family night

Well - for family night we went over to my mom and dads and for the activity we decorated houses- and in the spirit of unity we had a contest between ben, chelsea and tanner- they had to just use graham crackers and then me, alex, mom, and then later shae and dad, - gracie just sat and ate whatever candy she could get her hands on - anyhow we had the creater kit and it was a gingerbread train kit - but it was a lot of fun I couldn't belive how creative chels and tanner and ben where - they made a hunting lodge - if you can't tell - it was in alaska -because that is where tanner is going on his mission - anyhow it is so good i still can't belive it they had a little fish pond with fish and everything - i love it - i think they should have won because they just did it from scratch - sort of - :)

Here alex is trying to get gracie to open her mouth so he can throw candy into it - she never got it - hahah This is what my team produced - not quite as cool - however - alex did try to make it interesting - if you look carefully our train has hit one of the animals we were carrying and it has become a bloody mess - that was alexs doing just so you know- and also i think shae egged him on :) hahah

Below is a better picture of our poor animal cracker - split in half and bleeding

Afterwards we decorated moms tree This was what gracie had done while the rest of us were trying to make the tree look beautiful :) See if you can count how many ended up in that little area - there were at least six alone on the one branch - hahaha - good work gracie

flossing again

A while ago i posted that gracie really likes to floss - well she still does :) - we were in a hurry to get ready for something and so gracie had gotten a bath and she loves to sit in the sink and get her hair blow dried to warm her up and so i did it - even though we needed to get going and so we brushed our teeth and i started to get her down - well she threw the biggest fit and i couldn't figure it out - well apparently she wanted to floss - and i realize that that is a good habbit and i should keep her in it- but like i said we were running late so i said that we could do it later - anyhow as you can see from the picture below - that did not go over well - and so after laughing at how funny i thought the whole situation was turning out to be - i got the camera out and snapped a before and after picture - apparently she is serious about her flossing hahahah

christmas lights

well its official gracie loves christmas lights - everywhere we go it is 'lights this and lights that' it makes me laugh and now she has figured out how to plug our christmas tree lights in by herself and so she is always playing with the outlets - which i asked ben if that was a bad thing to let your child do because i know they sell those outlet cover things as child safety - anyhow but he said it wasn't too bad all she would get was a little shock or something and then hopefully stop playing with them -so i let her- which once again i haven't decided is a bad parent thing or not -anyhow but she was so happy about the lights that when we were putting the outside lights up she stole one of my strands and it is now hanging in her room -thanks to daddys help - anyhow it is cute though because she won't go to sleep without her christmas lights on and so then i have to go and sneak in and unplug them when we go to bed so that they aren't on all night -but it is cute watching her get excited about christmas and the baby Jesus - that is all she talks about - anyhow she makes me laugh and it is fun to enjoy christmas through the eyes of a child
Can you tell she was being stubborn and refused to smile for me -silly girl :)

Arizona

Well Arizona was a ton of fun -if i kind of ignore and forget how bad my rear end hurt after driving down and back - It was a lot of fun playing with the whole family - minus ben who of course i love dearly and still missed greatly :)- anyhow hear is bits and pieces - i will leave out the part where alex nearly killed me by taking me down and how in order to be rescued mel and chelsea and finally mitch had to jump in - hahahBut thursday morning after helping grandma get a few things ready chelsea and alex started working on a project that when i asked if i could help was told to go away - anyhow so i did - i went on a walk with the rest of the family and when we came back home we were handed these invitations:It was a bowling tournament on the wii - which apparently alex had brought up - anyhow it was a ton of fun the first round was me grandma and grandpa and mom -and to my suprise me and grandma made it to the second round - well dad and mitch and alex and chelsea played next and surprise surprise alex and chelsea won-obviously they had been practicing since they knew there was going to be tournament - anyhow so then it was the four of us to play for the winner -except that gracie was throwing a fit so mel stepped in for me -anyhow - chelsea was winning big time because she kept getting strikes - but grandma came in from behind and rolled strikes in round 8 and 9 and then 10 in ten -four strikes in a row -so grandma came out triumphant -yah -anyhow it was great fun :)Just look at chelsea and grandmas faces closely and you can tell who did not do as well as they would have liked and lost :( hahahah

Then there was thanksgiving dinner -which was so yummy and enjoyable - because me being the kind of selfish mom that i am i let gracie nap right through dinner so that i could enjoy it and then woke her up after i was done - i know sad - but i got to sit through dinner and enjoy it so it was worth it in the end - anyhow here is gracie eating her thanksgiving dinner all by herself - but enjoying it none the less

After dinner gracie was playing and her new favorite thing right now is to do hair -well my hair is not as fun to do because it wasn't as long as chelseas -anyhow chels was so patient she sat there for at least a half an hour as gracie combed her hair and would try to pull it into a pony tail - it was so cute and funny The other fun thing about this week was watching gracie and addy play together - it was so cute -in fact it became not so cute -when gracie screamed her brains out for a half an hour because addy left to go home - still i love this second picture it just looks like a mom feeding a baby bird - but really it was gracie getting the biggest kick out of getting addy to smileMy other FAVORITE thing about going to arizona besides seeing grandma and grandpa is going to sedona and going hiking :) although it was so sad because i was looking so forward to going but gracie -who was definetly sleep deprived - went into major temper tantrum mode- it was so sad and funny at the same time because when we got out of the car she wanted me and only me to carry her-well i informed the child that she was old enough to walk herself and so she through herself at me and screamed and screamed and screamed -well everybody but mom and dad started up the hike -anyhow it was almost embarressing because here we are in beautiful and serene nature and then gracie screaming like a banshee for about 20 minutres all the while trying to rock climb up my legs -anyhow after 20 minutes i finally gave up and so we walked half dragged gracie back to the car and put her in the carseat where she proceeded to scream her brains out again for the next 15 minutes finally she calmed down enough and she wanted out of the car badly enough that walking didn't seem like such a bad idea after all - anyhow it was quite the parently experience ahahah-but after she had calmed down we tried to catch up with everyone and gracie hiked for about a mile all by herself -well grandpa helped keep her happy - but it was a lot of fun in the end

