Skiing

The Jody and the kids finally made it up on the slopes -- thanks to some prompting from Treva! She drove out with her new fiance, Brett, and the whole crew (including a couple extra friends -- my husband is so brave!) went out to Soldier Mtn.

It was great to have an opportunity to get to know Brett a little better and I have to admit that Brielle and I really enjoyed our quiet time at home!

Finally ... More Christmas!

Holy Cow! I may have just broken the record for most pictures in one post. Blogger is getting mad at me and everything, but I knew that if I tried breaking this into parts that it was just never gonna happen. Here goes ...
Christmas Eve was so fun and magical it even overcame a few minor flu bugs. We played games and ate awesome food and then crowned the festivities with our annual "friendly" gingerbread house decorating competition. This year we hit a new low and made the kids their own little houses so that they wouldn't interfere with ours. Sounds evil, yes, but look how much they are enjoying just slathering candy and frosting together in piles on top of their houses! Plus, this year, the houses still resembled houses by the time we were done. Now, we know that we are not exactly pros at this, but you'd never know it by all the trash-talking happening in the Johnson kitchen that night. We all had such giant egos over the whole thing that we decided we needed help choosing the very best final product. If there's anyone out there that just reads my blog and doesn't comment, this is the day to share some love! We'll just call these two "house 1" and "house 2".

And this is "house 3" and house 4". Come on people, I'm banking on a huge win so don't let me down!

As much fun as that all was, the annual opening of the Christmas jammies was definitely the icing on the cake -- which brings me to the picture of the year ...

I don't think Brielle got happier about anything else all year! The rest of them look pretty pleased, as well, and I must say that it would be tough to find a more adorable bunch of kids than this!

Christmas morning started wonderfully, as the children actually let us sleep until nearly 8:00 am! Then the chaos ensued!

(My past self would never have imagined buying my future children motorcycle clothes and a BSU sweatshirt!)

On Christmas day we headed to Jody's mom's house, which quickly filled up with most of his siblings and their cute kids. I loved stumbling upon Brielle and her cousins having yet another impromptu beauty session!We spent New Year's Eve at our friends house and ended up having so much fun with the wii that we totally forgot our "we're leaving right after midnight and going to bed, kids" speech and stayed up until nearly 2:00 am. Well, except for Brielle, who was out cold in the middle of the party way before midnight!

It was hilarious watching the whole crew play rockband. Tray finally got nominated lead singer because he can still hit the high notes!

The dancing is what really kept us up late.

We even managed to get the dads in on the action!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Overload

I'll have to apologize for the million pictures I'll have to put into this post -- apparently it takes awhile to blog when you wait 3 weeks between posts in December!
Last weekend was seriously crazy crazy and full of Christmas! We raced to Utah on Thursday night to do some last minute shopping and get new hairdos for all the parties (Thanks again, Hay!) Then we headed to Layton for the Wolfley party.
Brielle was a little bit excited to open her gift!

This party was mostly about kids running all over the place and just enjoying seeing each other. I seriously caught only glimpses of my boys the entire night, but did manage to catch a few of my girls enjoying their cousins.

Somebody had the bright idea to snap a shot of all the Wolfley women together -- I love that I somehow ended up behind Treva for once.

Then the guys had to get in on the action as well -- this wasn't even everybody, folks, and yes, this is just immediate family.

We ended up at Jody's brother's house with three extra kids at 11 pm, all together in the family room. Talk about a sleepover! Then Saturday we were off shopping again on our way to SLC and Grandpa's house!

Grandpa's party is what we all look forward to every year. I hardly ever see Grandpa and Grandma and the cousins who I considered my best friends growing up. It doesn't truly seem like Christmas until we've all reconnected and eaten way more delicious food than should be humanly possible!

Brielle and Sienna hugged each other like they hadn't been together for a month!

I love watching how close my kids have become to my cousin's kids. Breje and Trayson get so excited every year to see Holly and Becky's kids-they seriously usually only see each other once a year, but these friendships remind me how much I love their parents!

