An Entertaining Story...

At preschool today Carly and Gabe took turns making up this story:

"Once upon a time there lived some humans and they were not poor. One day a horrible snow monster came and threw snowballs at the humans. The humans got some hot chocolate and poured it on the terrible snow monster. The snow monster died. The humans went to bed. The next morning the humans got married and then they had children. Then they ate a giant computer and lived happily ever after (but they got sick from the computer)."

The End

An illustration by Carly

(The human is throwing a snowball back at the snow monster)

My friend, Sara, was the teacher today - Thanks Sara!

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The other day Ellie had me come in their room with my eyes closed. The suprise is that Carly was all dressed up and ready to dance. She loves to dance and she really feels the music!

Of course Ellie had to have a turn too.

Welcome to the World Blake James

Aaron's brother and his wife, Brett and Heidi, just welcomed the newest little addition into their family... more than 4 weeks early! (Heidi was originally due just a week before me). He's still in the NICU, but hopefully he'll be going home soon.

Blake James

Born on January 5, 2009

weighing 6lbs 14oz (huge for 4 weeks early)!

CONGRATULATIONS to Brett and Heidi and older siblings, Megan and Brock!

The Day Spa and The Dog House

For Christmas Aaron got me a gift certificate to the Sanctuary Day Spa for a pregnancy massage. I went today and, basically, it was WONDERFUL!!! I would love to make it a monthly tradition - but I don't think our budget can handle that. It will definitely have to become a 3rd Trimester Pregnancy tradition (although I'm not sure how many more of those I'm going to have). Anyhow, I'll somehow make an excuse to make it a tradition. :)

So, speaking of Christmas gifts...this is a commercial that my parents showed us on YouTube. (click the link)

JC Penny's Dog House Commercial

Obviously this doesn't apply to Aaron right now. And actually, I'm not too hard to please when it comes to gifts - if I needed a vacuum and Aaron got me a nice one - double bags...ha ha - I would probably be very happy. (Although I don't know how happy I would be if Aaron gave me a thigh master as a surprise - ha ha!) Anyway, I just thought this was pretty hilarious!

Christmas 2008

We stayed in Utah for Christmas. It was so nice to not travel in the winter weather! My parents came down and all of my siblings were here in Utah except for my oldest sister, Jennifer.

The weekend before Christmas we got together with our friends, Curt & Shawna and Jordan & Jenny. Curt and Jordan were two of Aaron's best friends in highschool and Shawna and I grew up together and Jenny was my closest friend in Moscow. So, needless to say, it was great to see them and their families. We went to the Brick Oven in Provo for dinner and then went to Temple Square to see the lights.

The gang at the Brick Oven

They had a picture taken in this same spot at Temple Square before their missions (more than 10 years ago). We also took a picture of them with all of their kids - pretty chaotic - and none of my pictures turned out.

Reading Calvin and Hobbes with Grandpa Johnson

Christmas Eve Party at my Sister Angela's

In our Ugly Sweater Glory!

Mom, Steph, Me, Angela, Gina

The Johnson family (minus the little kids and Jen's family)

Christmas Morning!

Carly would have been content with just a couple of books and her $1 jump rope for Chrismas.

(You can see on the couch that Santa didn't forget the pink rubber ducky)

This is the awesome tent and teepee that Aunt Steph got Carly and Ellie for Christmas!

Speaking of Stephanie... Carly told me the other day that she wanted me to go somewhere so that Stephanie could come over and babysit her.

And, a few days ago the girls and I went over to Steph's house just to hang out and then we picked up Aaron from work.

Aaron asked the girls "What did you do at Aunt Steph's house?"

Carly answered, "Ate candy, jumped on beds, and watched kid movies"

(No wonder she's the favorite!)

Family Christmas Pictures

Our Big Sisters with Baby Sister

We had about 30 minutes of this:

It really does just get to the point where all you can do is laugh about it! We took soooo many pictures and none of them really turned out that great (partly because we were doing it ourselves....and partly because we have a 4-year-old and an amost-3-year-old)

p.s. Ellie cut her bangs last week

p.p.s. Our internet is kind of weird right now, so I don't know if it's just on our computer, but I'm not due in 32 days like the baby ticker says - it totally freaked me out one day when I saw it! ha ha!! I'm really due in 8 weeks.

Catching up

I put Ellie's hair in braids the night before - she has such beautiful hair!

Sad, but true...this is one of the only Thanksgiving pictures that I took over the whole break. Uncle Josh let the kids ride in the back of their Hummer! We were in Rexburg this year for Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun...and fighting (lots of little cousins who think they're in charge).

Franci and Holly (Aaron's sisters) and I went to the movie Fireproof. We had no idea what the movie would be about, but we really enjoyed it.

These are the gingerbread houses that Carly and Ellie made (they were originally decorated with candy - but Carly and Ellie thought the candy would be better to eat)

A Bow Holder
I got this idea from my friend Brandy - (she does all sorts of fun homemade projects)! I made this one for my sis-in-law and I still need to make one for myself. (The picture to the right is what I have been using as a bow holder for the last year or so - I like Brandy's idea much better!)

So, one of the reasons I haven't been blogging lately is because I've been sick for the last week and a half - not fun (head cold and the stomach flu). I think I'm pretty much better now though! So, this is a picture of Aaron and the girls hanging out (watching Robin Hood) while Mommy rests.



Aaron also took the girls to a work Christmas Party for kids while I was sick. They got to sit on Santa's lap. One nice thing about not having TV commercials...

Santa: What would you girls like for Christmas this year?
Carly: A rubber ducky...a pink one!
Ellie: A pink rubber ducky!
(That should make Christmas shopping pretty easy on Santa's wallet!)

Aside from taking care of the girls and me while I've been sick, Aaron has been studying for his licensing exams - pretty intense. He's such a hard worker, I sure hope he does well. One of these days I'm going to post some pictures of what Aaron has been doing at work - he's kind of their in-house landscape artist. I just need his help downloading and stuff.

What Mom's can't live without

(This post was inspired by you, Courtney)

I need some suggestions on carseats. I hated the carseat I had with Carly and Ellie, so I dumped it as soon as Ellie went to a forward-facing carseat. Are Gracos pretty good? They seem to have good reviews and are decently priced too.

Also, what would you suggest as far as baby slings and carriers?

A couple things that I think are a must:

-Lansinoh lanolin cream - I even used it for a couple weeks before I had Ellie which saved me a lot of pain afterwards.

-A nursing cover (Bebe au lait, Hooter Hiders, etc). I didn't have one of these with Carly and Ellie, but I'm definitely going to have one (or a few) for this time.

You would think I already know about everything that I would need or want after doing this twice already, but I seem to find out about a lot of things after they would have done me some good. So, is there anything else that you just can't live without or have heard that a Mommy shouldn't live without?