Feeling Nostalgic...

Warning…I tend to ramble when I’m feeling nostalgic. Just ask my husband…
It has come so fast!!! We aren’t actually leaving Texas for another 2 ½ weeks, but I have been feeling very nostalgic for the past couple of days. Today the movers came and loaded up all of our stuff for Washington. Our apartment looks very bare. It is reminding me of the trip Dan and I took down here to check out the area before moving, when we saw these apartments for the first time. Then I look at Broden and am reminded of Jacey when she was his age. When we moved to Texas she was the same age that he is right now. Then THAT makes me think about how much our family has changed in the past 3 years. I like to think it has been for the better. I hope so! :) We are definitely more independent, and I think we have proved to ourselves that we can get through just about anything relying on just each other and the Lord. I was initially nervous about moving so far from our family, who we love so much. Don’t get me wrong, we’re grateful to be moving back closer to them, but we also realized that we’ve probably branched out to get to know others down here a little more than we have living closer to family in the past. That’s something I hope to take with us. We’ve been grateful for ALL of the good influences we’ve had down here. We’re grateful for extended family that we probably wouldn’t have known otherwise. We often say that we would be thrilled if 10 years down the road our family was just like them! I’m grateful for the influence of good friends, whether it’s other students who traveled the same road we did, other young moms who I watch and try to pattern my parenting skills after more than they will ever know, or older women who I visit taught or served with in Young Womens who were always there to mother me a little bit and make a fuss over my kids when my own mom and mother-in-law were so far away. I’m even grateful for the influence of Jacey’s cute primary teacher/ adopted “grandma” (who could probably be my grandma!) and the way even she has made Texas feel like home. I’m grateful that we’ve been able to live somewhere where people have a firm belief in God and share those beliefs freely, even if they are different from mine. I’m grateful that we’ve been able to live someplace that is SO family friendly, and where people are so committed to their children. I realize that this probably sounds like I am leaving Texas kicking and screaming, but I’m not. I’ll admit I have had some mixed feelings just because I have LOVED the past 3 years down here. A very wise woman (a fellow YW leader- she has raised several teenagers, so I consider her to be very wise!) recently shared a great Dr. Seuess quote with me. She said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” That quote has made all the difference in the world in my attitude. It’s so true! I know we have been so blessed to know the people we have known and learn the things we have learned. How can I be sad when I think of all the great memories we’ve made down here? Some people go their whole lives without those kinds of experiences. And on top of that, as hard as it is to say goodbye, I am EXCITED for the future! I know God has a plan for our family in Washington, and I can’t wait to see what it is. I am excited to see my kids become better acquainted with our families. I am excited to see where Dan’s career takes him, and excited for him to finally be able to do all the things he wants to do in his practice. Call me crazy, but some days I am even kind of (keyword kind of) excited for the change in climate. I do love days like today when we were loading our van and it was the perfect late November day in the mid-70s; however, I don’t always love it when it’s November and you are craving soup and you have to sweat through dinner to eat it . My kids are SO excited to play in the rain and stomp in puddles more often. I am sure the novelty will wear off quickly. I am very excited though for the change in seasons, the beautiful scenery, the mountains, camping, NO POISONOUS BUGS OR SNAKES, and clean (although cold) lakes where I can see my own feet. Most of all I am looking forward to a new stage of our life, new opportunities, new friends, a new job :), and the exciting adventures that “newness” brings!

Johnston genes....

People always tell me how much my kids look like their dad. And I think that's great, because I think their Dad's a pretty handsome guy. But, I'll admit, I secretly dream of my dark-haired baby that I know is up there somewhere. :) And I may be slightly biased, but I think my kids are pretty darn cute. I must say though, even though everyone talks about how much of Dan they see in them, every once in awhile I see the little traits, expressions, mannerisms, etc. that tell me they definately have my DNA. So just out of curiousity I had to do this look-alike meter that I saw on my friend Eliza's blog. Now the evidence clearly shows that Broden looks more like his dad, but scroll down and look at Jacey's! I knew it! Maybe the next time someone tells me she's the "spittin' image of her dad", I'll direct them to my blog to prove she's a perfect mix! Oh- and for the record, I feel like I need to add that Broden has my dark eyes....

