Have you seen my immune system, I seem to have misplaced it...

O.k. so I don't mean to be a "Debbie Downer" (a term derived from a Saturday Night Live skit with a girl named Debbie who was always negative. o.k. I just ruined the fun by having a huge explaination following the term.)...

Let's start over, I don't mean to be a "Debbie Downer", but I have been sick this whole winter and I am wondering if you have seen my immune system running around town somewhere, because it sure isn't here....

Here's my sob story....

I started with sinus infections in September and constant tonsillectomy.... the ENT doctor claimed that they needed to do surgery on my sinus cavity.....

Finally, in December the surgery happened. They gave me an antibiotic "just to be careful" and I recovered from my surgery. Right after recovering from my surgery (I now had permission to blow my nose again... Yea!), we went to Phoenix because Morgan had a speaking engagement at the school his sister teaches at. Anyways, I woke up in the middle of the night with SEVERE pain in my abdomen, and after five hours at the ER in Mesa and a CT scan later, they realized I had a stomach and intestine infection. Painful stuff, and it could have been caused by taking antibiotics.... So how do they cure me, they put me on another "hard core" antibiotic.... genius! Then I finish taking the later antibiotic and low and behold, the next day I wake up with another sinus infection type thing, no voice, and a cough to beat the band.

Point being: I am not sure where the point lies, but speaking of lying, I have been doing a lot of lying around as of late, and frankly, I am SICK of it!

I am including a picture of me in jammies, because that is all I seem to wear lately....(thank you Becky for the comfy jammies!)

Tomorrow I am off to Prescott to build myself an immune concoction as per my awesome brother-in-law Jeff. Just think fish oil and zinc and other cool stuff... I am definitely willing to give it a whirl.

Snow is falling all around... Oh wait, I mean leaves!

Now, I know that a lot of you are getting snow and piles of it where you live... But here in Bagdad, we were excited because the last storm finally made the last of the leaves fall down. So, instead of feet and feet of snow we had feet and feet of leaves. And we celebrated by jumping in our biggest pile!!!!! We each had our unique way of attacking the leaves as evident by the pictures. Lund and Cassidy liked to flip into the pile, so it always looks like they are standing on their heads in the pictures. Sarah liked to ride an invisible motorcycle into the pile and I just liked to do some old fashioned karate. Morgan tried to even scare the leaves away, but that didn't work either. So enjoy the snow or leaves or whatever may be falling from the sky in your neck of the woods!

Can you find Lund?????????

Cassidy takes her first jump

Lund's first jump was a little more daring!

He got real good at landing on his head!

Cassidy tries a "Kung Fu Panda" move

Morgan tries to scare the leaves away!!!

They all jumped at the same time and Sarah got squished in the middle!

Sarah decides to ride her invisible motorcycle into the leaves!

Morgan gets some "sweet air" on this jump!

And, after much convincing, Mom jumps in too!!

It's Kismus Time!!

Well, another Christmas has come and gone and it was WONDERFUL! We enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Johnson at our Christmas morning via Webcam. It was so fun, they sat on the coffee table (they, meaning the labtop) and got to watch all the festivities! They had to go after a while because they were cooking breakfast for all the missionaries!! It was really funny becuase Will wanted everything out of the packaging and put together IMMEDIATELY upon opening it. So I would tell him, "why don't you have Grandpa put it together for you..." He would look at the lab top and then say..."noooooooooooooo". I think he is under the impression that they now live in the labtop!

We had a great time and some of the key presents were a basketball hoop from Grandma and Grandpa Wiemer which we already have enjoyed even though it has been a bit chilly, a new bike for Cassidy, a Magnetix set for Lund, a new scooter for Sarah, Hot Wheels stuff for Will, Cricut cartridges for me (yipee), and Morgan got the Smoker for his BBQ that he has really wanted. we had a great time as a family and lots of good times were had by all....

Also, Bagdad had this fog that came and sat on the town all day long and it was COLD and foggy, but for us here in Arizona, we thought it was beautiful!

Ribbon dancing, the legacy continues..

O.K. so before you see the pictures, I have to tell you a story...

Once upon a time in a much colder place (Pocatello) and even before the kids were born we were having a wonderful Christmas at Morgan's parents house. Breanna, Morgans neice, probably about nine at the time had received a "ribbon dancing" set for Christmas as one of her presents. It contained a ribbon on a stick, and an outfit straight out of "I dream of Jeannie!". So with the video cameras rolling, Breanna put on a Ribbon dancing show, and it was cute. Then Ruth, who was probably 15 at the time decided that it was her turn so she stuffed herself into the outfit and put on a show all caught on tape. Then, in the spirit of ribbon dancers everywhere, Bonnie, probably 18 at the time, decided to throw herself into the nine-year-old outfit and put on a show. Let's just say that somehow that video has been lost and it is very sad because I am sure that both Bonnie and Ruth's husbands would REALLY like to see it! Oh, how I love things caught on tape!

O.k. so now onto our story...

We came home from church on Sunday and Sarah found one of my scrapbooking ribbons and said, "Look mom, I am a ribbon dancer!" and even after years of therapy, those memories came flooding back!He He! And then, not to be outdone, Will got into the act and became a "ribbon dancer" as well. It is nice to know that ribbon dancing is a hereditary gene! Who would have thunk it???

What happens when you fall asleep pondering life...

This is what happens when you fall asleep pondering your life! She was all propped up like this on her bed when I went to go check on her, so I couldn't help taking a picture. And her lips are just the deepest shade of red, I just love them!

