Christmas in UT

So the night before leaving for Utah we headed over to the Mormon Center next to the Sacramento Temple for one of Jon's best friend's, Brent Hollingsworth, wedding.

Jon, Brent, & Riley at Brent's wedding Dec 19, 2008
Kati & Jon at the Hollingsworth wedding.
This was the first "Christmas feeling" display I saw the whole holiday season in CA. I really struggled with the holidays this year because it just seemed really messed up in my mind to hear Christmas music playing and see all the Christmas t.v. commercials, yet I could walk outside in t-shirt and pants with no coat and not freeze. I would hear about the snow storms in UT and think, "Oh, Christmas" and then walk out my front door and think, "Ha jokes on me 10 second take back". IT just really messed with my head. So when we saw this display at the Sac Temple I really wanted a pic. It was the first of our UT/Christmas/Holiday escapade.

So here we have this beautiful manger scene displayed at the front of the temple and my husband decides to do the unthinkable and "oooo & ahhh" over the baby Jesus. It may be sacrilegious, but please don't be offended it was all with good intent.

This Christmas was a different than most for Jon and I. It was our first Christmas together so we had lots of family parties to attend. The adventure started with The Hales Family Christmas party (Jon's mother's family).

The following is a pic. of Jon and Ann at the Hales Christmas party pretending to be professional bell ringers while the rest of us sang the words to the song they were playing.

Ann's mom gave all of her children the same gift this year. A book of pictures filled with memories from growing up. Interesting, but I'm pretty sure I was the only one wiping tears from my eyes (and I have no relation to any of those pics go me apparently my eyes leak water at anything I think should be touching or heart felt).

Ann and her siblings looking at the books.

Ann and her mom. Parents, you never know how long they'll be around, so moments like this are priceless.

Well, Jon and I were attempting to have a "family photo" at the party but sometimes we really struggle.

And the next Christmas party...Cotant Family Christmas Party - Mama Johnson's family Christmas party

Kerri & Grandpa Cotant (and yes can you see all the food in the background? Welcome to the Holidays).
Cousins forever! Kris, Chad, Rhett & Me! Why do I love the holidays? Because of family. I just love doing anything and everything with family and this Christmas was the best ever because I didn't have a job to work at before or after Christmas we were just home to be home and it was wonderful. (I'm sure Jon wouldn't have stayed as long 2wks can be kind of long, but I loved every minute!)

Cole, Brittany, Tyson, Wyatt, & Tyler - Cousins!

Without fail every Cotant party we shed a few tears. It just comes with being apart of the family and this year was no different. My grandfather sharing his thoughts on Christmas, Christ & family.

Mama & Papa Johnson...The best Parents ever! How grateful I am to have such great parents!

Brooke, Jon, Me, Annie, & Chad - Christmas parties mean lots of pictures if you can't tell.

So every family has different Christmas traditions and right now our family dynamics haven't changed too much to change the tradition just yet. So one of the traditions we have is on Christmas Eve we have a spiritual message, do some family bonding, and open pjs. Then all the kids file down into the basement to prepare for the big slumber party and Christmas morning. Lucky for me, I'm married so Jon and I got a matress as well as Rhett & Annie. Yes, this is where all the kids sleep. It's couches, floor, mattresses and pretty much wherever you can find a spot. After we've all claimed our spots and changed into our pj's, we watch a Christmas movie and fall asleep until 6am Christmas morning when we all wake up to begin our Christmas day.

This is my favorite dog EVER Kiarra. Kiarra loved Christmas as much as any of us and the best part was she knew exactly which presents were hers.

