When we were looking for houses in Tooele we had a few things on our list of wants and a few things on our list of needs.  One of the biggest things that we wanted was a nice fenced yard that the kids could just run in.  When we found this house we got more than we even expected.  Our house is on 1/2 an acre and it SO nice.  The kids LOVE to be outside and it's so fun to see them out running around instead of being hooked to the IPad, TV, XBox, or any other electronic device they can find.  We have been enjoying the days since they have been getting warmer.  Joseph got an awesome grill for his "house warming" present.  That is just a disguise for "yay! He can grill a lot this summer! :)"  He has grilled quite a few times already and it's been delicious every time!  Here are some pictures of us enjoying a nice night in the backyard.

So I have obviously not posted for a LONG time.  I'm not sure why.  It's not that I don't have time.....I find plenty of other things to do to waste time.  I think it's because I am too concerned with being witty and funny and happy all of the time on here for other people to read. It took me 20 minutes of staring at the background of this blog to finally decide to leave it.  I like it, I just think maybe it's too happy for my blog.  I am not a naturally happy person, naturally sarcastic....yes, but not naturally happy.  I am however married to an eternal optimist, and I have also given birth to some children that inherited this trait from him, so we will leave the background.  BUT, since I haven't posted for 18 months, maybe no one will read it and I won't have to worry about it.  :)  I have been following a couple of blogs that the authors post a lot.....one everyday.  And I love to read them.  And I just keep thinking "That is going to be so nice for them to be able to go back and read about all of the things that they did......what am I doing to record our lives??"  The answer was NOTHING.  So I am back....at least for now.  (Thanks Bobi and Amanda for inspiring me)

So many things have happened to our family in the last 18 months that I will never be able to go back and catch up.  I am, however, going to try and  make a list of some of the things that I can remember.

