CAN'T WAIT!!!

YES, it is Christmas tomorrow! I can't wait! I am just like a little kid at Christmas! I love it! I love spending time with family and I love to see kids get so excited about it! This year we did the 12 days of Christmas for 2 families (taking them something every night for 12 days). It has been the highlight for all of us! Our kids have loved sneaking to the doors every night, knocking and running! It is so much fun helping others have a happy holiday! We hope you all enjoy your Christmas and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas! We have already had a fun December and the rest of this week will be fun too! After Christmas, we are so excited to go to Salt Lake and see Brett's parents and all of the family! It will be so fun! Tonight my family is coming to our house for dinner and then we are making gingerbread houses and playing games!
Here is a little to catch up on the last two weeks...

At dance this week, we got to go in the studio and watch. Santa came to Kallie's class and that was fun to watch Santa do a little "dancing" with the girls! As soon as Santa entered the studio, Bryce FREEKED out! He was up and screaming "MOM!" and running to my lap as fast as he could. He would not even look at him. The girls, on the other hand, had a great time seeing him! Here is Kallie's dance class with Santa:

This is Bryce and his two cousins with him as we watched dance (Tanner, Bryce, and Tyce). They all have sisters in dance together...they love it!

Malorie's dance class just performed...no Santa! They are really doing a good job with tap this year! I love to see the improvements every year! My girls love taking dance! Shake it girl! Nice performance!

This year my mom wanted all of her kids and their families to spend the night sometime during the holiday. We all agreed to it and did it last Friday night...what fun we had! We didn't do a lot of sleeping, but we sure partied! Here is a picture of me and my five siblings...yes, I am the oldest! The number by our name is ranging from oldest to youngest! Trever (3), Heather (2), me(1), Lindsay(5), David (6), and Christopher (4)...he is the one laying on us!

My mom bought all of the grandkids pjs and let them open them that night. We played games and slept in every room in the house. The next morning we did a big breakfast and did our gift exchange. Heather's family gave our family all slippers! We love them! Thanks Koby, Heather, and Lizzie! My kids have worn them non-stop!

We stayed up late and of course, the kids were the first to awake. Here are a few pics from the morning:

Thanks Dad and Mom for a great "slumber" party!

Brett and I just had our 11th anniversary. We celebrated it early by doing sealings at the temple and going to dinner. The night of our "real" anniversary was the Orr (my mom's family) Christmas party. We have it every year at the Egin Church. Each year one of her siblings is in charge. This year it was her sister Brenda and her family. We ate dinner and then they had a karaoke machine and had people put other people's name in a bowl to see who would be the lucky singers for the night. Well, Brett and I got chosen because it was our anniversary. They had us sing with Destry and Liz. WE had to sing "Frosty".

They also had my mom and all of her siblings sing "Rudolph" and my Aunt Carole went CRAZY! No one could sing because everyone was laughing so hard at Aunt Carole! She totally "let loose" and stepped out of her "comfort zone"!

My sister, sister-in-laws, and cousins also had to sing.

It was a great party!

And now for Santa...Bryce saw Santa come into the party and was NOT PLEASED!! He was not excited to see Santa again, but we HAD to have a picture so he knows one day how much he loves Santa! Bryce does not want Santa to come to our house tonight...not even to bring him a toy!

The other kids were excited to tell him what they wanted for Christmas! They have a few more hours to be good! Conner asking for Lazer tag:

Malorie asking for a Pucci Pup:

Kallie asking for a doll with extra clothes to change it:

Cousin Lizzie seeing Santa for her first time:

Here is one of our traditions...decorating Christmas sugar cookies. Bryce just wanted to lick the icing off of his knife! Don't worry, we didn't let him "double dip"!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa finds you and I hope you have been good boys and girls!

Hot Chocolate...with milk or water?

Have you ever laughed so hard in one evening that you think you can't laugh anymore? It happens every month at Bonko!!! Last night we had Bonko and that is exactly what we did...laugh and laugh and laugh! It is so much fun! We have a great group of friends that get together and a ton that come and sub for us too! We talk about the craziest things some times...well not sometimes...all of the times! But when I come home and tell Brett about some of the things we laughed about it doesn't seem quite as funny! I guess it is one of those things..."you just had to be there"! I love that we can go and share things with each other that are happening in our lives and we know we can trust our friends! Thanks to all of you! You make it so fun!



