Yes! We are still alive!

Hello Everyone!
      We are still alive & kickin'! A lot has happened since our last post. Some of those things are: end of school; Nehemiah's First Birthday; Teen Camp & Family Vacation to Idaho. Below are some pictures from our Family Vacation.

 Mary, Dad Johnson, Lorena & I hiked Table Mtn. It took 9 hrs. to hike & we hiked 14 miles total! This picture is at the beginning of the hike.

 

 One of the many beautiful views along the way!

 

 The little rise towards the right side of the picture (by the tree) is the summit of Table Mtn.

 This is the valley close to where we started. The picture was taken at the top of the switchbacks close to the summit! Wow, this was very exhausting!

 

 This is where we thought that there was only 30 mins. to an hour before the summit! Well, it was still 2 hrs. & a very exhausting last 200 feet to the summit!

 

 It's amazing that there is snow here when it was about 80 deg. or higher.

 

 View of the Tetons

 

 Another beautiful view from the top of Table Mtn.

 

 

 This guy passed us up as he set a personal record of reaching the summit in 1 hr. 55 min. I think he should be famous!

 

 Near the end of our hike, Lorena was so exhausted that she lost her balance & fell into the bushes alongside the trail.

 

 We got to see moose on our way back down!

 

Eating Ice Cream at the Corner Drug in Driggs, ID (the best ice cream in town!)

We are so thankful that we could have G'pa & G'ma Brock with us as well as G'pa & G'ma Johnson & Aunt Lorena!

 

 



Aunt Lorena introduced Nehemiah to a Mexican Chili Sucker for the first time! He liked it so much that he got mad when she pulled it away from him!

 



The family at Jackson Hole, WY



  

 

 The Famous Bar J Wranglers! We loved it!

 

 Nehemiah with one of the Bar J Wranglers!

 

 

 

Roasting marshmallows at the Vacation House!

 

 

 

We really enjoyed being able to spend our Vacation with our family! Praise the Lord for family! Don't ever forget to make memories with your family while you can! We certainly made a lot of memories during this vacation! We hope that you & your family are doing well!

More wisdom!!

  There are a few more funny things that came from the mouths of my students that I would like to post!  Two happened after my last post and one I had forgotten about...

*I was eating lunch yesterday and L.J. came up to me and said, "Mrs. Brock, it is  very important to eat ONLY HEALTHY FOOD!!!!!!!!"  I asked her, "Why is that?"  She replied in a very grown-up voice, "Because it will make you very, very skinny."  Today, the same little lady came up to me during lunch time again (my lunch hour is not a very quite, peaceful one) and said, "Do not eat salt, Mrs. Brock.  It is not good for you!"  I am not sure if her family has been having health classes at home, or what the deal is!

*At the end of every PACE, my students have to quote their PACE verse before they can take their test.  Yesterday T.C. wanted to take her Social Studies test, and came up to my desk to quote Ephesians 4:25.  She confidently quoted, "Speak every man truth with his newborn!"  If you're a little confused, its because the last word is supposed to be "neighbor".

*Before we eat lunch or snack, we always pray together as a class.  A little while ago, we had just finished praying for snack, when my sweet Down Syndrome student told me that his sister had her eyes open during prayer.  When I told him that he must have also had his eyes open during prayer, he could not figure out how I could have known that!:)

Wisdom from my Students

     Anyone that is a teacher, especially of younger children, knows that kids will keep you laughing with what they say.  I love each one of my students and even on the rough, tiring days, when I feel like screaming, they give me something to be thankful for and smile about.  I am going to post a few things that were said that made me grin...

(I will use initials to protect the innocent)

T.C.:  "Mrs. Brock,  I want to make a Valentine for my mommy!"

Me:  "That would be wonderful.  I think she would love it!"

T.C.:  "Wait!  Valentine's Day is already past.  The next thing is Easter, so I better make her an Eastertine!"
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T.C. again (she likes to talk a lot):  "Mrs. Brock, can you believe that I just had such a great idea for the game we're playing?!"

Me:  "You did a great job thinking of that good idea!"

T.C.  "I guess I'm just a good-idea-er!" 
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L.J.:  "Mrs. Brock, do you know where I got this pretty pencil from?"

Me:  "No, where did it come from?"

L.J.:  "It came ALL THE WAY FROM CHINA!!!!"

*She is finally becoming aware that many things in the United States are "Made in China".
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E.C.:  "May I please put my head band in my back pack?"

