Ding, dong, Ding Dong Christmas Bells are ringing!!

Well, a Merry Christmas to everyone. I know, I know, Christmas has passed and the scrooge in me says Yippee and the Christmas lover in me is sad!! I know, sounds a little indecisive...that's me. I love Christmas but as a responsible mother and wife..(lol) I think Christmas is such a stress. Can I get an AMEN? "Amen!!" Thank you!! By the time Christmas rolled around I had a consta headache and my stress level was not letting me sleep. You know the usual..."did I get enough for this person",..."did I spend to much on this?"....."blah, blah, blah!!" But, all in all, I think it was a wonderful Christmas. My parents have spent the last two Christmas's with my sisters who are out of state( last year in California with Kristin and Deb and this year in Mississippi with Sheri and New years with Deanne in North Carolina) so needless to say, we miss them but with three kids and Gregs family living close...we filled our time up just fine. I always miss my sisters but especially at the holidays. I love ya gals!!!! We always go the hospital with Gregs family and Christmas Eve to sing to all of the people in the hospital. We always have so much fun even though most of them can't carry a note. Notice I said, "them" because I have a bEaUtIfUl opera voice. (again..lol) Last year Greg and I thought we were so funny because Gregs mom usually passes out a piece of paper with the words to all of the normal Christmas caroling songs. But, I got on the internet and found all of the ones for the not so common songs and typed them up and passed them out like it was no big deal. Some of them were.."Ave Maria"..(for my Opera voice), and "Breath of Heaven" and the country song about "I want to buy these shoes for my momma please"...I know you know that song. Another classic we put on there is "Baby, its cold outside"..."Blue Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad"...which my father in law insisted we sing to this poor spanish family!!! Crazy Americans!!! One year I passed a room that had no one in it and so I told my sister in law Cammie to go sit on the bed..I know...thats a no no..sorry, but then I went and told everyone that we missed a room. I think Cammie and I thought it was funnier than everyone else.....come on, admit it...that is funny!!!

The boys loved Christmas. Santa left all of our Santa presents down stairs...little trickster, and so when Dallin asked if we could see anything out in the front room or upstairs family room and we said no...he said, "You know what? Thats okay because I have my family and I will just have to try harder to be good this next year." Poor guy. Luckily we found them downstairs. Santa must have like the chips, salsa and cold Coke we left for him. Come on..everyone leaves him cookies and milk...what he really wants is Joe Bandidos chips and salsa and a coke. And what Santa wants....santa gets. When Uncle Tim asked Dallin if he was Santa would he come to Dallin and Dallin thought about it for a minute and said..."Yeah, I'd come but I would leave a note." Tim asked him what the note would say and he said,.."you have one more chance". That makes me laugh because Dallin is one of the greatest kids out there. He is a 30 year old trapped in a 7 year old body.

What a great Christmas. We have made so many memories and my kids are growing up so fast. I am so blessed and grateful for all that I have. Now, it is time for a new year and time for a new start at that yearly diet!!! Lets see if I can make it past January 3rd this year!!!

I couldn't resist

Okay, Tim and Katie might be mad but I couldn't resist stealing this picture from their blog for all of my friends and family to see. This my friends is Gregs little brother Tim. What, he looks like he is ten...oh no, he is 25...I think. This was just a little preview of his Christmas pajamas. Oh, how I love when Tim comes into town!! He makes me laugh so hard!!! And, yes, he got these in the childrens section of Target!!!! Greg and I actually saw these exact ones but unfortunetly they don't make Gregs size!! Thanks Tim for the laugh!!! My favorite story of Tim was one time when they were moving us and we were so dang tired of moving boxes into the truck....next thing we know, Tim comes walking out of the house in just his tiny little underwear and his socks and shoes and says, "Hey, do you guys need me to move anything?" There is no one like Tim!!

There is a first for everything!!

Wow, what a day. Today was one of those days that you wonder what you are doing wrong!! So, here is a first for me. Today was obviously Sunday and we have 9:00 church. We had a meeting with the second couselor today and so we had to be there by quarter to. Well, things seemed to be going okay until our normally sweet Alex decided that he didn't want to go to church. I was trying to get him in the shower and he kept screaming, "I am not going to church because church is stupid. It's stupid, stupid, stupid!!" He normally begs to go to nursery. So, I should have guessed from that what our day was going to be like. We got to church even though the wind almost blew us away..lets remember we live at the mouth of the canyon and morning feels like you are in the North Pole with the wind. This is a funny side story. I was asked to do the cub scouts as a second calling and then they decided to wait until the other lady moved so they were just seeing if now, I could do that calling too and Greg was like, "sure she can do another calling and Becky will love the cub scouts, blah, blah, blah". Which, I actually think it will be great considering I have three boys who will eventually be in the scouting program so I want to learn all I can. But, the funny thing was when the counselor said, "oh, Brother Johnson we want you to do it too." Gregs face was classic!! And of course he said yes but then when we went to go sit down in church he went down the list of things that we were going to have to do now being in scouts. I thought it was hilarious that he was sooooo excited for me until he learned his fate!!!!

