This & that

These are totally random pictures of stuff we've been up to over the last couple of weeks. Why do I to this to myself?! If I just posted more often I wouldn't have to jump around and try to remember everything.......

I was too lazy to post pics of the kids & their cousins after they came to visit a couple of weeks ago. Zoë & Em @ school .........
T-Bone & Trenton @ school....

Walking to school - these coats ended up coming off after we got there. It was hot 3 short weeks ago!

Zoë's Christmas play @ school - she was an Elf, Elfin Curly (most of her curly locks are hidden under the hat.....) That's Alec in the background, complete with rosey cheeks!
Sorry this is a crappy picture, but it's the only one I got of the trees...which I decorated! A lady in my ward made them (Judy).Ward Christmas breakfast - the Bishopric made pancakes. Brad doesn't just walk around with an apron on at ward functions, well at least not all of them. I have a cute picture of the guys in the kitchen getting down & dirty, but some other people ended up in the picture so I didn't post it.
T-Bone loves wrestling. He says his coach is 'harsh'. I'm not sure which one he is talking about - there are 4 coaches all together. That's Kelly giving Trevor some pointers.

Snow in LV! This is Mt. Charleston, but Brad got a picture of Sunrise the next morning. There are more pictures in the camera, but it's outside in Brad's work truck. I'm too lazy to go out there and get it, plus it's really cold and I just put on my warm jammy pants and sweat shirt.

Trying to catch snow flakes on our tongues. I should have taken this picture about 30 minutes later when it was coming down hard, but I had already herded all the kids (5 total) into the house and got them settled in playing. I wasn't about to get them all ready to go outside again.

Zoë's winter dance recital was tonight. I am a loser and forgot my camera, but Michelle just e-mailed me this picture. (Thanks Michelle!) This was Zoë's costume for her 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' routine. Almost all of the girls lost their tinsel at some point in the dance, but they didn't miss a beat! That's some good training. You're awesome Jolynn! Thanks for taking Zoë early Leah! You're a life saver - twice today! (I would have been out of luck if I hadn't found this leotard!)

Coming up:

• Tomorrow we're heading up to UT to visit my parents & sisters and their families before Christmas. JJ's birthday party is tomorrow so it will be a pretty busy day. Hopefully Lenzi will have a few minutes to cut my hair again - it's growing out way too fast.

• I'm so glad I don't have to do anything at church this Sunday! I'm not conducting this month and I've already done my Sharing Time for the month - yeah! Last Sunday was really emotional for me for some reason. My morning with the kids was chaotic (not normal!), I bawled during my Sharing Time, and ....well, I won't go into any detail about the rest of the day. I'll just say it wasn't one of the best Sundays I've ever had.

• Parent/Teacher conferences went well.
• The snow day was just wierd.
• I don't have to go back to work until the 29th.
• The Christmas shopping is done.
• I can't wait to see the Nutcracker.
• It makes me sad that at this time next week Christmas day will already be a memory.
• I'm not sad that at this time next week I'll begin counting down the days until our cruise - yeah!

What the....

Zoë asked Brad about hell - you know the bad word. What is it? Why is it a bad word?

Brad explained to her that it's only a bad word if you use it in a bad way. (He could have just said it's only bad when Mom says it and she would have got it.)

She then asked him, "Is it true that hell really is a place?"

Brad explained to her that yes, it is a place where people (who have done really bad things) may end up.

"So if I cheat in class, I'll go to hell?"

Brad told her no - I mean REALLY bad stuff.

She said, "Oh, like people that do grafitti?"

Brad thinks he may have been a little too harsh with his comments about 'grafitti artists'....or was he? Hmmmmm.....

Craziness

Let's see - all of my thoughts are so jumbled. This past weekend went by so fast. Here are some of the thoughts I have on our last week of activities......

I love family Christmas parties & get togethers with friends, but I can't eat another bowl of soup. I made two different soups this weekend for two different events. I love it, but I'm so over it. (Another thing I love is learning more about my friends - especially the bad stuff. :) )

We had such a fun weekend with my neice & nephew who came to stay with us for a few days. Thanks for coming to stay with us Emilee & Trenton! We love you! I thought about something while they were here...I don't know how people with more than 2 kids get their laundry done - washed maybe, but not washed, folded & put away. That's just crazy talk.

We visited my father in law in the hospital yesterday (with my family). He had his other hip replaced. He came home today and is doing so good.

I discovered that I can handle four kids at church all by myself...make that 5 - Scott came over to color for a little while during Sacrament meeting. He came back to share his Cheerios & chat with us. Yes - I'm counting it!

