Alan, Shelley & Ella

Nelson-Atkins Museum

2011-11-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, which was Saturday, Alan and I decided to visit the Nelson-Atkins Museum. We have been wanting to go there ever since we moved to Kansas City. We finally did it this weekend and took Ella with us. It was nice that it was free. It is a really cool art museum and well lets just say I wouldn't recommend taking your children. But it had some really cool paintings and Egyptian tombs which I am fascinated by. This next picture their is a birdie in the back ground which is part of the outdoor art. An artist illustrated the museum as a bad minton net and had four of these huge birdies that were located in the lawn on opposite sides of the museum. Alan managed to get a picture of it with Ella. Daddy took some more pictures of Ella outside the museum. I love the one above where we are walking through all the trees.

Cousin Addi's Baby Blessing!

2011-11-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

Jen and Brian had their baby blessing in St. Louis. So Alan and I made a quick trip and left last Saturday to be there for it it and got back the next day on Sunday. Surprisingly Ella did really well in the car. Jen was so sweet to make Ella a ladybug birthday cake at the luncheon after the blessing.
Alan's Grandma, Dad, Mom, Brother, baby Addi, wife Jen, and sister Steph were all their for the blessing.

Mommy, Baby Addi, and Ella! Addi is such a great baby and she is so cute! She literally slept the whole time!

Ella and her Great Grandma Ella Pearl Hicks!

Ella' first Birthday Party!

2011-11-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Ella turned 1 years old on November 4th. She just devoured her cupcake. We threw her a Owl Birthday Party! We also invited a few of her friends that were close to her in age. We sent out some owl invitations, ate owl cupcakes, had lime sherbet with sprite as our punch, pink six lets to give the table some color, catelope, and chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. We love our Ella, she is such a sweet girl. She finally sleeps through the night. She goes to bed at 8pm. and doesn't get up until 6pm. When she wakes up in the morning we watch our sesame street snuggled up on the couch, which I love. This kid gives so many kisses and hugs during the day and I can't complain, I love it. She waves to everyone and even blows kisses to strangers. She says, Momma, Datty, ball, Hi, and oohhh ohhh, the sound an owl makes. She is such a blessing in our home and we adore her. She went to the Doctor last Friday and was 50% on her head, 60% on her height and 5% on her weight. Our doctor wants to fatten her up by giving her instant breakfast packets in her milk and extra butter in her veggies and whatever we give her. She weights 17lbs. and 10 ounces. We have to go back for a follow up check up in 4 weeks to see if her weight is consistent. I think it's more hereditary then anything. I thinks she eats a lot. We love our Ella, she really is a good kid!

Ella eating her first cupcake ever, well her first whole cupcake.

A banner I made for Ella with my cricut.

Ella's owl cupcakes that her Daddy made for me, so easy and fast!

Ella got a hippo that spits out balls and makes them jump up and down for her birthday. She tries so hard to keep all the balls inside the hippo. She also got a phone, that counts and sings songs, one of those see and says that points to the animal and makes a sound, a pretty dress, from Grandma Hess. She is so lucky to have her grandparents and be so loved by them.

Some of Ella's decorations.

Another banner I made for Ella, well my Mom made for Ella! She put it all together, she is super!

The table after our guests left. We were running a little late on setting everything up and well decided to take picture after the party. But you get the idea!

Daddy taking Pictures of Ella at Night!

2011-11-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

Alan captured a picture of Ella and I and our silhouettes at sunset.
Ella playing in the leaves at night. I actually through some leaves at her.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

My wonderful and pretty Mom came out for Ella's first birthday. Here is Ella and her Grandma Hess in the front of our yard. My Mom was wonderful when she came to visit. We would go on walks together, shopping, and working on Ella's birthday party. She helped me out so much, especially with Ella's party and making the banners and decorations for me. She is the best and we miss her already! She would even make Ella giggle, it was so cute!
Ella playing outside with the tea lights to our pumpkins.
Ella crawling on the sidewalk, because the darn kid won't walk yet. But we still love her!
This year for Halloween I decided to be a tooth and Ella would be the tooth fairy. Daddy who is taking this picture was himself, the dentist.

My super neighbor Aimee and her son Lincoln. I love my neighbor Aimee. She is always making cookies and bringing me over some. So delicious! Especially chocolate oatmeal cookies, my favorite. So I think Aimee and I are like cousins some where down the line. One day I was at her house and noticed she had this family history book of her Great Grandma and her Great Grandma's last name is Neville. I looked at her and said, " My Grandma's last name is Neville." Aimee then said, "Well, my maiden name is Neville." I said, "My Mom's maiden name is Neville. I have never met another Neville in my life." Aimee said, "Me neither, we must be related." Well it turns out that our hometowns in Cali are a half in hour from each other. The Nevilles grew up in Utah and then moved to Cali. Also really crazy story, her Dad is an Oncologist, someone who diagnosis cancer. Her Dad, worked on my Uncle Keith who had down syndrome and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, a few years back, and my Mom remembers Aimee's dad, Dr. Neville telling my Uncle Keith that they are related. I guess you could say that it's a small world after all! hehe!

Carolyn's Pumpkin Patch!

2011-11-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to go to a Pumpkin Patch and finally got around to doing it as a family this year. We did not get any pumpkins as they were twice as much as what it would cost us to get them from the grocery store. We did enjoy ourselves and the farm life. Ella's Daddy is getting a lot better at taking pictures.
Daddy took a picture of Ella inside a hay wagon. She is holding on to one of the beams because the silly kid can't walk yet. I didn't know we were going to have a photo chute of her or I would have dressed her a little cuter. But she's adorable anyway! I guess I should mention Ella's black eye. She fell out of her high chair right on her upper cheek bone. I felt so bad. But it is totally gone now.
I love how the pumpkins are faded in the background!
Some random lady was nice enough to take a family photo, but she cut off a little bit of Alan's head.

A visit to Lake of the Ozarks!

2011-11-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

We went to Lake of the Ozarks for a weekend get away about 4 weeks ago. We stayed at Alan's Aunt's lake house. His sister and Mom came too. It was a fun getaway. While we were there we visited this Ha Ha Tonka castle. All that was left was the exterior walls because it got burned down. Below are some pictures we took.

Ella and Grandma Johnson in their cardinal t-shirts. They are very proud to wear them especially since they won the world series.

A look out spot on our way up to the castle.

A little bit of the history behind this castle. I have to brag, I took this with my new I-phone and can't believe how nice it came out.

A picture of what this castle once looked like.

Halloween Wreath!

2011-09-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is my Halloween Wreath. I actually like it. My friend Mille down the street, told me about this website called Pinterest and lets just say I am in love with it. I get on it everyday looking for new and fun crafts to do or projects. It's a great place to look for ideas for just about anything. I love how people pin their favorite things and you can click on the pictures and then it takes you to their craft blog or any blog and gives you directions or instructions to do whatever it is you want to do. I found this Halloween burlap wreath on their and wanted to make it. It doesn't quite look the same as the one on Pinterest but it's pretty close. Happy Halloween!

Alan taking cute pictures of Ella!

2011-09-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

We all know that Sunday's can be terrible for our children with no naps. Here is Ella on a Sunday with Daddy taking pictures of her after church. At first she loved it, but by the end of Daddy's photo chute, she was losing it.

Not so happy Ella. She pretty much wanted this headband off of her head. We had to distract her a lot from getting it off.

Ella loves to get into things!

2011-09-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

We love our sweet Ella. She is at the stage of wanting to get into everything. She is very curious! She doesn't care so much about her toys anymore or playing with them. She cares about what's lying around the house, that she can play with. We love her though, she is such a joy in our lives. She is inside the cricut box that I just received in the mail from my Mom as an early Christmas present. Thank you Mom, it works very nicely, but now I need to play with it.
Ella climbed onto the door of the dishwasher and loves to pull out the silverware and play with it. She mostly just grabs her utensils that we feed her with sometimes.
Ella climbed inside the clean laundry basket of white clothes.
Ella finding Daddy's wallet and managed to open it up and pull out his money. This kid is hilarious. I had to get a picture of this, it just goes to show how poor we are when all he has is ones in his wallet. Haha! Maybe someday their will be 100 dollar bills. j/k!