Me:  "Sure!  Go ahead."

E.C.:  "Thank you.  It's really been extracting me all morning!"

*I'm pretty sure that she meant it was distracting her:)
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     A couple of days ago we had our morning devotion about the difference between laying up earthly treasures and Heavenly treasures.  I asked each of my kids to think of one way they would lay up an earthly treasure and one way they could lay up heavenly treasures.  My little theologians came up with some good ones!

Earthly:  Buy a new ipod, get a new video game, ask for a new toy, buy a new wii, play games with friends.

Heavenly: Tell your neighbor about Jesus, ask your friend to go to church with you, read your Bible, pray, give your money to Jesus                                                                 

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     Periodically I like to ask my kids what they want to do with their lives once they get older.  In a year I may get three different answers from the same person:).  This week we had our little "when I grow up" conversation, and I think I heard some new ones that I have not yet heard!

1st grade girl:  Mommy, teacher

2nd grade girl:  Missionary, mommy

1st grade boy:  Football player (this is the same little guy that wanted to be a piano player     before...quite a change in plans there!)

2nd grade girl:  Mommy, teacher, missionary

3rd grade girl:  Missionary (yes, we do talk a lot about missionaries in my class)

4th grade boy:  Firefighter, Pastor, Missionary

5th grade girl:  Movie actor/director/producer

5th grade boy:  Basketball player

5th grade girl:  Police officer (this was a bit of a shocker to me!)

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     As far as our family goes, we are all doing well!  We are really looking forward to school being out soon!!!  Nehemiah is growing so quickly!  He can now say, "Mama", "Dada", "No no!", and "Ellah" (my niece's name).  Last night, when he was supposed to be sleeping, we heard something strange in his room.  We went in there and found him sitting up at the end of the crib, ripping up papers, and there were  papers thrown all over the room.  His crib is beside Tyler's desk, and he had figured out how to reach his chubby, little body far enough to grab the papers off of his desk.  As he gets older, our lives are definitely getting more interesting!


           

Such an Innocent look!

    It looks to me like Nehemiah is saying, "Who, me?  I didn't do it!"

Nehemiah is Growing!!!



      I cannot believe how quickly Nehemiah is growing!!  It seems like just yesterday that he was born, and now he is almost 10 months old!!  He is getting to be quite the character.  Even though he can't talk yet, he let's us know quite clearly what he wants by using his hands and other methods that he has developed:)!!  He does not crawl, since he does not like being on his stomach at all!!!  If he wants something he scoots to it!  He keeps us laughing with the things that he does.  It took us a while to get him used to going to bed early but now he is accustomed to it and sleeps almost 12 hours every night!  It is such a blessing!!  Tyler and I have a few hours of peace and quiet every evening to work on things that we need to work on.  Nehemiah loves to eat!!  His new favorite is corn bread.  When he eats it he makes quite a mess of himself!  Yesterday after he ate corn bread I found some of it up his nose!  A couple of weeks ago we had a beautiful day and he was able to go in an outdoor swing for the first time.  We were in someone's yard, and he was enthralled with their dog.  I could barely get one picture with him remotely looking at the camera! 

 This picture makes me laugh because this is the way his hair always looks...no matter what I do to it it sticks straight up in the back!

 

 Tyler and I took him on a walk on one of our nice days and he konked out before we got home.

This is a classic Nehemiah picture...he almost always has his mouth open and is always banging very loudly on something!



 

One of the girls at church was playing with him and put all these plastic toys around him.  He sat so still for 15 minutes because he didn't want to mess this up.

Before and After

     About a year ago, Tyler began "Eating For Life" when he realized the importance of eating right and being healthy.  Since that time he has lost 50 lbs.  During the time that he started eating right and exercising I was expecting Nehemiah.  After Nehemiah was born I realized that all the weight you gain during a pregnancy doesn't just dissappear the day after the baby is born!!  I was also about 40 lbs. heavier than I should have been so I  began to "Eat for Life" and exercise with Tyler.  As we ate healthy and worked-out our inspiration to keep on going was a picture that was taken of us at our 2012 Sweetheart Banquet at church.  At that point Tyler had reached his all-time highest weight and I of course looked pretty chubby myself since I was expecting a baby.  This year we had our picture taken at the Sweetheart Banquet again and it was funny to see the difference!!  One thing we have learned is that when you eat right, exercise, and do not have extra pounds on you have much more energy and feel so much better!!  

