The big 33

33 years ago on this very day my LOVE was born.

Who would have thought that I would one day fall in love

and marry this man from California! I'm pretty sure

that Dave didn't think that he would ever end up

in Arizona and find me. But we did find each other and

I'm so grateful for that! My life has changed so much

in the past 10 years that we've been together. We have

really been on a huge journey together! It's been full

of everything and anything that I could have imagined.

I'm so grateful and blessed to have this man in my life!

I love you baby...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I decided to celebrate Dave's birthday this whole

weekend and not just today. It was kind of fun

to plan some things and hide everything from him.

He has been so incredibly stressed out about

the office being ready that he is emotionally

drained and almost sick. I wanted to try and remove

him from all of that just for a little bit each day.

That was not an easy thing to do...believe me!

On Friday my sister took our kids for the whole

night and we didn't have to pick them up until

the next morning. We were able to go out to

dinner and do a lot more shopping for the office.

It was so nice to come home and not have to

worry about putting the kids to bed. We were

able to just think about us! On Saturday I invited

all of my family over and a lot of Dave's friends

to come eat and have cake. It was so nice to

have everyone over and visit. Today I think we

are just going to relax and have some family time.

It's been a great weekend!

Christmas in November

I was walking through our dining room the other night
and noticed all of these boxes through the window. I
opened up the door and said..."Holy Cow"! There was
about 15 boxes all sent to Dave for the office. You
couldn't even make it to our front door if you wanted to.
Dave has been waiting for these things for weeks
now and was so excited to open all of them. We had packing
paper covering the entry way/dining room and boxes
everywhere! Dave said it felt like CHRISTMAS!

Carter's B-day Party

Tyler was invited to his first birthday party
from a friend at school. He has a good little
buddy named Carter in his class. Ty was so
excited to go to Chuck E Cheese's and have
a fun afternoon!

Gilbert Days Parade

~Mother~Daughter~Granddaughter~

~Sister~Brother~

~Grandpa~Grandma~

~Daughter~

~Wife~Husband~

Gilbert Days Carnival

Since I can remember Gilbert has had this celebration
weekend with a Carnival and Parade. I always loved
going to it and would get bummed out when I knew
my family was going and I couldn't. Now that we are
living back here we were for sure going to
GILBERT DAYS!
My parents and my brother Andrew came. Dave and
I were watching my niece Kylee for the
night so we brought her along for the fun. My Dad
had Dave and I go on this ride called the "Cliff Hanger"
...let me just tell you it made us sick and I literally
thought I was going to shoot off to the moon! It
freaked me out so bad and I'm pretty sure that I
screamed the whole way through. Dave was of course
having a ball and just laughing at me the whole time.
Good thing we had empty stomachs!






The kids were all so good and seemed to have
a really good time! We were all pooped by the
time we got home...bedtime here we come!

Veteran's Day

Tyler had school off this last
Monday and I was trying to
think of what we could do. I
figured we would just go to the
zoo since we have a membership
there. I took my brother Andrew
and convinced my sister Adria to
come too!


Little did we know that
everyone else in this state had the
same brilliant idea! We still had
fun and it sure passed the time. By
the time we got home we were all
so exhausted! It was a Warm and
Good Day! Isn't it November? What
is going on?

Fox 10 News

Wednesday morning the news came to Tyler's

school to do weather segments. We were

all told to be on the field earlier so we

could watch the helicopter land. I can't

even explain how excited all of the kids

were to see this happen!

Each grade took a turn and walked around the helicopter. All of the moms were just as excited because we were all going crazy with our cameras!
I had Dave watching it at home and my mom was taping it. Dave said he saw me a ton standing behind the kids and my mom saw Tyler a lot too! It was a fun morning!

My bro~Elder Matt Johnson!

Elder Matthew Johnson has been called to...?

Proud Parents of a Missionary!

We Miss you Tif...love you!!!

We are having our first missionary experience. We are so excited for Matt and so proud of him. He has been waiting for days and has been making himself CRAZY!! Finally it arrived today and Matt waited until we could all be at the house to open it. We called Tifani & Jake in Denver so they could be with us on the phone to hear the news. We wished that they could of actually been in the room with us...we sure miss them and love them! I was able to capture it all on film so we could share the excitement! Turn the volume down on my music at the very bottom of this page so you can hear the video play. You have to click on the box once and then click on the pause button or volume button. By the way, he has been called to the...

Anchorage~Alaska Mission!!!

I've lost my Marbles

I'm not sure if this is normal what I'm experiencing... but

I have lost my mind...LITERALLY! I didn't think that I

would get to this point in my life until years from now.

We have been so busy lately that maybe I am overloading

myself. I could list off probably 10 different things that I

have spaced just in the last week...but I will spare you.

I will tell you what I did this morning to Dave and Tyler.

Last night I was going through Tyler's school folder and

there was a note from his Principal about FOX 10 News

coming to the school on Wednesday from 8-9am to

do 4 live weather segments. All students and any parents

were invited to be there to sit in the field and watch the

helicopter land and do the news. I thought, "how cool"!

I lovingly volunteered Dave to take Ty there and sit

with him on the field. We woke up earlier this morning

to get Ty ready and to get him to school before 8am.

They rush out of here and then Dave calls me 5 minutes

later..."Dara...the news is coming NEXT WEDNESDAY".

Dave gets Tyler back in the car to come back home

because school doesn't start for another hour!

Dave walks in and says..."Dara, you really need to get

yourself figured out quick." I had some not so nice

thoughts going through my head and turned them

into, "Thank you my dear, Thank you". I think I

am going to turn into the Post It Queen now.

Any words of encouragement would be greatly

appreciated...or any marbles.

2 going on 20

Dave and I have been learning how different our son and
daughter are. Tyler has always been a sweet little boy,
didn't ever get into anything, we never had to really
child proof the house with him, he really doesn't ever
get into any trouble. Then comes our sweet little Ashlynn.
She has always been full of spice, personality, fun, and a
little attitude at times. She loves to get into things and
basically get into TROUBLE. If I am doing something
around the house and I don't see her for a few minutes or
hear what she is doing...I better run and find her fast!
This morning I was on the computer and I thought that
she was watching cartoons...WRONG! I have had to start
shutting our bedroom door because she loves to go in
there and get into things. She is our little princess~she
loves looking at herself in the mirror~sing songs to
herself or just play with her hair~put on lotion~and of
course putting on lip gloss;chap stick; you name it! Dave
is a little worried because of how much she is wanting to
do and she is only 2. I keep telling him she is a little girl
and wants to be like mommy and it's just a faze. I have
no clue if I'm right or not...so if any of you have little girls
please let me know if this is normal! Anyway, I found her
in our bathroom with my makeup out and she was just
getting herself ready for the day I guess. I swear...are
girls really this eventful? I'm feeling so bad for my mom
right now because she had 4 girls before my brothers
came.
~Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice~

Halloween Night

~The Great Pumpkins~

We all met at my parents house so
Grandpa & Grandma could see the kids.
We sure missed Tif & Linds with their kids!
Kylee was a Firefly and had tons of glow
sticks hanging from her bootie.
Ashlynn was Tinkerbell~Tyler was Batman

The easy way to trick or treat...A Wagon!

Mark & Dave with the kids

Me & Kylee

Adria & Mark with Kylee

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!