Riding the train In Kansas City!

2011-09-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

There is this train off of Waukomis, which is 2 minutes from our house. The whole time we have lived in Riverside we knew about the location of this train and haven't participated in enjoying the fun train rides. A couple of a weeks ago we finally made a family trip out of it to do it with Ella. I also have to say that Alan loves trains and he was fascinated by it. His dream is to have one in our backyard someday, or that is a plot of land, with room for one. Ella was a little scared of the train when we went through the tunnel, she kept grabbing me around the neck. We love our little Ella and we love her even more for finally sleeping through the night. Yippee!!!!

Alan's Surprise 30th Birthday Party!

2011-08-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Alan and I walking down to the clubhouse for his Surprise Birthday Party. I had to make up so many lies to Alan over the past 3 weeks, and he fell for all of them. In order to get him down to the clubhouse I told him that Carol our manager needed us to sign some paperwork with his signature since he is the head of the household. He then told me, but the office is closed, especially since it was 7 in the evening. I then preceded to tell him that Lonnie and Nick the maintenance guys were working late because of flooding that occurred at the clubhouse from it raining all day. He then said, "Oh is that why I saw a cement truck go drive down to the clubhouse." I said, "Yes that is correct." It was fun to throw him a surprise birthday party. I spent a couple weeks during Ella's naps making all the decorations for it. I couldn't have pulled it off without Alan's parents to help me out on that Friday around 2-6 to help decorate the clubhouse and get last minute decorations. Thank you Jim and Marilyn!

Ella wearing a party hat to help celebrate Datty's Birthday!
I love this picture of Ella and her Daddy! She has her eyes closed and is giving Daddy a kiss!
Here are some of the neighborhood people at the party! My next door neighbor is Amy. She is really nice. She watched Ella's monitor for me and Ella while I was running back in forth from the clubhouse to my town home to drop off things for the party before Alan got home. She is the one sitting down at the table in front.
Al's cake, which I bought at Sam's. I did make the cupcakes and Marilyn's yummy frosting which she made for me. Then preceded by the toothpick with paper teeth inside each cupcake.
Gabby a neighborhood kido who is starting kindergarten this year, she is working at a word search at the kids table. I placed at the kids table some coloring pages of teeth, and a word search and crossword puzzle about dental terms, while the kids were waiting for Alan to get here.
My neighbors that live across the street on the left: Daniel and Jessika. Such sweet neighbors. Everyone was suppose to be at the clubhouse at 6:45 pm. that evening for the Surprise. Alan and I were to arrive around 7ish. Jessika and her husband came over the house around 6:50 pm. and when I answered the door sweet Jessika said, "Did I ruin the surprise." I looked at her and said, no,what are you talking about, come in." Jessika is a really great cook so I told her to come into the kitchen and look at some recipes of mine and just pretend to tell me how good they looked even if they didn't. Her husband Daniel, distracted Alan enough by talking to him in the front room. Jessika was so sweet, that she covered herself by saying, well I wanted to invite you over for Dinner because I knew it was your birthday. She then gave Alan a frame with candy bar for his birthday because she knew that Alan was into taking pictures with his new camera. On the right we have Lesley and Brandon from our ward who are such great people as well.
Brandi, Mille and Sarah from the town homes.
I made 4 of these for Al's birthday party. Ella helped me by carrying the glue stick around the house.
The clubhouse decorated, all ready for the party!
On each table I used my mason jars with paper windmills I made and ribbon. I also placed thank you suckers on the tables for all of our guests that came.
For food we had fruit, pretzels, oreos, angel food cake with chocolate fondue. It was really yummy. I didn't know how delicious oreo cookies dipped in chocolate would be, but it was so tasty!

Ella's Stats!

2011-08-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

On Aug. 4th Ella turned 9 months old. I can't believe she is almost a year. If you look closely she has one tooth to the left of the highlighter that she found out of Datty's school bag. I think she will get her front teeth soon because they are really swollen. We took her to the doctor for her 9 month check up and she is 17 lbs. and 17% for her weight, 40% for her head, and 70% for her height. The important thing is, she is healthy, even though she may be skinny as a twig. We love her though. She is very mobile with crawling everywhere and pulling herself up on furniture. She loves her walker, even though she looks like a granny with it sometimes. She make us constantly laugh and we love it when she gives us tight squeezes around the neck. We love our Ella!

Ella being so big!

2011-07-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ella woke up from her nap a week ago and was caught standing up in her crib. This is her new thing. She loves pulling her self up on things and has no fear. I wonder where she gets its. Her favorite thing is to stand and cry at her crib until you come and get her. When she sees you coming in to get her she has the biggest grin on her face. We play this game at least 6 or 7 times for naps and bed time until she finally lays down and goes to sleep. Silly Kid!

Any time you eat anything Ella has to insist in having a nibble. She licks her lips continuously until you give her some. So Daddy gave her some of his ice cream drumstick. She fell in love.

Well and lets just say, that it became hers! Silly kid, she loves ice cream! I keep trying to give her those go-gurts, she is too smart and knows that it's not the same as vanilla ice cream.

Her new favorite thing is to pull her self up from the entertainment center and watch the television. She loves her Baby Einstein.
Here's a back shot of her. She is so fun to be around!

Ella at the Arcade!

2011-07-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Aunt Stephy put Ella in this muppets car and Ella absolutely loved it. She pulled herself up inside of it.
She actually grabbed the stirring wheel and looks like she is driving it. So cute!

Summer Fun!

2011-07-16T19:07:00.001-07:00

In Lake of the Ozarks we went go- karting for the 4th of July. It was a lot of fun, even though I came in like last place. I think they gave me a slow go-kart. hehe!
We also went swimming a lot. Ella loves the pool. She is such a little splasher and kicker.
We also went to this really cool arcade. We won like 300 tickets and got Ella this brown bear that looks like it's been on the shelf for awhile. But she still loved it.
This was when Ella was getting pretty tired. We decided to give her some water and she put her head back and was just relaxing. It was so cute.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T19:29:00.001-07:00

Happy 4th of July Everyone! I am so grateful to live in America. When it all comes down to it, there is no other place I would rather be then here. When I think of how fun it is to go to another country, it is, but there is no place like home (America.) We just got back from Lake of the Ozarks, it was a fun and relaxing weekend. I will post about that later. I am grateful that Ella was born in America. She is 8 months old today. I can't believe that she is almost a year. She is just starting to crawl, she loves to say dadadada, she loves being outside, she loves the swimming pool, she loves to splash in the pool, she loves to blow rasberries, she mimics you, she loves her walker, she loves pattie cake and clapping as you sing the song to her, she loves to wave hi and goodbye to you, she loves her Baby Einstein, she loves Daddy's I-Pad, she loves looking in the mirror, she loves Backyardigans. She is definitely the sunshine in our home. We are really so grateful that Heavenly Father sent her to us. We love her so much!
Ella sitting by the window at the Lake.
Thank You Grandma Hess for the beautiful American Flag dress. Ella looks quite cute in it.
This picture of Ella holding a cucumber is for my Dad, and any of those people who appreciate gardens. We were super excited for when we came home today to find our cucumber this big in our garden, we picked it, and ate it tonight. It was pretty tasty. Ella was pretty excited too, she couldn't keep her hands off of it or her mouth.

Family Reunion In Lava Hot Springs, Idaho.

2011-06-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Megan for taking such great pictures. We have everyone except for Warren. He couldn't make it, but we sure did miss him and his family in Idaho.

