The past few weeks have been busy, busy.  Tommy ended spring practice last week with a really good scrimmage against Watertown.  This week is their last week of school so he's pretty excited to get his summer started.

Sanai is EVERYWHERE now and has mastered walking. Almost!  She's such a water bug and loves taking showers.  If either one of us is in the shower she will push the door open and charge towards the shower curtain.  It's much easier to wash her this way because she gets so crazy in the tub so this is often how we bathe her.  She loves it!

 

PEEK A BOO

 

 

 

 

On Saturday mornings I often walk about a mile or so to the farmers market downtown.  Usually Sanai is up so we pack a sippy cup and some cheerios and she's ready for a ride.  She likes to ride in comfort with her feet up on the tray.  Silly girl!

 

 

 

We've been utilizing a toy that she got for Christmas a lot lately.  She's recently discovered how much she loves watching PBS Kids on our phone but she also likes to press the button at the bottom and then will hand it back to me to turn it on. GRR  So if you put the phone in this case they can't hit the button and can watch the show.  GENIOUS.

 



 

 

 

This past weekend we got some barrels and are getting them ready to catch the rain from the roof on the other side of the house.  I think this will help in keeping water out of our basement and will help with constantly filling the swimming pool in the summer and watering my garden and flowers.  Micah's job was to rinse out the barrels because we bought them from a local car wash and they were full of soap.

 



 

 

More pics of our rain barrel system to come.  Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!



I guess it's because the weather is warm or maybe because several blogs I read daily are getting into clean eating but I've jumped on the bandwagon!

I recently purchased a juicer, I had some bonus points at work to spend on something and we really don't need anything so I wanted to get something I might not normally buy and as soon as I saw this I got super excited!!

I have attempted to cut sugar out of my diet.  No more soda, cookies, cake, candy, etc which has been hard because I have a major sweet tooth.  The first few days I had major headaches and cravings, I'm not going to lie.  But I continued drinking my water and would throw in some crystal light with dinner.  I started noticing that carrots, bananas, etc tasted very sweet to me and I could calm my sweet tooth with a piece of fruit instead of a piece of candy.

I've had to face the reality that I'm not in my 20's anymore and I can't just go run a few laps and do some crunches to get the weight off.  I'm not a morning person so I have a super hard time getting up early enough to work out before I get ready, get two small kids ready, get them to daycare and arrive at work by 8am.  It's not going to happen.  So the easiest way to get healthy and maintain a good weight is changing my eating habits and try to incorporate exercise when I can.

Not only that but I want to set a good example for my kids about being healthy.  I can't preach to them that they need to eat healthy and then I'm shoveling a giant bowl of ice cream in my mouth!  Which I don't do, by the way, but my husband does.  Yep. I threw him under the bus. 

Our kids have always been pretty good about eating fresh fruits and veggies. Of course Micah goes through his phases of not wanting certain things but he was home sick one day so I decided for lunch to surprise him with a unique way of eating his lunch.  I told him to start from one side and work his way to the other.  He successfully ate everything which included a grilled cheese cut into 4 pieces, an apple, tomato and carrots.

 

The first thing I started juiced was a few carrots and a few oranges and it tasted really good.  I can't believe the difference in juicing oranges versus store bought orange juice.  Anything citrus is so frothy and yummy. 

 

 

 



Micah also likes to get in on the juicing fun.  I have everything cut up before hand to make everything move faster.  This day we juiced a handful of strawberries (stems included), two large handfuls of spinach and a pear.  I thought it tasted like a fruit punch!  The true test was seeing what Micah would think.  So I poured it into a dark cup because honestly, it looked a gross dark green color.

Having fun juicing!

Taste testing...

Ok...he didn't like it! But at least he tried it!

 

 

I started getting more adventurous with my combinations and have found a few I really like. 

 

 

This combination was one green apple, one pear, a few celery stalks and the stalks from some broccoli that we had the night before.  I really like that things I would normally just throw away can be used.  This juice was light and refreshing and sweet from the fruit.

 

 

I have read how detoxifying beets are so I bought a few and tried them in some juice.  This combination is one beet (greens included), one carrot and one orange.  I have learned a few things about beets.  They need to be soaked in a vegetable wash bath and scrubbed THOROUGHLY before they are juiced.  Also, a little beet goes a long way.  This juice made me gag, I'm so cheap I plugged my nose and chugged it because I didn't want to throw it away but I literally felt sick to my stomach afterwards.  Beets taste like dirt.  I don't like beets.  Maybe one day I will give a beet another chance but when I walk by them at the grocery store my stomach churns. :(

 

I've also started making smoothies about once a week when I'm fully stocked with fruits and vegetables.  Tommy got me a pretty nice blender for my birthday and I really like it! 

 

 

The motor sits on top which is unique, but it has a lot of power and blends things a lot more than my Cuisinart blender did.  Plus, I love that the blender mechanism pulls completely out when you are done which makes it super easy to use a spatula to get every last drop out as well as clean it.  No more trying to get a spoon around the blender blades in the bottom!!  Of course I would love to get a Vitamix blender but I just can't justify spending that kind of money right now.

 

A normal smoothie might be a frozen banana, strawberries, blueberries, an orange, carrots, spinach, prunes, grapes, some water, ice cubes and some almonds.  You could also throw in flax seed, chia seed or anything other healthy supplement.  I thought this might taste gross but it's actually very good.  I don't always do the almonds and I don't like raspberries because the seeds get stuck in my teeth. (Again, if I had a Vitamix it wouldn't matter).  Whatever you have you can just throw it in!

 

Good to the last drop! 

 

What healthy things have you incorporated in your diet??





