Toddler at the park!

Colton at 17 months, enjoying his new love, pears!

Colton LOVES the swings!

Reid was afraid that Colton doesn't get enough interaction with kids his own age, here is Colton with his new park friends. Two twin boys age 2 years old, 1 boy age 18 months old, and a girl age 3 1/2. Colton loved sharing toys with the new kids!

This is a caption shot from a video I didn't know I was taking. :)

Colton is a bit of wimp when it comes to the slides and climbing things, this is me trying to tell him that its not as scary as he thinks and that it can actually be REALLY fun!  :)  He wasn't to convinced... so I put the camera around my neck, picked him up and we rode down the slide together. He enjoyed it with my help, Colton got up from the slide and said "more, please?!"

I kept patting on the higher stair saying, "Its okay Colton, climb up here, its fun" (I'm great with giving peer pressure huh?!)...so this is a picture of him patting the same stair and trying to figure out how to get up the 1st step.

Colton REALLY enjoyed the sand this time, we have taken him to this park before but all the other times he was really frustrated at getting sand everywhere.

He is my cautious boy, he gets on his hands and feet like the boy off of The Jungle Book and "climbs" down the small steps. Reid says he doesn't mind, its less bumps and bruises... I on the other hand am like... "Come on, be a man!".

This is Colton playing in the sand! Do you see the bottom of his sneakers? They have little clear windows in them so that you can see if their shoes fit or not. Smart idea, wish I would have thought of that!

I kind of laugh at this picture cause he looks like he is going to cry, but its just him trying to look up into the sun behind me to smile at the camera. No tears on the playground this time. :)  We had a great morning at the park, now its nap time! Hope everyone else in Arizona is enjoying the nice weather before it gets nasty again!

Colton

This is my best friend... I got sad last night thinking of how we have to learn to share with a new baby. : )  Reid and I are NOT by any means ready for baby # 2. Is it pathetic that I don't even have a desire to find out the sex of the baby?! How bogus is that right? Reid sent me a email this week saying the days that he could go with me to the sonogram... you know... the one I needed to have scheduled 4 weeks ago. I feel like we have been asked more by random people of what we are having that what we got asked with Colton.

Reid has been working his poor little heart out. The new semester started for ASU this week which means we will see even less of Reid. The scouts have decided to hold my husband captive for longer than their allowed time. The scouts are working on getting flag schedules placed in neighborhoods as well as taking donations. They have been going out on weekends and early on mutual nights. (5:30pm-8:30pm?!) Needless to say... I hope it ends soon as I would enjoy my husbands company as much as they do.Good luck boys!

Colton has been working on new words. He has down some basic words like, momma, dadda, milk, more, juice, shoes, baby, Emma, Emmin, no, yes, and please. We are now working on some new words like: thank you (which he has almost mastered), clothes, banana, car, hungry and thirsty. He has such a cute little voice when he talks!
Colton got to join nursery about 2 months early a couple weeks ago as Reid teaches 3rd hour and now I'm teaching sunbeams 3rd hour instead of teaching 9 year olds 2nd hour. So far... he LOVES nursery and hasn't looked back! The 1st time I took him there he nearly jumped out of my arms to go play with the kids... he still has yet to care that Reid or I are gone. I guess that's a good thing right?


Our winter didn't seem to last nearly as long as the last couple of years. (It was 80 degrees on Saturday!) Its time to plant the flowers and garden already and I am very excited to do it, now if I can just get Reid on board with my excitement about the garden!


Side Note:
We have decided to take a break from Facebook for a while, so if you are wondering where I disappeared to...that's why. Maybe it will make me blog more, which is what I was hoping to do this year! : )

And there were more...

Our family has a new addition as of a two days ago. We have a 2nd student living with us. She will only be with us for a month and a week. Colton has been moved to the office and we have all 4 bedrooms full! The poor thing came the same day Colton got ANOTHER cold. The poor boy has been suffering from a could for 3 days now and is doing better but the first couple nights for our student had to have been the most rough as Colton woke up many times all night long. Last night was his 1st night in a couple nights that he was able to sleep through the night and he slept from 8pm- 11am this morning! I'm so glad he was able to get some good rest.

