Johnston Journal

first day of school 2010

2010-08-23T06:55:00.001-07:00

gymnastics

2010-04-30T11:49:00.001-07:00

Ava Grace takes gymnastics on Monday mornings with her friend Clara. Alan got to go to Ava Grace's parent day with us to see what all she has learned in gymnastics this year.

walking on the balance beam

Ava Grace and Clara

Bailey got her braces off!

2010-03-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

Bailey got her braces off last week after two years of wearing them! She now has a new retainer that she only has to wear at night.

snow!

2010-03-01T17:41:00.001-08:00

We had snow last week! The kids had a lot of fun playing in the snow. They got to leave school early at 12:30 one day and not go until 10:00 the next day. No make up days!

Cal by the snowman with his new gun.

We had enough snow for two snowmen!

Friends

2009-11-03T12:41:00.000-08:00

Bailey had her birthday party this year at the Baylor soccer game against Texas A&M. We "tailgated" in the parking lot before the game. Bailey with her cookie cake.

We had pizza and lots of goodies!

Bailey opening presents. (Ava Grace thinks that she is as old as the other girls.)

Ava Grace and her best friend Clara, celebrated their birthdays at Chick-fil-A together. They are 4 days apart!

Trick-or-Treat!

2009-11-03T12:34:00.001-08:00

Ava Grace (bumblebee) and Audrey (disco diva)
Ava Grace and Bailey (clown)

Bailey (witch) before middle school dance/costume party

Cal (bag of jelly beans), Ava Grace, and Cal's friend Jackson

Cal's football

2009-11-03T12:25:00.001-08:00

Cal plays for the Texas Longhorns. To show that he is not a true Longhorn, he wears his OU shirt under his jersey. We have had many fans come to watch Cal this season play football. Here are Grandma and Granddad.

Cal is a very tough competitor. Even though he is playing against some boys twice his size, Cal gets a lot of tackles and hits them hard!

Halloween night Cal had a game at 6:00, so afterward he wore this uniform to trick-or treat. Evidently we have quite a few Longhorn fans in our neighborhood because they gave him extra candy. #8 is also the number of Shipley for the Texas Longhorns!

What We've Been Up To...

2009-09-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I will combine a lot of posts into one. We have had a busy start to school. It is hard to believe that Bailey is in 7th grade, Audrey is in 6th grade, and Cal is in 4th grade! They are all at different schools this year. Ava Grace and I are enjoying being at home together. Bailey turned 13 and Ava Grace turned 4 on September 19. They enjoy sharing a birthday.

On her birthday, Bailey ran in her first cross country meet. She ran against 7th and 8th graders and got 2nd by 4 tenths of a second. Here is Bailey near the finish just barely behind first place.

A fun thing that Bailey and Audrey's soccer team did was to help their coach propose to his girlfriend. They held up signs with letters to spell out, "Will you marry me?" She said yes!

Ava Grace has started gymnastics and loves it! Here she is after finishing her class one day. You can tell that she has a lot of fun.

Bailey and Audrey are now on the Sting soccer team. They are on the same team as last year, the name just changed. The only difference is now we wear blue instead of orange.

Cal is playing football and is on a baseball tournament team. I will post pictures of that soon.

We are off to a busy start of the school year. The kids stay busy, but we have a lot of fun!

Ava Grace's Haircut

2009-07-06T12:52:00.001-07:00

Today, Ava Grace got her first haircut. She was very still while getting her hair cut. With all of the curls her haircut is not real noticable, but it is even all over.

4th of July

2009-07-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

We had a great time with our friends, the Kings for the 4th of July.

Red River 2009

2009-06-26T21:09:00.001-07:00

Abby and Audrey at the top after riding the ski lift.

Alan and Ava Grace riding "Brutus"

Luke and Cal on the go-kart

The Finley grandkids at the top of the ski lift

Cal with his first of 30 fish.

Market Day

2009-06-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

Every year at Hewitt Elementary the 3rd grade classes have Market Day. Bailey and Audrey have both done it and this year it was Cal's turn. He and his friend Jackson started several weeks ahead of time making "6 strings." They took 6 strands of string and wove them together to make bracelets, necklaces, etc. Each of the third graders have a good or service to sell. The rest of the school and parents come to "shop." Each good or service can cost up to a quarter. All of the students "shopping" can only bring a dollar.

