Catching Up To Now

Not a whole lot has been going on in January. I'm doing school again with the kids and we've got into a great routine! The kids wake up and play in the morning until breakfast, then after eating and taking meds, we get dressed. Then Lizzy gets on the computer and does her typing class for My Tech High, while Devin sits with me at the table and I help him through his school. When Lizzy is done with typing she comes to the table and does her daily critical thinking game.(both kids really love them!) Then she gets her daily folder and starts working through(it has all her independent work) while I continue to work with Devin as his pre-k program is much more me involved obviously. Then after Devin finishes with me he goes to the computer and does abc mouse, while I do any instructing needed with Lizzy(like geography, history, science and answer any questions she might have in her independent work folder). Then they play til lunch, which they eat while watching an educational show on Netflix. Then it's quiet/kindle time....my favorite time! Then the kids get 20-30 minutes of free screen time. Then it's play(outside if it's not too freezing) til dinner, after dinner is family time then bed! Lizzy started her theater class back up the second Monday of January. Other than that we pretty much just do what's listed above on repeat each week! And I'm perfectly fine with that! :) Shadow did come down with kennel cough a couple weeks ago so I took her to the vet to get her on an antibiotic. My good friend, and now visiting teacher, Ashley kindly watched my kiddos, then we had a good long chat while our kids played.  Lizzy has also come down with a bit of a cold, we're just waiting for it to run it's course. My mom has taken the kids and I to lunch to Cracker Barrel one Friday. She taught Lizzy to play checkers which she liked! Oh Lizzy had a med check on the 5th, where we didn't change anything with her meds but did discover she's lost 2 1/2 pounds in a month. When her doctor told me I'd need to have her eat more I nearly broke into tears. Getting Lizzy to eat enough is like running a marathon! EXHAUSTING!!! To add to it the Adderall she's on for her ADHD suppresses her appetite! But it's working really well for her symptoms so we really don't want to have to stop using it. I do love Dr. Sandvig though! She is so understanding and sweet! She always tells me what an amazing job I'm doing with the kids and their unique challenges. I don't know that I totally believe it, but it's nice to have her support! This past Friday Devin had a haircut at Cookie Cutters in Bountiful(which is the only place he'll get his hair cut) and after as always we stopped by my grandparents. The kids played in the basement while my grandma and I visited. Jen and Daniel came by the last little bit we were there too!
Yesterday would have been my brother Eric's 34th birthday. So my mom went with the kid's and I to the dollar store to get birthday balloons(and of course we always find other things there too. I love their puzzles, so Lizzy and I each got a couple new ones. I let the kids each pick one toy. Devin picked a little play guitar he's wanted for a while now, and Lizzy was thrilled with her silly putty! Then my mom graciously got us lunch at Arctic Circle where we let the kids play at the play place for quite a while. Then we came home, I packed up the backpack while the kids had like 15 mins of screen time, then we rode with my mom to pick up my dad at his work. He showed us his new office which is very nice and new! Then we picked up a nice floral bouquet my parents ordered, then we had just over an hour to kill, so we took the kids Firefighter Park, where they played the entire time and had a blast despite the cold. Then we drove to the cemetery, and waited for Tony and Jen and Daniel. When we were all there we put the flowers and balloons by Eric's headstone, then went to dinner at Applebees. I so wish we could celebrate with him, but I'm so glad we have each other!
And that pretty much catches ya up with us!

Trying to get a good picture of Devin in his adorable overalls....I have a serious soft spot for kids in overalls!

Putting their balloons by Eric's headstone for his birthday.

The kids had a lot of fun playing in these boxes! They loved pretending to be live jack in the boxes!

Sweet sleepy Devin.

New Years Eve!

Tony took off Mon-Wed after Christmas and we did some fun things with the kids! We took them to see The Good Dinosaur, which we all really loved! We went to The Rush and went swimming which was soooo much fun!! And I'm sure we did more fun things too but they don't come to mind at the moment(hence why I'm trying to get caught up on this poor blog! I don't remember things very well!). Anyway Thursday was New Years Eve and my mom being the amazing person she is had a fun night for us! We had our traditional fondue dinner which is always so good! My mom had hourly surprises for the kids to help pass the hour, like games and fun quizzes and such. We had the kids celebrate the new year with the Eastern time zone as that works well for them. It was such a fun night!

