ReaSoNs wHy I LoVe BuGuD...

-She's the only one who consistantly comments on my blog.

-She is the only one who can come over to my home and laugh with me til almost peeing my pants over running off cliffs and bumpers hanging off our cars, on rallisport, and making "Har Har Har" noises while watching it..

-She's witty

-She's hilarious

-She's complimentary and kind

-She's so talented and I get to enjoy these talents everyday.

-Her "Brain Age" is older than mine!

-She'll laugh with me, or at me, playing with Moon Shoes and recording it funny ways..-I have a hundred reasons to love Bug.. but when it all comes down to it she's just the best sister a girl could have.. Love you Meg! Thanks for the Lazy fun day yesterday!

BiRtHdaY!

We celebrated my brother Matts birthday the day after Christmas by going out to Carrabbas for dinner (We still cant stop thinking how good that food is). With my sister and her family in town it was nice. I dont remember the last time we did something for his birthday. Poor guy, thats what happens to these poor Christmas birthdays. I probably wouldnt even think to post the pictures if it didnt turn out so funny..

AnD ThiS pHoTo SaYs iT aLL!!

sLideShOw

ChRiStMaS VaCaTiOn!!

It seems like forever since I've posted anything up on my Blog.. With Christmas (that has come and gone SO fast), We've been so busy! Shopping, Working, Parties.. Parties.. and more parties! Im so sad its over, Ive had so much fun with everything aNd everyone! But I am looking forward celebrating the new year!

We Started the big festivities on friday at Scotts.. (The Staker Clan). Here is a nice shot of Weston with Santa! He loved it!

This is my absolute most favorite shot!! Two of my three favorite boys.. Gage looks so dang cute.. and you babe, handsome as ever! These were taken Sunday at the Lowry family party! Our first "official" invitation sent out and snow balls thrown everywhere party at our new home! So much fun! We loved having everyone over, and were so glad we could fit comfortably. Meg, dont be mad at me but I think this picture of you and Logan turned out great! So cute! Westons lovely picture was caught of him asking his famous words... "CANDY?!? O'en it!!" He would find candy and take it to someone different everytime asking them to open it for him. Some would say 'ask your dad or mom' and he'd move right on to the next person in hopes they would do it for him, because he knew coming back to Cody or I, it would be taken right out of his hand. He's getting too smart!

ChRiStMaS EvE!!

Rick and Cathy (Codys Dad and Step Mom), came over and used our kitchen to make US dinner! That was so great! Thanks again so much!!! SOO yummy!!! We had Prime Rib and Lobster.. I dont think you could get better food at Ruby River. Johanson's do know how to cook and pick out their meat! Yum! A trate I love about Cody as well. After eating we were able to just hang out, and open some presents. I love these guys, they are so much fun to be with. Christine and I.. Isnt she a Beauty?! Gage lookin... So cute with his double chin! I love it!Jesse... What can I say.. Stud! I think he should be nominated as Uncle of the year (and Teen, you as aunt)! Weston and Gage were loving him up. He's so great with our kids. He was so funny, he kept saying how prejudice he was against other kids because he has the cutest nephews and Neice. I tend to agree! ;)

Pile up!

ChRiStMaS!

Santa Came! Just a couple of my favorite shots of the kids opening, and riding their presents christmas morning.Off to my parents for the Traditional Christmas morning breakfast! I know why everyone has to have a diet as one of their new years resolutions.. TOO much good food going around! and I cant stop! Lys and Grandma lookin so adorable in their matching outfits! They didnt even call each other. Hah!

Busy Busy.. After Staker Mom and Dad it was off to Grandma Smiths. She has a traditional christmas dinner.. She is SO sweet to us! Cute Picture of Tyler and Sam..

Dad Johanson and Jesse.. See what Im saying? Uncle of the year! :) He held him til he passed out. So sweet. Cathy and Teen lookin Beautiful! and.. again, Teen, Aunt of the year. Gage was so snuggly. It looks comfy, Im not going to lie! :)

Todays adventure..

