My Best Friend

I don't do this blog thing very often so when I do I feel it is for a special reason. Tonight I have one of the best reasons ever...my longest and best friend (besides my wife of course). This is him and his wonderful family:Baby Jack, Elizabeth, Megan, and Adam Johanson. When I was about 10 years old I decided to become friends with this tiny little nerd that lived in my ward. I never could have imagined how his friendship and example would shape and affect my life growing up and even now, when he is hundreds of miles away, in the middle of No Where Ville, and we speak to each other but a few times a year. But with all that my heart is touched today by what this man and his family have gone through and who they are tonight.

If you would like to know what I am talking about please visit their blog at http://aejohanson.wordpress.com/
Start with a block entitled "Baby Jack Alexander Johanson" posted November 19, 2008. This is a story about Baby Jack. But there is so much more spirit and meaning behind the story that gives inspiration to my life from a true leader in this world. I will let you know ahead of time this is not a happy story. Marilene and I have spent our time weaping tonight because of the end of the story. However, if you do read it you will gain much more then sadness for the Johanson Family. You will gain a happiness to have shared this story with them. You will rejoice in the fact that people of God do live on this Earth and they are here to help and guide us in our troubled times.

Adam and Liz and little beautiful Megan we love you so so very much. I am where I am today because you live wonderful lives and influence me still today. You are a choice people and you will be blessed with that little angel by your side forevermore.

New trampoline

My dad got a trampoline to fit over the hole for the swimming pool(12 feet by 30 feet!) and it was finally finished on Friday and Craig has LOVED it! this was Friday and he would just about jump on it all the time, but it was so freezing, that we had to bring him in to unthaw a little.

even once it got dark he still wanted to jump. so we bundled him in 2 sweaters, 2 pairs of socks (because they didn't want any shoes on the new trampoline... hopefully it will last longer) and socks over his hands because i couldn't find any clean gloves. plus his hat and a hood. :D

Luke along with two of his friends(Noble and Charles) enjoyed bouncing on it after all the work was done. look at them bouncing!

pre-approved!

We are pre-approved and can actually go and tour houses!! yay! we are very excited and are gunna go look at a couple this saturday! yay for the wonderful people we are working with. we really are blessed and Heavenly Father is watching over us. thank you everyone who has prayed for us in the past.

my dear little boy

I realized that i still haven't written much about Craig and his second birthday. Craig was born two years ago! and although it was a little bit of a struggle getting him actually here(he didn't seem to want to be born), he has been one of the best little boys for us! Craig, you love playing with your cousins and are still working on sharing. You love to run around, jump on the trampoline and goof around with 'Pa' (or grandpa Pearson).

You really love things that move, cars, planes, trains, trucks, etc. You love music and singing, or reading a book. Backyardigans are one of your favorite shows, but you also like little Einsteins, and other shows, like curious George, sesame street, handy manny. you really liked your pacifier, but have been pretty good about not having it, besides the whole waking up issue. you love riding your bike, and even before we got you your new one, you loved riding others bikes.

Craig, you really were a blessing for your daddy and I since we have been going to school your entire life. We love you so much and are looking forward to seeing you grow older. Never forget how much Heavenly Father loves you!

updates

HOUSE NEWS! no particular house, but after trying to get more progress for two weeks, we are finally making some. we are applying for HUGS and got the loan approval moving, so we can actually look at houses with our realtor! we were starting to feel hopeless about the pace things were moving at, but this lady, Bobi, is very fast at the mortgage company (RMS) and then our realtor, melanie is also very fast. so we have made a lot of progress in just yesterday and this morning!! HUGS is for first time home buyers and/or teachers. which we happen to be both! check it out if you are in the future needing a house.

http://hugsfoundation.com/Home_Page.html



Trevor is done with school, for this semester. he has one more class next semester and then he will be a graduate!! i'm getting excited! He did get his full-time position with clark county public works and they moved him up (pay raise) from an engineer technician I to a tech II! so we were happy!



