March 2019!

March 1 Baby Brons' is born!

Twining!

March 3 Eben and Kivi's fist murder mystery

March 5 picnic lunch

March 6 Tuff and Coal give Mama a tour of their forts and explain nature

Crazy Hair Night at Awana

March 9 Coal's Third Birthday! He wanted a volcano party and that's what we did! Mama made a volcano cake complete with dry ice lava, which he loved! We had his favorite, quesadillas for dinner. The kids all got into teams and constructed volcanos with recycled materials around a soda bottle and then we dropped mentos into them to see which volcano would explode the highest, however, Mama bought the wrong kind of soda. Cheap grape and orange don't make great volcanoes. Now we know. Then we all formed our own mini volcanoes out of brownies and put lava frosting on top for dessert.

Coaly, we love you so much! You are such a joy! You love your siblings and follow Tuff everywhere and try to do what he does, which is going to get you into trouble at some point we're sure. But you do understand right from wrong and have a good sense of when you need to say sorry and what the right thing to do is. You share well and love to play with your brothers during basement time. You love stories and building and Wednesdays with Nonnie, opocuses, volcanoes and all toys. You love to hide things under your pillow and have a growing collection of toys in your bed. You sleep on the bottom bunk opposite of Tuff. Your smile is infectious! We pray you will use it to win others to Christ and spread His joy to the world! Happy 3rd Birthday, Coal!

March 10 Eating the big volcano cake

March 13 Homeschool set up, boys play, Kivi track meet

March 16 Fondue and The Atlantis Escape Room for Niki's birthday

March 18 Skiing with Poppie and Nonnie and making room for Mama's new greenhouse!

March 20 Nonnie brought shaving cream!

March 21 Dada on bike patrol

March 22 Homeschool Co-op Gardening day. We transplanted seedlings, demolished the porch and cleared the big rocks and Mama and Dada put together the greenhouse that evening!

March 23 Homeschool Tea Time

March 24 Solid Rock Cafe musical at LC3 that Mama directed, Berg, Pella and Opal acted and sang in, and Kivi and Jasper helped do choreography and sets. Then we went to the Spaghetti Factory afterward.

March 26 Eben and Karl finish their rainbow Ripstik project

March 28-April 2nd Bend, OR

March 29 Skiing with the Jasper, Opal and Pella. Dada tried to ski with Coal, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Eben and Berg stayed with the Tuff and Flint. (Kivi went on a different vacation with the Schocks.)

March 30 Walk around Bend, play at the pirate playground, eat at the food trucks.

March 31 Berg, Pella, Eben, Jasper, Dada and B-Dog do more skiing. That night Mama took Opal, Berg and Pella to see Dumbo.

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.