This Is The Life

Or it was the life after Sara realized that Shelbi was not gonna let her drown when she took her to the deep end.
No, all kidding aside, we have had a great time swimming at Kim's this summer. The kids have gone with and without me so I thought I would share pictures of them in the nice clear, cool, blue pool.

Too bad I didn't get one of Andrew in his sunglasses floating on the mat. Kim said he looked like a model!

One of THOSE Moods

Ok, my friends, I am in one of those moods. Maybe because I didn't sleep good last night and I am tired. That would have nothing to do with the fact that I slept in my bed with Dusty on his side, Sara and Maggie sprawled in between us with me hanging on to my edge! lol That's not new but......
I miss my granny! Everyday but some days more. She was my best friend! She loved me for who I am, set me straight when I needed to be straightened (and that wasn't very often if ya know me LOL) and was just there, all the time, anytime! I know she is still here. She is in my heart, my mind and my core.
I have been thinking of my Shelbi Grace being a SR. and graduating. I know that's a school year from now. And yes, I know, she's really not MINE, but I think of her as mine. Would get her like I get my own! That baby girl was just in 2nd grade when I came to know her and love her and her mama as much as I do.
And then that brings me to her mama! She is missing that girl this week while she is on vacation with her friend. It's been quiet in the house! Maybe that's why I am thinking of her being a senior. Because Kim and I have been talking about it, getting pictures of Shel-bo for her page in the football program. Or maybe because I looked at that little cheerleader picture on my desk of her before I left work that Kim left behind. But I love Kim, will be there for her when she needs me! Keeping her busy, not that she needs help with that and I'll leave Sara with her if she needs company! lol
Sooooo, if she is a senior that means my baby will be a sophomore! And that means he is not far behind her! Now that is a heartbreaker! He is driving, wants a car, doesn't need me like he used to! But I will always be his mama and he will always be my baby boy!
So I'm puttin the breaks on now! I am done with my little pity party. My glass is half empty day! I've dwelled enough! My makeup is burning my eyes and I can't see what I am doing! So I'll say to all of you! YOU being my friends and family that read my blog. I love you all! I am grateful to you all for your friendship! You all make up the pieces of my heart and I have a big filled heart! God has blessed me with many great people, past and present, and I feel very lucky!

VBS

Sara attended vacation bible school at Shady Grove Baptist Church this week. She had a blast as she always does. The week was packed with learning, scripture, crafts and fun!
We went to the closing program tonight. The kids sang songs they learned during the week and got their certificates.

As usual, I went with my batteries as low as low can get. I know she has her head turned in this one but it was all I could get. Luckily, Stacy was there and she took some for me.

The little cutie in the front of Sara is Reed Jester, Stacy's little munchkin!

A great big shout out to all those who made vbs such a big success. I know a lot of hard work was put in by all! Everyone did a great job!

The Three Musketeers

Maggie, Sara and Emily, better known as the three musketeers by some at school. I hope as they get older that they remain close. Some of my best friends were made in kindergarten. I still depend on some of those people today. Some live far away and I only get to speak to them every once in a while. But when we do, things just fall right back into place. They are my most trustworthy and true blue friends and I hope my children made and will make friends like I have.

1958-2009

Known as the "King of Pop", Michael Jackson is one of the greatest musicians and dancers of all time. He is one of few artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He had set multiple Guninness World Records, received 13 Grammy Awards, had 13 number one songs in his solo career and has sold over 750 million records worldwide. He is one of the few to have had three songs in the Top 5 at the same time. His "Thriller" album is the world's best-selling record of all time and four of his other albums were among the world's best-selling records. He has been popular for four decades. In 1984 he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I don't normally post about things other than my family but I have always been a huge Michael Jackson fan. Mom and dad got me his greatest hits 4-disc cd set for Christmas a couple of years ago. I listen to it regularly in my car and my kids enjoy it also. Andrew and I watched his videos on MTV most of the day.
Dusty and I had a conversation with Andrew tonight about some of the negative publicity in the last few years, whether you agree with me or not, he was a great musician. You can like someone and not what they do. I don't condon his actions but he was the "King of Pop" to me and many others my age who listened and danced to his music every minute of the day that we could. His children deserve to mourn their father in a positive light. To remember him as they do. May God comfort them in their time of sorrow and watch over them in the days and months to come.