Craig just turned two. On his birthday, we took away all pacifiers! he has missed them, but we are dealing. He has decided to stop taking naps in early December and we are NOT happy about it! he is super super grumpy! yesterday, i made him lay down (hollering for 5 minutes in his crib, throwing everything out of it before settling down) but then silly me, i turned on the light to fold clothes about an hour later and he woke up. so if we are lucky, he gets a 45 minute nap every other day.

Then, at night, he wakes up SO often! he used to wake up a little, look for his pacifier and go back to sleep. but now, he doesn't get his pacifier. so i try giving him water and comforting him. but he is waking up at about 11, 2, 4, and 6 when trevor is getting ready to leave! it is killing us! last night, wonderful trevor, helped me realize again that he just needs to cry a little. so he did when he woke up at 11 and 2. for about 2 minutes each time. but then at 6, he decided it was time to watch cartoons already.

I'm a sucker. i just bring him into bed with us and neither of us get any decent sleep because craig is all over the place. the other night, he decided at 4 to go get into the fridge and look for a drink and some food! it was 4 in the morning!! so every couple of months or so, craig does this, when he gets sick or something. he cries and i get into a habit of just having him sleep with us. then trevor reminds me so nicely that we just need to let him cry and we get him back to sleeping in his crib all night. i don't know why i do this over and over again. i should realize that he jsut can't sleep with us. but this is one reason why i'm looking forward to getting into a house and craig having his own separate room! he will wake up and not see us sleeping in the same room and NOT want to be with us.

As for me, i am happy to be done with school for a little break. i am very relieved to have report cards and parent conferences over with, for the most part and will hopefully be better prepared next time around this year. i am enjoying being able to be at home with craig. well, i better go for today!

Christmas

*sorry this turned out to be really long, but i would like to document my feelings for journal purposes.

Christmas has always been my favorite season! I love the music, and the specialty of the reason that we are actually celebrating. also, my birthday is on Christmas day. so that is always fun to get older.

My family has always gone Christmas caroling and I love it! for my birthday celebration in high school, my dad would take a couple of friends and i and we would just go caroling to people we knew. then my entire family (that could) would go on Christmas eve. I love it! i love singing and especially being able to harmonize with everyone. Christmas songs are my favorite. I could listen to them all year long. They just are so very special to me.

So i am very excited to be done with school for 2 weeks and to really be able to think about this special season. Our ward had a dinner on the 13th and i loved it because at the end, we all sang a couple of the songs and i was able to do parts on some of them and it just really got me excited and anticipating caroling. then, our ward choir (led by a very talented and wonderful woman) sang two precious songs. one i had sung years before (Alleluia) and knew the tricky alto part. but the oh come oh come Emmanuel, i had never heard and enjoyed learning it. one part in it, that repeats, says REJOICE and i just love that message. this really is a time to rejoice and celebrate. Christ was born in such a humble place and I am very grateful to be able to celebrate his life.

growing up, we never really thought about santa and that he existed. we drew names and did a secret santa for one of our siblings. some years, we had to make the gift and other years, we bought. but the gifts have never been a big deal. i love that! birthday presents and celebrating my birthday hasn't been too important for me. I enjoy feeling people's love and having them express that, but i don't feel the need to get lots of 'things'.

So now that i am married to a wonderful man, we are trying to combine our traditions and things that we do. I heard my friend, Marcie say, that santa would give one gift and then the rest were from parents and family. i like that. it still allows us to do santa a little, but not focusing on everything santa and more on Christ.

SNOW!

{i know that i am behind. I am trying to catch up a little on my posts. life has been pretty crazy and just going by too quickly}

I love the song SNOW from the movie White Christmas! i was singing that song ALL day long on Wednesday and loving it!

So we got snow falling on monday, then again on wednesday! this morning, trevor said that it was snowing too. who would think in Las vegas?