We took the four wheelers out and hooked the Sled up to the back and Cody drug us around for a bit. I told Cody to go faster once.. after that Weston Kept saying "Faster Daddy! Faster!"

It was lightly snowing so we put the goggles on West.. He looked so funny, but so cute! After sledding we just took both of the four wheelers out and went down the J.R. trail.. a block away from our home this is what we saw.. I counted a total of 14 deer in these trees. It was so neat! They were just hangin out.. and would hop across the trail right in front of us. I hope it snows some more soon to go out again!

TaGGed?!

I was tagged by my sister Megan. *Photo copyrighted by Picture this.. by Sara Staker What is his name? Cody, Code, Cdub, Hot, Sexy buns, Babe, Gorgeous, Love. How long have you been married? 1 ½ sweet years How long did you date? Almost 4 years How old is he? 26 (almost 27), he's a young one, but a goodie Who eats more? I’d have to say Cody, but I probably come pretty close! Who said "I love you" first? Cody Who is taller? Cody Who sings better? Cody, by far! He will RARELY sing in front of me, and I don’t know why. He has an AMAZING voice, just to shy to use it. I remember catching him in the shower when I had forgotten something at home, just before we were getting married singing “I do (cherish you)” It was the cutest thing EVER! I don’t think I could ever forget that. Who is smarter? Book smarts,We’re probably about the same...common sense...about the same, but as far as street smarts and mechanically smart, definitely Cody! Whose temper is worse? We can both get a little hot headed, but probably comes more often from me these days. I’d like to blame it on pregnancy and post partum. Now what can I blame it on?.. Weston. Hah! Who does the laundry? Me. Who does the dishes? Me. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Looking at the bed? Or laying in it? Laying in it, Me. Who pays the bills? Mostly Cody. We have different things we each pay for. Who mows the lawn? Me. Its great excersize. Who cooks dinner? Mostly me, but Cody, café Rio and all those other great places will cook great meals when asked or ordered. Who drives when you are together? Cody. Who is more stubborn? We both are stubborn… but I might be just the tiniest bit more (it’s a Staker and a Johanson flaw..) Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Nobody is wrong or right.. Just share different views. okay not buying that? Probably Cody more than I, but I think we both do. Whose parents do you see the most? Probably both about the same, although we don’t see Cody’s Mother as much as we’d like. Who proposed? Cody.. Took him a while Who has more friends? Cody Who has more siblings? Cody, 3 great boys 1 lovable girl. I have 1 fantastic, talented, awesome sister and, 2 equally fantastic etc brothers. Who wears the pants in the family? Uh, everyone knows Cody does. I love you, Cody! I tag Sherry, Rikki and Sara (in hopes she puts SOMETHING else up on her blog)!

SuB-4-SaNTa

Monday Lys and I were able to have a little mother daughter night.. I FORGOT MY CAMERA! Yet again, my famous move! It was so much fun! We went to the Momentum climbing gym. That place is HuGe! I want to go so much more! I cant wait til the boys are older and we can all go. Lys could only climb because of course you have to be old/big enough to hold the other person with the rope. If ya havent been.. I suggest going! So much fun while getting a work out!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go with my Boss and other employees to walmart and do a sub-4-Santa type thing. We had several different families that we all split up and bought for. I think by the time we were done we had about 8 carts FuLL, some even overflowing with items for these families. What a neat experience to know youre going to make someones Christmas that can't do anything for themselves. It has always bothered me the fact 'Santa' gives more to some kids, and others get hardly a thing. One family is getting a play station 3, a bunch of games, toys, clothes... Holy cow can we say spoiled? :) I remember one christmas our family getting a VCR and maybe a few other misc. items but the VCR being the 'big' gift, and we were all stoked about that. Sure, times have changed.. We are so spoiled. I cannot believe the life I live, I could not be more thankful for it. Im so thankful for my health, my family, My warm soft bed I have to sleep in. Sometimes I think we get caught up wanting more.. or saying to ourselves "once I have this, its going to be great!", then getting that and saying it again. I believe having goals are great! But when things you hoped so highly for at one point, become something taken for granted.. We need to re-think what truely is important to us. My favorite saying I have in my home is the one above my pantry door that reads "The secret to having it all, is believing you do". I often need a reminder myself getting caught up in this world and our wants, its hard... I love this time of year, even though its the most stressful sometimes. We are always reminded of the things most important. Being with our families that we love so much, celebrating the birth of our savior. Knowing how blessed and lucky we are.Here is the huge trailor getting filled with the presents (oh I CAN wait to wrap all of these!). I think this was about 6 carts full of items.

