Books and Blast from the past!

I don't know if any of you out there remember these books from when you were little:
I had forgotten all about them until the last time we were down visiting my parents. Then the memories all started flooding back. I LOVED these "little critter" books when I was younger. I found almost all of the ones my parents still have, along with mine and my sisters initials written on the inside cover of each book. I read them to Evie and she loved them too. So I decided to buy some for her. I started by looking on amazon, but they were a little pricey. Paying $.01 for a book isn't bad, but then you add $3.99 for shipping and it is a bit ridiculous. So the next best place to look? Ebay! And I scored 13 Little Critter books for about $17.00 - with shipping. Not too bad, if you ask me! Ever since we got them in the mail Evie has been carting these books around. She loves reading with us, especially these books! I plan on stalking Ebay to continue our collection. Here are a few pictures of Evie in all her glory, well, her current obsessive glory :)

Don't look so thrilled :)

half smile....

This is the smile we have been getting lately.....she looks at the camera, squints her eyes almost til they are closed and says "cheeeeeese"

Dam fun!

Last weekend we drove to the Grand Coulee Dam for the laser light show. We had been wanting to go all summer, but with Owen's schedule all over the place, it was hard to pin point a time. So it worked out really well, because it is starting to get dark earlier. The show started at 8:30 pm instead of 10:30 pm earlier in the season. We walked around the little museum but didn't have time to read a lot of the displays...we were a little pressed for time. Anyway, what I did learn while I was there was pretty interesting. This is the wikipdeia address if you are at all curious as to what I'm talking about :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Basin_Project








Evie was obsessed with this huge wrench thing. We couldn't get her away from it. She loved it :)

Just call her Jack Hammer Evie :)

Of course, I wanted a turn.

We tried to get Evie to stand in the shoes right next to this guy, but she was scared.

So, the laser light show was a little dated.....well, really dated. But that's ok. It was fun. They played Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" for the finale and we had fun dancing to it :)

You are cordially invited....

TO A POTTY PARTY!!!! That's right - I said potty party. Me and a few friends decided to get together and motivate our little toddlers. OK, I can't take all the credit for it. It wasn't my idea, but I was definitely on board when she presented the idea to me. We got them all juiced up with Capri Suns and had cookies and put on an Elmo potty video for them to watch.
Getting ready for the movie to start!

Good job Evie - drink that juice til its all gone!

They were captivated by the movie!

And when Evie was done with the potty party - she went straight for the dress up clothes! I think I know what I'm going to get her for Christmas!

Evie didn't pee pee in the potty...she peed right next to the potty. I have come to the conclusion that she just isn't ready yet - and you know what? That's fine with me! I ask her if she wants to go on the potty every day and if she sits on it- great! If she doesn't, I don't push it. Hopefully when she decides she is ready- it will be instant....we shall see!

100th post!

I feel like my blog is turning into a book and movie review or something :) I finished reading this book:
a few weeks ago and then went to the movie the next week with a couple of my girlfriends. I would highly recommend either of the two. Although, I did like the book better because there are just some things that are better in written form. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie - A LOT....just not as much as the book! If you want a good laugh and a good cry - this will get you there!

Johnston Reunion 2011

The last weekend of July, before I went to Boise for a week, Owen's family had a family reunion. Owen's brother is working on a farm close to his parents house in Oregon and was nice enough to have all 35+ people, stay at their house for the weekend. Evie and I were lucky enough to have our own room (thanks Tricia!) There were people sleeping all over the house...lucky that it was a big house :) So to understand this better....There are 10 kids in Owen's family and I love every single one of them! One of his sisters designed and ordered t-shirts for everybody. I thought they turned out super cute! This is the reason you will see a sea of green in most of these pictures! The kids got to go on a treasure hunt, we had a mini carnival, we went swimming, went hiking, did the whole camp fire thing, shared memories and made memories! It was really fun and I was sad when it ended. The last day, one of his sisters told me how much it meant to her, that I would come to the reunion with out Owen. I am very grateful for wonderful in-laws that treat me just like their very own sister, daughter, grand daughter, niece and aunt. Here are a few pics...enjoy!
Evie in her Johnston shirt and ready for the treasure hunt!

I tried to get a good pic of Macie and Evie, but they weren't having it. These two were a little shy at the beginning, but by the end of the weekend they were laughing and running and having fun!

The treasure hunt continues with a little "daring" walk across the ditch :)

Next stop - throwing water balloons at the milk jug skeleton...I think this was Evie's favorite part...she. loved. it.

Raising the pirate flag...or something along those lines! Uncle Aden did such an awesome job putting the treasure hunt together. He's going to be a good daddy someday :)

Evie and her cousin Morgan. She was sooo helpful with Evie and I was so appreciative of it. When I first met the family, Morgan was only 9 and now, she is almost 16! She is beautiful, creative and so sweet. I love Morgan!

