Phoenix Children's Museum

We were so lucky to have our whole extended family come to Arizona to visit this past weekend. They came to see the beautiful Easter Pageant and spend the holiday with us. We are so lucky to be blessed with the most amazing family and love every time that they visit.

One of our many adventures was at the children's museum in Phoenix. The last time I was there I was 7 month pregnant and it was so fun to bring my little angel this time.  I laughed inside though because now Holli is 7 months pregnant and was searching the whole time for places to rest her sausage feet.

Daddy loves his little Bunny Bear

My little Mini Me 

The Johnson Fam

Big girl trying to put the ball in the maze

The Noodle Forest isnt so scary in Daddy's big arms

Carder always wants to hold her but the moment he gets her he just pushes her down lol. So I had to keep her from falling out of the car.

She loves her little toes in the sand

Daddy getting crafty. He was making a paper house, but he "never was good at arts and crafts".

We had so much fun. Come visit us again soon! We love you all.

Love,
The Johnsons

I take the blue ones every time...

Why is everything I love blue these days?

The piece of scratch paper I got to throw away after I finished my cardiology midterm.

My toothpaste after a beautiful day of easter candy.

The BYU cougars.

My favorite pair of jeans, which feel so good especially because they finally fit, and are a breath of fresh

air after having to dress in business casual attire everyday my life.

Ellie's polka dot dress that she looks so beautiful in.

The southern california ocean that around this time of year I miss so much.

otter pops.

Snow cones, especially the ones from Bahama Bucks that I have for dinner sometimes. 

The pool that I love to lay by and watch my precious little family swim in on warm spring days.

The juicy bathing suit I bought last year when I was four months pregnant that I finally fit into the way I should.

Leon's BYU baseball shirts that remind me of his glory days and make me realize how far we have come since the dates at the BYU baseball clubhouse.

The Arizona sky that is so full of sunshine and warmth, it reminds you that no matter what happens that day your going to be ok because at least its sunny and warm and you could be stuck in Utah where it might be raining or even snowing at the end of April.

My daughter's baby blue eyes that sparkle in the sunshine and make me want to squeal with delight and remind me everyday that there is a God and He loves me because this little angle child is in my life forever.

My husbands baby blue eyes that make me melt in his arms and give me the strength and confidence to get through anything this world throws on me.  The same eyes that I know will stand by my side for the rest of time and will laugh with me, cry with me, and see all the beauty life has to offer right along side me.

I feel like these blue things are what are making my life a beautiful thing right now and how grateful I am for the color blue.    

Go Diamondbacks!!

Basketball season has ended and baseball season has begun.  Being married to the all around athletic specimen that I am, we are now excited to follow everything BYU and Tampa Bay (and occasionally a little cubs). Last night we got to enjoy a night out on the town with some of the beautiful Fanning family and a little Diamondback/Cardinal love.  Ellie always loves going downtown Phoenix because she is a party girl and I always love being where Ellie and Leon are.  They won (I think) and if we buy a large drink at Taco Bell today we get three free hard tacos...Yea lol. Back to the books and trying to throw myself into the abyss of cardiology and midterms.

Happy Wednesday

Love,

The Johnsons

For Mimi

Ellie Loves Her Jumper

Recently Ellie has been bouncing around like crazy.

Her Mommy and Daddy cannot be lazy.

She misses her Mimi and Jaxon a ton

Can't wait to see them and have some summer fun!

Swimming and splashing are her favorite to do

She will sit in her dolphin in the jacuzzi too.

She smiles and plays and is so full of love

when she cuddles her body fits in yours like a glove.

Come visit me Mimi and Jaxy, I can't wait to see you!!!

Love Ellie 

Applesauce Hair

Leon here. So I thought I'd try out my hand a bit on the blog and see where it'll take me. Today was an interesting day. Ellie-bellie was her normal cute self and was a very good eater. When mommy got home, she decided to feed her some yummy organic apple sauce courtesy of Sprouts. (A great place to shop by the way, great cheese there). As Britt was feeding Ellie, something dropped on the ground and she bent down to pick it up. Little did she realize that by bending over, she was putting her beautiful blonde hair into Ellie's hair-loving crosshairs. As quick as a Johnson in a foot race, Ellie had mommy's hair in her mouth, and, consequently, into a wonderful combination of spit and apple sauce. Yum! Daddy offered to eat it as is, but Brittany decided she should go ahead and take a bath with the little peanut.

Ellie after her bath

Well besides that, not too much interesting is going on around here. Today is the 181st birthday of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I thought I'd share a picture or two in honor of the day.

