Kiera making Averi laugh

Kiera has the most amazing gift for entertaining Averi. She is so good to play with her all the time and is always concerned about Averi. Kiera shows more patience with her baby sister than any siblings I know. She is so gentle and kind to Averi. She is the best example to me.

Here are two videos of Kiera making Averi laugh and I would have to say that these are the times when Averi has laughed the hardest.

Oh, the places we'll call home!

Well, here we are in North Carolina! I have a lot to re-cap on, so here it goes.

Ryan left for his first deployment on February 22. The girls and I flew to Utah on May 1st to spend time with family while Ryan was away and for my brothers wedding. I was thrilled to be able to be a part of Adam and Whitney's special day. It was absolutely beautiful! Going to the temple with my brother and seeing him be sealed to the love of his life was an amazing blessing. It reminded me of the special day that Ryan and I were sealed together for all Eternity! It was kind of weird though. All day I kept thinking to myself, "is my little brother really old enough to be doing this? Is this even legal?" (Ha Ha) But I guess so, since he is 23! When did he grow up?

While Ryan was deployed he got an email from his squadron that said they were looking for a volunteer to switch over and fly the CV-22 Osprey. Ryan gave me a call and we decided that it would be okay for him to put his name in the hat. Ryan didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks and I was fine with that since one had just crashed. Then he got a call from his commander saying that they picked him and he would be starting training in December. Cool, he was excited and that gave me plenty of time to prepare to move again. A few weeks pass and he found out that he would be starting training in July. Were we surprised? No, this is the military, we have come to expect surprises like this.

Ryan came home on May 28th. It was one of the greatest days of my life. I wish I had pictures to share, however in the excitement of getting home after traveling for 24 hours and going to pick up Ryan, I forgot the camera. Yes, it took us about 24 hours to fly from Utah to New Mexico thanks to mother nature and the fact that there are only two flights a day that come and go from our extremely small local airport. But we had our daddy home and we couldn't have been happier.

We then went on a family vacation to San Antonio, TX. We enjoyed our free day at Sea World and then checked out the river walk and downtown the next day. We found a children's museum that Kiera absolutely loved. Of course all my pictures of this trip are at home on our desktop.

The day we drove home from San Antonia happened to be Kiera's Birthday. Which brings us to our next big event. Our little Kiera is now 4 years old! We had an impromptu Birthday party with the four of us once we got home, which was around eight o'clock at night. Daddy mysteriously disappeared for about 25 minutes and picked up a Birthday cake. Kiera dressed up as a princess and after I finished fixing her hair we came out of the bathroom to a party of presents and cake. It was great! Once again, these pictures are home on the desktop.

Now I have pictures I can share. Our next big event, our baby girl turned 1!

(This is the sign Kiera made for Averi)

(the cake Kiera and I made)

Averi has gone from this...
to this. In one incredibly short year.

Then on July 15th we left a place that has really become home to us and drove for 4 days to get to where we are now, Jacksonville, North Carolina. Or better know to Kiera as "the beach". We are here until November so Ryan can learn to fly this beast, which can fly like this...

or like this.

(Ryan's new office)

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

I promise, it is not my goal to see how long I can go without blogging. Between practicing my single mom skills for a few months, endlessly trying to keep up with house work, my new calling in church (which is Primary Secretary), and all the other duties life calls for, I haven't found much time to sit at the computer.

So I want to give an update on my little ones who have grown so much since I last posted.

Well, my Kiera really isn't so little anymore. She is two months away from turning four! I love it, but at the same time it makes me sad to see how fast she is growing up. It seems like she was just born yesterday.

She is my boost of energy every day. The things she says these days amazes me. She is a great story teller (in a good way), and the most amazing big sister! She is always concerned for Averi's well-being and usually has a good idea of what Averi needs or wants when I can't figure it out. She LOVES playing with her friends and wishes she could everyday, all day!

She makes me happy!

My little Averi is growing and changing every day. She is a tricky one because she is sooo quick! She gets into things so fast it amazes me. She has already broken a plate, eaten plenty of things I am sure were not good for her digestive system, and makes us laugh every day! She is nine months old now and weighs in at 16 pounds. Every time I see her little "two toothed" grin I feel a piece of my Heavenly Fathers love for me.