So here is the Hess family. We had everyone wear the same color in their family so others would know what kids went with who. I think the colors turned out great. We are only missing my brother Warren's fam, but they will hopefully be able to come next year!
Roasting marshmallows at the campfire. Grandpa, Megan and Tate.
Playing the M & M game. They had to sort the colors individually into each cup under a minute. Here is a picture of Calli and Janene.
My niece Natasha with cousin Corey. Such cute kids!
My Mama with baby Ella at the Olympic Pool w/ slides.
My oldest Brother Jason and his daughter Jocelyn. It was so nice to see their family.
The Olympic Pool had these fun little slides. I think this is my brother Nate. I am too chicken and afraid of heights, so I did not go down them. But enjoyed seeing everyone else do it.
My Brother Brandon and his kiddos around him: Aubrey, Bracken, and Calvin.
My Brother Nate with the Ball because we absolutely love basketball in the Hess family. He is in the indoor pool with nephew Alex. Aren't they handsome fellows.
My baby doll Ella. She absolutely loves the water, even if it's a little chilly. She is such a good baby!
Ella with her cousins: Jennica and Matt. She loves her cousins.
This was so cute. These two were inseparable. Jocelyn and Aubrey.
I had my sister in law Julie create a game from Cranium except all the questions were Hess related, either about my Dad or had to do with the family. It was really fun to play. Here is Matt using cookie dough to participate in a sculpturades.
Here is Owl Hollow Inn. It was fantastic. It had 4 bedrooms, with Master Bedroom, walk in closets where a lot of the kiddos stayed, kitchen, front room, parlor room, dining room, game room, deck, and two fire pits. It was decorated nicely, and was so beautiful, especially since Idaho had received so much moisture.
Here we are in the front yard. So much outdoor space. I was in charge of the reunion this year. In this picture almost everyone is participating in having to roll dice and get doubles and then run into the center of the circle and grab the oven mitts, butter knife, fork and unwrap the package of gum; and eat a piece before the next player rolls doubles.
Here the cousins are playing a minute to win it game called "Mad Dog." This is where I taped tic tacs to rulers and they had to use just their mouths in under a minute to shake them all out. It was so funny to see. Bracken was doing a head stand to get his tic tacs out.
My Brother Ryan. He actually got a piece of bubble gum using those oven mitts, Impressive! This picture actually reminds me of a childhood memory from when we were kids. I always remember Ryan eating bubblegum or numerous pieces at one time and blowing the biggest bubble and then having it pop and get stuck on his entire face. It makes me laugh!
Here is my brother Jason playing the Cotton Run Relay. His team had to wipe vaseline on their noses and get a cotton ball stuck without it dropping and take it from one bowl and put it in the other. They had to get 5 cotton balls in a minute. This made me laugh so hard to see everyone so intensely try to keep this cotton ball on their nose.
So I guess I still have a little teacher in me. It's quite funny when you have to say to your family, "If you can hear me touch the top of your head." At least it worked and everyone stopped talking.
Here is my Mom doing the cotton run relay. I think she looks so cute. She is going to hate me for posting this.
Uncle Alan is so great with the kids, that HE decided to take the kids on a nature walk. Jennica in the background has his I-pad so they can jot dot all the things they saw, kind of like a journal. He is really so great with all the kids. I know Alan would like to have his baseball team of kids, but I think 4 is a great number.
These kids are just too dang cute. Cousins: Bracken, Calvin, and Kaylee.
Adorable Jocelyn in the hammock.

Alan's White Coat Ceremony!

2011-06-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

Alan had a white coat ceremony right after he finished his second year of school. They present you with your white coat as you start in the clinic. He is excited to work in the clinic on real people's teeth. Way to go Alan for finishing up 2 years!

Visit to St. Louis!

2011-06-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

A ride on the train at the St. Louis Zoo. Ella with her Grandma Johnson.
Ella loves Lucy the Johnson family dog. Here she is with her Aunt Stephy!
Alan and Ella at the St. Louis Zoo. Ella's ears are very tasty according to her Daddy!
I need to do a better job and post more pics of Ella and her Daddy. Alan is usually the camera man around here. I thought this picture was sweet of the two of them.

Kansas City Zoo!

2011-06-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

The Lions at the Kansas City Zoo. I do have to say that I have a zoo membership, but have only been once. It's really hot here.... so I don't have much desire to go outside. This was when Alan had a week off of school. We walked forever just to see these lions.
I love this picture of Ella. It's almost as if she is scoping out Daddy's teeth. Well I guess somebody has to do it for him.
Al and Ella at the Kansas City Zoo. I was very impressed with the Elephant pen. It was actually really neat because they had this huge pathway to walk along and we got to walk along with them on the outside of the fence.

What have we been up too!

2011-05-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Daddy taking photos of Ella. He has this whole week off and we are all so excited to spend some time together as a family! We plan on go to the Kansas City Zoo, the YMCA for some swimming, some gardening, and to Deanna Rose Farmstead. We are super excited to spend time with Daddy!
One of Alan's friend from school gave this to Alan as a gift for Ella. I thought it was so cute, that we had to take a picture of it!
Ella is going to be just like her Daddy, with all the electronics stuff. She is in love with his I-pad. I am sure it won't be long until she gets one of them for herself. As you can see she loves wheels on the bus.
This is a picture of Alan in the mirror. He is really into the photography thing. He is loving it taking pictures of our sweet Ella. We are so proud of him for finishing up his 2nd year of Dental School. He starts in the clinical the first week of June and I think is excited, but somewhat nervous!
Ella is 6 months old and is rolling over, saying Dadadada, Daty, and is finally sitting up thanks to Grandma working with her a lot in Texas! Here she is outside in her tutoo that I made. I think it looks much better in person!

Cousin Hallie's Blessing In Texas!

2011-05-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

Ella playing with Grandma! Grandma worked really hard in getting her to sit up on her own. Now that she is home in Missouri she can sit up on her own! Thanks Grandma!
Hallie in her blessing dress that her mommy wore when she was a baby and cousin Ella!
A picture of my family at Hallie's blessing. It was just Ella and I and my parents that came.
Ella and I all dressed up for church in Texas to attend Hallie's blessing!
A picture of beautiful Hallie and her siblings from left to right, Jake, Luke, Cade, and Cassidy!
This was so cute, cousin Cade came in right before Ella's bedtime and was reading her an Elmo book. I love how she is grabbing his shirt and is quite interested in what he is saying. I have tried reading to her and she usually screams!

A picture of my beautiful niece Cassidy at Cade's indoor soccer game! She is just a sweetheart!
Grandpa and Ella at cousin Luke's soccer game! Ella is sure loved by all of her grandparents! I can't believe how busy Warren and Hillary must be with having to run around on their Saturdays to watch their kids soccer games. It was definitely fun to watch all of them!

Grandma and Ella at Cade's indoor soccer game!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Ella with her Easter Bunny Ears and her Easter Basket. She got a huge slinky, little people figurines, bubbles, bouncy ball, sesame street books, and the movie Tangled. She was so excited to see what the bunny left for her.
Here she is with her movie Tangled. She can't wait to watch it. She loved watching it at Grandma Johnson's.

Our sweet Ella laughing.

So since the Easter Bunny can't bring Ella candy, he brought her toys instead. He is so nice and must really love her! Here she is wearing her Easter Bunny ears and holding her bouncy ball.

I thought this was so cute, the way she is holding her Little People Figurines.

Neighborhood Fun!

2011-04-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

So here is a photo of some of Ella's friends on the street. Ella, Micah, Savannah, and Boston. They are such cute kids!
So my dear friend Rachel and neighbor taught me how to make these pillow case dresses. Our daughters are twins. They are so cute!

Going to the Farm in St. Louis!

2011-04-15T10:36:00.001-07:00

Alan's Grandma who we named Ella after. Ella Pearl Hicks is her name. Alan takes great photos.
Alan and Me on the four wheelers in St. Louis. His Grandma owns 250 acres of land that is pretty much just a huge lake, with lots of trees and room to play. Alan's family this past summer cut down a lot of cedar trees to make paths for the four wheelers. We sure do have a lot of fun on them!

Ella out on the farm.

Ella and Alan's Dad (her Grandpa) roasting hotdogs for lunch by the fire.

The things I love about Ella!

2011-03-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

1. Ella is incredibly happy when she wakes up. I love it when you go to peek into her crib after she wakes up and her whole face lights up with a big smile and then she makes a shrieking noise (laugh).

2. I love how when you tell her to be quiet, or tell her to "shhhhh" she laughs and thinks it's funny. I don't know where she learns that either.