Last night we got talking about hot chocolate and hot chocolate machines. Someone mentioned putting the milk in the machine and outloud I thought, "Milk?" I usually put water in my hot chocolate. So then they started to tell me how much better hot chocolate is with milk...so girls, this morning I had hot chocolate with milk...and it was D-licious! I am sure I have had it that way before...I don't rememberr when, but now it will be all of the time! It was so much creamier! My favorite hot chocolate is STEPHEN'S CHOCOLATE MINT TRUFFLE! Talk about GOOD, but you can't forget to add the marshmallows...and it was even BETTER with milk instead of water!

I like to have my hot chocolate with a piece of toast and scrambled eggs. What is your favorite hot chocolate?



So to all of my Bonko friends...YOU ARE GREAT!!! Thanks for keeping me laughing! See you next month!

The Christmas season is fast approaching! We put our Christmas tree up the day before Thanksgiving this year. We ended up having Thanksgiving at our house this year so I wanted all of the Christmas stuff up to help us get in the holiday spirit. The kids were SO excited when we got all of the Christmas totes out! They would rummage through the totes and get excited when they found something they remembered from last year or years past.
We had a great time putting up the tree. Bryce didn't know what to think about it. At first he sat on the couch and just kept crying, "NO!" I think he was kind of scared of it and wondered why there was a tree in the middle of the living room. After we got the branches all spread out and the lights and tinsel on, he began to think the tree was okay. When he started helping put ornaments on, he really liked the tree and kept wanting to rearrange them every few minutes.
The kids all had fun putting the ornaments on! Conner got to reach the high spots!
We had a great Thanksgiving day! It is always nice to spend the day with family...it doesn't really matter what you are doing as long as family is together. We had a great dinner and TONS of food and desserts. I had typed up "dinner conversation" questions that we passed around while we ate. It was fun to learn things about everyone and it also helped our dinner last longer. It always seems like it takes so long to prepare and then you eat so fast!

The rest of the day we played games and looked at the day-after-Thanksgiving ads. David decided to do a little checking on line! The kids watched "The Grinch" and later some of them watched "Elf".
The kids always have fun being together. The three girls dressed up in little chef dress up and served us all more "food"!
Shopping the day after Thanksgiving was a BLAST!! We missed all of you that couldn't come this year! It is a fun tradition just being together...even though it is 4 in the morning! It is kind of crazy, but we love making memories and we always have stories about this day! People were really kind this year and it was pretty smooth sailing. Jaimie and I got almost everything we were shopping for and I got ALL of my Christmas shopping done!! YEAH!! It is such a nice feeling to have it done early so I can just enjoy December! We hope those of you that couldn't come, can join the chaotic fun next year! It's not about what you are shopping for...it is just fun to be together doing something fun! I also love seeing all the familiar faces! Way to go all of you EARLY shoppers...and way to go to some of my friends that tried it for the first time this year! I am sure I will see you again next year!

Okay, for the last part of my post...don't you love to try and take a picture of four kids and try to get them all to smile at the same time and all to look at the camera. I wanted a new picture for the top of my blog and I wanted my kids to do something different in front of the Christmas tree this year instead of standing in front of it! Bryce is into really "cheesing" it for pictures these days. When you tell him to smile...boy does he ever! It makes me laugh.
This one turned out pretty good. After who knows how many attempts, Kallie said, "Mom, how many pictures do you need?" They are good sports with a mom that loves pictures! In the middle of taking pictures, Malorie wanted to change her shirt...she thought she didn't match. We hadn't planned on "matching"...I just took them after the kids got home from school, but we waited while she insisted on changing her shirt! (Bryce was already in his pjs because he had wet through his diaper.)
I am excited for Christmas and the excitement it brings. I love the spirit of December and spending time with family and friends! I am thankful for a loving Savior and for all He did for each of us! We are all blessed! May you each enjoy the season and remember why we celebrate it! I love to see my kids grow and how excited they get about doing things for other people! It makes a mom feel really good inside to know they are thinking about other people!

I would love to hear one of your traditions that you do at Christmas. It is always fun to hear what things other families do at this time of year. Please share one, or two, on my blog! One I would like to share that my kids love...I have purchased 25 Christmas books over the years. Each December I wrap them up and put them in a basket. Each night, starting December 1, one of the kids gets to unwrap one of the books and we read it together that night. It is so much fun. I keep these books stored all year until December and then get them out. It is fun to read one each night and the kids love listening to the great Christmas stories...then we get to enjoy the spirit the whole month long. Plus, if they are wrapped they don't know which story they are choosing. My collection is now a little more than 25 so we don't get through all of them and we just keep them wrapped until the next year. You could start this tradition even if you only have a few books. Just choose a time to read them. It took me a few years to collect them. I would usually buy them after Christmas when they were a lot cheaper!

