Another New Cousin!!

Zach and Nikki finally had their third baby Ned Reuven Hills and I was lucky enough to be visiting my parents when he came. I was double lucky that they came to my parents house two days after he was born. If you can't already tell by the pictures, my kids adore him and I could hardly keep them off of him. I have to say that it made me REALLY baby hungry too. He is very sweet and even cuter in real life. Thanks for sharing him with us Zach and Nikki, he sure is a cute little guy!

The Sweet Calm of January

Most my life I have dreaded January. It has always seemed like such a drab month. I mean think of it. After all the fun, family and parties from October until December. January just seems so sad boring and lonely. Not to mention that it is right in the middle of winter so we are cooped up in our houses. And now living in Salt Lake City we have bad inversions to top it off. BUT for some reason this year I have extremely looked forward to this drab boring time of year. December was SO BUSY and CRAZY that I was longing for the January time when I could finally just relax for a moment and be a little less stressed. Well, once we got through that first Sunday in Primary (my main source of stress) things finally started to let up. But then they called and asked us to speak in church the following Sunday. Oh man, if any of you know me well, you know that talking in front of adults is very stressful for me. Though I do have to say that it was a REALLY neat experience for me. I felt the spirit so strong while preparing my talk and while giving it. It is amazing how stressful things that can be really scary can help you grow and be so much happier if you just buck it up and do it. It was also neat to hear Tim speak, he did a great job. At the end of my talk I wanted to share a Primary song with the congregation. It is the new song that that children are learning for our theme of I Know the Scriptures are True for the year. I had been listening to it a lot during the week, to learn it for Primary and because I really like it. Well little did I know that Emery had memorized it while it was being played throughout the week. So I thought why not have her sing it at the end of my talk. She is only 3 years old so I was really nervous if she would even sing when she got up in front of everyone. 3 year olds are pretty unpredictable. It ended up going pretty good. She got shy for the first line of the song but then got up her nerve and just starting singing. Who knew, we both grew a little bit that day. :) I thought I would share a video of her practicing for it the night before.

We have also been able to do some fun things as a family during the week while Tim was still out of school, on the days he didn't have to work. On one day, we decided to go for a Snow Picnic. Why not? We packed soup in thermoses and warm grilled cheese sandwiches. It actually worked and was pretty fun. Sometimes it is fun to think out of the box a little bit and just do weird things. So I guess you could say that January has gone a little differently than we thought, but it has also been better than I thought as well. Sitting around in a stress free environment doing practically nothing may seem nice but it sure doesn't make me feel as happy in the long run. I don't think it is good to be busy all the time but I do feel it is good to have a balance. So far January has been that perfect balance of work and play/relaxation. Happy New Year Everyone. I hope you have a balanced New Year.

Christmas in a Nutshell

When there is so much going on for one month, it seems best to just sum it all up in one post. We were able to head to Delta to Celebrate the festivities twice with Tim's family. Our first Christmas was with Brett and Jennie since they were having their REAL Christmas with Jennie's family this year. Here are a few pictures of the event.
These Raggedy Ann and Andy Dolls are adorable. Alan and Paula gave them to the girls. They are hand made. You can just see Emery's excitement on her face. She actually wanted to be Raggedy Ann for Halloween along with Goldilocks, if that tells you how much she likes Raggedy Ann. Maybe next year for Halloween. :)
Tim visiting/laughing with his brothers.
Doesn't it seem that the cheapest toys are the ones you have most fun with Christmas Day. Tim and his brothers played with these helicopter fliers almost the whole trip and actually wore them out by the time we left. Well worth every penny.
Of course we can't forget our REAL Christmas morning:

Visiting Grandma Dora after opening presents. The little puppy that Emery is holding was a last minute, after thought, gift we got for her. Go figure, it was her FAVORITE gift she receive. She is still carrying this little dog she name Annalisha everywhere with her. I think she likes that Annalisha came in her own little bag too.
Then there was also the few days After Christmas Party at Jennies families house in Salt Lake:
Kaven asked me to take this picture of him while we were playing catch phrase. You can tell he was really into saying cheese. :)
We had a blast playing Catch Phrase. It was also lots of fun to meet Nicks new girl, T.C. for the first time.
It was hard to say good-bye to everyone when it was time to go. I am just glad that we all live close enough to be all together two times a year. I guess the countdown is on for the 4th of July. :)

We are pleased to announce.....

Tim and Dallas Johnson are pleased to announce
the marriage of their Daughter

Emery Eliza

to

Cameron James

son of Jeremiah and Becca Whetman
on March 12th, 2029

???? Maybe Someday???? Actually the Whetmans came home for the holidays from Nebraska and we were lucky enough to have the come stay with us. They had their first year of Dental School here at the U and are finishing at Creighton University in Omaha. We picked them up at the airport on their way home for Christmas. We miss them a ton so it was so fun to get back together again. Emery and Cameron really do get along well and both inform us that they are boyfreind and girlfriend. We took this picture as they were leaving and thought it looked like an engagement picture. I could not resist. They are both such cute kids. It was also fun to see their other little boy Dallin.

For those of you who thought this was a pregnancy announcement, (as some of you are waiting for) sorry, it was kind of fun being mischievous. :)

DANCE

Emery finally got to dance with "her kids" on "the stage". Even though it technically was not a stage. Here are some pictures of her class and performance.


I couldn't dress Emery in a skirt because she just plays around with it instead of dancing.


With her class and teacher.

Party Time!!

Christmas Style!!
Stake Primary P.J. Christmas Breakfast


I was able to help out making breakfast for everyone before the party, so Tim got the kids ready and brought them over and this is what Emery came dressed in. Yes she chose her clothes. We thought she looked like Rainbow Bright. So cute.

A really great Nativity performance where the Primary Teachers were the actors. :)

Whatcott Christmas Party
My sweet Mom bringing her soup for the Lunch

Tim showing our empty plate of goodies we brought. This was kind of funny because the desserts were in the back during the meal and when we went to get our treats from the kitchen for dessert the plate was empty. I guess people liked them. :)

Saying good-bye
*These are just a few of the parties that I got pictures of. There have been a few others like 2 FHE parties at our house with our Visiting Teaching and Home teaching families (very nice) and Caroling to all the Primary Kids (so fun!)
Christmas can be REALLY fun yet REALLY exhausting!

Hills Family Christmas Party

Nikki is such a talented pianist! And she is one of the cutest pregnant girls ever!

My mom played Silent Night on her Indian Flute, which was very impressive considering she has never had a lesson and does not follow notes. It really was beautiful.

Leslie even played us a Christmas tune.

James was so cute on this harmonica.

Zach shared his impressive talents of his job and his intelligent son Lincoln who could name all sorts of things in his work pictures that I had no idea what they were.

Cute Heston

I read how the Grinch stole Christmas and in the middle of the Book Tim broke out in song "Your a Mean One Mr. Grinch" with his deep Bass voice. I think it surprised everyone. I always LOVE it when Tim sings. His voice was the first thing that attracted me to him and I still love it to this day. Talking and singing.

Not to mention the HUGE surprise that Chris can play the Saxophone and pretty well too.

Of course we got to hear from Erin on her Viola

To finish off the night the Nielsons brought chimes where we all played different tunes. People were hesitant at first but soon the whole family got involved and it was tons of fun.

I wasn't able to get pictures of everyones talents like my Dad in his Camo body suit doing Coyote calls, or Levi's DVD of all of his talents with music (very cool), or Dantzels cheer, or Casey's piano and Gymnastic number. Great Times!