Happy Halloween!!!

We look forward to the family Halloween party all year!! This year we rented out the Army Depot Bowling Alley it was a great idea, everyone had a great time the kids loved bowling!!!

The Pirate Family

(we were all suppose to be making scary pirate faces, in case you were

wondering what the heck we were doing)

Davin did us proud by bringing home the

BEST CHILD COSTUME award!

He won the same award the night before at a soccer family

Halloween party, which was great because he did not want to be a pirate,

he wanted to be Michael Phelps, ever since the Olympics he has been obsessed

with him, which is very ironic

because Davin is terrified of the water! But I told him it would be way

to cold to go trick-or-treating in a Speedo!!

Here are some scary looking pirates!
Grandma Shirley

no other than Sarah Palin



The Grandmas!!!

Halloween fun

Jack Sparrow or Papa Jack???

Not another Jack Sparrow?!

Dallin, Laurie and Jody.

Dallin won himself the award of scariest costume,

(he had to make a child cry to claim the title, but we hold nothing back

at the family party, winning is everything!!!)

Whooooo could this family be?
The Allreds of course and in case your wondering how
to keep a witches nose on all night, the answer is
Super Glue, yes I did say that Paige Super Glued Breckens nose to
her, I am not sure but in some places I think that may constitute as child abuse,
but for this party it is all about the possibility of taking home the winning title!

The Devil and the Little Angel!!
Chelsi and Austin

More halloween fun!!

The Bull and the Matador

Derrick and Jessica

The Matthews Family

(notice the authentic Letterman's sweaters)

Popeye and Olive
Kori and Chad

PUNK"D OUT
Nikki*Dax*Moose
(aka Kelton)

And the overall winners of the
2008 Johnston Family Halloween Party.....
The Oompah Loompah'S
Deanna and Paul

but I love him soooo much mommy...

All I can say is I am glad it wasn't a rattler. She was not the least bit afraid. She held him, put him around her neck, twisted up her arm and once we actually convinced her to put it down but that stupid snake just sat there, instead of slithering away to a safe haven, and after a few minutes it crawled right over to her and started climbing up her leg. I guess he loves her sooooo much too!

She did actually leave it at Grandma Toni's "so it could be with its mommy" and we told her she could come back and play with it again another day. Well everyday she wants to go see her snake, because she just loves him soooo much.

Butterfly project a success!!!

My friend Jodi is the monarch butterfly Nazi. About 5 years a go she decided to get some caterpillars and watch them turn into butterflies. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that I supported her in this little activity because I have created a MONSTER! This year she collected, raised and found homes for over 200 caterpillars! We are glad to be part of her find a home for the endless eating caterpillars project. We take a few each year. They eat milkweed so if you ever drive through our town in the summer and see a bunch of ladies out in the weeds searching for just the right kind of food for our "pets" you will know we are one of the many Jodi supporters!!! I don't know do you think Skylar is excited?
We have a book, that of course Jody insisted we buy, so we could know exactly what was happening at each stage of the process. I must admit it is one of Skylars favorite books and we take it to church with us regularly so she can see the "taterpilars". It is fun and the kids love guessing whose caterpillar will crystallise first.

The days may be long but the years will go by fast...

It doesn't take long to realize how true this quote is about raising a family. I do not feel a day older than 19 ok maybe 25 but when I look around at my four children, one who

will be 10 next month, I often wonder exactly how that happened. I sware I was

just bringing her home from the hospital yesterday. Lately I have had to argue just a bit about the days being long, I could really use a few extra hours in my day. I love that my

kids are involved in extra curricular activities but some days I really don't know how we will get everyone everywhere they need to go.

Rylie was the first in her class to pass both her multiplication and her division facts off in 50 seconds! Good job Ry, Keep up the good work!!!

Top priority in our house is school work, I guess that is the school teacher coming out in me! I thought the diaper changing years were difficult, now that I have 3 in school, 3 times the homework, 3 classes to volunteer in, 3 "parent projects" to make look like my child did them, and 3 kids with 15, 20 and 30 minutes of reading to do every night, I am already wondering what is going to happen when Skylar starts school, thank goodness I was the oldest and not the baby you guys really do get the worn out, tired and old model of a mother. Just kidding I know Austin and Kadee (the babies in my family growing up) got the relaxed, easy going, wake me when you come home way past your curfew and I won't even remember it in the morning parents. So their are some perks to being the baby!!! Which makes me think this stage of life is going to seem like a piece of cake compared to having 4 teenagers, I guess I better start treasuring these moments more.

Our after school life...

After the homework is done we head to soccer, quite a few times we are still doing the homework on the way to either soccer practice or a soccer game. We love soccer and its a good thing we do because we eat, drink and breathe it. Ashton is so much taller than the other girls her age that she is really intimidating when on the field. She knows exactly how to work that to her advantage and is becoming quite a good little player. Rylie has been playing on a comp team this season and it has been really fun! They took silver at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City and the team is really starting to work together. All of her teammates are either from Tooele or Stansbury so she has made a lot of great friends as well.

When Rylie wanted to compete in the punt, pass and kick competition at the high school I said "Bring it on we will adder to the list" little did I know that she would take first place and that it would now commit us to travel to Tremonton in two weeks for the state finals. She was really excited. Looks like we better practice football in between soccer practices.

Rylie is now in her 3rd year of piano and is way past my limited piano knowledge to help her at all, so I just sit and listen as she practices and wish I would not have been a quitter when I was her age. She actually likes piano and is now learning the hymns so I sing while she plays, until she tells me that it is really difficult to try and play while someone who can't sing is trying to.
This is Ashtons first year doing piano but I think she's a natural. I was a bit leery to sign her up because she is more of an outside, I need a lot of room to move, kind of a girl. I wasn't sure she would be able to sit still for 30 min. each day to practice, but she sure surprised me. She is really doing well and her piano teacher loves her!