The No Good Very Bad Week

Well, it's been quite the week at the Johnson household! Mama had the flu and Dada was super amazing - Praise God he didn't have to work and could spend the time helping out with sick Mama and all the kiddos. And just 3 days ago, our baby broke his arm! This is our first broken bone. He and Kivi were playing outside with the wagon and he stood in it and because of some law of physics, he fell backward as Kivi pulled the wagon forward. Crack. Broken bone. The poor boy came howling into the house, screaming, "I broke my arm! I broke my arm!" We thought he was being over dramatic and tried to calm him down. Then when Peter took off his sweater and his long sleeve shirt and noticed his arm going the wrong way. He said, "Yep, I think we'll go to the hospital." So two days in the hospital, lots more vomiting, and "pins in the arm surgery" later and our Eben man is doing well... as long as there are lots of meds in him.

We'll go back in 8 days so they can take the pins out and he can get a hard cast.

Ahhh. Now, the hardest parts are over and it's on to Holy Week! Hurray for God and how He loves us enough to send His Son to suffer for us - way more than a broken arm.

Kivi's Special (Helper Rocket) Day

I earned 10 special helper rockets so that I could go to the Seattle Science Center. We took a bus ride all the way to the sidewalk and then we walked to a hot cocoa shop and got hot cocoa. We kept on walking and got to a big sidewalk in the city. We went and looked at flowers and looked at a flying pig and sea horse, puff up fish and an octopus. I stood on a big whale. Then I found out the Seattle Science Center was closed. Dada told me that we were going to go keep walking. And Dada took me to the Children's Museum and we got some breakfast. And I played at the Children's Museum for a while. My favorite part was looking into the rocks and seeing what was inside. Then we went to the bathroom. And then we went and Dada took a picture of me on a big tube. And I did a little dance on a stage.

This is me sipping some orange juice on a bridge. We got soaking wet when we walked through the waterfall.

This is me in a log.

This is me painting a picture. I liked dipping the brush in the jars and looking at my picture.

This is my picture of Dada going down the slide.

The Kid's Cookbook

On February 12th the kids wanted to make a cookbook, so their wonderful recipes could be enjoyed by all. They told me their recipes and I wrote down exactly what they said. We have yet to try them, but I'm sure they're delicious!

Crunchy Cheese

Jasper Age 3

Take crackers and peanut butter and mix it in and crunch it. Then wait for hours and it turns into cheese.

Candy Ballers

Eben Age 6

Take some Sugar Babies and little pieces of chopped up Swedish Fish, add sugar. Put chopped up licorice in the bowl too. Then melt a bunch of pieces of carmel. Try to get it all into a ball with the sugar inside of it. Then add the melted carmel all over the ball of candy. Stick cotton candy onto the carmel and cook it for 20 seconds at 30*.

Crunchy Cheese Bread

Kivi Age 4

First get a big bowl. Put in some powdered sugar and make some dough and put the dough in the bowl. Mix it all together and cook it for 60 seconds at 20*.

Muffin Cups

Eben Age 6

First make a tray of muffins. Then scoop the inside of the muffin out but leave some of the inside so it doesn't fall apart. Then take some licorice and cut it into a short piece. Somehow, with carmel or something, glue it onto the side of the muffin to make a handle. Then put honey inside the bottom of the muffin cup. Pour raisins on top of the honey and make them flat on top. Then put in a drink that doesn't make a muffin soggy and then drink it. When you're done drinking you can eat the muffin cup.

Flour Sugar

Kivi Age 4

You need sugar and some flour and baking oil. Then add some sweet potatoes. Mix it in with a cup of water. Then add one more cup of sugar. Then put it in the oven for 50 hrs at 70*.

Cheese Bread

Jasper Age 3

First put in crackers. Then put in cheese. Then flour. Then dough. Then chomp it up with your feet. Then it turns into a pancake and then applesauce cheese. Then it turns into Cheese Bread.

Bread Cheese

Opal Age 2

Bread. Cheese. Cheese on bread. Cheese on bread. Cut bread on cheese. Cheese on bread. Cut the bread.

After they made their cookbook, Peter whisked me away for surprise Valentine's dinner at Over the Moon with friends and an overnight stay at a bed and breakfast in downtown Tacoma. This was a brilliant plan because we didn't have to drive far but it still felt like we were somewhere far away!

