Tall, Dark & Handsome

A moment to reflect... tall dark and handsome stole my car, and a little piece of my heart. I thought I was ready to maybe date again, clearly that is not the case! However in all things their are lessons to be learned and this is what I have come up with.... 1. I may be bit of a hopeless romantic, he cooked me dinner twice, mmm... mmm... that bisk soup, that devilish Mos Def smile, and the butterflies he gave me when he touched my hand. 2. I do not know how to set boundaries... yum, yum, that bisk soup, oh those Mos Def eyes, and dang those butterflies when he held my hand.

Fearless

If I could some up 15 month old Evan Johns in one word, I am pretty sure it would be Fearless! Now I'm not sure if its Bridget's genes that are part mountain goat, and Tymon's part monkey, but that's what Evan was, part monkey & part mountain goat. Or maybe he just didn't like the ground. Evan was an avid climber, he could scale a highchair, a table, the back of the couch, you name it, he could climb it. I remember the first time I gave Evan an the Johns boy's a bath. I was scared, but not Evan he was jumping on any body that was in his way and splashing water every where. Evan also loved to play on the stairs, I was blessed to play there with him, I loved the look of thrill he would have on his face each time he would jump in to my arms. I am sure Evan has returned to our Heavenly Father the same way, head held high, fearlessly jumping in to his arms!

"say cheese"

Did you know there is a trick to taking a picture and hiding your double chin? I say its more like an art, an this is how i hide mine!

Yurt Camping

Yup! This is my family enjoying the great outdoors.

working in the buff

summer fun

Painting the sidewalk, well Ammon is watching all his friends paint the sidewalk yellow!

Marysville Swimming Pool : Not Recemended

I have been taking Ammon Swimming at least once a week sense was 8 months old, mainly for two reasons.
1) I am trying to break the stereotype that "black people cant swim"
2) Ammon and I just don't fit in the tub together anymore.
Having said that I consider my self qualified enough to give advice on local swimming pools, Now a few people have mentioned to me that they heard the Marysville pool has a nice kiddie pool. Well I check it out, an this is what I have to say... If you thought Mormon's had large families so do Mexicans, all 17 relatives can swim for $8.50 during family swim. If you you don't mind, ( well trained I am sure ) 15 and 16 year olds who are probably on the swim team, but also visiting with their friends and checking text messages, serving as your pool lifeguard, and hair, yes hair, long black hair, getting tangled between your fingers while you swim. Then this is the pool for you!

Reverence

Ugh!... Folding arms, thats the least of my problems. How bout just getting this boy to sit on his butt? I am surprised he was not struck by lightning from the stunt he pulled in sacrament! lets just put those 2 words together, " PULLED" & "SACRAMENT" Yes! thats what he did, he pulled the white cloth from over the sacrament table...... Jesus went everywhere! I might laugh in a few days about it, but right now all I can do is cry, I wanted to hide under that table as I knelt there looking at the bread an Ammon sitting in the middle of it all I could think was ... Bruised, broken an torn for us. It was awful!!!!!!!!!

I don't do crazy....

When Ammon was 15 months I had quite a scare with him, at church of all places. To this day when Ammon pulls his " I am not gonna sit down, or still, or be quit... " act, my heart begins to race. I can handle about 3 minutes of walking the church halls an sitting in the foyer before my anxiety kicks in. Now I know a large part, well lets say a small part of my feeling this way is Satan, but let me explain my story. It was a nice sabbath day and Ammon was still to young for nursery, but clever enough to know how to get to play in the hall, when a gal at church asked me if she could hold Ammon, now this sort of question was not new to me Ammon being so adorable and all. My new sister friend then asked me where i got Ammon from? I laughed, she then went on to tell me he belonged to her and that she was God and I was a stork. Sounds Crazy huh? Well that's exactly what she is physophrenic, she then grabbed Ammon and tried to make her way out the door. Now I know she is sick, but I just cant help getting paranoid when I see her wondering the halls at church unsupervised, which she did all day today.

Ammon & The Egg

As much as I appreciate Ammon trying to be my little helper, some days I just wish he would just STOP! Today as I am putting away all the groceries Ammon has to grab the new carton of eggs I just put away, and put them away also.... well only 4 of those eggs has savable cracks, 2 are in the trash, and the rest we are having for dinner! Speaking of food I am forcing Ammon to eat, he will also be enjoying the Organic green apple I just paid $1.09 for!

time to fill in the blank

So in April I decided to leave my job, at the Boys & Girls Club, which also ended a friendship, but opened the wonderful door of my getting to spend more time with Ammon, and watch and help him grow. It also has been a time for me to do some self reflecting and growing of my own!

The time has really flown by, its like all the sudden one day I realized all the little things Ammon has learned to do, and some I didn't teach him ..... He really is watching!

I HAVE BEEN TAGGED

Well had I known I was gonna get Tagged I probably would have started running. I was tagged by my Alma, Bridgett. How lucky am I to have my very own Alma! Years ago Bridgett was assigned to be my visiting teacher, I don't know that she taught me anything that visit, but she definitely planted a seed and became my friend. As I began to read the Book of Mormon and study the gospel I discovered a dynamic duo Alma and Amulek... What a pair! Just like Alma, Bridgett let me rely on her testimony and set wonderful examples while mine grew... an that's how she became MY Alma.

The Easter Bunny

This year I decided it would be real cute to have Ammon get his picture taken with the Easter bunny. I began my research of the local malls and figured we would need to get in line early so we were not standing in a Easter bunny line forever. While looking online I noticed $2 off coupons. Score! Yeah, No ... it cost like 30 bucks to have a picture with a man dressed like a bunny. Sorry folks but I don't need a pack of Easter bunny pictures, just one. Then I got to thinking , I should invest in an Easter Bunny costume, I figure I got till Ammon is at least 6 or 7 before pictures with a big bunny get old. So I hopped on craigslist an got my self a $75.00 Easter Bunny costume an made some poor community service teenage boy put it on, an I too pictures!

Mark your calenders for next year, cause I will be taking Easter Bunny photos for $2.00 !

SUPER SONICS

Kevin Durrant and Cheral Swoop were hosting a meet an greet at the key arena Friday night ( the bobcats won ). So I took Ammon to his very first NBA Basketball game, we had a lot of fun, there was so much to see. Ammon would clap his hands and cheer with all the fans, He danced with the break dancers, an screamed with glee when the blimp flew over head. At the meet an greet our Seattle Stars shared basketball tips an advice to area youth.... Ammon really didn't care, lol!

Morning walk

Heavenly Father did a great job when he created Washington. Lucky us, being blessed to live in the great northwest! Every morning (ok when it dosent rain... ) Ammon and I walk down to the lake to see the ducks an run around on the dock!

lets go shopping!

For the life of me I can not get Ammon to sit down in the shopping cart at the store, I guess its the little man in him wanting to show everyone how strong he is, because he insits on pushing the cart. Well along with that comes raming in to people and what ever else might be in his way!

So the soulition .... buy the boy his own shopping cart!

Birthday Boy

Rub A Dub Dub

Rubber Duckie came to Ammons 1st Birthday Bash! The party was a hit, I think it went so well because all the cousins came, an Ammon was not the first to have a birthday. I also feel blessed that I was able to plan an put together such a great party for all the kids. I made Duck Xing signs and cut out duck feet with orange felt and velcroed them to the floor. All the decorations were yellow and blue, I used white balloons for bubbles, and Ammons baby bathtubs had drinks on ice. For snacks I had duck feed, made checks mix and had gold fish crackers ofcourse. Served grilled cheese ducks and chowder for the adults. I even had a soap toss, and lots of rubber duckies!