Magic in the air...

We love Christmas!! December is a great way to end a year. I think the only down side to being away for Thanksgiving was the fact that we weren't home to put the Christmas tree up on the day after Thanksgiving...Actually, I think Marc would set up the tree and decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving if he thought he could get away with it. Anyhow, although now it is past Christmas day, here is a brief recap of what December has been for our family! We've had the traditional parties, school, church, friends, etc. For the first time since cold weather began, we've had some serious snow! It was definitely a white Christmas for us and very fun to be together as a family in a nice warm house for the whole day on Christmas day. Even as an adult, I still feel magic in the air during the Christmas season. Our family has been blessed by true Christmas miracles this month and I am truly grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who watches over His children. Anyhow, here are some pictures taken throughout the month to help you visualize our recent happenings!



ISU sponsored a night where student families could come bowling with Santa on campus. The kids had fun meeting Santa, bowling, and multiple trips to the table for hot chocolate and cookies throughout the evening. We've been very impressed with the number of activities ISU has for students with families (all free activities, to boot!). We will definitely miss participating in those!










From a contact at his internship, Marc received a family pass for us to go to the Festival of Trees...

Thanksgiving Day

Before Christmas is here, I'd better at least document that we celebrated Thanksgiving! And boy, did we celebrate! The day was spent with lots of family and great food. We have so many blessings to be grateful for, but I think not one can top the blessing of incredible family! Since Kara was married the morning before Thanksgiving, all of my siblings and their families were around for Turkey day, plus some extended family and friends that are basically considered to be family. I can't remember the exact count, but I've heard between 82-90 people were in attendance for the meal. Marc joined some of the menfolk for a little Turkey day basketball in the earlier part of the morning while the kids and I spent some quality time with our "extended" family, the Speckhards. Then we met up with everyone for the rest of the afternoon/evening and enjoyed the meal and company.









After the feast, we topped off/filled in the cracks with the traditional and non-traditional pies alike. All counted, I believe it was 41 or 42 pies total... not to bad a ratio, roughly one pie for every 2-3 people! And of course, keeping with our tradition, we did enjoy leftover pie for breakfast the next morning!

Girls' Gala

Okay, so a few days after Carter's birthday, Carter and I headed down to Texas (with a stop in South Jordan) for a "Girls Weekend" with all the girls (sisters/sister-in-laws/mom)at Denise's place! We spent a great four days there and had lots of fun, food, games, visiting, late nights, movies, etc. It was fun to see all the girls and hang out! Carter was the only male, but he survived! Some highlights include going to the Houston LDS Temple, a day at a spa, lunch at Los Cucos, and Chick-fil-A (another day), shopping, but most fun (for me, anyway) was just being all together! On the way home, Carter and I spent a night at Brent & Penny's before returning to Poky where we faced a wonderful homecoming w/Marc & kids. Marc did a marvelous job running the house/taking care of the other three kids while I was gone... Thanks for being so wonderful Marc! I LOVE YOU!







I must admit, it was nice to hear that the kids cried for me the first night I was gone...honestly, I have moments where I wonder if my kids even care that I am around. Of course, I know I didn't always let my own mom know how much I appreciated all she did for us growing up... even so, it was nice to be missed and even better to come home!

Thanks Denise for hosting/planning etc. and having us all together!!! Looking forward to the next one! :)

The Wedding!

So I'm sure we had other fun things going on after the birthday and girls weekend and before the last week of November, but we'll skip right to the last week...Kara & Scott got married! It was great to be in the temple with all of the family and share in such a great experience. The kids had fun playing with cousins while waiting for all the adults and had the added bonus of meeting and shaking hands with Elder L. Tom Perry (he performed the sealing) afterward.

Here are a couple pictures to enjoy! Don't Kara & Scott look good with that instant family? When Marc and I were married, just over 10 years ago, we only had a total of 4 nieces and nephews on my side of the family...now it's up to 33.5! Crazy what happens in ten years.

Another Birthday!

The beginning of November found us celebrating Carter's birthday! He's survived his first year with us...amazing!!!! We were visiting up at Scott & Danette's house and they were kind enough to let us celebrate the festivities with their family at their home. Thanks guys! Here's a few pics to tell the story (what little story there is for one so young...).














Making Grandpa T truly proud...all the kids love to lick their dessert plates/bowls clean!







Fun times with family!

Some Random Items Before November!

Okay, so looking at our pictures refreshed my memory a little...so before going into November I'd better mention a couple more things.

Olivia's kindergarten class took a fieldtrip to the firestation!









And then, just before Halloween, almost one year to the day of getting a second vehicle, we went back to a one car family...


She was great for the year that we had her...don't worry, Marc is okay. The truck took the brunt of it (thank goodness!)

And then a random picture or two just because!

Back in Time... a couple months, anyway...

