Santa Claus is coming to town. . .

We had a lot of fun writing letters to Santa! The kids love this tradition and each year can't wait for the day after Thanksgiving so they can get on with letting Santa know that they've been good kids throughout the year and therefore they would like. . .for Christmas! :)

Oh the excitement! Here they are mailing their letters!

Yesterday we were very excited when we saw Santa at the Festival of Trees! The kids couldn't wait to tell him that they'd already sent him a list of things they'd like for Christmas, but that they'd thought of a few more things. . .

I LOVE this time of year!

Family Pics

We just had our family pictures taken and I'm not totally sure what to think. Does anyone else think I/we look a little vampirish in a couple of them?!! Please let me know what you think. . .and if you think it would be "rude" to ask her to redo some of them?!!

I think I can. . .I think I can. . .

For some reason I haven't been able to get myself to sit down and summarize the past month, or even the previous one for that matter. I think it's because I've been doing so many things that I don't know where to start, what to leave out, and how to post all the pics I want to share. So, I decided I'll just sit and write from memory and leave the rest for--I don't know what, where do all the unblogged activities go?!! Oh well, I can't worry about that now, hopefully they'll all get scrapbooked some day.

The kids are so excited for Halloween tomorrow--I am too, I love getting together with family to carve pumpkins, trick-or-treat, etc. and to watch the kids have so much fun dressing up and running from house to house to get treats. Kyra and Darci are going to be witches and Mark is going to be a skeleton. Well, maybe. . .today Kyra told her friend she was going to be a mean green witch. Then Darci said "ya, and I'm gonna be. . ." when she didn't finish I said "a cute purple witch". She said "no, I've changed my mind, I'm gonna be Spiderman now." To that Kyra said "well, that's a boy costume, but I guess that's OK if you want everyone to give you BOY candy!"

I had a wonderful time visiting with Missy, my BF from HS at the end of September. I flew to SD and spent three days with her and her family. My visit was really way past due! I loved chatting and catching up with the past 15 years! They took me to the beach and taught me how to surf! :) I loved every minute of it! It's amazing how close friendships don't deteriorate over time.

Dave went to California for the US Open Jiu-Jitsu competition. A bunch of his students from the gym went with him as well. They all did great and had a good time. Dave came home with TWO GOLD medals! We are so proud of him. Now he's training for the PanAmerican competition in April.

Mark and Kyra are doing well in school. Mark is enjoying Montessori. He has a "field trip" to Yellowstone for a week in the beginning of November. I'm excited to go along and experience it with him. I've been able to go on two field trips with his class so far: hike to Cecret Lake and biking around the neighborhood. I also volunteered to be his room mom and to keep up his class blog. Kyra likes kindergarten. . .especially the part where she comes home with a treat every day. Her teacher says she's doing great and she's learning to read pretty well now. Darci loves having "preschool" with her cousins Elizabeth and Forest once a week and "playgroup" with some little friends in our neighborhood once a week. She still loves playing house with her friends and babies.

Mark and Kyra are taking piano and doing well. They love to play, I don't ever have to remind them to practice! I love watching them and hearing the songs. . .I'm amazed at how fast they've learned some of their songs!

We are SO excited that I'm pregnant. The kids ask about the baby every day. Yesterday after I threw up, the girls said they didn't feel very well. I asked them if they had babies in their tummies too. They said "no, we have puppies in our tummies"! They want a puppy almost as much as a baby! :) I've been really tired and nauseus, but I'm sure it'll only last another month to 6 weeks. . .maybe by Christmas I'll get some energy back. Meanwhile, Irene and Rachel are keeping me honest with working out, I'm excited to try and keep it up through this pregnancy.

Last night I got to go out with all my "sisters" for Kari's b-day dinner (my step-mother-in-law. . .hee hee, sounds funny, right?). We had a great time just chatting/laughing for hours. Irene and I also went to a Halloween party with some of our neighborhood friends a week ago and we had a fun night chatting, eating, and playing games(I LOVED announcing my pregnancy to my friends that night with my preggo-belly-costume)! I had a bunch of my friends over for scrapbooking last weekend, and as always, we had a lof of fun! I live for nights like these. . .thanks to all my sisters/girlfriends for providing me with such good times!

Not So Subtle!