Britt and me at the Laie, Hawaii temple

This is the Gila Valley Temple, in my hometown. Who wouldn't want to live in a place that has such a pretty mountain surrounding you?

Anyway, today is a great day to think about where we are. The church started with just six members and is now over fourteen million strong. We live in a blessed time for sure.

Oh one more update. My brother Elliot is in the major leagues! Congratulations to him and his family, they are certainly deserving of all the good things that come to them.

My Only One

Have you ever had someone in your life that knows you better than you know yourself, someone who is never afraid to tell it like it is, someone who can stop the world with just one touch, and can make anything better with one kiss.

I have.

Leon and I met on October 16 2006.  We were set up on a really random blind date and found ourselves at the dollar movies watching Taladaga Nights and talking about knife fight scars haha.  We went on to eat ice cream and watch several episodes of the O.C. at our friend Mike's condo in Arlington.  It was just an ordinary, really good, first date. I had no idea at the time what I would be getting myself into...

I fell hard... and fast. Leon not so hard, and not so fast.  But after a school year of casually dating I did it, I tamed the wild stallion and he finally fell in love.  And the words coming out of his mouth were honestly like a dream to me. I couldn't even say it back to him, so I texted it later (pathetic I know). 

This man soon became my best friend and my entire world.  He knew me like no one else. He believed in me like no one else. He inspired me and pushed me to be my best self.  He is the reason I am the person I am today. We were young and we did a lot of stupid things to each other (but in what beautiful love story are stupid things not done?).  We went our separate ways multiple times but something always brought us back together.

On April 3 2010 I married the man of my dreams and my best friend. I love him.  He is an amazing husband, the best father, a bbq genius, mvp ward baseball player, a byu sports fanatic, a hilarious impromptu dancer, and honestly hands down the last man standing when all is said and done. 

I thought for our anniversary I would share some pictures and quotes from my only one through the years so you would all understand what I mean.  

Leon 7/30/08: Hi baby baby I love you so much! I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with you there can't be anything better in the whole universe than that. I hope you know how much I love you I always pray that Heavenly Father will help you to feel it but I think the answer to that prayer is for me to make you feel it through my actions and kind words. I truly love you so much and would do anything for u.

 Leon 8/14/08: I can't wait to see you! I wish you were here right now I would kiss your face and squeeze you so hard. I need to make sure I can smoke that final because I need that A to get into Harvard Law. I'm going to do it baby. I hope you can get into a medical school somewhere in that area because that's where I'm going. (hmmmm interesting...and he did it three years later!!!)

Leon 8/7/08: I love you so much baby I'm so glad that you're such a big part of my life. You are my life and world, beautiful. I love you.

 Leon 8/8/08:  hi my geourgeous, wonderful, beautiful, caring, loving girl. It was so good to talk to you for so long this morning, I loved every second of it! I can't wait until I get to talk to you face to face and kiss your beautiful lips and just be in love with you. I love you with all my heart baby baby and just can't wait to see you again.

Leon 8/10/08: Hi beautiful! I love you so much I can't wait to talk to you! I know I'm supposed to marry you too baby. Today was a good day I daydreamed about our beautiful future daughter and just protecting her and loving her and having such a special relationship with her. 

 Leon 8/8/08: I love you forever. you are the most wonderful girl in the entire world and I love you.

l

 Leon 8/4/08: First of all, I want to make you happy every single day starting when you wake up. I want to make it so that the mere mention of my name makes you smile and brightens your day. Second, I want to uplift you and be you partner in our journeys towards Heavenly Father's kingdom. I want to make up for all of my past wrongs and make them all right and just be the type of person that deserves a girl like you. Next, I want to fly you out to Arizona and kiss your beautiful lips and nose and hold you in my arms and tell you everything is going to be alright and just have you melt in my arms. After that, I want to treat you like a queen for our whole engagement so that you will be the happiest and most certain bride that there has ever been. Then, I want to marry you. Then I want to be the best husband to you and always respect and honor you. Always be patient when you make me mad and always make you laugh when I make you mad. Then I want to be the most caring, loving father that I can be and raise our children with you in love and faith in Christ. Then I want to be the best missionary companion you could ever dream of having. Then I want to live longer than you so that you will never have to go through a day of missing me, or else I want to die with you at the same time in a freak gila river rafting accident. 

 . Leon 7/22/08: I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you baby you are my everything and just make me want to be a better person.

