MAY DAY MAY DAY!

Isn’t May Day not the call for help? Well, I need it! Any one interested in packing boxes and any other service just let me know, I will gladly accept! We sold our house. I can't believe May is coming to an end. Where did it go? It just boogied on by. The last Round of Snack Packer we did strawberry ladybugs! School is drawing to a close & Summer is on its way!

Here is my month in review...

In Early part of May, I went to the Vernal Temple with my good friend Wendy. I couldn't go with her the first time through, (Co-ed Volleyball tournament in Riverton 5th place and yes, there were more than 5 teams, 12 or 14 I think!) but I am so glad I was able to go with Wendy for the 2nd it is the hardest 'cause you don't have your Rookie Sticker on! We went down early on a Friday morning, I think we might have been the only one's under 60 there.






Next I headed to Blackfoot for my good friend Brooke's Baby Shower (I am over the top excited for her)! It was nice to have a little bit of a girls weekend I took my Best Friend Natalie with me. We had a good time shopping and hanging out with me beautiful niece Stephanie. I was so mad I forgot my Camera but Natalie assured me I could use hers nice huh? Except she left her memory card home no good we are too much alike, thanks anyway! Hopefully Brooke will give me a copy of some she gets! I took this off JaLane's Blog, we all grew up together L to R JaLane, Me, Brooke, Emily.

We came back on Mother's Day and I was able to have my mom come stay for a couple of weeks. When we got back Brant & the kids had made Breakfast (my favorite meal) Complete with Pig Pancakes for Grandma (She collects Pigs). Rianne was too happy to have me go she was bugging dad to take her to the mall where she found me a frog mother’s day gift (I collect frogs). Heath quickly asked if he could play with the ball he picked out for me! Brant gave me the sweetest card!

We had quite the adventure taking Grandma on a wild Hike of the Pilot Butte. I was so proud of my mom as you can see from the picture it is really up there and she does not like heights! Rianne is always up for an adventure and likes to record it all, glad she's on it. Heath just liked being "king of the Rock' Then a BBQ Birthday Party for Joey big 40! We had such a great time! I love our back yard and Great friends! We are really going to miss BBQ in the back yard with Buddies!

I enjoyed my mom so much, she is the best! Heath was confused pretty much the whole time my mom was here because Grandma Silly Sally & Grandma Mary look and sound too much alike! He has now realized Grandma Silly Sally is the one with the Swing @ her house! Which he only figured out when we took Grandma back!

We love the memorial day tradition with my family. After my Grandpa Heath passed away my Grandma used to say "let's go have lunch with Grandpa today" we'd pack a picnic and head over to the cemetery and we had the best talks. My family cleans and decorates graves and then of course lunch! On Saturday we were able to go up to Teton and decorate my grandpa Higley's grave. I love the picture of brothers at my

Grandpa’s grave. “Higley Boys” It was a great weekend!

On Monday we got to go the long way home to see our new niece Kaija. Congratulations Natalie she is absolutely adorable!

Rianne's Swimming lessons ended she is level 5 so, she was a better swimmer than me like 4 levels ago. She couldn't quite pass to level 6, picking up a brick from the bottom of the pool was just too hard. Funny Heath moment: He likes to get in the lockers at the pool while Rianne is doing her thing, Ria's little friend had not yet seen Heath (and he had bad stinky gas). He was in a locker when the girls came back from the shower Ria's friend says "something smells like rotten eggs" With a roll of her eyes Ria says "probley my brother". It was! Mr. Toot strikes again in the locker!

In the way of other sports news City League volleyball came to an end on Tuesday, Our first time since we started playing city league that we won't be playing for the big T-shirt. Oh Well. We have so much fun, we usually win. In the action shot I am setting Brant I'm sure he will Crush it! Brant and I love it!
Well this MAY go down as the longest blog post in history but there is MAYbe more.

Hello Easter Bunny

When was the last time you looked at yourself in the shower and thought, I look so good I should call someone in to see this. Well thanks to the Easter bunny's bubble bath last night taking a bath Heath calls for me and standing in the tub with a few bubbles slowly moving down his body he says "See me in my bubbles mom I look sooo good!" Crazy kid, I would have to have some pretty amazing bubbles before I'd be calling anyone in to see me in the tub!

