Chicks and Turtles make great Spring Pictures

Our kids weren't exactly excited last Friday when I told then to take a shower in the middle of the day on a day off. I told them that we had an appointment with some baby chicks and we were going to take Easter pictures this year. It wasn't easy and I now know why I don't take then all the way into Prescott to get their pictures done 'cause I felt like I needed a nap once this photo shoot was over. (I was the one behind the camera trying to get their attention). Tara Sipes in our ward was so kind as to bring four of her baby chicks over to our house and I told her that if my kids somehow killed one of them, I would find a way to replace it. (Thanks Tara for putting up with us, your a doll!). We also thought it would be fun to add our recently purchased baby African Salcutta tortioses. They are six-months-old and were very cute in the pictures. And yes, they are the same kind pf turtle as Dot, so they will be getting very large before too long. I know this post has a lot of pictures, but it has been a long time if ever that I took Easter pictures..... p.s. Along with my children, we had Canyon Brimhall over getting his pictures taken with the chicks as well, so Lund and he had the opportunity to be in some pictures together. Those two are so silly together... such boys!

Lund and his buddy Canyon Brimhall laughing because I made the mistake of saying, "Say Chicken poo instead of the usual Say Cheese!" Boys seem to think all bodily functions are just hilarious, by the way!


They are trying to gain their composure...

Will trying to figure the chicks out... (hey buddy, you'll be trying to figure "chicks" out the rest of your life!)

Then we add one of our pet baby tortoises to the mix...

Goofy Picture time of Course!

Trying to get everyone to look at the camera, but the turtle is just to interesting.

Sarah is our little animal lover!

Cute kids!

Sarah and her little chickies!

This is a very risky thing that Lund did becuase another chick had just pooped on Cassidy's dress.

Will and his chicks!

Lund and his chicks!

Lund thought that maybe he was a gifted "chick wisperer", but they still pooped everywhere anyways!

My oldest and her chickies!

Will's profile

Lund and his new friend!

this picture is taken right after the chick that Cassidy is holding pooped and peed on her dress. Sorry Cass, I forgot to warn you that these things are pooping machines.

Will pretending to be a gentle soul

This is Sarah's worried look, she wears it often...

My goofy Lundy!

Will begs his brother for a turn with the chick...
And Lund helps him out!

Such a cutie!

Again, our animal lover!

Lunds favorite animals are birds, he is a "bird fanatic" and knows LOTS of facts about birds!

This was taken the first time Will held the chick...

Heavenly missionaries love slides too and other truths as seen through the innocent eyes of a three-year-old

Okay, so I have been debating and debating whether or not to add this blog entry to my blog site and all I can come up with is that this is my way of journaling and my way of telling my own story to myself and this is a big part of my own story, so here goes....

Logan Thomas Brimhall has been on his heavenly mission for about a month now and oh how we love our little missionary. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him up there in heaven teaching those unreachable souls that can and will only listen to him as he flashes his smile and tells of the gospel truths he knows. I am sure they see and feel of the warmth in his big brown eyes and they love him just they way we love him.

I have learned a lot about mortality in the last month and about that wonderful veil of forgetfulness that we all had to go through to get to this mortal experience...and that is the problem, sometimes my mortal mind can't wrap itself around a "spiritual experience" because let's face it--- I am a mortal and I don't claim to be anything smarter than that! I am stuck in this mortal body and mortal mind for the time being and so I need to get over that and I also need to listen more to the "spiritual me" that is inside this tabernacle of clay if you will.

Without furthur ado, let's move onto the slides, cause you know as well as I do that our mortal bodies do love slides... maybe we even rode a wonderful slide to come down to this earth, who knows?

Okay, I will first give you a little background about three-year-olds, or my three-year-old in particular. At three years of age kids can't quite understand death, or maybe the fact of the matter is that they understand this existance way better than we give them credit for. Maybe they understand better than we can with our cloudy adult eyes that this mortal existance is but a small moment in the scheme of things and that it is just a small part of a long process we are all involved in whether we like it or not. (we did vote for it you know, we all voted correctly or we wouldn't be here today).... Now I am getting a little off the beaten path, so let me stear back toward where I am headed. The point I am trying to make is that even though three-year-olds can't quite understand death (and by death I mean the absence of something or someone rather that was ever present and then is one day gone from this mortal realm), maybe they get the plan of salvation better than we give them credit for.

Case in point: (do I sound like a dorky english professor or what)??

Will was very close to Logan and they played together often. One of Logan's favorite things to do was to go down our slide in our backyard and we would often find his shoes there at the bottom of the slide when it was time to go home with mom. He also loved the "trampoeeen", but for an entirely different reason. He would use the trampoline to torment his poor momma by running to one side when she was trying to get him to get off and giggling with his rosy cheeks as red and ever and his eyes sparkling with mischief as they so often did. And then quickly running to the other side as Bek tried to coax him off. Not Bek's favorite game, but LoLo sure got a kick out of it!

Look, I am off the beaten path again.... Anyway, Canyon (Logan's older brother) has been over to play a lot lately and we love our Canyon and he loves to play with Lund and Sarah. So the other day Canyon was over to play and he and Sarah went to go jump on the trampoline and so Will and I were inside by ourselves and it was actually quite peaceful in the house. Will suddenly looked up at me and said, "I am giong to go slide with LoLo." I responded that it would be wonderful if he went to go slide with LoLo and off he went by himself to the swing set. I didn't follow him, I didn't watch, it was his own time with his buddy and I didn't want to interrupt that with my crazy adult mortal mind. I just know that he hasn't talked about Logan at all since the day he died and then all of a sudden, he wanted to go slide with him, and off he went.

