First Meal

On Saturday Helen had her first experience with semi-solid foods. It was hard to tell if Helen or Ryan was more excited.

Helen didn't know what was coming, but she was more than happy to help put the spoon into her mouth, as it is one of her favorite things to do. Ryan decided that she was not helping very much so he gave Helen her own spoon to play with. This only complicated the situation.

Somehow a little bit of rice cereal still made it in her mouth despite the amount you see on her face. Surely you can also see by her expression that it was not nearly as sweet, warm and delicious as what she's used to.

Thanksgiving

Matt, Emily, Zach, Quinn and Chloe came to visit us for Thanksgiving weekend. It started off with a bang. Quinn threw the full trash can down our carpeted stairs - sorry, I forgot to get footage. Later that evening we tried to make turkey-lurkeys. Zach & Quinn acted like they were going to help us by unwrapping the Rolos, but between unwrapping and handing them to us, most made detours into their little mouths. Sometimes Quinn didn't wait for unwrapping. Thanksgiving was a big success, as we only spent 1.5 hours on preparation (with the exception of the turkey, but it basically makes itself). On Friday we went to the zoo. Emily's favorite animal was the basilisk, Ryan liked the bayou, Quinn liked the fake lizard, I liked the white tiger, Zach liked the giraffe (which we didn't see, but that's okay) and the lion cub liked Zach. The lion cub ran after Zach from behind the glass wall when Zach started running with the stroller.

Early Thanksgiving

In mid-November we had a wonderful trip to Utah and squeezed in as many visits around the valley as we could. We started with the Grandparents Johnson, and you can see here that Helen was a very happy traveler. We came with lots of family history questions and we left with answers, pictures, and all sorts of great stories.

At my Dad's we had a delicious early Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a pumpkin story presented by Jubal, Natalie and Cyrus (click on the pictures here to see more). Here you see the table were all the fun was - no adults allowed.

Here we are with Brice and Craig for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Burger Supreme. I discovered the delicious Western Burger here during my BYU years and have not yet found it's equal.

Natalie let us stay at her house and get her boys all wound up for a few days. Here's Cyrus caught in the act of stealing Michelle's slippers, a favorite pastime.

We were lucky that Mom and Nate's trip to Utah lined up with ours. Over at Natalie's we celebrated Nate's 12th birthday and saw Regan ordain him a Deacon.

Gingerbread Around the World

Every year in our stake each family is asked to donate a gingerbread house. The theme this year is Gingerbread Around the World. Ryan and I quickly decided that the Taj Mahal was beyond our capabilities so we drew upon our international pictures; and what do I have tons and tons of pictures of? Fruit stands. Ryan was in charge of drafting the design, I made the gingerbread (the first time ever), Ryan put the walls together, I made about a bazillion stars, Ryan put the roof on and I made some sweet bananas and sign. Here is the final result, click on the picture to see the process.

Here is the gingerbread house that I made and we decorated at our Relief Society Enrichment Meeting. We called it Christmas in Pompeii.

Happy Halloween

Helen was a kitty this year complete with kitties on her socks. We were unsuccessful at getting a picture of her socks, you will just have to trust me. We only had three knocks at our door which means I will be saving all the spooky pencils, bugs, erasers and bubbles for next year. At this rate we have enough for the next 10 years. Hopefully they stay good as long as our powdered milk food storage.

Six under six

This week Helen and I went to Amber's house in Tennessee to help with her new baby. I hope that was the closest I get to having twins. It seemed like Levi and Helen took cues from one another to cry, nurse and fill their pants. They became good friends over the week. Below you can see that they were looking at an art book and this is their fine interpretation of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo.

Below are the pink ladies (Ella-marie & Helen) with the hats that Amber helped me make, or nearly completely made-- if we are being totally honest. I wanted to try and make them myself because I felt that I might have the same problem with sewing that I do with steering the canoe: I just never got the practice I needed and have yet to reach my potential. But I am sure glad that Amber stepped in, otherwise neither would have gotten done and I would have just wrapped the fleece around Helen's head like a turban and called it good.

Corbin celebrated his 6th birthday and requested sand cups for dessert. For those of you who are worried about the effect on tooth enamel, it's not really sand. It's pudding, vanilla wafers and Nemo gummies. In our other pictures (seen by clicking on any you see here) you'll see the good help that Hunter was unwrapping and analyzing Corbin's presents.

Here we are singing together. We're really good at holding out those fermatas for a loooong time. I hear the house is quieter now that Helen & I have left. I turn up the radio really loud now that we are home so that I don't feel so lonely.

Something to Make You Smile

Helen learned to laugh this week. I taught her myself. All it took was a startling noise and a baby in a good mood and the result was a case of the giggles. - Ryan

Here are a few recent pictures as well.

This is how we got Helen to enjoy tummy-time. I think she's going to be a bookworm like her mom.

