THE BIG 15 !!!!!!

Hallie has reached the ripe old age of 15. We celebrated her birthday on December 14 and had a lot of fun. Since her birthday was on a Sunday this year we went and did some things for her on the Saturday before. She was given $100.00 dollars for her birthday and so she wanted to go and spend it. We went to St. George and went shopping, of course, and then she wanted to go eat at the Olive Garden for dinner. We all enjoyed ourselves and really racked up the bill getting stuffed. That was her first time eating at the Olive Garden and I think she really enjoyed it. Sunday was her actual birthday and so I wrapped up the things that she bought and she opened them that day. She had a fun day at church with everyone telling her happy birthday and even choir practice after church was fun because we all of a sudden had a very large attendance from the young men in our ward and I have to wonder if it was because Hallie is singing in the choir for the Christmas program. Go figure! One more year until she can date and I can hardly wait! Ha, ha!!!

THE MAGICAL FOREST

We went to the Magical Forest in Las Vegas to watch Sadie perform clogging and afterwards we walked around and saw the beautiful Christmas lights and displays. It was really beautiful!!!! Here are some choice pictures!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

CHRISTMAS CLOGGING

Sadie started taking clogging classes in September with the Vegas Valley Cloggers and she just loves it. She is still in the beginning class because even though she is older than most of the girls, she needs to get the steps down before she can move on. There is a huge place in Las Vegas called the Magical Forest that they decorate at Christmastime that is just beautiful and fun and they were asked to perform there last night. When she got there, only 3 other girls showed up and so there were only 4 of them to perform. She was nervous through the whole thing and grinned from ear to ear. If that is all she does when she is nervous then I can live with that. When she was 5 years old and had to perform with her dance group at Lagoon she wouldn't even go on stage and so she has come a long way since then. She did an awesome job and after she was done we went and looked at the wonderful lights and displays.

MAISON'S CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Maison joined the choir this year and she loves to sing but just does not like her class. Her class is a bunch of misfits she says and they are all weird. She had a Christmas concert this last week where their choir sang along with the High school choir and it was pretty good. I do have to say that I have heard better choirs but they did a good job. She was really embarrassed to look out at the crowd when they sang their first song and so the choir teacher made a comment to her and the girl next to her during the break and then from then on all she did was smile at the audience and sing her heart out. It was fun to see her involved because she has a shy side to her that sometimes keeps her from participating. IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!!

RUDENESS AT THE MAGICAL FOREST

OK - here goes!!! Tonight my daughter Sadie performed at a Christmas place in Las Vegas called the MAGICAL FOREST!!! We were running late and the traffic in Vegas was horrible, as usual, and we weren't sure where we were going and so it made things even worse. When we arrived, Sadie was able to go right in and we had to wait in a huge line to pay to get in. We were in line for about 20 minutes and it was just about performance time. We were just about to the window when a lady from the line next to ours starts to butt in our line because her credit card wouldn't work at her own window. I asked her if it would be alright if I went ahead and bought my tickets since I was next in line and I was probably going to miss my daughter's performance. She proceeded to tell me how she didn't really care and that the guy had told her to come in this line. I told her that it wasn't my fault and that I would really let her cut in if it weren't for the fact that I was going to miss my daughter's performance that I had just traveled an hour and was going to pay 38 dollars to see. She told me once again that she didn't care and that the world didn't revolve around me and that I was setting a bad example for the kids. Finally to stop myself from just laying into her and dropping her to the ground, I told her to go ahead and thanked her for allowing me to miss my daughter's performance. Hallie and Maison were just laughing and about to say something to her because she just kept on berating me and wouldn't stop. I finally told her that I was really done speaking to her and that she could stop at any time and she just kept going. All of a sudden a nice young girl from the line next to ours told us that we could butt in front of her and go right up to the window. I gave a big laugh in the lady's face and thanked the girl several times for her generosity. We bought our tickets and were lucky enough to make it in time to the performance. Sadie did an awesome job and she was fortunate enough to miss all of the drama. APPARENTLY THE SPIRIT OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON HASN'T HIT A FEW NEVADANS YET!!!!!!!

THE MYSTERIOUS 2 AM PHONE CALL

Cell phones - you either love them or hate them or maybe even a little of both. Last night around 2:00 am, I awoke all of a sudden to hear something that sounded like music playing. I finally awoke enough to realize that it was my cell phone that was ringing and it was plugged in on the counter in the kitchen. I stumbled out of bed and went into the kitchen to pick it up and see who in the heck was calling at this hour of the morning. I thought that it had to be my son and I started to get worried that something was wrong, otherwise why would he be calling me. Right? Well I picked up the phone and saw that the person actually calling me was my daughter, Hallie, who was supposed to be asleep in her bedroom. I answered the phone as I was walking into her bedroom to see what was going on. No one replied and so I hung up and proceeded to enter her room. As I approached her bed, my phone rang again and so I just shut it off. She had fallen asleep while texting and her phone was open and she was laying on it and it continued to call me over and over!!! I was kind of mad for being woken up at 2:00 am, but all I really could do was laugh!!! I took the phone and put it on the floor so she wouldn't continue to call me. I wonder who else she had called or maybe I was just the lucky one!!! When she woke up in the morning she didn't remember anything that had happened! She got a really good laugh as well! What would we do without the modern convenience of CELL PHONES or teenage daughters who should be sleeping but just can't put down that phone!!!!!