Today I got up feeling very sick (head cold), Reid says he has a cold coming on as well. So I got up ate breakfast and cleaned and disinfected every surface possible! Haha. Colton woke when I was mopping the floors so I put him in his high chair to eat some breakfast. Mandarin Oranges, HE LOVES mandarin orange, he ate an entire can by himself for breakfast this morning with some milk to wash it down. He is such a cutie pie even when he has snot rolling down his face! I love my little bubba!

Reid as always is slammed with work and side work. He starts teaching again at ASU next week, add that to having to go to scouts we wont see him much.

I'm 23 weeks pregnant and a few days, I'm due on Mothers day this year (May 8th 2011). I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. I still need to schedule a sonogram appointment to see our little cutie pie and to know what its going to be... boy or girl. I honestly don't care what it is as long as its healthy and smart like Colton. :)  Reid want's a little girl soooo bad! He talks to my belly as if its a little girl and he talks to the belly and says "you have to cuddle with us because Colton won't).

I have been watching my nephew Emmin Johnson (Karl & Rachel's son) while his parents are working. It has been good for Colton as it has taught him how to share and how you can not hit other kids. I'm hoping this has been a great learning experience for Colton so that he isn't so rough with the new little one.

Week one of the new year!

Blessed...

Reid, Colton and I ran to the store last night to get some much needed cleaning supplies so I can disinfect my house. Colds have been circling around and I'm determined not to get sick again. As we were leaving the store we decided to go and grab a treat of ice cream at McDonald's. As we sat in the drive through Colton fell asleep so we ate our treat in the car so that we didn't wake him.  When we were in the car discussing life and whats going on in the world we came to a wonderful subject of how blessed we are because of our sacrifice to get out of debt. Everyone thought we were crazy in the process of becoming debt free but I can honestly say how thankful I am to have done it.

We had two 2010 cars, a 2010 Toyota Corolla and a 2010 Honda Pilot. I have to say this was the biggest sacrifice I have ever made. We happened to sell both cars on the same day for a large loss that we then had to figure out how to pay in cash as the car loan places wouldn't take any other payment. So we were car less and needed a way to get lots of cash FAST. Not a lot of people know this but we then had to sell all of our furniture except for our beds and Colton's dresser and changing table as it was given to us through family and I'm sure that someone would have been angry if we didn't pass it onto family.  So in the end we are car less and have a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house with nothing in it but some beds. What a change in our lives! But what a blessing that we were able to get out of debt. The nice furniture that we sold was able to pay off the cars, pay off our credit card and help keep us fed (along with our food storage) as well as pay for plane tickets to Thanksgiving/ Christmas in Kansas. I can honestly say that I now feel like I'm a newlywed/college student. Haha.

We got this crazy idea of getting out of debt quick by this guy named Dave Ramsey. He has seminars and a radio station. He says getting out of debt needs to feel like ripping off a band-aid, quick, stings a bit but so much better afterwords.  We have been following Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace. http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/   We are almost done with baby step #4! Can you believe it?! We are so thrilled to be so far along in the Financial Peace steps.

Since selling the cars Reid has been taking my bike to work and Colton and I would walk to the bus stop and would take the bus to where we needed to go. This was a tough task but it really taught me how to be more prepared with Colton as I couldn't just drive home really quick to get something he needed. In late December we got what I like to call is our "Dave Ramsey Car". Its a 1991 Toyota Camry DX. After taking the bus and walking to church for a couple months its was so nice to have ANY car. The Camry only cost us $800. and it has a sun roof! Haha. Its sad when I get excited about the little things even if its in a very old car, but at least all of the power options including the sunroof work! I'm so grateful that we have a car to get us around.

We hope that by doing all of these financial baby steps that we will be able to provide a wonderful life for our family and as well as for ourselves and retire early! Reid is mostly excited about the early retirement idea, who wouldn't!  : )

New Years

New Years:

For my new years I have decided to do a few things that I have been wanting to do for a while. My cousin Katie Hardmand is really good about blogging and recently said she is turning her blogs into a book. She inspired me to do the same thing, so for 2011 I will try my hardest to keep a pretty steady blog so that I can then turn it into a book and it can be a journal! www.blurb.com is the site where she is getting her blog book through if anyone else is interested.