I have the best friends in the world. They obviously weren't all here tonight, but a few of them were and we had an awesome time, chatting, eating, playing games, and being dressed up! :) What fun, what fun. . .The kids LOVED my "costume" too! :)
What about YOU???

I Canned Peaches!

OK, OK, I realize that if you know me (which you probably do since you're reading this) then you probably DON'T believe the title you just read. . .so I'm just going to prove it with some pics--and NO, I did not photoshop myself into the pictures!!! :)OK, so Irene helped me, but it was her first time also. Aren't we awesome? The lids all sealed perfectlyand we're excited to try them in the middle of the winter! :) A special thanks to Chrissy (who knows me as well as anyone) for telling me to document this with pictures as she knew NO ONE would ever believe me if I couldn't prove it--including her! lol I don't know if it was really worth it, but we did have a good time and I guess only time will tell if I ever try something like this again, but for now I'm pretty proud of myself! Oh, I also have to mention that the only reason I ever CONSIDERED doing this was because of an enrichment I went to where my neighbor taught us about canning and she convinced me that atleast canning peaches would change my life. . .fine, not quite "my life", but you know what I mean. ;) We'll see. . .when I'm eating them in January!

Call Home!

Booooooooo! I hate to see the summer come to an end! I’ve loved every minute of it. We’ve had so much fun at the pool and not having anything on our schedule except play time and swim time (well, ok, aside from all the doctor, dentist, and therapy apts. but who counts those, right?). :) All of the kids “swim” without floaties now and their favorite thing is diving for the rings on the bottom of the pool. Kyra has been a pro swimmer/diver/everything-in-the-pooler for a long time, but Mark just learned to jump off the edge into the water AND to swim across the deep end on his own—goggles have made all the difference for him. He loves doing back flips and turns in the water, and playing with his friends in the deep end, I’m SO happy for him!

Darci also likes jumping off the side and going under water to fetch things. She and Forest are amazing. . .I guess spending EVERY spare minute at the pool pays off! We’ve also managed to have Emily and Elizabeth swim enough with us that Emily will “dive” (belly flop) off the side and spend most of her time under the water, and Elizabeth now spends most of her time IN the water (a big step) too. :) Also, both Mark and Kyra have learned to ride their bikes without training wheels, we started on the grass (Irene’s bright idea) and now they can ride on the sidewalk for quite a ways.

You may want to turn the volume down on this one--I was a bit excited! :)

I can’t believe how fast they are growing up and learning new things. We’ve loved having Hobie and Irene live just down the street—the kids are in “cousin heaven” and I’m in “aunt heaven”! Rachel, Irene, and I have stuck with our workout routine for 4 straight months now—it’ll be interesting to see how we work it out during the winter. . .but, let me assure you. . .WE WILL! We all feel great and have at least kept off the weight we lost! I love meeting up with them every morning and working out—I would/could NEVER do it without their support. We had so much fun at the family reunion. Kyra assures me every night that she would pick going to another family reunion over going to Disneyland—if it ever came to that! I’m so happy that everyone made an effort to be there. Even though it gets pretty crazy, it’s awesome and worth all the effort.

We LOVED spending a week with the Jaspersons before the reunion. It was fun working-out with Annette and `Jon to the Wii and having all the kids together to get to know each other! Since the reunion both Mark and Kyra had friend birthday parties AND we had a family birthday party for all three kids. They LOVED having everyone over to celebrate. Mark is 10, Kyra is 6, and Darci is now 4. . .CRAZY!!!

They all do jiu-jitsu with Dave now that Darci is 4. It’s awesome—she’s so excited to be one of the big kids and be a part of “fight school”. Chrissy stayed with us for 3 weeks—it went by WAY too fast, and of course, we had a ton of fun. We swam, shopped, worked-out (well, she watched us. . .or slept in while we did it), went to “the beach”,painted some crafts we bought her for her birthday, had a few “girls’ nights”,ate yummy food, and spent most of the time chatting while doing all the mommy things with the kids together. :)

Irene and I (along with our friend Angie) did a sprint triathlon and we LOVED it! Right when we finished we looked at each other and said “that was so fun, when can we do another one?!” So, we are going to do our neighborhood triathlon this Monday on Labor Day—it’ll be so fun. We’ve also signed up to run a marathon relay with Rachel, and might do another tri in November if it’s not too cold or snowy.