Leon 5/4/10: Baby it is one a.m. and I am so so in love with you. you are the sweetest wife ever :) thanks for the note! and you snore so cute too :)

Leon 6/30/10: I just feel like I haven't been showing you how much I love you well enough. Please know that you are the only person that I want to be with and that I am so happy that I ended up with you. Thank you for being the best wife I could ever ask for and more than I ever expected.

 6/7/10 Leon:
Dearest Brittany, 

I write this letter with heavy heart for the distance that we share between us. Nevertheless, it fills my heart with joy that you have seen fit to allow me to share anything with you, even if that thing right now is distance. Oh how my heart yearns to be near yours again. When I am with you it is as if my heart beats twice as fast because our hearts become one when we are together. When will I see you again? I await the dawn of a new era when our lives will again comingle and we will be able to spend our foodstamps together in love. If nothing else, Brittany, my love, my everything, we will always have foodstamps to keep us together.

 

Faithfully yours until we meet again,

 

Sir Leon

  Leon 7/15/10:  I can’t imagine my life without you.  I have honestly never loved anyone like I love you. You have helped me to become the person that I am today and I will always be grateful for that.

Leon 4/1/11:  Please save some of the dirt off of your shoes so that I can worship it when I get home :)

As you can all see I'm a very lucky girl.  I married my best friend and for that I am so grateful. He is the only person I have ever truly loved and will ever love for as long as I live. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for creating such a perfect match for me. I love him more and more everyday. There is no one like him in the world I am truly blessed. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life making him the happiest man on earth.

Dear Ellie

Dear Ellie,

   Thank you for today.  Today you reminded me that motherhood is the greatest gift that could ever be given.  I just look at you and I see perfection.  I hope you can see that when you grow. I hope you can see that inner beauty that you have been blessed with.  I am so blessed to be your mother.
     I thought today how important mothers are.  As I watched you cry in your jumper, while I was trying to clean up the house, my heart broke. Your little face was red with tears rolling down and those little arms reaching up for me, desperately wanting me to hold you. I picked you up and your sweet face just tucked into my chest and all of a sudden everything in the world was right again. Mothers are so important. I love my own mother so much and if I am ever half the mother she is you will be a lucky girl.
     As I continued to ponder the role of motherhood, I thought about myself and how I was made for you.  Not physically of course (even though I know my arms and chest are so fun for you to suck on and you love cuddling with me in bed), but figuratively.  I have experienced so much in my life and I have so many stories to tell you one day.  I've seen the world.  I have truly loved another human being. I've had my heartbroken by that same human being (and others), more than twice.  I've been blissfully happy. I've cried myself to sleep. I've been scared out of my mind. I've been courageous and strong.  I've hurt people.  I've been hurt. I've felt like I was crazy. I've been told by others that I am crazy.  I've dreamed big. I've achieved many of my dreams (others I'm still working on) What I am trying to say is that I have lived my story.  I am still living my story, but everyday that I live I am molded to be a better mom for you. You are my everything.
     Sometimes I think about the person I was before you happened to me.  I loved politics and painting.  I bought a new outfit at least once a week.  I was always right and had to make sure everyone knew how smart I was.  I loved keeping up with the kardashians (ok I still love them but don't tell daddy lol). I would stay up all night reading books and doing homework.  I was a strong self confident woman who knew who I was and where I was going. I can honestly say that I was a bit selfish.  Its funny how a little plus sign on a piece of plastic can completely change your entire life.
     I went running the other day and a song came on my ipod that I hadn't heard in a while.  I used to blast it and play it on repeat over and over when I was walking through BYU campus my last semester.  It gave me the strength to get through the day, as I was going through what I thought were the darkest days of my life.  It talks about you, and as I listened to that familiar song I couldn't help but get choked up while I watched you play with Mr. Giraffe in the stroller. It says:

So suddenly, so strong
My prejudice was gone
You needed me, I found my place
I'm different now, these days

Now the greatest reward
Is the light in your eyes
The sound of your voice
And the touch of your hand
You made me who I am

     You have beautiful eyes baby. More beautiful than I ever dreamed they would be. Your squeels and screams make me laugh and I honestly can't get enough of them. But I have to admit one of my favorite things about you is the way you grab my face in the morning to remind me that you are real, the way your head falls on my chest when you get tired, and those sweet angel kisses that you give me on my face. I wouldn't be the same without you.

      I honestly know that Heavenly Father has allowed me to go through what I have so that I could be right here with you. So that I can love you the way you deserve to be loved and teach you all the things that you deserve to know. I love you baby... to the moon and back.

Love,

Mommy