February Events

Here are the highlights of our month: 

Lincoln and Annika like to play with their friend Porter.  Porter is a HUGE fan of Batman so when we visit at Porter's house the three kids like to dress up like Batman.

Joseph and I had an early Valentine's date to the opera.  We saw La Traviata.  We enjoyed it and I think I like the opera better than the ballet.  It was well worth getting to bed late.

We had a little more snow fall, but to be honest, we have had such a warm February.  All of our snow is gone and it looks more like the end of March than the end of February.  Lincoln LOVES snow.  He will play outside in it for hours as long as he has someone outside watching him.  He loves to get the toy stroller and use it as his snowblower.  I love his imagination; in the summer the stroller is a lawn mower and in the winter it doubles as a snow blower.

Edie had a few rough weeks where she wasn't taking very long naps and getting up earlier than usual.  I finally turned a fan on in her room for white noise and that has solved the nap time problem.  She is now back to her 2-3 hour naps.  Edie took her first steps on February 5th.  I fully expected her to be walking full-time by now, but she still prefers to scoot on her bottom or crawl.  She gets sad when she can't go outside and play with the big kids, but until she is walking I don't want her crawling through the mud.  February and March are just too muddy and squishy outside for someone who doesn't walk.

Lincoln and Annika took their first trip to the dentist.  They did great.  No cavities, but I would have been surprised if they did have cavities.

Rebecah also had a trip to the dentist to have 2 teeth pulled.  She needed 2 baby teeth pulled so she can have an expander put in her mouth.  She was a little nervous about having her teeth pulled and I was, too.  I had 2 teeth pulled when I was 6 1/2 and I remember tears running down my face because the shots hurt so bad.  Rebecah was SO brave.  She said the shots weren't too bad, but the actual pulling was intense.  She wasn't numb enough for the second tooth and she said it hurt a LOT!  

Her teeth were pretty big for baby teeth.  We compared her teeth to my teeth that I had pulled and they were about the same size.  The tooth fairy was extra generous so that helped to sweeten the ordeal.  

Joseph has been wanting to put moulding around our wall cutouts for years and he finally did it.  He just put the moulding around one cut out, but it looks great.  He'll do the other cut outs as he has time.  Lincoln had fun helping to tear the corner round out of the wall.  It wasn't quite as messy as I feared it would be and didn't take Joseph as long either.  I think it looks really nice.  Take a look:

The kids had Winter Break this month.  We didn't do anything too exciting, but Kimball finally decided to read the Harry Potter series.  Over break he finished books 1-3 and is halfway through book 4.  He really likes them and wondered why he waited so long to follow his mom's suggestion to read the series!  Kimball also came home and told us that he is 3 chair in the cello section.  There are about 23 cellists and we were shocked when he told us he was 3rd chair.  His practicing is only half-hearted and the orchestra is 5th, 6th, and 7th grade.  He did tell me that he wishes he weren't so good at the cello so it would be easier to quit!  We love our Kimball!

January Events

It's always nice to have a calm January after a busy December.  The big kids headed back to school on January 2.  Lincoln and Annika started preschool on January 4th.  They go twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Are they really big enough for preschool?!?  I thought they might cry or not want me to leave the first few days of school, but they have done so well.  There has never been an issue with me leaving and they love school and their teachers.  Their class has 10 kids in it--8 girls and 2 boys.  They ask to go to school just about every day.  

First day of school and all smiles!

We have gotten a little snow lately so one day Joseph took the kids sledding.  They had a fun time and were gone longer than I expected.  It helped that the day they went was above freezing so it wasn't too cold for them.  Speaking of snow, as of February 2 our snow total for the year is 84.6 inches.  We are well on our way to exceeding our average of 123.8 inches because February is usually our big snow month and it isn't too unusual to have a big snow fall the first few weeks of March. 

Our little artist had a picture in the School district art exhibit this week.  The exhibit was at night in downtown Syracuse so Joseph took Rebecah while I stayed home with the other kids.  I just didn't think the mansion where the exhibit was would work with 3 little kids.  

The little ones have taken more of an interest in coloring.  I love to watch them.

We honored Grandpa Johnson by eating his favorite cake on the 19 anniversary of his death.

Looking at books.  They love to look at books.  I just don't love them 

pulling every single picture book off the shelf!

Edie is such a fun girl and her personality is really developing.  She is now standing on her own and I have a feeling she will be walking soon.  

Here she is helping to bake and wash dishes.

With her favorite "guy".  She loves this colorful chameleon and she is becoming very attached to it.

Rebecah's Birthday and Baptism

Rebecah turned 8 on January 7th.  It was a big day for her since she was baptized on her birthday.   Since her birthday was on Fast Sunday and she was going to start fasting we decided to have her birthday breakfast a day early and then things just evolved and we celebrated a day early. 

