't my boy been through enough. At this point Larry is shaking like a leaf and I'm doing all I can to comfort him, but just like a child he doesn't understand. He just wants to go home. Then Dr. Gubler came in and said it wouldn't be necessary. Thank goodness. The bleeding stopped and our boy is ok. Phew, crisis averted!

A Vacation on a Vacation...

We decided to make one last trip this year to Kansas City to see the family before the weather got too cold. Since it is mom's big birthday year her good friend Susan thought it would be fun to take mom down to Branson, MO. I haven't been for like 20 years so I thought it would be nice to go down as well. So last week we headed down and David, Nora and the boys met us down there.
Lydia was SO excited to see her cousins. I built it up for weeks that she was going to go see her cousin Levi and she was so excited. And what do you know, they had a blast together. They played non stop, held hands and laughed constantly. It was quite nice to see...even though they got a bit loud at times.
We really did have a good time, except for the fact that Lydia and I didn't get along AT ALL!!! We fought the whole time. She was out of her element, traveling all over and just plain tired. She got zero sleep. All that together made for a couple of very testy gals.

Here's Grandma with all of her grandkids.
We did a lot of shopping and in the Grand Village they had this huge chair. Lyd's looks so cute in it!

Last Friday we found this awesome go cart track to ride. It had three levels to it. David and I took Levi and Lydia on the first ride then us big kids took a ride alone.

Lydia didn't let go of the wheel. She actully thought she was driving. So cute.

The big kids...

When I was little we "rode the ducks" and I loved it. So we thought it would be fun to take our kids and see how they liked it. It was a bit different than I remember. It was actually very cheesy but a fun ride. Our driver was Captain Smiley and if he wasn't a redneck I don't know who was :) He was so cheesy, but he made me laugh so oh well. On "Ride the Ducks" you get a tour through the town, then the car converts into a boat and you go into Table Rock Lake and get a quick tour of that. We had a good time. The kids had fun blowing into their quackers.

Friday night we went to a show called "Six" on the strip. It's a show where 6 guys sing with only their voices and no music and it seriously sounded like drums, cymbals and guitars were there but they weren't. Very talented. After the show we went and got custard. Even though it was 10:30 at night, the kids were having fun together.

Grandma was trying to explain to Lydia what we were about to watch and she said it was like watching the Wiggles because they sing and dance on stage. Well, after the show was over she just started freaking out and said she didn't want to leave. I asked her why and she said she wanted to stay and see the wiggles. She actually thoguht she was watching the wiggles on stage. It was so cute. It took her about 5 minutes to calm down and stop crying. I guess we really need to see the wiggles when they come to town. She sat there the whole time listening to them dance. She even started doing the dance moves. Future perfomer on my hands :)

On Saturday morning (mom's actual b-day) we headed to Silver Dollar City for the day. Mom, David and I went there when we were young and we loved it (3 hours south of KC). SDC is an amusement park set back in the 1880's with all the food from then and different contraptions used back in the 1800's. But the rides are very contemporary. The roller coasters were a lot of fun and the kids had a great time.

Here's the whole gang.

We went for a ride on a huge steam train. I remember going on it as a kid. I also remember the skit they do halfway through the ride...too funny! Ahh, the memories.

Then we headed back to KC. On the way home we were told that we had to go to Lambert's, home of the throwed rolls. Yes, they throw the rolls at you as you're eating. It's hilarious.

The food was just good 'ol country food. So delicious. And SO much of it. Yes, that is an actual sauce pan that my food is in and it's the normal size of a sauce pan too. It was huge. Not only do you get your food, but the workers walk around with big buckets of free sides to go along with the ones you already have...tomatoes and macaroni, fried ocra, potatoes, and molasses to go on the rolls you get "throwed" to you.

On Sunday we had our monthly b-days for September and we also celebrated Cabot's b-day. He turned one on August 25th.

On Monday we drove around and said goodbye to all the family before I left to go back to SLC. Here's Lydia with her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Seymour.

As far back as I can remember, this is how I see my grandma. Every time we left her house she stood on the porch and waved until we drove away. I just love this lady and I wanted to capture this moment.

We went to dinner with Steven (my cousin), Maria, Becky(Aunt) and Bobby(Uncle). We had a good time talking and catching up. I didn't think Lydia would move from my lap but she took to Rueben and Tony so quickly. I was so happy about that. My family is so small that I consider my cousins my immediate family. So instead of the boys being my 2nd cousins, I consider them my nephews. Well, those three had a good time that night. Lydia couldn't stop laughing with those two. Tony even had to shush her so she would smile for my picture.

And thoughtful Steven and Maria got each of the b-day girls yellow roses. So sweet.

Thank you so much to my family and for those of you I got a chance to see. I love each of you and I'm so glad to call you my family!!!