Recent Happenings

My darling sister Rachel is here for the week, which gives me a chance to tackle my enormous “to do” list. The biggest thing on the list is potty training! We started with Julie a few weeks back, but it was put on hold due to some very chaotic weeks. I'm hoping to make much more progress this week--we'll see!

Our biggest news around here is about baby. We found out that we are having a little BOY! :) Excitement is high around here, especially for Michael, who is absolutely overjoyed to have a brother. He can't wait to have a roommate as well--he has been jealous of the girls who get to share a room. I remember those feelings. I felt that way, too, when I had to have my own room before my sister Rachel was born!

Though we have had home births/birth center births with all of our babies so far, it looks like this baby will be born in a hospital, due to some new circumstances. We appreciate your prayers for little Baby Johnson! :) We are looking forward to meeting our new son in April, Lord willing!

It has been so long since I updated here—I never told about Christmas! Since last Christmas “Flu by”, I guess it was appropriate that this would be “a cold Christmas”. Yep, that is right--we were all sick with nasty colds on Christmas day, which prevented us from going to see our relatives that day--a big disappointment! We were grateful to have been able to have a few Christmas celebrations in the month of December before we got sick. We enjoyed Tom's brother's family coming out in early December, and then one day about a week before Christmas where we got to spend some time with Katie's family and all of her grandparents. We celebrated Christmas with Tom's parents on the 23rd, even though Michael was getting sick. Then on Christmas Eve, Tom, Bethany, and Julie got sick. By Christmas day, I was sick, too, and eventually Ruthie got it. We were all so sick on Christmas that we didn't feel like opening presents or anything, so we decided to save those for another time. Our sickness ended up dragging on for a couple of weeks, which caused us to miss a relative gathering on Katie's side of the family as well (for the second year in a row!). That was quite disappointing also! Hopefully we are not setting up any new traditions here! :) We are very much enjoying being well now, and going to church together again!

Our “courtship anniversary” is on January 15, and we love to celebrate all those happy milestones in our relationship. :) As a surprise to Tom, I asked Tom's parents' to come and babysit for the evening so Tom and I could go on a date together (Thank you for coming, Dad and Mom Johnson!). Tom was very surprised to arrive home from work that evening to have our babysitters already there and our outing all arranged. :) We went out to dinner, and then went and got ice cream. I never can spend enough time with my sweet man! How happy I am that we officially started a relationship seven years ago! They have been the best seven years of my life. :)

The children are always coming up with the most interesting questions, and their chatter is no little source of amusement. Sometimes, their comments about life are quite thought-provoking. I just wish I always remembered to write their little sayings down, because I forget so quickly! I enjoyed hearing Michael say to Julie the other day, “Julie, do you praise the Lord?” :) :)

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-3

Posted by Katie on 1/25/2010