Marty's Farewell

Merry Christmas! It has been a long season of elf antics and laughs! We have enjoyed having Marty at our home and hope that he comes back next year.... Here are the last 2 days of mischief.

Marty left with Santa last night when he came to deliver our presents. If you remember, Taylor told me that he saw Marty in his "big self!" Well, Marty showed us all his "big self"- He left us a thank you note that had a picture of him and Santa in our living room last night!!! It was even a bit black from the soot on Santa's hands! Wow!!!













On the 23rd, we had our Johnson family Christmas party. The kids all decorated Santa cookies- a family tradition. One of them left one out on the counter and I think Marty thought that he would try to make some. Apparently, he was distracted by the sugar! It must have reminded him of snow- we haven't had much here. Marty stopped making cookies and instead made a "snow" angel in the sugar.

I will post actual Christmas pictures soon....

My New Pink Badge

I am a VERY excited RN at the moment. Christmas Eve will be my last day working in downtown SLC at LDS hospital. While I am very sad to leave friends that I have made, I am excited for the new adventures that are waiting for me.

I have been working for almost a year on the Psychiatry Unit at LDS hospital. I have had some great opportunities on this unit and grown a ton as a nurse. I really felt that it would be an easy unit and that I didn't need to be there very long- but it is amazing to me how much this unit has taught me! From gaining the opportunity to become a Charge Nurse and run one of the largest units within Intermountain Health Care to the patience to listen to a patient that doesn't feel that their life is valuable. I feel that I have grown so much as a person and I have gained a listening ear and patience that I didn't have before. For these reasons, I am so thankful for my time on this unit.

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed and took a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. I will be transferring next week to the Mom/Baby unit there. It seems very surreal to me that this has occurred. I had applied for the job a few months ago and had forgotten about it when they called and asked for an interview. I really struggled about even going to the interview because I was preparing to interview on my current unit for a management position- one of my good friends told me to at least go and interview. I did and to be honest, it was a gut wrenching decision to make. I am so excited now that the stress of decision making is over. Ryan and I feel that this is the best thing for me personally and for our family. I can see myself spending a lot of time working in this area of nursing- possibly even the rest of my career. There is something to be said for being involved in some of the happiest moments of people's lives. I understand that there is still hardship and loss in this area- but after working with severely suicidal patients for the last year, I feel that I have the skills to help those that are struggling as well.

Yesterday, this became more real to me when I picked up my new pink badge! Ryan laughed that I was so excited over a pink badge but to me it means moving on in life and starting something new that I really want to do.

How does he come up with things????

As always, I am playing catch up with Marty. I just love that he is so creative and the kids are loving it too. My niece and nephew just came in for Christmas and they are loving Marty too. This Mommy will be happy when Santa picks Marty up though- Taylor is getting out of bed at 6 am to see what Marty has done. On to the pictures (in order from most recent)

Last night Marty brought a TON of gifts from the North Pole. He left the kids a letter saying that Santa's sleigh is too full this year and he needed some help. Marty helped out by bringing some of the gifts early. The tree is overflowing with all the presents! I guess that's what happens when there are 5 kids in the home...

Not really sure what Marty was trying to do to the milk but he was caught turning it green. Taylor thinks that "he was trying to turn it into candy and we caught him!" As Taylor was eating his cereal he said to me, "Mom, it is really sweet, candy milk!"

Zack and Kylie have come in for Christmas. Marty and friends were pretty excited about the whole thing and made them a Welcome Home sign. Both kids thought it was great!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Marty and friends must have been bored last night because they set up an entire baseball field and played a game. Once again, Marty included the manger play toys. They even put a scoreboard up on the big screen. I love that they named their teams 

"The Mischievous Elves vs. The Stable Boys"

Taylor was wondering why they never wake him up to play.

Choo, Choo

I put our Christmas train up on top of the cabinets this year. Mostly to keep Taylor from breaking it more than he already has. Marty and his friends decided to take a ride on it! I have to wonder if "Polar Express" had an influence on this... Taylor wanted to know when he gets to ride on a train.

Reindeer, Kisses and Bums!

Marty is such a pill!!! He does make us laugh every morning though and Taylor adores everything he does. I have been working so again I am catching up....

This morning, Taylor found Marty sitting on the floor outside of the garage door. He was pointing to the garage and looked like he was laughing.

 When Taylor went out in the garage, he found that Timmy the reindeer had turned the cars into reindeer as well. Tay was hoping the car would fly too but I think we need some magic Santa dust for that!! (Thankfully!)

Our printer is one of those multi task ones and it is also a copier. Marty had been watching "Despicable Me" (it was in the DVD player) and decided to copy his bum like the minions do! What a great use of ink, right!?!

We have Tink up on top of our Mickey Mouse tree. I guess Marty had been watching her and decided that it was worth the climb to steal a kiss! Taylor found Marty on top of the tree smooching Tink... actually, I think that Tink is doing all of the smooching.   

Catching up on Marty's Mischief

 Sorry- I'm a slacker, I know! But, to my credit, I have been very busy in my 8 days off. I threw a very noisy birthday party for Jessica, went to a work Christmas party, interviewed for a position at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on the Mom/Baby unit, celebrated Jessica's actual b-day and to top it off- I got the job on the Mom/Baby unit!! We are all very excited about the new job change and I am looking forward to cutting 1 1/2 hours off of my work day because I will no longer be commuting to downtown SLC. However, amidst all of this craziness, Marty has still been up to mischief! I will put them in order from today on down.

