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.

Sunshine and Summer time!

We have been really busy from rental house to rental house, family gatherings to family outings...and are enjoying every minute of it. We are in the process of painting our house a nice warm color and it looks like our house is sort of cameo colored. :)

Colton is loving summer time with long walks and lots of pool time.


Reid is a busy man, he works on the rental house before work every morning trying to put in a watering system for our new trees and flood lights to light up the trees at night. We just ordered rock today and it will be delivered tomorrow, so we will be working hard all night tonight and tomorrow trying to get the rock yard in.

I have decided to take another spin at the Real Estate testing this summer instead of taking summer classes at Rio Salado. Wish me luck!

Our big boy is now 9 months old. He got in two teeth a week before his well baby visit (right on track) and is in the 10th percentile for weight and 75th for height. :)

He LOVES our pool and we have had a great time playing in it while daddy is at work.

Texas & Kansas

We were fortunate enough to take a trip to Lubbock TX and Shawnee KS. We started driving on Wednesday night after Reid got off work...we drove through the night and got to Lubbock Thursday morning. We then chatted a bunch with Cole and Marissa and had them show us around Lubbock. We looked at some pretty amazing house! Who knew I would ever say I want to move to Lubbock....that day has come. While we were there we went swimming with them and I was able to go shopping at the mall with Marissa while Cole and Reid watched the kiddos. On the way to Lubbock Colton popped out his very first tooth and didn't sleep a wink all night long, can you believe it?!
Marissa and I kicked the boys out of the apartment so we could watch the season finally of Grey's Anatomy. When the show was over the guys came back and we watched Talledaga Nights... I can never get enough of that movie. I love it! We slept at Cole and Marissa's beautiful apartment Thursday night and left for Kansas Friday.

It was so good to be in Kansas, we were able to spend some good time with lots of family. Congrats again to Massey and Sammie for graduating high school. I was able to see a lot of old friends at their joint graduation party which was a lot of fun! I miss being near my family.

We drove back Monday and Tuesday without stopping, Reid and I switched off sleeping and driving. Colton's 2nd tooth decided to come in on the way home. I was able to get my little fill of a Kansas rain storm while driving away. I miss those rain storms so much!

Anyways... we are back home safe and trying to get back to normal life. I have been applying for night jobs and trying to transfer to Rio Salado. Reid has been working hard at getting a watering system put into the rental house where we just planted trees.

We hope all is doing well. Colton will be going to swimming lessons soon, he loves the pool already, he kicks so hard when in the pool... with a huge smile. I love it.

Summer!

Recently Reid, Colton and I went to a ward picnic where we were able to meet a lot of new people that were more our ages. YAY for friends. Its been almost two years and I am just now making friends. There is a lot to be said about staying in one ward for more than a couple months. : )

Its warming up out side, I am really excited about summer and being able to go swimming in the back yard!

Congrats to my sister in laws: Edith and Marissa, they are preggo at the same time... again. : ) Edith is due in October and Marissa is due in December (I believe). I'm so excited for new little ones that have no strings attatched! "The baby is hungry and crying.... here you go!" Love it.

My brother Massey and cousin Samantha are graduating this May from the same school! It has been so fun to see them grow up together. Reid, Colton and I are driving up to Kansas for their graduations!!!

I'm so excited to be going back home to see the family!

This weekend my little sister Brooklyn did a lot of major changes. She got 12 inches cut off of her hair (her hair is now to her shoulders) and donated to cancer in behalf of her friend who has cancer and today she got her braces off! Watch out boys!!!

We went to Tempe Movie in the park on Friday and had a great date night. See the picture of colton with the pizza.... we took a $5.00 pizza as our dinner. : )

So.... I made this for dinner last night from my new favorite website to get recepies from.... it was heaven in my mouth! Its called Quesadilla Pie. It was super cheap to make!!! simplyrecipes.com

Homemade laundry detergent (dry)

Reid has given us a very strict "weekly family budget" so that we can get out of debt and save for the future that is to come.

He takes care of all the bills... IE. Mortgages, utilities, EST.
I take care of the food, baby stuff, and cars.

