Happy 27th!!

age 1 week

On March 29th at 10:00 a.m. Mrs. Johnson was at her sister Launa's house getting ready to make some curtains. When the pains started. Mrs. Johnson could not be more thrilled, because she was already 2 weeks overdue. Not to mention the fact that she had gestational diabetes and had gained over 100 pounds since becoming pregnant. Luckily it was a Saturday and Mr. Johnson was at home. Mrs. Johnson promptly left Launa's house and headed for home about 10 minutes away. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson left their 7 children at home with Martha, the eldest girl in charge. They had to go to Panguich, which is about an hour from Orderville. Lynnette made her appearance approximately an hour after they arrived, 2:05 in the afternoon. Mrs. Johnson had Lynnette with NO PAIN MEDICINE. (remember that it is important for later, none, nada, not even a Tylenol.) As soon as Lynnette was born, the nurses whisked her away to get cleaned up, and make sure everything was functioning correctly, so Mrs. Johnson didn't get to see her baby right away. A little while later Mrs. Johnson overheard the nurses talking about "the biggest baby they had ever seen!" Mrs. Johnson knew that her friend Mrs. Franklin was in the hospital having a baby also. Mrs. Johnson thought, "OH poor Rhonda! She went and had the biggest baby those nurses have ever seen!" A few minutes later the nurses brought little old 12 pound 4 ounce Lynnette in to see her mommy. (remember the NO PAIN MEDS... um yeah.) Mrs. Johnson looked at the baby that the nurses had just handed her. She was painfully fat... BRIGHT red, and she had bent pinkie fingers... but she was still perfect. Her baby was the record breaking fatty pants, not Rhonda's! Baby Lynnette had a blood disorder, that was causing the extreme redness. (Nobody seems to be able to recall the name of the disorder.) Thankfully one of the doctors in Panguich knew how to treat the blood disorder, otherwise baby Lynnette would have had to go to a special hospital to get the treatment she needed. The procedure involved taking out some of the blood and replacing in with fluids and medication that would thin the blood and relieve the immense pressure on Lynnette's heart. The doctors had to repeat the procedure every 2 hours for 2 days (48 hrs). Mrs. Johnson would just get Lynnette nursed and settled back down, and they would come in to get her... She had to listen to her poor little baby scream for about 1/2 hour, then they would bring the fat sobbing little thing back, and they would do it over, and over and over again. In those days they didn't know how to do a pic line yet, apparently, because they had to poke every single time in order to do the transfusion. After Three days in the hospital mommy and baby were both ready to go home. Mrs Johnson had one little problem though, she had brought a 0-3 month outfit to bring the baby home... and well, it wouldn't fit! So Mr. Johnson brought a 3-6 month outfit... it was a TIGHT squeeze, but they got it on her!

age 1 age 3

age 4

age 5

age 8

age ??

Age 16 (spoiled rotten with a trip to Hawaii to see my sister and swim with dolphins!)

Age 18

Fast forward 27 years. Why, why, why am I the one getting presents????? Thank you mommy, for giving birth to me, Thank you for loving me, and being such a great mom. I think all the birthday gifts should go to my mom, because she went through an awful lot to get me here, and I could never thank her enough. P.S. I am really not fat, I just never lost my baby weight ;)

Elder Brinkerhoff

I am so proud of my husband. He is a wonderful man, always has been. But recently he decided to, in the words of my Aunt Shanna, "get his shit together." Today he was given the Melchezedic Priesthood, and ordained to the office of an Elder. =)

He is going to bless Annie, which I am super thrilled about. (Mitch's Brother... apparently not so thrilled.) lol...

His mom was so cute, There were a few family members that were running late, she looked at the stake representative and said, "do you think we could wait 5 more minutes, I mean we've been waiting our entire lives for this, so what's a few more minutes." it was adorable.

I am proud of Mitch because his kids have such a wonderful example to look up to.

Drayden gets baptized in May... and now... Mitch gets to do it. =)

I am so excited for my husband and the great things that are going to happen to our family because of the choices he is making. Some people looked down on me because I married a divorced smoker. I never ever saw him as that. He has always been the man of my dreams, I knew his potential. I am happy that he waited until he was ready, nobody forced him, and that is the only way that it will ever work. I love you baby, and I will always be behind you, nomatter what. (unless you pass gas, and then I think I will opt to be in front of you, if thats ok.)

and my favorite picture of the day... Miss Annie talking to Grampa Brink. I love the look on her little face, she is in absolute awe...

3 months

I can hardly believe it has already been 3 months since sweet little Annie joined our family.

There are moments of denial, when I still feel like it is all a dream and I am going to wake up. Surely this can't be happening...


I love this baby girl so much! She is sweet, and funny, and she only poops on me once or twice a week. Thats real love people.


I had to buy new perfume, to cover the baby barf smell. Because lets face it... I get barfed on at least 3 times a day, and there is no time to shower... at least not 3 times.




