WICKED!!!

YAY!!! Last night Shantelle and me when to the Broadway play WICKED. It was awesome!!! First of all, the drive was so fun, then the theatre was awesome! I've been listening to the music for years now and I've never seen the play and now sooo many questions are answered. And it was hilarious! I laughed the ENTIRE first half because of how hilarious Glinda was--seriously, soooooo funny! Then the second half Shantelle and I both were crying-it was sooooo fun and thanks so much for coming with me Shantelle--you're amazing and I learn so much from you! Happy Birthday(IT REALLY WAS SO FUN!!! GO WICKED!)

Silly boys!

I'm going to try and add some video. Kade and Luke have come to 2 of mine and Jess' karate classes and now they practice what they saw with each other. (Yikes--I know they're going to start practicing it on other people--but as of right now--it just kind of makes me laugh)

Apple Tasting Party

This was such a cute idea! My friend Brittney had an apple tasting party the other night to welcome in the fall! We all brough apple dishes or pumpkin dishes and we voted on the best tasting apple out of her huge selection! The winner was Honeycrisp apples--Most of us had never heard of it--and turns out it was the most expensive type--awesome! But thanks again Brittney--soooo fun!

Oh, and here is the recipe from the Apple-Pecan Sticky Buns that I brought. I had never tried it and got it out of a magazine with an awesome picture!!! Anyway--it turned out really nummy:



Prep time: 40 min
Bake time: 40 min

2 tart apples, such as granny smith—peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) butter, softened
2 cups flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan. Place the apples, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter on a parchmentpaper- lined baking sheet; toss to coat. Cover loosely with foil and roast until tender, 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350°.
2. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, blend the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt at low speed. Add 5 tablespoons butter and mix until crumbly. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with 1/2 cup cream, then mix into the dry ingredients.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to form a 9-inch rectangle. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon. Cut up 2 tablespoons butter and dot the dough. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on top and cover evenly with the roasted apples. Roll up the dough, jelly roll-style, and cut crosswise into 9 slices; place the slices cut side down in the prepared baking pan. Bake until golden, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.
4. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring the remaining 4 tablespoons butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup cream, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the honey to a boil, stirring. Whisk until reduced, about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly. Drizzle the sauce over the warm buns.


I would put the nutrition facts--but it's a little depressing so...just know they TASTE AWESOME! :)

6th ANNIVERSARY!!!

We had a wonderful 6th Wedding Anniversary this last week. We went to The Chop House and it was AMAZING! The steak melted in our mouths---the sweet potato was like a little dream on a plate..but my favorite was dessert (like ALWAYS) I wanted to bring the spoon home just to have as a souvenir it was that good. YUM. Afterwards we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get new pillows for our presents! YAY!! Only I picked out one of those memory foam pillows with the swerve top (to help with neck strain) and WOW....it was awful. I woke up the next day with the worse cramped neck I've ever had. Turns out, I love my old pillows. Anyway--thanks Johnsons for watching our kids and...seriously, anyone who wants the best dessert ever, get the fudge carmel cake with AMAZING ice cream at the Chop House. (I might be drooling a little right now thinking about it.)

And Jess--I LOVE YOU. You are INCREDIBLE. You're an amazing, fun dad, a thoughtful, caring, kind, "one who sees and listens through my emotional tears and makes sense of the insanity underneath" WONDERFUL and loving best friend. I'm eternally grateful that we were brought together. I learn from you everyday of my life. Turns out I'm not always right....ha...who knew? (well, you did) but I love learning with you, and being with you through this amazing journey! Thanks for choosing me!

Fall Festival

Jess had his feet worked on last week....He has bone spurs and Plantir Fascitis. Anyway, he had a proceedure done last year to help the Plantir Fascitis, and it didn't really work. But the doctor wanted to try it again (?) on both feet this year. Basically it's shock waves that tear apart the scar tissue on the inside of his feet. The good news is, it's been almost a week and he feels a lot better and his hobbles are less noticeable. The bad news is that the doctor said, the longer the recovery time, the better chance of it working this time around. Well, maybe next year then.