3. She loves her Mommy and Daddy. When Alan is holding her she is always watching me and when I am holding her she is always watching Daddy.

4. I love how when you start laughing really hard she does too and then we play a laughing game!

5. I love how when you stick your tongue at her and blow she copies you and does it back with much more spit!

6. I love how when she gets really tired she gets louder and blows her tongue at you. It's really funny!

7. I love how she thinks my neighbors kids are so funny. Or any baby is funny to her. She loves little babies her same age! She will just sit and stare at them!

8. I love how when Daddy throws her up in the air it makes her laugh, but scares the heck out of me!

9. I love it when she takes a good nap, like she is right now. She has been sleeping for almost 2 hours. I get so much done!

10. I love it when Mommy sings through out the day that she thinks I am funny because I make up all my silly songs and sing them to her, while dancing!

11. I love how she is such a social bug and is usually really good when she is around people. She must get that from her Daddy!

12. Most of all we are so lucky to be her parents. She is such a blessing in our home! We love her so much!

Ella in her Walker and with Mama!

2011-03-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

Ella I think is in the process of getting some teeth as you can see above she puts everything in her mouth or at least finds a way to. She always drools and their is a puddle usually under her or her shirt is usually really wet. Here she is in just a diaper because she just had a blow out after not pooping for 2 days. I guess that's what solids do to you. When she does poop, let's just say it's a big one. We sure do love her, how could you not! She is a pretty good baby, we are just still working on her sleep habits.
Here she is in her Walker that we ordered from wal-mart for 30 bucks. Not bad and I am such a fan of it collapsing so we can take it on the go. I am sure most of them do that.
Any time Ella see's Mommy with a bottle of water she has to have some too! Here she is drinking out of my bottle of water. She will be five months old on April 4th. I can't believe she is already that old.

A Day at the Park!

2011-03-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

So Alan took some pictures of Ella and I at the park with our new camera. With it being kind of sunny and overcast it was the perfect day!

Ella and Mommy going down the slide!

Ella loved the baby swing, even though she was a little small for it still!

2011-03-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ella on her Tummy!

2011-03-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Night!

2011-03-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

So I think this is going to be a tradition for Valentine's Day until Alan get's out of Dental School! I did my very own cheese and chocolate fondue. It's not all that fancy, but we enjoy it. I have to thank Hillary my sister in law for the chocolate and cheese fondue, and the yummy chicken bites. We ate this at their house once and fell in love with the delicious fondues and food!

Ella being so Big!

2011-03-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

Ella is so big in her stroller. We went on a walk with our good neighbor Lechelle. Ella loved not having to sit in her car seat in the stroller, so we decided to sit her in the stroller sitting up and being faced out. She loved it and hardly made a peep on our walk to Quick Trip. We love our hot chocolate in the winter and our smoothies in the summer. I can't wait until we can turn Ella's car seat around in the car so she is facing forward. I think she will enjoy the car a lot more.
Mommy and Ella On Valentines Day. Daddy was so sweet and bought me a dozen roses and even a rose for Ella with a card for her too.
Ella and her big smile. We love her so much, especially when she gives us so many smiles.
Ella being so big laying on Daddy. I love that she is holding herself up on her elbows, so cute!

Video of Ella eating

2011-03-05T09:05:00.001-08:00

Ok, here's the video of her actually chowing it down.

YouTube Video

Ella eats solids!!!

2011-03-05T07:57:00.001-08:00

We fed Ella solids and I think she likes it!!!!

YouTube Video

The Blizzard that hit us Tuesday!

2011-02-03T10:15:00.001-08:00

This was Wednesday. It was actually pretty sunny, although freezing cold. I feel like I haven't been out of the house since last Sunday, which is true. I am going crazy, along with anybody else on my street. You can see the snow drift by our car it's about 2 feet. We only got a foot of snow, but I guess that's pretty crazy to receive in Kansas City in one day. It usually accumulates like that over a period of a week or two.
This is what it looks like down our street. Apparently we have good maintenance people who shovel it up fast. So thank goodness for them.
This is the crazy blizzard we had. Just thought you might enjoy it, those that live in Sunny California!
This is Al measuring the snow with a tape measure. I think it measured like 10 inches. Pretty crazy! He wanted me to get a picture of him in this crazy blizzard!

Ella Laughing

2011-01-31T20:59:00.000-08:00

Ella appears to have ticklish spot and we recorded it!

2011-01-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

Alan and Ella with the stare down. It's so hilarious to see these two and their stare downs and funny faces they make at each other!

Sweet Ella holding her hands together.

We caught the little girl with a smile on her face being all bundled up in her snow gear!
Where did Ella go in all of that snow gear! She sure was roasty toasty and ready to go outside!
Our great neighbor Gale was outside sweeping snow off her porch. I told her to borrow our shovel and she said, "No I am good, but let me take a family photo of you guys." She is such a great neighbor.

2011-01-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

A cute picture of Ella and Daddy in our real first snow fall. She is all bundled up! She loved it!
So my brothers and my Dad always get to take a generation photo. So finally we have a 3 generation photo of the ladies.
Happy Birthday to Mom, Dad, and Warren! It was so much fun to get to celebrate while you were all here!
Singing Happy Birthday to Mom, Dad, and Warren. They all had birthdays within the same week!

Ella's Blessing!

2011-01-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

My lovely Family and Ella after the blessing. My parents and brother Warren came. So we were very lucky!
Alan's Family will Ella. His sister, brother and parents came. His older brother Bob couldn't make it.

Our little family. Hopefully one day it will get bigger and keep growing!

Ella being so big and sitting up in Grandma Johnson's chair. It's more like the chair is holding her up.

Sunday Christmas Photos in Ogden, Utah!

2011-01-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

Ella and I in our Christmas Sunday Clothes! She is adorable!

A family photo at my brother Darren's house in Ogden, Utah during Christmas time!

Christmas Presents for Ella!

2011-01-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

I love all of these photos of Ella, with her Christmas presents! It's almost as if she knows what to do with them!

2011-01-25T13:12:00.000-08:00

We went to the Nickel arcade in Ogden, Utah. Here we have Al with Ella and cousin Jennica participating in the Dance Dance Revolution game. It was hilarious to see all 3 of them perform their dancing abilities!

My wonderful Mom putting Ella to sleep, she still has the touch!

Ella holding her cousin Corey's hand, so precious!

Cousin Aubrey, holding Ella! Ella is so loved by all of her cousins. They were such a great help to have around during the holidays!

2011-01-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

Ella's grandpa Hess (my Dad) in Ogden, Utah during Christmas time! She sure does love her grandparents!

Ella in her Christmas dress, she looks terified!

So if you didn't get a Christmas card, don't be offended, we really only sent them out to family and a few friends around here! It is sad to say that I only ordered 30 and still have half of them left over. I guess it only goes to show you that I am not very good at the whole Christmas Card thing. Any how this was the famous photo we used along with cropping it down.
Ella and I after one of her baths. She is just so adorable, I can say that right because I am her Mom. I love the nose sucker I am holding in my hand, she actually loves it too, (not really).

Pics of Ella from December and January!

2011-01-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

Ella smiling in her sleep, so cute!

I love this pic, because Alan was making silly faces at her and then they were having a staring contest!
Ella and Daddy wearing their bows! It was bow tie day for Alan at the dental school. Every once in a while they have a day where they have to wear a certain thing, just for fun! I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the people I love in their bows! haha
Ella being held by her great grandmother Ella Pearl Hicks during Christmas time back in Saint Louis. We liked the name Ella and thought it would be great to name her after her great grandmother.

More Pics of my sweet baby!