Sillito Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Free family tree maker

Sillito Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

My disclaimer

OK- now that I just went on a blogging marathon to catch us up for awhile, I feel like I need to give a heads up that I will probably not be posting very frequently for the next little bit! :) We are moving out of our apartment in 2 1/2 weeks. That is slightly misleading, because Dan doesn't actually graduate until Dec. 13th, so we will be around here and there. In between that time we will be taking a vacation, preparing for graduation, having family in town, etc. For the next 2 1/2 weeks though, I should be packing, getting rid of things, packing, getting rid of more things.... you get the idea. So if I am posting frequently for the next couple of weeks it means I'm either really on top of things for this move, or I'm just postponing the inevitable, in which case I will gladly welcome comments encouraging me to get to work! SO....take your time reading the (many) posts that I just spent way too much time on, and we'll have lots of fun pictures to share by Christmas time!

Just like Daddy

Are we brainwashing him early? Perhaps.... But when you have the opportunity for your kids to have a huge scholarship for attending the same chiropractic school as their parent, you do what you've got to do. The truth is, we could care less if Broden follows in Daddy's footsteps. But it's still fun to capture little moments like this when he tries so hard to be just like Dad without any prompting from us.

Halloween

I realize everyone else has posted their Halloween pictures a long time ago, but I figured it was better late than never, right? This year was the year of mythical creatures in our home. Jacey was a princess riding a unicorn, and Broden was a dragon. We enjoyed a very festive halloween at the Weeds this year, complete with halloween-themed dinner and fun trick-or-treating with friends.

The whole clan, including one very uncomfortable dragon that insisted on sitting on his mommy's lap!

We were pleasantly surprised when we got there to see another dragon and a little knight waiting for us, keeping with our theme for the evening. We had a minor setback when we realized that Broden's costume was a little too small. A problem, I might add, that we wouldn't have had if he would have let me try his costume on him before Halloween night. His hood smooshed his poor little head down so he was like a little turtle inside of it. In fact, I was trying to impersonate him, and had a sudden sharp pain shoot down my neck that hurt so bad we had to postpone trick-or-treating until Dan could give me an adjustment. Even though he wasn't happy about having to suffer through pictures with his hood on, he cheered up when we let him take off his hood to go trick-or-treating. I wasn't sure if he'd really know what to do, since he spent last year in the stroller and wasn't too interested at the ward trunk-or-treat. But Jacey and Nathan were excellent teachers, and Cody and Broden got the hang of it real quick. I loved seeing him push his way up underneath all the big kids at the door and say "Tricky Chee!" And while between the two of them Jacey definatly got more compliments on her costume, Broden was the one that made the stash this year. When we got home, Dan and I noticed that Broden's bag had almost twice as much candy in it as Jacey. Turns out the cute little ones who need the candy the least are the ones who everyone seems to favor. We had a wonderful time, the kids got spoiled, and they haven't even noticed that every day a grab a handful and throw it away. (Shh....no spilling my secret please!)

And the evening ends "happily ever after", holding hands and all!

Boys...

Maybe it's just the fact that he's a boy, maybe it's just the fact that I've been super-busy trying to get things ready for our move and his play time has been a teeny bit less-supervised than usual, but Broden has made sure lately that I don't have any downtime. The hard thing is, after he does something that might just be slightly naughty, he is SO pleased with his accomplishment that that he runs to find me and pulls me to show me what he did. He looks so proud of his creativity, that sometimes it's hard to get upset. For example- Yesterday while I was on the phone with our movers he opened the fridge, found a bag of shredded cheese, carried it over to the closet, found the swim bag (with floaties, beach towels, etc) and dumped the whole bag of cheese in the swim bag. Then, you guessed it....he ran to find me and showed me the swim bag. I keep reminding myself that someday I'll think these little things are funny.

But then he'll do something really sweet, like this:



He lined up all of their stuffed animals on the couch, got the scriptures and "read" to all his stuffed animals. It was 5 minutes of peace and quiet, and reminded me of how grateful I am to be this sweet boy's mom.

Not happy....