Kade is loving school and we've cut back now and only do 3 days a week. We were doing 5 but lots of times he would want to stay home so he could finishe a game of candy land, or knew me and Luke were going to bake cookies or....he'd still love school when he went, but I figured, that this is the last year that I'll get him home when I want (Georgia has such strict laws on never letting kids get out of school. It scares me a little for when he starts Kindergarten) ANYWAY, yesterday he told me that he needs to wear black shirts to school only. Kade and his friends play "Power Rangers" at recess pretty much every day, his friend Jackson is kind of the ring leader and decided that whatever shirt color you had on, you were that Ranger--Kade's favorite is the black one so...we're doing a lot of black shirts. (go go power rangers--brings me back to my elementary school days)






His school had a fall festival last week that me and the boys went to (Jess had to miss out on account of his foot thingy) last week. It was rainy so not many kids were there at first and the kids loved it! Every game they got to play till they won, the cupcake walk was a guarentee cupcake everytime, and no line for the pony ride.


They chose to go on a little theme park ride where you go around and around in circles and it lifts a little right. Well, while they were waiting for the ride lady to buckle everyone in, Luke decided to get out. So, I, not thinking said I'd sit with him. I'd forgotten that I HATE CIRCLE RIDES and I got sooooo ill. Yuck! I hate stuff like this. The whole time I just wanted to throw up (3 minutes felt like an hour) Anyone else get sick like that? It's lame I know--I'm a fun killer, but Kade loved it and Luke thought it was boring a bit.

Kaden won a fish. I'd never realized the bitter/sweetness of those games. I wanted him to win of course, but I sure didn't want a fish...that meant we needed to get all the stuff for a fish. So....he won one. He first named it Jasmine. When I asked why he said because it was one of my favorite flowers and some of his friends were named after flowers. (sweet) but then we decided it was a boy so now it's Evey....after someone on Ben 10 I think you has 8 lives or...I'm not actually sure, but that's it's name. We told him that they die really soon...just to prepare him...so everyday now that it's still alive he's soooooo excited. Plus he loves the responsibility of his new job to feed him day and night.

Conference Craziness!

Well, it was that wonderful time again when we get to listen to the prophets of the Lord speak. I LOVE CONFERENCE. But I guess I never really appreciated my youth (understatement) of watching the entire thing without any interruptions. One of my favorite talks was by Joseph B. Wirthlin on "Come What May, and Love It", and Jess and I both were bawling like little school girls on the next talk by Jeffrey R. Holland about angels among us---sooo great!

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”13 On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.

"May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord’s promise as contained in one of President Monson’s favorite scriptures: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, . . . my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”14 In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith and “the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”15 Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God when someone, perhaps a Primary child, is crying, “Darkness . . . afraid . . . river . . . alone.” To this end, I pray in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen"

More then that....I'm not sure what happened. I do know that I felt soooooooo prepared. I'd printed off a bazillion coloring pages and conference "fun books", we'd built a fort for the front room....we were ready....Then the fort collapsed like a bazillion times and HAD to be rebuilt...the front room was insane and loud and......ha ha, I never knew this was what mom went through. But the beautiful pieces of truths that I did glean from conference were amazing and I'm excited to read them all later!





And one last thing about church--I'm in nursery in our ward and they've just put together a new manual! IT IS AWESOME! Perfect for that age and it's my new love! NURSERY MANUAL SHOUT-OUT! (I'm a nerd I know...but seriously, it's awesome and makes my calling so much easier)

B.J.'s almost HOME!

YAY!!! Tomorrow my little brother is getting home from San Antonio, TX, where he's been for the past 2 years serving a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!!! Tomorrow! I'm so excited (and although I'm not there now, we will be in 3 weeks so YAY!!!) WELCOME HOME LITTLE BRO!!! We love you and missed you and are so grateful for your example!!!

I LOVE THESE BOYS!!!
(And even though I might mention later that Jess didn't have the BEST time camping--he still loved parts of it...so...that's good! Just look at that smile--I love you baby!)

We had a ward camp out the other night. We've all been excited for weeks! All that day it rained...Jess got home and assumed we weren't going..."that's crazy" I said, a little rain will be fun! (ha ha, it's really so funny to see the differences in Jess and me!) Anyway, it just kept on raining...FOREVER! Lots from the ward showed up and the sight was nice and Jess set up the tent while we ate our KFC (it was funny, because the hot dogs that everyone else brought, looked so much better).

