The January 2016 Post

It snowed on Jan. 3rd so while Dada worked hard on putting subway tile in the girls' bathroom, the kids worked hard building cute snowmen.

It only took this boy 5 days to complete the Lego Death Star, but I think that's because he never left the basement. He was very excited to finish this fun project.

13 month old Tuffy fully understands that there is a baby in this belly and he already loves his Thumper.

 On Jan. 7th the three red bean bags came for the basement. The kids worked hard to try to get the boxes through the doors. The we had to wait days for them to expand.

Eben, Kivi, Jasper and Dada went on their shark dive on Jan. 15th at Point Defiance. They loved it!

Jan. 17th Peter and I won the trophy for a photo scavenger hunt race with the Oury/Hill clan!

Jan. 23rd pictures of the finished boys' room with Tuff in his cute crib that I made out of the boys' closet and a free crib front that I found by the side of the road. Eben is above Jasper and Berg is in the single twin.

The Rest of 2015

On the 26th we went to the Pacific Science Center, watched an IMAX, held cockroaches and learned Jedi tricks.

Dec. 27th - 30 we were in Leavenworth for our annual All Johnson Family Grandma and Grandpa vacation

The 31st we spent at the Schocks for the Edgren/Schock New Year's Eve party.

Christmas Day in Pictures

Just Days Before Christmas

On the 21st we went to our friend's the Norquist's for our annual viewing of White Christmas.

The 22nd the girls did Christmas themed painted nails and we went to the Evarts for an LC3 Players Christmas party, where we watched the last couple years of Christmas productions.

On Christmas Eve after going to the Christmas Eve service at church we had a hot dog dinner thanks to our free coupons from 7-11!

Then we opened up our matching Christmas jammies!

And we let the kids eat popcorn and watch a movie, while Dada slept in his Dada chair.

2016 Family Christmas Pageant!

Peter and I have been putting on this family pageant at LC3 for a couple of years now! Peter came up with the idea when we went to Rainier View Christian Church, but they didn't really see it fitting in with their vision of where they wanted to head. So when we started going to Lake City, we pitched the idea to Miss Niki, who said, "Yes! Let's make it happen!" and about two weeks later we had our first Family Christmas Pageant. It's a simple reading of Luke Chapter 2 by any kids who want to read interspersed with songs sung by everyone while all kids who want to participate put on a costumeof their choice and join Joseph and Mary (who are chosen by lot minutes prior to starting) on stage. We love it because it takes practices and little prep work. And now we even have our 4-6th grade student serve team help out with clean up and they have their Christmas party afterward! This year Eben chose to be a camel, Kivi, Jasper and Berg were shepherds, Opal was a wiseman, Pella was an angel and Tuff made a brief appearance on stage as a sheep. Mama directs all the kids and Dada leads the singing. We end the night with candlelight Silent Night and cookies and cocoa. It's simple and precious and really makes you think about all that was going on during Christ's real birth, the busyness of Bethlehem, noisy animals, distractions and amidst it all a perfect Savior, just waiting for us to notice Him, come to Him and adore Him.

I love this picture that Dodie took this year!

Steve and Dodie and Peter's whole family came to the pageant this year!

Star Wars Extravaganza!

On December 19th, Peter's dream of renting out a movie theater and having a private viewing of the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, came true. (The movie came out the day before, on Dec. 18th!) Our first 100 friends to buy tickets from us were able to come along, in costume, at 9 in the morning and join us in the theater to eat donuts, fruit and have some coffee before we all enjoyed the new movie together. Peter put together a couple of those bad lip reading Star Wars videos to watch and Uncle Jeff entertained us with some accordion music and we even got pictures of all those who came in costume. We had been working on our costumes for a while and got pretty decked out! Pella and Tuff stayed home with Marlee since we didn't think they'd make it through the movie. It was a fun morning!