The Great South Dakota Tour

Ryan got a few days off work last weekend, and we used it to escape to scenic South Dakota. We were too late this year for the Sturgis Rally (and we don't own a motorcycle) but we managed to find a few exciting sights. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore, which was Ryan's favorite attraction. It was a cool rainy day, so it looked like our founding fathers were crying, as you can see for yourself.

We camped two nights at Custer State Park, a short drive south from Rushmore down a white-knuckle road. The temperature dropped down into the 30's at night, and Helen, in her pink marshmallow suit and multiple blanket layers, was the only one with toasty warm feet. The rain found its way into our tent overnight, as you can tell from our full clothesline in the picture below. It's definitely time to invest in a new tent. I'm thinking of one with no seams that hovers about 4 inches above ground.

We had the company in our camp of many wild turkeys, horses, deer, birds, and some mischievous squirrels. One even had the gall to run into our car while Ryan was making peanut butter sandwiches. Then, when Ryan went to shoo him out of the car, the squirrel made a dash for the peanut butter jar!

We strapped Helen into the carrier for a hike up to Little Devil's tower. The trail was rocky and steep, but not very long. Ryan and Helen had to stop before the summit because it was just too steep for their high center of balance. I went on to the top, as you can see if you click on the picture to get to our Picasa album. The view was spectacular.

Custer Sate Park has a large wildlife preserve that you can see from your car as you drive on the Wilderness Loop road. It's the closest thing to an African safari that we've been to in the USA. We sighted lots of pronghorn antelope, deer, bison, and burros on the beautiful grasslands.

We spent our last night camping in Badlands National Park. This is maybe my favorite park from my childhood. We saw lots of prairie dogs and one fast moving coyote. We're sure there are more coyotes out there because we heard them howling at the full moon all night.Our last stop on the way back to Nebraska was the world's only Corn Palace, in Mitchell, SD. They've been decorating this building with the fruits of the South Dakota harvest (corn, grain, grasses, wild oats, brome grass, blue grass, rye, straw and wheat) nearly every year since 1892! This is a must see, especially for individuals with a taste for fine culture.

Applesauce Anyone?

A few weeks ago I got a Victorio Strainer 200, which I think shows that I have really come of age. I love being a stay-at-home mom; you can get anything on ebay without the go-to-work dad knowing about it until there's an open package on the table and he says, "What's this, honey?" A couple of friends and I found an itty-bitty apple orchard where they let us pick all the apples we want for free. It was then up to us to convert the apples into applesauce. We made 50 quarts - that represents a lot of worms cut out.


Once I recovered from our last batches of applesauce I thought it would be fun for Ryan and I to go apple picking. That leads me to the next topic: I am not allowed to choose what we are doing for our date night for a couple of weeks . . . Earlier this summer I knocked on the door of a houses in the neighborhood where I walk to ask if I could have some apples from their apple tree. He told me that I could take the whole $%?& tree. I took this as a positive invitation to come back and get rid of the apples for him. So then last Friday, I got Ryan all excited* to pick apples and he asked me if they knew we were coming. I danced around the question by referring to the previously mentioned conversation and then I thought I would make Ryan feel better by telling him that I thought the people were gone on vacation or moved out or something. This did not improve Ryan's overall impression of my date idea. I think that he might have used words like illegal, trespassing, breaking and entry, and vandalism. I responded by telling him that we were actually doing our neighbor a favor and protecting his lawnmower from running over all the rotten apples, but he was not convinced. We drove by and I knocked on the door, but no one answered. This was the about the time that Ryan suggested that we just go out for ice cream and call it a night.

This is a portion of our garden, the part that is taking over our porch. We took this picture a couple of weeks ago. The tomato plant now reaches the top of our porch and has over 40 tomatoes growing on it. Our swiss chard that you can see in front of the tomatoes is doing really well, probably Ryan would say that it was doing too well. He has not acquired a taste for the deliciousness that is swiss chard. We planted snap peas and lettuce for our fall harvest and they are doing great. It is amazing how much you can get out of a little space with good planning and miracle grow.

Helen is doing great. As you can see, she loves chewing on my shoulder and taking baths. One of her newest tricks is to fuss when she's alone on her blanket until someone comes over to talk to her. Most likely she will end up being a social butterfly like her father (ha, ha). She also likes forcing her entire fist into her mouth to suck on. Good thing she is not a snake, she would probably put her whole arm in there. Ryan's favorite daddy-daughter-time activity these days is to put her in tummy time and then show her how to roll over again and again. If Helen could talk she'd probably call it daddy-daughter-torture-time; she's really not a fan of rolling yet.

*by excited I mean, willing to participate if forced to

Whirlwind Week

The last week of July was so jam-packed with fun that it's taken us a few weeks to regroup and sort through pictures for this post. It started out with a visit to Waterloo, Iowa, to see Michelle's brother Brice who had just came home from his mission to Chile. Emily and her family came up too for the fun, which included swimming, pizza, parks, little Quinn remote starting our car from inside the hotel, and melty ice cream.

