June 2019!

June 5th - Awana Awards Ceremony for the 2018-19 year!

Dada - Commander

Mama - Youth Leader Director

Eben - Games Director

Kivi - Yellow Team Game Lead

Jasper - Youth Leader

Opal - T&T Excellence Award

Berg - T&T Alpha Award 

Pella - Wing Runner Book Award

Tuff - Cubbies Award

June 7th - Boys snacking on our front porch swing.

June 8th - Mama and Dada dates bike riding to Coffee Cabin.

June 14th - Policeman Dada brings donuts for us! Later that night Eben has his last Pierce College concert for the year.

June 16th - Father's Day

The kids each made a page for Dada in a cute book. We went for a bike ride with Poppie and Nonnie in Dupont. The farthest Berg has gone on a two-wheeler. We ate a picnic lunch in the park and then enjoyed some ice cream! That night we had both Grandpa and Poppie over for an outside Father's Day dinner.

June 18th - Walk through the Nisqually Nature Reserve with the Nobles.

June 19th - Awana Youth Leader Foam Party

I decided to throw my leaders a party as a thank you last year at the end of Awana and it went so well, we did it again this year! The kids love snacking, swimming, roasting s'mores, hanging out with friends and sliding down the hill of foam that Peter so dutifully sets up for me!

June 20th - Dada makes pretzels with the kids. 

June 21st - Dada does lots of this. He loves it!

June 22nd - Our nephew Styrkur's 2nd birthday! A pillow party! He loved a pillow from our house so much that Nonnie had to buy him his own! We had a pillow fight, and Styzee singed his eyelashes on the candles. (That's why he's crying.) Happy Birthday, Styrkur!

June 23-30th - Mexico Mission Trip with LC3 for Mama, Eben and Kivi. Eben and Kivi worked on building a home for an Oaxacan family and Mama went to help out at orphanages and help disabled children.

The church sent us off in prayer.

We flew down in our small groups and drove to In&Out for burgers!

This was one of the two houses we stayed in on the beach

Eben working on house.

Kivi playing with some of the kids that would live in the house.

Painting the inside.

Putting on the roof.

Almost done! I can't believe they built a house (really two houses, we had two teams) in one week!

The beach out the back door of the houses.

One of the amazing things was the beach had hot springs about a mile down from where we stayed We got to go twice! We'd lay in the surf and boiling hot water would come up from the sand.

Eben was not a fan. 

I may have wrestled him into the water at some point and forced him to "enjoy" it. 

The kids made us a welcome home sign!

Meanwhile, the kids at home did amazing!!! Dada still went to work everyone and they did school, and cleaned the house better than when Mama is home!!

February 2019!

Feb. 2 Skiing!

Feb. 3 Super Bowl party at the Adams

Feb. 4 Last day with Isabella

Feb. 5 Tiny igloos and snow dessert

Feb. 6 AAA Buffet for Mimi and Opal's birthdays, Silly Swig and Awana Youth game

Feb. 7 Dada bike ride with the boys

Feb. 8 Dada bike ride with the Mama, kids make snowbabies

Feb. 9 Sledding, Swiggy sized igloo, Schock snow day, big igloo making, games and girls sleep in their igloo all night.

Feb. 10 More Snow Days - snowed in!

Feb. 13 Meet our new niece, Solly! Missed her birth because of snow!

Feb. 15 Opal gets a massage table!

Feb. 16 Opal's 11th Birthday party!  This year Mama spent a ton of time making an Atlantis themed escape room for Opal's big day. She wanted her theme to be underwater and have a slide down to the basement, which Jasper built for her out of tons of cardboard. While one team tried to save Atlantis the other team was working on their graham cracker Atlantis creations. She chose spanakopita and Italian sodas and brownies. 

Opie girl! You're eleven! You love to give massages and have been getting lessons from Miss Tony every time she comes to give Mama or Dada a massage. You have very strong hands! And a very strong personality. You like to be in control and are a good leader with the little people. You have been doing 6th-grade work all year. You are very brilliant. You would choose to sleep or snuggle with your nay-nay however if given the chance over school any day. You love Minecraft and candy. You are doing great at Awana and have lots of friends through church. We love you, Opal. You grow us. We pray that you will grow into a woman who loves Jesus and wants to please Him with your life. He's the only one who really matters, who you can trust and who loves you perfectly.
Happy 11th Birthday, Opie-O!

Feb. 15-18 Eben goes to H.S. Winter Camp and apparently spends most of his time building...an igloo!

Feb. 21 Mama and Kivi go to a painting class with the Holmes.

Feb. 23 Kivi goes to Lakes Tolo and brings Jolie.

Feb. 24 More skiing and brothers play.

Feb. 25 Swiggy in the basement. (The 3 little boys play down there for an hour every day while I teach the middles. They do amazing!)

Feb. 26 Portraits! Dada bought Mama a portrait lens!

Feb. 27 Swiggy's first steps!

January 2019!

Jan. 1st-5th Montana! Skiing, campfires, games, sister outings to the town, snow walks at the state park and a huge wind storm that broke the trampoline!

Jan. 6th Sweet Kids!  Swiggy uses Jasper to drink his bottle. First tooth! Opal gives Mama a full massage!

Jan. 11th Tuff finishes his preschool level iPad game! Mama and Dada go Duck Pin bowling with friends and score all we can play bracelets and Mama scores a 540 at skee-ball - her highest score ever!

Jan. 13th We take Tuff out for mud pie for finishing his preschool. The family comes over and surprises Dada with cleaning and rearranging the MamaDada room. (Side note: if your bed, a whole living room set including a piano, desk, 3 dressers, a hot tub, and your extended family can fit in your bedroom...it's too big of a bedroom. Stuff is gonna pile up in there!) (2nd side note: we got rid of the hot tub!)

Jan. 19th-21st Peter surprises Eben, Kivi and Jasper with a trip to Universal Studios! Here's Jasper's take on the trip:

Jan. 21st Pella goes indoor ski diving with her friend, Isabella! And the rest of us strain the honey that we got from our bees (who all died of mites) back in Oct!!

Jan 22nd Buggy and I and the kids go to the March for Life Rally at the capital in the rain!

Jan 24th After taking Berg and Pella who have gymnastics on Thursdays (or Jasper who is in advanced gymnastics on Mondays) all the way in Dupont, Tuff and Coal and I go to the garden, the library or the Dupont Museum - their favorite. After being there multiple times, I finally realized the old store was called Johnson Bros. - fitting!

Opal, Berg and Pella helped the Holmes girls in a snowman building contest at Sprinker and won first place!

Tuffy asked Jesus into his heart!!! He prayed with Mama and Dada on the living room couch during our night time devotions.

Jan. 25th Awana Youth Leader Bunco Party at our house! Mama has lots of fun leading these amazing HS and MS kids at Awana each week.

Jan. 28th Dada comes home to bring us police cookies and ice cream in his uniform. A treat since his is a plain clothes guy usually. 

Jan. 29th Babies wagon ride.

Jan. 31st Family ping pong in the basement.