BEFORE

AFTER

 



Our Cute Little Guy

 This picture just makes me laugh!!  I sat him in the high chair with cheerios so that he would remain entertained while I cooked supper.  I had a craft project on the table which I had set on pieces of newspaper to dry.  When I turned around he had grabbed one of the paper pieces out from under part of my project.  Then he gave us this little look that you see in the picture.  Earlier this week he also grabbed a container full of peas off the table and was dumping them as I came around the corner into the kitchen!

I just love this picture of him in his froggy towel.  Bath time is one of his favorite times of the day!

Update on the Last Month

     I know that Christmas was more than a month ago now, but I want to show a few of our Christmas pictures.  We had a wonderful Christmas.  It was especially fun since it was Nehemiah's first Christmas.  He, of course, had no clue what was going on, but it was still fun.  He was much more interested in eating the wrapping paper than anything else.  We spent the 22nd with Tyler's family doing our Christmas together.  The 23rd was our church's Christmas Cantata in the evening, and on the 24th we flew out for Indiana!  We had such a great time there!  It just seemed like we did not have enough time there!!!  I was not quite ready to get back to "real life", but time keeps moving on!

This picture makes me laugh...Nehemiah was not sure what to do with all the presents!

 



As I said before, he was only interested in playing with the paper and eating it.

 



Tyler's mom made Nehemiah a quilt...it was beautiful!

 



Opening a present from Great-grandpa and Great-grandma Johnson.

 



I tried to take a nice picture of Nehemiah in front of the Christmas tree, but as you can see I did not have much success!  He was too intrigued by the lights to look at the camera.  I also was worried that he might try to eat the lights!

 

Tyler got the blessing of carrying this chubby baby through the airports!  He was very good on the airplanes, which we were so thankful about! 

 

Reading the gun magazine with Uncle David

 

With Grandpa on Christmas morning 

 

Aunt Lorena had a grand time with him!!

 

When we got home from Indian, Nehemiah seemed to have a little cold.  After a few days it got a little scary because he was barely breathing, no matter what I tried to do to help him.  I had to take him to the doctor.  They gave him steroid shots to try to open up his airways, and also put him on a nebulizer.  Thankfully after about 3 days he started to get better!

 

A new development in Nehemiah's little world was the addition of "real food"!!  He LOVES to eat, and would eat all day long if I let him.  He gets so excited every time he sees me carrying him over to his high chair.  He gets very impatient when Tyler or I pray with him before its time to eat!  So far he has gotten to taste: bananas, carrots (his favorite), avocado (another favorite), peas, green beans (least favorite), apples, applesauce, cereal bars, rice cereal, cheerios, beef & barley soup, frosting, and ice cream.  Cheerios are his "comfort food".  No matter what is wrong, cheerios make him happy again:)!

 



First time eating carrots

 



"Bad Guy" Nehemiah

 



 Happy Nehemiah! 

This is how we like to see him!

 

 

Only To Me!!

     As I go through life, my days are often peppered with what I would call my "Mary moments".  They are crazy things that seem to happen only to me.  I like to think it is just a coincidence, but I have a feeling that it is because I am a little ditzy.
     Today I had one of those moments in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and I think my friends who know me well will appreciate it.  I went to make some purchases for the church, and paid for them myself and was then going to be reimbursed by the church finance office.With that in mind I kept telling myself to make sure I returned with the receipt.  I put the receipt into the front of the cart, with something heavy over it so that nothing would happen to it.  Half-way through the parking lot, I picked up the very thing that was holding down my receipt without thinking.  Of course, my receipt quickly "took wings" and began to fly away.  Leaving cart and all, I began to frantically chase it through the parking lot.  Hey, someone may run off with everything I had just bought, but at least my receipt would be safe...maybe!!  As I chased it, I saw it take a dive under a van.  I got down on my knees to try to get it, but it was too far for my reach. I quickly ran back to my car and pulled out the ice scraper.  When I got back to the van (hoping that the owner of the van would not show up at that moment), I was able to  successfully retrieve my receipt!!  Victory at last!!!
     Thankfully no one ran off with my cart of groceries, no one hit it with their car, or any other such disastrous thing that may have happened!!  I am still wondering if anyone saw me (which is very probable in a busy Wal-Mart parking lot), and what they thought of the crazy girl in a skirt chasing a receipt.