Thanks My little May May bug, for giving me a newfound joy. I love to kiss your little cheeks, and play with your tiny little tuft of hair. I love your cute little butt chin. I apologize for the yoda ears, that was my bad, a special gift from grampa Johnson. =) Everytime I look at those ears I think of my dad.



Our family would never be complete without you. You are a very special little spirit, and I can't wait to spend my life being your mommy.

a little princess through and through!

Those GIANT blue eyes are so full of wonder and I wish I could see inside your mind and know what on earth you are thinking about~! Thank you heavenly father, for sending me this little blessing, even if I didn't know I wanted her ;)

I LOVE camping...

Spring break! wooo hoo!!! No School!!! woo Hoo! I'm thinking... lets go to Vegas, stay a few days, take in all the free attractions, keep it simple. Mitch is thinking... lets go camping!... now I usually quite enjoy camping. We are always with family and it is usually quite nice and relaxing once we get wherever we are going. Now on to the story of my "wonderful" spring break.
*be forewarned, this post will contain, bitching, complaining, whining and all other manner of "woe is me, woe is me"*

Friday... 1 pm.
Mitch enters the door from work... "Hi honey!, I got all the bags packed and all we have to do is run to walmart to pick up the chairs and the rest of the food, and then we are on our way :)"
So off we go to Walmart. We get everything we need, spend $50 more than we want to, but it is time to get home and get crack~a~lackin'.

Friday... 3pm
ok baby time to load up the 4-wheeler... *problem #1... The ramps for the 4 wheeler are too steep to drive up because the truck is too tall. *Problem #2... once we finally figure out how to get the 4-wheeler into the truck, the tailgate won't close... Problem #3... if we take the tailgate off then the ramps don't quite work properly anymore. Solution: load it all up, strap it in, take the tailgate off, and worry about it later...

Friday...4pm
Ok baby, 4-wheeler is loaded, all the bags and food and water and such are in the trailer, now it is just time to hitch it up and off we will ride into the sunset... oh except that the trailer has a flat tire... and it won't air up... but the good news is we have a spare. Enter Mitch with his fancy pants tire changing tools... apparently changing a trailer tire is not an easy task because the frame is so low to the ground, and when the tire is flat it is really low to the ground, and if you jack it up, the tire just spins and you can't get the lug nuts off... 1 and 1/2 hours, lots of cuss words, 2 broken fancy pants tire changing tools, and the tire got changed. I tried to remind Mitch that this was his idea and he wasn't allowed to be angry, because I wanted to go to Vegas, I don't think that helped much. ;)

Friday... 6pm
We are off!!! we go load up the ice, gas up the truck and 4-wheeler, remember we forgot the trailer crank and sunscreen (which i soooo wish we would have needed) so we ran back to the house... and then we are off. Thinks were going very smoothly until we got on the dirt road, behind a couple of trailers... who were going 5... literally... 5. My husband is prone to road rage anyway, but it is especially scary when he has guns around... lol... anyway, he risked our lives and passed them in the dust cloud... it was kind of like Russian roulette... but here we are, so apparently we dodged the bullet. We arrived at camp and started setting everything up, the weather was cold, but not terrible.

Friday 9 pm
We finally got the hamburgers cooked and they were by far the yummiest thing I think I have ever eaten . The starvation factor may have played a roll. We sat around and visited and then it was time for bed.

Friday 10 pm
We couldn't get the air mattress to air up... UGH... fine, forget it... I will sleep on the rock hard bed. anything, just find me a pillow, and I will be fine.

Friday 11 pm
Mom has been up since 4 am, and it is way past her bedtime... We have all gone pee, brushed our teeth, gotten into pajamas and I close my eyes only to remember that we forgot a pullup... Drayden has this little problem, he pees the bed... like every single night! at home we have plastic on the bed and I just let him pee he has to wash his laundry and I am hoping it will help him stop, plus he HATES pullups, anyway... the dreaded realization that we are camping and the odds of him not peeing in the bed are slim to none... so up we get. It kind of reminded me of the scene in Apollo 13 where they have to fit the square peg in the round hole... We assessed our options. Pads or size1 diapers.... diapers are more absorbent... gorilla glue, or electrical tape... electrical tape is much easier to clean up... So in a fit of laughter Mitch and Drayden fashioned a makeshift pull up out of size one diapers and electrical tape.

Saturday 12 am
The wind starts to blow... really hard... we are in a tent trailer... from 1976... made of canvas... on the edge of a ravine... let the praying begin...

Saturday 3 am...
WAAAAAHHAAAHHAAA ... insert boob in baby's mouth... continue praying as the wind has escalated...