Playing and Projects

When Poppie and Nonnie came the first week of February we were able to get a lot done! Well, Poppie and Peter got a lot done - some much anticipated projects that I've been waiting years for are finally happening!! I'm so excited!

First, they tackled the construction of our experimental concrete countertops. I love the floors of Home Depot and I've always wanted that look for our kitchen counters. Peter has tried numerous times to talk me into just buying granite. But the really cheap side of me can't stand it, plus, I hate the look of granite. So, because he's the most wonderful hubby ever, and my Pops was here and is very knowledgable in the ways of everything DIY. They started the concrete process!

Peter tinting and mixing the cement.

Pops vibrating the molds to get out the air bubbles.

Who knows how this is going to turn out? I'm just excited that he's trying it. The next step is to take them out of the molds. They've been in there for a month now, so I think they're ready.

Then, they got all ambitious and decided to upgrade our fireplace! I've always had a vision of what I wanted it to look like and they did it! It didn't even take them that long. Peter even put in matching slate, built a frame for our huge mirror, and they installed light sconces. I love the end result!

Now I just have to figure out what to put on it.

It wasn't all work, we got to play too, although, I think Poppie thinks the work is play. He had to take it easy, because he had just had knee surgery.

It was probably harder work to take all the kids to Build-A-Bear! It was finally time for Opal to go and get her choice animal and stuff it with fluff. She picked a kitty and the rest of the kids got to watch her and help. While they were at the mall, Peter and I had some alone time!!

And this is just a cute picture of Nonnie and all the kids in the kitchen at the Olympia Children's Museum. Which happened at some point. It was a busy week!

Opal Turns Two!

Opal turned 2 on Feb. 5th! And since her greatest love is reading books, we decided to give her a Book Party at the library. (We had to call it a Book Club because technically parties are not allowed at the library.) It was perfect for her.

The first thing we did was have story time of course! And this could not have been a better activity. The kids loved it - all of them - and they ranged in age from babies to 10. We all could not believe how well reading books held their attention. Their favorite was definitely A Birthday For Cow.

While the kiddos were having story time the moms and dads were working hard on their own creative books. They had to choose a candy and write a book using their candy in the story somewhere. Then we read them too. They were so funny! My favorite line from one of the books was:

"'And is God's love good?' asked Chet. 'Yes, very GOOD.' said Sam. 'AND He always has PLENTY!'"

We also all loved the book about a tiny little dog named RUNTSwiggle who could fly and became president.

This was the most stress free party ever, because Peter said he'd handle dinner and all I had to do was the cake which was suppose to look like a book:

You can't really tell. But it tasted good.

We also opened some presents

and had some cake and ice cream (after the library closed, cause we're so sneaky)!

Mama and Dada with our little Opie-girl. We love you Opie-Opes! We're so glad you're in our family. We hope your love of books never ends. And we pray you will have a great love for God's Word, the one true Book that will guide you through life and all your birthdays to come!

Little Buddies

People think they're twins. And actually, they are becoming more alike all the time - I'm not sure if that's a good thing. But they can be the best of friends and great enemies without a moments notice. And they look so cute when they do their jobs together and are being sweet to each other, that I had to remember the almost 2 year olds with some photos from the end of January and first week of February.

At least one of them gets a time out everyday for forgetting the water rule. "Where do we drink our water?" "Inna kitten."

Doing their job. Putting away the silverware. Opal spent the whole time "talking on the phone" and just handing the silverware over. Baby J would then put it away.

Taking care of the babies. They both love to play with dolls and strollers and anything baby.

Story time with Poppie and Nonnie.

Westport to Hawaii!!

Our 2010 has already been filled with excitement! Grandma and Grandpa took our whole family on a trip to Westport to start off the year. We were there from Dec. 27 - Jan 2 and had a great relaxing time. The kids could've stayed there forever running back and forth down the long hallway, going in the hot tub every day, playing Wii and taking beach walks with Grandma and Grandpa. I stayed in the house the entire time! - Except for going on a movie date with my hottie. I never even saw the beach - It was cold! And I was determined to start and finish a crochet blanket for some reason.

On Jan. 4th we got our much anticipated first foster baby! He is such a cutie! We'll have him for at least 3 months and he's a great little man. He's only a month younger than Opal so whenever we go out everyone asks if they're twins.

