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.

Apron Party!

Our friends, the McPhollands, are moving away. We love them so. It will be crazy to not have them here. To remember my sweet friend, Kim, I threw her an apron party. We first met the McPhollands at our house for a small group/HFG/AMC (we called it the LMNOP). It was a small group from 3 different churches and it was wonderful.

Before the party, I had all of the ladies of the LMNOP pick out a material to represent them. The aprons we were making would have six ruffles, one for each of us. Tiffany sent us her fabric via a photo, because she forgot to mail it from Missouri, so Kim chose one for her from my stash. She also picked one for Kristy, who stopped by for a little while between other engagements and helped sew, because her fabric was dry clean only.

Kim, Shari, Crystal and I before the hours of cutting, ironing, sewing and pulling of ruffles begins. Here's our beginning picture at 2:30pm:

Crystal and Kim had never sewn before, so to make it easier, we ironed the hems.

They both did so great and were fast learners. It was quite an ambitious project, well, six ambitious projects because we made aprons for Kristy and Tiffany, too.

Crystal and Kim pulling ruffles!

We settled into a pattern after a while. Shari sewed ruffles, Crystal and Kim pulled the ruffles and pinned them on the aprons and I sewed them on. It was quite the assembly line. I have a ruffle fetish. Hopefully, I didn't scar my friends too much and they will still love them after this. 

We finally finished all the aprons at 11:50pm just as we were starting to fade. We don't stay up that late, we're mamas! This was a different party for sure, but totally Kim worthy! She's a different girl anyway who's always up for anything! It was a labor of love. Fun memories and cute aprons and deeper friendships were made! We love you, Kim! 

We will miss you Joe, Kim, Reagan and Pippa! Love, The Johnsons

Awana Awards

Not only was Awana necessary for our family to be in a small group this year, but it really helped us step up learning our Bible verses. The kids worked really hard at memorizing verses this year at Awana. They love the Sparks and Cubbies programs.  Since it's the one extracurricular thing we are doing right now we can spend a lot of time working on verses and finishing our handbooks.

Kivi worked really hard this year and after finishing her review book she memorized tons of extra verses. She earned five special award pins and got a special mention at the ceremony and her name in the bulletin at church. 

Jasper finished his first year of Sparks, and even finished his review book and earned a special pin.

Eben finish his last year of Sparks, finishing his review book, earning 2 special award pins and received his Sparky plaque. I can't believe he'll be a TNTer next year!

Way to go kiddos! You did so well! Dada and I are so happy with all your hard work and determination memorizing those verses!

Baskets and Hunts

Basket of kids
Our traditional kids in the basket picture for 2011. This is the first year they officially didn't all fit inside.



After the basket pic the kids all jumped on the trampoline, and even sat still for a while to let Berg try it out for the first time. Any time we get any sun, the trampoline is the desired outdoor activity. Their favorite game they play on it is called "the game". I don't really get how it works, but they do and they love it.


Night Hunt
From all the Easter egg hunts we've been to in the previous years, we had quite a collection of eggs. So the kids and I spent a night stuffing all our eggs with candy. We were able to use them after an Awana night at the Schocks with our small group kids. We had the kids find one egg and then run it to their family basket, which the mamas stood in front of, before getting another one. It worked so well. We kept yelling, "Get the egg to your Mama!" Everyone found many eggs and we were able to share our collection of candy as a family since all the kids worked together.

Fun Things

Other fun things happened on honey day (and the day after):

Grandma rode the jetski! Peter basically told her it was her turn to ride and she got right on and hung on like a champ. Grandpa gave her a lovely, not too fast ride around the lake.

The kids played outside all day, while we did our honey extraction. They'd come in and out for turns to crank the extractor and lick spilled honey off the table. Then at one point, Jasper and Kivi came in after jumping on the trampoline looking like this:

We were laughing so hard! They said they decided to switch suits while jumping on the trampoline!

The You Go Girl Run our small group ran was actually the day after Honey Day. But it still felt like we were in the middle of it, because stuff was everywhere, and we hadn't canned the honey yet. So... our crazy small group, while we were eating our progressive dinner, (I think Shari started the idea) decided that we should all do a 10K together. I, the girl who hates to run, was anti the idea. But peer pressure won. I got in 3 practice runs - a 1/2 mile, 1 mile, and 3 mile (which I believe is 1/2 of a 10K) with the small group girls before the race.

Some of the guys dressed in pink and ran along side us. Peter was so great, he had a pink headband that read, "In my dreams I'm a Kenyan" and a 100% Rough and Tough Cowgirl shirt. He went my slow little pace the whole way and was super supportive, so were all our kids who came with Poppie in the bus and Grandma and Grandpa too! They were all there at the 3 1/2 mile point waving flags and cheering us on - they were so cute!

