2019 with the Johnstons

WOW! I am floored by the fact that we haven't posted on the blog this year and there's so much to share! I'll try to be brief.

January:

 Dave took over NMGI as of January 1 this year!

February:

For a change, this year I went to IF: Gathering in Dallas instead of hosting locally! I learned so much.

March:

We really had no intention of moving for another year or two, but 6 weeks after touring this home in January, we were moved in! Our home of 8 years sold within 24 hours of putting it on the market. Ava turned 6 a week after we moved. In that time, she already took a nose dive off of her scooter onto our driveway! She celebrated her 6th birthday with an 80's themed party.

April:

Ollie turned 3!

Ava woke up at 3:45 am and spent 3 hours testing and ultimately earned her green belt in karate!!

Adelynn turned 9. We also celebrated so much because, after 4 years, she was cleared of all her medications and any more concerns regarding epilepsy!!! 

May:

 Wildlife at our new house is constant. We have 3 deer feeders in our backyard and they love it! We have seen everything you can imagine. But not yet a bobcat! However, I was sure I saw one until our outdoor cameras proved that it was just an oversized house cat!

Adelynn participated in her dance recital again this year and was as graceful as ever.

June:

 Ollie played his first year of t-ball and Ava played her last. In regards to a 3 year old attention span, it went exactly how you'd think!

Ava participated in her first karate tournament! She got two Firsts and a Second!

 Ava also had theatre camp! We celebrated after her show with a sno cone! She did an amazing job! 

July:

 I took the kids to several parks in surrounding towns this summer. Newton, Inman, Maize and McPherson are the ones I remember right now. 

The biggest park we went to was in Tulsa. We spent a weekend with the Rivers exploring Tulsa and The Gathering Place park! It was beyond incredible!

 July was adventurous, but also heartbreaking. We very suddenly lost Mighty. We loved him so fiercely for the year we had him in our lives. We suspect he had some kind of underlying heart condition, but we think maybe the grain free food he was on exacerbated his issues. The studies on grain free food were just coming out when he passed away.

August:

 Adelynn started 3rd grade and Ava started half day Kindergarten!

 We found a new English Bulldog puppy to love! We feel exponentially better about her breeder than Mighty's. We hope to keep her for many, many years. Her name is Caramel Sundae.. because she's brown, sweet, and thick. We just call her Sundae and she's fit into our family seamlessly.

September:

 We kind of felt like real grown ups by getting to spend a weekend in KC with 6 of our friends. The ladies were there to see the Backstreet Boys, of course! It was my birthday gift from Dave this year.

 The following week, another friend and I took our girls to see Hanson at the KSF. My girls loved getting all dressed up and experiencing their first concert and learning all the etiquette that goes with it!

 And then there was the Fair itself. 

October:

 October wouldn't be complete without a pet update. Sundae is growing great and we are loving her so much! 

I don't have a recent picture of Bella, but she had been in a cone and fighting ringworm since July. After struggling through giving her pills, and now we are on the last week of liquid medication, and thankfully she is finally healed enough to be free of her cone. Once we get her all fixed up with grooming, we hope she bounces right back. She's slowed down quite a bit, but I guess that's what happens when you're 13! 

This is Leroy. A month ago we were in Inman and heard a kitten meowing from under a truck hood. We notified the restaurant owner and they needed Dave's long arms to help retrieve the kitty. Well, we ended up taking him home but couldn't keep him in the house because of Bella's ringworm. We have a full-height, approximately 6x6 chicken coop on the side of our house. He moved in there and it was a perfect setup! He's such a cuddler and he's so relaxed - especially for a kitten.

 And who is this? This is Stitch. Named after the Lilo & Stitch sequel, Leroy & Stitch. 

2 weeks after we got Leroy, my mom showed up with a kitten she had avoided running over... and she never left. We named her Stitch, thinking she was a boy... but the vet told us we have a little lady! The name is sticking though. Due to the weather, they are now in a pen in our garage. Just waiting until the house is free of ringworm so they can come in. They are truly like brother and sister and we believe they are the same age. 

I guess with us, if you blink, you think we just have Bella and Mighty, but 3 months down the road, we have Bella, Sundae, Leroy and Stitch! We are never bored around here! :)