I can't wait for Zoë's first play at school later on this week - I can't remember if it's the Christmas Wizard of Oz or the Wizard of Oz Christmas. You get the picture. She's an elf. I'm helping with some of the costumes.

My son joined a wrestling team....the Las Vegas Wildcats. I feel like such a traitor. The things we do for our kids. He had his first practice tonight and even volunteered to wrestle another kid who has wrestled before. He didn't win, but he didn't get pinned either. Brad said he's gonna do great once he learns some techniques. He came home very excited to told Zoë & I all about it.

The rest of this week is insane. I'll be lucky if I get a post done in the next 7 days. :) Have a good one everybody!

Countdown

Thanksgiving seems to start the 'Count down to Christmas' at our house. We had the house decorated before Thanksgiving, inside & out. Time just seems to be going by so fast - I feel like we needed to rush it so we could enjoy it for as long as possible!

This is how our Thanksgiving day went......

The ride to Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's house came with a great view. The rain was beautiful! This is a great view of Mt. Charleston from the intersection of Bonanza & Lamb. Funny - it doesn't look like the hood to me - nice Mercedes.
The baking began as soon as we arrived! I made green bean casserole while Camille made round the finger rolls with Livvy, Zoë & Megan. They had a little flour fight, but I didn't get any pictures.
After we got the food under control I did a project with the kids. We made Oreo turkeys. I think they're cute...and yummy!
Camille brought a new project for us to do this year. She made 'Thank you' boxes for each family. Everyone wrote out a card for each person in the family (22 of us all together!) and told them why they are thankful for them. It was really fun to try & decide what to write to everyone. Some of them were fun, some of them were sweet, but all of them were thoughtful. Thanks Camille! I can't wait to write thank-yous to everyone again next year.

This is Zoë and Megan writing out their Thank You's......

Trevor really got into it - I think he may have drooled at one point because he was concentrating so hard! Pretty scratch on the side of his face huh - that's what happens when you play football. Either that or you're sore for 3 days...oh wait, that only happens to the 30-somethings who play football on Thanksgiving 'just for fun' - hey, better them than me! I know my limits!

A view of the grown-ups table from the top of Grandma's stairs. I can't figure out what those spots on my camera are!

The kids table. It looks like Trevor is the only one concentrating on his dinner....

Clean-up time! I tore apart the turkey while Lance & Terrie washed dishes with Angela. I don't know what Jake's pointing at. Mindi & Ed are busy gabbing. Everyone else is busy putting tables & chairs away or getting out Christmas decorations.

Trevor got an after-dinner tattoo from Katie. It wouldn't have surprised me a bit if she would have busted out the blue hair gel and gave him a mohawk, too! The kids love Aunt Katie - she's the only one left who will play hide-and-g0-seek with them & do cool stuff like tattoos.

Ed was able to catch a couple zzzzs while the kids decorated the Christmas tree. He's having his other hip replaced this Friday, December 5th. Good luck Grandpa! We love you!!!

Brad went & played softball the day after Thanksgiving and told T-Bone he would take him to the baseball field that morning to practice his batting & to field some balls. Trevor was bending down to grab a ground ball Brad hit to him and it hit a rock & bounced up and hit Trevor square in the mouth. His bottom lip was so swollen. It ended up knocking his other loose tooth out, but the pain from his bloody lip was short lived and his tears quickly turned into smiles when he realized he would be getting another visit from the Tooth Fairy.

We went to go see Twilight on Friday night (sorry Angela!) and we both liked it. We walked around Town Square for a while then headed over to Target Greatland, Famous Footwear & Ulta 3 and got some serious shopping done! Saturday was nice a relaxing. All I remember doing was my Sharing Time sometime during the day, then we took the kids to shop at the Fashion Show Mall. We enjoyed the little Christmas show they put on (instead of the normal fashion show) and it even snowed inside the mall afterwards. The kids got a kick out of that. Sunday was nice & quiet. We stayed home after church and had a good time making dinner together even though Brad didn't get home until almost 4:00 pm. Zoë didn't believe me when I told her that her Dad spent almost 8 hours at church. I had to explain to her that he has meetings before church, then church, and every other week he counts tithing after church. She is beginning to understand how hard Brad works at fulfilling his church calling. On the other hand, I think she just thinks I choose to be in Primary every week, not because I have to be. What's funny is that if I had to pick anywhere in the church to be, it would be in Primary. Funny how that works.