Her favorite things are Kiera, she loves to watch Kiera ALL the time and gets upset when Kiera leaves the room. She loves "talking" to daddy on the phone. I can't even describe how excited she gets to hear his voice. So now when she sees my phone she starts saying, "dad dad dad". And after talking to him today, for about an hour after, all she said was a mixture of dad, daddy, and dada. And she loves to be held. She would be perfectly content if I carried her around all day.

My two girls make me the happiest mom in the world. I love them with all of my heart.

Ryan had to travel to Scottsdale, AZ for his simulator refresher course. We decided that we would all go, especially since our great friends, the Watts, live about an hour from there.

We got to stay in this really nice hotel. It was unlike any hotel I have every been to before. Plus, it was warm there so we got to utilize the awesome swimming pools.

(The view from our room)

Averi is sitting up all by herself!(Kiera reading the Bible! She jumped up in the bed and got herself all situated just like this.)

(Getting ready to go swimming)

Daddy and Kiera's Snowman

All the way back to February 5th! Kiera and daddy built a snowman, I thought it looked more like a snow-woman with the beautiful weeds for "hair"! Kiera even rolled her own snowballs!

Clovis meet winter, winter meet Clovis!

On Wednesday it was 60 degrees outside, and wonderful. However, the talk was about all the snow we were going to wake up to on Thursday. In the past, every time we have heard these forecasts we hope for a real snow storm and nothing much happens. During Wednesday night into the whee hours on Thursday morning, every time I got up to feed Averi I looked outside and all I saw was rain. Ryan woke up sometime around seven to get ready for work and woke me up to tell me it had definitely snowed. Some time between 5:30am and 7:30am the freezing rain had finally turned into snow. Under all this lovely white fluff is a nice thick sheet of ice! So we did what we never thought we could and literally stuffed the truck in the garage. I seriously didn't think it could ever work, but Ryan did it! This is truly a tight squeeze. There are only inches around each vehicle and the truck is pulled all the way in touching the motorcycle and the garage door still touches the bumper on the truck. Ryan needed to get in the Camaro this morning and he had to climb through the hatch. To get from the truck into the house we have to use the front door. For some reason, I find this all too funny!

(One of our frozen trees)

If there is mail in there, we won't be getting it anytime soon!

The upside to all of this, Ryan gets a four day weekend with his family!

Highlights from Christmas

Christmas vacation came and went like cookies and milk! Here is a quick run down of our vacation:

Arrived in Utah on Saturday, December 19th after driving ALL night! Why we do that to ourselves, I really don't know! But the girls did great.

Monday and Tuesday, December 21 & 22 Ryan spent both days finishing up his A&P testing and I am proud to announce that he is now A&P licensed! This means that he can legally work on airplanes!

Tuesday night Brandon, Christy, and Duncan arrived in Utah. The Andreasen family was finally together again after four years!

On Saturday December 26th we had a Christmas party with my dad's family. By some divine power everyone was there! First time that has happened in a really long time. But I didn't have my camera. So if anyone in the Johnson family has those pictures, please email them to me!

The rest of our trip was spent running back and forth between Brigham City and Millville and then it was time to come home.

So here are some pictures to recapture the moments.

(Kiera sporting our Christmas tree)

We had our own little family Christmas party before we left for Utah.

(Kiera's new hat and scarf)

(Ryan, Kiera, and cousin Duncan)

(Uncle Adam and the girls on Christmas morning)

(Adam and, his so cute girlfriend, Whitney)

She melts my heart!

(Andreasen grandkids in their Christmas pajamas)

We did make time to catch a good game of go-cart racing. This was real racing style people!
(Kyle, Me, Brandon, and Christy. Ryan was taking the picture and Jessica blessed us with watching the kids.)

And finally after two weeks of Kiera driving us crazy asking when it was going to snow, it did!

Once again, the Andreasen brothers built their towering snowman. I forget the height (15 feet) but it beat last years record and that was all that mattered. Once again, I didn't get a picture of it, so for all you Andreasen's out there, please email them to me if you have any!

Our sweet little Kiera was not at all happy about this photo shoot. But hey, we're all together!

And there you have it. It has only taken me two weeks to complete this post. Phew, it's done!