Okay, on to the shocking part for me!! Well, church was as anticipated. The boys take some work to keep them all quiet and content. But, I guess we weren't doing a good enough job because with 20 minutes left of church the couple sitting in front of us got up and looked at us and then moved to another spot in the chapel. My jaw about hit the floor. I immediately listened and we weren't the only ones struggling with our young ones. I am sorry, but with kids comes a little noise. I decided to take the two little ones out for the rest of the meeting. I felt horrible. I know others saw it because it was so obvious. It is bad enough feeling overwhelmed with your children. So many times Greg and I have to remind ourselves that going to church will eventually pay off because the kids can be hard. I don't get offended easily but I couldn't help but go with the kids to a room and cry. I feel like we are doing our best and hopefully we will be rewarded for trying. Anyways, I now think it is funny. I feel bad for them because obviously they have an issue with patience. They weren't a really old couple. Probably in their fifties. But, I think I was just shocked by their reaction. So, now I have a story to tell and laugh about. Our children are so HORRIBLE in church that we make people scatter away from us!!! That's funny!!

So, for Christmas, Santa is bringing a lot of church books and quiet toys...and muzzles for the children at church!!

Tis the season to be crazy!!!

It has been a crazy past few weeks!! I thought I would rewrite some songs to explain:

1: Tis the season to be cranky,..fa,lalalalalalala! We have all been sick and frankly, I am sick of coughs, puke, and the runs!! The boys have colds and I have a toothache, falalalalalalala, An MRI for my sweet husband, I hope its nothing really serious.

AND

2: Oh, there's water down in the basement, It's coming up through the cement, the sump pump is clearly broke, Let it flood, let it flood, let it flood.

So, clearly, we have all been a little under the weather this season. Yeah, I know, join the club. I truly believe the flu shot was invented to just give me a dead arm once a year...that's it. Clearly it prevents against some type of flu...just not the 17 strains that run through my house all winter long. And poor Colton got the strain called the "Consta-flu" which happens to stay with you for the whole season. Poor kid. I think people at church are going to start thinking that the seminary teachers family is inactive...and maybe we are and maybe we aren't! All joking aside..poor Greg has been strangely sick. He has always suffered from migraines, but they have been a little extreme this past month. The finally decided to do an MRI after a week of a fever ranging from 101-103 that wouldn't break and these intense headaches. The MRI came back normal but the headaches continue. We went up to a rockin mama hotel (no, that is not a chain of hotels, but yet slange for "very nice") for our anniversary and we had a good time except for the fact that Greg woke up with a headache and threw up the whole way home. We would drive and he would scream.."Pull over" and he would puke as soon as the door opened. Once we pulled over by the Old Navy and so I thought I'd give him some privacy and I ran over to shop!!! Whoops, not so nice but slippers were on sale for $5..can you blame me? We finally got a cup for him to puke in and I tell you, it was quite the sight. For those of you who don't know me,..I don't do puke. My gag reflex is way to lose and I will puke just watching someone else puke. I rolled down the window of the truck and tried to hum loudly to myself but everytime he started going, I got the heaves. I was seriously having to talk myself through it. We made it home and Greg is now feeling a little better. It is amazing that his headaches can do that too him. I love you hun and I hope you feel better.

A few days ago, we went to go get the snow clothes out of the storage room and low and behold, there was a swimming pool in our basement. Supposivly, sump pumps don't break very easily..of course they don't,..but ours did! Luckily it was confined to the storage room and the office. We still haven't gotten the sump pump fixed, we like to live a little white trash and why fix it if you can go down and drain it manually 500 times a day!! Come on people, don't be so lazy!!! Theres nothing like the sound of water draining from your basement!!!

Although I focused on the negatives of the past month, life really is great. I joke, but we really are so blessed and I am grateful for my challenges rather that someone else's. We are so blessed and the greatest things in my life are my family and the gospel. Tis the season to be grateful!!! Ho, ho, ho!!!

P.S. I just went out to take Dallin to school and the garage is broken...when it rains it pours!!!