Dave has been training like crazy for the US Open Jiu-Jitsu tournament in October. He goes to the gym every morning at 5:30 to train and then teaches his adult classes two nights a week. He’s been taking all of his guys on big hikes every Saturday too. So far they’ve hiked Timp and Mt. Olympus along with a couple smaller ones. He’s gotten injured a couple times but is still planning to compete.

Kyra started kindergarten and Mark starts school the day after Labor Day—we’re very excited to see how he does at the Montessori school. I’m kind of dreading the tight schedules, short days, not enough play time, homework, and activities—but I’m sure it will all be great. We’ve signed Mark and Kyra up for piano with a lady who just moved into Rachel and Robert’s neighborhood, I’m excited to give Mark another chance and to see how Kyra likes it as well. So, with jiu-jitsu twice a week, piano, and scouts, we’ll have something to do everyday after school. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it. We really enjoyed seeing lots of you at Dad’s farewell party and Irene’s birthday party. We love you all and are looking forward to the holidays coming up!

Apparently NO time for bloggin'!

Sorry, I just have to put something here so I don't have to see "Fitness Ridge" again. I obviously haven't updated my blog in the last couple months and it's driving me crazy! Would someone PLEASE just do it for me?? I feel all backed up and behind and I don't even know where to start. I finally put a few pics on FB and decided to call it good. :) OK, I will be writing my Call Home! section soon and that will summarize everything I've been up to. Lots of fun and lots of sun, that's all I have to say now because I HAVE to get to bed! lol

Fitness Ridge

Wow! The experience we had at Fitness Ridge was amazing! Dave and I, and my sister Rachel, spent a full week at the resort. The days started at 6:30 am with 2 to 3 hour hikes--each of which were absolutely gorgeous and awesome (we met people who attend the resort exclusively for the hikes--and we could see why)! Then we had breakfast (300 calories) followed by a lecture. The lectures were also a nice surprise as we didn't expect to be impacted the way we were--they were presented by the dietician, owner, chef (cooking demo's), personal trainer, and psychologist. I didn't necessarily learn anything new or revolutionary, but was definitely motivated to eat healthier (whole grains, less sugar, healthy fats, non-processed foods, more water, etc.), exercise more often and at higher intensities, and to track what I eat (so as to not over-eat)! Then we had a class (intervals or circuits on the cardio machines, water aerobics, yoga, pilates, weight-training, kickboxing, etc.) followed by lunch (400 calories) and another lecture. Next we would have three classes in a row before dinner (500 calories) and the day would end with another lecture. The meals were low calorie (obviously), packed with tons of veggies and fruits, dairy free, low-sodium, whole grains, and for the most part very delicious. It was marvelous having the meals prepared and served to us and not having to give a second thought as to how much we were eating or how healthy it was—I think I would go again just for that convenience alone! Usually in the evenings we would relax in the hot tub or pool to soothe our sore muscles and joints and then we’d pretty much fall into bed until our alarms went off the next morning! It really was worth every cent and inconvenience of being away from home and the kids for a full week! Dave loved it as much as I did and I’m sure we’ll do everything in our power to make it so we have the opportunity to go again. . . !

I came away from the whole experience with two overwhelming truths: 1) Motivation is not what CAUSES action, it is a RESULTof action, and 2) those who eat right, and those who eat right AND exercise, will lose weight at the same rate, but down the road, those who exercise regularly will MAINTAIN the weight-loss! (which IS the ultimate goal, right?)

TICKETS!!

Hey everyone, I have a $228.60 credit on Southwest Airlines that has to be used by August 19th--yes, that means travel must be completed by then. I don't have any plans to use it and wanted to offer it to anyone who could for $200. Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to find somewhere to go! :) LMK if you're interested.