I am so glad Broden is a boy, because it has taken him FOREVER to get any hair! We finally decided it was time for a haircut. We had tried one time before, but he had so little hair, and it was so fine, the clippers couldn't even cut it. Last week we (ok...I) decided it was time to try again, because we had family pictures scheduled for that night with my good friend Whitni. I should have known better... he already had woken up too early from his nap, and after many attempts to get him to fall back asleep I finally accepted the fact that it wasn't going to happen. Then, when Dan got home I gave him the job of giving an already grumpy almost 2-year-old a haircut. Broden was not happy with my plan. How did he punish me? By being a stinker during family pictures! He wouldn't smile, wouldn't sit down by himself for a single shot, and wouldn't even sit down by Jacey for a picture with her.

Luckily, Whitni is super talented and we still ended up with pictures that we love. I won't post them ALL here...(even though I think my family is beautiful, I realize that not everyone wants to look at every picture we have:) Besides, you might just find one in your Christmas card, and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise! But... we're so glad that she squeezed us in before she has her baby next month and before we move.

Carving pumpkins

The night Dan came home we celebrated by carving pumpkins. Jacey did NOT like the feeling of cleaning out the pumpkin. Broden, on the other hand, LOVED it and didn't want to stop. Jacey designed the face and Dad did the carving. They were both excited to see the finished product, and we think they did a pretty good job!

Our adventures minus one daddy

A few weeks ago (wow..time flies...) Dan went to Venezuela for a school thing. He could explain the details of it much better than me, and if I can convince him to do a blog entry (he never touches the blog) about it I will. All I know is that he went with one other student and a faculty member and they treated baseball players at a big tournament involving teams from various Central/South American countries. He was down there for 10 days. We sure missed him, but tried really hard to create our own adventures!


Does someone look a little too comfortable?

Of course there were the slumber parties. The guest list wasn't very long, just Jacey and I. It's kind of a tradition whenever Dan goes out of town for a seminar that Jacey gets to sleep with me. I'm not usually a huge fan of kids in my bed, but I don't mind too much when he's gone....except I still end up with 4 inches on the very edge of the bed! It's great when he's only gone for 2 nights, but I started running out of ideas for slumber parties by night 3. You can only paint your toenails and eat popcorn so many nights in a row!



So Jacey was very excited to have a "real sleepover" (that ended before 11:00 that night), while her friends parents went to a halloween party. She decided it's very fun to have friends over in their jammies, have pillow fights, and giggle in bed. We'll have to put an end to co-ed "sleepovers" someday, but she sure had fun, even if there was no toenail painting involved.

The rest of our week was filled with an ongoing fashion show that Jacey put on for all of her stuffed animals, where she lined them all up on the couch, tried on every article of clothing that she owns, did her very own "runway walk" that ended in front of the full-length mirror where sure then determined if her clothes were still modest. She made a HUGE pile of clothes that don't fit her anymore. I was very tempted to tell her to just never lift up her arms and all her shirts will be just fine... at least until Christmas!


This is the response I got when I asked the kids to give me their best "We miss our Daddy" face. The missed him , I promise... they just thought it was pretty silly that I asked them to look sad in a picture!

Between fun little activities, preschool, playtime with friends, dance class, soccer, church, etc... our time actually went fairly fast. By the end of his trip though, we were ALL ready for Dan to come home. The kids had lots of fun decorating the door for his big welcome home! It's great to have him back, and I thoroughly enjoyed the following week where he (voluntarily, I might add!) took charge of both bedtime and getting up with Broden in the mornings to get his day going while I enjoyed some quiet time to myself!

What is wrong with this picture??

