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.

Awana Celebration and Spring Pageant

May 17th was our Awana Awards Ceremony. Berg finished his Sparks book, Pella finished her Cubbies book, Opal and Jasper finished their T&T book and got awards. 

Berg and Jasper both went above and beyond and earned special awards! Grandmas and Grandpas were there to celebrate with the kids and Dada did an awesome job as Commander for the year and wrapping it all up on this night of celebration.

May 21st was our spring pageant. The kids worked hard on The Kingdom Connection. Mama choreographed, her favorite thing. Kivi led the littles dance. Pella got to dance, Berg danced and said a line. Opal was a special dancer and had a line and Jasper was King David!

MAY We Demolish the Kitchen? Yes, you MAY!

May 4 - Actually I just want to remember how this silly boy sits straight up with his legs outstretched not touching the ground on grass, carpet, wood, anything. No adult can do this.

We also finally had a very late Easter Egg hunt.

May 7 - We officially start to demo the kitchen, box things and store them in the Mama/Dada room, move stuff to the mud room and tear out cabinets!

May 13 - More demo

and we go out to eat at Pacific Grill with our friends the Wells for our 17th anniversary!

May 14 - The kids get to meet their new cousin for the first time on Mother's Day!

May 15 - Tile removal! The kids were amazing! The jack hammer was not. It broke about 4 different times.

May 16 -  More tile removal in the dining room now, after a crowded breakfast in the living room.

After two days of extreme hard work. Dada took the kids to pizza. Not just any pizza, really, really big pizza! AND he bought them another Switch!!! - Say, Whaaaaaaat? (Said in a Tuff super high voice, which is what he does all the time after saying, "Boom, boom. Shake the room.")

May I? Yes, You MAY.

May18th - Awana Awards Night!

Eben - Serve Team!

Kivi - Serve Team, Milestone 1 for Trek and Meritorious Award 

Jasper - Alpha Award for Truth & Training

Opal - Sparky Award

Berg - Sparky Book 1 Award

Pella - Cubbies Award

Dada - Best T&T Director ever!

May 21st - Eben and Jasper's Maker Fair at Pierce College

Eben's RPG Game that he made.
Kids used a giant controller that he made with a Makey Makey to play it.

Eben's Giant Breadboard

Jasper and Eben's Giant Android Chip

May 22nd - Kidz Under Construction Musical

This year Mama directed the LC3 kids' musical and Marlee choreographed the dances. All the kids' hard work came together in one, super cute, energetic night on the church stage. Props to Dada for doing all the props.

Kivi had been waiting for years for her turn in the spotlight. And this being her final year of Promiseland, she got the main role of Monica, a snotty news reporter who has a change of heart and accepts Christ.

Jasper played Woody, had a duet and danced in the boy dance. 

Opal was on Piper's Team, had a solo, and danced in the girls' dance.

Berg was on Woody's Team, had lipsync part and danced in the boys' dance.

The sand castle song was probably my favorite.  But the stomp was pretty great, too!

At the end, Kivi sang in the microphone while everyone danced and sang the final song, "Praise Him".

May 23 - Lake Steilacoom Kayaking Flower Tour by Dada

May 25th - Jesus Saves Dirty Boys, Too!

May 26th - 30th  - Dada's Lodge Boy Reunion in Santa Barbara (of which he took no pictures)

May 30th - Hold the Coal

1/2 of February

Feb. 1 - The Kids put on a lovely show, "The Tuffy Ballerina Ninjas" with music by the musicians "The J" and "The B" all dressed in matching costumes and of course, a ballet skirt for Tuff. It's a musical show all about how much they all love their Tuff.

Feb. 5-7 - Peter surprised me by planning an early Valentine's getaway with the Schocks to Seattle! We ate at Lulu's spent the night at a hotel and had our fun game playing friends join us at Card Kingdom for some food and game time in our own private room! Shari and I even got to spend the whole day shopping at the Seattle Goodwill Outlet! We packed the van so full of cheap stuff, I still don't know how we got it all home!

Feb. 12-13 -Time to cut out the driveway and put in a new line! Our main water line had been leaking for some time and we had a guy come out and tell us where the line needed to be repaired, but since he said it was leaking in many different places and ran underneath the garage, Peter decided to just put in a whole new line. It was a huge project because it's a long way from the water main to our house, but he did it! The kids really wanted to help with the jack hammer and the boys removed all the asphalt. Then he rented a ditch witch to dig a long narrow hole. I tried it for a little while - it was hard to control, so Dada did it. Later that day we had Opal's birthday party!