Chelsea put in her 2 weeks yesterday. UGH! Now I have to find someone new who I feel comfortable bringing into my house, driving my car and especially taking care of my kids. I hate trying to find someone new. If anyone knows of someone fabulous let me know.

I always thought finding the right person would be the hardest part and I'll admit it took me a good while and I had to kiss a lot of frogs to find my prince. But now I know better I've learned over the last 9 years how hard marriage can be and what real love is.

All of our disagreements and trials and hard times have brought us closer together. I can't imagine a day in my life without Todd there. Who would make me laugh? Who would I clean up after? Who would put up with all my crazy? Thank goodness we will be together forever. I love you so much Todd.

I am the luckiest girl ever. This guy rocks!!!

2004
Luke's first ChristmasJan (My MIL) holding Carson and Luke
and Tayson (missing his pants of course) in the background


2006
Claire's first Christmas

soon to come....Sophie's First Christmas

I mailed out lots of cards yesterday but I didn't put a letter in them because my entire life is online for your reading pleasure.


So here are the highlights of 2008 for the Johnson Family:


Todd got a new job with Perficient a few months ago as Lead Technical Consultant. He is either traveling or working from home which is working out well so far since he's been at home more than on the road. It's the perfect job for him since he loves change and will be working with different companies, teams and projects every few months. He also did 2 triathlons this past summer.


I changed jobs at Nu Skin and am now the Regional Director of Web Marketing and I LOVE it! It's fast paced, fun and I work with great people. I had a baby last summer, went on a diet, started a goal to run in a 5K every month and am now training for the Moab half marathon in March (what in the world...whose big idea was that!?!)


Tayson is 6 and is in 1st grade and having a hard time behaving in school but he seems to be doing well academically and he likes school. (He can even spell school!) He loves to play outside with his friends but now that it's cold he can usually be found playing "Spore" on the computer.


Luke is 4 and goes to preschool. He loves to do homework, can even read simple books (the Sam at Bat type). He might not be a clone of Todd like Tayson but he has the same calm personality and those big brown eyes that I love so much.


Claire is 2 - need I say more? This year Claire has managed to destroy most of our board books and loves to tear magazines into tiny shreds while hiding under her bed (she's my little hamster). She loves princesses, butterflies, Dora and carries her purse everywhere. Every time she wets her diaper she feels the need to take it off herself wherever she is and then while she's at it takes off the rest of her clothes. We find her naked and her clothes and dirty diapers throughout the house on a regular basis. It's so annoying.


Sophie is 5 months old. She is such a good baby. She sleeps great and eats great and rarely cries. When she wants something she usually yells at us instead of crying. It's so cute! She loves to cuddle and smile and roll. She's getting good at sitting up and loves to swim when she's on her tummy.


We have been so blessed this year and are so grateful for our family and friends. I can only hope that 2009 brings as much fun into our lives.

Today Todd asked me to go by the pet store on my way home to pick up 16 small crickets. I'm not a big fan of purchasing something alive for food but I did it anyways. The funny part to me is how different a trip to the pet store is for Todd and I.....

Two weeks ago Todd went to the pet store to pick up 16 small crickets and when I was online banking I noticed the bill was $58....HOLY COW that lizard is livin' large if he's eating for that price! Of course I found out that the high price was due to the fact that Todd can't leave the pet store without something for his fish tank. I bet he took his time and looked around and thought about things he would come back to get next time.

On the other hand, my trip was as fast as I could make it. It stank so bad in there and there was nothing I wanted there. My trip to the pet store for 16 small crickets cost $1.07.

New Christmas Outfits
Luke, Claire, Tayson and Sophie

Sadly the best picture was of them making "silly faces"Even Sophie is sticking out her tongue!


Too cute to leave off...


Schultz Christmas:
We always get together with my family before some of us leave to have Christmas dinner and open presents. The kids loved it and were extremely spoiled. We had the kids open most of our presents too so that we wouldn't have to pack them down and back to Cali. We got Tayson a Nintendo DS and Luke a Leapster 2 (and we hope this will make the long drive a little better).

Luke with his Leapster

Claire got the talking princess vanity from my parents.
This morning she didn't come out of her room because she was busy making herself beautiful with her plastic makeup!

Tayson with his DS. He was so excited and didn't want to wait for it to charge.


Let it snow

This morning we woke up to all of this BEAUTIFUL snow.