My sister Brooklyn (and maybe Nicole) and I are going to do a year long bet for 2011. I'm really excited about this bet as I hope it makes us all a little more healthy. Starting January 1, 2011 we are soda pop free till January 1, 2012! This is hard for me cause I love carbonated beverages so much. The looser has to pay up $50 to the winners (if there are two winners, then $25 for each winner given by the looser). I went to Brooklyn with this idea before Christmas and she was pretty scared about doing it because $50 is a lot of money and she loves her Dr Pepper. Brooklyn called me New Years morning and said... "THE BET IS ON!".

For new years Reid and I dropped off Colton to Bill and Ravae Johnson's home so that he could go to sleep and we went out to Tempe, AZ block party and enjoyed magic shows, live concerts and dancing. Reid was happy that the band Jimmy Eat World was there and helped bring in the new year in style. We were able to do a few fun things over the holiday break this year as Reid had to take it easy from his heart attack scare that he had on my 23rd birthday. We went and swam at the indoor wave pool in Tempe, AZ. Enjoyed some parties with the family and got to see the new movie Tron last night (thanks to my visiting teachers giving us movie tickets for Christmas!) Its rated PG and is really more for the older crowed as its way to deep for kids younger than maybe 2nd grade level.


We went to Hunter Morris's baby blessing today and was grateful we were able to make it as it was a wonderful blessing to experience. We had to quickly leave as we had to get back to teach our 3rd hour classes.

We had the joy of spending Thanksgiving in Kansas this year as we switch between families every other year. This year is Thanksgiving with the Sloop's and Christmas with the Johnson's and next year it will be reversed!

We had such a great time hanging out with everyone and visiting. We stayed for a good long time, 7 days! We flew into Kansas city instead of driving this year, it was sooooo much better. We played lots of games together and ate lot of great home cooked meals! Can you believe it or not, I'm 4 months prego and I went and played in the ward turkey bowl AND scored a touch down... my Thanksgiving could not have started off any better!



We were able to get our pictures taken while we were in town and boy did they turn our cute. Colton was crying the entire time because he wanted to run around in the grass and leafs instead of being held... but once my entire family started singing (with their teeth clinched) he was really quiet. There are 4 things that he loves in life so far... Basketball on the TV.... playing with any sort of ball outside.... shoes (couldn't imagin where he gets that from) and MUSIC.

When we were leaving Kansas to go back to Arizona I will never forget what happened... Felise Navidad (Christmas song) came on the radio and everything about that song reminded me of Arizona, it made me realize that its ok to have Christmas with palm trees and it be 80 degrees.... and the other thing that happened was when I was sitting in the airport (it was super early in the morning) and I was stairing out into space and realized it was snowing! I got to witness my favorite thing in the world.... the 1st snow of the season (for Kansas). Since then I have really been content and haven't even had the need to put the christmas lights out on the house this year. Haha.

We hope everyone enjoys this holiday season!

With love,

The Johnson's

SOOOO EXCITED!

Wow, its been too long since I have posted anything on our blog!


 To catch everyone up on our crazy lifes... her goes nothing.

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Colton was walking just in time and really enjoyed all of his candy!
We attended the ward Halloween party that was inside the church then we all went outside to trunk or treat when the sun went down. It was still so warm outside! (Please ignore the fact that Reid has bed head in the picture, hehe)

We are expecting baby # 2 around May 8thish 2011! We are excited to have another little rug-rat running around us in circles. I will find out the sex of the baby in a couple weeks.

Thanksgiving is coming soon and we are very excited to get the chance to travel to Kansas. We will be there for a entire week! We will also be celebrating Christmas with my family while we are in town as we do Christmas in December with them every other year and the off years we do it on Thanksgiving. I think I'm mostly excited for the EGG NOGG...yummm!!!


We love this time of year that reminds us to be grateful and giving! We hope all have a wonderful holiday season!

FAMILY

The family came to town and we had lots of fun!
We swam in our pool, went to a AZ D-Backs game, we went to a water park, did lots of shopping and had two birthday parties.