More moments with Santa and other Christmas cheer

Can you say Cindy Lou Who????

It looks really tempting to bounce that ball right off of Will's head. Canyon would never do such a thing. He! He!

I am just here for the food!!

If I close my eyes, maybe he will just go away!

Will has never been a fan of Santa

Just give me the stocking and I am outta here!

Daniel was so funny, he loved to pet Santa's beard. He just LOVED Santa!

This is Douglas Sipes and he HATES to sit on Santa's lap. I think I have the same kind of picture of him every year. Why is this funny???? His dad is the one who always plays Santa!!

Brooklyn didn't quite know what to think of Santa. This is also Will's great buddy, Colter.

This is funny. Sam Davenport is giving Santa a "pound"!!!

Because I was the ward Christmas photographer at the Christmas party (self appointed of course), I got a lot of good pictures and just wanted to share these memories with all of you...

Santa's lap and other momentos...

Lund asking Santa for his desired items...

Aiden Johnson telling Santa to just leave him alone!

Sarah asking for a bell of all things???? Maybe has to do with Polar Express?

Cassidy didn't want to sit on Santa's lap this year, she just sort of stood there and "demanded". Is she a teenager already???

Emily Hulse and Cassidy got to help Santa this year and be "elves" for him and pass out the stockings to the kids. They greatly enjoyed their job and authority it held.

Well, I am finally back and after a bit of an internet sabaticol. And all it took was a 2 hour phone call with a Dell reprentative. When he got grumpy on the phone I changed the subject and asked him what time it was where he lived and he said that it was five a.m. So I can understand why he was a bit grumpy.

So, here we go again and to start us out we will share some memories from our ward Christmas party that was this past Friday. Santa always makes a visit to our ward building to see the kids and stuff. This year he had a bit of a different experience because he didn't know as he walked up to the church building that Lund and a few of his goons were lying in wait for him. Lund started to chase him all around the building until the good Bishop had to go and stop his son from such nonsense. What was his excuse? He just wanted to see who Santa "really" was. He was punished and I don't think that he will be chasing any other white bearded men around town. Eight-year-old boys sure have a mind of their own.

Alien's in my nose!! Well, not any more!! Hooray for Alien Removal Proceedure!

this is Will with his new friend from one of the nurses

Will and I waiting our turns on the gurney

Will was glued to the t.v. in the surgery waiting room, and tried to get a little Hispanic boy who spoke no English to come and join him, but the boy was too shy.

Doesn't Will look excited for his surgery???

I just had to put a picture of me wearing my lucky "Space Aliens" shirt due to the nature of the surgery, I though this shirt would be the most fitting. Thanks to Lund and Karen out there in North Dakota for the shirt. Hello all! Today was Surgery Day for Will and I at the Kingman Hospital. He was first with his tubes in his ears and I followed him with my Alien removal surgery. Actually, they are called nasal polyps, but tonight at family prayer I was saying the prayer and I forgot the name momentarily and so I said " and we are so grateful that the ... alien removal from my nose went well. " That kind of killed the Spirit. It is hard to keep a straight face when mom says the word "alien" in her prayer, especially if she also mentioned that they were in her nose. Wrong choice there, I suppose. He!He!

Everything did go beautifully and Will was amazing and gained about 10 new surrogate grandparents because the nurses just doted over him and spoiled him immensely.

They didn't spoil me as much- they stuffed a breathing tube down my throat and hacked up the inside of the nose, but I guess I am not as cute as a two-year-old with adorable blue eyes!

A couple of memories:

*When I was just coming around out of surgery and everything was very weird and voices were floating on clouds that hung over my head, I sort of heard the doctor talking to me. He said "The surgery went well and as it turned out, we didn't even need to pack your nose (translation: stuff like three feet of gauze up into your nose and on up into your brain!). I wasn't very with it when he told me this, but I knew enough to know that it was good news. I gave a huge smile from underneath the breathing mask. The doctor said to the nurse, "Hey, she just smiled when I said that, Amazing!" I was just glad to not be packed with gauze.

*Will got to be wheeled into his surgery in a red wagon. And so when it was my turn I asked for the wagon too. But then I said, "well, on the other hand let's not, my open gown in the back and me riding a red wagon that some nurse has to lug to the OR, not the prettiest mental image ever!" I opted out!

*Will was missing his usual cup of milk this morning immensely before his surgery due to fasting beforehand. One nurse kept trying to keep him entertained so she would say, "wait, let me go get you something" and he would instantly reply "you go get Will milk????"

*Later that same nurse gave Will about 3 glasses of milk and I told her she was an "Enabler". (which is just as bad as the addict in my book. He!He!)

Morgan wants me to go to bed soon because we got up at 4:45am to get to Kingman in time, but I just had to tell our tale of Surgery Day. Enjoy!

Random Turkey Day moments

Candin performing a makeover on Sarah, one of her favorite things

the bishop drinking wine!!! o.k. apple cider

this was just our first course of the meal, amazing huh???? the rest was just as wonderful

Uncle Justin showing off the first course of the meal

everybody hanging out before we ate...

My nephew Brody Rogers being so super cute...

Kayla displaying a laminated menu for her Thanksgiving feast (she put all of it together, with the help of her mom, for a Young Women's project). She did an excellent job!

The table set and ready to go (for the adults at least)

Sarah watching a movie on Aunt Alisha's big screen in her "Movie room"

Cute cousins, Candin and Cassidy hanging out together