As you can see gracie had to bring her purse with her - and she was so funny she would walk for a little bit and then have to stop and open it up and look and make sure all of her stuff was still inside and then she would zip it back and keep going -anyhow she did this over and over again it was so funny Gracie also really liked playing with uncle alex towards then end they were running and jumping down to the bottom of the hill and gracie would have to mimic everything alex tried - it was a lot of fun

thanks

Thank you everybody that made my birthday so much fun this year - i felt like it lasted for a week at least :) yah - anyhow so thank you -especially ben who was SUPER nice to me and let me do what i like for my birthday week - love you all

thanks again

oh ya - i picked these pictures because the balloons just make it feel like you should be having a birthday celebration for whoever :) -plus i like the picture so why not post it hahaha

into the woods

Ben took me to see "into the woods" at the hale centre theatre on satuday and it was so good - i have always loved this musical but seeing it on stage was so much fun - especially because it is a round theater and so the cast members were up and down the stairs in and out of holes in the stage - anyhow i loved it and now i am tring to convince him that i need season tickets-we will see how that goes :) i love you hubby -thanks

playing in the leaves

The other day gracie and i were bored so we went to go on a walk but the leaves looked like too much fun so we-hahah mostly me- raked a big pile of them to play in and of course take pictures in as well -anyhow i am really glad that we did now that it is basically snowing today-anyhow i love these pictures-and i was really glad when ben came home and took over the camera because if you can't tell -there were definetly two different people taking these pictures-the normal pictures- me - and the very good ones-ben -i love my hubby -yah

halloween party

i love the halloween party we have every year -and this year the johnsons side came to which made it even more fun because i had both sides of my family around for the fun-

well every year we do it and we always dress up- and give out prizes- and have dinner, donuts on a string-check out the slide show the pictures are so funny-i love the one of my cousin michael just eating the string- and then we play bunko for prizes -it is a lot of fun

this year we had three categories for prizes- the scariest, funniest, and best

my mom had the scariest, tom was the funniest, and then madelyn and olivia won the best overall-but everyone dressed up great this year

I will see if i can get everyone starting on the top left -uncle jim as dilbert - aunt jean as wendy, as in the fast food- tanner as the eighties kid, you have to love the pants with the fanny pack - chelsea as the hawaiian babe - tom as mose, from the office, he looked just like him, it was weird - melissa as darby- and she is holding olivia who is obviously Pooh - Alex as some sort of log person i think - ben was the headless man - i was a princess - holding gracie who was a dragon - layne a football player, his wife bobbisue a cheerleader - ely as a pretty good looking pregnant batman - naomi as a football player - bob as the referee -

next row - brooklyn as a witch - mom as some freaky looking spider lady, she had this huge spider crawling over her back - kaylee as super kaylee - madelyn as tigger - breanna as a cheerleader - amare as a witch - and then the two lying on the grass - rachel as a baby and jacob as spider man -

then in the slides you can see mel and mitch who came a little late- mel was an elephant, addy as a tiger and mitch as a zoo keeper, which i didn't think was much of a costume for him because he kind of runs a type of zoo at home - hahaha

and then the two not pictured because they were taking the pictures - michael as peter parker :) and then my dad as himself - which probably could have won the scariest costume if it were allowed -just kidding dad - i love you

i like to move it move it

anyhow here is an update on my exercise program-well i am on week 4 and i am up to 36 minutes of cardio for five days a week and then one day a week double that -which was a hour and 12 minutes-which i thought i might die towards the end; however, i did prevail yahh :) -plus the three days a week of weight lifting and stomach exercises everyday -anyhow so far so good i have been keeping up and doing it pretty consistently-i did slack off a little on the stomach workout last week but i am trying to be better this week- all i have to say is the end result had better be worth it hahahah-because i am putting some sweat into this :)

-sorry this song was stuck in my head and seemed appropriate for the title of my post-so now i will pass this song along to you in hopes that it will go from my head to yours hahaha

all dressed up

I asked gracie to go take off her pajamas and get dressed one morning and so she disappeared for a while but the boys were over, i watch my friend kims two boys some mornings when she is in school, anyhow the boys were over and so even though it had been a while since i had heard from her-which usually means something disasterous is going on-i was distracted and so i didn't notice anyhow a while later this is how she came out dressed- underware, one glove, a hat and a necklace-gotta love it -anyhow i couldn't help but laugh at her choice of clothing and take a picture

anyhow because i took a picture of gracie uriah and gabe wanted there picture taken as well so i lined them all up -anyhow this picture makes me laugh-at least their mom can handle getting them dressed-for all concerned grandparents- i did however, add some more clothing articles to gracies body before we went outside or shopping hahaha

Gracie loves having the boys over to play with her in the morning anyhow lately their new thing to do is throw all of the couch coushions on the floor and then make flying leaps from the couch onto the floor -it makes me laugh especially when they are not careful and collide with each other and then just get up and do it again-no tears or anything hahah

i just loved this picture of uriah it was so stinkin cute

scrapbook stuff

As my sister requested -for the broadcast our stake had us bring a talent and these are some pictures of what i brought- i got this idea from her because she had done some for addys room and i thought they were so cute i decided to try doing it for gracies room

And then i just brought one of my scrapbooks-here are a few pages from them -hope you like them :)-you might recognize the pictures because they are my favorites-ribbions have been my favorite accessory lately if you can't already tell