*My baby turned 1 year old last March.  Like a year ago.
*Before that Kael turned 7.
*We got a job in Brigham City, which led to the selling of our townhouse in Omaha, and moving back "home". 
*Joseph graduated from dental school in May 2011.  I am still amazed at him and what he sacrificed for our family and that we actually made it through.
*We left our beloved Omaha, Village Green, our friends, our ward, our zoo, and Burger Star.  This was one of the hardest things I have had to do.  I never thought when I moved out there that I would dread the day that we would leave, but I did.  And I still miss it so much that it is hard to think of it and hard to look at pictures of when we were there.
*Joseph started working in Brigham City in June 2011.  He worked 2.5 days a week and was looking forward to being busy and buying a practice in our "home town"
*Aidan turned 6 in July.
*We took a fun filled trip to Disneyland in July 2011.  We were supposed to make it to Sea World, but most of us got extremely ill and spent a lot of our vacation in the bathroom taking turns puking or, well you know.
*We FINALLY potty trained Owen in June 2011.  I was terrible and told him that he couldn't go to Disneyland if he wasn't potty trained.  He was trained the next day.  Sometimes when your kids are smarter than you, you have to pull out the big guns.
*Kael started 2nd grade and Aidan went to Kindergarten at Lakeview Elementary.  Kael got to be in his counsin Darant's class.  He loved it, the teacher didn't. :)  Owen started pre school at the Peak.  He went 3 days a week and cried on the days he didn't go.
*I got a nephew on my side at the end of September.  He is our first one!!! Jude is adorable, and after surviving a rough start, he is getting so big and fun all of the time.
*Owen turned 4 in October!! He is SO old.
*Joseph turned 31 in November.  I still can't believe he is that old.  He is still 18 in his mind and fun loving personality.  He is amazing and he keeps me sane and happy.  I would be in trouble without him.
*In December the bottom fell out of our plans.  The details are too long to blog, and I don't know that I need to write them all down.  It's something that I won't forget.  It was very frustrating.  It was a huge test of faith to think that we had prayed about where we should go after school.  We had a job in Omaha that we had thought about taking.  We felt like we should move back to Brigham City.  It was humbling to think that we had done what we felt we should do and it was all falling apart anyway.  By the end of December we were in the middle of a pretty frantic job hunt, loans were now in repayment, and Joseph was out of a job at the beginning of the year.
*In late December, we had applied to quite a few jobs.  Anything that sounded good.  We had applications out in Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and we were really looking into heading back to the Midwest.  We really had no hopes of being able to stay in Utah at all.  We were trying to excercise faith and I was wondering how I was going to move my family in the middle of a school year.  I was more than a little stressed.  We had applied to a job at a corporate place in West Jordan.  We didn't think that there was much of a chance of getting it, but we had applied anyway.  Joseph got an interview that he would go to the second week of January.  We had also applied to a job in Tooele.  Neither of us had ever been to Tooele.  From the ad they sounded like a small practice that was pretty layed back.  They just wanted a paragraph that told what you liked to do in dentistry.  I was a little concerned and doubtful, but I had Joseph send his info anyway.  He got an interview there too, on the same day as his interview in West Jordan.  He went to both interviews and came home in love with the practice in Tooele.  It sounded too good to be true, but they wanted him to come to a working interview the next week.  He liked the job in West Jordan too, but told me there was no way that he would get that one.  (This was on Thursday).  On Monday night the company in West Jordan called and offered him the job.  We were very very surprised.  Later that week he went to his working interview in Tooele and LOVED it.  Everything about it.  Now we had a decision to make and it was far from any decision we thought we would have to make.  We were so blessed to have two jobs to pick from and both in Utah!! We prayed and went to the temple and FINALLY made the decision to go with the job in Tooele.  He started the last week in January and has loved every minute of it since then.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.
*In January we also took Aidan to Shriners Hospital for his scoliosis.  They x-rayed his back and his curve in his spine was at 92 degrees. 92!! How can you even stand up??!!  We were all prepared for them to tell us that he would be scheduled to have growth rod surgery (a surgery where they put two metal rods down each side of your spine to hold it in place, and then they lengthen them every 6 months so that you can grow).  Instead we were told that they wanted to do EDF casting, and option that we had NEVER heard of.  He will have a seies of casts put on to try and straighten the curve.  They sedate him, stretch him and straighten him, and then apply a cast.  They leave it on for four months and then they do it again.  The goal is to get him as straight as possible and then brace it until he stops growing.  Then he will have to have vertebrate fused when he is done growing.  This option was such a surprise to us.  When we got home and I looked it up on the internet I was in total disbelief.  We had never heard of it because only 4 hospitals in the entire United States do it.  And Shriners in Salt Lake is one of them.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.  To me it is not a coincidence that we took the first job in Utah, nor is it a coincidence that we were able to find another better job in Utah again.  My mom told me once that I may worry about Aidan, but that I needed to remember that if Heavenly Father is looking out for anyone, it's Aidan. 
*In February my baby turned 8.  I am officially old.  Kael was baptized at the end of February and it was awesome. 
*In March my real baby turned 2.  It was terrible.  I can't believe that she is already that old......but at the same time she thinks that she is at least 18.  She talks like an adult and sings and dances and performs and is so much fun.  She is a girly girl and she is also a little wild tomboy.
*Right before Olivia's birthday Aidan got his first cast.  He picked green so it could be a Ninja Turtle cast.  They took the curve in his spine from 92 degrees to 66 degrees.  He is doing extremely well with it on.  We are so excited for the possibilities that the casting could bring him.
*On March 31st we FINALLY moved to Tooele.  It had been a VERY long few months of Joseph commuting 3 hours a day.  We are doing a rent to own on a house that we love with a yard that we love even more.  The kids have started school and they love it.  Aidan is already getting all of his help and the people at the school are wonderful.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Now we are just enjoying being down here.  We love Tooele.  This past year and a half since I blogged has been a constant challenge and a constant trial of faith, but I can honestly say that I am at one of the happiest points in my life.  And my 10 year anniversary is coming up next week!!!! We are so old!!! :)  Here are some pictures to enjoy from the last little while!!

Well we survived our first Christmas on our own.  We have never ever done Christmas with just our family in the 8.5 years that we have been married.  I will say that it was very relaxing, not having to pack anything, or get on a plane, or get dressed for that matter.  But it was also really different.  I think the kids enjoyed being at their own house and I enjoyed not having to figure out how we were going to get all of our stuff home with us. But I missed the regular things that we usually do.  My grandma's Christmas party....even the drama....that's what really makes the party, and the Johnson Christmas Eve party, and the sleeping in the same room with everyone at my mom's house.  And I must say I was jealous when I heard that we were missing out on Hunan Village last night, and on a rousing game of Clue today.  We did have a good time together though, and it was fun to have the kids all to ourselves.   The boys were up at 6:15 this morning.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but Joseph and I were up until around 1:30 trying to put a treadmill together (one of the presents that Santa brought us).  We opened tons and tons of presents and finally decided to eat breakfast around 11:30.  We Skyped with both families and even got to talk to my brother Nathan in Panama.  All in all it was a great day, and we got a lot of presents!