Before & After

Happy Anniversary to me...well that is what James said. He ordered a new canner for us that holds 14 quart jars....WOW!! I told you about our neighbor from heaven well I did some canning and I also made some beautiful peach jam, ice cream topping, eat straight from the jar, what ever else we want to use it for. yeah!!

I'm in love with this canner!! I got some more chicken last week and it was done in 2 batches with the big canner. I put some in pint jars they are so beautiful!!

I'm such a procrastinator!! I waited to long to do the peaches and i didn't get to use all of them...I didn't even think about putting them in the refrigerator till after I made the jam.

I seriously thought I'd can these tomatoes and that would be that and I'd never use them well I already used a jar....with the spanish rice I make it uses stewed tomatoes and so I put them in the little processor and chopped them up alittle and dumped them in. yummy!! I got 7 jars of tomatoes I like to give one jar of what I make to my mom. I'll need to do some more soon It is so nice to use the canned things as we go. I've used the chicken a few times and we eat the jam all the time. We are close to having all our meat for our supply. It is so exciting!!

We have a Weeeeeener!!

We have had the most fun these last 2 weeks having visits with baby J. Who by the way has an official "name" until he is official.....The problem with keeping up with the J's is that most of them are taken by Ziegler boys and some Shreeve boys and a spouse and some are flat out no good. We narrowed it down to 3... Jaxon, Jaron, & Jonas the first name to get thrown out was Jonas...too faddish the next to get thrown out was Jaron....James just didn't like it. (no offense to all the Jaron's out there - i liked it) So Jaxon it is I love it. I found it on some blog I am sure I could never find again so... for all you blog stalkers....it pays off! The little boys are the best they call him by his name for everything. He is still baby for Samantha. He is heaven!! He has been spending the night off and on till the "paperwork" gets done. It's all good Jackie just takes him home for a night then we have him again for more sleepovers. I hope this does not take to long!! We finally took some pictures when he was here last Sunday. He was great at church - and he looked good. We love him!!
Our little helper she loves to feed Jaxon and she will sit there till he drinks his whole bottle
These are goofballs!! I think James took about 10 of them and no one could sit still or keep a straight face
This picture kills me....he has to be thinking about something serious!!These boys love to show off their musclesI couldn't resist this one it cracked me up she just turned her head away and peaked at me like he was undercover.Joey so great on his bike he can ride it with no training wheels...finallyShea had to have her picture taken with her hair up it was cute.

Top 3 reasons to get up this morning!!!

#3-- we had a visit from the toothfairy a couple of nights ago. Joey lost his first tooth...So the tooth fairy left him some dinero and he was so excited about that!! He put his tooth under his pillow and shazam in the morning there was a note from the fairy and some money...the first thing he asked was "where is my tooth" - When we were in Thatcher for Cannon's blessing he informs us that his tooth is falling out durring sacrament meeting. It was very loose Yeah his first tooth...perfect because it fell out the next day at school and we were headed to the dentist that very day. so Joey had to tell the dentist all about it. The dentist said the top teeth should come in right on schedule.

#2--I'm gonna save the best for last so I'll tell you how excited I am for amazing neighbors!! We have alot!! Carl stoped by about 7:00 tonight (he called James before) and dropped of seriously a flat of cheery tomatoes, a box of peaches, 3 boxes of cookie dough (m&m cookies) 2 huge boxes of churros so we (my favorite kitchen helper - Shea) hurried and cleaned out the freezer so we could add the churros then we got out the seal a mealer....we got 4 huge bags of cookies from each box. each bag has about 4 dozen balls of cookie dough!!!!! How fun!! thanks Carl!! I am most excited about the tomatoes and peaches. I'm gonna can the peaches and I emailed Wendy DeWitt to see if she had a great canning recipe for the tomatoes with some great spices or herbs....if you do let me at it!! I'll get to the peaches soon there is one on top that's already over done. Yeah for canning and being prepared (or at least trying to be)!!!!! Especially to Jen -- thanks for the great canning recipes -sweet pork and hello......beans to do burritos. Beans, water, and salt...how hard is that and it doesn't get any cheaper than that!!!!

