A Valentine Birthday

Miss Emily, because of her lovely December 28th birthday, has never had a ‘friend’ birthday party.   Poor planning on our part I suppose, but December is NOT the best time to throw together a birthday bash so this chick always goes without… but doesn’t complain a bit.  This year, however, I told her I’d give her  a ‘friend’ birthday but that it would be at the end of January so I could catch my breath after Christmas.  Well, when mid-January hit I was still enjoying my slow paced ‘new year’ and pushed off party planning till February.  Perfect… a Valentine’s theme with all kinds of pink, brown and red. 

Emily is so easy going.  No demands, just eager excitement for every thing I thought up.  By the day of the party, my three girls were so excited they could hardly stand it. We….

• Filled out “I LOVE…” papers.
• Played BINGO
• Decorated sugar cookies.
• Opened Presents.
• Made heart pots.
• Ate yummy treats.
• Jumped on the trampoline.

{I am figuring out my new camera so these shots are all over the place. Flash, no flash, high ISO… craziness!  I hate it.  I mean I like the camera, just not my incompetence.}

 

 

Valentine candy and  homemade notebooks for the party girls… I make these all the time by covering a legal pad with cute scrapbook paper front and back. 

Of course no Johnson party is complete without ‘do-it-yourself’ Bingo.  As soon as my kids don’t like it anymore, I will stop, I promise, but it’s easy peasy, keeps them entertained for a good chunk of time, and they love it!!  We got to draw all kinds of lovey stuff like lips, a shiny wedding ring, roses and the temple!  {Amy, you want to play this for your bridal shower?  I know you do!}

Decorating sugar cookies.

  

Emily requested ‘brownie cupcakes’ again and picked out the red strawberry soda.

   

Emily got quite a few Hello Kitty things (very popular in the German stores here), lots of art supplies, jewelry and a furry stuffed dog.

  {Top: Lindsay, Katie, Megan.  Bottom: Mackenzie, Brooklyn, Ally, Emily, Ellie and Emma.  Ya, say those last four names five times fast.}

We had the party from 10:00 – 12:00 on a Saturday morning… which I loved.  Megan had Mackenzie stay to play for a few more hours and we had a relaxing afternoon while they played upstairs with her new things.  She was super smiley all day.  Mission accomplished.

Posted on the Fridge

Imagine my surprise when I came downstairs on Sunday morning to find this sheet of paper taped to the fridge.  Hmmm…. it looks like something I would do… that is my favorite font…. but I have no memory of it.     Oh ya, that would be my daughter, Katie.    That girl is constantly making lists, creating charts, and coming up with good ideas for the girls.  When  I showed this paper to Chris later in the day he smiled and said, “Isn’t it nice to have another you around?”    Yes, it is. 

“They’re having a battle!”

Last week Luke ran to me saying “Mom, come on.  You gotta see the animals.  They’re having a battle!”   

Sure enough when I followed him to his room I could see the carefully placed animal ‘teams’ and it made me giggle.  The cow totally defeated the crocodile… obviously since he was just laying there looking as dead as could be.  The cow must be so proud.  

So fun having little boys!

A New Year

                                Oh January.  I love you. 

After a chaotically busy (but oh so fun) October, November and December… came JANUARY.  A month with nothing in it… just a plain old empty calendar.   How wonderful.    Don’t get me wrong, I love to be out there exploring, attending soccer games, having vacations, getting together with friends, and everything about Christmastime, but I also LOVE just being in my house with my family and nothing on the calendar.

I always enjoy using January to get organized again.  Christmas stuff away.  Storage room organized.  New toys away.  All toys reorganized.  Closets reorganized.  Clothes reorganized.   Pantry shelves downstairs reorganized.  Blog updated… etc.  But I mostly like getting my time organized again.  Setting up a new schedule…  Refocusing on Family goals...  Making new year’s resolutions...   (Boy do I love setting goals)… Getting the kids to bed earlier.  New incentive Programs for reading, practicing piano and German, making charts and re-creating a disciplined routine.  It’s what January is all about!!    

We’ve done really good sticking to our family goals.  One FHE late in January Chris planned a night to evaluate what individual and family goals we were doing well in and what we needed to work harder on.   We decided we needed an alarm so that we were able to get our morning Family prayer said before the kids ran off to the bus stop at 7:23.  Chris set up the Mac to go off at 7:00am and 7:00pm for Family Prayers.  It automatically plays “A Child’s Prayer” from the LDS Children’s songbook.  Now when it starts playing, we hear the kids say, “It’s time for Family Prayer!” and we all race downstairs to the family room to be kneeling and ready before the song ends.  It is working amazingly.  We love it.

And boy do I love an empty flexible schedule.  The boys and I made it to Music Makers every week.  We had family movie nights.  We completed homework and projects.   I updated my blog.  We had great family home evenings.  Chris and I have been exercising together regularly.  I am reading at night and love it.  It’s a great way to start off the year.