On wednesday i had conferences with parents all day, but my fantastic sisters watched Craig, along with my mom, and they took him outside AND got pictures! how wonderful! so here are the pictures from them. They sure got some great pictures! i love that he pushed over the top of the little snowman! i had to include those.

Below, here are some of my pictures that i got while at school. I was so happy to have my camera. when i left school at 7:30, my car was covered! i couldn't leave until i had got a cup and wiped the snow off of the windows. never in my life have i had to do that! most of the cars had gotten home, so it was pretty safe for me to drive. i took it slow and down shifted to stop.

that is what a pine tree should look like! covered in snow!

* side note- my wonderful husband had just fixed my car the saturday before all of the snow madness, so i was lucky that i would actually start. before, if it got too cold, it wouldn't start and some anti-theft would kick in and i'd have to wait 10 minutes before trying to restart it. so i was very happy that i have a great husband.

on my way home that night, the snow was starting to melt a little, so when i got out to get some drinks, it was very mushy. . . but fun! there was snow stuck to the underside of the light posts! it was frozen hanging there! there roads were pretty clear where everyone had been driving, but i went to turn off of blue diamond at mohawk and it was scary my car trying to get into the turn lane! it was frozen and snow thick in it and i thought i might crash! luckily, i didn't and just took it slowly.

The next morning, there was still snow on the ground! some of it had melted, but it was still there! we had problems with our little truck on thursday, so craig got to spend some of that day out playing in the snow too and he loved it all! he didn't mind getting all wet, since we don't really have great snow playing clothes for him.

Shark Reef

My cousin Crystal and I try and get together. we grew up together for quite a while and are almost the same age. Then, in high school, they moved across town. and we are both pretty bad about talking to each other. she's better than me. So she called me up and asked if we wanted to go to shark reef with her and her boyfriend's sweet little girl. So two Mondays ago, we met up and walked through shark reef. it was fun. We had gone in August, but it was still fun to go and see all the animals. and there were differences.

We had fun! and Craig and Karlie got along pretty well. by the end of the night, they were holding hands. Melanie, Abby, Savannah, Crystal, Trevor, Craig and i all went. Thanks Crystal for the fun time and for keeping us in touch! love ya girl!

no school SNOW DAY!!

aah!! i can't believe it! las vegas is having no school tomorrow because of a snow day!! i will post more pics and that means i can catch up on my blogging. yay! this really is amazing.

Craig's birthday

Craig is 2!! his birthday was yesterday and we just had a small family thing. very very small. not that any of us minded. i qill write more later, but here's some fun pictures from everything!

uggh, report cards

so my report cards are due tomorrow and i have been stressing out about them!! AAHH! :O well, i'm still not done. i was at school for 3 hours yesterday, then 4 hours tonight and i still have more to do. i was able to get all the students tested, but i have to write up their comments and input all of the letters (capital and lower), sounds, and numbers they know (writing, recognizing and counting!!). oh well. better go.

Sneaky Craig

Craig loves candy! we usually get him some tic tacs for church to help encourage better behavior. He found a pack we had at home and ate the entire thing!! he was so silly. then, he tried sitting in an infant car seat. Then, we got a little Charlie Brown tree, from my parents ranch. we put it on top of our portable dishwasher. the only decorations this little tree could handle is some candy canes. But Craig has stolen all the bottom ones. Trevor also put up our stockings and Craig thought it was funny to squeeze Santa's nose! we had to use the dishwasher, so our tree moved too. i thought it was funny.

My dad brought back some goats, and we've practiced what animals say. So anytime he sees the goat, he "Maaaa"s. well, we saw a Christmas decorations of a reindeer lit up and Craig "maa"ed. it was so funny! it wasn't even a good one. just the frame of it in white lights.

Rain from last week & park

here are some more pictures and i figured it was about time i wrote a little more (mainly to get it out of my head and maybe help me process things better) about my class.