2010-11-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

Ella and I at Al's house for Thanksgiving! I took the photo myself!
Ella not happy in front of the Christmas tree at Al's house, the first photo with her since I had her at the hospital.
Ella on her tummy, she loves tummy time. I think it wears her out, and gets rid of her tummy aches. She is definitely sweet though. She sure is a blessing!
Ella again in the boppy pillow. She is so alert and strong! I love that her arm is on the boppy pillow and her feet are crossed. She looks very relaxed!
A classic pose of Ella and Alan. He always gets her to sleep, and never seems to fail. Do you see his I-phone, she won't fall asleep without some white noise. I think Al was playing the oscillating fan and apparently put him to sleep too. Alan is such a great Dad, he is so helpful. I feel so bad because when he comes home from school, Ella is usually crying, and yet he doesn't care, he just wants to help out and hold his little girl!

More Pics of Ella!

2010-11-26T15:55:00.000-08:00

Ella's concentrated face, I think she might of been working on a diaper.
A photo of Ella with her Grandma Hess. I think Ella looks a little bit like her pretty Grandma Hess. My Mom was so wonderful to have around the house. She did everything, despite the fact that she got no sleep, and she even took care of Ella, especially during her crying episodes. We sure do miss having her!
A picture of her sweet face on Granma Hess's shoulder. Mom did not want me to get her face since she was in her pajamas.
Ella sleeps in a bouncer next to our bed. I took this at 2:00 in the morning right after a feeding because it was such a sweet pose of her. She really is a sweet baby, despite her little tummy aches. Shame on me and what I eat, but I love chocolate and diet coke, and milk and all the yummy stuff. I am trying to cut back though.

More Pics of Ella Marie!

2010-11-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

Here is a classic pose of Ella in her boppy pillow. She loves to cross her legs and arms.
Ella with a fabric flower in her pretty hair. Julie and Calli made us all of our fabric flowers, we are so lucky!

The day we took her home from the hospital. She looks so tiny in her car seat, another gift we got from Calli and Bran.

She's here!!!!

2010-11-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Ella Marie Johnson was born on November 4th 2010 at 4:51 PM. She weigh 7 pounds 0 ounces and measured 19 inches long. She came with a full head of dark brown hair. Baby and Mom are both doing great. (So is Dad - but nobody cares to much about that right - Alan)

Trips to Utah and Lake of the Ozark's from this summer!

2010-10-11T19:06:00.001-07:00

We went to Lake of the Ozarks with Al's fam and stayed with his Aunt and Uncle in their Lake House. We rented a pontoon boat and enjoyed the scenery of all the Lake Houses.

Al driving the pontoon boat.

Taking a swim at Lake of the Ozarks. Yes, that's me using 3 flotation devices plus my pregnant belly to stay afloat......to lazy to swim.

Al and his Dad coming to the end of the journey of biking the Cadey trail. They did 100 miles of biking and then decided with weather conditions it was to hot.

Nieces and Nephews at my brother Brandon's and his wife Calli's house in Woods Cross, Utah performing a skit. They sure were cute singing to all of us.

My Dad and I in front of a B-52 at the Roy Air Force Space in Utah.

It was interesting and fascinating to hear my Dad recall stories of when he navigated the B-52 during the Vietnam War.

My niece Jennica and I in front of the Ogden Mountains. I sure do miss the beautiful mountains.

Some of my family playing outside in Ogden, Utah at my brother Darren's house.

Playing minute to win it games at Darren and Julie's. My parents showing us how it is done.

Here I am stacking cups and then having to pile them on top of one another under a minute...... Yes I did do it.

My brothers Ryan, Darren and Alan celebrating their August birthdays within a week ofeach other. Julie made such a yummy cake for all 3 of them. My nephew Tyson is sitting on Al's lap.

Here I am in Pleasant Grove with my sister in law Megan and her new baby Corey at the Kangaroo Zoo. It's really a big fun facility of blown up bounce houses.

We visited my brother Nathan and his wife Megan in Spanish Fork and Megan made Alan a cake to celebrate his Birthday. My cute little nephew Tate is sitting on his lap. Yes, Alan got to celebrate his Birthday twice while we were in Utah.

37 1/2 Weeks

2010-10-11T18:39:00.001-07:00

So here I am at 37 1/2 weeks. It's really sad that I am not one of those terrific Mom's that take a picture of herself every week. I really wanted to but it just never happened. I can say that I feel pretty ready for this baby to come. I had an ultrasound at 35 weeks and everything looked well. They estimated at the time that our baby girl was weighing 5 lbs. 15 oz. She has hair on her head, which I am so excited about, and her precious little foot was against her cheek because she is so curled up in my tummy.

I have a funny story. The other day I went to Costco with my friend Lechelle and we went around getting all of their free food samples. Delicious! One of the ladies that was serving the food samples asked when I was due. I replied in 3 weeks. She then said, "You look like you should have been due yesterday." I didn't know if that was a compliment or an insult...but I said thank you and moved on. The next day I went to Price Chopper (grocery store) and some lady stopped me, got really close to my face and asked, "when are you due." I replied "3 weeks." She then said, "You are as skinny as a twig and all bump, good luck with that." I am still not sure if that was a compliment or insult. When I was at Costco I was wearing a pink shirt that I think made me look huge, and at Price Chopper I was wearing a navy blue shirt, which made me look small. It's funny to me when your pregnant what people think of you and depending on the color your wearing you really can look like a blimp or be as skinny as a twig.

More ultrasound pictures!

2010-06-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Alan and I found out the sex of our baby. We thought we were having a boy for the longest time, but we found out yesterday that we are having a baby girl. Everything looks great. She is healthy and strong. We are excited and can't wait for her arrival on October 26th. She definitely looks like her Daddy! Thanks so much for all of you support and prayers!

So if you look close you can see the girl parts.

This is our baby girl growing.

It's amazing what you can see on the ultrasound. She is definitely going to be tall.

So Sweet and Precious! She will be even cuter when she gains all of her baby fat!

She is sucking her thumb!

She is yawning in this picture!

Here is her big foot! The ultrasound technician said she has big feet!

Some News!

2010-04-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

I can't hold it a secret anymore. I am almost 11 weeks pregnant....I was going to tell everyone when i found out the sex. But today I went to the doctor and they gave me an ultrasound and my heart got filled with joy when I saw the little guy/girl moving around, and moving his/her arm and leg....it was the neatest feeling ever! We are pregnant and it's not a secret anymore. I am due on October 26th or maybe even Halloween! Mom did such a great job in keeping a secret for me. Thanks so much Mom! Please know that I didn't want to tell anyone right away because of my previous miscarriage. We are excited and hoping that this baby continues to be healthy and grows. I will keep you updated.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

2009-11-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Al's Mom Marilyn carved this mummy pumpkin. It turned out great and added to our whole pyramid theme.
I did King Tut's face. It looked pretty cool in the night!
This is Al and I inside the entrance of one of our pyramid's. The pyramid's I created by getting huge sheets of cardboard from Lowe's, cutting them out, spray painting them gold, and then painting them with black paint. It was actually quite fun! Al's Mom, Marilyn was such a great help. She help me put them together so that they would stand on their own.
Our neighbor's the Kau's went and bought some creepy live critters for display such as: crickets, worms and a live mouse. They also bought some dry ice for the creepy effect.

Here I am at work creating hieroglyphics for the entrance inside the first pyramid. This was quite fun too!Marilyn bought me this creepy looking spider at Wal-mart. They were actually pretty cute spiders. In the background is Johnson in hieroglyphics.

Here is the entrance of the pyramid leading into the creepy tunnel of doom.

Here is a picture of what our place looked like during the day. Our townhome is on the right! Halloween was sure fun! We maybe had 75-100 trick or treaters and some were repeats. I bought so much candy and only half of it was gone. I guess it's a good thing because now I have some for myself and I won't feel so bad when someday I will have to still my own kid's trick or treating candy!

Warren's Visit

2009-10-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

I had to post a picture of Warren and I. My brother Warren was our first family visitor on my side of the family to come and visit us tonight. He flew in from Dallas Texas to Kansas City for a business trip. We hopefully will get to see him more often. Alan and I sure had a great time chatting with him!

Halloween this year!

2009-10-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

This year for Halloween I decided to make myself a mummy costume that I sewed. It was very fun, but it took me some time to do. Al decided to be an archeologist. I made this jack o lantern pinata for our street Halloween party/ FHE get together. It made it through all 35 kids. The last kid broke it open with a metal bat. We are putting together a cave and pyramids with our neighbors this year for all the kids to walk through on Halloween night. We are very excited!

