Joel's Surprise 30th B-day Party!!!

Joel turned the big 3-0!!! He turned 30 on February 14, 2011 (Valentine's Day). A couple of weeks before his birthday I through him a surprise party. He was totally surprised and had no idea! I was so glad that I could pull of a surprise party for him.

So many of his friends were able to come. We had a blast!! I met Joel for dinner with his business partner Brad and his wife. They have never been to our house before so we had it all planned to go to dinner and then come back to our place for dessert so they could see it. Little did Joel know they weren't the only ones coming for dessert!!! SURPRISE!!!

Happy 30th!!!!

Joel's favorite dessert is ice cream so I did an ice cream bar with every kind of topping you could possibly think of!!! It was delicious!!!

Happy Birthday babe!!! You are an amazing husband and great dad!!! We love you so much!!!

Fun in the SNOW!!!!

SNOW!!!!

We got so much snow this winter that we definitely were out playing in it quite frequently. There wasn't much else to do to get out of the house. Crew likes the snow sometimes..... other times he was ready to go back inside pretty quick. He wasn't walking yet so I'm sure it got pretty cold just sitting in snow.

Crew and Brody sledding.

Crew sitting on the nicely shoveled driveway that daddy just finished

Crew not sure what to think of all this snow we had gotten!!!

Crew's good friend Mason came to play in the snow too. They liked being pulled in the sled. They are way too cute together!! Best buds!!

Crew's ready to go inside!!

My good friend Colin and Mason! Love them!!!

Christmas Festivities!!!

We went to the Festival of Trees at the South Town Expo Center and Crew sat on Santa's lap!!! We were so excited for him to sit on his lap and after a long line this is what we got...... A very scared little Crew!! haha He was screaming bloody murder. Everyone was stopping to watch and laugh. Poor little guy. It does make for some great memories though! I love me some Crew!!!

We also went and drove around the Thanksgiving Point Christmas lights. Crew loved seeing all the lights. He was obsessed with all the lights throughout the entire month of December! You're supposed to stay in your car when you drive through the lights but we jumped out for a quick picture! We went with our very best friends Pete and Toni!

Crew was lucky enough to sit on Santa's lap twice!! We went to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory with my cousin Richard and his wife Analeis and they had a Santa at Trolley Square. Unfortunately Crew's excitement didn't change....

After dinner at the Spaghetti Factory we went and walked around Temple Square! One of my favorite things to do during the month of December. It is so breathtaking!!!

For Christmas we headed to Colorado to spend it with my family. The night we got in we went to Winter Wonderlights. They have a bunch of lights that you walk through and then a bunch of cute little houses all decorated. They even had reindeer!!!

Crew, Jaden, and Bradli!!! Together at last!! They had so much fun playing together!

For Christmas we gave my mom hand wreaths from each of the grandchildren. This is Crew making his hand wreath. He did ok in the beginning and was screaming by the end. They turned out so cute!!!

Christmas Eve Dinner!!

We even had a special visitor that night!! Santa!!!

You would think 3rd times a charm for Crew seeing Santa.....Not so much....Maybe next year!!

Every Christmas Eve my family gets Christmas pajamas that we open and the kiddos got a few extra fun things!!! Crew loved his nativity!!

Christmas morning! Santa came and did not disappoint! Crew loved all of his toys!!!

My dad with our cute cat Tiger!!! We no longer have either of our cats. We had them for about 13 years. They were such nice cats and really a part of our family! Honey and Tiger are missed!!!

Crew loved every minute of opening presents. I think he was a little overwhelmed and just wanted to play with each toy that he opened instead of having to move on the the next present. He got a little tuckered out in the middle as well and had to go take a nap. That's the way to do it because then he still had more presents to open when he woke up!

Bradli got this awesome pink princess scooter and the kids loved driving it around the basement!!!

Crew may have loved it the most!!!

Our Nephew Hudson was born on December 27th!!! We were so excited to be there for his big arrival! His awesome big brother Jaden was so excited that it was a boy!!! They have a boy and a girl already so they didn't find out the sex of the baby until he was born!! We were all so excited!!!

My brother Doug and niece Bradli with new baby Hudson!!!

The cute new family of 5!!!

Baby Hudson was perfect!!! He is so adorable and resembles his older brother!!!

Older sis Bradli is going to be such a big helper!!! She is such a great little mommy!!!

They three musketeers all got pillow pets and we had to get a picture of them!!!

A little game of Twister is always fun with the cousins!!!

I had to take a picture of my Tree this year. I added so many new ornaments and decorations to it. I love how it turned out!!!

Joel calls it our firecracker tree because I have picks coming out the top!

I am so excited to have a fireplace and mantel that I can decorate and hang our stockings from!

We had such a fun month of December and amazing Christmas!!! We did so many festive things and I think we are going to have a lot of Christmas traditions in the future!!!

Thanksgiving in Washington!!!

We spent Thanksgiving in Washington, with Joel's family, this year! It was a very different kind of Thanksgiving than we have ever experienced before. Every single person got the flu. It would only last about one or two days and no one had it at the same time. So it went through the entire week of having a new person sick every day. Needless to say we stayed inside most of the week and watched a lot of movies.

Joel has had extremely bad luck with Thanksgivings. The last time we had Thanksgiving in Washington he couldn't eat Thanksgiving dinner because he had mouth surgery the day before. This Thanksgiving he was the lucky one to get sick on Thanksgiving Day and couldn't eat very much. Poor guy!!!

Crew on the other hand was totally ready to get his Turkey grub on!!

Crew had so much fun playing with all the toys that Grandma Johnson had out for the kids!!!

The start of Crew's climbing days!!! Little did I know this would turn into climbing up and standing on our kitchen table!!!

Crew had so much fun playing with his cousin Zachary who is a few months older than him!!

I ended up getting sick the night that we went to zoolights but I was so sick of being in the house that I didn't care and pushed through it.

It was pouring rain the entire time we were there and we were pretty soaked by the end. I wouldn't expect anything less from Washington though! It's all part of the fun experience!!

Joel's sister Melanie and her cute family came with us. The kids loved the lights and the rain didn't even phase them!!! They thought it was great!!

On our way to the airport to come home we stopped and visited Joel's Grandpa Johnson. It was so good to see him and visit with him for a while.

Hopefully we will have better luck next year when we are all together and won't get sick!!!