Life and Times of The Johnston family: Little Cougars, Johnston Camp and Catching Up!

A couple Thursday's ago was the first BYU game of this season, and to mark it's occasion I put the kids in there BYU get-up, and they were stinkin' cute!! Don't believe me?! Check this out!

Over Labor Day weekend we went up to Hyrum State Park for the annual Johnston family camp! Way back when Tony's parents weren't planning on having the camp over Labor Day weekend they and my parents planned an RV outing together...so then when it was decided to do the Johnston camp that weekend they just invited my parents along! So my kids had both sets of grandparents there! And the little bit of rainy weather made two RVs nice to have! Tony worked half a day and we were the first ones up to camp(besides our parents who went up Thursday) we set up our tent then went to our usual stores(Pepperidge Farm, Gosseners plus the meat store) with Tony's parents while my parents kindly watched our kiddos for us! Saturday we took Devin and went to the USU Bookstore to get game day shirts. It was a very fun weekend and I'll let the many pictures tell it for me!

I somehow didn't get a picture of it...maybe cause I was dealing with it...but Devin the last couple days was being pretty difficult, he's was kinda done with the camping with lots of people thing...two days of having to be social is apparently his limit right now...anyhow, so the last couple days we pulled out his sunglasses, head phones and MP3 player and he would go to the edge of camp and just sit by himself in his own little happy place world! He looked stinkin cute so I'm kinda sad I didn't manage to get a picture of him...to the unknowing eye he just looked like he was seriously chillin! All in all it was a great camp and Elizabeth was in heaven being with her cousins and playing with Melina and Emily! Monday we stayed up at my parents house and Tony and my dad built the school organizer!

We came back to reality with a hard hit though as Tuesday was a SUPER crazy day! Devin had OT that morning at the clinic...which did not go well, he ended up with his headphones and MP3 player...in the dark ~~melting~~ calming down. He was somewhat more tolerant for feeding therapy. Tony got off work at noon that day and ran a few needed errands, then came home and checked out our oven that hadn't been working for a week...after consulting with someone who knows more about it, we think it might be the computer component that's shot...it of course is a $100+ part! And we're not 100% sure that's the problem. So we're just living without it at the moment(trying to decide if it's worth a $100 part that might not fix the problem and is nonreturnable, or just saving up and getting a new, or new to us one)...thank goodness for the crock pot and BBQ though! Then in the afternoon we took the kids to the pediatrician, Devin for his 18 month check up which went pretty well....considering. He was about 33 1/2 inches tall(90%), 25 pounds(30%), and his head circumference is now down to the 90%tile!!! Devin no longer follows the typical development charts...his pediatrician just wants him improving and doing more...better, than the last visit. Which is good cause there are things on the 6 month chart he's just started doing! He does do a lot of promising things though, for instance he pretends to talk on the phone(which is a social activity at it's core) so even though he's not really talking to anyone...he's pretending that he is and that's progress! Overall his pediatrician said he's about 6-9 months behind developmentally, but doing much better than at his 15 month visit so she was pleased. Elizabeth was there for yet another UTI follow-up, this time it was finally gone. She still needs to be on a low dose antibiotic for about 6 months to help her system keep away these infections. Both kids ended the visit with a flu shot which neither one of them handled very well, so we used our free ice cream cone coupons we'd gotten from McDonald's a while ago to make them feel better!
The 5th was my birthday! Can't believe I'm 28! It was a good day, I woke up with a sweet note and sweet treat surprise on my nightstand, from the best hubby in the world! When I went in to get the kids Elizabeth shouted so excited and enthusiastic, "happy birthday mommy!" I sure love that little girl!! For dinner Tony made me delicious shake and bake pork chops(on our neighbor's BBQ...no oven remember) it was a very yummy dinner. He and the kids gave me the coolest hot chocolate maker ever! I LOVE IT! It really was a great birthday! Thursday Tony's mom came in the afternoon to watch Devin while I took Elizabeth to have her VCUG done....man it is one horrid test! She screamed and cried, and I felt horrible! Apparently she has a TINY bladder and it was very weak(from all the UTI's she's had pretty much all year!) so the test took longer and was harder than they thought it would be, but she trooped through! Afterward I took her to the dollar store and let her pick a "prize" she found a purple sparkly pony and was very excited about it! She now knows there are worse things out there than just little old "pokies"...but I assured her nothing like that would have to be done again for a long time if ever! And she felt a lot better about life after that! The good news is she does not have renal reflux...just a very small beat up bladder. After we got home Tony's parents were there and gave me a wonderful birthday gift of great smelling bath and body works stuff and a gift card to Kohls!
Last Saturday we had the kids pictures taken(well at least Elizabeth's)Elizabeth for her 4 year birthday, and Devin for his 18 month. Elizabeth was such a cutie!! We got pictures in her birthday shirt, with some birthday props, and then we tried Devin....he wouldn't have it....not a single picture, so after a few minutes of him screaming, we decided to see if we could get him calmed down and had Elizabeth's pictures in her Snow White dress, they turned out sooooo adorable! Then we tried Devin again...we got one then he was screaming again, we calmed him down for one more picture....then he melted down and it was all over. So we're going back this Saturday with more bribes to see if we can get some better ones *cross fingers*! Then we came home and Tony painted the school organizer and one of our awesome neighbors helped him bring it in. After Devin woke up from his nap we headed up to my parents' house then my parents' took us and my brother and Jen to Olive Garden for my(and kinda Elizabeth's, or so we told her ;)) birthday. I love Olive Garden!! Especially when they have their never ending pasta bowl! Which we took full advantage of....and we had an awesome waiter which sure helped! Devin did really well surprisingly....Elizabeth was a bit too sassy though and ended up having to be taken out once. We spent the night up there and Sunday evening was the party for September birthdays. My mom got Elizabeth the My Little Pony, Twilight Sparkle pillow she's really really wanted for a while now....and her reaction was PRICELESS!!! I soooooo wish we'd gotten it on video, she was squealing with joy and nearly hyperventilating! At one point it sounded like she was crying with such great joy! She loved all the presents she got from everyone! My parents also gave her the My Little Pony Pinkie Pie that reads 4 different books, and sings super fun songs(it's what I've woken up to all week), a My Little Pony coloring book and stickers, and some cute headbands. My grandma(via my cousin Sarah) got her a new Snow White wand(which is way nicer than the one we were looking at getting her!) Cinderella jewelery, and a Tinkerbell book! My Aunt Susan got her a fun bubble wand with spinning lights, we've played with it a couple times and the bubbles are really good! Oh totally forgot! Saturday night my parents' gave me my birthday gifts, which were a nice laminator and extra pouches, and a bath bomb(super bath fizz)with a new towel and washcloth, and some yummy dove chocolates! That night after the kids were put to bed they let me use their nice jacuzzi tub! It was a half hour in paradise! Then Sunday afternoon I put my amazing laminator to good use and laminated all of Elizabeth's A is for Adam Sheets!(it actually helped me a lot to be ready to start school the next day as well!) So in all the wrong order that was Sunday!(forgive my ADD moment)