For the 5th year in a row Rebecah chose to have cheese danish for breakfast.  She loves it!

Rebecah decided that since it was her birthday she would spend the day in her pajamas.  We almost always get dressed every day so a pajama day was a big deal for her.  Since Rebecah was in her pajamas Lincoln and Annika followed suit.

For her birthday treat Rebecah wanted "dirt" with plenty of gummy worms.  In the picture above Rebecah has a fat lip.  She was playing with Lincoln and Annika and had a blanket over her head pretending.  Good brother that he is, Kimball ran into the room and tackled Rebecah and she cut the inside of her mouth.  It looked painful.

I love our Primary Leaders.  They frequently send me pictures when my kids are dancing cupcakes.  The birthday child can pick friends to dance with them while the rest of the Primary sings to them.  I thought it was sweet that Rebecah picked her siblings.  Kimball didn't want to participate so Rebecah chose a friend.

Baptism Day

Opening baptism presents...Scriptures, True to the Faith book,

 journal and a baptism scrapbook.

I learned a lot when Kimball was baptized...Kimball's baptism was a little stressful trying to get everything organized, plus we had my mom skype in for the baptismal service and I was the other speaker so it was a lot to do.  This time around I simplified and it was a wonderful service.  I organized it, but I didn't take a direct role in the program.  There were about 50 people in attendance and it made Rebecah and our family feel very loved.  

I made a variety of sweet breads for the refreshments and they were a hit.  We also had citrus punch.

The baptism service was at 6:00 in the evening.  We ate dinner at the church and the kids loved it.  It enabled us to fill the baptismal font without being rushed.  We took pictures and we were all ready for the baptism 30 minutes early.  We sure love our Rebecah and the choice she made to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She asked her piano teacher and Grandma Bev to speak at her baptism and I thought it was sweet she included these wonderful ladies.  

Christmas 2017

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Christmas Eve was my favorite day because it felt so magical.  We only had an hour of church, Sacrament Meeting, but it was wonderful.  There was beautiful music and nice messages.  Kimball and Joseph played their respective instruments during the meeting and Rebecah was asked to share a short talk on what Jesus has given her and what she will give to Jesus.  I think we sometimes sing the Christmas hymns without really taking the time to ponder the words of the songs.  As I thought about the words as we were singing I could no longer sing.  We are so blessed to have a Savior who loves us enough to come to earth as a baby and atoned for our sins as an adult.

After church we made some deliveries to a refugee family in our area and to some single men from church.  These little acts of service were a wonderful way to start our Christmas Eve celebration after church.

Knowing the kids were very excited about Christmas with a long Sunday afternoon ahead of them we planned some special activities.

We made slime as a family.  Last year the fad was fidget spinners and this year it's slime.  I don't get it, but my kids loved making and then playing with the slime.  

The second family activity that we enjoyed was decorating gingerbread houses.  It was so much fun!!  We don't decorate gingerbread houses every year, but I think we might make it a tradition because it was a lot more enjoyable than carving pumpkins at Halloween time.  We bought a kit with four little houses which was perfect so the kids could each decorate one.  I figured the kit was the way to go so I didn't have to spend a lot of money buying bags of candy for the houses when we only need a small amount from each bag of candy.  Lincoln didn't want to decorate his house so he let me do it.  Next year when we decorate I'll have to use the tips I learned from Mary Barry from the Great British Bake Off so our houses look even better!

Rebecah's house.

The finished village.

We also read some stories.

In the evening we had our traditional dinner with cheese, crackers, meats, and fruits and veggies.  It's such a yummy meal.  We had the sister missionaries over to celebrate with us.  We acted out the Nativity as we read the Christmas story from the Bible.  Rebecah was very disappointed this year because I told her it was Annika's turn to be Mary.  

Our cute little Mary who insisted on dressing in Egyptian costume.

Kimball wanted to be the donkey this year!

Please note we had a lion and bear as part of our Nativity this year.  

I know it's only food, but I love having a variety of treats during the month of December.  I know I could make these treats all year long, but I keep them special and make them only at Christmas time.

Christmas morning we got up around 7:00.  Edie was sick so we didn't wake her up.  She ended up sleeping 13 1/2 hours and didn't care about Christmas at all.  I think she happily let Lincoln open her presents. 

I didn't take many pictures opening presents.  Taking pictures tends to get forgotten about in the excitement, but I did get one picture of each of the 4 oldest with a present that they were excited about.

Christmas dinner was simple but colorful.  (Colorful meals make me happy!)  I didn't want a lot of extra work in the kitchen and no one seemed to mind that it was simple.