Christmas is here!!!

Last Friday Luke was complaining about having something in his eye. He would rub it then stop so it seemed like things were normal.


Then on Saturday he went to a soccer game with my parents and they noticed something in his eye but couldn't get it out and his eye was watering like crazy. Then he seemed fine again.


On Sunday he was being a total pill and the light, noises and his siblings were all making him cranky. So we thought he must have had a headache (which he gets frequently) and gave him some Tylenol and had him rest for a half hour. It helped a lot so we figured he was better. Then Sunday night right before bed we noticed something BIG in his eye. We tried holding him down and getting it out but nothing worked.


So on Monday we made an appointment with the doctor. They tried getting it out with a q-tip but it wasn't working so they gave him numbing drops and then the doc went to town with metal tweezers and got it out. Somehow he didn't scratch Luke's eye or anything.

it's about 1 cm by 1 cm
(it's taped on a piece of paper so I outlined it)

I thought I would flashback to the last time I went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was in 2002 right after Tayson was born. I remember it was freezing and we did a quick walk through, went in to see a concert in the Tabernacle and only stayed for a few minutes because Tayson was his normal crazy self. He might look adorable but he was the hardest baby!!!

Last night for YW we took the youth to SLC to see the lights at Temple Square. We left at 6:00 and it took us FOREVER to find a place to park. It was really, really cold and there were about 100 other youth groups there last night so it was really crowded with a bunch of kids the same age. There were only 3 leaders so it was stressful trying to keep an eye on all the girls, and I had to drive in my car without another adult to talk to so I had to listen to crazy singing the whole time. But even with all that...it was fun and I do LOVE the lights at Temple Square.

My friend Jill set a goal to run a 5K every month - what an inspiration!!! Sounds like fun to me I'm always up for a new challenge. I started in October with the NieNie 5K. Did the "Earn your Turkey" run on Thanksgiving. And for this month the Nutcracker 5K. It was so much fun!

I'll admit I stressed about making a tutu. And since I have no crafty bones in my body it took quite a bit longer than it did on the youtube video I watched. But I did it and now I have a tutu for years to come.

My Workout Buddies

I thought I'd add this one just for fun

I got this via e-mail but figured I'd rather post my answers here.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real
3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving weekend
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime after we get back from California and before I go back to work.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes but sparingly....it is way too rich!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My music box that my Grandpa Giboney made me. It is still up on a shelf in my bedroom.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Grandparents
8. Easiest person to buy for? Todd or the kids
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes the willow tree version
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both. I try to always send Christmas cards and last year I posted on my blog and sent an email.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? This is a hard one....but I'm going to have to go with the first Christmas we were married (we'd been married 4 days by Christmas) and Todd got me these crazy shoe slippers from a kiosk at the mall. Knowing I would never wear them I gave them to Timmy as soon as we got home from our honeymoon. I'm such a jerk!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation, Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, Elf....anything except "The night they saved Christmas" (just kidding Todd)
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December (sometimes the week before Christmas I'm sooooooo bad)
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? white elephant gifts for sure
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? chocolate covered pretzels and homemade Carmel's (from my MIL)
16. Lights on the tree? Yes
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Of course...I know the song!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? We open presents the week before Christmas with my family then one present on Christmas Eve (jammies of course), then the rest on Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? When my kids are greedy instead of grateful for all they have.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? No theme - just lots of crazy ornaments. We go for the good old Charlie Brown tree
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey or Ham with all the fixin's
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A running skirt

Grandpa Giboney and I
(nice hair!)

While I'm talking about Christmas I'll put up our Christmas wish list for our families:

Tayson: Nintendo DS games, anything Star Wars, Spiderman, clothes (size 7), jammies, books, cars, he's pretty easy going.

Luke: Leapster 2 games, Star Wars, Hulk, Superman, clothes (size 5), pre-school workbooks or books, puzzles

Claire: the more girlie the better....purse, dress up clothes, lip gloss, plastic jewelry, barbies, dolls, clothes (size 3)

Sophie: anything...she hasn't asked for anything specific at this point :)

Kathy: running skirt, winter running tops (white), gift cards, shoes, iPod shuffle, nice black or chocolate brown dress coat

Todd: Griddle (that cooks grilled cheese evenly), Firefly (on blue ray), a blue fish that will stay alive in our fish tank for more than a week,

In case you were wondering.....the results are in and posted here.