Monday was(as I said) Elizabeth's first day of school! This year I decided not to do Weekly Reader...I'm doing the Walk Beside Me Preschool(that I've ramped up a bit to be more of a mid kindergarten level) Mostly I like the gospel themes for each letter of the alphabet, and the pre-made writing sheets are nice as well! We also have a theme for every week...this week's theme is "getting along with others"(I'm super impressed with how much she's gotten out of it already! She's sharing and taking turns and thinking of others first of her own choice!) She's working out of a Kindergarten work book to start the year, she'll end the year with a first grade workbook. She has a scissor skills book and a pasting skills book. For Social Studies(and History a little) we're learning about the 50 states! She's starting computer skills by doing a couple learning games on the computer the first is online based, it's called abcmouse.com it's AWESOME, there are six levels(and it just bumped her to the sixth level :/) which is Kindergarten, but next year I'm going to start Devin doing it! It says it's for ages 2-6 and it's lots of fun while learning! Elizabeth also does the computer game Jump Start Kindergarten, the controls are a little tricky on this one but the concepts are just right for her supplemental learning, and given a month or so I think she'll get the hang of the controls and have a lot of fun learning with it. This weeks science is "a"bsorption! She's had a lot of fun going around the house with a dropper filled with water and "testing" what is absorbent and what is not! For art we've been doing "a"pple art! Messy but way fun! Elizabeth's reading is amazing! But as the books I give her get harder and she has to sound out a lot more words she's resisting a lot more. I don't want her to get the idea that reading is work and no fun, so we've gone back a level in the Step Into Reading books, which she seems to enjoy! She is getting amazingly good at sounding words out when she wants to though which `is exciting for me to see!

The last two pictures were taken over the summer. We've since learned that Elizabeth can mouse left handed much better, so we have to switch our mouse a couple times a day!

These next few are of the kids playing at the park on a particularly nice day! The fist two are of Devin's first time swinging happily...progress!