The third graders have to keep up with how much they spend to get their product ready and then figure out at the end of the day if they made a profit.

Jackson and Cal decided to sell blow pops along with their "6 strings" (some were 7 up to 12 strings.) They made a ten dollar profit and had a lot of fun in the process.

End of school activities

2009-06-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

Cal had his birthday party at a Baylor baseball game. We ate pizza and a cookie cake at our house and then went to the game. Beau, Marsha, and Mimi got to come. Beau and Ava Grace were in on all of the activities, such as rolling down the hill.

Beau, Jackson, Trent, Cody, Callan, and Cal

Bailey was in 6th grade choir this year and had several concerts. The last one was very special because Emily played the flute to accompany one of the songs that they sang. It was beautiful! If only my flip video or my camera video had captured the song. :(

Here is Bailey before her concert with songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Can you tell what decade Bailey's songs were from?

Busy weekend

2009-04-26T17:21:00.001-07:00

Thank you to Grandma and Granddad who came to help Alan so that I could go to my Girls' weekend trip.

Cal had a game on Saturday and a lot of fans to watch him play. His team won 5-1!

Harris Creek had 14 Bible Drillers who made it to the state competition. Bailey and Audrey both made it and did a great job! They both got 22 out of 24 correct. It wasn't what they wanted to do but we were very proud of them for all of the hard work!

I had a great time at our Girls' Weekend in Houston! We went to the scrapbook convention in Houston and even though I don't scrapbook, I had fun. I learned how to make cards and got some great ideas for things I can make. The best part was being with my mom, sisters, aunt and cousin.

Easter 2009

2009-04-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

After going to Dallas for the girls' soccer tournament on Friday and Saturday, we came back to Waco and were here on Sunday. The kids had fun dying Easter eggs while it was raining outside.

Ava Grace doesn't remember doing this in previous years, so it was all exciting and new for her.

Bailey was very good at decorating her eggs.

Here are pictures taken after church. We almost got Alan and Cal to smile.

Everyone wore blue except for me. The kids' blue was planned. I didn't tell them that. Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen indeed!!

Midway Pantherettes Win State!

2009-03-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Austin for the semifinals of the state tournament. Midway won and then went on to win the state game! We all wore our red and blue to cheer on the Pantherettes!

Midway has some very good players! Cokie Reed will be playing for Texas next year. DeLisa Gross will be playing for TCU next year and Mackenzie Robertson (Kim Mulkey's daughter) will be playing for Baylor the year after next. They are a fun team to watch.

Mackenzie is the one on the left under the basket. Cokie Reed is the tallest one on the left with her back to the camera. It was fun to see them play where UT plays. The arena has changed a lot since I was there when Graford was in the playoffs back in the 80s.

Audrey's Guitar Presentation

2009-03-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

In fifth grade, Audrey has learned how to play the guitar in music class. Ava Grace, Mimi, and I went to her guitar presentation. Audrey played for us and also had a singing part. It was amazing how much they were able to learn in just 5 weeks!

Valentine's Day at Storytime

2009-02-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

Every Thursday, Ava Grace and I go to storytime at the library and then to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Ava Grace loves to do this just like Bailey, Audrey, and Cal did when they were younger. Today the theme was Valentine's Day, of course. Ava Grace was excited that she got to have her own "party" like her brother and sisters! This is Ava Grace making a Valentine craft. She was very determined to get the back off of the crafty hearts by herself!

Mrs. Vivian, our storyteller always has a lot of fun stuff to go with the weekly theme. Ava Grace is standing in front of the Valentine table.

Here is Ava Grace and Mrs. Vivian. We love Mrs. Vivian!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2009-01-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope that you have a great day! Thank you for always being here for us. You and Dad have gone to more games, concerts, school and church activities than one can count. You are always here for us when we need you. I love you!