Anyway so after we got all set up Jess had had enough of the rain and went in the tent. The boys and I roasted marshmallows in the rain (we didn't so much have jackets...because A#1--it's summer and hot,and B#2---I'm just a really good mom (and was so sure it would stop raining--the optimist in me is occasionally wrong) Turns out neither of the boys like the actual "roasted" part of the marshmallow--but they like the idea apparently...and then settled in for the night.

Kade was so excited to go to bed because we've been reading the Spiderwick Chronicles and we'd just gotten book 2 from the library (he's soooooooooo into these--it's cute). Anyway--so we read some and it was a good night. then the tent started to drip...I guess a water-proof tarp on top can only be soooooo water proof. ha ha! The boys and I were still having fun (notice the absence of one member...he's so funny (also, you should know Jess really likes being clean and dry...so....it wasn't a good combination for him.) I guess it didn't help either when both of us needed to leave the tent for a bit and I left the boys some treats while we were gone...gummy worms (in hind sight--not the best idea...), and the marshmallows were still in the tent. When we got back there were lots and lots of sticky spots, Jess stepped in a marshmallow that had been smashed into the tent....oooooh, the joys of camping. The next morning before we left I wanted to get a picture...but jess protested on account of he wasn't going to smile--he he, oh Jess, you're always so funny I say...and we went home. BUT!!! It really was so so so much fun. I loved everyone there, the company was awesome, it smelled great, the boys got in plenty of tree kicking (ninja moves on objects that mom says is okay), the rain stopped eventually and the tent was dry by morning--just about, the boys LOVED it, and Luke's new motivation to wear "big boy under ware" is so that he can pee outside like Kaden! Adventures and fun!! WE love camping!




Oh, and GUESS WHAT? Jess and I moved up to "Gold Belt" in Karate--woo woo--watch out world!



Yesterday we went on a walk with our friends who live next door. I love love love having the walking trails so close. Have I said that before. We really should go more--especially now that the weather is AWESOME! Anyway--Donna and the kids are tons of fun! We saw the coolest catapillar--it looked like it was straight out of The Labrynth (which later Donna let me borrow--I love that show! Thanks Donna!)





KADE'S FIRST BIG PURCHASE!




So Kade's been saving up his money for months now to get a Ben 10 omnitrix watch that plays games right....so at Target (months ago) it was $20...so 2 months later, now that he's been dreaming of it forever....IT'S A COLLECTORS ITEM and no longer at Target. Well, he's been into Legos for awhile now and it's a good thing too, because after much convincing, he decided that it was fine about the watch and he wanted special Legos. Jess took him and they brought back a cool Mars Mission set. Kade stayed up with us putting it all together, and then the next day-Sunday, we were all late because we just kept playing with the Legos. SO FUN! At any rate, they've been put together and taken apart and now he just makes some awesome "inventions" with it all. So here it is....KADE'S FIRST REAL PURCHASE:



I also want to say thanks to Jess for taking so many pics at the store....he usually doesn't love taking pictures in non-picture taking spots (he knows what I mean) so just thanks---I love you!


A few days ago mom sent the boys two envelopes, each with their name on it and $3 inside. They went nuts! We went to the dollar store that night. Kade fell in love with a "Transbotix" that was $6...so after 20 minutes of pleading with Luke, he gave up his Construction Mr. Potato Head to go in on it with Kade. Kade was sooooooooo happy and hasn't put it out of his sight (but is sooooooooo good with sharing it and remembering that Luke did a nice thing for him.) Then at the end they got gum balls--Luke loves putting the quarters in those "demon, make grocery shopping so much harder because kids Have to have them and now they have them at the hospital too" candy/tiny toy machines! (not that I was bitter this trip...but really--who thought of the candy machines for little kids?) ANYWAY It was soooooooooooo fun taking them there and mom--THANKS! They loved it!

