Johnson visit!

The Johnson family moved from Canada to Iowa, just 4 1/2 hours away from us! We have been pretty excited to see them. When Timmy heard that we were doing a project they decided to come help us for a quick weekend trip.

We have missed these good friends! We had a lot of fun having them here. Saturday night Miles came downstairs and threw up (partially on their dog...) so that was no fun. Then both Wesley and I were sick the next day. But the Johnson's weren't going to go running away from us like I suggested, so they finished their visit and amazingly none of them got sick!

We love these guys! Next time we are going to their place so they can put us to work!

Brian and Timmy showing off the bathroom progress. Mudding and taping = done!

Vacation: Michigan Reunion!

We left the Beagley's on Friday morning and made it to Logan that night for a Greencrest/Michigan Reunion! It was so much fun to get together with our "Michigan family", the Seedall's were kind enough to host all of us and everyone was there, except for Tim Johnson, who we all missed.

Nora was SO excited to see Madelyn again. She had a present for her and we left it home on accident, which was traumatic for all of us.... these two had a great time together.

Ann and Marianne

Ainsley and Eleanor

Ruth and Maddie

The Seedall's had a great playground in the backyard the kids had fun on.

The kids watched a movie on the wall with a projector. We hoped some of them would fall asleep but I don't think that happened (shocking!)

Love, love, love these amazing ladies!

Clayton and Marianne can always be counted on to get the games going!

Ruth made some awesome cinnamon rolls for breakfast

It wouldn't have been complete without some Little Tikes basketball! Although it appears here they are using the real hoop.... ?

Hula-hoopers

It also wouldn't be complete without Marianne doing the girls' nails!

We had such a fun time with everyone, it is still hard to not live by all these great families! I miss them a lot and being able to have someone to chat with, craft with, babysit swap with, go thrift shopping with, eat dinner with, etc... It was a fabulous reunion!

Thanksgiving!!

 

We were lucky to have our good friends, the Johnson's, come to stay with us for Thanksgiving! The kids were SO excited and I was reminded why we usually don't tell them when people are coming.... they were all anxiously watching out the front window and constantly asking when they going to get there for over an hour!

 

The kids all had a great time sleeping together in the family room. We kept Wesley upstairs, but even baby Bennett slept in the family room in his playpen so he could sleep by his brothers. Cute! 

Timmy telling some great stories to the kids.

 

Miles and Grant sleeping by each other. Awwww. Grant was so sweet, the first night they got here I heard Grant say, "I love you Miles!" Sweet boy.

 

Wesley was pretty nice to Bennett. I think this was the turning point when they bonded over cheese puffs and redvines....

 

Angela and Bennett loved Scooter and Scooter loved having their attention. 

 

Lots of lego playing! 

 

We took advantage of having "Timmy- the- tool-man- Johnson" here and he and Brian filled in the annoying extra door to our bathroom! He claimed that he loved doing it and I'm so thankful because it looks SO much better and I don't know when we would have gotten around to doing it. And if we had done it by ourselves there's no way it would look as good as it does now. Thanks Timmy! Please come back again when we are ready to re-do the dining room floor. :)

On Thanksgiving Day we had some more friends over: the Ross family and the Condie family. There were 13 kids and I was extremely happy that it was warm enough for them all to eat on the deck out back! We had lots and lots of yummy food and a great time. I didn't get enough pictures though!

The girl and boy tables!

Apparently it was even warm enough that Wesley didn't even need pants on! Actually he woke up from his nap right in the middle of dinner starting and I didn't take the one minute it would have taken to put his pants on. When he went outside to play later my friend Tessa was teasing me because I put his jacket on but still no pants. It was pretty warm out there :)

Wesley was tormenting poor Hallie (the cute blonde baby girl). I caught him yanking on both of her little pigtails.... so sad! I put him in his crib for a while and when I went up to get him he had climbed out and was happily playing with his train table.

 A shot of the grown-up table...

Timmy and Sophie made an apple pie again this year. Yummy! 

Angela and I went to Wal-Mart that night at 8 and had a great time. We got almost everything we wanted and were home by 9:15. That beats getting up at 5am! Although I do feel bad for the workers who had to be there on Thanksgiving... and I went to Wal-Mart today and saw one of the things there for the same price it was on Black Friday. Lame! Oh, well. We had a great time. We loved having the Johnson's come and stay with us. They are so much fun. What a great Thanksgiving! 

Johnson visit!

Our good friends from Michigan, the Johnson family, came to visit us. Their visit was postponed a few times because they had been sick so we were excited when it worked out for them to come! We didn't tell Miles they were coming so he would be surprised when his buddies Zach and Grant pulled up. As you can see, he was pretty excited!

Just eating dinner together:

We tried letting the kids sleep together (minus the two babies). It didn't work out that well, but they had fun giving it a try!

Watching some TV together:

Reading books with Angela:

We went to our zoo:

And to our favorite Ice Cream place -Ella's Deli:

Playing Pirates:

I got to take some pictures of sweet Baby Bennett:
and I had to get a picture of Angela and I, but forgot until the morning they left when I hadn't showered or gotten ready. But oh, well. Better then no picture at all! Angela and I got to go to the thrift store together on Saturday (which is our favorite thing to do) and had fun doing some shopping.

We were so excited that they wanted to come and stay with us! We really miss living by them and seeing them every day. Angela is the sweetest person in the world and makes me feel like Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart all in one :) If you know Angela I am sure she makes you feel the same way. In fact after they left Brian said, "I don't feel like I need to give you any compliments for the next year or so since Angela has been giving you so many!" Haha!! So true. And Timmy and their three cute boys are so fun to have around. My girls think Timmy is the expert on anything gardening related (he's a soil scientist phD student) and Miles thinks Timmy knows how to fix anything in our house that is broken (he is Tim the tool man Johnson to us). Zach and Grant and Miles are the three Musketeers and chubby Bennett was so adorable. Thanks for coming Johnson family. Please come again!