I am not trying to profess anything or say anything but the facts of the situation so you can determine how you feel about it in your own mind.... oh forget your mind, when you think about this go to your heart and spirit instead, they are better at this kind of spiritual stuff.

All I know is this... in life, Logan loved that slide and he loved his big brother, both were in the backyard that day so maybe he took a break from his missionary work, "a p-day," to come and be with someone he loves and do something he loves....

Will talks about his buddy a little more these days, and this is what he says... "LoLo in heaven?" "yes Will, LoLo is in heaven." "Logan likes me!" "Yes Will, Logan loves you!"

*And don't worry all of you crazy people, of course I had Bek and Golden proofread this before I posted it....

Colter and Will

"Friends are the bacon bits in the salad bowl of life."- Anon

Grandpa is another name for "Alien"

Here is proof of Grandpa's Alien origins!

They are also standing in front of Grandpa and Grandma's new UFO, which happens to be disguised as a beautiful Honda Pilot. I think that now makes four Honda Pilots in the family... can you tell what our favorite car is???

The last day of Spring Break a week ago we met my parents in Prescott and they took the kids to "Race to Witch Mountain" and I took Will shopping and then we met up and ate at Cracker Barrell, which is one of my all time favorite restaurants. We had a great time and the kids talked nonstop about seeing their grandparents and the movie as well. It was truly an awesome day and a great way to end a great Spring Break.

Something we didn't notice until I looked at the pictures on the computer is that my dad seems to have antanae coming out of his head. Is this a new thing, or has he always been an alien???? We may never know!!!

The Johnson Clan is early.... alert the press!!!

Last week we had Ward Conference and during our Relief Society/Priesthood combined lesson we had an awesome lesson about reverence and one thing that he touched on in particular was coming to sacrament early so that you have time to get ready to feel the spirit and not make too much noise for others around you. Plus, it is a good example for your children. So, I took the lesson to heart and I vowed to be early this week. And believe it or not, all the stars aligned and WE WERE EARLY!!!!!

I had to show some proof of our early admittance so I have a picture of our clock when we were ready to leave out the door and a couple of pictures to prove that we didn't attend in our underwear, we actually all had Sunday clothes on.

Lund took my "early bit" one step further and got ready one hour early so that he could leave with his dad. Of course, he took my Ipod Touch and played games for an hour. But hey, he was there!

P.S. This is also a great way to introduce you to our new clock that I am deeply in love with. We purchased the clock in behalf of my grandparents who passed away and left us a little bit of money. We had a plaque made that says it is from them and everything. And it plays "Ave Maria" beautifully!! I especially love to watch the pendulum swing! Also, the best part about it--- it is normally 700.00 at Costco, but because it was the display model, they sold it to us for 250.00. hooray!!!!!

Cassidy took these last two pictures. Way to go Cass!

The Wedgie wins it all!!!

Tonight was the Pinewood Derby races for Bagdad and it was pretty awesome if I do say so myself! of course that is because I was in charge of it... He!He! Actually the only way it ran smoothly was because so many willing people volunteered their time and smiles! Wonderful memories all around!

Last night Morgan and I and the kids got the cultral hall ready for the races tonight. We had wonderful helpers as well. Thank you Hulse's, Schultz family, and of course, Roberta! Thank you all! And before Morgan put Lund to bed he discussed with him that it is o.k. to lose and to be a good sport about it, etc. Well, he didn't get to put that wonderful discussion to good use because he won 1st place! We were amazed and excited and proud of our little man and his father. They really worked hard together on this project and they drew pictures together on the car and really bonded over the whole experience! I would have just been happy that his wheels didn't fall off while he went down the track, but 1st place, that was pretty awesome as well!!

His ribbon that I actually made myself would put Mr. T to shame because they were huge wooden medallions that I made and it was funny to see the boys in them, but of course, they loved it! All the boys went home with a certificate and Lund's certificate was "Most Aerodynamic car", and he said, "What does that mean? is that good??" he! He!

He was so proud of himself that when he got home he tacked up his stuff on his wall right above his bed and sacked out. We have impounded his car though because now he has to go onto Prescott on April 18th for the District finals. Fun times! I bet it is serious business there, not like my makeshift Pinewood Derby race, but we sure know how to have fun here in Bagdad!

this is what Morgan did the whole night... start cars off. What a trooper!

This is my favorite... Nathan is saluting his car as it speeds down the track!

here is the line up of the boys, front row seats for the race

Lund looks a little intense in this one!

Will waves the "Lund" flag to support his brother.

Carolyn Hulse holds our cute little treats made by my helpers, twinkies and mini oreo wheels. (thanks for the stolen idea Cooper Newman!)

All of the cars lined up in all their uniqueness!

Our three winners: Nathan, Taylor, and Lund

Will sees Lund's car unattended and he grabs it.... And then he runs!!!!!! Here is our proud boy all sacked out! Great day Lund!

p.s. good news: Will only jumped on the track ONCE during a race, grabbing a car! Everybody laughed as I ran over and picked him up by the back of his sweater his hands and arms still swimming, trying to grab more cars! he just couldn't stand so many cars that he couldn't play with!

You know you live in a small town when...

..... your son is invited over to a friend's house and the mom says, "just make sure he brings his BB gun and his quad if he has one..."
p.s. there are reasons why my boy doesn't have his own quad, but I did let him borrow MY BB gun for the day. He had tons of fun!
p.p.s now your probably wondering why I have my own BB gun. Well, if it is mine, I can take it away whenever I need to and limit who uses it... see how smart I am! (I am slowly learning these "mom" tricks)