Gaylord Ice

I'm a little behind on my blogging, we've been traveling. 

Ryan and I got the opportunity to celebrate the holidays with PeisnerJohnson&co a few weeks ago. I will just take this time to say, I love the company Ryan works for. He's got great co-workers and he likes what he does for the most part and there is room to grow and climb to higher positions eventually.  It's such a blessing having a job that you like. The hours are sometimes a little crazy at certain times of the month but it could definitely be worse.

Here are some pictures from the company Christmas party at Gaylord (such a weird name, I know.) it's a luxurious hotel with all sorts of cool things. Like ice museums and stuff.

They haul ice in and carve it into these cool sculptures (each year they have a different theme) and then they have these sculptures in these rooms where the temperature is kept at 9 degrees. Freezing! Luckily they give you huge old parkas to wear as you go through it.

Everything you see is ice made of ice. 

Ryan and one of his co-workers, Paul.

This is a pretty accurate depiction of their personalities :) 

The nativity scene wasy favorite part. So beautiful!!

We had a dinner afterwards, with a multiple course meal and fancy dining. It was beautiful! 

The night was great. And even better, we had a great babysitter who got the girls to bed on time and texted me updates throughout the night so I didn't worry. And then I came home to a perfectly clean house. Score! 

20 facts about Ryan!

I don't blog about Ryan very often, even though he's a huge part of my life. I love him so much! So I've decided since I wrote out 20 little known boring facts about myself, I'd come up with 20 facts for Ryan too, since this IS our blog, afterall.

So here you go.

Facts I know about Ryan that not many other people know.

1- Ryan is an amazing cook. His taste in food is extravagant, he likes things with lots of flavor and texture and he does an excellent job at making up great recipes.

2- He is sensitive. He has such a sweet sensitive soul. 

3- He is all about being the manliest man. He has even researched the art of manhood.. Meaning how to be best at chivalry, outdoor skills, things like that. 

4- He doesn't like candy very much. He can eat a piece or two and he's done. Chocolate too. It blows my mind.

5- When he was younger he put himself through ninja training, that's what he called it. He ran around the ranch smacking things with sticks, jumping off small cliffs into ravines, climbing up vines and trees... All on his own. He's a self trained ninja.

6- He wanted to be a construction worker up until he got home from his mission, then he decided to go with his dad's counsel and go into accounting. With no regrets.

7- He has a patch of dark skin on his left upper quadrant of his abdomen. It's a skin condition that's been caused by halo moles, at least that's what he's been told by dermatologists.

8- He's a good problem solver. When I come to him with a problem that needs to be solved he almost always can solve it. He's creative in that way.

9- He still opens the car door for me, even after almost 5 years of marriage. I love that.

10- Ryan doesn't get angry easily. Seriously. I've seen him noteably angry only a couple of times our whole marriage. 

11- When were driving down the highway at night he can look at the backlights of a car and guess what type of car it is and tell me everything about the car. He almost always guesses right, just by the shape of the backlights. It's nuts. He knows a lot about cars.

12- He's working on getting his CPA, he's a couple credits away from being able to take the CPA exam. So he's registering for college (even though he already has a bachelors degree in accounting) to take an ethics course that's required to test.

13- EmmaLee and AddiLyn have him wrapped around their pinky fingers.. He has the hardest time disciplining Emma. He does it anyways but he always feels so bad afterwards. I've been putting him through a crash course on how to discipline. I'm the mean one. ;)

14- Ryan has a goal to get up early and read scriptures, and he listens to conference talks to and from work. He's amazing.

15- His favorite superhero is captain America.

16- He asked me to marry him on both knees :)

17- He has a need for speed when driving. Cars, four wheelers, bikes, you name it. If it's driveable he will drive it about as fast as it can go at least once. It drives me nuts! Crazy man driver. 

18- He doesn't like playing games (card games, chess.. Stuff like that) with me because he hates losing :) 

19- Ryan loves doing things outdoors. He's a mountain man at heart.

20- He's the best husband and friend a girl could ask for! I'm a lucky girl to be able to call him my man :)

4 Year Anniversary

It's our anniversary! Happy anniversary to us :)

The last 4 years have brought:

2 college graduations 

1 (almost 2 - 18 days left!) sweet 

daughters 

1 cat

7 moves 

2 cars

5 long road trips

Moving to a different state

Becoming first time home owners 

4 years of happiness! 

I love you Ryan!

Pictures, just because

First I'd like to start out by saying how much I love my Ryan. Watching him grow as a father and seeing how much EmmaLee absolutely adores him is so heart warming. He is such a good provider and protector, he loves us with his whole heart. His drive to always be better and improve motivates me to improve myself. He is ambitious and so loving. I have no doubt he will always be a great father to his daughters and I know we will get through the crazy things life thows at us. I Love this man!

Alright. Now that I've got all my sappy love all over everything it's time for something even better: picture overload!!

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm totally one of those moms who is completely enthralled with her child. 

I realize that some of you could care less about seeing ten million pictures of my one toddler. 