And the #1 reason for us to have gotten out of bed this morning was to meet our sweet new baby boy. I am sitting here speechless......He is so beautiful. He looks like Jordan the most and then Samantha. We were alittle nervous about going to this meeting because we thought there was something fishy about this case because we have never gotten a call about him from his case workers... we have had to pursue with our license worker to get info about what was going on. Well turns out that sweet little love children do fall through the cracks in the system....his foster mom said the info she got was that his parents rights were severed and that he had no siblings. She Jackie (we will become great friends!! I just know it) is in it for the fostering....not the adopting. We will need to figure out where we know her from because she looks so familiar to us. Pre-existence maybe?? She has had him since he got out of the hospital. I can't see to type because the pictures of us with baby J are so surreal. Jen I did cry on the way home because I wanted to take him home right then..... We will start the transitioning this weekend and the plan is to have him here asap within 30 days. She had a beautiful picture of him that she gave us and the kids are so excited about their baby they all want to hold him and even Jesse gave everyone the list of what we cannot do to the baby, kick, hit, scratch, step on, bite, lay on, poke his eyes, sit on, pinch I can't remember them all but it was so perfect that he knew that he needed to be nice to the baby. We are excited!! So for out 15th wedding anniversary this year we are going to have our 6th slice of heaven.

I am still overwhelmed at the love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for each of us and how they know just what we need and how much or little we need of it. I really believe our new friend Jackie was the one Heavenly Father wanted to take care of our baby for these past months. She is heaven. There was such a peace in the room as we were meeting to permanently place baby J. It was such a perfect meeting. A perfect day. One that I will gladly get up for again and again.....

I have the perfect quote for the day - I may have it made up in vinyl or I'll do an embroidery of it, it is so perfect for our family.

First we had each other... then we had you...now we have everything.

Fantastic Weekend!!

Don't be to shocked that I'm doing what I said I would...posting right after the weekend....I do what I can.

We had a great weekend in small town America!!!! We went to Thatcher for Cannon's blessing. I love small towns. Even though they are small there is always something fun to do. We got in late Friday night so we set up he trailer and got the kids to bed. How great is it to park next to a house with an extension cord!!! I think now we have tested everything on the trailer and it all works air, heater, water heater, generator, running off propane. We had a great time we need to do it more often!! Saturday morning Jon took the kids on a walk to see the roosters and the cows and horses. The little kids were so excited about the roosters they had to show us everyone of them. funny people!! where was the camera?????

Later that morning we went to see Jen and the boys and they invited us to go up the moudin to play in the snow.........we have been talking about taking the kids so we went. Well after far to many miles on a curvy road and thank goodness we had large cups...we like to call them our barf cups. we used 1 out of the 5 on the way up an 3 of the 5 on the way down. we even had to pull over and empty out a couple of them. anyway that was the yuck of the trip. The kids loved the snow except they got way to cold. we didn't plan on the snow so all we really had were the gloves they got for Christmas... and layers and layers of long sleeve shirts. We were not prepared to get cold and wet but we all had a great time after the kids defrosted their toes. We just brought their bags of clothes so they could change everything. If they were dressed warmer Joey and Jordan and Shea could have stayed all day and played they had the most fun. I think we stayed less time in the snow than the drive that it took to get there.......But we are done with the snow for the year!!!!! yeah!! After the snow we got "home" and the kids went to pick pecans and I went to Walmart to buy everyone new shoes and a shower rod for the shower. I thought they would have a better selection than here.....I should have known better (small town = small selections) I got some and the kids couldn't wait for school this morning so they could wear them and show their teachers.

Do you see all the crying here?? this was the best we could do for a family picture in the snow it was too cold and wet and it was nap o'clock.

The blessing on Sunday was beautiful!! There were 3 blessings - Cannon Jonathan Ziegler - he is darling. I didn't even get pictures of him.....I'm still figuring out that I need to take pictures of everything and everyone!!!! I did get pictures of the kids a the park after the blessing. they had great fun!! We didn't stay to long we (more like James) wanted to get back to phoenix early enough for the game. Steph and Trevor had a "party" It was great!! the kids had a great time..they played in the back room with the toys and watched cars the part they loved was all the food they had free access to. You name it they had it - and the kids favorite...little bottles of soda. It was a very busy weekend and we were going, going the whole time but the kids were troopers!! they did great! they are always up for a fun time and an adventure.

Our drive home was uneventful except for the fun going on in the back seats. I had to delete most of them they were blurry and most of them were of Joeys shoes. ha ha.

this is what happens when you give the cameras to the kids in the back seat.

Self portraits - Shea has more than one - Always!!
Sideways Samantha...
these are Joey's shoes...
Jordan's bum...
Blurry Jesse...

We are trying to make sure we don't miss out on anything because there are more of us now. I really want the kids to have great memories of all the things we did as a family. mostly going to visit family and doing things with good friends. I love that they know which cousins live in Utah and which grandma and grandpa is which.....the ones with the pool or the one with a broken arm...funny.

