Fun Fall Jar

Wow, long time no blog!!

Things at the Johnson home have been a little crazy. Not bad crazy, just normal busy life crazy. I am feeling like I am getting my 4 month old on a good schedule and now that my 2 girls are in 1st grade and preschool....I actually have a little free time! This free time is almost always spent cleaning or preparing something for the kids, but I'm not complaining! Today I took that free time and created our Fun Fall Jar!

What exactly is a Fun Fall Jar you ask?? Well let me show you :)

Using the same jar that we used for our School's Out Jar, I simply turned some scrapbook paper and leftover burlap into this fun jar full of all the things we want to do this fall :)

Burlap....my newest obsession.

Then I simply cut a bunch of leaves with my Silhouette and on each one wrote one thing we want to do this fall. Every week we will pick out the activities we want to do for that week and hang them up on our magnet board in the kitchen. Hopefully this will help us make sure we don't miss ONE part of my favorite season :)

Some of our favorite fall activities are:

Making Caramel Apples

Going on a leaf hunt

Visiting a pumpkin patch

Going to Gardner Village

Decorating Pumpkins

Trying a Cornmaze

Go apple-picking

Make leaf art

Please share, what are some of your families favorite FALL activities?? :)

Thank you so much for stopping by and check back next week for a fun General Conference tradition, yummy recipes, 2 weeks full of fun apple activities with your kids and lots more!

Bodies Week!

We had a great week last week in our home learning all about our amazing bodies!! It was so odd doing all these activities without my oldest daughter. It was for her I started doing these weekly themes when she was just 2 years old!! Now my big girl is in school and I get to spend some precious time with my middle two children and it was SO fun to see more of their little personalities come out and enjoy teaching and just having fun with them.

To kick-off our week we did one of our favorite dances.....over and over and over again :) Thank goodness my visiting teachers came over or we might STILL be doing it! My kids loved the Hokey-Pokey and it is a great way to focus on some different body parts and to start helping your kids differentiate between their left and right.

On Wednesday we did one of my favorite activities that the kids always seem to get a kick out of. All you need is a roll of butcher paper, markers or crayons, and you are ready to go!
These pics are out of order but you just have your kids lay down on the butcher paper and then you trace around their entire bodies.

Once I had traced both the kids I pointed to different body parts on the tracing and had the kids tell me what it was. Then I labeled the different body parts and the kids got to color themselves :) They totally loved it!

But I think the kids favorite activity was this next one :) We simply had english muffin pizzas for lunch but the kids got to make them as faces. Here is all you need to make your very own face pizza :)


I put everything in its own container and then put it all on a cookie sheet. This made the cleanup super easy and the kids loved having their own of everything. We used olives, mozzerella cheese, pizza sauce, carrots and sliced green onions. And the english muffins of course :)

The kids had a ball decorating their own faces and then gobbling them up. I had some fun of my own and came up with this cute little guy :) Honestly this was a great activity and as the kids made different parts of the face we talked about what our noses, ears, eyes and mouths are for.

Finally if you go to THIS website they have a bunch of matching games, short books and coloring pages about different body parts. I printed off the book and matching games years ago and laminated them. I keep them in my folder under activities for Body Week and its great to just pull them out whenever we want them.

Thank you so much for stopping by Blue Skies Ahead! I can't believe more than a handful of people actually look at this thing...but I am so glad that you do! Have a wonderful week and be sure to stop by next week to see all of the fun we had with Apple Week! :)

My take on the Burlap Wreath!

It had been a while since I had made anything crafty so on Friday I packed all 4 kids in the car and headed off to my favorite store...Hobby Lobby! I knew I wanted to attempt some sort of burlap wreath, I have seen SO many different takes on these and wanted to see if there was a way I could make something cute on my own. I loved how it turned out, I finished it in one evening after the kiddies were in bed, and it cost around $5 to make.

Here's what I had to get started....a wreath form made of straw that I found for $2 and one yard of burlap.

Then I cut approx 2 1/2 inch strips of the burlap and hot-glued the end of one piece and then just wrapped it around and around until it covered the entire form.

Once I had the wreath covered I grabbed some fun coordinating fabric and made a bunch of different sized yo-yos. I did colors that matched my kitchen and family room so I could bring the wreath inside once the holidays come.

