Baby's Room

Matt and I have been slowly but surely putting together the baby's room, and we're really having fun with it. Our friend Gina from MA let us borrow tons of clothes that her little girl Matilda wore when she was a baby, so that has been a huge blessing to have so many nice baby clothes to start out with (thank you Gina!) Matilda was also born in October, so all of the clothes are very seasonally and size appropriate, which is very helpful too.

Last week my mom came over to help us sort through it all, which was such a huge help. It was so awesome to have her there - it made the task of sorting through all the clothes much less daunting, and she had some great advice for me. Thanks, Mom! The following pictures are of us (myself, my mom, and Nemo trying out a baby hat) sorting clothes, and then several of the still-in-progress baby room. Funny how Nemo somehow gets in on all of these pictures, huh? :) We will have to post more pictures of the room when it is further along, in several weeks.

Soren and Liz's Wedding Weekend in International Falls, MN

Over the weekend we made the trek up to International Falls, MN, which is in the northernmost part of MN, along the Canadian border. Int'l Falls is the self-proclaimed "Ice Box of the Nation" - they often boast the coldest U.S. winter temperatures, sometimes getting down to 40-50 degrees below zero (real temp, not just wind chill!) BRRRRR!

The big event was Matt's cousin Soren's wedding to Liz Ciminski, now Liz Anderson. :) We had a blast! It was an outdoor wedding, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Warm and sunny, but not too hot and not too breezy. We enjoyed seeing many of our Johnson, Anderson, and Essen relatives. Here are some pictures from the fun weekend - the rehearsal dinner and wedding day and reception. Congratulations, Soren and Liz!

Here are all of Soren's uncles singing "Thy Holy Wings, Dear Savior" at the rehearsal dinner. It sounded great and was such a nice family touch to the already special evening. Soren's dad Warren is the closest one to the camera on the right in the green shirt. Warren is a chaplain at Rochester Mayo and also helped perform the wedding ceremony with one of Soren's uncles, Rev. Jim Widboom.


Gwen had fun playing with her Grandpa Craig. It was so cute to watch them enjoy their purple Push Pops together.

Here is a good picture of the Johnson family standing on a deck overlooking Rainy Lake. From L to R: Matt and I, Linnea, Gwen, and Cam, Craig and Karen, and 2 more little girls on the way this fall!

Liz's parents, Debra and Randall, hosted the ceremony in their gorgeous and beautifully landscaped backyard. It looked like something out of a movie! What a special gift for Liz and Soren to be married there. It was just the perfect setting. Matt and his Aunt Karin from Texas did the music for the wedding, and it was beautiful. Both are wonderful musicians and worked hard to put together several pieces for the big day. A great team!


Liz & Soren - the beautiful couple! Liz had her sisters Annie and Erika as her attendants, and Soren had his sister Kristina and his friend David. The flower girl's name is Destry - isn't she cute? You can see Soren and Kristina's mom Rose looking on proudly from the front row. Rose also did an amazing job catering much of the food for the whole wedding weekend - she is so kind and giving, and so talented!


This Bible, cross, purple calla lillies, and "Anderson's" wood carving was sitting up front, next to the wedding party. During the ceremony Warren mentioned something about the cross being a family art project. You can see the white runner in the background. The runner went down a shaded path under a long row of trees where the bride and attendants walked down the aisle. Again, it was such a gorgeous setting.

The Johnson and Anderson cousins at the reception, minus Soren (he was probably walking around with his new bride - go figure!) Bjorn, Cam, Nate, Jed, and Matt - these guys always have a good time when they get together. :)

The Johnson gals at the reception - Karen, Julie, Gwen, and Linnea. Have I mentioned lately how cute Gwen is? What a sweetie, we love her so much!