Our most recent discussions at the table have been who is going to baptize them.....I don't know how this came up but the little kids (Joey was first) started naming off his possibles...while I was trying to do the quick math will they be on a mission or not in 2 1/2 yrs. He wavers between (his favorite) uncle Brian and Adam. the other ones say someone different every time. I love how they think about it so much. They know that when they go to the stake center that is where Shea got baptized. They are cute and it is fun to see them learning little gospel principles. We have a big week ahead of us. All the kids get to go to the dentist today. Yesterday in church Joey comes to show us his tooth that is "falling out" both his bottom teeth are loose. So going today to the dentist is perfect!! Hopefully he will let the dentist take xrays to see how his top teeth are coming in. Well the house is calling me, I still need to unpack and do camping laundry and get some stuff back into the trailer for our next trip - which I hope will be soon.

February 11th at 1:00pm

We are pretty sure we are having another baby!! Last October we were told that the kids mom had another baby. Well after alot of calls and emails and digging for info we will be meeting with the baby's caseworker and some other team members so they can determine permanent placement for the baby. We are so excited!! the baby was born in October so he is just 3 months old. He has been in fostercare right from the hospital. We are hoping it doesn't take to long for the transition and that we can get him before the end of February. From what I understand the rights have already been severed or are in the process so he is ready (or almost ready) for adoption. The kids are so excited. They have been telling everyone. So everyday the teachers at school ask how things are going. We have found working with the government it is always a waiting game. So we're glad that we learned alittle about patience when we were younger.

We also have other exciting news after almost 2 years of being out of a 8 to 5 job James has been hired by a temp agency to work at Wells Fargo doing loanish stuff. It's just a temp job but it is good money for now while he has it and it could turn into permanent....what ever that means anymore. He has done so great with his bullet business he has gotten alot of regulars who like his stuff so he will still do alittle of that. His shift is 2 to 11pm so he will still be able to take the kids to school in the morning and get alot done before he has to go in at 2. It will be a new adjustment for all of us for him not to be home and available all day. I'm hoping we will survive!! My biggest worry.....who will help Shea with her math???? I'm serious.. I don't know this kind of math.

We are so excited to head down to Safford/Thatcher/Central (do you think they could give this place 1 name??) tonight for Jon and Amanda's baby blessing. we are taking the camper to stay in and the kids are so excited because we are going "camping" even though we are parking in front of Jon's house. We are also going to visit our favorite Knight's the boys need to play with Benjamin they will (better) get along great!! Well I have packing to do, Sunday shirts to iron and food to figure out so we'll take alot of pictures while we are "camping" and post them next week.

I'll Try!!

I can't promise because I know me...but I'll try to do better this year at blogging. I have already started off not so great!! It has been far to long and so much has happened since the first of December when I last entered. We are doing fantastic!! We are all done with the sharing of the flu and sniffles and sneezing and we are ready for spring to get here.

We had fantastic holiday!! We got to see all the grandmas and grandpas cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, who else is there?? We had to wake the kids up for Christmas morning at 8:30 we finally decided that if we were going to get all of our visits in we better get going. I will say that next year we won't be buying anything for the kids (jk) They have to many people who are givers!! they got stuff from everyone...and we are so grateful for everything. The kids love to play with toys who doesn't??? We had a great winter break and the kids got right back into school. I really think they missed it. I love getting to be at home with Samantha for a few hours in the morning just so we can hang out she is growing so quick!!

I'm not a New Year resolution maker but I have decided to work on some things this year. I always worry that I can't learn new things and yet when I try them...it seems that I can. We had great start of the year this month with a stake preparedness night where we had a food storage pep rally that got me really excited about doing better at it for our family. I think it's easier to say everything will be fine when it is just 2 of you but everything changes when you are responsible for 5 little people. So I got 80lbs of chicken and bottled it. This is one of the things that normally would make me nervous but I did it and it looks beautiful and I got almost 35 quarts of chicken ready to add to my list of food storage items. I'm excited to do other meats like ham and beef. I have always been sold on the Costco chicken.....I am officially over that and have now saved $10.00 to $30.00 every time I go to Costco just buying the canned chicken and beef. I'm still waiting for the perfect day to make my homemade laundry soap. It will be soon I can feel it.

It's December!!!

I was late putting up Thanksgiving/fall decorations so I feel like I just put them up and now it is time to take them down to put up the Christmas ones. I'm excited!! Last night we had the annual Johnson Christmas party including a visit from Santa. We had one less crier than last year. It was fun the kids had a great time. There are always amillion kids there. I think the kids are figuring out about Santa and Christmas. Shea knows it all. The little kids....as soon as this year goes by they will have a grasp on Christmas. I had a great idea for our family Christmas dinner this year since we aren't going to pick names to exchange gifts (for the cousins) I'll have to let you know how it turns out!! But you will have to wait. For the party the kids sang some songs and I recorded it but you couldn't hear them so I deleted the video. I'll have them do it again.

Here is a shout out to our newest blogger in the family!! Vanessa. Welcome!! Can't wait to see all your posts. You are such a grown up!!

Love you!!