Every Man is given a Gift!

So today I give my first Young Woman's Lesson and Karl and I have to talk in church. Ok so here is a list of things I don't like to do.
1. Speak in Church
2. Give Lessons in Church
3. Play the piano in Church
4. Eat Okra

So my talk is on Letting your light shine and not hiding it under a bushel, so as a family we were trying to see what talents we would like to develop or a talent we already were working on and wanted to get better at. So here is Kadens song.

Do you like how he sings about Heavenly Father giving him pliers? I think he has a real talent for memorizing the correct words.

Porter has a great talent for making the whole family laugh, he is always so witty and cute.
This is his new dance move. The grape picking dance.

Ethan has several talents, here is a picture he drew...

Here is Ethan reluctantly practicing his piano...
But he is always happy to stop and smile for a picture.

For any one who knows me at all knows I am terrible at drawing, but decided to watch a few U-Tube self help drawing courses and I have attempted the impossible....

This is my first attempt, yes I know the eyes don't match, Kaden keeps reminding me. It's harder than it looks.Here is my second attempt, I decided to do something without eyes.....
Karl is great at being a good daddy, here is taking the boys ou on the four-wheeler


Karl also has some great project pictures of what he has been working on I will have to post them once he gets the final project done.
So my challenge to you is to try something new this week! :)

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!!!

HOLY COW! IT'S SNOWING!

Yesterday it rained and a few sprinkles of snow, but it didn't stick because of the rain.









This morning I woke up to the boys screaming (more like Squealing) they were so excited to see snow out their window.
















So I walked into the kitchen to find all the winter gloves and hats dumped out, two little boys in their underwear and gloves and hats.

So I finally got the boys dressed,













of course no other kids are out at 7:30am playing in the snow, just the Arizona boys who have never played in fresh snow.































Kaden loves playing outside, no matter the weather, the cold dosen't seem to bother him, he's just out for a good time



Porter slipped on the sidewalk and fell in a slushy wet pile of snow and Ethan then tripped over Porter. That made Porter very cold and sad.

















This is how excited Karl got about the snow.......












Later Karl made all the boys grab a shovel and shovel the sidewalk and drive, they were so excited, that won't last long will it?














The poor roses, look Cold...It feels like Christmas even though it is only October 12th. Crazy!!

A Few Of My favrite Things

These are a few of my favorite things....



Kaden spending time with Grandma........

Porter the Potty Pirate..........

Ethan the Inventor......


Karl, he went to a Bakery, Boutique, Flower Shop and Chocolate shop for my birthday, what a good man......

Porters fine table manners.......
Nature...... (these are chestnuts, I think, straight from the tree, open them to find the nut)

These are the nut inside........

And last but not least, these big beautiful roses from our rose bush.
And my favorite picture of Ethan in Grandpas lap. ;)

Boys Bikes and Band-aids

yes we are happy that the boys are always outside on their bikes now, but the bumps and bruises have been many. I think we have gone through two and a half boxes of band-aids in the past few weeks.

So my question is "Are we ever really Happy"? Living in the Arizona heat mid summer, I would complain that the kids never went outside to play, now in the (so far) nicer weather of Utah I can't ever find my kids. I know you are saying to yourself "and why is this a bad thing", well really I just feel bad for the neighbors. The boys literally go from one house to the next playing with the kids, and yes even the mom's. There is a lady with only a baby across the street, she was out playing ball with my boys while her baby slept, because they knocked on her door and asked her to play with them. Anyways so I was looking for Kaden Yesterday and I asked the three year old neighbor boy if he knew where he was at, he smiled at me and pointed to the top of this hill, the street over from our house. I looked up and saw Kaden on his bike flying down the hill with the biggest smile on his face, you could see the adrenaline and excitement rushing through his little body. His hair was flapping in his eyes, my first thought was, "Kaden needs a hair-cut, wait a minute, he doesn't have a helmet on". I screamed, "stop, no slow down then stop" he zoomed through the stop sign whirled around the corner and finally came to a stop. Relieved he was ok, I proceeded to yell at him and tell him how dangerous that was, I explained that there was a car at the stop sign and Kaden didn't stop at the stop sign. He looks at me and talks to me like a teenager would, "well mom that car didn't have it's blinker on". Like the car was totally in the wrong. I can't wait to see how the bikes do on the icy roads. ; )

So Saturday Ethan bugged me all day until I gave in and rode the four-wheeler with him up the canyon in the freezing rain, I was a solid ice cube by the time we got home. Sunday we took the boys to the pond and let them ride their bikes around. I was walking down a hill when Ethan yells "mom hear comes Porter"! I could hear the tires on the pavement as they were obviously way too fast and out of control. I turned around just in time as Porter going about 100mph ran into the back of me, I think or motherly instinct trying to stop him, I'm not sure which one came first. Anyways I watched him hit the asphalt, then bounce once or twice. I was sure he was broken. Luckily he wasn't, just pretty banged up. I am very glad I made him put his helmet back on, he had taken it off earlier and I was too tired to fight with him about it, but decided I had better be insistent. Glad I did because he bruised up the side of his face and I am sure we would have had a bloody mess if he didn't have it on. So am I really glad that the boys are always out on their bikes or motorcycles? I don't know, I'll tell you after they are grown.


I tried to get pictures of road rash, but it didn't show up real well.







"I'm so embarrassed"




"Ok really mom, that's enough!"

Peaches

So since we have moved here two months ago I have already done a lot of canning. My neighbors all have fruit trees and gardens and we also inherited peach and plum trees. I can tell you thirteen different ways to prepare zuccini now :) so here is what I have been working on.







From Tree.........





To Baskets.......















To Table......












To Jars, Jams and Freezer!









Some other quick updates on what we have been doing in Utah.....



We dress up and run around the neighborhood, you know keep them talking. Karl prefers his birthday suit, I didn't think it appropriate to display that picture. Yes the boys like to wear underwear on their heads. Once again their fathers influence.















Ethan, was supposed to be doing homework, but drawing on his brothers seemed to be much more entertaining.
















Kaden and Ethan are both in Soccer!

We go over a lot of bike safety since we ride our bikes everywhere here. Kaden just learned to ride without training wheels yesterday and is already grounded from riding his bike today. He found the steepest driveway in the neighborhood and discovered if he starts at the top of one neighbors driveway and zooms across the street the momentum is great by the time he hits the next neighbors driveway and slams on his brakes before he hits their house. Porter was so excited to get his new helmet he didn't even wait to take the packaging off. Ethan had a fight with the asphalt and guess who won?


So this has been an update of life at the Johnsons!

By the way our neighbor didn't shoot himself, the cops shot him and he died and now there are very angry residents who have been protesting the way the cops handled the incident.