We had such a fun weekend in International Falls. Thanks to the Anderson and Ciminski families for hosting such a fantastic weekend for everyone. Thanks also to Cam, Linnea, and Gwen for letting Matt and I catch a ride in the minivan from Chicago where we were for our church missions trip. And thanks too to Craig and Karen for driving us back to the Twin Cities. Hmmm... I wonder who is next in the family to have a fun wedding weekend like this? :)

Chicago Missions Trip

Last week Matt and I went on a missions trip to Chicago with our church, Bloomington Covenant. We went through an organization called CSM - the Center for Student Missions. CSM leads urban missions trips for youth and adult groups to various large cities around the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC, DC, Philadelphia, and more. CSM was fabulous to work with, and I would recommend them to any group seeking a meaningful learning and service urban experience. During the days our group served at Casa Central, which is the largest Hispanic social service agency in the Midwest. They offer many different programs for children and families. We worked with the School Age Program, ages 5-12. We played games, did crafts and activities, played outdoors, went to a water park, and more. We really enjoyed our time at Casa -getting to know the kids and playing with them was so fun and rewarding. Then every evening we went to different sites around Chicago to serve, including a senior home, a soup kitchen, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. GCFD distributes food through qualified agencies to feed hungry people in Chicago. We also ate at a different cultural/ethnic restaurant in the city every night, it was so good. Algerian, Ethiopian, Thai, Mexican, and Lou Malnati's Chicago-style pizza. :) Even though I have eaten Ethiopean before in Minneapolis and it wasn't a totally new experience, I think that was my favorite. SO YUMMY!

We had a wonderful time in Chicago, learning more about the various needs in the city, getting to know others, and growing in our personal walk with God. The following pictures are of our group in front of the church bus before we left MN, and of us at the senior home with residents after we played a rousing (several) games of Bingo. To learn more about how you can get involved with the organizations mentioned above, please visit: www.csm.org, www.casacentral.org, and www.chicagosfoodbank.org. If you ever have the opportunity to volunteer, serve, or go on a missions trip, do so - it is a life changing experience!

28 weeks!

On Sunday, July 13th I had some maternity photos taken at 28.5 weeks. An MA teacher friend of ours is in a mothers group and heard through another member in the group that a friend of hers is a professional photographer and was looking to practice taking maternity photos. So our friend passed along the info, and I was more than willing to try it out! Here are a few of the photos taken that day. Thank you to Mandy of Glimpses of Soul Photography for this fun photo shoot and awesome pictures. These are memories that we will keep forever of our precious little girl. For more info on Mandy and her photography you can visit http://glimpsesofsoul.com/

Happy 4th of July!

Matt and I spent the 4th of July weekend and that next week at the Johnson's cabin in Barnes, WI, near Hayward. On Saturday the 5th we drove to Radisson, WI to attend a family wedding shower for Matt's cousin Soren and his fiance Liz. The shower was at Soren's parents Warren and Rose Anderson's beautiful cabin on the Chippewa River. Here are some pictures from that fun weekend.

Here are a few pictures of our sweet niece, Gwen. Gwen turned two in May and is the lucky daughter of Matt's brother Cam and his wife Linnea. They are also due with a little girl 3 weeks after us - so fun! For the 4th of July, we went to see a small town parade in downtown Barnes, WI. It was a sunny and very hot day. Gwen had fun watching the floats drive by, waving at the floats, and catching the candy that was being thrown by the people on the floats. We also went to fireworks in Barnes that night, which was fun. I think it got a little late and a bit loud for Gwen, but she seemed to like watching the light show and different colors. We love you Gwen!

Here are some pictures from Soren and Liz's shower on July 5th. We had such a wonderful time with family catching up, playing outdoor games, and having a yummy BBQ meal. Nemo even saw a black bear in the woods and chased it away with her barking - what an intimidating dog she is!
Liz & Soren - the happy couple!

Matt's mom Karen and Matt's cousin Nate's wife Kristen playing "Corn Hole" - a game of trying to toss beanbags several feet into a hole in a wooden box, similar to a game of Horseshoes. Fun to play and to watch!