Then we caravanned back to Omaha so that the party (minus Ryan) could catch their flight to Utah for brother Craig's wedding. Helen started the trip in style by going through her and her mother's first outfits of the day even before checking in at the ticket counter. Amber and Michelle deserve honorary certificates from the Amazing Race for planning the flights so well that the Omaha party met Amber, who was coming from Tennessee, before leaving the security check in Salt Lake. Impressive.

The party set up camp at Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's house. It was quite the invasion, and such close quarters allowed for much bonding/teasing. Craig was not immune to the teasing. In fact, he might have been the prime target as they told Heidi all of his deep dark secrets at Family Home Evening. But we can trust that he has forgotten the teasing, as no one's brain is firing on all cylinders the week of their marriage. Emily joined the party on Tuesday, just in time to play 20 questions with Heidi. Hannah cleverly found out the model and make of Heidi's car, which allowed them to pinpoint the right car when they had saran wrap, streamers and balloons in hand.


On Tuesday one of Michelle's long-time dreams came true - she ate at the Mayan restaurant. Which for those of you who don't know, in addition to fine food, features jungle-style warriors diving off of indoor cliffs into pools of water. My Dad, Linda, Natalie, Josh and their boys, all came to the event, but Helen stole the show. Here are some fun pictures they took so I wouldn't feel so sad for missing out.












Wednesday was the wedding. Michelle was assigned by Amber and Emily to capture the tender moments on film. She refused to take any kissing pictures, but here is a sample of her handiwork. As you can see, the bride and groom were lovely, and the reception was a lot of fun. Michelle's favorite parts were all the bright colors and the delicious sherbet in fruit (of which she confessed to pocketing 4 to eat on the way back to her grandma's that night).



On Thursday they all sat around and missed Craig & Heidi. Probably they would have called them up to chit-chat if Emily hadn't been the voice of reason and put the kibosh on it. Michelle got to
have lunch with her BYU friends Andrea Hales and Emily Peery. She claims that the three of them are all still as super-cool as they were in the 90's, back when they ran under the title of "The Random Chickens." I told her she'd better get an outsider's opinion before releasing their book of memoirs.

Michelle's back now and my Oreo consumption has once again come down to a healthy level. Oreos and sloppy joes can't really replace my girls when they're gone, but that doesn't stop me from trying.

(Make sure you click on anyone of the pictures to take you to our Picasa album with lots more!)

Every day's a party day

Mom & Hannah came to visit this week and we they've been a lot of fun. Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for me) I got sick and we had to do a lot of relaxing. Truth be told, I think that's the kind of vacation Mom dreams of. We still managed to get some shopping done. In fact I found a great changing table/dresser at the thrift store. It is much better for Helen's clothes and we now have a place to changer her when all of her stuff gets moved off of my dresser.

Hannah had her 16th birthday on Thursday and we decided to celebrate for three days in a row. It all started with Mom having the foresight to suggest making the Snickers Trifle early so that we could enjoy it all week. Good thing we had three days of random gifts ready for such an extended event. For her birthday dinner Hannah wanted to eat Mexican food so we ventured into the Latino neighborhood of Omaha and ate at the Taqueria Tijuana. It was pretty authentic, I don't think anyone there spoke English, and the food was really good. Then for a good time Ryan took us home by way of neighborhood's main drag. We were the only vehicle cruising without a spoiler or two. Mom and Hannah through we were in another country when they saw a sharp-looking caballero crossing the street wearing a white suit with matching cowboy hat & boots.

Mom and Hannah's tour 2008 has moved onto Iowa for now. Be sure to check out the video Hannah made of her trifle-making experience (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CyGMS2IxU).

The Hackett Hostel

This week the Hancocks visited us on their way home from their 10 day American-Heritage Camping Extravaganza. Per Emily's request, the bathwater was ready for the boys upon arrival. I don't think we've ever seen them so wiped-out, with the exception of Zach who did muster enough energy to run around the house with Ryan's plastic cricket bat.

Housekeeping got the towels and linens replaced just in time for a visit the next day from Ryan's mom and brother Nate. They took lots of turns holding Helen and rocking her to sleep. Nate's favorite game was trying to make her smile, and he got pretty good at it. Between Helen's mealtimes we squeezed in some bowling, a trip to the Bass Pro Shop/Museum, and the Mormon Pioneer Center at Winter Quarters.

The 4th of July in Nebraska is as close as we've been to a war zone in our lives. Fireworks are legal here, and any number of giant inflatable gorillas and dinosaurs are willing to sell them to you. We went to a BBQ with our intern friends in a rougher part of town where families throw fireworks at each other for a good time (I have since found out that my Dad did the same thing on the streets of D.C. when he was a kid). Maybe next year Brice can teach us how to make our own explosives. We hear he had some experience with smoke bombs as a kid and more recently with natural gas tank valves (we're referring all questions to the Chilean Police).