Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year! We decided we didn't want to drive anywhere for Thanksgiving since Luke hates car rides and we just wanted to relax and enjoy the day. My family went to visit my dads side of the family so we had the house to our self all day. I decided I wanted to try and make a Turkey from scratch since last year I cheated and got a pre cooked turkey that just had to be re heated.  We decided at the last minute that we would be staying home so the night before Thanksgiving Scot and I ran to Walmart to try and find the least frozen turkey we could find and thankfully they had one that was a bit defrosted that we had hoped we could have thawed by the morning and it was! I used a few of the cooking skills I learned from one of my favorite shows called the "Chew". I was so excited it turned out perfect! My family was able to enjoy the left overs and Brooke who has the cooking skills was so proud of me at how good it turned out.

While our turkey was cooking we took Luke to the park to run around a little. He always enjoys a trip to the part! He must have worn himself out because he fell asleep right before the meal was done which we didn't mind because we were able to enjoy our Thanksgiving meal together without flying food!

This year I was extra grateful for my amazing husband and our growing family! I feel so blessed to be married to my best friend,  for a son that constantly makes me smile even when being a mom is hard, a healthy baby girl who is on her way, the gospel in my life and the direction and comfort it gives me as I am trying to navigate my life here on this earth, such a supportive and loving family, my parents who have opened their home to us to give us a chance to save money to buy our own home hopefully soon, jobs for both Scott and I and being able to work from home so I don't have to miss out on being a stay at home mom, the chance we have had to make new wonderful friends since we have moved back to Carlsbad and the chance I have had to serve in the Young Women's this year and work with such great youth that are an example to me each week as I listen to their comments and thoughts in my class.

 
  

 

 

 

 

Ryans Temple Day and A Trip to the Zoo

We went with Ryan and my family through the temple for his first time on November 21. It is always neat to watch family take that next step and experience the blessing that come from attending the temple.


We learned that many of the young adults waiting to go on a mission are being asked to be temple workers while they wait to report to the MTC. Ryan and his friend were asked to be temple workers after going through the temple. It has been such a neat experience for him to go to the temple so frequently before he goes on his mission since he probably wont be able to go very often if at all while he is out.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Brooke came into town for Ryans big day and Thanksgiving so we went to the Zoo after the temple which always is a good time! Luke LOVED the petting zoo area and the nastiest, ugliest, and meanest animal in the part.... the Hyena! Yuck! He was so excited when he saw him and could have stayed there the whole day!
  

 

 

 

He looks so big in this picture!

 

 

 

 

Look at his smile, he is so excited about this wild animal!

 

 

Trying Out Nursery

Luke turns 18 Months in January which means he will get to go to nursery and we will get a few months of enjoying 2^nd and 3^rd hour before baby girl arrives. Luke is definitely ready to play with friends rather than deal with us trying to keep him quiet in classes or in the hallway. The nursery in our ward will let you bring in your kids before 18 months as long as you stay in with them so we decided we would try to bring him in for an hour every once in a while until he is old enough to go on his own.

Sunday was his first day and he did great! He was hesitant at first and cried a little when they were asked to sit in a circle and talk about thanksgiving. He loved getting to play with the toys and his two friends Bennett Packard and Vincent DeCato. He even made an art project of a little turkey while we were in there.

I did have a little mommy melt down at the end of the day when I realized my little man is starting to grow up and I have to trust him with other people! I have no clue what I am going to do when it comes time to send him to kindergarten. Thankfully for us moms we have baby steps to prepare us for letting them grow up! 

Elder Ryan Johnson

I love love love Conference weekend! This Octobers conference was a little more special than usual. Brookie decided to make a trip home from AZ to hang out with the family. Saturday morning session we were all watching except Ry was at work. We started watching and were shocked by the news that the age of missionaries has been changed starting immediately young men could go at 18 and young women could go at 19.

Ryan had tured 18 in July and was working to finish saving money for his mission before he was planning to go to BYU-I in Jan for 2 semesters before we would be 19 and could go on his mission. We all were shocked and excited about this new news and couldn't wait for Ryan to get home to tell him the change. We told him "DONT talk to anyone and don't check facebook just come home as soon as you can to watch a part of conference!"He was a little stunned by the news because that ment all his plans could be changed but by the end of the day he knew he was ready and needed to go now rather than going to BYU-Idaho! I am so proud and I admire my brothers example of being ready and willing when the Lord needs you to act! It wasn't more than a week later that he had his doctors visits scheduled and interviews set. His papers went in a few weeks after conference and Friday November 9th the call was hear! 