SLIPPERS AND THE MIDDLE SCHOOL DRESS CODE

Who knew?! Who knew that shoes that look like slippers could get you detention?!!! Well now we do!!! My daughter called me from school today and she was a little upset. She said that they had sent her to the principal's office because she was wearing slippers to school. She told them that they were not slippers but instead shoes with fur on them and that they even had a hard sole. She proceeded to tell them that she purchased them at Payless and that they were labeled as shoes and that they were not slippers. They told her that she needed to call her mother to bring her other shoes to wear. They continued to tell her that they were slippers and that she had to change them or go to In House Detention! This is the most silliest thing that I have ever heard of. You see kids in the schools wearing all kinds of things, facial piercings, weird hair and many other things. The dress code here in Nevada is a little bit different than Utah BUT STILL!!! When I used to work at Springville High School in Utah I used to see all kinds of dress code violations, most of which dealt with immodest clothing, but nothing like pajamas and slippers. The silliest part is that they kept trying to convince her that they were slippers! Robert finally took her some other shoes only after she had to sit in detention instead of being in her class, learning like she is supposed. He had a few choice words with the Vice Principal and that was that!!! I GUESS THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO BE COMFORTABLE AT SCHOOL!!

WHAT A CUTE GROUP OF GIRLS!!!

We went to Temple Square during the Summer. We watched the Joseph Smith movie (which was wonderful) and then we went to the Conference Center and other locations downtown. The kids loved walking around and seeing all of the Church sites. Don't we look wonderful!!!

COUPLES

I just thought that I would post these lovely pictures of a few of the couples at our Thanksgiving dinner. My lovely parents, Sam and Mary Jane, and Robert & I. ENJOY!!!

GRANDMA & GRANDPA JOHNSON'S HOUSE

After we went to my sister's house, we went to Grandpa & Grandma's house for the remainder of the Thanksgiving weekend. Robert's sister Lisa and her family were there and it was fun to see them because we don't get to very often. They adopted a little girl from Taiwan and she is getting so big. Her name is Emi and she is the cutest thing. My girls just love to play with her!!

HALLIE LOVES CHERRY PIE AND HER DAD

Hallie loves taking pictures of course, or should I say having pictures taken of her!! During Thanksgiving she took these lovely pictures of her eating cherry pie and dancing with her Dad. Taking pictures of her Dad is a big project because Robert doesn't like to have his picture taken.

COUSINS AND FAMILY

While we were at my sister's house during Thanksgiving, I thought it would be nice to get a few pictures of my girls with their cousins since we don't have very many. My girls look a lot like their cousin Lana, which is a great compliment because she is a very pretty young woman, inside and out.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

We had such a great time at Thanksgiving. Our family was invited to my sister's house for Thanksgiving for the last several years and this was the first year that we were able to go. My sister also invited our parents, her three children and their kids. We had approximately 18 people there and it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to be together with them and I am so thankful for all of them. Holden was not able to be with us, but I am so thankful that he is part of our family!!!

STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

On Saturday night we went to the State Football Championship game in Las Vegas. The Moapa Valley High School Pirates were playing a team from California called the Truckee Wildcats. It was a lot of fun and got quite cold. It was mostly sweatshirt weather, but we were glad that we brought the blankets. Robert stayed home to watch the BYU/Utah game on TV and so it was just Hallie, Maison, Sadie, and Me. Hallie sat with a bunch of her friends and Sadie soon joined her. Maison remained true to me and sat by me. I really appreciated her that night because she kept me company and we really had a lot of fun people watching.

POPCORN AND TWILIGHT

On Friday night, we went to see Twilight. I picked the girls up right after school and we made it to the 4:00 movie. We were worried that it would be really full, but we really didn't have anything to worry about because there were plenty of seats. Sadie didn't really want to see the movie. She wanted to see something else instead, but she relented and came. I think that it was just for the popcorn, drinks and candy. Go figure!!! The movie was great and after we got home she made this fabulous hat out of the popcorn bucket and just thought it was the greatest thing. The things that kids find entertaining!!

FLAG FOOTBALL GAME

Sadie had a flag football game on Saturday morning in Logandale. When we got there we saw a team of all boys really practicing hard and we were kind of worried. Sadie's team has only 3 boys on it and they are not very "sporty" boys and there are about 6 girls also on the team. Needless to say the team of all boys creamed our team and wouldn't really let up until the last little bit. It was really sad, but the kids still seemed to be having a good time just being able to play. It would have been nice to get at least 1 touchdown, but hopefully with practice that will happen!!