The kids devoured the gingerbread houses! It's really the part they look forward to as soon as we make them, but we save them for so long, that by the time we eat them, you can hardly get any candy to pry free. This year, however, they were creative and completely destroyed and ate the whole house - gingerbread and all!

Hawaii!!!

First of all, I must say, God is amazing!!

The back story: I have been doing a study where I pray for my marriage and my husband and really work at being a non-selfish, Christ-honoring wife. I still have very far to go! One of the challenges was to think of what your husband has always wanted to do, then pray and try to make it happen for him. So on Dec. 10th, I started praying that somehow we would be able to go to Hawaii - something I knew Peter had always wanted to do.

On Dec. 23rd, our friend asks if we want airline tickets that had to be booked by Dec. 31!!! Of course we said, "Yes!" Our whole trip was a series of blessings; we got the last seats on a flight to Maui, we got a great car rental deal by just asking in person, way cheaper than if we had booked it online, and our hotel/B & B's kept getting cheaper and nicer the longer we stayed!

The first day we had some amazing, pork filled Hawaiian food, then found a hotel in Kihei. Actually, at the first place we stopped all these older men in speedos kept looking at Peter funny as he tried to find the office. Peter came back and said that he decided not to even go into the office because he was getting "kind of a weird vibe from the place." I later read in our Maui book that this place was, "recommended for the gay and lesbian crowd" Ha!! So we kept going and found a great hotel on the beach.

The second day we decided to do the Road to Hana. First we had a great breakfast - eggs and fried rice (Peter's new favorite) and coconut and pineapple french toast. Then we bought some cheese, crackers and salami for lunch on the way and hit the road-six hours of winding one lane sea cliff road. It was gorgeous! I probably would've enjoyed it more if I didn't try to read about what we were seeing and driving at the same time. Our little book helped us find what a lot of other people missed on the drive, like the cool Twin Falls that were freezing cold, but had a rope swing, so Peter dove in.

On the Road to Hana - one of the little falls.

Peter on the rope swing at the Twin Falls.

One of the black sand beaches you could drive down to on the Road to Hana. We were going to stay overnight in Hana, but ditched that plan when we found out that the resort out there was about $600 a night. We drove back into town and stayed in Wailuku at a Bed and Breakfast. We got the last empty room! And it was beautiful! Complete with a 6 headed shower the size of a small room.

The innkeeper recommended a small Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, and we tried out the Pan Pacific version of fondue. As we cooked our squid at the table, Peter looked at me and said "Clint Eastwood is behind you." Thinking he meant on tv or a poster, I was surprised to find that the actor was indeed standing directly behind me waiting for a table. Not bad for a rundown Asian hole in the wall tucked under the freeway!

The third day we headed over to Lahaina, picked up some snorkel gear and went up to Napili to do some snorkeling. I even got in the water and tried it! We saw some amazing fish and coral and enormous humpback whales from the shore. That night we stayed in Kaanapali in a luxurious condo for only $100 a night! It was so nice we decided to stay there the rest of our trip.

The beach our condo was on.

I got in the ocean a total of 4 times which is very amazing! I don't like water... or sand. This trip really was for Peter, but I wanted to do stuff with him - so I forced myself to go in.

The fourth day, we went on a snorkeling boat trip. First we headed out to the Molokini crater - which is half underwater. The boat served us breakfast and then they took us to another location to see some sea turtles and have lunch. Then we chased down some whales just for fun. It really was a fun day, even though I was scared to death at first.

The fifth day, we walked out to the beach with our snorkel gear and down to a place called Black Rock where we did some more snorkeling and saw some more turtles. Just as I put my head in the water, one of the turtles ran right into me - which scared me so bad I screamed through my snorkel tube. I think I scared him even more cause he took off. I felt so bad, the big snorkeling rule is not to touch the turtles - I hope my sunscreen didn't endanger him! Poor turtle - he's probably having nightmares about me! After snorkeling, we had crepes for breakfast! Then we spent the rest of the day napping, watching TLC!!, and swimming in the pool. Every night after I fell asleep, Peter would go for a beach walk and look at the stars.

Day six - we had to go home! We got more crepes for breakfast and then headed to the airport. And because God is so good - we were the last ones to get on our flight back to Seattle! We both feel so excited and giddy to have been able to go on this spontaneous trip. It was so relaxing and beautiful, and helped us both remember just how much our God takes care of us - even in the little details of life.

Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Tonya, Miss Kim and Mr. Joe, and Wendy - for everything! We love you!