Oh, I am such a slacker when it comes to blogging. It has not become a passion (yet). I started facebook back in January, and that became more interesting to me than a blog. But now that we have a 3 month old, I think I'd like to resurrect this and start posting pictures and the like and try my hand at this again. It is such a great way to journal. But since it's past midnight already, I will not be doing anything more tonight. My goal is to get back on this week.

We're Back!!!

Okay, so I took a month and a half off, thinking no one really looks at this blog, but after several people mentioned to me that I haven't changed it, I thought it was time to get on it!

First things first...

IT'S A BOY!!!

We got another ultrasound 4 weeks after the first one, and it is 100% absolutely, positively certain to be a boy! We are just as excited! Actually, it's what I was expecting to hear the first time anyway. I've thought from the beginning it was a boy, so I was more surprised to hear 'girl' the first time.

Matt was able to support our team and go to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 2nd. He had such a blast, and we were so proud of Utah blowing out Alabama. It was a very memorable experience for him. I need to get pictures from him to post on here. He even got one with the UT quarterback (my pregnant brain can't remember his name at the moment. I'll edit it later). Anyway, I was happy for him to be able to go too! He deserves it. He works too hard and doesn't play enough.

In other news, Matt has been having some health problems and after a couple of *expensive* tests, it was determined that his gallbladder is functioning at 0% and he needs surgery to remove it! Yippee, we will be drowning in medical bills this year with his surgery and mine (for the baby). Ah well, what can you do? At least we are healthy in many other ways. Thank goodness for health insurance!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Her name is already picked out (has been since the first week I found out I was expecting). We plan to name her Emmelaine Grace Johnson and call her Emme. Emmelaine is the middle name of my maternal grandmother and Grace is the first name of my maternal great-grandmother. I love a name with significance or one that has been passed down the family line. I found it interesting how this name just came to me with such clarity and swiftness, and that both Matt & I were able to agree on it readily. That does not usually happen. She is going to be a sweet and special addition to our family and we are looking forward to her arrival!

Getting ready for trip

This past week has been busy busy busy! I wanted to get my Christmas stuff up before our trip to GA, and it took a good 4 days to get it all done. Then I had to clean up the mess left behind from the four days of me not doing housework! My family was a good help though. I can't seem to get it all done without them. I owe that to Matt. He's a slave driver to the kids! But the end result is awesome. I think our home looks much more festive this year and I have new stuff that I bought on clearance sales after Christmas last year. I love unwrapping something I totally forgot I bought! I guess you could say my Christmas begins a little early!

We hosted a game party last night to watch the UTES slaughter the cougars! And I thought it would be a close game. Not even! We are **extremely** proud of our team for remaining undeafeated through the season and having such a sweet victory over BYU. It's been fun to see them play so well this year. Matt is so glad he could attend so many of the games. What good friends he has to always invite him.

One last thing. We attended the funeral of 15 year old Tucker Thayer yesterday, and it was a very bittersweet event. I am always amazed at how peaceful funerals can be. How even in a tragic event that seems like never should have happened, feels like it was all part of the plan. Like it was absolutely his time to leave. We love the Thayer family. They are amazingly strong and I certainly hope I could be the same way if something like that were to ever befall my own family. I pray it never does!!!

Gotta finish packing... needed a break for a little while. We can't wait to tell Matt's family the news that we're expecting. It's gonna be awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

GO UTAH UTES!!!!

Matt has been fortunate enough to attend 4 out of the 5 home games UT has played (and he went to the opening game in MI). We are excited about how well they've been doing this season! The Cougars are goin' down on the 22nd!

Update from last week: when I asked Jaimen about watching Conference today, he said, "Nah, cause you'll just fall asleep watching it Mom, and I want to spend time with you awake". He would have been right. I would have absolutely fallen asleep. I was SOOO tired today. Instead, we all played games until dinner. Matt beat us at both games! That's ok, he needs an ego boost now and again.

The kids did the sweetest thing for me this morning. They made me breakfast in bed for no reason! Matt worked in SL this weekend and was driving home this morning, and when he walked in, there they were in the kitchen making me whole wheat pancakes from scratch, turkey bacon, croissants (refrigerated kind) with jam, and apple cider. WOW!!! I woke up before they were finished and had a sneaky suspicion thats what they were up to, so I stayed in my room. They took a little long and I was STARVING by the time they came upstairs. What sweet kids they are! They amaze me!!!

