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!

Note To Self -Review "Jesus Loves Me"

After I got ready one morning, I came upstairs to see all the babes sitting on the "Mama Couch" singing songs and the camera was right there on the mantle. This is not their best rendition of "Jesus Loves Me". Maybe we will practice and try broadcasting it again at a later date. For now, here's the real, live version.

Megan Is Here!

On November 3, I got to have the privilege of being the Schocks birth photographer! It's so amazing to see a baby being born! And Megan shot out, literally. It was a water birth, which I am a huge fan of and Shari delivered her in the same room and tub at the Birthing Inn that Opal was born in, so it brought back all sorts of recent memories. It was such a surreal moment and the world seemed to stop as soon as that little life hit the air. We were all just in awe of her. I think when you get to witness someone else's birth, you have more time to take it in. In all of my births I remember just being on auto pilot. Not as much emotionally tied into the fact that a miracle is taking place as much as I should be. More driven to make sure the people around me are doing what they are suppose to be doing, pictures, videos, not letting the baby fall on the tile floor, and concentrating on being fully relaxed, so that I will feel nothing.  It made me want another chance, Megan's birth. I've had 4 very successful, and rather painless births, so I can't complain, and everyone knows I want more kids. But, I want to be there emotionally next time. I've never cried at one of my births. I want to be really there. I want to cry.

Teaching Each Other

I caught our cutie kids teaching each other some valuable lessons. The first one is of Eben teaching Kivi to read, from his phonics book. The second is Jasper teaching Opal how to push buttons. The recipients of the teaching are not as excited as their teachers. Which makes it pretty funny.

Our Garden Family

This year for Halloween our family was a garden. Peter was the gardener, I was the representative plant life (a flower if you can't tell), Eben was the caterpillar, Kivi was a bumble bee, Jasper was the garden gnome, and Opal was a butterfly.

Our Halloween festivities included a party at the Wright's house the week before, trick-or-treating at one house on the 31st; our neighbors, Mr. John and Miss Marie, who are married, that's just what we call them (They gave each kid a huge bag of candy and winter gloves!), and lastly, Nite Lite, our church's event!! Our collective young family HFGs (Biblestudies) got together the night before Halloween to set up the maze, our annual contribution for the event. The guys did an awesome job putting PVC and black visqueen together to make the winding labyrinth. It ended up being the highlight for most everyone. The kids also enjoyed the jumpy toy, scooter race, the cookie walk, and the pick a duck game.

How the Johnsons Carve a Pumpkin

On October 27th we decided it was time to carve all those pumpkins. 

This is how we did it:

#1. Wash the pumpkin.

#2 Draw the face.

#3 Have Dada cut off the top.

#4 Scoop out the seeds.

#5 Make sure all the seeds are out.

#6 Have Dada cut out the face.

#7 Put a candle inside and light it.

Before...

After!

Free Pumpkins!

10-25-08   We go to a lot of pumpkpin patches, but we didn't even have to buy a pumpkin this year! The Lakewood Fire Dept. had a free Pumpkin Fest. The kids got to put out a fire target with the fire hose, jump on the bouncy toy, dress up as fire fighters, and pick out a free pumpkin. We got there at the very end when they were packing up, and they still had 300 pumpkins left over! So we brought home 5! We will definitely remember this for next year! No wonder all little kids want to grow up to be fire fighters!

Eben the fire fighter - he looks like a muchkin from The Wizard of Oz.

Kivi, too afraid to actually hold onto the hose, fighting the fire.

JUMP!

Everyone picking out the perfect pumpkin.

Opie, waiting for everyone to make their decision. Happy girl!

Dada had to make 3 trips with the wheelbarrow to get all those pumpkins and kids to the car.