Our White Christmas

This is where we spent Christmas (and a few days before) with ALL of Reed's family

 And this was our view out of those big windows

Our time up at Aspen Grove was full of sledding, eating, and moments of complete chaos (8 kids ranging in ages from 3 weeks to 7 years). And every second of it was so much FUN!

 The kids loved playing on the loft. The girls especially liked putting sheets on their head and letting that "Rapunzel hair" flow down.

Evan enjoyed playing on the stairs and scaring Grandma into thinking his head was stuck

The cousins loved coloring with Grandpa

And then Christmas came...and this is what Christmas with 20 people in one house looks like from the loft

 (Notice the huge pile of gifts in the corner? Huge mess and we're only getting started!)

 (Here we are after we'd made it through the huge pile)

Evan and Dad reading a new book

 Evan and Cougar trying to figure out what is going on

(Notice the Rapunzel wig replacing the sheets? She wore that wig all day!)

We had lots of fun and miss all of those cousins already

A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for putting this all together for us. And to Marie and Taylor for getting married to give everyone the perfect excuse to come out (we'll save that for another post).

We are so grateful for this time of the year that brings us together with our family and helps us to reflect on the birth of our Savior. We hope you all had a safe and merry Christmas!

Snow Much Fun!

Now that Reed is done with finals he's able to come home earlier or not go to school at all! Evan loves it-they are BFFs. Since he was home, we finally went out and enjoyed the fresh snow! So of course we had to make a snowman!

 Evan trying to sign cracker because the silly snowman used his cracker for eyes

 It's a good thing Reed came home and took charge over the snowman. Being the little California girl that I am, I had no idea that you could make a huge snow ball by just rolling it around! I totally thought that was just something funny they did in cartoons! The rolling method is a lot easier than my patting it together method!

Wednesday night we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. I love Christmas lights. So does Evan. So we were pretty excited to take him. He really enjoyed it.

 Evan loved seeing Jesus

 But Evan made sure to let us know when he was cold and had had enough!

Crazy December

First off, Id like to apologize for our Thanksgiving post. It looked fine and normal on our Mac, but when I later saw it on our Dell, it looked terrible. So this time I'm blogging on the Dell, so hopefully there won't be any ginormous pictures.

Moving on, December is almost half way over! We've been pretty busy, but I think the really busy weeks of December are still ahead of us! Here's what we've been up to lately.

Evan has had a few chances to see the Big Guy...some attempts have been more successful than others. But he has yet to cry when meeting with Santa.

 Evan has also been helping Reed get ready for his finals this week.

We got a Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. Evan really likes it. We stratigically put it in a corner and then put up a baby gate. The tree is still up...so far.

This weekend Reed played in a local volleyball tournament. The team's name was "Old School". Reed and former BYU teammate, Mat Taylor, were the 2 youngest on the team. We went to the tournament with the hopes of some decent competition and fun volleyball. We got both and the team ended up finishing 2nd! Not bad for a bunch of old guys! (Sorry for the not so great pictures)

Evan enjoyed playing in the bleachers and snacking on apple slices during the tournament. He was a very good fan until we started losing in the championship match. He's quite the gym rat!

And just for fun-here's Evan getting ready for church!

Next up...a wedding, a week in a cabin with 8 kids ages 7 and under, and Christmas!

Grateful

We had a great Thanksgiving week down in California this year. All of my siblings were there this year (except Ryne, who is serving a mission in Montana)! It's been a while since we've all been together, so we were really excited (PS-sorry all of the formatting is messed up. Stupid blogger.)
Here's the whole group with my Johansson grandparents on Thanksgiving day:

 

Evan and cousin Bailey racing cars

 Evan trying to share a pretzel with cousin Reggie

These two look like they just got busted...but are actually just playing nicely together

Evan and Bailey playing with Grandma's candle holder (FYI-those are fake candles, we didn't let them play with real flames)

 The three older grandkids playing with Grandma's chalkboard

Evan enjoyed pushing Reg down the slide

 And Reggie enjoyed pushing Evan down the slide

This was the first time my parents had all four of their grandkids together at once

 As you can see, the grandkids loved it. They love their grandparents, they just hate pictures. 

All the grandkids love Uncle Trae (?????)

 Evan giving Uncle Bryant a friendly right hook

 As you can see, we have so much to be grateful for!