3 Years

Three years ago, I said goodbye to my big brother Steve. His dying hand kept my living hand warm as he took his last breath; this I will never forget. His life was filled with much joy and much sorrow. Avlynne never got to meet her Uncle, who would have been absolutely in love with her, however just the other day she started taking interest in this collage of pictures, made by my sister, hanging in our kitchen.

It's like she just knew her Mama needed to take a moment to pause and remember; and tell her about her Uncle Steve. I miss him deeply but we feel honored to get to keep loving on his girls in the ways in which he is no longer able.

Who does she look like?

Here are a few pictures to compare. I have come to the conclusion that she is a pretty darn good combination of the two of us. Although we aren't too sure where her strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes came from??

Krista Lynne Clegg

Krista and her Clegg Family

Krista and Brother Steve

Kyle and Brother Eric

Kyle and His Dad

Kyle Dean Johnson

Avlynne Kay Johnson (5 months)

Avlynne (aka Cupcake at 6 months)

Avlynne and Her Daddy (9 months)

PS. Happy Anniversary to the most amazing in-laws! Thank you Connie and Merle for marrying each other 35 years ago and making all of the above possible!! We love you guys!

Naptime

Apparently this is a comfortable way for a 17-month-old little girl to sleep???

Hair

Earlier this week I cut off 8 inches of hair! My hairdresser encouraged me to research organizations that accept donations of this amount of hair (Groups like Locks of Love require 10-12 inches, I believe). So just as an FYI...I found a group called Children with Hairloss. My hair is all packaged up and ready to be sent off. I am trusting this is a legitimate organization, if not they are the ones stuck with a "ponytail" of my hair (which is kind of gross if you think about it) and I have lost nothing but the small cost of postage.

Bieber Fever Part 2

Finally

This poor wall in our living room has been "naked" for five years until just the other day...

KJ and I got creative and came up with this little something which we didn't have to spend even a penny on! The Baltzells passed along the window which came out of their house, KJ attached an old wire hanger to the back, I found these cute little drawings in a Real Simple magazine and added the A (which came from our dear friends Maile and Ben as a gift to Avlynne) and Voila! Our wall is no longer naked!

We Love Weekends!

Now that I am done with school and the craziness of studying that must take place on weekends, this Johnson Family is loving our weekends and loving not having a stressed-out Mama who can't have fun! If I haven't mentioned this before, now is the time...I have an AMAZING husband and this past weekend was a prime example of his amazingness! He officiated the weddings (yes I added an s to the end of wedding making it plural) of two wonderful couples we have come to know and love over the past 8 or so years through Young Life. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures but I can guarantee you that the Smiths and Dezellems were looking extra good on their special days!

So the weekend started off with two rehearsals friday evening along with a sleepover with one of our favorite five-year-old friends, Addy. Then Saturday morning KJ gave me the most amazing gift of waking up with Avlynne, loading her up in the stroller to go for a run and returning with a hot Grande non-fat latte from Starbucks in hand (this guy really knows what his lady likes)! We then had a great morning of watching the Little Mermaid, reading books, and searching for bugs outside. Then the wedding craziness hit...the 1st wedding was at 4:30 on Bigelow Gulch. The 2nd wedding was at 6:00 pm way up on the South Hill! We drove back and forth for both ceremonies and both receptions. Somehow KJ kept the two different ceremonies straight and didn't even mess up the names considering one of the brides was Jen and the other was Jenny! We felt very blessed to be a part of both of these special weddings!

Sunday morning KJ rallied and had the opportunity to be on a panel of speakers at our church regarding living missionally, something we are continuously figuring out how to do. After church I said goodbye to my beautiful WhiteWater kayak. She found a good home though with a REAL Canadian Mountie, which made the goodbye a little easier! After good, but all too short, naps for all 3 of us, we headed off to spend some time in the pool with Avlynne's Grandma Connie, and 2 Great Aunts! The weekend came to a perfect end with a lovely dinner at the home of the

McDonalds with Lauren and Michael Bailey! Lets just say that my husband rocked it this weekend and that this whole no-homework life is rather glorious and a gift

I don't ever want to take for granted!