Saturday 7 am...
The dreaded "I must pee now before I explode" feeling. I carefully inch my way out of the sleeping bag, trying not to wake up the baby, or anyone else. Now I feel very blessed because my wonderful amazing saint of a father in law let us use his extra port-a-potty... but it was right in the middle of the trailer... for all to see... but I didn't care... I had to go NOW! ahhhh relief... then Drayden says, "mommy, I need to pee too" Ok, ... wait, does that mean you didn't pee in the bed? WOOHOO!! a dry diaper electrical tape contraption... *thank you father in heaven*

Saturday 8 am..
by now everyone is awake and freezing cold... the wind is still whipping outside, but the boys are out cooking breakfast so all is well.

Saturday 8:30 am
Special delivery of a heater from my aforementioned saint of a father in law, and Hot chocolate from his equally saint like daughter... *thanks JoDee, and Glen ;)

Saturday 10:00 am
The baby is sleeping, Drayden is wearing an adult size XXL sweatshirt to keep warm, when he tried to shut the trailer door he slammed his thumb in it... *Drayden has a very, very low pain tolerance, and he screams like a girl. half an hour later, he stopped wailing, but continued milking the injury for the remainder of the trip. "Dray, will you hand me that blanket?" "I can't my thumb hurts." UGGGHHH... anyway needless to say that ended the baby's nap for the morning as well.

Saturday 12:00
The weather cleared out a bit and the kids played outside, went on 4-wheeler rides, caught and released frogs, and had a good old time. It was still too cold outside for the baby, so Me, brittany, annie, and grams stayed inside and played phase 10. I won. :)

Saturday 3 pm
Mitch pokes his head in and tells us to get down because someone is shooting and the bullets are whizzing past our camp. Joy. Mitch drove down the road, dodging bullets, my knight in shining armor and told the idiots to knock it the hell off... You must shoot responsibly... jerks.

Saturday 4 pm.
The boys break out the guns and start shooting. I was really worried about Annie because some of the guns are really loud, but she loved it... silly kid. The louder the better. I covered her ears really well, but every time she heard a shot go off she would just grin and laugh. What a wierdo.

Saturday 6 pm
We started to get dinner ready, dutch oven potatoes... my favorite. with strawberry shortcake for dessert. YUM... at this point I had not seen hide, nor hair of my sweet husband all day, because he was out having fun, doing camping stuff, and I was stuck in the trailer. blah...

Saturday 8 pm..
The rain starts... and the wind starts up again.

Saturday 10 pm.
We are all snuggled down in bed. I fell right to sleep. The rain on the canvas was like a lullaby.

Sunday 12:00...
Hungry baby... MUCH colder than last night... no more rain though...

Sunday 6:00...
Mitch has to pee... lol... he daintily steamrolls over Annie and I... oh joy... now we are wide awake. He gets Drayden up... and holy answer to prayers he didn't pee again! woohoo!!

Sunday 8 am..
another special deliver of a heater, and hot chocolate... I love mitch's family... they are amazing campers.

Sunday 10 am...
The wind finally stopped so we built a fire. The kids were standing around getting warm... Drayden kept wanting to play with firey sticks. I probably had to tell him no 5 times. When I left the fire I did so with strict instructions NOT to touch any more sticks...

Sunday 10:05 am
WWWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH...... Chantel and Drayden were fighting over a firey stick, and chantel got the firey end right in the upper lip. it is nice and blistered. joy.

Sunday 11 am...
we finally get everything loaded (the ramps worked just fine without the tailgate) and a tiny bit of sun shines down on camp. Mitch starts making plans in his head to go on another 4-wheeler ride. I simultaneously loose my mind and tell him that if he doesn't drive me home RIGHT THE HELL NOW I am going to have a nervous breakdown and die.

Sunday 12:00 pm
I stand in the shower reflecting on my HORRIBLE camping trip, and realize how lucky I am... While things did not go as planned, and it really wasn't much fun for me, I hope that my husband and my kids had a good time. Sometimes being the mom just isn't much fun, but having a happy family with a nice warm house and a comfy bed to come home to is more than i could ever hope for.

All in all I really did not have fun, but I guess I could give it another chance... hopefully it will be warmer. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go unload the trailer and start the endless task that is the Laundry.

new ride

I love driving the Dodge. It is powerful, clean and just all around lovely. However, It is a diesel. and in case you haven't noticed Diesel is about $3.89 per gallon... *faint*

So... I swallowed my pride... got out the air freshners,

tried to ignor the rust and dents and manly yuckiness... while brushing up on my ability to drive a stick shift...


and started driving the little toyota. I know I am a spoiled brat, and I really have no room to complain, but this little jalopy was my husbands work truck for quite some time, and that means that it is absolutely filthy... it is a hunk o junk for sure, but gas is cheaper than diesel, and I bet this little truck gets about double the gas mileage, so I get to drive a hoopty now. =) In all honesty I should have been driving it a long time ago, I could have saved a bundle, but again, I am a spoiled brat, and I am trying really hard to humble myself... so if you see (or hear) this little truck, throw me a wave, it isn't nice to ignore your friends just because they drive crappy cars. ;)