Lizzy's Birthday!

I love that Lydia has a cousin so close in age to her. It's like she already has a built in sister to play with. Her cousin Elizabeth is two months and two days older than Lydia and they are inseparable.

On Friday, Lizzy had an Ariel Water Party for her birthday and of course Lydia was so excited to go. Before I left her there, I had to get a picture of the two of them. Seriously, they really do act more like sisters than friends or cousins. If they're not fighting or tattling on each other, they are getting along perfectly...or my daughter is just beating the crap out of her. Either way, they love each other and always make up and continue being best friends and getting into mischief together.
I didn't have a sister growing up but I did have the best cousin ever and some of the most special memories of my childhood are with her, my cousin Melissa. And I hope that that's how Lizzy and Lydia are; built in best friends for life who laugh non stop together and who grow to love each other more and more! And hopefully the fighting will stop with their growth and maturity...hopefully :)

Here's Lydia with some of her favorite cousins. Seriously, we love the Clark kids! Thanks for the party invite. Lydia had a blast!

The Wiggles and Our Weekend!

Ok, I wasn't going to blog about this because I knew how jealous most of you would be for what Lydia and I did last week but I thought, hey this is my blog and I'll write what I want. It's ok if you're envious though...it's ok.
Lydia and I had a girls' night out and went to a concert...The Wiggles Concert. Lydia has been a fan of the wiggles for about two years, got out of them about six months ago, then back into them a few months ago. Perfect timing for them to come in concert. She was so excited on the way, singing all their songs and doing all the dance moves.

Here we are waiting for the show to start.

She was so excited to see Sam, Jeff, Murray and Anthony on stage. All Smiles!

Then, I said to her that she finally gets to dance with them while we watch them on the stage. Well, she took that statement literally and after the show I found out that she was nervous at the concert because she thought that she was going to have to go on stage and dance with them. So this was her face the entire show.

She never cracked a smile and kept her finger in her mouth the whole entire show which is weird because she knows the words to every one of their songs and knows all of their dance moves.

They came out and sang one of her favorite songs "Big Red Car" and she didn't smile once.

Murray up close and personal.

She didn't even smile when Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus came out...I know, once again you all are so jealous that I got to go and you didn't!!! Secretly, I actually think their songs are cute and don't mind listening to them :) I really enjoy having children because it gives me an excuse to watch the Disney channel. I love it, what can I say?! Wholesome and clean! Don't hate!

So on the very last song, I talked Lydia into getting off of my lap and clapping along with them. Yikes my child is shy!!! Even though Lydia was so extremely shy, she still says she had so much fun and so did I. I loved our mommy/daughter date!

On Saturday morning I was able to go and support my SIL as she ran the half marathon in Provo! She killed it and ran it in like 1 hour 53 minutes. That's like 8 1/2 minute miles. Nice work Ducka! I'm so proud of you! You inspire me to start running and train for my first half next year!

Saturday night we got to enjoy some of Jake's smoked BBQ with friends and then we all headed to Lagoon. We've been so many times this season that we've definitely gotten our money's worth with our season passes.

Then on Sunday afternoon, our friends the Newell's invited us to go to the park and feed the ducks and play around in the park. Well, the pond was closed for oil spill clean up (go figure) so we just hung out and played on the grass.

Nate is smiling and cooing all the time now but I'm never fast enough with my camera so I never get the full smile. I'll get it one day but until then, here's his cute half smile!

There were a couple lingering seagulls hanging around so we thought we could feed the birds since we couldn't feed the ducks and before we knew it there were about 8 that flew down. After about 3 minutes of feeding them some little kid came around and scared them all off ruining the girls' fun. Oh well, they didn't seem to mind!

Thanks for the invite Newell's. We had so much fun! Another fun weekend!

Nathaniel's Blessing Day...August 1st, 2010

Dear Nate,

August 1st, 2010 was a very special day for you! You were blessed by your father and what a wonderful blessing it was. Your father told you many things that I will write down for you to keep always. Read those words and remember them.

We love you Nate and are so happy that you have joined our family. You are such a sweet little baby. You never cry; only when you're hungry or tired and even then you never cry when you're being cuddled by someone.