Since the budget is on the small side, (about half what a normal family would spend) I have been finding ways of how to get costs down so I can save a little to some day get a hair cut ; )

We have gone to cloth diapers which is that the most amazing thing in the world but it cuts out about 10-20 dollars per week on disposable diapers. : )

I have decided today that I'm going to start making "home made laundry detergent". Since we aren’t throwing away the diapers... they have to be cleaned right? Laundry cleaning = $$

If anyone else in interested in being frugal like me... here is the recipe:

Laundry Detergent (dry):

2 cups finely grated soap (yes body soap, a bar of it, use your cheese grater!)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda (not baking soda, can be found in the cleaning or laundry isle)

Blend it up in a blender or food processer, put it in a container that has a lid and put a measuring cut next to it! You’re done!

Depending on the mess of the clothes: 1TBSP - 1/2 Cup

If you have a HE washer, no worries! This mixture does not suds up like the liquid soap so it’s fine for you washers!!!

Spring break & Easter

It has been a while since I have posted and a few exciting things have happened in the mean time!

My not so little, "little brother" came out to visit over spring break. It was also my spring break as well which worked out perfectly! We had a lot of fun!!! We went to the Kansas City Royals spring training baseball game, Massey went mountain climbing with Reid's dad and brother. We went camping up in the mountains. We attempted to climb 4 peaks mountain range but had to turn back as it was too icy at the top. We went to the  Heart attatck grill where we ate the most unhealthy food I have ever had. Every customer wore hospital gowns over there clothes and the servers wore nurse and doctor outfits. Massey ate a "quadrupal bypass burgar"... it was HUGE! My mom has since told me that he has not had a hamburger since... only chicken!!!  They then wheeled him out with a wheel chair to the car. It made me so sick that night and the following day. We also made a lot of progress on the yard here at my house. we had a "pool" fence that was held together with chains that massey and I took out. I really loved having him in town. He helped out so much and I was able to feel more motivated than I had in a long time. : )

EASTER:

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Bartletts home a lot for different easter festivities. We did a money egg hunt one day. Another day we went and did a childrens hunt with their ward and had breakfast. Then we listened to conferance on there very large (50inch?) flatscreen tv.

Easter morning we decided to combine both of Reid's and my traditions. I hid baskets of goodies around the house for Reid and Colton to find and then I also made sure there was a outdoor egg hunt. Colton was very happy to have a peep and crashed hard after he had his sugar rush. : ) Reid was happy to have candie and fruit snacks.

MARCH MADNESS BABY!

Wakana left us Saturday morning at 6am. It was a pleasure to have her come visit for a few months and learn of her culture.

Cole, Marissa and Chayce Johnson came into town yesterday for some good arizona weather and to visit with friends and family over spring break.  We are happy to have them in town.

My little brother comes into town tomorrow night to visit us for spring break. He will be in Monday night around 10:30pm and will leave the following Monday around lunch time.  We have a lot of fun work and fun planned for his visit.

Colton is teething like crazy, the poor boy seems to have a lot of discomfort from his teething gums and cry's all the time. No teeth have came through yet.  

 

Reid has started another project in the house... The floresent lighting in the kitchen was way to heavy for the j-boxes that housed the lighting and was ripping out of the ceiling. We figured the ceilingless hallway can wait, as we needed to fix the kitchen light problem before they fell on someone. We decided since we had to put in new drywall and j-boxes why not put in what we would really enjoy, so Reid has been working his rear off to get the project done. He is lifting the ceiling and then putting tract lighting in. I'm very excited to see the finished product! I really enjoy remodel projects!!!

Picture above is a drawing of what the lighting will look like in a raised ceiling in our kitchen. To the right of it was another option of just putting in new j-boxes and drywall patching. We choose to raise the ceiling for better resale.

Selection Sunday is today and I am uber stoked about it! I LOVE BASKETBALL. Basketball has been my life since I started playing at a young age and watched my dad and uncle play at the church all the time when I was even younger.  Good luch to all teams!

Mr Sunshine... Mr Golden Sun... Please shine down on me!

Massey Sloop, Marissa Johnson, Cole Johnson and Chayce Johnson are all coming to visit for spring break!

Who could have asked for a better spring break, right?

I'm really starting to get excited for the summer after all the rain and clouds we have been getting. Thank you for sending more spring my way... now I'm getting the summer ich!

I have been cleaning the pool EVERY DAY trying my hardest to get it to look semi clean. It's so tough to clean a pool by hand!

Wakana leaves in 10 days. It has been quite the adventure.