Our New Addition

After much thought and deliberation, Sara has decided to name the newest addition to our family, Lucy. It has taken her since Monday to do so, but she finally made the decision after tossing many names around.
So.........heeeerrrrre's, Lucy!!!!!

Here is Sara and Lucy, a miniature "weenie dog" as Sara would say. Aren't they adorable!

Maggie is the only one that hasn't welcomed her with open arms (or paws) but a few more days and I hope they are the best of friends.

The Group

The Grand Finale - The Big Group Picture - The ONE -
Here we are getting ready to take the big shot.

And here it is. Our whole family (minus one, plus two)!

I'm not done though.....I have a few more pictures I want to share! But this one is one of the best!

Happy Father's Day!

The Grands

Do you know hard it is to get 6 kids to all look at the camera, be still and smile? You would also think that the big ones could be ready when the little ones decide they are ready. Nope, that is not the case! Jessica and I just stood ready with our cameras up while Dusty and mom and dad tried to get everyone looking and just snapped pictures in hopes that we would get a good one. And we did! Here are some I would like to share with you....
Andrew, Clay, Sara, Sebastian, Labe & Nash - the Johnson grandkids.
Notice Andrew is a total baby person. lol Clay kept slipping down, down, down.

While the others were arguing about why Andrew got to hold Clay, I just zoomed in on these 3 cuties.

I really like this one! The lighting is good and the subjects are great!

And the oldest and the youngest aren't in this one but it turned out really cute! Look at those silly boys at the top!

I took this at Fort Morgan on a big anchor.
Andrew, Brady, Sara & Sebastian -

So this is the whole gang! There is never a dull moment when we are all together but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Thanks Mom and Dad

Thank you mom and dad for taking us on vacation! Our first big family one! I know we all had great fun! We all love you very much!

Daddy had to have a Corona picture! Discussions should be taking place with the company to have this picture be their next ad campaign!

A Post About Us

I don't ever post about Dusty and I. I am always posting about my favorite subject, my kiddos! We both enjoyed being totally relaxed at the beach. We were able to enjoy each others company without worrying about bills, money, work and all the stressing things everyday life sometimes brings. Dusty is also one of my favorite subjects. I sometimes take him for granted, fuss at him too much or just plain get irritated at him for no reason but I am very grateful for him, for the life he gives us, for his dedication to us and the sacrifices he makes for us. He is a great father and husband and I am very proud he is mine!
And look, he can be really sweet......he wrote this in the sand with no prompting....

I can't honestly tell you when we had a picture of the two of us by ourselves. We usually have a little monkey inbetween. lol I was tickled our beach pictures turned out so good. (even though I hate having mine made) Sara and daddy took these.


One of my dear friends told me I shouldn't be putting porn on facebook. Or maybe that came from her better half. I don't know! (you know who you are!! lol) But Sara took this one and told us to kiss. That it soooo looked cute! Gosh, get your mind out of the gutters people! lol

I did this sometime during our stay so mine just had to be posted, too!

Just a Little Scenary

Nash is so cute! Thought he was stylin' in big brothers sunglasses! He loved catching tiny fish in pool of water on the beach. It was more his style-no waves and nice and warm.

Pretty palms....

A perched seagull....

Some more cute kids on the beach at Fort Morgan....

Sar-O

Look--she DID get in the water! I think this was on our first day at the beach. She looks like she was having fun!

I took this picture at the naval museum when the kids were all on the big anchor. It is one of my favorites of Sara from the trip.

Jess took this one. I like it! I love her little feeties and her cute painted toes in the sand!

Tank tops, shorts and flip flops could be Sara's life. Those are some of her favorite things. She LOVES summer! As we all do!

I like this one of her, too! Can you tell I like her at all? She is sooooo sweet! (When she's not being sassy!)