We spent last week in Kanab and loved every second! We started out with a Wedding for Terrance (Brant's Nephew) it was great to see everybody. We stayed with Brant's brother and drove down the snowy mountain to help our friends move into their beautiful home. Congratulations Michelle We know you have been waiting a long time for this! Then it was off to Kanab. We fit in a few friends during our week and it was great to see you guys!

Every Easter of our Married life has been spent in Kanab with Brant's family & my Johnson family. I wouldn't have it any other way! I love traditions, we color eggs and then take them out to the sands and roll them, I have to admit, at first I thought this was strange but I now can't imagine Easter without it. I just love my in-laws! Brant's dad was so cute coloring eggs with Heath. I love them all! I was also so impressed with Brooklyn she is 13 and played with my kids for hours, and they even put on a little show for us!

This week we also got to meet our newest addition to the Johnson Family Tayla Shae, Sweet baby! Tayla is almost 6 weeks old, and Wenda took my kids out riding horses she even got on! Crazy tough woman, cannot imagine riding a horse less than 6 weeks after giving birth! My kids are very excited to have a new cousin on the Johnson side. Mary is the cutest grandma! Congratulations Tyson & Wenda on beautiful baby girl!

We got to stop and visit some friends on our way back to Rock Springs. It had been way too long and it was great to see you Tonia with your mom and kids was an added bonus! What a long drive and then the Easter bunny business at my house that has not happened since we moved from Kanab. The kids had a great time! Rianne was so cute digging through her Easter basket to find her "Jesus Egg". Then helping Heath find his. It is an empty egg to symbolize the empty tomb the Easter bunny leaves one in our baskets every year to help us remember the reason for this season. That's for you Mikkel so you can add that to your list of things Jana does to add to Holidays. I hope everyone had as wonderful a spring break as we did!

April Foolishness

Another Holiday and more Brown fun! Rianne thought it was like Christmas she woke up early ready to get dad with silly string. She had already switched the bags in the cereal boxes for dad's April fools trick (we heard her giggling the night before). She took snap gum to school and both kids wanted crazy hair for the special day! I made them special "eggs" it was fun way to start the day.

We actually started it on Monday for Family Home Evening we did the wise man and the foolish man. For the activity the kids made a tower one on a sure foundation the other on a not so sure foundation (pillow) after the towers were built we jumped around to see if they would fall. We learned it is better to build it on a sure foundation.

For Dinner we went to some friends for a fun April fools dinner, where you go to the store and pick out something crazy for dinner under 5 dollars and come back prepare and share. We had a blast and to follow tradition of course I brought meat cupcakes. This is our friend Stacie enjoying a pickle below are my foolish cupcakes.

Wild West Yellowstone

It is always a wild adventure with my brother. We had a fun weekend staying at his condo in West Yellowstone. First, we met in Blackfoot and went to the Idaho Falls Temple. I must add it is so awesome to be in the temple with my brother. Then we of course had to enjoy lunch at the Psychadelicatessan, sweet bus with a bagel sandwich shop inside! This is Chad & I in the bus and the next picture is Chad's Wife Audrey and Brant outside the bus!

Okay, let me explain the next picture, we have a picture of Chad full body hugging Brant, after saying "brother's don't shake hands brothers gotta hug". Well we tried to reenact the previous event and I jumped in the funny part happened when Heath thought he could make the jump as our Super friend Jason is pointing out. It takes a strong man to take on my family!

Just a side note on Chad, he can make any situation better, at 3:30 am the fire alarm went off, (it turned out to be something with the hot tub that was smoking, no real emergency). We we're all kind of stunned but Rianne was pretty scared although I must say she has been well trained in fire safety (by the school not us) she used the back of her hand to check the door handle for heat and she had us up and out of there. Heath would have slept through it. Hannah, Chad' s little girl, was just covering her ears laying in bed say "shut up". Chad was in India 2 days before the bombings over there, he was in New York during 911, and in New Orleans shortly before Katrina, so a fire alarm was not going to scare him. By the time we were all back to our room he just had us rolling with laughter although it may have just been more funny because it was like 4 in the morning. I have such a fun brother! Thanks for a wonderful weekend, We needed it!

The condo has this kiddie pool that is like 1 1/2 feet deep Heath loved to jump in it! Brant could lay across and touch both sides, I wish I had the picture Audrey took of him crossing the pool like some kind of giant. It looks like a Sasquatch sighting photo! It reminded me of that part in the movie Elf! I'll post have to post it when she sends it!

Heath loved the pool, jumping by himself and to Dad!

