All For the Love of a Blanket

Because I didn't pull my camera out until Porter was the target for the marshmallow war, I didn't get pictures of Chase being shot and eating last week's marshmallows. I did, however, get pictures of him trying desperately to get his beloved blanket, Dee Dee out from under Drew's head while Drew was using it as a pillow. Not one of my kids were attached to any of the many, many blankets I made for them, so I think it's just cute that Chase loves his little blanket so much. A blanket that my Sister-in-Law, Tiffany made, by the way, still not one that I made . . but I'm not bitter.


He finally gave up trying to get Drew off his blanket and just cuddled with the little corner he could get to. Isn't he just too cute!

The Hunger Games . . .

. . is the title of another great book. If you want a fast read that you just can't put down, this book is it. I would put it in the Young Adult fantasy genera - but, anyway . . .

This past Christmas we held a White Elephant contest. Each of us tried to come up with something that cost the least amount of money while being the most sought after gift. This is one of the gifts Dave won - a marshmallow shooting gun. Dave is gun guy. He loves guns of any size, shape, or ammunition type, so when Kenny pulled out this marshmallow shooting gun, he was all over trying to end up with it, and he won! Last weekend when things quieted down somewhat, the boys pulled out the marshmallow gun and put it to the test.


Porter and Chase loved it because, although Drew was shooting at them . . . and that was a little scary . . .


When it was over, there was a marshmallow to eat! And Porter just sucked his right up off the floor - a floor that had just been mopped, or we would never have allowed him to suck marshmallows off it ;)


It was fun for everyone. The shooter, the shoo tees, and those of us watching and laughing. Thanks for the great gift, Kenny. We are still working on getting Dave to wear his "fifth pocket" around, though.

The Days Are Just Packed . . .

is the title of one of our favorite Calvin and Hobbs books. I am starting to see a theme here in my titles, by the way. It must be a carry over from my 50 books year last year, although Calvin and Hobbs wasn't one of the 50 books I read.
We had an overwhelmingly, over the top, fun weekend - in fact, it was so overwhelming I didn't pull out my camera until Sunday afternoon when most of the fun people were gone and things were starting to settle back down. My nephew, Tristan was baptized on Saturday so we jaunted off to Huntington while Drew headed in the opposite direction for one last snowboarding weekend at Telluride. Brennan stayed in Moab to hang with his friends who were home from college to hear his homecoming talk. On the way to Huntington we got a call from Brennan telling us that Drew had hit a deer on HIS way to Telluride, so instead of hanging with his friends, Brennan would spend the day hooking up trailers, gathering tie downs and traveling to Paradox to rescue Drew. When Drew hit the deer, in Drew's words, "the antlers just fell right off" so he, considering them sheds at that point, gathered them up and brought them home.

The only three point buck this family has killed in years and Drew got him with our Tundra - and Dave is short one work truck :( But the boys are O.K., and that is what is important - or so I keep telling Dave.

Brennan did a wonderful job reporting at High Council and in Sacrament Meeting and the support of friends and family was heartwarming. We had a breakfast bar afterward and all basked in the glow of Brennan and his missionary spirit.

My sisters drug me away for a quick "sisters" picture. Here we are, the three Johnson sisters. And yes, I am the only non red head. I always have been. The only non red head. Because I'm unique. And I'm O.K. with that, believe it or not.

Our thoughts were also with Dave's niece, Lisa and those family members who stayed to support her as she was giving her farewell talk before heading to the MTC and a mission in Japan. As Dave's Mom said, apparently in this family when we bring one missionary home, we have to send another one out. Good luck Lisa. My goodness, the days are just packed!

We're Goin' To France

Yes, it's official. The plane tickets are bought, there's no backing out now. It was always a plan in the works that when Brennan returned from his mission we would go back to France with Bren as our guide/translator, and since he has talked non stop about returning since he unboarded the airplane a week ago, we decided to go now. RIGHT now. We will leave in two weeks! February 18th and return on March 4th - my Dad and Dave's Mom's birthdays. Wow. I'm a little panicked.


We HAVE been saving money for the trip. In this Eiffel Tower piggy bank that was supposed to be full after two years. Don't worry, those are mostly quarters. We'll be fine. I think.

Ten Minutes From Normal . . .

. . . is the title of a book about Karen Hughes, former counselor to former President Bush. I liked the book, but the best thing about it is the title - it so fully describes my life. We aren't normal in this household, but we can see it from here and are perpetually about ten minutes away. Brennan is further - I'd say 20 minutes from normal for him - but considering that he was about a day away from normal last week, he's doing well.

He spent the weekend getting reacquainted with Aiden, working with Dave, and creating a Facebook account with which he found every friend he's ever had between here and France in about 3.5 minutes. Now, I'm wondering, are we getting closer? Is THAT normal?