Trevor is in his last week of classes (for this semester). but there is hope!!! he has one more class next semester and it doesn't even have a scheduled time!!

The first collage above, is some pictures of when it had rained (almost all day long it drizzled!!! and fog in Las vegas!! it was the first i can remember! we were at albertsons and heard a plane flying to land but could not see it at all!! it was crazy!). it was dry for about an hour and craig wanted to play outside... of course. so i bundled him up and let him. later that day, he was in a cute little vest and he would hold it closed. then, almost every time i take him grocery shopping (especially at albertsons) he sees balloons ALL over the place and has to have one! i spoil him. but usually he loves them so much and is so funny with them. yesterday, we were going to get a pinkish red Christmas one, but at the checkout, he saw a blue star one and had to have it. so we switched and now he is learning about all the holidays (it was a happy hanukkah).

Then, we had lots of pictures from Thanksgiving. and yes, jenna is giving herself bunny ears! silly willy!

friday we went to very AWESOME park! its out be 215 and horizon rigde ? i'm not sure. but it's on the way to boulder city, still in henderson. I loved it! everyone was always wanting to be or sit with craig. Craig is so lucky to have so many great cousins. i love the pictures of jenna getting a drink, with help from craig. and silly caitlyn doesn't really like to smile anymore, but she is so pretty. emma had some great side profile pics too.

House News

Marilene is always bugging me to blog something, and since we have really good news I decided to do it today. Plus Marilene just never has time any more to blog much so this is for her too.

Last night we had an appointment with a mortgage person. Earlier in the summer he (Randy Lovstuen 812-7406) gave us the good news that we were really close to getting our first house. Last night he told us we are ready, and we are going to start all the paper work. He told us about this awesome down payment program called HUGS that gives first time home owners who don't have a huge annual income a 2-2.5% down payment gift. So if we get approved, which we should, for HUGS then we only need a couple thousand to complete the down payment. and that won't be hard since we have been saving for a little while now. Plus Marilene should be receiving a nice signing bonus from the school district soon.

As soon as we are approved for that then we can start looking at houses. Granted I have been looking at houses on-line for a good year now, but we can actually go tour homes now. Big BIG difference. We won't be able to close on a house until the 20th of Jan or around that time because Randy has to have two full time pay check stubs from me and I won't have that until mid January. However, we can start the process and get everything rolling in the mean time so we are exstatic. In fact last night we were laying in bed and we just couldn't fall asleep because we were thinking about it sooooooo much.

We love Marilene's parents and they have been so kind and gracious to us. There is no way will be able to repay them for the kindness and all the things they have given us these last three plus years. But with that said we want out!, and they know that. It is hard living in a tiny little space with a single room being shared by me, Marilene, Craig, and.... SO it is definetily time to move up and onward.

lots of pictures!

I love to take pictures!! especially since they are digital and can simply be deleted, i love it! at one time, i worked for a wedding photographer, just as an assistant. but i think i learned to love taking pictures more because i did work with her.


To see all the pictures, check out our Picasa web albums! October and November.



we have had lots of things happening and I wasn't always able to take my camera, so here are some pictures and catch up pictures (thanks Anita and Cyndi for having your camera!).




We were able to go to Aviation Nation, early in November and here are the fun pics from Anita. I'll have to upload a video or two that we took. Craig loved it!!! it was a little loud at first, but he was never crying or scared from the loud airplanes. he loved them so much! there was lots of room to run around and i just followed him around pretty much.
There were so many cool airplanes! Trevor and I went 2 years ago, but we didn't really watch the shows. the things these planes can do are amazing!

Then, Trevor played Turkey bowl with a couple of church guys. it was fun. Craig and i went and played around at the park the same day. it was such a beautiful day and i was able to get some great pictures of Craig and the bushes, etc. he just makes me laugh so much. he makes some silly faces and loves climbing on anything and everything.