This was our first time "Sledding". Our super friends Jason and Tiffany brought up Snow machines. Brant & I had never been on them. It was so much fun! Chad taught me how to drive one, okay he was suppose to but he got on behind me and just put his hand on top of mine and held down the gas, we we're flying and I was screaming. After that I was not scared to control it myself; thanks for your "HELP" Chad! The weather was absolutely beautiful, I am usually cold all the time, and I actually took off my coat! It is always an adventure but so much fun! Thanks again Chad & Audrey!

Jump Rope for the Love

Rianne did jump rope for heart yesterday, She is really good 104 jumps! She liked to do the cross and jump rope that is her trick. They did long jump ropes to I was impressed she could do that too! She would not attempt double dutch or this weird X rope thing like double dutch, which I had never seen before. I was remembering jump rope for heart when I was a kid. I do not remember that much chaos. However, it is when I discovered yellow is not my best color. We all got t-shirts different colors we wore on that day some how I was on the yellow team, because I am so pale yellow washes me out, I look sick! I remember everyone asking me if I was okay or if I need to sit down but I felt fine, just looked really bad. No offence to anyone who loves yellow it has its place just not on me!

Ria is a good little jump roper, Heath also makes attempts but get frustrated in September on his birthday when he woke up I said Happy Birthday Big boy now you are 3. His hair still crazy from sleep he said I'm 3 now, before I could say yes and repeat happy birthday, he was back with a jump rope in hand. Made a few attempts and then with a sad little sigh and said "I guess ya haf a be six a do this". I only know of a few birthday's where the night before you couldn't do something and the next day it was okay, like driving, dating, gambling. It was really so cute, and he still had a good birthday without jumping rope.

'Twas a fine day

Here is my St. Paddy's Post, If you didn't know but you will soon see it is one of my favorite holidays.

The festivities began with our quarterly primary activity. We did a little treasure hunt and found out we are very lucky to have the scriptures and the stories they teach us. We learned that just like our treasure box we have to open the scriptures to get what is inside. The scriptures lead us to Jesus. (their treasure boxes had pictures of Jesus inside too)! This is a picture of the kids drawing their favorite scripture story inside shamrocks! I feel Lucky to be the primary president in our ward. It is very humbling I ask for a lot of help and I get a lot of help! (I love Heath's face in this one.)

Corinne & Wendy we're a big help with the party and wonderful friends. Corinne didn't make the picture cause she was behind the camera! Wendy is my counselor, her son was baptized on St. Patrick's day talk about Lucky!

No party is complete without edible pots of gold the kids thought they were pretty fun! One boy asked me "where is the Pot?" I said in the brownie, then thought not that kind of pot! Hope I don't hear from any parents!

This is Rianne and I on Sunday, sometimes I wonder if we confuse the neighbors "Are they Mormon or Catholic?" The story of St. Patrick does make me think if we know better we should do better!

This isn't a great picture but Rianne was out on her pogo stick, I could see these orange braids through the screen window and I thought "Leapin' Leprechauns" This was the day before St. Patrick's Day!

On St. Patrick's Day morning the kids were excited to track those green shoe prints to find their shoes hidden with little surprises inside. They also noticed the leprechaun jumped on our couch, Heath assured me he was still nice even if he jumped on my couch and did not like us calling him tricky. The leprechaun flipped over chairs and moved couches. Ria was so excited she fell asleep with her head at the foot of her bed watching her shoes, waiting for that tricky leprechaun! He still managed to get her shoe and hide it in the cereal cupboard. Brant got to volunteer in Ria's class sporting his shirt the Leprechauns are after me, fitting with all those 1st graders in green and also later in the day Heath's shirt! We ended our celebration of the green with a delicious dinner, I'm not a fan of Corned Beef but shepherds pie with green mashed potatoes on top was a good fit! I love holidays they break up the monotony of life! Is there a better day, when else is it socially acceptable to pinch people if they are not wearing what they should? I'm sure you are all GREEN with envy on our St. Patrick's Day Celebration!

Cloud 9

I'm trying this post again, We celebrated our 9th anniversary on March 4th! Brant had the plan (I do the even years). We had a great night out thanks (Ashley & Shaye)! To explain the picture (taken by Ria) We are making nines, if you can't tell this is a tradition that started about year 3! Another tradition we have is recording our best and worse of the year and other eventful things which happened. It is great to look back and be reminded about how lucky we really are! Life throws curve balls, We really are still like newly weds so here we are on cloud Nine!