Happy Thanksgiving 2015!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year with the Johnson clan.  It was a fun day.  Wendy and Anthony couldn't come, so we missed them, of course.  But here are a few pictures of the rest of us.

(from left to right) Gina, Grandpa Johnson, Grandma Johnson, and Brad

Grandma and Brad and Michelle

Such a cute picture of Brad and Michelle

Gina, sporting her new glasses.  (I didn't even know she wore glasses!)  Crazy!

Kyle, Eric, and Dallin

Kyle, Josiah (trying to hide from the camera), and Eric

I got Josiah this time!  HA!

Dallin  

Don't ask me what he's doing in this picture.  I don't have a clue...

That's a lot better! :)

I always try to get a picture in too.  Me and Todd...

Grandpa and Brad

We always put the food on our air hockey/ping pong table.  It works out quite well, actually.  :)

I had a bunch of these left over from the Halloween 6th grade party, so I put them on all of the plates.  Cute, huh? :)

This is my favorite picture.  Jacob and Moriah were under the table conspiring against us.  No, they weren't really, they were just playing, but they look so cute!

Caleb, Joshie, and Josiah

You rock Caleb! 

And of course the kids had to play a little Brawl before the day was over!

Grandpa, Brad, Moriah, and Grandma

I really like this picture of Moriah and Grandma, even though it is so blurry.  Sorry about that.  Did I mention that I'm not a very good photographer? :) 

We had a great day and a wonderful Thanksgiving!  It's all about family!  And we have a lot to be thankful for. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Leaves and more leaves...

I just had to take some pictures this year of my neighbor's yard.  They have like 9 trees that line their house.  These trees lose their leaves all at once, when the first freeze finally arrives.  Seriously, there are so many leaves when they finally fall.  Here are a few pictures for you to see...

The left side of the yard

The middle of the yard

And the right side of the yard.  Do you see how far it goes out into the street?

It's a neighborhood effort to clean up this yard.  Luckily we have great neighbors.  Sadly, I didn't help....I only took pictures.  Wow!  Lame!  (I did have my own leaves to rake.)  Anyway, just thought I would share this event with you.  It really is a quite awesome sight! 

Welcome Fall! :)  

(And those yellow leaves you see?  Those are ours.)

Happy 14th Birthday Kyle!

Happy Birthday Kyle!  

Kyle turned 14 on November 19th.  He is growing up so fast, I can hardly stand it!  Here he is with Ziggy!  What a good looking kid!  (The dog is kind-of cute too.)  :)

Kyle did not really know what he wanted for his birthday, so I took him to Target a few days before and he picked out a Batman watch and a treat.  (And that took forever!)  HA!  So we gave him a Target gift card so he could go back another time and pick out something else (when we have a couple MORE hours to shop). :)

A close up of his watch.  Brandon would be so jealous! :)

Kyle didn't want a cake for his birthday treat.  He wanted chocolate covered peanut butter balls.  Fine with me!  YUM! :) (Don't judge the cook though...baking is NOT my specialty.)

And I don't know why this picture is so yellow, but here it is anyway.  

We love you Kyle!  We are so grateful that you are part of our family!  It wouldn't be the same without you!  Happy Birthday son!

Halloween activities 2015

We all went to Dallin's Fall concert at Cottonwood High School.  It's always the funnest concert of the year.  Amber, the director, always changes costumes like 8 times throughout the night.  It's pretty crazy, but cool to see. 

Dallin played the piano for a couple of songs...and he wore Todd's old martial art's uniform from when he was in high school.  It even had "Jones" sewn on the back.  Dallin looked pretty awesome in it and it fit him perfectly!

And that is Zach Wall on the far left in the "Where's Waldo" costume.  So funny and clever!  I loved it!  He is amazing on those drums!

Dallin played the xylophone for some of the songs too.  There are several piano players, so he has to take turns with them...

And then Halloween came...and went. :)

Kyle was Batman.  (Brandon would have loved this!)

Jacob was a Grim Reeper....but he wasn't too scary! :)

Here's Eric in his Spiderman hoodie.  Who says you're too old to dress up? :)

And here's Dallin sporting the martial arts uniform doing the "karate kid" pose.  Ha!  Funny kid!

My wonderful and amazing boys!  I love them so much.  (We miss you Brandon!)

Here's Jacob for crazy hair day!  This wig is hilarious! 

On his way to school...

And one more...a close up! :)

And here's a picture of Jacob in his LAST Halloween parade at Arcadia Elementary.  That is just crazy talk! :(

October was a fun month packed full of great Halloween activities.  Now onto the holidays!  Before we know it, it will be 2016!  Oh help us all! :)

Would you like to buy a sword? $1 each to a good cause...

For one of Eric's classes, he had to come up with a product to sell, but it had to be made from supplies he already owned.  And he couldn't just sell one of his old toys either.  It had to be something that people would want, so it had to have value.  He spent several days wondering (and worrying) about what he would sell.  Finally on the last day, he and Todd came up with the idea to make wooden swords out of paint sticks.  It was actually pretty genius. :) 

He made 5 swords, spray painting each one a different color.  Pretty cool, eh? :)

Then Eric took pictures of Todd and Kyle fighting with the swords and posted them on social media.  He advertised to all his friends that he was selling them for $1 each.

Who wouldn't want one of these???

We had a ward social that evening and he decided to bring them to the party to see if he could sell them.  Of course, lots of the kids wanted them, so the parents didn't have much of a choice. HA! :)  By the time the party was over, Eric had orders for 5 more swords.  Pretty cool!  

I don't know if Eric will actually have time to make them, but it turned out to be a fun assignment and a good experience for him.  Maybe he'll have his own business someday...you never know. :)  Good job Eric!

Dallin and Emma--Monster Mash 2015

Here's Dallin waiting for his date, Emma, to pick him up for Monster Mash.  And by the way, Emma's dad drove for the evening. :)

They dressed up as 1920 gangsters.  They both looked really cute! :)

Emma and Dallin

After Emma (and her dad) picked up Dallin, they went back to her house for dinner.  They doubled with another couple, but I don't know who they were. (Oops!)  Then they were driven to the dance and after it was over, they went back to Emma's and watched the movie, Poltergeist.  SCARY!  They weren't able to finish it, but I know Dallin had a lot of fun on his first date!  :)  I'm sure there are many more to come...Oh, give me strength!  HA!