After the blessing we had family and friends over for some breakfast to celebrate your day! It was SOOO hot so a lot of people ended up inside in the air conditioned house :) We spent all day Saturday grocery shopping, cleaning the house, mowing, weeding and setting up for the big event and everything turned out wonderfully! Altough a few extra hours in that day would have been nice...we needed them!
Here you are with your Grandpa Rodney, the wonderful man that you were named after.

Grandpa with his two newest grandchildren #27 Nate and #28 Jemima

Uncle Jared and cousins Jemima and Jeremiah

Great Gma Neva and Great Gpa Herb

Cousins Caleb and Sammy

Cousins Kate and Elle

Cousin Taylor

Thanks to all of our friends that came. We really appreciate it.

Sherrie, Anabel, Joe and Mathias

Lyd's with her friends Cambree and Brielle

Mama with her friend Anabel

Mama with her baby boy

Lyette, Joey and Izabel

The happy Johnsen family! Nate, we love you and will continue to love you more than you'll ever know.

Love,

Mom, Dad and Lydia

We were lucky enough to have our good friends the Pehrson's drive up from Fairview to enjoy this day. The stayed with us until Monday afternoon so we went to lunch and then said goodbye. We just love Ben, Emilee and Cambree and can't wait to meet their little boy that will be here in January!!! Thanks for sacrificing your sleep to be with us. We always have so much fun with you guys. We always laugh so hard when we're together and we love you guys for that. You're an amazingly hilarious couple and are so glad that we know you guys!!!

(No clue what Lydia is doing)
Nate's Blessing Outfit

I found an outfit at White Elegance and I loved it on him. Of course since I have a big boy, he wore size 3-6 months and it fit him perfectly. Here are some pictures I took of him in his blessing outfit!

I LOVE his tiny, little bow tie!

So sad!

Even though he's a big boy, I still get to enjoy his tiny, little baby toes!

He just loves his binky. Lydia wasn't a binky baby so it's nice to be able to calm his little wiggles by shoving a binky in his mouth!

We love you Nate Dogg! Happy Blessing day!

Johnsen Family Vacation 2010

Well, its happened again...all of us Johnsen's went on a vacation together again.
All 46 of us!
There are 28 grand kids so it's kinda crazy most of the time. Rod and Sue were nice enough to pay for 3 condos to fit all of us in Park City for three days! The main condo was 4 levels and the others were 3 levels. They were insane...very nice!
We got there last Tuesday and ate dinner together as a family then headed to the pool. The guys always play Flys Up! It's pretty entertaining to watch.

Lizzy and Lydia

Matt Matt
Heather and Anna

Gwen
The kids enjoyed watching movies in their down time and every night some of us adults got together to play games after the kids went to bed. We had a ton of fun and of course laughed our butts off. Good times as always!
On Wednesday we had a beach/boating day at Jordanelle lake. So much fun. Here's what Nate did most of the day. Even though he was covered all day, he still got burned and is now peeling. Poor guy; his first sunburn at 6 weeks old. Mother of the year right here folks! We think the reflection of the sun on the water is what got him. Lesson learned!

I taught Lydia how to make her very first sand castle. We didn't make it very far before Lydia got bored and just wanted to play. Maybe next time :)

Lyd's and Ben got really close on this trip and played all day together without one problem. The just laughed and played all day in the sun. So cute.

Then came our turn on the boat. Lydia was so excited and on the boat kept saying, "I love Park City!".

JoJo

Rebekah, Abigail and Jaxon getting ready to go.

Jake taking his turn. He said the water wasn't bad; not too cold at all. He was a pro at holding on until his arms finally wore out.

Sammy and Caleb

Gweny!

Then on Friday we all headed home to freshen up for our big family picture. Its been eight years since we've taken a picture together so it was WAY overdue. Can't wait to see how they turned out. But here are a few pics that I took of the event!

Lydia and Uncle Joshy!

Lyd's and Elle

Bff's Lizzy and Lydia

Elle holding baby Nate

Aaron and Drew

Rod and Sue with all eight of their children. Their was a picture of Rod and Sue with all 28 grand kids but I forgot to take the picture. The photo will already be outdated soon...two more grand kids will be here by the end of this year!!!

The Jake Johnsen Family!

What a fun trip this was. Thanks so much to Rod and Sue for doing this for all of us. And thanks to Ducka, the Director of Fun, for always planning the best vacay's!

Until the next one...Love to you all!!!