When I went to bed on Friday this is what my finished product looked like. I really liked it...but it kind of felt like something was missing. It was really bugging me by the time I woke up on Saturday so I knew I had to try and add just a little something :)




I think I figured it out!! I simply got a roll of brown tulle, and wrapped it around the burlap, leaving lots of space between each part. I think it looks MUCH better now....:)




So there you have it! My new homemade fall wreath! Sadly, I don't even have a wreath hanger so these pictures will have to do for now, but I am super excited to get this beauty up on the door. VERY rarely to my little crafts end up anywhere near as cute as I hope, so I am pretty excited about this one! :) Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend everyone and thank you SO much for stopping by!!

Monthly Service family home evening....lets try this again!

About two years ago I decided I wanted to have the first Family Home Evening of every month focused on service, where we either started or completed a service project that evening. Well....didn't quite take off :) Now here we are two years later and I am feeling strongly once again that my family could REALLY benefit and learn from serving others and forgetting ourselves. And let's be honest...I could really benefit from it too :) My kids have gotten older and I don't think I could teach them anything better than to learn to LOVE to serve. So we are kicking of September with our first service project...kind of fitting that its on Labor Day, right?!

To get us into the spirit I quickly threw together this printable. I think it will be a great reminder for our whole family, but honestly, mostly for me :) I love the trendiness of the Keep Calm signs and thought this would fit perfectly on our new monthly focus. Please feel free to copy and print to have one of your own...I made a few different colors.

For Monday night's fhe we are going to the store to buy school supplies for a drive our ward is doing. I thought that having the kids pick something out that they don't really have to pay for probably isn't going to take that much sacrifice on their part. So all week they have been doing extra chores and earning tickets. For every ticket they have they will be able to pick out one thing for the school supplies drive. This way they had to work and sacrifice in their own small way to bless the lives of others. Then on Sunday we will join with our ward at an activity where we put together these supplies for kids that really need them.

So tell me....what are some service projects you have done with your family? I am SO excited and motivated to show my children what a gift it is to be able to forget yourself and serve selflessly those around us. Until next time, thanks so much for stopping by, and KEEP CALM and SERVE ON :)

Fit Friday...recognizing your achievements!!

Today's Fit Friday is ALL about recognizing our achievements...even if we still have a little ways to go. I think it is SO important to set realistic goals that we can accomplish, and once we have, set a new goal and so on! It feels so empowering to actually accomplish something that we have set out to do, especially if its something hard.

So today I am ....GULP....sharing with you some BEFORE and RIGHT NOW pictures :) Its pretty scary to do, because honestly, I am still not at my final destination. However, I have reached the goal that I set for myself and am pretty darn proud of it :) I am recognizing how far I have come...even if there is still a ways to go. And it feels GOOD!!

Alright...here goes :) This is me almost exactly 3 months ago, 3 weeks after I had my daughter Avrie. Got some work ahead of me :)

And here is a side shot from this morning.

One more from 3 months ago, head on.

And last one from this morning. Please be kind...I had just gotten home from a 5:30 am spin class :)

There you have it! Holy crap....its scary putting those pics out there :)

Now I have decided to forget the scale...it was never about the number anyways. I reached my goal of running 3 miles a while back, now I am up to 3.75 miles and my goal is 5 miles by Halloween.

So today I am saying....recognize the GOOD that you are doing!! Maybe its that you cooked one super healthy meal this week. Maybe you cut out one unhealthy food from your kids diet this week. Maybe you just started walking and made it twice around the block....WHATEVER it is, recognize your achievements and be proud of what you are doing to get more FIT!

Hope your not all scarred too badly from the pics, and that you have a wonderful holiday weekend, thanks so much for stopping by!!

30 Day Mom Challenge!

Yesterday I was spending a few minutes browsing on Pinterest and someone had pinned this fantastic idea from a great website. It got me so excited and motivated to do something I have been thinking about so much lately.

I love a fresh start and thats what September feels like to me. School is back in session, we are getting into routines, the weather is changing to my favorite season and its a time for me to evaluate my life and see where I can improve. One thing I am always thinking about is how I can be a better mother to these precious children I have. With my kids just starting to get into school and activities, I am getting a glimpse of how busy our lives will become in a few short years. Our lazy days of watching movies together, sleeping in, and just spending time together are quickly changing to early mornings, school routines, soccer practices and dance classes.