Call Home

Well, I’ve pretty much been working out a ton this month—getting ready for Fitness Ridge in 2 weeks! The first Saturday of this month I ran my first race ever—one mile at Jordan Landing. Irene invited Rachel and I to run it with them, I thought she was crazy at first, but after some persuasion from mom and Rachel I decided I’d try it. So Rachel brought Katie, Sarah, and Hannah and we all did it! We ran the whole thing in the pouring rain. Sarah and I ran together . . . it was very fun. I found that I enjoyed running with a bunch of people, so when I got a flier from a store about a 5K at Thanksgiving Point—through the gardens—I didn’t hesitate to sign up! The second Saturday I went on a long hike with Becca, Irene, Rachel, Hawk and Hunter. It was AWESOME! I have to admit that over the years I’ve wondered what the fascination was that Becca and Dad had for hiking, but I found out quick just going out once! I LOVED IT!!! I can’t wait to go again. Then the third Saturday was my first 5K race. I ran with Alexia and we had a really great time. And, NOW I’ve signed up to run my first 10K next Saturday—from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Bridal Veil Falls and back. I think Hobie and Irene are rubbing off on me or something. . .?!! I’ve loved running every morning—I’ve run three miles with my friend Christina, Irene, or by myself almost every morning. I really enjoy working out with Rachel, Irene, and Affy either at the park or in Rachel’s backyard where we work our legs/arms every day. AND, now I’ve started attending a Bikram Yoga class as often as possible! It’s CRAZY!!!!!

OUR POOL IS OPEN! We’ve been swimming twice now and I love it as much as ever. The kids are all big enough to swim around by themselves and I’m sure they’ll almost always have cousins to swim with! We played on our slip-n-slide in our backyard for a couple weeks before the pool opened and the kids LOVED that! We got a bunch of flowers planted in our yard and it’s been fun keeping the lawn and flower beds all pretty! I even planted a few tomatoes. . .we’ll see if I can get any to grow! We had a little “Johnson” campout over Memorial Day weekend; we pitched tents in the backyard, cooked smores, slept outside, cooked and ate breakfast on the patio, went fishing, and then cooked the fish for dinner! We all had tons of fun! I’m sure we’ll do it again soon. For some pics of all our fun check out my personal blog! (yes, even YOU dad!)

Dave taught the Special Forces guys again, and said it was a lot of fun. He’s still teaching the kids jiu-jitsu class twice a week and the adult class at the gym twice a week. He loves and does great with both! He goes up to Ogden a couple weekends a month to train with a group of guys, and on the other weekends he stays home so he can teach Gospel Doctrine at church.

We are so excited for Hobie and Irene to move two houses down from us! And, I CAN’T WAIT for the family reunion in July! I love having fun family things to look forward to!

A Mothers' Windowsill

I imagine that all mothers' window sills look something like this. Am I right? My kids have always brought me flowers (usually dandelions or the neighbor's flowers they are not supposed to pick) and asked me to put them in a cup with water. I'll leave them in the window as long as I can and then secretly throw them out. Well, now that my kids are a little older (little being the key word here, as they still bring me weeds and stolen flowers--except now some of them are actually from my own yard!) they put them in cups with water by themselves and surprise me with them. They are SO excited to watch me discover them and tell them "they are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen" and that "I'm so lucky that I get to look at them everytime I do the dishes"! I'm sure this is one of those things I'll miss when my kids are all grown up and my house is spotless and stolenflowerless/weedless! Oh, and I'll miss these precious little faces too. . . .
Now I'm just wondering if I'll miss them getting out of bed 10 times after I've tucked them in?!

Camping. . ."the Johnson way"!

OK, seriously--who needs the mountains? My kids and Colby were thrilled with our backyard!we roasted marshmallows and made smores over a little camping burner (much easier--and safer--than a campfire!) we had all the blankets and pillows we could need/want and the kids slept great!Dave, Danny, and Doug made us all breakfast on the burner and the grill!and we ate it on the back porch (Mark wanted to go inside to get warm, but we insisted he stay out and eat because, after all, we were camping!)Then we went fishing. . .at the Trout Farm where you're basically GUARANTEED to catch a fish! And CATCH fish, we did!!! Kyra caught the biggest one at 5 LBS! Darci caught the first one (with grandpa's help), Mark caught the most (3) and Colby had the most bites that got away, but also caught the last one! Yay, everyone came home happy!Our catch totalled over 20 lbs of trout! Check out the size of these fish. Whew!We returned home and cooked some of the fish. The kids loved eating what they had caught. Kyra especially wanted to make sure she was eating the fish she caught!I'd say our first "campout" was a success! I'm sure we'll do it again. Special thanks to Doug and Evelyn and Danny and Colby for joining us on our campout and grandpa Mark for coming fishing with us. We loved having family to share this with!