OK- I realize this is a very poor quality picture, but I had to take it to record what could have been a potentially HORRIBLE day! I should prepare you... this is going to sound an awful lot like an article from 'The Friend' (a magazine published by our church for children). Maybe I should submit it! :)

A couple days ago I got the kids out the door early because I had a million errands I wanted to run. I came home, fed the kids lunch, and was just getting ready to put Broden down for a nap when I stopped to check my email really quick. I looked down at the keyboard and saw that my diamond was missing! I sat there shocked for a minute, then frantically started looking around my house, tried retracing my steps, etc. When I stopped to think of all the places I had been that day, I finally realized that there was no way I could search everywhere I had been, and I had no idea when I even lost it. I remembered the story my mom told me one time about my brother losing his CTR ring and praying that he would find it. (Doesn't every LDS family have one of those stories?) I thought since my diamond was worth much more than my brother's green CTR ring as a child, and since it certainly meant more to me, I should probably follow his example. As soon as I finished my prayer, Broden walked over to me holding my purse and put it in my lap. I decided I might as well look through there. After I had taken EVERYTHING out, in the very bottom corner of the lining with all the lint and crumbs and other stuff that hides in the bottom of moms purses was my diamond! Talk about an immediate answer to prayer! I know some people could probably call that a coincidence, but I don't. The chances of my diamond falling out inside my purse when I had gone to Sam Moon, Michaels, Wal-Mart, checked the mail, picked up packages, etc are nearly impossible. My ring and diamond are now safely stashed inside 2 sealed envelopes until I can get it into the jewelers. So the moral of this story is.... Don't forget to say your prayers and GET YOUR PRONGS CHECKED! Oh- and insure your diamond... (that's next on my list!)

Sad Day....

Yes, that note says, "Dear Bubbles, I love you . Love, Jacey" written a few months ago when I was thinking he wasn't looking so hot and tried preparing her for this by telling her Bubbles was old and sick.




Yesterday was maybe one of the hardest days ever of being Jacey's mom. Not because of anything she did, but because nothing I could do would cheer her up. After 3 years, Bubbles died. For anyone who has been to our house (or probably talked to Jacey on the phone) you probably know that Bubbles was Jacey's pet fish. And pretty much one of her best friends. One year for Christmas, her Uncle Chris gave her a gift card to Wal-mart to buy whatever she wanted. It was a year with lots of toys, most of which lit up and played music or made some kind of sound. That's great, but I was trying to encourage her to get something that wouldn't get overshadowed by all the other things she got as well. We walked around Wal-mart FOREVER, until we ended up over by the fish. She begged me for a fish, and I think was surprised when I said yes. She did very good at not trying to climb up on the table by it (pretty impressive for a 2-year-old, I thought), and was very attentive to feeding him and reminding me to "clean his house" for him. The whole time I would try to get him out of his tank with the little net thing to clean she would sit there and talk to him so he wouldn't get scared. ("It's ok Bubbles, I'm right here, Mama's just going to clean your house so you don't get sick. It's ok Bubbles..) When I saw he died yesterday and sat down to tell Jacey I was expecting her to be sad. I just underestimated how sad. She threw herself in my lap and sobbed for a good half hour. And I had a good cry too- not because I was super attached to Bubbles, but why is it so stinkin' hard to see your kids so sad? We said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help her heart feel better and she sniffled through the whole prayer. Then, all Sacrament meeting (our church doesn't start until 2:30), I would look over at her periodically to see her trying very hard to look brave, biting her lip, with tears in her eyes. Today is "the funeral", and she has it all planned out. She even put together a guest list, but I had to draw the line there.

There was a little good that came of yesterday though, especially for me. When we got home from church she took Broden in her bedroom, pulled the stool over by the dresser so he could see and gave him the most beautiful, simplest explanation of the Plan of Salvation. "See, Broden? Bubbles died. That's just his body laying there. His spirit's not in his body anymore. That's what made him swim around. His body is going to rest for awhile in the ocean (thank you to Finding Nemo for the explanation that all drains lead to the ocean- flushing Bubbles down the toilet could have been a very traumatic experience otherwise) but then someday his spirit will go back in his body. And he'll be resurrected. And he'll get to live with Heavenly Father again. So will we Broden, and I think that Heavenly Father will probably let Bubbles live with us again up there." Thanks Jacey, for the great reminder!

They're friends, I promise! Don't let the picture fool you.

