Marchiness

March 2nd  - Eben and Kivi spend all day at Game Stop to be the first in line for Eben to purchase the Switch. He was successful!

March 8th - Berg finished his review book and earned his Book 2 Sparkie pin!

March 9th - After 18 months our ReEngage Foundations group had our last night, a dinner at our house. We took a picture of all the babies born while we were a small group. Five babies in one year! Small group record - every couple had one.

Tuff and Payton didn't want to be left out of the picture taking.

March 10th - Coal turns ONE today!!!

So we took his one year old pictures on the white blanket. Tradition.

... of course Tuff couldn't be left out of a photo shoot.

Hair!

My one resolution this year was to try to do the girl's hair in a cute way before leaving the house. I was doing great at the beginning of the year and now I've kind of settled in some styles I can do fast but are still cute and the girls look pretty and feel good. Here are some of the ones we've done that took a little longer and are picture worthy. Who knew there are so many things you can do with hair?

Happy Hummingbird, Butterfly Ninth, Opal!

Opal decided on a Hummingbird, Butterfly party to celebrate her ninth year! We threw her a beautiful tea party with lots of sweet decorations and made many banners, coffee filter butterflies and hummingbirds. 

When the girls first arrived we also made some coffee filter crafts and cut-out bird and butterfly crafts.

Then we had our delicious birthday tea lunch. Scones, eclairs, cheesecakes, three types of tea sandwiches, fruit and of course a self service tea bar with plenty of cream and sugar.

Opal enjoying a cheesecake treat.

After the tea, Dada hid a butterfly in the yard and the winner got the largest candy hummingbird egg - (a Cadbury egg) it took them almost an hour to find it, of course some of them got side tracked and played out there, but they loved it and even wanted to do it a second time.

Then all of the families came and we celebrated with a caramel brownie as a cake and opened presents.

Then we attempted to let kids hit the butterfly piñata, but it only made it through two kids and Opal smashed it open. Fastest piñata ever.

Opal's Ninth Birthday Kissing Picture!

Opal Whitney Johnson. Our one and only O. You can be the sweetest little lollipop girl or the roughest toughest cowgirl this side of the Mississippi. You can give, love, lead and serve one day and and want a day all to yourself the next. You keep us guessing all the time. We never know. You love doll house, Kivi, your Coally, eating sweets, Studio C, tea for snack and make-up with Pella. You are doing 4th grade math with Jasper, T&T in Awana and read excellently. You surprise us, delight us, frustrate us and enlighten us. You grow us in so many ways. You teach us. You keep us close to God. If we didn't have you we might think we're doing all this parenting by our own power. But you help us know that we don't know everything. We will never be the reason that you kids are amazing. We are all God's children and we need Him everyday. He's the One who has this life stuff all under control, not us. Trust Him and you'll do great! We love you, Opie! Happy 9th Birthday!

Fun February

On the 18th, after making us all a delicious dinner, Buggy and Kookie told us they are going to have a baby! Tuff caught on right away.

Feb. 21st The Schocks and us all went up to Snoqualmie for a ski night. We didn't take the babies so that made it much easier. Eben, Nathaniel and Jasper took off with John, Kivi and Grace switched off skiing and learning how to snowboard. I took turns skiing with Pella and Berg down the "big hill" while Dada stayed over at the magic carpet with Opal and Megan and whoever wasn't with me at the time. In the end I think all the little people made it over to the "big hill" and were going down with ease and confidence. I couldn't even keep up with Berg at the end, he's going to catch up to Eben soon!

On the 24th, Peter had his commissioning ceremony to officially make him a sergeant!! Also,  I yelled out loud in surprise when they announced that he earned the Police Chief's Commendation award. I didn't know he was going to earn an award, too! We are so proud of our Dada! I wanted to throw him a big party, but he's a humble guy and didn't want one. Also the Mops auction was right after this ceremony. So we had a lovely dinner after with all of our friends. They just didn't know who they were all sitting amongst: THE MOST AMAZING MAN IN THE WORLD - Sergeant and Award Winner, Peter Johnson!!

Our Valentine's Trip to San Antonio!

Peter had been to this Texas city for a work conference and thought I would love it. He was right! It was beautiful, I loved the Riverwalk, and the history of the town was amazing.

On the way there, Peter got us bumped up to first class. My first time flying this way - ever. Big seats, warm towels and our own highly guarded bathroom. OOoooo.

The first thing we did was walk along the Riverwalk. Actually we did this every day. I wanted to walk the whole thing, but it was 15 miles, soooo that didn't happen.

San Fernando Cathedral was beautiful. We visited it three times. It's the resting site of the men who defended the Alamo. And they have an amazing digital light and musical show that projects onto the building and follows the contours of the architechture which tells the story of San Antonio.

The next day Peter took me to Lola's for their biggest cinnamon roll in the world. (It was also my breakfast the next day and we still ended up throwing out half of it. It was huge.) We also spent a long time at the Buckhorn Saloon. 