The thought I keep having over and over is that NOW is the time to forge these bonds even stronger, so that when the time comes that my little ones will be out of my home more than they will be in it, I will HOPE I did everything I could to show my love for them. I will HOPE I didn't waste those precious few years I had them with me all the time. And I will HOPE more than anything to be the kind of the mother they deserve.

To help me in my efforts is the 30 Day Mom Challenge! Click on the link so you can print out your own. I framed this last night and stuck it in my bathroom where I will see it every day. Today is September 1st, so you simply look at the number 1 on your list and work on that for one day. I LOVE things like this that give me ways to try and be a better mom without completely overwhelming me. There are a million things I can do better, but at least this way I know I did one thing each day to let my kids know how much I love them.

So who's with me??? Lets all join together, for at least 30 Days, and see what kind of a difference we can make in our homes and in the lives of our children by striving to be the best kind of mothers we can be! I am so excited to do this and I hope you will join me :) Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Fit Friday...A lifestyle change

As I have mentioned several times before, I tend to be an all or nothing type person. I feel like that is one reason I have such a hard time eating healthy. I either go crazy and have ONLY natural, organic, lean foods or I go to the opposite end of the spectrum and eat a bunch of processed, sugary crap :) It is so hard for me to find a healthy balance so I thought I would share today some things I am trying to do to not only eat healthy to lose weight, but changes I have made that I am going to try and stick with as I work on mainting as well. And again, its not just about weight! It's about teaching our kids what real food tastes like, that it can be delicious even if it doesn't come in a package....and yes, that occasionally those yummy treats are just fine too!

* For myself and my kids, I had to make a concious realization about the difference between snacks and treats. Treats are fine in moderation, but at our house treats had become snacks. Kids have snacks several times a day, and I was not liking the road we were going down. Now when I tell my kids (and myself) its snack time they know that means something like apple slices with all natural peanut butter, hummus with homemade baked pita chips, mandarin oranges and cottage cheese, or greek yogurt with some homemade granola on top. When I say its time for a treat, they know it may be a cookie, fruit snacks, a scoop of ice cream or something like that.

* This next one is a really popular option these days and I LOVE the way it has changed how my family eats. Many of you have probably heard of Bountiful Baskets or other kinds of produce co-ops....these are fantastic!! I do a neighborhood co-op and every other week we pay our alloted amount, and then get to go pick up a huge box full of fresh fruits and vegetables. I cannot tell you how much more produce we have been eating since we started doing this. If I have paid for something...I am going to do my darndest to use it! :) It has also made me so much more creative in how I use vegetables and has given my kids opportunities to try new things I would not have bought at the store otherwise. Just as an example, I got my co-op yesterday and it had bananas, pears, mushrooms, cantaloupe, tomatoes, pineapple, lettuce and carrots. I always let my kids pick one thing out of the box to eat on the way home. How great to see them so excited about fruit and vegetables!

* Eating healthy is expensive...lets be honest! It has always been difficult for me to spend so much money on food. But as we have discussed what we want for our family and whats important to us we have had to change the way we think. I now view our grocery budget as an investment of the greatest kind. It's an investment in my families health...and one that I believe will pay off in the long run. Of course, its different for every person and every budget, but we have chosen to take money out of our entertaiment fund and add it to our groceries.

* Let yourself have a good old-fashioned SUPER unhealthy treat once in a while! Just 2 days ago we had prepackaged frozen rolls, fried in oil, and then coated in powdered sugar for breakfast :) Healthy....NO. Fun to celebrate a little girls bday...YES!! I am aiming for moderation, and with that comes some great treats. The upside to this is that it makes those foods fun and exciting, where if you have them all the time...not so much. We went to Park City a few weeks back and if you ask my daughter her favorite part of the trip she will tell you "I got to pick out my own sugary cereal!!" A year or so ago that would have meant nothing because thats what she was eating for breakfast every day! :)

So please tell me: What are some healthy lifestyle changes YOU have incorporated into the way your family eats?? I am always looking for new things to try or new ways to get my kids excited about good healthy food. And lets be honest...some days I really need to get excited about it too! Since I have been trying to get Fit do you know what has tempted me the most? Kraft Macaroni and Cheese! Wierd...right?! Hope you all have a wonderful wonderful weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!! :)