The Johnson Juggle

Are you ready for this? Here is what we have been up to these past couple of weeks. I have had so many incidences occur that I thought, "oh, this would make an awesome blog post" or "this is unbelievable, we need to put this on our blog". But I haven't. So here goes, starting with...

Emma!

Emma has been very playful lately and at the stage where she wants do something over and over and over again, and has the energy to do it, but the problem is that us a parents don't. She and Burke took turns sliding along our tile floor in the laundry basket. Ty said he has never loved our tile floor so much. It worked great and it didn't scratch it at all! I am SO glad that weather has been nicer lately. It has been my saving grace. And I have noticed a huge difference in the kids when they are able to get outside and play. We ride our bikes a lot and go on walks or go over to grandma's. We have even taken a couple of different dogs for walks too. Emma loves her cousin Sadie's dog, Sally. We needed to get out one day and thought to ask them if we could take their dog for a walk. It was great because Emma LOVES walking dogs. She could totally be a dog trainer one day. She loves telling the dog what to do, where to go, and where not to go and so on. (We were nice to Sally, Mindy, so don't get us wrong). She also likes to feed and take care of the dogs too. I think it is her motherly nurturing tendencies that shine through when dealing with animals, and I absolutely love it! I think she is a lot like how I was when I was a little kid. We have also taken one of the Stewart's puppies for a walk and go and play with them frequently. We are currently watching Tucker's dog while they are at the ranch for the weekend, and on Saturday we went on a family walk with "Rudy the Dog" (as Emma calls him). It was really fun and felt nice to be outside again. Emma LOVES to block the door so that daddy cannot leave for work! She always wants me to come with her, and this specific morning Burke was there to block daddy with us. It was a perfect shot right before I left to go grab the camera. Just picture Burke in between Emma and I looking at daddy the same way as Emma is. I wanted to capture it, but as soon as I left, Burke started to cry because he thought I was leaving, so here he is wanting me to pick him up. Oh well, you get the just of it. Emma does this almost every morning now. (Notice I actually got my hair done that morning, but no make-up-see how tired I look, yeah, that is my usual look these days!)

This was taken a few Sundays ago. We had been home from church for no more than 10 minutes. We put a movie on for her and she was a goner. This time it wasn't Flicka, maybe it was Beauty and the Beast or "Spider Web" (aka Charlotte's Web) but who knows, all we do know is that this is THE way to put her to sleep these days. She has really taken this whole Burke recovering from surgery thing pretty hard. It has been very stressful on all of us. On top of all that is going on, she got sick with a cold from Burke, and then ended up getting a UTI that seemed to last forever. That finally subsided with the meds and today she seemed like she was fine, but when we were sitting in church she asked to go home! Yeah, Emma never asks that unless something is wrong! The last speaker was great and I didn't want to leave in the middle of his talk, so I tried to hold off until he finished, but Emma probably asked to go home a dozen LOUD times. We left as soon as we heard his amen. She almost fell asleep while I was checking her temperature, but she was fighting it big time because she wanted to wait for the beep on the thermometer. She has been in bed for awhile now, so hopefully she can just sleep this off and not pass it on to the Burkers. Lately, since we have stayed home a lot, we have has a lot of dance parties! Emma has always loved singing and music and she can pick up songs really quickly. So, we dance crazy to music and we all love it. Burkers even joins in and wants us to hold him while we dance. Or he will just stand there and nod his head. Yep, he is a head banger- watch out rockers, here comes Burke! We were trying to get a good picture of daddy and Emma for daddy's birthday- yep that's right last week we celebrated Ty's 30th birthday!! Here she is trying to do thirty on her hands. This is Emma's idea of a "good" picture. She is so not cooperative when it comes to taking pictures these days. But, she still looks cute, and our daddy looks good too! We didn't do anything exciting for his birthday this year. We just hung out at home. I did make him a cake though, and believe it or not, I didn't get a picture of it. I am so mad because it was so cute. Not as cute as his cakes that's for sure, but it was a good attempt. It was two round cakes stacked on top of each other and frosted green and I used a decorating tip to make a black border around the cake. And we simply put a toy tractor on top (it was really cool it makes noises and everything) and put 29 candles on it. We ran out of candles. It was cute and I was proud, and I got it on video but not on still shot. So, until I figure out how to put a video on the computer you will just have to image this adorable cake in your mind! We celebrated over a couple of days worth and gave daddy socks (I've never seen him so excited over socks before- but he was just asking where all his socks had gone, so it was the perfect gift for him this year), and a large world map. Happy Birthday Ty we love you and hope you had a great day!This is Emma and Susanne Walton. The Waltons have been so great-they have taken Emma for me a couple of times so I can get a little break. Emma loves them and we are so grateful to be friends and family with such wonderful people! We love you and thanks for emailing this pictures to me, Susanne, you look so cute in these!

We are learning a lot about our Emma right now. She is at a really hard age, and with everything going on with Burke she has been acting out a lot. It took me awhile to adjust to her outbursts, but I think we are learning how to deal with her better now. She is very strong willed (wonder where she got that from-you decided-wait, I will tell you so you don't think I am blaming it on Ty.) It is both of us, both Ty and I are so strong willed and Emma got a huge dose of that, actually we are learning Burke has a dose of it too, only time will tell how much of a dose he got dished. I think it is a way for me to learn what my parents had to go through while raising me. Sorry mom and dad, I was probably pretty tough sometimes, and still am. Thanks for putting up with me.

Emma is learning to identify and write her letters and numbers. She is constantly asking if she can have a fruit snack, or if she can watch a movie, or which friend she could have over. She is usually a big help to me and has been so sweet to Burke and comforts him when he is throwing up or at the doctor's. I had to take her to one of Burke's dr. apt the other day and he ended up getting an ECHO done on his heart, which is just an ultrasound. She was doing great through most of the apt and just near the end she was getting restless. She came over to Burke's side and started saying quietly to Burke,"it's okay Burke, it's okay, you're okay buddy." Mind you Burke was sitting great in my lap and not crying at all. Emma just wanted to make sure Burke was comforted just in case he needed it. That is the way Emma is, and I love her for that! She is learning a lot from going through this experience with Burke, and I hope we can teach her the valuable lessons Heavenly Father wants her to know by going through this.