Al testing the height for the pinata. He did a great job in getting it in the tree!

Trip To Dallas, Texas!

2009-10-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

Al and I at the BYU vs. Oklahoma football game in the Dallas Cowboys new stadium. It was pretty cool! There were a lot of Oklahoma fans.

From left on the bottom, my niece Cassidy, me, brother Ryan, Alan, my Mom and Dad, nephews Jake, Luke, brother Warren and wife Hillary, nephew Cade. This was in Allen, Texas, beautiful place for Cassidy's baptism.

We were fascinated with the bed in breakfast with the hotel we stayed at in Allen, Texas. Their waffle iron made waffles out of the shape of a Texas. We just had to take a picture of this.

Here we are outside the new Dallas, Texas football stadium supporting our BYU colors. GO BYU! I was the only girl out of the bunch that got to go, lucky me! Thanks Mom and Dad for a lovely trip!

BYU Graduation

2009-10-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

Al graduating with his master's in physical chemistry and his sister Stephanie who graduated with a bachelor's in PD Bio with his parents.

Alan's Birthday in St. Louis

2009-10-26T15:56:00.001-07:00

The following pictures were when we went home in August for Al's birthday. Steph and I at the City Museum in downtown St. Louis. This museum was a pretty fascinating place. It basically used recycled parts to create a children's playground/museum. This 10 story slide was an old chute used for making shoes back in the day. Sorry there is no picture of it.

Al's birthday cake. I made it out of fondant. I was pretty excited and so was he.

Another slide on top of the roof at the City Museum.

This is re-bar made out of a cage suspended 40 feet from the ground hanging from a dome. It was pretty fun!

This is Al from a suspended bus hanging from the top of the roof at the City Museum.

Al and I with pretty decent seats at a St. Louis cardinals game. I thought it was a beautiful picture with the arch in the background. Too bad we don't have a camera anymore, Al dropped it at this game and it broke. This is our last memory taken by this camera.

Day trip to San Francisco

2009-01-02T11:34:00.001-08:00

Christmas in Merced

2009-01-02T11:09:00.001-08:00

Dental School

2008-12-01T08:27:00.001-08:00

As most of you know, I have been trying unsuccesfully to get into dental school for the last few years - fortunately I have some good news. I found out this morning that I have been accepted to dental school at UMKC in Kansas City, Missouri. I will start in the fall. More details will be forthcomming I am sure.

Timp Hike

2008-10-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

In a last minute decision, a friend and I decided to attempt Timpanogos before the snow really began to fall. We made our best attempt and unfortunately came up short of the top due to time and conditions. The last thousand feet or so was done with a foot of snow on the ground which really slowed us down and pushed us to our limits. The temperatures were also cold and the wind was brisk. We had a great time and made it home in one piece.

Family Pictures

2008-09-24T12:40:00.001-07:00

We took family pictures this past weekend since Brian was now off his mission and we were all back together plus Christine and baby Chrissy. Again the pictures turned out so good and I have posted some of my favorites below.

Megan used this last one for the DVD covers that she gave to us. It really looked good and I thought it was a really clever idea. Thanks again to Megan for her time and talents.

Camping trip in American Fork campground

2008-09-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (before my parents came into town) Shelley and I went camping with a few friends from church. We definitely froze as the temperatures quickly dropped once the sun disappeared. On Saturday we checked out Timpanogos Cave national monument and took the tour through the cave. The hardest part of our journey was the climb to the cave entrance; the hike is only a mile and a half although you will climb over 1100 feet before reaching the entrance.

Here we are with John and Jenny on the trail up.

They call this the jaws - hence Shelley's clinched teeth.

A tight spot in the cave - I had some fun with this one. There were several other close calls, but I managed to walk out with no large bumps forming on my head - thank heavens.

And your typical deposit flows seen in most caves.

We had a lot fun on our walk through the caves and may go back for another tour they give requiring you to crawl and wear helmets with lights.

Welcome home Brian

2008-09-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Brian is home!!!! My parents picked Brian up from the mission home on Thursday and we all enjoyed a wonderful weekend together. On Saturday we took a ride on the heber valley railroad aka the heber creeper. Megan took some family photos in the late afternoon that really turned out fantastic; my mother was incredibly pleased with the results. On Sunday, Brian spoke in my Aunt Marilyn's ward and then played a beautiful arrangement of Come Thou Fount which he arranged. Marilyn fed us all on Sunday and we had a great time having the whole family together plus some of our extended family.

Michelle Firth

2008-09-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

We have recently learned that a dear friend of ours has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Michelle has been in my home ward for as long as I can remember; her parents live there and John and Michelle returned after John finished school. We have been saddened by the news and pray that the family will be comforted. A blog has been set up at firthfacts.blogspot.com to keep people up to date on her condition.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

We spent the Labor Day weekend in Island Park, Idaho. Here is a picture of us out on the reservoir up there. The temperatures were mild on Saturday and Sunday, but took a dive toward cold Sunday night - we even saw sleet for a few minutes.

My attempt at wakeboarding (the wetsuit is a little on the small size, but it was better then jumping into the water):

How my attempt looked about a second later - yeah this one hurt.

We took some video that we looked at during lunch to see what I needed to change. I tried it a few more times later in the day with little success and then we went out one last time during the twilight hours. I went last which meant it was pretty much dark and after two more nearly successful attempts that ended up failures, I managed to stay up. I felt pretty good about it and can't wait to try it again.

The craziest part of the trip was sacrament meeting - there was over 900 people in attendence 4 preists, 12 deacons (each carrying two trays), and water trays stacked three high. People were everywhere: gym, hallways, classrooms, even listening on the loudspeakers they have set up outside the building. This was by far the largest sacrament meeting I had ever attended. The afternoon meeting is only sacrament and meets from memorial day to labor day; theree men are called to run the meeting. The usual ward meets in the morning and had an attendence of 1300 - they politely ask visitors not to stay (can you imagine the nursery if they didn't). They also have an auxilary building called the A-frame that displays a video feed from the sacrament meeting. It was used in the morning but not during our meeting. A majority of the people attending come up for the summer, but it is especially bad on the big holiday weekends.

Don Lafontaine passes away

2008-09-04T09:25:00.001-07:00

You may not recognize the name or even his face, but if you heard his voice you would know who he was in a heartbeat. He is responsible for doing the voiceover of 5000 movie trailers in his lifetime. His signature phrase "In a world ..." can be heard at the beginning of several movie previews. He died suddenly at the age of 68. Ironically, his face and name became recognizable after doing a Geico commercial which I have posted below. We will miss you, especially as we sit through 20 minutes of previews waiting for our movie to start.

Our Anniversary

2008-06-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Shelley and I celebrated 4 years of being married! We did it without much fanfare - a dinner out and then a little shopping. We are hoping to do some fun stuff once the school year ends for Shelley which happens on Tuesday.

First intramural championship

2008-06-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

I am proud to say that my softball team won the intramural championship this week. It felt pretty nice considering we are just a bunch of chemistry nerds. We even call ourselves the flying hydrides. This is my first intramural championship win - I have played in at least 10 championship games and never won; except for this one floor hockey team that I played on - we went to overtime and lost but it turned out they had some ineligible players so it was a forfeit. I never picked up the shirt though.

Backpacking the Paria Narrows

2008-06-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

Dad and I with a few other people from our ward in St. Louis went on a 3 day 39 mile backpacking trip which follows the Paria River. The river flows through a slot canyon and then opens up before flowing into the Colorado River. Every turn of the trail had the most amazing views with huge rock faces and several rock formations. When hiking through narrows the biggest concern is flash flooding; we gave mom and Shelley the scare of their life as it rained heavily in Utah during the day we hiked through the slot canyon. We even got a little rain ourselves, but it only caused the river to rise a few inches. We took several pictures of the trip and have posted a few of the highlights below.

I am standing in fairly deep water here due to a beaver dam that was built on the river. The brush on the sides of the river prevented using the river banks as it was to thick.

