Temple square

I'm way behind on posts for Christmas. I didn't really want to skip anything because this has been my journal lately. I haven't been good about keeping one so I've been trying to keep up with things on my blog so hopefully one day I can do a scrapbook or journal and remember the things that have happened. I will probably end up doing a few posts about Christmas over the next few days until I get caught up. Anyway, one of the things we did this Christmas season was go see the lights at temple square. It was so cold the night we went. We bundled up and walked around the temple. It was so beautiful. They had a nativity set up on the reflecting pond this year. It was really neat. We also stopped in at the Joseph Smith building and took a few pictures by the tree in there. Noah also kept asking me to take his picture near the statue of Joseph Smith. It was a fun but cold night. We don't do this every year but I think maybe we will start to because with all the nativities and just being near the temple help to really put you in the spirit and real reason we celebrate Christmas. Stay tuned for more Christmas posts to come. I know, you just can't wait. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

Oh Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree up last Monday night. (Dec.8) It was kinda late but Noah had been with his Dad for three weekends prior to that so we just didn't get to it until then. We still get a real tree. I know, I'm probably one of the few that still does. I just really like the real trees. I remember as a kid going out together as a family and picking out a tree and bringing it home and decorating it. It was always such a fun time. Noah enjoys it too. Although every year, the price of the trees go up and so I could probably have bought 5 artificial ones by now. Noah picked out our tree this year. He really liked this one and I wasn't sure because it looked like it might be too full but we got it and it is perfect. My dad was nice enough to come and help me get it in my house and set it up. We had a fun time decorating it once I got the lights on. I ended up making 2 trips to Walmart because three of my strings of lights were burned out. It was quite frustrating. Anyway, it was nice once it was up and we got the house decorated. It definitely put me more in the spirit of the season.

Thanksgiving

I thought I would just write a little post about Thanksgiving. Sometimes I feel that this holiday gets overlooked. It seems like right after Halloween, people start playing Christmas music and stores have all their Christmas stuff out and I keep thinking, wait a minute, we still have Thanksgiving coming. It is definitely a wonderful day to reflect on all the blessings we have and to be with family. This year, we had Thanksgiving at my parents house and all of my siblings were there this year. It was a very nice day. The only sad part about the day is that I didn't get to have Noah. It was his dads turn to have Thanksgiving with him. I sure did miss him. I was also sad because on the way to my parents house for dinner I put 2 chocolate pies on the front seat next to me and when I turned the corner, they both flew off face down on the floor of the car. I was so mad. I was so looking forward to chocolate pie. Oh well. I also forgot to bring my camera to get some pictures of the family. I hate it when I do that. My mom is so cute. She had these cute little turkey name tags at each persons plate. It was a great dinner. We went around the whole table and had each person say something they are grateful for. My brother Kelly almost brought me to tears. He named each person in the whole family and said some very nice things about them. It was so nice. I would also just like to say how grateful I am for my family, Noah, my job, my health and especially for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the Atonement in my life that I might be forgiven for my mistakes. Okay, now I'm getting teary again. Later on in the evening, we made these cute Christmas countdown calendars. They are made out of mini muffin tins. They turned out so cute. My mom bought all the stuff to make them. Thanks mom. All in all, it turned out to be a nice day. Of course I ate too much as usual. My mom also makes the best pumpkin pie and I had too many slices of it but it is so good. The only thing missing that would have made this day perfect was my son Noah. Wish he could have been there. I hope everyone else had a nice Thanksgiving too.

6 Random Facts Tag

Okay, so my sister Kristi tagged me for this blog and it has taken me a while to do it because I have had a hard time finding random, interesting things to post. Am I that boring?? I hope not. Here is the best I could come up with.



The Rules

1. Link this post to the person who tagged you: Kristi
2. Post the rules on your blog (SEE!)
3. List 6 random things about yourself
4. Tag people at the end of your post

1. Most people consider me a shy person and I am at first, but most people that know me very well, know that I like to talk and talk and talk. I probably talk people's ears off sometimes. I just like to talk. I know those of you who don't know me well are probably quite surprised. I think I'm passing this trait down to my son because now he talks and talks to me about everything and anything.

2. I am very claustrophobic. Like seriously bad. I panic and get anxious when put in any situation that might make me feel claustrophobic. I didn't think I was that bad until I went to a beauty school a few months ago to get a body wrap treatment. They put me in this small room with water nozzles coming down from the sealing and then steam started filling the room, I panicked and had to stop before the treatment even got started. Lame, I know. I was so disappointed because I really wanted this treatment but I could feel the anxiety coming on and I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. I think it has gotten worse the older I've gotten.

3. I too, love reality TV. I especially love the Bachelor/Bachelorette, American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, etc. There are even some reality shows on VH1 and MTV that I like but I probably shouldn't be admitting that. I love having tivo too. I hardly ever watch anything right when its on.

4. I'm pretty good with money. I've always been pretty conservative and good at saving money. I guess I get this from my dad. I just always stress that I could run out of money and what I would do. I'm frequently checking my account online to see how much is there and what has cleared.

5. Contradictory to my #4, I love to shop. I could literally shop until I drop. Now this trait I get from my mom. I just love to go and go, especially when I find deals. I could shop all day one day and still want to go shop some more the next.