I can't wait to hear one of your traditions! Please share!

My sister had this on her blog and tagged anyone that read it... so I am doing the same. It's kind of fun to see how many things you have and haven't done! Enjoy!
To participate, just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done. The ones in red are the ones I have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person
101. Learned to play an instrument

Havd fun!

Twilight, Preschool, Football or Babies, I got tagged!

Well, that is quite a mouth-full for a title! I wasn't quite sure what to name this blog entry. First of all...we had Ryan (Brett's brother) and his three boys at our home for the weekend and we had a great time! I am sad I didn't take pictures, but some of the things we did included...hunting (Ryan & Mike), kids playing at the tree house, finding fish, frog, and minnows in a frozen pond, the High School Musical play at the high school, and watching BYU and Utah play football! It was fun to have them come for the weekend.

My sister-in-law, Jaimie, and I went to the midnight premiere of Twilight!! Everyone in our bonko group was going to go and some of our other friends but the tickets sold out before they got tickets. I have never been to a midnight showing before. We got there at 9:30 and there were already a lot of ladies (few guys) in line. The energy before the movie was contagious; everyone was SO EXCITED!

We stood in line with some of the young women in my ward that were going. They had brought cards so before it started we played a few games of golf! This is a picture of me and Alyssa Rumsey (one of the young women in our ward waiting in line).

Okay...now my opinion on the movie....well, lets just say the books are TONS better! I guess I don't like going to movies after reading th books and then seeing what they think the characters should look like. I wasn't impressed with the Edward character! The characters I did like in the movie were Bella, her dad, Alice, Emmett, Jacob, and Esme! To me, the movie was kind of cheesy, not quite what I expected...I would recommend the books, but as for the movie you decide for yourself. It was fun, none the less! I will still watch the other ones when they come out! If you saw the movie, what did you think?

Kallie had a fun Thanksgiving preschool. They got to make indian costumes and dress up. They learned about the pilgrims and indians and then got to decorate a sugar cookie like a turkey!

Okay, for those dads that don't like their sons playing "babies"...this one is for you! Bryce likes to play dolls with Kallie. The other night he got out her baby bed and was using the football as the baby. We were laughing because he would wrap the football in the blanket! That works doesn't it?...he is well-rounded...playing football and babies at the same time!

Now for the two tags I just got...here goes:

NUMBER TAG
1. One word to describe yourself: Friendly
2. Two shows I love to watch: The Biggest Loser and Wheel of Fortune
3. Three things that attracted me to Brett:
His Smile-very contagious
His poems- Every Valentine’s Day while we were dating he would write me poems and I loved them! He still writes them to me…they are my favorite gift from him!
His Happy Nature- He is hardly ever in a bad mood-very easy going-He is not a yeller!

4. What is the fourth picture in your fourth file?

This is when the kids were playing in my closet. They would laugh and laugh every time I would peek at them!
5. Five things that happened yesterday: Made a yummy breakfast for my family and Ryan and his boys, taught piano lessons, hung our Christmas lights outside, watched the BYU vs. Utah football game, put my kids in Uncle Mike’s hot tub to play with cousins (Thanks Mike!)
6. Six things you can't do?
Roll my Rs, put my feet behind my head, the splits (I used to be able to), stay awake through very many movies, miss the day after Thanksgiving shopping (even if I have nothing to shop for!)
7. Seven people you tag?
Marianne, Patty, Cari, Heather Bennett, Jana Hanni, Angie Robison, Brittany Foster
8. Eight things you are looking forward to?
Being with family on Thanksgiving, seeing Wayne and Dora at Christmas time, shopping the day after Thanksgiving, going to see High School Musical 3 (that one was a little help from Malorie), putting up my Christmas tree, making gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve, Christmas caroling our neighbors, my date this weekend with Brett!!!!

Next tag I got-

4 THINGS TAG:
4 RANDOM THINGS I LIKE ABOUT MY HUSBAND:

1- Playing Scrabble or other board games with him

2- Going on our weekly dates
3- His foot massages he gives me

4- His sense of humor

4 JOBS I'VE HAD

1- Manager at McDonalds in Rexburg for years

2- Hallmark in the Logan Mall

3- Worked for a professor on campus at Utah State University

4- Accountant for Hyrum IGA

4 TV SHOWS I WATCH:

1- Biggest Loser

2- Wheel of Fortune

3- Funniest Home Videos

4- Curious George (some mornings we all need a little half hour of Curious George with our kids)

4 PEOPLE WHO EMAIL ME REGULARLY:

1- Jennie Miller

2- Wayne and Dora

3- My sister Lindsay

4- My Aunt Verleen

4 OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:

1- Fettuccini from Olive Garden

2- Homemade chicken noodle soup

3- Mexican Food

4- Nachos on Nacho Night

4 PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT:

1- Hawaii

2- Switzerland

3- Puerto Rico (go back there)

4- A cruise anywhere as long as I am with Brett!