Pumping water from a spring.

A small sand dune.

Dad and I.

Our first meal after getting out of the canyon - 5 of us ordered a cheeseburger with fries - it never tasted so good.

I have more pictures that I may post later. But until then there you go. It was definitely a great experience.

Cops in Kanab, UT

2008-06-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my dad and I went on a backpacking trip in southern Utah. On the way down, we passed through several small towns that all had one thing in common - a cop car with a dummy in it. Most of you might be thinking that all cop cars have a dummy in them, but these were made of plastic. Have a look for yourself:

Baby Blessing

2008-06-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Rexburg this past weekend to bless Chrissy, the newest addition to my side of the family and the first grandchild for my parents (surprisingly there has already been two more additions to Shelley's side - Crazy!) Bob gave the blessing and did a wonderful job; it was a special moment for my family to see Bob blessing his baby. He and Christine are so happy even with the lack of sleep ;) Afterwards we had a picnic since we all could not fit in their apartment.

After we ate, we took the kids for a "nature hike" around porter park and came across these chalk outlines. I thought it would be fun to lay on it...

Then Steph shouted "everyone jump on Alan!" Thanks Steph-

We also met a cousin this weekend whom I and most of my extended family had not seen in over 20 years (I was to young to even remember him). We had such a great time visiting with them and getting to know their family. Our meeting was the result of a diligent grandmother who loves and cares for each of her grandchildren. Below is a picture of Grandma with Ben and his wife Heather. The boys are Samuel and Jeremiah, and the girl is Ania (sp?)

2008-05-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Our car was hit last night while parked in front of Darren and Julies house. It happened at about midnight, Darren and the neighbors heard the crash but noone got a look at the car. Here are a few pictures illustrating the extent of the damage. The last picture shows the skid marks giving you an idea of how far the car was pushed. They left no issurance information and the police officer said the chances of finding the person are slim. We are fully covered on the car so all we have to pay is the deductible; I am sure our rates will increase, but hopefully not too much.

Chrissy Kay

2008-05-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the newest addition to my side of the family. Bob and Christine had a baby girl on May 6th and named her Christina Kay Johnson. These are some pictures Bob sent to me today. Christina is my parents first grandchild so we were all pretty excited for them.

Our Cruise

2008-05-20T18:49:00.000-07:00

I should have blogged about this a while ago, but anyway here are the pictures from our cruise. We had a fantastic time visiting Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. Our cruise lasted 5 days and we left from San Diego. The food was pretty good, but we had two full days at sea with pretty rough weather on one of them.

Here we are in front of the bottom of the Baja penninsula which they call Los Archos which is spanish for The Arch - I'm glad I could interpret that for you.

Here is a nice picture of our boat called The Elation and is operated by Carnival Cruise lines.

Our room steward would fold our towels for us every night in the shape of some animal.

This is us standing above the bridge as we pulled into cabo. It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect.

Each night we had dinner with the same group. They were so fun - we really lucked out. The couple sitting next to us were from Salt Lake and you guessed it - LDS. What are the odds. Overall we had fun although if we did it again we would probably go to the Gulf. I would post the picture that was taken from the bridge when the weather got a little rough, but it turned out as just a blur - I guess it was blowing me around more than I thought it would.

Time to start posting again

2008-04-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

Since it seems that Shelley's side of the family have all decided to start blogging, I thought maybe I should get back in on the action. We spent conference weekend in Ogden enjoying time with family. The talks were excellent with my favorites being President Uchtdorf and President Monson in priesthood. There were many others of course, but those two stuck out to me.

We spent Saturday afternoon with Darren, Julie, and the kids with Brandon and Callie coming up towards the evening. The rest of the time we were at Marilyn and Gary's taking advantage of the projector in the basement. Thanks for all the hospitality everyone.

Crazy E-mail

2007-07-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am teaching the freshman lab course for the chemistry department (Chem 107) and this is an e-mail I received yesterday from one of my students.

"I am in your Chem 107 class, but I am not going to be able to come anymore. I was in Goblin Valley on Saturday and got pinned under a boulder. I have shattered two bones in my right foot and broken three more. Needless to say, I will not be on my feet for a while. I am not able to get out of bed at all for at least the next week (maybe two or three) and I may end up having surgery."

I called her yesterday and apparently she was sitting on top of the rock with a few other people when it broke loose and rolled forward. All were thrown off the rock, she said about 15 feet - the rock then split in two and fell onto her right leg. I did not ask which bones were broke, but it is quite the story.

Simpson's personality test

2007-02-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Hollie:

You Are Lisa Simpson

A total child prodigy and super genius, you have the mind for world domination.

But you prefer world peace, Buddhism, and tofu dogs.

You will be remembered for: all your academic accomplishments

Your life philosophy: "I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth"

The Simpsons Personality Test

Its been a while

2007-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know - I haven't done this in a while. I wish I could say that the culprit was something like school or a church calling, but to be honest a friend got me hooked on this video game called battlefield 2. It is pretty fun and its done online. Its like a playground for adults. With that said, a little update on the whole grad school thing. I am currently in a lab now, I work with Dr. Sevy who does laser spectroscopy. I basically excite molecules with a large laser and measure the energy levels they are excited into. Pretty sweet. I will try and include some pictures. The good thing is that I have a computer in the lab so I should be able to post a little more frequent than once in the last 4 months - I am really sorry about that. Anyway, in additions to research and one class, I TA for a biophysics class and I teach two freshman chemistry labs. So for so good with everything, but my students get their first lab back tomorrow and I am bracing for concerns.

Cardinals win Game 5!!!

2006-10-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are not following Baseball at the moment - shame on you. The Cardinals are up against the Mets three games to two with high hopes of winning one of the next two games in New York. Wednesday night Carpenter will be on the mound and I think that it is our best chance. Even if we lose, Suppan has been doing very well and he will pitch game seven.

Go Cards!!!

Home again

2006-10-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

I came home last night via Southwest and it sure feel goods to be back - except for all the homework that I have to do. The interview was excellent, well kinda. My morning interview was with the most laid back guy on the staff. He did not even have my packet until halfway through the interview so he was asking me what my grades and scores were like. I was a little worried after that interview. He was cool and I thought it went well, unfortunately he does not sit on the acceptance committee. I spent two hours in the morning observing in the clinic with a fourth year student who was really nice in answering all of my questions. In the afternoon we sat through a presentation and then met with Dr. Killip, assistant dean and chair of the acceptance committee. He answered a lot of the questions that we answered about the school and curriculum. One of the other students had told us that the meeting with Dr. Killip would be rough, but it wasn't bad or so we thought. We met with two 2nd year students to answer questions about student life - the one guy was from St. Louis and was a big Cardinal fan. After this meeting we only had about 10 minutes left in the day and we thought we were pretty well done. Dr. Killip came back in afterwards and asked if there were anymore questions. I had nothing and that was true with everyone else. He then started firing questions at us, basically placing us on the spot. Each person got one question which related to something in there application. I was asked what my governing values were; this happens to be a list of values that I have written in a certain order of what I feel is important to me. Dr. Killip responded by asking me to stay afterward and show him a few of my values. I agreed and talked to him afterwards. He told me (I am not saying this to boast, but to convey the feelings I had that I will hopefully be accepted) anyway, he told me that few people will ever take a moment to write a document like that and he was impressed that I had written one at such a relatively young age. Since Dr. Killip is one of the more influential people on the board; I felt really good about that comment and hope it will stick out when they meet to decide my fate.

Interview at UMKC

2006-10-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

I am sorry that I have not written in a while, school started and free time disapeared. I currently work with three classes. Two of them are labs and the other one I simply grade for. I am also taking two classes; one is called instrumental analysis and the other is Quantum mechanics (yeah - thats the free time killer). Anyway, I am flying to St. Louis tommorrow so that Mom and I and possibly Dad can drive out to KC for an interview at the Dental School there. I will be back in Provo by tuesday night. I have been feeling the anxiety for this interview for only a couple of days now, but it is causing me to struggle with sleep. I have high hopes for this school and unfortunately they are the only school who has invited me for an interview. I will most likely post after the interview to say how it went.