Then we went on our Segway tour all around San Antonio. I think this was the most fun way to see a city ever. The next day we spent at the Alamo and walked a lot. We went to an up and coming little town to have some lunch and macaroons.

The last day of our little get a way we felt like we had sucked the marrow out of San Antonio so we rented a car, drove 3 hours up to Waco and went to Magnolia Farms! I love Fixer Upper, Peter loves me and it was Valentine's Day. As we were talking to the kids and taking this photo in front of the silos, Chip and Joanna's manger came up to us and asked if we wanted a tour of the roof and behind the scenes! Of course we said, "Yes!", and hung up on the kids.

Here's our little tour group on the roof and Peter and I sitting at Chip's personal desk. Even the work space behind the scenes was decorated, neat and orderly with cute antique furniture and sweet flowers hanging in rows. The conference room looked like a big dining room.

So after the tour, going to the shop, eating at a couple of the food trucks and getting cupcakes from the new bakery, we started the 3 hour drive back, got to the airport and flew home!

Snow Day!

The night of Feb. 5th while we were at a friend's house for a Super Bowl party, it snowed. The kids played the rest of the night in the slushy snow/mud in their backyard. It snowed all night long and the kids were so excited to have a Snow Day on Monday! They certainly made the most of it. Eben (and Coal) built a snowman, the boys made a snow fort. The girls (and then all the kids) worked on a igloo and finished it! It was impressive! It even had a window. They all sledded, made snow angels, snow balls and brought some inside for snow cones. They played out there all day long!

A couple of days later the igloo looked like lace!

Berg's Disneyland Birthday!

We started a tradition when Eben turned seven to let our kids chose an amusement park for their birthday. Berg chose Disneyland! Good choice, Berg! He was able to turn 7 three months earlier than any of his siblings because the only time for our Disney trip was the beginning of February! Sadly, on the drive down, Eben and Kivi were knocked out with sickness, and the couple of days we stayed at Poppie and Nonnie's house the rest of the kids got it. But by Feb. 1st almost everyone was doing great, except Dada who medicated and powered through the whole day. We were going to do some fun CA activities before Disney, but no one really felt like doing anything except playing at the house and watching movies since they were all recovering from the yuckiness. We did manage to go to a very cool indoor climbing gym, Pella got a hair cut by Nonnie and we had some In 'N Out Burger. But that's about all the fun we accomplished for our first three vacation days. 

I'm glad we laid low though, because everyone being well (except Dada, who doesn't cry, so it didn't bother anyone else) really helped us have a great Bergie Birthday celebration.

Berg's Kissing Picture in front of the flower Mickey head and all of us on Main Street.

Peter thought it was crazy and pathetic that the first ride we chose was the Storybook Ride. It was actually way more crowded of a day than we were anticipating and Berg did not want to go on a roller coaster - yet. So a gentle, slow moving boat ride through miniature castles it was. We were the first ones on it! Then we rode the Alice in Wonderland ride and then against Berg's previous request, the Matterhorn. He cried and whined in line, and then loved it. 

So we were able to go on all the roller coaster rides after that! We actually were able to go on every ride, because although it looked really crowded the lines moved fast and we snacked and ate our lunch in line. We always bring cheese, crackers, salami, grapes, oranges, popcorn, chips, water and other snacks in backpacks.

The longest line we had to wait in was the Mickey Mouse line. Berg really wanted to meet him. So we did. Well, Berg and Mama did, everyone else went on the Chip and Dale roller coaster. 

Our great Toon Town pictures.

The Magic castle - morning, noon and night. Before this night time shot we were watching the electrical parade while eating ice cream and singing, "Happy Birthday" to our boy.

Before we left CA, the kids all said goodbye to the pool, they will miss it so much. Poppie built this pool and I think it's the thing they look forward to the most about visiting. They had a whole extra day to play in it, even though it had no water, because we needed to let our sick Dada sleep for a day before we headed back home.

This was a fun birthday, Berg! I'm so glad we all got to share it with you! It kind of summed up how you are in other areas too, scared at first, then excited to jump in with both feet once you've tried it. You are an amazing kid. You are kind and loving and super giving. You've giving away almost all of your toys to other kids having birthdays, your siblings or me. You were baptized this year! You want to be a missionary in Florida when you grow up and not have any kids. You love Eben, games - any games and always want to play. You are great at memorizing your verses. You hate water. You don't wear a shirt to bed. You almost always wear your clothes backwards or inside out (or both). You have skipped a grade in math. You do the same school work in all the other areas as Jasper and Opal. So in case you forget - you are super, crazy smart! Sadly, you are losing your "squish" and becoming all muscle. But you will always be our Squish, because you are our Squishy and we love you. God made you amazing and lovable for His amazing purpose and we can't wait to watch and see!