Girls' Day (and Beau)

2009-01-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Ava Grace and I had a great day with everyone in Weatherford Friday. (We missed you, Melinda!) Beau and Ava Grace had a fun time playing together and keeping each other entertained.

We celebrated Mom's, J'Lynn's, and Beau's birthdays. Aunt Janis, thank you for organizing this fun day!

The birthday girls and boy blowing out their candles!

More OU...

2009-01-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

Here is Granny with Audrey, Cal, and Ava Grace.

Mimi and Ava Grace

Tyler and Candace

Linda, Joe Jon, and Jill (Joe Jon's girlfriend)

So Sad That OU Lost!

2009-01-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

Last night was a tough night for the OU Sooners! If a couple of things had gone OU's way, they could have very easily won!
Last year we got to go to an Ou game to see Joe Jon play. We went to an OU/ Baylor game in Norman. We even wore our OU gear to show our support! Here is Audrey and Cal (Bailey had a soccer tourn. ) in front of the Sooner Schooner. Audrey's sign said, "I love Baylor, but I am cheering for my cousin Joe Jon."

Joe Jon is #19

Here is Audrey and Cal standing in front of Jason White's statue. OU has these for all of their Heisman winners. Sam Bradford's will be there soon.

We ate with everyone at Golden Corral the next morning. Here is Joe Jon with Audrey, Cal, and Ava Grace.

"Tagged"

2009-01-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Marsha "tagged" me to show the 4th picture in my 4th folder of pictures on my computer. This picture was taken the week that Ava Grace and I came home from the hospital. It seems like just a short while ago, but looking at my kids you can see how much they've grown. B, A, and C sure loved Ava Grace then, but they would have never guessed how much fun they would have to look forward to in the future. Ava Grace has been a tremendous blessing to all of us! Thanks Marsha! This was fun!

Christmas Parties

2008-12-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

Ava Grace and I went to Bailey's and Audrey's Christmas parties on Friday. Ava Grace was so excited! Here she is ready to go.

First we went to Audrey's party. Ava Grace helped Audrey play Christmas Bingo and got to sit with her at her desk.

At Bailey's party, Ava Grace halped Bailey eat her food. All of the kids know Ava Grace. As we were going down the hall, we would hear kids from classrooms say, "there's Ava Grace!" She has a great time being at the school and Bailey and Audrey like showing her off. I am not sure that they would still want me to come to class parties if I didn't bring Ava Grace.
Cal had a party, as well and Alan was able to go to his party. Since Alan and Cal don't do pictures, I don't have any pictures of his party. I heard that it was fun.

More Christmas Fun

2008-12-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Friday Ava Grace and I went to Bailey's and Audrey's parties at school. Ava Grace was so excited! She kept asking me when it was time to go. Here she is all ready to go.

Christmas Party

2008-12-18T12:26:00.000-08:00

We had our Christmas party last night with our small group. There are five families with 15 children! Here are 14 of the kids with their gifts they received. The kids drew names and bought gifts for each other. The adults had a white elephant gift exchange. Cal LOVED Alan's gift that he received. It is a real rattlesnake that has been mounted in plastic. At one time I guess it was a pen holder like part of a desk set. It's like they say... one man's junk is another man's treasure. Cal loves it!

2008-12-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

Audrey played the part of "Beatrice Beasley." She had a singing part and did a great job, as well.

Cal had a speaking part and even filled in for another boy who was sick and did a great job!

The kids were very excited that Mimi and Daddy Dee came to see their performance. We had a good time.

December 2008

2008-12-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

We have had a fun December. Bailey's school choir got to go to the mall last Thursday. Ava Grace and I got to go with them and hear them sing. They did a great job! We got to eat at the food court and even had time to do a little shopping.

At church our children's choir presented the "Christmas County Spelling Bee" musical Sunday night. Bailey, Audrey, and Cal all had special parts in the musical.

Bailey was the "pronouncer." She did a great job memorizing her parts.

Here she is with Franklin, who was the "judge."

I am starting a blog!

2008-12-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

I thought I would try this to see if I can update my family on what is going on in the Johnston home. I am not very artistic or creative, but hopefully you can see pictures of the kids or read about something cute that Ava Grace has done and find this interesting.

More to come...