I know I have said it a million times and I will say it again - Andrew is very photgenic! But this child, the one I'm posting about, the one who did not like me taking her picture, the one I took to Sears and didn't get one and I mean one good picture of, is liking the camera now. She is becomig a poser! Who woulda thought it?

The Neighbors

Remember the cute neighbors I blogged about earlier----well, here they are.
Brady, Shelby, Andrew and Jordan. I was glad the boys meet people to do things went. The girls went to eat with us on night and played cards with the boys and Shelby's brother and his friends every night.
Here they are doing what they do best--being silly!

Fort Morgan

I hope you are not getting bored with my vacation posts. Can you tell we haven't been somewhere in a couple of years? lol No, we just had a lot of fun and I want to share. We went to Fort Morgan. We were told it was a great place to find sea shells. It was no better than finding them at our beach in front of our house because we went the day after the storm. We found lots of debri, dead fish and a few shells. It was a more natural beach with lots of pretty flowers that grew in the sand. Sara took this picture. She liked the flowers.

Brady and Andrew had fun poking and digging with the dead fish. Didn't know dead fish made for such good entertainment!

Dusty was the most patient when it came to looking for shells. He came up with a few good finds. We brought lots of pretty ones home.

Daddy found this neat stick with critters growing on it. He brought it home on top of his Suburban. Hope it was some protected thing. lol Andrew and dad could both go to jail over their sticks!

Here are Sara and Sebastian above us all at Fort Morgan. They couldn't wait to get to the top. I let her, wasn't a big fan of it, I'm afraid of heights, ya know?

Stay tuned for more vacation pictures.....I took about 300. If I already told you that, sorry! I sometimes don't remember what happened yesterday. My Granny used to say her age my her forget things and I would tell her if it was age, when I got hers I wouldn't know my name!

Fun, Fun!!

We did do a couple of this at Gulf Shores besides lay on the beach. We went on a glass bottom boat dolphin cruise. I don't think anyone of us got any good pictures of the dolphins jumping. We saw several though. At one point, about 7 or 8 were jumping and coming up for air close to the front of the boat. There was a 3 week old baby that stayed in between her mother and her nanny that jumped up quite a bit one time. All the kids really enjoyed the trip! And I think the adults did just as much!
Sara was really looking hard for them.

Here are some of the kids with gran and pop at the front of the boat.

Some of us also went to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. The little kids stayed with mom and Hollie.
Andrew, Sara, Labe, Sebastian and Brady posed on a huge anchor outside the museum. It turned out to be a cute picture and Labe ended up almost at the top of it before it was over. We enjoyed a IMAX show and the entire musuem all afternoon.

We represented very well! Dusty and I took our new Razorback tent we bought on sale at Wally-world. And believe it or not, our neighbors were from Elkins. They also had a Razoback tent, two 15 year old girls and four 17 year old boys with them and we made quite good friends with them. As we were walking up the stairs our first day there, Denny(the father) said, "I like you guys already!" Dusty had on his Razoback hat and shirt and I was carrying my Razorback camera bag. We exchanged phone numbers as we both left Saturday morning and we will trying to go at the same time as them next year.

This is a picture of our house from the beach. Isn't mom's stripped beach umbrella cute?

Andrew's Sand Box

Andrew is probably just about my favorite subject to take pictures of. He has always been and is very photogenic. I know, I'm his mom but he is, you have to admit it. Sara has become a poser but only the last couple of years.

He and Brady got one of those wave skimmer boards thingys from Pop to play on. They had a great time. It was kinda funny watching them learn how to do it. The both took a few good tumbles before they got actually ok at it. Here is my our surfer dude. I thought I downloaded one of him in action but I didn't and it took FOREVER to get these on here so.....maybe next time.

I love this picture! One of my favs of the trip. We were sitting waiting to go on the dolphin cruise. My sister-in-law, after much persuasion, taught me just to snap. Some of the best ones are just that, snap shots. No ones paying attention, not looking at the camera just doing what he does best - being himself. And he's good at it. lol

So, with him being all photogenic, handsome, being himself and all, it was only natural that a house be named after him, too. (is that good run on sentence or what)Here is Andrew's Sand Box!

Just beautiful beach picture!