December 6, 2019 Mary and Aurora visiting for Charles and Nate's wedding.
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12.22.2020
Christmas Memories and others in the Past
December 6, 2019 Mary and Aurora visiting for Charles and Nate's wedding.
12.20.2020
12.17.2020
Couple of Christmas Pictures from Team Givan
Since we need pictures, my memories are limited by what I have pictures of!
Here we have last year's wreath (a real one), which we made a little ceremony out of fetching—getting coffee from our favorite little place and planning a bunch of sellers to visit. We actually found it at our first one, which was a random Lowes, but it dressed up our brick wall really nicely and gave the apartment a good smell. (We took nicer pictures of it, but apparently we didn't save those). Our Christmas was quiet last year (just the two of us) with lots of good food Theresa made and, surprisingly, the first time I had baked a pie since we got together! Naturally, we had no idea we'd be spending Christmas 2020 in pretty much the exact same way.
So our next one is from all the way back in 2017, when I bought Theresa's piano off of Craigslist. Needed lots of help that day (borrowing Grandpa's truck, the pasture trailer from Charles and Nate's house, luck getting to the gas station as the truck ran out on the highway, Eric's help loading the piano, more help getting it into the house, then even more luck finding my jacket after it blew off the trailer and onto the intersection at 17th and Main) but it was a fun adventure and Theresa's really enjoyed having it, even if we've kind of neglected it in all of our moving (really needs tuned). It's also provided some bonding experiences, since we had to recruit co-workers and friends to get it into our POD.
It must have been that year or the year before when we spent Christmas in a hotel in Utah, but it was still one of our favorites. Since Salt Lake City shut down so entirely everything seemed calm, finding any services was an adventure, and we went up into the mountains there which was nice and snowy.
Going further back there's Benny getting his first bow tie in 2012. He was handsome and he knew it, plus, he got a gift, which he really loved!
In 2011 (my first year in a campus house instead of the dorms) we scheduled a party to decorate our tree. Being EcoHouse though, we made everything or scavenged it:
12.05.2020
11.22.2020
Younger Johnston Family 2020
I wasn't sure where to start on recapping life and discovered it's been a year since we posted, so I'll do my best to condense a whole year into one post.
Our pet situation has even changed since last year which is crazy to think. Last year we had Sundae, Leroy and Stitch. We realized Stitch was feral and was not meant to be a house cat. So she now lives with my brother's girlfriend on a farm. Leroy is still doing great, he's handsome and happy.
Sundae turned one on our 12th wedding anniversary in June! She is even happier now because she has a little brother named Meatball. He and Sundae share a dad. We have given our pets voices and dialog on a regular basis over the years. To us, Meatball sounds exactly like Eeyore.
In addition to a new puppy, we filled up our chicken coop with 6 hens. I got a Cricut for my birthday, so I have spent a lot of time creating vinyl decor for the coop. Chickens are an interesting adventure! Their needs and psychology are so different from cats or dogs. They should start laying eggs before the end of the year. Please let us know if you need eggs! They are being fed organic feed from a family I have known and trusted my whole life. The girls are learning business fundamentals from their egg-business-to-be! Adelynn is also taking a 4th grade level business math class this year where she runs a pet store. Grandma helps her with that each week when she comes to help with school.
An update! Today the kids found 3 eggs in the chicken coop!
Which also means we are homeschooling this year! The back and forth thought of not knowing when we would have in-person school or be online was making me dizzy. So we are homeschooling this year and it is going better than expected! Even with our science curriculum not arriving until September, we will still be done with everything by April or early May. Here's what online school looked like this spring. Ava also managed to graduate Kindergarten without the ceremony this May.
Here was our first day of school in August. I wrapped the dining room table in wrapping paper so they could open it. They loved that!
4th, 1st and Preschool
Since Ava is learning to read, it seems I so often see them grouped together and reading.
Holidays and birthdays have looked quite different this year. Ava was able to have her actual family birthday party (she chose an 80's theme) and then a painting party with the girls in her class, right before everything shut down. (She turned 7).
And for her half birthday in September, Ava chose to spend the day at Tanganyika.
Ollie had a birthday parade for his 4th birthday! There was silly string, candy throwing, a banner, and a birthday song accompanied by guitar.
Adelynn's birthday poster was so convincing, the UPS guy left a package on the sidewalk! (That made me feel great because it took a long time to design and assemble.) She turned 10!
One fun thing we did with homeschool this year was to create fluffy paint. We are learning astronomy and decided to make some galaxies. The finished products turned out to be a happy reminder of the year, so we framed and hung them in our basement! Right below the galaxy art is our Nugget (gray flexi-couch) which is new and is one of the best investments!! PSA: They are backordered until 2021 right now, but they are worth the wait.
In June, Adelynn had a very well executed, socially distanced, annual dance recital. She did a wonderful job! Unfortunately, this was the first year that there wasn't a father-daughter dance for Dave to participate in. Also unfortunately, her tap teacher and the founder of the studio, Judy Mason, passed away from covid earlier this month.
A long-time dream came true as we gathered all the cousins and took pictures of them in Christmas jammies! Christmas in July it was!
We were able to spend decent time in the water this summer. Swimming lessons were completed, lake days with friends were had, and fishing at the pasture was also enjoyed! (No pants needed! They are leg prisons anyway,)
We did have a gap this summer for about 6 weeks where none of us entered the water because Adelynn broke her arm. She was on the scooter on our driveway and tumbled. It started to swell instantly. Dave took her to the ER on a Wednesday night, they splinted it and we gave her OTC pain meds, but the doctor couldn't see her until Monday. So when he saw her, he said it needed to be set (read: re-broken) and then casted. We knew she had broken both bones in the forearm, but we didn't know it was that serious. The next morning she had her procedure and did an amazing job. They gave her the good pain meds and she only needed them once. We are pretty certain it's because her bones were in the correct place and it felt much better!
Dave has been working from home since March. He was working in our closet for a while and has moved around some. He has since built himself a desk for the basement and is happily settled in down there. I don't have a picture of his desk, but this is the one he built for me and his is about twice as big.
Another building project for Dave has been the tree house! It still needs a rope and bucket, and it will get another frame attached for swings. I also have hopes for a slide on the other side.
Chalk art.
Puzzles completed in record time.
Games like Rhyming Bingo on our weekly sabbath.
Outdoor activities like P&M and the zoo.
And the one thing the kids would want me to tell you about was the time we had the fancy dinner at home. They still talk about it! It was just a regular Tuesday, but we didn't know what day it was anyway :)
The final adventure to share was taking a day to go to The Gathering Place in Tulsa. We went on a Wednesday which meant very few people. Here's a pic from last year and this year.
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