Here's our little group! And our great guys! So I did it - a 10K and I ran the whole thing. I never have to do that again! Did I mention that it was freezing cold and raining? I was blind the whole first mile while the mascara ran into my eyeballs and all down my face - I'm sure by the end I looked like a bruised pinata.

LMNOP Progressive Dinner

On August 25 our small group loaded up in the bus for a fun evening of food and driving. The back of the bus looked like this:

Everyone took turns going to the back to get a plate of fruit, nuts, bread, crackers, and of course, cheese and wine. Actually, most of us had sparkling cider.

Here's our cool small group next to the bus:

Our first stop was salad and bread in Puyallup at the Metcalfes:

Then we went to Dupont where the Norquists and Nevils served us the main course of potatoes and ham:

And then back to Lakewood for chocolate dump cake and berry cobbler at the Schocks:

It was a great summer fun day with our small group. We love these fun people. And now our cool mixed church small group has divided and one family moved away. Growing and birthing seems to be the way of small groups. But we'll never forget all the wonderful times we've shared with these families and how God has blessed us with these great friends.

December Favorites Part 1

We have a LOT of December traditions! Probably because there are so many fun things to do with kids in December. Here are a couple of our fun traditions that we do every year to get ready for Christmas and celebrate Christ's birth.

Make a Christmas wreath. This year my sister was here and she made us a beautiful one out of the branches we had to cut off the tree.

Decorating the tree! This year we did it as soon as we got home from cutting it down. Eben actually did a really good job of distributing them all over the tree. Jasper and Kivi tried to hang as many ornaments on one branch as they could, until the branch got too heavy and they'd fall off.

The finished product. Our tree. I added ribbon this year, a new twist, but Peter wasn't too crazy about it.

Zoo Lights is so much fun. It's just the right amount of walking and tons of lights to see. This year our friends, the Schocks, who have a zoo pass took us - yippee!

This little thing at the zoo - inside the carousel house is so much fun, until you get sick from spinning, and it's free! I didn't even know it was in there.

Gingerbread houses! Here's Jasper working on he and Grace's house. 

This year we made gingerbread houses at Tiffany N's house with our HFG mommies and kids. It was a lot of fun and we had brunch afterward while the kids watched "The First Noel".  We didn't even have to get our house messy!

This is not really a tradition. It's just our family picture in front of our tree on a Sunday when we were all looking Christmassy.

Small Group Thanksgiving

Our HFG (Home Fellowship Group) had our own little Thanksgiving on Nov. 19th. It was very peaceful, the kids stayed upstairs with the babysitter, Miss Maggie, and it was the most delicious meal ever! It helped that we have 2 gourmet chefs in our group. Peter cooked a very tasty bird.

 This was our table setting, it served as a trial run for when my family would come for the real deal too. 

Eben came up with the idea of folding the napkins like envelopes, which he got from his friend Martha (Stewart). 

Peter carving his turkey.

Playing the after dinner Thanksgiving game.

We are very thankful for our small group family!

All Church Camp Out 2008

August 22-24 was the 8th annual All Church Camping Trip that we've attended while being at Rainier View Christian Church. This year it was again at Pleasant Valley Christian Camp and we stayed in a cabin (Mr. Andy has let us use his super deluxe RV in years past - but they needed it this time for a vacation). We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and our family and playing games. It was a great time - except for Peter's midnight spewing all over the cabin floor and his having to sleep the whole next day. And sadly, every other family that was there got sick after the trip too - sorry.

I decided to have a boat race for anyone that wanted to compete. I thought it would keep the kids all busy and they'd have fun building boats. They could only use natural materials. But it ended up being a lot of work for Grandpa. I think he carved 6 boats out of wood!

Here's his clan supporting his work.

The boat racers and their boats! We raced down at the creek. It was so cute to see everyone's creations, and if they even floated. Emma and Viviana won both the big and little boat races! 

Uncle Chris brought his cool bus to camp in, which they've been doing all summer at different camp sites, and it's such a hit with the kids. They always had visitors because all the kids would go over and "drive" the bus.

Game Time! That's really all the adults do. We love it! We're such nerds. The kids played a lot on their own and felt so free being able to go with other "big kids" to the playground or the bridge all by themselves. Plus Auntie Tonya and Grandma were there too - so we didn't even see our little ones that much. It was like a big group date - with a sick boy.

Kivi and Auntie Tonya going to take a shower. 

If you want a good laugh, ask Tonya about it!