Scott set up a video feed for all his friends and our family to watch him open the call. Brookie was on facetime, Grandma Rogers was on the phone while watching the video feed, Ryans friend and former boss came to watch, and my parents Scott and I were there. We took a poll during the week from friends and family on where he would go and had responses all over the place but Argentina, Brazil, and UK took the leads on where he would go internationally. 

Elder Ryan Johnson was called to serve in the England Manchester Mission! He reports to the England MTC on March 12!  We are so excited for him and can not wait to hear about his experiences! 

Now for the next two years I have to come up with a plan to join my parents on going to get him! :) 

Family Night... Sonic & the Park

Today Luke was in PJ's all day...it was just one of those days since we had another sleepless night last night! So I decided we needed a trip out of the house for family night!

You have to admite if your going to sport PJs all day....these are dang cute! 

We took a little drive to our favorite park and let Luke loose! :) Sadly its so dark so early Luke doesn't enjoy it as much but we still had fun! I think hes a little scared of the dark these days. 

On Sunday I over heard someone say they went to Sonic Drive In this last weekend...I did not realize we had one close by! During my first Trimester I was craving Sonic's or hospital ice! I got it once when I made a trip to the ER but that trip was a little too expensive to keep quenching my craving for ice chips! We had a sonic in Idaho but our last year we were there it sadly closed down and I thought my sonic days were over!

Hearing the news we had a sonic close by I was determined to go for FHE tonight! We got our strawberry limeades and guess what .... THEY SELL BAGS OF ICE FOR $2! We definitely couldn't leave without a bag! Luke loves to chew on ice so he was in heaven too....Scott on the other hand told me we just waisted $2 on frozen water we could get from the tap...but he knows there is value in having a happy prego wife and for only $2 it's well worth it!

We ended the night with Scott giving Luke a fathers blessing to help him feel comforted at night since he hasn't been sleeping and has molars coming in! We felt his molar which has finally popped through the skin for the first time tonight, I was glad to finally feel one so I know I am not crazy in thinking that has been the problem the last few weeks that he has been extra fussy and miserable at night. What a blessing it is to have the priesthood in my home and I am grateful for a husband who lives worthy to perform those blessing when needed. Hopefully tonight Luke will feel a little better and be able to get the rest his little growing body needs! 

It was a great Family Night! I am very GRATEFUL we have been blessed with the direction to hold family night! I kind of feel like most nights in our house are family night since Luke is young and we are home most nights with him but I know as my kids get older that wont be the case and the busyness of life will get in the way of family time so I look forward to always making time on Monday Nights to put aside the daily tasks and distractions to enjoy time together as a family! I already have thoughts of things I want to plan on doing for family night when the kids are old enough to understand whats going on like take each month or week to talk about a conference talk and keep a quote from it frames in our house some where to see during the week to remind them! kind of like this one...

 I also want to make sure I make moments that will leave lasting memories on my kids... when I was growing up we lived about an hour from Disneyland for a few years my family had yearly passes so we would go on Wednesday nights a lot as our family night... my mom would always try and get us to talk about a spiritual message in the car on the way there to make sure we covered our lesson portion of the family night and then the activity would be Disneyland, we would always make sure we made it on Space Mountain and we had to spot the "cookie" (a planet that looked more like a cookie than a planet), for refreshments dad would always buy a bag of green sour apple chewy candies (I dont think they sell them any more other than in an assortment of flavors which is disappointing), and every time we would walk by the dumbo ride my mom would remind me that I screamed and hated that ride as a young kid.  I will always remember the feeling of being happy, away from the stress of work and school, and most important being together! 

Messy PB&J

Luke hasn't been eating lately and I think it's because it hurts to eat firm things with his teeth coming in. So only a few things are on his list of being willing to eat.Tonight Luke had a PB&J for dinner...I tried most of the night to get him to eat the sandwich and finally right before bed he inhaled it!  In doing so he made the biggest jelly and peanut butter mess all over his face, he even had jelly behind his ears! After cleaning him up and taking him to bed I found peanut butter in his nose. Scott and I got a good laugh out of it!

We need these molars to come in so we can have our happy kid back!