Please, feel free to go read your own blog if that's the case! ;) 

 These are some Easter pictures I took of Emma at the ranch! These are also her 2 year photos ( sniff! I can't believe my baby is almost 2!!)

"Jump! Jump!"

She wouldn't sit down very easily, too pokey. 

Pete is such a sweet uncle.

Saying hi to the helicopter passing by. 

She's been sick and extra snuggly! She fell asleep on me twice, which doesn't happen much! I'm so blessed to have her!

Pretty princess.

So I think it's safe to say I'm pretty obsessed with this little girl. She has my heart. Her world is about to be turned upside down in a couple weeks or so, I'm hoping she loves the change and handles it well. But no matter how she handles it, I'll still love this sweetheart! Always will. 

Ryan's Graduation

Ryan is a college graduate!

I'm so proud of him! 

He worked so hard to get good grades and he did it! 

We are now living in Texas and Ryan is working with his dad at PeisnerJohnson&Co. and he's super excited about it. He loves having a job that he can progress in and finally use his degree.

Now I have to get use to him being gone all day. :(

That will definitely be an adjustment for me. 

But it's a new chapter in our lives that I'm ready to begin. This new situation will bring on so many new challenges, experiences, adventures and blessings. 

Bring it. 😏

Team Johnson

This weekend Ryan and I got the opportunity to go to Badger Creek and participate in a "Married Couples Retreat." It was through the BYU-I, I am grateful for the opportunity. It was A LOT of fun and an excellent learning opportunity. It was an overnight gig so EmmaLee stayed at her grandparents.

Friday:

Basically a group of about 10 couples all went down to Badger Creek together. Once we got there we were assigned our separate cabins. We all ate dinner and got to know each other. There were a lot of different personalities and fun couples. 

We were given the opportunity to talk with a motivational speaker and we learned a lot about different problem solving skills we can utilize as a married couple and talked about worries or concerns... It's a relief to find out that not everyone's marriage is perfect. Sometimes it seems like we are the only one's that are flawed. From the outside everyone seems to have the perfect marriage, they are perfect people, and the perfect life. Ryan and I have a great marriage-- better than it's ever been, actually -- but it is far from perfect. And it's nice to know that others have their struggles, too. Despite what it may seem. 

We also talked about in-laws (dun, dun, DUNNN) and dealing with the insecurities or differences you may have with them and ways to deal with it...which is something we BOTH needed to hear. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love my in-laws, especially my brothers in law. Ryan loves my family as well. But our families are so extremely different (if not completely opposite)  from each other  so it's been hard for us to get acclimated to each others family completely. It was so good to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't feel like 100% part of the family when visiting the in-laws. Phew! ;)

That night I barely slept a wink. I have the WORST case of baby separation anxiety ever. I woke up every half hour or so thinking about how Emma is and if she's doing okay. (Turns out she had a blast with her aunts and grandma, slept GREAT and probably didn't even notice I was gone!)

Saturday:

So I woke up exhausted and turns out it was quite a physically taxing day. 

We did a lot of physical activities that required major team work. We did a ropes course; we had to climb up super high as a team, it was called the "Dangling Duo." You really relied on your spouse to make it to the top together. It was terrifying but Ryan kept me going and safe.

We did a lot of other courses that required good communication and trust between spouses and basically Ryan and I found out we make a GREAT team. We completed everything in record time and beat quite a few records. Basically, we're awesome. :) We went on a hike and had alone couple time. We sat in some long grass when we got to the top and looked at the beautiful scenery together. 

The whole thing really taught us both a lot, we met a lot of fun people, but most importantly it united us as a team and brought us closer. I love my team mate. :)

May

It's May already!
This month we've hit some big marks!
Mark #1: My sweet little EmmaLee turns one! I can hardly believe it. Part of me wants to go to my room and sob into my pillow because my baby is growing up. But I try to stuff  that part of me into a vault and lock it down. I don't want to be one of those sad moms always crying whenever my children progress and grow. It's a good thing she is turning one and growing well, it's been such a blessed year with her in our lives. She has enriched our lives so much. Oh, how I love my little sweetie!
I'll take you on a "quick" walk down the last years memory lane.

FIRST WEEK OF LIFE

Welcome to the world, EmmaLee!

Headed home, so small in her car seat.

She had the skinniest, longest legs

 First bath (very traumatizing for both me and Emma)

 Just a day old

First day out, my first Mothers day as a mama! 8 days old

12 days old

MONTH 1

 Getting chunky :)

MONTH 2

MONTH 3

MONTH 4

MONTH 5

MONTH 6

First "successful" ponytail. Still so bald.

1`1

MONTH 7

MONTH 8

 Tried walking, fell. Got scared of walking. Didn't try again for months.

MONTH 9

 First time wearing shoes and tolerating it

MONTH 10

Hair was finally long enough to do cute ponytails :)

MONTH 11

1 YEAR

Mark #2: WE'VE BEEN MARRIED FOR 3 YEARS. I'm so lucky that I married the sweetest, most loving and handsome man in the world. I love that man! Life is good.