Last January I heard from someone who was choosing a word of the year.  A word to help inspire them.  I jumped on board.  A year ago I was almost finished nursing my last baby and therefore looked forward to a year with more ENERGY.  I was excited to really feel like myself for longer than six months.  I decided that STRONG would be my ‘word of the year’ for 2010.  I wanted my body to feel STRONG through exercise, but it also represented my goal for a STRONG marriage, a STRONG family and a STRONG testimony.   When I chose the word and made my goals for the new year we had no idea of our sudden plans for a move to Germany which developed just weeks later.    As I look back on last year I am amazed at the ways I have become STRONGER.  Adjusting to life and DRIVING in a foreign country?  Relying on each other and Heavenly Father? …  yes, much STRONGER. 

This year my word of the year is

I’m actually stealing this word from one of my friends… but it’s a good one.  Synonyms: order, control, restraint, obedience.  Antonym: chaos.   I like the definition as:  ‘order needed for instruction.’  Plus I just love how the word Disciple is kind of stuck in there too.    So anyway, here’s to being disciplined this year. 

On top of choosing my new word for the year I’ve decided to continue on with my daily new year’s resolutions checklist and journal.  Each night as I get into bed I sit down to write a few notes of the day and analyze how I’ve done.  My schedule, funny things that have happened throughout the day and my feelings.  I did it faithfully for the first four months of last year and I loved it.  {Not to mention that I’ve really enjoyed having a record of the day by day thoughts of our decision to move to Germany}  I wish that I would have continued with it but I’m going to try again with a little more discipline.    I hope.

 

{This is last January’s pad… the goals changed monthly based on what I wanted to accomplish.  Bed by 10:30… ya, that never happened.}

Garmisch, Germany

 

Chris’ parents stayed into January a bit and we kept the kids out of school to take a trip to Garmisch, Germany.   And guess what we  found… blue skies!  It was wonderful.  Heidelberg had been under foggy white skies for the last couple weeks of December and it was so nice to see blue skies again.  We stopped at the town just below the  Neuschwanstein Castle for a picture and a bathroom break (70 euro cents each) and then hopped back in the cars.  We made great time getting to Garmisch.  It’s a beautiful drive through the German and Austrian alps.

 

The kids were so excited to get to the Edelweiss Lodge again.   It was fun to see all of the Christmas decorations… Not many places can pull off a life-sized sleigh as a fireplace decoration.

  The kids could hardly wait to get to the hotel buffet restaurant…   They LOVE it!

 

We spent a lot of time in the lodge relaxing, watching movies, playing games in the ‘secret loft’ (which is what we called it even though it is not really secret at all), running between our room and Grandma and Grandpa’s room, swimming in the indoor pool, sitting in the big outside hot tub, sitting in the rocking chairs by the nice hot fire, riding the teeny tiny merry go round with the little boys, and eating, eating, eating at the buffet!  What a fun place!

Luke thought for sure he was sitting by Santa Claus himself and kept saying, “Mom, it’s Santa.  Right there!”  to which I kept saying, “Luke, shhhh!”  But now that I think about it, if Santa were to come on a relaxing vacation after all of his Christmas work was through, I’m positive it would be here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day Chris and his parents took a daytrip to the Dachau Concentration Camp just outside of Munich.  (Kids 12 and under were not allowed so I stayed at the lodge with the kiddos.)  Chris, Del and Shelley said it was interesting and very sobering.

 

The next day we decided to do the Zugspitze… the highest peak in all of Germany.   We drove about ten minutes to the base of the Zugspitze and finished putting all of our fifty layers on.  The temperature just waiting here for the train was about 12 degrees Fahrenheit.  We were cold and we hadn’t even started yet.  Jokingly I said to Chris, “This is going to be a once in a lifetime experience because I am NOT doing this again.”

 

 

 

 

We took the Zugspitzbahn (the train) about two thirds up the mountain and then took a cable car up the remaining third.  Already I had changed my mind… I would do this again in a heartbeat… it was breathtaking… 

 

 

Seriously. 

  

Right as we gathered to take a family picture the wind picked up and blew tiny pieces of ice in our faces.  Ouch!   We had to turn away and then try again in a different direction.

 

It was a mere –17 degrees Fahrenheit at the top so we could only stand to be outside for about four minutes before our face was red and sore and our teeth frozen (if we dared open our mouths).  The little boys, who throughout the day had an increasing temperature, couldn’t handle even that long.  Luckily the highest point in Germany is equipped with a big building with large observation rooms and a great German restaurant.  After checking out the views we brought everyone in, took half our layers off and headed for lunch. 

 

That picture of Emily shows that the restaurant was sitting on a cliff and had amazing views of the Alps.  Our food was really good too!

    

On the way down…

 

At the bottom after a great ride all the way down the mountain on the cable car.    

And then the next day… heading back to Heidelberg so Grandma and Grandpa could fly home.  Thanks for coming, Grandpa and Grandma!!! It was so fun!