Okay, so not everyone is as excited about the 6am thing. I guess Rhett thinks our family has out grown the getting up early part but I disagree.
Brooke, Jon & my dad. Jon is pretending to be happy about the 6am thing too. I'm pretty sure there is only one 6 o'clock in Jon's day and that is in the PM. In fact, I don't know that last time Jon was up at 6am. Well Jon, welcome to the Johnson family for Christmas you're not the youngest anymore babe so 10am on a Christmas morning just doesn't work.
Oh Wyatt, he was definitely the most excited. Although he is growing up and pasted the Santa stage, he is still young and heart and I love him for that.
Mama Johnson! Christmas wouldn't happen if it wasn't for her. She does all the decorating, planning, shopping, spending and everything else that comes with making the holidays so great. Thanks mom!
Our first Christmas morning together! I love Christmas, I love getting up early, I love getting presents, giving gifts, White Christmas the movie, white Christmas mornings, decorating, Christmas music, anything and everything that comes with Christmas and my husband, well he is just beginning to understand how much I LOVE CHRISTMAS!
So this year finances were tight. I mean we live in CA, which as a newly wed couple can be challenging by itself coming from UT. The cost of living is just a little different. Jon is in the middle of starting a company and well it's just life. So we decided not to do gifts this year for each other, but freakin Jon doesn't listen and bought me a present any way. This is his famous wrapping. Thanks babe for the IPOD we both know I needed a new one.
Merry Christmas in our new pj's.
This is Christmas at the Heaths. Jon's parent, Ann & Rod. I'm so grateful for wonderful in-laws!!!
Yes, this is the man I'm married to. He lives in his own little world and ticks to his own little drum and I love him for it. He thought bringing the 80's back was a good idea. Thanks goodness it only lasted a few moments because there are no words...
Oh how I love my niece! She is just the cutest thing ever and this is Chloe with your Sock Monkey. Apparently not having my own kids and not really being around kids I'm kind of out of the loop but I guess the sock monkey is quite the thing to have a little kid. Who knew something made out of socks could be such a hit???
So there you have it Christmas in UT. There were many other events but my computer isn't working right and I'm not able to post more pics but I figure you get the idea that Christmas was wonderful.

I'm so grateful for the husband, family, and friends I'm blessed with. My life wouldn't be the same without them.

Adventures in CA

This is California's tallest bridge and this is the sign next to the phone that basically says before you jump, pick up the phone below and talk to someone so they can hopefully talk you out of it. (I don't know how successful that tactic actually is but hey you never know what it will take to make someone change their mind when they are thinking of taking their life by jumping off a bridge.)
And this is the sign documenting CA's tallest bridge.
Okay, I know this is a little random but I have this really weird obsession with cemeteries. So on our drive through some canyon place in the Sierra's we passed this crazy cemetery and I begged for Jon and Brian to stop. On our way back we stopped but the sun was going down and we it was getting to the point where we couldn't see very well. But I found my camera to have a weird effect when we used the flash. I know you see the crosses light up but what you don't know is we couldn't see them. Needless to say it was a lot of fun and makes for good stories.

This place was crazy. I'm really glad I can add it to my list of cemeteries see around the world (okay around UT & CA).
Well, this is a picture of the cemetery before it got too dark. Okay, we might have been there for a while.
Brian, Jon, and yes Riley. Oh how those boys love that dog!!
He thinks he's so strong...well maybe he is a little bit.
The CA Crew from UT
These are our beautiful mountain here in CA. (But we can't really see them from where we live. Well actually we can't see them at all unless we drive like 45mins some direction on I-80.)

So I'm still new to the whole blogging thing and I'm finding that I'm not very good at keeping ours updated. So consider it a special day when I make the time to update our blog...

The Saturday's that Jon doesn't have to work or when he gets done early we've decided to do "Adventure Day". We don't know how long we'll be here in CA, so we're trying to see and do as much as possible. Unfortunately this has only happened one Saturday so far, but we're making the effort so there are bound to be more "Adventure Day's" in the future.

#1 Roseville Couple of the Year

Thank you for wedding presents! For our wedding we received aprons with our names embroidered on them and here we are posing in them.
One Sunday night Jon and I decided to take a walk around our complex and ended up spending most of our time on the playground. Jon enjoyed climbing the kid wall.
And I preferred the toy that rocked back and forth but wasn't really made for a skirt.
MustI explain???
Oh bless the children that come to this home because their parents are absolutely crazy!!!