6. I like to keep my house pretty neat and organized. I have a hard time relaxing if I know there are things to be done around the house. I need to be better at just enjoying the moment sometimes. But as neat as my house might be, I rarely make my bed. I think this has to do with the fact that I work nights. I come home in the morning and sleep and when I get up later in the afternoon, it seems silly to make it when I know I'll be getting in it again that night. It's kinda sad too because I have this really pretty red bedspread that I got at the Quilt shop at Gardner Village but it rarely gets seen.

I now tag Jaime, Cherish, Marci, Sandra and anyone else who wants to try it.

CMA's

Okay, so those of you who know me very well, know that I LOVE country music. I used to be afraid to admit it but I think country music has come a long way. I don't care for the older more twangy stuff but I like the modern stuff. Anyway, the CMA's (country music awards for you non country folks) were on the other night. It was great. Carrie Underwood won for female vocalist of the year. I love her music and to think she got her start on American Idol. Brad Paisley won for male vocalist of the year. He's awesome too. Guess who won entertainer of the year for the 4th year in a row???? Kenny Chesney!!! Yeah!! I love him. He is one of my favorites and definitely deserves the honor. I do like other types of music but my favorite is definitely country. So, for all of you who don't listen, check it out. It's not like it used to be and there are some way awesome songs.

Football

As I mentioned in a previous post, Noah played football for the first time this year. Ever since he was four years old he has been asking me if he could play. I kept telling him that he had to be 8. Well, now that he is 8, he got to play. We are in the Cyprus district and the 8 year olds are called Gremlins. We got off to a bit of a rough start because we had signed up late, there were some equipment issues, and confusion as to what team Noah was on and who his coach was. Once we got that all straightened out, it turned out to be a great experience. It was definitely a huge time commitment. They started practicing a month before school started for 2 hours five days a week. After school started, it was 3 days a week for 2 hours. Game days were every Saturday. Noah was lucky to have some of the greatest coaches. I was so impressed with them and how they treated the kids. It wasn't just all about winning but playing together as a team and treating each other with respect. They gave the kids so much praise. Each kid got multiple opportunities to play in each game regardless of their skill level. Each week at the first practice after game day, the coaches would choose 2 kids who they felt did great in the game and they would give them a wristband. They were so excited each week to see who would get it. Noah ended up getting it a couple of times and he was so happy. It totally made his day. One of the team moms embroidered Cyprus Pirates and the players name and # on a beanie and a towel. The coaches and their wives did so much for these kids. They really acted like they cared about each player. Unfortunately, our team lost every game except for the last. Even though they kept losing, I noticed improvement with the team each week. Most of these kids had never played before. It was so awesome for them to win their last game. It was so close and iffy for a while but they won 19-12. What a way to end the season.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

On Friday night, we had the team banquet. It was held at the West Valley rec center. They really did a good job putting it together. They had a slideshow of the team playing while all the kids signed each others jerseys. The dinner was catered by Fazoli's. The room was decorated so cute. There were small treasure chests and pirates on each of the tables and at the front of the room they had the trophies, a gift bag, and photo for each player. After dinner was over, they presented the trophies. When they called Noah up, he shook each of the coaches hands and the coach said, "Johnson was our most improved player this season. He came out a little shy and nervous to hit and by the end, we had him hitting." Noah was so excited that they had said this about him. They each got a gift bag filled with goodies, a DVD with game photos set to music and a cute picture frame with an action shot in it. Noah was so happy and proud of himself. I'm glad he got the chance to play and I'm sure he'll play again next year. Here are some photos from the banquet.

High School Musical 3

So, I finally took Noah to see High School Musical 3. He has really been wanting to see it. If the truth be told, I probably wanted to see it just as bad as he did. We were going to see it the weekend it opened but it was his weekend with his dad so we went this weekend. Who couldn't love Zac Efron? He is so adorable. I didn't really think Noah cared much about the High School Musical movies until our trip last summer to Disneyland. He ended up riding in Kelly and Cherish's (my brother and sister in law) car a lot and they had the movies playing on their DVD player. He came home from that trip singing all the songs and loving the movies. He really thinks Troy is cool. The movie was great. I would recommend it. I like the songs too.

Halloween

I can't believe Halloween has already come and gone this year. You know what that means right? Christmas is just around the corner. I try and do a lot of fun things with Noah around this time of year. This year, we didn't have as much time because he was playing football which took up a lot of our time. It finally got over last Saturday so we tried to squeeze in some fun Halloween activities. We managed to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out some pumpkins to carve, we made and decorated sugar cookies and went to Cornbelly's corn maze at Thanksgiving point.




This year Noah was a skeleton. He wanted to be something scary. Every other year he has wanted to be a some kind of a super hero. He kept asking to be the Grim Reaper. His dad wasn't too excited about this costume and neither was I for that matter. We finally settled on a skeleton and he was happy with that.


I even dressed up this year. Noah really wanted me to dress up for his class party so I decided I would. I ended up finding a pirate costume or "pirate wench" as the label on the costume bag read. Anyway, it ended up being a fun day.

Starting a Blog

I finally started a blog. It has taken me forever to figure out how to do the background and add gagdets, etc. I am definitely not computer saavy. I've been reading other peoples blogs for so long now and have wanted to start one but I just haven't had the patience to deal with trying to get it started. Everyone says that getting it started is the hard part and that it is much easier from here. I'm not sure about the title. I definitely do not think of myself as a "Cinderella" but because my name is Cindy, many of my aunts, uncles, and siblings wound call me "Cinderelli" growing up. So, for lack of creativity, that was the best I could come up with. So Blogger world, here I come hoping to share some of my life and stories with you through this site.