SNOW!!!!

2006-09-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

In a freak of nature type of day, we had snow yesterday. It was more of a slush in the valley but definately snow half way up the mountain. The snow was still there today and looked really nice with the blue skies behind it. I am hoping that summer is not over yet and I find myself asking the question: I left Rexburg for this? Our low tonight is 35 F.

Brian enters the MTC!

2006-09-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

We had an exciting day as we dropped Brian off at the MTC. Shelley could not make it with us since she started her new j0b on Monday and was still working on getting settled. The program was nice as always, but we were fortunate in that we did not have to say our good-byes immediately after. Since Brian had not been set apart, we were able to go with him into the office of one of the counselors in the MTC presidency where he was set apart as a missionary. Our good-bye was done in the hallway in a much more private setting making things much easier. I think Brian will do well and I hope that he continues with his enthusiasm throughout the mission. A blog will be updated for Brian while on thew mission to keep everyone informed. I will post the link as soon as I have the blog finished.

A few pictures:

Remembering Steve Irwin

2006-09-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Steve Irwin known as the "Crocodile Hunter" passed away yesterday off the coast of Australia. He was filming a segmant in a reef and was fatally punctured in the chest by the tail of a sting ray. I always enjoyed his enthusiasm and his fearless ways around animals. He will be missed.

More stuff from the Emmy's

2006-09-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

This one is really funny and features Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert.

More Conan

2006-09-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

We have internet

2006-08-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

I am proud to report that I am now posting blogs from home once again. I was called by the place that was going to install our fiber optic connected internet and they said it would be another week. We saw a commercial for cable internet that said we could be on-line tonight and we were sold. I have been working hard to get everything in line to start school next week; I am taking two classes, grading for a p-chem class, and a lab assistant for a 100 level course. By next semester I should be assigned to a research lab for the rest of my time here.

Conan at the Emmy's

2006-08-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

In case you missed the Emmy Awards which Conan O'Brien hosted, I have one of the best parts of the night right here. Conan sings a stirring song about the troubles facing NBC.

Tribute to 24

2006-08-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

This post is a tribute to those in the 24 crowd whom we shared seasons 2 and 3 with. We met on most nights at 9:00 to watch at least two episodes, but if the suspense was bad we pushed ourselves into watching three. It was rgeat guys and we will miss you.

Back row: myself, shells, Calli, and Nate
Front row: Denver, Cindy, Chris, and Elzabeth

2006-08-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

This blog is comming to you from a small town outside of Sacramento which would point to the fact that we are in California. We have been visiting the in-laws for the past week helping out with fixing the house in preparation for a move that will occur sometime next year. Yesterday became eventful while visiting the Point Reyes National Seashore. We were checking out these Tule Elk that the park brought back from near extinction (the area happens to be the most remote portion of the park). As we went to leave, the car would not start and is basically dead, but the battery still seemed to work fine. We tried a jump with no luck and phoned USAA to send out a tow truck. To make a really long story short, I had to ride with this wierd tow truck driver for about 45 minutes, and then Shelley's brother Ryan called a friend of his whose parents are out of town and we slept at their house in Sacramento. I am now writing from the computer of a family I have never met before in my life and probably won't meet unless Ryan decides to make them in-laws - they have a daughter :) Anyhow, we are planning on going home on wednesday and hopefully the internet will be taken care of and I can get back into the habbits again. I would love to post a few pictures but the batteries in the camera were dead and since I am using AOL dial up - searching for pictues on the web just isn't that much fun.

First week in Provo

2006-08-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

We have had an eventful week so far - the move went smooth thanks to Nate and Meghan helping us out. I would be placing pictures of the new apartment on the blog but I am writing this from Darren's house since I have still not sorted out the internet at our location. Robert and Lois drove through the night to beat the heat and stopped at our place on Wednesday morning. They stayed until thursday and then made their way to Libby. The rest of Thursday and Friday were spent unpacking boxes and making the apartment more livable. I went golfing with Darren and Chuck today and played pretty well - except for my putting game which once again killed me!

Night before the move

2006-07-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

We are packed and ready to go for the move, it is hard to believe that the time has come. We had a few friends drop by to visit. Denver helped to fix one of our screens Shelley broke when she was locked out trying to get in; I am sure he saved us a few bucks in fines. Chris and Elizabeth stopped by in the evening to say goodbye. Now I am left to blog at 11:30 at night since it is my only outlet for the moment - no other entertainment really exists for the moment. I have been researching computer prices for the past month in hopes of aquiring one for my birthday in August. I just read an article tonight saying that computer prices are expected to fall any day now due to the recent slash in prices for processors by both the AMD and Intel camps. (Perfect Storm Brews for PC Buyers) I think I will hold off to see if this holds true, but I am really becoming anxious to replace my desktop that struggles to do most ordinary tasks - ie browing the web while listening to music from itunes. I am hoping to have the internet set up in our new place in the next few days so until then - happy blogging.

Last day in 33rd ward

2006-07-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to publish a post about church today but the internet has been out most of the day. It was a little difficult saying good bye knowing that I was leaving so many good friends behind. I took a picture with David and Terrilyn Hill; David and I have survived many classes together including Oraganic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Anatomy. They are off to Kirksville, Missouri for medical school and will be leaving a week after us. The background of the pictue shows our chapel inside the Madison Seminary building.

Fun with diet coke and mentos

2006-07-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

Because of a conversation that I had recently with some friends of mine, I have managed to find the ultimate video of a soda geyser, actually it is 101 of them with the aid of 523 mentos. The show is suppose to imitate the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas. It is by far the sweetest one I have ever seen. The method to the madness is also really cool and you can read about it by clicking here. The first part of the page explains what else works but if you scroll down you can learn their secrets under the title "how do we do it". Anyway, on to the big event, the video shows one of their initial experiments and then the grand finale which is by far impressive, enjoy.

disclaimer: I am not responsible for whatever occurs as a result of you watching this video.

Last week in Idaho

2006-07-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

The room I am blogging from is currently filled with boxes. I feel like Milton in office space when he is moved to the basement, although I do not have a red stapler to keep me company. Almost everything in the house is packed up except for the bare neccesities like clothes, food, and my computer.

I have mixed feelings about leaving since I have had so many good experiences and great friendships that I am leaving behind. I am not sad to be leaving behind the winters although I can now proudly exclaim:

I survived Rexburg!
(with all my fingers and toes)

I think that should be placed on a T-shirt or something because hey - thats an accomplishment, forget about the chemistry degree. The picture below was taken on tax day this year, thats right the middle of april two weeks before I graduated.

Anyway, we started into the cleaning process by filling holes and wiping down doors / walls with scuff marks. We have also been working on getting the address changed with several companies and cancelling services from others. Most importantly, I have been trying to sort out who will provide the internet access and at what cost. I know that we want to use the iProvo network (city maintained and privately managed), but there are two companies that provide the service at about the same price as cable internet but has a speed of 10 Mbps as compared to the 1.5 with cable. I attempted to make some calls and found out one office was closed on friday and the other kept me on hold for 10 minuutes to speak to sales rep before an automated voice notified me that I was fourth in line to have my call answered. At that point I decided that I was tired of waiting and hung up. I hope to drop in one more post before we finally leave on tuesday, but it may have to come from the laptop. Until then - happy blogging

Bob started a Blog

2006-07-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thats right the number of bloggers out there has increased by one. Hopefully I can get a few other members of the family to start ones as well (Mom and Steph, thats your hint - I left out dad because I am assuming that it is hopeless to try). Bob's can be found at http://rjohn1980-thoughts.blogspot.com/ or click here.

The case has arrived!!!!

2006-07-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

The computer is now in a case that is big enough to hold everything. The case came yesterday from MIB (men in brown or UPS) and Bob came over to make sure everything went smooth - as surprising as that may sound. He actually did a really good job and everything worked the first time we booted it up. You can see from the pictures it comes complete with a viewing window and a few lights to make it look even a little better. It came at a good price and looks nice too. I have not had any booting up problems since and hopefully it will stay that way.