My grandpa and grandma sloop called me this afternoon telling me they are sending a broken Massey to me. My brother has joined a mens national Rugby team. My grandpa says he "just knows that Massey's nose is broken, because it slopes in" and my grandma says he had two black eyes and a messed up leg. They both think "why would you ever want to inflict pain for fun as a sport?!". Good for my brother though... he needs some sports in his life that doesn't involve a fising pole or a shot gun. Massey's last game was against a team in Oklahoma and on Thursday he is playing a team from Minnesota! GOOD LUCK, DONT LOOSE ANY TEETH!

Colton is getting so big. We went to his well baby visit and was told that he is in the 50% for weight, 75% for height and 50% for his head. When I told the doctor that he sleeps through the night and then takes a huge nap during the day she said he wins the price for being the best baby she has ever heard of.   : )  
Colton was giving his shots and a extra one... Colton got his first shot of the swine flu! This is a recent picture of my tall lanky boy with his band-aids on.

School has been really rough this semester. I have never done a college semester full time... and I'm attempting it with a 6 month old and all online. Please pray for me. I need it!

One of my classes ends early! My marketing class ends one week before spring break and although I am sad to not have that class (its my favorite) I am glad to get a break!

I signed up for full time summer classes! I also signed up for full time Fall classes. I'm in "getter done" mode for school, if you havent noticed.

We have had a great time meeting little baby Emmin. He is such a little doll. : )

CRAZY WEEK!

The Johnson's have kept super busy this week...

Meagan: Homework, grocery shopping, showing a rental, walks with Colton, watering the yard and plants (please green thumb, work!), tending to the baby as a single mother (wife of a architect), washing the Pilot by hand with colton in the shade, cleaning house, more homework...and cleaning the pool. 

"A mother's work is never done" -Shelly Sloop  (my mom)

Reid: Lots of late nights and multiple all nighters. Sleeping for a couple hours during the day in the car. Emailing his wife because his phone died. Had a deadline yesterday!

Colton: working on crawling, learned how to scream da da da da da through the house, learned how to roll over from his back to his tummy. Learned how to roll all over in the crib at nap time. Very cranky... misses daddy.

Wakana: Keeping Meagan from going nuts. Returning late to the Johnson home to eat and sleep. : ) The life of a college student!

We hope all is doing well!

Sunday Naps!

There is nothing better than a Sunday nap!

Colton is growing so fast, we love his little voices and facial exspressions. Colton is really loving his "johnny jump up" he pushes off his feet so hard that the spring doesn't work (in the air)... he flys in the air with a huge smile!

Reid has been working hard this past week and will work super hard this week. He has a huge deadline for the temple on Thursday. One step closer to being finished!

Meagan is working hard at school. She is greatful for the time she gets to get the homework done when Colton is taking his naps.

We had a great weekend as a family. Wakana spent the weekend at a friends house. We went shopping for pots and pans to replace our teflon pans that were flaking off into our food. (Extra seasoning, Reid calls it)
We found the best deal at Macy's (of all places)... we were trying to decide between cast iron or stainless steel. I was afraid of the kids pulling the cast iron on themselfs and hurting themselfs pretty badly... and we remembered that both of our parents have stainless steel pots and pans that have lasted 20 + years. So we ended up getting a really nice set of stainless steel pans and pots.

This is what we purchased with our washer and dryer rebate money.  : )
http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=286749&PseudoCat=se-xx-xx-xx.esn_results

Saturday I didnt get to bed till about 2:30am because we were working on the house and homework buying pans and my lesson for teaching the 9 & 10 year olds the next morning.

Sunday came quick and we actually made it to church on time! I do not enjoy 9am church and with my luck... this ward never changes from 9am.

Church was great, but we were glad to home and crashed out on the couchs.
(See above picture, colton didnt realize it was family nap time)

We are really enjoying the weather here right now. The car said 81 degrees yesterday! Now if only it would stay that nice... I am greatful to have a pool though for when the heat comes.

After our naps, we went to Bill and Ravae's house for amazing dinner and some socializing.
If we could just all get along that would be a mericle... maybe in the secound coming. hehe.

I was just not in the mood to hear about the contention of baby names, houses and cars. Usually I can handle it... but its getting old.


For Valentines, my wonderful husband deep cleaned the bathroom! What a blessing. I hate hate hate cleaning bathrooms. : )

We hope all is doing well. We are over coming our colds and are greatful for it!

Love,
The Johnson's