4 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE COMING YEAR:

1- Being in charge of the Johnson reunion

2- Finishing our basement (well, not the process of finishing it; having it finished)

3- Tax return (hopefully)

4- Running a 5K race (that is my goal)

4 PEOPLE I TAG:
my mom, Dora, Natalie, Lindsay

I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! We all have SO MUCH to be thankful for! Take time to make a list of things you are thankful for! Today in Relief Society the teacher had us go around and say something we were thankful for that happened this year. It was hard to just think of one thing, but as I thought about it I thought about one thing that I am truly thankful for this year: I am thankful my sister and her husband were able to adopt their sweet Lizzy and that she gets to enjoy the joys of being a mom! I love being a mom!!!

ENJOYING A DAY WITH NO SCHOOL!

The kids had Parent Teacher Conferences at their school the last two days and today there is NO SCHOOL! It was so nice to actually stay home this morning with no "running around" to do! We got all of our house work done early and then the kids had fun just "playing". Here are some pictures of our enjoyable morning:

Conner playing with his GI Joes...all lined up on his bed!

Malorie and Kallie had built a house out of blocks for their polly pockets and littlest pets!

Bryce wanted to play outside and push his lawn mower. He didn't last too long because it was cold outside! He loves to be outside though. He might have lasted longer, but I was COLD!!

We wish Brett could have spent the morning with us. Last night Malorie told him, "Dad, just tell your work that your family is all going to be home this morning and you want to stay home with them!" We all laughed. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work that way! We hope your day at work is going well, hon!!!

Conner has been studying Idaho History this year in school and is loving it. This last week they had to do their reports on Indians. They had a day where they all dressed up like indians, took their tipis they had made, ate indian food, and played indian games. They have had a lot of fun learning about the history of Idaho...they have a great teacher!

OCTOBER is OVER

October flew by! The holiday season is in full swing! Halloween was enjoyable! The kids had a lot of fun dressing up. Kallie had a preschool Halloween party.

We are doing preschool groups in our ward and it is working great. We have three groups (12 kids total). Each group sets up their own curriculum and we rotate houses and a different mom is in charge each week. Then all three groups get together for the holiday parties at the church! It is great fun and it is close and you don't have to pay for preschool! Kallie is loving it!

The kids had a Halloween parade at school on Halloween. Here are pictures from the parade.

The principle:

Malorie's teacher-Mrs. Brown:

Conner and his friends:

Malorie and her friends:

Some more of Malorie's friends:

For Halloween our ward does a trunk-ro-treat. My sisters came and went with us. We had a lot of fun!

Bryce loved being a dog and having a black nose. Plus, he loved that people just kept sticking fun treats in his bucket. He would look up at me and smile everytime! It was funny!

Kallie and her friend Jaidynn went around together. If people said they looked like cute princesses, Jaidynn was quick to let them know that Kallie wasn't a princess...she was an angel!

After the trunk-or-treat, I took the kids trick-or-treating to some other people in our ward that don't come to the trunk-or-treat. We have a lot of elderly neighbors that don't like to come out in the cold, but they love trick-or-treaters and let me tell you...these people don't get very many trick-or-treaters so my kids "score". They give them "good treats"! It is fun to visit them too!

When we got home, my brother's kids came over to see us so here are some pictures with them. We missed seeing our Johnson cousins on Halloween...we will see them next year for sure. It was kind of a busy day! Hopefully they will all post pictures so we can see their cute costumes!

Later that night, my brother David came home from his mission. We all went down to the Idaho Falls airport to pick him up! We are glad he returned home safely. He is a great brother that we all love! Our stake president told us he was a "humble servant". We know he was a great missionary. He came to our home on Sunday night and had scripture reading with us. He read to us in Japanese. The kids loved listening to him read!

Sunday morning the kids wanted to take some pictures...I guess they were used to the camera being snapped from Halloween and thought it should continue on into the entire weekend. There isn't a picture of Brett because he was at an early morning meeting, but we sure were thinking of him!

Hope you all have a terrific day! The sun is shining right now and I am loving it...even if our lawn still has snow on it...but it is slowly melting!