We couldn't tear ourselves away until 9:00, then we had to drive all the way home! What a whirlwind weekend-- but so full of fun and family!

Flamenco Barbie

Hayley and Travis recently took a blissful trip to Spain and returned with this adorable little number for Brielle. She thinks it's about the most beautiful thing she's ever had. You can tell she just feels like dancing when she wears it. She loves it so much that she insisted on wearing it to church on Sunday. Seriously, all out tantrum until we put it on, then she gave us this happy little pose. We're in trouble!She got so much attention at church that I'll probably never get her to wear anything else ever again!

On a gloomy, rainy day in October, my friend Sherida and I decided that the best way to get over the autumn blues was to spend the afternoon making a cute craft. Sherida had an idea in mind, I had some leftover wood, we both had a free day the next day (by free, of course I mean tons of stuff we didn't really want to clean, places we could pretend we didn't have to go....) We figured it would be simple, and we'd feel good about shirking responsibilities, because we would have something lovely to show for it by the end of the day...

... It actually took us about three weeks of pretending to have free days before we finally put this little number together! I get my optimism (time frame denial) from my mom -- not sure where Sherida gets hers! Please tell us you think it was worth all that undone laundry!
Anyway, we finally have it done, only to stumble upon...

WINTER! In all it's hideous snow filled, so not autumn anymore slushiness! I'm thinking we should've just started our Christmas craft last month, instead. (which we blissfully began planning for the first craft day, you know, just in case we had some leftover time!)

It's a good thing my kids are having so much fun out there, or I'd be really, really ticked!

I'm loving how hard Trayson is concentrating on building this snowman. It takes a lot of hard work to get it just perfect!

As much as I despise being cold and wet, and driving on slick roads I was deeply grateful for the hours --yes, I said hours, that my kids spent outside this weekend playing together and NOT fighting.

Last weekend I was bound and determined to visit my family while Jody and the guys went on their fishing trip. I thought about it for weeks. The kids packed for days. And then I got sick. I woke up Saturday morning, popped some pills and decided that, hey, I wasn't feeling all that bad.

Okay, so I probably shouldn't have driven that far when I was feeling like garbage (in retrospect, I KNOW I shouldn't have driven!) I probably shouldn't have dragged my germs with me, and I really should've just waited until I felt better so that I could totally enjoy hanging with the family. I'm really not good at making the intelligent choice.
We actually made it there safely and I promptly discovered that I wasn't feeling all that much better. Of course, I decided to ignore that and go to lunch and shopping with the girls. Brilliant!

Aren't I doing a great job pretending like I'm feeling fine?! (but seriously, how beautiful is my daughter!) I dragged my poor mom and sister along for the ride, they were pretty great sports, dragging me to stores and just forcing me to buy stuff so that I would give up the farce and go home to bed!

The real reason I was so determined to go is to watch the kids play with their cousins. They spent the whole weekend proving to me that it was worth it. They all have such sweet relationships with each other, and just smiled and giggled the whole time.

Thanks, guys, for taking such care of me!

Brielle has really been outdoing herself with witty one-liners lately and I just had to share a couple.
I had a bunch of stuff all over the counter the other day while I was doing her hair and ended up knocking a few things onto the floor in my hurry. Without missing a beat she said ,"I saw that one coming!" Is she really only 3?!

This is a conversation that Jody related to me the other night when I came home from scouts.
Jody: "Brielle, you know you're not supposed to be jumping on the couch."

Brielle: "I know, Dad, but mom's not home!"

Then, in the middle of the afternoon last week, I recieved one of those phone calls we mothers dread, "Your son fell off the monkey bars at school. He won't get up and he doesn't want us to touch his arm." Crap! Crap! Crap! (long story short, no break, just a nasty, nasty cut!) Brielle was very tender and worried about him in the ER, promising to watch "that dragon movie" with him instead of Barbie and everything. So sweet, until she got a look at the gash in his arm. "Mom, Kutter's elbow looks just like a crabby patty!"
He wouldn't let me take any pictures that day, so this is after a couple days of some serious neosporin. Poor kid!