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Kitchen Time

So I just downloaded our photos from the past week-ish and realized that me and the boys have been spending so much time making goodies in the kitchen--YAY--so here are some of the creations. One is like a chicken filled braided/bread thingy--really yummy and so pretty! We did cinnamon rolls, banana wafer pudding thingy...(it was perfect cause the boys had something to do the whole time--they're awesome at layering).
I saw this one in a magazine that my awesome mom-in-law got me for my birthday. It's mini carmel apples, you use a melon ball-er and make them little with toothpicks as the stem. They were so fun and so much better then a giant apple (there is ALWAYS too much apple in a carmel apple) Only negative was that I put a little water in the carmel so none of that stuck (it said it on the package....uhhh, I've never done those before), but the chocolate did. And then the ones we saved for Jess...well, let's just say they're more of a "eat it while you make it or an hour or two later" food. ANYWAY--it's been fun! I LOVE that the weather is cooling down!!!!

Cruising BLISS

Okay...Amazing...the cruise was AMAZING!!! We had nothing to do but eat amazing food constantly, go to shows every night, go scuba diving, kayaking, snorkeling, zip lines, repelling in Mayan Caves, and read books while relaxing in the sun. AMAZING!!!

So that's the short of it! Turns out there was a hurricane around where we were and the port we were leaving from was closed two days prior to our cruise. But we had no problems. We did a couple of the islands out of order and only had rain one night for a few hours.
We visited Cozumel Mexico first, that's where I tried Scuba Diving for the first time. AHHHH-new favorite thing in the world. Jess and I could have done nothing but Scuba Dived the entire time and been happy. He's been certified for like 10 years so it was nothing new to him. I, on the other hand, was a little worried at the first---people are not made to breath under water and my mind knew that. After a few minutes of ignoring my instincts--I was underwater and swimming with fishes and holding rays! (also, our picture under water that the guy took, I didn't know he was taking it and Jess and I both look like Zombies--But really, we loved it!!!) We made some new friends the first couple of days and they signed up to come with us which was lots of fun.


Next we went to Roatan, Honduras. We didn't book an excursion here but were taken to a private beach. Initially we tried to snorkel. But turns out...if you buy snorkeling gear for $10...it doesn't work very well, and you drink a lot of salt water. So we gave that up and just relaxed. (Turns out Jess is more of a busy body then I'd realized....he had a hard time just sitting--reminding me oh so much of my dad--and was kinda bored---he ended up finding some shade and taking a nap. Tabyana Beach was gorgeous!!! I listened to the live music, read, and took in the sun.




In Belize we took a bus to some Mayan caves. It was a lot of fun and we were with a fun group, but it was pretty easy stuff. I think Jess and I were looking for like millions foot repels, and zip lines for miles...so the beginner stuff that they have to do because they're for everyone were kind of disappointing...but the caves were really neat and Belize is gorgeous!





Oh, wait, I forgot about the rain in Freeport Bahamas! It was awesome! Downpour!!! We didn't care much, we were going kayaking and snorkeling so we were getting wet anyway. We kayaked to a little island and half way there the sky shook so loud with thunder--we loved it!!! Not to mention we took Emily and Riley's example and skunked everyone else--we have a need for speed I guess. The snorkeling was awesome--choppy and fun--and scary when we had to navigate over tons and tons of fire coral...which made it all the more fun!



People always talk about the food on cruises...it's so incredible. One of the nights we went to one of the fancy restaurants on board. It was a seven course meal with food I've only seen on "Iron Chef". Fanciest place we've ever been--that's for SURE!

Oh oh, and I was so happy that I didn't get motion sickness!!! I got the patch before I left and was loving the water-choppy and smooth.

The shows were tons of fun. On the nights they had the "Glory Dancers" me and Jess laughed. It reminded me too much of the dancing off of Saturday's Warrior--anyone seen that? AWESOME.

Anyway--I really could go on for DAYS...we loved it....everyone should go on one....the end!!!

NOW....THANKS SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH JULIE, ANDREA, AUBREY AND GEORGE! The boys had the time of their life while we were gone!!! They had a different party every day--Ben 10 party, Transformer Party, Power Ranger Party.... You guys are amazing!!! Thanks for everything! The boys loved it! We loved playing games (Cari especially!) with you guys, puzzles, marker war, leg wars...it was awesome....THANKS SO SO MUCH!