 

 



This past weekend was cousin time.  Apparently CJ, my 10 yr old nephew, had been complaining that he didn't get to spend enough time with Sanai, Taraja, my 4 year old niece, complained she doesn't get to come over and Jerell, my 6 yr old nephew, complained he hadn't finished his "mission" to fight evil villians with Micah.  So they got to spend last Saturday at our house.  COUSIN SLEEPOVER! 

I think we did a good job at wearing them out.  I blew up the giant bounce house and they ran and jumped and played most of the early afternoon.  When Tommy got home he took them to the park and wore them out some more.

We headed home and grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers and then played outside until they couldn't see anymore.  We did assembly lines bathes and had everyone is bed by 9:15pm and all but one was completely knocked out by 9:45pm!

I'd say it was a fun successful weekend!

Picnic on the side deck with their snacks

He'll obviously sleep anywhere

Poor buddy fell asleep with one shoe off! ha ha

Dinner outside - less mess!

Micah had his first soccer game this past weekend, he's had two practices so far and has never played an organized sport before.  We were pretty excited to see how he would play!  Of course he did awesome, if you ask him why he'll say "Because I'm a Johnson"...thanks to his father. lol  He had a lot of fun too and that's what really mattered.  The weather was great, it was so warm we were almost hot. 

Let's hope for continued nice weater in April and more great games to come!

One year ago today I thought my day would be just like any other normal work day.  I got to work around 8am and noticed an email from Sue, or adoption agency director.  Seeing emails from her always made my heart jump into my throat because it meant something was happening.  Good or Bad.

That morning it just happened to be the email that would change our lives forever.  It was the first pictures of our little girl.  I often had her email me at work because that was the quickest way to respond but the photos she had sent were too big for our server.  I frantically called our IT department pleading for them to release the photos so I could see.  Unfortunately, they were processed in a first come first serve basis.

I emailed Sue and asked her if she could send them to my hotmail account, which is linked to my phone.  I waited and waited for my phone to download the photos...but of course they were too big to view on my phone.  Finally I just explained to my co-workers that I needed to run home quickly for just a second to get the email.  Luckily, I only live a mile from work!

I sat on the floor in the living room and fired up my laptop and opened the email pictures.  My heart was beating so fast!  As soon as I saw her face I literally felt like time had stopped.  I called Tommy at work - he normally doesn't answer at work because his phone doesn't work in the school but miraculously he answered.  I was so speechless I think he thought something was wrong because I was crying.  I told him I had gotten pictures of our daughter!

She was amazing at only 6 weeks old.  I had no idea at the time how old she was because we hadn't received her medical report.  All I knew is that she was perfect and she was ours.  Such a great moment that I will never forget.

She came dressed in boy clothes :)

Then she got a cute pink sleeper!

The Great Toy Purge

A few weekends ago I finally decided that our toy situation was getting out of control.  We don't even really buy toys.  We get hand-me-down toys, toys from Goodwill, toys for birthday and christmas, etc.  I decided I had had enough!  I piled all the toys in the whole house (including 3 bins full of toys from the basement, two toy bins from upstairs, 2 toys bins from the living room and 1 football filled with toys from Micah's bedroom) into the living room and let them play for about an hour with everything.

They definitely had a blast playing with stuff they hadn't even seen in probably a year!  After play time I explained to Micah that there were kids who didn't have any toys, kids without parents to buy them toys and kids with parents who couldn't afford toys and that we should donate some of his toys to these kids.  He understood as much as a 4 year old could and I will admit that after a few minutes of putting toys in the "give away" bin he started to get upset.  I reassured him that he could keep two full bins of toys and that he could pick whatever he wanted for those two bins.

The bin of toys he kept

The toys we are giving away!

We left two small bins of toys for Sanai in her room.  We always seem to migrate in there because the rug is so soft and comfy! ha ha

Although there are tons of great organizations, Goodwill is the only thing I know of in our town.  I really would've liked to "spread the wealth" to other organizations but I didn't want to keep the stuff in my garage until we made our next trip to Murfreesboro.  So Micah and I took the toys to Goodwill and he helped me unload them, all the while talking about how these toys are for kids that don't have toys.  He get's it!! 

Celebrating 5 years!

We had an amazing anniversary weekend!  Tommy already had a coaches clinic scheduled in Pigeon Forge but it was one that wives were invited to which was neat.  So many of the speakers made me realize, once again, what an awesome man I married!

We weren't able to leave until around 7pm on Friday night because we had to take the kids to my brother in law and sister in laws house.  But we were pretty excited to get the weekend started.

If you've never been to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg it's a neat area.  It has lots of neat stuff to do. 

Titanic Museum

Wonder Works upside down building

Saturday morning we had a few sessions of the clinic and then we headed to do some shopping.  It felt pretty strange to not have either kid to worry about.  Sanai has figured out how to undo the velcro on her shoes so daycare asked us to buy her some tying shoes.  This normally wouldnt be a problem accept that her feet are only a size 2!  It's pretty difficult to find a cute shoe that doesn't have velcro and doesn't have a soft bottom.  We finally just bought her a pair of pink chucks.  SO CUTE!

We had a lot of fun going into the stores and being goofy. 

Gettin ready for our rap video

We bought a couple things and then headed back to the hotel where we got cleaned up and headed to dinner and a movie.

I tried a million times to get a good picture of him clicking his heels in the hallway but I could never get it.  We laughed so hard. 

Although we were so sad to be leaving, we were excited to see our kiddos.  Tommy was also super excited about stealing all this bacon from the hotel breakfast buffet.  ha ha

 

 

Looking forward to many more years with my best friend!!

 



smooshed noses :)