One last thing, thank you everyone for your suggestions on getting a cuter blog background. I was amazed at the selection from cutestblogontheblock. I like this one, and I haven't seen it on anyone else's (all 5 I've checked out). My next project on this will be posting more pictures.

So I still haven't emailed friends or family about our blog yet. I kept trying to find a cool background for it instead of the standard block and colors. This is the one I liked best out of the basic templates. Of course there had to be a bit of red in it (GO UTES!!!) But I may as well go ahead and send the link so that I can get suggestions from you "professional" blogger family and friends that can give me suggestions on where to find a cute background for this webpage.

I'll share an interesting experience from today before ending this post. So we go to church today, and Jaimen was just ridiculously onery. He was upset and whispering quite loudly while talking to me, and then would cry and throw himself on the floor. And yes, he's 8 acting like a 3 or 4 year old. Of course, it is just me since Matt is on the stand, and I can't very well pick him up and take him out, and even telling him he needs to come outside with me doesn't work. He refuses and won't move. It is so frustrating. This went on almost the entire hour. So I tell him he gets consequences for those choices. But I also felt like we should have a FHE on how to behave in Sacrament Meeting, so I remembered that there was a talk in Gen. Conf. last month on that, and we happened to still have the recorded sessions, so I looked it up and we sat down this evening to watch this talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. The kids listened to the whole thing, and proceeded to discuss for 1/2 an hour (I kid you not) the things that impressed them about this talk. Here I was thinking I'd only ask a few questions and we'd be done. They wanted to rewind to certain quotes, and discuss particular things he said and give examples of what we should and shouldn't do. I was really impressed by them tonight. And then Jaimen says this, which just blew me away: "Mom, next Sunday when we get home from church, can you and I watch a whole thing of General Conference, like 2 hours, and also Music and the Spoken Word cause I like to play 'Spot Grandpa'"? (his Grandpa White sings in the Tab. Choir). I was a little bit dumbfounded by this! I thought, Wow, I really have amazing kids. Despite my weaknesses and mistakes as a mother, they are turning out to be pretty great individuals. I won't hold my breath about watching an entire 2 hours of conference with Jaimen (oh and he did say he was concerned that I would fall asleep during it, since I like to nap after church services. I promised him I'd do my best to stay awake). I'll have to post an update next week as to what happens.

Wow, we've finally caught up with the rest of the world, and decided to start our own blog!!! Miracles never cease around here. The biggest miracle of all right now, being that we're expecting our 3rd child after waiting about 6 1/2 years!!! At this posting, I am barely 12 weeks and feeling great. Breelyn (age 9) and Jaimen (age 8) are EXTREMELY excited about this, talk about it constantly, kiss my belly, talk to the baby, etc. Today, Jaimen was concerned the baby not might be able to hear him by just talking to my belly, so he told me to open my mouth so he could talk to him that way! I thought that was hilarious that he thought it was some kind of speakerphone or something. The first night we told them I was expecting (which was 2 weeks ago when I was barely 10 weeks), Jaimen said, "Ya know Mommy, I think pregnant ladies are more beautiful and I have noticed you've been getting more beautiful-er". Aaahhh! One more cute "Jaimenism" I'll share - He was looking at my belly that was looking very accentuated in what I was wearing and he said, "Wow, Mom. Your belly is almost as big as those things" (pointing to my growing breasts). We had a good laugh over that one. I must confess, as awesome as it is to be expecting again, I have struggled with a few downhearted emotions. I had just lost 19 lbs. over the past 8 months when I found out I was expecting. I have been growing so quickly and am already having to wear pants that are one size larger and some maternity clothes. I wish all pregnancies could be like the first one where you don't look pregnant to the rest of the world until 5 - 6 months. I am trying to still eat right and make good choices, but I admit that I don't hesitate with butter or cheese as much as I used to, now that I need to get more dairy intake. YUM! No wild cravings to speak of either. I never really get weird cravings. It's more or less something just sounds real good after I see an advertisement or something. Well, I will try to keep up with this blog. We'll see how long this ambition lasts. It's a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family year round, instead of just occasionally or at Christmastime with cards.