I've been thinking a little bit lately about all the things I used to do with Jacey when she was a baby that just haven't been quite the same with Broden. I attended story time at the library with her every week religiously from the time she was 6 months old. We had a "playgroup" with all of the other moms of one-year-olds in my BYU ward at least once a week. We did more park dates with other moms and their kids. Looking back, I realize that many of those things were done as an excuse to give me some social interaction with other moms, and maybe not as much for her social life. (Really, how well do 12-month-olds really play with each other? Secondly, the fact is- I am a mom of 2. It is impossible for it to be exactly the same as it was with just one, and that's ok. Last of all, I feel better when I watch them play together and realize that Broden would rather have Jacey here to play with whenever he wants than all of the story times, playgroups, and park dates in the world. And to be honest, when I cart Broden around to all of Jacey's soccer practices, games, going to and from preschool and dance class, I honestly don't think he minds. He likes being out of the house and as long as he gets meals, naps, and some good play time in between he's a happy camper.

I did realize a few weeks ago, however, that he might be ready for a little bit more of a social life than I've been giving him. I went to pick him up from the daycare at the YMCA after working out, and when I walked through the door I heard giggling. A lot of it. And laughing...and more giggling. When I looked down to see who these 2 cute children were, I realized it was Broden and his cute friend Cody. When I said something to Broden about having fun with Cody, the worker asked, "Do they know each other?" Do they know each other? Of course they do. They both have 5 (or almost-5) year old siblings. They're dads are both in chiropractic school. His mom and I were pregnant together. Not only were we in the same ward during our pregnancy, we also served in the nursery together. We shared pregnancy stories while sitting on small plastic chairs and eating goldfish crackers. I admired her cute skinny ankles while mine exploded. We went hospital shopping together, and ended up delivering at the same hospital, just a few weeks apart. It's only natural that these 2 cute boys would be giggling all over each other at the YMCA. We don't see quite as much of each other since ward boundary changes put us in different wards, but the boys still know they were destined to be friends. (Despite the unsure looks about each other in the picture!) So, that's my lesson learned. I think it's time for me to start shopping around for friends for Broden in the almost-2 year age range. What do you think Bethany? Time for a playdate? Maybe we could even get the 2 older ones off to preschool and (gasp!) remember what it was like to do a playdate with one child? The invitation is open to fellow moms of toddlers... Broden's social life needs a little boost! :)

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is here! Well, kind of. Does it count if you get excited about the high only being 84 degrees? And the fact that the overnight lows dip down into the 60's? I've had a gallon of apple cider in my fridge for 2 weeks now. I do this every year- I get excited because according to the calendar it's supposed to be fall, so I buy the cider with thoughts of it simmering on the stove with my cranberry mulling spices and making my apartment smell SO good. But then I just can't bring myself to do it because 84 degrees (in Dan's opinion) is simply not cool enough to drink hot apple cider. I'm actually kind of excited next year for "soup season" to start a little earlier. (Although we really just end up eating it year-round anyways.)

The clinic was closed Thursday-Saturday this last week, so we had lots of fun toting Dad around on our daily adventures. Thursday was his first storytime at the library, and Friday we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. That has been a fun tradition that we've enjoyed every fall that we've been here in Texas. We don't actually buy the pumpkins there (we are students, after all.... and the ones at Wal-Mart are just plain cheaper!) but we still enjoy all the photo props, the bounce houses, and the hay ride. It is just about too much excitement for two little kids, and it was nice to have Dan there for an extra set of eyes and hands when Jacey and Broden were determined to run in opposite directions to check everything out. Jacey was even more excited when we ran into a bunch of friends there, and she spent some fun time with Caleb, Jacob, and Hannah. Jacob is Broden's hero (we really hear about him at least 10 times a day- "Jack-ob? Jack-ob? Where's Jack-ob?"), so Broden was excited too, and talked about it the whole way home. It was a fun day...

South Padre

We just got back from our trip to South Padre. It was a great weekend! Dan's trip to Venezuela got postponed, so he ended up being able to go with us. It was a good thing too, because we ran into some minor setbacks on the way. (More on that later...) Anyways, be warned...lots of pictures ahead. I had a hard time choosing from the 275 I took over the 4 days we were gone!