Tonight Marty decided that he wanted to color. He colored a nice picture for Taylor and left the new coloring book and crayons for him as well. Funny thing is the coloring book is called "An Elf's Adventure"- wonder if Marty feels like he is on an adventure...

Last night Marty brought a new Christmas book back from the North Pole, "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell". I guess he wanted to share with EVERYONE. Even the stuffed manger scene got involved in this one. It was so nice of Marty to read the story to the baby Jesus!

Marty loves birthdays!! Jessica is lucky enough to have a December birthday while Marty is here. He took streamers and locked her into her room. The funniest part of this is that Jessica didn't want to "break out". Instead, she army crawled underneath the streamers and kept them up for her entire birthday!! This alone made my day! She is such a cute girl and I love seeing what she comes up with.

Marty brought a bunch of snowballs from the North Pole and had a snowball fight with all of his friends. They must be magic snowballs because they are warm and they never melt!! Ryan and Taylor have been throwing them at each other all day.

 I forgot to take pictures (sorry) but one of the mornings, Marty had a gift for Jessica. He brought her tickets to Aurthur Christmas for the entire family. I have to admit this was a very cute movie. It's a different take on the whole Santa story and I suggest that any family take the kiddos to it. I am on for 3 shifts in a row- I will try to keep it updated but no promises!!

Kelsi's orthodontic video

Kelsi is trying to win an iPad from her orthodontist, Dr. Thompson. She needs lots of votes!! Go to
https://www.facebook.com/#!/thompsonortho
find her video under Kelsi G., Like the video to help her out!! Yes, they are goofballs- but they're adorable goofballs!!!

Marty's mischief and Jessica's Penguin Cake

Jessica is having her 10th birthday party tonight. I am having a hard time believing that my second child is now into the double digits. I wish I could just freeze them but they keep getting bigger.

Marty is super excited about the party. He decorated the great room for us last night. Taylor thought it was just "amazing". When I asked him how Marty hung the balloons so high up, he told me, "Timmy is a reindeer and can fly!" Of course, what ever was I thinking??? 2 pics today- one of Marty and friends in their mess and the other of the great room all decorated. We're doing a penguin theme- hence the black, white and silver balloons.
I decided to attempt a fondant cake for Jess's b-day party. We will be watching "Mr. Popper's Penguins" for the party so I went with a penguin theme. I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant- not only does it taste better than normal fondant, but it is also a lot more forgiving. Here is my creation- I'm hoping that Jessica and her friends love it. And yes, it is supposed to be topsy turvy like that.

Candy Canes

Marty decided that our window needed some candy canes to help decorate it. He climbed up to the top and hung candy canes across the curtain rods. When Taylor saw this, he immediately climbed up and took them all down. Apparently, he felt candy canes are for eating- not decorating! He had eaten 2 before we realized that was what he was doing.... that's a healthy breakfast, right?!?

I'm not really sure what Marty's friends are doing- maybe just hanging out.

Marty as his friends decided to go for a spin, literally! Round and round they went on the ceiling fan. Must have been like an amusement park ride.

Another friend arrived tonight. His name is Paulie the Penguin and he is quite cute! Now there are three to get in trouble together.....

Oh Marty, Marty, Marty....

Two more nights worth of mischief! I have decided that I love listening to Taylor's exclamations of joy each morning when he discovers just what Marty has done the night before. This morning he informed me that he saw "Marty as his big self!" He claims he "snuck behind the TV and peeked on Marty"- thus seeing him in his bigger elf self. Makes perfect sense, right?!?

On to the pictures. Marty made our fridge into a pretty cute snowman. I wonder if he is missing Frosty?? I guess I never realized how boring our fridge was before it had a makeover. (Don't mind the mess on the top, I don't)The mess Marty and Timmy made- if he doesn't stay out of the wrapping paper, I might have to lock it up. Can an elf go through locked doors???


It must have been game night for Marty and friends. He even convinced Santa, Mickey and Minnie to play. They played with quite a few different games and mixed up all of the pieces. Taylor had to fix them all. Must have been a wild and crazy game night!!

New mischief

Sorry, I have been working 3 12 hr shifts- so here is a 3 day update. I'm going to do them from last night and back so they stay in order...

Last night Marty and Timmy climbed all the way up to the kitchen light and flew airplanes off of it!! There were paper airplanes everywhere!! In the tree, on the TV and all over the floor. Taylor's comment was, "Wow, Marty makes good airplanes!" Timmy injured his antler in the escapade and we had to perform surgery on it today- no worries though, it's all better and I am sure they will be up to their antics again tonight!!

We have a really cute advent calender that has toys in each opening. I have explained to Taylor numerous times that we have to open "only one" each night and once we get to #24 Santa comes. I guess that Marty and Timmy overheard our talk and decided to peek into #24- Santa still didn't come early!

Matry and Timmy decided to use my ironing board for a slide. I guess they decided it was too fast and put pillows at the bottom to catch them.(Yes, it's gross- I never iron and have owned this one for all of my married life! I refuse to buy a new one.)