Since my boy Colton and his cousin Emma are born 7 days apart we decided to celebrate their 1st birthdays while the families were in town. We had Colton's birthday on Saturday and Emma's on Sunday. Colton had a blue and white fun-fetie cake and Emma had a pink and white strawberry flavored cake.

We really enjoyed the time spent with the family. It was a great way to end the summer. :)

Colton Bolton

*Sorry about the picture qualitiy...gotta love camera phones!*

I have been getting a kick out of my sister in law who has nick named Colton, "Colton Bolton...or Bolton. Its so cute, he gets such a kick out of his Aunt Marissa!

Life has been a bit crazy to say the least recently.

We finished putting in a rock yard with the thanks of our friends from the ward Rick and Settina Beeler and the thanks to Reid's parents for letting us borrow the tools to keep Colton contained and to shovel rock. Reid sent us home late friday night around 11pm and he stayed till 3am finishing up... just in time for the new renters to move in the next morning. Needless to say... Colton and I didn't wake up till 12:30pm on saturday. Reid on the other hand went and worked all day. Yuck.

Reid's ear has taken him down again. I tell him that its the Lord trying to make him catch up on some much needed sleep. :)

Colton has learned how to stand up without holding onto anything thanks to his aunt Marissa who showed us how to teach him the ways. Colton also is teething again... he is trying to get one of his top teeth to come in. Right now he only has two on the bottom.

My family is coming in town this week!!! I'm very excited and very overwelmed. Its tough to have a teething toddler and a husband who can't be out of bed for more than 5 minutes.

I'm starting school again soon....ugh... it makes for a stressed out mother and wife, but it needs to be done. :)

Hope all is well with everyone! I will be sure to take lots of pictures of Colton's upcoming bday party!

Weekend....

We had a pretty good weekend, considering.

Reid brought me home flowers and doughnuts on Friday... I almost started crying because I seriously thought it was Thursday and I was so ready to be done with the week.

Colton has a cold and had a fever for a day. Now he just has a lingering runny nose. :)

Reid has been working so hard at our rental house trying to change the yard from grass to rock. He spent most of the Saturday working over there. He brought be lunch on Saturday and hung out with us for a little while during the hottest time of the day... while he was here he worked on putting in the lighting cove in the kitchen. When it started to cool off outside he went back over to the rental house to work on the yard till late.

Sunday: I taught my cute little primary class. I taught about the story of Samson... you know... they guy with the hair. Anyways... I have 2 girls in my primary class that are sisters and they went on and on and on and on about how buff their daddy was!!! Kids say the darnedest things! Reid stayed home with the sick baby and was glad that I made him stay home because he had another dizzy spell with his ear.... I call them "fits". :)

We are getting excited to have all my family come in town and hope we have some energy left to play with them after all this house work! Hehe. I'm glad they are coming... its pushing us to get our projects done.

Oh I forgot... I had Reid working on going through his "keep sakes boxes" and we had some fun with Colton in the process. See the picture below! 

Sunshine & Summer Time!

Above are two pictures, one of Colton and one of Emma. 7 days apart in age. 

We recently found out that my family is coming out to Arizona for Colton's early birthday party!

We are going to have a full house! The following people are coming: My mom and dad, little sister Brooklyn, my little brother Massey, my little sister Nicole with her husband Trevor and little girl Emma.

We are so excited to have everyone come out to visit. The are coming to Arizona in the hottest time of the year... Humid + 115 or higher degrees. Yuck. Can someone say MONSOON?! I hope it rains at least once while they are here so the dust in the air settles and they can get a relief from the hot weather.

Anywho... We are having Colton's birthday about 3 weeks early so that we could have Reid's little brother Cole, his wife Marissa and little girl Chayse there. They will be heading back to Lubbock for his last year of law school.


We are excited to have everyone come celebrate Colton's 1st birthday!!!

The Sloops  will celebrate Emma's birthday the day after so that we can enjoy her 1st birthday together before they go back to school again in Rexburg.

It still blows my mind how close Emma and Colton are in age...seperated by 7 days! Its too bad they don't live closer.