All I had was my phone so I just took these couple pictures with that. (Thats why they are so bad!) This receipt was SOO long! I dont think the picture actually does it justice. Our budget I believe was about $4600. We went over a thousand, over budget. Pretty neat. I wish I took a picture of all the carts lined up and full, it looked so funny! I take Gage to work, and during all the crazy 3 hours of shopping he was a joy to have! He's so good! He was looking so cute..

Also, Last night we had Cody's company dinner (which is the family flooring). That was fun, the kids were wild, the food was great.. Thank you Carpets America! The guys all get along so well! I just have to say I am so thankful that Cody gets to work with my family. He gets along with them so great.. although Cody gets along with about anyone! He's so funny, and such a joy to be around. I dont know what Id do without him.

The MoSt WoNdeRFuL TiMe oF tHe YeaR!

What a busy fun weekend we had! We started the weekend out with the forgotten Carols, with Cody's family (Thanks Rick and Cathy). That was so nice. I wanted to listen to the CD all weekend. I loved it. I wish we would have gotten some pictures of us all but we were so rushed to get there and back because of Gage. He was so funny I tried keeping him up til the last minute and feeding him last minute so he'd be good for grandma and grandpa Staker, so when I went to feed him, he had passed out on me and literally could not wake him up for anything til we arrived at my moms and I handed him over. THEN of course he wondered what was going on. It snowed on us pretty hard while we were in the play! We came out to a good two or three inches of snow, but of course later when we got home there was nothing but rain at our house. We were disappointed. But we did finally get some on saturday.

Saturday we hung out for a bit.. Cody started working on the step to our couch in the theatre room. Holy cow, thats coming along awesome-ly! Then my Mom and Dad took all of the grandkids down to the gateways Build-a-Bear! The kids had fun!When we left our house to head down it was snowing so bad, so we dressed like we were going to be in a blizzard! Weston in his bibs, me in my thermals, snow boots and hat. Cody was making fun of me like I hadn't ever been in the snow before. Then of course we got downtown and it looked like no snow had fallen all day! But it all paid off the later and colder it got! :)Grandpa checking out.. I love this picture. He's behind those stuffed animals somewhere!

After build-a-bear we took off on Trax just a few blocks down to the temple and checked out the lights and they took us on a carriage ride. It was fun! The kids had a blast. They all rode with Grandma and Grandpa (and Christine, Cody's sister who came along with us) while the couples and babies rode in the covered carriage. Thanks again Mom and Dad for doing that for us! Weston was SO excited to ride the 'choo choo train'!Mauri and Aria.. Aria was smiling so much.. although she always does, I had to take a picture. She is SO cute! :) You too Maur!

Sunday we played in the snow and made snow men, Christine came over again to play with us! We were trying to make a really big snowman but it didnt quite work out the way we thought because it was too big to lift! So it ended up being made into a side snowman/elephant slide, and then made a new snowgirl!

Yes, this is the snowman/elephant slide! I wouldnt recommend making a slide out of snow! :)

Here is Cody's weekend project! He's already gone so fast on making this. Its looking pretty cool! We hope to have the theatre room completely done within a week.. Ill post the finished product!