A Champion Among Us!

Because of Marie's humility and modesty I will be the one to share the exciting news! Our ward held their 2nd annual chili cook-off / talent show tonight and Marie's pot o' chili took top honors. I did not get a chance to taste the delectable dish as I was busy pretending to be an MC for the talent show, but her chili was the talk of the night. She promises to post the ad-hoc recipe at a later date. Congrats Sweetie! We all knew you could beat the 9 year old from last year :)


Our family was able to share some of our talents with the ward, even though you will notice that we were missing one during the performance. (Small bit of last minute stage fright) Thanks goes out to Mom Torgesen for teaching us this song (Down By the Old Mill Stream). Hopefully we didn't hash it up too badly. As you can see Whitney definitely loves the spotlight.

G & G J Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson were able to make the Utah/Idaho
grandchildren circuit at the beginning of April. We werehappy to have them with us for a couple of days.

We were fed well via Grandpa's treat to a local buffet and enjoyed every minute of their visit.

Carter was able to see what he will look like in 60 years. Don't worry Carter it could be worse :)



G & G J are welcome anytime as well as any other family or friends.

A few Pictures!

We had to wait until March to get enough snow to make a decent sized snowman!

Just a couple other fun pictures for your enjoyment!

Random!

So Olivia and I just had a short conversation a few minutes ago...

"Mom, I wished we lived in the Philipines."
"Oh, why do you wish we lived there?"
"Because we wouldn't have to wear coats if we lived in the Philipines. Mom, is it cold at night in the Philipines?"
"I'm not sure, I've never been to the Philipines. Maybe we can ask someone who's been there before."

That was about it. She had just gotten her coat and gloves on to go out and ride her bike. We're suppose to warm up to the high 50's today, but it hasn't quite gotten that warm yet.

Another random happening at our house....Last night the kids and I had to go to a meeting while Marc was at class. Wanting to get the kids in bed as soon as possible after the meeting, I decided to have them all bath before we left. Bryce had gotten out of the tub and was in his room when I came upstairs to check on their progress. Sniffing, I followed my nose from the bathroom to his bedroom where the smell got progressively stronger.

"Bryce, what are you doing?"
"I'm getting dressed like you asked. Mom, do you like how I combed my hair?"
"Yes, you did a nice job buddy! What's that smell? Did you get some of Daddy's cologne?"
Smiling, Bryce responds, "Yes, Daddy always puts some on after he takes a shower. Besides, Mom, it's not cologne, it's called 'Classic'." (Which is the name on the bottle)

He loves his Daddy and wants to be just like him!

Pork chops for utensils, anyone?

Okay, so the funny moment of the day in our house happened tonight at dinner. Bryce was asked to take a break from playing and set the table for dinner. He quickly put the plates and glasses around the table and went off to play. I called him back into the kitchen to ask if he wanted us to eat with our fingers or was he planning on putting silverware around at each plate. He quickly said, "I thought we could eat with pork chops tonight. Please, can't we eat with pork chops?" Marc and I started laughing as we realized he meant "chopsticks". Our home teachers (a couple in the ward) recently took a trip to Hong Kong to visit their daughter and brought our family back a set of nice chopsticks, each set individually in their own cloth case. The kids have been begging to use them. So tonight, when Bryce asked about them, I tried to explain that ginger beef/rice and petite peas might be a little difficult for us novice chopstick users and maybe we should wait to use them. However, we decided to give it a whirl and broke out the chopsticks for utensils. All through the meal Bryce kept referring to the chopsticks as "pork chops". I'm sure we were a silly sight, all of us trying to use chopsticks to eat peas and rice (uh, non-sticky rice that is). Next time we'll have to pay close attention when someone can show us how to eat w/chopsticks, even how to properly hold them for that matter!

Late Easter Post

We had a wonderful Easter! We were able to do some of the typical fun activities (coloring eggs, hunting for eggs, etc...) on Saturday. On Easter Sunday we attended a wonderful Easter sacrament service at our ward. We finished up the day with a scrumptious ham dinner made by the world famous chef Marie. The dinner was enjoyed by our family and Brent and Penny's family (Marc's brother) who were up in the area from Utah. Good visit, but as usual, too short. Carter was able to finally meet all of Marc's siblings. Now we have to work on Marie's side of the family. That will take a little longer since there are quite a few more of her siblings.

Visitor From The Northwest

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky to have Marc's brother Jeff visit us. He was in town for a conference and was able to extend his stay a little longer. The kids loved the chance at getting to know Uncle Jeff a little better. They especially loved being spoiled by Jeff as he bought them whatever kind of sugared cereal they wanted and stuffed them full of popcorn and soda at the movies. We loved having Jeff with us, even though it was for a short time. Carter even had some one-on-one time with his Uncle from Duck country (Oregon). Thanks for a fun time Jeff!