Thursday morning- departure day! We were so proud of ourselves for actually leaving at the time we were shooting for! We said that we were going to leave our apartment at 6:00 AM fully expecting to be walking out the door at 7. Nope... we were all packed the night before, and just pulled our kids straight out of bed and strapped them in their carseats. We were even happier when we hit NO traffic on the way out. We were making great time and were expecting to be at the beach by 4:00 until....



just out of Corpus Christie our tire sensor thing on our car started beaping that our left rear tire was low. We had just filled them up before we left. We pulled over to check it, and it was fine. We hopped back in the car and went a little more ways down the road when our friends Dallas and Abi (who traveled down there with us and were right behind us) called us and said our right front tire looked low. We pulled over again, and sure enough, this is what we found. We stopped in Kingsville and shopped around at 3 different tire stores before we found one that had the kind of tires we needed. Needless to say, I'm glad Dan ended up being able to come so I didn't have to put my good friend Lisa and her 2 kids who offered to come help me out through that!

Shortly after 6:00, after a 2 hour delay, we finally pulled into South Padre Island. It was beautiful!



This is the condo we stayed in. It was so nice, and WAY cheap! If anyone is planning a trip down there anytime soon, call me so I can give you the info. We were really happy with it.



Friday the first thing on our agenda was to check out the beach! The first thing on Jacey's list was to build a sandcastle. It lasted about 5 minutes before they discovered that playing in the ocean was more fun.



Broden was in heaven! There was a little section of the beach that was higher than the rest, so it was like a little island surrounded by water. He loved standing on that and running down into the water. He loved squishing his toes around in the wet sand and splashing in the water.






Broden discovered the squirt guns that Jacey stashed in our beach bag before we left home, but couldn't figure out how to point it the other way so it shot other people instead of himself. I'm thinking this boy will never be allowed to own a BB gun.




He finally decided it worked better as a water bottle.

Saturday was RACE DAY!


Dan was so cute to drive the kids to different spots on the beach to get some pictures of me running, then hurry the kids into the car so they could go down a little farther to get more pics. This picture is kind of blurry. I like to think it's because I was running so fast, but I think it's really because the camera was on the wrong setting :)



We finished! It was so fun to have someone to share this adventure with! I think Abi is amazing for still doing a half-marathon even with a stress fracture. Way to go Abi!

After the race we wanted to go to the beach again. After multiple attempts to give Broden a quick nap first, we finally decided to just go. We got everyone else out the door, then looked around for Broden. Back in the condo, this is what we found...



Do you think he looks just a little tired?


Our family on the beach




Have I mentioned how much Jacey LOVES Dallas and Abi? She was thrilled when they took her out in the ocean to jump over waves. We took them to the airport yesterday to go to Utah, and she has been praying that they would have a good trip ever since.



What a pose!

Our trip to the beach and, more specifically, the race itself has been an ongoing conversation between Jacey and I. She REALLY wanted to run the race with me, and to tell her that 13 miles was a little too far for her little legs just made her more defensive. ("But Mom, I'm as fast as lightning!")



While at the beach, we decided to give Jacey her very own race. The competitors were Dallas, Dan, and Jacey. I must say, the competition was fierce! And the winner is...


The one with the mile-wide smile!



In the meantime, Broden couldn't have been happier. Life doesn't get much better for a little boy than sleeping on the beach, filthy and covered in sand, with a stick in his hand. Life is good..



The last big adventure of the trip was feeding the seagulls. We noticed the first day we went to the beach that they would come right up to you if you offered food. The last day we went to the beach I packed some bread so Jacey could feed them. I took out a couple of pieces to begin with, unsure of what I should do to get them to come over to us. Within seconds it seemed like every seagull on the beach was within inches of my head trying to get the bread from me. I'm sure that's a slight exaggeration, but that's what it seemed like. I was SO scared, but running from them was useless. I finally threw all the bread I had on the beach just to get them away from me, but they STILL kept chasing me. I'm so glad the video camera was safely put away, although I'm sure everyone else would have found it very entertaining. I delegated helping Jacey feed the birds over to Dan and Dallas, and sure enough the birds came right up to them and Jacey LOVED it. Once again, one of my children proves to be tougher than Mom.

It was such a fun trip! It was so much fun to see our kids experience the beach for the first time. Two days there was just long enough to tease us, but also long enough to make us even more excited for graduation and being able to take one last REAL vacation before we give up student life and become part of the real world!