One of the activities we did was swimming...and no, this wasn't at the lake, although it looks like it! One of Owen's parent's neighbors have a swimming pool and was gracious enough to let us swim. Evie started going down hill fast around this time.....cranky, tired, hot, thirsty, hungry, a toddler age of 2....I don't know, one of the above. It was all I could do to keep my patience with her. Single parenting is hard work!

Of course something was not right and she refused to take a picture.... gotta love this age!

We were all in charge of a station for the carnival. This station was a game with whip cream, and bubble gum. The point is to eat all of your whip cream and blow a bubble with you bubble gum, which is at the bottom of your bowl, under your whip cream, first. It was disgusting..as you can see in the picture :) I didn't post the pics of me gagging and almost throwing up in my bowl..yuck! It was fun, though!

Evie loved her balloon :) There were lots of other stations. The kids had a blast!

This is almost all of the kids....I'm sure there are some missing. Evie is the one with her hands over her face because she didn't want her picture taken....this is pretty much how the whole weekend went....little stinker! I guess Lisa (owen's sister in-law) and I are in charge of next years reunion.....that's gonna be a lot of work! Until next year....

Faith

Before I left for Boise, I sent out an email to my sisters, mother and sister's in-law with this link: http://youtu.be/_xVRYTtlI28 We all decided to go see this movie "17 Miracles" They can't be too mad at me because I sent the link to them and was thinking they would watch the preview! I don't think there was a dry eye in that theatre. This movie was about the Martin and Willie Handcart companies that crossed the plains. It was a highly emotional and spiritual movie. It made me so grateful for those early saints and all they sacrificied so that we could practice our religion with out persecution. It also made me grateful for the trials I have in my life. I don't think I could have ever actually, physically crossed the plains. Those pioneers had so much faith and I hope to someday be just as faithful as they were. The different stories in this movie were true events (my sister is a major church history buff and so we would lean over and ask her, during the movie, if this or that was true...and it was!) One of the main things I thought about, as I watched the movie, was how much our Heavenly Father loves each one of us. He knows us each individually and wants to bless us - we just have to be willing to ask. If you haven't seen this movie, I would recommend watching it - you won't be sorry :)

WARNING: Photo Overload!

Ev's and I went to Boise the last weekend of July through the first week of August! We had so much fun! We originally went down for Owen's family reunion (a separate blog entry in the near future) and then planned to stay on in Boise for a week. We had such a great time! Here are a few pictures I captured :)
We got there Sunday night and the cousins were reunited! YAY! Ruby is missing in this pic...but the other girls are all accounted for :) Coloring at Grandma and Grandpa Ogden's!

Monday night we went to the lake and my brother brought his boat. Evie loved watching Uncle Greg on the wakeboard. Every time he would jump the wake and land Evie would clap and yell "yay! yay!"

We had a little bbq while we were at the lake. Evie is in cousin heaven :)

My sister tried out the knee board and did awesome!

My sister and her little girl Felicity - Evie and her are 10 days apart :)

Love my mom and dad!

I love this pic of Reagan, James and grandma.

Those not on the boat enjoyed the sand and water.

There was plenty of back yard swimming the week we were there~

Of course a trip to Chuck E Cheese with the cousins was in store. Evie and I walked in the door and the lady at the counter thought Evie was adorable (of course I think that, I'm her mother!) We were buying our tokens and Evie kept pointing at the balloon saying "bu oon, bu oon" So the lady asked Evie if she wanted one...gave it to her for free (had a sign that said $2.00) she also gave Evie's other cousins Ruby and James one too because they were equally as adorable :) Anyway, Evie wouldn't let go of that balloon to save her life...she held onto that thing the. whole. time.

Cousin Thomas in the monster truck.

Cousin Reagan and James.

Evie and Cousin Ruby

Cousin Lilly, Maddy and Evie :)

Evie had a blast...and did you notice the balloon in EVERY picture? :)

One of the days visiting was devoted to driving to Jerome, ID to visit my grandparents. Not sure what Evie is doing here, but I think she was just grateful to be done with the 1.5 hour car trip!

My grandmother always has such beautiful flowers. Evie loved them. She kept saying "pri-ee" Evie was a little shy at first, but it didn't take too long before she was her silly, little self :)

Evie giving Grandma Great, kisses :)

Photo op 1.... 4 generations

Take 2...

Photo op 2.....

Take 2....

This was Evie on the ride back home to Moses Lake. She loves getting Happy Meals - and we really only get them when we are traveling, so this is extra fun for her! We made it back home safely- only to find that we were banned from work until Thursday because of the whooping cough that had been going around. Evie had cold like symptoms, and so to be safe we stayed away and stayed home bound for 3 days. Guess we could have stayed a few extra days! Oh well, hopefully we can plan another trip before the weather starts getting bad in the mountains...until then...