So take a moment and go back in time with me...back to October anyway. Slowly but surely I will catch you up to speed as to the happenings, interesting and non-interesting alike, in the our little spot of the world.

October brought us continued nice weather, Bryce's birthday, and Halloween. Those being the highlights anyway as I can't remember much else at the moment.

Bryce requested a BYU basketball court cake (yes, that was his specific request, he even specifically stated, "Mom, I'll show you how to do it; You need to put a "Y" in the middle...")
True to his word, he spent two days making a diagram for me, complete with 2-dimensional basketball hoops at each end of the cake respectively. I had Marc go buy some small cake decorations as I didn't have any creative juices flowing and couldn't come up with how to make the b-ball standards, thus there was only one hoop in the set and Bryce easily forgave the cake-maker for not following his diagram to a tee.

Aside from his love for sports, he loves all things mechanical and artsy, needless to say he enjoyed the day and his treasure hunt for his gifts.




Let's see, that brings us to Halloween I believe. The kids had a great time "shopping" for Halloween costumes at some friends of ours. This dear family has four or five bins of costumes they have made/put together over the years (most of their family is grown and out of the house).
Here's what they came up with. Carter was Winnie-the-Pooh dressed up as a Bee.


Olivia wanted to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.





Bryce was a Bat.






Whitney fell in love with a sleeping cap and wanted to be a "pioneer granny".





For the first time in 3 years, Marc did not have class so he was able to help take the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Afterwards we attended a halloween party with lots of friends. The weather was extrememly cooperative and for the first time in awhile, even Marc and I dressed up (well, we were forced to as this was the price of admission to our friend's party).









Now...time to move on to November...

Where does the time Go??

So, I still am trying to figure out where September went and how can October be almost gone?!! Just when I think I have a spare minute or an hour or two without any plans, poof, the time disappears and somedays I find myself trying to recall all that took place, since I know I didn't laze around and watch movies all day, or any TV for that matter! Not to mention pick up any of the books I've been "in the process" of reading for far too long.

Back to September...a fun busy month getting even more into the groove of school, etc. Olivia celebrated a birthday, the kids got to see both sets of Grandparents, some aunts, uncles, and cousins and probably a few other fun things I can't recall all during the month!

Here's a few pictures to tell of our September! Enjoy!








The Johnson boys...well, 2/3 of the boy cousins, anyway.









The kids got an up close look at the local LifeFlight helicopter as it landed at the park for the big Union Pacific company party!





Olivia wanted a castle cake, so this was my first/best/only attempt. She and Bryce enjoyed four weeks of being the same age, until his birthday in mid-October...more to come later...

August in Review

Now on to August...a fun month in which Whitney finished up her 16 performances as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz and celebrated her 9th birthday. Olivia started Kindergarten! And all three kids began the routine of school! With all three older kids in school, Carter has figured out that he can be extremely mobile and has developed his own unique crawl. Last but not least, Marc is in his last semester of grad school!! We also took a day and went to Lava Hot Springs. And our family enjoyed our first experience picking Huckleberries!


Olivia standing outside the school -- she loves to ride the bus with Whitney and Bryce!







While taking a lunchbreak from picking berries, the bees started to swarm. Bryce ended up with Carter because the bees seemed to especially love him!




The Winkies took a fancy to Carter after the show!





Here's where we went to pick huckleberries...a fun experience for a tasty treat.





Carter enjoying the day in Lava Hot Springs, at the pool.





With the Olympics going on, Whitney requested a swimming pool cake. The kids loved watching Michael Phelps and are striving to be great swimmers.




Technically it was July when Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came to visit and went to see Whitney perform.






Then in August, Grandma and Grandpa Torgesen stopped in to see the local star as well!





The pool in Lava Hot Springs...a great way to spend a warm day!

A Few Days Later...

So here it is "a few days later" as I mentioned in our last post, well, okay, so it's more like a few months (two to be exact) later, but later does come, just not always as soon as we plan or expect it to!

Alright, a brief synopsis of the rest of July...



We had a great opportunity to go to Oregon and visit with Marc's brother, Jeff, and his family! Thanks to Jeff, Terri and kids for letting us hang out with you for a few days! Our kids were able to spend quality time with their cousins and were also able to see the Pacific Ocean. We hadn't been to the coast since Whitney was almost two, a few months before Bryce was born. We also took in the free University Aquarium/museum, a picnic at the beach and Oregon Salt Water Taffy. We decided to do a scenic loop, starting in Eugene, north to Corvallis, west to Newport, south down the Coast Highway, turning East at Florence to head back to Eugene.


Bryce and Whitney checking out the sea anemones!






Here are "the cousins" trying to feed the ducks...apparently the kids weren't feeding them fast enough, thus getting chased, finding safety on the picnic table.




Carter had fun with one of his older cousins, protected from the crazy water fowl!











The trip was fun with a stop at Multnomah Falls (sorry if I misspelled that) just east of Portland on the way back home. Enjoy the pictures!