When we went to see The Good Dinosaur the kids HAD to get their picture next to the Zootopia stuff as they're very excited about that movie!

My Aunt Susan invited us and Jen and Daniel to dinner at Zupas then she took us to Build a Bear where she let the kids pick a animal to stuff and an outfit for it. My kids were BEYOND thrilled to get Chase and Marshall from Paw Partol!

 Devin got Marshall and Lizzy got Chase!

Swimming at the rush! Devin mostly stays at this playground but Lizzy swims all over the little fish! She also went down all three water slides, though she bonked her noggin on the blue one the second time she went down it, so she decided to wait til she's older to go on that one again. Her favorite one is the red one which she went down several time! I did get Devin to go in the lazy river with me and once he was there he had a really good time playing with all of us! Once he'd had his fill though it was back to the playground!

New Years Eve fun!

 Pretending to blow horns ;)

 Playing toss the fox :)

 Devin in Daddy's hat...they melt my heart!

 Some of the fun that passed the time so well!!

 The last bag of course has the noise makers!

 And the poppers!

Counting down to 2016!

Christmas Day!!!!

Christmas morning the adults were actually up BEFORE the kids were!! They slept until nearly 8! They were both thrilled to see that Santa had come and they had managed to stay on the nice list, so he brought them what they had asked for. Devin had been eyeing his present from Lizzy for weeks(and Lizzy had been talking it up), so he had just one thing on his mind when he came out! After admiring what Santa brought they dove into taking turns opening gifts. And once everything had been seen they went right into playing with their new fun things! Tony prepared our traditional french toast, hashbrowns, bacon and sausage breakfast that we shared with my parents who had come down to watch the kids open presents. It was a very yummy breakfast! Then the kids played some more, while Tony and I chatted and watched them. Just after noon we drove down to my grandparents house where we visited for a while, then drove slowly and leisurely to Tony's parents' house. We got there early, but the kids had fun playing just the two of them, and we helped and chatted. Soon enough it was time for a delicious Christmas dinner! Then it was downstairs to open presents. Lizzy seriously struggled with her patience, and I actually had to pick her up and drag her out of the room and she threw herself on the floor because it wasn't her turn yet. We had a serious come to Jesus/ true meaning of Christmas/shape up or ship out talk, and she corrected her attitude perfectly! The kids got some really fun stuff, and as always love being with their cousins, even Devin played with them a bit! We chatted, had some dessert then went home and called it a wonderful Christmas day!

Santa came!

The kids' entrance!


Playing with the toys

 Lizzy got Devin a super cool Octonauts toy that he loved!

 Devin got Lizzy a sweet Barbie set!

 Fox socks!!

 Frozen dominoes game!

 Paw Patrol jumbo deck of cards

 Paw Patrol busy book!

 Fur Real monkey friend!

 An Aladdin figures set!

 This is such a classic picture!

 Lizzy got a Frozen Leap TV game!

 The stockings!

 Lizzy got her own little Chase from Paw Patrol(he's her favorite because he's a German Shepard and that's her favorite dog right now)

 I found a chocolate maze at the dollar store and Devin thought it was freakin' awesome!! He's super into mazes....and crazy good at them too!

 Lizzy cracked all the eggs and not a single shell in the bowl.....now that's talent!

 Playing so nicely together....Christmas miracle?! ;)

 Playing the Paw Patrol Leap TV game

 Lizzy helping ;)

Johnston Christmas party! I didn't get a picture of it(cause I was out having words with Lizzy) but Devin got a cool Lego set that he was oober excited about...he LOVES his legos!!

 Lizzy got Legos too! She also loved this BYU Cougar hat from g-ma and g-pa!

 She's the cutest cougar ever!!

 Devin got this Cosmo/football!

 They got lots of fun little things in their stockings!

 Then they came home and played some more!

 Devin in his Paw Patrol pajamas playing with his Paw Patrol training center!