Our New Temple

So this is our new temple, The Sacramento Temple. It's about 20-25 mins away and absolutely beautiful. The Sacramento Temple is considered a medium temple which means about 70 people fit in a session verses a small temple of only 35 people per session. They don't rent clothes and they ask that you call in advance to let them know you are coming so they know how many are attending a session. Yep just a little different from one of the many temples in UT. This is one of the few places I know how to drive to without getting lost and pretty much the only place I drive to when I just need a break (I have no where else to go cause I don't know anyone). But let's be honest, it's not a bad option and it definitely could be worse. I am so grateful the temple is close otherwise I would be very lost living here in CA.

Me and my cousin Kris. Kris came to town to see a mission buddy get married. This was the greatest moment EVER!! In fact, when he told me he was coming to Sacramento I started to cry (I know I know, me crying is not a shock). Finally another person to talk to other than Jon. Don't get me wrong I love talking to Jon but it's nice being able to talk to multiple people. And people who know the same people I know. Oh it was so refreshing. Thanks Kris for calling when you came to visit it meant the world to me!!!
There are no words!!! Yes here we are Roseville couple of the year!! So Jon and I really struggle taking pictures. I was so excited because I finally remembered my camera and we could get a picture together at the temple (even though we weren't in our church clothes). But do you think we could take a cute picture? NO!!! We took 13 pics and this is the best one. Like I said, never a dull moment!!

Our Home...well so far

Welcome to The Reserves Complex off Gibson Dr in Roseville CA. This is the club house at our complex. When you pull through the gate this is the first thing you see. Our condo is off to the right and down the street. This is where our mailbox is, workout facility, racquetball court, pool, and hot tub.

Welcome to our condo #1122! Yes this is my goofy husband in front of our door. No worries with Jon around there is never a dull moment. Always entertainment!!
This is our living room with our FREE little table and our ONE couch (thank you mom and dad Johnson for our only couch!!). As you can see I haven't done a lot of decorating but it's in the works.
Living room. So we have a cute little table, one couch, and ONE love sac. Not the most accommodating for a large group of people but no worries we have a floor and it offers a seat to everyone. You can also see out to our deck and our fireplace.
This is the only decorated spot of the house and it's not really complete, but getting there. It's kind of weird but the fireplace and t.v. hole are behind the front door. Jon didn't really like that so I used the hole to decorate and ta-da you have our fireplace.
The picture wall I'm working on putting up. If you're wondering as to whether or not those are DVDs around the photos you are correct they are. I was measuring the wall and making an equivalent on the floor so I used the dvds for my perimeter. Hey you gotta do what you gotta do.
Ah this is our kitchen. And this is Jon in the kitchen pretending to cook. Nice apron JON!!
Just another picture of our kitchen and of course Jon making a crazy face as usual.

Now these are all of the empty boxes we unpacked that sit on our deck and are waiting for me to organize and hid somewhere. There are a lot of boxes in that stack let me tell you because I unpacked almost all of them.

This is our spare bedroom/office/bat chair/storage/library/whatever else you can think of room. Jon and I have a lot of STUFF!!!

More stuff in the extra bedroom.
Our second closet. We tried to pack as much as possible in here but I still need to do some rearranging to see if I can fit more in and less in the actual room. We have a lot of clothes!

This is the closet in our bed room. Our 1st closet and it is very full as well.

And this, this is how Jon makes the bed. He doesn't really understand why a bed has so many pillows so every day when I leave to go to the gym and he gets ready for work he makes the bed in the most creative way possible. The bed is made in every way except the "normal" way. He always makes it exciting at our house we never have a dull moment. And at night instead of just taking the pillows off and nicely putting them on the floor. It's a war as to who can put the most pillows on the other persons side of the bed. Needless to say, the "throw pillows" have served their purpose because they've been thrown many times. Our bed set is to arrive Monday or Tuesday and Jon and I can't wait. As much as we enjoy sleeping on the mattress on the floor we're both ready for a bed frame and night stands. Thank you mom and dad Heath for the bed set!!