Gwen, Nemo and I in a tight squeeze. Whenever we see Gwen she really seems to enjoy spending time with her pal Nemo. :)

Later that week we hung out with Matt's parents Craig and Karen at the cabin. At the cabin we relaxed, went out in the boat, did some fishing and played games. We also went on some fun outings, including going into the cute downtown Hayward area, taking a nice hike through a peaceful forest to a beautiful waterfall, and having lunch at an authentic 1940s-style American diner in Delta, WI, near Iron River.

Craig, Karen, Matt and I hiked through the Chequamegon National Forest in Park Falls, WI to Morgan Falls, a beautiful waterfall that suddenly appears unexpectedly after hiking through the peaceful woods.

After the hike, we went to eat lunch at the Delta Diner. It was so fun to sit and eat in such an authentic old diner, it almost felt like we were in a movie. We had onion rings, sandwiches, soup, and of course, malts. Yummy!

Trip to Japan

We took seven high school students from the school that we both teach at, Minnehaha Academy, to visit one of MA’s sister-schools in Japan. Honjo High School is located in Akita, which is a one hour flight north of Tokyo. One week prior to our trip the region was hit with a powerful earthquake, but thankfully the areas that we were traveling in were not majorly affected by the quake. We were blessed with a wonderful time in Japan – the country is beautiful, the people are very kind, the food was great, the weather was nice, and everyone stayed healthy and feeling well throughout the entire trip.

We all had the opportunity to stay in a Japanese host home during the trip, and it was such an authentic experience to live and learn in that way. I think most importantly, our group learned and got to experience more about God’s amazing creation abroad and how we can learn, grow, and make friends with others that are both different yet very similar to us in many ways. The trip definitely broadened our cultural horizons and gave us a wonderful immersion experience like none other. We hope to go back again sometime in the future.

Julie turns the BIG 3-0!

June 15, 2008 was the date of my big 30th birthday. No, I'm not freaking out, and no, I really don't feel older. I know this year is going to bring many new and awesome blessings, so I welcome it with open arms. Several friends got together for dinner at Bonfire in Savage, one of our favorite places to eat out in the area, and then came back to our house for drinks and games. Thanks so much to Matt, Liz, Karna, Dan, Abby, Greg, and Kari for making this a special night, and thanks to my wonderful husband for putting this together for me. June 15th was also Father's Day - Happy Father's Day to all of the awesome Dads out there, thanks for all of the love you give everday!

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

I fondly refer to this group of wonderful friends as my "Bethel Roomies" - we spent four fun years in college together at Bethel. Three of us still live in the Twin Cities, and the other three live farther away, including Wisconsin and Colorado. We have seen each other through our undergrad days, graduate school, career transitions, relationships, marriage, and children, and we'll continue to be there for each other for years to come. We were fortunate to coordinate our busy schedules to get together over Memorial Day weekend this year at the beautiful Bergstrom family cabin in Brainerd, MN. All six of us made it for a fun girls weekend, and we even had the pleasure of meeting the two newest members of our group, Katrina and Janine's new baby boys. To be honest, I think the cute little guys stole the show! Lots of laughing, eating, catching up, playing games, fun on the lake, and relaxing - just what we needed for a nice weekend of reconnecting. I love these girls!

It's a...

Julie is pregnant! This is a picture of Julie's 19-week ultrasound (5/7/08), and we found out that it's a... girl! The baby is due on October 2, 2008. This is especially exciting news because we had two miscarriages in 2007. We feel incredibly blessed.

Our first blog posting!!

Well, I guess it's about time that we started a blog... so here it is. Julie and I will both be updating this as much as possible, and are excited to finally get it going - we've been talking about starting a blog for a long time now! This is a great way to share some stories and pictures from our life with family and friends. We hope you enjoy this little peek into our lives.
The picture above is of Julie and I when we were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in early January 2008 over our Christmas break from school. Julie's sister Kristi was with us on the trip, and we had an awesome time together. For us, nothing beats sun, the beach, and the beautiful ocean. We will be going back to Cabo next June of 2009 with both sides of our family. We can't wait!